A Belated Introduction

Seems like I’ve gotten ahead of myself, as is often the case with my writing. I always feel like I lack the patience and often the time to explain my thoughts clearly, so please forgive me dear friends. At the moment I’m in Kadikoy, a southern neighborhood of Istanbul and I’ve crossed my first 40 km, but I’ll get back to that later. Before continuing to describe my slow yet tenacious journey I feel like I should explain its background. During an interview I gave yesterday for a Croatian radio station in Australia (thanks to my wonderful friend and supporter Kristina Kukolja) I was faced with a lot of questions I myself wasn’t sure I had the answers to, such as why I decided to join my friend Tim in his walk across Asia or how far I planned on going.
I met Tim (fondly dubbed Depardue) almost three years ago in Zagreb, accidentally some might say while others know better. Tim had walked to Croatia from Spain and was detained in Zagreb due to the reason most men’s plans go astray – a woman. After hanging out with him one evening we hit it off and he moved into my apartment the very next day. We remained roommates for a few months before he took a pause from his walking project and returned shortly to Paris, the city of his origin. A few months later I found myself taking a train from Bruxelles to Paris (again by “chance”) and attempting to talk him into accompanying a German friend of mine and I to a wedding in Bosnia and Herzegovina. In short Tim ended up in Zagreb again and set off towards Istanbul, continuing his walk. Our friendship had grown in the meanwhile and his journey fascinated me. I kept track of him as he walked and visited him in Belgrade and finally Istanbul. A year and a half had elapsed since and his journey grew even more interesting to me.
I myself have always had the travelling bug – leaving my homeland, America, for my father’s homeland, Bosnia and Herzegovina, at the early age of 15, later living in Germany and returning to the States for a two year period. The last four years of my life were spent in Croatia’s capital Zagreb where I tried to plant my roots. Don’t get me wrong, Zagreb is a beautiful city and its inhabitants are even more beautiful but the urge to go was still keeping me awake at night and adding to my restless nature. After a failed business venture and the unfortunate illness of my close friend Dalibor, I found myself at a crossroad in my life. On one hand I could try and live a normal life and struggle to find pleasure in life’s little routines or I could take the unknown path again – one of adventure yet of hardships only those who make this decision can understand. I was in constant contact with Tim, a rare friend who shares the restlessness in me, and I knew he was planning on continuing his walking trip – this time he was headed for Shanghai, China. After weeks of uncertainty and an eye-opening trip to Berlin (again, another story for another time), I decided to join him. So, here I am facing the unknown and pushing my restlessness to its utter limits. Fueled by my insatiable curiosity and desire to discover my own capabilities, I am heading east – how far, I cannot say, but I am enjoying myself, one slow step at a time!