08/10/2019

Depois de anos, voltei pra (tentar) viver com meus pais, na minha cidade natal

Um ano se passou desde a última vez que postei aqui. O que você esteve fazendo neste período?

Eu dei um grande rolê pela América do Sul. Saí de Minas Gerais e fui até o ponto mais extremo ao sul do continente: Fim do Mundo. O apelido do lugar é Fim do Mundo mesmo, e a região tem o nome de Terra do Fogo. Cruzei a Patagônia da Argentina pedindo carona, foi uma viagem incrível, muita gente hospitaleira e incrível vivendo por lá, além de todos os aventureiros, gente de tudo que é idade e de tudo que é lugar do mundo, que resolvem vir rodar por aquela região de tudo que é forma que você imaginar ou não imaginar. Gente de bike, de skate, de moto, de motorhome, de carona, a pé, correndo, etc. Eu fui até a cidade de Ushuaia, foram uns 3 meses só na Argentina. Mas também passei por uma parte do Uruguai e do Chile. Voltei pro Brasil, e passei 3 meses morando na casa de uma das minhas irmãs no Rio Grande do Sul até eu tirar carteira de motorista. Sim, depois de taaaantas caronas, eu finalmente vou poder dar carona (quando estiver dirigindo o carro de alguém rsrs). Apesar de quê, eu já influenciei motorista a parar o carro pra dar carona pra pessoas que vimos na beira da estrada, então acho que já dei carona mesmo não sendo motorista. 

Mas enfim, deixa eu falar de onde estou neste momento e um pouco do que vem pela frente na minha vida.

Quem teria coragem de entrar nessa piscina e nadar pertinho dele? 🤡


Não postei mais coisas de viagens e caronas por aqui, né? É pq não tenho viajado.
Já estou em Minas Gerais, eu vim direto do Paraná pra minha cidade natal, uma carona diretona com aquele amigo do último post.

Eu vou ficar (tentando) morar aqui um tempo.🏠

Eu sei que muitos de vcs que acompanham minhas viagens estão acostumados a morar em algum lugar por muito tempo, mas eu não! Eu vim decidido a me esforçar a lidar com os sentimentos de se ter uma moradia fixa. O tédio tem sido uma das coisas mais difíceis. Eu não falo dele, nem demonstro muito, pq eu acredito que primeiramente cabe a mim reconhecer pelo que estou passando, e então eu tomo a responsabilidade de me empenhar em resolver meu problema. A forma como tenho tentado lidar com meu tédio (caso vc passe pelo mesmo, esse texto pode te servir de sugestão pra tentar?) é: ler, estudar coisas, me exercitar (caminhando, pedalando) e assistir séries da Netflix sobre psicopatas 😂 Mind Hunters é uma série interessante, recomendo!

Eu vim tentar morar na minha cidade natal, onde acho que nenhum amigo mais próximo acreditaria que eu viria viver de novo nessa vida. Mas eu vim!🐸 Viver com família não tem sido muito fácil, mas eu acho que tenho conseguido lidar com todos esses sentimentos intensos e mantê-los num nível controlável. Não é fácil quando nossa família parece adorar uma briga e raramente se importa em identificar e tentar resolver os problemas de forma pacífica. Mas eu tenho me virado bem (eu acho)!
Fui hoje a esse clube da foto. Cresci indo lá. Quando mergulhei pro fundo da água, lembrei como criança eu curtia a sensação de ir pro fundo quando eu sentia tristeza ou raiva forte. Me "escondia" lá e chorava ou xingava. Na adolescência eu escondia minhas ereções assim também. Não era fácil. 😂 Hoje eu tava lá lendo um livro, e alguém me cumprimentou pelo meu nome. Eu me acostumei a ser um desconhecido por onde andava, então aqui às vezes tenho ansiedade.

Voltar à nossa cidade natal, a viver com nossa família, não é fácil pra todo mundo. Mas se esforçando pra lidar com esse turbilhão de emoções ajuda! E como saber por quanto tempo vai durar?


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Pra quem chegou até aqui no texto e tiver interesse em seguir qualquer coisa da minha vida, o único lugar onde tenho colocado algo do meu dia-a-dia é nos stories do meu instagram de vez em quando. Meu Instagram é @leocarona.

Qualquer dia, qualquer hora, se você não morrer e se eu não morrer, talvez você lerá mais alguma coisa sobre mim por aqui no blog. :-)
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22/10/2018

Dear friends and followers of this hitchhiker,


I am moving out from Alfenas and coming back to the roads and to my nomadic life in South America.


Last time hitchhiking to Alfenas, Brazil, a nice little town that has been my 'home' for the past 8 months.

Since April 2017 I've been (forcedly in a way) living in Brazil. I've gotten a job and I've moved in to an apartment for the past 8 months. I was working for a Danish company here in town and remotely as a software engineer. But now I'm going back to the roads. I'll be hitchhiking as usual and living at people's place, I won't be bringing my tent and camping gear this time. I'm trying to travel lighter this time, so I can be nicer to my back. I'll be bringing a portable fishing rod :-)


I was invited by a working colleague to go camping in a beautiful place around Alfenas. I kept contact with nature often, also made a video in another nature place which you can get a bit of the vibe watching it here.


This is my last day in the town of Alfenas, saying goodbye to friends I've made in here and then hitchhiking towards the largest city in South America, São Paulo. In a few days I'll head towards south, and I'll be in the island of Florianópolis, Southern Brazil. No idea where the winds will be blowing me to, but I'll be trying to become a less anxious person, more social, more flexible and a more helpful human.

Who knows I'll eventually also find ways to get some paid temporary jobs earning as little as Brazilians often earn, but with a little bit of freedom as I can always hitchhike away. I might make more hitchhiking videos for my Youtube channel.

Will I find a lover? I don't intend to.
Will I find a place to settle? I don't expect to.
Will I see you around? Hopefully. :)


My blog is also changing it's url. Make sure in a next time you look for leocarona.blogspot.com .



I have been closer to 'old' friends during the past months.


I saw my family more often.


My roommates became my friends and therapists, I even felt like I no longer needed to start going to a therapist (today I think maybe I should have looked for one anyways LOL) 



I got this hat as a gift from Asia and it's been pretty useful for my sensitive skin under Brazilian sun by the roadsides.


One of the nicest thing of living in a place (for me) is to be able to have a bicycle. Watch my last cycling video here.


I tried a different road this time hitchhiking through the countryside going from Alfenas to my parents' place more than 500km away.
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31/05/2018

🌐Mochileiro vai ao outro lado do mundo e ao voltar conta o que viu 🌈

🌐Backpacker goes to the other side of the planet and once back he tells what he saw 🌈



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03/09/2017

Where I've been hitching and hiding myself? Brazil

Well, some people already noticed I've been posting stuff without saying whereabout am I on Earth.

The reason for that is simple: I've been through some bad shit and that got me into a bad phase emotionally. There was nothing that dear friends, family or anybody else could do about it to help. I knew that time was the only thing that could heal me and bring me back up. Remembering what happened while answering questions wouldn't help me at all.

So I decided to hide where I was, take some time for myself, see a few old friends and take some time for my family who I haven't seen for a bit more than an year while traveling Europe and Asia.

I still don't feel like talking about what happened, but now I feel good enough to start saying where the heck am I and what's been going on.

Exactly talking, I've been in Brazil since end of April 2017. I've been in South and Southeast Brazil. I've been hitchhiking around, because that's what makes me happy. And I've recorded videos, although they haven't been published and who knows they'll ever be. 😊

August was the birth month of some people that currently matter to me. Beginning of August was Bank's birthday. Bank is the Thai guy who I met during my trips in Asia, we've hitchhiked/camped together and stuff, you might have seen his face if you've been following my previous posts. Ending of August was my twin brother's birthday.

So Bank took a flight and came to meet me in South America. He spent a month hitchhiking around with me in Southeast Brazil, meeting a few friends of mine and my family, who seem to have liked him. Yes, sounds like a relationship is being built - isn't it?  😉

A few days before my twin's birthday, Bank made a birthday cake for my twin brother and I. My family enjoyed it together.

On my birthday, 29th of August, I've had a different celebration in comparison to my past birthdays when you might have seen me in videos hitchhiking away on my own and spending the day on my own, in a tent in Serbia or drunk at a street corner of Copenhagen. This year it looks like I've got a company who's good enough to don't disturb my inner demons, and who I didn't mind to be together for the day.

And there we went. Hitchhiking from my hometown, Raul Soares, to Rio de Janeiro capital. We made a live transmission on Instagram at my birth time, and that you can watch here on this video below if you've got interest.





Bank's holidays are over and now he's on his way back to Thailand. I'm still in Brazil for some more weeks, with not many plans yet but we all know how quick I can hop in a plane and appear somewhere else on Earth.

If I have the chance to see you around Brazil, that will be cool. But if I don't, don't panic! I hope we'll meet again one day. 😊

Thanks you all for following,
and thanks everyone who've got some empathy over questions or judgements.

Love you,
Leo
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25/05/2017

1 month hitchhiking Indonesia and the World Rainbow Gathering 2017

From 26th of April to 25th of May I've been hitchhiking around Indonesia, Southeast Asia.


All the spots where I've hitchhiked during one month throughout the islands of Jawa and Bali, Indonesia. Recorded with MyHitchhikingSpots for Android.


What brought me to the country was a world gathering of the Rainbow family. Rainbow family is a sort of worldwide community of diverse people, people from everywhere, with all the possible differences you could think of: everyone is welcome with warmth and love from their unknown sisters and brothers. It happens during a whole month, but I've been with them for around 10 days myself. Camping on the beach or in the forest by the same beach, near a city called Tulungagung, if you're familiar with Indonesia.



You can read on this post why I was wearing a bra / bikini.
Indonesian flag.


During the World Rainbow Gathering I felt confident enough to try giving a workshop about how to travel with a low budget or how to travel with no money. Sitting there in front of around 15 sisters and brothers from the Rainbow family, I've shared names of websites, apps and other technological stuff that I've been using during my travels to make it cheaper or for free. I really liked how it felt, especially because many of them have been traveling for a long time as me, and they also participated adding some pretty cool and useful tips, besides sharing their own experiences also. I've made a blog post with a compilation of everything that we've talked about in that workshop, and if you're interested in learning a bit of these options as well, make sure you check the list Useful stuff for backpackers.


"A guy on a motorbike took a picture of us and posted it on facebook asking for help, for people to drive us. In a next city we were recognized by some guys who saw that post." (read here)

So back to travels in Indonesia.. Lot's of stuff have happened and I've got a lot of new experiences that I'll for sure carry along for the rest of my life. I've been posting about it on Facebook and Instagram, as you might have seen. I've also made a playlist of short videos of my hitchhiking experiences in the country, and you'll notice that Bank (my previous host from Bangkok, Thailand) came to join me for some days on this trip as well. Well, as you might eventually start guessing, from a CouchSurfing host and a CouchSurfing guest, Bank and I began a sort of a relationship with each other - which has been going quite well since he's also quite of a backpacker and he's been enjoying quite a lot to go camping and hitchhiking smooth and difficult places. ;-)



On my left is a Christian couple who picked me up. On the right is their Muslium cousin who offered to be our tourist guide visiting some Buddhist and Hindu temples. This is a bit of the diversity I've experienced, and I'm Atheist myself. You might want to read this and this.


Make sure you follow me on any social media or Youtube in case you don't want to miss all the adventures, campings, hitchhiking, tough and easy moments that I'm living during my trips. I've been learning a lot and meeting people all over the world, it's been amazingly opening my mind even more than it's ever been opened.

See you in my next country!
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27/02/2017

A month living in Bangkok, Thailand

Um mês morando em Banguecoque, Tailândia


Um mês já se passou desde que peguei um avião da Turquia pra Tailândia. Ainda não viajei por aqui pedindo carona, em vez disso tenho trabalho no aplicativo pra caroneiros MyHitchhikingSpots.




Meu anfitrião aqui em Banguecoque tem carro e em alguns finais de semana a gente tem feito algumas viagens curtas pelo país. Se quiser acompanhar o que eu tenho experienciado e explorado pela Tailândia, você pode me seguir tanto no Facebook quanto no Instagram. Assim que eu voltar pras estradas caronando eu deverei voltar a postar no Youtube e aqui no blog também.

Nos vemos!
A month has past since I flew from Turkey to Thailand. I haven't done any hitchhiking here yet, but I've been working on the app for hitchhikers MyHitchhikingSpots.




My host here in Bangkok has a car and in some weekends we've been doing a few small trips around country. If you wanna follow what I've been experiencing and exploring in Thailand, make sure you follow me on Facebook or Instagram. Whenever I'm back to the roads hitchhiking you'll get updates on Youtube and here on the blog as well.

See you!
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23/01/2017

War in Syria, terrorist attacks in Turkey - and I spent 2 months hitchhiking around


In times when the world speaks about the war in Syria and the terrorist attacks in Turkey, here I am. While in western and northern Europe I've heard and seen what war refugees and immigrants sometimes face, here in Turkey I've experienced the most amazing hospitality on this trip up to now. It turned out that in this part of the world been a foreigner actually gives you privileges instead.

I couldn't go camping in anywhere here, because it's been just too freezing cold for that. But in the other hand, as a big contrast comparing to my time in Bulgaria, finding a place to stay in Turkey was as easy as putting a message on CouchSurfing or on Facebook groups which Turks would read it and invite me to their homes right away. Some of the people who picked me up (on cars or trucks) also invited me to stay at their places, and there was even two cases in the Turkish capital (Ankara) when I was sitting in a cafe or I was partying in a club and people that I've met said that I was welcome to stay at their places or I could call them on their phones if I needed just anything.

I had the chance to learn a bit about Kurdish people, and why there are Kurdish groups doing some of these terrorist attacks that happened in the country while I'm here. I hitchhiked the South coast of Turkey where loads of English people migrated to, and I even had the lucky to get a lift with a English lady on her motorbike.

Welcome to Turkey, the country where a female Italian hitchhiker was raped and murdered 8 years ago, and where I only met hospitality, friendship and loads of other hitchhikers who love hitchhiking through these lands where getting a lift usually is super quick. And these lands where you're always offered a cigarette (and very often also food) by the drivers who pick you up. The people who host you here rarely let you split the costs of the bill (they want to pay it themselves, because "the guest always comes first"), and basically everyone invites you to have some delicious traditional food, tea, salep, etc.


Zoom in this map - click here.

As you might have noticed on this map, the closest that I have come to the Syrian and Iranian borders was just to near the city of Adana. But this alone was already enough to worry some friends and family of mine who follow my stories on the internet (as if knowing that I'm traveling in Turkey while terrorist attacks are happening wasn't worrying them enough).

The fact that I've initially considered hitchhiking to Iran also got some people worried, due to homosexuality been considered a State crime (and I'm gay if you don't know it yet) and it can be punished by some cruel ways, including a possible death penalty. The temporary good news is that due to the cold of wintertime and the fact that Brazilian citizens have to pay to take visas to enter Iran, I've decided to postpone my trip in that country to the future.

The full list of photos, stories or videos that I've posted during this time travelling in Turkey is organised for you below - by date and by locations, so that you can click the ones that might interest you the most.


Here goes a playlist of videos uploaded to Youtube. The GoPro camera that I have been using unfortunately broke somewhere near Fethiye, therefore you might see some videos recorded with my phone camera instead (which is a bit shittier).





I thank you a lot for the amazing experiences, Turkey! I feel like I learned so much! And I can't agree more on how amazing it is to travel in a country culturally and geographically so mixed between Middle East and Europe!



Next stop

I'm flying tomorrow to Thailand, where I'll be hitchhiking around for probably one month before crossing the border to Malaysia. Besides that, the only plan I have so far is to be in Indonesia in April. And I know just nothing about that part of the world and their culture! Come together and explore it with me, and remember that you can always keep an eye on my posts on Instagram or Facebook to get updates more often!
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