Writings of Andrew Schiestel


In 2021 Andrew left an executive position in Canada to follow his heart and voyage the Mediterranean Basin. In August 2021 he arrived (with his dog, Trevor) in Tunisia. On that visit, he would live in Tunisia for 12 weeks, and afterwards, go on to live in, and explore, a total of 11 countries in the Mediterranean over a period of 23 consecutive months. In June of 2023, Andrew returned to Canada for six weeks, and in August, went back to the Mediterranean for a second, 9-month voyage.

The countries / territories visited during the two ‘21-24 voyages: (12) Tunisia, Morocco, Spain, Gibraltar, France, Malta, Italy, Montenegro, Greece, Türkiye, Lebanon & Egypt.

From ’21-24 Andrew made several discoveries and started two important projects: During the first voyage he created Ithaca Bound Languages, a project that is documenting all of the major languages and dialects of the Mediterranean. (Over 10,000 pages of translation content & recordings are available); And during the second voyage, he started EVOO, the social networking app for Extra Virgin Olive Oil. (EVOO is available on the Android and Apple stores)