Four years ago I published the first post on this blog. It was about how it all started, the travelling thing. It goes back almost fifteen years when I studied in Milan. Little I knew but judging from my current perspective this was the first big breakthrough of my adult life. Suddenly the map of my world grew and showed many blank places that I wanted to explore. I was lucky to work as an academic for almost ten years. I feel privileged that my job brought me to the remote location of this globe. I travelled the world and participated in a variety of scientific conferences. The more I saw, the more I wanted to see. At the same time, my passion for the travel literature grew and I started a transformation of my home office into a library. I discovered the best travel book ever written. It is The Way of the World by Nicolas Bouvier. It still is my favourite book, even though I travelled around the world, followed his footsteps in Ireland and Japan, and turned into a philosopher of travelling. Eventually, the urge to explore the world became overwhelming. I used the end of my research contract at the University of Nottingham as an excuse for focusing on travelling per se. The travelling became my job, hobby and the way of life. I never turned it into an obsession or a mindless collection of places, national parks or countries. My travels were always slow, focused on meetings with people, reading books, or just hanging around, visiting the same place more than once, often in different seasons. Off the beaten track I went. The big question of why and how people travel always intrigued me. Naturally, my research brought me to a point when I wanted sharing my experiences with others. Thus, here is the big news: the first publication of my book called “Podróżując” (On Travelling) will be soon available in Polish. I wrote it to share my philosophy of travelling. By telling a story of the journey around the world, I explained many aspects related to anthropology, cultural studies, linguistics and social relations. Above all, thanks to my Polish language teacher, I spent countless hours on raising my linguistic competencies to make sure this book is simply beautiful, clear and easy to understand. For a while, I considered publishing it with an ordinary publishing house but then I realised that this book is not only about the thoughts, not only about the content. I thought that it should be published by myself to influence the whole process, decide on every small detail so it became a beautiful object. Instead of colourful pictures, you’ll find there a series of sketches by my artist friend Natalia. The cover designed by Jarek tells you a story about the journey that turns into the way of life. I devoted to this book almost two years of my life to make sure it meets the highest standards. In order to do so, I did not submit it to any random publishing house. The time has come. Ladies and gentlemen, here is the second big news: I established a publishing house. Yeah! Hurray! Together with my beloved husband, we created an enterprise called Null&Full. The company we have owned for a couple of years promotes conscious travelling. Under one umbrella it offers guided tours in Ferrara, runs this blog and finally, publishes travel literature. Our aim is to raise awareness and promote discussion about the modern travels. In our recently established publishing house, we shall focus all our efforts on finding the best pieces ever written, pick up sketches and illustrations, work on a layout, choose the right colours, and publish them as works of art. As for now, we publish our books in Polish but we shall do our best to publish the book “On Travelling” in English too. We will keep you informed regarding the process of translation and about the date of publication. We strongly believe this is another wonderful journey that we shall share with you. Keep your fingers crossed!    

The post The Big News. Or Even Two. appeared first on Null & Full.

So, I’ve just got back home after almost 100 days of travel around the world. Needless to say, this was a fantastic time! Travel around the world has a particular flavour: not only is a lifetime dream for many but also provides a particular set of experiences collected in a short piece of time. My travel was exotic, tiresome, full of wonders, tough, interesting, fascinating and rich in everything else imaginable. I hope it is your dream too. And if it is, read this guide before you go. And do everything you can to make this journey meaningful. Too many things I know that this one sounds so trivial. I know that everybody repeats it over and over again. But it is because it is true! Even if I was aware of that and I limited myself to one suitcase shared with my companion it was still too much. And it was not about the clothes that I always take the same but about books. I couldn’t limit myself to one and so I took few and it was few too much. So what happened was that from New Zealand I sent few things home, including a large part of my library. It was also related to the new regulation made by some airlines which are rigid rules on luggage. I don’t mind the weight limit, but I thought we can easily spread one suitcase of 25kg to 2 people and for the whole trip having our luggage checked-in was a nightmare. MY ADVICE: most of the airlines do not allow sharing the luggage and are very strict regarding the actual weight. Not to mention 3 scales of the same airline at the same airport show different weight. So my advice is this: leave home with a suitcase limited to 20kg because you’ll get few extra things along the way. And when you do, you’ll struggle at every luggage check-in procedure. Meetings Yes, meeting people is important but don’t push yourself too much. Even though this is one of the reasons why we all travel in the first place, try to think about yourself for a while. Each meeting of a new person means you’ll need to tell your story. And, however, fascinating it might be, when you say it ten times a week is not that fascinating anymore. It is a sort of trade: you tell your story to listen to a story of somebody else, but even this has limits! MY ADVICE: I tried to stick to at most 2-3 meetings a week and it was more than enough! For somebody else it might be more for the others it might be less, but it’s important to keep a good balance between being only with yourself and meeting others. Everlasting struggle What I found challenging during this travel was a constant need to discipline my mind in order to stay focused on the present. Having next three months scheduled I could easily get distracted and rather watching and enjoying with what I see in present I could think about places and time to come. I think this is really difficult but telling myself few times that present is all I have, helped. I consider this the most important element of a proper mindset. MY ADVICE: Always discipline your mind focusing on the present. Don’t plan too much and enjoy every day. Time management It was hard to follow time zone changes. Even if I stayed for weeks in one place, it brought many misunderstandings in skype scheduling. I had few important meetings over skype and G+ hangout and being there at the right time for all participants was always difficult. MY ADVICE: I don’t have any other advice to give despite planning in through Google Calendar and sending direct invitations with proper time zone. Unhealthy conditions of work I have always used to make fun of Work Safety procedures, but I think this journey taught me a good lesson: after a couple of weeks of typing when sitting on my bed my wrists started hurting. And it looks like this trend continued when I proceed with my journey. Unfortunately, hotels and AirBnB rooms rarely have something that looks like a desk, not to mention comfort place to work. MY ADVICE: The moment you notice returning pain is the right moment to act. I was using bandage to stiff my wrist and when pain was really sharp I was using a painkilling cream and 2 days offline (which is the best remedy, really). Also, it made me more conscious of choosing places to work. Give me a break! Traveling is so demanding that you sometimes just need a break. It’s not possible to go home every now and then just because you don’t feel well in a place, so here is how to deal with it. Stick to the places you are familiar with. When I was in Hong Kong – a place that drained me out in just a few days – I had to visit Starbucks. It was just too much for me. The language that I didn’t understand, food that I didn’t like, noise, dirt and rude people everywhere – it all made me miserable. So just to keep my balance I stayed in Starbucks for two hours or so just not to watch Chinese characters everywhere, not to be pushed all the time and just not thinking about how crazy this place is. MY ADVICE: Don’t be ashamed to visit chain restaurants and places you are familiar with. Just because you sit in McDonalds for an hour will not turn you into a lousy traveler. Sometimes it is the cheapest remedy and is a sign of being resourcefulness rather than anything else. Always return home The journey with no end is a big temptation. If you travel long enough it turns into a lifestyle. A dreadful one, to be honest. It cuts your relationships at home, it forces you to eat unhealthy food (not always but often it...

The post Travel around the world – ultimate guide by a survivor appeared first on Null & Full.

My journey around the world is over. I returned home safe and sound. It will take me a while to bring you all amazing adventures I had, to share pictures and videos so let me just share some highlights of this journey. Slow travel Telling the truth, this was the best part of the whole plan: do it slowly, so as a result I stayed more than 2 weeks in the same place, with the exception of Hong Kong. It worked really well. Two weeks is enough to get friendly with people around, get your bearings, enjoy your stay, figure out how public transportation works, and, most of all, experience how people live in remote locations visited. I don’t know whether this would work for everybody, but I would argue that staying in the same place for longer than few days is beneficial to a general well-being and increases the quality of the journey. Small amusement Each journey, even if the most cost-effective, call for the small amusement along the way. It is really useless to travel around the world and limit yourself just to sleep and eat cheaply. Limiting yourself to the basic needs make the whole adventure stressful, money focused and, after a while, monotonous. Although my trip wasn’t neither budget nor luxury I balanced all my needs on an everyday basis. And from time to time I spoil myself with an evening at the cinema, sweets at Moomins’ Cafe and other things that I really like. It not only made my journey pleasant but also allowed me to experience the way people do things in places I visited. I often tried to capture their way of spending free time and relaxing and it worked pretty well. Meeting people This was one of the most rewarding experiences along the way: meeting people and listening to their stories. I am deeply satisfied with all new friends I met. It is always helpful to know the language so the most difficult and challenging country was Japan, as I don’t speak Japanese. But even there I met two Italian girls and one Japanese guy who were willing to share their stories with me. Keeping my habits This was a real struggle: keeping my jogging routine. I took running shoes and gear with me which was a sacrifice itself because it occupied literally half of my luggage. I tried to stick to jogging at least 3 times a week, but I must admit I didn’t make it. I run a lot on Rarotonga and Auckland, plus I cycled a lot but I was not able to run as much as I wanted nor needed. It was way too cold in Japan and way to hilly in New Zealand, but I was able to run little less than 100 km in these 3 months. After my return home I’m running every second day and feel much better. Sustainable travel I think that many of my colleagues from the blogging community pursue a lifestyle that is unsustainable in a long term perspective. After a year or two of traveling many of them are struggling with obesity, insomnia, being tired or even exhausted all the time. There are many reasons for that and traveling as an activity is really demanding. If someone is telling you it is effortless he or she is lying, because it is not. On the contrary: far from it! And although I think my way of traveling is still missing a bit of care for myself I consider it way above the average bloggers’ journey. Traveling is surprisingly similar to everyday life and if you don’t make an effort to do jogging or eat healthy food the travel will not make it for you. Best things Many people ask me: What was the best about this journey? And is it hard to reply in one phrase, but if you asked me what I consider the best element of this journey I would say: return home. Seriously! The moment I entered my house was the moment of true happiness. Does this make me a lousy traveler? On the contrary, I think. I’m having now time for digesting all information, emotions, impressions, tastes, smells, meetings, smiles, well literally everything I experienced. I need to stay with this for a while to fully appreciate it and enjoy all of my adventures. So although I’ll travel a bit next few months I’m going to focus on telling the stories that I brought with me. OK, true, second best thing about this journey was a stay in Kyoto with a book by Nicolas Bouvier in my hand. This is my favorite way of traveling: reading a book about the place I’m in. Truly fabulous experience! And highly recommended too. This long journey showed me how important it is to have a home. Surprise Last, but now least, I was writing a diary for the whole journey and it looks like a lot of materials to deal with but I’m really hoping to work on it and publish it as a book. I will keep you posted when I have more details. For now, please read my posts from a travel around the world and keep your fingers crossed!  

The post Quick Look At my RTW journey appeared first on Null & Full.

I always wanted to travel around the world. It was very close last year when I traveled to New Zealand and back. But this year I am literally traveling around the world. The journey starts this Saturday in Paris and will end in February 2015. I am beyond excited to share this news with you and I am anxiously looking forward to this journey. Travel around the world should be epic. Not only because of places you visit but for two very particular reasons: you always go in one direction (west, in my case), and you cross The International Date Line only once. In my case I’ll cross it flying from Rarotonga on Cook Island to Auckland in New Zealand. Dream Since the lecture of Around the World in Eighty Days by Jules Verne my imagination was dominated by a thought that one day I will travel around the world. Not necessarily in 80 days nor as a result of a bet. But reading the adventures of Phileas Fogg I was pretty sure I will share his travel. This was a powerful reading and I still like this book very much (especially because I have a very old edition that my Dad got in a primary school). Although books are really important in this story there is much more than that! Slow I always do my best to travel slow. I never count countries, national parks or UNESCO world heritage sites visited. I often go to the same place more than once. I enjoy seeing the same place in every possible season.   Slow immersion in places is my thing. And this is the project for this journey too: at least 2 weeks in every location. I stretched my stay in New Zealand to 5 weeks so I could join the summer and outstanding landscapes. The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies movie premiere is also in my schedule just as a visit in Matamata filming location that I missed last time. Countries and languages I prefer traveling to countries that I think I am able to understand. Starting with the language end ending with the local celebrations. You may say: how limited your image of the world is! But I see it quite differently. Most of all I appreciate when I am able to contact ordinary people, discuss issues important to them and simply feel like at home. Tradition and celebrations – equally important – are hard to understand without the previous background. And I am not satisfied with superficial “Awww, that’s cute!”. Thus, I am not lying to myself that I can fully appreciate India or Tanzania because I can’t. There is no way I can feel close to the people and their everyday life so  I chose to visit the countries I know about in advance even if it comes for a price. Books My favorite way of traveling is reading a book first and visiting a place afterwards. The world described by somebody in the past is precious. And reading books makes my travel multidimensional. I can compare how things has changed which always fascinates me. After all, comparative education field of research was my job for years! Old habits die hard. Through books about places I visit  I can feel the place with all my senses. I can stretch my perception and imagination. I can fully appreciate of what I see. I can see the history behind objects, monuments and buildings. I can try to understand the present through the past. Now, I’m not saying I am always perfect and I am always successful but at least I am trying very hard to see not only what is visible for the eye. I often carry a book with me about a place I visit and this time it is Nicolas Bouvier masterpiece:  The Japanese Chronicles. Yes, I will go to Japan, I will walk around Tokyo and Kyoto and Nara and will be reading HIS book at the very same time. What else I could ever wanted? I hope to bring you all the places visited as close as possible. Through the social media channels you can follow my journey and share my adventures. See the map below to know the itinerary and stay tuned for more! [UPDATE] …and here is the first post after I got back home!  

The post My Travel Around The World appeared first on Null & Full.

I was very happy when I found out that Eland Publishing House decided to publish a new book by my favorite author Nicolas Bouvier. It is titled The Scorpion – Fish and I read it two days after Eland sent it to me. A very different book from the other Bouvier’s one but immensely fascinating. As we all well remember, Bouvier published his first book titled The Way of the World telling a story of a long journey taken with his friend Thierry Vernet by a small Fiat Topolino in early 50s last century. This book is a breathtaking adventurous story full of delight with ordinary people and love towards ethnic music. Right after reaching India Bouvier settled in Ceylon (Sri Lanka nowadays) for about 9 months. He published his memories years after his stay on Ceylon but at the time of writing them he was tired with an overwhelming epic journey he took and found himself deep in troubles. Ceylon was probably not the best place for a holiday: excessively warm took his turn on Bouvier from the first day. He summarized later that the main task to all people living on Ceylon is doing nothing just to survive another day until dark. He found the whole island draining and very hard to understand. Lonely, poor and sick he found it difficult to deal with everyday life. In such circumstances he was still able to produce a high quality articles about his recent travel through Middle East, published it in a prestigious journal from Colombo and got the money earned to escape to Japan immediately. When he finally left Ceylon he wrote very clearly: I stayed here for 9 months, and about 8 months too long. The whole book is like Ceylonese air: thick, intense and heavy. The author finds it difficult to distinguish reality from his dreams. In order not to get mad for most of the time Bouvier contemplates bug’s live. Local bugs of all sizes and shapes is a case study with lots of similarities to human social live. With some brakes for a short conversation with landlord or an owner of a local shop Bouvier admire perfect organization of insects’ world. At the same time this is a fascinating journey deep into his own soul, with disturbing letter from his mother, a wedding invitation from ex-girlfriend and so much more! Just recently I had enormous pleasure to talk to Nicolas Bouvier translator: Robyn Marsack. This exceptional lady translated The Scorpion Fish from french. Our conversation was delightful! She shared some of her memories with me and I got known she met Bouvier personally and that he supervised the translation process! What a blast! I will share more on Robyn’s work in early 2015 with you so stay with me! For all Bouvier’s literature fans this book is a must read! I enjoyed it immensely and I am sure I will get back to it every now and then…  

The post Book review: The Scorpion – Fish appeared first on Null & Full.

A month ago publishing house Eland got in touch with me referring to my short review of Nicolas Bouvier book The Way of The World, which is my favorite of all times. They sent me a parcel afterwards with a delightful content: 3 travel books to review! I was so happy when I got this parcel from my postman. And just today I’ve finished reading the first book: “Full Tilt. Ireland to India with a Bicycle” by Dervla Murphy. And I am ready to tell you if this book is worthy to read. No spoilers! Promise. One of the best thing in this book is its sincerity and authenticity. At the very beginning of this book author explains her reasons why she did not add any general information about the countries she visited afterwards. And I really appreciate it even if at first I thought this might be a bad idea. On the contrary. This book is a plain and very personal diary of a brave woman who dared to make her dream come true. Riding a bike from Europe to India is a huge physical challenge even today and Dervla was a single woman and did it over 50 years ago. This dream driven journey was not an easy one and every page of this books confirms the truth: nothing worth having comes easy. I think I appreciate this book not only for its sincerity but also for making this journey far from trivial. Obviously, the world has changed in the last 50 years and travels have never been easier than today. And I think reading books like this one captures the essence of traveling as deep human action. Dervla had a certain level of self consciousness: she wanted meeting people just who they are and how they live but she knew her limitations. Even though her biking through the half of the world was extraordinary and she did it as simple as she could she was meeting these people as a guest. A nice one, admired one, open minded and delighted about the places visited but at the end of the day she was always a guest. And she knew it. She did not allow herself to believe that sooner or later she would become a local. What I really love about her book is that she hadn’t tried to convince the reader that she becomes friends with people she met in a minute without even knowing their language. Although I believe in some sort of familiarity with others the full and deep understanding of exotic cultures does not come easy. Not only time spent in this journey – over half a year – gave Dervla a luxury of slow and delightful sinking into the countries and cultures. Going further, her philosophy of traveling is straightforward, and yet so difficult to obtain today! Just as she says “…the general attitude to my conception of traveling, which I once took for granted as normal behaviour but which strikes most people as wild eccentricity, merely because it involves a certain amount of what is now regarded as hardship but was to all our ancestors a feature of everyday life – using physical energy to get from point A to point B” (Murphy, 2010:143). Combination of self sacrifice, effort, endurance, determination and “driving one’s body far beyond the limits of its natural endurance” (p. 193) granted her right to see, smell, touch and hear the exotic world. Just as it was. To my surprise, even 50 years ago there were people to whom traveling was just an expensive hobby. After meeting one of them Dervla said: “To them, travel is more a going away from rather than going towards, and they seem empty and unhappy and bewildered and pathetically anxious for companionship, yet are afraid to commit themselves to any ideal or cause or other individual” (italics original, Murphy, 2010:95). Reading these words and knowing she noticed it in the early 60. was fascinating. I got the impression that the main effort of travelers nowadays is focused on security, live updates and taking pictures rather than traveling for real. Once, there were many virtues crafted through traveling, like being resourceful, but it’s lost now. I think that the most beautiful picture from this book was the one when very tired and starved Dervla was helped to cross a white water by a cow. She caught the cow one hand and her bike the other and crossed the river. How cool is that? Last thing that I like about this book is referred to sharing her emotions like fear, anger caused by helplessness towards bureaucracy, homesickness, sadness, joy and delight. Dervla did it in perfect proportions: I didn’t feel overwhelmed with the description of the situations that caused these emotions but it was powerful enough to be touched. I highly recommend reading this book to everybody who treat traveling seriously. Reading this book will bring you a huge bonus of crossing countries that are not there anymore, (like Persia), visiting places that have been irreversibly changed, and witnessing a sensitive process of knowing The Other. About Dervla Murphy Dervla Murphy is a legend and Fill Tilt was her first book published ever. She wrote twenty other books afterwards but the first one reviewed here is very special. She currently lives in Ireland and – this might shock you – she still travels! Dervla is very Irish through both sides of her family. Indeed her father and aunt Kathleen were freedom fighters in the IRA struggling against British rule over Ireland. She still lives in the town she was born in where her father worked as the librarian. All pictures and note about author courtesy of Eland Publishing House.  

The post Full Tilt by Dervla Murphy: a fantastic adventure appeared first on Null & Full.

It’s St. Patrick’s Day today! The whole world celebrates the patron of Ireland and so do I. Ireland is a wonderful country and due to its long and turbulent history it has very particular traditions, culture, music, language and feasts. Following this important tradition of remembering the saints and patrons I am sharing few impressions from my first stay in Ireland. It’s been almost a year since I went there for the first time so it is good to reflect a bit about it. My impressions from the Green Ireland were published on website of a local tour operator Tour Ireland. Read it right here and stay green in St. Patrick’s Day!    

The post Guest Post: St. Patrick’s Day! appeared first on Null & Full.

I blame Nicolas Bouvier for many things. For my love for books, travel and delight with the world. I have never met him. He died sixteen years ago after a filfulling life of a traveler and a writer. Not meeting him in person is one of my biggest regrets in life. Fortunately what he left is more than we could hope for. So here is my tribute to this amazing man. I’ll share some thoughts on his first and best known book: The Way of the World (published originally in French, under the title L’Usage du Monde, published in English by Eland). This book is a masterpiece. In order to write it Nicolas Bouvier threw himself into a one year and a half journey from Geneva to India first, and was writing it for five years afterwards. Five years! I still cannot believe in his determination. But this book justifies it with every page and every chapter. My favorite thing about it is the essence of a real journey: the author exclude any rush from his travel. He had time to stay in a place for few weeks of months. He allowed himself to become friends with local people. He got close to the ethnic music and local celebrations. He struggled with obstacles (formalities when crossing borders), difficulties (breakdown of the car), and eventually reached his destination. He showed real determination although he was not brutal nor impatient. He played this game according to its rules. And this is why he got back rich and full of places, people and their stories. My favorite scene described in this book is referred to difficult situation and reaction of the author. Imagine your car broke down, in a middle of nowhere (literally!), no human activity as far as your sight reaches, no chances for help. And what Nicolas Bouvier does? He gets out of the car, sits under the tree and smokes his cigaret while contemplating amazing view of the valley. Eventually every difficulty is resolvable. The help came even though they had to spend night in a car under the tree in the middle of nowhere. But the view of night sky stayed with him forever. I wish every travel author was so careful about details, so open and so patient. In the traveling community nowadays this is hard to find. People tend to run around like mad looking for another amazing spot they can photograph and share it on their social media. I think this is a very good opportunity to remind us all what the real journey is about: to allow yourself to get transformed by it. And to never cease to delight with the world as it is. This is not the only post about Nicolas Bouvier on this blog. If you are interested in his stay on the Aran Island you can read it here.  

The post Remembering Nicolas Bouvier appeared first on Null & Full.

“The island is owned by those who were determined enough to transform a pure grey rock into rich green garden- a paradise of botanists and ornithologists. When you watch the island from the western cliffs you see a chess board made of stone walls, which- when arranged in a line would be twelve thousands kilometers long- keeps this island like a fishing net and proofs that the Irish tales about being lazy is a pack of lies.” Nicolas Bouvier, Journal d’Aran et d’autres lieux. When I started my journey to the Aran Islands I had an idea to check everything what Nicolas Bouvier wrote about this place. It’s not trivial to have an opportunity to visit a place described in literature that has little changed even if almost thirty years passed. I went there without a detailed plan just to let myself to feel the place. Nicolas Bouvier was on this island twice and his second visit in 1985 resulted in a short publication of his travel journal from the islands. I read this book so many times that I have known it by heart. I started from meeting with people who might- at least theoretically- remember Nicolas, so every local I met heard a story about Michael Hernon- the driver, Steve and his uncle who worked in the USA and came back in early 80s and constructed one of the first B&B facility on the island. The only problem was that the surname Hernon is very popular on the island. As a result I met one Michael Hernon who lives in Kilmurvy but despite having an emigration episode in his life it wasn’t him. In a meantime I met at least five people who did their very best to find the proper Michael Hernon (special thanks to: Colette, Penny, Mairtin, Gearoid and John). Second difficulty was related to the migration stories: the majority of the islanders went to the US or has someone in their families who worked in the US. When I was telling my story about an uncle who was working in cleaning industry first and in a cloakroom of exclusive restaurant later surprisingly many people thought it was THEIR uncle. There was not enough details in a book to identify the cottage where Nicolas Bouvier stayed. Finally, I met Michael Hernon- the one who was providing guided tours and transportation to Nicolas Bouvier. What a feeling! He is a charming person and no wonder that Nicolas Bouvier described him as kind, polite and sensitive. He was kind enough to spend an afternoon with me at the local pub chatting about the past. Although the island is somehow peripheral to the rest of the country the modern times have not forgotten about the Aran Islands. For last thirty years the quality of life has significantly increased. People are well connected to the outside world and they mainly work in tourism rather than agriculture or fishery. The times described by Nicolas Bouvier on fishing in Norway which lasted a month and the equal share of fishes caught have passed away. But people are still hard workers here. And most of them totally happy about their lives. When live on the island became too difficult due to the crisis, the islanders- instead of complaining and doing nothing- went to the US. The majority of them got back and renovated their houses or contructed new ones, just as the statistics shows: since the late 80s population is stable. On this island only stone and human are able to survive. The stones because they’re tough and unchangeable. Humans because they’re tough and very changeable. I got the impression that the main duty of the islanders is their adaptation to the circumstances and challenges. And that’s precisely what they do. Next episode of this story is here.    

The post Good times, bad times. The Islanders. appeared first on Null & Full.

No surprises: I’m reading Nicolas Bouvier books all the time. Again and again and I always find some interesting quotes and thrilling descriptions of visited places. This time of the year I’m reading the Journal d’Aran at d’autres lieux. I’m planning to go to Aran late spring. We’ll see how it goes, but to celebrate today’s anniversary here is a lovely quote I found in his diary.  

The post 15th anniversary of Nicolas Bouvier’s death appeared first on Null & Full.