spirit of surrim

Every day I meet wonderful people. I can't write about every person I meet - the blog is about my feelings and the things which change something in me.

Here in France talking to other persons is a bit different. I really didn't expect that nearly nobody speaks English here.
So I learned how to speak with hands and feet and began to learn French in a different way. I understand the most important things, I have a small book to learn French, some written sheets, an offline translation dictionary app ("QuickDic") for Android/LinageOS, pictures, my map ("OsmAnd") and my body to communicate :-)

Sometimes I meet other people which also speak English, Dutch, German, Italian, Arabic, whatever.
Before I started my trip I wasn't really interested in other languages. I noticed this has completely changed. I love it when other people speak in German small sentences - also funny things like "Ich bin eine kleine Zitrone" and "Vogelscheiße" ❤️
So why not learn French, Spanish and other langues?

Here in France it's really hot - at least during daytime. The harvested fields are often looking like a desert, sometimes roads have a crack on the side so I can't cycle on the right side. When I saw a dryed out watergate I stopped.
There I met Gert and his friend Frans from the Netherlands. We were speaking in German, a bit Dutch and English. Gert is on his way back to visit a very good friend, maybe the last time. I wasn't confrontated with things like this before, but I think I can't avoid this in the future. It's a thing a thought about when I continued. I have much time to think about everything. Gert has also a blog, in Dutch: Gerts blog 🇳🇱

When I was in Monthermé I made a picknick and phoned with my parents. I was phoning, a woman came and asked me some things. I made a "3500" with one hand and said "kilometers" while phoning. She understand. I gave her a link to my website, then she left. I think she didn't want to interrupt me. Later she came back, with stars in her eyes. She asked me some more questions in French, I answered how it was possible.
Maybe I should film a conversation like this. For me it's a very funny way to speak, not so boring and I learn many things. She told me that she's writing for a regional newspaper and wanted to know if it's okay to write an article about me - Oui! Her husband will send me a German email for all other questions and things we couldn't handle this way. Today I got an email, with a PDF attachment.

Martin, looking like a teenager, has left work and home in Germany for a year-long cycling trip that will take him to Morocco via Spain. A road trip that has been planned for a long time, leaving his home country via the Netherlands and Belgium, on September 11th he reached Charleville, his goal for the day. [...]

She also wrote some general informations of me, my trip, how she found me in the park and about the language problems. You can find the article here: La Semaine des Ardennes 🇫🇷 (Votre journal du 17 septembre 2020 🇫🇷)

Maybe one day I can write things like this myself. For now I can only offer you other things like this to read ❤️