The Castaway's Journeys

Samhain was Halloween.  The Sun goes down on a misty evening, There’s a chill in the air and the faint smell of wood smoke as darkness falls. Somewhere in the distance a dog howls and the moon looks out from between the clouds, through the mist it appears ringed by a faint halo. It’s Halloween in Austrian backcountry and it's quiet almost erile so. It wasn’t always called Halloween. That name is in fact quite young and is a contraction of "All Hallows' evening, All Hallows' Eve, or All Saints' Eve. A Christian festival remembering the dead, in this case saints (hallows), martyrs. Some would pray for their souls, believing they could assist their passage to heaven. Others just to honor the recently departed. Over a thousand years ago this Idea emerged from the Roman church and spread throughout europe. This idea of honouring a special class of dead christians began to run parallel with a different celebration that seems to be tied in particular to celtic

Read time:13-15 minutes You know about Croatia right? The west Balkan country where central and southeastern Europe meet? Home to over 4 million inhabitants most of them Croatian... Slovenia to the north and draped over Bosnia and Herzegovina to the south like a winter shawl around an aged Oma or, as it was pointed out to me by a colleague: the head of a roaring dragon… However one chooses to interpret the man made borders of this country its shape has created a rare oddity. That is, from most parts of the country it would be quicker to drive through Bosnia to get to the other side than to travel through croatia. This is difficult however, because Bosnia is not in the EU which makes border passage more complicated. Croatia’s westerly border caressed by the Adriatic Sea is often dramatic, rocky cliffs and outcrops fall directly into the water. You’ll only find sandy or shingle beaches belonging to hotels or campsites. which are all man made. Much of the coast line climbs qui

“Listen to your heart. It knows all things, because it came from the Soul of the World, and it will one day return there.” – The Alchemist - Paulo Coelho I'm going to start this post, as its my first post and only seems right to introduce myself. I will try to paint a picture of how I got here. To be honest I'm not really sure myself of where here is but let's just say it's a place where my thoughts and experiences hit the net and hopefully prove helpful and useful in doing so. I am the Castaway, perhaps the last... or indeed maybe the first in an unending cycle of people who for whatever reason left the land they were born in and entered the world. At first daunted by a curious feeling of not belonging anywhere but as the journey progressed they began to know that they belong everywhere. The mind began to open, culturally anchored beliefs began to fall away and an appreciation for the other as the self blossomed. And so I travel, I travel to get to know myself and thi