Destination Istanbul: Czech hitchhiking championships kick-off this Saturday
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Loading... - Jarmila Beranek
- 12 Jul 2022
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This Saturday will see the start of the annual Czech Hitchhiking Championships (Mistrovství ÄŒR v autostopu). Contestants will have to travel from Prague to Istanbul and back, only being able to travel by riding in strangers’ cars. Several checkpoints and accompanying challenges are also waiting for them on their journey. The competition was set up eight years ago and regularly attracts a diverse set of participants.
Drivers in Czechia may come across some peculiar destination requests this weekend, as the annual Czech Hitchhiking Championships get underway this Saturday at 9am on Prague’s StÅ™elecký Ostrov.
Co-organiser Emil Patta says that the history of the competition stretches back to 2014 and includes both a summer as well winter race.
“The summer race always includes a foreign destination that is about 4,000 to 5,000km away. It’s a round trip, meaning that the contestants also have to get back to their original starting point.
“They also must undertake a 24-hour-long stay in the foreign destination. We include this rule so that they also have a chance to have a rest and perhaps look around the sites a bit too. Then the second phase begins, which is the return journey.”
The contest is not just limited to hitch-hiking, but also requires the contestants to pass through specified checkpoints and fulfil challenges, says Emil Patta.
“The aim of these challenges is not just to spice up the competition and make it fun, but also to create situations where the contestants have to interact a bit with the locals.
“If I were to give an example, one mission was that the contestants had to cook fried cheese at someone’s home. It may seem like a really difficult thing to do, but actually, if you are hitchhiking in someone’s car, you have already broken a certain wall of privacy, so the people driving the car often let the contestants do it at their home.”
Other challenges can include cleaning up trash by the road, riding in a carriage, or even milking animals. Read More...
