Tag Archives: resting
my first friend Huihui and the Sea
I met Huihui on the fourth day of my walk, about eighty kilometers from Beijing. I was very shy and insecure about my project at that time, and I didn’t know what to expect from people. So when this stranger on his bicycle showed up next to me and started asking me questions (where are […]
Bye Bobona
Today Bobo was extra nice. He sat on my shoulder while I was making breakfast, then he came to sit on my lap, purring until he fell asleep. Meanwhile, his siblings and his mom had gone outside and found a place on top of one of the neighboring roofs. When I finally went out and […]
stranded in Georgia during Covid19
Funny how I have randomly ended up in a country that seems to be handling Covid19 pretty well, at least so far. Today’s stats for Georgia are: 721 total cases out of which 485 have recovered and 12 have died. Why the success? I think it comes down to luck and vigilance. Luck, because Georgia […]
wanna be a slave?
The Chinese language has a slang word called 猫奴 (maonu) – it means “cat slave”, and if your arms, hands, and legs look like this, then maybe you’re one of us: Each drip of blood a decoration. It’s been two months that Coco, Toto, and Bobo dropped from the sky and into my life. Since […]
until then
I’m staying in Batumi, in an old apartment that has been turned into a hostel. The walls are almost twice as high as a person, and they are covered in wood panels. I mostly stay put on a couch, reading, having trail mix and tea, playing Mario Kart, listening to the sound of heavy rainfall […]
riding the bus is harder than walking
Everything happens so quickly. The bus door opens and closes, the engines start humming, then a stream of familiar places rushes by outside of the window. Sometimes I think of a person whom I’ve met here or there, or of a cat or a dog. Every time we go through a tunnel I find myself […]
forty million and two dreams
I wake up late, and when I do, I remember my dreams. There were two. The first was about me arriving at my home on my final day of walking. There was a sense of relief that I had made it, but there was also a sense of panic that I had forgotten something. The […]
there comes a lion
I spend my day doing something I dread: I plan things. I plan Georgia, Germany, Christmas, New Year’s, storage facilities, train tickets, plane rides, doctor’s appointments, etc. etc. In the evening, when my head is about to explode, I have dinner topped off with sütlac, then I get on a minibus to Atakum. A friend […]
rewind
My visa-free stay in Turkey is coming to an end, and so I need to get out of here for a few months. The Caboose is staying in a friend’s garage, I’m boarding a bus back south to Samsun. Looking out of the bus window feels like rewinding a video-tape and watching the story unfold […]
lovers’ names on walls of suffering
Sinop, they say, is famous for being Turkey’s happiest city. Why are people so happy here? Maybe because Sinop is located quite beautifully on a peninsula in the Black Sea. Maybe because the climate is less rainy than in the eastern parts of the coast. Maybe because there are literally no traffic lights in all […]
I HAVE THE POWER
Gerze, someone has told me, used to be a very beautiful town. That was until it burned down a few decades ago. It was subsequently rebuilt, and now almost all of it looks newish and rather uninspired. After taking a little walk down to the harbor, I concur. Gerze has an awesome geographic location, and […]
obese street dogs
Yakakent feels like Gonio. Okay, there is a mosque here and there are a few tea houses, and it’s generally a lot more tame than in Georgia, but the kind of touristy beach-town atmosphere Yakakent has is a bit similar to that of Gonio. This is Yakakent, the relaxed beach-town. I’m here during the off-season, […]
destroyed
I go outside looking for some mobile data for my phone and a bottle of lens cleaner for my cameras. I get 14 GB of data, and when I ask an optician for cleaning fluid he gives it to me for free. Then I stand around for a while. I like doing that, just standing […]
the twelfth day
Twelve years ago on this day I started my walk. It was the first day, it was also my birthday. I walked for a year, then I stopped. I started writing books. Walked some more. Wrote some more. Time passed. Then I started walking again. Last year, on the eleventh day, I was in Tbilisi. […]
no one sings like you anymore
Last night the skies opened, and they have been releasing torrential rains all day. I’m not surprised. The Black Sea coast is known to be rainy, especially during this time of the year. I’m just glad I’m not out there, walking. There are a bunch of hotels here near the beach, and I guess the […]
a virgin
In Persembe, there is a square with an Atatürk statue next to an old cannon. It looks as if the founder of the Republic is preparing to launch a cannonball at someone. Probably someone who is trying to mix politics with religion, I assume. When I walk over to the waterfront, I arrive at a […]
the horde
Ordu is nice. Its shopping streets are clean and busy (though I don’t see that many people carrying actual shopping bags), and there is the Atik Ibrahim Pasa mosque from the late 18th century, where old men sit around talking to each other (though the mosque itself looks rather new). Meanwhile, I’m thinking about a […]
Olives
There is a church here in Giresun. It’s located right next to the ögretmenevi, and I look at it sometimes when I walk by. Only after a few days I realize that I never hear its bells ring, and it takes even longer to find out that it was converted into a children’s library in […]
what ruins ruins
Before I even get to Giresun Castle, I see a sign that tells me it dates back to ancient times. Roman times. Greek times. Those times are gone. Giresun, just like Trabzon, might have had proud fortifications once. But today they lay in ruins. A few walls and an old well are all that’s left. […]
rock hard
It’s been exactly one month since I entered Turkey. I have two more left until I’ll have to leave the country for a while, and I wonder how far I will have come by then. But first I need to get a pair of new trail runners. Back when I started my walk in 2007, […]