A surprising twist. Both literally and figuratively. Instead of traveling south in a straight line, towards the Riviera, I head east towards Germany.
There is an opportunity to do some paid work in the last part of my trip. That came about thanks to Frank, a friend of mine, who is on holiday in Germany. He follows my experiences from day to day and is very sympathetic to me. Until last week he was in an apartment complex in Kochel, a town between Munich and Garmisch-Partenkirchen.
Better than nothing
He has been coming there for years and knows the owner. He told him about his staffing problems. An employee had called in sick and he had failed to fill that gap. Frank got a brainwave and offered me. Without knowing me, the owner probably thought that something is better than nothing at all and he made an offer: €300 a week with room and board and including a train ticket from Dijon to Kochel. Although it is not by the sea, it is on a ‘See’. In addition, a heat wave is threatening in the south of France. It’s an offer I can’t refuse and I’m moving from France to Germany.
“Why are you doing this to yourself?”
For that last week it may not seem worth the effort to make another trip like this, but the thought of another success on the labor market is the deciding factor for me. Frank has meanwhile traveled further and in Kochel I am taken off the train by Aris, the pensioner. Although he knows the background of my journey, he still looks at me with some surprise. “Why are you doing this to yourself?” he asks.
I now know that a conclusive answer cannot be given. “I’ll try to explain that to you later.” Along the way he tells me what is expected of me. It has thirty apartments and a café-restaurant with a terrace, fifty meters away. That will be my field of activity for the coming week. I get the morning shift, which runs from half past six to two. M curious.