After a very, very long night trying to get some sleep on that truck (I won’t forget that one anytime soon), we finally leave that gas station at 4 am, as planned. Luckily, the driver is going in my direction, further than Bratislava. Okay, maybe not so luckily because a truck drives very slowly… I force myself to stay awake for 5-6 hours (I must have slept no more than 2 hours that night, but it’s not polite to sleep when you hitchhike), listening to that guy who won’t stop talking. He’s nice (obviously, he welcomed me into his truck), but he is also super, super racist. I have to bite my lips to not tell him what I really think about his stupid theories. And I give myself a mental high-five for not wearing my sarouals that day, when he starts criticizing those “stupid hippies” who he can’t stand.

He finally drops me off in an other gas station, in Slovakia this time. I’m starting to be a tired of these places! After a little rest in the restaurant, I prepare my new piece of cardboard with ‘Košice’ written on it and go stand where the cars turn to go back on the highway. I think I like Slovaks more, because this time, I only have to wait 15 minutes before someone picks me up. He’s a lovely guy , we have very interesting conversations. He has a little baby girl and is about to get married! The landscapes we’re going through are beautiful. On the way, he stops to buy some fish in a local village.

He even takes me to a restaurant and offers me lunch, because he wants me to try Slovak specialties. How generous!

But he’s not going to Košice and has to leave me in a gas station (again…). I can’t wait to arrive, so I am extremely relieved when another guy agrees to take me there 45 minutes later. He’s driving an old small truck that’s falling a part. He’s nice too but doesn’t speak a lot of English, doesn’t stop texting, and at that point I am so tired that I can’t help but falling asleep (it’s bad, I know).That’s how I finally arrive in Košice, almost 24 hours after leaving Prague. Matei is waiting for me, I’m so happy to see him!! 🙂

The next days involve some sightseeing, trying to go inside a cathedral several times and failing each time, a lot of beer-drinking, randomly seeing a group of Swiss people participating in a rally that week-end, being thrown out of Matei’s own apartment (:P), visiting botanical gardens, lots of talking, missing our bus stop and ending up in a lovely little village, getting into a supernatural hailing forest, and many other fun things of that type. I have such a great time there!

And it’s not over! Matei and I decide to drive down to Balaton lake, in Hungary, the biggest in Central Europe. That’s for the next article! 🙂