Muammer Yilmaz and Milan Bihlmann, stronger than Jules Verne? To see… The first, Franco-Turkish, met the second, German, in 2010. Immediately, they hit it off, linked by the same vision of travel, based on the discovery of new cultures and accommodation at the lowest cost. Before embarking on a challenge worthy of that of Phileas Fogg, the phlegmatic and British hero of the novel: to go around the world in eighty days.
But, where the author relied on technical progress to achieve his feat, the two adventurers added the constraint of doing so without money and relying only on the generosity of people for food, lodging and move. The imaginary and egotistical feat then becomes an enriching human adventure.
One hundred and fifty-one years after the publication of the story of Jules Verne, in 1872, the free streaming channel offers to review the documentary series produced by these two “Optimistic Traveler”, named after the association they created, which , beyond the adventure – 46,793 kilometers covered on four continents – allow you to discover from the inside the nineteen countries crossed, including Iran, Pakistan, Morocco and the United States.
Two cameras and a diabolo
On September 9, 2014, at 9:09 a.m., the start was therefore given from the Eiffel Tower in Paris. In their bags, few clothes, two cameras, a water purifier and a diabolo – a graduate in international trade, Milan is a professional juggler, and that will save them more than once. Is it to inspire confidence? The two young men are particularly elegant, dressed in a white shirt, bow tie for Muammer, tie for Milan. They will change later, to blend in with the crowd, or adapt to the climate.
Until then, we’ll have to be patient. After a first Paris-Istanbul episode which skates – at 2 p.m., they are still in Bercy -, the passage in Germany temporarily engages the higher speed: “You are young, you are beautiful, you will get there”, predicts Nathalie, who picked them up hitchhiking and is going 200 kilometers per hour on the highway. Victim of a theft from the second episode, Muammer refuses to give up. Speaking French, he provides commentary and provides some historical information, when the site lends itself to it: in Turkey, the mosque of Ankara, the fairy chimneys, or later, in India, the Taj Mahal.
However, despite the playful tone and the amusing modes of transport (tractor, police car, etc.), the viewer then wonders about the purpose of such an expedition, supposed to “prove to the world that there are beautiful people everywhere “. It is necessary to wait for the third opus and the arrival in Iran to be definitively carried away by the meetings, in particular with a young woman from Tehran. From then on, including in Pakistan, where they are escorted by armed young people, over 300 kilometers, all the people to whom they explain their project will be keen to show how much they belong to a welcoming people.
Do a juggling show, give an interview to the local press, flatter national patriotism and solicit their community on the networks: this cocktail will open all the doors for them, provide them with all the tickets, including plane tickets. Amazing ? “Anything is possible when you believe in it,” recalled a Singaporean employee.
