As a child, I thought that home was where there was a closet, books, and mom in the kitchen. 🏠 Later, I realized that you can carry home inside. When I first left alone — with a small backpack and a one-way ticket — I sat at the train station and thought: "What if I get scared?"
Spoiler: I got scared. But not for long.

When I come to a new city, I always walk first. 🚶‍♀️ Let the suitcase stand somewhere in a storage room, let the phone almost run out of battery — but I walk. I look at the faces of passers-by, drink coffee in the first coffee shop I come across ☕ and listen to the noise of the street. This noise is always different. In Riga it is soft and lazy, in Tbilisi it is as if someone is laughing in your ear, and in a small German town it is almost church-like silence.

I know people who are afraid of loneliness when they travel. But aren't we alone even in a crowd? Isn't it more interesting to meet yourself on an unfamiliar street than to wait for someone else to pick you up piece by piece?

I got lost in Budapest once. 🌆 I just got off the metro at the wrong stop. It was already late, the streets were empty, I didn't know where to go. I stopped, closed my eyes and thought: "Okay. This is your fear. Where are you?" And suddenly it became calm. I turned around and found a street with lights and a small bar where they were playing jazz. 🎶 There I drank the most delicious glass of red in my life.

People often tell me: "Are you alone? Scared?" No, I am not. Scared not to leave. It's scary not to try. It's scary to wake up one day and realize that you don't know who you are if you remove the familiar walls around you.

When I come back, I'm not the same. I bring with me the smells of the streets, the people who smiled at me in the store or just showed me the way. 💫 These people don't know how they change me. But maybe that's how magic works - imperceptibly, quietly, through other people's voices and open doors.

Maybe one day I'll leave and never come back. Not because it's bad here. It's just that sometimes you hear a call inside you: "Well, shall we go?" And you go.
Have you ever dreamed of dropping everything and leaving?
I have. And I will go again. Definitely. ✨