Leaving Berlin to be on the road solo-cycling was a crazy feeling. The most unusual feeling was of not having a specific accommodation booked for the end of day. I was really thrilled but also curious how this trip would pan out. I cycled away chatting with strangers and getting attention as not only a solo cyclist but also an Indian one. Most people even in the most obscure towns recognized that I was Indian – I still don’t understand how considering they had never seen a solo Indian girl cycling. At many of the campsites that I stayed at, I was told that I was the first Indian to do so.

My first campsite Oranienberg Harbor was a beautiful, award winning camp site. It was on the banks of river Havel and this is the view across the bridge.

So as I reached my first award winning, heritage campsite – Oranienberg Harbor – I asked a German couple how to enter the campsite. I could see the site but there was a gate barring my way and I needed a card to enter it. The couple didn’t speak English. I anyway pursued the conversation by sign language. The lady was really affected and she started responding in sign language. It was not that tough. Basically I had to go to an office a little way away – I understood that I had to go in that direction. 🙂

There was a whole drama at the office because the harbor master was out and the auto-card-machine wasn’t working but finally I sorted all that out. I went back to the campsite and entered. I saw that couple relaxing outside their caravan. Looking around, I decided to put up my tent near them as the lady was really helpful and it was a good location.

So as I was setting up my tent nearby, the lady came around to ask if everything was fine. I didn’t understand much. I was really tired, smiled, sad ‘gut, gut’ and went to sleep. Snoooze.

This is how I camped my first night. It was really a sticky, warm weather. I checked the weather forecast and since there were no rains didn’t put the plastic cover.

I figured the lady found me quite an enigma – Indian, solo, doesn’t speak German – what is she doing out here! But since we didn’t know each others language, I thought it would be an end of it. But not so. The other day the lady beckoned me and starting asking me questions. I tried to answer cause I understand a bit of German. Since English & German have similar roots there are words that overlap….. but definitely not enough to actually converse. Anyway, she managed to find out that this was my first trip to Europe. I had solo traveled a lot in India which is very difficult but Europe is easy so I was doing this Berlin-Copenhagen cycling trip. She was really struck. She told me she respected me a lot. And then obviously she really wanted to talk.

So finally I decided to drop my reticence and get into this. This lady wants to talk German with me, well this is the 20th Century and I have the technology for this. I dug out my smart phone, known as “handy” in Germany and opened up Google translate. Yes, I had not researched any better app.

So out comes Google Translate – I started typing in English, translated in German and put it on audio so she could actually listen to it. She found it all quite interesting. It was then her turn to type – so she typed in German and translated to English. She wasn’t savvy with the phone but she managed.

So this way I found myself having some quite deep conversation with this German speaking lady using Google translate. It was pretty crazy. I was telling her about how the British occupation of India had caused so many changes in our cultural fabric that it was getting so tough to really gets things back on track. The fact that we need to know English – which is a foreign language for our economic growth creates a lot of challenges. Because the language of the person influences his/her thinking and so inevitably there is a conflict. Because in our culture and heart we are Indian while via Language and thoughts we are getting ‘Westernized’… this is probably because for many days I was tackling with this issue within myself. That how can Indian culture and the Western influence in urban areas be sorted out? She did find it a little intriguing…. as she didn’t understand such a thing. The German people have no issue of corroding culture as in most of those European countries their own language Rules!

Anyway the conversation just went to all sorts of topics. And yes, Google translate was quite a limited tool I wish I could have found a better one but it was a really worthwhile effort. This lady who would have been just a helpful German lady became a Travel Friend.

Next couple of days we didn’t get much chance to sit down and talk again because she fell sick, probably got a sun stroke but she always watched out for me. Just before I was leaving she came to meet me and gave me a shopping bag to take with me. In case I wanted to shop anything. 🙂

German lady gave me a small bag for shopping as a parting gift 🙂
I in turn told her I will write to her from India so share her email. This is a big thing for Germans as they are paranoid about giving out personal information.

I asked her if she had an email id I could write to, so we can keep in touch. She went to ask her husband for one, but he got completely freaked out. I was just mildly curious – what’s this now?! I thought it was standard to exchange contact info with friends on the road 🙂

Anyway she came back some time later and got me her address. So I will be writing her a letter now… but I wanted to blog this story before that. I meet so many people on my road… I would like to keep such stories to read through later on. Hope you also enjoy reading. 🙂

I later found out after meeting more German people that they are completely paranoid about giving personal information – in fact that is why a lot of them are not on Facebook or any other social network. So this is why her husband freaked out when I asked his email. Hehe.

And in case you are wondering – no I didn’t get any photo with her. I am a very reticent photographer and I really don’t click selfies.