Pack your bag with no ticket back w/ Duarte

Duarte is a 23year-old Portuguese who, when working as a volunteer in a small town in the heart of Transylvania, started to become passionate about hitchhiking. “Hitchhiking (locally called auto-stop) is cultural there”, he says “Outside most rural towns, there’s a designated area for the locals to lift their thumbs and wait for someone to give them a ride”. 

Eight months ago, Duarte had never hitchhiked before. It took him only 2 weeks and the testimony of former volunteers to get him on the road. Actually, his first experience came to him without his expectation, he explains “my first experience hitchhiking wasn’t really premeditated, but it was a great introduction to the concept nonetheless!”. He was heading to an Electronic Festival, alongside a friend, 50km away from their town and they were supposed to catch the bus. However, they were surprised by a holiday, which meant that there were no buses operating. “We walked to the outskirts of the town and started lifting our fingers. After less than half an hour, we were getting inside the car of a couple that was also going to the Festival!”

An even more challenging adventure was yet to come. With almost 10 thousand views on YouTube, he portrayed in video his adventure of 300km on the road with total strangers, only so he could vote for the European parliamentary elections. To fulfill his right and duty as a civilian and to show that doing so «isn’t something that complicated», he had to go all way to the Portugal’s embassy that is located in Bucharest. He also states that he wanted to “show to whoever followed my Instagram that long distance hitchhiking is possible and super fun!”. His video had such an impact that it “got kind of viral in Portugal and I loved the feedback I received. Knowing that I was positively impacting someone felt really good!”

This, however, was not an isolated case, more were yet to come. Recently he found himself into a brand-new adventure: hitchhiking his way back to Portugal. Why did this decision come to his mind? Duarte clarifies “I got so used to the concept in Romania that I decided to move the bar a bit higher and challenge myself to hitchhike more than 4000km back home. It seemed like a crazy but feasible idea, so I decided to not overthink and just go for it! The only “but” was that I only had 9 days for the whole endeavor… averaging around 500km per day would turn out to be an entirely different challenge!”, and what challenge it was. The young hitchhiker managed to finish his trip after 9 days, 27 rides and 8 different countries (Romania, Hungary, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Germany, France, Spain and Portugal). Unfortunately, because he was in such a rush to arrive Lisbon in time, he did not have the chance to properly visit any city, he only passed by them, he stresses “I enjoyed the challenge but next time I do something similar, I’ll take my time to actually be in the places and not just crossing them.” 

Not everything during his journey was as easy as being offered a place to sleep, couch surfing or even spending a night at the airport. Duarte had to, sometimes, sleep in the streets. “There was a point in the middle of France, near Clermont Ferrand, that was really tough. I was malnourished and tired both physically and mentally: Carrying a big backpack with 6 months’ worth of clothing was starting to be a bit much, I had barely slept the night before and I only had 2 days left before my deadline. It was raining cats and dogs and I had only been able to move 100km that day. Furthermore, I discovered that the gas station I was at was not part of the route that truck drivers take in the direction of Spain and Portugal. In that moment I lost all hope and it really struck me that this was a challenge where I was fully dependent on others”, he reports.

On the other hand, he not only talks about the lows, but emphasizes the highs “The conversations I have, the journey, the feeling of accomplishment and the kindness of people in general. Hitchhiking exposed me to realities I had no idea about and put me in contact with people I would have never interacted with otherwise. So far, I have never had a bad interaction with someone! Special thanks to all the Romanian truck drivers I’ve met. Kindest people on the road!”

What is next in Duarte’s road? He is still figuring out. He explains that there are so many places he has still to discover and adventures to experience, that he cannot yet define his next goal, he leaves us, however, with an idea “I’ll probably go by car from Lisbon, through the West Coast of Africa, to Guinea-Bissau in January. Challenge wise, I’m thinking about running the entire coast of Portugal from North to South in the late Spring/Summer of next year. I also want to visit Iran and experience the hospitality of its people! It would be cool to hitchhike there (maybe not from Portugal though).” As for how far he is willing to go, the response is “Wherever my legs let me! I want to run a marathon in every country in the world, so I guess that’s how far I’m willing to go!”.