Arrival in Leicester: 15:20 - about 1700km
Impression:
Never been away (did the summer really happen or was it a dream)
Resume London:
Sleep, sleep, sleep
Traffic jam on the way out as usual
Trip:
Easy last ride, another 150km
Freezing a bit
Leicester:
Nobody is at the house
Straying in Leicester to find flatmates
Phone is dead, Laptop is dead
Student Union helps out - meeting flatmates at Pizza Hut
Long afternoon with loads of new interesting people
Got free pizza and a desk - not bad for the first hour
House: See Pictures Here!
Nice room - loads of space
Managed to destory the only power socket in my room
Setting up the new kitchen table - I knew I could be a handyman
Unpacked, settled and done with the trip. Fun time is over. Thanks for staying with me, though.
Almost there - really hard at the end
Trip:
Good - bad, and all in between See pictures here!
Start:
8am, cloudy and foggy, freezing for one hour
9am, sun came out, warming up in seconds, finally
10am, first of a series of small traffic jams, nice downhill rolling
Midday:
First rest after 260km
Another 250 km in one go to Bruge
Caught by speed cameras
Rain in Bruge :/
No petrol stations in Bruge
Problem getting petrol - managed to get some a few miles ahead (messed up the paying machine and might Have stolen 12 euro now)
Afternoon:
Ferry at 4pm
Rain in Dover
Rain stopped the minute I was done putting my rain suit on
Driving left went fine (on the motorway at least)
Evening:
Lost in London
Driving around for 2 hours
Looking for a hostel all night
Sleeping in St. Pancras Station
Next Morning:
Lost in London again
Trying to find a friends house - wrong direction from my phone - bad phone
Sleeping all day
Impression of London:
Rainy, vast, crowded, awful traffic
Last Trip:
to Leicester, sunny weather forecast
Last day in Frankfurt
People here are dull and serious. No sense for fun.
Like:
Went to the Taunus Therme in Bad Homburg today. Nice baths, hot steam sauna, unmotivated staff.
Wonderful candle light dinner with Hanna in a gay bar - cute and funny staff in Pulse & Piper Lounge
Not knowing wht gonna happen tomorrow.
Dislike:
Leaving.
Not having had more time with Hanna.
Getting lost three times today.
Trip:
1000 km, ferry 4pm. Start at 8am. Stops planned, Bruge and somewhere in between. Tight time schedule.
Frankfurt again: 60 extra kilometres
Relaxing today. Chilling so much it hurts to think straight.
Like:
Frankfurt subway have wall paintings that look real. See pictures here!
There was an icecream car in the town I'm staying.
You still get ice cream served in Frankfurt's cinemas.
There was a gay comercial in the cinema - promoting the use of condoms
Dislike:
I didn't enjoy the sun outside with a book. Computers are real drugs, beware!
My bike has strange lights popping up. Wonder if this is a serious problem or just something that just happens every once in a while.
Don't know what to look at tomorrow. There's nothing more in Frankfurt.
PS:
Forgot to mention yesterday - luck seems to be far from me on this trip.
4 Museums - one in Leipzig, three in Frankfurt - all very interesting, the only ones I wanted to see - the ones that would be interesting for my studies ------------------ all closed right now, reopening in 2011 !!!
Why now? Why all at the same time?
Frankfurt, City Centre: 60 extra kilometres added to 1500
Fun people and bad luck
Impression:
People go crazy. Funny costumes, happy musicians and humurous scultpures. (See pictures here!)
First sentence I hear: "Let's have a joint, guys."
Wonder:
5 McDonalds on one street - WHY?
There was a burning building - lots of fireman and even TV cameras. What happened? Does anyone know?
How can people stand being in suits all day? (90% of the people in Frankfurt are wearing suits, because every day, 4 million people travel to Frankfurt to work in the city.)
Nice mixture of old and new buildings: City: Like
Like:
Bönstadt near Frankfurt/Main: All the things come to an end
Impression:
Rural - plain fields, woods and dull nothingness. The world's end? Pictures here! (don't forget the captions as part of the story.)
NO restaurant is open before 17pm - after starving for 2 hours, food at the Aral petrol station, yummy. Schnitzel with potato salad and cheese-meat with eggs and french fries.
Fun:
Trip: Germany is awesome. I didn't know. So many hills and driving them up and down is amazing with 160km/h.
Old Knight's Castle - Ronneburg. I almost died, see here.
Sundown dance with Hanna in the fields and stealing sweet-sour apples - result: being chased by two dogs because they can smell bad behaviour, ouch.
Leipzig: Compelled to be Comfortable
Laughs:
First sentence I hear: "I won't get a place for therapy - I don't have the time to wait half a year." (he didn't look like he was working, so I doubt he doesn't have time for anything)
So that was an awkward first impression of the city right at the start. Apparently all the people are needy and psychologically disturbed. Great.
Like:
The buildings were amazing. Old, and new: a wonderful mix. See here! (Please read captions for more impressions, worthy, believe me.)
Suprise;
From psychologists to physiotherapist. I was compelled to feel comfortable - a treat that Leipzig offers generously.
A nice girl in an orange shirt walks up to the table, leans over and offers a massage. WOW! Lucky me.
And all you have to pay is whatever you feel is appropriate. (Bad deal: she should have gotten five times as much as I could pay her: but poor students on a roadtrip can't do miracles)
Well, she could. One miracle after another. I felt like God on holidays. Everybody was glaring at me, but I didn't care. It was just spektakular. I guess the picture above shows it all.
Thanks again to the "Body Angels", who go around towns and bars, offering massages and earning a little extra cash. This massage truly was one of the best. And good for my trip plans.
New, special, second year. This blog is back on track and will be updated regularly from now on again. Sommer is over. Back to Uni, that's how it works.
But I don't only want to post regular work. It's about the whole experience. So here's the deal. My summer has turned out so successful that I won't be going back to Leicester by plane. Instead, I am going to take a roundtrip through Europe. One week from Berlin to England. On the way, I will stop in Leipzig, Frankfurt/Main, Brügge, London, and who knows where else. It's gonna be as spontaneous as I like. And I do like spontaneity.
I want to invite everybody to follow this exciting trip. See what happens. Watch through my eyes. And be excited about whether I'll ever gonna make it. I'm riding my new bike, Yamaha FZ6 Fazer! It's dangerous, it's hard, and most of all, it's a hell lot of fun. Pictures will go online every day and a review about the experience as well. Follow me, if you're interested in cities, histories, adventure and myself (... ;-)
If you want to know how my summer went, keep reading:
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