Where are you from?

People used to ask me as well how I get till here? Pfff…this is even a longer story than where I’m from.

Before answering this questions, let me tell you that no matter what happened with me through this years since I started to travel the world, there’s nothing I regret. Wasn’t and is not always easy but would never ever complain. I won’t tell you to live this lifestyle and won’t try to change your mind if you want to do it. However, there is one thing I can tell you for sure, in case of any problem, in a foreign country you will be more alone than in the smallest village in your own country.

How I get till here? Well, here we go…Everything started in 2006, when on assignment for Apollon Travel I went to work as guide in Greece.

I was working in the southern part of Greece, guiding excursion by bus for tourists who came weekly. From May till September I spend all my weekends in Athens, loved the whole Acropolis, the downtown. Walking in places where thousands of years ago cultures were rising and seeing the walls of those buildings still standing was unbelievable, I could not get bored. The ancient Olympic stadium where heroes were born, the monasteries of Meteora or the Olympos, enjoyed all of them.

I had a wonderful summer season, working with fantastic colleagues for a great company while most of the guests were really nice people. Even if I had no day off during the whole season, I was guiding 5 days per week, was on the roads from morning till evening I really enjoyed every minute.

After this great season I took a small break from the tourism and returned a bit later to Egypt representing a world well known company. We had meetings after meetings, heard again and again big orations about quality and how important our job is, but all this was only theory. Unfortunately nothing more happened, we were not appreciated, the salary we had in our contract was as well only theoretical as we never got is, so was not anymore a great period. But I kept doing it as I loved my job, loved to can show to others new and interesting in a foreign country. Sometimes we had “funny” times like when we had to hide from the police, as the well-known company was not providing us the official work permit, yet we had to be present at the airport, waiting for the guest arriving. This was a 2 years period while I made several trips through Egypt and Israel, saw clashes between the locals and police, shootings and burning cars, the rise and fall of Muslim Brotherhood…was an interesting period.

For the next almost 2 years period I went to another country but still kept living in Arabic countries. The next country it was Tunisia which I cannot say that is the most beautiful country I have ever been, but definitely has some really nice places.

Here I had the pleasure to work with some unbelievable nice colleagues and even if my company did not treated us employees, better, still enjoyed being here. Unfortunately was another period with conflicts when innocent people were dying. Just one day after I have been in the Bardo museum, tourists were killed there, bit later another attack took place on the beach of a hotel where again several tourists were killed. After all this the tourism industry collapsed in the country and for me was time to move again to the next country.

Or actually countries as starting from this period I stayed only a season in a place, staying and working on Crete, Corfu, Fuerteventura, Kos, and Rhodes. I kept enjoying the work, my company kept only talking about things which never happened, but at least we had great times with my colleagues.

Let’s stop here for a moment! As I already wrote, will not encourage anyone to live this lifestyle and won’t try changing your mind if you want to do it.
But, be aware, this lifestyle is really lonely!
Yes, you get to meet all kind of great people from the entire world, have fantastic colleagues, new guests coming every week. But because everyone is constantly coming or going is really challenging to build meaningful connections.

This was the period when I just had enough of the maneuvers of my company which always resulted in less money, beside the not existing appreciation or support to can do my work in the right way, so just decided to change. The market is full of touristic companies’ offers, so once you are experienced with some language knowledges, you will find for sure some job. However, as you can see, working for a world well known company is still no guarantee you will be lucky. Yes, you will travel a lot, you will work a lot, you will meet a lot of interesting people and sometimes you will be really lonely.

The new company was not perfect but far much better than I was used and this gave me a lot of new energy while I had to get ready for lot more trips.

I was still working in tourism but due that I had another position, my trips became more frequently, spending maximum3-4 months in one place, than moving to another country. Was working on all of the Balearic Islands and except one on all of the Canary Islands, in Mexico, Dominican Republic, Italy, Mauritius and Thailand. Did I enjoyed? Absolutely yes!
However, this lifestyle is exhausting!
Just when you get used a bit somewhere, you learn where is a non-stop shop, eventually a pub where you can have a drink sometimes, is time to pack your suitcase and to move to the next country.

After all this trips where I’m now? In Egypt, preparing soon for my next journey, where for sure will get again and again the question “where are you from?”. What is the right answer? From everywhere? Do you have better idea? Click on the contact and send me an email.