After a few days spent playing bao under Moses’s steady eye I managed to win for the first time. I wasn’t that exhilarated because I was quite sure that the master adapted the game to my capacities as a student amateur. However, that victory changed a couple of things. First, I finally felt confident enough
While crossing the no-man’s land, a man offered me a big spliff with a dried medicinal plant in it. He said that it helped with many health difficulties, from chronic pain to depression and that it even could help with curing cancer. Since I hadn’t been diagnosed with any disease I refused his offer and
I used a minibus for the following 70 kilometers or so overcrowded with pregnant ladies, women carrying babies instead of backpacks and smelly men who smelled a bit awkward to get from the border to Maputo. In the middle of the drive the tire got a puncture and I realized that in Africa it was
Exactly 45 days after we left Christmas Island, we arrived to Durban. I crossed the Indian Ocean! If I had someone to brag a little, I would’ve done it. However, since there was no one, I got off the ship, kissed the ground, put my backpack on the back, said good-bye to my American-Belgian-Chinese family
As an old saying goes: There are plenty more fish in the sea, usually used when someone dumps you. We beat that theory. During our whole journey we managed to catch only one fish which we had to eat the very same night since we didn’t have a refrigerator. Where had the fish gone? There
There are three main rules when sailing: – stay on the boat – do not hit anything – the mast has to be facing sky The last rule was the reason why our sailboat had been named “This Side Up“. Also, there are two arrows pointed upwards just so no one would get confused. If
My new life in Melbourne was quite good. I mentioned to my boss in the restaurant that I didn’t have work permit and that, if I stayed working there, I’d have to work under the table. He only sighed upon hearing it and replied with a sentence: we’ll work something out. Finally we did that
I survived the night at Wolfe Creek, which is, other than a title of a horror movie, a gigantic meteorite crater with a diameter of 850 meters, which makes it the second biggest crater in the world unspoiled by erosion. It is estimated that a meteor weighing more than 50 thousand tons hit the Earth some 300.000
And that is how I ended up in Batchelor, in a home of the couple that had picked me up a few hours before. In fact, that was the second time that I slept over in a house of someone who had given me a ride. It reminded me of two stories from my first
Uluru was amazing, wonderful, powerful and full of energy: something to remember. I met up with my French friends: Simon showed us his panoramic photos he had taken from the top of Uluru, but for some strange defiance I didn’t even want to take a look at them. We jumped into the car, drove to
I’ll have to let you down, after the cliff-hanger at the end of my last post I didn’t need the knife: the cowboys had only pulled over because they had to take a piss. We continued our ride and after a half an hour they left me in Hughenden, a town known by absolutely nothing.
To sum it up: I hitchhiked from Brisbane to Maleny. A guy picked me up. I mentioned to him that I was looking for a job. He replied that he could hire me the next time I’m in Brisbane. I told him that I could go back the very moment, all he had to do
My journey from Nimbin brought me to Sydney. My godfather Mirko informed me that I had some relatives in Sydney before I actually arrived there so I decided to pay them a visit. I’d never met them, but this isn’t so strange when you consider that my grandpa’s cousin Vinka and her husband had come there with
I am in Australia! Usually, people get all excited when they’re in a new town, in a new country, on a new continent. But, basically, it’s all the same. If you don’t change while you change your environment, then all the travelling is in vain. Better yet – it would be in vain in my
We sheered from the main road and followed a dusty pathway which led us to a Buddhist temple in the middle of the forest as the very name suggests – The Forest Monastery. A simple walk, the environment growing greener and greener, next to us ran a murmuring brook, a toothless old man wearing a
A Buddhist temple in the north of Thailand, 10 p.m. Everyone is supposed to be in their beds. I’m trying to remember where we were the last two weeks, after Bangkok. So, let’s start. Nakhon Sawan. We went there for two reasons – it was on our way from Bangkok to Chiang Mai, and, we
Sara left us and flew to Berlin, and Chloe and I went on with our journey towards north. Since it took us nearly 6oo km of hitchhiking to our next stop (Hua Hin), where we had found a CS host, we were pretty sure that we would end up in a small unknown village somewhere
After Langkawi, we spent a little fortune just to reach our next destination. We disembarked on a small island of Koh Lipe, on the very south of Thailand. Crossing the border by ship was the easiest and the safest way of doing it, although not the cheapest. We would start economizing from tomorrow. While the
There I was, at the airport in Kuala Lumpur, for the second time in two days. When the plane touched down, I was shocked by the fact that the city was very clean and modern, the cars were new, there weren’t piles of garbage on the streets, especially when compared to India. Everything was functioning
There are many advantages when travelling in someone’s company – you can share all those nice things that happen to you with someone dear to you, and all those ugly ones appear less ugly because you’re have that special someone that will comfort you and make you feel better. However, travelling solo has its advantages
We woke up our first morning in 2012 being homeless, on a sandy beach between two boats that were our only cover from last night’s party. We didn’t feel like partying – we had some beer, nice fireworks some twenty meters distant from us and a nice company. After all, that night was just another
I met Tanja at the airport in Delhi. Along with her rucksack, she carried a big red bag on her shoulder: a bag had a white inscription that said Dear Santa I’ve been very, very good. Most of the time. A big hug and a kiss for two months that we hadn’t seen each other.
Even tough we passed the border, there were no obvious differences between Nepal and India, but it would arise soon. We tried to negotiate a lower price for the taxi and that was, in fact, our only choice since we didn’t have any Nepali rupees left. All I had was some Indian change and there
Nepal is very cold during November. Since I don’t like cold weather very much I didn’t stay there for a long time – just enough to visit some old friends, meet a couple of new ones, pick up the visa for Thailand, find out what the future has in store for me and find out
The moment I arrived to the farm in the foot of Himalaya, I could easily start writing a new chapter of my journey. Since I got quite exhausted by the two-month-wandering from town to town, I felt the urge for a place I could call home: a place where I could have some peace and
I started talking to a guy who happened to be on the border at the same moment as me, so we decided to take advantage of each other: I would buy him two extra bottles of alcohol in a duty-free shop (he paid for it, of course), and he would give me a lift in
Finally, I got into Pakistan! The procedure is the same as on the Iranian side. Without saying a word, I handed over my passport and the notice from Sarajevo. I gave the officer a look that was meant to motivate him to give me the stamp as soon as possible and wish me a good
“There’s a problem. Visa.” – the officer at the counter said. He explained to me that while issuing the visa the consul forgot to put a stamp with his name and surname on it. Just great. I waited for a half an hour. Then I waited for an hour. So much about me being first
So, where were we in the last post? Oh, yes, Persepolis – one of the most famous tourist sites in Iran. A little bit of historical facts – Persepolis was the ceremonial capital of the Persian Empire. The earliest remains of Persepolis date from around 515 BCE, that is from the period of the reign
As we approach the border, its time for Tanja to cover herself. She covers her hair with the scarf, putting on the shirt with long sleeves and we cross the border on foot without any problems. But we have problems explaining taxi drivers what is hitchhiking. Finally one taxi driver decides to take us for
One would think, if anybody should be afraid of travelling to Iraq, it should be us. But instead, it was an Armenian girl that was frightened, despite the fact that she is in a long relationship with an Iraqi guy. It was her first trip to Iraq, to meet his family. While she was talking about
Next morning we got up and headed towards Konya, which is more than 500 km away. On our way to Konya, Tanja is telling me about operation Barbarossa she pulled out in the shortest period of time, just to surprise me. She exchanged countless e-mails with my cousin Ivana, so the operation could run smoothly
“It’s so easy to hitchhike in Turkey” – I remember so many people telling me that sentence. And I have been here in some random border town, waiting for a ride for the past 4-5 hours. But, after 11-12 hours, I reach Istanbul. And it is not the most welcoming city. First hard rain in
The Bulgarian family that I drove with took me to entrance of Sofia, gave mi 1 lev for the bus to the center, and driver’s wife came out of the car with me and told people on the bus stop to take care of me. And then she, with the tears in her eyes, wished
It turned out that grandpa from the last story went, slowly and insecurely, towards Slavonski Brod, a city between Zagreb and my destination for the day – Belgrade. He left me on the only place I didn’t want to stay, on the west exit of the city (cause almost all cars passing there are going
Sitting in my room and wondering how all this began. Where did I get the idea? Memories start coming back. August 1994, Filip and me, sitting on a beach. “Imagine if summer lasted for 3 years, not only 3 months” – he says to me with a spark in his eyes. So I did. I
