It’s unfair to compare small villages and towns to large agglomerations with 400 000 inhabitants. Nonetheless, “neat but deserted” is the true impression we got from the North-East part of Germany. The last small town Gartz looked really like a ghost town. Out of its 2000 inhabitants there was no one on the streets in the evening. Therefore our today’ trip to Polish Szczecin felt like a trip back to people. People on the streets, people in open shops and cafes, local people riding bikes and scooters, couples holding hands, children running round and even mothers pushing buggies… Actually too busy, but still all scenes which we were missing for the last few days.

“100 people” tells me a local fisher in a tiny village when back in Germany I ask how many people live there
“But they want to open a refugee home here” he adds
“Here?”
“Yes here where there is no infrastructure, no work, no people, no anything”
“Why?”
“Business. A Berlin businessman bought an abandoned house here and made profit by selling it to the government. The refugees will be more numerous than us”
“What can you do about it?”
“Nothing, the ink is on the paper already”

An hour later we meet coincidentally again, two guys from Saxony who aim for the same city as us
“Do you have a Garmin watch charger? I lost mine somewhere”
“Yes, I do”
“Could you borrow it to me. It would be a disaster for me if couldn’t record the trip”
I fully understand it.
Later in the evening, when he brings the charger to me to our hotel, I get also a six-pack of beer as a little reward. I reject first, then we argue for a while and finally agree that 3 bottles are appropriate. It is nice to be back among people again.