17th august 2007 - upstream km 1617

"... because it is a customary bad habit not just of the great crowd, but of nearly all people, to cling to the way of life into which they were born, and not to look beyond it."
michel de montaigne

peter starts the engines at 3am and sets off, the sun rises at 6am on the dot.

I sit on the roof, looking towards the bow. after a while I can’t distinguish movement any more. it is as if the world is moving past us and not the other way around. and not just that, it is as though everything is scenery, repeating scenery - the same inlets again and again, the same trees, bushes, fishing boats, bridges, houses, people ...

just before we reach budapest we want to dock at a pontoon to look for a pub that lies behind it. suddenly someone has the idea of levying a "parking charge". I check my wallet to see how many forint I still have, but the woman immediately waves it aside: euros! the first price given is €500 - after a while the talk is of €45 and we are just getting ready to pay when the wheel starts to move back again. the captain has run out of patience and we set anchor 100 metres upstream - at no charge.

we leap into the water, cool off, sit at the stern with a beer and let ourselves be dried by the warm wind. the low-lying sun bathes the surrounding alluvial forests in warm light and casts liquid gold into the danube as holger calls us to dinner.he has outdone himself again: vegetables with shrimps in an asian style, with rice and salad.

as darkness falls the clouds come up and the mosquitoes start to bite. a few drops fall, there’s meant to be bad weather at the weekend. we’ll see. it is the way it is. and what must come will come.