Cultural culture

Hello again,

me and the Entourage felt some cultural needs so we decided to visit Robben Island on a nice sun shiny day. What seemed to be quite a promotional trip for excitement seeking old, grumpy world inhabitants turned into an amazing, mentaly challenging racecourse through southafrican history. A young guy about 21 years of age was able to set new horzions in questions of self awareness of racial prejudices we all still carry deep inside of us. Even though I have travelled many countires of the world and thougth of myself as "colourblind", I realized that I have to be more careful with my thoughts in annoying everyday situations. The whole group was then handed over to an ex-prisoner of Robben Island, who showed us around the high security prison and even Nelson Mandela's personal cell. The ex-prisoner currently lives on Robben Island again - next to one of his former guards. If that is not a step towards "understanding and forgiveness", I dont know.

Next off, parts of the Entourage travelled to the crystal pools of Gordon's Bay. The adventurous hike takes about an hour, if you trust a female with the navigation... The pools offer jumps from 3 to 18 meters into pitch-black dark water. None of us jumped;-)

And just now – like 10 min ago – I came back from the „Kaptika“ exhibition in Woodstock. The artist actually comes from Berlin, Germany, but was invited here for some sort of exchange programme, which is organized by those other arts people that... bla bla bla. Anyhow these guys have a website http://www.a-word-of-art.co.za/ and more importantly an amazing drive to change their dull environment into a more inspiring and beautiful place.

We are all taking off to their afterparty now!

Have beautiful night and even more beutiful days following!

The Entourage

Life is a jungle

I promised myself to write some new stuff quicker this time and here it is ;)

It is very convenient though that I did a little trip all around the Cape area. We started off to Muizenberg early noon and met some pretty playful seals in the harbour of Kalk Bay, which caputred my attention for so long that my companions just left me there and walked off to see the local fish market. I was looking at my seal friends, who seemed so much at lease, spinning around and stopping head down like professional synchron underwater dancers. Nobody seemed to take too much attention of them, but I just had to keep on smiling and probably looked just as dreamy as they did. After that encounter, a tourist-zoo- mafiosi-penguin-sydicate tried to take 5 Euro of me to watch "their" penguines at the beach of Simon's Town. Combining all the high level science skills, I had gathered in my 3 years of studying biology at the LMU, I figured out that penguines can swim and that they would - most likely - hang out at the beach next door, too. To my personal distaste, my companions didnt believe me right away and we had to call a secret intel agent to - finally - confirm my genuis assumption! Basically, we saw some peguines at the beach just next to the syndicates one...;)
Nevertheless, we would never know what mischievious creatures would still await us on or travel, which let us more and more south towards the mysterious cliffs os Cape Point. They were furry ones. Big as a baboon! And they smelled like baboons! Again, after concentrating hard I was able to tell the rest of the group that these animals next to the street towards Cap Point were really... baboons. Not regular ones though! Thug Baboons! I saw one of them opening a happily smiling couple's car, climbing into the backseat and locking the doors from inside. The "happily smiling" couple turned into a "unnatural furious" one. I found that situation to be rather funny until the two of them had managed to get rid of the intruder. Their "about one year old" child had been lying in the front seat of the car...
The rest of the trip was dictated by my moaning about my sunburn - I cant get burned, I am here since two months! - and the beautiful scenery of Cape Point.

Good hope and much love to all of you!

Your Entourage

living in the now is a gift - that is why they call it present

Hello everyone,
I was a bad boy and didnt write a blog for some weeks, but now you'll get the whole package. While travelling through countries I always felt like on some long distance flight. The take off is exciting and fast. New peolpe next to you, who are going to the same destination but have differnt expectations, or the same or none or just babble you into sleep. The stewardess serves you some "exotic" jus and in some tiny can. All is new to you, but still you try to compare everything to the stuff at home. You check your "free stuff" - wow cool little tooth brush! - even headphones and - amazing - some tiny pastic socks to keep me warm while I am on board. You switch on the entertainment and watch one movie after another - just like traveling from one place to another. Every movie is differnt - you can change experiences at your will. But sooner or later you get bored, your back hurts, you are not excited by the small tiny coca cola bottles anymore. you want more and that is when you concentrate and slowly calm down and relax. you look closely at the interior of the airplane, you look at the guy sitting next to you. you search for - and find - the little unique things, which will make your travel and all your stories you are going to tell someday unique. you feel excited again, but on a way more introverted level. when the plane finally lands it is the same when you come back home from one of your long travels. the first step out is the hardest... you start comparing vice versa now. why is the coca cola can so big in my country. did it always used to be like this?

With love,

The Entourage

PS: The pictures above are a mix of experiences with my brothers in mind - Alejandro and Krisha. We visited the townships in Hout Bay and ran into another bushfire which blocked the road home for hours. the paintings are made by me and are just some start of a new approch towards documentation. Furthermore, you'll find a picture of Nik, who is a cool friend and photographer. I hope to learn some skills from him. Check out his website, if you love landscape photography http://www.nikolasmichael.com/

I hope you will like the stuff!