I am looking for tips in the following categories:
Stove:
- portable
- durable
- being able to refill
- available in Europe
Tent:
- for 1-1,5-2 people
- light
- 0-2000 meers above sea levels
- humidity ???
- available in Europe
Water filter:
- filter should be replaceable
- portable
(I know many people have these items on their wish lists for months before they bought them, share your experiences )
South-East Europe:
- blogs
- people from this forum
- what to avoid
Hitchhiking:
- where is the border between being beggar and and asking for a lift?
- what is conversation starter?
- what topics should not be started? (or what can I discuss freely?)
Backpacing:
- what is the best way to behave as local (to avoid being trimmed as "consumer tourist")?
In your equipment categories, here is what I've been using for the past few years in various conditions all over Europe (let's say latitudes spanning from 42 to 67 degrees N, elevation to 1500m). I can recommend this stuff based on my experience and they are priced reasonably. Should be quite widely available as well. Let me know if you have any specific questions, but Youtube will probably have plenty of demonstrations.
Stove: Mini Trangia (Swedish classic, burns on alcohol, enough to cook for two people if they're not extremely hungry)
Tent: Ferrino Lightent 2 (Italian, weight about 1.7 kg, long enough for someone 1.98 tall - that's often a problem with popular tent models! - , wide enough for two people if they get on well enough or one person with full backpack and gear)
Water filter: Katadyn Hiker Pro (Swiss, have not tried outside of Baltics and Scandinavia where water found in nature is generally quite pure as it is)
As for your other categories, can you specify what you mean by South-East Europe? Ex-Yugoslavia, Romania, Moldova, Ukraine... ? All quite different places.
I am looking for tips in the following categories:
Stove:
- portable
- durable
- being able to refill
- available in Europe
Tent:
- for 1-1,5-2 people
- light
- 0-2000 meers above sea levels
- humidity ???
- available in Europe
Water filter:
- filter should be replaceable
- portable
(I know many people have these items on their wish lists for months before they bought them, share your experiences )
South-East Europe:
- blogs
- people from this forum
- what to avoid
Hitchhiking:
- where is the border between being beggar and and asking for a lift?
- what is conversation starter?
- what topics should not be started? (or what can I discuss freely?)
Backpacing:
- what is the best way to behave as local (to avoid being trimmed as "consumer tourist")?
Thanks in advance
Have a look at Vango 200 series tents, I've heard good opinions about them in terms of price/quality/size.
Hitchhiking is popular so no problem here. Good starter is weather, where are you from, how you managed to get here, your trip so far etc. Avoid politics, and even when it happens just agree with your driver. Most of these countries are/were poor and experienced war/communism in recent decades, so be gentle.
Best way to behave as local is to look like a local, pretend to be not so wealthy and avoid popular tourist spots aka tourist traps.
Filters are heavy, and expensives. Tap water is usually ok, and when not, bottledvwater is cheap.
I would avoid tent, because campsites are not cheaper than hostels, and when wild camping, i feel safer without a tent and well hidden.
Ide go without a stove too, because bread is cheap, running after fuel is tiresome, and you wont cook that much in the wild anyway.
Now your backpack got small, and if you usually dress in thrift stores, you will look local enough.
Then, if you put in some effort to bulgarize or serbize you polish, people wont even notice the difference.
Voilà
If you're looking for an extremely versatile stove, I would go with the MSR dragonfly. Not exactly cheap, but burns white gas, kerosene, unleaded auto fuel, diesel, and jet fuel. Has a refillable fuel canister that can take pretty much whatever is available.
I have a MSR MiniWorks EX filter. It has worked well for me the few times I've used it. You have to prefilter any extreme silt (example: Colorado River) though. Also, it does not filter viruses. It can filter a liter of water in a minute or two depending on how fast you pump. It's about 10 years old so I'm sure there have been advancements since that time.
We didn't camp so don't have any recommendations for you on the gear.
For your hitchhiking make sure you have a nice thick marker to make a sign with for each place you're heading to - will make it easier for drivers to see from far enough away to stop in time to pick you up.
We're just finishing up a trip from Sofia (Bulgaria) in a big circle around through Serbia, Hungary, Slovakia, southern Poland, Vienna, down through Croatia and then back through Montenegro, Albania, Kosovo and Macedonia.
If you let me know which ones you'll be going to I can give specific tips on must/don't sees etc.
I thought it would spark more attention, because camping is somehow ERE friendly.
I also realized that most of the presented gear is in range of 100-300$. Even if we speak about whole pack, it could be only 1k $. So not so much for many for you in West EU or US.
I will also dig on my own and add presented stuff to my search queries to catch a nice deal.
Maybe new (burning) question:
Any ideas how to deal before being bit even by moskito? And how to relieve the pain? I suffer a lot from this issue so I'll believe in any BS which will help me. I'm probably one of the main sponsors of some alleviating ointment.
Why do you focus so much on food as humans will survive only 7-10 days without water?
During my last hiking (at least) for me the water was the problem.
On the other side of discussion, after talk with my allergologist, I know that "American scientist hasn't found way to make people immune to mosquito bite". Shame on you, folks (oops, this is not boggleheads )
I used a Coleman Dual fuel for 45 days straight. The only fuel in 90% of my town stops was gasoline. I have a Nalogene (spelling?) spare tank, using both lasted 8-10 meals.
I had a map so I always ended up 1km from water or ate my main meal there and reloaded 3L of water. I was up to 60 hours between resupplying.
Mosquitoes, Long sleeve, +50% deet, keep moving and don't scatch.
I always ask the first person what is in the next town so I can talk to the next person about it. Never be afraid to ask for a lift, take a hooker's bath first.
How about using consumer grade suburbia home filter as one to camp?
These small portable filters are very expensive... and they don't provide protection against viruses/bacterias :/
I propably paid few times in my life for 1,5l water bottle 3-5 EUR on 1,5-2k m above the sea level. Pretty costly.
Got interested in bushcraft (it's cheaper to go sleep in surrounding forest compared to go to the different part of the country). Trying to prepare for my first night in the forest. Trying to take what is interesting here (they claim not to use foam mattress due to "Holy Saint Codex of Bushcraft").
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