THE Voyage

Well people, I have decided to enter a competition. Not just any competition, but a real one, for bloggers. As a challenge. Just to see where this “new entry” blogger journey takes me.

It is a contest set up by a Romanian established blogger Cristian China a.k.a. Chinezu’ (who’s actually making money out of it after 6 years of blogging) inspired by Heineken’s campaign called “The Voyage, Legendary Travelers wanted.”

The stake of Heineken’s campaign? “A legendary, innovative, progressive journey” with a spe(a)cial price: a SPACE TRAINING (or Training for Space to be more exact). “The challenge set for bloggers aims to reach those on the look for once-in-a-lifetime, unique, extraordinary experiences.”

I thought it only referred to their other prize, namely to teach you how to find your way in this within reach environment. And given that I find looking at an A to Z driver’s map (or any other map for that reason) a challenge, I initially said to myself why not, count me in!

But to be honest the Heineken campaign sounds too ambitious for my adventurous (not) self. One of the requirements is “ bloggers to post on their blog and Facebook page at least one article on the most adventurous journey they have ever taken in the spirit of Dropped episodes” (where ordinary people are dropped in totally remote and unknown places and left to handle things by themselves, as per funniest episode so far http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WA6tMFQuON8).

Therefore, considering that neither have I eaten anything more adventurous apart from my personal diaper production (as a baby being brought up in the country side by grandparents who left me in my cot as had to work the land) nor have I set foot in my dreamed of Australia, I don’t feel I fit the profile.
Plus, the winner gets the NASA space training, but is not sent to the Moon afterwards, not even close to the edges of the Earth for that matter.

So I said to myself that I fit better with the “earthly” profile of Mr. CC with a catch as he is currently looking for a blogging partner. And he accepts that we write about “the importance of an initiating journey that one must do at least once in a lifetime. It may be geographical or spiritual, just let the world know why you think it’s a massive learning experience that in the end changes you for the better.”

And since in my case the spiritual journey went parallel with a geographical one, especially when I was solo, I must describe them together, right?

My first (not the only one, ok) “adventurous” journey ever was when I first emigrated, of course. From Slatina, Olt, Romania (my birthplace in the South) to Sibiu, Transylvania, Romania (200kms up North from where I was born). 19 years old I was. During those hard times Oltenians (as nicely referred to by the Seebee-ans=people of Sibiu) as we nicely call them when they don’t call us “leekonians” for eating too much leek when we don’t sell it to them at high prices) were only allowed to enter Sibiu with highly skilled immigrant visa and resident’s stamp on the passport. Now that I am profanely married to one of these guys, I have been granted full rights of citizenship!

Sad thing not having had any fun in highschool due to living with Mrs Elena Ceausescu (yes, the dictator’s wife) under the same roof. But, man, the vida loca I lived during my first two years of Uni (that long it took me to deal with my frustrations) totally made up for the lost time: one could only find me clubbing, bailando, billiards giocando, cigarettes and alcohol consumando, my exams fail-ando, you know, young and restless home get-aways.

[caption id="attachment_165" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Sibiu, 2002-ish. I had no care in the world, I was wearing Mickey Mouse T-shirts, flared jeans, wild red dye on my head, man, I was living the life![/caption]

Alongside with this, however, I was slowly learning to handle life myself. Mrs Ceausescu was no longer cleaning after me all the time with reasons such “you go learn, if not you will end up washing toilets in my school”. She was no longer cooking for me or leaving food on the table to be eaten at exact hours of the day. Managing things by myself I finally learned how to start depending on myself, too! This phase taught me to find resources to move forward within me, without immediately running to ask for help or living in a state of laziness knowing that someone else would have my back covered every time. Therefore new connexions started to interact in my brain, neurons from previously unexplored areas started to burn.

So I rolled my heart up in my sleeve and with an exulting positive energy within I emigrated to the UK at 24 years of age. On a visa again. Alone again. And I believe that the first two years of immigration in the U.K. (2004-2006) when I was alone made me grow stronger and become iron made a la Mrs Thatcher. As Anjelina Jolie’s clicheic tattoo wisely quotes: “what does not kill me, makes me stronger.”

[caption id="attachment_166" align="aligncenter" width="225"] London, 2004, With that very entrance ticket I visited the Houses of Parliament and I was ever so proud to be in the building whose pics of I had only seen in my English handbooks as I felt like having reinvented the wheel![/caption]

I survived my first plane flight (I being one of those people who close their eyes at take off, stick their nails in the seat handles, do praying crosses with their tongues in the mouth thinking “Dear God, what have these people invented!”, convinced that one enters a plane like the miners in a mine not knowing if they’d ever come out). I also survived home-sickness, too, (honest to God I cried my eyes out for 6 months every night because of the “dor” for home, yes, “dor” that unique Romanian word possibly originated from “durere”=pain to indicate one’s missing one/something ‘till it hurts). I survived bronchitis, asthma, the changing of 5 different U.K. families (I was an au-pair looking after children) for not having put up with being treated as some sort of inferior member of the society and even being thrown out in the street with all my earthly belongings with no money in my pocket or in the bank.

Ok, I may have not floated lost in a boat along the Thames somewhere, but I did hit the streets of London getting lost on purpose with no clear destination set in mind. And I attended English lessons taught by native English speaking teachers joining students from all over this big world. I got a feel of how it was like to boil in the “multicultural meting pot of London” and I then finally learned how to speak English fluently. And in order to find a job (to secure the “bear” necessities such as a roof over the top of my head and food on the table) I always adapted to the job market requirements and did many jobs to the best of my capacity, cleaning included. Yes, even in 8 bedroom, 5 bathroom, pool house, dog house, flea house, au-pair house houses.

I was now earning freedom and independence at the school of life. I bought my first rattletrap car ever and having had food and accommodation paid for there was lot of pocket money for me to spend on leisure and entertainment. I met and befriended people from all over the world. Some of them are friends for life even to this day even if they live to the other side of the world. I experienced living alongside different cultures with different food, different life styles.

With the travelling bug in me I then started seeing more of the world: either backpacking in Italy in 2005 (I irremediably fell in love with Italy and decided that between Rome, Venice, Pisa and Florence the latter will be in my heart the first) or boating in Thassos in 2007 or train-ing the “underwater” train to Paris in 2008 or car-ing in Zakynthos in 2010 as follows:

ITALY, 2005

 Thassos island, Greece, 2007

[caption id="attachment_175" align="aligncenter" width="300"] what did I tell you about the map? Especially the Greek language map. Yes, that language that made me miss the exit on the motorway while I was trying to read EXODOS on the marking[/caption]

Paris, 2008

[caption id="attachment_176" align="aligncenter" width="225"] train station in Paris looking at the same old map. To be honest I think I could indeed safely register for Heineken’s competition as I really am Dropped! Well, not as dropped as my mother in law who duly provided my father in law – lost in Bulgaria – with a map of Romanian Apuseni Mountains instead...[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_177" align="aligncenter" width="225"] La Tour Eiffel a trois cent metres, so I found it without the map![/caption]

Zakynthos, 2010

[caption id="attachment_181" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Blue Caves[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_182" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Navaggio Beach[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_183" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Navaggio beach, Heaven on Earth[/caption]

Some time, along the way, I got hold of Donald Neale Walsch’s book called “Conversations with God” and I started my spiritual journey, too. I was no longer FEAR-ful of burning down in Hell if I didn’t confess my sins to a priest or did 1,000 compulsory crosses with my hand during a service. And I remembered the peace felt when experiencing THE light at the end of the tunnel while floating to greener pastures when I got run over by a car in my 18’s year of age. And I started to believe again, but this time in myself as a part of something bigger and more powerful surrounding us.

There wasn’t just a journey that changed me. There were more leading to a bigger one: the life journey. Has it changed me for the better so far? I’d say yes. True, I can no longer find my roots, I lost my sense of belonging (since I emigrated back to UK in 2008 and emigrated back to Romania in 2011), but I feel stronger, more resourceful. Am I also independent? Checked. Does my daughter have a role model of stubborness legacy (or of sneaking the way through as Oltenians do as her father talks about her mother) from her mother? Oh, yes she does. The journey of becoming a mother and raising a “man-cub” has been the most challenging of all so far. I was forced to learn patience under “optimum” work environment as a child manager.

Meanwhile, I warmly recommend that you find the guts to step out of your comfort zone you might find yourselves in at the moment: if you are high school graduates and want to go to Uni, do so in a different city to the one where your parents live. Live your mum’s house or you risk turning into a selfish lazy pep like I was in high school. If you’re in your 30+’s and still live with your mummy get out of there or else no bloody person in the world will partner up with you any more as my mum strongly advocates. If you’re in doubt of whether you should leave the country or not, go for it! Nothing compares to testing your personal limits in order to become stronger, more experienced, more knowledgeable, more confident.

And to put a long story in a nutshell at last, considering that I still make some money go round from here to there for UK and I stare at some financial graphs every day, I’d say that as per below graph, physically travelling from point A to point B (by horse, train, car, plane) is of no matter at all unless the spiritual journey that develops alongside doesn’t lift one to a higher spiritual vibrations.
I therefore, look forward to seeing where la vida loca carries me moving forward. There, I said it all now.

Later edit: since this posting I have actually changed my mind and entered Heineken’s The Voyage competition with the Space Training as the first prize.

[caption id="attachment_184" align="alignnone" width="300"] Yellow line=geographical journeys, red line="sucky" journeys, green line=spiritual evolution Age axis hopes for "sucky" journeys to end once you're technically no longer restless[/caption]