Earthquake Memorial in Chanco, Chile

After receiving an invitation from a Spanish blog reader living and working in Chile, I decided to make a little detour from my route southward. I hitchhiked to Maria in Chanco. She’s an architecture student, but currently, she put her studies on hold. That’s because she’s busy reconstructing buildings damaged by the 2010 earthquake. I happened to visit Chanco exactly six years after, also on the 27th of February. The team of artists made a remembrance mural with natural colors found in the earth surrounding the village. Some of the mixes (adobe) contained some straw or hay to make theContinue reading

Experiences of 2015, #2: The Airplane Hitch over Malta

This is part of a series on my travel experiences of 2015, read #1 about Albania too! #2: The Airplane Hitch over Malta In 2015 I hitchhiked my first airplane over the Maltese islands, which was really cool in terms of getting things off my bucket list and having seen Malta from the sea, the land, and the sky. All from people’s hospitality and generosity! What’s really awesome is to go through security, not at the main entrance, but the back, at the private jet parking. I loved hanging out in the hangars with other plane-aficionados who are painting or otherwiseContinue reading

Butterflies + the Bolivian Border from Paraguay

I’ve arrived in Bolivia! Here I was taking a *butterfly break with the backpack, a great shot Jonas took. We were hitchhiking toward the Bolivian border through Paraguay’s Gran Chaco region—a rough diamond. If you tell Google Maps to drive from Asunción to Bolivia, it tells you to drive through Argentina instead. It’s a clear warning of what this road would be like. Truly, this was one of the most difficult roads I’ve ever hitchhiked in terms of traffic, road quality, temperature, and water availability. It took four days! On the bright side, it’s the mating season or something ofContinue reading

A Rainy Day at the Iranian Embassy and Bank in Yerevan, Armenia

It was raining, so I took a sad rainy selfie right outside the Iranian bank (Mellat Bank) in Yerevan. I needed to travel here from the Iranian embassy to drop my €75 worth of money to pay for the visa. This wasn’t straightforward to me at all and felt like such a strange thing to do. Strange because there’s no guarantee that they will give me a visa. It’s a maybe yes, maybe no, and they don’t even owe me an explanation if they refuse my request. No other transaction that I’m willing to engage in works like this. IsContinue reading

Getting Closer to Iran: Hitchhiking Vayk→ Goris→ Kapan (Armenia)

Photo from when I hitchhiked from Vayk (Վայք) to Goris (Գորիս) in Armenia in one ride with a guy named Artur. That’s a good 100 kilometers closer to Iran! After taking a short break in Goris because of the rain, I’m continuing my hitchhiking trip to Kapan (Կապան). I had a nice cup of coffee with Artur at a place called Deluxe Lounge Cafe—a surprisingly fancy place in the center of Goris along the main thoroughfare. Then he left for business in town. From here, it’s very easy to walk 1.5 kilometers out of town to hitchhike south to KapanContinue reading

Ashure with a Kurdish Family in Şanlıurfa, Turkey

A Kurdish family in the city of Şanlıurfa kindly hosted me. The mother prepared this dish called ashure, which I’m not sure if it’s to celebrate or to mourn. I think it’s celebratory food because it’s a wholesome hot porridge that feels fuzzy on these cold days. It’s with fruits and nuts and grains and sugar, which sounds like peak comfort food. Mourning because I was just in Iran on the 2nd and 3rd of November, which is when Shia Muslims mourn the martyrdom of Husayn. It has a very similar name: day of Ashura. I was in Orumiyeh back thenContinue reading

Yerevan: Another Short Visit to Armenia’s Capital City

On my way to Iran, I had to make a stop in Armenia’s capital city Yerevan. This is where I need to pick up my Iranian visa if I filled in every form correctly! It’s going to cost me another €70 or so in fees, but that’s not a problem for today. Today, I’m enjoying late September in Yerevan with this Lithuanian guy. It’s his first time here and he’s also picking up his Iranian visa. I’m 100% he’s going to get it because he’s a lot less chaotic than I am. Just like my first visit to Yerevan, ourContinue reading

The Blue Lagoon from Comino

Ain’t it pretty? I took this photo from the super small island of Comino here in Malta. What you see in the picture is the tiny islet of Cominotto (“little Comino”), which features a cool and fairly scary cave. One can swim the 100 meters across the narrow bit to Cominotto (which I did), but a fair warning for potential currents and jellyfish is needed. On my way to Cominotto, I had no problems. Though on the way back, the currents dragged me away quite a bit. Then at one point I could reach the seafloor with my feet, tookContinue reading

Samaipata and Bolivia’s other “Death Roads”

When hitchhiking through this amazing valley to get to Samaipata, Bolivia, football-sized rocks fell down a cliff. It’s such a strange thing to witness. They barely missed the car in front of ours. My driver told his daughter who was sitting in the roof-window of the car to come down and sit inside between Jonas and me. “We have to do this quick”, he says in Spanish. He slows down the car and waits for the dangerous stretch to clear. This doesn’t worry me at all; I grew up with the assumption that if there’s any danger, other people willContinue reading