“Dreams are our only geography—our native land.”―Dejan Stojanovic
The question I get asked the most is: “You travel alone?! “
Indeed I do. I actually set off alone, but rarely end up being alone. Passing encounters become hosts, travel companions and lifelong friends. For all the times in between, social media keeps me connected to those I love back home, who are more of a comfort to me than they will ever know.
However, solo travel can be overwhelming. You must fully rely on yourself, and when that is not possible you fully rely on strangers. You are surrounded by new words, noises, trees, bread, body language, streets, birds, people, smells… which can overload your cognitive senses. I imagine its what toddlers feel like on the daily.
But for the first time, another toddler was set to join me. Let’s call him Chance.
Chance and I had met by… coincidence. Way up in the Canadian North, I was pleasantly surprised when he accepted my invitation to come along. Following remotely at first, Chance received all the ups and downs of the trip weeks before I would publish them online. In this way, we gradually got to know each other before becoming full-time travel partners.
My goal was to get the van ready before he arrived, so that we could burn rubber across the Eurasian continent. Although I had the van, only 2 weeks were left on the license plates. But no matter, Chance was still chancing it. And here I was, picking him up at Thessaloniki airport.
Initial feeling? Relieved. Welcoming Chance was a blessing, because for once I wasn’t planning things without boundaries. As a dreamer, my plans can certainly get out of hand. So while Chance slept off the jet-lag, I began sending applications into refugee camps. I knew with 2 weeks left on the license plates, I only had about 10 days to volunteer in Greece before needing to find a solution. As was expected, no organization had openings for that short-term, even if I were to come back after the van was sorted.
So with circumstances limiting my breadth and Chance focusing my scope, we set our sights on the next frontier: Bulgaria.
