Part VI- July something, 2002

Subject:
Back in Germany

Well, I´m in Germany now. A few days of scouting around Halifax persuaded me that working your way across the ocean is hardly a possibility anymore (unless I missed something important). Most ship crews are either unionized, or they hire cheap labor from developing nations. Or both. Either way, there wasn´t much of an option for me, being a European citizen stranded on Canadian land, and having no sailing experience. But I thought I´d continue searching for more options, such as playing piano on a cruise ship or something, but that didn´t look too good. After a few days of looking, I heard that the cheapest flight for Germany was leaving that very night, and that I would be unlikely to find as good a deal for the rest of the summer. This put me in the awkward position of having to decide quickly, and I decided that I´d roll with it. I had to pull quite a stunt to transfer the money from Germany in time to pay the ticket, though.

So there it is. It´s something of an anticlimax, after a journey of asceticism and alternate travelling modes, to end up taking the conventional route out of there. There is something of a lesson here, that I have come across frequently in my travels: the less of a hurry you´re in, the cheaper you can travel. Once you have a deadline to meet (like, I wanted to be in Europe before August) then you have to start investing more. I´m convinced that if I didn´t care whether it took me a year or two to cross the ocean, I would eventually have found some way to work on a ship. But it was looking like I´d either pay for a cheaper flight, or wait around a bit and then have to pay for a more expensive one, without finding the possibility of working for my passage.

Maybe next time I can find the life out of the Melville and Stevenson books that I was hoping to encounter this time. For now, I´ll be living here in Europe, getting myself a haircut and hopefully finding some meaningful employment.

Until then.

Marco