And the Couchsurfing season begins!

Nominally Couchsurfing is a year-round phenomenon, but in practice it has a high season. Hardly anyone wants to travel Europe in the cold, short, rainy days of winter. But come spring, suddenly the days are long and sometimes even warm and sunny. The German calendar is also prepared for springtime travels - along with the tolerable weather come a spate of four-day weekends: Easter, May-day, Ascension day (Himmelfahrt!), Pentecost... So in one day, I got requests from three groups of couchsurfers for the May-day weekend, and two groups of advance-planners coming in June.

The first couchsurfers of the season were Jacek and Susanna, pictured here, on a hitchhiking race from Poznań (Poland) to Amsterdam! They started out along with six hundred other hitchhikers in Poznan, will party at a campsite in Amsterdam, and then take the bus home on Sunday. Now there's a weekend adventure!

(* The competitive autostoppers were doubtlessly helped out by coverage on the radio encouraging drivers to pick them up, plus their snazzy official competition t-shirts, and they could even buy some hitchhiking insurance against any fines they might occur from authorities who might not smile upon ride solicitation. )

Hitchwiki says: "[Poland] is an awesome country for hitchhiking and even one of the most hitchhiker friendly countries in whole Europe. Many drivers generally believe that others do not stop and that hitchhiking days are over in Poland, which however does not prevent hundreds of them from stopping. Since 1958 till the beginning of 90's hitchhiking in Poland was an official way of traveling organized by National Tourist Board, when hitchhikers had their ID with insurance included and drivers could win prizes every year."