If you drive (or hitchhike) along the Soča valley, you should make a stop in Kanal ob Soči. In only half an hour or so you will be able to travel across Europe, at least in your mind – with the help of the hitchhiker museum next to the bridge across the emerald beauty, and Miran Ipavec who will share with you his memories from his "professional hitchhiking career" which lasted three decades.

17 countries in four days
If you get tempted, and would like an advice on how to travel 1,800 kilometres in a day by hitchhiking, or visit 17 European countries in barely four days by raising your thumb, you will find more than enough entertaining stories in the recently published book, the first he wrote, Avtoštoparske zgodbe (Hitchhiking stories), soon to be translated into English and Italian.

The longest wait lasted 11 hours
The "negative record" he likes to boast with was his longest wait – he had to wait for 11 hours on one spot. He had no bad experiences, but a lot of unusual ones. "Once a Greek migrant worker pulled a gun from his pocket while we were driving through Salzburg. Well, just to show off, he had no intention of doing anything with it. And once a Macedonian fell asleep in a tunnel in Austria while driving, so I had to turn the steering wheel with my left hand. A French farmer drove for a while with his eyes closed – I had asked him whether he knew the road well, and after saying 'By all means, I know it so well I can drive here with my eyes closed' he decided to prove it," the author told as a just few stories from his hitchhiking times.

There are a lot of interesting exhibits in the museum, from sleeping bags, a white hat and a map – his mandatory equipment – to notebooks with names of the places, the time of arrival, the duration of hitchhiking, table tennis balls, plastic ice-cream spoons and beer coasters from (almost) all the countries. You might find yourself in an embarrassing situation when he puts in your hands flags of different states and asks you to place them on the postcards of capitals of Europe!

It all started with the Queen concert
The special place in the museum is dedicated to the ticket for the concert of the group Queen, held on September 14, 1984. For that occasion the young man, 25 years old at that time, set out for Milan, Italy. From there he continued to Savoy for the vintage, and next to the capital of France. "Afterwards I spent a few days in Spain, sleeping below the orange trees, continued hitchhiking all the way to the Netherlands, and Germany, and – after five months – in the end came back home," he described his first travel which grew on him so much that he continued with hitchhiking; every year he hitchhiked the distance of approximately 10,000 kilometres, and his longest travel in the distance of 28,550 km happened last year.

From a Rolls-Royce to a hearse
Make no mistake – Miran does not hitchhike to save the money, although it had happen that he brought back from his travel half a euro – change left from the 7 euros he had in his pocket when he started hitchhiking to Holland. He jokes that a woman could have turned those 7 euros into three hundred… His "personal" drivers were very interesting, the same goes for the means of transports: "I am most proud of the Rolls-Royce, year 1958. Of course, there were a lot of trucks, but I drove in all kinds of vehicles, including a garbage truck and a hearse – and once in Poland a coachmen stopped his coach for me!"

The school of life and a language school
He learned foreign languages on the road, and beside it. He understands and speaks fluently seven languages, including Dutch. "From the 38 countries I visited hitchhiking I prefer Holland. I went there many times, the last time in April, for the King’s birthday. It is a convenient destination if you have only one weekend at your disposal," Miran explains. Once – while he still had his company founded jointly with an Italian friend, whom he met while hitchhiking – it was one of his employees to pick him up while hitchhiking.

Do drivers fear hitchhikers, or vice versa?
"It was nice to hear the experiences from a person who had the opportunity to see so much world at the times when there were no cheap plane tickets available," was impressed Judis from Switzerland. Judis does stop for hitchhikers, but he knows a lot of people who fear them. But Miran adds: "And a lot of people don't hitchhike for fear of the drivers!" He prides himself of having no real competition in Slovenia. Abroad, in the Netherlands or in Latvia, for example, frequently groups of 20, 30 student couples come together, everybody contributes some money – let's say 20 euros. "And then they compete – from Amsterdam to Madrid, they have even had the final destination in Ljubljana. The fastest gets a cup, and the money goes for charity," Miran enthusiastically describes the hitchhiking movement abroad.

His road career is not over yet
In Slovenia he misses this type of challenge, therefore he competes with himself and with time. The next record he would like to beat: he intends to visit seven European capitals with names starting with a letter B – from Berlin to Bucharest: "I doubt I will make it in three days, but four should be enough." He is looking forward to the new challenge, and will leave as soon as the museum in Kanal closes its door in the end of September.

Mariša Bizjak, TV Koper
Translated by G. K.

P. S.: For those inevitable sceptics who will read this article with "journalist bribes" in mind: we bought the book (promotional price is 20 euros), the entrance to the museum is free, and nobody can blame us of pre-election propaganda, as Miran has no intention for running for mayor again.