Part 3: Lost and found

and here i go, finally, leaving for the unknown, leaving for those roads i haven't driven down yet, for those streets i haven't walked upon. but it will take a while until i reach them, the first kilometres are well known, so well known that i don't even need to think about the way, which is good enough for the start, as my thoughts aren't with me yet, they still circle around the car, the way it simply didn't want to leave. i try to think of it as just an oddity, not as an omen, cars break down, that is part of their personality, and things like that always happen at bad times, cause there basically is no such thing like a convenient time for car trouble. i pass Stuttgart and follow the river Neckar towards Heidelberg, where a friend of mine i haven't seen in too long a while lives. the exit of the highway, the return to the world of towns and houses, of pedestrians and traffic lights, of bus stops and corner shops. my friend with her smile, the same smile as back then. a shady flat with a view. fruit juice and snacks. catching up on two years of life in two hours. the feeling that time is running to fast, ticking away in a fast forward rhythm. the short hand of time reaching for four as we say good bye again, too soon, but there are so many roads waiting and i just have to go on.

so i leave, so i go again, making a mental note to not let another year slip by before we meet again, to plan things better, to not get lost in the flow of time, and while i contemplate on this thought i just drive onwards, in the completely wrong direction. so much about not getting lost, but the town is small, and comes with an old red stone church, which i would have missed if i got the way right on first try. back on the highway again, some more kilometer, and then i finally reach them, the unknown places, a bridge across the Rhein, Koblenz from a car window, towns i never heard of, Kruft, Mendig, Senzig, Türnich, funny words, like mixtures of letters that connect with no picture in my mind. Aachen comes with a change of highways, and then all of a sudden Belgium, the border reduced to a sign on the roadside, no passport control, no checkpoint, nothing, a road without frontiers, even the name of the highway stays the same, it's only the small things that change, the shape of the houses, the colour of the road signs, the signs on the plates of passing cars. the sun is crossing a stream of clouds while i drive westwards, Brussels is only a hundred kilometres away now, and it's a bittersweet symphony, this life.

Part 4: A stranger in a strange place

this travelogue is part of the subside travelzine
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