Raising the thumb, September 16th

I already had had a few short lifts, offered by the occasional nice person seeing me struggling with my backpack in the middle of nowhere, under the rain or in unmanly temperatures. Despite those, I still feel quite anxious as I set out to the nearby crossing after two hours of delaying this moment in a small bar of Biograd. My first experience of true hitchhiking, that is state of the art with the thumb up, pointing towards distances for which walking just is not an option, looking for incoming cars.

This is a somewhat elusive moment, like the first time having sex. One thinks about it from the beginning of adventure, and knows that sooner or later they will have to go for it. One waits for it with a mixed feeling of impatience and anxiety. We have heard the stories and advice of those who already went through it, and imagined how it would be at least a hundred times. What the place would look like, how doing it would feel. And all of a sudden I am on the road, nervously examinings the cars going by as I walk to the crossing. Fifty more meters. I look at the crossing. Visibility, okay. Traffic density looks good. Distance... looks a bit short, will that be enough for drivers to actually consider stopping there?

There I am. Here is the very spot at which I stop, and everything starts. I drop my bag to my feet, display my best smile and turn to face the incoming cars. Now is the time. I raise my arm, thumb up, in the ritual gesture that thousands of other road freaks also had to do for the first time some day.