Day 30 – home sweet home

Having my last breakfast at the Loft, I thought about this last month, the first month of my sabatical episode.
I have been to 14 places in 8 countries in the last 29 days. I have had good days and less good days, no really bad days. I have hiked through wild landscapes and through big cities, gotten lost but always found my way. I have met many interesting and nice people, most of whom I will never see again and some of whom I would love to stay in touch with.

There was Kostas the crazy and funny ex-ralley driver who had fallen in love a year ago and opened a hostel in Kalambaka, Soo the South Korean whom I shared a train ride with, Vladimir-Xabier the Quebecois from Malaga who wanted to learn a song from every country in the world, Lennart the young German author who had just spent a week in a cabin in the Kosovo mountains to work on his book, the other guys in the Unity Hostel I don’t even know the names of, my lovely hosts in Ohrid Nade and Vladimir who took me out for coffee, a village tour, fish and salad, giving me everything they could. There was my super cool receptionist in the Art hostel Tirana and the funny free tour guide who explained me everything about Albanian past and present real-life, Abishek the Indian PhD student, who worked with refugees in Sarajevo and wants to create a permaculture farm in India one day, Vincent the French guy who hasn’t had a stable home for 8 years and no intention to go back to a “normal life”, Ivana the Croatian painter who wants to open a hostel in Dubrovnik one day, Annie the Albanian Italian who runs the Backpacker’s hostel in Shkoder, the guy who taught me to juggle in 30 minutes, the French couple who gave me a ride across the border Montenegro-Croatia, the German-Trukish artist from Berlin, the annoying Persian, Ally the Welch girl, David the American pensionist, Mark who had not brushed his hair since 86, Constance the French girl who had been traveling for 2 years and gave me lots of advice on my future travel destinations and Emilie and her boyfriend, the perfect owners of the perfect Loft Hostel in Budapest.

I already met Abishek and Ivana twice (Abishek even 3 times) during my journey and expect to meet them – and a couple of others – again some time.

After saying goodbye in the hostel this morning, I took an airplane home to Germany. Frankfurt surprised me positively with a free shuttle bus (in other countries getting in and out of Airports is extra expensive) and then negatively with a crappy Bus-“terminal” and a delayed bus.

After one month in the less developed regions of Europe, the German busstation was the worst one: No wifi, no shelter, just two benches on a parking-lot under a bridge, and the first long-distance bus that didn’t leave on time but with a 30 min delay (the train would have been delayed too, I checked.). Welcome to super-organized, perfect Germany!

What bothers me most about these things is not the delay itself. It is that I have to listen to people telling me how well-organized and punctual Germans are and how perfectly everything works and have people reducing me to these “German” characteristics all the time and then I come here and I have to sit freezing in the rain on an uncomfortable bench under a highway bridge and wait for a delayed bus.

When the bus finally arrived, the driver wouldn’t let me in because I had a ticket from one station before my station. He did in the end take me home, where my parents welcomed me warmly (warmly in the literal and the metaphorical way).

Here, I will take a short travelling break, enjoy being around my family and friends whom I haven’t seen since Christmas last year, recover for a few days and change backpacks before starting the next part of my journey on May 5th.