Reading time: 9 min“Did you see that too?” called Paul to his best friend. With a flurry of wing movements, he indicated to Tim that he should fly slower so that he could have a better conversation.
Arriving at the same height, Tim looked curiously at his best friend. The two sparrows flew past the roofs of the city with hasty wing beats as they descended.
Today was another particularly gray day. The sky was littered with clouds and a sluggish gray haze hung over the streets, which was so thick that Paul and Tim were always a little worried that they would disappear into it forever.
Tim had to make an effort to follow Paul. Just a few wing beats slower and he would have lost his friend in the thick, solid fog.
The road below them was a hive of activity. A number of cars and buses lined up one behind the other with their lights flashing.
A construction site was making a thunderous noise and a number of people with black umbrellas were running along the sidewalks, crossing the crosswalks of the crowded streets. Their eyes were all fixed on the ground.
“They were probably worried about falling into one of the building site holes or stepping into a deep puddle,” Paul mused. “It’s really anything but nice here, I have to agree with you,” muttered Tim.
Just at that moment, he was startled by a loud honking. A bus managed to brake just in time as the railroad barriers suddenly closed.
A few seconds later, a freight train rushed over the rumbling tracks with a deafening noise. It was going so fast that Tim felt really dizzy at the sight of it. “I’d love to see something different,” he said gloomily.
Paul heard his friend complaining and was now even more determined to show him what he had discovered today. He told Tim to land on an old street lamp together. It was in a small side street, far away from the hustle and bustle of the city.
When Tim landed and sat down next to Paul, they both looked straight at a glowing advertisement. In front of them was a beautiful, white sandy beach framed by large, green palm trees.
It almost seemed as if the blue sea was gently lapping towards them. Both sparrows sank into the beautiful sight, forgetting the bleak gray around them.
Paul heard Tim take a deep breath. “I can literally feel the warm wind blowing through my feathers. I wonder what the fine sand feels like under my claws.”
The two friends sat like that for a while, dreaming of the paradisiacal beach. They decided to come to this place every day from now on.
The next morning, the two set off again. But just as they approached the old street lamp, they saw another bird sitting there.
It was tall and imposing, with a long, narrow neck and large wings. They slowly began their approach and politely asked if they could sit down.
The bird nodded and agreed. It was a stork, they were pretty sure of that now.
The two sparrows began to sink back into the beautiful sight and swarmed happily to themselves. “You two must be dreaming of the far distance?” asked the stork, smiling as he returned to tending to his feathers. “You’re right, it really is fantastically beautiful there. The endless expanse and the sunrises by the sea…”
Tim interrupted the stork excitedly as he was about to continue. “So you’ve been there before?”
The two sparrows looked at each other in disbelief and excitement at the same time. “We really want to go to this place too! We want to set off soon and fly there.”
Now the stork had to laugh out loud. “You two are sparrows or am I wrong? I don’t think you’ll ever fly there. Or to put it another way… you can try, of course, but I don’t think you’ll get there in one piece!”
Tim and Paul looked at each other, puzzled. Before they could answer the stork, he asked: “How are you going to cover such a long distance with your little wings? I don’t know a single sparrow that has ever done that, let alone even tried.”
The two friends looked at each other resolutely and replied to the stork: “We will make the journey, whatever the cost!”
The stork was impressed, but didn’t really want to admit it. “All right, whatever you say! It’s an arduous journey you’re about to embark on.”
He told the two sparrows about the route, explained a few important things to them about the headwind, how to pace themselves, obstacles and possible rest areas.
They said goodbye to each other and as Tim and Paul took off from the lantern towards the sky, the stork looked after the two little birds with some concern.
Tim and Paul spent the next few days planning their itinerary and going over everything the stork had explained to them beforehand.
They packed up the most necessary things and gorged themselves on bacon. “We’re finally leaving Tomorrow!” exclaimed Tim full of anticipation.
Finally the time had come. They took off and flew away. Exactly as they had planned. First they flew over their city.
They watched the hustle and bustle for the last time, the subway rushing past and said goodbye to all the noise and the bad air they had been breathing for far too long. They flew over canals and meadows, fields and farms and realized after just one day how heavy their little wings were getting.
“Does everything hurt you too?” Paul asked his friend. “Yes, but I’m sure we’ll get used to it and then everything will get better again. The stork told us how exhausting it would be.”
The two flew on day after day, but the landscape below them hardly changed. “I don’t think we’re making much progress!” Paul said, exhausted. “Do you really think we’ll make it to the sea?”
Somewhat disheartened, the two flew on. Then Tim had an idea. “Look, down there!” he shouted excitedly. There was a loud rattling below them. A train was rattling through the landscape on heavy rails.
“We’ll just ride along for a bit and conserve our strength,” suggested Tim. The two of them flew after the train in no time at all and found a small shelter on the last carriage.
Finally, they were able to rest and sleep a little. When they woke up the next morning, the jerking could no longer be heard. “Well?” they both wondered.
They looked out from their hiding place and saw that the train had stopped moving. “Come on, let’s keep going! There’s no time to lose,” shouted Tim. So they set off again and flew further south.
But after just a few hours, they noticed that their little wings were getting heavier and heavier. “It’s really exhausting!” muttered Tim.
At that moment, Paul spotted something he had never seen before. Hovering on the horizon was a huge, colorful ball with a basket attached to it.
“What the heck is that?” asked Paul. But Tim had never seen anything like it either. The two of them flew curiously towards the unknown object, which seemed to be hovering in the sky without any effort at all and moving calmly.
“We can make ourselves comfortable in the basket here for a while!” Paul suggested enthusiastically. And so the two of them were transported through the dusk by a hot air balloon.
They enjoyed the flight to the full and picked up a few crumbs that people traveling with them had lost. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky that night and the two friends were able to marvel at every single star in the sky.
They stayed awake all night and sat on one of the thick ropes that attached the basket to the balloon until dawn.
Now they could observe the landscape that opened up below them. There was no more flat land to be seen far and wide below them. As far as the eye could see, more and more hills and valleys suddenly appeared.
“Wow,” whispered Paul enthusiastically. “I think we’ve made it! On the horizon, they saw water, lots of water. It was bright blue and shimmered in the beautiful morning red of the sun. “That’s exactly how the stork described it,” they said happily.
The two flew down, left the balloon behind them and looked for a suitable place to land. They looked around and then realized that it wasn’t the sea and beach from the advertisement.
“It doesn’t matter,” chirped Tim. “We’ve just landed somewhere else, but it’s at least as beautiful!”
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