October 24, 2009
It’s been over 4 years since I last set foot on the African continent. Last time I was here I did the east coast route from Cape Town to Egypt, this time around it’s down the west coast from Morocco to Cape Town… or I should say, as far as these cars will take us.
I now find myself at a place I never would have guessed I would be, at the edge of the Sahara desert. It’s going to take us 4 to 6 days to drive through the Sahara. No guesthouses or hotels, so we will be camping in the sand.
Driving in Morocco is very similar to India, people, goats, cows, camels, motorcycles, trucks, cars, dogs, cats and pretty much anything else that you can think of, jump out in front of you every other second. At this point I’m glad I haven’t hit anyone, although the site of dead dogs on the side of the road is getting old fast… I have always hated the sight of dead animals.
The cars seem to be holding up, other then a few things that have fallen off, but it was nothing important. It is taking us a lot longer then planned, the roads are packed with slow trucks and sheep crossing the roads that have cut our time in half. The Malaria pills have been messing with my stomach or maybe it’s all the street food we have been eating.
Well I need to go get my hair cut…. here are some photos of Morocco!
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Jimmy under Africa, Photos, Thoughts, Travel Tips, Uncategorized, Updates |
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October 21, 2009
Waiting to the last minute is my middle name, it’s pretty much the way I live my life. This Africa trip is no different, but it feels good to be with people that operate the same way.
After pissing away our 2 week “getting prepared” time, we left Barcelona like a band of gypsies in two piece of crap cars that would be lucky if they made it to the Spanish border. The only useful thing we had in our cars other then our stinky clothes was some cheap tents and sleeping bags that already have busted zippers. For some reason we thought it was a good idea to leave Barcelona at midnight and drive through the night hoping to get the ferry port early in the morning. Unfortunately we under estimated the time it would take to drive through Spain. 18 hours later we limped into Algiers looking like a bunch of beat dogs lacking food, sleep and a shower. It’s for sure the wrong way to start such a crazy trip.
Crossing the border into Morocco was full of adventure and chaos and cost us 3 hours. I think we have now learned how greasing a palm can get you to the front of the line and save hours waiting like retards. So after spending some quality time in sketch-ville we finally made it to the beach where we planned to camp. We pulled into a town called Asilah on a Saturday night, which was full of colorful sketchy dudes standing on the streets. We decided to drive a bit outside of town, which we thought would be safer. We found a dark dusty road that looked like it might lead down towards the beach. It for sure lead to the beach but also lead of right into the arms of 2 crazy looking guys with machine guns. We either drove onto a military test range or some sort of national park. I was just glad we didn’t already pitch the tents and have to repack them. It was now 1am, which was over 24 hours since we left Barcelona. We finally found a quite area on the beach, so we popped the tents and got some much needed rest. I only woke up once during the night wondering where the hell I was, the sounds of the ocean through me off. So I guess you can say that my trip is officially underway. Here are some pictures from the last 2 weeks.
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September 12, 2009
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.
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September 4, 2009
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 3rd 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!
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July 13, 2009
Being in the now is a hard thing to do. Before I would stay 3 or 4 days at a place and I couldn’t wait to leave for the next place. The “now” or the place I currently was, never seemed good enough. The ideas of the future always seemed brighter, always seemed more fun. I feel I have wasted some many good years traveling and some many great places lost because my head was somewhere else. I never really gave the people/place the time they deserved.
It seems now that I have found the key to enjoying it, but with that there comes new challenges. I now find that I don’t want to leave. I am having such a great time in the moment that I wish I could press pause and that the future would just chill out for a second and spare me a few more minutes to just be where I am.
They say some people find themselves while traveling, for me I now almost feel as I have lost myself or maybe I have lost the Jimmy I once thought I knew.
I think we grow up learning/wanting to be different. We build up these walls that say “I’m Irish your Chinese, we are different.” “I am Jewish, you are Muslim.” “I’m fat your skinny” “I’m white your black”. There are thousands of things that you can find that makes you different and that will make you feel like you don’t connect with someone. I try to look at the other side, I try to find the things that aren’t different, the things that make us human. So maybe I have just let go of some of those things that I thought made me who I am and let the wall around me be knocked down.
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