And here the story begins

After four days of saying goodbye to friends and family and then friends again, I'm sitting on the plane bound for adventure with a chaos of emotions in my head. Fortunately, the two hours of sleep dampens all feelings :D

Even if you think you're prepared after four years of planning, new idiotic questions and concerns still come to mind: "Normally people walk on their right side of the street and others walk past them on their left and there are significantly more right-handed people than Left-handed. To reduce the risk of my cell phone being stolen, I should carry it in my right trouser pocket. But doesn't India have left-hand traffic? Wait, in India there is just chaotic traffic and I don't have my valuables in my trouser pockets anyway. Should Do I prefer to wear my bum bag on the right side or...?" Things like that and even more so ⊙⁠﹏⁠⊙

The biggest help in keeping my emotions in check were and are my family and friends, who accompanied me through all the planning (sometimes involuntarily). Many thanks to my brothers, my mother and father, to my cousin Lena, to my best friends Malte and Eva and Lara and all the other great people!

When I sit here on the plane and look at Syria's Nefud Desert 10km below me, fears and concerns disappear and the desire for adventure flares up in me. With the little green 6.5kg tank on my back, which I named "Cassiopeia", my first stop is waiting for me: Anuradhapura - Sri Lanka