Majda Praiz, a teacher and a traveller

By Dajana Kosanović, Jelena Rajnović, Suzana Pošmuga and Ivana Nikola, photos courtesy of Majda Praiz

Majda's hometown is Labin. She studied philosophy and religious sciences and now she's a teacher of philosophy, logics and religion at a grammar school called „Pazinski kolegij“. Majda is also the head of Croatia Travel Club’s Istra Branch. She started two CTC projects: “Involve me and I’ll understand” and “Skitam-pišem-slikam”. She speaks three languages. Her hobby is photography. She travelling and volunteering. She has volunteered at St. Anthony’s orphanage in Songea, Tanzania, twice already and has been heard calling Songea her home.

Dear Ms Praiz...

We are a group of students from ŽTŠ Moravice.

Our English teacher is Dora Božanić.

Our task is to think up questions about your travelling.

You seem to be an interesting person.

We started to learn a new lesson about travel addicts, and we thought up ten question we would like to ask you.

We are looking forward to your answers!

Dear students from ŽTŠ Moravice, I am so glad to see that young people are showing interest in travelling. I hope my answers are adequate. 

When did you start to travel?

At the age of 19, when I was freshman at the university I got my first summer job, earned some money and went to visit my uncle in USA. And so it started, and it is still going :)

Do you travel alone or?

I usually travel with one or a group of friends. They say if you really want to get know somebody take him or her on a trip.

How do you pay for your travels? Where do you get money from?

I work as a teacher and I save all my money for my travels. But travelling is not as expensive as it seems. Of course it depends on how much luxury are you willing to give up on, but you can travel wherever you want in the world probably cheaper than you think.

Where did you travel?

So far I've been to 34 countries in Europe, Asia, Africa and North America.

What is your favourite trip? Why?

It is hard to choose. Every destination and every trip has something of its own. But if I really have to pick one I guess India is my choice. That was the first country that I went back to. Since it is not easy to save money for the travels, my philosophy was: if you have the money go to the places you’ve never been before.  India was the first one that made me break that rule. My first trip to India was in January 2009 and I got back to it in July that same year. There is something about that place that I can't really explain.  India is a place where everything exists at the same time, even the most opposite extremes can be found side by side. For example, you can find villages or people still living like in the stone age while others are pushing the frontiers of technology, and everything else in between. It is dirty and smelly, but again so colourful and vivid. You love it or hate it there is no in between.  

Do you prefer to go to hot or cold countries?

Most definitely hot countries. In some places that I’ve traveled to the heat was almost impossible to stand but I’ll rather cope with heat than with cold. And it is easier to pack when you travel to hot places, you don’t need that much clothes, shoes etc. Few t-shirts, shorts, a pair of flip –flops and you are good to go.

Did you ever meet someone famous?

No, most places that I travel to aren’t really top celebrity destinations. But I’ve been to some famous locations. For example Maya bay in Thailand is where movie “The Beach” with Leo DiCaprio was filmed, island of Koh Tapu, also in Thailand where James Bond movie “The man with the golden gun” was filmed. I’ve also seen the famous building in New York where friends from the popular sit com live, but one could say every place in New York is famous :)

Have you ever been in some dangerous situation?

Unfortunately yes. Few years ago I was travelling to Vietnam with the group of my friends. We got into a big argument with the staff of the hotel we were supposed to stay in. They asked us to pay more money than we were supposed to, and when we refused they started to insult us, trying to attack us and threat to kill us. Lucky enough we managed to escape. My last unpleasant situation was on my last trip to Tanzania, where I was robbed. They took my passport and all the other documents I had. As you can imagine, lack of passport made my trip back home “slightly” complicated.

Did you discover something interesting?

On every single trip I discover something new. When you travel to a foreign country you are ignorant of almost everything. You can't read anything, you don’t understand the language and you have only the most rudimentary sense of how things work. Your whole existence becomes a series of interesting guesses. It is amazing how all of a sudden you feel like 5 years old again. But one of most amazing experiences was visiting the Batak tribe in the jungles of Philippines and living with the Masai tribe in Tanzania.

Do you have any advice how to start travelling and where?

I would recommend to young people to start travel as soon as they feel ready and wherever they want to. As Mark Twain said “Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness (…) Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime.” So dare to cast off, think differently and embrace what world has to offer you, because world is a beautiful place even though, sometimes it doesn’t seem so.  

We wish Majda all the luck in her travels to come. :)

To find out more about the orphanage in Tanzania and how to help them grow visit: 

http://www.kolajna-ljubavi.hr/