I sit on a hut. The sky pink from sunset, all around me the vineyards I’ve been walking through the last couple of days. I’ve damned and cursed them for being too hot, too boring and not being along the Rhine. As I sit above them now, I know I’ll miss then when I walk on tomorrow. When I look past them, further west, I see the hills of the middle Rhine valley. The valley of my old friend and my new, a valley of memory and future, for I will return there.

To my right, planes are approaching Frankfurt airport. I know they bring people together there, but for me planes become more and more a means of separation instead of a means of being together. It’s the history I have with them. I see fireworks next to it, it’s symbolic for the reason I’ve made a new friend. If it were not for the fireworks we might not have met. Funny how meeting and saying goodbye are so interconnected. Once the one occurs, the other is never far away.

When looking left, I see windmills slowly turning in the evening breeze. They remind me of the Eifel, where two other buddies of mine visited me, already two weeks ago. That was when I missed home, when I felt lonely and when I was not feeling at ease with the new life. How much has changed!

Behind me, I see the industry of the city of Worms. The place where I’ll cross the Rhine tomorrow and head for a new episode in the adventure. I never realised this old friend the Rhine, would actually come to mean this much to me. I’ve not seen it for two days now and tomorrow it’ll be only for the goodbye.

I sit on the hut and close my eyes. All these memories; they are real. They make us who we are and who we will be. I start to wonder about the future. Will we meet again? Will the planes ever come to mean anything else to me? What will it be like, reaching Istanbul, how many friends will I have made?

As roes graze beneath me and foxes shoot back and forth below the trees, I look at the setting sun once more, putting my tent in the last light of the day. I stop worrying about the future and am grateful for the past. All experiences remain within and all will walk with me to the other side of Europe.