The 18 year old Christoph offers me a lift on his small sailboat to Jamaica. It is a 22 feet Hurley from 1978. He already sailed it all the way to Guadeloupe from Hamburg, Germany. But at first we need to do some repair work: the hinges of the hatch are broken, someone hit its bow just recently and the rigging needs to be treated against rust, so the mast has to be brought down. It takes us a few days in the marina to finish everything.
After three weeks in the very north of Scotland, Hanna and I decide to go on traveling individually. She booked a flight from Glasgow to Canada and I will make my way to Spain.
It's astonishing how many things you are going to experience as travelers. We've been traveling for only a short time yet. We are sleeping at family's and friend's places. But still, we always get to know so many nice people.
For example, Willi who has got a machete from Castro in Cuba; Oli and James from England who are funding their journey only by busking; Erik who has been traveling since he was 15 years old. We could stay in a house for journeymen and put our tent next to a farmhouse. Shops are opening only for us and folks are eagerly refilling our bottles (even with ice cubes!). Hitchhiking is also going very easy, we never had to wait more than 30 minutes.
Itzhoe, 36° celcius, stuffy air. A few hours ago a more comfortable breeze got around us in Denmark. Denmark – we've been there for about one month and the country left a great sensation.
Even if it wasn't that simple to pass the border. Never before we had to put out our thumbs that long. But finally Volker and his truck take us straight to the center of Aarhus (a place to return). We notice a strange undergrounding kindness and helpfulness („strange“ because being German always means to be a bit suspicious of such openness).
Some day in Haarlem we recognize that we like to work. Well, really do work, with our hands and feet, in the sweat of our brows. For two weeks we explored charming dutch cities and met their inhabitants, but now it's time for something else.
So we start to investigate on different internet pages if somebody would offer us accomodation and food for helping them with their project. Fleur, a yogateacher, does so. Her house is next to the dutch town Eindhoven and she transmutes the whole property into a yogastudio. Because of many helpers from every part of the world there were already grown walls, gardens, meadows, paths and murals - despite there is still a lot to do till the opening. We finish (establish) a meditation platform, straighten a pond, carry bricks, fix bikes, cook, pile wood and transplant vegetables. The atmosphere is great, even so it's incedibly satisfying to see the results.