Gerbie on tour 42

[gerbie]

And then it was all over. Back home again, getting used to the Dutch weather, considering what to do next. I've got to find a job, a place to live, basically I've got to decide what I want to do with my life. Somehow a combination of travelling with a regular job would be ideal. A job with plenty of spare time, plenty of variety and enough salary to pay for my travels. If anybody has an idea, please let me know.

This newsletter is a summary of my travels. Some things you might know, some things are just plain factual statistics, and some things are new. The things that happened during 542 days of travelling.

Firstly the travel facts:
542 days
18 countries (though if I include the UK and the Netherlands I get to 20)
30 border crossings
21 flights
63 days driving a car
23 nights sleeping in a car
22 nights travelling, mostly on buses
3 nights spent at airports
18 times I've taken a ferry
17 train journeys (excluding the metro's in several cities and the rail in Sydney used for commuting
5 organised day trips
315 places/villages/cities seen or visited
I have spoken to people from 66 different countries, from Algeria to Zimbabwe


I visited:
19 cinema's (plenty of bad movies and several good ones)
13 concerts (anything from a band in a bar to big concerts in parks)
22 sports events (baseball, basketball, football/soccer, cricket, rugby, Aussie rules football, the Olympics and the Paralympics)


I visited several old friends around the world:
Max, Margreet and Rich, Jose Manuel, Paula, Katty, Monica and Risto, Euclides and Patricia, Allison, Marcela, Marlies and Freerk and finally Erik
Thanx for having me around, showing me something new and spending your time with me

People I travelled with or somehow were important during my journey:
Heidi, Nilande, Jo, Tierry, Kirsten, Red, Jhossi, Quaroline, Jennika, Carmen, Alex, Michael, Helen, Floris, Andy, Jess, Laurie, Melissa, Chris, Marie, Neilian, James, Rob, Patrizia, Mascha, Nina, Karin, Caroline, Scott, Michael, Dorit, Uli, Chris, Vanessa, Andy, Diego, Nadja, Miguel, Joris, Ferry, Kiki, Rene, Jessie, Alison, Hector, Paul, Duc, Patrick, Divinia, Lisbet, Stuart, Carlos, Nathalie, Gabby, Jo, Esperanza, Garreth, Phil, Nadine, Ben, Kirsten, Thomas, Diego, Manuela, Gali, Willem, Holger, Daniela, Chris, Nicky, Henk, Juanita, Claire, Joost, Myriam, Jan, Esther, Anastasia, Shane, Dave, Tanya, Corinna, Kris, Jo, Sabine, Garry, Alex, Anja, Dave, Huw, Paul, Ellen, Laura, Madeleine, Sabine, Dave, Matt, Diana, Lobke, Edward, Richie, Tracey, Kaia, Joe, Joe, Rachel and Eva
Thanx all of you, without you this journey wouldn't have been the same.

I've found out that you can buy Coca Cola in 18 countries in 21 different quantities (bottle or can): 192 ml, 193 ml, 200ml, 237ml, 250ml, 295ml, 300ml, 330ml, 350ml, 354ml, 355ml, 375ml, 390ml, 500ml, 591ml, 600ml, 1l, 1.25l, 1.5l, 2l, 2.25l

The most difficult question is the one what I liked the best. It is impossible to answer, but I'll pre-empt it somehow anyway by naming the highlight for every country I visited.

Iceland: the little fishermen's village of Akranes, where there is virtually nothing to keep someone entertained and where I still had to hang around for nearly 5 hours, in between the only two buses that get there every day

United States of America: difficult choice. Just edging out Savannah, Charlestown and New Orleans is Philadelphia, especially the 'independence' area.

Dominican Republic: travelling from San Pedro to Samana, beautiful area to go through by bus and a little boat taking a few people over a bay.

Haiti: the bus journey from Port au Prince to Cap Haitien. Not a big distance, but a huge journey over extremely bad roads in an old school bus, completely packed and finally giving in on a mountain, which forced us all to continue travelling in the back of a lorry

Mexico: Guanajuato just beating the day I visited both Palenque ruins as the Agua Azul falls

Belize: the former capital Belize City is interesting to spend a couple of days

Guatemala: Tikal ruins in the rain forest just beating the central park in the capital

El Salvador: the Salvadorenos, always happy to talk to you, discussing anything from football to politics.

Honduras: the cities on the Caribbean coast Tela (old train), La Ceiba (peer) and Trujillo (museum)

Nicaragua: the three day journey from Granada to Bluefields, with old buses over dirt roads, and finally a panga (little boat) over a river until the Caribbean sea

Costa Rica: the football match that Liga Alajuense played and nearly cost them the championship. After losing 1-3 and missing a penalty they won 5-3 and were crowned champions a week later. That game had everything that makes football so exciting, basically everything the Champions league misses.

Panama: San Felipe, the old town in Panama City

Venezuela: walking behind Salto Sapo, a huge waterfall. The aeroplane that took me there crashed a couple of months later, killing thirty-odd tourists...

Trinidad and Tobago: driving around Tobago in a day on a little scooter.

Singapore: the different cultures living together in a small area. Within a day you can visit little India, Arab Street and Chinatown, everything by feet obviously

Australia: hands down the Olympic games in Sydney

New Zealand: walking the Tongariro crossing, 17 kilometres in a day, with incredibly much different views

Indonesia: the food, just sitting down at a pavement and get a good and healthy meal for next to nothing

Britain: the bookshop at the airport that made my hand luggage a lot heavier than anticipated. Luckily on the way home I didn't have any time, having to catch my last connection there.

Looking at the number of replica football shirts I counted through the last 11 months, Manchester United is by far the most popular football team on earth. The top of the table:
1. Manchester United (110)
2. Arsenal (34)
3. Juventus (33)
4. AC Milan (32)
5. Liverpool (31)

The most popular national teams:
8. Brazil (24)
10. England (22)
12. Italy (17)
14. Netherlands (13)
16. Argentina (12)

And only two Dutch teams scored some sightings in Australia, Indonesia, New Zealand and Singapore:
18. Ajax (10)
27. PSV (4)

And to conclude I'd like to finish with ten quotes, from the 548 I managed to gather during my journey. They are in random order, none of them are mine, by quoting them here I do not say anything more than that they summed up a person, a situation or a part of my journey, nothing more than just that.
 "You know you're in a small-town when your Greyhound station is in a laundrette."
 "I love your accent. You could get any girl around her by just talking."
 "Park the car? Does that mean we've got to walk all the way to the ruins?"
 "I've been practising Buddhism for ten years now, so I hope you don't mind me making strange noises."
 "Do you know how to read a bus time table?"
 "What do I care about these Aboriginals. I have always dreamt of climbing Ayers rock."
 "In Bologna marijuana is legal at the matches. The players always seemed to be sleeping in the second
half, no wonder if you smelled the air in that stadium after the break."
 "Do you know how to behave in a pancake party?"
 "When you are looking back on the day you retire, you never think 'I wish I had worked that day'."
 "I want to write a novel, I've got the characters, but the story just doesn't come to me."

Keep mailing, especially since I'm at home now and have got plenty of time. Until the next time, the travels might be over, Gerbie on tour will continue just a bit longer than the actual journey.

Gerben

Comments

Re:

[jeroen.livejournal.com]

I personally prefer the Netherlands too, but the lazy part of me prefers Holland..

Re:

[gerbie.livejournal.com]

Well, it's a nice part of the Netherlands anyway. But I do agree, I started of fanatically correcting everyone around the world, as soon as you have to explain in spanish that 'los paises bajos' really is only one country, I fell back on 'Olanda' which is well known around the world. (not for all the right reasons though)