Back in Istanbul

// August 13th, 2007 // No Comments » // hitchhiking, travel

A wonderful travel of two weeks through the South of Turkey lies behind me. Together with Vero I have seen a beautiful part of Turkey. It totally surprised us to see such beautiful nature and often great Turkish hospitality.

As we went hitchhiking we met many very nice people who funnily enough at first all thought we were Turkish. Often one of the first cars that passed would stop for us, and the last ride we got was one we didn’t even ask for. They saw us walking, pulled over without hesitation and brought us to our destination 60 kilometers further away from theirs.

Back in Istanbul we stayed in beautiful Ortaköy, a highly diverse neighboorhoud filled with nice cafes and a beautiful view over the Bosphorus.

Hey Stranger

// June 5th, 2007 // No Comments » // hospitality, travel

Have you ever been on your own wondering in a town, a city or countryside? Imagine being lost and somebody comes up to help you out, explaining your route or maybe offering some water, tea or a ride.

Imagine this feeling. You’re lost, insecure, uncertain, maybe stressed out, not knowing if you will find your way again. Unsure maybe if you will have a place to sleep tonight, and just when it gets dark, suddenly a stranger appears and helps you out.

While traveling I depend on the help of these strangers. I hitched over five thousand kilometers, and waited for strangers to pull over and to give me a ride at least eighty times during this trip.

Equally I was also dependent on strangers for a place to sleep. I never stayed at a place where I was a customer, using money to get a bed.

But I still did the accommodation thing the ‘easy way’, through Couchsurfing and other hospitality exchange networks I was able to stay with people who offer their place and hospitality for some days and nights, sometimes for more than a week.

Knowing there are always strangers who can help gives me the feeling of never actually being lost. Knowing how to trust these strangers gives me a lot of confidence: there is always someone out there who will bring you further. In fact, the more ‘independent’ I make myself, with money  and taking up the consumer-role for example, the more fragile I actually may become as I may forget how to trust strangers.

Before this trip I used to think I was more independent if I would be able to take care of myself completely. It would give me confidence not to have to go and ask anyone for anything, but to have all the resources at hand myself: my map, my food, my fuel, my car, my money.

Now I know the world works better the other way. If you know how to make yourself dependent on strangers, while traveling, you have more confidence and your needs are less.

Plus, the feeling when helped by a stranger is something you may remember for a lifetime. I still remember clearly – though ten years ago – how an Irish farmer helped me out as well as two of my buddies while hiking in the South of Ireland and a storm was about to fall over us. He helped us down the hill where later in a hostel we learned a rescue-team was looking for some other people who were lost in those same hills.

Strangers can leave a deep impact on your life. Independent of how small it may be for the one offering help or giving something, for the one in need it leaves a deep positive mark.

And all this reminds me of one good song of a band formerly know as Moondog jr. “Shall I let this good man in?”

Picking Cherries

// May 22nd, 2007 // No Comments » // hospitality, travel

Lying in a tree, picking cherries. How wonderful life can be. One day earlier, in Belgrade, I didn’t even know I was going to be in this place as I was trying to hitch out of Serbia, to Macedonia. But there I was, a day before departure to Istanbul, in a cherrytree in the beautiful and extremely relaxed countryside of Serbia.

Before arriving in Istanbul, I had my last stop close to the city Niš, the third largest city in Serbia. I stayed with a family who hosted me through couchsurfing in a nice and self-build house on one of the hills around the city. Staying here turned out to be one of my more distinctive experiences during my four months of traveling. (more…)

Le Grand Finale

// May 18th, 2007 // No Comments » // travel

Hitchhiking in the middle of the night! Never had I really done it before. Always do I calculate my travel in such a way that I would be sure to arrive at my destination or to have my final ride, within the last hour after sunset, just before it really gets dark. But there I was, some hours before midnight at the Turkish border and 350km still to go for Istanbul…!

Some actually thought I had already made it when I wrote last week I finally arrived in Turkey. Nothing was less true. I still had over a thousand kilometers to go but Wednesday night at 3 a.m I arrived. Le Grand finale you could say. One of my most exciting hitchhiking adventures as I was traveling from Niš in south Serbia to Istanbul, Turkey, through Bulgaria.

I was given rides by smoglers, salesmen, truckdrivers and refugees. It took me over 12 hours to drive 750km. A relatively good day with 60 kilometers an hour as half of my road were no highways, and half of trip was done with slow trucks. I crossed two borders in one trip, both by foot. (more…)

Finally Turkey

// May 11th, 2007 // No Comments » // travel

Turkey, finally I made it! The border of the Ottoman empire used to be here in the capital of Serbia, Belgrade. Although almost three hundred years ago for the last time, those in total five-hundreds years left a great influence without a doubt.

It had already started in Slovenia, with only two types of coffee: Turkish coffee and ‘other coffee’. But here in Serbia there is a lot more. The typical dishes are Turkish, many people look Turkish even, and the chaos in Belgrade makes it a little brother of Istanbul. The language is different but they share one thing: I don’t understand a single word.. (more…)

Traveling as a Profession

// May 3rd, 2007 // 5 Comments » // travel

Traveling is biting the dust. You are not living the luxury tourist life but you live low-budget, maybe work while travel, be a bohemian, a troubadour, a busker sometimes, or a person who just finds a regular job at the temporary permanent location.

Traveling is not the same as being on holidays. The people I know who consider themselves travelers don’t have a home, work while they travel and are always busy with all kinds of things. I also consider traveling as a profession, a daily occupation, with some breakes in between.

Generally people on holidays stay at place A and maybe circle around it. But what is traveling? People on holidays do they also travel? When they are ‘traveling’ to their location or when they circle around their location?

Traveling as a profession means you are making it part of your life; it is your life. You are no longer a tourist leaving its fixed location to visit and consume another location, or someone with a regular job and place.

Traveling is also like school. You learn a lot. You know what it is to be dependent on others, you exchange skills and happiness. You are not just consuming a town, a city or a country, but many times also bringing something back into the communities you visit. Well, at least you try.

Traveling is a profession, a daily occupation, as you organise your life between life, work, pleasure, planning, traveling and relaxing. So my main question is whether I am on holidays, and I think not. I do touristic stuff, but I also work: I plan, I organize, I travel. Hitchhiking can be quite an exhausting activity too as it requires quite a lot of energy most of the times. And never to be able to really go ‘home’ is sometimes just another.

Social-Cultural Shock

// May 1st, 2007 // No Comments » // travel

Fifty-six cents was the fee at the border with Croatia but no change was given. “Welcome to the Balkan”, said my Slovenian driver as a response.  He had picked me up from a gas-station ten minutes before and was used to the toll-worker not giving him back the change. My driver is a pizza-maker who “knows people here very well” and whose only interest in me is the price of drugs in Amsterdam and Barcelona.

So I finally made it to the Balkan. Slovenia was already a beginning but now I really have the feeling I arrived in a country where culture seems to be very different to what I am used to. People look different, they talk different, interact different, and so on. After a tough hitchhiking day, this was quite something I had to get used to. (more…)

Finally the Balkans, right?

// April 27th, 2007 // No Comments » // travel

So I managed to arrive in the Slovenian Capital Ljubljana in just less then four hours. I thought that would be it: I finally arrived in the Balkans. But there is some confusion about this. One person told me it is not really part of the region, but rather Central Europe, and yet another tells me it is. It is clear for me anyhow this country has a bit of everything, it seems to me a nice mixture of Austrian Folklore, Italian style and Balkan Temperament. But one thing is for sure, I arrived in a real hitchhikers-country.

It took me only two cars, after my Graz host dropped me at a rest-area on the highway close to the border, 250 km away from Ljubljana. Whereas the first driver, an Austrian, asked me to hold his beer at the border, the second was a hitchhiker himself. (more…)

To Beer in Graz

// April 23rd, 2007 // No Comments » // Observations, travel

- There are only two countries with good beer: Belgium and France.
- France, really?
- Yes, you can find Belgium beer everywhere in France.

It could be because I hadn’t been drinking beer for a while but I believe Austrian beer can be excellent too. The beer I was served yesterday, organically and locally brewed, tasted like a goddess for the tongue.

Good beer doesn’t come from a country. It can be found everywhere where small and independent breweries are based. But that truth would kill my jokes. What you do want to hear is that Austrian beer tastes so bad you can only find it in Austria, because that’s what makes you laugh.

Austria. I love it for its diversity. Salzburg was nice but the people grumpy. They look depressed and seemed to be only friendly in a forced formal manner.

I was afraid that the whole of Austria would be as grumpy. But now I arrived in Graz, I see a nice, free and open culture. Parks are full, people talk to strangers and share fun and joy with each other.

I arrived here Saturday hitching from Salzburg. My route went through thirty tunnels, several lakes and white mountains. I will leave the story for another day but it involves a sexy law-student, a communication advisor for a famous politician and a chemical guy.

Traveling is a Virus

// April 17th, 2007 // No Comments » // hitchhiking, travel

To walk along a river that is leaving the city you are about to enter, is an amazing way to arrive somewhere. Not to arrive in a city by train, plane or car, but by walking, by taking all the time you have, by letting all impressions slowly approach you.

From the greens of the riverside, slowly into the civilization of the city-life. There couldn’t be a better way to arrive in Salzburg, I realised while I could see how nature was slowly being submerged. (more…)