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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Welcome to buy less ride more

Welcome to Unleash Your Adventure, a blog about long term traveling and motorcycle travel in particular, but open to any type of travel on the cheap really! So if camping, hostels, and locally run B&Bs are more your style than 5 star hotels then you have come to the right place! If given 2000 dollars (euros, pounds, francs, insert currency here) you think “that is 2 months on the road” rather than “that gets me accommodation for the week at least,” you are most definitely at the right place. And even if you are a big spender on the road, you are still welcome here, and we hope to change your mind!

 

 

If you have read the “about the authors” section on this website, you know that the authors put travel as their number one priority in life. It may in fact be just about the only thing they have in common as Patrick is a German engineer and Sherrie is a perpetual student (history Masters complete, now trying for a Science Masters as well)/English as a second language teacher.

 

But that is also what we want to bring to this blog, a combination of money saving ideas that help you achieve your travel dreams, along with products that we have tried and tested and know to be worth the money (if any is required, we are also big on reusing stuff so we have to buy less), and most importantly, told by two totally different perspectives: one from a very practical viewpoint and the other from a more, shall we say, earth from a slightly skewed perception of reality rather than with two feet firmly planted on the ground. (In Sherrie's defense, this refusal to accept reality has meant living and/or traveling in 25 plus countries, which for a European is about average, but for a Canadian that hails from an island it is rather impressive indeed).

 

But what we really hope to achieve is not just to show you that you can travel, (and travel with less and still travel more), but that you should travel. And that you can do it by buying less and traveling more. You may wonder a little how we can say that since we would really like you to buy the recommended stuff off of our website (and that is because we want to travel more as well, and if you like what we say and buy what we recommend then everyone comes out happier, if however you decide we are full of crap and you would rather drop money at another place, no bad feelings, to each their own, you are still a welcome reader!).

 

 

But we also believe that sustainability is something we all should be thinking about, especially since buying less means we can travel more. Even before we thought to start this blog, whenever we were asked the question “how do you afford to travel so much?” we always answered with “look at our car payments, look at how many pairs of shoes you have, look at how many we have, look at how your apartment is decorated, look at ours, examine how often you buy new clothes, look at how often we buy them” etc etc (admittedly this behavior came much more naturally to our Southern German friend then our Newfoundland one, who did at first feel like she was being denied a basic human right of new shoes and pretty dresses.) However when you travel, and (admittedly biased view about to be expressed) in particular by motorcycle, you quickly learn that a night by a campfire is worth a million dresses, and even a small amount of “stuff” is more than most people in this world have. We are incredibly privileged, and we often waste it.

 

We do try to reduce our consumption of stuff as much as possible, saving money and the planet, and when we do buy stuff, we try to buy smart, and in the end, we get to ride more.

 

 

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