Do you know that feeling?
There are places, cities and countries you have always wanted to visit, although you hardly know anything about them. The desire can be traced back to infancy, probably to some comic books you read as a child. An idea took root, sometimes fading in the background, but never disappearing completely. An inexplicable but deep longing.
In my case, Timbuktu is one of these dream destinations, although, for the longest time, I didn’t even know that it is in Mali. We Europeans, and it is important to be self-critical about this, all too often think of the entire African continent as a single large, exotic country.
The only cure against such ignorance is traveling.
And now, I am finally in Timbuktu!
Well, admittedly, not quite yet.
The photo was actually taken in the ODF Park in Chemnitz. The marble slab sunk into the ground refers to the twinning between the most beautiful city in Saxony and the pearl of the Sahara.
Originally, the municipal partnership was concluded in 1969 between Timbuktu and Karl-Marx-Stadt. But I guess you don’t terminate your friendships either whenever somebody changes their name. (Except, of course, when someone gets a doctorate degree and insists on being addressed as Dr So-and-so. This reminds me of a story I once heard in Eastern Europe: An academic from Germany, probably a scholar of literature or theater, went to Russia for a year. When she moved into her apartment, she insisted that her name on the doorbell include the “Dr”. As a result, she was regularly woken up in the middle of the night by neighbors asking for medical help or for antibiotics.)
I, for one, am thrilled that Chemnitz has such a fabulous twin city. Because that really is a reason to finally hitchhike to Timbuktu. The fact that you have to cross the desert for 52 days to get there is a bit daunting, but I guess that just means that I have to pack a few more cans of Coca-Cola.
In my opinion, it should be a general rule that one visits all the twin cities of one’s (adopted) hometown.
In Chemnitz, however, this is quite a challenge. Not only because the list is endless and some places are 8,000 km away. Inconveniently, Stalingrad is in a country where you can easily be locked away for a few funny remarks on a blog. And Düsseldorf, well, I don’t see why anybody would want to go there voluntarily either.
How about you? What twin towns or regions does your hometown have? Did you ever visit any of them?
The otherwise unassuming village in Bavaria where I grew up has an active partnership with the region of Modi’in in Israel, at the heart of which is an annual youth exchange. I went many times, first as a participant, later as a guide. It was a fantastic experience, from which I still benefit decades later, culturally and intellectually, personally and linguistically. So, if you have any children, send them forth into the big wide world! (And you better pay for the exchange or the Interrail ticket, or elsewhere your kids will have to abscond as stowaways.)
The Happy Hermit 
I supported you and your blog again, Bro. I’d be so honored for you to read and subscribe to my new one on Substack. Please. Don’t make me beg you more than I’m doing right now. OK? Here’s my latest post about my favorite spot to pray. If you ever make it to Yuma, Arizona, I’ll take you there. Peace – Majik’s Substack
Thank you very much! 🤗
I will send you a postcard from Timbuktu when I get there.
It’s nothing personal, but I am just soo reluctant to sign up with anything new. I am always a very late adopter when it comes to new technology.
I still don’t even happen a TV, a car or one of them so-called smartphones.
Sounds a little bullshitty, Andreas, but I’ll let it slide because we’re pals.
I don’t even have a LinkedIn or a Netflix.
All you have to do is click on my link and then “Subscribe” by entering your email and then you can ignore my emails when they come like I sometimes do with yours or open them and find yourself suddenly enchanted like I sometimes am when I open one of yours. How hard is that?
Here’s a fun one to start your subscription with . . . I’m Gonna Sleep With One Eye Open . . . – Majik’s Substack
It’s even got Arnold, for cryin’ out loud.
Thank you very much, Andreas, for having showed us Timbuctu and the sense of travelling! I wouldn’t have had any idea of where it is and 52 days across the desert doesn’t seem to be just a short hiking tour, even if you have enough of that too sweet drink!
I see that one can go part of the way by train now:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dakar%E2%80%93Niger_Railway
That makes it much easier!
That’s pretty funny. I just drove through Modi’in!
Wow, what a coincidence!
I very fondly remember my stays in villages like Kfar Truman, Shoham, Bnei Atarot and Kfar Daniel. I was there so regularly that I made many friends and it became like a second home. And on every trip, we visited Kibbutz Beerot Yitzhak.
I also remember being driven about the then newly built town of Modi’in, when nobody was living there yet. I had never seen anything like that, a new town, built from scratch. Oh, and once we got a tour of the new airport before it was opened to the public.
But the best part were the host families! 🤗🥰🇮🇱
Talking about it, I realize that I really miss it.
If I had had more practical skills, I might have stayed in a kibbutz or a moshav.
Tell me more about Dusseldorf. I’ve always wanted to go there!
Düsseldorf is one of those villages where people go to because it has a large airport, and thus, people think: “There must be something there.”
It would be like picking your holiday destination based on a highway map, looking at the intersection of two motorways, and thinking: “Oh look, there is a lot of traffic, this must be interesting.”
But the airport is all they have. And some streets and shops and stuff, but nothing special.
Hi Andreas, how are you? It seems you’re traveling around the world. Hope do you still remember me. You sent me a postcard from Israel before. I still have it☺️. Keep safe always.
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Hello Belen,
yes, of course I remember!
But that must have been a long time ago, because I was last in Israel ten years ago or so.
I travel a bit less now, because I returned to practicing law: http://www.moserlaw.wordpress.com
Ahah, for a moment I thought you were actually in Timbuktu, and I did wonder how you had got there so fast. Also in my short list… for many years I dreamt of going there and attending the Festival au Desért. But then, well, war happened and the music stopped. A lesson to not postpone these dreams too much. The birthplace of some of the oldest universities in the world, for sure a sacred and deeply enchanting place. It’s exactly as you say… if after decades you still think of it… better not delay anymore. It may even be a disappointment, but would be worse to give up and discard all dreams as just some fantasy (it seems it is the ‘adult’ thing to do though ahah). For that reason, I decided to embark on a journey I have dreamt about since I was a teenager (!), and will leave soon. Sooner rather than never.
Now you got us all very curious!
Where are you going?
And you are absolutely right about not postponing these dreams. One sad example is my dream of the longest possible train journey, a large part of which would lead through Russia.
It makes me wonder about what will happen ro my other big dream, the one of hitchhiking the whole Panamericana from Alaska to Patagonia.
Oh, that’s where you are Andreas! I heard Tim Buck is there too.
And they already named the town after him!