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My Story

I am Anna Grechishkina, born&raised in Kyiv, Ukraine.

My biggest passions in life are traveling & motorcycles, or to be more precise, traveling on motorcycles.

By now I’ve already ridden through more than 70 countries on 6 continents, covered 260.000 km, met thousands of awesome people and visited hundreds of beautiful places.

At the moment I’m volunteering in Ukraine, coaching and motivating people to accomplish their dreams.

But my life wasn’t always like that…

How everything started?

I was an ordinary Ukrainian girl. I graduated from Kyiv Linguistic University, then International Institute of Business, worked as a teacher, translator, HR manager.

But when I was 25 my life changed drastically. I got acquainted with a motorcycle, learned to ride and soon started to travel – first around Ukraine, then neighboring countries, then further and further – Europe, Asia, Middle East. Every time I felt like going further and longer.
At first, I could manage to combine it with my work.
I rode to the office, changed into the office suit, at the end of a day back to the leather. Definitely, all weekends and vacations were spent on a motorcycle.

One rainy day when I was thinking where to go next, a fleeting idea about the trip around the world came into my mind. I didn’t pay much attention and just waved it away. This idea seemed impossible.

But after several days it came back again, and this time it was more persistent.

I quit my job, rejected my career aspirations, and started to prepare for the unknown.

 

My Story

During this time, I went through the moments of doubts, hopes and disappointments, rises and falls. It was very difficult to find support and understanding, especially from potential sponsors to whom I addressed for help. Great victory and success were that KTM company – headquarters in Austria and Ukrainian office in Kyiv – supported with a discount for a motorcycle and the riding gear. One of the most important issues of this trip was finalized – I will ride KTM 1190 Adventure in this journey.

But the question of financing the trip itself remained pending. At the day of leaving for the journey around the world, July 27, 2013, I had only one thousand euro in my pocket and hope that if this travel was meant to be, the world would open its doors for me.

The hope came true. I made the full circle around the world and visited Europe, Asia, Australia, South and North Americas, Africa.

A lot of miracles and amazing coincidences happened to me along the way. They taught me that:

 

MY JOURNEY IN A NUTSHELL

2013
2013
  • The journey started!
  • My first birthday on the road
  • … and the first separation with my bike – sea shipment to Thailand!
  • I met the Princess of Thailand!
2014
2014
  • Met the world’s fastest dog in Australia
  • Tried varenyki the first time since I left Ukraine in Melbourne
  • The dream of every biker to ride Route 66 accomplished
  • Have crossed the USA from the West to the East coast
2015
2015
  • Was welcomed into Mexico by a mayor of Nuevo Laredo
  • Started to learn Spanish to communicate with the locals
  • Spent a night at the police department in Panama… as an honored guest : )
  • Was amazed by the largest salt flat Salar de Uyuni in Bolivia
2016
2016
  • Learned to love drinking mate in Argentina
  • Reached the End of the World, Ushuaia
  • Visited Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro
  • Fought through the bureaucratic obstacles to get visa to South Africa
  • The first 100 thousand km on the odometer of my bike!
2017
2017
  • Celebrated New Year at the south tip of Africa, Cape Agulhas
  • Climbed the highest dunes in Namibia
  • Visited Eswatini when it was still Swaziland
  • Experienced the first and the only flat tyre in Rwanda
  • A new born baby girl in Sudan was named Anna in my honour
2018
2018
  • My bike first visited its birthplace – KTM Mattighofen in Austria
  • Celebrating 5th anniversary on the road in Georgia
  • Made a decision to continue for the second loop around the world
  • My first visit to MotoGP San Marino 2018
  • Back to my favorite part of the world – Latin America!

Therefore, when the full circle around the world was done and basically the dream was accomplished, I didn’t think much and … decided to continue and to make another circle, this time anti-clockwise. But his idea was accomplished only partially…

Media Publications

2019
2019
  • I survived riding the Death Road in Bolivia
  • … and the Ghost Road in the Amazon jungle in Brazil!
  • Made friends with the indigenous tribe in Brazil
  • Finally got to the very end of the road Carretera Austral in Chilemorning
  • Argentina became my most visited country – 6 times!
2020
2020
  • My second time in Mexico but first time in Baja California
  • Got stuck in Mexico for 6 months due to Covid
  • Was invited for the launch of KTM 890 as an ambassador
  • Locked in another lockdown in Germany…
2021
2021
  • Reached the North Cape in Norway!
  • Met the real Santa Claus in Finland
  • First met in person a friend of 10 years in Sweden
  • Experienced the strongest wind in my journey in Latvia (yes, even stronger than in Patagonia!)
2022
2022
  • Arrival in Namibia on February 23, 2022
  • February 24 – start of full-scale invasion against Ukraine, pause in my journey
  • Return to Ukraine

I woke up at the message of my best friend in Kyiv saying: “We are under the attack”.

I knew straight away that nothing would ever be the same again, neither for my country nor for myself. It was time to make a pause in my journey and come back to Ukraine after such a long absence of many years.

2023
2023
  • Travel around the world turns into travel around Ukraine
  • Joined the forces of volunteers and journalists in Ukraine
  • Learned to drive a car for evacuation and deliveries reasons
years

8

months

8

days

8

When I crossed back into Ukraine, it was eight years, eight months and eight days since I left for my journey.

But now it was time to be next to it, and to contribute in whatever way I could, to be the eyes through which my audience I gained in my journey would see what was happening in Ukraine.

Here on this website, I will show what I experienced traveling around the world, and what I experienced coming back to Ukraine. Those are very different experiences but in some way, they complement each other. It is about following your heart, accomplishing your dream and standing for it, being strong and courageous, not giving in, not giving up no matter how hard or impossible it may seem.

instagram

Want to see more beautiful places or know more about the world?

Let’s connect on Instagram!

Here you will find a lot of news, facts and interesting stories from my life and all my journeys.

See you online!

anna_grechishkina
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