This is a continuation of my first post from Mongolia, about the Central region. Look through that first.
I have even less energy to write now than I did three days ago, but since I will only have wifi for the next 10 hours (and I hope to sleep for 7 of those), I have no option but to give you a mediocre post. I am tired in a good way, and have been busy horse riding. More on that later. Now here are some photos of my time in the Gobi Desert:
Our ger by …
WOW. Two weeks without internet. Without being able to share and communicate with loved ones, without being able to choose what I would eat and when, without peeing and not worrying about getting it on my boots.
Two weeks of beautiful, beautiful nothing, with wild horses and camels everywhere, with new friends. I’ve eaten mutton (sheep and goat), camel, camel cheese curd, drank fermented horse mare milk (and declined eating horse innards). I have developed a stomach for vodka. I have been warmed by horse dung fires. I can tell the difference between a …
The last 5 days have been good for me. I’m not going to give you a day-by-day, but here are some highlights.
I was fortunate to find a home in Munich on airbnb that was just right; they were there when I wanted to chat or help with a bus schedule, but easy to come and go from independently. Very kind, friendly people. I only booked it for two nights but ended up staying for the five. It felt really good to see the same faces every day and not have to repack my bag ever …
First, a thought I had yesterday; perhaps my slight melancholy wasn’t actually melancholy. Maybe I’ve just been so happy for the last weeks/months that my scale is skewed: say on an emotional moroseness/happiness scale of -10 to +10 I’ve been fluctuating around a +2 to +8 for the last few months, and maybe now that I’ve slowed down and had a couple boring days I’m back down to a normal (call it an everyday workday) -2 to +2, which by comparison seems sad. I honestly think it’s possible. Anyway…
The day I left Füssen was a …
I left Grindelwald early and met a friend for lunch in Zurich! Kelly and I stayed up late outside our hostel in Aberdeen, Scotland talking to a man named Matt from Mississippi. When he and I realized we would both be in this part of the world at the same time we exchanged e-mail addresses and managed to link up! He took me to lunch for a belated birthday gift (nice southern man), and I loaded us up on Swiss chocolate. This is his second time to Zurich so he gave me a quick …