Retreat to Paradise

We realized fairly quickly that the new Workaway we had signed up for was squarely in the boonies. But that was part of the charm - it was billed as a meditation retreat and seminar center. Our work was simple. Auberon was to repair and expand the booking website, and I was to shoot and edit a series of short promotional videos.

The house was enormous. Auberon and I both tried and failed to name houses of friends or family that even approached it in size, plus it had a backyard orchard. When we arrived there was one long-term guest (a German medical student), one solo volunteer (a Lithuanian wanderer), and one volunteering couple (German/Bulgarian off-grid hippies).
After a few days we realized that we had actually had plenty of relaxation recently, and the tiny town seemed closed-in. So we took advantage of the ample free time offered us to go to Hamburg and Lübeck on separate day trips, plus regular long walks around the countryside. I use the word "countryside" because our host did, but in reality the little towns were all close together in car terms, and simply a longer walk by foot. There were great bike paths thanks to the dismantling of local train service half a century ago (a dilemma for me - train or bike?) and they led through wonderful tall forests.

Each day we cooked something, either with the other guests or alone. Our meals when living together in college were often somewhat bachelor chic, that is to say, unimaginative. Here, I did my best to stay vegetarian (all bets were off outside the home) and experimented with cooking all kinds of rice and vegetable dishes from scratch. It turns out rice is a lot easier and more versatile than I ever gave it credit for in college.

In Hamburg we saw the huge park and made fun of the street art for a while. It reminded me of both Frankfurt and Berlin, which isn't saying much as that's the rest of my big city Germany experience. Several of the attractions we walked by were closed, and the cutting wind made us walk past things faster. At night I sought out the Reeperbahn, years after reading a description of it by Bill Bryson. It was going downhill in his day, and from what I could gather the same was happening 26 years later. The red light district lure isn't enough to keep businesses running, and many of them are becoming ordinary bars or dance clubs to attract young people.

Lübeck was entirely different - a very old town that had the architecture history advantage of not being blown up in the war. For the first hour or so we walked in entirely the opposite direction from the central old town, seeing only suburbs and wondering what all the fuss was about. Once back on track, the majesty of the old town was wonderful and it was beautiful to see the ancient buildings and streets as the sun set. In the Yugoslavian restaurant where we stopped for dinner, we ordered an enormous and delicious plate of assorted meats and potatoes, which arrived on fire and inspired its order by at least two other tables.

Somewhat surprised by the closeness of the date to Auberon's departure, we finished up our work at the retreat and took the last train of the journey - to Copenhagen.

Pictured: one of my culinary creations, view of Germany from the ferry, and a scene that I found hilarious but that sadly doesn't come through in the photo: the foreground and background signs say you're entering and leaving the same town on a single empty stretch of road.