There is a video on youtube that a friend showed me a while ago of a guy who takes a trip walking across China, from Beijing to Xinjiang, and takes a photo of himself everyday and he plays the photos back to back, chronologically, and you watch him slowly grow a wild beard and wild-man hair in front of an ever changing Chinese backdrop. The trip took him a year to complete and he walked over 4500 km. His name is Christopher Rehage and his video is called “The Longest Way”. Check it out, it’s pretty cool. The video hooks you in with cool music and an excellent set of photos. But what I don’t like about the video is that at the end, the music changes, gets a bit more serious, and he starts getting very preachy about how the trip changed his life and how he’s a better person and blah, blah, blah. So I guess the point I’m trying to make is that I’m going to save you from any of my life-changing preachiness and just wrap things up. I think though that a trip of this magnitude, and since I had documented nearly every minute of it, does indeed deserve some parting thoughts.
First, a minor recap. The goal of this trip was to cross the massive Eurasian supercontinent, from coast to coast, by rail. Only by rail--whenever possible. I took some buses and some boats but where there was a train, I took the train. I’m proud to say that I did meet that goal. From Tianjin to Lisbon, a continuous set of rolling train cars and my face glued to the window--I watched every minute of the countryside roll by. I can’t say enough about trains. Trains are great. They’re comfortable, slow enough to appreciate the trip, but fast enough to get you where you’re going timely (by that I mean faster than by bike or by walking), and you are able to watch the journey unfold, to watch the landscape change as you make your way along. Trains give you the opportunity to meet cool people and socialize in a community of fellow travelers over drinks. I met some pretty cool and some pretty wacky people on these trains. If I’m not selling trains to you, than pick up any book written by Paul Theroux and he’ll surely do a better job of it. In fact, his book, “The Great Railway Bazaar”, was, in a way, the inspiration behind some of this trip and behind my blogging it.
It would be too difficult to trace the path I took and add up the total miles that I had traversed to any precision, but lets put it this way. It is approximately 1,700 miles between Chengdu and Kashgar, 2,150 miles between Kashgar and Beijing, 4,500 miles between Beijing and Oslo, 500 miles between Oslo and Berlin, and 1,450 miles between Berlin and Lisbon, so I’m rounding it off, but when you add these numbers together you get 10,300 miles in total. And zero airplanes. In four months. I’m proud of that.
Alright, alright, a bit preachy here. I’m not heartless. I learned a lot from this trip. Mostly though that people are good, everywhere. I’ve sort of restored my faith in humanity (not that I lost my faith in humanity, but I suppose I increased the stock I already had in humanity...). Apart from a very few circumstances, chiefly my stolen iPhone dilemma, I encountered nothing but the very best of people wherever I went. From my home stays in Ekaterinburg, St. Petersburg, Berlin or Milan, to the home cooked meals I received in many other places, to the remarkable strangers I met on the train and in the hostels, to the everyday people I encountered on the streets, people were genuinely kind to me and were always happy I was there. They were always happy that I wanted to be there, even in the remotest of places. They were happy that I had taken an interest in them, in their culture, in their home, and they were always more than welcoming to me, and in many instances, spent money and time in order to accommodate me as a guest and make me feel welcome. I am overwhelmed with gratitude to these people, to all the people I encountered and I hope some day I can return the favor.
I’ll admit too that I was a little travel weary towards the end as I’m sure you could sense through my posts, but I am all the more excited about traveling in the future. I have, since the start of my trip in January, exponentially increased my love for traveling and have come to realize more and more how very big and diverse the world is. A lifetime is not enough to see it all, but I guess I’m going to do the best I can. I have no plans yet, as far as grand adventures go, in fact the downside to these trips is that they require funds which deplete (shockingly) when you have no immediate income. But I will have plans soon enough, and I’ll blog about it, probably.
That’s all for now I suppose. Travel and meet people and see how great the world is. That’s my parting advice.
Since I’ve been home, in Boston, I’ve already had the pleasure of meeting some people who have been following me on the blog. I love hearing from them and you. If you ever have a question about the trip or just want to leave a comment or if you want any travel tips or advice (to which I may or may not be of any use), please feel free to contact me either through this blog or by emailing me (stephenadutton@gmail.com) and I’d love to chat.
Until next time----
First, a minor recap. The goal of this trip was to cross the massive Eurasian supercontinent, from coast to coast, by rail. Only by rail--whenever possible. I took some buses and some boats but where there was a train, I took the train. I’m proud to say that I did meet that goal. From Tianjin to Lisbon, a continuous set of rolling train cars and my face glued to the window--I watched every minute of the countryside roll by. I can’t say enough about trains. Trains are great. They’re comfortable, slow enough to appreciate the trip, but fast enough to get you where you’re going timely (by that I mean faster than by bike or by walking), and you are able to watch the journey unfold, to watch the landscape change as you make your way along. Trains give you the opportunity to meet cool people and socialize in a community of fellow travelers over drinks. I met some pretty cool and some pretty wacky people on these trains. If I’m not selling trains to you, than pick up any book written by Paul Theroux and he’ll surely do a better job of it. In fact, his book, “The Great Railway Bazaar”, was, in a way, the inspiration behind some of this trip and behind my blogging it.
It would be too difficult to trace the path I took and add up the total miles that I had traversed to any precision, but lets put it this way. It is approximately 1,700 miles between Chengdu and Kashgar, 2,150 miles between Kashgar and Beijing, 4,500 miles between Beijing and Oslo, 500 miles between Oslo and Berlin, and 1,450 miles between Berlin and Lisbon, so I’m rounding it off, but when you add these numbers together you get 10,300 miles in total. And zero airplanes. In four months. I’m proud of that.
Alright, alright, a bit preachy here. I’m not heartless. I learned a lot from this trip. Mostly though that people are good, everywhere. I’ve sort of restored my faith in humanity (not that I lost my faith in humanity, but I suppose I increased the stock I already had in humanity...). Apart from a very few circumstances, chiefly my stolen iPhone dilemma, I encountered nothing but the very best of people wherever I went. From my home stays in Ekaterinburg, St. Petersburg, Berlin or Milan, to the home cooked meals I received in many other places, to the remarkable strangers I met on the train and in the hostels, to the everyday people I encountered on the streets, people were genuinely kind to me and were always happy I was there. They were always happy that I wanted to be there, even in the remotest of places. They were happy that I had taken an interest in them, in their culture, in their home, and they were always more than welcoming to me, and in many instances, spent money and time in order to accommodate me as a guest and make me feel welcome. I am overwhelmed with gratitude to these people, to all the people I encountered and I hope some day I can return the favor.
I’ll admit too that I was a little travel weary towards the end as I’m sure you could sense through my posts, but I am all the more excited about traveling in the future. I have, since the start of my trip in January, exponentially increased my love for traveling and have come to realize more and more how very big and diverse the world is. A lifetime is not enough to see it all, but I guess I’m going to do the best I can. I have no plans yet, as far as grand adventures go, in fact the downside to these trips is that they require funds which deplete (shockingly) when you have no immediate income. But I will have plans soon enough, and I’ll blog about it, probably.
That’s all for now I suppose. Travel and meet people and see how great the world is. That’s my parting advice.
Since I’ve been home, in Boston, I’ve already had the pleasure of meeting some people who have been following me on the blog. I love hearing from them and you. If you ever have a question about the trip or just want to leave a comment or if you want any travel tips or advice (to which I may or may not be of any use), please feel free to contact me either through this blog or by emailing me (stephenadutton@gmail.com) and I’d love to chat.
Until next time----
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