Germany felt like pure freedom: no school, no parents, no homework, only 8 hours of mindless work - folding towels and making tea - then hanging out with your service mates doing whatever: video gaming, music, drinking, partying, and no one cared, unless our party got out of hand.

Ahh... well I didn't have any mates, outside the 1 month education period where we learned some general useful stuff like first aid, it was just me going to a job and then back home :(

You hitched to Krakow last year? Awesome! Must have been a blast!

Partly, hitched to Riga and then took a bus because it was convenient with my box of dried fruit :D
Then hitched more in Europe after SF3 whenever I managed.