◉ 028 | You Don’t Need a Map. You Need a Compass.

I was involved

in a few car crashes

in my early twenties.

Luckily, nothing major—

but eye-opening.

A reminder, for sure.

I wrote about one

in Aches That Run Forever.

Nine months

after that crash

I was in another one.

This time it was on me.

Driving too fast,

brain elsewhere.

Saw the car stopped at the lights

a second too late.

The car was fucked.

Undriveable.

Left it roadside.

No comprehensive insurance.

No money to fix it.

I sold the wreck

to the brothers who own

a body shop.

They organised a tow truck.

Before pick-up,

I pulled out my expensive hi-fi:

speakers, amplifiers, cables,

CD player,

and the subwoofer, of course.

Sold it all.

Early August.

Hot summer.

Cash in hand.

I walked into a bike shop

and rode out on a brand-new motorbike.

No licence.

In the city—

you glide between cars.

In the country—

you overtake—solid line or broken.

I loved every second.

Until the first November rain.

Sub-zero on a bike hurts.

I needed a car.

I’d checked listings

in Germany.

You could buy

the kind of car I was after

for around 500 euros.

So I went to Frankfurt,

thanks to my friend Filip.

It turned out you couldn’t get anything

under 1000 euros there.

I didn’t want to fly home

empty-handed,

so I spent everything

on a shitty car.

I drove through Germany,

remembering the route

Filip’s sister gave me.

Stuck in after-work traffic

on the Autobahn near Munich.

Passed Salzburg

in the dark.

Drove straight through

the frozen Alps

on summer tyres.

Left the lakes of Villach behind.

Crawled through

the Karawanks Tunnel.

Zoomed through Slovenia

in an hour and a half.

Waited longer than that

at the Croatian border

in Bregana.

After midnight—

me with a handful of documents,

asking truck drivers for advice.

I had to import my “new” car.

I had no idea how.

But I did it.

Then—

and many times since—

I figured it out.

Not the safest choices,

but you can’t always play it safe.

When you’re on a mission,

start walking,

embrace the unknown,

and don’t stop.

Ever.