And then, it is over

We are home. It is winter in Frankfurt. The pile of mail is about 30cm high. The cars drive on the wrong side of the road. The mobile mailboxes still have funny messages on them. Winter boots can be found in a moving box deep down in the garage. The air is fresh and clean. Leberwurst and proper beer can be bought around the corner. The jetlag wakes us up at 6am. But apart from that: it seems like we have been away for only a second. It also feels like a second, until you open Picasa and look at thousands of pictures.

Thank you for traveling with us! We hope you discovered a few places you also want to visit one day. We for sure were excited about every reader.

To all who want to see more pictures that the roughly 2,000 we uploaded over the past weeks. Come and visit us for a dinner or simply invite us - we will bring the netbook ;-)

Take care!


Ah, you're right - PS: Project status update:
The "Natural Tan" album followed us along our travels. 215 pictures document how we have changed over 126 days on the road. The three below not only mark the happiest days of our travels (guess why ... ;-) ) but definitely define the highlight of our tan.

Von Natural Tan

Von Natural Tan

Von Natural Tan

My travel diary (project "stranger") is full and will provide an everlasting memory to all the wonderful people we met on the road. Thank you for sharing your wishes & thoughts with me.

Online again!

After 2 days on Kangaroo Island with no mobile and/or data connection whatsoever we are back to old habits: sitting in front of the PC at 2am in the morning. Well, finally we uploaded a bunch of pictures to the China album and the new Australia album. Also the "Natural Tan" project was updated.

Speaking of a project: Also my other little project "Stranger" was started. I have asked people we meet along the way to contribute some words in their language or from their culture to my travel diary. So far I have received wonderful stories, advices, poems in Chinese, Hindi, Farsi, German and of course ... English. I am looking forward to more.

Btw: Thank you for all the Birthday e-mails and notes. It is great to hear & read from you ... and have an excuse to sit in front of the PC until, well ... now it is 2:40am in the morning. Good night!!!

The gift of giving stuff away

It is amazing - I have lived in my area of Munich (Nymphenburg) for a little bit more than 4 years. I share a building with 15 other appartments - most of whose inhabitants I have never seen. I wouldn't even know if someone belongs there ... that is the sad part.

The good part: when I started giving stuff away during the past weeks I have met so many nice people - and their story, a part of their life. Meeting people is just so exciting! It makes me like the area I used to live in even more. Not so smart to move away then ...

Today it was an excited father of a 1 week old who still didn't seem to grasp the wonder he created 10 months ago (being evil: mabye he didn't? ...). And a completely disoriented twentysomething who figured he could pick up the cupboard he wanted to buy with a bike (it was cool one, though) and no money (no, the look was not worth the cupboard!) ... well, some lessons are hard and/or heavy ;-)

Is there a job where one can give away stuff as a job (and still earn money for a living)?
Or maybe we could just try and believe that the endless powerpoints, point of views, teleconferences, meetings are something like "giving stuff away" - as in: my ideas, my time, my brain (hello, anyone up there?) ... I probably just need to work on the reaction of the receiving part. Well, that goes to the todo list for April 2010 (this feels great!).

Actually, early this year Philipp and I had a small project where we collected Best Wedding Wishes from complete strangers for Timmy & Ulrike in a little black book. A text and a picture of every contributor. People we haven't met before so freely - and amazingly happily - gave away their thoughts, wishes, advices to a couple they haven't met - and in most cases unfortunately probably never will meet. That was the same feeling. Meeting stories, meeting experiences, meeting wishes and giving people an opportunity to tell their story. Apart from being a very unique present it was the proof that engineers actually are able of spontaneous human interaction (well done, sweetheart ;-P ).

I am thinking of doing that again, when we travel. 1 stranger a day ... no wedding wishes this time, but 3-5 weird questions (todo!) to someone we meet on the street. Let's see if Australians are also happy to give away their stories.