Location Zanzibar, Tanzania. On the last day of our 7-day trip, we left the hotel and spent the whole day in the chaos of Stone Town.. A mixed city center with nasty sewer smells coming from everywhere, making you feel like you can catch typhoid even if you accidentally touch the water that accumulates on the ground after the rain.. Since our flight was at 4:45 in the morning, we took the road to the airport in case we would sleep in the car we rented in order not to pay the hotel fee for another night in vain.
The story started to sleep in the car as usual.. I couldn’t sleep, I’m usually like this before I go on long plane trips. Even though it was very hot, I went outside to smoke.. I kept saying “Jambo” to be sympathetic to the soldiers and police passing by while I was browsing the internet on my phone.. It was almost 12 at night and it was relatively quiet.. There was hardly anyone other than the airport staff, who changed the occasional shift, but a car or two passing by.. They said that Zanzibar is not very safe at night.. The shouts from passing cars proved this to me.. Drunk or high-minded, several types were hanging out of the car windows, constantly shouting something I did not understand and making meaningless sounds.
I thought to look at the sky for a while.. The stars looked perfect from the beach of the hotel we stayed in, but I couldn’t see many stars since the light pollution is also here.. At that moment, I once again regretted not knowing the value of natural life..
Sometimes I was going to the car and looking at Öykü. I helped him sleep a few times by starting the engine and turning on the air conditioner so that he wouldn’t suffocate like a child in the car in this heat.. He was sleeping so deeply and tiredly that he wouldn’t even wake up from the sounds of my movements.
I went to the middle of the parking lot where we were again to have another cigarette.. I was about 50 meters from the gate of the airport.. Suddenly, a young man caught my eye, it was obvious that he was from the Mediterranean in every way.. It looked like the guard at security was trying to tell the boy something.. Of course, as a city person, I didn’t even think of going and helping him.. With my head in front of me, looking at my phone, I realized that with every round I took in the field, I was getting a little closer to the guardhouse.. I was just about to succumb to my conscience, when I realized that the boy was not actually telling the officials his troubles, but rather chatting with them.. When I overheard their conversation as far as I could, I heard the young man say, “I am Hispanic.”. It was exactly what I was looking for. As someone who has just started learning Spanish, I haven’t been speaking Spanish for almost 10 days and the doctor came to the patient’s feet to be healed.. While I was wondering whether to go to them or not, I suddenly found myself close to them.. “Are you looking for something?” the boy entered from that distance.. So I answered in Spanish, he was very happy. Of course, he spoke so fast while replying that I couldn’t understand it and we had to switch to English after a while.
We met.. His name was Adrian, he lived in the northern part of Spain.. We are so used to giving the answer “Istanbul” when someone asks us and not being strange; It always seems strange to me that people use directions such as north or south when describing a geography in their own country.. Abdul didn’t speak much English, but we got along somehow. At least he understood us. I am 26 years old and have 3 children.. Two girls, one boy. He showed his photos, we said he’s so cute. I asked Abdul if he had ever considered living outside of Zanzibar.. I tried to explain the city life of Istanbul a little bit.. He didn’t want to, Zanzibar was the most beautiful place in the world for him.. I said you’re right. He was right.
Then Adrian and I had a little talk among ourselves.. He’s come a long way. He flew from South Africa to Zanzibar and was planning to go to Kenya from there, but since there was no option for a transit visa, they took his 50 dollars upon entering the country.. He’s almost out of money.. He has been to 75 countries so far.. A 21-year-old young man collects memories from every land alone. He’s an extreme person.
He must have gotten tired of collecting his curly hair that falls on the glass of his glasses from time to time, so he put on his bandana.. It’s more comfortable that way, he said.. we kept talking. He wanted to go to Stone Town, the port, which is about 8 kilometers from the airport.. If we weren’t handing over the car soon, I would have taken you, I said.. He said no, I don’t want. She was trying not to get too used to luxury.. Just then, another officer came to us.. Adrian offered to cook for them. He took out his kitchen from his huge backpack. He had a stove, he had pasta. “If we find water, I will cook pasta for you right away,” he said.. At that moment, a policeman from the immigration office showed up and Adrian had some trouble with the man.. He kept talking about the lack of a transit visa option.. The policeman turned to me and asked in his not bad English if I knew this young man.. I said we just met but you seem like a nice guy. And you’ve already taken the man to the country, I said, are you going to throw him out?. Let it go, wandering boy. I couldn’t figure out why I was talking like a retired colonel either, but I guess it worked.. At that moment, Adrian took action and tried to walk towards the port.. The police stopped him and advised him to spend some more time here, saying it wouldn’t be very safe for a white person out at this hour.. He could spend the night in the security booth.. Adrian is very happy. He took out a package of cookies and chocolates from Ukraine from his bag, which he carried his world in, and began to distribute it to everyone.. BİM was written on the bag.. I couldn’t help myself from laughing. He was in Istanbul 1-2 months ago, he liked it very much, but he was sad that it was short.. I said find me if you come again. He could have stayed with us, after all.
There was silence for a while.. I wanted to be the one to break the silence. “Adrian,” I said, “I wish I was like you”. This boy travels only on foot and hitchhiking and stays at the homes of people he meets on the way.. If he cannot find a place to stay, he continues his life by setting up his tent.. He said you can’t. You’re too late, that’s something that can only be done in your teenage years. In this country where we are afraid to drink closed water, he filled his thermos with one and a half liters of water from the tap of the airport toilet and started drinking it.. Even though I warned you that you might be sick, you didn’t care. When I asked him if he had had his vaccinations while traveling in Africa, he said nothing would happen.. This child was experiencing the difficulties of traveling on foot most deeply.. But why? Why had he become such a man?
That’s when he started telling me his story.. One day, when he was just starting out, he was walking on a dark forest road.. While walking on this road with a heavy bag on his back, in the middle of nowhere, where there is neither a car passing nor a light other than the stars, it hurts because the soles of his feet are covered with water, and his stomach is not leaving him alone because he just ate something he shouldn’t have eaten.. Just as he was about to let go, he saw a lightning strike somewhere far away.. He felt as if that lightning had struck his heart, not the ground.. At that moment, he says, I got it.. We are not different from nature, we need to live integrated and not afraid of anything.. For a moment, such an energy was generated that he suddenly started to accelerate and covered kilometers in the blink of an eye.. According to him, if you have a lot to lose, you would do nothing but delay your plans.. Because happiness is something abstract and not very precise.. Therefore, everyone can define happiness in their own way.. But freedom is not like that, freedom is not being dependent on anything.. Except nature.. You can buy a car, you can buy a house, and you can try to fit happiness into these tangible things.. And the good thing is, you can be happy too. But you can’t be free. And when all these are at hand, you postpone everything you want to do, all your plans, and when one day comes, when you look back, what you see is that all these are just ideas for you and you are about to die as a person with dozens of unfulfilled plans.. I wholeheartedly agree with what you said.. Happiness was easy, freedom was hard. And you didn’t have to be happy just because you were free.. Freedom did not come as a package that includes happiness.
At that moment, I understood much more clearly.. Everything I own, every object, it actually had me. I was happy, but not free. I have a lot of things to do, I said to myself; but actually i couldn’t do any of it properly. I couldn’t even start. Why? ‘Cause I took the easy way. To be happy.
I got Adrian’s e-mail address. Return flight was 50 days later. He’ll be back in Spain to plan his next route and see his family, albeit briefly.. “Don’t expect an answer from me until that day,” he said.. I said OK. And then I said goodbye to Adrian and Abdul to go back to the car to return the jeep I chose to rent because it was the more authentic way to the rental company.. After resting in the car for about 10 minutes, when I looked back, Adrian was gone.. He was saying that I would go into the sea somewhere and get cleaned.. Maybe he would. I gave Abdul 3 packs of lollipops for his kids on the way into the airport.. we said hello. Before I know if I’ll see it again..
You can follow Umur’s Stories at @umurcanyalcin Instagram.
To watch us live, on Youtube You are invited to our channel.
How Do We Travel So Much?
