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Zenia - Madrid - 2015

1/7/2015

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“I may not be crazy, but I might just be the lunatic you’re looking for…”

With a head half-shaved, a bit of color, three dreadlocks hanging from behind and a braid somewhere in between – Zenia’s haircut seemed as adventurous and fluid as she was. Travelling through Madrid alone only for two days – it took us very little time before we asked her to join us to a concert and into the night with my friends.
What meeting Zenia made me reflect on, is that while travelling, we often forget that somewhere in the world, we are also “locals” to others. So as we all try hard when travelling to mix with locals or at least encounter friends – I wondered in turn: “If I am the local, what makes me open my home to travellers?” And the answers lied somewhere in her quote; I once read that finding friends is like finding the same type of lunatics around. What Zenia shared was her willingness to say yes, no judgement in her eyes, and genuine curiosity for the people she encountered. But most of all, she had an edge. The kind of edge that makes you want to learn more about her, and in return offer a piece of the life you live. Because that is after all the best “local” experience you can give.
My only advice would be then, to be that kind of “lunatic” when you’re on the road – act as freely, curiously, peacefully and non-judgemental as possible – because that aura is bound to make you encounter the friends you want and finally, the kind of experience you’re looking for.
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Jorge - Madrid - 2015

1/7/2015

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“La realidad es tan solo la interpretación que da nuestra mente de lo que percibimos a través de los sentidos”
“Reality is only the interpretation that our mind gives through our senses”


I met Jorge as he was presenting his hypnosis cabaret in Malasaña’s café Volta. What I thought was going to be a hoax blew my mind away that night as I saw how a friend of mine let go of all control on stage. It seemed like an impossible bet, and yet contradicted everything I thought I knew about science.
One woman even went so far as to lose control and finally burst into tears as she revealed a painstackingly intimate detail about her past.
As Jorge shared with me his life journey that started with his work on cruises only then to convert himself to a licenced hypnosist in Spain, he told me hypnosis is what taught him more about reality then any other trip he every did.
Some traveled to feel life more, to get a glimpse of another kind of reality. But really deep down, maybe we didn’t need to travel to find happiness, to see beauty, or to start living life. Maybe what we needed above all, was a better interpretation of what we already had...

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Natalia - Brussels - 2015

1/7/2015

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“For better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, though checkered by failure, than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much, because they live the grey twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat”
 
This one’s for all the single mothers out there – and for all those having their own battles to do…
 
Behind that typical LA smile, those big eyes and long dark hair - Natalia is different than what your first impression might be. Single mom at an age that some people judged as too young, she moved out of LA to little Belgium to raise her son alone. It would have been easy to see her as a victim – easy to think her life revolved only around her child and the possible difficulties of it all. And yet her interests, her hobbies, her will and her positive energy – are all the things that complete this person and her life.
What Natalia has – and that I’ve seen in many travellers – is the spirit to keep pushing through. The spirit to keep hoping – despite the difficulties on the road. Never have I heard her complain, and never have I seen her lose colors for life.
Because life just didn’t stop when she had her son…it only just began.

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Rob - Madrid 2015

1/7/2015

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​“Money is an illusion….The richest men in the world are those who’ve seen it”
 
Rob’s travels started with a one way ticket out of Perth and into the Asian and South American continent 4 years ago until landing later in Madrid. He had volunteered from hostel to hostel and done a series of odd jobs to fund his travels if not his stomach. What I’ve always found impressive about him (and secretly envied), was his way of living day to day with an unconcerned manner. He owned very little clothes and walked around with very little care about it. His foot had tattoo that read “Lucky” – and if anything, Rob made his own luck, in his own way – simple and easy going. He did not owe anything to anyone anymore, and went where roads would lead him - where there would be a roof above his head, or food in his plate – and most of all good people around. Hence, life didn’t own him, but he owned life. 
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Pierre - Madrid - 2015

1/7/2015

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“You do you !” - quote left by Pierre - Who do we travel for? 
We’ve probably read it many times – that travelling helps you “find yourself”. But over the years and places you will travel to, there is probably no worse lie. In life and in travel, the first thing you find out, is that you create yourself – from the old part and into the new parts you become.
Pierre came to our hostel one night with no prior planning. Had travelled through Europe with the idea that if he had always had everything planned for him, now was as good as a time as any to see what it would be like without a plan. Some of his nights have ended up with sleeping in 24h McDonalds to name but an example. But on the path of building up his resilience to stress and a life unplanned, his adaptation skills have only made him stronger and more aware of what he can become and what he probably had in him all along. He was creating himself. For some it can take years to discover this – and for others, who voluntarily put themselves in these positions with travelling for instance – the confrontation with yourself and the realisation that you are alone and have nothing to own to but to yourself – is a great gift to learn. To you but also for those around you.

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Nitzan - Madrid - 2015

1/7/2015

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«Who are you?
-I am afraid I can’t answer that, I’ve changed so many times since this morning you see...»

Nitzan (from Israël) came to Madrid for a trip around Spain. While we were sitting at the rooftop bar of Las Musas Hostel, she was staring into the void with a smile on her face that I couldn't but help ask about. Although the rest of the story I disclose for another post, her quote and the conversation we had has been one of my favourite explaining the many personalities we take on as we travel.
They say travelling helps you find yourself – but I have always been a strong supporter of the idea that life, like travelling, makes you create yourself;
With the geographical distances we take from our homes, we also take mental distances from who we were back there. We start to see that in different settings we also become a different kind of person. Travelling may heighten it, as your context changes brutally from one country to the other. But softer than this, is also the adventure of life itself; the changes we go through as life makes us embark on new journeys of choices, contradictions, highs and lows. That we become a different person because of it, is not only an expectation but an anticipation.

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    "Last words for the Road" by Lauren Klarfeld

    Book-in-the-making : A  collection of hand written quotes left by the people I met on the road (7 years and running)

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