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Recent Posts
- A Postcard from Trakai
- The Floating Islands of Lake Titicaca
- Video: Solving the Mystery of Easter Island
- “Sovietistan” and “The Border” by Erika Fatland
- A Postcard from Arequipa
- A Postcard from Shiraz
- A Postcard from …
- Why I didn’t walk all of the South West Coast Path
- Hermit for Hire
- A Hundred Years Ago, Christmas was still Exciting – December 1920: Bloody Christmas
Category Archives: Life
Hermit for Hire
Of the name of this blog, the hermit part actually suits me better than the happy part. Or, to be more precise, happiness often depends on hermitness. It’s becoming increasingly harder to become hermity, though, not least because the number … Continue reading
But what about the Comet?
A flashback into the good old times… Continue reading
Finding myself in Maugham
One and a half winters ago, on a cold day in Calgary, I found a treasure trove of books by the side of the road. I walked home, through ice and snow and wind, with three little gems by William … Continue reading
Strangers in the Park
Hier geht es zur deutschen Fassung dieser Geschichte. I had two days left in Boston before returning to Germany, and I didn’t know anybody in the city. The year was 2009 and, as far as I knew, the internet hadn’t … Continue reading
Posted in Austria, Bolivia, Life, Love, Photography, Romania, Serbia, Travel, USA
Tagged Belgrade, Boston, Cochabamba, racism, Targu Mures, Vienna
23 Comments
My first Writing Job
When I was 13 years or so, I had a friend. That friend had a girlfriend, of sorts. I din’t know her because she went to a different high school than us, and our high school was the limit of … Continue reading
An extra day: 29 February 2020
Today, you will receive a precious gift: an extra day. Because 2020 is a leap year, you will have 24 hours more in your year. Even those who pretend that they don’t have enough time have no more excuse not … Continue reading
Posted in Life, Time
2 Comments
“How are you?”
Someone: How are you? Me: Confused. Someone: Oh. I am sorry to hear that. Me: No, that’s OK. I am studying philosophy. When I first went to Israel on a youth exchange program, I stayed with a family in a … Continue reading
Posted in Canada, Israel, Language, Life
25 Comments
Just a Cup of Tea
It’s really mystifying how Aachen could once have been such an important city. Charlemagne, Holy Roman Empire, coronation place of kings, and all of that in a city without a river. I am only here for a few days, not … Continue reading
My secular Shabbat
Zur deutschen Fassung dieses Texts. Readers of this blog will have noticed that I am a radical Atheist. But there is one religious idea that I have incorporated in my life, although in a secular version. It’s the idea of … Continue reading
Posted in Life, Philosophy, Religion, Technology
Tagged christianity, hiking, internet, Jews, work
45 Comments
Honeymoon on a Train
The young man went to the dining car alone because the wife had a strict rule about not eating after 8 pm and, having crossed several time zones on the long train journey, she was unsure which of them to … Continue reading
