Full circle

26. April     From Frankfurt Airport we take the regional train to Jeannine's hometown. We've come full polygon.

The 'Shanghai dirndl' fits Catherine perfectly, Jeannine's mum likes her tea (including the carefully selected packaging!) and her dad digs the camel hair socks. The button-eyed animals I bought in Beijing find new homes with my nieces and nephew.

Jeannine is already missing eating with chopsticks and I suffer oolong tea withdrawal. Even though we might not have left our virtue in the HuangShan, we certainly are still inspired by the amazing scenery. Wayne, the soft spot, has given Jeannine a Chinese diary as farewell present  full of photographs of our time together. 

Back in the warm, green German spring it's not easy to conjure up the snow-covered landscape and icy temperatures in Moscow and along the Trans-Siberian route for our rapt travelogue audience. We have so many pictures and stories to show & tell, it's difficult not to get carried away.

she gets carried away...

Looking outside we notice how comparatively boring the locals appear. There are no flamboyant pink velvet catsuits (as spotted in the Forbidden City) and no one wears thick framed specs without any actual glass in them. We do notice, however, that there are more variations of hairstyles around.

Looking inside, my head is spinning. I am not sure if from lack of sleep, jetlag or if my brain is just blocked with all the accumulated travel impressions and suddenly having to deal with a downscaled environment of only 10% of yesterday's size, population density and pace.

Looking back, and taken with a pinch of MSG, it's been surprisingly easy travelling in places where we didn't speak the language. And who knows if on the next trip I won't be with a Mandarin speaker after all – Jeannine is seriously looking into studying in Shanghai for a year. We've had an awesome journey and I'll miss my travelling companion.

Looking ahead, the 5 week mission is almost accomplished. I am in Germany to go where I have been before, spending time with friends and family.

The globetutter mission, though, will continue: to boldly split infinitives that no man has split before.   I look forward to it.

Beijing Button-eyes