Whenever spring comes, I will send you tulips from Amsterdam... 🌷🎶🎼🌷

Here today, there tomorrow...

This breaking up and arriving, it's a completely crazy experience. I do this every week now, and more frequently. Call me the living circus! What excites me about it? You haven't finished with the old, but you already move into a new camp. You try to find your way, but you have a long journey in your bones, and past experiences are still working intensively in you...

Let's do it:

Recap Zurich:

On the last day, I took a nice boat trip. That was a great conclusion. What do I take with me from Zurich? 1. They are real pros. That's great! Trains run, buses arrive on time, streets are cleaned, things are under control. For example, even this youth hostel. Everything was really perfectly organized. They were friendly, helpful, and professional. That was nice. 2. Then I'm taking Ulrich Zwingli and the Reformation with me. After the cinema and the monument, I went to church in 'his' church for the service yesterday. It was nice that it turned out that way and that Ulrich Zwingli accompanied me through his city. 3. Furthermore, I'm still taking with me the completely new feeling of being the 'needy Asian'. That was new and unfamiliar. I mean, I don't have a boat, no SUV, and I don't even buy my clothes from a designer. On the contrary: If someone looks at Google Streetview photos of crowds from last week in downtown Zurich from a bird's-eye view, I'm easy to find: I'm the guy in the jogging pants. 😂 But seriously... 'Should I go to the cinema again?' - 'Cappuccino or rather refill my bottle at the drinking fountain?' Should I quickly go and visit two more museums? Reading in the city library and taking a walk by the lake is also nice. Should I spend 6 euros on an ice cream cone now or quickly go over and buy 1 roll and 1 sweet pastry from yesterday's bakery and two books from the 'store for things left on the train' for the same amount of money? These are all questions that I don't ask myself at home. I wouldn't have had to ask myself those questions this week either. Then for the 5 days, I would have spent 250 euros more instead of 300 euros for accommodation/food/fun and train tickets. But why should I? I also found it very interesting to see how you make it nice with less money than the average Zurich vacationer... in a city that is all about money, possessions, consumption, and showing off what you have!

The Journey:

21.30 Departure from Zurich/Main Station. - Basel - Düsseldorf - Arnhem 10.35 Arrival Amsterdam/Central

I'm always amazed how it works. That's 13 (!) hours through the night. But it works well! My train highlights? I finished reading Joseph Roth: 'Radetzky March'. Another great book from 'my' list. I just read it at the wrong time. It's about the downfall of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy. I should have read it in Vienna and Budapest.... Anyway, it was absolutely worth reading. My second train highlight was two young American women who got on in Frankfurt at night. After comfortably sitting down on the bench, they had this conversation: 'Where is the backpack?' 'Why? You have it!' 'No, you do!' 'Hey, don't mess around...' At that moment, the train inexorably drove off towards the Rhineland... And not only the two American women, but also half of the train compartment waved tearfully goodbye to the lonely backpack on the platform of Frankfurt Central Station, which became smaller and smaller on the horizon and finally disappeared completely. 'Farewell, dear backpack!' 👋

In Amsterdam:

This is really beautiful here... OK, the hostel is a lousy place... and for the first time, the woman at the counter is an unsympathetic stupid witch! Buuuh! I hate her! I left and immediately joined a city tour. We also visited the red-light district. I was surprised how open and relaxed the guide was. I learned that 20 minutes of 'love service' costs 50 euros. Well, you can't complain... But please calculate with: 'Lifeworlds exhibition', 'Van Gogh Museum', 'Bangsy exhibition', plus a syrup waffle, exactly 20 minutes of uninhibited fooling around with a sex worker. Call me old, call me boring, call me square.... but I prefer to go to museums! 👴 And then there was.... cappuccino and syrup waffles! 😍 Thank you, Viviane!!!!