Introduction

Dear Visitor,
You have reached the website of Ivan, the Globetrotter. My domain name "ahogyerzed" is in Hungarian (originally written in 2 words: "ahogy érzed", pron: ahodj eerzed), nowadays often used in the context of "whatever you feel like" in Hungary. It's a pretty common saying and I use it very often to express my view of life. Life is what YOU make of it so you gotta live it your way. I am sure most visitors who have travelled quite a bit in their lives so far know exactly what I mean by that.

The "uncontrollable" urge to GO
It's been a few years when I decided that one day I would have to take a round-the-world trip to see what it feels like to just go, discover and meet people every single day. Many of us, who have done it said that it's a trip of a lifetime and there's no comparison. There are definitely many ways to travel but when young, this is said to be the best piece of experience you can get. Hopefully I will be able to state the same after having done my journey.

My years in America
Between the year 2000 and 2003 I had the chance to live in the greatest city in the world, New York. Even though my intentions of becoming an American citizen never worked out (my sponsorship never made it thru the mess that 9.11 caused) I met a lot of wonderful people and gained heaps of experience there. For all the people who don't like the US for some reason, I recommend that you go to the Big Apple and get people skills for it's the best place with its 100+ nationalities within a few squaremiles. In the year 1996 I backpacked around Australia and for a long while after my return to Europe I wanted to move back to the Land of Oz cos that is what I thought was the best country in the Planet. For all the Aussies I still think the same, though New York came up on my list to compete with that.

The latino feeling
When leaving the States finally I went to Mexico for a bit of a latino experience and I have to say it was one of the most beautiful places I have seen in my life. The climate, the people, the country, and the culture. It captured me in my guts. After my return to Europe I made up my mind that I would go around the world, the usual backpacking way, putting an emphasis on the latino world, so at least 6 months in South and Central America. Altogether 1 year, 4 continents, lots of overland travel and close to 39.000 miles of flying.

Future updates
Obviously I won't have time to update the stories in each language so I will do that only in the Hungarian part. For all the foreign visitors I might summarize every country in a few words in english but most of all I am planning to update the picture gallery with recent photos over here for I can share the wonderful memories with all the travellers I have met and I have yet to meet.

Quotes for the traveller
"Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness. Broad, wholesome, charitable views cannot be acquired by vegetating in one's little corner of the earth all one's lifetime." (Mark Twain)

"Own only what you can carry with you; know languages, know countries, know people. Let your memory be your travel bag." (Alexander Solzhenitsyn)

Wherever you are, stay safe and never open any suspicious mails.

God Bless Ya!