01.08.2015 Frankfurt, Germany

Frankfurt … Frankfurt, Frankfurt, Frankfurt. More precisely Aschaffenburg, near Frankfurt, but few people know about that. It was the place of my confinement last week and a half. But first things first. Arriving at Travemünde, I had to go to Amsterdam, but I am so tired of the cold weather and eternal rains, that I was irresistibly drawn to the south. Thoughts were short – I rushed to Frankfurt.

Damn boats always come early in the morning and went up on the highway I felt that banal fall asleep because of boredom. I selected option “avoid highways and autobahns” in my GPS and did not regret any minute. Wonderful pastoral views that opened up to me was so delicious that I was not irritated nor the speed limit (30-50 in settlements and beyond them is 70-80) nor lengthen the route. All these forests, fields, meadows, hills, accompanied by perfectly paved asphalt, and the ride was prettiest. During the ride I have not once stopped to take photos and just to gaze at local beauty. Villages like a fairy tale, colorful meadows Germany … good, what to say. At one point I caught WiFi at a gas station and got new mail. US Consulate asking my passport to Moscow. I strongly hurried to Frankfurt (more precisely in Aschaffenburg). Where good old friend Constantine and his wife Katya waited for me.

Frankfurt … Frankfurt, Frankfurt, Frankfurt. More precisely Aschaffenburg, near Frankfurt that, but about it, few people know. It was the place of my confinement last week and a half. But first things first. Arriving at Travemünde, I had to go to Amsterdam, but I am so tired of the cold weather and eternal, that I was irresistibly drawn to the south. Thoughts were short – I rushed to Frankfurt.

Damn boat ever come early in the morning and went up on the highway, I felt that banal fall asleep from boredom. Selected in Navigator option “avoid highways and highway” and did not regret. Wonderful pastoral views that opened up to me was so delicious that I was not irritated or the speed limit (30-50 in settlements beyond their 70-80) or lengthen the route. All these forests, fields, meadows, hills, accompanied by perfectly ulozheniju asphalt, and the ride was, as they say, “in a rush.” In the process I have not once stopped to take photos and just posozertsat local beauty. Villages like a fairy tale, colorful meadows Germany … good, what to say. At one point I caught vayfay at a gas station and saw a letter, put the blame on the mail. US Consulate Asking my passport to Moscow. Case headway! I still strongly hurried to Frankfurt, more precisely in Aschaffenburg. Where I waited for a good old friend Constantine and his wife Katya.

Arrived I settled a little… and here comes beer! You in fact in Bavaria, man (yes, Frankfurt is not Bayern, but Ashaffenyuurg – yet is already!)! The first two days were in the campaigns of the bars. Even in such a small town it here – there are bars for every tastes. But most of all I liked the one, very first we visited (I even joked about sidnrom of duckling, hehe) – on the summer terrace facing many long tables, and always a lot of people. Therefore, people simply sit down at the table to the others, resulting in a generally tied sorts of conversations – it’s great. So we met a lot of cool people this way. Old Irish man, the most that neither is a classic, as if from a movie – with him and his son, we had a night raid on the bars… Husband and wife, local riders stopped for lunch just after returning from travel (now on my jacket there is another icon :)… Couple from Hanover, which are two months a year spent in Aschaffenburg for working reasons – they have taught us German, and talked about the differences of hochdeutsch and Bavarian dialect … Many such meetings. This is perhaps the most vivid impressions – because the rest of my existence consisted of sitting in one place waiting for my passport back.

Passport. This whole saga. First, I learned that all the vaunted super-express ultra-fast delivery service … do not work on weekends. So much fun… I could not believe it. You pay a big pile of money for to deliver a letter the next day, and you answered – “Today is Friday, three o’clock, package sorting station stops it work, so the letter will go out on Monday, and will be delivered on Tuesday. Here’s a delivery, “the next day”. From Friday to Tuesday. Well, I could cope with that sending passport to Moscow. US Consulate processed my passport for two days and released it. And then the fun began – the weekend is close again, fuck you, wait for Monday. But Monday! I did not want to wait at all in any way. Even despite the fact that on Monday I was invited to visit one motorcycle adventurer at Frankfurt. Soul straining at the leash, so by wild combinations I was able to pick up passport on Saturday. But how it was! First, DHL announced that on Saturday they do not deliver. Through long negotiations with the technical support it became clear that they can deliver the package to Frankfurt Airport, the same Saturday. I spent Saturday morning at the airport, looking at the stunned eyes of employees of Deutsche Post (DHL use them as the front-end, which is very convenient to all but the customers), because in Germany there is no “on demand” packages for foreigners. Naturally, the airport did not worked. With Katya (spasibische!) managed to push the technical support DHL I could still with a large fortune and a ton of persuasion – to take away my beloved passport at one of the sorting items of DHL. So DHL – nevermore. To take great pile of euros not knowing what is going on (in Russia they told that the Saturday delivery is ok and took the money for it, in Germany they saying that there is no Saturday delivery), and make me run around Frankfurt … Horror.

In anticipation of the document and fact I stayed too long in one place I was literally drawn to go at least somewhere. But without passport everything make it difficult – even camping sites requires it, and it is restricted to pitch a tent anywhere outside camping. I decided to try couchsurfing and look for someone in Munich. I submitted about 15 queries, as it should be – not copy-paste sent, and individual approach to every request … all to no purpose. Until now, I can not understand why. However, I saw that the planned event in Munich, “a weekly gathering of members Couchsurfing Munich» and decided to go from the other side – to come to the meeting, and further acting on the situation. Bike is saddled and I flew to Munich. But there a failure waited for me. A huge number of young people, but … Contrary to the standard cliché “open-minded”, “easy-going” and all that crap – people are completely not interested in travel, journey tales and so on. They were interested in the opposite sex. Add meeting place was totally not suitable for communication (a bar with very loud disco) – that’s the whole picture. I feel there myself like some foreign body in someone else’s body, so I trampled a couple of glasses of non-alcoholic beer and retreated. The question about overnight arouse. I have some time to stray in the dark along country lanes, but could not find a good place, inaccessible to other people’s eyes (though there I also could be found by foresters). Then I went to nearest highway, drove to a nearby parking lot for truckers and insolently put a tent there, on a little piece of grass. My argument in case the attention of the authorities were like “driving, driving tired, want to sleep as much as hell, try to avoid road sleepy accidents, but because I have no car to sleep in, I had to put a tent”. Although it would have looked funny – some homeless dude in a tent, without passport, hehe. Fortunately for me – I’m was not interesting to anyone and slept well, even dreams was colored look. Early morning I returned to Aschaffenburg, and there got email news of the release of the passport, and started trying to smuggle him back, as mentioned above.

On Saturday once received passport I immediately moved on. Since half of the day was spent on rescuing the document – I was failed to drive far avay. Found camping site near the city of Ulm where I wrote these lines, sitting with a laptop near the campfire.

In the end I would like to say a huge thanks to Constantine, Kate, Fedor and Peter for helping me with all that weird passport story.

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