Vagabonding

Around the station

The pine-veneer, the white pleather armchairs and the chandelier made out of cheap glass – everything looks rinse able. The owner offers Johnnie Walker Blue Label to a young girl and continues the negotiations in russian.

My Chardonnay is favorable, the service pronto and at six in the afternoon the cops show up to check if everything is in order.

I´m sure there´re so much worsen places to wait for your train. Even in Switzerland.

Science on the road

Nothing new on the way to the west but now validated: Bust size and hitchhiking a field study.

To test the effect of a woman’s bust size on the rate of help offered, 1200 male and female French motorists were tested in a hitchhiking situation. A 20-yr.-old female confederate wore a bra which permitted variation in the size of cup to vary her breast size. She stood by the side of a road frequented by hitchhikers and held out her thumb to catch a ride. Increasing the bra-size of the female-hitchhiker was significantly associated with an increase in number of male drivers, but not female drivers, who stopped to offer a ride.

Züri rollt

The best way to explore Zurich is to rent a bike. Actually it´s the cheapest, too. You can borrow Velos [the swiss-german word for bikes] for free.

Café guide

The vagabond turns into a bohemian when he enters a café. I saw many of them, reading, writing, drinking. So i decided to write a Café guide.

Miss music teacher of Winterthur

Your kids are wearing orange caps and combed haircuts. Standing around in a semicircle, some boys don´t know what do to with their hands. Moms & Dads are waiting beyond, on the other site of the pedestrian way, taking pictures, clapping hands after every song.

You´re  sitting on a electric piano, wearing a white blouse and so much passion in your eyes conducting your kids Vois sur ton chemin. You can´t read the music, turning your head around to cheer boys & girls with looks & props.

Miss music teacher, I catch one of your views, it´s a second too long till you turn your eyes down. I drop down the shades, you´re smiling at me with this choral of angels on your site. There is no other person around. Just you & me, and the back-round choir.

When the music is over, you turn on the light. I´m back on a promenade. Two hours later I´ll see a little wave of orange caps, holding ice cream in front of a coffee shop. You´re there, too, sitting with your parents like all your kids. And you smile when I pass by, Miss music teacher of Winterthur.

the taste of spain

For a slice of spanish Serrano ham I would do a lot of things. Change my route for example or use the car sharing agency instead of hitchhiking, just to be in time.

I can show my caipirinha skills, arrange the ham & have to wake up very early next morning.

Is it worth it?

Definitively! Yummy…

A small big world in 600 km

Learn bombastic polish phrases, meet an Israeli on festival tour around Germany, survive a thunder storm, meet benign Bavarians, and listen to oriental music with some Bosnian junior gangsters while riding BMW, Porsche Cayenne & VW Touareg.

It takes you just one day or 600 km. And at the end Jonas will pick you up at the train station of Winterthur.

I´m not alone…

I burgled the open air swimming pool at six in the morning and crashed into a group of drunk teens.  They blustered around, celebrating their holidays. Fisherman sat on the other bank, covert, wafts of mist blurred the vision.

What the hell all this people doing on my lake at six in the morning?

100$ a day?

The NY Times Travel Blog advises 100$ a day as travel budget for south Asia. Come on guys. With 100 Bucks a day you´re not traveling you´re on holiday! I´ll aks Denelle, but I thinks it´s a huge budget. And if you have 4000$ left, stay for a looong time, after reading Frugal traveler.

small world

After some hours of a hitchhiking warm up I arrive in a beautiful café. I order a beer, ask for the wifi-password and get a deep look from the table besides.

Brave cops of Switzerland

Brusque the cops arrived…and smiled. “Please leash the dog”, they asked very friendly in Swiss German, joked with the guys, explained: “This is a public park.”

A nice place to hang around. With births in aviaries, little fountains, a colorful castle. And two cops who don´t mind the spicy melange which is ready to use.

on the road

A little exercise to get used to be traveler again: hitchhiking about 100 km on the autobahn.

more travel literature

As I said, for me the collection of traveling literature is more important than the routing itself.

other vagabonds

I found a blog which is called vagabonding and tells the evolution of hitchhkiking in a slideshow and compiles the idea in one sentence:

But for others, like Aaron Bell, who has been hitchhiking around the world for seven years, hitchhiking is more than an option, it’s the main way to get around.

Babyboomers

Last night in my loved Café Combo, looking around.

There are less dogs in the streets. The former dog masters are carrying pregnant bellies around. They are wrapped in shrill coloured suits. I know this models from marquees and from the 90s. Now it´s official: The fresh Prince of Bel Air Time is back.

And I´m gone.

My houseboat jewel

If the routing is not so clear at all, the selection of books must be organiced well. My used bookstore offered me two huge shelfs of old GDR paperbacks for one Euro each. I spent one hour digging around & found Jósef Hen & Nagib Machfus.

Feed a vagabond with just one shirt

Two days left & I´ll say goodbye.

A traveler needs good weather, nice people & some bucks. Now you can help help with the bucks. Feed a vagabond with just one shirt.

Have a look at my spreadshirt shop. Choose a colour, your size and donate some bucks by ordering the shirt.