Throughout my many years roaming around the globe, I have had the good luck to become acquainted with a multitude of other people doing the same. Out of them all, many fell into the category of the so-called budget travelers.Some possessed a fair amount of savings and would strive to keep their expenses as low as possible to extend their traveling time to the greatest … [Read more...]
The Story of an Albanian Immigrant in Greece
It was sometime midway between sunset and sunrise of a summer new-moon night at a secluded beach somewhere in Greece. Due to the moonās absence, the sky, the earth, and the sea were veiled in deep darkness. Only the dim lights of a cluster of villages across the bay and the countless radiating other worlds of the Milky Way overheads were interrupting the absoluteness of the … [Read more...]
The Dude Who Swallowed 4 Grams of Cocaine Inside the Police Station
The hero of this story, who, for discretionās sake, will be referred to as G, used to be a good friend of mine. By used to be, I donāt want to mean that he at any point stopped to be my friend, but simply that he altogether ceased to be. His passion for drugs drove him to an early grave.G has long been dead, but his legacy lives on in the memories of the lucky … [Read more...]
A Random Girl, a Random Night in Cape Town
...Quite a few hours must have passed since the moment we were clinking the first beer glasses in an Irish pub until the next vivid memory I have: wondering āwhere the hell am I?ā while drifting wasted along a dark narrow street.Only a few blurry images remained in my recollection from the blank interval in between: a Rastafari guitarist playing a Gibson off the … [Read more...]
A Japanese Guy Busking with a Hang while Tripping on Acid
It was that summer I was wandering around Romania on my bicycle. I had spent the past few weeks in deep isolation: pedaling across broad plains or up and down lofty mountains during the day; sequestered in my tent, pitched in some vacant field or deep woods, during the night. That feeling of isolation had become further intensified throughout the last week Iād spent high up on … [Read more...]
A Tanzanian Man Waiting for a European Benefactor
...Another nice chap I got to meet in Dar Es Salaam was Ibrahim. He was one of those tout-hustlers who parasitized the tourists. I, however, as a Greek, ought to have been a sailor and not a tripper. So I wasnāt a prospective client. I had known him since the very day of my arrival. He constantly shuffled around the neighborhood, and I bumped into him all too often.One evening, … [Read more...]
A Zimbabwean Recycling Artist
...There was only that one bloke whose trust I managed to win. Akasinga was a toothless, fifty-year-old man who used to patronize the inn in the evenings. You would never see him mingle with the rest of the throng that frequented the place. He always sat alone in a dark corner of the yard, near the wall. His lit cigarette glowing through the darkness made me aware of his … [Read more...]
A Bedouin in Mount Sinai
...By noontime, as I was climbing down the mountain from the same path and reapproached that little village in the narrow valley, a jovial Bedouin man, standing by his gardenās threshold, invited me to his home. His name was Ramadan. He was one of the 15-20 patres familias who had created this heavenly oasis amid this inhospitable, divine environment.We perched in a … [Read more...]
The blind Doorman of an Ethiopian Inn
ā¦Another man who caused me a particular impression in that place was the afflicted, aged, scrawny, eyeless doorman of the inn. I do not know it positively, but he was probably mute, too. I never heard, not a word, but any sound whatsoever coming out from his oral cavity. At least, he undoubtedly wasnāt deaf withalā¦He would only appear late in the evenings, after the denizens … [Read more...]
The Unarmed Guard of a Ugandan Guesthouse
...Finally, the time had come to get going and head towards new places. The sun had set for some time already. The electricity was back on, and in about half an hour, I needed to be at the station whence my bus was to depart. The station was on the other side of the city, and I had phoned someone to come and pick me up with a motorbike taxi.Then, while I waited outside the … [Read more...]
