Agter Heregoez

A shortish bilingual ‘about’

My name is Svelka and I am not Russian, which seems to be the go-to reply when I introduce myself.  I live in the Kalahari and as such, it is safe to assume that I love being in the countryside and that English is not my first language. And therefore there will be no grammar awards in Heregoez’s future.😉

 As a ‘piekenienie’ I already wanted to travel. I thought that outside of Namibia, the world consisted of Mauritius, Canada and Germany. That was where I wanted to go. Unfortunately, no amount of parental pestering got me to see the world.

Then I went to University where everybody goes everywhere. My souvenir collection steadily grew. But it was not until I ventured away from Health Sciences that I had my first real shot at exploring the other hemisphere.  Before I knew it, the rigmarole of obtaining a visa was behind me and I was knee-deep in winter. Then the bug bit hard!

My eerste oor die water aksie was na Duitsland. Ek was ‘n maand lank daar as ‘n student en het orals moontlik verken en beleef. Dit was een van die beste maande van my lewe. Die jaar daarna, het ek die geleentheid gehad om weer te gaan. Ek was daardie winter vir 2 maande in Dusseldorf. Daardie winter was rof, maar dit het ook nie vir ‘Dora the explorer’ gestuit nie. Het in sneeu en koue verken. Ek was gelukkig genoeg om sjokolade en wafels in België te eet, vars van die ‘plaas’ af 😀, en om op die kanale van Amsterdam te vaar. Amsterdam is ‘n storie wat sy eie ‘blog post’ benodig want hierdie meisie af die Kalahari was redelik ontnugter. Dis nie net kaas en klompe nie.

After those 2 winters I wanted to go back and see Germany in summer. it took me 4 years to save up travel money and I was not disappointed. Germany is beautiful in summer. But that was that for Germany and I wanted to go beyond beer and brezeln. After my next save-athon, I solo-d through Italy and Istanbul and came back dead tired from walking like a crazy person.

How I came upon the idea of blogging

I never thought of blogging, but inspiration struck when I was planning my Italy trip. I found a great tour, but could unfortunately not find anyone to go with me.  The single supplement cost another international ticket, which meant saving time was longer. No way! If I wanted to see Italy, I had to go alone. Up until now, I have always travelled in a group and the solo thing was a bit foreign to me. Anyway, I Googled the safety of female solo travellers in Italy and was pleasantly surprised. It seems that there are no reasons for me not to attempt this excursion by myself.

After the success of my safety search, I started typing in specific questions and the answers came from blogs which was my first brush with this form of media. They proved very useful for planning. What I did see though was that most blogs were written from a first world country citizen’s perspective. They did not have to make the most of our Rand which the exchange rate never seems to favour or our ‘green mamba’ passport. Their ‘budget’ suggestions tended to be on the expensive side from my point of view.

I concluded that I should throw my two cents worth into the pool. Maybe Southern Africans can see that it is possible to see what lies beyond. With a lot of planning and dedicated saving this is more than possible. As for me, I would rather spend money on experiences than things, hence the shabby nature of my things. When I started mulling over the idea, it felt like a win-win situation. Someone can learn from my experiences and I can write for fun which is an extra bonus since I love telling stories. I even wrote my friends some short stories about my haps and mishaps. Murphy loves me or hates me, I could never tell which, but mishaps make for delightful stories.

Here goez nothing

And that was how Heregoez came to light, or to blog 😉Yes, I know the spelling is ‘kokai’ but the correct name has already been taken, so I just add a ‘z’ and solved the problem. Coming up with a blog name is not an easy thing to do. You will discover to your defeat, that most names have been taken. Even the ones so weird that you think you must have been the only one in the world to have thought of them, have been taken.

And then Travel Potatoez happend

A few months after starting out in the blogosphere, I got sidetracked into a competition for blogging, but could not use what I already had. I had to scratch my head and come up with a brand new idea. And that was how Travel Potatoez was born. It is a play on ‘couch potato’. You can veg at home and still ‘travel’. Why the other ‘z’. Two reasons: It fits in well with ‘Heregoez’ and Travel Potatoes was taken. No Kidding! Who would have thought that a weird name like that would already have been taken?

Die reisende aartappel word toe deel van Heregoez. Ek weet dit klink effens kokai om te sê dat jy reis by die huis. Maar vir my maak dit sin. En ek het al heelwat dinge probeer om te ‘reis’ terwyl ek spaar. Op die oomblik het luister ek na ‘n duitse radio stasie en maak baie gereeld gelato en pizza met alles wat ek geleer het in my kosklasse op my italië vakansie.

Dit is waar ons nou is. Ek vertel jou ‘hoe om te’ jou eie reis te beplan of om die beste te doen wat jy kan van die huis af. En die uiteinde van dit alles is dat jy as ‘n gewone mens kan reis, op welke manier dit ook vir jou moontlik kan wees.

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