What were the "nicest" compliments you ever got? Well, I decided to start a list for myself....

- "You are a truly wonderful person"
- "You look like a guy"
- "You look like a dirty hippy"
- "Your are trouble"
- "One day I will be as awesome as you, one day"
- "I can't stay in the same city as you"


tbc

Here I am, in France, where the trees already turned into bloom and the cigarette vending machines turned into condom vending machines. It's spring, and you can not only see, but also smell and feel it. And not only the beautiful flowers and blossoms shining in yellow, white, pink, and purple that make my heart smile, also the people here are colourful. Strasbourg is a cosmopolitan city. Walking through the Esplanade you can see, hear and read it.


It's spring in Strasbourg!


Having reached the Parc de l'Orangerie, the vernal feeling continues when looking at all the people sitting around in the already greenish grass, having picnics, making sports. Trees in full blow remind me of Japan, where we were headed to exactly a year ago... Yeah, I guess it's spring!!

And even sightseeing is nice when it's spring....


Springish European Parliament


I was hungry, and I found that.....

On my way back home, I went to a supermarket and was reminded of how amazingly cheap cheese was in France. I guess I'm gonna feed on bread, wine and cheese for the lenght of my stay here, and discover a new kind of the latter every day :)

It wasn't too hard to get up at 6 am the next morning then, when my sister would kick me out of her appartment since she had to leave for work. The day before, Kyle and me decided to hitch out of Nuremberg together, so instead of hitting the road straight away, I headed for his host's place to have some breakfast with them before leaving the city.

One last awesome eggbreakfast made by egg-fanatic Kyle, who then also prepared those similarly awesome eggsalad sandwiches for the road.



The trip was fun. We got some nice rides like in a motorhome, and i left my newly bought map (after some Newzealanders lost my old one) at some service station. Gladly we still had Kyle's but then he abandonned me, headed for Frankfurt, left me there without any means of orientation. Luckily enough, I somehow managed to get out at exactly the spot I needed to, when the driver would give me his map. The next one, Ado, a 41 year old man originally from Bosnia but living in Germany for a long time, fed me bananas and I felt: the world is in balance again....

Ado dropped me off right at the edge of Strasbourg's city center. I had some time to kill before going to my host's place, so I went to find a McDonald's, since you can get free internet in all the McDos all over France, to check the directions to where she lives. Starbucks in Nuremberg, McDo in France... now I know what those chains are good for.

Exactly on time, I showed up at Jurgita's place, just to be welcomed with some nice pasta and a glass of wine. Vive la France! Even though Jurgita is Lithuanian, not speaking French, and working in Germany as a forensic psychologist with prisoners living in some kind of assisted accomodation.

Well, now I am a latchkey child, having all the time for myself, free to do whatever I want. And what am I doing? Spending my time on the internet... I guess I should head out for some more adventure.

Two more weeks and three more places have passed by without mentioning it.

First stopf after Leipzig was Arnsfeld. After some very unsucessful innercity hitchhiking attempts, Kristin had to join me committing a crime by blackriding on a bus for a few stops to reach our hitchhiking spot.


Unsucessful innercity HH

The spot was rather good, the people weren't. It took about an hour before someone would pick us up, but then it was quite ok, we got a ride to Chemnitz, where we then had to split up in order to reunite down in Annaberg. Or rather "up" in Annaberg, a town in the Ore mountains at the German-Czech boarder. We then continued to Arnsfeld, the little village Kristin was growing up, and her grandmother is still living in.
We were starving after this trip, but we had to climb the attic first, since there was only one reason for us to be there: Carnival!
And that's how it works: disguise as creative as you can, hiding all parts of your body that could identify who you are. Then walk from one house to the another, get in, be served a drink with a straw as there's no other way to drink when having a huge mask on, and - most notably - don't talk, but if you do, disguise your voice.
So that's how we ended up in some people's garages, sitting around a table with huge mute chicken, both alive and roast, organic vegetables, and some unidentified creatures.

The next day, I left after our "breakfast" consisting of spinach with potatoes and eggs, headed to Prague. First, I felt like cursing that fucking village, as there was like one car passing every ten minutes. After 40 minutes I managed to stop a car that came from a side road, and make the driver take me, although I think he didn't really want to. I was even lucky, as he was about to go straight across the border in order to refuel. So, there I was in Czech Republic with just one ride, and the second one right away to Prague would follow after only 5 minutes of waiting, when a Slovak truck driver on his way to Bratislava would pick me up. He was a cheerful person, making jokes which I partly even understood, offering beer (which I denied) and biscuits (which I accepted with pleasure). Communication went rather smoothly, and it turned out that having some knowledge of both Czech and Polish - might it be as little as mine - is very useful when talking to a Slovak person, as this language seems like to be a mixture between both of them.

Arriving in Prague ahead of time, I met Bryan in the center, then grabbed my first Czech beer in some overpriced Chinese restaurant, not before getting myself one of those beloved bageta crocodille. Of course, Bryan loved my new haircut, and I got some of his very nice compliments I didn't miss at all.
Bryan had to abandon me at 7 in order to find his new Russian girl host, so I went on to pick up Paul at his hostel and go to the Prague weekly CS meeting, where we also met Kyle again. Happy Krakow reunion.

Having a long way to my host's place, I had to leave the meeting early, to find an awesome house somewhat outside of the centre, initially built for the Polish (?) ambassador who couldn't afford it anymore, whereupon that kind of vegan-anarchist community was established. It might sound more exciting than it was, I didn't manage to talk much to any of the people living their, especially my host Petr didn't make much effort to talk to me, and when I tried so, his replies were rather short. I wasn't even offered a glass of water upon arrival, let a lone a cup of tea. But at least I had all the attic for myself, having to chose one of the 2 beds and 2 couches.

The days in Prague passed without anything special to happen. Wandering around some nostalgic places, finding out that the city isn't the same without all the people that used to be here together with me back when we were studying here. After three days, I changed to Kyle's hosts, who already accomodated Paul as well, so once more we were happy together, just missing Bryan. We didn't do much though. Being served some amazing egg-breakfasts, drinking tea, playing games, hanging out in parks, cooking, eating again...


Some take it serious...


Well, I started kind of feeling lost in Prague, and even though enjoying the guys' company, I decided to leave for Nuremberg to visit my sister and my 6-year-old niece.

Against my expectations, my sister hosted me for 5 days, providing me a great couch and even some cosy blanket. I spent the next two days with Ronya, my niece, as my sister was supposed to work, and the time was well spent.


Ronya and Marina (my niece and sister)

At the weekend, I met Kyle once again, who seemed to have followed me all the way. We spent some crazy night out, and when my sister told me the next evening that I was coming back home at 4:30 am, I wasn't surprised any more about falling asleep at 9 pm the same night (being woken up at 8 by Ronya the very morning).

The trip out of Halle again was easy. We hitchhiked together from a gas station close to her place, Kristin to Berlin, me to Leipzig. We both found a car after a short while, and I arrived in Leipzig around 8pm, where my host Uta picked me up at the tram stop.

Uta, Sonja and Marvin are living together in their vegan/vegetarian shared flat in an old building in Leipzig Lindenau, next to Plagwitz. I met all of them, including Mara, Marvin's girlfriend, the evening I arrived, immediately being served some wonderful dinner with "Grünkohl", something we don't eat, not even know, in Austria.

The next day, I joined them going to "Gieszer 16", kind of a cultural & house project in Plagwitz, where we picked up boxes full of clothe donations. Being activists of the Calais Migrant Solidarity, Marvin and Mara are about to go down to Calais in order to document the refugees' situation, and taking those clothes with them.

For more info, check this out:
Calais Migrant Solidarity


Well, this was only the beginning of a wonderful week in Leipzig, the "New Berlin".

More quarter have been checked out then, like popular Südvorstadt and Connewitz. Those are the most lively, student-inhabitated parts of Leipzig. You can find there a lot of restaurants, bars and pubs (which I didn't check out), but also cultural centres and some squats. Most of the lefties' scene is concentrated there, in the South part of Leipzig, and it is considered to be Nazi-free, as right activists do not dare to cross the river to this part of the city...

Those squats and cultural centres also provide the so called VoKü (Volksküche, something like community kitchen). They offer - mostly vegan - food for very low prices. You can find a VoKü somewhere in Leipzig every day. Imagine, a huge plate full of rice, topped with some creamy veggie-coconut sauce, accompanied by a wonderful plate of fresh salad and a cold beer for € 2,70. Or that amazing peanut sauce that came with mixed vegetables and potatoes (€ 1,50). Not to speak of the selve service lasagna & salad place for a free donation. I just loved it!


One of the random things you can find on the streets of Leipzig

Apart from that, Leipzig has a lot of advantages, that make it not only the "New" but also the "Better" Berlin for me. Amongst them the following:

- It's not really touristy
- Its size, which makes it easy to commute by bike only - no need for public transport
- A lot of green areas within the city
- It's cheaper

Did I already mention that I love Leipzig?

It already started on the way, when I got picked up by a driver with a mentally traumatised dog that was going through a Bach flowers therapy.

In Halle/Saale, the biggest highlight was of course meeting Kristin, a girl I've met a few times before at festivals and hitchhiker meetings when travelling the Balcans last summer, as well as back in Berlin last November. So we met at her place for the fourth time, and I even though not going to any far away country, I faced huge cultural differences by being introduced to the so called "Jesus freaks".... divine service in a rock pub, and dinner followed by a Lord's Prayer might not even give you a slight hint of this completely new world I experienced there....

Apart from that, I had a great time with Kristin talking about future travel plans - she wants to go to Mali and Kazakhstan - explore the streets and dumpsters of Halle, cook some awesome food, and visit the only Beatles Museum outside of the UK.


What's wrong?

Sebastian, a.k.a. Wesi, turned out to be that bike lover I expected. Having about seven of them, there was also one for me, and so I went for a looooong bikeride around Dresdner Heide, a forest reserve within the city.

It was wonderful! The path went along a small river, where you couldn't hear anything than the silent noise of the water flowing and some hesitant chirping of the first birds. The light breeze and already kind of warm sunbeams, drawing a nice pattern of shadow onto the old leaves from last fall, were the first signs that spring is on its way.



While there were still like -13 degrees when I left Poland, it even smelled springy when opening the window on my first morning in Dresden, and out there in the forest, only a little bit of snow glittering at the riverbanks reminded you of the winter.



And unreal sceneries sometimes make you feel in some science fiction world....

Yesterday, I started my trip across Europe. I found another girl, Joanna, coming with me from Kraków. Joanna is Polish and grew up in the city I spent my last five months, but the last semester she spent in Valencia.
We agreed on meeting at 6:30 at the bus stop in order to get out of the city. The night before she sent me a message “Let's meet at 7:30”. Ok, more sleep is fine for me! When my alarm woke me up at 6:30, I found another message “My father gives us a ride to the highway, meet you at 8”. A time that was postponed another time to 8:30. We eventually met around 9.

Joanna is pretty cool, and we got along quite well from the very beginning. Her father dropped us of right before the pay tolls on the highway, a spot I was already hitchhiking from successfully before. When taking out my sign and seeing all those trucks approaching, I said to Joanna: “One disadvantage of being the two of us is that trucks would not take us”. In this very moment, I was just about to hold up the sign, the very first truck stopped. “I can take you to Opole”. Of course, thank you! Opole would be a third of our way, so on we got.

Being with a Polish girl, it turned out I didn't have the chance to contribute much to the conversation. When hitching alone, I tried my best using all the awesome Polish I knew. Here, I just listened. And watched, for example when the driver would decide to cook coffee while driving.

Now it comes to what I call “The Polish way of hitchhiking”, which is actually pretty common there. All the trucks and quite a few cars are equipped with CB-radio, so when approaching Opole the driver just started to find us our next ride – and he did! At a parking lot we changed car. I can't tell much about the next driver. I fell asleep, I just remember him swearing all the time. I woke up when Joanna would tell me: “We got a ride to Dresden”. Awesome! A bit later we changed again into a truck. Hitchhiking the Polish way.

Later on a gas-station, it occurred that we had to wait two hours for the truck being washed. Unfortunately, this service station has been a bit out of our way (direction Berlin), so we just waited, had a coffee, talked about non existent future career plans and very vivid travel plans.

Back on the truck, approaching Germany, I had to hide behind a curtain, as I was kind of an illegal passenger. Pretty comfortable though. It then didn't take long and we reached Dresden, our final destination for today. The driver dropped us of right at the highway exit, and we walked back to find a nearby bus-stop. Having a couch somewhere in Johannstadt, we just had to find a way to get there. I am usually pretty badly organised, so I didn't write down any directions. Well, we found our way, arrived safely and were warmly welcomed in his flat by Sebastian.

Vielleicht hab ich mir durch das Verfassen des letzten Beitrags ja einen virtuellen Eigen-Arschtritt verpasst.... anders ist es wohl nicht zu erklären, oder ist das Leben einfach immer ein ständiges "up and down"?!

Ist es wohl, und das ist auch gut so. Die Dinge ändern sich oft schneller als man mitdenken kann, und oft realisiert man es gar nicht gleich. Auf jeden Fall bin ich, gleich nachdem ich den letzten Beitrag hier geschrieben habe, aufgestanden, zur Tür rausgegangen, raus in die Welt, raus ins Vergnügen. Und siehe da, man muss nur mal einen Schritt wagen, und schon kann die Welt ganz anders aussehen.

Ich habe also ereignisreiche 5 Tage hinter mir, von denen ich hier nur einige Eindrücke in Stichworten wiedergeben kann. Meinen Studierenden würde ich die Aufgabe geben, daraus eine Geschichte zu schreiben. Wer auch immer das liest ist herzlich willkommen, es ihnen gleich zu tun :)

Beautiful brains, wonderful people, dreaming, dreaming of travelling again, tasty beer, too much beer, early morning pierogi (ruskie with pork flavour), no trackstand possible any more, breaking the curse, hanging over, more hanging over, looking at things & laughing, counting people (everywhere), online pizza, snowflake walks, more beer, more talks, efficiency or not (not!!), long live pacifism, early morning calls, early morning guests, wonderful guests, lovely friends & long johns, momos and more, little sleep but loads of fun, loads of beer, pierogi tasting, milk bar madness, concert madness, losing people (and gladly finding them again), emergency room, delicious salads, hot chocolate, more snow;

but the end always remains the same: farewell....

Wohl eine der wenigen Schattenseiten eines Nomadenlebens (auch wenn ich eigentlich momentan relativ sesshaft bin). Menschen kommen, Menschen gehen. Manche sieht man wieder, von manchen bleiben nur die Erinnerungen. Aber die nimmt mir niemand weg!

So long...