its not a meme but its not as easy as it used to be.
youtubers glorify it but the fact is it's almost never worth it unless you genuinely need to travel long distances or are actually stuck in the middle of nowhere and hitchhiking isn't working out.
my key rule for when im "homeless" its not looking homeless and that's really difficult to do while freight hopping, because as soon as you get on you're covered in soot and dirt, unless you get lucky. as soon as you get off in some small town you instantly look homeless which is not what you want, drawing attention to yourself is a no-no.
other things are nobody ever mentions the actual wait times, sometimes a freight will just stop and you'll be stuck in fuck knows where for fuck knows how long. i remember a few times i was in the middle of nowhere waiting for a train for 3 days with barely any supplies because i wasn't expecting it.
the other issue is they are fucking noisy so unless you have decent ear plugs good luck with losing your hearing.
don't get me wrong its a cool experience and if you need to, do it. but IMO its almost never worth it when you can blag your way onto a passenger train or bus by acting like a dumb tourist (it works 9/10 times if you're good with words)
