Unemployed, Homeless, and Trampolining

14 April 2009, Bamberg, Germany

Three days, two showers, one German superstore. Tournai was mostly about sorting ourselves out, and a statue which included a bare-breasted adolescent girl frolicking on an empty fountain (not that Belgium has any reputation for paedophilia). Up fairly early, and on the road to Koln in Germany, where one can partake of sausage by the meter and beer in tiny little glasses. Campsite right on the Rhine, and we daringly risked the wrath of German Authority by not paying for the tram into the city. To be fair, it wasn't entirely clear, and obviously the herd mentality gives strength to cowards like me, bred in fear of die Deutschen (or at least their reps in Delran).

David and I have been to Koln before, years and years ago, which was actually quite nice as there wasn't any stress about doing the sights. Also, I do enjoy a spot of amateur tour-guiding, and this trip means a whole new audience. Captive. Haha. Suckers.

More practically speaking, the truck is called Calypso...last year was Penelope, and Pete asked for suggestions. Only one of us bothered to make any, and so Jennifer has the honour. It's got individual seats, fairly comfortable, and a couple of tables, conducive to some Scrabble action yesterday. And no, Anna, I did not play. There's a huge sort of locker at the back, which holds all the ginormous bags we have and roll mats and sleeping bags and pillows, etc. After all the stress of stripping down to the bare necessities and worrying that I'd be the shallow girl with too much crap, surrounded by the sort of people who cut the handles off their toothbrushes to save weight, in actual fact I have come out looking pretty good. I even splurged on a new pair of socks today, damn their judgement to hell.

At the minute we're all sitting around in the late afternoon sun, writing in journals or on laptops, or reading. Camp chairs for us all, which we are assured are much better than those of the competition. Tim and Cheryl, the South African crew, are making dinner with the group assigned this task—it appears to consist of curry sauce, coconut, and cabbage. A lot of cabbage. The sort from which can emerge dolls with names like Chastity Nanette.

There are 22 people on the trip, including David and I. Three are Scots, called Paul (Aberdeen), Lindsay (also Aberdeen), and Richard (Edinburgh). Two are from Brighton, and promise to start some sort of girl gang in the near future—Debbie and Amy. Four Irishmen. Alan and Rachel are from near Dublin, have never camped before, and Alan is the one who I have mentioned previously had some issues opening a drink bottle, though he has since redeemed himself. Clearly it was just a freakishly powerful drinks bottle. John is a bit older, travelling on his own, as is Dennis from Cork, a native Irish speaker and hurler and plasterer moving to Australia. He's a lovely accent, though I can't yet understand much of it. (Reilly, I may have found you a man!) He's got tales of being taught Spanish in Irish, which I think explains a lot about something, but I'm not yet sure what. Tee and Le are a married couple from West Australia, also a bit older; sisters Abby and Elaine are traveling to Australia, where Abby lives. Remind me to tell you the one about Elaine and the Drug Trafficking.

Emma is an English nurse from Nottingham, Louise describes herself as a girl who likes to wander and take the odd photograph, Steve is from Preston. Alex is a French/ English maths teacher. Corrie has a lovely Welsh first name no one can say, and is a cheesemonger (which I personally think the most interesting career here), going home to Australia after 5 years in England.

Only cold showers in Koln, so most of us waited until tonight—worth it, as this camp ground has fantastic brand new showers and also a trampoline. Unemployed, homeless, and trampolining. That may be the name of my autobiography.