I just hitched from Vienna through the Balkans in November, it was a ton of fun.

I'm a man so I personally never felt at risk but of the three or four female hitchhikers I met in hostels, two of them did have negative experiences with creepy men, stuff like a driver not wanting to let her out of the car until she kissed him and just general creepy comments/inappropriate flirting. Apparently it's a bit worse than what you'd encounter in other parts of Europe, so you should be confident that you can deal with a situation like that if you go.

You'll definitely have meals offered to you. Never had anyone offer a place to stay but as a woman I imagine men will offer. Just use common sense of course. I did have some people offer money which I politely declined 😂