Doris: Hello my dear! Greetings from a short outing to the Vosges! <file_photo>
Tress: How lovely for you! What's Vosges? Pardon my ZA ignorance!
Doris: :)) Most Europeans wouldn't know either. A small mountain range, up to 1500 m, in western France, just across the border from us.
Doris: Am with a lady friend of mine, German. A bit of hiking in the area but staying in one place. She's got her big dog with her and the beast is just divine.
Tress: Aren't you so lucky to be able to walk as women alone in parts of Europe? This is unheard of here.
Doris: This freedom of movement, also as a woman alone, driving or walking, city or countryside, this is a measure of a quality of life I take for granted in Europe. As much as I love being in ZA, I find it so difficult to cope with such restrictions. I love ZA dearly but I couldn't live there.
Tress: I assure you I hate it as much as you do but it's part and parcel of my existence, so I take THIS for granted.
Doris: Sure enough. When over there, I accept it too and adjust accordingly but in the back of my mind there's this feeling of discomfort.
Tress: What's your accommodation like? I've never been to France even.
Doris: Oh it's very very untypical. Here the link:
Doris: A group of Dutch who bought a huge piece of land and live off it. And of paying guests! Everything fanatically organic, environmentally friendly and sustainable. No mobile phones, no cigarettes, no non-biodegradable products...
Tress: Sounds a tough regime! Did they have a look into your travel bag? ;)
Doris: That's it! It's all based on trust. They ask you not to and trust you follow suit. You know they have a shop here, as we're miles away in the sticks, open 24 hrs, with food produce, cosmetics, preserves, postcards and that stuff. And it has an open till! You just take what you need and leave the money in the till.
Tress: No!!! Can you imagine anything like that in Khayelitsha?!
Doris: May be more in Khayelitsha that in a mixed race area?
Tress: Nowhere in this wretched country. Never.
Tress: Look what's been happening here. It's a clip from our local paper: <file_photo>
Doris: Oh no! Horrible HORRIBLE
Tress: Our daily news... So enjoy your European paradise Doris!
Doris: It rams it home how lucky we are here. Travelling freely from country to country, meeting freely whoever and wherever. No border controls. 
Tress: But different languages! I found it so confusing when we flew from England to Amsterdam, then on to Frankfurt and to Rome in the end.
Doris: But everyone speaks English. More or less.
Tress: But we two, speaking only English, felt a bit limited. Or it's just our lack of experience in travelling. So much unlike you!
Doris: Oh well... Anyway it's France now in a Dutch colony and there are at least 3 language in the air. It is Europe as well, I guess.
Tress: Lucky lucky you...
Doris is hiking in France and ejoying the freedoms of travelling in Europe, whereas Tress is home in ZA.