Featured traveller: Maja Malmcrona – BJJ Globetrotters
Age: 28 years old
Belt: White w/ four stripes
Profession: Artist
How many years in BJJ: 3 years
Other martial arts: One semester of Judo, one of Taekwondo, and one of Jujutsu
Where do you live: Zürich, Switzerland. I have moved around a lot the past few years (three countries in three years) and I’m finally in a place where I feel like I can stay a while. Zürich is an amazing place, it has a great culture scene as well as incredible nature (the Alps) just around the corner. Come visit us!
Where are you from: Göteborg, Sweden
Other fun or curious information you would like to share: I’m a visual artist (@majamalmcrona) working primarily with abstract mixed–media paintings. I’m told quite often that my work is rather sinister, and people are often surprised when they find out how happy and silly I am in real life.
I think all of us have those two poles inside of us — the existential pessimist and the playful optimist — and we all need to find a space in which we can safely express both of these sides. If we don’t, we are, I think, depriving ourselves of being able to fully understand ourselves.
I act out the former in my art, and the latter primarily in, like many of us, BJJ. I think it’s easy to forget how extremely lucky we all are in this regard. Imagine the number of adults out there who don’t have a safe place in which they can fully express this playful and childlike (as well as aggressive!) side of themselves. When I for whatever reason can’t go to training I start to feel deprived somehow — not just physically, but perhaps even more so, emotionally. I feel the same way when I can’t make art. Oppressed almost, and as if I can’t fully experience myself.
I think we all need to remember how lucky we all are to have found not just this weird sport itself, but each other. Hair fallout and ugly knuckles notwithstanding. :-)
Maja Malmcrona – BJJ Globetrotters camp
Tell us what inspired you to travel and train?
I’m curious and very interested in people, places, and anything that holds an opportunity for learning. Some friends of mine told me about BJJ Globetrotters and the amazing people they’d encountered there. Having gone to my first camp, I instantly fell in love. Next life goal: 10th camp pizza.
Tell us about your most recent travel and your upcoming travel – where have you been and where are you going?
I was in Sweden last month and at the Estonia camp last fall, am going to the Heidelberg camp and for a week of sailing in Sweden this summer, and the Poland camp this fall.
That’s everything that’s booked so far, but I’d love to fit in a road trip somewhere too. Living in Switzerland is amazing travelling–wise: a six hour car ride can take you anywhere from Luxembourg to Slovenia. Fingers crossed I’ll fit that in somewhere this year too.
Maja Malmcrona – BJJ Globetrotters camp
What are the things you enjoy about traveling?
The basics: seeing new places, meeting new people. One of my favourite things to do is to aimlessly wander around a new city (and hopefully get a little lost), sit at cafes, read, people–watch, and strike up conversations with strangers. (The Situationists, a group of 20th century far–left artists and revolutionaries, actually had a name for it: dérive.)
I’m a big museum–goer too, especially in terms of contemporary art. Fondation Beyeler in Switzerland, Louisiana Museum in Denmark, MoMA in New York, and Mori Art Museum in Tokyo are some of my favourites.
Can you give us some examples of experiences you had that makes it worth traveling and training?
I started training BJJ in Sweden and continued for a year in the UK before I moved to my current gym here in Switzerland. Seeing how things are done in different gyms is always really interesting, especially so since the gyms I’ve been at have been so different. My Sweden gym was full of MMA superstars (and more testosterone than oxygen); my UK gym was like a pirate ship (very few rules, hardcore banter); and my current gym here in Switzerland is like 90% nerds (i.e. my favourite kind of people).
BJJ is (as we all know) an amazing way of instantly forging strong friendships. I’m not just in touch with the people I’ve encountered in these places, I have done creative projects with many of them: small writing gigs, podcast recordings, art projects… Anyone you meet really does have the potential to change your life — as long as you keep your eyes open for it.
What has so far been the most surprising experience for you when traveling?
The most surprising thing to me is something that shouldn’t be surprising anymore: the speed at which you instantly become best friends with a complete stranger just by virtue of having had their butt in your face (okay, you get what I mean).
BJJ is such a superpower in that way — it instantly removes all barriers and cuts straight to the chase. If we can hug and slap–bump after just having tried to murder each other, I can trust you — and it doesn’t matter who you are and how you look like.
Maja Malmcrona – BJJ Globetrotters
Are you a budget traveller – and if so how do you plan for a cheap trip?
In general, yes. But I try to pick and choose: I’d happily spend extra on a certain experience granted I can keep the costs low elsewhere. A few years ago I spent a week alone in New York wandering the streets and visiting museums. I didn’t want to stay in a hostel (introvert perks) so I spent some extra money for a tiny room in an old sailor’s residence (and, apparently, the housing for the Titanic survivors back in 1912).
To make up for the extra cost I cut down on food expenses: I went, every day, to those outdoor falafel stands asking for plain rice – “no falafel, no salad, just a bit of sauce”. They laughed at me pretty much every time, but I got a massive bowl of rice for two dollars. I did the same thing in Tokyo some years back, eating only onigiri (rice balls) from 7–Eleven for two weeks straight. Conclusion: I like rice.
If you were to pass on travel advice to your fellow Globetrotters, what would it be?
During one of the evenings out at the Estonia camp last year, I began all of my conversations with: “Besides BJJ, what are the three things in life that you are the most obsessed with?” (We all know that we have BJJ in common, and even if talking about that day’s class is fun too, it sometimes gets a bit old…)
It was such a great conversation starter since it instantly bypassed all the stiff smalltalk that you inevitably engage with at the beginning of meeting a new person. And even if people’s interests do not at all align with yours, the fact that they get to talk about something that they are really passionate about makes the conversation highly engaging anyway. Let me know if it worked! :-)
