A mud bath with elephants in Phuket could be a great motif for Instagram – if the SZ author hadn’t forgotten a crucial detail when taking the picture. Three anecdotes from around the world.
In the middle of…Phuket
Illustration: Marc Herold
Madee is 60 and has no teeth. That’s why I feed the oldest resident of the elephant sanctuary in Phuket soft mini bananas, which she carefully accepts with her hairy trunk. After the feast, it’s off to the mud bath – both for the four-legged friends and for the two-legged friends with their cameras. Madee throws herself sideways into the water with her six tons of weight. I deferentially smear their fellows with mud when two influencer candidates explain my mistake to me: “You need more mud!” So more mud on my body, that goes down better on Instagram. So we throw mud at each other and snap like crazy. From the innumerable pictures, dirt-staring people finally smile at us. Only: An elephant cannot be seen on any of them. Cosima Kopfinger
In the middle of … Goslar
Illustration: Marc Herold
Goslar, you should take a look. The old town is a World Heritage Site, as is the ore mine, and a former SPD leader also lives there. So, let’s go. What do you see first, coincidence or not? A plaque on a wall. “Schwiecheldt-Haus” is written on it, “ancestral seat of the von Schwiecheldt family” and, attention: “Birthplace and death house of Dr. Albert Niemann, the discoverer of cocaine, 1834 – 1863.” The discoverer of cocaine, from Goslar, Lower Saxony. You traveled through Latin America for years and had no idea, just as little as probably Pablo Escobar or El Chapo Guzmán, kings of the white powder. In Göttingen, Niemann is said to have isolated the substance from coca leaves he had brought with him. He later died of mustard gas poisoning. Interesting people come from Goslar. Peter Burghardt
In the middle of… Munich
Illustration: Marc Herold
The old man is not really easy to recognize. His jacket is the same color as the Munich wall against which he is leaning. yellow on yellow. What he does is also unclear at first glance. He doesn’t talk to anyone, he doesn’t wait. He just stands there and looks. Suddenly a young woman dances into his field of vision on the other side of the street. Black pants, black top, white airpods. She calls, she laughs. Her hips sway rhythmically back and forth, a glittering hula hoop circling around her. The old man looks over at her, motionless, watching her swing her tire down the street. He pushes himself hard off the wall of the house and heaves himself onto a walking stick. After a few sluggish steps, he disappears through the next shop door into a hearing aid shop. John Bauer