Онлайн кітапты тегін оқу  We embrace the world

авторлар Adrian Ruchini, Elena Kalugina

Contents

2. 1. 1
   2. 3
   3. 4
   4. 5
   5. 6
   6. 7
   7. 8
   8. 9
   9. 10
   10. 11
   11. 19
   12. 21
   13. 23
   14. 28

WE EMBRACE THE WORLD
Introduction

We are writing this book for our friends, as we have a lot of them, ourselves and for you — the person who is holding this book in the hands. So, do not be surprised if I will refer to «you». It was born out of a diary we kept during a thirty-six-day trip around the world. To get to all the places that we dreamed of, we had to get on19 flights, passing 65 thousand kilometres, 7 thousand kilometres driven by car and 360 kilometres travelled on foot. We have been waiting for this adventure for a long time and with such impatience that, in order not to forget anything, we recorded in the plane while flying, all our impressions and thoughts from what we saw in each country.

In embracing the world, we decided to connect our travel with a pleasant and unusual particularity of our trip and this was that Adrian, as a member of the Rotary Club of Slovenia, with the great help of the Governor of District 1912 Janez Lipec, who has supported the initiative allowing us to bring the message of Rotary and of Slovenia too, organized meetings with the oldest clubs on each continent, and this fact enhanced the whole trip very much, making it even more intense and interesting, bringing us the possibility to meet amazing people.

This book will not have a steeply wrapped plot or deep emotional experiences, at least we think so. But here you will find sincere impressions about the crazy experience and feelings that are difficult to get, being an ordinary tourist, about the countries and cities in which we were, about the people we met, about the food we ate, about transport, strange traditions and much more, we will not bore you with long lists.

It gives us great pleasure to write this book, because it is like we are going through every minute of this travel again and again.

1

So, We… and who are we? Our names are Elena and Adrian, sometimes we think that we have always been together, that we have known each other since ever. We almost never stay apart and do everything together, so we write the book together, because our voices sound in unison. So do not be surprised that there is no «I» here, but only «We».

You want to know what we think about life? Life is beautiful if you know why you live. After all, when you are born, you already know that you will die, and it would seem that you have no hope. Why you have to live if you have to die anyway? If you are not able to find the answer to this question, you can drag your legs in a sad existence in anticipation of the death, but you know that the meaning of life is in the other thing, in the OTHER! So, what is the purpose of life? In life...in love. In love, no matter how banal it sounds.

There is still «something» that gives meaning to life — a child. He or she your continuation. He or she is your chance for immortality. This is our simple philosophy, which we believe in, and which gives us energy and happiness.

In this book, we want to talk about the journey of a dream, our dream, which hasn’t happened suddenly but was pre-planned and prepared for the celebration of our hundred years in sum.

A hundred years for two (40+60), well, isn’t it a reason for a crazy holiday 36 days long? We start on Elena’s birthday and return for Adri’s birthday. Not very much for a round-the-world trip, but enough to immerse yourself in an adventure called We embrace the world — we decided to call our mission in this way.

Such a brave idea might have occurred to Him, of course. When one day he told: «Do you know that in two years we together will arrive to common age of 100 years? Imagine what an anniversary! What do you think about around the world trip? Let’s think about which countries we would like to visit.»

In the end, after some thoughts and discussions, an ingenious plan of a trip around the world was drawn up, according to which we will not only see many countries, but also visit some man-made and natural wonders of the world and have lunch at two of the 10 best restaurants of the world.

We spent two years thinking, planning, and anticipating, and now day X has arrived.

We fly from Venice to Istanbul, then we will have a long flight to Cape Town, then India, the Taj Mahal and Agra Fort, followed by Thailand, where we will stop in Bangkok, Cambodia with a magnificent Angkor Wat, Vietnam, where we will see Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh city and sail on a cruise ship on Halong Bay, Taiwan with a magnificent Taipei, and Hong Kong will be the end of the Asian adventure. The next stage will be New Zealand. American story will include Argentina with Buenos Aires, Lima, Cuzco, Machu Picchu, Miami, New York, Chicago, and Niagara Falls. We still can’t believe this is going to happen to us.

2

On a birthday, the best time is in the morning: you wake up in anticipation of gifts, calls, messages. March 10. The first anniversary has come.

There will not be a long celebration (by the way, they say that celebrating forty years is a bad omen), there is only time to collect our small suitcases and fly towards adventures.

Yes, this will not be an easy task, because we decided to travel only with hand luggage. This is very practical thing, just imagine what will happen if we lose a suitcase on one of the 19 flights! Where can we find it later? In Bangkok? In Auckland? In this case it will definitely be an adventure with a negative sense, and we do not want that.

Especially for women travellers. So, I take two pairs of ballerina shoes, a pair of pumps, a pair of sneakers, another pair of sports footwear and sandals. That is all from the shoes. Several dresses that are easy to dry (we will have to wash almost every day), trousers, skirts, leggings, tops, cashmere sweater and jacket. All this fit in a small suitcase. iPad, chargers and cosmetics will fly in the ladies’ handbag, as it has an impressive size.

The preparation, by the way, was also from the psychological point of view. It is very important to «not get lost» in time zones, and they will change frequently and in different directions. So, we decided that when we’ll arrive in a new country and in a new time zone, we’ll start living in a new time, without losing precious hours for acclimatization and adaptation, and we will have a rest in the plane during flights.

Our favourite pasta with broccoli and a little wine on the road, and here we are ready and prepared to start.

Venice sees us off with warm March weather. We are ready to make the first flight to Istanbul. How great, it is just the beginning! A business class chair and a champagne as a greeting is a great continuation of a birthday party. A smiling flight attendant holds out a menu. Turkish Airlines is one of our favorite airlines. It’s so delicious to eat and drink here. Yes, you need to be very careful with food, we do not want to go home fat after thirty-five days of gluttony.

At midnight Istanbul airport is full of people. Someone is asleep, someone is waiting for the landing and go to gate announcements, other are running with suitcases to the exit. By the way, this is the last month of operation of the old Ataturk airport, the new one is already built and was waiting for it to work at full capacity.

The birthday is almost over, a pleasant fatigue is already creeping up. We are not in a hurry; we go to the business class lounge to wait for our flight to Cape Town. This will be one of our longest flights. Tomorrow, or almost today, we will be in Africa, at the very end of it, right across from Antarctica. We will see the ocean, Table Mountain, and penguins! Oh, tomorrow would be incredible!

The waiting time for the flight passed quickly with the company of baklava and Turkish tea. We take our suitcases and go to board our Turkish Airlines plane; this is the second and last flight with them. We deliberately write down the names of all airlines in order to compare their service. So, Turkish Airlines is very good. The flight was long, but comfortable and we had a great night: we ate, read, and slept. It was such a night resort in the air.

3

When the captain announced the start of the descent, we opened the window and saw it. This was Africa: terra-cotta hilly landscape and endless space. South Africa, of course, is not a typical example of African continent. Maybe one day we will fly to Botswana or Namibia, but in the meantime we have Cape Town, and we expect a lot from these five days.

Do you know what is the first and very important moment of getting to know a new country? The first breath of air you take when you get out off the plane or step out of the airport. That first breath can tell you a lot about where you have landed. You immediately feel the temperature, humidity, freshness or pollution, the smell of plants or emissions, the smell of morning or evening.

Cape Town meets us with the warm and wet breath of the ocean. First of all, we go to the car rental office, take our right-handed car with a manual transmission and drive to the hotel. In order to diversify the experience as much as possible, we decide not to stay in the same hotel for more than two days, changing the place, the view from the window and the area looks like an interesting idea.

The first hotel is located close the ocean. This is a fairly large building with a beautiful view of Table Mountain, we have chosen it for this, the amazing location and view of. It is the mountain, that has become the highlight of the first day. There is only one thought in the head, which, by the way, will be almost constant during our stay in Cape Town: «Oh my God, what a beauty!». We walk along a beach with light grey sand, a soft wind blows in our faces, and the mountain is covered with a huge cloud like a white hat. In this incredible place, you feel the power of the ocean, nature and Africa. There is a different energy here compared to Europe, it is powerfully sparkle, you feel it almost physically.

March in the southern hemisphere is the first month of autumn, fantastic time, the temperature is optimally pleasant, but the water in the ocean is already cold, no one bathes, so our plans for bathing and sunbathing are not destined to come true. But for happiness, it is enough to see all this, touch the water, breathe in the breeze, yes, this place is amazing.

The walk along the beach is almost in a hurry, as we have to meet the first Rotary Club today. They are waiting for us in the Newlands area, which is also the name of the club. We’ve just arrived, we haven’t seen much, and we have to go to a meeting with people we don’t know instead of starting a beautiful tour. But it will be a great positive surprise.

A meeting with our future friends is appointed at the cricket club, where they meet weekly. The British have left a huge heritage in South Africa: language, traditions, favourite sports. Anglo-Saxon influence is felt everywhere here. Such a number of cricket clubs can only be found in Britain itself. All of them are in excellent condition and they are preserved very well.

There are always a lot of people here, especially in the evening, you can do some sport, play games, meet friends, drink a glass of beer or some wine. We are very warmly welcomed by members of the Rotary Club Newlands. It has been an extremely difficult day for them today, one of the most important of the year. To raise funds for their charity projects, they organize an annual 109-kilometer ride for cyclists around Table Mountain. It is easy to imagine that the mind-blowing views and the opportunity to get a unique experience attract a