By Alexander, Germany. Sometimes the easiest way into another world is to arrive without much of a plan and see what happens. For once, I did not really prepare. We were going to Croatia for a week with about fifteen people. Somebody else had organised the house. I knew some of the group well, some…
By Ralf The Grillmeister, Germany. I like new ideas in the kitchen. But sometimes the best technology is still a sharp knife, a little spoon, and knowing when to leave a good thing alone. I love cooking. It is a great part of my life. I like recipes, I like new ideas, and I like…
By Babette, Germany. Before Babette’s family reaches Egypt, there are visas to check, trains to choose, snorkelling masks to buy and one very old underwater camera to test. Sometimes the adventure begins long before the plane leaves the ground. “I have one day and one hour, and then I’m on vacation.” That was how the…
By Sylvie, France Sometimes discovering another world does not mean travelling anywhere. Sometimes it arrives in your garden, turns up the music, jumps into the pool and politely tells you that it is time to leave your own party. When we started talking about “discovering other worlds,” I wasn’t completely sure what that meant. Another…
By Manfred, Germany. For Manfred, travelling starts long before the caravan moves. Planning is part of the pleasure—but what keeps pulling him back is the possibility that somewhere new will still surprise him. The first seeds of my next holiday are usually sown while I am still on the current one. I begin asking myself…
By Fabrice, France I do not hesitate much before asking a question. But direct does not mean rude. There are rules, and the first one is respect. When Janita asked me about the things we hesitate to ask, there was already a problem. I do not hesitate very much. The Mayor had warned her before…
Babette’s family holiday has not started yet, but the adventure already has: expired passports, four-train journeys, three essential blankets and the promise of a piña colada beside the pool. There are 18 days until Babette goes to Egypt. Not approximately 18 days. Babette has done the calculation properly. She knows the days, the hours and…
Ralf has bought the mobile home, Manfred has twenty years of camping behind him, and Martin is beginning to wonder whether he should start playing the lottery. Ralf and his wife have bought a mobile home. Not because they want to park it somewhere and create a smaller version of the life they already have,…
Four weeks in Bangalore. Four weeks in Campo Grande. The real question was not what to see, but how to live in somebody else’s world. Imagine that Ritesh and his wife leave Bangalore and spend a month in Ismar’s apartment in Campo Grande, Brazil. At the same time, Ismar moves into their apartment in Bangalore,…
Sometimes the biggest changes in our lives begin with something surprisingly ordinary: asking, “Why do we do it this way?” Curiosity is often described as something children have in abundance, but I think adults need it just as much. In everyday life we become used to routines. We work, cook, clean, organise our homes, help…
