Category Archives: Travel
Return to Normality
Zur deutschen Fassung dieses Artikels. We can go into town again. The barrier tapes have been removed from the parks, as if the crime scene has been cleaned up. The doors of the shops are wide open. Some of them … Continue reading
How I got a Facemask on the Azores
Zur deutschen Fassung dieser Geschichte. When I flew to the Azores from Lisbon on I-don’t-remember-exactly-but-some-time-in-the-beginning-of-March, there was this person at the airport who was probably just snickering disparagingly about people with facemasks. And maybe eating a Snickers bar under the … Continue reading
Film Review: “Cast Away”
As I am currently stranded on a far-away island myself, people have been making references to “Cast Away”, Chuck Noland and Wilson. The references seemed to increase as my Robinsonade persisted and my beard grew. Finally, I felt like I … Continue reading
In the Clouds
It was a beautiful day on the island, made all the more beautiful by white fluffy things floating through the ink-blue sky. “Are these air-sheep?”, I asked the farmer in the field, for who would know more about animals, land- … Continue reading
In the Foreign Legion
Diesen spannenden Insider-Bericht gibt es auch auf Deutsch. A few years ago, the desire for education reared its nosy head again, remembered the high school from which I had graduated decades before, and was in deep and mournful regret that … Continue reading
German Law: What happens to Children when the Parents die?
Recently, parents seem to be thinking about their possible early demise, because I have been getting this question more frequently: “What will happen to our children if we, mother and father, were to die?” I don’t know why people are … Continue reading
A Chinese in Vienna
During some meeting of some committee of some sub-organization at the United Nations in Vienna, I got to know a young lady from China. Qian was doing an internship as a simultaneous interpreter for Mandarin and English. Simultaneous interpreters are … 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
Not quite a Thousand Kilometers, but a Good Start
Den deutschsprachigen Lesern empfehle ich die deutsche Originalfassung. I have hitched rides a few times already, but merely short distances. Usually on the way back from hiking in the mountains when I didn’t feel like stumbling through the night any … Continue reading
The Happy Hermit 