Wandering Memories #2: The sharpest turn of my life

I'm a hitch-hiker and I plan to hitch-hike around the world. I've experienced many dangerous turns during my life while hitch-hiking. But the shaprest one is yet to come.

First of all, in countries such as Albania, Turkey and Georgia, almost every driver is a "madman". I imagine that if you are a European tourist with your car in such a country, you can be frightened, but imagine what it is like to really drive with these people in the same car!

Of all the countries I have visited, Albania is by far the most vulnerable in this respect. I do not know how the procedure for obtaining a driving licence in Albania looks like, but I think that they are more likely to look like Carmageddon video game than rigorous examination and serious driving lessons. Driving in three or four rows on two lanes is the norm. Driving on the pavement is also common. Only a law of strength exists on the street - whoever is bigger and who goes faster has priority. Drivers sometimes communicate with each other by means of a horn, but it is difficult to decipher their language - sometimes single or double trumpeting means "ride", sometimes "stand". Sometimes it means "attention, I turn", another time it seems to mean what it often means on the typical western countries' roads - "f*** you!". And all this at quite high speeds and sometimes mountainous, winding roads! The number of black mercedes per capita in Albania is also shocking. I had the impression that every second car in this country is a black mercedes - someone told me that "if you don't have a black mercedes, you're not a serious man".

Albania DOES exist

I was woke up... by the speed with which we were moving. When I saw that the driver was approaching two hundred on the Albanian highway, I suddenly got awakened fully. I have to admit that he was riding very smoothly, the motorway was empty and new, but yet I wasn't used to this type of driving. Then, from behind a corner, on the very corner of the motorway.... a cow emerges. The driver immediately gave the brakes and we stopped literally 2-3 meters from the cow. One of the toughest turns in my life.

Nothing funny

I had to drive with drunken drivers several times. I never intentionally got into the car when I saw that the driver was drunk, usually it turned out to be as I was driving. In this way, after waiting three hours for someone to take me to the border with Kosovo (in Serbia), one older guy finally stopped. However, I quickly noticed that when I was riding he made a small slider and did not keep a straight line. However, the road was empty, nobody else was riding anymore, and it took us only 20km....

Another time I landed at a Hungarian petrol station quite close to the border with Romania. It was already dark and I was planning to pitch the tent soon, but I decided that I'll ask around some people at the station If they are going towards Romania.One young, very beautiful young woman agreed. She asked before we moved off if I am not a murderer and do not plan to kill her :D It turned out that she is a Hungarian born in Romania and is heading there. We were happy to talk for several minutes, when she finally told me that she have tto warn me that she had drunk two (!) wine bottles before leaving Budapest. I didn't believe her because she looked sober, maybe a bit tired or after drinking one beer, but certainly not like two wines a few hours earlier. However, she argued that she was not joking. She even lit a cigarette. She was heading for another party. "And it was you who asked if I would kill you? Now I am afraid of my life." I was confused and worried until the end of the journey, but she was driving quite confidently in spite of the rain and, as she claimed, "it was not for the first time", so I decided not to get off. Risky? Very much. Dumb? Certainly. I have nothing to justify myself.

There have been many such situations and some of them will probably be described in a series on my past travel adventures #WanderingMemories.

But I am standing at the toughest corner of my life right now.

For most of my university time I planned to continue my academic career as a doctoral student. For me, psychology was first of all a way to explore knowledge about human mind and get to know the world, people and myself better. I was motivated mainly by knowledge hunger. At the end of my studies, however, I understood that a doctorate is not what I wanted for many reasons. The academic system, which promotes the acquisition of "pass" points in the form of producing low-value publications and pressing them on all conferences; the requirement of conducting classes (as if every good scientist is supposed to be a good teacher!); economic issues... In addition, after these five years of studies I felt very over-intellectualized and I didn't want to close myself in this thought world but try working with people. Equipped with new knowledge, the ability of "psychological seeing" and a little better understanding of man I want to meet people really, get to know the minds of the world really, not in the form of (value or not) empirical theory and research. Like Alexander von Humboldt, I would like to set off into the world and combine subjective with objective, combine a journey with science, perhaps write my own Personal Narratives...

So I decided to leave after my studies to Asia and South America for many months. It was my dream since I started travelling. However, this is not a simple and easy decision, and doubts will grow with the approaching departure date. Will I manage? Will I survive this? Do I not get sick of a tropical disease, or do I get into serious trouble? Will I be able to withstand homeless, coucheless and Netflixless? Without bed, famlily, friends for about two years? When you decide on a two-year trip, you decide to make two years of many sacrifices at the same time. In the meantime, I have to find an idea for myself and my professional life. Just as I love psychology, I don't have my own "horse" in it - I am curious about psychotherapy, neuropsychology, psychology of education, psychology of culture - practically everything! Fortunately, this area is so wide that it can be used in many kind of jobs and I have to find out which niche is suitable for me. I would love to combine psychology with travel, but how can I do that? This is yet to discover for me!

This is the sharpest turn of my life - preparation for the biggest trip of my life and starting a professional career.

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See also my other posts:

• First post of my travel series: Wandering Memories #1: Exciting Slovenia - or how I got lost at a height of 2500 meters
• Introduction post: Hello! I am going to travel around the world with Steemit!!!
• Check out my series about psychology: Insight #2: What emotions are and what are they really for?