Travelling is not a synonym for holidays. Travelling is a mindset.

Always Eager to See the World

My journeys often come with beach and lazy days. Yet, the main focus is driven by curiosity: See over there, how does it look like? The buildings, the landscape, the people? How is the atmosphere? Let’s go and try local delicacies, buy regional wine, talk to people along the way.

I try to learn at least a bit of the language of each country I go to, with average success throughout Europe and lesser in Asia. I am looking forward to far destinations like Sri Lanka, accepting narrow space in cheap airline seats, praying that the close neighbours are not famous for their halitosis. And I like to discover close destinations: short trips within an hour-ride. Europe with all its trillions of facets. Lucky me, I always liked driving. The longer it takes, the more time enfolds for wandering thoughts and vague reflections of life, the universe and everything.

Yes, Another One. Truth is that Every Trip Shifts Your Perspective. Thanks to Jacktheyogi, I Discovered my Neighbourhood in Munich Upside-down (here: Schwabing).

The upcoming voyage is a triptych of settings: First Sri Lanka, accompanied by Linda, all easy and warm and hopefully with fantastic waves. Main challenges: find public transportations to the next destination and keep the mosquitos at distance.

Then Bretagne: My only preparation is a pile of “Kommissar Dupin” detective stories and a travel book published by Michael Müller. Topped by the conviction that global warming will lead to mild and sunny weather from April on.

And then, giving way to a longing that may or may not turn out as a qualified one: South-England!

Years and years, I have been frightened of the left-sided driving. But then, giving in to irrational fears, really?? There are so many idiots on the roads, why not add myself, lost in directions?! Consequently, I decided to ignore my worries and just go for it. Even though the courageous part has won over the weakness, some doubts still remain. Hence, I seek to enforce my driving skills with supporting reminders that get stuck to Hector’s cockpit:

I took over a line from one of my current ukulele songs and slightly adopted it. It shall A) remind me to take the left part of the road (if the road is wider than Hector’s features, that is) and B) to check if some handsome men appear on the left.

The second one is the backup, just like the redundancies they build in high-tech-systems of airplanes, for safety reasons.

Apart from practical reasons (there are none), I like the idea of approaching things from a different angle: perhaps I should use the other side of my couch, drink tea instead of coffee and look for an entirely new mode in daily doings. Rebellious things, such as: “Morgens Elmex, Abends Aronal”!