In this post I have gathered the hitchhiking rallies in Poland and competitions I took part in in 2023–2024. First I describe Kortostop – a hitchhiking competition across Warmia and Masuria organised in June 2023 by AKT Olsztyn. Then two National Hitchhikers’ Gatherings (Ogólnopolski Zlot Autostopowiczów): the final days of the 14th gathering in Kostkowice in the Jura upland (September 2023) and the 15th gathering in Bydgoszcz (September 2024), which we came to as volunteers and speakers. In 2018 I took part in the 1st Kortowo Hitchhiking Rally, and later, in 2025, in the WA-MA rally and the hitchhiking rally to Święta Lipka.
Table of contents
- Kortostop 2023 – the rules of the hitchhiking competition
- Kortostop, day 1 – from Dobre Miasto to Olecko
- Kortostop, day 2 – from Ełk to the finish in Kosewo
- 14th National Hitchhikers’ Gathering – Kostkowice 2023
- 15th National Hitchhikers’ Gathering – Bydgoszcz 2024: volunteering on the decorations
- Bydgoszcz 2024 – our talk, concerts and a fire show
- Practical information
Kortostop 2023 – the rules of the hitchhiking competition
Kortostop is a hitchhiking competition organised by the Academic Tourist Club (AKT) Olsztyn. In 2023 it lasted two days – from Friday 2 June to Saturday 3 June. I competed in a pair with Patrycja as pair no. 10. In the morning, at the club’s base, we got “Kortostop” wristbands, a map with the points marked on it and the list of checkpoints, and at 10:00 we set off from Olsztyn.
In 2018 the rally was about visiting a few set towns and taking photos of ourselves at specific places. This time there were as many as 25 checkpoints across the Warmian-Masurian region – one in each town. The organisers varied the points depending on how hard a place was to reach: from 4 points (e.g. a mural in Mrągowo) to 16 points (the viaducts in Stańczyki). That called for a bit more planning and logistics. The pair with the most points would win.
You confirmed a checkpoint with a photo showing both people from the pair and the place in question. One person from the pair sent the photo via Messenger to the “Kortostop” page, giving the pair number and the town. Confirmations were accepted until 17:00 on Saturday, and for reaching the finish after 18:00 the organiser deducted 1 point for every 10 minutes (or part of it) of delay.
12 pairs started in this edition, quite a lot fewer than in 2018, so chance meetings along the way were relatively rare. Surprisingly, most of the participants were not students.
Kortostop, day 1 – from Dobre Miasto to Olecko
We started the first day in Warmia. First we got to Dobre Miasto, where the checkpoint was the Stork Tower (Baszta Bociania) – a brick tower with a conical roof next to a section of wall with the inscription “Dobre Miasto 1329”.
From there we went to Lidzbark Warmiński, to the Castle of the Warmian Bishops (7 points). For the next ride, to Bisztynek, I hitched with a cardboard sign in front of the district office building – that photo opens this post.
In Bisztynek the checkpoint was the Devil’s Stone (Diabelski Kamień) – a huge boulder. Then we set off for Reszel, where the castle was waiting (5 points). For each next stretch we made a cardboard sign with the name of the next town.
From Reszel we went to Korsze, where a steam locomotive stands by the level crossing on Dworcowa Street (7 points). Here we lost some time – to catch a ride towards Kętrzyn we had to walk 40 minutes back to the main junction.
In Kętrzyn the checkpoint was the “Consulate of Saint Nicholas” (Konsulat Świętego Mikołaja) – a brick building with a colourful sign. Next we ticked off the lock on the Masurian Canal in Leśniewo Górne (9 points) and the bunker of Himmler’s headquarters in Pozezdrze (also 9 points) – a wooden arrow saying “Bunkry” points the way to the concrete shelters in the forest.
In the evening we reached Gołdap. Not far from the graduation towers there are big “Gołdap” letters, and the checkpoint was the spa graduation towers – worth as many as 14 points.
The highest-scoring place on the list (16 points) was the railway viaducts in Stańczyki. These are two parallel reinforced-concrete viaducts over the Błędzianka valley, about 36 metres high, built in the early 20th century on the now disused Gołdap–Żytkiejmy railway line. We got there around 21:00, at dusk, and still managed to climb the wooden viewing tower from which you can see both viaducts.
Drivers were happy to take us – once even four of us, when we met another pair heading the same way. We ticked off the last checkpoint of the day after 23:00 in Olecko: the Janusz Panasewicz bench, with a sculpture of the Lady Pank singer (14 points). The bench was unveiled in 2018 during the Przystanek Olecko festival.
We spent the night wild camping in a tent in Olecko. It was freezing at night – the temperature dropped to 2 degrees.
Kortostop, day 2 – from Ełk to the finish in Kosewo
On Saturday morning we ticked off the sundial on the square by Zamkowa Street in Ełk (12 points), and then rode through the forests to Pisz, where the checkpoint was the market square with the town hall.
Next came the Lyre Pine (Sosna Lira) in Ruciane-Nida – a pine with two trunks on Aleja Wczasów – and the viewing tower over the Krutynia in Wojnowo. From the top you can see the river’s bends and the meadows all around. We paddled down the Krutynia by kayak in 2019 – I described it in the post about the kayak trip along the Krutynia.
After that we visited the mural on Warszawska Street in Mrągowo, the amphitheatre on Lake Ryńskie in Ryn and the suspension bridge over Lake Mikołajskie in Mikołajki. In total we managed to reach 19 towns.
The finish was at a campsite in Kosewo, a small village near Mrągowo. On Saturday evening there was a get-together for the participants. To the surprise of the organiser himself, as many as three pairs managed to score the maximum number of points, so first place was decided by the time of arrival at the finish. We won the prize for the best report on Instagram.
After the results were announced there was a flanki tournament (a Polish outdoor drinking game), and to finish off, a bonfire with a recovery meal. Along the way we met lots of people, heard countless stories and saw plenty of local places.
14th National Hitchhikers’ Gathering – Kostkowice 2023
The National Hitchhikers’ Gathering (Ogólnopolski Zlot Autostopowiczów) takes place every year in September, at the end of the season. It is organised by the Polish Hitchhikers Association (Stowarzyszenie Autostopowiczów Polskich), which also runs, among others, the Start of the Hitchhiking Season, the Hitchhikers’ Midsummer Night and the National Hitchhikers’ New Year’s Eve. According to the association, it all began with a few friends hitchhiking to Paris for New Year’s Eve in 2009.
The 14th gathering took place in September 2023 in Kostkowice (Kroczyce municipality) in the Kraków-Częstochowa Upland, by the reservoir on the Białka. At that time I was at the Summer Dying Loud metal festival in Aleksandrów Łódzki with Łukasz (I described it in the post about music festivals). After the festival, on Sunday 10 September, I went to the final part of the gathering, because Patrycja was there.
First, Krzysiek and Lech, whom I had met at the festival, gave me a lift to Radomsko. From there I only had about 70 km to cover by hitchhiking, but going through small villages it was sometimes tough. At one spot, after about 1.5 hours of waiting, I was close to thinking I wouldn’t make it in time. Luckily, after that it went more smoothly. On the way, in Lelów, I passed a stone with the inscription “800 lat Lelowa” (800 years of Lelów).
In the end I got to the Kostkowice area with five cars. I walked the last stretch – about an hour – along a forest road, even though it was already dark, and the shortcuts I tried later turned out to be hopeless.
That evening I still made it to the bonfire.
On Monday I helped tidy up the whole site. In a clearing among the pines stood the word “Kostkowice” made of wooden beams, and right next to it is the reservoir, called the Kostkowice or Dzibice reservoir.
For the gathering there was “Autostopowe” beer (dark honey beer) from the Witnica brewery, with a little poem about the gathering on the label – it mentions, among other things, the flanki cup and “let’s love the gathering”. After the clean-up we went to an after-party “till dawn” at an allotment garden in Łódź.
15th National Hitchhikers’ Gathering – Bydgoszcz 2024: volunteering on the decorations
A year later the 15th National Hitchhikers’ Gathering ran from 13 to 15 September 2024. It took place in Bydgoszcz, at the “Na szlaku Brdy” camping and tent site (the PTTK Janowo campsite on Biwakowa Street), right by the Brda river. A week earlier, for the second year in a row, I had been at Summer Dying Loud with Łukasz.
The gathering started on Friday, but we – Patrycja and I – arrived already on Wednesday, as volunteers in the art section: we made and hung ornaments and decorations. Practically all of Thursday and most of Friday (even when events were already running) went on work, as did half of Sunday and Monday.
On Thursday we made, among other things, the “Witaj autostopowiczu” (Welcome, hitchhiker) banner and a wall of cardboard arrows with the names of towns and countries. On Friday morning colourful signposts with distances went up by the gate of the site – to Las Vegas, Santiago de Compostela, Hollywood, Sarajevo, Bangkok, New York, Machu Picchu, Kotor, Sicily and the Bahamas.
By Thursday evening the main shelter was already decorated with flags and strings of fairy lights. As a volunteer in the art section I got an “Art Duszek” badge.
It is very satisfying – to see the result after a while of many people working together, and to give your own talk in a room you decorated yourself. I really recommend it!
Bydgoszcz 2024 – our talk, concerts and a fire show
At the gathering in Bydgoszcz, after a break of more than 5 years, we gave another travel talk (in Polish): “The Northern Triangle of Central America: in the circle of Maya culture and fiery volcanoes” – in a nutshell, about Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras, fairly unusual travel destinations. We gave it on Saturday 14 September in a room we had decorated ourselves earlier. The preparation took quite a long time, because we talked about most of the topics with edited videos playing in the background, and making them was time-consuming. I write more about the trip itself in the post Guatemala in 58 days.
There were loads of attractions on the site. Apart from the talks you could take part in workshops, concerts, a dance party, team and board games, a fire show, a tasting or karaoke, and relax in the chill-out zone or the bar zone. There was even a mobile sauna. One of the concert stages stood under a green tent.
On Friday evening there was a fire show on the sandy square – including fire breathing and spinning sparks.
In the evenings crowds of people partied under the hanging tarps, and at night there was karaoke. It’s impossible to get bored, and time flies.
There was no canteen at the gathering – food was served by the “Strefa u Pasibrzucha” (Glutton’s Zone), with prices of a euro or two (e.g. a sausage for about €1.60, bread with lard for about €1). In 2024 there was also “Autostopowe” blueberry beer from the Witnica brewery.
A week later we gave the same talk at the 6th Beskid Travellers’ Festival at the Soszów mountain hut – I write about it in the post about the Beskids and the Beskid Travellers’ Festival (in Polish).
Practical information
- National Hitchhikers’ Gathering – organised every year in September by the Polish Hitchhikers Association; the venue changes (2023 – Kostkowice in the Jura upland, 2024 – Bydgoszcz). The programme includes travel talks, workshops, games, concerts, a bonfire and an all-night dance party. The gathering is open both to veterans and to people who are just starting out with hitchhiking.
- Registration and prices – you have to sign up in advance via the organiser’s form; without registration you won’t be let onto the site. In 2024 a stay in your own tent cost about €16 for 2 nights plus an organisational fee of about €8, and a bed in a cabin an extra about €9 for the whole weekend (there are few cabin beds, so it’s better to bring a tent).
- Accommodation and food – you mostly sleep in your own tent; in Bydgoszcz there were toilets and washrooms with hot water. There is no canteen, but there is a zone with cheap food (2024 prices: sausage about €1.60, black pudding about €2.30, bread with lard about €1).
- Volunteering – the organisers invite people to help prepare and decorate the site before the official start. Bear in mind that you will spend a good part of the gathering working, but afterwards you can see the result all over the site.
- Hitchhiking competitions (Kortostop) – organised by AKT Olsztyn. You start in pairs, with a list of checkpoints scored by how hard they are to reach; a checkpoint counts once you send a photo of both people from the pair at that place via Messenger. It’s worth planning your route so that it links high-scoring places, and keeping an eye on the finish closing time – points are deducted for being late.
- Where to stand – on the road out of town towards your destination, at a spot where a driver can stop safely. First check on the map that you are standing by the right road – in Korsze we lost 40 minutes because of that. Cardboard signs with the name of the nearest bigger town and a thick marker come in handy.
- Small villages – fewer cars drive through villages, so you wait longer (near Kostkowice as long as 1.5 hours). After dark it’s better to walk along the road than to look for shortcuts through the forest.
- A night in a tent – at the beginning of June in Masuria the temperature dropped to 2 degrees at night, so a warm sleeping bag comes in handy.
- Rules – hitchhiking is legal in Poland, but pedestrians are not allowed on motorways and expressways. It’s better to stand before the slip road or at a petrol station.
- More about hitchhiking – 1st Kortowo Hitchhiking Rally (2018), the rally to Święta Lipka and hitchhiking across northern Spain.
