DISCOVERY
THE WRITE TRACK
FOCUS… REFLECT… BREATHE…
CREATIVITY
Days on the Rails
20/180
Museums Visited
1
Art Galleries Visited
0
Countries Visited
7
Cities Explored
12
“We convince ourselves we are trapped because we are waiting for a perfect, sanitized escape route—a cured mind, a massive financial cushion, or a pristine plan.
But absolute freedom doesn't look like a five-star reservation; it looks like wreckage. You are only truly trapped if you demand total certainty before you take the first step.” - The Street Writer
“The Write Track”
A 180 day challenge
For, myself I have spent years running away from friction, trying to engineer a safe, carefully sanitized existence. Along the way, I made catastrophic mistakes. I hesitated when I should have moved. I let countless, irreplaceable life opportunities slip right through my fingers because I was frozen by the fear of making the wrong choice.Worse than the missed opportunities, I trusted the wrong people. I opened my life up to people who specialized in emotional manipulation and psychological abuse. It is a toxic, draining dynamic that didn't just happen in my past—it is an anchor I am still actively fighting to untangle myself from right now, even as I type these words. I have finally awoken to the fact “lies unchallenged, become the truth.” The Write Track is where I choose to begin the challenge.
My internal world didn’t just stall; it suffered a violent, silent structural collapse. To find myself completely fractured before I even step onto the platform feels deeply humiliating. It feels like a very public breakdown of the engine while you, the passengers, are already standing out here on the concrete holding your tickets. But I promised myself that I would bypass the automated, curated lies of modern media. If I am going to be uncompromisingly honest with you from the very first kilometer, I have to let you see the actual wreckage right now.This is my pre-trip reckoning. I am 65 years old. When I look at the clinical ledger of my life, the math does not lie: I have failed at almost everything modern society tells you to win at. I do not have a pristine corporate resume, a massive savings account, a cured mind, or a clean manuscript. The structures I built around myself have run completely off the tracks.But do not mistake a disrupted life for a broken man.We live in a world completely obsessed with youthful perfection, overnight success, and hyper-optimized achievements. I am here to embody the exact opposite. I want to show you that it is never too late to pull the emergency brake on a life that is destroying you. It is never too late to change, to learn, and to grow. I stand before you with zero answers. I will never sell you a five-step roadmap to a perfect life. What I have instead is a vast, archival library of hard-earned questions and a lifetime of psychological traps to watch out for.
Despite the wreckage, my creative spirit remains sharp, and I am embracing a new, internal sovereignty I call Cedent-Power™—yielding to the chaos to find strength. My upcoming, low-budget journey across 33 borders serves as the ultimate test of this new, honest approach. I am taking only a notebook, a laptop, and a commitment to transparency, replacing the silence with action.The train is leaving the station, and I hope you will join me on this journey.
I am no longer suppressing the damage, hiding the bruises on my psyche, and letting toxic people dictate my worth, the psychological cage I built is open and I am now on The Write Track.
July 22 - White Plains New York [Travel] Manchester UK
Leaving White Plains New York
July 23
July 24
July 25
Damn! The blister on the underside of my left foot has burst open. I can barely weight bare. Dragging my three bags, and keeping out of the way of the station security. I am sure there is humor to this, but so far I cannot find it!
July 26
July 27
July 28
July 29
July 30
July 31
Aug 1
Aug 2
Aug 3
Aug 4
Aug 5
Aug 6
Aug 7
Aug 8
Aug 9
Aug 10 - Sarajevo Bosnia [Travel] Split Croatia
5 am Taxi arrives to take me to the Bus Station. It is quiet, streets empty. I am very sad to leave Sarajevo. My head teases me with the question “Will I ever have the opportunity to return?
6 am Bus leaves 7:15 minutes to go. So far I have the back seat to myself. Fingers crossed!!!
Highlight of the day! Two guys from Estonia have just asked me which is the best beet to drink… At last my skills have been recognized!
Aug 11 Split Croatia. Another beautiful sunny day. I am sat working on restructuring the official website. Head is preparing for the next leg of my journey. My foot is now fully healed.
Monday August 3
Left - Mostar Rail Station.
A Scale Mismatched with Time:
Today, the immense scale of the building reflects a bygone era of bustling Yugoslav train networks. It now stands quiet, a cavernous space too large for its modest daily traffic.
Scars of History:
Surviving the conflicts of the 1990s and harsh river flooding, the slightly neglected structure functions as a poignant monument to transition, carrying a sense of poetic, post-socialist melancholia.
The Living Conduit:
Despite its weathered facade, it remains a vital artery, launching modern Talgo trains through the breathtaking canyons of the Neretva River toward Sarajevo.
Modern Europe has been neatly packaged into a copycat, mass-produced aesthetic—a sanitized postcard optimized strictly for clicks and commercial data mining. I choose to look for the cracks in that facade. Armed with nothing but an Interrail pass, a zero budget, and a refusal to book a single room in advance, I am tracking the real, unvarnished identity of a continent across 33 borders. The two psychological novels below are born directly from this volatile, unfiltered journey. To survive the sheer friction of this 180-day independent migration, I have had to completely restructure how I process uncertainty. I am operating under a standalone psychological protocol I developed called Cedent-Power™—the art of reclaiming total internal mastery precisely by masterfully yielding control over external, unchangeable volatility. The tracks of Europe are my live field-test; by tactically surrendering to the chaos of the road, I protect my finite cognitive bandwidth to fuel my choices and my pen.
Wednesday August 5 -10
First Location - Sarajevo Bosnia
"I begin filming a project close to my heart: a six-part documentary series exploring Genocide & Humanity. Dealing with a topic this raw and emotional requires a new approach. My goal isn't just to document history, but to question it—examining the causes, the lasting effects, and the systemic blindspots. I’m striving to bring a completely fresh structure and perspective to this vital conversation. Stay tuned as we begin this journey."
Episode 1: The Anatomy of a Neighbor [The Causes]
Focus: I intend to Move away from the idea of "monsters" and look at how ordinary people are radicalized.
Question: How does language, propaganda, and everyday compliance pave the way for mass violence?
Episode 2: The Silence of the Bystander (The Mechanics)
Focus: The international community and local bystanders.
Question: Why does the world repeatedly fail to act despite "Never Again" pledges?
Episode 3: The Ripples of Trauma (The Effects)
Focus: Intergenerational trauma, structural damage, and the psychological scars left on survivors and their descendants.
Question: Does a genocide ever truly "end," or does it just change forms?
Episode 4: The Language of Denial (The Aftermath)
Focus: Modern revisionism, state-sponsored denial, and the weaponization of history.
Question: How do perpetrators attempt to erase the memory of their crimes, and why do we let them?
Episode 5: The Paradox of Justice (The Accountability)
Focus: International courts versus local, grassroots reconciliation (like Rwanda’s Gacaca courts).
Question: Can legal systems ever truly heal a broken society, or is "justice" just a political tool?
Episode 6: The Future of Humanity (The Prevention)
Focus: Early warning signs in the digital age (e.g., social media algorithms fueling ethnic violence).
Question: Armed with history, can humanity actively rewire its tribal instincts, or are we doomed to repeat the cycle?
Video, Articles and Dispatches are available across the following channels You Tube, & Substack.
"When humanity draws borders, it erases itself."
August 7 - Bosnia
I have a personal guided tour around Bosnia, looking at significant landmarks from the War. What it means moving forward for the country, its people and its position in the world.
More to come.
August 13 - Ferry to Italy from Split, Croatia
Thank you for taking the time to visit the official website “The Street Writer”
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and so it began…
After months of planning, my trip began on Tuesday, July 22. [click here to read part 1]
The First 48 hours.
The start of this journey has been a breathless whirlwind, spinning me from the New York skyline across the Atlantic to Manchester, London, Brussels, Cologne, and Munich. But the real map of this adventure isn’t measured in miles—it’s found in the people. Travel has a beautiful way of stripping away the superficial. On a fast-moving Eurostar, I traded creative sparks with a brilliant artist from Ghent. Shortly after, a grounding conversation with a Romanian construction worker reminded me of the grit and quiet dedication that builds our world. Later, laughing and sharing stories with two young Muslim girls filled my heart with hope for the vibrant, diverse future being woven across this continent. Every stop has offered a new face and a new perspective. I feel profoundly blessed and energized. If the first two days can bridge this many worlds, I can’t wait to see what the rest of the horizon holds!
HEADING INTO SOUTHERN, EASTERN AND NORTHERN EUROPE…
Harnessing Credent Power™
Beginning Wednesday 26 July
You cannot survive a route like this on standard travel credentials. Your money, your passport privileges, and your pre-booked reservations will eventually fail you when a train breaks down in a dead-zone or a border guard looks at you with absolute indifference. That is where Credent power™ comes in. Credent power™ is the internal engine I had to rely on every single mile of this trip. It is the fierce, uncompromising conviction to seek personal truth over curated lies. It is the self-reliance that sparks when external comforts vanish. When you cultivate this power, you stop reacting to the chaos of the road and start absorbing it. You learn to find clarity in a crumbling industrial gallery, peace in a dark forest track, and absolute truth in the unspoken words of a local stranger.This journey broke me open, stripped away my illusions, and rebuilt me with a perspective that is entirely, uncompromisedly mine. The street demands everything from you—but what it gives back is the only thing worth traveling for.
The Last Human Archives:
A Eulogy for the Historical Face
Sunday 27 July - A complete Mental Breakdown [Read about my experience here]
August 5
10:41 Local Time
I have just relocated to my new hotel in Sarjevo, it is situated in the old town. A family run business for ten years, it offers authentic character and. charm and is the perfect place to begin my research. More to follow.
August 5 11:38 am LT - Today the heat has finally got to me, lack of sleep, air conditioning and lack of regular food. I have to push through the wall.
The First Six Chapters of my novel “The Still Point” are available to read for FREE on Monday 10 August click here to read them in full.
Zagreb to Split: A lesson in human connection.
Inside a cramped rail compartment, stripped of personal space, life became beautifully simple. Total strangers transformed into friends, bound by conversations that knew no borders. Pictured from left to right are Leo, Marta, and Ena. Before we parted ways, they handed me these cards—a permanent keepsake of a temporary, but deeply impactful, moment in time.
Key Events July 24 - Aug 2
Vienna Austria - Blister bursts under my left foot [ Thank god I have a right foot to hop on!!!]
Go on to the wrong train leaving Munich for Salzburg [Thank you to OBB for putting me on the right train, and the hospitality in your premier lounge!!!]
Fell of the train disembarking Split Croatia [So embarrassing]
Visited the beautiful and completely diverse Old City of Mostar Bosnia [If only the rest of the world was like this - article upcoming]
Catch My Travel Videos Every Friday
(The first full video drops on Friday, 7 August)
THE SIX-MONTH TRACKS
The Radical Experiment: A high-stakes migration across 33 countries by rail with zero savings, no fixed address, and a total refusal to let financial precarity pause the creative life.
The Real-Time Reveal: An exclusive front-row seat to the completion of the psychological novel The Still Point, with every raw, live-edited chapter uploaded straight from train compartments directly to paid subscribers.
A Systemic Bypass: A deliberate, uncompromising rejection of traditional corporate publishing house rules, trading material assets for total, unanchored creative freedom.The Invisible Observer: Immersive, multi-sensory dispatches built on an absolute commitment to remaining anonymous and off-camera, letting the prose speak entirely for itself.
An Unfiltered Canvas: A kinetic mix of raw text, atmospheric audio drafts recorded on a portable mic, and point-of-view video tracking the real-time process of learning to converse in new languages under the stress of transit.
Tactical Micro-Patronage: An invitation to active partnership where a single dollar doesn't fund a vacation—it buys literal electricity, station Wi-Fi, and the next kilometer of independent art.
The Cedent-Power™ Protocol: A live, real-time psychological case study in processing chaos, using the unpredictable nature of transit across 33 nations to demonstrate how tactical surrender yields absolute creative mastery.
***Read my first dispatch from Brussels, Belgium***
[ sign up here ]
My itinerary is aggressive, deliberate, and entirely uncompromised. I step onto the rails on 22 July 2026.
Central & Eastern Europe
The Blueprint: The Northern Gateway & Literary Foundations
The Focus: Striking out from the literary cafes of Paris and moving swiftly through the industrial, raw galleries of Belgium. From there, cutting straight across into Germany's deep forest tracks to anchor the month on the isolated, wind-swept coastlines of Denmark.
Themes: Modernist prose, industrial architecture, and Nordic isolation.
The Italian Peninsula & Adriatic Coast
The Blueprint: The Southern Classical Arc & Deep Waters
The Focus: A complete shift toward Mediterranean light. Tracking the intense, sun-baked colors and classical ruins across Greece, crossing the water to Sicily, and tracing the southern edge of Italy. The month culminates in the deep, solemn coastal paths along the Adriatic.
Themes: Antiquity, epic poetry, and the starkness of the Mediterranean.
Central Europe & The Balkans
The Blueprint: The Central Noir & Mountain Shadows
The Focus: Moving inland to uncover the psychological shadows of Prague and Budapest. The journey then pushes southward into the raw, jagged, and mountainous tracks of the Balkans, exploring the complex, layered histories written into the landscape.
Themes: Psychological fiction, wartime memory, and gothic architecture.
Western Europe & Nordics
The Blueprint: The Baltics & The Eastern Border
The Focus: Heading north as winter sets in and moving down through the stark, minimalist architecture of Sweden into the deep, solemn histories of Estonia and Poland, matching the cold-weather focus with heavy stone, local libraries, and borderland narratives.
Themes: Eastern European history, cold-climate isolation, and urban geometry.
Mediterranean & Southern Europe
The Blueprint: The Peninsula Core & Renaissance Philosophy
The Focus: Spending the darkest winter months digging into Renaissance Art philosophy. The route anchors in the grand, historic libraries and galleries of Florence and Rome, finding warmth in classical philosophy, sacred Art, and Mediterranean sanctuary.
Themes: Renaissance humanism, Art history, and theological shadows.
The Iberian Finish & North Atlantic Coast
The Blueprint: The Iberian Finish
The Focus: The final, grueling stretch through the sweeping, arid landscapes of Spain. The expedition ends on the dramatic, punishing cliffs of the Portuguese Atlantic coast, matching the raw, edge-of-the-world terrain with the conclusion of the journey.
Themes: Solitude, the Atlantic edge, and self-discovery.
“We mistake velocity for escape. We run across thirty-three horizons thinking we are moving forward, only to find that memory moves faster than the rails."
— The Street Writer
BOARD THE TRAIN
On 21 July 2026, I board a train to write and edit my novel “The Still Point” in motion across 180 days.
Sign up today to get Chapter 1 completely free and receive access to the live tracker updates as they happen.