Twitchhiker was here

Der Besuch des Twitchhikers war sehr spannend. Eine außergewöhnliche Erfahrung und ein tolles Experiment.  Es war eine Freude Paul kennenzulernen und ihn auf seinem Weg nach Neuseeland und im Spendensammeln für Charity:Water zu unterstützen.  In den letzten Einträgen habe ich ja über meine Sicht der Dinge berichtet, jetzt lasse ich Paul (den Twitchhiker) zu Wort kommen, der seinen Besuch bei uns wie folgt beschrieben hat:

My arrival at Saarbruck saw me finally meet @pluripotent and rather unexpectedly, a German film crew. Before beginning my travels, I hadn’t given much thought to the type of person who would help me, but I certainly wasn’t expecting it to be somebody like Andrea; a middle-aged, middle-class lady living in a sumptuous family home with her two children, running a successful family business (@JuchemFood) that was founded by her grandfather.

The weather was grim and moist, no different to home, and Andrea drove us to her home, half an hour away on the autobahn. The cameraman asked to accompany us in the back seat and film the journey, which seemed a reasonable request; he also asked that the interior lights be switched on so we were illuminated for his shot. This led to the trouser-browning experience of sitting on the wrong side of the car, on the wrong side of the road, with the interior lights and pouring rain reducing visibility to near-zero, while watching the speedometer creep past 140 kph. (Anmerkung der Fahrerin, ich fand es ganz unspektakulär)

One Way Ticket

M. Muhar und P. D´Angiolillo

Interview

Twittern

German Breakfast

Austausch der Geschenke

 

 

 

 

 

Andrea’s home in the village of Eppelborn was magnificent and welcoming, a grand labyrinth over four floors. One whole room was dedicated to the building’s history; a glass panel depicted a timeline of the dwellings that had stood there for several hundred years. A tall glass case displayed artifacts found buried beneath the land during renovations, some pieces dating back as far as the Napoleonic Wars. It was a home of character and warmth, qualities it shared with my host who had gone to the trouble of bringing me here, this small corner of Germany near the eastern border of France.

The film crew spent another hour interviewing Andrea and I, while Andrea’s daughter Johanna (@chailatteogo) and her boyfriend cooked a vegetarian curry for dinner. Johanna studied A Levels at Framlingham College in Suffolk, and her English was pristine. Andrea’s grasp of my mother tongue was also impressive, despite her assurances to the contrary. Nothing makes you feel quite as inadequate as spending time in the company of those who speak more languages than you.