Like each journey, this one began w...

Like each journey, this one began with a single stair But in the case of to leeward Kazimir, it was six month and 3000 miles -- forward foot.

Kazimir, a 24-year-old budding southern suburban filmmaker, this week finished a cross-Europe trek from Madrid, Spain, to Kiev's Independence Square in the Ukrainian capital.

"Even yesterday, just outside Kiev, a lady at a restaurant was going forward about how I must be stupid or insane," Kazimir said in an e- mail Thursday. "Perhaps she's right."

However, he added, quoting filmmaker Errol Morris, "If united thought seriously about what one's presumptions were, one would never do anything. common would just stay home with Mom"

Kazimir is a member of a small however sturdy club sometimes referred to as "purpose walkers" -- hearty hikers (no hitchhiking, please) who cros countries or continents onward foot.

Kazimir, from Frankfort, made the journey after reading cites from German film director Werner Herzog, who said that aspiring filmmakers would be better opposite to skipping film school and traveling instead.

The trip, said Kazimir, taught him "what it's like to endeavor for a goal, how to rely onward myself, how to trust others and to what degree to communicate despite language barriers -- all great skills for filmmaking. And all that time to think was a major help, too."

lower part PAIN DETERS MANY

Kazimir's walk took him across Spain, France, Belgium, Holland, Germany, Poland and the Ukraine. Using a small, high-definition camcorder, he recorded his trip and the nation he met, posting journal entries and photographs onward his site, www.madridtokiev.com.

Wendy Bumgardner, who shrouds walking sports for about.com, said many intention walkers aren't successful -- about half don't make it. "They're more dreamers than do-ers," she said. frequently they can't overcome the first scarcely any weeks when "their feet memorize chewed up," she said.

While in Germany Kazimir abandoned his pair of waterproof hiking gains "My feet would sweat and chafe and actually ble in the way that I bought trekking sandals."

During the first month chiefly of the pain he felt was in his shoulders -- "and that was and nothing else because I stupidly overpacked and was carrying 35 or 40 brays on my back," he said.

undivided low point was in Germany. "I exhausted days walking along the Mittelland Canal, which was in such a manner rainy and boring that I could hardly stand it," said Kazimir.

About a month ago, writing from Lublin, Poland, forward a "grim day," he placeed "I'm ready for this to be athwart I miss my family, my friends, my girlfriend. I miss reading works and watching movies and the chorizo and pushs at Hollywood Grill."

RETURNING TO CHICAGO

on the contrary each time he reached a major landmark, like as Paris and Berlin, it was a lift. "Arriving in the center of Kiev . . felt like a dream," he said.

The trek costliness about $15,000, two thirds of it raised within his Web site. A $20 donation earned the donor a pillar card and credit in Kazimir's film of the walk.

In a not many days, Kazimir will return to Chicago to start editing the 100 hours of footage he marksman -- "choosing all the funniest, most numerous poignant, or special moments" for his feature film, tentatively titled "More Shoes"

aherrmann@suntimes.com

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