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Stories from this world, in words and pictures.
Recent Posts:
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Storing Your Vehicle While Travelling: This Is How It Works
There are many good reasons for interrupting your travels. Our long journey in stages only works because we can keep parking our car abroad until we come back to continue. There are a few things to consider and also a few pitfalls. I’ve been able to gain some experience in vehicle storage and have done…
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Turning onto the Silk Road: Tashkent and Samarqand
To be honest, I always imagined Tashkent to be a hostile concrete hell. After all, according to the weather statistics, it is the hottest place on our entire trip. But I couldn’t have been more wrong. The city is much more pleasant than expected, even at temperatures above 40 degrees. There are many parks with…
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Borderline Crazy: From Kazakhstan to Uzbekistan
When you’re travelling fast like I am on my way to Samqrqand, you spend a lot of time at borders. Sometimes more, sometimes less. Today it will be more. I’m travelling from my overnight camp near Shymkent to the Uzbek border, expecting a easy crossing from Kazakhstan to Uzbekistan — two countries that don’t have…
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In Laika’s Footsteps: Kazakhstan
Coming from Russia, the Kazakh border has a relaxed, Central Asian vibe. In the queue in front of me I spot number plates from pretty much every stan. When it’s my turn, I’m first led into a back room. The officer sitting there is obviously not in the mood for an interrogation and waves me…
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Road Trip Characters: The Drama Vanlifers
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In this series I portray — not quite seriously — various characters that we all come across at some point when travelling, or when we find inspiration on the internet. We’ll start with a particularly prominent group. Ah, vanlifers. They used to have it easier. A few years ago, #vanlife was intensely celebrated on social…
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A Transit in Difficult Times: Russia
After a short day in Belarus, I approach the Russian border at the Minsk-Moscow motorway. This is not really a border crossing, as Russia and Belarus form a state union. Citizens of both countries can travel back and forth across the border relatively unhindered. Only foreigners are waved onto the shoulder. A quick look into…
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About Stalin’s Pipe and Siberian Sweets – a Day in Belarus
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Finally, after a year of preparations, we set off. I drop the young co-pilot off with the older co-pilot and begin the long journey eastwards through Berlin’s evening traffic. I spend the first night at a fishing pond halfway to Warsaw. Tomorrow I’ll travel on to the Lithuanian border with Belarus. After some research into…
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Off to Central Asia!
Anyone following me on Instagram has already seen the cat jump out of the bag: Our great journey in stages begins in Central Asia. For adventurers from Central Europe travelling with a vehicle, the Stans are the perfect choice: Accessible without ferry crossings or overly complex customs bureaucracy, yet a completely different world in terms…
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Welcome!
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von
You followed the toad and found my blog. Glad you’ve made it here! What can you expect from this blog? — Stories from near and far, in words and pictures. Without ulterior motives. No business model, no ads, no SEO-optimised babble. Just what comes to mind when I’m travelling or at home. Who are we?…
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The World in Stages
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von
Do you also envy them – the active pensioners, the good-looking twenty-somethings and the independent families who simply take one or more years off to travel the world? And are you as annoyed by those influencer types who are constantly in your ear, telling you that you only have to want it, that it’s all…