Ecuador, Quito, 07-10-1990, I'm leaning against the entrance of the Gran Casino Hotel panting and not bothering to unleash my bulky old travel partner from my aching back, its strings painfully biting into my shoulder blades. Hating taxi drivers the world over I decided to walk the six kilometers leading me through the old historic centre of Quito, through the hustle and full of life cobblestone streets, feeling a strange ambience of the past invading my mind, weary after nearly twenty hours of near non-stop flying... Not yet a full hour on Ecuadorian soil and already my gray brain [View Full Entry]

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Amsterdam, 05-10-1990. - So you really gonna do this, Hans? His question seems obsolete considering the bulky backpack leaning against the wooden table, the countless discussions we had these last couple of days about my up-coming trip...further away as ever before in my young life, all the way to Ecuador and Las Islas de Galapagos, maybe a short detour into Colombia as well... Two big pints of frothy Heineken cover both sides of our chessboard, a iron astray full to overflow and the burning spliff in James's hands adding to the already laden air heavy with the sweet aroma of Ganja [View Full Entry]

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Amsterdam, 30-09-2009. It is windy and a sleek rain is making life difficult for the animal life outside in the interior garden of my house here in Amsterdam. Makes me wonder if somewhere out there is a long-distance cyclist daring the elements despite his empty wallet and sh*tty equipment, a rusty mate offering a uncomfortable and not so stable leather saddle to its tested to the max owner'*ss, a leaky tent and a muffty moth-eaten sleeping bag his only company during long and dark nights wild camping in the forest, his mind uncable to deal with the hectic, the hustle and [View Full Entry]

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Almere Haven, Flevo Polder, 02-08-2001. For the last two days I have been in a haze, cycling well beyond 200 kilometers a day on sandy tracks, wild paths in the forest, along tranquil canals and forest streams, across rugged hills and gliding across the German/Dutch border pas de problem despite my vagabond appaerance, despite the wild eyed-look in my face looking back at me from the mirror of a bathroom in the very first restaurant I found once back on Dutch soil, the face of a man possessed... possessed by the sharp claws of society, paying my rent and keeping my [View Full Entry]

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Close to Bielevelt, 312-07-2001. Despite my pot and booze addictions, despite the chaotic mental state I'm in brought about by severakl weeks of living it rough, despite my cr*ppy old rusty bicycle, no maps or travel guides, my second-hand bicycle gear, hardly any spare parts and a leaking old tent...Despite all my old stuff and bad motivation...I am avaraging close to 200 kilometers a day now with the Dutch border getting tangibly close... An intrepid and self-proficient long-distance cyclist cycling from forest to forest hoping for an undisturbed sleeping spot free of charge and h [View Full Entry]

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Braunschwein, 30-07-2007. Braunschwein, a fitting name considering all the wild boar I have seen these last couple of days, whole brownish colored families of wild boar foraging in the left-overs of maiz harvested fields, totally unperturbed while I got off my bike on numerous occasions for sketching purposes. Huge flocks of forset sparrows landing on wild pork backs, searching the hairy raw hide for nutricious tics, releaving their hosts off the inevitable evil in a swine's excistence. I brush my teeth and wash my face using the main square's fountain, waiting for the McDonald [View Full Entry]

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Somewhere...???...between Magdenburg and Schweinstein, 29-07-2001. It's slowly making sense to me, complete clarity and divine understanding, the result not of years of dedicated Vipassana meditation while pining away in a dusty flea-ridden hamlet in the poor north of the Land of the holy Thais, a sober life style dedicated to self-contemplation, goining into your own mind through the process of creating silence inside your gray computer mass... Where a Thai monk might reach that cherished point with Lord Vipassana at his side, I feel I have reached a strange mental level probably [View Full Entry]

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Somewhere..???...south of Berlin, 28-07-2001. I stumble and fall, not in the real world maybe late at night on the way to that no-name coffee shop at the end of street where the dog behind the counter always growls at me when I buy a pre-rolled joint, already way too intoxicated to be here for a "last" smoke before hitting the sack, necessary sleep for another day of rushing on my cycle through a traffic congested madhouse, small streets blocked by unloading trucks, the delivery in my messenger bag screaming out loud in frustration, editors awaiting serious work transported through the city [View Full Entry]

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18 km. east of Kostrzyn, 27-07-2001. For the last two days I have been back to my solitary life style, sticking as much as posible to the back roads, looking for the green patches on my map that indicate fast tracks of forest. Totally alone to myself, to the dusty corners of my chaotic mind while my lungs heave, my calves protest and the perpiration covering my skin like a fine wed blanket, dripping into my sneakers... Whenever I return from my voluntary retreats to the farther corners of my mind and look around at the here and now surrounded by [View Full Entry]

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In the forest near Poznan, 25-07-2001. With only four hundert kilometers to Belin and five days of holiday left, there is no reason to hurry, no particular moment of doubt about the end of this trip. I can take the back roads through the dark green pine forests so abundant in Northern Poland. Maybe even cycle the remaining six hundert kilometers from Berlin to Amsterdam instead of using my return ticket by train. Would certainly improve my status as a super-wanderer among my alley-cat - bicycle messenger in Amsterdam speak - amigos back home. Not really the way I see it [View Full Entry]

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