Life beyond work – various people’s stories that we meet on the way.
During our travels we meet different kinds of people who have interesting stories. They are not pioneers or world conquerors, they are not on the top ten list of anything and have not cracked the atom. They are just people like us, who have decided to make a change at a certain age and have followed their dream.
So, we decided to start collecting their stories – the decision was made when we stayed at Fiona and Derek’s.
Irene from Botswana
Kasane, guesthouse Nxabii, February 2024
Even before you meet her, you hear her rolling laugh. She finds the funny angle in everything and immediately starts laughing. Irene manages alone her guest house in the corner of Botswana (Kasane – at the meeting of Botswana’s borders with Zambia, Zimbabwe and Namibia). You would think that she has been doing this all her life, but no, she is a software engineer who worked as a programmer and project manager in the capital city until she decided to return to her home town, after her two children were scattered around the world (Netherlands and South Africa), and establish here the cool place that is pronounced with a click of the tongue that Westerners like us do not able to pronounce (Nxabii). And most importantly… she is an amazing cook! …although less likes vegetarians because there is not much one can cook for them 
. We arrived for one night and stayed a week!
Nikos from Greece
Evia, Greece, September, 2023
Nikos from Greece is dressed in the full uniform of a Harley rider – a sleeveless leather jacket decorated with skulls and machine guns and a huge Harley Davidson logo on the back, a huge skull ring on each finger, thick chains, tattoo inscriptions on his arms, bald with a long, thick braid and a shaggy beard on his chin.
We sat at his restaurant in a small village in the center of the island of Evia in Greece, which is also decorated with Harley logos, and seeing our helmets he joined us at the table (refreshments are on the house) and we talked and talked and talked.
Born in the village (where we were sitting), he was a government official, and decided that this was not the life for him. Started working as a recording technician until some singer heard him play and since then he accompanies singers and bands as a guitar player. He threw in a lot of names of Greek singers who didn’t tell us anything (except for Glikeria) but are probably famous in their city, and showed us videos of him performing in front of the audience of tens of thousands. Nikos travels a lot around the world with these singers.
But his soul is in Harley (we got a fifteen-minute description of the uniqueness of his motorcycle specifically), insists that he is not a member of the club (because those are the bad guys) but travels a lot on a motorcycle.
He gave us his phone number with the promise that whatever we need he can take care of it…
Ljuba and Pablo, Chile
Kaeng Krachan, Thailand, December 2022
We met them in the middle of a nature reserve in Thailand in a small tent, a couple from Chile. He is a mining engineer (it turns out there is a lot of copper in Chile) and she is an English teacher for adults (as she states). This is not their first time in Thailand (a 3-day flight from home) and they travel slowly, 3-4 months here in the area without a definite plan, sometimes in a hotel sometimes in a tent, traveling by trains and public transportation, mainly in nature reserves.
It’s amazing how much in common you can find in a couple from the other side of the world and how small the world is, for example, the four of us believe that there is life beyond work and therefore try to travel several months a year with short breaks at home. We are concerned with the increasing right-wing extremism in the country (everyone in their own country), are worried about the status of the teacher, prefer to travel in nature and villages and less in big cities even though we live in the big cities (Santiago and Tel Aviv), treat money as a tool and not as a goal and therefore are satisfied with little. Dreaming of being digital nomads for many years to come.
Sandra and Richard, Holland
Armenia, October 6, 2022
A couple of our age who have been on the road for 15 years (!), of which five years continuously. They travel in an incredibly rugged jeep that is also a camper with bunk beds and an outside shower (the water is hot). They are on their way to Iran, they just got a visa, and initially wanted to travel there for two months, but due to the problematic political situation they will cross it towards Kuwait. Sandra is Jewish and hopes that the Iranians will not find out :).
Their travel style is different from ours. First of all, they sleep a lot off-road, they simply stop in a nice place and set up a camp. They travel slowly and when they reach a city that they like, they would rent an apartment and live there for several weeks or months. For example, they spent 5 months in Georgia, of which they rented an apartment in Batumi for 2 months. We still have a lot to learn!
Dominique and Nagi, Swiss
Georgia, September 25, 2022
We are attracted to people whose backgrounds are extraordinary and curious.
Dominic and Nagi introduced themselves as Swiss people – they live in a small village near Geneva. Met in New York – Dominique, a French Protestant (who says she doesn’t like wine) and Nagi, a Muslim Egyptian (who likes wine). They have been together for 40 years. Both are interpreters (French, Arabic, Russian, English and Spanish), they met as part of their work as interpreters at the United Nations. A simultaneous translator seems to me to be a person with a special mind, like magic, one language enters and immediately another comes out.
As graduates of “Sparks” we are sensitive to people with passion.. And you should have seen Dominique’s eyes light up when she found out that Ira speaks Russian and they immediately moved on to talk about Bulgakov and Aitmatov… Dominique states herself that she has been in love with Russian since the age of 12 and even today, at the age of retirement, she is still in love and perhaps with a higher intensity. She learned Spanish for fun (to the level of a simultaneous interpreter).
They like to travel in former Soviet or Arabic-speaking countries, we met them in Georgia after a trip to Iran (not their first time). We spent a whole day in Kutaisi, Georgia, and were surprised to find out how much we have in common. By the way, Nagi is 81, does not look his age at all and claims that it is because he Loves changes and will continue to be young as long as he continues to surprise himself.
FIONA AND DEREK, SCOTLAND
June 13, 2022
Their house overlooks Loch in the Highlands of Scotland. Loch in Scotland, like roundabouts in England, do not really excite anyone. But Fiona and Derek are excited because they are not from here, they are from the center of England and there no Lochs there. A few years ago, they visited in the area and decided that they wanted to live here, so after the children had left home, they bought a house right on the lake with lawns and dwarfs in the garden and set up a small, high quality guesthouse (9.8 in Booking.com).
In every corner of the house you can feel their love, see the design, the attention to the details, the service and especially hear the laughter – there are always sounds of laughter around (do not know how they do it – maybe it is recorded 
).
Fiona was a kindergarten teacher and Derek a firefighter and in their fifties they decided they needed a change (as Fiona says “it is our time now”), moved here and set up a business that really suits them – meet people from all over the world (and they love people), start a conversation with everyone, get interested, tell stories (and mostly laugh).
And yes, they are already dreaming of the next adventure – bought a camper and intend to travel the world. To begin with, they have a book of all the lighthouses in England and they plan to check on every page in the book (people need a purpose, right?), and then Europe and maybe the world.
It may not be the ‘biggest’ story but the one that inspires you and brings up a smile (or even a laugh of pleasure).
MARCUS FROM GERMANY
July 2021
Marcus is 76 years old, and this is important because in triathlon competitions, in which he participates, aged 70 and over are in a separate category, and since in this category there are almost no competitors, it is usually enough that he finishes to win a trophy 
.
Marcus walks around half-naked even when outside temperature is close to zero, his athletic body structure has zero fat. This is what happens when you cycling every morning for 30km uphill that even our vehicle struggles with. We met him at the bottom of a mountain (Transfagaras Pass) after he has already climbed to the top that morning.
Since retiring he has been touring Europe (he is originally from Germany) in an old transporter that he claims is worth less than his bicycle and is looking for triathlons.
CARL AND MARIA, GERMANY
July 2022
We stopped at a small road café in the middle of the nowhere in Germany close to the Polish border and Maria, the owner of the house, greeted us very enthusiastically in Romanian as if we were her lost brothers, our car is from Romania and we are quite used to the phenomenon of people addressing us enthusiastically in Romanian. Maria and her partner Carl speak Spanish to each other, this is the language that connects them, Carl is a German who in addition to Spanish also speaks Russian and English, and Maria from Romania also speaks French in addition to Spanish. In the short time we were at the café they used all the languages with those present, switching easily from one language to another. They met at a disco in the Canaries islands many years ago and since then they spend half a year in Germany, and half a year in the Canaries. We wondered what it’s like to be in a relationship where the common language is not your native one.
BARBARA AND MARK, US (CAMINO DE SANTIAGO)
April, 2019
We all have seen it in the movies: he is kneeling down holding a ring in his hand and raising his eyes to his sweetheart who gets excited (or upset) and says “yes yes yes” even before he has completed the question and the crowd around cheers excitedly. In the movies it’s great, but in reality? We were sitting in a restaurant and the couple next to us gave the whole show in the life-size reality, and we were indeed excited (mainly because he invited everyone around for a round of drinks). On the Camino, as expected, we met almost every day while walking. On the Camino there is a cafe every 2-3 km so there is a lot of potential to meet people you have already met on the trail.
Mark is a graphic artist who specializes in graffiti in Hebrew, it sounds strange, an American who doesn’t know a word of Hebrew specializes in Hebrew letters, he studied the Hebrew alphabet for this purpose and sells designed sentences in Hebrew to American Jews, sentences like ‘tzedek tzedek tirdof’, ‘ani ledodi vedodi li’. Barbara is also American but she is a counselor at an international school in Germany.
Long distance relationships is also a topic that is covered in a lot of movies and we haven’t really met a couple that actually lives like that. Barbara and Mark met from a distance and in the last two years they see each other as much as they can physically (every few months) but talk for a few hours every day. And now they are getting married and for at least the next year they will continue their long-distance relationship – both are second round and it is very interesting to see how this will turn out.
On the Camino path they are not alone. Mark’s 89-year-old father, a tough guy who refuses to stop for coffee breaks or rest, is always several kilometers ahead of the couple who is supposed to accompany him.
HE 
