Hippie

Author/Guide: Paulo Coelho

Why a Booktrail?

Paulo, the author, a skinny Brazilian with a goatee and long hair, sets off on a journey in search of a deeper meaning for his life.

ISBN: 978-1786331588
Genre: Autobiography/memoirs

Comment

What you need to know before your trail

Drawing on the rich experience of his own life, bestselling author Paulo Coelho takes us back in time to relive the dreams of a generation that longed for peace and dared to challenge the established social order.

He travels on the famous ‘Death Train to Bolivia’, then on to Peru, later hitchhiking through Chile and Argentina. In the famous Dam Square in Amsterdam he finds young people playing music, while discussing sexual liberation, the expansion of consciousness and the search for an inner truth.

There he meets Karla, a Dutch woman in her twenties who has been waiting to find the ideal companion to accompany her on the fabled hippie trail to Nepal. Together with their fellow travellers, they embark on a trip aboard the Magic Bus, heading across Europe and Central Asia to Kathmandu.

For everyone, the journey is transformative. For Paulo and Karla it is a life-defining love story that leads to choices that will set the course of the rest of their lives.

Locations

Reset

Central Asia - Nepal
H: Kathmandu
I: Mt Everest

Travel Guide

Where to travel to on your own journey in search of a deeper meaning for your life.

Take the famous ‘Death Train to Bolivia’, then on to Peru

He then goes Hitchhiking through Chile and Argentina.

Europe

In the famous Dam Square in Amsterdam he finds young people playing music, while discussing sexual liberation, the expansion of consciousness and the search for an inner truth. There he meets Karla, a Dutch woman in her twenties who has been waiting to find the ideal companion to accompany her on the fabled hippie trail to Nepal.

One of two centres of the Earth according to Coelho is Amsterdam’s Dam Square where much of the story originates. It’s a meeting place for people looking for who and what they are in life. The other is the less glamourous Piccadilly in London.

The journey on the magic bus

They travel through much of Europe without stopping and indeed in some countries he explains they are not allowed to stop for fear of getting arrested or questioned. They drive through Belgrade and Yugoslavia and visit many iconic ‘hippie spots’ in various places – but are arrested in Austria!

Their final destination? Kathmandu in Nepal

Home of the Dalai Lama and a place for many pilgrims and people seeking for more out of life.

Booktrailer Review

Susan: @thebooktrailer

This book is many things. It’s a fascinating travel guide on the one hand and we get to see and experience some wonderful places but as a memoir I got a bit lost as it reads like a gap year diary going from one thought to another with little direction.

I suppose people who experienced the hippie stage of life might get more from this but Paulo tells you what happened fact after fact without really delving into the whys and wherefors. It’s the hippie way of life I guess – travelling and smoking, drinking and free love ‘just because’. There are some interesting views of places we now think of as adventurous and iconic with backpackers such as Macchu Picchu and the Death Train of Bolivia which I enjoyed but these read as snippets, vignettes of a travel diary rather than an essay on enlightenment.

I won’t see Dam Square in Amsterdam in the same light again that’s for sure! The travel aspect of this book was what appealed and on that level, it was interesting to see some of the travel experiences that formed this writer. It was quite fascinating to see how he lived and was before he became the writer we know today. I’ve not really read flashbacks on a writer’s life before – and there were many to delve into.

Again on a travelogue note – it’s pretty amazing to be a traveller like he was. Makes me want to find a campervan and head off again into the distance.

The covers are perfect and the ideal book for a playlist I would imagine!