My travel buddy – how Mouse and I met

Here is the story how I got Mouse as my most reliant travel buddy.

And she is the best travel buddy. Always in a good mood, available and keen on seeing new places. And her ears make sizzling noises when you massage them. Apart from that she is very quiet.

Only downside is her laziness. Not one step does she do on her own. She wants to be carried always and everywhere. For photos she insisted on being leaned against something – otherwise she simply lies flat on the ground. So finally we agreed on buying some wire for her last weekend when we were in picture-perfect Dali, China. Mouse finally agreed on waving as well on that day. We are still working on the perfect exo-skeleton set-up and are open for recommendations. 

So, we met four years ago, at Hamburg Airport. It was both our first time going to Asia. But to be honest, she never told me where she is from. Maybe each trip to China is a bit of going home to her origins? We got introduced through my niece, who was one year of age at that time. But here’s the whole story from my point of view:

My stomach flatters. I am nervous and excited. Desperate to go and afraid to leave. The whole mixture of feelings before starting to a very new place. Lust for adventure and new things wins – plus I had commited to a job and a paid plane ticket in my hand.

Family and friends come to the Hamburg airport to see me off. I am going to China for the very first time. My father is here. My mother. As well as my sister and her boyfriend, Kai, they are also the parents of my first niece. She is about one year old at this time. My boyfriend. Around my neck a necklace one of my closest friends gave me for my 30^th birthday a few weeks ago.

We are standing in line, two huge suitcases to check in, backpack on my back. Apart from my family I am surrounded by people with cardboard boxes, speaking a language I don’t understand at all. Despite my try to get a grasps of the basics in the last months.

So, do I have everything with me I COULD just eventually need in China?! No. I don’t. Kai runs off to the overpriced airport supermarket to return with two rolls of toilet paper. I hardly know anything about my new destination, about the city where I am planning to spent the next 12 months. But I do know that one of the worst things is to be somewhere without a sufficient amount of toilet paper.

Going towards the security gate I start to feel a bit wary, having to leave all of them behind. When Kai produces the mouse. „When I asked our daughter what to give to you, since you are going away for a year, she was very determined in handing me this toy.“

I smile and clutch on to the mouse. Not SO alone after all.

And that’s the story how Mouse became my travel buddy.

When I left on my current trip, my niece – almost five year old at that time – and I agreed on me taking pictures with Mouse for her.