Pol-Am Globetrotter On Seventh Around-The-World Trip

By Robert Strybel

Polonia’s best-known globetrotter, Polish-born Andrzej Sochacki, recently set out on a round-the-globe trip in a Volkswagen Caddy (mini-SUV). In his late mid-50s, the native of Warsaw’s working-class suburb of Targowek chose a highly patriotic time and place to set forth on his latest trek: Warsaw’s Old Town on the combined Feast of the Assumption and Polish Army Day.

Sochacki, a mechanical engineer who lives with his wife and two children (Joanna – 15 and Cezar – 11) in Phoenix, AZ, has circled the globe on six previous occasions using diverse means of conveyance: car, plane, train, yacht and motorcycle. This time he hopes to encircle the northern hemisphere in only 30 days of overland travel in the Caddy, donated by a Warsaw VW dealer. The time it takes to ship the vehicle across the ocean does not count. Before setting out, he said he expected his biggest challenge would be Siberia, where sudden downpours can turn roads into impassable quagmires.

But he has managed under far more trying circumstances. He has been robbed and had to run for his life a number of times, he has gone hungry and struggled with illness with no human being to turn to. What makes him do it? “I think it’s in my genes – my grandfather circled the globe between the two World Wars,” he explains.

The travel bug first bit him in 1969, when, as a 19-year-old student, he drove his motorcycle across the communist bloc from Poland to East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Yugoslavia, Romania and Russia. But it is was only after Sochacki had left the iron curtain behind him and arrived in America in the 1970s that his dream of world-wide travel could come true. He set off on his first round-the-world trip to 35 different countries in 1977. He drove his VW Beetle from New York to South America, then shipped the car over to Asia, drove across Europe, shipped the VW to Halifax in Canada and two years later finally arrived at this starting point: NYC. The car incidentally is on display at the Volkswagen Museum in Wolfsburg, Germany.

In the course of his travels Sochacki has visited at least 134 countries, although sometimes he loses count. He has been a guest at the White House, was received on two different occasions by the late Polish-born Pontiff John Paul II, met with the Dalai Lama in India and the king of Tonga in the Pacific. He may be the only person alive to have visited Polish communities in 95 different countries, and he is enthusiastically welcomed as an unmatched Polish-American goodwill ambassador. To non-Poles he has often had to explain that his name is pronounced On-jay so-HOT-ski and tell people that his country (whose pronunciation to some sounds like Holland) is not the land of tulips, windmills and wooden shoes.

Sochacki saves up his money for his trips and is fortunate to find sponsors to help finance them including the VW dealer and the Castrol Oil people who are supplying the fuel. “But our Heavenly Father’s protection, which has helped me to escape unharmed from many seemingly hopeless, is better then the best sponsors,” he explains. “Travel is like therapy for me, because it allows one to achieve victory over difficulties and danger. But my achievements are the success of all the people who have helped me along the way.”

Asked about the difference between a tourist and a traveler, Sochacki replies without hesitation: “A tourist’s main aim is usually to relax, not to learn from their visits to foreign countries. A traveler looks to bring back a wealth of knowledge to share with those back home.” Sochacki’s motto: “The measure of life is the size of the adventure!” [Although it is unknown whether Sochacki will have e-mail access during his current trip, for the benefit of those interested in getting in touch at some stage, his contact data are: 3715 E. Taylor St, Phoenix, AZ 85008, USA; tel. (602) 244-1293; e-mail.]