Shoestring Soul Searching #6: The Entire Eurasian Landmass

Ok, maybe not the entire Eurasian landmass. But I did stop in Kazakhstan, Georgia, and Turkey so that’s covering a fair amount of ground. I stand by my title.

In Kazakhstan, I did a day hike in the Tian Shan range to “warm up” for my subsequent multiday trek in Georgia. This warmup ended up being one of the hardest things I have ever done. Do not underestimate the Tian Shan. On a side note, these mountains are allegedly where the genetic predecessor of modern apples comes from.

In Georgia, I trekked 57 kilometers through the Svaneti region in the Caucasus Mountains, passing through villages and defensive towers from the 12th century and fueled by an endless supply of cheese, bread, and wine provided along the way.

In Turkey I was reunited with the official girlfriend of this newsletter. While I was writing you kimchi fart jokes last month, she went to Nepal and casually got her yoga teaching certification. Show-off.

And a thousand other stories, including getting smacked with birch branches at a banya (loved it), finding myself caught in a street protest, and waiting patiently while Tiff fed every cat in Istanbul.

Nerding out

Traveling across such a wide swath of land, one notices the sweeping tides of geography and history that shaped our world. For example, learning that the mountains I climbed in Kazakhstan one week and in Georgia the next, thousands of miles apart, are part of one mega world range created from a tectonic collision that’s been ongoing since dinosaurs roamed the Earth.

Also worth noting the horse, which was first domesticated in this corner of the planet more than 5,000 years ago and may have had more impact on how we live today than any manmade invention. They thrived feeding on the limitless grassland in this region and once they were bred strong and large enough to support an adult human’s weight, became history’s most effective fighting machine until the Industrial Revolution. They’re the reason I’m writing to you in English as opposed to say, Minoan, and why every girl’s Lisa Frank binder in the third grade had a rainbow pony on it.

It’s kind of terrifying and endlessly fascinating at the same time. This is the stuff I could spend all day thinking about. Would anyone like to pay me to keep rambling about this?

Reflecting on the path traveled

We started this journey in Taiwan and now we’re in Europe. I want to spend a minute to take that in. That’s 9,037 kilometers between them, which is 98,828 football fields, or 29,641,360 footlong sandwiches from Subway. I don’t know how you think about distance, I’m just here to give you the facts.

I can’t take credit for covering that distance with my own two feet (although I will take credit for 57 kilometers in Georgia, thank you very much). Rather, I’m reminiscing on the richness of human experiences we’ve been a part of along the way. The strangers we had a brief moment of connection with. The goofy toddlers playing in their own worlds until they run right up to our feet, look up, and stare agape at our funny-looking foreign faces. It’s fun to think about how we were able to drop in on their lives, even for a minute. We weren’t meant to meet, but as a result of Tiff and I quitting our jobs and leaving our home, we broke the timeline and had a chance encounter with these randos.

And now for an interactive segment. Your input needed!

I’d like to try something, and it involves your participation. Here are two prompts for you, if you dare. Choose one of the following (or do both, why not):

1. Tell me a country you’ve dreamt about traveling to. I’ll find you a place in that country that you haven’t heard of, but is a hidden gem worth visiting.

2. Tell me a life question you’ve been grappling with. It can be as deep or as silly as you like. I’ll find you a quote that gives you perspective on that question.

Anything you share is strictly between you and me. Why do this, you ask? Let’s call it a mental exercise where I practice creating specific types of value for other people. Remember you can always respond directly to this email.

Who knows where this goes! Life is an experiment! Let’s throw stuff at the wall and see what sticks.

Stay thirsty mis amigos,

Bryan