Good evening, Singapore, and welcome to episode number 7 of Sleepless in Singapore. Today is March the 3rd. I did my very first very big and long trip, which led us from the little village I was born, close to Mannheim, Germany, all the way to technically Beijing, and then a whole lot of Southeast Asia. I'm not going to put this all in one episode, far too many things have happened, but I will start today, and I think we will cover probably Eastern Europe, and then I will go on putting an episode with the further travels once in a while. So please enjoy, get yourself comfortable, sit down, lie down, and let my voice be your guide to a restful night.

Let me start with how we actually decided to go on this trip around the world or at least around half of the world. Back in 2016, I had changed jobs, and the new job I had was very difficult for me personally. There were a lot of things that weren't right, and it's not part of this episode or of that podcast at all what happened in detail, but basically, end of 2016 or maybe in the very beginning of 2017, I decided to not do that job anymore, but also for the first time in my life, I did not have a new job lined up, and I also didn't really feel like immediately going back to work in another job. And I guess you could say I was in dire need to do some reflection and some getting a bit of a distance to things. And so it came that one day I called Philip, my little brother, who's obviously not that little, not now, not back then, but he's my younger brother. And I called him and I described my situation to him. I told him, look, I am having a difficult time at work, and I want to quit it and I want to do something else. And the idea I had was an idea that I've been having for a long time, also with other friends, with my good friend Michael from Germany. I wanted to take the Trans-Siberian railways, and I wanted to take the Trans-Siberian all the way from Moscow to Beijing, like the Trans-Siberian and the Trans-Mongolian. And well, so it came. I called Philip and I told him, and I asked him, would you want to come? And I love him very, very much in general. But even more for those not even 10 seconds, it took him to ask two questions. One of which was, look, I don't have like an unlimited budget. Can we limit it to like a couple of thousands per month? Because that's what I have. And of course, we could. And the second question was, can we wait another month or so when I am finished with my bachelor's thesis or master's thesis, I think. And of course, we could wait another month. And then after 10 seconds, no hesitation, no big fuss. He said, okay, sounds great. I'm here for you and I'm in for the traveling. Let's start planning.

And I remember back then, like I said, I wasn't in the very best place. I wasn't like super broken, but I wasn't in the best place, but starting from that second where we decided let's go, something clicked in my head, and everything changed, and from that second on, I felt absolutely great, and I think we only had in the end six weeks or around that time to actually plan our big big trip, and I think I didn't spend a single day without planning something, buying something, reading, doing research, and so on. I'm looking at the pictures right now of the preparations. We did both a lot of research on what luggage to take, and we ended up, Philip taking a like a hiking backpack, I ended up taking one of these pack safe backpacks that you can carry more like a traditional suitcase but also can put on your back. We ended up researching what is the best sim card for travelers, which back then we decided was something called travelsim.de, I think. We planned what devices to bring, both of us being big nerds. Obviously, that was a big part of the whole pack list we created. I bought a new Kindle Paperwhite so I could read. We both love to read, so we both brought the Kindles, I think. I bought a new notebook because back then I had a bit heavy-ish MacBook, and I opted for the, back then what still existed, the MacBook 12, which was the lightest and smallest MacBook ever. I think Philip did not bring a computer. I replaced my camera back then, a Fuji X-T1, with the newer model, back then the Fuji X-T2, and I got two lenses, a 56 millimeter and a 23 millimeter, I believe. Philip got a new camera too. And then obviously, we also had to plan the routes, which of course for the Trans-Siberian and Mongolian railways part, it was a fixed route. There is not that much to decide, but we had to plan our way from the Mannheim area where I was born to Moscow first. And there are a couple of options, and I'm going to tell you which one we decided on in a bit. But also part of the preparations was getting tickets for the Trans-Siberian train tickets, which turned out not that easy because you have to exactly plan when you want to go where and where you want to stop and how long you want to stop. And you need to know that beforehand. Then you needed a couple of visas for Russia, for China, a couple of visas for Russia for China, which now thinking about it also wasn't that easy, so we applied for this visa, and then I think after we packed and repacked our stuff and our packing cubes and our technology and all that again and again, we both figured out a way to keep the big backpack around 10 kilograms, which for a 9, 10, 11-month travel through different, not only time zones, but through different climate zones, Russia was going to be cold, but then Thailand was going to be very warm, was, I think, a good weight. Especially including camera and computer, it was a good weight that we had. We achieved that mainly by not bringing a lot, obviously, especially clothes-wise. I think we both had maybe five, six t-shirts. Big fan of the Icebreaker Merino stuff, so we had a bunch of Icebreaker t-shirts, a bunch of Icebreaker underwear. If you haven't heard of that, highly recommended for traveling. They look all right, but you don't get really hot in them, you don't get really cold in them, and they don't stink. At least they don't stink quickly, so you can wear them a second time or a third time even, even the underwear. I've heard of people, I think the guy here in Singapore selling the Icebreaker stuff, he tells me you can wear it for seven days in a row without showering. I have never tried it. I kind of don't believe it. I mean, you can do a lot of things, but why? So anyway, we managed to pack relatively light.

And the night before, Philip and I met up very excited, and we made it. We had a couple of rules, and one of our rules was one of the ambitions we had was to not take any, well, any mode of transportation except for buses and trains. And so it came that when our mom asked if she could drive us to the train station in Mannheim, we declined, and our journey started after our dear grandma had packed some very nice bread rolls, and there is a fun little anecdote there too, which I don't want to talk about again now because I already wrote it down on the blog. So if you're interested, go read that. We had our schmear on our bread rolls, and grandma was happy, and we were happy. And our mom was there to say goodbye. And my good friend Michael was there to say goodbye. And my good friend Marco was there in the evening before. We had a couple of last beers and some good talk and bye-byes. And then finally, Philip and I put on our backpacks, and we walked across the street to the bus stop, waved goodbye last time, and we both weren't to see our hometown for the next I think eight or nine months, and we took the bus and we went to the train station in Mannheim. And then the very first thing we were doing there is running after our visa. The Russian visa, that is. Because even though we had paid, I'm just looking at it, 775 euros, which is more than 1000 Singapore dollars. They weren't there in time. And we paid for express, and we talked to them, and it took them forever. In general, it was a nice contact person at this company, Tyco they are called, like a German visa company. In general, they were very nice, very helpful. The problem is we didn't have any visa, and we were leaving. And of course, when you're on the road, it's kind of hard to get stuff to you. So we got a bit nervous. And then the night before we left, they said they are going to send a train express to Mannheim. And so we went to Mannheim, to the train station, the day before already, regularly with a car like normal people. And we wanted to pick our visa. And our visa wasn't there. Because the train, Hello Deutsche Bahn, did not stop in Mannheim. They forgot to stop. They didn't see the train station. Who knows what happened. But they did not have our paperwork, and they promised, we'll have it for you tomorrow before you leave, and so we were sent home the last evening before our big big trip without any visa, and that's why the next day after our bus trip to the Mannheim train station, the first thing was we ran after our visa, and we finally found someone who could help us. And thank God we made it. We got our two permissions to enter Russia, and we put all the paperwork away, and we made it to the train, and we sat down like properly, not first class, properly second class, German train via Karlsruhe and Stuttgart and then Munich, and then Vienna, a couple of hours train ride, 6, 7, 8, maybe even more, I don't remember. Basically, the whole first day we spent in the train, and we were super excited, and I think we did not understand the full extent of our decision to not stay at home for the next eight months, nine months. But we were in very good moods, and then when we finally arrived in Vienna and checked into our hostel, I believe. I actually don't really remember where we slept in Vienna. Maybe you can help me out there, Philipp. I know that for a couple of our stops we tried to find some couchsurfing opportunities. But I think the only time that really worked was in Mongolia, in Ulaanbaatar. So in Vienna, I think we stayed in a hostel. And then we did what people do in Vienna. We went for sightseeing. We went to see the castle. We walked around a lot in the city. We got some snacks. And of course, we got our very first dinner not at home, which was a Wiener Schnitzel and Kartoffelsalat, which is a veal cutlet and potato salad, a very typical dish for Vienna. And we got a beer, and we had a good time, and we gave each other a hug, and I think we fell asleep very happy, very excited for what was about to come. I don't know if this really should be in a podcast, but I guess it's a very unfiltered podcast. So I'm just going to tell you, I'm looking at this Wiener Schnitzel, at this Viennese pork or veal cutlet, and it looks beautiful, and I remember it tasted quite good. But I also remember the first thing that broke our stomachs, both our stomachs, Philipps and mine, and made us spend quite some time in the bathroom was not anything weird in Thailand, was not live octopus in Korea, it was not Balut in the Philippines. It was the Viennese schnitzel. Anyway, we got over it. It only took like a couple of hours. It wasn't that we were seriously sick. I think it was just, I don't know, getting used to a schnitzel that is not prepared by grandma. So I'm just looking at the pictures, and I remember now why I cannot remember where we slept in Vienna, and that is because we didn't. The same day we actually went on to Bratislava. After we had our Sachertorten and our typical Viennese things, we went on to Bratislava, which is, if you look at a map, quite close to Vienna, there is kind of what looks like a local train actually, and it takes like 90 minutes or so, and we went to Bratislava, and there in Bratislava, we stayed at a very nice Airbnb, which was a condo type of thing. It was on the 28th floor, which is probably higher than any floor I've ever stayed before. We had a great pan over the city's flickering lights. And I remember the strange thing was, though, I think a family was living there because when we arrived, a whole family was leaving. Whole family means a mom and a dad and two kids. And they handed over the keys and they said, enjoy our place. And then they all left when we arrived. So I'm not sure where they went. To be honest, I also didn't ask. But it is like it is. And we had a very nice place to stay, our own rooms, our own beds. And I remember we went for a bit of a dinner. And then we started our sightseeing in Bratislava at 11 a.m. the next day, when we woke up after a very good sleep.

The difference between Vienna and Bratislava is visible. By no means is Bratislava ugly or there is missing anything, but compared to this beauty and majesty of Vienna's center with the castle and all the gardens and all that, maybe Bratislava looked a tad grey, which kind of confirmed our prejudices about Eastern Europe a tiny bit. What I remember did not confirm our prejudices about Eastern Europe at all were the prices, which were very high. I remember we were walking through this little market they were all kind of like handmade trinkets, organic food, fresh juices, and so on, it looked a little bit like a hipster market, and the prices were insane, anything, they were higher than in Germany. So after we left the inner city and mostly average breakfast behind us, we went on to see some of Bratislava's landmarks. And we were quite impressed by Bratislava Castle, which is a bit outside. It's beautiful. You can walk around there. It's a typical European castle. It's a very nice place to just hang and take some pictures and walk around. There is nature. It's nice. And then in the evening, we sit down, we have a beer, we talk a bit. There is this philosophic question Philip and I were discussing. When is the point where you start getting closer to your destination, where you kind of start arriving instead of still leaving or getting further away from your departure point. And we both agree it'd probably take another few thousand miles to get to that point. We also were sitting there looking at the people, and we realized that Bratislava Old Town seems to be some bachelorette's or bachelor's party or wedding party, well, party and drinking place because there are flocks of very cheery people passing by all the time they're all dressed up in stupid clothes and they're all like half drunk and you know it kind of it kind of seems a little bit like a place to to go to party and drink for your wedding or for your bachelors. The next morning we have breakfast at a place called Mondieu, which was all right. And then we did a classical tourist old people thing, and we loved it. We took a boat, you know, like one of these tourist boat tours, which took us to the ruins of Devin Castle, which apparently is one of the oldest castles in Slovakia. And we spent another great afternoon together, walking around, talking.

There is maybe one more thing I should mention when I say Philipp and I are talking. Like when we talk, I mean, of course we talk, we're brothers. We have proper things to discuss once in a while. But maybe if you listen to that podcast and you hear me rambling on about little details, you might think Philip and I were very talkative on that trip. Absolutely not. The whole train trip, the many, many hours from back home Mannheim to Austria to Vienna was basically two sentences. It was like, hey, it's cool that we're doing this together. Yeah, super cool. And then we're back to looking out of the window of the train and enjoying the sights. And it's like that. And also when we walk around and do sightseeing, obviously we point out like, hey, look at this. This is interesting. But it's more of a quiet understanding that connects us, which is a good thing. I like it, and I hope Philipp likes it too. So, yeah, I just wanted to mention that. When I say we walk around and we talk and we sightsee, it's maybe not 100% as you imagine it would be. After the boat tour, we went back to the city. We went to a restaurant called Kolkhofna, which I will not link. It was not nice, but it's an experience too. And then we went to bed quite early, because on the next day, which was April the 23rd of 2017, we had to get up early to make our way to Budapest. And I think with all the talking about the preparations and the schnitzels and Bratislava and the little anecdotes about how we talk, if we talk to each other, we spent almost 40 minutes already, so we will make a cut here. I will talk to you about Budapest, which was very fun. The next time, or maybe one of the next times even. And for now, I am going to read some Tom Sawyer for you.