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== Hitchhiking ==
Hitchhiking in Belarus is very easy and rarely your waiting time will exceed 15 Minutesminutes, at least on the main road M1 from [[Brest ]] via [[Minsk ]] to [[Moscow]]. As it is very common in Belarus, often the driver will drivers may pick you up without being curious about you or what you are doing, sometimes no communication at all. Belarusian people can seem gloomy at first sight, but in the end they are mostly very nice and helpful and drop you on a good spot. In rare cases a small number of older drivers might ask for some money when giving you a ride – to avoid that, tell the driver about your intention to travel for free before you sit into the car (''"Ja puteshestvuju avtostopom, bez deneg"'' [''"u"'' is pronounced as ''"oo"'' in English] – ''"I travel by hitch-hiking, not paying any money"''). Usually, just saying 'no money' works just fine too. It might be more difficult if you are more than 2 persons travelling together – in such case it would be smart to split up for some time.
When hitchhiking in Belarus, it is very likely you will to find some other people standing next to the road, waiting for a car to pick them up. Although most people do not speak English well, it is nice to try and to make some contact. Most of them might look angry, but it's just on the outside and once you start talking to them they're just very friendly and warm people. Some Belarusians will even wait for an hour with you in a snowstorm, waiting for another car to stop :)
Russian and Baltic truck drivers are reluctant to stop for hitchhikers in Belarus while Belarusian and Polish trucks are happy to have a company of some traveller(s). Hitchhiking at night is difficult but if you make yourself very visible you can get a ride even at two o'clock in the at night (some cars might stop just because the a driver thinks you are a police – light reflectors might give such an impression).
The average waiting time is about 20 minutes. It’s better to travel using main roads as road traffic on local roads is pretty poor. In Belarus there are no roads with limitations for hitchhikers, you can start stopping a car wherever you like, the only exception is bridges. Roadsides are usually wide enough to stop even a truck. Main roads are in a good condition while roads in rural areas might unpleasantly surprise you.
'''Note''': In Belarus you must obligatory have to wear a flicker (light-returning element) when you are on the road after sunset. The [[police]] have a plan to get some amount of violators each month, so the possibility of penalty (about EUR € 10) is quite high. It's better to buy a flicker (it costs from EUR € 1), and it's not a problem – now they are sold in any shop in Belarus. And it's [[hitchhiker's safety|a good idea]] to use them anyway when [[hitchhiking at night]].
== Maps ==
