In the past few years Bulgarian Ivan Pankev has been spending his spare time touring the world. He tells in photos and texts in his personal blog what he sees and learns during his travel. The Bulgarian traveler who is known in the Internet as Jonnie B. Goode has visited over 30 counties so far. He likes hitchhiking. He contends that the hitchhikers have different point of view than the traditional tourist. How crazy one must be to travel across the globe hitchhiking? Here is what Ivan told Radio Bulgaria:

I had not hitchhiked in Bulgaria before. We started hitchhiking in 2012 when I went to Argentina with my girlfriend on our first big journey. It felt strange. We were standing near the road and were ashamed to raise our thumbs. But things happened slowly. Our longest hitchhiking journey lasted for 5 months between Turkey and Iran and back. I like travelling this way, because I meet different people during that type of travel. If you rent a car or use a public transport you cannot communicate with the local people and you are merely a tourist. But when you hitch your ride, you become one of them more or less.

Hitchhiking helps Ivan switch between different cultures:

When you are hitchhiking you are more open to the foreign culture. You learn quickly what you should not do in a given country. For example I learnt in Iran that lifting your thumb up when you are hitchhiking is equal to the act of sticking your middle finger up in Bulgaria when you want to offend someone and no one hitchhikes this way in this country.

Ivan’s most memorable encounter during his journeys happened in Iran:

This was a brilliant example of Iranian hospitality. One day I was hitchhiking and an elderly man picked me up on his tank truck. I told him: drop me at your final destination. I have a tent and will sleep there. Then I will continue my journey. However, he invited me to stay at his home. The house resembled a concrete box built in the middle of a semi-desert. We had diner and later he said it was bed time. I thought we were all going to sleep on the floor, because they had no beds. People there eat on the floor as well, which is not a sign of poverty (I believe this is where one of the Bulgarian traditions came from- when you enter a house you take your shoes off, because you should not step on peoples’ table with your shoes) However, the man, his wife and two children went sleeping outside and left their air-conditioned house to me.

Ivan saw many beautiful places during his travels, but the Iguazu waterfalls in Argentina stuck deep in his memory. It was the end of the winter in Argentina. The water basins were full. The view left me breathless, Ivan recalls.

But if you want to try delicious food and good alcohol then you should visit Georgia! The journeys and the encounters with different cultures helped Ivan build his personality.

The journeys changed my view in terms of the human needs and necessities. When you travel for 4 or 5 months with your luggage on your back only, you realize than the less you have, the freer you feel. Since then I am trying to keep only the items I need. When you travel across the globe you realize that people are the same everywhere, although they look different. I mean that their desires and ambitions are the same. Everyone wants a secure job and incomes, to live freely and raise their children. People become more cosmopolitan and learn to accept people with their differences when they travel. I believe that the young people should travel a lot. Thus, they will know better what they want from life.

English version: Kostadin Atanasov