{"id":6996,"date":"2014-09-19T07:42:36","date_gmt":"2014-09-19T07:42:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tomislavperko.com\/?p=6996"},"modified":"2015-07-06T20:02:14","modified_gmt":"2015-07-06T08:02:14","slug":"1000-days-of-summer-departure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tomislavperko.com\/en\/1000-days-of-summer-departure\/","title":{"rendered":"1000 DAYS OF SUMMER &#8211; DEPARTURE"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1170\" height=\"658\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/eKfAyFVbDn0?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">Sitting in my room and wondering how all this began. Where did I get the idea? Memories start coming back.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\"><strong>August 1994, Filip and me, sitting on a beach.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">\u201cImagine if summer lasted for 3 years, not only 3 months\u201d \u2013 he says to me with a spark in his eyes.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">So I did. I imagined. When you\u2019re little you have to listen to your older brother.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\"><strong>September 2011, Filip and me, drinking beer.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">\u201cC\u2019mon Tomi, be serious\u201d, he says, taking the first sip. \u201cI wasn\u2019t really serious when I said to imagine a 3 year long summer!\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">\u201cNow you tell me! I already told people that I&#8217;m leaving!\u201d &#8211; I replied.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">Seriously, he tells me that now! I&#8217;ve spent over two years thinking what I want, which way to go, what I need. Made to-do lists, gathered experiences, planned. And now he tells me that he was kidding. Well, kidding or not kidding, there\u2019s no going back now!<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">Looking down at my list, crossing things out. Backpack. Guitar. Iranian visa. Pakistani visa. Indian visa. Bonus \u2013 1000 euros on MasterCard card.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\"><strong>Departure<\/strong> \u2013 Zagreb, 10\/09\/2011.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\"><strong>Destination<\/strong> \u2013 Zagreb, 05\/06\/2014.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">Direction \u2013 east. It could have easily been west, but I\u2019ll leave that for 1000 Days of Winter. You never know.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">When in doubt, I quickly check my travel CV: seven travels in the past two years \u2013 18.000 kilometers, 200 different vehicles, 20 countries, 70 cities\/villages and many, many faces and stories that happened on the road. Wonderful stories, wonderful people. They knock down any fear with ease.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">Looking at my hands, especially my thumbs. I lift them up, I put them down, a few times. They are in a great shape. Those guys will last 1000 days of hitchhiking. They&#8217;ll have to. That&#8217;s the way we chose \u2013 alternative methods. <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/tomislavperko.com\/en\/hitchhiking-guide\/\" target=\"_blank\">Hitchhiking<\/a><\/strong>, <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/tomislavperko.com\/en\/couchsurfing-guide\" target=\"_blank\">CouchSurfing<\/a><\/strong>, camping, volunteering, ignoring flights.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">People keep asking me if I prepared myself for what lies ahead. I nod my head, self-confidently. The truth is \u2013 I have no idea what&#8217;s waiting out there. Besides, you can never truly prepare for something like this. You have to be open for all options and decisive in using your time the best way you can. That&#8217;s not an issue. Everything else will work itself out. Now I just have to say goodbye to everyone and off I go!<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">Early morning. Brother and his girlfriend drop me off at highway pay tolls. Sad pictures in my head from last night. Endless list of questions in my head \u2013 so, what now? How much will I change, what will I miss, who will I meet along the way? Minutes later Filip gives me a call to offer me a lift to the next tolls because these ones seem to be pretty hard to catch a ride on &#8211; a fact that he knows because I&#8217;ve been waiting there in vain for entire 8 minutes. I laugh and ask him whether he will pick me up in Pakistan as well? So he wishes me good luck and sets off.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">It&#8217;s not easy. But standing there and watching cars passing by\u2026 my stomach does its part. Excitement makes sadness and fear disappear. I lift my thumb and everything feels just the way it should. What I need to know, I will know. What I need to see, I will see. Whom I have to meet, I will meet. Filip said \u201chave a nice trip\u201d, and we all know you have to listen to your older brother.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">It&#8217;s inevitable \u2013\u00a0it will be an incredible happy adventure, full of unknown things\u2026I thought when the first car stopped. Driver is some grandpa of at least 100 years, says that he&#8217;s going to\u2026 I didn&#8217;t quite heard where, but I\u2019m going to\u2026as well, so I jumped inside, smiled, introduced myself, fastened my seatbelt and said &#8211; lets go!<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\"><a href=\"https:\/\/tomislavperko.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-6999\" src=\"https:\/\/tomislavperko.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/1-720x960.jpg\" alt=\"1\" width=\"720\" height=\"960\" srcset=\"https:\/\/tomislavperko.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/1-720x960.jpg 720w, https:\/\/tomislavperko.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/1-460x613.jpg 460w, https:\/\/tomislavperko.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/1-600x800.jpg 600w, https:\/\/tomislavperko.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/1-225x300.jpg 225w, https:\/\/tomislavperko.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/1.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 720px) 100vw, 720px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>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. \u201cImagine if summer lasted for 3 years, not only 3 months\u201d \u2013 he says to me with a spark in his eyes. So I did. I [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":7001,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[42],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6996","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-1000-days-of-summer"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>1000 DAYS OF SUMMER - DEPARTURE - Tomislav Perko<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/tomislavperko.com\/en\/1000-days-of-summer-departure\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"1000 DAYS OF SUMMER - DEPARTURE - Tomislav Perko\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"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. \u201cImagine if summer lasted for 3 years, not only 3 months\u201d \u2013 he says to me with a spark in his eyes. So I did. I [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/tomislavperko.com\/en\/1000-days-of-summer-departure\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Tomislav Perko\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/tomislav.perko\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/tomislav.perko\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-09-19T07:42:36+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2015-07-06T08:02:14+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/tomislavperko.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/DEPARTURE-FEATURE.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"300\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"235\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Tomislav Perko\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Tomislav Perko\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"1000 DAYS OF SUMMER - DEPARTURE - Tomislav Perko","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/tomislavperko.com\/en\/1000-days-of-summer-departure\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"1000 DAYS OF SUMMER - DEPARTURE - Tomislav Perko","og_description":"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. \u201cImagine if summer lasted for 3 years, not only 3 months\u201d \u2013 he says to me with a spark in his eyes. So I did. I [&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/tomislavperko.com\/en\/1000-days-of-summer-departure\/","og_site_name":"Tomislav Perko","article_publisher":"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/tomislav.perko","article_author":"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/tomislav.perko","article_published_time":"2014-09-19T07:42:36+00:00","article_modified_time":"2015-07-06T08:02:14+00:00","og_image":[{"width":300,"height":235,"url":"https:\/\/tomislavperko.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/DEPARTURE-FEATURE.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Tomislav Perko","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Tomislav Perko","Est. reading time":"6 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/tomislavperko.com\/1000-days-of-summer-departure\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/tomislavperko.com\/1000-days-of-summer-departure\/"},"author":{"name":"Tomislav Perko","@id":"https:\/\/tomislavperko.com\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/9b4bf02a029fe138893d51ae0f02f0a6"},"headline":"1000 DAYS OF SUMMER &#8211; DEPARTURE","datePublished":"2014-09-19T07:42:36+00:00","dateModified":"2015-07-06T08:02:14+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/tomislavperko.com\/1000-days-of-summer-departure\/"},"wordCount":1213,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/tomislavperko.com\/1000-days-of-summer-departure\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/tomislavperko.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/DEPARTURE-FEATURE.jpg","articleSection":["1000 DAYS OF SUMMER"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/tomislavperko.com\/1000-days-of-summer-departure\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/tomislavperko.com\/en\/1000-days-of-summer-departure\/","url":"https:\/\/tomislavperko.com\/en\/1000-days-of-summer-departure\/","name":"1000 DAYS OF SUMMER - DEPARTURE - Tomislav Perko","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/tomislavperko.com\/en\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/tomislavperko.com\/en\/1000-days-of-summer-departure\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/tomislavperko.com\/1000-days-of-summer-departure\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/tomislavperko.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/DEPARTURE-FEATURE.jpg","datePublished":"2014-09-19T07:42:36+00:00","dateModified":"2015-07-06T08:02:14+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/tomislavperko.com\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/9b4bf02a029fe138893d51ae0f02f0a6"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/tomislavperko.com\/en\/1000-days-of-summer-departure\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":[["https:\/\/tomislavperko.com\/en\/1000-days-of-summer-departure\/"]]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/tomislavperko.com\/en\/1000-days-of-summer-departure\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/tomislavperko.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/DEPARTURE-FEATURE.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/tomislavperko.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/DEPARTURE-FEATURE.jpg","width":300,"height":235},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/tomislavperko.com\/en\/1000-days-of-summer-departure\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/tomislavperko.com\/en\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"1000 DANA LJETA &#8211; POLAZAK"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/tomislavperko.com\/en\/#website","url":"https:\/\/tomislavperko.com\/en\/","name":"Tomislav Perko","description":"How to travel the world with almost no money","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/tomislavperko.com\/en\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/tomislavperko.com\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/9b4bf02a029fe138893d51ae0f02f0a6","name":"Tomislav Perko","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1322e790f44dab0fd2f4fa9a0e62adc7451fa013aaef5921f840a26bf4c86bd9?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1322e790f44dab0fd2f4fa9a0e62adc7451fa013aaef5921f840a26bf4c86bd9?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1322e790f44dab0fd2f4fa9a0e62adc7451fa013aaef5921f840a26bf4c86bd9?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Tomislav Perko"},"sameAs":["http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/tomislav.perko","https:\/\/x.com\/tomislavperko"],"url":"https:\/\/tomislavperko.com\/en\/author\/tomislav\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomislavperko.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6996","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomislavperko.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomislavperko.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomislavperko.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomislavperko.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6996"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tomislavperko.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6996\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomislavperko.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7001"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomislavperko.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6996"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomislavperko.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6996"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomislavperko.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6996"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}