THE PLAN.

There is one and there is none simultaneously. I plan on having longer stays in Russia, somewhere around India and Sydney. For the moment I don't know how I will cross the Pacific or earn money in Russia, but that will be clarified once I am there. First and foremost I have to get there. I will have to conquer the approximately 17.656 km to Sydney. Problems are solved when they present themselves, not in advance, not out of fear that they may present themselves. I will not fly. Not because I am an environmentalist (this is merely a nice side effect), but I want to experience the little changes and nuances of the different cultures. I want to see how the people change as they adapt to their environment. I want to feel the width and finally "perceive whatever holds // The world together in its inmost folds".

I will travel alone: backpack, tent and me. I haven't graduated from an extensive survival programme, nor learned to survive a week in the desert. I do not speak Russian, have not (albeit small) read a travel guide for each country, not yet applied for visas and should hurry up with the two passports thing. Planning is not my forte... I prefer stuff to just happen.

From the Baltic coast of Germany I will travel through Poland, Russia, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. From Tallinn I will make a short trip to Stockholm, to meet a friend and then cross over to Finland by boat. From there I will travel to St. Petersburg and then to Moscow. In one of these cities I'd love to spend the winter, learn Russian and start reading Dostoyevsky in the original. I dream of camping near the coast and of noisy and funny evenings while CouchSurfing. I long for an open exchange with people of all ages and nationalities about Europe and foreignness, about traveling and home. I dream of the experience of other worlds while wwoofing, the mere adventure, the overcoming of fears and the feeling when panic changes into euphoria.

Moscow - New Delhi - Sydney: In each place I will take count of what I managed to achieve and how much of my budget remains. Once I'm in Sydney I will have to clarify whether I can continue to travel directly to South America, or if I will have time (and especially money) to see Japan. I dream of sailing across the pacific, but like so many of my ideas it remains to be seen whether I can make it a reality or not. This unpredictability is the greatest uncertainty and the greatest freedom at the same time. I'll take what is offered with open arms and the things that are not freely given I will not long for. "What if" plays no part during my travels…

I also make this trip to finally write, to create meaning and momentum, to record what happens to me. Here. Publicly. Regularly. Creative Non Fiction. Who knows what may come of it. This blog is primarily a collection of material collected in the moments, feelings, stories and people, in the hope that at the end of it a coherent picture emerges. Because I am who I am, I will try to capture my experiences through pictures, text and sound. I intend to create a space that inspires without creating envy. I don't want to show people what they miss, I want to expose what can happen to you, if you follow your nose. Not everybody is happy traveling non stop. There is beauty in a routine. It just so happens that I am not particularly good with them. I don't want to create destination envy but I want to tell everybody about the possibilities that going into a foreign space can provide. Only in the very end will it become apparent where this journey was leading – if I am lucky it will be like a good TV show, just not on television.