Introduction
Welcome to my world of exploration and adventure! My name is Szymon, and I am traveler and explorer. I was born in 1982 in the fascinating city of Wrocław. Growing up at the end of Poland’s communist era, crossing borders seemed unthinkable. However, with the lifting of the dark clouds of communism in 1989, a new age of possibilities appeared. I got the opportunity to visit family in Germany in 1991. Despite the fact that the voyage took a long 24 hours with 8 h waiting time at border crossings, it opened my eyes to the treasures that exist outside our local surroundings.
Moving ahead to now, the world has experienced enormous changes. Borders have grown more accessible, and previously erected obstacles have mostly been removed. The journey that used to take 24 hours may now be done in 7 hours. The ability to travel and explore has become an important part of our lives, bringing up a world of opportunities and establishing worldwide relationships.
These shifting times, as well as my love of discovery, have molded my own path. My experiences have motivated me to search out the world’s riddles, from my studies. At first I wanted to study astronomy but I was convinced that physics would be better, but after a semester of counting integrals and calculating the angle of incidence of water shot with a certain pressure of the water column.
I decided that economics would be more interesting, but I ended up studying computer science where I first obtained the title of computer science engineer (this is extended bachelor’s degree where you study one semester longer and receive the title of engineer) in the field of operating systems and networks, and then the title of Master of Computer Science at the Wrocław University of Technology, Faculty of Electronics, specialization in Internet engineering. My experiences have motivated me to search out the world’s riddles, from my studies in physics , economics, and computer science to my job at the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnology. I met my future wife, Anna, a PhD archaeologist, at the Institute, and we have traveled the world together on several adventures.
Our journeys together take us to places that are not obvious, they are not places where every tourist will go straight away. The whole world is already in these obvious places, so are we! However, we try to see these local “treasures”. For example, a village in the Alps where we are the attraction, a small town in Sicily where everyone speaks the local Italian dialect and nothing can be understood. Or in a town in Brittany, France, where it is hard to find a single place with an English menu, but a local fisherman who runs a small shop knows the entire over 1000-year history of Poland.
The Charms of Wrocław
My story began in the city of Wrocław, therefore let’s begin our tour there. My city in western Poland, is a tapestry of historical wonders and a thriving cultural scene. Wrocław is an interesting city, the history goes back 1000 years. What you probably don’t know about Wrocław is that it is called the city of bridges, we have over 120 of them and 12 inland islands located on the Oder River.
My Travels
90s
As I have already mentioned, began in the 90s and 20th century. Just then, together with my family, I was in the high Swiss Alps, Bretatni in France, I saw Italy, but we also drove from Wrocław through the Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria to Greece, which in the mid-90s was an experience, later in my adult life I will return to some of these places . And so, for example, the journey in 1996 looked like this. Departure from Wrocław by coach to the border crossing Boboszów (Poland – Czech Republic), then changing the coach to the Czech one (so far I don’t know why ;)). We drove a new bus through the Czech Republic to the border crossing with Slovakia. Then through the Rajka crossing and travel through Hungary until the Battonya crossing (Hungary – Romania). Journey through Romania to the Danube border. In that period, miracles happened on this border. First of all, there was no bridge, only a ferry that smuggled everything that could be smuggled. At the border on the Bulgarian side, an officer of the border troops with a Kalashnikov boarded as a “bodyguard”. He said that the whole bus is to be dumped in dollars on him and he will go with us to the border crossing with Greece in Promachonas. And that’s how it happened. In Greece, the journey took place normally, as befits Greece, calmly and in a laid-back style. Let’s understand each other, it was a vacation bought normally from a travel agency, it had only unusual extras. Distance about 2000 km, travel time 2 days.
2000-2012
In those years I traveled mainly around the regions of the Polish-German-Czech borderland, Polish Pomerania, but also further to the Tunisian-Algerian borderland. Also to places like where Star Wars or Gladiator was filmed.
During this time, I started a journey that would have a lasting impact on my soul. With its fascinating history, vibrant cultures, and captivating scenery, North Africa beckoned. I stepped into the sands and dove into the mysteries of this alluring place with a sense of curiosity and a desire to discover new vistas.
After 2012
After 2012, I returned to long-distance trips. What is long distance travel? Work allowed me to take a long vacation of about 4 weeks, that’s when we got in the car together and traveled around Europe. One of our trips that we made in 2016 took us on a route that totaled almost 10,000 kilometers. From our Wroclaw, we drove to Munich in Germany, then through the High Alpine Road in Austria to the north of Italy, near Palmanova and to Aquilaia. The next day we covered over 800 km to Pompeii where, after staying overnight, we went to the ferry crossing to Sicily. Over the next week we drove around Sicily. Then we crossed the ferry to the mainland, where we spent the night in Bari and Alberobello, went to the vicinity of Rome, and then to Sienna, where we stayed for a week. Then we went to Switzerland where, living in Saas Grund, we managed to reach The Klein Matterhorn 3883 meters above sea level. Then through Bern in Zurich we reached the border with Germany and then we reached Wrocław.
Solo Trips
Lately, I’ve been trying to do? “Solo Trip”, i.e. short lonely trips to interesting places. A good example is a trip to Svalbard in the middle of the polar night, where the temperature on a good morning is -30 C, and during dog sledding it drops to -50 C. A few years ago I thought that for my 40th birthday (in the year of my 40th birthday) I would like to do something special. I had various ideas quite by chance after talking with my neighbor, the idea of going to Tromso to observe the Northern Lights hatched. Unfortunately, this idea didn’t work out. However, he allowed me to develop this idea and so the plan of the trip was made in December, in the middle of the polar night when there is no sun on Svalbard (24 hours a day is night! ). Managed to spend a week in Longyearbye. The experience was amazing.
