The Diary
of
Anne Ku

15 February 2001 Thursday

LIVING OUT OF A SUITCASE

Like minds meet. Two travellers, displaced in time and space, met in the twilight hours of an international exhibition. The bearded man showed me his Texas driver's license to prove what he normally looked like - without a beard.

Over a sequence of German dishes designed by the Tunisian waiter, the bearded man told me that he had been travelling for the last six months, back and forth, between the US and Europe.

I was starting to feel the weightlessness of my two months of continuous travel. I had started on 19th December, from London to New York. Now, I'm in Germany, the last leg of my three country stint. I'm getting tired of wearing the same old turtlenecks.

He was on his way to London. By now, he didn't care about the fact that he had no hotel reservation. He wasn't even sure if he had his airplane ticket. The beaches of Costa Rica still lingered in his mind, for it was twenty-four hours after coming back from this vacation that he had to repack for Europe.

I too had to repack my suitcase from the US for Germany. Luckily the weather was still about the same.

Tomorrow I will take the train to Muenster for the weekend. He will no doubt be hunting for a hotel to stay in London.

Yesterday

Tomorrow

The longest time I've lived out of a suitcase was my five months around the world.

Restaurant Purzelbaum, where this dinner took place, is located at Eschem Strasse 58 in Essen, Germany. The atmosphere was very homey and cozy.