There were no Vista Travellers a year ago. There was just an ordinary couple that was not different in comparison with their friends and peers. A year ago we worked from Monday to Friday. We sat in the office from nine to six and tried to create some value by doing our job. We used the four weeks of holiday we had to maximum and we travelled. We had an ordinary life, good paid and interesting jobs, but it anyway did not feel right. We thought about it for a very long time. We had at least thousand conversations regarding the eternal question: What should we do with our lives? At a certain point in time we finally realized, that we are running out of time in this life too quickly. We came to the conclusion that we want to live our lives to a maximum while we are still young. We want to experience more, see more, do more, learn more of what this world is offering. And so we took the decision to quit our jobs and for a while work full-time on making our dreams come true.
The shortest way is not always the easiest one
Although we are over thirty already, there is still so much of the world left that we have not seen yet. We decided to change this as first thing. We have decided to travel. Our first expedition is the Expedition to Gibraltar through Nordkapp. Within five to six months we want to travel the major part of Europe: Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Finland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, France, Spain, Portugal, Switzerland, Austria. We want to get to know better the countries we cross. We however do not want to collect the tourist information only. First of all, we want to find out what is the common-man-life like in each particular country. We want to know how the people perceive themselves, their nation, their country, their neighbors etc. What we learn we do not want to keep for ourselves. We want to share this information with the others. We believe that in this way we can positively influence people. We will enable them to get familiar with other cultures, other opinions, other life-styles. They will then be able to overcome the fear of unknown, they will be more tolerant towards other people, other nations, other religions.
We also perceive our expedition as an experiment and a challenge. We want to prove to ourselves and maybe also to the others that:
Anybody can travel
No special equipment and sometimes even preparation is required. We travel with a standard car. The only thing we added to it is a rooftop box. If it is necessary we sleep in the car. Otherwise we sleep in the tent. We wild-camp everywhere where possible. Often we stay with the locals. We get to know them by chance or use Couchsurfing social network.
It is possible to travel with little money
There are more important things you need for travel than money. You need to have the courage. The courage to step out of your comfort zone, to leave the well known routine, to change your habits, to adapt to the actual conditions, to be flexible. But you definitely do not need a lot of money.
Even in Europe it is still possible to discover
Since we are united in the European Union with most of the European countries and use the same currency almost everywhere we believe that those countries are close and we know them very well. Maybe we would be surprised how uninformed we in fact are. But we need to know about each other as much as possible. The better we know each other, the better we can exist together, decide together, create together our common future.
The best way to get to know your country is from abroad
On one hand, conversations with foreigners who already visited your country enable you to see it from completely new points of view. Thanks to their experience you identify what is in your country OK and what needs to be adapted, improved, fully eliminated or created from scratch. On the other hand, the travel experience and interaction with other cultures and customs change you. Suddenly you look at your own country with completely new eyes. You are able to objectively decide what is in it that you should on one hand appreciate, keep and further develop and on the other hand change or eliminate completely.
Travel kills xenophobia
They say that when you travel you get to know the other cultures. That is just a metaphor. In practice it means that you meet new people from other countries and through them you get to know their culture. The more people of various nationality you meet and get to know, the more you confirm the fact that it is a nonsense to divide people to Czechs, Slovaks, Poles or Hungarians. It is a nonsense to divide people in any way. People are just what their culture, living conditions, education, political situation and other circumstances in their countries allow to be. Each of them has his or her own story and it is not possible to judge him or her. If you anyway decide to do that, please judge only on the basis of that concrete story and only that concrete person.
Travel eliminates the crowd-thinking
We mean travel not a week-holiday in Croatia or a two-day guided trip to Rome or Paris. Enhanced with experience, learnings and new relationships we suddenly perceive the world around us in a different way. We are capable of creating our own opinion. We are able to think critically and to evaluate information we receive. We have the need to look for information pro-actively, to compare and evaluate by ourselves. We do not wait until someone else do that instead of us or for us.
Travel develops tolerance
The more countries you travel to, the more you are aware of the fact that on different places different people live their lives in different ways. You realize as well that this is exactly the way it should be. Suddenly it is clear to you that this variability is exactly the thing that makes us – the humankind and the world we have created so special.
We set off to the expedition To Gibraltar through Nordkapp on 4th June 2016. It was a beautiful sunny Saturday when we made the first step towards the adventure, new experience, impressions and learnings. Let’s be a part of this expedition. Follow us on our FB page www.facebook.com/vistatravellers. Read our blog on www.vistatravellers.com. Get familiar with the countries through pictures on our Instagram on www.instagram.com/vistatravellers.
