Journizer Episode 2: Getting A German Motorcycle License, And Things To Think About When Planning A Major Trip

When we planned our first motorcycle trip together as 2 riders rather than a rider and pillion, we were ignoring one vital detail. On the one hand we had traveled together before through South America and an Eastern European trip, so we knew we were on the low end of the likelihood to kill each other.

 

Side Note: If you think this is us being melodramatic then you absolutely must do a trail run before committing to long term travel with anyone, let alone your romantic partner. Go on a long weekend trip first, if you both come out with all your limbs and you still like each other, try a longer trip! If one of you is missing vital organs due to lack of shower/fire/food/wild animal that you fed your travel partner to rather than listen to them wine over the lack of fire/smoke from fire/the cold/the dampness/lack of available supplies to maintain sex appeal/or just because of their unwillingness to maintain sex appeal while camping, then you might want to reconsider your travel plans.

So we knew that so long as Sherrie had something to eat everyone in the vicinity would get to keep their eyeballs and the hateful comments would be kept to a minimum. (Hence our emergency chocolate stash, for those times when you are in the middle of nowhere and nothing is to be found or when so it is closed).

We had two motorcycles, two riders, experience traveling together, everything more or less, except one vital detail, Sherrie's drivers license.

And so began the hellish experience of the German motorcycle license, with the additional pressure that if I failed, our trip was delayed by 2 weeks.

And THAT hopefully explains the shrieking like a banshee.

Hopefully.........

Or it could just be genetic....

Enjoy!

 

 

Posted via email from Unleash Your Adventure

Journizer Episode 2: Getting A German Motorcycle License, And Things To Think About When Planning A Major Trip

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When we planned our first motorcycle trip together as 2 riders rather than a rider and pillion, we were ignoring one vital detail. On the one hand we had traveled together before through South America and an Eastern European trip, so we knew we were on the low end of the likelihood to kill each other.

Side Note: If you think this is us being melodramatic then you absolutely must do a trail run before committing to long term travel with anyone, let alone your romantic partner. Go on a long weekend trip first, if you both come out with all your limbs and you still like each other, try a longer trip! If one of you is missing vital organs due to lack of shower/fire/food/wild animal that you fed your travel partner to rather than listen to them wine over the lack of fire/smoke from fire/the cold/the dampness/lack of available supplies to maintain sex appeal/or just because of their unwillingness to maintain sex appeal while camping, then you might want to reconsider your travel plans.

So we knew that so long as Sherrie had something to eat everyone in the vicinity would get to keep their eyeballs and the hateful comments would be kept to a minimum. (Hence our emergency chocolate stash, for those times when you are in the middle of nowhere and nothing is to be found or when so it is closed).

We had two motorcycles, two riders, experience traveling together, everything more or less, except one vital detail, Sherrie's drivers license.

And so began the hellish experience of the German motorcycle license, with the additional pressure that if I failed, our trip was delayed by 2 weeks.

And THAT hopefully explains the shrieking like a banshee.

Hopefully.........

Or it could just be genetic....

Enjoy!

Posted via email from Unleash Your Adventure

The Evil Neighbor

I wrote a book about my first world trip with Emma (you find her story on the about the authors page as well), and the following is an excerpt from my book. The best part is that this is not an exaggeration, and is something you may find yourself saying as well, that the people in THAT country are evil and bad, when in fact they are people just like us, who want good things for their families and to follow their hopes and dreams, and who think YOU are the bad guys.  ;-)

The post is in German, but below you can find the English version as a Journizer special. 

Der böse Nachbar
Jemand lebte in seinem Dorf vor sich hin so wie es alle anderen Leute auch tun. Es gab viele nette Leute in seinem Dorf. Einige waren seine Freunde. Eines Tages hörte er von dem Land Polen. Er fragte sich was die Leute dort wohl so machen. Er wusste es nicht. Daher beschloss er hinzufahren und nachzuschauen. Er erzählte seinen Freunden von dem Plan.
„Du spinnst! In Polen wohnen lauter Diebe. Die klauen Dir alles.“     
„Woher wisst ihr das? Wart ihr denn schon einmal dort?“ fragte Jemand seine Freunde.     
„Nein, natürlich nicht, aber es weiß doch jedes kleine Kind, dass die Polen Diebe sind.“     
Jemand war nicht überzeugt. Er wollte sich seine eigene Meinung bilden.
Also fuhr Jemand nach Polen. Er lernte viele nette Leute kennen. Einige davon wurden seine Freunde. Beklaut wurde er jedoch nicht. Jemand blieb eine Weile in Polen. Da hörte er von Russland. Er fragte sich was die Leute dort wohl so machen. Er wusste es nicht. Daher beschloss er hinzufahren und nachzuschauen. Er erzählte den neuen polnischen Freunden von dem Plan.
„Du spinnst! In Russland wohnen lauter Räuber und Mörder.“
„Woher wisst ihr das? Wart ihr denn schon einmal dort?“ fragte Jemand seine Freunde.     
„Nein, natürlich nicht, aber es weiß doch jedes kleine Kind, dass die Russen Räuber und Mörder sind.“     
Jemand war wiederum nicht überzeugt. Er wollte sich seine eigene Meinung bilden.
Also fuhr Jemand nach Russland. Er lernte viele nette Leute kennen. Einige davon wurden seine Freunde. Beraubt und ermordet wurde er jedoch nicht. Jemand blieb eine Weile in Russland. Da hörte er von der Mongolei. Er fragte sich was die Leute dort wohl so machen. Er wusste es nicht. Daher beschloss er hinzufahren und nachzuschauen. Er erzählte den neuen russischen Freunden von seinem Plan.     
„Du spinnst! Die Mongolen sind schlitzäugige Barbaren. Die trinken nur verschimmelte Milch und fressen ihre eigenen Kinder!“     
„Woher wisst ihr das? Wart ihr denn schon einmal dort?“ fragte Jemand seine Freunde.     
„Nein, natürlich nicht, aber es weiß doch jedes kleine Kind, dass die Mongolen Kinder fressen.“
Jemand war nicht überzeugt. Er wollte sich seine eigene Meinung bilden.
Also fuhr Jemand in die Mongolei. Er lernte viele nette Leute kennen. Einige davon wurden seine Freunde. Er trank mit ihnen die vergorene Stutenmilch. Kinder wurden jedoch keine gegessen sondern liebevoll in bester mongolischer Tradition aufgezogen.
So kam Jemand in die verschiedensten Länder der Erde. Er lernte viele unterschiedliche Menschen kennen. Die allermeisten waren nett. Er traf auch böse und schlechte Menschen. Aber dazu musste er nicht weit gehen. Die gab es auch daheim in seinem Dorf.

Want to read more? Checkout the book (but make sure you understand German)

Fernweh Mit dem Motorrad um die Welt 196 Seiten im Taschenbuchformat mit 41 farbigen Abbildungen und 9 Karten.

 

Sherrie's note:  I LOVE this.  Check out my German Newfoundlander.  Patrick and my father bonded over Oma's (granny's) homemade schanps, and as my parents had just spent 2 weeks with us when this was filmed, Patrick had begun to tag "right" onto everything.  (Newfoundland is known for its distinct dialect, of which my father is a proud speaker.  But not in a nationalist way.  More in a "Ive always spoken this way so F$%k off and don't talk to me if you don't like it" kind of way.)

 

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Planning A Motorcycle Trip: 3 Months From Germany To Turkey and Back

Warning:  You may accuse us of many, many things.  And this is where Patrick would say "speak for yourself," but since I have accused him of many things, the sentence stands. But there is one thing you can not accuse us of, and that is taking ourselves too seriously.  Because if we did we would never let these videos see the light of the day.  MAJOR dork content.  But then I guess I had to earn my nickname "Dork Princess" somehow.  And in all likelihood it was not by being cool....

So, with the warning out of the way and to continue on with the post, we filmed our last trip with a regular point and click digital camera, as in the older version of the Olympus Stylus Tough and we passed the raw material onto our friend Andi who in addition to doing an awesome job transforming them into episodes for your viewing pleasure, he also does it while having to sort through my muscle spasms whenever the camera is pointed at me.  (We do improve with time, promise)

So without further adieu, here is the first one where we start to plan and prepare for our trip:

And may I also say that after doing these videos I now have a brand new appreciation for anyone who does live TV, as there is something about a camera pointing at you that makes you feel (and act) like a complete and utter turd.  Even if you suspect that the only people who are even going to watch it are your mom, your close friends, and the random person who stumbles over it by accident while searching for something else on Youtube (like a cat video).  The fact that our views range in the 2000 views (from about 400 up to almost 9000) just goes to show what a fantastic job Andi did!

 

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