Entries about kiel

After months in Mexico City I ached for some movement. So when friends in Berlin confirmed my spot working in Fusion, I jumped at the chance.
Here's some of the things I learnt this past month in Germany:

Learn the language!
Smile no matter what.
Life is better with good shoes.
Friends make everything be worth it.
Open skies, stars, fire, and a blanket.
Sometimes, umbrellas are unavoidable.
Hammocks are grossly underrated.
Gemütlichkeit.

Fusion Festival is a place of joy, vegetarian food, any kind of music and good vibes. It is awesome and great. There's fire spitting dragons and hammocks and more fire. If I get the chance, I'll be there next year too. It is a huge festival, with some 70 000 attendees this year, and you can very easily lose your group. So people carry poles, decorated umbrellas or just any kind of funky tall thing to find themselves. I would just wander alone, then meet back at camp or in our designated meeting points. Yes, I would recommend it. It was awesome!

Dragons!

Summer!

Too soon the week was over and we were back home. Berlin's the only place I've been to every time I've been to Europe. That's only three times, sure, but three makes a pattern. I could certainly spend more time there, but everyone says very nasty things about the Berlin winter, and I don't feel like proving them wrong... So maybe next summer?

When travelling it is very easy to meet people, at least when you get in the mood. I find it a curious thing that first approach, when you must make clear you don't speak the language, without being that guy that expects everyone else to speak his. After the Festival I met some boat builders and travelled north, to Kiel. I know resin and wood, so maybe they had some work I could assist them with. After all, almost half of it is sanding! It is a nice city, Kiel. I mocked the summer, though. "It's like 15 degrees outside, they said, yep, summer alright!". Well it felt like a cold spring to me, but I guess we are just too spoilt in the tropics.

On a borrowed bike I went further north up to Arnis. "Statt" Arnis. It was exactly what I needed. For a week I stayed there, in a small town of some 300 people, enjoying life.

Arnis is located next to the Schlei, a fjord, so connected to the Baltic Sea, but feels like a lake. It is a great place for little walks and fine sailing. The water is cold and salty, delicious to swim in. Skinny dipping is not frowned upon either.

For such a small place it is very touristy. There is a ferry there, you see, and lots of people cross it on cars and bikes. So while you wait for the ferry to come, why not have some coffee? Between the ferry stop and one of many little piers, there sits the Freies Arnis Café. Not a bad place to spend your time! I even ended up working there for a couple of days, helping with the dishes. And working helps with the language skills. After a month and some basic mp3 course, I could almost begin to understand things. Guess life might not be too short to learn German after all!

I made good friends there, in the north. Slept under the stars, sailed and cooked chilaquiles. I left promising to come back and I intend to keep that promise. I even left my tent over there! But it was time to move on.

Arriving in Rotterdam felt incredible. "This is what coming home should feel like", reads my journal. A friend was having a birthday party, so I had a reason to be there. I wasn't the cross-the-world kind of epic, but still in that department. Up until the moment I stood at their doorstep, they still believed I could be joking. It had been a year since last time I stood there. So long, yet it felt like barely a week had passed.

Then after beers with friends, meetings, catching ups, dancing, biking, and a few more beers, I left for Mexico.
The truth is, you see, I shouldn't have gone to Europe. Left on a whim, with barely any savings, and just a tiny possibility of working in Belgium. Since that didn't come through, I'm now in the red numbers. But hey, what's life without a little adventure? On that note people, take my word, never book stopovers with less than an hour between flights. I have now been one of those pale faced airport runners. It is not as fun as it looks.

But I made it back, and now some plans are brewing. Looks like soon I'll have something to write home about!
For now, thanks for reading!