• Cruise-camping on the Equator

    Cruise-camping on the Equator

  • Kayak Trip Day 2: Geisingen to Immendingen, Hiking the Donauversinkung

    Kayak Trip Day 2: Geisingen to Immendingen, Hiking the Donauversinkung

  • Kayak Trip Day 38: Gönyű to Komárno

    Kayak Trip Day 38: Gönyű to Komárno

  • NomadCruise Arrival in Santos, Brazil

    NomadCruise Arrival in Santos, Brazil

  • AMA: Did you have any major concerns hitching in Central America, such as Nicaragua?

    AMA: Did you have any major concerns hitching in Central America, such as Nicaragua?

  • Traveling in Malaysia during the Pandemic (Another Heckin

    Traveling in Malaysia during the Pandemic (Another Heckin' Diary)

  • Kayak Trip Day 3: Immendingen to Mühlheim via the Donauversickerung

    Kayak Trip Day 3: Immendingen to Mühlheim via the Donauversickerung

  • Transitioning from Solo to Couple Travel: Bloggers Share Their Experiences

    Transitioning from Solo to Couple Travel: Bloggers Share Their Experiences

  • Ghost Town Glory: Punda del Este, Uruguay

    Ghost Town Glory: Punda del Este, Uruguay

  • Eskişehir, Turkey: Şelale Mesire Yeri Waterfalls and Earthquake!

    Eskişehir, Turkey: Şelale Mesire Yeri Waterfalls and Earthquake!

  • Kayak Trip Day 82: Brăila to Galați – The Last Bridge Across the Danube

    Kayak Trip Day 82: Brăila to Galați – The Last Bridge Across the Danube

  • Myeik→ Bokpyin→ Kawthaung: Hitchhiking Two Consecutive Days in Myanmar

    Myeik→ Bokpyin→ Kawthaung: Hitchhiking Two Consecutive Days in Myanmar

  • Dumped Kitten at Mont Limon + Limon Confit Rescue Story

    Dumped Kitten at Mont Limon + Limon Confit Rescue Story

  • Hitchhiking Bucket List: #2 A Containership

    Hitchhiking Bucket List: #2 A Containership

  • Through the Berm: Mauritania Border Crossing with Western Sahara/Morocco

    Through the Berm: Mauritania Border Crossing with Western Sahara/Morocco

  • I

    I'm Going to Brazil! By Repositioning Cruise

  • A Modern Odyssey: Sailing Theatre Company in Valetta, Malta

    A Modern Odyssey: Sailing Theatre Company in Valetta, Malta

  • Sharjah

    Sharjah's Abandoned Airport—Al Mahatta Museum

  • Experiences of 2015, #1: Albania! All of it!

    Experiences of 2015, #1: Albania! All of it!

  • Accommodation in the Åland Islands: from Eckerö and Kökar to Mariehamn

    Accommodation in the Åland Islands: from Eckerö and Kökar to Mariehamn

‹›

Skip to content
  • About
    • FAQ
  • Trips
  • Regions
    • Central Asia + the ‘Stans’
    • Caucasus + Western Asia
    • Southeast Asia
    • East Asia
    • Europe
    • Africa
    • South America
    • Central America + Caribbean
  • Danube
  • Books
    • Thesis
    • Digital Nomads Guides
    • Under Way: Books in the Making
    • Books I Love
  • Gear
    • Hitchhiking Gear
    • Paddling Gear
    • Digital Nomad Gear
  • Game!
  • Contact
    • Guest Posts
    • Interview Me
    • Collaborations
    • Using My Content
  • Press
    • Interviews
    • Publications
  • Support
  • You
    • Strangers
    • Archive Your Blog

Press

Interviews Mind of a Hitchhiker Devin Bratislava Slovakia pressInterviews Mind of a Hitchhiker Devin Bratislava Slovakia watercolor pressPublications donkey Brava Cabo Verde pressPublications donkey Brava Cabo Verde - Watercolor press

 
1
Share
  1 
Iris // Mind of a Hitchhiker YouTube
Iris // Mind of a Hitchhiker
New travel vlogs! 🧭

Support

Found a useful article or an entertaining story? Consider helping me continue! Donating helps me to keep the adventures rolling and the website running. Details on where the money is going are on my support page.

PayPal

 

Bitcoin

bc1q9a6w08a4gkx4gdvnh7w2vlkfzx4tlwfpfe6jm6
bc1q9a6w08a4gkx4gdvnh7w2vlkfzx4tlwfpfe6jm6
Open in wallet

Support Progress Bar

As of August 2026, I haven’t received any website donations yet. If you find something useful or entertaining, please consider supporting my blog and I’ll thank you here. Details on where the money is going are on my support page.

2026 donation progress bar V1

irisveldwijk
It hurts. (8 August 2026) But I'm doing my own th It hurts. (8 August 2026) But I'm doing my own thing without constant discussion and criticism. There are a lot of things I've learned since the 6th of September 2015. One of them is that a finding a good partner who treats you well doesn't mean a thing. They can absolutely turn around and actively decide to become a piece of shit. Someone who abandons all their principles and goes from being your dream human being to your biggest enemy. Everyone always says "Just find a good [insert gender]". I'd found one who was a much better partner than my other two long-term relationships. Perfect, in a sense. The alignment was insane. Finding a good partner is no guarantee they'll stay good. I don't believe you can fake this for a solid 8.5 years. I've tried to explain it away: midlife crisis, depression, brain injury. Or perhaps plain cruelty. They neglected and then refused to fix things while I kept working. I went from carrying 50% of the relationship to carrying 100% over the course of about 2.5 years. Mentally and physically, I've been set ablaze. Outwardly, I kept pretending everything was fine. I protected their reputation (something you might have noticed I'm done with). That adds to the loneliness. Talk to friends, my loves. Don't stay silent. Love yourself first and foremost. I'm an excellent navigator and even I got fucking lost on this road I chose in life. What a waste of my capacity for love. 📸 in Aguilar de Campoo (Spain) on some hill overlooking the village. I'd just spent the night following my feelings doing whatever I wanted and exploring things in a way I haven't in over a decade. I've gone to Hades and back and it's been a ride. #roughbreakup #abusiverelationship #midlifecrisis #digitalnomad #hitchhiker
The HALO Eclipse Moment of the 2026 total solar ec The HALO Eclipse Moment of the 2026 total solar eclipse in Northern Spain with @total.together . So grateful for the experience and can't wait to do it again #totalsolareclipse #eclipsetotal #solareclipsechasers
Today is my 35th birthday and I have to start all Today is my 35th birthday and I have to start all over again. I don't want to. I am terrified. In the last 11 years, the cool solo hitchhiker "girl" you might have started following back in 2015 has allowed circumstances to strip herself of everything that that made her her. I don't recognize myself. I don't really know who I am anymore. I would like to go back to being that person, but at my big age? Oof, that's rough. I used to post here every day and manage a travel blog many people loved. That has been neglected over the years as I was with someone who I thought was the love of my life. The self-abandonment started gradually. Towards the end, I was doing everything to fix things with someone who was drifting away from me while telling me they loved me and wanted to be with me forever. Grow old and such. I won't grow old with them and I'm uninterested in growing old at all. Growing old sucks. I've missed opportunities because they took care of me. Opportunities that will never come back. I haven't ever had this many regrets before and I'm overwhelmed by them. All I want is to rewind time. Either to the point we never met at all so I wouldn't feel this immense hurt and a gaping hole where my heart used to be. Or rewind to where things started to go wrong. That's the hard part I've been ruminating on for months already. I can't pinpoint it. I've read the literature about healing. I know what steps to take. Feed myself well. Go out every day for at least a walk, maybe some exercise. Get good sleep. Talk to friends. I'm at a fork in the road where the path to self-destruction would just be the easier way to go. I used to be able to do the difficult thing. It's not that I'm incapable of doing the difficult thing of healing; I'm just uninterested. That scares me more than anything. Anyway. I know where the gaping hole where my heart used to be is. It's an unbearable six timezones away. #solofemalehitchhiker #breakuprecovery #happybirthdaytome🎉
Follow on Instagram

Mind of a Hitchhiker Facebook page
Mind of a Hitchhiker Follow me on Facebook

Newsletter Signup

By signing up to my newsletter, you agree to receiving delightful updates from my blog. You can always unsubscribe from my newsletter. If you want to know how I handle your information, find out more in my Privacy Policy (it’s boring).

Popular Posts

    The Seven Emirates of the UAE and Their Borders—An Interactive Map

    Kayaking to Pulau Tikus: a Sacred Island near George Town, Penang

    Madha and Nahwa Exclaves in Oman + UAE—Traveling Through the Donut Hole

    Land Transportation in Cabo Verde: A How-To Guide

    How to Get an Ethiopian SIM Card

Tags

Africa albania argentina Asia austria Bavaria border camping canoe Chile couchsurfing Danube digital nomad Donau europe france freecamping germany greece hiking hitchhiking hospitality hungary iran kayak kayak&work Malaysia malta Mauritius Myanmar nature river romania serbia SIM card slovakia South America Southeast Asia spain The Netherlands travel turkey Ukraine visa Zucchini

Featured in

the plaid zebra three positive hitchhiking stories mind of a hitchhiker

Huffington Post

Matador Network

tanie loty polish mind of a hitchhiker

daily star mind of a hitchhiker

Social

irisveldwijk
It hurts. (8 August 2026) But I'm doing my own th It hurts. (8 August 2026) But I'm doing my own thing without constant discussion and criticism. There are a lot of things I've learned since the 6th of September 2015. One of them is that a finding a good partner who treats you well doesn't mean a thing. They can absolutely turn around and actively decide to become a piece of shit. Someone who abandons all their principles and goes from being your dream human being to your biggest enemy. Everyone always says "Just find a good [insert gender]". I'd found one who was a much better partner than my other two long-term relationships. Perfect, in a sense. The alignment was insane. Finding a good partner is no guarantee they'll stay good. I don't believe you can fake this for a solid 8.5 years. I've tried to explain it away: midlife crisis, depression, brain injury. Or perhaps plain cruelty. They neglected and then refused to fix things while I kept working. I went from carrying 50% of the relationship to carrying 100% over the course of about 2.5 years. Mentally and physically, I've been set ablaze. Outwardly, I kept pretending everything was fine. I protected their reputation (something you might have noticed I'm done with). That adds to the loneliness. Talk to friends, my loves. Don't stay silent. Love yourself first and foremost. I'm an excellent navigator and even I got fucking lost on this road I chose in life. What a waste of my capacity for love. 📸 in Aguilar de Campoo (Spain) on some hill overlooking the village. I'd just spent the night following my feelings doing whatever I wanted and exploring things in a way I haven't in over a decade. I've gone to Hades and back and it's been a ride. #roughbreakup #abusiverelationship #midlifecrisis #digitalnomad #hitchhiker
The HALO Eclipse Moment of the 2026 total solar ec The HALO Eclipse Moment of the 2026 total solar eclipse in Northern Spain with @total.together . So grateful for the experience and can't wait to do it again #totalsolareclipse #eclipsetotal #solareclipsechasers
Today is my 35th birthday and I have to start all Today is my 35th birthday and I have to start all over again. I don't want to. I am terrified. In the last 11 years, the cool solo hitchhiker "girl" you might have started following back in 2015 has allowed circumstances to strip herself of everything that that made her her. I don't recognize myself. I don't really know who I am anymore. I would like to go back to being that person, but at my big age? Oof, that's rough. I used to post here every day and manage a travel blog many people loved. That has been neglected over the years as I was with someone who I thought was the love of my life. The self-abandonment started gradually. Towards the end, I was doing everything to fix things with someone who was drifting away from me while telling me they loved me and wanted to be with me forever. Grow old and such. I won't grow old with them and I'm uninterested in growing old at all. Growing old sucks. I've missed opportunities because they took care of me. Opportunities that will never come back. I haven't ever had this many regrets before and I'm overwhelmed by them. All I want is to rewind time. Either to the point we never met at all so I wouldn't feel this immense hurt and a gaping hole where my heart used to be. Or rewind to where things started to go wrong. That's the hard part I've been ruminating on for months already. I can't pinpoint it. I've read the literature about healing. I know what steps to take. Feed myself well. Go out every day for at least a walk, maybe some exercise. Get good sleep. Talk to friends. I'm at a fork in the road where the path to self-destruction would just be the easier way to go. I used to be able to do the difficult thing. It's not that I'm incapable of doing the difficult thing of healing; I'm just uninterested. That scares me more than anything. Anyway. I know where the gaping hole where my heart used to be is. It's an unbearable six timezones away. #solofemalehitchhiker #breakuprecovery #happybirthdaytome🎉
Follow on Instagram

Mind of a Hitchhiker Facebook page
Mind of a Hitchhiker Follow me on Facebook

Founder of

VisaRun founder webapp

Digital Nomads Guides travel guide book founder

Copyright © 2026 mindofahitchhiker.com - Privacy Policy