European experiences

Wanted to hitchhike from Budapest to Vienna
two hours and thirty minutes by car said Google
everything was ready
had asked God to give me the ability of right distinction and a safe arrival at my goal
but there was fear
because of being alone now
a man who held his hands at his belt and didn`t look me straight in the eyes but first did a quick bodyscan was enough to lose the trust that wasn`t there in the first place
a man whose girlfriend didn`t have small breasts and neither a wide t-shirt, but at least in that way I could see she was a woman,
to whom I told that I was looking for a lift to Vienna, looked at me and asked me What kind of lift do you mean
that was the last drop, no man would be trusted by me today, not even the trustable ones
most of the familycars were full and those who weren`t were taken by more fat than skinny people whose goal was rather the Mc Drive inn than Vienna
So after one hour I gave up and gave in to the longing for safety and security
The trainstation was within a 5 minutes walk so that was a nice present from the world
I payed 30 euro`s and sat in the fast modern jetrail whose charm was nothing compared to my love, the Balkan-express
But everything together, Eastern Europe had been crossed a bit more and Vienna was reached
where even the little sideways are huge and where vegetarians like to eat things in the form of sausages and even lobsters and where I saw Jan and Els, the first familiar faces since a long time
I realize that I`m not giving Europe the respect she deserves by crossing her in such a hurry
but for the moment there is no time
and neither time to lose
on the 31st of may I am expected to be at Roland Garros because that is a present from my sister whom I`ll meet in exactly four days
unbelievable

From the day I set foot in Istanbul again, the West is slowly coming back into the veins
the safe traffic, the metrosystem that leads you to wherever you need to go, that warns you for the gap!, that tells you which way you should get out!, that costs you as much as two meals in India!, the women wearing whatever they feel like, the supermarkets where there`s nothing you can`t buy, the places where there is space for art to be made and to be seen, the terrasses, the weather, unreliable as ever,
the cows that are not on the street anymore, the garbage that is being collected!, the eyes of the people not staring at you anymore, the atm`s that have to be visited by me much more frequently than before
and so on
coming back from the East via Istanbul and slowly making my way to Belgium
a good way to get used again to this great, exhausting, peaceful, capitalist, familiar, secure world where I was born

for the next few hours I am in Munich
then there will be a nightbus to Paris
the last stop before
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