Outbound like Bilbo Baggins

My Country

The love of field and coppice, Of green and shaded lanes. Of ordered woods and gardens Is running in your veins, Strong love of grey-blue distance Brown streams and soft dim skies I know but cannot share it, My love is otherwise.

I love a sunburnt country, A land of sweeping plains, Of ragged mountain ranges, Of droughts and flooding rains. I love her far horizons, I love her jewel-sea, Her beauty and her terror - The wide brown land for me!

A stark white ring-barked forest All tragic to the moon, The sapphire-misted mountains, The hot gold hush of noon. Green tangle of the brushes, Where lithe lianas coil, And orchids deck the tree-tops And ferns the warm dark soil.

Core of my heart, my country! Her pitiless blue sky, When sick at heart, around us, We see the cattle die - But then the grey clouds gather, And we can bless again The drumming of an army, The steady, soaking rain.

Core of my heart, my country! Land of the Rainbow Gold, For flood and fire and famine, She pays us back threefold - Over the thirsty paddocks, Watch, after many days, The filmy veil of greenness That thickens as we gaze.

An opal-hearted country, A wilful, lavish land - All you who have not loved her, You will not understand - Though earth holds many splendours, Wherever I may die, I know to what brown country My homing thoughts will fly.

Dorothea Mackellar

Isn't this so wonderful!
I can hear my heart laughing as it beats.

One of my friends wrote a farewell message in which she seriously wished me a safe trip home... :D 

I had the most magical time back here in my old world. The time's passed so quick! I'll return to the life on the road, as I must, but I everyday I will think and hope that I'll be able to come back again and find everything as beautiful and unaltered as it was when I left. It's such a privilege! I will try to not ever take those wonders for granted.

I'm going to Woodford!! I'm gifting myself such a massive amazeballs Christmas present! Michael Franti is playing, and Tinpan Orange, Formidable Vegetable Sound System, and soooo many more...

Really, even if there were no bands at all playing... I would still go and love it! There is a reason why I keep saying that Woodford isn't a festival like any other :)

To all you wonderful readers, you most welcome stalkers, you interested story-lovers, and also to those who don't read - I wish you a Merry Christmas and a blissful New Year!!! So much love!!!


I will get a beanie full of sleep now.
La la la, la la la...

My Forest Home

Well! 

Many people say that the hardest thing about long-term travelling is coming home, 

and some of my travelling buddies confirmed this, 

and I myself, honestly, was frightened and stressing out about it for months, BUT...

I am the HAPPIEST little Pony in the whole wide world!!!

After 28 months of being a vagabond in faraway countries I felt it was high time to come for a visit home. This is probably the reason why I missed out on the post-travel-depression: It's not post-travel for me! It's a 6 week visit. Speculating on getting a tourist visa, I had already booked my flights back to Australia.

Oh yeah, it was high time to see my family and friends again. While I can't say that I have ever been homesick, I did miss the people from home. Especially in those moments when you realize that no matter how kind and amazing the people are that you meet, no matter how deeply you connect or how much you share with them, or how much they inspire you - they somehow can't ever hold onto your heart in the same way as family and old school friends can.

Who will ever be a bigger hero for me than my Babba (my dad) ?

Who will ever be such a role model for me like my Mama?

Who will ever be my one and only real biological sister, if not that one?

Who would ever have my back so unconditionally like my aunt, my uncles, my cousins and godfather?

Who could ever have more memories in common with me than my high school friends?

Who convinced me that I am not repulsively-weird, but endearingly-weird when I was an insecure teenager. 

Who encouraged me to continue being as weird or however I like to be.

Who showed me that even I can wear a dress and go dancing.

Who brought me chocolate when I had my first heartbreak.

Who indulgently smiled at me whenever I was talking about Jason Mraz' music.

The list is endless...

(I just cried a bit.)

The sign will make sense if you know this song: ;)

My friends knew that I was coming to Germany, but I made all efforts to keep it secret from my family.

Barbara, who I've known for years via the "squirrel chat" (back when I had Ronny the squirrel, I sought contact with other squirrel owners) lives near the international airport in Frankfurt and agreed to pick me up. I spent the first two days with her and husband Matthias, just getting back into speaking German and getting used to being back in general. 

My German sucked... I'd made such an effort to convert all my speaking, thinking and dreaming into English that I seriously struggled to speak fluent German at first. Even after I had been in Germany for weeks already, people asked me if I am a foreigner... Slightly worrying. Reisen bis zum Verlust der Muttersprache. Travelling until loss of mother tongue.

And THEN... they drove me south to the village in the Palatine Forest where I grew up.

We made sure that both my parents were home, and then rang the bell.

My Mama opened the door and just looked at me for a loooong while. Her face was worth everything!

My Babba was reading upstairs, but had already heard the burly-burly when we ran up and burgered him on his armchair.

HAPPYGRATEFULSMILESSCREAMINGEXCITEDCANTBELIEVEITIMISSEDYOUIAMBACK

The weeks that followed were crammed with fun things! A rough list of events and most gorgeous people featuring in the photos below!

Seeing my sister and her fluffy cat, seeing Judith, Hannah, Max, Eva, Lia and Consi - getting drunk in dressing gowns with the latter three and half of my village at the Dressing gown pub crawl tour...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8pToVndPVWI

(Yes, Germans are crazy. Especially Palatines.)

Seeing Natascha, Timo, Ingrid, Steffi, Laura, Chris, Kevin,

spending a week with Lia in Erlangen... seeing Anna in Regensburg,

seeing Steffi with boyfriend and Jenny, seeing BOY live in concert in Heidelberg, with her, Lia and Consi!

(ooh my god I dreamed of seeing BOY live for so long yaaaaay!!!)

Seeing AUSTIN AND ANNA BLUME! Seeing (another) Anna, my oldest friend of all... Seeing Chrizzly! Seeing Jasmin-Juni, and Henri, and Elias! Seeing my godfather and his family, my adoptive Grandma, my uncles and aunts and cousins!!

And there!!! I still can't believe that this really happened.

AUSTIN AND ANNA FLOWER CAME TO VISIT ME!!!

Three thirds of the Fellowship of the Strombaer reunited! In my village!! Exactly two years after we embarked on that roadtrip around half Australia together!

Austin is doing exchange studies in Oslo, Norway, and when he learned that I am coming for a visit back to Europe, he booked himself planes to come and see me!

When Anna Flower heard of this, she knocked over her very tight and busy schedule in her apprenticeship life, borrowed a car and drove to the Palatine Forest to see us, too!

Photo show! I am a tourist in my own country.

 Most of those towns I've never been to before. How awesome is Germany with its medieval castles, churches, cobblestone lanes and frame houses!? How beautiful is autumn time when leaves go all colourful and rustle when you walk? How tasty and full of oxygen is cold air... And how good is it then to sip on a mug of hot Glühwein on a glittering Christmas market evening...

These 6 weeks Germany were just RAD. BOMBASTIC!

So many hugs, so many smiles. So much joy. I feel so loved. Someone who's got friends like that should never ever be sad again!

How unbelievably lucky I am. How it is true that I have been gone for very long, but however with almost everyone it feels the same like the day I left. True friendship doesn't age!

We were here! We're still here!

We're in the air, we're in the water

from the rooftops down to the pier

I'll never walk these streets alone

We're in the air, we're in the water

engraved into waves

invisible ink on the walls

'Cause everywhere we've been we have been leaving traces

They won't ever disappear

We were here, we were here, we were really here

And the rains get rough, time can't wash us of

We won't ever disappear

We were here, it was really love

I talk in past tense here because now that I get around to publishing this, it's already almost time to get on the plane to Brisbane again.

Next Tuesday, to be precise!

They were for sure some of the shortest 6 weeks in my life, and this time, leaving everyone behind will be much harder - don't ask me why. I'm only going away for half a year now; it's promised that I will be back for my Babba's big birthday next June (wouldn't miss it for the world). But for some irrational reason, bidding farewell will be much more pain- and tearful, the fear of missing out on precious time with them is greater, and the fear of not being allowed to reunite. It's always a risk if you walk out the door.

Maybe I didn't realize how much I missed them until I came back. Maybe I have unwinded a bit, now. I probably just had to be away from them for a while to be able to appreciate them THAT MUCH.

 ... but I am also unbelievably keen to start this adventure of those 6 months Australia lying ahead! All you fun and danger, problems, wonder and love, fear, stupid mistakes, new lessons and eye-opener-moments, obstacles and tail wind, bring them on!

What lies around the bend?

I sometimes can't sleep because life is so exciting.

No sleep, no sleep for the dreamer
can't break the fever
no cure for the feeling
No sleep, no sleep for the dreamer
wide-eyed believer
counting stars on the ceiling
no sleep, no sleep
sweetest fatigue

Happiness is a raw vegan cheese cake

Duuh. It's been so long since I posted - but this time I have a darn good excuse for it!

I returned to my home in the Palatine Forest in Germany after 28 months of roaming Sri Lanka, Bali and Australia. Because I wanted to surprise my family, I didn't write about my plans on this blog here (knowing that my Mama is my most zealous reader).

But before I tell about the adventure of being back in my oh-so-familiar home territory, I HAVE to write about the last time in Hermannsburg and that wonder-filled week in Brisbane!

Annual event: the horse races in Hermannsburg.

So, I was working in Hermannsburg, happily enjoying the desert and anticipating my first experience of DRY 40 degree heat... which never came, because I had my flight to Brisbane booked for the 24 October - and when I left it wasn't that hot yet.

I found the sweetest little ginger kitten, and instantly knew he has to be "Ed" ... how could there be any other name for anything that's male and ginger, if you are an Ed Sheeran fan. Within days I loved  this baby cattie way too much, but of course I couldn't keep him. So he went to RSPCA (where homeless animals go in Australia) and, from what I've heard, has found a good home. All the best, crazy little cat called Ed!

A couple of days before I left, good old travel mate Pumpkin also hit the road, this time in his newly bought own vehicle. For 5 months he was with me almost 24/7, and we've been through some really crazy shit and many an adventure together. God, it was weird to just not have his freckly face around anymore. I even missed his stupid comments.

Here my fav 3 photos of us. Love you little brother, all the best.

 

Then, after saying Goodbye to all the gorgeous Hermannsburg people who have been so good to me... there was a plane to Brisbane to catch with wonderful Sonya waiting to pick me up!

Sonya and Russell, amazing athletes and health foodists, have been up to quite something since I left Brisbane! They opened a little raw vegan health food shop/cafe and I think it is SO AWESOME!

http://remergy.com.au/

They are so dedicated to spreading the knowledge of how important for the planet and beneficial for oneself a plant based diet is. The shop looks so charming and they spend all their time prepping food, holding workshops, making Do-It-Yourself-Kits and talking to interested people... and the food is so delidious.  Just look at it and imagine - who says a vegan's tastebuds have to miss out on anything?

Sunday morning on the markets, a familiar fellow walked into Russell's and Sonya's shop. Ian McKee from Mt. Mee!

He gave me a lift up the mountain and we spent the afternoon taking a walk to a hidden waterfall that is very close to Ian's house, but no one but the cows ever goes there. Oh, and the geckos, of course.

The following day we spent leisurely hanging out on the sunny beaches of Caloundra and climbed Mt. Ngunngun for sunset. Good shot Ian!

Since I last saw Ian in February, he had to get rid of his dogs, but got a kitten instead. And then the kitten had kittens! Due to the snakes, only one survived... I felt honoured when Zoey the Mama cat carried her baby into my lap. Awww.

Then it was time to catch up with Dom again. For on and off one year we were sharing house and going on adventures together, and me leaving this happy life behind in February wasn't very pleasant for both of us. Since then, so much has changed!

He who always hated living on a square block of suburbia got up and sold his house in Buddina. Even though it was next to the beach, you had yappy dogs and neighbours encircling you and your little garden - when all Dom ever dreamed of was a bush property where one can life among trees and grow kilograms of healthy vegetables... catch your own rainwater and get your power from solar panels on the roof.

And that is exactly what he does now! His wooden house is surrounded by rainforest on the mountainrange, there is a little pond and further down the mountain, a little creek that trickles from waterfall into rocky pools where no one ever goes. His own swimming hole behind the house!

We think he is living in paradise.

Kookaburras call the place their home, too.

Could there be a nicer backyard?

Then I went back the way I came - to Ian (we went for another hike to the famous Rocky Hole), to Sonya&Russell at the markets in Petrie Town, to the airport... all the way back to Frankfurt, Germany.