BEAUTIFUL SOULS WHO INSPIRE ME :: VIKTOR WAEWELL

One day I was in Romania, doing groceries in the local supermarket for Transylvania Calling Festival, we were about to arrive to Wonderland, a Festival is the high green mountains of Transylvania, wwooooww!

I was passing thru the wine section in the supermarket when I heard something like "This wine looks good" in portuguese language with a brazilian accent. This is how I met Fabi and Viktor from Brazil. The guys who love festivals as much as I do!

We shared a taxi and went to the festival. Needless to say they join our camping and we spent great and fun moments with this lovely couple who were doing a Round the World trip for a year. Can't wait to see them again, I guess is gonna be sooner than we all thought :)

Thanks a lot Viktor to spend some of your time writting for Shanti Free Bird blog. Obrigada irmão, até jah! 

Travel the world is really something. I would say go if you can. In some cases, go while you can. Of course, it is always easier to start while you are young and full of shit.

My name is Viktor Waewell, I am from Brazil, a place from where few people travel the world. Those that travel, usually are tourists going to Europe or USA, because it is easy, fancy and brings status.

If you are from some developed country, the important thing about being a traveller from a poor one is that it is not by chance people usually travel less. Life is harder and everyone is always trying to improve social position in order to live a better life. And dont mistake it for greed, because life is really harder.

Anyway, we always read stories from travellers telling people to travel, leave everything behind and travel, just do it. I am not saying that it is the only way one can learn, have fun and make friends, but I wouldn't be honest if I didn't state clearly it is the best way I know of.

I have drunk rain water in the desert of India. I have dived in some astonishingly beautiful beach in Thailand. I have walked through mountains covered in ice in Nepal. I felt dizzy in a really tiring bushwalk in New Zealand. I have eaten magic mushrooms in Amsterdan, and then I went to the Van Gogh Museum. I have became trance music myself in so many dancefloors. And all those places full of people, of learning and so much fun. Yet I will always have so many places I still want to go, others I want to go back.

Once me and my girlfriend decided to travel the whole world for almost a year. Of course you have to do it for much more time to cover the "whole world" idea, but the beautiful and inevitable thing about travelling is that you never have to stop doing it.

One thing I would like to state is that I know it is not always easy to travel, specially for those from poor countries. And I also can understand when people say they just like their own places too much. But if you feel like I feel, and like so many people feel, that your place is not enough, then start planning and go.

A lot of people get curious about us travellers on how we do it. Well, first of all, each one do it in its own way. Frankly, we are more often than not very smart folks. But, mainly, it is a matter of focus.

I for myself am not one of those that work while travelling. I just prefer to keep it as a state of vacation, so I work hard in my place and travel the rest of the time, for long periods of time when I can.

I have come to the conclusion that the money issue is usually much more a case of spending less than earning more. One thing I say for sure, most travellers don't earn a lot of money, but every traveller I know of end up learning how to spend only in the things that matter. Once you start in the path of not buying things you don't need, it becomes second nature. And the environment says hello.

I always think about what makes a traveller, this distinct human character that seems to defy all the mundane order of things, that seperates itself from mere tourists, that gets off from the beaten trails, the kind of people that thrives in the cultural differences.

What is home for a traveller? Sometimes you travel so much that when you go back you dont really feel you belong to that place. The most strange thing is when you realise it had never been your true home. There is something different in the world, it seems more reliable when you are on the road.

The planet Earth. Maybe the planet is what a traveller call home. I feel there is some strong emotion within when you realise the Earth itself in its full glory. And that might be what seperates travellers from common folks and their borders.

There are some gigantic monuments in poor cities. A lot of ruins from civilizations that are no more. The big metropolis all around the world and the noise of humans in a hurry. Wonderful people in the countryside, sometimes with no word in common to speak with. You feel cold in a tent, you get warm around a fire. We are all in this massive big round ship, travelling through space. In that sense, the reality of a traveller seems convincing, in some way it seems right. We are together. After 70 thousand generations we are still loving each other, killing each other, caring for animals and plants, decimating animals and plants, in this grand blue spaceship. We are essentially the same, we make big mistakes, but sometimes we have such good intentions.

The garbage, so much of it. Home all around. Citizen of the world, in it's glory and hopes and sadness.

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Text and Photography by Viktor Waewell

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