I arrived in Ankara last night. Eren, who is running the only BJJ gym in town, picked me up from the airport. He is a lone purple belt in a place, where BJJ hasn’t really picked up yet.

Today, we trained in the afternoon just him and I, and in the evening, we had a small class with a few guys from the gym. Eren is a big guy and has a solid game. The gym is nice and the guys training there have a good base, so I really think he can start something good here with time, work and patience. It is interesting for me to see a gym in it’s very beginning, and I am happy to be able to share some of my own experiences as gym owner with him to give him a little push in the right direction.

He showed me around town a bit. We went to the Ankara Castle, which was very cool. I will post some photos from there a little later. We also had, what was so far the best kebab I’ve ever had. Gotta get back there tomorrow I think :D The weather is a bit warmer than in Moldova. Don’t need my hoodie under the jacket here :)

So far Turkey has been great! Looking forward to more training tomorrow and also to visit both Cyprus and Istanbul next.

Sitting in Turkey, I am thinking back on the last week, that I have spent with Robert. I don’t think I have yet processed completely, how good and important an experience this part of the trip have been. Both for my travels and for myself. Robert went out of his way to help me, a complete stranger, to discover an area, almost no one gets to experience.

Having visited these places, I wonder how the rest of the trip can top what I have experienced and felt here. It has definitely changed my view on how I will travel from now on. I need to stay focused on getting out and see the real world. Not just the big cities, which are often nothing but variations of the western world I come from and already know. It will be difficult to find ways to see these places, but I’ll do my best. I need to find more Roberts out there :)

He took a week out of his calendar to show me around three countries and five cities and expected nothing back. Before that, he – like his wife Amanda – took years out of his calendar to work with kids in a village far away from the world you and I live in. It is really inspiring when someone spends so much of their ressources on helping others. It makes me think, that I should focus more on doing the same. What have you done today to help someone else?

If you feel like taking the same trip as me, I have promised Robert to say that he is willing to show anyone around if they come. The blog post about the kids in the village is slowly moving down the page to the point where it will eventually be forgotten. The kids are not going anywhere though, and would love another visit. Just contact me and I’ll get you in touch with him.

If there were more people like Robert and Amanda, the world would definitely be a better place.

“We don’t have hamburger in Transnistria”, Andrei said with a heavy Russian accent. Robert had met him through couch surfing a while back and stayed in his apartment. My mission seemed impossible.

As we walked up and down the main street, we passed by Lenin statues, tanks and war monuments, but no Transnistrian hamburger joints.

We ended up in “Andy’s Pizza”, which is a Moldovan chain of restaurants, so it doesn’t really count, but it was the best I could do. Hamburgers were never a big hit in the USSR, I guess.

Andy’s hamburger cost me around two dollars. It was a white belt in the light weight division. It knew a few sweeps, but still hadn’t pulled any submissions off in sparring. It was wearing a gi from traditional training and it looked a little awkward. Still much to learn for this beginner.

Yesterday, we took the bus to Transnistria. It is not recognized by the UN, but has it’s own border posts, military and so. It was a little scary to go through the border, the guards looked very serious.

There wasn’t much to see, but it was interesting to be in a country that is so strongly influenced by Russia. The closest I’ll get to the old USSR on this trip.

Me and Robert had been riding the bus from Burlacu to Chisinau from early morning to around noon. We were meeting up with some traditional Jiu Jitsu guys. I really didn’t know what was arranged for me there, so I was a little surprised, that I had two seminars scheduled the first day. One only an hour after I arrived, and one in the evening. The late seminar was in a big, old wrestling hall. They had invited 100 people and even printed tshirts for the event. Kind of took me by surprise, but since I am on a quest for adventure, I don’t mind surprises, so I took the challenge :)

The seminar in the old, soviet wrestling hall was really cool. I didn’t teach any technique, but did some different drills and games instead. I have never before seen so many people play Jiu Jitsu Virus, it was chaos lol There was lots of cool kids there too, it was really awesome to train with them. All the training had to be translated to Russian, so took some time to explain every drill, but worked out ok.

I did about an hour or so of sparring with the guys. I miss all the sparring I usually do with my friends at home, so it was nice to get some work done :)

Thanks to the guys in Chisinau for taking care of me and Robert!

It seemed like the Soviet union had big plans for the small village of Burlacu. A wine factory and a house of culture had been build. The post office was the size of a palace, but only one small room the size of a living room was being used now. Several places around the village, building projects had been started, but when the Soviet fell, the work stopped. They still stand there, half done.

The most fascinating to me though, was the old, abandoned sports hall. In the the 80s, it was a thriving place with sports events and training going on all the time. One of the locals told me, there had been wrestling competitions and many tough boxing matches. He had played soccer there himself as a kid. When the union fell, the funding ended, and the building was left to fall apart. People of the village took whatever they could use from it. Today, only the ruins are left, of what must have been a magnificent place.

There are no locks on the doors and no glass in the windows. Walking into the entrance hall, it struck me, how beautiful it must have been back then. The walls are white and blue. Most of the paint have fallen off now. First are the locker rooms. So many athletes must have waited in these small rooms, before going into the hall to perform. There are four rooms, two for the home team and two for the away team.

Walking from the locker rooms, a small corridor is going into the hall itself. When I first walked this way, I could imagine how it must have been for the wrestlers, boxers and gymnasts doing the same. Nervous. Anxious. Listening to the sound of the audience inside the hall ahead.

Entering the hall, the first thing one sees is the light coming through the enormous windows on the opposite wall. The light must have filled the room beautifully. Above is the the spectator balcony with people cheering for the athletes. On one wall is written “Raise high the flag of sport” and on the other, the Olympic rings and motto “Faster, higher, stronger”.

So many dreams of young athletes must have been dreamt in this building. Dreams of reaching the top, becoming the best they could. Making their families and country proud. Standing there, was a very special thing to me. Closing my eyes, I could see how it must have looked. It was not hard to imagine the tense atmosphere, before a big game or match.

Today, there is nothing. The silence is stunning. The wind is blowing gently through the big windows, carrying a few snowflakes with it. A tree is growing in one corner. The wooden floor has probably been used for firewood many years ago. There are no more breathtaking seconds of victory and defeat here. No more dreams.

This was the closest I could get to a hamburger in Moldova. It really wasn’t a hamburger, but could’t find anything else.

This was a white belt one stripe. New in class, always asking to learn new submissions or “what should I do from here?” type of hamburger.

Yesterday, I was teaching the kids of Burlacu, and it was an experience I will never forget. It was definitely the best, I have ever had in my career as a BJJ coach. Basically, this was the reason I traveled all the way to a small, cold, snowy village in the middle of nowhere, in a country that I knew nothing about. It was worth every hour of the bus rides, every frozen toe and every time I had to go to the toilet and there was no toilet, but only a hole in the ground :)

Robert, who I am traveling with on this part of the trip, worked as a peace corp volunteer in the village a few years back. He has a strong wrestling background from the USA and is a blue belt in BJJ. When he worked in the village for two years, he set up a BJJ “gym” in the school with the kids from there. They had no gi’s and no money, so a friend from his gym in the US collected a lot of old gi’s and had them sent to Moldova so they could train in them.

It had been a few years since he ran the project, and two of the kids, who are teenagers now, have taken over the training. They haven’t been doing much training, but it is clear, that the seed has been planted and the interest is there. The bigger kids, who have moved to other cities, train BJJ, Judo and Sambo where they can.

When we got to the school, the first group of boys were waiting for us. They were nervous to see a foreigner who was also apparently some Jiu jitsu guy who should train with them. We got in the school and walked to the gym hall.

That place is really an experience. As I wrote in the other post, there are holes in the floor, the lights are old streetlights and the soccer goals are just painted on the walls with crayon. Most noticeable though is, that there is no heating, My guess is, that there was probably around 5-10 degrees Celsius in there. I had to wear two tshirts under my gi, socks (occasionally shoes, when it got too cold), and my cap (thanks Nogi, you saved my ass there :)).

The kids found the old, torn gi’s from a back room and got dressed. None of them fit. The belts were mostly random pieces of cloth. One kid had a belt from a robe. The gi’s where way too big and some kids only had pants or jackets. They had lots of clothes on underneath to stay warm.

We started training and I did some of the drills I do with my own kids team at home. They absolutely loved it, there were smiles and laughs all over. Every time they laughed, a big, white fog appeared in front of them in the cold air. These were really poor kids, living in such a different world than ours. They didn’t have much. No iPods, no cell phones, no fancy clothes and no heating. They had some really old, torn gi’s, a few old, dirty mats, and some home made belts.

For a few hours yesterday, they seemed to forget this and just got lost in the training, like we all do every day we go to the gym at home. They were smiling and laughing so much, I loved every second of it, desperately trying to hold on to that feeling and wanting to give them more. Their physique was impressive, I could tell they had been doing hard physical work already. I wish I could work more with them. Just 6 months in my gym back home or something, they would be absolute monsters.

Later, I trained with the teens, who were kids when Robert trained them. They were huge now and really seemed to like doing some grappling again. It was getting dark and colder. Only two of the six lights in the gym was working so I had to show techniques in the corner with the light. My toes and fingers were completely numb when we finished sparring.

It was a very big honor to be able to give them a good experience and it was something that I will never forget. It really opened my eyes to, what power I posses to influence people in a positive manner with BJJ. I have been writing more about this, but will save it for the book.

The coldest, but best training session of my life.

Burlacu is the official Middle of Nowhere. Really small village where everybody knows each other. It is freezing cold here.

We are staying with Pascha and Tolea, who Robert used to live with when he worked here for the Peace Corp. The house is pretty spacious but cold as ice.

Last night we went to the bar (yes, there is only one). We had heard that the disco was going to be open, but since there were no girls in the bar that evening, the owners didn’t want to open it. My guess is that the temperature in the bar was around 0 degrees Celsius. The door was kept open, because as they said, if it was closed, how would people know the bar was open.

We tried to warm us with some ridiculously big vodka shots, but didn’t really help. Coldest night out in my life! Interesting nonetheless.

We went by the school today to arrange the seminar later in the afternoon. There were a lot of eyes on me from the kids, I don’t think they get visits that often :)

We met the gym teacher. An old 52 year man, who was very proud of his work. He showed me all his diplomas and trophies in his office. The schools gym hall is where Jiu Jitsu training is. There is no heating, the lights are stolen streetlights, the floor has huge holes in it and the soccer goals are painted with crayon on the wall. Far from the facilities I had as a kid when I went to school. Robert told me that the gym teacher had a split personality. Super nice outside training, but the toughest trainer one could imagine when he was working. I took a portrait of him and tried to use a shadow to interpret his personality in the photo. Think it turned out pretty well. Afterwards, he showed me that he could do 25 swinging dips in the bars. Pretty impressive.

We took the “Torpedo Tur” bus from Bucharest to Cahul in Republic of Moldova. It was a long ride but they were showing about 50 episodes of some Russian low budget action series with the sound turned all up, so no one were bored.

As I was talking to Robert, we suddenly slid off the road and crashed into a big pile of snow. Fortunately, we didn’t hit any of the big trees, only a small one that fell over. We were pretty much stuck, as the doors couldn’t open because of the snow. Eventually, a big truck came by and pulled us free. First traffic accident is in the books.

The bus ride was pretty interesting, going through some long forgotten cities. Eventually, we made it to Cahul, where Naeema welcomed us for the night. She is another Peace Corp volunteer, who had worked together with Robert. She was such a smiling and happy person, full of energy even though we arrived at 3:30 at night. We slept there and the next day, walked around the city a bit before we caught the bus to the Burlacu village.

I’ll make this hamburger review quick. Basically, it was close to impossible to find a real Romanian hamburger to review, but Springtime (a Romanian fast food chain), had one, and here is the verdict:

It was a white belt, one stripe. Feeling proud about it’s first stripe and eager to learn, but it’s game is limited to a few techniques and a bad shrimp. Easy to sweep and with no competition experience. Watching techniques on YouTube all day, but can’t pull off anything in sparring.

Today we walked around Bucharest for a few hours to check out the city. It was cold and snowy, but really interesting. The contrast between the old, original buildings and the concrete east block style buildings were very interesting. I took some good photos but will upload them at a later point since I need some time for editing.

At 14:00 I did the seminar in the gym. About 40 guys showed up which was really cool. I went over some stuff from side control and people seemed to find it useful I think.

Now we are looking for a hamburger for my hamburger review on the blog. Seems to be really difficult to find a real Romanian hamburger though!

In two hours, we are catching the bus to Moldova. It will be a nine hour drive (arg), but I’ll take it as a part of the adventure :D

Not much time to write here in fact, will be back tomorrow when I get online somewhere ;)

Wow, this day was really intense. Last night when I was getting to bed, I just wanted to check out how I could get to the airport from the train station. I found out, that even though I arrived in Paris three hours prior to the takeoff of my plane, it would be extremely tight making the bus or train in time. It made it a little difficult for me to sleep, so only got five hours.

In the morning I said goodbye to Thomas and Kristina, before getting on the train to Paris. I had a really great time in Montpellier and was very happy to stay with them.

When I arrived in Paris I was in a serious hurry. With help from Arthur, I got on the right trains and got to the bus station in record time, but I was exactly three minutes late. The kind guy at the ticket booth informed me, that my only option to make the flight in time was by taxi to the airport. It was more an an hours drive away and costed me 140 euros!!!!!!!!!!! I had no other option so I got the best out of it. Got a photo of the taxi driver laughing with my money in his hand, so it was all worth it lol

Anyways, I made it to Bucharest and it was snowing heavily. The landing was basically all white. I couldn’t see anything out the window.

Robert and Amanda was waiting for me in the airport with a SIGN!!! How awesome is that, I’ve always wanted someone to pick me up in the airport with a home made sign :D

We drove to their apartment (which has a guard dog, awesome again!), got some food and then out the door again to the gym. I was pretty tired but I am only here for 24 hours so I wanted to go to the gym. And what a cool experience!

It was at a military facility in a huge wrestling room. Very simple, eastern Europe style place. There were tons of people in the class, i think at least 40. People were extremely friendly and their English was really good. I hadn’t been there for more than a few minutes before people came to say hi and asked for advise about BJJ. It was very easy to socialize with them and they seemed eager to learn and to hear about my trip.

Tudor, the owner of the gym, who I had met in Portugal for the Europeans was sick unfortunately, so there wasn’t really anyone to teach. They asked if I could teach a bit, so I did. We went over some one-legged x-guard and everyone learned it easily. In general, the level was really high. There were a good handful of very good blue belts.

I got two rolls before I had to call it a day. All the traveling and to little sleep was in my body. I wanted to save my energy for tomorrow, where I am teaching a seminar at 14:00. I hope there will also be time for checking out the city a bit and taking some photos. We are leaving on the bus to Moldova already at 6 in the evening.

So far, Romania has been a really good experience. It was awesome to get on a plane, land in some completely unknown country, walk directly into a Jiu jitsu gym and connect with people like that. It seems that everywhere I go, I instantly want to go back, and this is no exception.

I am really looking forward to tomorrow. Right now I am sitting in Robert and Amanda’s apartment. I can’t wait to take some photos here, it is as eastern European as I could imagine and I love it.

Tomorrow, I am leaving Montpellier to go to Bucharest in Romania. We decided to skip training tonight, since we were both really tired. Training every night since I left home has made me pretty sore, probably because I had a long (2-3 weeks) break from training before I left.

Instead, we went for burgers with some of Thomas friends. It was a really good burger. They talked a lot about that they were really big, but I am no noob when it comes to eating contests, so I challenged Thomas to order the biggest one for me he could. Even the waiter seemed impressed when he took the order. Needless to say, I finished it in style ;)

Thomas suggested, that as a side project for my trip, I should rate burgers from all over the world on my blog. Since I am losing weight fast when I travel (down to 76.9 this morning!), I thought that was a great idea.

The burger from Burger & Co in Montpellier, I will rate as a seasoned purple belt with three stripes. Good base, hard to sweep and and experienced competitor with some teaching experience.

On the way home, I found some pretty cool shop names. Who wants to be “Forever Seven”?

The title of this post is not about sparring with the French guys!

Location:Rue de l’Argenterie,Montpellier,France

I decided to cook dinner for my hosts today. Unfortunately I ate too much of it, so getting up in gear in class was a little difficult tonight :)

I had been very sore in my body today after the hard training yesterday. Once I got warmed up I felt great though.

There we more people on the mat today. Florent, the own of the gym, and his twin brother Jean Claude was there, both brown belts. Apart from that, there was a few blue belts and white belts.

The sparring with the twins was really good. They are very friendly and technical and I recommend anyone coming by southern france to go train with them. Check out their website www.artesuave.fr!

Got a long night of sleep and took my time to get up. My three week break from training makes it a little hard to get used to sparring again. The hard warmup yesterday didn’t help either :)

I started the day experimenting a bit with my monkeypod and fisheye lens. The staircase to Thomas and Kristina’s apartment is crazy narrow and it took me some time to get the angle right, but think it turned out pretty good.

Christie, an American girl from the gym, was off work today and had offered to show me around the city a bit. This place is a complete maze with narrow streets and tall buildings, so it is very difficult to keep a sense of direction and therefore a “local” guide was highly appreciated.

Spend a while checking out the beautiful city and taking some photos. Now i am just relaxing before gi class tonight. Should be a bigger class than yesterday from what I’ve heard.

Tonight I went to Arte Suave, which was a fifteen minute walk from where Thomas lives. The first thing that hit me when I entered the door was the humidity, it was crazy. No open doors or windows and no ventilation. Keeping warm would not be a problem, I reckoned.

Six guys showed up for class, and the atmosphere was very relaxed, which was perfect for me. Earlier in the day I had decided to skip training today because I was so tired, but I went anyways and was happy I did.

We did a pretty hard warm up with some card and endurance drills. A little hard for my tired body, I could definitely feel the lack of sleep.

The trainer, Francisco Nonato, was a HUGE guy. He showed some pretty nice stuff from the kimura in guard bottom. One way to finish it if the opponent hides his arm and one way to use it to take the back. Will go in the notebook and be showed to the guys in my gym playing the kimura game.

We did about 30-40 minutes of sparring, and my knee felt fine. I went really nice and easy, no need to take any chances by going hard with strangers. If I get injured (especially in that stupid knee), I will pretty much be fucked :) they level of the guys was pretty high, especially Florent, a brown belt around my size. Very nice roll. I also went a round with Francisco, it was basically like trying to grapple a house.

Now I am back in the apartment and will sleep as long as I can, I really need it. Tomorrow night is some sightseeing and gi training.