Trip 2015-16. Day 365. One whole year on the road...

I draw with a charcoal, play my jaw harp, write poems, read and walk along the fields with cows and sheep. TWO YEARS AGO when I left my computer programming job I couldn’t even dream of such luxury. During this time I wandered around abandoned villages in Cyprus, said hello to wild donkeys in Karpas peninsula, got to a Phoenician island with no phoenicians, tasted the best olive oil in Sicily, enjoyed Frida Kahlo art in Rome, explored a huge abandoned factory in Greece, showed my face on security cameras of all the synagogues in Istanbul, tasted an Armenian lavash just from the oven, got robbed and got my money back in Georgia, saw all Armenian monasteries from the Parajanov’s movie, got into every derelict cottage in Ireland, got my unemployment benefits in Israel, survived Ramadan in Kurdistan, sneaked into an abandoned amusement park in Berlin, visited Basque Country (neither Spain, nor France), learned basic Spanish, got lost in the Love Valley in Cappadocia, hitchhiked around Caucasus, amazed myself at ancient Armenia in Turkey, got to Asia for the first time, learned how to do thai massage, managed a visa-run without running to Laos, survived trucks-hitchhiking around Myanmar, worked as a foot masseur at a night market in Thailand, taught English to the Burmese children, ate an Irish stew on St Patrick’s day, etc... But again traveling is not about places or even experiences! It’s about people! Those who stayed with me in Chiang Mai, those who hosted me in all the countries I’ve been to and those who gave me a lift. Those who talked to me, played music with me, smiled at me, shared road moments with me; those who practiced massage with me, brought food for me, cooked with me. I still think that couchsurfing (as an idea) is the best invention ever and hitchhiking is the best “way of transportation”.