The big start

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I AM OFF!!!

This is it, the big day has finally arrived. I am leaving for the Far East, I am heading into numerous adventures and extraordinary experiences.

I have just left my mother on the platform of the train in Brussels and anxiously await to see what the world has to throw at me. The first thing it does, to test me of course, is to stick me in a carriage full of giggly teenage americans from Texas, doing Europe in 10 days. Their main topic of conversion has so far been the cute european men and the the really fun way us europeans drive our cars. They have brought with them oversized bags, filled with gossip magazines and souvenirs from London. The american male companions of the giggly bunch make regular appearances at our door and regurgitate their claim of getting terribly drunk on orange juice and vodka and, furthermore, proceeding (in due time) on throwing up on the assembled crowd of girls whose predictable repetitive response is a chorus of "Oh My God!!!" "Are you for real?". ( I was met with the same response when I stated, rather proudly, that I was Belgian: they had not met a single Belgian in the 3 hours they spent in Brussels). However entertaining this might appear at first, the novelty effect soon wears off, I may assure you from experience. One even starts to mime their gestures and responses in order to remain sane.

My programme has changed this morning, rather drastically, after a meeting with mr Spenke. I was advised to rejoin the boat in Suez instead of Mumbai and get off in Mumbai. This is the most interesting part of the boat's journey, taking me along the canal of suez to Iran, Pakistan, Dubai and plenty of other exiting places along the way. This new plan also means that I will be able to spend more time traveling around India. I shall therefore not spend a month on board ship to go round Africa, as it is of a limited interest and will only provide me with Durban as a stop, where there is such high insecurity that I would need to hire an armed guard at all times to be with me.

I can't quite really grasp what I am about to do. It is too much to think about (something I am not particularily good at, even at the best of times). There is so much awaiting me, so many differences, cultures, Mongolia, Bhuthan, Cairo, India, Russia.... I can't get my head around it, I am very excited about Berlin... This trip is starting off in Nostalgia avenue: Berlin, with its surprising AlexanderPlatz, has it changed? is my old building still there? are my communist friends still basking in the glory of the Lenin bust in the lobby? I have already thought of a very busy programme to occupy my leisure time in Berlin.

Fruhstuck: Bratwurst mit susse senf und pretzel
Mittagessen: Weisswurst mit leberkase und susse senf mit eine grosse glass bayerish bier .
Nachmittagspause: Bludwurst mit pretzel
Abendessen: Schweinebraten mit eine letze bier
Und wenn ich noch ein bissen zeit habe, eine kebab.

Great program, can't wait, very cultural indeed. I will have to get over a full year's frustrations of lack of sausages.

After Berlin, there is still Warsaw, and Moscow to shed a few tears and reminisce on all my past bad behaviour and horrible actions.

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