I arrived to my hometown Schwerin two days ago. It’s good to be back and see people that I know for years. I moved in to Florian’s in the centre of town above a cinema. I unpacked my stuff and made the room comfortable for a couple of months lasting living and working stay. Laptop, fast Internet, a room, central heating, clean clothes, gadgets all around. Different knifes for different things to cut, for Ford’s sake! How easy it is to be a cave man.
Choose life.
OK, my way back to here: I hitch-hiked from Olympos in the very south of Turkey to somewhere 100km north of Isparta. Among many different people a young woman gave me a lift for a couple of kilometers. First she passed, then stopped a good bit away and reversed. She was on her way to see the mayor of the next town. I was invited for some tea and shook the mayor’s hand. Next to the higher citizens meeting and discussing various issues in the office I felt a bit underdressed in my manky pyjama trousers, smelly shirt and dirty face – but they just gave me understanding smiles. The woman collected a big stash of money and got back with me in the car and brought me to the next crossroads. How confiding, I thought. Later the next day (Brr, the night in the tent was cold, continental climate struck) I got stuck for a couple of hours in some kind of steppe in the middle of nowhere. Cars and trucks just wouldn’t stop. Must be one of those days I said to myself and stopped a bus to Istanbul, as I wanted to be there by the end of the day. I spent two more days in Istanbul, staying for cheap on the balcony of the nice “Chill out” hostel. Here I met back two Germans that stayed in the Olympos cave with us for one night. Small world, eh?
I took the train to the Bulgarian border where I found a truck in the queue that would take me directly to Hamburg. Jackpot! Anyway, I had to walk over the border on my own in order to meet my truck on the other side, which for the first Turkish border controller was a “BIG PROBLEM!”, whereby taking a seat in a passing car was “guezel” for him again. After I passed the 8 checkpoints I waited 9 hours (!) sitting on my bag, munching the food I brought. The truck came but for some silly misunderstanding I missed it – argh! So my heavy bag and me walked to the 4km away truck overnight parking to look for him. I couldn’t see him anywhere, so I entered the trucker bar in the basement of the building nearby. — God, this story is getting long — Of course he wasn’t there, but another driver, a very sincere man, gave me food and drink and took me to a motorway crossing near Sofia the next morning. He left me with two US Army field food rations “MRE” (Meal, Ready-to-Eat, no joke) which he brought from a tour into the Iraq. Again stranded, this time in cold windy rain, I took the bus to the centre of Sofia and from there to Belgrade.
O beloved Belgrade! In an Internet cafe I met Mark from Australia who I spent the rest of the day with drinking beer from 1.5 litre bottles and asking people for sights that we were standing infront of. Milan, a friend of Cathie (a friend from Dublin, ciao Cathie!) showed me the squat called “Rebel House” where I decided to stay for 3 nights. This is where I met Ljubica, who became a very special friend in such short time. 🙂
On the evening of the fourth day I took the bus to Budapest. I spent all day in the Szechenyi thermal bath – ahhhh, how I needed that. The same night I went on to Prague by bus, took the train to the German border and got back home with friendly weekend group train ticket people that took me with them. What a tour! Over and out..