17th of October, 2022.
Hitchhiking in Russia.
I manage to wake up and to get up at 7 o’clock. How come? Energy, I guess. I have some muesli with one of my yogurts and an apple. The sweet girlfriend of Anton is the one to come out of the room to tell me goodbye. I mean, I see him in the bed and I quickly say a good bye and a thank you, but that is it. What a shame!
Coming out of the building, a mystery: will the guard be there at the gate to open it for me? Or will I catch someone living so I can take its tail? A guy comes on the elevator with me, so I ask him. He tells me he is going to the car so it will take some 10 minutes for him to leave. Perhaps it is true. Or was he just scared of me? Laugh. An older man walks in front of me out of nowhere. I follow him to the gate. He is leaving. I leave.
I don’t remember exactly at which time should I catch the Metro 3, blue line, so I can get a connection with the bus 337 in the other side of Moscow, towards my hitchhiking spot. But I do remember something about 8 a.m. I am right on time.
Buying the ticket is not a problem either. Fast and precise. I show her I need one ticket and give her the exact amount of 61 Rubles. She gives me one ticket. I get immediately in the metro. It is crowded and I don’t manage to get on the corner. Damn it!
People are hopeless in the big cities! Nobody cares to help anyone in the subways, metros, trains and buses. It is like when people live in the big cities, they turn out into these soulless robots, who care about nothing but their smartphones and getting to work in time. What have we become? After a while I manage to get a sit and to have The Hulk by my side.
It takes me some time to see where the people catch the buses. I am in spot but I see only from where they leave and the last stop. Finally, I get it. But then I notice something, there is no chance of not paying this time. These buses are not like the ones in the city, you have to enter through the front door and pay. Damn it! I have 20 Rubles. Google told me yesterday that the ticket costs 35 Rubles. I decide to ask someone for 15 Rubles. There are only a few people around. I decide to talk with the only young man around. He understands I need money but he tries giving me a note of 100 Rubles. I refuse and show him with my finger I only need 15 Rubles. He rubble around his pockets and find some coins. I get only the 15 I need. He seems surprised. I say spassiba!
In 2 minutes the bus come. You must pay with card. What? Not again! What is going on in the world? Stop telling me what I must have or not, stupid society! Don’t we all cover all bodies with clothes already? What else do you want from me? Everything.
I try to tell the driver I don’t have a card. Did he understand me? I show him I have the money. Then I try to persuade the guy behind me on taking the money and passing his card for me. Did he understand me but was only helpless? Or it could be that the ticket it costs more? The driver finally makes a sign for me to get in. That reminds me the time when I was in Ireland and the driver of a bus between cities didn’t let me to pay for the ticket, even that I intended to and could pay with cash.
The hitchhiking spot is not the best. There are about 4 lanes and the cars are mostly on the thee ones further away from me. But I don’t lose hope! The few ones nearby can still see me. Let’s try!
In about 5 minutes, Farrokh stops. He has a very different old car, I think I have never seen it before. I tell him I am trying to go to Nizhny but anywhere outside of Moscow is fine. He tells me to get in and soon enough we can check the map. Yay!
Farrokh is from Kazakhstan, but was raised in Uzbekistan and live in Moscow for the past 11 years. He was in Brazil once, by the age of 12, in a Sambo championship competition. Sambo is a Russian martial art. How cool is that? Now he is going to work and we get to chat on the way.
His father is a consul and can speak about 20 languages! Wow! Farrokh can speak about 8 but hasn’t practice his English for a long time. I think he is still doing good! He is a very kind young man and before I leave he tells me I made his day, that he will remember of me still tomorrow. What a sweet thing to say! He even offers to drive me a bit further away, in about 15 minutes, after he finishes what he came here to do. I suggest to star hitchhiking already and in case I don’t get anything middle time, he just picks me up again.
The wind is so strong! It is cold here. But in about 10 minutes, a wonderful “family” stops. Dimitra, Nikolay and their lovely French Bulldog Solomon are going on their way to Nizhny Novgorod! Really? Dear, Loki! How lucky of me!
And they are so sweet! All the three of them. I sit with Solomon on the back and we are all cuddles all the trip. Laugh. Dimitra and Nikolay are very good people and even though they don’t speak English at all, we manage to interact a little using their phones. They buy me some food when they stop to eat, and Nikolay presents me with two super beautiful homemade cookies / pies, from his original region, Tatar. They are so beautiful that I am sad for eating them.
Dimitra tells me that it is a long drive so I should get some sleep. And I do! Me and Solomon, actually. I think I never slept so much, feeling so safe, in a hitchhiking car before.
I didn’t get exactly where they were going, if only to Nizhny or further, but they drove me all the way to my CS host, Alexey’s, home. Well, almost all the way. Because it is raining and Alexey will come back home only at 8 p.m. And now being only a bit after 3 p.m., I tell them it will be better if I wait by the mall, which I luckily spot on the way, only a few blocks before Alexey’s home.
10 Years Around the World 