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Time

In the past it has always been easy to find time to write about my crazy travel adventures, but lately time is something that I don’t seem to have enough of. Maybe I’m just lazy, but whatever it is I apologize for the delay.

Where did I leave off…. Hmm

After finding a good home for my Fiat, I boarded a bus bound for Ukraine. Hardly any foreigners visit Ukraine, so I thought I would check it out. Crossing the border into Ukraine I felt like I was in the movie Borat. It was not exactly what I expected but once I got to the city of Lviv things became “normal” again. Lviv is a beautiful little city filled with (you can quote me on this one) “The most beautiful women in the world!”

I was only able to stay in Lviv for 4 days since I had a party to attend in Turkey, but the 4 days were great… goodnight life, great food and really friendly locals! Ukraine gets added to the list of countries I need to revisit, and do the right way.

My first stop in Turkey was a city called Antalya which is on the Mediterranean. Antalya turned out to be the one things I hate the most, a all inclusive package holiday hell hole! These type places make me want to burn my passport and never leave home! So after spending 3 grueling days and not to mention during Ramadan (which means no drinking, no partying, pretty much nothing fun holiday) I left Antalya for a place called Cappadocia. Only positive thing from the stay in Antalya was meeting the crazy freaks that worked at the hotel and getting a suntan.

Cappadocia is in the center of Turkey and a place where people built homes into the cliffs “an ancient region of central Asia Minor, between Lake Tuz and the Euphrates River, north of Cilicia. It was an important center of early Christianity.” Got that from the dictionary. It reminded me of Petra in Jordan. Cappadocia was absolutely stunning, I place I highly recommend if anyone goes to Turkey.

I am now visiting friends in the capitol city Ankara, which is a big city, filled with great Turkish food. I have fallen in love with the Turkish dish “iskender” its pretty much donor meat with bread and some sort of sauce and yogurt

Next stop is Istanbul to see the dentist and some friends, then Spain to start the next big journey. Here are some pictures from Ukraine and Turkey.

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Goodbye Poland!

I find the word “Goodbye” coming out of my mouth a lot lately. As quickly as I meet new people or start to fall in love with a city or a woman, that word “Goodbye” keeps slipping out of my mouth.

I came to Poland not knowing what to expect. I am %50 polish, but I have no idea who my grandparents were or where in Poland they came from, but I still felt the need to find out for myself and see where my roots are. I can’t say I have learned anything about my past, but I have found another place in the world that feels like home, a place where my roots have taken hold and a place that will for sure be a part of my future! I will take away a lot of things I have learned here in Poland, but yet I feel like I am leaving a part of me behind… and not to mention I am leaving behind my trusty baby blue Fiat ;-(

I am finding it really difficult to say goodbye to my car that I paid $100 for and drove 4500 kilometers over the last 2 months through 8 different countries. I think the reason I am having such a hard time letting go of the car, is the fact that it’s the only real thing I own in this crazy world. Everything I consider “Jimmy’s” is in my bag on my back. I try not to get attached to things because of this every reason, it makes saying goodbye soo much harder.

So for now with a sad look on my face I say Goodbye Poland and with a fake smile… Hello Ukraine! But before I get to comfortable in Ukraine I will have to say Goodbye again and leave for Turkey. I believe that there’s no such thing as a final goodbye, I feel that we will always see each other again. If it’s meant to be, it will happen!

Posted by Jimmy under Europe, Thoughts, Uncategorized, Updates | Comments (1)

Finding the balance

It’s true when they say “Everything in Moderation.” I am finding myself running out of time and out of gas!

Over the last 3 months I have been traveling too much, drinking too much, taking too many pictures, meeting too many people, seeing too many new cites, trying to figure out too many different currencies and just plain old doing too much! It’s all about finding the balance.

There was a study done on long-term travelers, and they found out that most people hit a wall and get burned out after 3 months of traveling. It sounds crazy for people sitting at work to hear a story of someone having too much fun and traveling too much. But like everything in life you need to travel in moderation, just like not working too much or not eating too much.

I am back in Poland now after an amazing trip to Russia. I went to Russia not really expecting to like it, but I now have another country to add to the list of places I need to go back to very soon. I flew from Moscow back to Latvia to meet up with my friend and pick up my car. We drove from Latvia down to Lithuania for the night, then on to Warsaw Poland for a few days to visit some friends. We are now back in Krakow Poland where the Fiat road trip started, and it now looks like this is where it’s going to end. I find myself running out of time. The weather is getting colder as we head into fall/winter and it’s time for me to get back to work so to speak. In October I am setting out for a road trip from Spain to South Africa for 8 eight weeks to research a road race my company is putting on (more on that in a minute).

So for my last few weeks in Europe, my friend Conor and I are going to head to Ukraine for a week and then fly down to Turkey to meet another friend of ours who’s having a big party at his beach house in southern Turkey. I will spend a week or so checking out Turkey and eating on the Kebabs I can fit in my mouth.

From there I will fly to Barcelona to meet up with my business partner and get ready for the road trip. We are doing a pre race test drive to research and set up stuff along the way for our race the World Cup Trek. Check out the sites for more info on what its all about. www.nomadicnation.org

Here are some pictures from Moscow.

Posted by Jimmy under Africa, Photos, Uncategorized, Updates | Comments (0)

Update from RUSSIA!

It’s been a while since I have wrote anything, actually for that matter this whole trip I have been pretty silent. I guess I’m not sure if that’s because I’m finally just enjoy the moment, and can’t seem to find time to write down all the things that are going on, or maybe because I sometimes I feel no one actually reads this crap!

Ok well I will do my best to catch you up on what’s been going on.

After spending my birthday in Riga Latvia I went north to Tallinn Estonia for a few days. Estonia was my 3^rd and final Baltic country to visit. Tallinn is a lovely little city, although the weather seemed to have turned for the worse. It was still august but yet it felt like the dead of winter on my thin Californian skin. I ended up meeting up with my friend Paul that I met 2 years ago in Japan. Unfortunately for me the cold weather proved to be too much for me, so found myself sick with a cold (one that I’m still trying to kick).

I didn’t really do much other then go out at night and stay in during the day when it was cold and pissing down outside. My plan was to go to Finland but I didn’t have enough time due to my Russian visa dates, so I will leave Finland for another trip.

I took the 6 hour night bus from Tallinn to St. Petersburg RUSSIA! The bus trip was pretty easy other then it was filled with drunk Russians! The only major highlight was that I got yelled at by the Russian military guys for trying to go pee during the boarded crossing.

Before I came to Russia I wasn’t sure how I was going to like it. I grew up during the cold war, it always seemed to be Russia vs USA. To me Russia was this big country that was very mysterious, filled with tall women. I’m not sure my opinion has changed that much, other then there are very cute short girls here too. It’s been said Russians are cold people, hard to get to know and hard to read. That is a little bit true but if you take the time to break away some of the ice they are very warm and friendly people. The 2 things they seem to love the most are Cigarettes and Vodka. I feel like I have been smoking 5 packs a day. When walking in the streets its hard to find fresh air. I tend to hold my breath and wait for the clear patch of air. The clubs and bars here are so full of smoke its hard to see. When I went into my first bar I said to my Russian friend “Do they have a smoke machine on?”… nope that’s just good old cigarette smoke. Despite the smoke and the vodka that can power the fiat, this place is awesome! I am now kicking myself for not giving myself more time.

I leave for Moscow on Saturday for only 1 night, then its back to Latvia to pick up the Fiat and my Irish Leprechaun, after that it’s the open road… who knows where, but for sure a stop back in Poland!

Here are some pictures from Estonia.

And here are the ones from St. Petersburg, Russia!

Posted by Jimmy under Europe, Photos, Russia, Thoughts, Uncategorized, Updates | Comments (2)