Off Track Planet

About the Author

Anna Starostinetskaya was born in Ukraine, raised in Los Angeles, and currently resides in Brooklyn, New York. Her most memorable trip was to Spain, where she hopped a fence on the side of a highway to sample an authentic Spanish olive right from a tree. Don’t eat olives from trees for two reasons: (1) they have not been cured and taste like utter shit and (2) if the grove’s owner catches you trespassing, you may leave Spain with more battle wounds than you intended.

Freddie Pikovsky is the ringmaster of OTP and fell in love with backpacking on a trip in 2009 that started in Israel; went through Greece, Italy, Spain, France, and the Netherlands; and ended in travel enlightenment. He often travels in a style known as “broke fancy,” which has landed him in some precarious situations. Once calling the floor of an Italian train station home for the night, Freddie came close to being swept away by a street-cleaning truck as he snoozed comfortably on pizza crumbs and petrified gum. He’s a firm believer that every young person should experience the life-changing capabilities of travel and drives OTP forward to make this vision a reality.