Hitchhiking summer 2006

Hitch-hiking: Hoho - Jyväskylä
Distance: 25km
Time: 30min
Lifts: 3

Hey!

I started my hitch-hikings this summer not more than a couple weeks ago. I was visiting my friend maybe 25 kilometres from Jyväskylä. Was having some relaxing time there admiring his gardens and greenhouses for some time, and I left for Jyväskylä the same evening.

And not a bad start at all. I got three hitches, and no more than 10min standing beside the road altogether. The first hitch was only till the end of a rather small road leading to the main way, and we barely had time to discuss more than the weather. Got off, waited a couple of minutes and had another hitch. First he was taking left from the second but decided to take me to a better place to continue my trip - making extra 10-15km detour to his destination.

A little shamefully I respect this generosity you might once in a while see when hitch-hiking in Finland. I mean, sometimes it's a real blessing, like when it's raining, snowing or otherwise difficult to have a lift, but when the weather is nice and everything's smooth the "unnecessary" kilometres can easily turn out to be a great of a distraction for your (or at least my) travelling. I must admit that the ecological thingy is not at all the least thing behind that feeling. But hey, this doesn't happen every day, and basically it just expresses how hearty people these are.

So was he. We were discussing general things from living in Helsinki to changes in hitch-hiking culture in Finland during the couple of decades. The latter of which has very often turned out to be the topic of discussion when hitching. Basically, you will very likely hear something like this: "yes, I remember there were a lot of hitchhikers in the 60s and 70s, I even hitchhiked my self a couple of times... but I haven't seen many of You nowadays... still, maybe more today than a couple of years ago." Yes, you're right amigo, things are changing I believe. Hitchhiking is back on the road so to say.

Got off and then, again, singing something and having not even finished my song and a car slows down. It was so packed. A couple, maybe my age (25), a little girl and a small car with everything possible in it. They were nice even though we had this conversation which could have led us to uncomfortable situation: army, and why I didn't go there. I would like to say that "it's funny that people still..." but it's not. They, many people and in many places in Finland, can't accept and/or understand if I don't want to go to army. Not funny because I know there are still many young men suffering in Finland (yes, it's 2006) because of the social pressure not being able to say that "i'm doing the civil service instead."

Oh well, in a similar (or any other) situation, if you want to get out of it easily, you can always say what I said to this young couple. "I don't want to go to army because my heart tells me not to." So far, I have not met anyone who would start protesting against my decision to follow the voice of my heart.