Digital hitchhiking across Europe

Beautiful patio in Barcelona's Barrio Gotico. - Photo from Wikimedia Commons

Gone are the handmade signs and endless waiting. The writer uses apps and websites to get lifts, and find beds and friends as he hitchhikes across Europe.

I REMEMBER the exact moment that it became obvious to me that the very essence of hitchhiking had been transformed by technology. It came as we were thundering along the autoroute in the south of France. Not one moment of this long day on the road had been spent in the traditional hitching pose: waving signs or thumbs at passing motorists.