Grandpa would always talk about his time in Russia as a prisoner of war. During his five year captivity, he learned some Russian and ended up encountering the people in ways, which made me curious and eventually inspired me to go and see these places as well.

I was warned and exposed to worries a lot, mostly from people who have never been, where I was about to go. The counterweight to these worries for me, was the fact, that my grandfather's live was saved by a nurse, shortly after war. I concluded, that if his life was saved, in times when the image of the enemy was still so fresh… then, as a human within humans, I would be just fine 75 years later. You know, I just had to be…

So, in 2018, I surrendered to curiosity, choose and bet everything on faith, took out a pen, asked my grandpa where exactly he had been, connected the dots and decided to just follow the line.

Within eleven weeks it has taken me about 18k km through six countries, up to Asia - and to one of the biggest adventures of my life!

This trip let me live pretty much all of my passions: traveling, motorcycling, meeting people, eating, photographing, filming, living, loving... and this documentation then also fulfills the passion to simply share my experiences, which after all, feels like simply sharing back the gifts.
It was impossible for me to squeeze all the encounters and impressions into one film, so I created this 5-part mini series.

In chapter 2, me and my beloved xt500, are taking you to one of my favorite places, a city named Pskov and some real Russian country site living. I’m visiting a dear friend on the border to Estonia, who takes me to an ethnic festival. A quick stop-over in St. Petersburg and off to Welinki Nowgorod, one of the oldest cities in Russia and a spiritual centre. And further on, I made it to three places my grandpa has been... Tscherepovetz, Vologda and Sokol, where I’ve been expelled from the place - only to run into a historian who confirmed, that I had found the place, where my grandfather’s life was saved 75 years ago…

My personal mission, to find places which grandpa might recognize, changed the way I traveled forever. For the first time, I wouldn't travel in order to get out, but to immerse. With curiosity, passion, an open mind - and first and foremost an open heart. I found, that behind every story, is a human being, which is sharing more simple and unaffected humanity with me, than any story we're told or telling about each other. And I found that to be a most exciting and glorious thing! So here's to people, humanity, unity, peace... and love. And to choosing exactly that.

I can tell you already, that everything went smoothly- but doing this trip alone? That had turned out to be an impossibility!

Thanks so much for watching and subscribing!

Yours, Mel

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