Like a Japanese tourist

Read / lees in : Nederlands

With the raw technobeats still resonating in my ears I returned to Bosnia (and Herzegovina too). I had just enough time to spare to return to Mostar, to see the Red Bull professionals jump off the bridge, but after that I had to hurry. Because a few months earlier I promised my friends that I’d join them once again when they’d go on ‘mens weekend’. The annual event where they had to mis me for a couple of years now. Normally I stay a month if not more in every country I pass through. But now, because I already paid for the mens weekend, I had to race through Bosnia, Croatia, Slovenia, Italy, France, Andorra and Spain so I’d be in Porto on time. So like a genuine Japanese tourist with my camera glued to my eye I raced through Southern Europe. I only lingered a bit in Slovenia.

I treated myself to a day in Venice so I could drink the most expensive cup of coffee ever. Made a picture of the slant tower in Pisa en was able to fit in an overnight stop in Andorra. After that a few days in Spain, who were by the way amazing. It makes all the difference if you’re in a bar gulping wine and devouring tapas when you speak the lingo, and can chat away with everyone. And because I’m the man that has seen more churches, mosques and temples from the inside in this life and the next than anybody else in the world, I completed the race with a visit of the most sacred of all holy places, Santiago de Compostela. Where the pilgrims, after their long walk, filled with joy and happiness, sit down after they reached their final destination: the square next to the cathedral. One day later I finally reached Porto, and completed another milestone of my trip around the world. Because I reached the Atlantic coast. That might not seem very spectaculair, but I am pretty proud of the fact that I managed to steer my car from the Gulf of Thailand overland to the Atlantic. Now I only have to get to the Cape of Good Hope for a picture so I can finally go on vacation.