Axel Grafmanns

Round-the-World Traveler

1. When do you leave?
   November 2003

2. How long do you plan to be away?
   6-12 Months

3. How much have you saved?
   €25000

4. How old are you?
   29

5. Nationality
   Germany

6. Where do you live now?
   Berlin, Germany

7. Occupation
   Broadcast Engineer

8. Is this job one that you actually like, or
   are you only doing it to pay for the trip?
   I’ll come back if they’ll have me

9. Have you traveled around the world
   before?
   No

10. What is the route you plan to take/places
    you plan to visit?
    Australia-New Zealand-Fiji-South America

11. Why did you decide to take this trip? What
    got you into this type of travel, and/or influenced you to go?
    Well, an old dream comes true. I am now close to the 30, and it’s time to
    realise from what I talked my whole live. You have ever a reason that you
    don’t do it.

12. What is your biggest fear about this
    trip?
    Illness and maybe to be lonely.

13. Are your family, friends, co-workers, etc.,
    supportive of you? What is their opinion of your going around the
    world?
    Yes, they support me. It was a long process. And they know, that
    traveling is a part of my live. It’s important for me. I had already
    monthly trips to Thailand, India, USA, Mexico….

14. How much planning and preparing have you
    done?
    Just Enough

15. What are you packing? What do you consider
    your most indispensable item(s)?
    Sleeping back and some clothing staff, medicine, some books.

16. How do you think your round-the-world trip
    will change your life? How do you think it will affect and change you as
    a person?
    I don’t know…it’s not my first trip far away. But maybe I find out,
    what I will do the rest of my life, after my dreamn and what is important
    for me….

17. If you had to sum up your thoughts/feelings
    about your round-the-world trip in one sentence, what would it
    be?
    I am a male, but the feelings now I can describe with: pregnant (from high
    to low).

18. Why do you think people should go on
    round-the-world trips? Why not just take a regular old one- or two-week
    vacation instead?
    Because this time is not enough, that you get the feeling for different
    cultures and different people. Two weeks vacations are not enough, to
    realice that we live as world-citizens, and that nationality is not so
    important.

19. What is the biggest myth that people have
    about round-the-world traveling?
    Everybody ask me five questions:
    1) What will you do after the trip?
    2) What is with your occupation?
    4) You do it alone?
    3) You have enough money for it?
    4) What the opinion of your parents to this?

20. Why do you like to travel?
    It’s a part of my live, of my dreams and it’s important to stop war and
    fighting each other. If you ever have a friend in a foreign country, you
    don’t like to shoot him.

21. What is your advice for people planning
    their own RTW trip?
    DO IT! It’s easy, the most important thing is to make a decision….

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