About Me…
“The sky has four corners, says the mouse living in a box.”
To get one thing straight right away: No, I am not on vacation. And no, I am not retired either. I am doing something far more fundamental: I am traveling.
My path leads me to where landscapes whisper stories and my camera captures moments worth preserving. I am fascinated by the infinite diversity of our world—the vibrant colors of customs, the depth of cultures, and the people who shape them. Yet I am more than an observer; I am an explorer in search of roots.
Why do people build the way they build? Why does their food taste of the earth on which they stand? And why are their pain and joy expressed through very specific dances and songs?
I almost always find the answer in their legends and sagas. They are the mirror of their history—sculpted by harsh or abundant nature, forged by languages, wars, plagues, or famines. They represent the cultural memory of our ancestors.
To reach the exact places off the beaten track, I converted an old postal bus into my mobile home. After many hours of tinkering, my “Furgoneta” is now fully optimized. And always along for the ride: “Rocinante,” my trusty folding bike. Together, we have crossed many borders, and she has never let me down.
There were 70 old postal vans parked in the dealer’s lot. My mother said, “Just take the yellow one!” Most of them only had a single seat, but I managed to find one with two. It had low mileage and was relatively undamaged.
After endless hours of scrubbing and cleaning, the insulation went in.
Split charge relay, leisure battery, and wiring—all according to “Professor YouTube.”
My folding bike “Rocinante” set the dimensions. Everything else was built around it.
The build begins: Bed on the left, kitchen in the back.
A quick trip to the ER along the way to have a 2 cm splinter pulled out of my finger.
A postal bus with an indoor shower. Super practical at first, but nowadays I save that space and simply shower outdoors instead. It builds character!
Off to France and Spain for the very first trip.
You learn as you go, so a solar panel was added the following spring.
Eventually, I realized the layout wasn’t optimal. So I stripped everything back out, leaving an empty van once again. The wood was reused. This time, I laid a completely new floor, added an auxiliary heater, a swivel seat, proper batteries, and an outdoor shower.
New setup: A fold-out 190 x 140 cm bed, with storage and kitchen along the side. The thick 12 cm mattress got kicked out and replaced with a sleeker 6 cm folding mattress.
Three weeks of sanding and dent pulling led to the big day. I would have loved to keep it yellow, but yellow is tricky to paint over properly. So neutral white it was!
While in Morocco, my rear window shattered twice within three weeks. Time for a local metal artist to step in! I pulled into his workshop at 3:00 PM, and by 10:00 PM, we were taking a group photo in front of his masterpiece. He even asked, “Shall I paint it for you too?”
Back home, a proper new “window” was installed: the temporary African metal solution was replaced with painted aluminum. But first, the body damage needed painting—nothing happens without my buddy Angelo!
For my journeys, the VW T5 is the ideal vehicle. I can fit through any narrow village lane, park anywhere, and stay completely inconspicuous, meaning I never bother any local residents.
Freedom and luxury are rivals—they both pull at opposite ends of the very same rope. On my end, freedom pulls much harder!
The Next Adventure Awaits
In the meantime, I have also completed an extensive, classic backpacking trip around the Baltic Sea, experiencing life with a backpack, long-distance buses, hostels, and capsule hotels.
Through this, I put together and thoroughly tested my gear for longer long-distance journeys.
The world can come!