Notes of walking freak

I was making nebulous plans about how I would go to travel independently around Europe by hitch-hiking and couchsurfing for a long time. I imagined myself walking around unknown cities. But I couldn’t set my feet on the path of travelling.
But once I received a couchrequest from a guy from a small town on the south of Germany. Christoph (for example, his name was Christoph) was an ideal traveler.
He was enthusiastic, possessed by the idea of being «on the road» all the time. I always like people, crazy in this way. We understood each other on a specific level of “madness”.
Finally I realized that the most important thing in everything is just to start… In my case it was to start travelling!
After a difficult night full of doubts, unexplainable fears and pessimism I took the bus from Moscow to Minsk… It was one of the best decisions in my life!
Though I didn’t have the plan of travelling (only foggy notions about possible destinations and a couple of accepted couchrequests), everything happened in such a way I couldn’t even imagine in my wildest dreams.
The best way of exploring cities is just walking, wandering, strolling about the streets…
“Just walk around and enjoy the city and people, especially people!”
(It was the main advice from my instruction of exploring Krakow which was made up by two fans of film «Practical magic» and hitch-hiking competitions)
And you start to peer into people’s faces, enjoy their personalities, freedom and stories.
It is very important to be open, make new friends, talk with people and ask about what you want to know. You should look at everything with fiery eyes. And then people come up to you and wonder:
“Is it your first time in Berlin? Do you know…?”
The journey teaches you to trust, to be kind, grateful and even to take somebody’s care…
“Good morning, Nastya! Your breakfast is in the pan. Bon appétit!”
It’s how the pleasant stories are created. The travelling gives a great opportunity to collect your own bouquet of nice memories, which can make you smile, for example, when you’re going to work.
You shouldn’t’ be afraid of this… magic (you will feel it, I know), which attracts everything you love and it can cause a storm of positive emotions.
It could be street art in Berlin, Lithuanian indie-folk, Hamburg harbour or smell of new-shorn grass and gentle murmur of a brook in Polish village.
Discovery, miracle, amazement are waiting for you everywhere. You forget to blink, you forget to breath.
You live in these moments.