Category Archives: Thoughts

Thoughts

Walking by night

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I have always loved walking by night in the city. There is no noise from cars, business, construction works, or the blender at the far end of a juice shop. There is no sun to burn your skin or make you squinch your eyes to see ahead of you. The weather is nice. There’s only you, some random people, nearly empty streets, and a few night guards watching television.

You can walk for hours on end, digesting thoughts that couldn’t be dealt with during the day: there was too much distraction. You are free to walk wherever you want and think whatever you want.

Thoughts

Let’s get back to hiking!

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Enough of this hitch-hiking talk. Let’s get back to hiking. I started hiking on the 20th, 10 days ago. Hiking takes most of my time during the day. I don’t have mobile Internet, so I’m rarely online. This small keyboard is killing me. The posts will have a ~10-day delay because of that. Hiking has already been a lot of fun, and my legs aren’t as sore as they used to be. See you again in a few days =).

Health, Thoughts

Acid Reflux

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“Don’t you drink alcohol?” – I get frequently asked this by people that have just met me in a social context where there’s alcohol involved. Sometimes it’s just “not now; ok”, but some other times people get intrigued by this choice and want to know more about it.

“Why aren’t you drinking? No wine? No beer? Did you ever drink? Is it a health issue? Is it a life choice? Is it because you don’t like the taste?” and it goes on and on.

The thing is that I love beer. Not ‘get-drunk-cheap’ beer, but good tasting beers, specially ales. I also like some wine, but I can only tell between ‘horrible wine’ and ‘not horrible wine’.

However, I have drunk next to no alcohol for the past year or so. I gradually started drinking less down to the point where I wasn’t drinking any. And from that point it was just on rare occasions.

The main reason was because of a series of lifestyle changes I had in the past couple of years to cut down on acid reflux symptoms. The lifestyle changes include:

  • only sleeping after an hour or more after eating;
  • eating more times per day in smaller portions;
  • not drinking (anything) while eating;
  • not eating spicy foods;
  • eating more stuff which is supposedly good for my stomach, like apples and cabbage;
  • not eating tomato (although tomatoes are fine for me if I remove the seeds and the juice);
  • not drinking coffee or anything with lots of caffeine (like club-mate);
  • not drinking Coca-Cola (as weird as it may sound, drinking Pepsi is perfectly fine for me); and
  • not drinking alcohol.

Today during dinner I met a medical doctor that wanted to know why I wasn’t drinking. When I mentioned the acid reflux, he gave me a good overview of when and why it happens. I won’t try to explain what he told me, because I am not a medical doctor myself and I don’t want to put more incorrect medical information on the Internet than there already is =).

There is also the fact that after my nervous breakdown I had to take some medications that don’t mix well at all with alcohol, but these should be temporary. Being nervous also causes acid reflux symptoms. I was told the  medications that could help me relieve those symptoms are ranitidine and omeprazole.

So for the moment I am not drinking. This should change soon though. I have lots of good French wine and Belgian beer to taste on my way =)

Thoughts

Enough!

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So, the time has finally come. I have decided to go out hiking for a long time.

I’ve had this idea for many years: to cross Europe by foot. Year after year there was something that would make me postpone my voyage. I had to finish graduation, I had a relationship, I had to work, I didn’t feel physically fit, I didn’t feel mentally fit… Whatever the reason, I’d just postpone it for another year.

But years go by and I am not getting any younger. I am not getting fitter, au contraire, I am getting fatter. I had some personal issues which culminated in a horrible nervous breakdown.

Enough! I’m out! I’m rage quitting my job, I’m leaving everything behind, and I’m going hiking.

I was a scout when I was young, but I can barely remember any kind of knot. I get completely lost even with a compass. For some reason I still remember the Morse Code, but I suppose that won’t serve me any purpose nowadays.

I did a long distance footpath many years ago, but I’d stay in Hostels or Bed&Breakfasts. I’ve camped a few times in the last few years, but the tent is bulky and heavy. I have a good backpack, which I bought on sale some years ago. That’s basically all the gear I have for now. Oh, and I have an USB solar charger, that should come in handy.

To be honest, I don’t feel prepared. But I might wait forever and never feel prepared, so why not just leave now?