Waiting for the sun....

Rained-in today and waiting for a break in the skies. Fortunately am staying with friends in their beautiful house and able to use the time here to maintain contact with the world (meaning, continue looking for a normal job that I can begin after this tour......) and continue to study the route I will take. The sky seems to be clearing and soon I will be off to the next destination. The real tour has not yet begun because I have yet to collect a small camp stove from a friend. Just a few more days to being "on the road". 


Without being too profound, I want to reflect for a moment on some recent impressions. While home for a few days I spent time with friends in my neighbourhood, many of whom are elderly persons.  In the last years many of them have aged quite quickly, to the point at which mobility is now an issue for them. Some of them traveled regularly until recent illnesses and disabilities made even traveling with organised groups impossible. The point is that as I was telling of my upcoming adventure, I could see their sadness that their days of freedom are gone and feel how much they would like to go out to explore one more time. This is the end that awaits nearly all of us. I feel very fortunate for my health and for the freedom and ability to live every moment with enthusiasm. This is a richness that as a younger man I did not understand and now that this has become part of me, I feel indeed very much better and complete and fulfilled. All the time I wasted chasing wealth, power, status.....what a mistake. In the end it caused much more loss than gain. 


Sure, at the moment many issues in my life are quite messed up and rather confusing, but all that will work out. Of this I am sure. More about all that later. For the moment I invite you to enjoy the photos I made last night.

Gute Freunde

The actual tour is starting slowly. There are many friends to visit here in my old neighbourhood and besides that, it is a wonderful area in which to spend a few days. Staying in a small lake house, directly over the water, with no electricity. The first night took some getting used to - no radio, iPod battery was empty, the laptop battery is already completely shot, and my blackberry was out as well. Felt like Thoreau for a few hours. It was good though, to start to come unconnected. Already I consider myself a 3/4 Aussteiger since my life is quite gypsy-like, but for the next months it will be simplified even more. Didn't take long. By last night I was thriving in the tranquility. Managed to grill some vegetables and then watch the world close down for the night on nature's Grossleinwand. See the fotos.

By the way, maybe there is attraction between travelers, but last night I met a Russian man on his way around the world by foot. Dyrak! More about that later.

Easing into it

The goal is Odessa, in the Ukraine. It has always held fascination for me - an exotic, wild place fully of different cultures and languages. Then there are the events during the revolution that took place there. It is a good destination. Believe me, it was hard to decide where to go. The day before leaving it was still up in the air - east or west. Last night I met a crazy guy on his way to the Pyrenees by bike and it pleased me when he told me that it was the same deal with him - until the day prior to his departure he was not sure where he was going. Perhaps we are such dreamers that we simply cannot focus on one thing. In any case, I am pleased to have the destination set in my mind.