Vantastic Voyage

Another month has flown by as we have returned to ‘mainland Europe’, if that is in fact a valid term. Upon reentering, we soon met up with our lovely new friends we met in Scotland – Pascal and Susanne, who hosted us for 4 days just on the outskirts of Paris where is it much calmer and quiet. We shared meals with them and their friends, were educated about horses and were able to see Pascal shoe a horse. We took a nice boat trip through the canal on a sunny afternoon, spent one evening at their home enjoying gypsy folk music played by their friends, and another evening enjoying dinner outside as Pascal barbecued a variety of delicious sausages. Pascal has done a lot of work with wood and steel remodeling their home and has given us inspiration for design in a future abode we may one day have. It was relaxing and a needed mental break from all the daily decision making and planning that occupy a great deal of our mental space. We had some nice bike rides through the forest, surrounding area, as well as a half day around the enormous grounds of Versailles. As we could have easily spent more time with these extremely fine folk, we had to move on and were set to visit Ralf again in Bochum, Germany. In transit we stopped to refill our nearly depleted propane tank in Landgraf, Netherlands, which is where we filled our tanks some 9 months ago on our way south. We got stuck there for the evening as they had closed before we arrived. It’s worth mentioning that it happened to be one of the only known and suggested refill stations in southern Netherlands by locals. So, we did some dining in the IKEA and woofed down some Swedish meatballs as we had also done the last time we got stuck in Landgraf trying to fill our tanks. On a sidenote, filling propane tanks can be a nightmare as the fittings for the regulator to propane bottles is different in nearly every country. Additionally, in some countries it is illegal to fill propane tanks and they simply have an exchange system where you trade your empty bottle for a full new one and just pay the price of the full bottle. When you are traveling for an extended period of time and are away from your bottles’ country of origin, you’ve either got to buy special adaptors prior to your trip as they are difficult to find on the road, plan and manage your gas usage well (depending on the devices you are using), or you have to buy a new tank with a deposit that you may not get back for around 80 Euros that you likely won’t get more than one use out of.It was great to see Ralf and his good friends Jason and Mike again though our time was brief in Bochum. We also were able to meet Ralf’s sister and father and visit his hometown in Dorsten. Ratha’s birthday passed while we were visiting and I had a first round interview for a job back home via Skype. We moved on to Berlin a couple of days later and had a rendezvous with Phillip and Christie whom we met in Morocco. We only had a few hours with Christie before she headed to NYC for a couple of weeks and were shown around by Phillip who’d spent his whole life in Berlin. Again it was nice to not have to think at all about where to go, what to see and where we were at any given moment as his familiarity of the city allowed him to easily tour us around by car, bicycle and foot. We stayed the night in different locations while there including on a side street with other van dwellers in the city, outside of a traditional German garden housing area, next to a river in an industrial area and just outside an old brewery during a food sharing festival that was taking place the weekend we were there. Phillip was quite the tour guide telling us the history of the city as we moved from place to place, was our personal photographer and provided food and places for me to have my second Skype interview, which was done in a motorcycle garage. I really enjoyed biking to and through an old airport that has since become a park and recreational zone which is unlike anything I had seen before. The airport park was massive and there were every kind of activity going on there – biking, walking, gardening, rollerblading, kite flying and kite long boarding, lawn games, frisbee, picnicking, volleyball, tennis and much more. It was a surreal thing, riding our bikes down a long runway designed for huge planes with a beer in hand as the sun was setting. We also went to a Sunday flea market that puts anything I have seen at home to shame in size and variety of goods and hosts one area in the adjacent park where outdoor karaoke is performed (I believe while weather permits) on the side of a hill. People were packed into the stadium style seating and we stood in the surrounding bushes with the throngs of people watching and waiting to see the next brave soul who would be chosen to perform. The venue was packed and though the quality of performers varied wildly, the crowd was always kind and had a great energy. Unlicensed beer and homemade cocktails were toted and served by guys resembling someone at an American baseball stadium, minus the getup and loud announcements of their offerings. Berlin is vibrant, charming and as I understand, highly educated. It was a damn cool place and the variety of people both ethnically and culturally was astonishing. It is one of the more unique cities that I have experienced and really enjoyed our time there.

Worth mentioning was that there are these areas around Germany which have been designated as ‘garden houses’ where there spans large areas of land that have been parceled off and function as people’s weekend and/or summer homes. They are small lots that have some very modest, small abodes on them with beautiful varieties of landscaping and lawn decor. Most of the garden we saw had very well maintained lawns, plants and food growing there. As I understand, these places were where people lived after WWII and were able to grow food and live quite simply and sustainably, which helped people get back on their feet after the resources were scarce and times were difficult. The land is owned by the government, but you can ‘purchase’ the property and while you don’t own the land itself, you own everything atop it and pay a very modest annual fee. Some people still live there (while not what they are now intended for), but most are using it as a summer home or weekend home to get outside of the city. They are quite quaint and peaceful while there is a respected quiet hour curfew on certain days, I am sure it offers a respite from city life. Phillip and Christie have all kinds of things growing in theirs and we enjoyed a breakfast outside one morning as well as some tasty fruit from his garden at peak ripeness such as their raspberries and tomatoes.

The job interviews I mentioned – I received great news and was offered a marketing and recruiting job at Cascadia College in their International Programs department while in Berlin. I accepted it in a different car garage while the three of us celebrated cooking Moroccan tajine in the small attached kitchen. The news is bittersweet as it will be a nice transition home and I am fortunate to have this opportunity, but this van life journey coming to an end, though inevitable as we originally planned a rough return date, is a bummer because we are thoroughly enjoying ourselves. We have discussed our current lifestyle and many different kinds of lifestyles with people prior to and during our trip. The kinds that don’t fit our most common ideas of what life should be, look and feel like to an average person. I’ve caught myself even saying or agreeing flippantly with the phrase that yes, we will have to eventually return to reality. But what does that really mean? I’d most recently discussed this with some new friends that you are in control of your reality and why does the social norm of ‘reality’ have to apply to anyone? We are responsible for our choices and decisions and while yes, a journey like we are currently on requires money, time and sacrifices, doesn’t anything worth doing require the same? The excuses we make for ourselves to do anything are typically out of fear of something (loss of money, career progression, perceived opportunities, getting fit, changing habits etc.) and that is different for everyone. We need not prescribe to a lifestyle, thought, feeling or belief that is a social expectancy or norm. Whether that’s where you think you should be professionally at your age, how the order of your life needs to go or what your lifestyle should look and feel like. So when I say or agree to a phrase such as, “yes we are returning to reality”, I’m accepting the idea of what society and many people expect of you (me). Social norms need not apply to myself or anyone. Before this trip began, I thought a great deal about these issues. The idea of taking this trip is in direct defiance of the pressures put upon myself (and likely on all of us) throughout my life. It was this very concept that further inspired me to want to take this trip and to me exemplifies a step in another direction in my world. We are the masters of our reality to a great extent and we are responsible for the many choices that make our realities exist. I plan to explore and experience new things as long as I am physically and financially able whether that is in my back yard or across the globe. My point is that there is no reason that adventures such as the one we are on, must cease to exist. “This is a once in a lifetime opportunity” does not have to be the way you sum up a big decision to do something different. Departing from your comfort zone and doing something unknown, different and seemingly crazy forces us to learn, change and grow. There is no need to submit to a life of complacency whether you are fresh out of school starting your career, you are 25 years invested in a company, retired etc. Opportunities, challenges and adventures await all of us and can take on a myriad of different forms. You don’t have to leave the country to find them and I hope that when I return home, I will continue to find these however near or far physically or mentally challenging they are. Travel which is not simply made for an accumulation of quantitative experiences, is invigorating, eye opening and enlightening from a personal standpoint. It impacts our perspective on other peoples, be it from an individual in a distant foreign land or to your next-door neighbor, to where you simply absorb knowledge through observation and introspection. We are creatures of habit us humans, and if we don’t force ourselves to break patterns, however small the change, we will fail to reach our higher growth potential, see things in a new light and experience the beauty that surrounds us in people and places in our backyards to distant corners of the earth.

We would head south to the beautiful city of Dresden where we spent half a day and then on to Prague, Czech Republic. Prague was filled with beautiful buildings and had a wonderful skyline from the hill NW of the city center in Mala Strana. We found a free parking spot 10 minutes walk from the popular areas of interest and found a little restaurant not 50 yards from the van. We went in for a beer and ended up sharing a steak tartare and walked away paying 10 Euros. The beer was refreshing on the hot day, and the veal tartare was excellent. We would end up celebrating Ratha’s birthday dinner there and were amazed by the food. The restaurant was in a place that you’d never walk to or likely find if you had just a few days and it looks very unassuming from the outside. I was a bit overwhelmed by the quantity of visitors in the city and it was nice having a place to escape to and enjoy our surroundings amongst the local people. We were thinking to head to Cesky Kumlov which was just south a few hours from Prague and our waitress at the restaurant helped solidify our plan to go. We arrived there in the evening and were able to BBQ and stay for free right next to the river. There was a climbing wall not 20 feet from our van, but unfortunately it rained all night and sprinkled the next morning making it unsuitable, but it was a hell of a spot. The city was chocked full of picturesque buildings and extremely photogenic. We had a mouthwatering two traditional dishes, pork knee and various dumplings with beef and covered in gravy. The Staropramen dark beer was my favorite we had during our short visit to the country.

We traced a good portion of the Danube river after crossing south into Austria. We were headed for a wine region to a 20 kilometer stretch of river from the cities of Melk to Krems. We pulled off the road about 45 minutes short of Melk and appropriately watched The Sound of Music dvd we picked up in preparation for Austria. Let me confirm that indeed the hills are alive with the sound of muuuuuuuusic aaaahhhhhaaaahhhhaaahhhaaahhh! I found myself overly enjoying the film and singing along with the music. It was Ratha’s first time watching the classic and could not have found a more appropriate time to expose her to it. There are little wineries around this region that serve up various homemade varietals and serve up some home cooked meals. We were served our food and wine from a little old Austrian woman in a dirndl (traditional Austrian getup for a female) and got the strong sense that it was her daily attire and not worn as a costume so to speak. This region we later discovered makes primarily white wines while the south of Austria has more reds. We walked away with a white wine from 1999, hey that rhymes! Hope to enjoy it in the hot weather we are now enjoying!