While I’ll be gone and backpacking from Lebanon to Egypt, my car will rest in a parking lot in Barcelona. In fact, it started having its vacation from a month ago, when I flew to Korea. Today I dropped by the parking lot to swap some contents in my backpack and to do some car maintenance work. Understandably, I found the battery totally discharged, but my portable jumpstart battery could not start the car either. The battery was not too young anyways, so I started to wonder whether it’s actually dead. I had read that fully discharging a battery can shorten battery life. If that’s the case, where can I buy a good new battery? But I have a flight for Lebanon tomorrow. Can I fix everything today? The free flow of second thoughts are bugging me whenever something happens to the car.
When I decided to try jump-starting again with the shuttle bus of the parking lot, Ivan slowly walked to me. I remembered that he was the guy who had been working on his motorbike around the corner for hours. By looking at my engine room, he understood and brought close his Russian-plated(!) Toyota Truck. I was sure he was another overlander so I had to ask many questions. He drove his truck from Russia to Spain, so that he could travel to Africa with his motorbike from Spain.
At the end, his Toyota Hilux gave a new life to my car and I got a friend to visit outside of Moscow this summer. Recently, some friends asked me how I could meet new people when traveling. I could not think of a simple answer because each case seemed specific. But with all the uncertainties and ‘troubles’ one faces on the road, traveling seems to have the natural power of hooking up people.
with Ivan
@ Aeropark, Barcelona, Spain, January 2, 2019
