Goodbye Europe

After ten amazing and special months in Europe, we say goodbye. As I write we are bus riding our way to Istanbul, to Turkey, to a place we have called home many years ago. It is surreal to travel to Turkey as vagabonds after so many months of wild camping, hitchhiking and simply living in the present. We will be mostly staying with friends, who have showers and warm homes. Turkey seems tame, mild. Well, especially compared to Albania, but we'll talk about that later.

For now, I want to let you into some reflection of mine. For the last three months, we have put off WWOOFing and volunteer work for a more spontaneous, adventurous way of travel, one where we wake up each morning and ask, want do we want to do today? Where do we want to go? What are the deep desires of our heart that we want to pursue today? Maybe it's learning woodcarving, or fishing. Maybe it's going for a swim. Maybe we have no plan and then suddenly God brings something incredible to bless us and grow us (bad experiences have often turned into the biggest blessing, never judge a mishap until it plays out).

This way of travel has brought about a lot of patience and frustration, but also countless beautiful relationships with fellow travelers and locals. Kindra has mentioned the French couple, Esteban and Zihya, that we have traveled on and off with. They have become some of the closest friends of our trip if not our lives. Our most recent rendezvous in Montenegro with them was the sweetest. Esteban and Zihya, or as we lovingly called them "the Frenchies," found an abandoned bar on the Montenegrin coast to wild camp (it had a covered terrace, great for an approaching rainstorm), and they invited us there (we had taken a detour to the Croatian island of Mljet while they continued onward). It was such a beautiful time of laughter, card games, wine, a bonfire on the beach, deep conversations, impromptu dance party, etc. We wandered the local city together, sharing a kilo of spiced cooked meat (cevapci) while waiting out the rain. A local stray kitten befriended us and became our temporary adopted friend, which we adoringly named Cakuhaut, French for peanut. Cakuhaut was a lover, it simply wanted pets, belly rubbing, and to be with you. He slept in our tents and stole our hearts.

Then came our collective move forward to Albania, a wild and chaotic country that we knew nothing about, but were drawn to visit. Hitchhiking there didn't work, so Esteban negotiated a cheap deal with a taxi and across the border we went. Our driver, a character of a guy from Shkoder, made for an unforgettable ride. When we hit the Montenegro Albania border, he offered the border guard a cigarette (which he took) and got out of the car to chat it up. I was half expecting us to be invited to coffee or have a drink with the guards! More like a social club than a border, it was such a refreshing contrast to every other crossing. We were then led on a whirlwind tour of Shkoder, meeting the taxi driver's girlfriend, acquaintances, fish salesman, and finally ending in coffee. Kindra and I had a quick decision choice to stay in Skhoder or continue to Tirane (the capital) and on to Istanbul; we chose to say goodbye to the Frenchies and move on. We miss them!

We had the craziest bus driver to Tirane, and along the way we gawked at beautiful mountains and donkeys on the main highway. The next morning we left for Istanbul via bus on the shittiest road you could imagine (though with warm people and unbelievable scenery, Albania is at the top of our visit again list). The border to Greece was, as expected, very slow. While our bus waited in line, locals outside sold barbecued meat and newspapers; I went to chat it up in my nonexistent Albanian and hope our superlong overstay of our visa in the EU wouldn't result in a ban or huge fine. But a few hours and one bag search later we had our entry Scotch free into Greece.

Greece turned out to be a beautiful nightmare, our connecting bus to Istanbul was to be overbooked due to Turks on holiday, and since we had a ticket but no seat reservation we were told it would be a three day wait! We tried everythiiiing, other bus companies, even toyed with detouring to Bulgaria, but in the end a cheap hotel was a safe refuge until our stand by departure 24 hours later. The town of our temporary Greek prison, thessaloniki, turned out to be relaxed and social, and I stuffed down four pork gyros during our stay :)

There you have it! Turkey here we come! Il ginc yolculuk geliyor!