Stavroula Anagnostopoulou | Real-Time Traveller

Stavroula Anagnostopoulou | Real-Time Traveller

Stavroula Anagnostopoulou has traveled a lot in many countries of the world, a total of 84 at the moment … more are coming along the way … on all five continents. With so many countries, of course you have a lot to say about travel. She also has her own travel facebook page, Real-Time Traveler, with many interesting posts. We found Stavroula and she told us a few things about her travels.

The Loch Ard Gorge is part of Port Campbell National Park, Victoria, Australia

Loch Ard Gorge is a picturesque bay just steps away from the world-famous rock formation of the Twelve Apostles.

In addition to its undeniable beauty, Loch Ard Gorge hides the tragic story of a shipwreck that washed up on Muttonbird Island in the late 1800s, leaving behind only two survivors, young sailor Tom Pearce and 19-year-old Eva Carmichael, who was traveling to to migrate to Australia with her family.

In memory of this unfortunate event, the two rocks that face each other and make this place so uniquely beautiful, have officially been named after the two survivors of the Loch Ard shipwreck? of Tom and Eva.

Tell us a few words about Real-Time Traveller, its theme, etc.

The idea of ​​Real-Time Traveler was born almost a year ago. I wanted to stop bombarding my friends with photos from my travels through my personal facebook profile, so I decided to make a separate space, which would be a personal diary of my travels.

In this space, in addition to photos and videos, I wanted to share with my friends my travel experiences on the go, but above all… in real time!

Real-Time basically means that the communication with the readers of my page will remain interactive. The basic idea is that they themselves will be able to influence the routes and places I will visit with their own suggestions, without necessarily being about tourist attractions only.

Egyptian hieroglyphics

The truth is that until recently I felt that the goal of my page had not been achieved or at least not understood. But on my last trip to Egypt I saw that change and finally get paid when a girl asked me to visit Heliopolis, an area of ​​Cairo where her father was born.

Having left Egypt many years ago and not been back since, he asked me to take some photos and videos to convey to him some images from today.

My “mission” was crowned with success when I even managed to find the house she lived in when she lived in Egypt, and I felt even through messages the intense emotion that I gave to her family with something so simple but also meaningful.

Abu Simbel Temples

To manage to stand in front of the temples of Abu Simbel even once in your travel life is a unique experience in itself. However, to think that these colossal monuments were moved to their current location from a completely different location is beyond human imagination!

And the story of Abu Simbel goes like this …

The Temple of Ramses II and the Temple of Queen Nefertari were originally built on the banks of the Nile River in southern Egypt. Thousands of years later, the construction of the Aswan Dam, a project that would greatly benefit the country’s agriculture while supplying electricity to over half of Egypt …

How many countries have you visited in total, which countries touched you the most?

Mexico

Guatemala Lake Atitlán

I have now fortunately visited 84 countries, having traveled to almost every continent except Antarctica. I have a special emotion and love for the countries that were part of my first solo trip outside of Europe and these are Guatemala, Nicaragua and Mexico.

And that’s because their reputation wanted them to be particularly dangerous destinations, while I was relieved to find that what I was hearing had nothing to do with reality. And this helped me overcome any fears I had at the beginning of my travel career.

Tell us a little about the trips you’ve taken, some places you particularly liked, some cultures

Syrian in a Bedouin camp in the Wadi Rum desert

The truth is that I have taken many dream trips, which makes it particularly difficult for me to single out and talk about specific destinations. After all, what I consider to be special is certainly far from what most people consider!

So I would rather focus on the culture part. And speaking of culture, my first thought goes to the people I met on my travels. So, bringing to my memory their presences, I find that the most “difficult” and least popular countries were the ones that left me with the strongest memories.

So who would have thought that a Syrian kid in a Bedouin camp in the Wadi Rum desert would give me the tip he had just been given, looking at my ripped jeans and thinking that I probably didn’t have the money to buy a new one…

Kazakhstan Tian Shan

Who would have thought that two homeless people on the street and after I had been robbed somewhere in Chile, would offer to play music and give me the money they would collect from passers-by…

Who would have thought that in a muddy city in Kazakhstan, a lady – who probably dreamed that she too could travel the world with a backpack on her shoulder – would ask me to take some of her money to go a little further …

Many people ask me what I gain from my travels, and what does it matter if I end up seeing 1, 2 or 5 more countries. But I know that what I gain is humanity and all these things so self-evident that they become meaningless in our everyday life.

And for those who keep wondering… I’m not counting countries anymore, I’m counting moments…

New Zealand: Aoraki / Mount Cook

On the way to New Zealand’s highest peak, Mount Cook (Aoraki in the local language), we were truly speechless by the brilliant turquoise color of Lake Pukaki.

The stop we made to capture in both our photographic and human memory this iconic New Zealand landscape where a snow-capped mountain and an alpine lake stretch beneath the vast sky was certainly the highlight of the day – if not the entire trip !

What are the next destinations you have in your plans to visit?

Mongolia

Angkor Wat Καμπότζ

My next travel plans include a short visit to China over Easter, a road trip to Poland with my girlfriends, while also planning my dream Trans-Siberian (Russia, Mongolia, China) trip for the summer.

September and October will find me in Laos, while ideally I would like to include Burma and Cambodia in this trip.

And if I succeed at some point I would also like to go around the world (complete rotation) in exactly 80 days!

Countries visited by Stavroula Anagnostopoulou

Europe: Albania, Austria, Belgium, North Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, France, Germany, Denmark, Switzerland, Estonia, United Kingdom, Ireland, Iceland, Spain, Italy, Kosovo, Croatia, Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Montenegro, Moldova, Monaco, Norway, Netherlands, Hungary, Ukraine, Poland, Portugal, Vatican City, Romania, Russia, San Marino, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Sweden, Czech Republic, Finland

Middle East: United Arab Emirates (UAE), Jordan, Israel, Iran, China, Lebanon, Oman, Palestine, Turkey
Asia: Azerbaijan, Armenia, Vietnam, Georgia, Japan, India, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Cambodia, China, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar (Burma), Mongolia, South Korea, Uzbekistan, Singapore, Thailand
America: Guatemala, United States of America, Canada, Cuba, Mexico, Belize, Nicaragua, Peru, Chile
Africa: Egypt, Morocco Oceania: Australia, New Zealand

Khndzoresk, that is a small village in Armenia

Crossing the 160-meter long swinging bridge that is connecting the two banks of the old and the new Khndzoresk, that is a small village in Armenia. The construction of the bridge -that is weighting 14 tons- was made by the villagers themselves, without the use of any machinery.