Olomouc: A Place to Hang My Hat

I have been in Olomouc in the Czech Republic for the past week. I landed a free bed for making Hobohideout webpages for the Poets’ Corner Hostel. Good hostel; good people; good town.

I bought a bicycle and am looking for the Road out of town with a heavy heart. After a week in this ancient city, I know that Olomouc is a place to hang my hat.

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Wade from Vagabond Journey.com
in Olomouc, Moravia, Czech Republic- June 19, 2008
Travelogue — Travel Photos
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List of places where I hang my hat:

1. Hangzhou, China
2. Vila Nova de Milfontes, Portugal
3. Darjeeling, India
4. Bangkok, Thailand
5. Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia
6. Kyoto, Japan
7. Manabi Coast, Ecuador
8. Santiago, Chile
9. Puerto Natales, Chile
10. Buffalo, New York USA
11. Kunming, China
12. Olomouc, Czech Republic

I believe it was Andy the Hobotraveler who coined the term “place to hang my hat,” and all it basically means is a network of places scattered around the globe that a traveler connects on his voyages. As I look at a map, I now try to view my paths in lieu of linking my home bases – in terms of going between the “places where I hang my hat.” I am always on the lookout for new places to add to this list, and when I find one it is a special encounter:

I nearly jump for joy, smile, and get real excited about the fact that I have found a place worth returning to.

Such places become intersections in the web of a traveler’s journey. I believe that after a few years a traveler’s path begins to resemble a web rather than smoothly running lines.

The intersections on this web are the places where a traveler hangs their hat.

I think that Olomouc will be one of these intersections for me.

I do not think that there is any real criteria for the places where I choose to hang my hat, but some of these places have similar attributes:

1.Global intersections or at the end of long Roads.

2. I like them. Simply put, I must have a deep, unspeakable attraction to the place.

3. Friends. People with whom I share a small amount of history with, with whom I can reminese and talk of times of old, all while creating new stories.

4. Good living. I know ways that I can live well and cheaply or find work.

5. Beauiful places, often in mountains or on sea coasts, or fast metropolitan areas where I can be a nobody and a somebody all at the same time.

It is funny how things develop the further you travel along a path. You begin to learn the Path, love it, hate it, and see its patterns and tendencies. This is not the process of figuring out the world, but myself.

These “places to hang my hat” shows that there is always some continuity- some pattern – that can be found in perpetual motion.

I like Olomouc.

The astrological clock in Olomouc, Czech Republic.