Breakfest in Zagreb - Party in Reykjavík
In 1 Year From Now
Zagreb, Croatia – Monday 08.08.2022
Breakfast in this bar is very good—the bread and coffee are as well. I think Zagreb has a lot of potential, just like the entire Balkans. This year, I know what I have to do. I also need to write a book. I’ll need some time for that, but it’s possible. I have many friends to reconnect with—artists, graphic designers, workers, archaeologists. I need to learn the language first. One year from now, I’ll be able to speak Polish, English, Spanish, and Croatian. I just need a little bit of time.
Food, cafes, and restaurants are in my heart. The lives of the people I’ve seen are the same all over the world, and time doesn’t ask questions.
That is my last entry in my journal from this journey.
A year ago, I had just finished a hitchhike that started in Warsaw, Poland, and ended in Mostar, Bosnia, and Herzegovina. I was wondering where I would be in a year's time, and now I know. After that breakfast, I caught a ride with a truck driver who let me sleep in his cabin as we crossed through Bratislava, Slovakia, and I returned to Warsaw to think about what I was going to do with my life.
Warsaw, Poland – Feeling Lost 10.08.2022-11.12.2022
When I came back, I was a little devastated. Hitchhiking for a month was a bit of a reboot from what I knew, and I needed to confront what to do next. It was as if my brain was like a phone, and I had deleted all the apps that were distracting me. I needed to carefully think about what to do now. So, after coming back from the trip, I moved in with my parents and found a part-time job at a bar because I wanted to take a break from making coffee. I felt like I was missing out on something, like there was so much more to do than just refilling glasses and doing something that lacked meaning for me. I didn’t enjoy it, but I also didn’t want to make any serious decisions—I just wanted peace of mind.
Then, one day, friends of the family stopped by and started talking about the beauty of Iceland, which they had just returned from. They asked why I didn’t consider living in Iceland since they had just come back. That’s how the idea was born to return to making coffee, but in a totally different country. I started to feel excited and began looking up jobs, places to live, and Facebook groups where people gave advice. I remember how big a step it was for me to ask to join a group or send my first email with a CV and cover letter. It was like exercising; I could barely manage one mental "push-up" a day, but that number started to grow very fast.
My first online interview was for a waiter position in the countryside, but they wanted me to come as soon as possible, and I still had things to wrap up. However, it was a transformative moment for me. I thought to myself, "It’s happening, I’m going there." I found a room in Reykjavík and received a few invitations for interviews. I checked almost all the restaurants and coffee shops on Google Maps and prepared myself to visit each place and see what would happen.
I managed to secure a room, but not a job. In Iceland, there’s something called a Kennitala, which is like a social security number, and without it, it’s impossible to work. So either you have a lot of money and can get the Kennitala on your own, or an employer has to vouch for you.
On 13.11.2022, I landed in Iceland and began setting up my life from scratch. I walked around and found a job in a hotel as a barista, where I started working in December. After getting all the paperwork done, I was all set to create a new life.
Reykjavík, Iceland – Tuesday 08.08.2023
A few months after landing, a little bit of northern lights, a lot of hard work, and many nights out, there I was, in one of the most beautiful nights of my life, that encapsulates for me the beauty of simplicity.
A car ride with amazing people to the party destination:
An evening playing games with friends from all around the world, including the Balkans, food prepared with love by incredible hosts, and a social life captured in one night. We played for hours, and the night was magical. Things were falling down on the floor, laughs were shared, jokes were made, emotions filled the air, and the friendships I had the honor to experience from these people lifted me even more when I realized that exactly a year ago, I was in Zagreb.
What luck I have! I’m so grateful. Five of us were coming back in a car with steamy windows because I was talking so much about how happy I was to be with them and enjoy my life even more. My friend from Croatia asked me to stop talking very politely because he couldn’t see the road. How could I not get excited in moments like this? Those are the moments when feeling grateful for being alive is out of scale, and I literally started to cry (I tried to hide that from them), but those were the tears of gratitude.
I found the journal a few days earlier and saw a date. I couldn’t believe how rich my life became when I moved to Iceland. It was my last journal entry, and the next one was on 06.08.2023 when I was in a bar with my friend from the very same city where I had made the entry.
So, 1 Year From Now
Where do you want to be 365 days from now?
New skill, new language, new job? Sometimes it seems impossible, but after a few days of focus, new brain connections are being created, and everything starts to feel more natural.
I didn’t learn Croatian, but I did learn Spanish and a little Icelandic.
I still have a lot of learning to do, but my point is that all the people I’ve met along the way gave me a taste of a movie-like life. Stories lose their magic when I try to describe them, so I prefer to keep some for myself, though maybe I’ll bring them up as examples.
Do you have dreams, goals, or destinations where you want to go?
Go into the world and be the change you want to see, step by step.
Live life, my friend, because it is worth it!
