90% Packed, 24 days to go.

The bike is broken down and in the box. The bags are packed and all that remains is adding passport, bike computer, 2 months of drugs and money. There is still space in the bags and they aren't all that heavy which is a very good thing. The goal is to have an experience about people and places, not things.

Some months ago I decided that having a small tablet with a German data sim for cellular data service was a good way to stay in touch which is how I met Christian. There are blogs covering every imaginable subject. Cell phone service, which varies from country to country is a complicated subject. Christian knows the German market and had some good suggestions.

Christian was nice enough to offer to purchase a sim and send it to me so I could avoid having to use my little tablet in Berlin to navigate the German cell phone companies German only site. So compensation was arranged and off the to the local supermarket he went, the sim  was in the mail. Soon enough, an e-mail arrived with all the numbers I'd need to set up the account. It was a good thing too, because it was a bit complicated. Thank goodness for Google Translate or I'd still be at it. All that remained was for the actual sim to appear in the mail. Shouldn't take more than a week from Germany, I've had art shipped that came in less than 7 days. How long could first class mail take? It's been 4 and a half weeks and there's no sign of the sim. Christian has filed a claim.

Did you know that US mail has been fluroscoped and envelopes photocopied for years? Neither did I. Turns out Christian has had the Post Office lose sims  to the US before. Did the sim trigger someone's interest when fluroscoped? Who knows. Christian has promised to let me know if the German postal authorities eventually settle the loss claim. Not a big deal in the scope of things, but in light of what's been going on lately you have to wonder what, if anything, this means.

I'll be able to easily pick up another in Berlin when I get there and transferring the new sim to the existing account ought to be easy.

Unfortunately, what this has taught me is that connectivity isn't worth the nuisance. I'll pay closer attention to the passing internet cafes especially after leaving Germany.

Those of you who know me won't be surprised to learn that I'm pretty wound up about the NSA, Snowden, Assange and Manning. I don't think I could have planned a better time to be in Europe to engage the locals. Hopefully they can make a clear distinction between an out of control government and it's people. I'm afraid far too many here are willing to accept the loss of our civil rights. It's all terrorism all the time; the justification for anything and everything.