CURRENT MISSION

wandering & writing

ABOUT ME

not every wandering is aimless.I like wandering, seeing how people live more than visiting tourist sights. I am a freelance journalist and photographer sooo I do wander & wonder a lot. When not wandering, I spend most of the time reading anything that comes in my hands, riding my bicycle, loving mountains & capturing 'Decisive Moments' with my camera.

Travelling is for me a method of self-growth and not holiday times.

"society crazy indeed i hope you are not lonely without me..."--eddie vedder

PHILOSOPHY

- We suspect that even though travel in the modern world seems to have been taken over by the Commodity - even though the networks of convivial reciprocity seem to have vanished from the map - even though tourism seems to have triumphed - even so - we continue to suspect that other pathways still persist, other tracks, unofficial, not noted on the map, perhaps even «secret»- pathways still linked to the possibility of an economy of the Gift, smugglers' routes for freespirits, known only to the geomantic guerillas of the art of travel. As a matter of fact, we don't just «suspect» it. We know it. We know there exists an art of travel.

Hakim Bey in Overcoming tourism

..."Where there is comfort there is no need for God."
"But I dont want comfort. I want God, I want poetry, I want real danger, I want freedom, I want goodness. I want sin."
"In fact,"said Mustapha Mond, "you are claiming the right to be unhappy."
"All right then,"said the savage, "I am claiming the right to be unahappy."
"Not to mention the right to grow old and ugly and weak; the right to suffer disease; the right to have too little to eat; the right to live in constant fear of what may happen tomorrow; the right to fall a victim to pains of every kind."
There was a long silence.
"I claim them all", said the Savage at last.
Mustapha Mond spoke slowly. "You are welcome", he said.

Brave New World, Aldous Huxley 1973.

I recommend this essay "The End of Solitude" by W. Deresiewicz
http://chronicle.com/free/v55/i21/21b00601.htm

Wandering re-establishes the original harmony which once existed between man and the universe. ~Anatole France

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

Practical info: My sleeping bag is always with me so I don't mind sleeping on the floor. I am vegetarian, don't smoke, don't have pets because of my lifestyle but do love animals. I am not a party animal though ;) and I actually like washing dishes.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

CouchSurfed my way through Brazil and enjoyed hospitality of CS community in La Paz, Bolivia and in Peru. Then spent a wonderful week couchsurfing in Quito. After that CS helped me through Colombia. And Venezuela was my 6th country in South America to CouchSurf! :) Then I went back south and Couchsurfed through Paraguay!!! Paragauay was followed by Uruguay. And Buenos Aires! Then I went back to Europe, I went to one CS meeting in Den Haag, Netherlands, and couchsurfed in Krakow, Poland and after two amazing weeks in Copenhagen in 3 different couches for the COP15 and Klimaforum and lots of other things..

Oh, yeah, and I convinced at least 10 people to join this network.

Interests

PhoToGraPhy - check out some of my photos here:

http://on.fb.me/a1zWk7

...WriTiNg - for Croatian speakers check some of my work here:

http://www.h-alter.org/search/index/Marina+Kelava/author

... SILENCE/mountaineering/ cycling/ BOOKS/ writing/ travelling/ bicycle mechanics/ yoga/ environment/ meditation/ climbing/ confusing people/ LAUGH/ wandering/ new media/ alternative media/ HITCHHIKING/ indigenous people/ drawing/ WORDS/ nature/ chilling/ social sciences/ CAMP FIRE/ activism/ languages/ outdoor sports/ mathematics/ sudoku/ chocolate/ GARLIC/ cartoons/ Mother Earth/ crazy stories and weird people/ Social Forums/ HAMMOCKS/ windmills/ earthships/ philosophy/ humor/ messy haircuts/guitar sound/ fairytales/ astrology/ drumms/ sustainability/ haiku/ utopia/ plants ...

• animals
• pets
• arts
• writing
• books
• poetry
• photography
• dancing
• environment
• dining
• cooking
• chocolate
• vegetarian
• yoga
• meditation
• partying
• cartoons
• reading
• traveling
• drawing
• sudoku
• guitar
• drums
• outdoor activities
• cycling
• kayaking
• camping
• mountaineering
• scuba diving
• sailing
• sports
• martial arts
• rock climbing
• communications
• freelancing
• journalism
• languages
• mathematics
• sign language
• social science
• tourism
• hitchhiking
• mountains

Music, Movies, and Books

Books: Salman Rushdie, G.G.Marquez, Ilja Stogoff, Wladimir Kaminer, Tin Ujević, Cees Nooteboom, Hanif Kureishi, Isabel Allende, Amin Maalouf, Karl Eskelund, Kiran Desai, Milan Kundera, Khaled Hosseini, Miguel Cervantes, The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon, Hakim Bey, Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry, Evasion, Brave New World, George Orwell's Animal Farm, Shantaram, Zen and the Art of Motocycle Maintenance from Robert M. Pirsig, Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt, Pedro Calderon de la Barca, Charles Dickens, Animal Liberation and Practical Ethics by philosopher Peter Singer, writings from Derrick Jensen and Vandana Shiva and many many more

Photography: I am a big fan of Magnum Agency photographers (Henri Cartier-Bresson and others)

Music: Reggae, Blues, Jazz, World Music, Leonard Cohen, Tom Waits, Manu Chao, REM, Kries, Afioni, Eddie Vedder

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

I guess it would be the time I climbed Mount Atlas just a year after doctors told me I will never walk without crouches anymore. Well they were very very wrong! :)

Recently I participated in these important events: World Social Forum 2009 in Belem, European Social Forum in Malmo and IV. Cumbre Continental de Pueblos Indigenas de Abya Yala in Peru. I photographed Hugo Chavez, Evo Morales, Vandana Shiva.

I hitchhiked from Croatia to Morocco and back.
Cycled across 10 european countries.
Meditated in Himalayas.

Spent 4 days on Greenpeace ship Rainbow Warrior!x 2 times

Participated in the founding of H-Alter.org magazine

Teach, Learn, Share

I can teach you how to fix your bicycle.

I want to learn: how to think less, kayaking, spanish, dancing, driving a motocycle, playing djembe drums, martial arts, farsi, scuba diving, sailing, cooking vegetarian food from your country, sign language, hitchhiking boats, and many other things :)

Countries I’ve Visited

Albania, Argentina, Austria, Belgium, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brazil, Colombia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Ecuador, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, India, Italy, Kosovo, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, Morocco, Nepal, Netherlands, Norway, Paraguay, Peru, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Syrian Arab Republic, Thailand, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, Uruguay, Venezuela

Countries I’ve Lived In

Croatia, Italy

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