Category: Short Reads

Trelograms #27 — Speaking of Water . . .

Published on by Mika4 Comments

When i was little, i’d often leave the tap running while brushing my teeth. If Grandpa noticed, he’d poke me — “did you buy the Descoberto River?” — that’s where most of the water used in my hometown (Brasília) comes from.

I didn’t really understand what he meant back then — water comes from the tap! I even remember crossing the Descoberto River in a car, reading the name on the sign before the bridge, and just feeling further confused . . .

It wasn’t until i started cycle touring that i began to make a more mindful connection between the water from my tap and the sources and bodies of water around or underneath us — and it seems like i still have a long way to go establishing this connection.

I started writing this piece with the observation that i only need about 7 liters of water per day when i’m cycle touring for drinking, cooking and bathing — seven liters! Although i’ve only traveled so far in places where water is relatively abundant and clean, just having to look for water several times a day and carry all of it on me has already taught me a lot.

I felt pretty smug. I wanted to share this powerful lesson from the road and my water collection/consumption protocol with all of you.

Now i’m embarrassed that, upon further reflection, things might not be so simple — i’m still alienated from how much water goes into the meat i eat a lot more often when i’m on the road than when i’m not, or the laundry i’ll still do the “conventional” way at a host’s every one or two weeks, or just the infrastructure in general i benefit from (for “free”) during my travels.

And even that is just the beginning of hydro-ethical considerations.

Still as a kid, i was once thirsty walking back home on a hot day, and asked a landscaper if i could have some of the water he was working with — “of course, denying someone water is a sin,” said the man. I shared that exchange with Grandpa when i got home, adding that water should be free for everybody — “sure, but who’s going to pay for it?“

Maybe Grandpa was onto something — maybe i did feel and act like i owned the Descoberto River — and didn’t have to share it with anybody else.

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Featured photo: drawing water from a well in Moldovan countryside ( May ’17 )

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‘Trelograms’ is a wordplay between ‘telegram’ and ‘trélos’ (Greek for ‘mad’)

Trelograms: inspiration

Trelograms #26 — “Don’t Forget to Shower”

Published on by MikaLeave a comment

— “you may even want to use some soap,” said my partner the other day, just before heading out.

Anybody who knows me will attest that i don’t normally like to shower any more than i enjoy doing the dishes — it’s a largely instrumental procedure. Perhaps for that same reason, bathing when i’m on the road is a priority — i do it every evening, with very rare exceptions!

“And how/where the hell do you do it,” people interested in my process will often ask?

My partner especially loves to bathe — she’ll actually soak in the bathtub for at least half an hour almost every morning — this is one of her greatest sources of apprehension about our upcoming journey later this year. Even if i don’t care that much about a shower at the end of a whole day sitting in front of the computer, a whole day on the road has always been a whole other story — the uncertainty of an evening bath was also one of my greatest sources of apprehension until i got used to the wealth of solutions available out there.

In hindsight, there’s actually nothing exceptionally creative or unusual about them. Besides the occasional “standard” showers you’ll still find at some of your hosts’, you’ll also find lots of lakes, creeks, rivers, waterfalls, beaches, buckets and ladles (photo below), public restroom sinks, rest stops, locker rooms at the local public pool or whatever, portable camping showers (photo below) — plus all the variations and inconspicuous implementations therein — and counting.

I’ll add that, no matter how cold the water is, it’s totally worth it — and i’ve bathed from glacial streams in Iceland to a partially frozen lake in the Romanian Carpathians — “freezing cold” was not an understatement in either of those cases!

Even if none of that is available, or if you don’t have access to much water or it’s polluted (i always ask the locals), i will still take a “surgical” bath with my water bottle (use your imagination) — just about half a liter of water has turned out to be plenty.

By the way, i also change and wash my underwear every day. If there’s not enough water for that where i stopped for the night, i’ll just do it at the first gas station along my way next morning, and then hang it to dry throughout the day on my rear rack 🙂

So, if you want to clean up at the end of the day, you will find a way — many ways — you might even wonder whether it isn’t that shower back home which is the most unusual and counterintuitive of all methods?

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Featured photo: A skinny dip in the Neman River, Lithuania ( Summer ’17 )

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‘Trelograms’ is a wordplay between ‘telegram’ and ‘trélos’ (Greek for ‘mad’)

Trelograms: inspiration; cycle touring, hitchhiking, hiking; worldwide

Trelograms #25 — Dream Log

Published on by Mika5 Comments

My maternal grandfather, with whom i shared a bedroom growing up, has been the single most important presence and reference in my life. He passed away in 2010, at the age of 95-almost-96 (longevity ran in his family). Being raised by this wise and experienced man a generous lifetime older than me often felt magical — i was once certain (read hopeful) he was immortal.

I am now convinced ‘he’ no longer exists — at least not in any way i could interact with — except in my dreams!

For a few weeks after his passing, he was the subject of vivid dreams that i would often wake up from with a wide smile on my face! — duly filled by our recent “interaction” — grateful for the new “memory” from Grandpa to cherish until it dissipated along my morning routine.

Those dreams have become less and less frequent, and it’s been just a couple of those a year these days. A few years ago i decided to start “collecting” them — i’ll usually record them into my phone when i wake up in the middle of the night, and then transcribe them into a notebook in the morning. Even when i don’t remember the dream itself, hearing my groggy voice describing it is still refreshing!

One fascinating feature of those dreams is that i have never had a single negative interaction with Grandpa in any of them throughout all those years. I’m not sure how dreams are constructed and what that may or may not mean — it makes me look forward to a lifetime of occasional, unexpected, nourishing visits from Grandpa though.

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Featured photo: greeting Grandpa upon my arrival in one of my visits back home when i was studying in the US ( Brasília, Brazil – Summer ’09 )

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‘Trelograms’ is a wordplay between ‘telegram’ and ‘trélos’ (Greek for ‘mad’)

Trelograms: inspiration; home

Trelograms #24 — Checklists

Published on by Mika2 Comments

The Check Yourself episode of Hidden Brain (one of my favorite podcasts these days) talks about checklists — a simple productivity hack that hurts the egos of some and saves the lives of many.

Unlike pilots and surgeons, i can’t be sure my checklists have saved a life. They have no doubt saved me a fair amount of time and spared me a fair amount of stress though — even, perhaps especially after hundreds of nights outdoors, i don’t know how i’d manage to pack for a five-day hike (in the middle of unpacking from having just moved into a new place) without a checklist.

I’ve been a fan of checklists for a long time now. I’m particularly fond of my grocery shopping system, which i employ at home as well as on the road:

  1. Anything i remember or notice i need to buy goes first into an inbox where i collect everything else that asks for my attention, GTD-style (more on that some other time);
  2. I regularly process this inbox, adding the “grocery store stuff” to the “grocery shopping list” — tomatoes, toothpaste, if i can get it at the supermarket or from the grannies across the street from it, then it goes on that list;
  3. I regularly budget time to go do the groceries;
  4. When the time for it comes, doing the groceries is then best described as a mission to complete that checklist as effectively as i can;
  5. I allow myself at most one “wild card” item per shopping trip — something not on the list because i only thought about it at the store, an improvised treat to myself, or a random new item to be tried out — believe it or not, anything that comes to mind during the shopping process goes into the inbox, and won’t make it into my shopping basket until the next trip!

I acknowledge this rigidity might have caused some psychological pain to the occasional shopping companion unfamiliar with my process. It has nevertheless saved me a fair amount of time and energy — then available to be spent in situations where i don’t mind inefficiency at all — for instance, long-distance hiking 🙂

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Featured photo: (un)packing upon moving in ( Fall ’19 )

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‘Trelograms’ is a wordplay between ‘telegram’ and ‘trélos’ (Greek for ‘mad’)

Trelograms: inspiration; cycle touring, hitchhiking, hiking; worldwide

Trelograms #23 — I’m Not Special

Published on by Mika2 Comments

I’ve heard it many times and rather frequently — and not just from my mother! — that i’m special.

If you think i’m special because i’m willing to relocate, leaving behind family, close friends, career prospects and large fractions of my belongings to follow yet another exciting opportunity, whether it takes me to Scandinavian utopia or post-Soviet disrepair, then you probably don’t follow enough travel blogs.

If you think i’m special because i’ve pledged to donate 10% of my gross income to the best poverty-relief charity that i’m currently aware of — and kept up with that pledge through my self-unemployment — then you should check out the effective altruism folks who have been dedicating 100% of their resources to that and other, potentially more relevant causes.

If you think i’m special because i’m able to travel on a $5–10/day budget for five months, then you must not have met my friend Bogdan, who has done that for two years on about $1/day — not to mention that his tour took place largely in Western Europe, including countries especially notorious for their prohibitive costs such as Denmark, where we first met. There are many others like him you’ll bump into on the road whom you haven’t heard about just because they don’t have blogs or facegrams.

If you think i’m special because i’ve been hospitable (and courageous) to welcome “strangers” from hospitality networks into my home, then you might not have met or heard about the hundreds of literal strangers along my way who have invited me into their own homes (and cars) having nothing on me besides their gut reaction from first looking at me.

By the day, it seems to me that there exist essentially two kinds of people — those who know they’re amazing, and those who haven’t yet found out — we’re all fabulous in varied ways and degrees, and that makes none of us special.

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Featured photo: the Bourbaki symbol for the empty set — my favorite Math concept

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‘Trelograms’ is a wordplay between ‘telegram’ and ‘trélos’ (Greek for ‘mad’)

Trelograms: inspiration; worldwide