Flashbacks of 8 months meeting people

The end of a new year (can you remember it was new?) is almost passing just like these almost 60.000 kilometers that I passed so quickly. And I am still on the road finding my long detour back home. Whether this home is my home-country our a new home will be told by time, but 8 months were not enough to find this place. This flat world is not small enough.

Pretty much every day I think back. I think back of my family at home who lived without me around for the last 6 years, I think back about yesterday, about last week and last month and I think back of many other beautiful, sad or difficult moment. Mainly the happy ones though!

During my travels I met many people. I made a bunch of new friends of which a few I consider as potential best friends, and perhaps my Facebook friends got almost doubled since I left.

I went to visit friends and ex-colleagues.

• Dennis and Rianne in the Hague. My last evening before leaving Holland
• Emi having a flat next to a sunny roundabout with motor riders in Utrecht. I slept at her place before waking up going to the airport across the border in Weeze, Germany, early in the morning.
• Andre and Marta living on Gran Canaria, Spain. Later I met them again on their holiday to Malaysia.
• Paulo, Gonçalo and Alvaro and their friends in Lisboa, Portugal
• Alessandra and Roberto in Cesenatico, Italy who arranged to meet at dinner with the other bunch from the Jumelage such as Ruben, Stefania and her husband, and Marco.
• Thomas from Discoteca Life in Rimini, Italy who invited me in his house straight away and for who I worked about a week giving away flyers for his club every evening.
• Salvatore living in Belgium who happened to be visiting his family in Catania, Sicilia, Italy at the same time as I was around. And his family I met and gave all the beautiful hospitality while they let me stay in their house during the weekend. His mum who cooks such tasty food, his beautiful sister Adriana always joking around, and his cousins(Fabbyo and Claudio) and friends and all the other Spacchiosi!
• An old friend of Salvatore from Greece and his French friends who we met on top of Volcano Etna, who was in the Erasmus in Greece at the same time as Salvotore(troppo commando)! - they lost contact after Erasmus was finished and now after years they met each other there on top of that mountain!
• Sander, my Dutch school-mate who lives in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia for 3 years and who let's me stay in his house each time Air Asia connects me between two countries with a stop in KL.

Then I must mention Merve and her lovely family. I met Merve in a hostel in Roma, Italy and I decided to visit her in Ordu while I was in Turkey. I stayed for 4 days with her Family. I loved it! Her mum is such a great cook too, I loved living in a Turkish family eating Turkish breakfast - the Burek was sooo tasty! - and the tasty dinners. The fun we had with all the translations and the curiosity they had for my country and culture. Her brother Kağan and his wife Bahar who taught me a little of the Turkish language by pointing at all the objects in their house! Merves friend Berk, with who we went to the beach and walked around in town.
And her cousin Anıl and all her neighbours with all their children!

In Spain and in China, all the Couchsurfers who hosted me and were enthusiastic to let me live with them for a few days in their house and who trusted me providing me with their front-door keys, being at work while I woke up in the morning or being elsewhere occupied while I had to leave their house for next adventure.
Thanks for sharing your house with me!

• Maria from Germany living on Tenerife, Spain who offered her couch to me via couchsurfing.
• Billy from Lithuania who hosted me in Sevilla, Spain.
• Spanish Raoul who hosted me and showed me around in Cordoba, Spain!
• Italian Judith and her Spanish house-mate Oscar who hosted me 1 night and Ulrike the German wurstfrasse who hosted me the other night in Granada, Spain.
• CS'er Linda from Australia, a friend of Judith who showed me around in Granada.
• Aiana from Israel who taught me 'ani lo medaber Ivrit aval ani lomed' while I slept on her couch in Madrid, Spain.
• Yuan and her house-mate Monica in Chengdu, China.
• Ling who I first met in Xi'an, who's couch I surfed (and car I drove) in Tianjin, China.

Thanks all!!! Whenever you come to where I will be living, sound me a cocuhsurf request!

The list is getting rather long and I haven't even started with the people I met in the streets and hostels or on the bus or other transportation. People with who I spend some time or travelled with for a day or two. With among them new friends I wish not to forget!

• The three Spanish people my age driving a mini-van heading for their camping place to watch the rally race on Gran Canaria, and who drove (and stopped) past me while I was trying to hitch-hike. See: Gran Canaria: the rocky island.
  The group with who I spend three days driving through the dessert in Morocco: Masahiko and his wife, Agathi from Poland and Carlo from north Italy. Katie and James from England, living in France and the French couple.
• All the friendly people who helped me finding my way when I asked them for directions or when they approached me offering to help. And the guys who took me into a taxi or a bus or even two, taking me to the bus stations I was asking for possibly on the other side of the city then where they had to go and not allowing me to pay for anything, no matter how hard I tried!Colleagues Sue and Rizki working for the Korean embassy in Baku, Azerbaijan.
• Tiziana with who I had an interesting adventure, trying to get from the airport to Barcelona. Later she invited me for dinner with her Italian friends.
• Karla from Mexico and Michael from Canada who I met in the hostel in Pisa, Italy
• All my colleagues while working for Thomas in Rimini at Discoteca Life: Tuomas from Finland John Black from America, Magdalena from Poland and Federico from Rimini, the three guys with their 'skippy' van driving across Europe from England: Paul, Richard, Rob. and all the others...and of course lil' Richman! Some other people I met like Marianne, Julia and Thea from Trondheim, Norway and the Gogo people.
• Sarah from Boston, America, with who I went to Pompeii, Napoli and the beautiful beach of Positano.
• Tycho and Willem from Holland who were staying in the same hostel in Napoli.
• Habib and his two friends, I spoke with them on the ferry to Djerba in Tunisia. Their plan was to cycle all the way back home to Tunis!
• Esté from South Africa who I met at the Colosseum in El Jem, Tunisia.
• Billy (William) from America and Joshua and his friend both from Quebec, Canada.
• Carien and Marga who shared the same dorm in the hostel in Istanbul who turned out to be friends with my best friends (not because they live in Delft, not because they go to the same University, but because their fathers used to go to the same University) thanks for taking my Lonely Planet back to Holland!!
• Georgio, a school teacher from Milano, Italy who I also met in Istanbul. We travelled together to Göreme.
• Evren from Trabzon, Turkey. I met him at the Dolmus station.
• Şahin with who I spoke German while waiting for the bus to Kars, east Turkey.
• Vivian and David from Quebec, Canada. They were staying in the same hotel in Kars, Turkey. We went out for dinner and a hunt afterwards for Turkeys desert.
• Moran from Israel! I met her in Tbilisi, Georgia.
• Tattoo designer Nico from Switserland and his girlfriend Annika from Poland.
• The Korean friends Ji Yoon and Sura from Seoul.
• Gert and his girlfriend staying in the same guest-house in the nature of Dilijan, Armenia. With them we had to share a jar of vodka during dinner every evening because it was Azerbaijan hospitality. The strongest vodka I ever had, even stronger than Absinthe.
• 'Bobby' and Amir from Iran, also in the same guest-house we cycled all the way from Tehran.
• Ilgar who let me sleep at his house in Seki, Azerbaijan.
• Anna and Karola from Poland who I met in Baku, Azerbaijan.
• Colleagues Sue and Rizki working for the Korean embassy in Baku, Azerbaijan.
• Ainhoa and Oscar, the crazy Spanish friends with who I travelled a few days through the north of Iran.
• Hoorie and her friends from Tehran who we met on the balcony of the hotel room next door in Masuleh, Iran.
• Monsieur Renaud from France and Patrick from Switzerland. I met them in the hostel in Esfahan, Iran. I traveled for two weeks around in Iran with Renaud.
• Niloofar, Narges and Milad from Esfahan, who we accidentally met because I thought Milad was a waiter in the pizza place. They all spoke German and English. They took us to their house for drinking tea and smoking Shiza where we met his neighbour and her child with a pigeon as house-animal.
• Mena from Germany, feeling Dutch for living a long time in Holland who we coincidentally met three times in Shiraz, Yazd and Tehran.
• Dina from Kazachstan and Christan from Germany with who I had a big big laugh in the hostel of Yazd.
• Joop and Carolien. We met in the hostel on Bohol, Philippines.
• Xiao from China. She occupied the bed next to me in my first night-train during my trip in China.
• Edward from England and Yang from China. We met in the hostel in 凤凰.
• Jullien from Belgium. We met in Shanghai, climbed mount Huangshan and met again in Beijing, China.
• Nicola, Phoebe and Nicholas were my day trip buddies to the great wall of China. A beautiful experience! Both during the walk-walk as getting there and away.
• Ling who lives with her grandmother in Tianjin, China. I met Ling in the hostel in Xi'an while making dumplings. Later I came to visit her and couchsurf at her place.
• Jonas from Sweden. He was the first person I met on arrival on Borneo, Malaysia, at the airport. We went to te same hostel, continued travelling through Brunei, and 2 weeks later, after two visits to Kota Kinabalu, I met him on the bus, he heading for the beach, me heading for my second Kinabalu climb.
• Alex from England who is spending a few months on mount Kinabalu for research about the rocks of the mountain, to finish his University back in the UK. We spent time in the same hostel and during my descend of Kinabaku I met him near the foot of the mountain taking notes in the rain.
• Talya, Rick and Brian from all over in America. We kept meeting and overtaking each other during the climb on Mount Kinabalu and in the evening we had long talks during dinner.
• Jennifer and Will, she from Canada, he from England. We met as we shared the taxi with 3 others from mount Kinabalu back to Kota Kinabalu. We travelled together to Kuching and back to Kota Kinabalu. It was with them, flying not alone the first time during this trip.
• Also in Kota Kinabalu I met Aimann from Kuala Lumpur and Marloes and Marlies from Holland.

Then there are all the peoples I met in KL, Sanders girl-friend Wai Ling through who I met many of her friends, my ex-colleagues from England and their partners and friends.

I am sure I have forgotten to mention some people of who I cannot think right now. If you went through the whole list, I am sure you noticed I met many people with who I spent time and who I didn't forget about and who made an impression on me.
Every day new experiences, every day new faces, every day loads of moments which makes me forget many other moments...impossible to remember all these experiences. A shame though...

People sometimes ask me if fun to travel alone...well, they shouldn't ask me because I wonder if I am ever alone ;)
Below some of the faces of my trip, thanks to facebook.