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The danger of old men travelling together | Pär Nord | TEDxKarlskrona


[Music]
I am laying under Rico in a backseat of
a taxi somewhere in the northwest corner
of Ukraine II it’s totally black outside
and the road is bumpy we five elderly
man don’t have a clue where we’re going
to but I am happy even if I suspect that
the taxi driver is taking us somewhere
far out in the countryside we arrived at
a Soviet inspired hotel the woman in the
reception takes the lead four stalls up
and gives us a five bedroom with a huge
fridge that doesn’t work in the morning
we wake up to a rather big city with
hotels banks a theatre and bumpy roads
this is the way we have been traveling
the last 13 summers in Estonia with
Lithuania Latvia Poland belarus ukraine
moldavia romania bulgaria albania
makedonia
Bosnia Herzegovina Montenegro Serbia
Croatia Slovenia Hungary Slovakia Turkey
Georgia Armenia nagorno-karabakh just
listen to it nagorno-karabakh Kyrgyzstan
Tajikistan go no Abidjan Peru Nepal and
India we call this way of travelling s
OS Seoul on the spot we take the day as
it comes and always turn to the left
when we leave the bus station or the
airport
and isn’t this the way you also want to
travel and this is how it works it all
started with Eddie we got a major brain
disease but he survived but it gave a
psychological effect he realized he
wasn’t immortal so what he had to do has
to be done now so he called four of his
friends and we said let’s go so is there
a method to travel this way the first
journey we made was to Machu Picchu and
we realized how fun and easy it was and
we longed for more and then I start to
think about the method and this is how
it works we decide as little as possible
we meet in a restaurant in Stockholm in
December it Allah brings his school
Atlas we decide where to go and meet the
next summer for takeoff oh we have five
we’re not a couple and we’re not a big
group so we can share our burdens and if
needed rest from each other we always
say yes if Eddie goes to the left we
follow him because neither of us do know
a better way and as we are filed
we can’t take a cab okay we can as
you’re in the beginning but we ride it
because we’re 5 so we travel with buses
trains and mature cos as local people
does we’re old we got grey hair grey
beard so no one is afraid of us and it
gives respect in most countries
expect for perhaps Sweden or Norway we
love home staying and if we can’t sleep
in people’s homes we shall rule the
sheep hotel or in a hostel and we stand
still because if you stand here always
someone is coming to ask you can I help
you and we say yes
for example in Romania ones in
Transylvania you know where Dracula
lives we took the bus on the main road
it stopped in the Royal small city we
longed for the mountains so you asked
for the bus station
we found the station but no buses we
stood there two men came to us and
probably we ask them where’s the bus
station because we talk to people even
if we don’t know the language they left
us and went on the other side of the
square and then suddenly started to wave
so he went over the square and there was
a man in a Dutch shot you know the small
Romanian course and we managed to get
into the car
the rucksacks in the back and we went
off and the man the driver was
constantly speaking while driving the
only one hand because it didn’t have a
left hand so probably he told us his
story of how he lost his hand but we
don’t know we arrived in the village it
was getting dark we went out no people
there but me and it’s a loop saw a sign
bar she opened the door came in and
asked the woman between the desk can we
sleep here
dami she laughed and even in Italian
because it is a challenge just Molly are
we stood that after some minutes
two men waved their hands in the bar and
we thought okay they’re telling us to
follow them so we did through the empty
village stopping with a full house they
went in after a while they came up with
a puppy and five glasses we sat down for
it up it was slippery
the worst thing you can drink ever yes
you know and then a woman came out from
the door and said hello and Christina
what do you want oh we want to sleep we
want to eat is it possible here of
course he said come in and she took it
up to a beautiful room with five beds a
shower and shot when do you want to eat
give us half an hour so we can change
clothes and have a shower
we went down had a beautiful dinner
local food you know tomato salad
even her homemade wine it tasted almost
as bad as leverage but we didn’t mind
when she left all we’re going to leave
us she asked do you want anything more
yes of course we said we’re used to have
a fairy tale told us when we go to sleep
oh no she said it’s not possible my
husband is there morning after shared
her age with a grandfather with old
Soviet inspired military car to take us
up to the mountains another rule when we
go out is we have a cashier a cashier of
the pay zone the cashier is Rickard and
he pays everything from his credit card
or cash and then we pay him when you get
home we love to go to the mountains to
stretch our legs and to avoid the orphan
dusty and sunny plains once in your
traveling in awesome Turkey you know the
south coast of the Black Sea the bus
stops as they always do in a crossroad
we sat in a cafe and a small bus came we
opened the door is Oh about five places
free and a lot of women of course
because everywhere the women are taking
the bus the man takes the course or sit
in the cafes as you know the women had a
lot of chickens tomatoes in boxes and so
we went high up on the mountains and we
loved to be there but of course the same
story bus is stopping where do you over
now but eternal has brought his little
turkey map and foreign to the city we
want to go there no problem the next bus
comes illegal but it stops and in the
countryside in a valley with a it was
beautiful landscape and they wanted us
to get off we didn’t understand a word
what they said but we heard a voice from
the front of the bus saying are there
any problems yes we want to sleep before
to have food we want to go somewhere
no problem he said you can come with the
bus till it ends because there are
hotels and restaurants yes the bus went
up we went off to another empty village
of course so he said to the man what is
this no hotels no restaurant what will
we do come with me I’m living good
living with a friend here he will
arrange rooms for you Annie
arrange food done in the evening we went
out in the village we saw a mosque and a
minaret and Eddie said I never been up
to minaret before strikes we knocked on
the door the imam opened big big man and
we asked could we get up to a minaret
yes yes we climbed up it was very very
narrow you know I’m not very thick but I
was so narrow event up beautiful you and
down again and it asked the Eamonn how
is it possible for you to climb up and
down several times a day saying prayer
no problem any point on the tape
recorder on the wall and just okay that
was his way of saying pray we went down
and told our friends very staying ok
tomorrow we leave windows dusty no no no
they said it’s you can’t leave we’re
stuck here in the north of Turkey in
small village you must go to paradise
yeah paradise you know with virgins and
so on oh no no it’s looked at our faces
the paradise is a village next to here
with hotels restaurants and every
service
you can’t go leave here not go there
next morning we set there having
breakfast and they told us there’s a
driver here in and this wheel is taking
you there the driver came it was of
course a man it was also a taxi driver
of the village we went into his car went
higher up again where the road ended and
he said ok wait here
I pick your next day at the same time
and a boy opened
of the car and said hello welcome yes
result english-speaking people it’s all
you know it’s convenient where you can
talk to people so the boy took the lead
in beautiful valley with creeks flowers
high trees and came to a small house or
all small house up a ladder into the
kitchen and out on the balcony and we
had tried to talk to a kid
he didn’t understand and he he said
hello welcome when we met his father his
mother his sister his brother all
sitting staring at us when we had our
food and we tried to say where do we
going to live we saw a hotel so close
and we had a room with this time six
beds
one spare and a shower he went up to the
mountains have a good time had dinner
will had breakfast next day all the
village was gathered around our
breakfast table looking at us
we sat there eating it was very nice
food it was kind of an awkward situation
we met me mum he took us to the city
really or really wanted to from the
first time but he stopped outside and
said now I want the money well we’re on
the right until we arrived in the city
where the other taxi drivers were of
course he didn’t want to show that he
mom was a kind of a black taxi driver so
when an open mind and talking to people
and trusting them this is a way to go
but are there no disadvantages or
dangers in travelling this way yes it is
you can end up building a school own in
northwestern Nepal once horns rounded
kailasha
mountain in Tibet and on his way home he
met the monk symbol sitting on the roll
outside monastery of Alban and of course
horns start stopped
talk to him and symbol asked Hans for
help to build a school home for the
poorest children in whom la district
because they are so far between the
villages there that there’s not a chance
to go walk to school there and back in
the same day if there are any schools
now it’d be in there four times we
arrived with an airplane to a tiny
airstrip in the Himalayas there then
there are three days walking from there
and narrow Falls and very steep pulse
everything has to be carried by York’s
goats horses and men or of course the
first time we got there we put up our
tents in a place the villages had
prepared for us where we could build the
school oh so that’s why started now
there are 50 children going there in our
school room they get free food free
clothing free school material and of
course a bet
and this summer we’re going to expand
with 20 more children we build a new
house and we are now we have been
teaching for that educated five of the
villages to plant trees so there will be
Sherry’s and apples growing they’re
bringing vitamins and food for the
people and even the next step is to
plant trees for construction and
firewood so we are helping to reforest
the Himalayas
thanks to open minds traveling together
next month we will meet in the
restaurant again
eatle has promised to bring his atlas
thank you oh sorry sorry sorry I just
when you travel ss like we do always pee
when someone wants do you never know
when and where the bus will stop next
time
[Applause]
[Music] [Applause]

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