MOSCOW: After France had dumped Argentina out of the World Cup, a group of Albiceleste fans were standing at the exit of the Kazan Arena totally distraught. For them, the World Cup was over and the time had come to return home. Not for 28-year-old Catriel Barretto. For him, a home was still quite some time away. People are in Russia for the World Cup for many reasons. A lot of them are fans from one of the 32 countries playing, some are fans from neutral countries who just want to experience a World Cup. Still, others are here as tourists, taking advantage of the visa-free entry, the football match only a distraction that they have to get over with before travelling the length and breadth of the country.
Some are here for work, from journalists to employees of FIFA’s marketing partners to the scarf-peddlers you see outside the stadium before most games. Catriel, though, is different from all of them. For him, Russia is a stopover on a much larger quest. He is in the middle of travelling around the world. “I used to work as an accountant in Buenos Aires but then it got boring. So I quit my job and started travelling,” he says.
That was two years ago and Catriel has already clocked up more than 12 countries on his list. Unlike ordinary tourists who stay a week or so in every country, he stays in one place for some time and finds work to pay for his stay and travel to the next stop. “My father is a lawyer and my mother a midwife in a small town near Buenos Aires. It’s not that I have a lot of money. So I find odd jobs wherever I go. I’ll do anything really that I can,” he says.
Catriel’s biggest asset is his Argentinean passport — the country has working holiday visa agreements with a lot of other nations whereby people can go somewhere as a tourist and work for a specific period of time. “I first travelled to Australia where I stayed and worked for around six months,” he says. “Using that as a base, I travelled to New Zealand, Samoa and all these nearby countries. After I had made enough money, I travelled to Asia — Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia etc..” Catriel has been home just once over the last two years and plans to go back for Christmas and New Year. But before that, he has Europe — a continent he hadn’t set foot in before Russia — to conquer.
“In a couple of days, I am going to Germany to stay with a couple of friends for a few days. After that, it’s Sweden, which has a work-travel agreement with Argentina. “I plan to be there for a while and use it as a base to visit every country in Europe. I don’t know when I’ll stop doing this. It’s not like I plan on visiting every country only once — for example, Australia was so much fun and I want to go back there someday.” But all that doesn’t mean Russia was just a stopover — Catriel is a hardcore Argentina fan as well. “I was at the last World Cup in Brazil supporting the team, so this is my second time. Hopefully, I’ll be there at the next World Cup as well.” And does India figure in his plans? “Everything is possible,” he says. “I just need a place to sleep.”
vishnu.prasad@newindianexpress.com