Kayak Trip Day 73: Nikopol to Svishtov – Headwind to Belene Island + Attempted Side Quest
The Sierra Nevada from the Road (Spain)
Kitesurfing South America: 3 Obscure Spots
Kharkiv Cable Car: A Soviet Ride in Primary Colors
Myeik→ Bokpyin→ Kawthaung: Hitchhiking Two Consecutive Days in Myanmar
Kayak Trip Day 7: Dettingen to Neu-Ulm
Kayak Trip Day 25: Linz to Au an der Donau
Yacht Hitchhiking Finale: Arriving in Valletta, Malta from Corfu, Greece
Accommodation in Croatia: Our Stays in Zagreb, Osijek, Erdut, Vukovar, and Ilok
Well Hello, Kyiv?! Uzbekistan to Ukraine (Semi-Live Blog)
A Letter of Advice to Solo Female Hitchhikers
Avakas Gorge Nature Trail: A Popular Canyon Hike near Paphos
71 Reasons to Visit South America in 2017
Hitchhiker's Picnic in Tiranë, Albania
How To Hitch A Ride On An Ocean Passage
Koh Lanta to Hat Yai via the Khao Kop Cave: A Seven-Star Hitch
Hitchhiking Failure of the Year: No Malta to Sicily
Kayak Trip Day 56: Stari Slankamen to Novi Banovci – Sailing Past the Loess Cliffs
Bonzur, Mahébourg?! Traveling from Istanbul to Mauritius (Semi-Live Blog)
AMA: Why do you think people are afraid to live free and trust one another?

Skip to content

About
- FAQ
Trips
Regions
Danube
Books
Gear
Game!
Contact
Press
- Interviews
- Publications
Support
You
- Strangers
- Archive Your Blog

Search for:

caspian sea

caspian sea mazandaran iran persia hitchhiking swimming hijab head scarf

Modest Swimming in the Caspian Sea

23rd October 201417th January 2021 Iris Veldwijk

#CaspianSea! #Mazandaran

Featured in

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 Follow me on Facebook

Founder of

Copyright © 2026 mindofahitchhiker.com - Privacy Policy