and then?
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This post is about a 17km walk from Merzhausen to Opfinger Lake. I stock up on outdoor equipment and meet up with David from Mundologia.
I had stayed at my friend’s place for a day. Went to the city and got a new pair of shoes (I always kept a spare pair in the Caboose) and a new ground mat.
the way to Freiburg
And then, just as I was loading up the Caboose, it started raining. I stupidly stood around in a neighbor’s garage for a while, waiting for it to pass. And then, when it got a bit better, I put on my windbreaker and got going.
There was a squat on the way. People had been occupying the building for more than three decades, and there was even a café in it. When I passed by everything seemed closed, though.
outdoor stores
I went to an outdoor store in the center of Freiburg. It was called 7Sachen, and it was small but well-stocked. Jürgen, the guy who worked there, was very helpful. He offered to ship my old ground mat back to the manufacturer for a free replacement.
When I asked him about tents (the green one that the Kantian had given me in Turkey was falling apart) he made me an offer I couldn’t refuse: a freestanding two-person tent that usually shipped for 399€, but he gave it to me for 180€ because it didn’t come with a packsack.
I decided to get a travel pillow as well. Ever since Lea had shown off her own personal travel pillow to me, I had wanted one of my own.
Mundologia
In the evening I met up with David Hettich from Mundologia, an outdoor festival where I had been a guest speaker a few times before. This was a popular thing in the German-speaking world: travellers showed slide shows and told tall tales from their journeys, and audiences treated it like a visit to the theater or to the movies.
I had given a bunch of these presentations in the past, sometimes in front of six people and sometimes in front of eight hundred. Being in front of the audience scared the shit out of me: I could neither eat or drink during the day leading up to the event, and I had to constantly go pee. But it was fun when everyone was having a good time. When the jokes landed. Mundologia had always been a good time.
more work
“So,” David said as we were stuffing ourselves with ashak and eggplant, “seems like you are finally getting close to the end of your walk.”
Hope so, I said. I was only cautiously optimistic. Surprises like the drama around the disappeared Caboose in Munich could happen at any given time.
“Does it feel scary or relieving to think that you are finally going to be done?”
Actually, it was both at once.
“And then?”
I told David that I wanted to make a new weird beard video, and then another video about the moment when I finally cut my beard and hair. Because for me, taking off the beard and hair that I hadn’t touched over the last seven years would be more of an end point of the walk than the moment of arriving.
David nodded. “And then more books?”
More books indeed.
“And more presentations?”
Fuck yeah.
pictures
the walk from Merzhausen to Opfinger Lake:
rain in Merzhausen
squat in Merzhausen
they’ve been squatting here for three decades
condos in Merzhausen
under the bridge in Freiburg
Freiburg city center
goodbye Kantian’s tent
my new pillow
with Jürgen from 7Sachen in Freiburg
Freiburg central station
fuck Z and fuck Putin’s Russia
the way out of Freiburg
with David Hettich from Mundologia
a bridge out of Freiburg
highway near Opfinger Lake
Opfinger Lake at night
Jared
Thank picture, a bridge out of Freiburg, is epic!
Christoph Rehage Post author
glad you liked it. was fun to take, just a bit stressful because there were cyclists sometimes, and it was very dark.
Vicky
Hallo!
Ich war vor einigen Jahren auf einem der Vorträge in Münster. Sie haben mir ein Kinder-Schoko-Bon geschenkt, weil ich ein Buch gekauft habe. Ich würde mich freuen, wenn es soweit ist, wieder einen Vortrag zu besuchen! Also: Yeah! More presentations, please!