Tarp Tent Search Ends with a Smile

Tarp Tent Search Ends with a Smile

There was a morning time knock on my door at the Museum Hostel that I had been staying at in Hondonin on the Slovak border of the Czech Repubic. I opened it to find my friend Shishuka with a big blue tarp in her hands and a smile on her face.

I smiled too, for my prolonged search through the Czech Republic for a tarp had just then come to an end.
————–
Wade from Vagabond Journey.com
in Hondonin, Moravia, Czech Republic- July 5, 2008
Travelogue — Travel Photos
————–

The previous day I was ranting to Shishuka about how I could not find a tarp anywhere in her country, and I had mistakingly proclaimed the Czech Republic a tarpless land. Shishuka then asked me some specific questions about what kind of tarp I wanted, and then said something to the effect of, “Yes, I think we have some of those in our attic. I will bring you one tomorrow.”

I grew excited. Could my ravenous hunt for a tarp be drawing to a close?

Tarp that I can tie up and use as a tent.


Eyelet in the tarp that I can pass a rope through and hang up on a tree or fence.

The next morning the perfect tarp was presented to me – it was exactly what I was searching for – and my heart was subsequently warmed, not just by the gift, but also because of the fact that my friend thought about me outside of our meeting and put real effort and energy into helping me. She had remembered that I needed a tarp, found one, and gave it to me the very next day. Shishuka is a real friend, and it is a pure joy forming real friendships in the oftentimes socially ephemeral world of travel.

I am just a traveling kid on a journey to nowhere and everywhere, and Shishuka and her family befriended me, sheltered me, fed me, taught me about their culture, and now they even be-tarped me. There are good people in the Czech Republic.

I must say that the people of this country are vagabonds-at-heart.

I like the Czech Republic.

I have found smiles here, and my heart was warmed at the giving of a tarp.

Links to previous travelogue entries:
Second Contribution to Vagabond Journey
Bike Vagabond Maps to the Sickle Moon Horizon
Hard Traveling- Bicycle Journey Day 3