The South Coast of Penang Island

I have been invited to surf Yusuf's couch on the South Coast of Penang Island. Not only that it was a secret spot on the island but the whole family was simply something special. Originally from Bosnia, they have converted to Islam, live the lifestyle of a Muslim family in Malaysia and yet their country of origin was still present in anything they do.

They spoke Hungarian at home mixed with some English and Malay, ate a blend of European and Asian food, very often made out of Malaysian ingredients with a European touch. They love to eat with their hands at a low table while sitting on the floor.

Their eldest sons Abdullah and Hassan are ardent chess players who also love to beat you in one of the simpler games like Monopoly. The third 5-year-old son Mustafa is very social and tries to accompany you buying breakfast and even offered to carry the bags with the charm of a gentleman. Their youngest baby son Ali is a friendly and communicative little boy, likes to climb and play.

It was probably the best experience to explore the area with the family, play with the kids, go out eating together and enjoy a local breakfast at home. A lovely place to surf not only for families with small children.

Being pestered in foodcourts

Penang food is a true Godsend from heaven. I really enjoy the various foods ranging from Chinese, Malay, mamak and Indian food all over the place. Oh, how I love the Char quay teow, fried rice, yong taufu, prawns, fish, prawn fritters, loh bak etc. The hawkers have been very friendly for most of the time and the foodcourt convenient to sit. A heaven for the best quality and cheapest prices in South East Asia.

On the downside of the story, especially in bigger Malaysian cities, I have been pestered by drink vendors. Malaysia is different from Indonesia or Thailand and this means that one coffee shop sublet their place to other hawkers including drink sellers. Not only that they push you into buying their drinks but they also want to see cash as soon as they serve the ordered goods.

As soon as they have brought the food or drinks you ordered, you will hear a monotonous and repetitive "3 RM please". I am sure that not everybody is honest and they need to make sure to receive their money as soon as they have fulfilled their duties, but I still find it irritating. Most of the time the food and the drinks don't arrive at the same time. This can be really annoying especially when you are eating, have washed your hands, have to dig into your backpack to look for your wallet and touch money again. How disturbing and unhygienic! Malaysian people should stand up against this!

In smaller towns, people tend to be more relaxed, allowing us to pay our food after finishing our meals and they don't employ drink head hunters.In every coffee shop there are one or two drink vendors whom I found unpleasant and offensive. Different from food vendors, they will come to your table straight away and pester you into buying drinks for them. As an excuse they keep claiming that they also pay rent to the place I'm sitting in and disturb me further with their obligation to pay entertainment fees.

While I do understand all the reasons leading to their actions, I do not appreciate this type of pestering. Firstly, some of their drinks are such low quality that they can't hide the chlorine taste. They blame the Malaysian government for this and think I'm not very informed about their country. I do have regular vendors who serve good drinks which do not taste of chlorine.

The drink vendors have spoilt it all for me. I haven't asked them to be there and I come to the food court for eating and not drinking. In a foodcourt or coffee shop there are usually many food vendors sharing the rent as well and we can only decide to buy from one.

If the drink sellers' reason is that they also pay rent, then all the food vendors will have the same reason to pester because all vendors pay their rent share. Yet we have to refrain from buying food from other vendors if we have decided for one hawker already.

I have not experienced this very often yet in most Muslim, mamak and Indian foodcourts and start wondering what we can do about this. The final straw was: One of the restaurant owners told me" We have this all over in Malaysia and you have to follow our rules" She totally ignored my claims that we were all free to buy what we want and there was no sign obligating us to buy drinks. The only sign that actually makes sense to me is that we are not allowed to bring outside foods and drinks.

Following Saint Hildegard's footprints with a couchsurfer

My couchsurfer Sara from Wisconsin USA shared an interest which was not very common for the average couchsurfer. She wished to research Hildegard of Bingen's life work and history. It didn't take much time to accept her couch request and the next day we took her on a journey through the Rhine Gorge to the Hildegard sites. My daughter Angela has taken so much energy to do research on the internet, drove us all over the place and told Sara many legends about the sites

Bingen, our first station
After a beautiful ride through the Binger Loch, the southern gateway of the gorge, we arrived at the museum in Bingen where St. Hildegard's life and works were documented in an audiovisual setting. This museum did not only depict Hildegard's heritage but it had a large department of all the surgical instruments applied in the old hospice. It was located exactly opposite the Mäuseturm or Mouse Tower , a medieval tower located on a small island in the Rhine River with a famous folk tale to tell.

Rochus Hill and the chapel
Our next path took us to the Rochusberg and the chapel. It is amazing to find such a gem at my doorstep, vast tapestry of vineyards while we were gazing down at the Rhine and its beautiful castle ruines. Walking through "Hildegard's woods" has given us a feel that we had collected positive life energy and a reborn body and soul. At the edge of the woods we could see such a natural beauty over the Rhine Gorge which could be hardly described in words

St. Hildegard Abbey
We crossed the River Rhine by car ferry and continued our journey in Rüdesheim. This is a famous place for tourists from the very kitsch until the very picturesque scenery of the Rhine Valley. We drove to the Hildegard Forum where we could eat a healthy lunch buffet and watch artworks about her visions and medical insight

The highlight and the final station was the Eibingen church where her relics and bones were kept in a shrine. I must have lost my surfer Sara and my daughter Angela, then decided to take a short cut climbing through the vineyards to St. Hildegard Abbey where the guest quarters are. We visited the Hildegard shop, enjoyed the beautiful view and finally had the chance to attend the Gregorian Chant 6 o'clock vesper.

Sometimes couchsurfers can inspire you to re-explore the beauties of your home area

A day out in nearby paradise Edenkoben and St. Martin

I started wondering what to do on the long weekend of the 3rd October which is the German Unification Day. One couchsurfer and another person spontaneously decided to plan a day trip together. We really don't need to travel too far to experience a fine day of hiking in the woods and visiting an old little town in the Palatinate wine country.

The hike in the Edenkoben Valley wasn't overly vicious but hilly enough for us to have a good sleep at night. After this we visited a small town in the Palatine wine country where we had a beautiful traditional Palatine dish in a beautiful little restaurant next to the old church. Jasmin from Couchsurfing has provided memorable photo shots she made in St. Martin.

St. Martin is a historic little town which is seldom mentioned and totally unknown for many Germans, let alone foreign visitors. The forest where we picked chestnuts last week, the vineyards, the old cosy wine taverns and historic half-timbered houses where they sell wine is definitely a target just one hour drive from Mainz

I have discovered this beautiful village surrounded by the Haardt mountain range and Palatine Forest during a weekend trip with the U.S. military. During my clerkship in Neustadt an der Weinstraße we visited this beautiful place once during our weekend trip in Edenkoben.

Those people who would like to surf in Mainz may consider this beautiful place about one hour drive from Mainz, especially if they stay for a couple of days. The French border starts about 35 km from here and could still be managed in a day trip from Mainz.

The French border is so close

Wolfram Adolph is a renowned expert in church organs and church music. I have already thought that his educational tours were extensive and full of information. His knowledge of the northern part of the Vosgues added a great deal to the enjoyment. However, I didn't know that he was also a food expert and gourmet. The restaurants he chose were excellent and reasonably priced, ranging from more homemade to exclusive cuisine.

In a 2-hour-drive, we drove on the B10 through the Palatine forest until we seamlessly passed the scenery from Hirschtal in Germany to Lembach in the Alsace region in France. There was hardly a visible cultural difference except the colours of the half-timbered houses. The Alsatian half-timbered houses had coloured walls which we don't see as often in Germany.

Our first stop was a small town named Wingen where we could enjoy one of Strasburg's head organists(titulaire) Prof. Marc Baumann. He spoke German fluently and probably English as well. A beautiful concert in the ecumenical church. Prof. Baumann also joined as to a nice restaurant in Pfaffenbronn. A beautiful Tarte Flambee(Alsatian tart prepared in the woodfire oven) and a delicious green salad with fresh garlic was waiting for us. Prof Baumann was good fun and we had a lot of amusing stories about the Catholic church. Church insiders are a lot more critical about the church, expressed their ideas with sarcastic humour. Our dessert was a heavenly Zwetschgenkuchen(damson pie) with vanilla ice cream on top. The bottom was made of butter puff pastry instead of the usual yeast dough we commonly know. Zwetschgen or damsons are a kind of plums but rounder and smaller, the flesh sour and firm which makes it easier to bake or process.

In the afternoon we visited an organ building factory owned by the well-known organ builder Alfred Kern. His son Gaston Kern gave us an elaborate presentation about the mechanics of the church organ. Our program has been modified just to our liking, as we had the honour to listen to three more concerts by Prof. Baumann and M. Francois Fuchs. We arrived dead-tired at our Hotel Roi de Soleil in Strasburg Mundolsheim, just adjacent to Reichstett where my former Couchsurfing host Thierry lives. We didn't manage to catch up this time, so this trip had nothing to do with Couchsurfing. The hotel was a brandnew 2 star hotel with clean ultra-modern shower and comfortable bed. There was no real reception but instead, a breakfast buffet which was amazingly rich compared to the rather cheap hotel price.

After breakfast we headed for wine tasting at the famous "Cave Vinicole de Cleebourg" in Cleebourg. It was a bit early for wine tasting but we had a beautiful presentation, a movie and freshly baked Gugelhupf or Alsace sweet raisin bread. We continued our journey to Bruchweiler in Germany where the other Strasburg titulaire organist Prof Pascal Reber indulged our senses with organ music from 5 epoches.

We passed the border to Germany again to be pampered with a lovely 4-course-lunch in Nothweiler. A beautiful little town in the middle of the Palatine Forest and a cosy little 3-star-superior restaurant and hotel serving probably the best of the upper middle-class cuisine. Our last stop was Weißenbourg at the French border to see the organ in the old cathedral. It was still under renovation, we couldn't hear it and the stairs were not particularly safe. Suddenly it started to rain cats and dogs. I have been to Weissenbourg many times and we decided to drop the city tour and headed home instead.

A very memorable weekend with interesting company, beautiful scenery, impressive old churches, Silbermann and other Baroque organs, excellent high quality music, newly acquired knowledge and fine food

Hosting a guest while the water supply was shut down

My draining pipe gave up and as I opened it, it was fully jammed. I had cleaned most of it and the water flow was better but not perfect. Apparently there was more dirt in the back pipe behind the wall. I shut down the tap and improvised an emergency dish-washing station in the bathroom. We could still use the tap in the kitchen but I thought it was better to shut down the water supply as it was very likely that the drainage would be clogged up again.

Mateusz arrived in the afternoon dead-tired and late after sightseeing Idar Oberstein. Conversations with him were so diverse and well thought-out so that you would never think you were talking to a teenager. We watched a lot of his interesting photos. He has traveled a lot and traveling seems to be habitual in his family. His father has worked in the US, one brother is very nomadic and lives in Greece at present, the other in the U.S, one brother and one sister in the UK. He was simply lucky to be able to stay with his family or their friends on travels. Following his three brothers, he is now a very enthusiastic member of Couchsurfing, full of resources.

Mainz tour and CS meeting
Mateusz had many stories to tell about his observation on travels and laughed about an unfortunate incident regarding train ticket validation. The weather was unusually bad for a European summer, full of thunderstorms. Between two rainstorms we had a quick look at the Roman theatre excavations. It cleared up quickly and we enjoyed sitting on the Rhine riverside. The bus ran on the half hour, so we rather used the time to walk through the city of Mainz to the Nero's. This was the pub where the weekly Mainz CS-meeting took place. On our way to Nero's, I could show him the half-timbered houses in the Augustiner Straße(Mainz old town) until it ended at the courtyard behind the Mainz Dom(cathedral). This is called Leichhof or the courtyard of the dead, from where we could see the famous West Tower of the Dom. From here we walked down the main shopping street Ludwigstraße, Carnival fountain through the pebbled pedestrian area straight to Mainz central station. Mateusz had a good sense of orientation and didn't need to be babysitted all the time.

Idstein and Taunus area
The next day we had a lovely day eating brunch at my friend Marianne's place in Taunusstein in the middle of the Taunus mountain range. I brought a pot of home-grown basil to prepare a delicious tomato-mozarella-basil plate and Marianne baked a delicious fresh pear cake. The thunderstorm has severely hit their pear and plum trees, fruit falling off and she had to make around 30 pots of jam. The conversations were stimulating and the food excellent, time passed by very quickly. Marianne offered to show us Idstein before she headed to an appointment with one of her students.

Mateusz and me continued our visit to Idstein which was in fact spontaneous and unplanned. One of Idstein's landmarks was the Hextenturm or Witch Tower. Its history had nothing to do with witches but the ordinary watchtower looked like those towers in one of Grimm's fairy tales. We climbed up the watch tower called Hexenturm or witch tower as all of a sudden Idstein was struck by a heavy hurricane-like thunderstorm. We felt safe and protected in the tower and watched the storm from a window-like opening. Afterwards people told us that umbrellas, coffee cups and cakes were just flying around the place. Normally we only see this type of storm in Australia or Asia, in Europe it must be more spectacular than a 3D movie. Marianne rang me up to make sure whether we were safe because her car was hit by a heavy hailstorm and the creeks were flooding into the streets, very dangerous for driving.

We came home hungry and fortunately I have cooked a good Spaghetti Bolognaise the day before. Mateusz coped very well with my emergency dish-washing station in the bathroom. He is exceptionally gentleman-like for that age, carrying bags for ladies was simply natural for him. In the evening we took another walk through Mainz, I showed him more ornaments and historical buildings in Mainz. Afterwards we enjoyed a glass of wine in the traditional wine tavern "the Kanzel". I really enjoyed Mateusz's visit because he was curious, interested, a good conversationalist and very empathic. He did not only talk about his own culture but also about the Greek and Canadian one. His stories and photos really felt like traveling without leaving the comfort of your own home. Needless to say that house rules were totally unnecessary for him

Coface Arena and my guest from China. Is it so contradictory?

People who are not familiar with this local political issue will have to read these articles first. Things have become very emotional as the plans to build the multipurpose stadium Coface Arena were finalised in summer 2009. The decision has been made just after Mainz05 soccer club moved up to the Bundesliga(first German soccer league).

The Mainz football club Mainz 05, being the soul of Mainz' local pride, has made its way to the Bundesliga(first German soccer) league) after beating Schalke 04 in May 2009. The opening of the Coface Arena on July 3, 2011 was very moving and there was a kind of local Fassenacht(Mainz Carnival) feel on that day. I'm a passionate ecologist but at the same time quite an avid soccer fan. Mainz 05 has shown that they could achieve many things without promotion. After watching the game in the old stadium, we walked 3 km in a Mainz Carnival-like procession. I was as euphoric as my family and friends and for a moment I could forget the pain concerning abuse against the probably most fertile land in the middle part of Germany. It is about walking the fine line between my engagement to protect nature and my passion for soccer. I have been watching more games since the Coface Arena is just behind my house. In this case, sometime me and some other ecologists, mostly farmers, have to think what we had sacrificed in order to support Mainz05.

My guest Xuechen from China is an architecture student studying in Milan, Italy. We went to see the Coface arena. I told him about the dispute with ecologists and he commented on the stadium's location and architecture. Xuechen is a talented student and he thought it could have had a different architectural design while still retaining the Mainz05 red and white colours. In his opinion it was too simple for a 60 Mill EUR construction and doesn't really fit into the natural environment. A different type of design and shape could have fitted a lot better into the natural environment while still displaying the Mainz05 colours and characteristics. Mainzers could really turn into an enthusiastic crowd by just seeing the suppporters in red white Mainz05 clothes. I was surprised that Xuechen had so much understanding for an issue with such a local flavour. He applied a lot of his knowledge in architecture to comment on the issue

On a side note and unrelated to the Coface Arena, Xuechen(Jason) has been one of my top notch guests. House rules have been totally unnecessary for him and he shared great Chinese cooking and stories from his country