Last year in March, I stopped traveling by land and left my car in Thessaloniki, and turned myself into a backpacker. The plan then was to continue traveling through Central Asia and Eastern Russia, which was going to be the last chapter of the trip, but what happened afterward is an unprecedented time that we’ve all experienced.
One and a half years later, I now stand again in front of my mobile home, surprisingly in great shape. How many nights did I imagine seeing and touching it again, wondering if anything has gone rusty and fallen off! But just by jumping the battery with the employee’s car at the parking lot, it started to breathe again, as if to suggest that nothing has really changed in life.
But as I continue exploring the inside, I found so many spider webs in almost any free space, and worse, it has been dominated by bees. I found a total of 6 beehives in the cracks where doors meet the body of the car. This one indeed caught me by uncomfortable surprise.
The friendly chats and exchange of curiosity with the locals instantly put me back to where I left off years ago. And it was exciting to get used to the old routines – routine maintenance, planning routes, thinking about where to sleep, etc.
My plan is to drive to the Netherlands where I am currently living, while exploring in countries on my way, such as North Macedonia and Serbia. But as it has always been, the details will change.
@Thessaloniki, Greece, September 7, 2021
