Daily Distance – 0km
Daily Ascent – 0m
Daily Descent – 0m
Total Distance – 368km
Distance Remaining – 645km
Currently I am running a website titled “Mindblown: a blog about philosophy”. Either this is a cosmic hint, or evidence of the downside of blogging while traveling. While contemplating the unfathomable workings of the cosmos, I contacted the helpful customer support from my website hosting company, who have fortunately agreed to restore my site to a version from last week. Having put the site together in a rush before leaving, I never setup my own backup plan, so this is rather a relief. However, I will have to recreate several blog posts and some comments may be lost, but all in all could be worse. Nevertheless, not the relaxing start to my day off I had hoped for. Unless anybody has ideas of what they would like to hear about on the subject of philosophy?
I left home 25 days ago this evening. 22 of 60 stages are now completed and today I feel a little homesick. The walking has been lovely, but the constant blur of guest houses, huts and towns is grating on me a little today. After a while on a long journey my recall fails entirely and I have to re-read my own blog entries and review photos to recall what I have seen and experienced. Of course, part of my purpose of extended absence is to almost induce homesickness. Like a piece of elastic; too little space and novelty leaves me feeling bored, saggy and listless, whereas some days, like today, the elastic feels a little over-stretched. Maintaining a consistently good tension is a skill that still typically eludes me.
On a more positive note, while I haven’t spoken nearly so much German on this trip as I had hoped, having spent some time traveling with non-German speakers and teaching basic German vocabulary/phrases, I have at least gained in confidence if not competence. Like many people, I am guilty of comparing my progress to an imaginary castle in the sky where I am a fluent speaker and fail to appreciate the foundations that are slowly being built to support this ambition. If I gain nothing else from this trip, then giving a little more credit for progress already made will be a worthwhile outcome. Fitting in to a new country has, at least for me, proved a much longer and more difficult process than I naively first imagined, so a little more confidence to go out and just do things is a welcome change. I realise now, that my homesickness also points towards Bremen, which is a pleasant surprise to me, but probably not to anyone who has seen me wearing socks with sandals.
A very warm welcome to Lego Ben, good to see you still overseeing these expeditions. Pleased to hear the elastic is pulling in Bremen direction at times. When you do get back you will love it more than ever. As you acquire vocabulary communication is easier, if only in single word utterances, but if they get the gist then it works. If they just look puzzled then try another word – just bumble on, most are more patient than you think.
It’s seemed to me for a while that Bremen is home nowadays. Homesickness is a horrible thing but usually wears off. If it lingers might be best to get a teddy bear. Take care xx