-she left everything behind to pursue her dream

GUYANA is the 35th country to be crossed off the list of Miljana Žuti?, a young woman seeking to travel all the countries in the world to experience new cultures while surviving only on gains from street performances.

The Pepperpot Magazine met up with the travelling pantomime who said that the idea, which she refers to as a “seed”, was planted in her since she was a little girl growing up in Serbia on the Balkan peninsula of Southeast Europe.

“I wanted to travel and see the world since I was a little girl. While watching TV, I saw a guy who was travelling the world and he was making episodes of what they’re eating in countries, what they’re doing, how they’re living, their buildings and architecture, many interesting things. After watching, I wanted to do the same as him one day,” Miljana said.

When she grew older, she worked in a five-star hotel as a chef. Then, one day, her job saw her visiting Istanbul in Turkey for six days where she met a group of people who were ‘couch surfers’.

The term defines persons who travel from place to place using the homes of hospitable strangers for overnight shelter.

The couch surfer at times will sleep on a bed, the floor, a hammock, or- as the name suggests- even a couch, hence the origin of the term.
The couch surfers Miljana met were all students who travelled by hitchhiking on a low budget and, after hearing their stories, she began to think seriously about quitting her job and following her childhood dream.

The first challenge Miljana faced was that although she knew she wanted to hitchhike, while in the various countries, she would still need to pay for necessities such as food as well as air, water or land travel to get from one country to the next.
“So I thought: ‘Right now, I have money but I don’t have time because I have a job. But if I quit my job I will not have money but I will have plenty of time.’ So I did some research to find out how I could earn money, even though I would be moving all the time,” she told the Pepperpot Magazine.

All of Miljana’s investigations led her to some form of street art, so, with the help of a friend, she was taught how to perform as a pantomime and later bought her very own costume- the one she wears now- to travel the world on her own.
She arrived in Guyana on February 2 and, before we met up with her, had already visited Lethem, Kanuku Mountains, Moco Moco Falls, Fairview Village nearby Iwokrama and hoped to later visit Kaieteur Falls.

Revealing her thoughts of Guyana, she said:
“The more countries I visit the more I’m amazed at how they are all different. Georgetown is much more different than any other city that I have ever visited before. Here almost every house is made of wood, I don’t see any [really] tall buildings and it’s very nice, the people are lovely,” she said cheerily.

She added that the only problem was that she was warned by residents not to stay alone outside in the nights because of the possible dangers.
South America is the fourth continent Miljana has visited. Before getting to Guyana, she visited Brazil and next on the list on this continent is Suriname, an ongoing journey which began since June 4, 2015.

The young woman speaks six languages namely, Serbian, English, Spanish, Arabic, Portuguese and Russian.
Smiling and in her thick accent, she summed up the journey which saw her leaving everything behind, saying:

“I’m travelling around the world so that I can know how people are thinking, how people are living in other parts of the world in other countries because all the countries are different and we should encourage these differences because this is what makes the world a better place.”
You can follow Miljana’s journey on her Facebook page, Pierre Statue.