The Impossible Journey

I had the pleasure of crossing paths with Thor early in his journey. In May 2014, I boarded The Capitol Limited in Washington, D.C. bound for Chicago, and later the San Francisco Bay Area by way of The California Zephyr. I couldn't wait for someone to ask me how far I was going. The first person who did was this tall Danish gentleman with a disarming smile and an unusual hat who sat next to me in coach in DC. When I proudly answered that I was going to "California—all the way." He smiled and said, "Oh yeah? Me too." Pleasantly surprised, I asked if he was on vacation. With a humility I've rarely encountered before or since, Thor said, "I'm actually traveling to every country in the world, in a single journey, without flying. The U.S. is number 42." He looked forward to seeing it by train.

We were seatmates all the way west, because a stranger is a friend you've never met before. Thor shared Once Upon a Saga with many people across those four days on the train. Three of them I still count as friends today. Not everyone got the same level of detail and enthusiasm of the saga that I witnessed early on. Some questioned the logistics, the financials, his sincerity. A few got a curt impression of a tall European simply passing through. But most people glimpsed what I did—an incredible man on an incredible adventure.

These stories were early echoes of the experiences he meticulously documented on his blog, on behalf of a dizzying number of Red Cross and Red Crescent visits, across countless borders, and with enough adversity to fill many books. And I'm delighted to read his words in this one.

I expected a book I'd read to support a friend. What I found was a delightful glimpse into the kindness, generosity, planning, philosophy, and sheer resilience required to accomplish a one-of-a-kind journey. I read half of it in one weekend, completely enthralled by the chapters included. The book wisely focuses on some of the most rewarding and challenging aspects of the near-decade Thor was away. But the focus on some things, instead of trying to do justice to everything, makes it shine.

The optimism and heart of strangers is balanced with the adversity of bureaucracy, physical limits, profound doubt, and finding the heart of things again. I felt things in a way I rarely do with nonfiction. This is not a sanitized tale, and it's stronger for not shying away from difficulty.

I found myself retracing the dots along Thor's journey on a map. I challenged myself to find locations by zooming and panning on a digital map instead of typing. That small friction brought me ever-so-slightly closer to fishing villages in Venezuela, Central African border towns, that Libyan beach, or scattered islands of Oceania. There's a soul to every chapter. And the final pages refill me and widen my smile.

I’m hopelessly biased, but wholeheartedly recommend this book.

Fascinating and enlightening story!