Story of Przemek Cwynar

It’s a sunny, September day. A large hall in a one of Rzeszów secondary school chock-full with the teenagers waiting for a meeting with a traveller. After five minutes, he eventually appears on the stage. No one supposes, that he has crossed few seas and rivers on his raft made of the toilet doors.

Przemek Cwynar, who is that unusual guy, comes from Albigowa- a village outlying about 20 km from Rzeszów. He is  a graduate of music on University in Rzeszów, but, currently he works as a welder and  a carpenter. As he says, he has been always keen on travelling- on foot, by bike or  hitch-hiking- it doesn’t matter. In 2012, Przemek finally fulfilled the dream he had of floating to the Baltic sea on the toilet doors- „I travelled 870 km in 26 days, swimming through 3 rivers: Wisłok, San and Wisła. Sometimes, I had to row approximately 15 hours per day.” The information of Przemek’s journey was immediately spread in the media, and, because of that, there were many people waiting for him on his ports of call.

Encouraged by the success of the first journey, Przemek started planning the next one- that time  the destination was the Black Sea. To set off on such a long expedition, he had to collect more money, which was possible due to the crowfunding website polakpotrafi.pl. During the journey, the man had to struggle with problems connected with crossing the borders, but, fortunately, Przemek ended his travel successfully.

One year later, in 2014, young traveler crossed road from the sources of the River Thames to London. “I’ve chosen that well-known area as I wanted to focus on understanding  a new culture and people. Once I was looking for  a shelter from the storm I met a man, who offered me to marry his daughter on that day”.

At the turn of  the years 2015 and 2016 , the guy moved one step forward and went to India to sail along the Ganges, which appeared to be the most successful expedition and fulfillment of his dreams.

Przemek Cwynar admits, that he would  show all the teenagers, that you don’t have to be rich to explore new, remote places. His example shows, that sometimes the toilet doors can inspire you to get up the couch and hit the world.

Joanna Cieśla, kl. 3i