We were never Pabst. But we’re travelling to Vienna for the final on Sunday! We deserved to win the semi-final of the European Championship. In the quarter-finals we were given the 3:1 as a gift, but today the referee stole a penalty from us. We deserved to win 3:2! The motorcade forms up in Regensburg, the drinks are drunk, the carnage doesn’t happen and we can continue to eat expensive rotten meat kebabs with a grin.
We? Germany! I am not Germany. I’m still a traveller. I watch the games from a strange angle. Like rugby in Fiji. I have my favourite. But it’s not “mine”. I’m happy for Germany. Good friends say: “Your country, here!”, and I’m very happy about that. But it’s like surf on a rocky coast. Water against stone.
I like water. It has many different melodies. Right now I’m listening to a babbling forest stream. It comes from the Bavarian forest. Tells me how good the forest smells here. How green the fields are. How blue the sky is. I listen to him and see what he says. I like what I see. I appreciate what I hear. I love what I smell. But something is missing. I know what it is. And that’s why I know it must be something else.
My first saying when I set off on my world trip was: “I don’t know what I’m looking for. But I will recognise it when I have found it.” My eyes were open. I didn’t find it. Now I’m back in Germany.
My optician says: “I can’t determine your visual acuity. It fluctuates extremely.” I grin. Sometimes everything is blurred and perfectly clear at the same time – on the same day. To everyone who knows: Thank you for any clarity!







Frank Woelky, born in 1973. Kitesurfer since 1998. Since 2006, I have been combining kitesurfing and web design on trips lasting several months off the beaten track.