Horrortrip with a Twist

By |May 8th, 2016|Europe, Featured, Journeys|

The deal sounded almost too good to be true: A free trip to Transylvania, where I even could make some money. All was about writing a hunting story - more about that later. A good friend of mine set the whole thing up. I guess he saw the disaster coming just as little as [...]

The Shoggi Job

By |June 20th, 2014|Europe, Journeys, Philosophy, Switzerland|

"YOU got the shoggi job," says my boss when we're talking at lunch about the general trend towards summer jobs in the mountains. With shoggi the Swiss mean chocolate, in this context my boss means that I got really lucky with my job. I pretend to not understand and ask if this has something to [...]

Girl vs. Slurry Pump

By |May 11th, 2014|Europe, Off Road, Outdoor, Switzerland, Tough Luck!|

The opponent is a spiral slurry pump by the Swiss manufacturer Stöckli,  six years old and actually a lightweight. Nobody expected any problems and, as long as my boss is around, there are none. In the morning everything runs smoothly: We brought the hoses to the fields and picked up the pump from the neighbors. [...]

Couchsurfing in Switzerland

By |May 5th, 2014|Couchsurfing @en, Europe, Journeys, Switzerland|

"You must not park here!" says the man, waving the wrench in the air. I'm standing on a gravel yard next to the road and before I even can get out of the car, the resident appeared to rebuke me: "You have to park in the marked bays." After eight months Kyrgyzstan, the Swiss pedantry [...]

Sahid’s Farm

By |March 12th, 2014|Asia, Central Asia, Horseback, Journeys, Kyrgyzstan, Outdoor|

Actually Lisa was just looking for a horse sharing set-up, now she is a farmhand. How it happened? - She took the Mashrutka to the village and asked her way around. Speaking Russian clearly is an advantage. A woman from a shop introduces Lisa to Sahid. He owns a farm near Kashka Suu, about half [...]

Ski Touring in the Tian Shan Mountains

By |January 22nd, 2014|Asia, Featured, Kyrgyzstan, Outdoor, Winter Sports|

Karakol is one of the winter sports hot-spots in Kyrgyzstan. The town is located about six hours drive from Bishkek, east of lake Issyk Kul. There is a fairly large ski resort and several freeride options: besides snow mobile tours and horse lifts, ski touring is on the rise. All you need to do, is [...]