Nights in Ulm...

Curious things happen in Ulm when night falls. Roboter try to make their ways across streets and into cinemas.

Snow appears out of the blue  and wrappes everything in icy coldness.

Global Home

We went to see the premier of "Global Home" yesterday in the Lichtburg Cinema in Ulm, which celebrated also its 60th anniversary. It's a very nice and humble documentary about the Couch Surfing Network that makes it so easy to travel and collect with the locals in a way that's almost impossible if you stay in a hotel (even more when it's a all-inclusive one). This movie did its job if you have this feeling of restlessness in your heart afterwards that makes you signing up on Couch Surfing and look for people that happen to live in places you always wanted to see. 

Wohin möchtest du gehen?

„Grinse-Katze“, begann sie ein wenig zaghaft…

„Würdest Du mir sagen, welchen Weg ich von hier aus nehmen soll?“

„Kommt darauf an, wohin Du gehen möchtest“, antwortete die Katze.

„Es ist mir gar nicht so wichtig, wohin“, sagte Alice.

„Dann spielt es auch keine Rolle, welchen Weg du nimmst“, sagte die Katze.

Lewis Carroll; Alice im Wunderland

The day we bought a couch on Ebay...

It was more or less by accident that we ended up with the couch. We were actually bidding on another couch because the fabric of that one looked nicer. The two auctions ended just four minutes apart from each other and because we wanted to see how far the price is going up, we openend the page of a similar one that started at about the same price than ours and was offered by the same seller but was already 100 Euros ahead of ours.

The couch looked also quite nice and when we found out that we could choose the fabric ourselves we decided to take our chances and just bid to our limit. As always the last seconds on Ebay cost you some months of your life and are a bit blurred with excitement. Then without really knowing what happened Ebay congratulated us on our new couch.

Quite freaked out by this funny attempt to take chances and actually getting it, we checked on the other couch that was still 100 Euros away from what we just paid for "our new couch". By that time we got quite anxious that we just bought a couch for far more money than we would have to pay for this one... So the last minute of this auction were actually more stressful than the one where we actually took part in the bidding.

10 seconds before the end, the price still did not move much causing quite some heart racing. And then... pff, we were fine.. the couch was sold for about the same price than ours. What's the difference between them? It's easier to vacuum under the couch we bought. And that is that...

Quality sucks but it gives you an idea... 

There and back again...

Surprised by the weather forecast promising a sunny weekend, we put on our hiking shoes, packed Cléments backpack and drove to Immenstadt. After finding the tourist office closed we were approached by some locals and before we knew what happened we found ourselves nevertheless well equipped with advice.

Blinded by the sun.

We took the chair lift up the next mountain and crossed some of its neighbours to reach our final challenge: the ladder. To the top you could either take some nice little path or climb up a very heigh ladder. After I made up my mind, Clément decided to join me despite his fear of heights. And he did well! A little shaky but proud we reached the top and enjoyed the view over the mountains and lakes.

Take in the ladder on the right.

Clément and a nervous grin.

This row of mountains is called something like God's beton, because they
are made of all those little stones held together by some sand turned to stone.

Holding on to the rope.

After getting excited by the first bit of snow, we started our quest for something ranging between hotel and stable to spend the night. After being denied once, we convinced the owner of the Naturfreundehaus Kempten that we are just fine to sleep in sleeping bags brought up from the cellar in a room with 40 other men, sharing our matress with at least one of them.

After some deep fried food and being laughed at by everybody in the restaurant for asking for something less than half a liter of beer, we went to bed. We slept surprisingly well, which was very unexpected after the concert of snoring started when everybody came to bed after I don't know how many beers and me having the dark suspicition that this will be a long and cruel night. We were woken by the sun shining into the window and with breakfast waiting for us.

So we were back on the road a little after nine heading in the direction of the Alpsee. The way was very steep and we could feel our muscles for quite a few days.

It was totally worth it and sometimes spontaneous ideas like that are the best! Not much planning which looking back at it could have gone quite bad if we would not have found a place to stay.
Living on the edge!!! (imagine weird hand shake here)

The Feeling Of In Between

Trying to get to know myself by trying to get to know the world that I'm living in. That's why I try to see as many different places as possible. It doesn't always have to involve crossing the equator. Sometimes adventures and paradise are just around the corner. Although I get this weird feeling of being stuck when I spend too much time at the same place, missing the feeling of being in between two lifes that's always striking me when I'm on the airport ready to start a trip. My old one and a new one....

I can feel it in my heart that soon, very soon, decisions have to be made, and a long distance flight to be booked...