hard to keep up!! (1 day old post)

Auf Wiedersehen Deutschland...

Goodbye my dear Freunden...

It is so fucking sad.  Again.  Leaving.

And it's so exciting too!
Back on the road.  Next stop: Prague!

Six weeks have gone by already, my time in Germany is over, and now I am really throwing myself in unfamiliar waters: for the first time, I'm going to a place where I don't understand the language at all!  

And I don't know anybody there.  I must have sent twenty-or-so requests for couch surfing, but it was in vain.  I guess I'll stay in a hostel after all, which is okay because I have actually never done that before.  Oh, I'm lying; I spent a couple of nights in a youth hostel last year, in a surfer town on the coast of Oaxaca (Puerto Escondido?).

My overall itinerary has suddenly began to take a more concrete shape.  Faithful to myself, I was postponing the moment where I'd have to commit to any particular plan, but there comes a time when one must make those choices.  It's not so much that I dread making decisions; it's that I am so fond of my freedom.

I had some kind of stability being in Berlin for over a month.  I could relax into somewhat of a day-to-day routine.  But now that I have only six weeks left to wander, things are (I am) going to be moving swiftly. 

There will be much less time to create the types of friendships I made in Berlin.  

Outside the bus window, signs are now in Czech! Just like that… no inquisitive border patrols, nothing!

With only four or five days in any given city, how can I make sure to get the most of everything I am about to experience?   I know the answer is "presence".  I know that letting my mind run ahead of my body would only spoil my ability to be present with the places and the people I visit.  Here again, there is a fine line to walk, between planning and being fully in the present.

I can dance on that line.

Prague, then Istanbul (by train!), and Northern Italy before going to Southern France, to finish in Spain... all in six weeks!

Man... it's too much to handle!