These days travelling around the world does not require courage and big money. To start a great journey one step is enough. If you buy a ticket, you will go for sure! Independent trips around the world become a global trend, and it is not a surprise, as they give freedom and new impressions for a small amount of money.
A 21-year-old student of the Institute of Power Engineering and Control Systems of Lviv Polytechnic Andrii Hurskyi saw half of the world in the last two years, being in 23 countries.
– My first trip was to America. I went there under the program WORK and TRAVEL USA in 2016. A ticket from Ukraine to the city where I worked was very expensive, but to live there was even more expensive. Having visited San Francisco, Las Vegas, Los Angeles and several other places, I returned home. Later, when my friend and I decided to travel we were hitchhiking, staying with locals and eating supermarket products. In general, our trips were so cheap, that when I remembered my expenses in the USA, I understood that those money I spent there would be enough for several months travelling in Europe!, says Andrii.
His first budget and generally the first, after the United States, trip was to Budapest.
– We were hitchhiking, and living with James – a British who worked there and agreed to host us for almost a week for free! Every day James showed us non-tourist routes, new places and institutions. I remember in his questionnaire he wrote that he loves buckwheat, which is very difficult to find in Budapest. Therefore, we took with us two 1 kg packs. The main expenses – for food – were very little as for one week in the capital of Hungary, stated the boy.
– What countries have you already been to?
– I visited 23 countries. They are the USA, Sweden, the Netherlands, Germany, Poland, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Austria, Switzerland, Belgium, France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Vatican, Bulgaria, Romania, Turkey, Georgia, Cyprus, United Arab Emirates and Israel ...
– Tell us about some interesting adventures you have had while travelling.
– There were a lot of adventures – from staying overnight at the church to fines at the airport. In Spain, on our way to Madrid, we had to pitch a tent at night. We were very hungry and decided to eat our sandwiches. We had a snack and fell asleep. In the morning all our tent, we and our staff were covered with ants. As soon as we noticed it, we left the tent, running out, and threw everything we had out from it! It was a good experience: do not eat in the tent and check the place where you set it up.
There was one more incident when I was in Israel. I flew there two days after returning from the Emirates! Due to complicated relationships between the countries, or rather, the lack of these relationships, I was interrogated at Tel Aviv airport for about 40 minutes about my travel plans and details of my trip to Dubai. I had enough of stress then!