Barcelona, 15.05.2019
2.220 days since Eurasia2013 started, 6 years and 1 month to the day, I got back on the road! Below you’ll find links to the posts from the road.
In between chapters in life and work, I used some spare weeks to hit the road. There was no grand plan or project this time, just a lot of pins on a Google map that had accumulated over the past years. My Fernweh, the curiosity to discover unknown places, and wanting to revisit some places with more time, were the driving forces in this journey.
In 2018 I read Paolo Rumiz‘ “Trans Europa Express“, a book that put a lot of pins on my map. It reminded me of the common culture and history of so many countries and peoples between the Rhine and the Urals, the Barents and the Black Seas. From Eurasia2013 I also brought back a great admiration for how the Russians took a lot of European and Slavic heritage far east and deep south, to Central Asia, and brought back influences from there. During the trip several people suggested books to read, that made me visit more places that laid ahead of me. And as I met people on the road, the recommendations kept coming.
I toured in my 2006 Mini, hoping the diesel engine would keep delivering steady performance at any altitude or road and fuel quality. The car wasn’t made for off-road driving, limiting the more adventurous spots to discover by forcing me to stay on the main roads. Also, I could carry just so much stuff with me. When I left Barcelona the car was pretty packed, during the trip I started to reduce weight, shed stuff. In hindsight I could have done without a lot of things.
As I drove through places, I used Wikipedia a lot to get context. I’ve linked in the posts to a lot of Wiki pages, hoping that this gives context to the places I described.
Madrid, 20.05.2020
Reading the posts below a year after the journey, traveling in freedom seems a thing from a remote past, another world. I also noticed that the writing is not always clear, consistent. The posts were written on the road, mostly at night, with short time or my eyes closing at the end of a long day. Take them as what they are: direct impressions from the road. And forgive the lack of polishing and sometimes erratic grammar. Traveling never loses its magic, even if words can’t capture it properly.
News from the road:
The island of priests and prisoners
Searching for Varikino – part one
