My top-10 travel moments

I think what really marks our trips (perhaps our lives?) more than big events are those little memories, flashes, people and teachings that we find along the way. It seems impossible to choose the best places, because each has its own flavor, but these are some of the moments that shaped me:

- My first trip to northern Argentina (Jujuy, Quebrada de Humahuaca) with a friend. The idea came up briefly at night, and at 7 am and we were hitchhiking in the rain heading north. No plans, little money, and just one pair of underwear. Perfect! It was also the first time I saw the mountains ...

 

- Stay out of money for the first time in the middle of a trip and no way to contact anyone (or too proud to ask for help) in Italy. It may seem unbelievable, but spending a couple of nights on a bench outside, cold and hungry can change your way of seeing the world ... I guess that's why someone says "Bad times make the best memories"
 
- Finishing a Vipassana meditation course in Australia. 10 days without speaking, without looking at anyone's eyes. No contact with the outside world, meditating from 4 am to 9 pm ... All doors of the unconscious open wide, seas of energy flowing throughout the body. Who explained it best was a guy who did the course with me: "Dude, I was on a peyote trip for ten days in Mexico, but that was nothing compared to this!..."
 
- Crossing many countries without speaking the local language (Poland and Turkey are the first that come to mind), meeting people who did not speak any English, and yet understanding each other perfectly! Gestures, facial expressions, drawings, obscene winks, laughs ... It's amazing how deep communication is! I think they understood me better than many who speak my language ...

 

- In Malaysia, missing the plane to Australia, which resulted in tears at the time but it meant in the end meeting great people, hitchhiking around the country together, and sailing for the first time between islands of impossible beauty with two Norwegians who were crossing half the world in a 50 years old sailboat (I almost sank their dinghy, but that's another story).
 
- First hitchhiking trip in Spain. I had some time off and wanted to seize it. No expectations, no planning. I had no idea how it was or which way to go, just went for it. Haven't got very far, but I guess that's how most of worthwhile things start. Just do it, without thinking too much, without fear, and the way start teaching us everything that we need to know.

- To be the first in my family to return after 140 years to the small village of my ancestors in Italy. After four days I met all its inhabitants, found a distant aunt, got the family tree until the XVIII century and even appeared in the reginal newspaper...
 
- Greece. In despair, after walking over 25 kms. under a burning sun with my backpack and no water to drink, on a deserted highway where no one stopped, got a lift from Felipe and his girlfriend, who were travelling in a convoy of over 20 trucks organizing the biggest illegal techno festivals (tecnivals) in Europe. We spent the night talking a lot, meeting some of his friends and telling stories.

- To take my sister, who was 16 then, on a short trip around Paris, Rome, Stockholm and London on her first visit to Europe. To open a small window of my world to someone so close to me, and catch up with her after almost 3 years of absence was very nice. We also saw snow for the first time.
 
- Melbourne, Australia. Three friends, without money or contacts, meeting squatters, dumpster-diving at the back of the supermarkets, looking for work and home, being lucky enough to be hosted by some wonderful people in the place that later became our home and almost our family.