"Fortune and love befriend the bold." -Ovid

I've had people tell me that my life looks lucky. It might. But I know that a lot of things I've done were hard work, and things always look simpler from the outside. I guess I'd say my life is blessed, in that I've got a wonderful set of family and friends and I can't complain about the cards I was given. They were pretty good. I also know that I decided to live my life more boldly about five years ago. And so since then, I've felt more alive than I have since I was a kid. It's a freedom to feel bold, to feel alive and authentic.

This first stage of life in Germany has been magical. I've made so many new friends of all ages who I honestly like. No one is creepy time-filler. (Yes, I've had those in my past life.) No one seems to want anything of me other than a friendship. It so fills me up.

This Saturday, I went shopping in a little town called Neustadt, near the border of Czech, with John (the guy whose apt I'm taking over). On the way back, he took me to Flossenbürg, where there's a castle on the hill and remnants of a concentration camp with museum in town. Being slightly MR, I forgot my camera. So you'll just have to imagine what I saw. The museum was harrowing, the castle mystical.

Today was my second Volksmarch with my Crazy Volksmarching Friend Ryan. He goes on Saturday and Sunday most weekends. With the fog we had this morning, I half expected to see a gnome wander out of the vine rows. In the 3-4 hour 12 mile walk, we had three checkpoints, all with free hot broth and the last with walnuts in the shell. It feels like the eve of the holiday season.


Statues in Vilseck near my pension.

Vilseck side street off the Church. I love the colors of the buildings.

Last weekend, they had a big festival in town where they brought this in on a tractor with a band playing as they paraded through the streets to the church, where they carved and set this up in celebration of the upcoming holidays.

Volksmarch #2

I took this for the bicycle sign. The fog didn't hurt either.

I might post this sign on my forehead.

The Artful Garden Protector. Now you know what to do with all that scrap metal and solder gun you have sitting around.

My favorite nut- Walnut! I cracked this nut by hand. One gets very strong fingers flipping dials all day.

Joyful worship of the walnut. (In the last checkpoint.)

Hey, shouldn't we have these on the lakes in MN? Do they mean one-way waterskiing?

Crazy Volksmarch Man, Ryan, from Arizona.

Reading the dictionary- the perfect completion to the day.

Possible car and First Volksmarch

Mini car, for 2800Euros with 48,000km on it. Considering it, along with others.

It's not fancy but it would be good enough to get around for now and if I found my "dream car" I could buy it later on at a more leisurely pace. I think the cold winter weather is going to be prohibitive to bicycling to work from town even.

Onto the more exciting photodocumentation:

My Very First Volksmarch.

What is a Volksmarch? It's a dying pasttime of German folks- walking clubs arrange walks all over the country (and other countries) of varying lengths where you can drink beer and eat or just do the walk. Today I went with Ryan from Arizona, who works in the administrative building with Bernie. We did the 20km walk, through the German countryside and towns. It was a perfect fall day for it, with just a light mist of rain at the end of our walk.

The first checkpoint- at each station, you have to get your little card stamped to prove that you did the whole walk, then can keep track of it in a booklet.

Some German people doing the walk. They sure are fit compared to Americans.

Shed on our walk. With a crop I don't know!

Our first split.

The guy who tells you which way in case you can't read I guess. He didn't seem to want his picture taken.

More Germans walking. With nice vines on the side.

They are serious with their solar panels here!

A German hunting tower. Ryan said that they are only allowed to hunt from these towers- no on the ground hunting.

Slipped one in there from New Zealand! Just pretend those red roofs aren't there. I think the sheep were smaller in NZ.

My first German gnome sighting. Surely not the last.

Arrival into town after the end of our walk.