German Christmas cooking with CS Indonesia

Magdalena and Faiza have organised many cooking classes. This time they planned to organise a German class, so I decided to give them a helping hand










They had many cooking classes starting from French, Cambodian, Thai, the several regions of Indonesia and recently the German class. German pre-Christmas(Advent)cooking has always been the highlight of the Christmas tradition in many countries. This time we decided to transfer this atmosphere from Germany to Indonesia. We haven't stopped enjoying the beautiful Rinderrouladen(beef rolls), Rotkraut(red cabbage) and an improvised mixture of potato dumpling and baked potatoes. It was perfectly organised and I started to doubt whether I'm professional enough to join in into the organisation








It was a fun experience making Rotkraut(red cabbage) together. The pot was so light that we needed four people in total, three to hold the pot and one to stir.















We had to wear name tags so it was easier to remember people's names. These are Bratäpfel(baked apples) a la CS Indonesia with them displayed on the dish. It was a wonderful cultural exchange, very playful with some sort of party atmosphere.Magdalena hosted me the night before and we went out for shopping. This has been one of the highlights how the Couchsurfing idea is transformed into practice by having cooking class parties

Katja Brüdermann's Shiatsu On-Tour Pantomime

We don't need to host or surf to enjoy Couchsurfing. Yesss....we don't even need to get too far from our house!!! Through a CS post on the Mainz(Germany) group I met Katja Brüdermann. She was looking for improvised pantomime performers to accompany the reading of her book:" Von einer, der sich auf den weg macht(Shiatsu on Tour)" at the Wiesbaden Wellness Fair, 16 km from Mainz. Katja likes to travel on her bike and offers shiatsu treatments while on tour. These are photos of our outstanding and funny pantomime performance at the Wiesbaden Wellness Fair! Katja and me reading excerpts out of her book accompanied by our pantomime.





SHIATSU ON-TOUR PANTOMIME and READING
"This is my shiatsu team!" said Katja Brüdermann while reading excerpts out of her book


Scenario: Hippie Festival. "I wonder whether I fit in into this crazy pack of tantra massaging hippies....."







Hippie Music Festival: The shiatsu team is building a yurt. Putting together the small parts or getting tangled up. Similar to shiatsu



At the end all the tiny bits and pieces form a well-rounded structure. That's what shiatsu is all about:-)







Treating a stressed woman with a noisy, sandwich smacking family in the background



Treating a hippie couple with sore legs after dancing




Man with excruciating backpain coming in after midnight


That's not yet one hour mein Fräulein! Don't wanna make more money??











Grrrrr...biking through Mecklenburg's bumpy roads and sand dunes. I continue my tour with heavy luggage on the worst trail since ever...........





Finally I have found a room to sleep in.......hooray!!!

Dumpster diving with Talley and Callum

Callum MacDonald had a very unique request. He wished to join into dumpster diving and to live in a squat. While I was unable to provide the latter, it was great fun to go on a dumpster diving tour.

My goal is not to promote dumpster diving for fun because this may result in shops locking up their trash bins and needy people will have no opportunity to find food. Callum has been an old friend and therefore I included him in our hunt. However, normally I don't do it with surfers that I have never met before. It is hard to imagine that organic super markets throw away such a huge amount of products. Callum and me had a gourmet organic meal of packaged German potato pancakes(Kartoffelpuffer) and a sealed jar of awesome apple/mango mark with some bacon from my fridge.

Dumpster diving is different in different countries. In Germany it is officially prohibited and considered theft. However, people don't bother to call the police and the police doesn't take much action either. In most conservative cities in Germany, large supermarkets tend to cover and lock their trash bins which they do in Mainz. Wiesbaden is less strict especially the smaller shops and we may need to look for small organic supermarkets. Giant supermarkets like Aldi or Nettokom calculate the purchase of their goods very carefully, so nearly nothing is left and thrown in the dumpster. It is the smaller organic shops which we have to look for because they don't calculate their purchase professionally. So we just have to remember that it is us who have to pay for their lack of professionality.

Tips for Germany:
1. Come when it is dark, preferably when it's colder after October
2. Carefully search the bins and tip them all over. Put them back in order and don't leave any of your footprints.
3. The foul goods or trash are purposely put on top as to discourage dumpster divers but at the bottom you will find all gems.
4. Look for small organic shops





Prepare to dive deep into the bin





Callum MacDonald surfing my couch. Dumpster diving in Wiesbaden with Talley

Ronneburg medieval market

" Mirror, mirror on the wall, who in the land is fairest of all?"

"Oh Lady Queen, thou, O Queen, art the fairest of all" Mirror broken, don't believe it;-P
Patricia, a CS member, walking on stilts
Me in medieval lady attire

sword fighting

Clown/fire juggling





A wonderful castle ruine is the Ronneburg Museum Castle in Hesse, 180 km north of Frankfurt. A beautiful location in the middle of breathtaking mountainous views. It is the right setting for a medieval market where beautiful costumes and the middle ages come back to life.

Reason number 13 to surf Christian Bayerlein's couch

After Annnick-Marie Bouchard stated her 12 reasons to surf Christian's couch, I will add just number 13. Christian is down-to-earth, cheeky and I hope they will not televise our naughty conversation:-). Of course this is not reason no 13 why somebody should surf Christian's couch.

Reason no 13 is: Christian and his 3 Assistentinnen are quite in opposition to my political and social viewpoint. And yet I was comfortable and familiar with Christian from day one. It has been a relaxing but simple surfing experience. We exchanged quite a few hosting and surfing experiences. Among others he said something about references I found refreshing and down-to-earth. He said that if you were observant enough with an ability to read people, you would be able to find out at least the basics of somebody's personality. It especially holds true in a small or one-to-one meeting. We were exactly on the same page. He had other simple but effective views for both hosts and guests.

This time there was a film crew who were shooting a documentary about Christian's life and later published by German TV station 3SAT. Couchsurfing was only a small part of Christian's very rich life. Of course I was not a couchsurfer in the real sense, we were both CS members and ambassadors who met on numerous occasions in Mainz

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News from the Mainz couching sphere

John from U.S works out a lot. The Mainz Wine and Food Market is the right thing for him
My CS friend Karen and her colleagues at the Mainz Wine Market in the beautiful Rosengarten


Together with my old CS friend Winfried at the Mainz-Kastel Beach bar. He came to my place in Sydney, Australia and we visited a Toastmasters meeting

My guests Hugo and Noel at the historical Mainz fresh produce market, surrounded by the Dom(Cathedral)and Johannes Gutenberg Museum


My surfers Noel and Hugo busy with laptops


Mainz meeting at Ballplatz Cafe with Babu from India/Hungary

Sami, my CS guest from Brazil on 1,2 August

Samantha from Brazil is an experienced traveler and dentist(endodontist, specialist for root canal). I took her to a vegetarian soulfood dinner at Nathalie's place

We went to explore Wiesbaden, Mainz, the Rhine Gorge with a stop at the medieval town of Bacharach and spa town of Bad Kreuznach


Inhaling saline is a must-do in the spa town of Bad Kreuznach, especially with lung conditions. People with medical conditions can stay and use the natural resources like saline and radon.
Bad Kreuznach is a spa town with a park and forested walks.

We went up the Neroberg in Wiesbaden on a funicular driven by water which is the only one in the world. It is mentioned in the Lonely Planet but not in a way that catches people's attention
The Nerobers is a hill with vineyards which overlooks Wiesbaden and located at the foot of the Taunus mountains.

The Mainz market square in front of the Cathedral, the most important landmark in this city. The weekly fresh produce markets is the highlight of the week, although not necessarily cheap.