I’m back on the train and back on the road again, after a year and a half of living in Siberia. It will take me four days to reach Moscow by train, then another 3 or so weeks to get to Spain the cheapest way possible. I’m going one-way because I don’t do vacations, I travel instead 😉
That means that I’m closing one chapter of my life and beginning a new one.
I did a lot of stuff in the ‘Siberia’ chapter of my life- traveled across Russia four times, met many different people, started a blog and a book, created a TROM and TVP discussion club, became a hiking guide, trekked all over the Baikal region, hitchhiked through Mongolia, lived in a village and biked throughout frozen Lake Baikal, then I learned about cold swimming and ice diving, and about how to face the cold. I feel stronger than ever now, and more excited than ever about my next adventure.
But these four days on the train are important to me. They give me free time to think, to slow down and to reorganize my mind. To take a look back at the past and reflect; and to enjoy the quiet moment.
I won’t talk to anyone on the train. I just sit and think, sip on my tea. Read, write, or just lay in bed for hours at a time, feeling the train rock and watching the taiga pass, thinking back to the past.
I had many precious moments in Siberia. I found mind-blowing ice formations and landscapes that I never imagined existed in Russia. I climbed dozens of mountains and got to see Lake Baikal above and beneath its meter-thick ice crust. I met many new travelers and was visited by several old traveler friends. Actually, more old friends came to visit me in Siberia than anywhere else I’ve lived in the past 12 years.
Thank you to everyone who came all the way out here, you’re a big part of what makes me so confident to travel on, explore the world and continue to live my dream.
I think that a lot of people are afraid to travel like me because they’re afraid to end up alone. ‘How can you come to a new place, make friends, become accepted, form a community, then just leave it all behind? Don’t you get lonely?’
The special reoccurring characters of my life, other long-term travelers and like-minded people that I meet make me understand that I will never be lonely nor will I ever lack community, regardless of whether I live in one place or not. We may be a weird community, with no physical common space or common childhood culture, but we are a community nonetheless.
So no matter how many people come and go in my life, I know that the ones that really matter will always be there- and if I never left in the first place, I would have never met them.
So get out there and live your dream! Don’t let society stop you! :D
Below are some of my favorite photos from the past year and a half 😉
Oh and guess what? I’m STILL living off of the savings I made waitressing on Hawaii two years ago!! I did a few small gigs here and there in the past two years but nothing that made much money at all, so none of these adventures cost much money at all. If you don’t believe me just read my blogs! :P
https://www.bigworldsmallsasha.com/
Much love and aloha 😉
