What
a long strange trip...
As
a kid I wanted to become a knight - at least,
when Ivanhoe
was the first serial I was allowed to watch on TV.
My next, somewhat more realistic occupational aspiration was
to become a physician.
Variously
interested but lazy, my school notes didn't enable me
to start studying at once. It was the time of the "numerus
clausus",
which allowed only the very best pupils to study medicine.
After filling 4 years with the obligatory military service
and an education as a banker, I was suddenly offered two opportunities
for medical studies:
One in Togo/ Africa, the other
in Paris, France.
Togo was very tempting, but not as much as my Parisien girlfriend.
Finally, after having studied in Paris for a year, I
got the long awaited place at a German university.
A scholarship offered me the opportunity to attend several
months of practical training in Australia.
The stay in Australia boostered my yearning to see foreign
countries and cultures - it didn't diminish ever since.
But the following years didn't allow me to live up to it:
' 86 approbation,
' 89 doctorate,
' 92 emergency - physician ,
' 93 specialisation in general medicine,
' 98 examination in psychotherapy,
' 99 specialisation in "physical and rehabilitative medicine".
Until April 2000, I worked in a hospital as a senior doctor predominantly
in the field of internal medicine and psychotherapy.
Easter 2000 Astrid and
I sold our belongings and started traveling around the
world.
Since then we try to barter various
skills
for food
and accomodation
-
just
to
keep traveling.
That's why we are always looking for partners.
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MArtin, when we still owned
our house
Journey from Ibarra to
San Lorenzo, Ecuador on
the train's roof
For three weeks,
a sock covered my left arm with it's worst sunburn ever.
Don't
leave your arm on the window's frame, when you travel by bus
in the Philippines...
Occasionally, the sun even shone
on our terrace in Germany
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My
passions:
- Humans:
By far the most fascinating aspect for me on our worldtrip is to establish
contact and exchange with very different humans, cultures,
mentalities and life-styles.
- Music:
Who, as a student, has the means to
buy all the music he wants to listen to?
- I hadn't.
But AUDIO, Germany's
biggest music- and Hifi- magazine gave me the chance to write reviews
for them - in exchange for
records.
That was a great deal for me and I became an enthusiastic
collector and lover of a wide range of contemporary music.
My enthusiasm culminated, when I saw my first Grateful
Dead- show in Germany...
-
Computers &
Internet:
My fascination for computers startet right after buying an Apple
IIe to
help me write my thesis. But it was only after leaving that I
got in touch with the internet and web publishing.
I should have started earlier, as the lack of ressources on the
road gave me
a long
time of frustrating trial-and- error- learning.
Although it's not completely over
yet, I already have sufficient PC- and Web knowledge to teach it to others
in exchange for food and accommodation... - Photography & Filming:
were early hobbies promoted by my father.
1st cameras: Vito
II and a Super-8 Zoomatic.
Since 2000 increasing knowledge in editing digital pictures, videography
and equipment. - Scuba Diving:
Discovered as a new universe when I was 16 years old, cultivated
as an (expensive) hobby on vacations.
Since our Dive Master training on Koh Tao, we
occasionally also worked as DMs for food and accommodation. - Travels:
So far my backpack traveled me to the following
countries:
Italy, England, GDR, France, Malta, Switzerland, Holland, Belgium,
Spain, Portugal, Algeria, Tunesia, Israel, Egypt, USA, Canada,
Ecuador, Thailand, Malaysia, Philippines, Australia, Barbados,
St. Lucia, Dominica, Maldives, New Zealand, Tonga
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