One year on the road – and this is not the end

May 2, 2013 in Philosophy, About us, On the road

Exactly one year ago, on May 2^nd, 2012 it was the day of our departure – we were finally ready to leave. We originally had planned to leave one month earlier, but all the preparations had taken longer than expected, and the last nights before we left we hadn’t slept much.

But now we were standing there with our motorcycles, ready to go. We said goodbye to our family, and then we rolled down the street, around the next bend, and so on…. It was hard to believe that we were now finally on the road. The excitement about what awaited us was still overshadowed by the sadness after saying goodbye to our loved-ones.

If we look back on this day now, 12 months and 39000 km later, it all seems very far away. We had a lot of fantastic experiences, but also some that were not so nice. We have seen a lot of beautiful, but also terrible things. We met lots of people, and they were almost always friendly, despite the different cultures, religions, ethnics, mentalities … of course we also came across some idiots and we met people, which were not exactly of the friendliest kind. But mostly, we experienced a fantastic hospitality, and people were almost always helpful.

We had the chance to see different cultures, and to learn about them, even though we quite often managed not more than a little scraping at the surface, and many things will remain forever completely incomprehensible for us. We have travelled through some of the most beautiful landscapes in the world, and we have seen some of the most impressive things that mankind has created.

Of course, we also changed – we are no longer the persons that left Germany one year ago. We have seen and experienced so much in the meantime that it would be strange had we remained unchanged by it. Some situations brought us to our personal limits and beyond, and we have personally grown. We learned a lot – also about ourselves.

Our experiences have opened our eyes. We have learned to appreciate, how lucky we actually are, that we don’t have to worry about what we will eat the next day, about a place to live, and about the access to medical service.

We would do the same step again, and we wouldn’t change much. We want to keep travelling. Of course, there are some things from home that we miss – especially friends and family.

However, our love for adventure and the desire to see more of the world drives us on. There is still so much out there waiting for us. The next country will be Indonesia, and then there are Australia and New Zealand waiting for us, and after that we continue in Southern America. This is not the end, a lot lies behind us, but much more lies ahead of us!

We composed a special selection of photos to celebrate our anniversary. We selected one photo from each month, always from the 2nd, i.e. from May 2nd, 2012 until April 2nd, 2013.

12 different pictures, 12 different situations, 12 perspectives of our journey.