Monthly Archives: September 2019

walking to the government

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The hotel in which I wake up is called “Hotel Lost”. When I arrived last night, the nightclub in the basement was just warming up, there were three bouncers in the lobby, and the whole place had an atmosphere of fake leather and black lights that reminded me of certain establishments in China that charged […]


knife town

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Just as I wake up under the cement roof that has been my home for the night, it starts to rain again. I decide to wait it out. After all, I have apples, nuts, and bread to eat, water to drink, and a tv series to watch. No need to lose hope as long as […]


the right way

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Rain unrained is a taste of metal in the air and a shade of darkness on the ground. It is there, I can feel it all around me, only it chooses to remain in the clouds and to not fall down to earth just yet. And so I walk under a grey sky that reminds […]


the fires and the pots

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A few kilometers into the day, Nihal and Kader call me into their yard to have breakfast with them and their colleagues. They’re into the dairy business. There is much laughter at the thought of how long my hair and my beard will be once I have made it to Germany. Back on the road […]


of mice

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An afternoon, a sky covered in grey clouds, a corner near the ocean where a cat is playing with a mouse. At first I’m sure the mouse must be dead, as it’s dangling lifelessly between the cat’s teeth. But when the cat sets it down almost gently, the mouse looks around for a moment, then […]


Erdoganstan

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Rize, that’s one hundred thousand people on the coast of the Black Sea. It’s the home of the current president (who appears to moonlight as an educator). And it’s the center of the Turkish tea industry. I have been passing by lots and lots of tea factories on my way here from Georgia. Basically every […]


the stepchild

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Today the road shows me another face. Up until now, it has mostly been made up of two lanes in each direction, divided in the middle, with an emergency lane on either side. Now those emergency lanes are gone. Sometimes each direction consists of three lanes, though. Yay for drivers, I guess? There is a […]


leaving China

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I’m in bed. The tunnels and the guardrails and the glorious pink sunset, they are behind me. I have not written a word until now. There was never enough time. When I close my eyes I see myself walking into a small town called Pazar. That was at noon, and Pazar turned out to be […]


the pudding, though

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I remember once when I was in school, one of my teachers started talking about a thing called “world cuisines”. Apparently, there was only a limited number of countries with a food culture deserving of the name. I don’t think anyone was surprised when he told us that German food hadn’t made the cut. Sausages […]


why I love jellyfish

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The rain clouds came upon Ardesen at night, and they decided to stay. Unable to find a nice, small guesthouse, I have taken up room in a three-star hotel where guns are not allowed and where there is an illuminated blue sky as a ceiling in the hallways. The Caboose is parked downstairs next to […]


feeling close

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There was one little bug that insisted on spending the night under my air mattress. I tried to talk it out of it, but to no avail. It was as black and shiny as it was determined, that bug. I woke up a few times during the night, not because of my bug buddy but […]


happy bullets

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Turkish roads are wider than those in Georgia. And they seem to be better maintained. That doesn’t help me, though. Every time I take a long break from walking I am bound to have a hard time getting back into it. This time is no exception. Sometimes I see billboards of the president. There must […]


leaving the corner

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Gonio means “corner” in Georgian. And what a strange little corner it is. The sun shines bright in Gonio. The clouds rain heavily in Gonio. The dogs are friendly in Gonio. Everyone is very relaxed in Gonio. Having spent a month in the corner, tanning, swimming, reading, socializing, I felt that Gonio had taken some […]