Thirteen months ago, I spent two weeks of the summer in a wild mountain in Greece surrounded by the nature and few inhabitants in a small village. That was my first stay in Peliti.

Before I reach my hosts and temporary settle down in my small guest house I missed the train. I walked 30 km. during the whole night.

It was hard. I thought about my entire life while passing village after village and looking at the road signs for the right directions. At some moments the pain on my shoulders caused by the backpack’s weight forced me to stop and take a rest.

I was staring at the horizon, trying not to go back in my memories and sorry for some wrong decisions, but at some point I couldn’t control it.

What forced me to keep walking?

I just wanted to reach my hosts as fast as possible and didn’t want to wait the whole night in a hotel room to catch the next train. Oh yes, I also didn’t want to spend money for a hotel room : )

At the 30th kilometer it was already a day and I was eating plums from a tree next to a bus stop. I hardly believed when I saw the bus approaching me. Slept for the rest of the road.

Overall, it was a positive experience for a young man, who had temporary lost the right direction in his personal world.

Long Walks – Part II

2 months after the 30 km. night walk I landed on Chios island to spend the next 50 days contributing for an NGO. It wasn’t a tough task at all and I had a lot of time for various walks inside and outside the main town.

Sometimes I combined walking with reading, but best experience I had with my walks near the shore line around sunset time. The night walks close to an old castle also brought me some valuable insights.

Because I really loved the experience of travelling and staying somewhere for I while, one night I devoted to plan my next trip.

I was just warned to collect my luggage and move it to a different location, because something really weird happened that night – the neighbor of my host called the police and told them she have a business with hosting people without the knowledge of the flat’s owner, which of course isn’t true. The bad thing was that the police called my host’s parents and they decided to visit her and make sure everything is fine.

So, that night while sitting on the sea shore, I decided to go to Honk Kong, find a place to live and specialize in eCommerce business importing goods to US.

A couple of days later I added a 6 months visit to Jordan to the plan, where I had to contribute for an internship in an SEO company.

I got back to my home country, visited my parents and started planning my road to Jordan. What actually happened is I was rejected on the last interview.

I moved to Sofia in a new place and got involved in developing a B2B online based start up.

Overall, even my plan to go to Honk Kong didn’t worked, there were many things that happened and changed me for the better.

My Last Long Walk

Two days ago I had to spend 5 hours waiting for my friends to appear and celebrate our friendship. Of course, I had a choice to first go home, take a rest and then go back, but somehow I took the irrational choice to spend the time walking across the town.

My best friend had his wedding in the middle of August 2013. At some point I thought it’s the right time to take a break from the noise. Took a short walk to the sea shore and saw the bench I mention for the first time. Sat there for half an hour and then got back to join the party.

I went to the see and saw the old tree on which I used as a bench last year. It was already half sunk in the water and the sands. This is the power of time, I said myself.

Your most important walk

The most important walk though doesn’t involve using your legs. Waling long distances could only initiate that trip which rewards you if you are patient enough.

It is walking towards yourself and in the same time fighting with the endless obstacles that your pride and it’s countless “friends” put on the road. We are all passengers and believe it or not, even this road is endless, the only way to live a complete life of never ending joy is just keeping the same direction and making big and small steps towards yourself.

Finding a guide on how to find yourself

It’s hard to find a guide for something genuine. The world is screaming that you are special and you have to believe in yourself and your inner powers in order to “succeed in life and earn your own freedom”.

There’s a big trap for those who start believing and folowing such kind of statements. I’ll pick only “The Secret” as a bright example of a teching that tries to put people on piedestal. But let’s go back to the goal of this section.

After my trip on Chios island ended, I came back to my home country and few weeks later, a girl gave me a book which I’ve already read twice.

It’s called “The Way of a Pilgrim” and I’m really speachless about how useful it was for me and my walk toward myself.

Here are two places where you could find it on Amazon:

If you are one of the people that love walking countless hours this could be a great discovery for you.

Thanks for reading! It’s time for my next walk.