I’m back with fresh material. I know that I’ve been away a lot on that front this year, but now I’m back with new episodes from exciting destinations in the beginning of January.
We start with a miniseries recorded in Yerevan, Armenia, in October. Here I attended the first-ever Extraordinary Travel Festival and got a chance to speak to some extraordinary travellers.
You will get eight episodes between now and the new year. Two episodes every week – and you’ll still get flashback episodes every Friday. So, we’re going to be busy.
Here are the people you can meet in the miniseries: Boris Kester, Charles Veley, Daniel Shachory, David Yang, Francis Tapon, Gus Rosted, Mette Ehlers Mikkelsen, Odette Ricasa, Paul Barbado, Romaine Welds, Slawek Muturi, and Tony Giles. But we start with Hungarian, Ildikó Szabó and Norwegian, Gunnar Garfors.
Ildikó Szabó
She was born and raised in the countryside of Hungary and was a late starter in travelling. She was 18 years old when she first left her home country for the first time, and it wasn’t until she was almost 22 when she first set foot on a plane.
At the age of 25, she went on my first solo trip outside of Europe when she backpacked in China, Thailand, Sri Lanka, and the UAE. And then, she really caught the travel bug and decided to persuade a career in aviation.
In 2018, at 36, she achieved her goal of visiting every country in the world as the first Hungarian and amongst one of the youngest female travellers achieving this milestone without any sponsorship.
Gunnar Garfors
Apart from being an anagram for Ungarn (Hungary), Gunnar is a journalist, public speaker and bestselling author who has visited every country twice. And he was the first person in the world to do that.
He holds many records, but an interesting one is a Guinness World Record that he set in 2012 with Adrian Butterworth by being the first to visit five continents on the same day.
Gunnar has written several books, with the first one called “How I ran Out of Countries.” Garfors also writes on his travelblog, garfors.com.
Like me, he’s worked in the radio industry for many years – in fact, we found out that we’ve attended the same radio conferences in the past. Now he’s funding his life and travels as a writer and a public speaker.
He grew up as the oldest of seven children in the tiny village of Naustdal on the Norwegian West Coast. Currently, he lives in Oslo – when he’s not on one of his many journeys because he still feels there’s a lot to see.
Extraordinary Travel Festival
As mentioned, I met Gunnar and Ildikó at the Extraordinary Travel Festival in Yerevan, Armenia. It was the first conference of its kind, and we all agreed it was an incredible event.
It’s still up in the open where the next Extraordinary Travel Festival will be, but according to Ric Gazarian, who is in charge of organising it, he’s working on doing the next one in 2024.
I did so many interviews in Yerevan, and in the next episode, we will feature another extreme travel legend, Charles Veley. He did something not many people have done: He got a chance to visit the world’s most remote island, Bouvet.
LINKS:
GUNNAR GARFORS:
Blog: www.garfors.com
Facebook: facebook.com/gunnargarfors
Instagram: @garfors
Twitter: @garfors
Watch Gunnar’s TEDx Talk
ILDIKÓ SZABÓ:
Facebook: Ildikó Szabó
Instagram: @endlesstravelcoma & @endlessgastrocoma
Pinterest: @ildikoszabo
319 CYPRUS: Mountains, Border Crossing, and a Forbidden Love Story
318 BANGKOK: The Top 7 Must-See Sights
KATHMANDU, NEPAL: Nature, Massacre, Monkeys and Friendly People (Flashback)
317 INTERVIEW: Globetrotter Ric Gazarian and Extraordinary Travel Festival 2024
316 CYPRUS: Stunning Nature and Making Friends
315 ROME: Top 7 Things to See in the Italian Capital
VERMONT, USA: Ice Cream in Green Mountains (Flashback)
314 INTERVIEW: A Bad-ass Young Traveller Hitchhiking Across the Atlantic
AUSTRALIA: A Perfect Day in Melbourne with a Local
312 TOURIST SCAMS: What to be Aware of and How to Avoid them (Part 1)
311 AUSTRALIA: Leaving Sydney and Starting Cruise to New Zealand
310 SYDNEY: Top 7 Must-See Landmarks That Will Blow Your Mind
NORTH CAROLINA: Asheville and The Sit-In Movement in Greensboro (Flashback)
309 AUSTRALIA: Blue Mountains and Sydney Harbour Bridge Climb
308 CALIFORNIA, USA: Exploring the Pacific Coast Highway
BOSTON, USA: Cheers from The Radio Vagabond (Flashback)
307 SYDNEY: Cricket is Such a Big Deal Here
306 SINGAPORE: Top 7 Things to See and Do in Singapore
CARIBBEAN: Cruising in a Pandemic to Saint Lucia, Aruba & Curaçao (Flashback)
305 SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA: A Down-Under Dive into Aussie Slang, Opera, and Fireworks
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