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Photo by Tim Mowry

FAIRBANKS — Polish world traveler Andrzej Sochacki has met the Pope (John Paul II), the Dalai Lama and the King of Tonga.

He has been to 134 countries on five continents and has spent more than 10 years of his life traveling.

A self-proclaimed vagabond, Sochacki claims to be first traveler in the world to circle the Earth seven times by five different means of transportation — car (twice), plane, sailboat, train and motorcyle (twice).

But he had never been to Alaska until this month.

Driving a 1997 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme with 140,000 miles on the odometer and almost as many Polish decals stuck to the doors, hood, roof, trunk and bumpers, Sochacki pulled into Fairbanks on Saturday during what will be his eighth trip around the world.

With no snow tires on his car, Sochacki was planning only a brief pit stop in Alaska’s second-largest city. He was keeping his fingers crossed that the unseasonably warm weather of late would continue before leaving Sunday.

“I’m running from snow,” he said with a knowing smile.

The 61-year-old Sochaki, a retired mechanical engineer, started his latest trip in Boston last year on Nov. 21 in a 13-year-old Toyota Landcruiser, which needed a transmission replacement in Central America. He traded in the Toyota for the Oldsmobile when he reached his home in Phoenix, then headed for the west coast before connecting with the Alaska Highway. He figures he’s traveled about 30,000 miles so far.

Sochaki, who travels solo, made his first trip around the world in 1977 driving a Volkswagen Bug, which now sits in the Volkswagen Museum in Germany. Almost as soon as he finished that trip in 1979, he bought an open around-the-world airline ticket and flew around the world, a trip that lasted 18 weeks and covered 15 countries.

After a 13-year traveling hiatus, Sochaki got the bug again and decided to sail around the world in a 43-foot sailboat, a two-year odyssey that he undertook to commemorate the 500th anniversary of Christopher Columbus’ discovery of America.

The same year he finished that trip, Sochaki boarded a train in his hometown of Warsaw, Poland in July and spent the next year traveling around the world via rail.

His next two trips were on a Harley Davidson Sportster 883, the first of which took 15 months and the second of which lasted seven months.

Sochaki’s seventh trip around the world, in 2007, was his fastest — 23 days. He drove a Volkswagen equipped with a GPS

Motorcycle is Sochaki’s favored method of travel.

“A motorcycle you can stop anywhere on the street,” he said. “You can smell everything.”

The easiest traveling was by boat “because you are home,” he said.

While driving, Sochaki prefers to travel at night because there is less traffic and he sleeps during the day, clearing space in his cluttered car to make room for a bed.

“Now I have a mess because everybody gives me something and I put it and I put it,” he said in broken but understandable English.

Sochaki has a budget of about $1,000 per month. He funds his trips with money from his savings and sponsors.

In addition to his blood type — B positive — the numbers eight through one appear on the driver’s door of his car in reference to his eighth trip around the world and that North America is the first of the five continents he will travel around. He plans to travel around South America when he’s done with North America. He doesn’t know how long it will take him to complete this trip but it will be longer than any of his previous journeys.

“This is my last trip of my life and my longest,” he said.

His favorite place in the world is Rio de Janerio.

“In Rio de Janerio you have everything,” he said. “You have nice mountains, nice weather, nice water, nice women for looking.”

Traveling is good for the soul, Sochaki said.

“As I get older it is important to experience traveling,” he said. “I would like to show people not to worry about age.”

His advice for would-be travelers?

Don’t worry about work; don’t worry about health; don’t wait because it will be too late when you are old,” he said, before climbing into his Oldsmobile and heading out of town.

Contact staff writer Tim Mowry at 459-7587.