Featured traveller: Alexander Wolf – BJJ Globetrotters
Age: 39
Belt: Blue
Profession: Boring software & electronics engineer
How many years in BJJ: 3
Other martial arts: I’ve been playing ice hockey since I was 6 years old, does that count?
Where do you live: Zurich, Switzerland
Where are you from: Bavaria, Germany
Other fun or curious information you would like to share: Whenever you find yourself in a beer garden somewhere in Bavaria, order a “dunkles Weissbier” It’s a dark wheat beer! This will make you look like a pro instead of a tourist.
Alexander Wolf – BJJ Globetrotters
Tell us what inspired you to travel and train?
Since my younger days I’ve been doing rock climbing, and since you need rocks for that, you have to go where the mountain is. Every free minute we went into the Alps, the Franconian Jura, Fontainebleau, Lago di Garda, Ticino, and many more areas in Europe and around the globe. So travelling and training BJJ abroad instead of climbing a rock from my perspective is pretty normal. Rock climbing brought me to remote places where no tourist would go, and BJJ brought me to hidden gyms. That style of travelling for me is the best way to connect with other people and countries.
Tell us about your most recent travel and your upcoming travel – where have you been and where are you going?
Before the pandemic hit in September 2019, my girlfriend and I did a road trip with our micro bus from Switzerland to Greece, crossing Germany, Austria, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia Herzegovina and Albania.
One reason for doing this trip was that we desperately needed to get our loyal indestructible micro bus repaired. That camper bus technically is worth max the petrol inside its gas tank, but to get it repaired in Switzerland is just not affordable. So a fellow BJJ friend from Zurich, who is originally from Sarajevo, gave us his mechanic and jits contacts there. We spent almost one week in Sarajevo training at Bosnae Team United BJJ while our car got a manicure.
At the moment I’m planning a longer trip to South and Central America. Apart from wanting to acquire a new skill and learn Spanish, I heard so many good things about that part of our globe that I want to go there.
Alexander Wolf – BJJ Globetrotters
What are the things you enjoy about traveling?
After the wild “exploring new things” phase in my twenties, nowadays I honestly enjoy coming back home the most. Home is where your heart, your family, and your friends are. Coming from a first world country and traveling through less privileged parts of our planet grounds me, and makes me grateful of the life I have and the chances I got.
Can you give us some examples of experiences you had that makes it worth traveling and training?
Plenty! For example, my girl and I ended up in Split in Croatia at Black Dragon Alliance which was so cool! We ended up in an industrial area following a YouTube short movie on how to find the gym because it was hidden inside a shut down industrial complex. Once we arrived, Danko (the black belt) explained to us that they usually don’t have female BJJ students. Not because they don’t want women to train with them; it’s just that they had no separate changing rooms or toilets. We as tiny 115 and 150 lbs midgets, not understanding a single word and total white belt noobs, now found ourselves in a Croatian man-cave filling up with big buff guys going there to roll! But luckily also some fellow dwarves showed up, who folded us nicely inside our gis – as we deserved it. After we left happily this evening, we accumulated just another unforgettable experience travelling the planet.
What has so far been the most surprising experience for you when traveling?
When travelling through Iran, we once got a flat tire and got stuck on some remote dirt road in the Iranian outback when looking to find a place to camp. But then out of nowhere two Iranian men showed up on tiny motorbikes. At first glace we where a bit intimidated, but it turned out that these two where shepherds and we got stuck on their land. Their names were actually Hassan and Hussein. We communicated only by gestures while they helped us fix the tire. After that, Hussein took out his smartphone, called his wife to inform her that they will have guests over night, and invited us to his place. In that order.
So we went to his house and had a simple but rich dinner consisting of tomatoes, cucumber, self-made cheese and tea. Sitting on a Persian carpet with his family, cousins, and neighbours he invited on short notice, we tried to exchange stories in broken English. Similar invitations happened all the time! These people where so hospitable that I now constantly question my Western behaviour. Would you invite a stranger/traveller from another country you don’t know to your home and offer him dinner and a place to sleep?
Another story would be those policemen in Kyrgyzstan that fined me 70 USD for speeding. And after I paid they bought me some vodka and ice cream from my own money, haha …
Or that drunk Russian sitting in a beer refill kiosk in the middle of Siberia that thought if he only speaks slow enough I would finally understand him…
Alexander Wolf – BJJ Globetrotters
Are you a budget traveller – and if so how do you plan for a cheap trip?
I would consider myself a budget traveller, but only because I sleep better in a cottage under a mosquito net than in an air-conditioned hotel made of concrete. Usually I don’t plan much, I mostly “flow with the go” which makes travelling a tiny bit more exhausting but exciting. There is always a bus going somewhere, a scooter to rent, or someone you can ask or team up with in the hostel or BJJ gym.
If you were to pass on travel advice to your fellow Globetrotters, what would it be?
Always be extra friendly. Keep in mind that you are an ambassador of your country! If you’re friendly, everyone else will be friendly. You can’t change other people, circumstances, the past, or the future – you can only change yourself and how you behave.
Thank you to Alexander Wolf – BJJ Globetrotters for making this interview!
