(1 day until departure) I am in the final stages of preparing for a 12-months sabbatical. Over the last few weeks and months, I have dealt with wide range of issues – from booking my first few flights, finding a language school to brush up my Spanish, getting some vaccinations, purchasing travel insurance, subletting my flat, handing over my work to my colleagues, to saying goodbye to family and friends. The last time I did a bigger trip in 2008, there were virtually no processes in place at my company for a longer leave of absence. In the end, I had to quit my job to go travelling. This time around, things are very different. Over the years, many big companies in Germany haven given worker-retention and motivation some serious thought. The result is, that I ... read more

(Day 1081 on the road)Holi cow! I knew that the ecstatic Indian Holi festival was going to be great, but nobody could have prepared me for what we were about to experience. It was a simply mad, and we had a blast! A little background: Holi is celebrated in India to welcome the spring and say goodbye to winter. Basically people take to the streets and throw bright colour powder called gulal at each other, while bonfires the night before are lit to symbolise the demise of the evil demoness Holika, who gives the festival its name. It is celebrated differently in different parts of India, with the north apparently being wilder than the south. But the celebrations here in Hyderabad proved plenty for us as it turned out, and we were very content. It had ... read more

(Day 1071 on the road)And then, things got better. The further south we moved, the less hassle there seemed to be. After we left the northern Indian states behind and headed for the UNESCO World Heritage site of the Ellora Caves, Mumbai and Goa, things turned decidedly more relaxed. Of course there were still the constant "Hello sir, auto rickshaw?" cries from the drivers in the streets, but they seemed less persistent than in the north of the country, and non-rickshaw touts declined noticeably. Ah, niiice. Speaking of auto rickshaws: One of these, painted bright yellow, made of plastic, maybe about 20cm long, and in the possession of naughty Luc, proved to be a near endless source of fun for us all and many passer-bys. Jasmin had bought the toy auto rickshaw for Luc in Udaipur, ... read more

(Day 1045 on the road) Let's have a vote. A vote for the dirtiest country on this planet.The rules are simple: 1) You need to have been there yourself and witnessed the situation first-hand, and 2) Air-pollution does not count (sorry, China). After careful consideration and an assessment to all the countries I have been to in the past, my vote goes - whole-heartily - to India. Anybody who seconds that - what do you think, what are your nominations? In any case, the level of pollution in India is nothing short of appalling. Rubbish bins or waste collection services are all but unheard of, so people drop their litter wherever they happen to be. Finished with that plastic bag of milk, this banana, that cup of tea? Into the gutter, down the river, out of ... read more

(Day 940 on the road)How do you even begin writing the final blog entry after over 2 1/2 years of travelling? I am struggling. Writing my blogs along the way over the last 31 months has always been something I was looking forward to. It gave me the time to pause and reflect, to address issues that have been on my mind, to choose the best and most meaningful pictures, to consider what has been really important to me. Not this time. I have been dreading this entry for a while now, but there is no way around it; I might as well get it over and done with. So here it is, my feeble attempt to hide the sentimentality that has taken hold of me over the last weeks, and which grew stronger the closer ... read more