Back on track

Portugal, October 2017

As soon as my left knee's ligament was healed, the flight was booked. Few things to pack in Rucksack as still very hot in the south. At one point i had been even too careless to carry enough food with me. My nutrition consisted of figs, grapes and almonds growing beside the track when still in the country side far away from the Ocean and supply shopping possibilities. 

I pickep up my sister Deborah at the airport and we did the coastal hike i had done the year before. Never had i hiked with anyone else besides my husband , whom i got divorced of last year. We travelled the world together for twenty years until it was time for me to be alone. 

Deborah is a great partner on the road , just a little more luxurious than me but that 's not very difficult to be beside me. My aim for minimalism and asceticism is not very attractive. Good to say this only emerges being on the road. 

Friendship

Ibiza, August 2017

I started to select and choose more precise the precious time to spend with the people i really care about. Besides the family , it's the friends both new and old ones i hang around with, especially back in Berlin when working and leading a tight schedule.

This Ibiza trip occured spontaneously after an electronic music festival in Poland where Tommy and i needed vacation from the party. I took him hiking and he drove me to places i had never been at , thus having spend half of my childhood on the smaller island next to Ibiza.

Garota de Copacabana

Rio de Janeiro, June 2017

The youngest sister of three is in charge of breaking the family's tradition as having boys instead of girls. In fact, us elder sisters don't want to have kids at all. Just happy to become aunties any minute.

Both limited in our freedom of movement with monster belly and broken knee, we spent time with our mom eating chocolate cake every day and watching the body obsessed Cariocas on the beach doing their work out. Then the little wonders arrived and everything else became unimportant.

Still very happy though i had decided not to have kids in my situation as it is not fun to become a cripple while  bringing up a child.

Broken ligament

Portugal, June 2017

Never had broken neither bones nor anything else until that moment i could not get my left leg fast enough off the board as surfing towards the shore line into shallow waters. Hiperextended the knee. 

Have to learn how to deal with vulnerability and humbleness. Its a preview of what i will be expecting in a couple of years when becoming a cripple. My nephews were about to be born so flew to Rio on crutches with trolley. It took me a while to accept the wheel chair at customs to pass through security in Felipe Massa velocity. 

I definitely dont want to end up depending on anyone, so rather think about a practical solution. Best choice so far is jumping off a cliff with heavy weights on in order to get eaten by the sharks on the ground of the ocean. 

Artsy Fartsy Party in Venice

Art Biennale Preview , May 2017

First visit ever to Venice. Right into the wasp's nest. Private water taxi rides back and forth , Champagne and Pasta as main nutrition, getting lost in the narrow winding little streets and the thousand bridges. Running over the flooded Piazza San Marco at night to sneak into the next party of Vanities. All this for the sake of the art. Art in abundance within all disciplines. 

No sleep 'til Berlin. 

Bread on my face and hot butter in my eyes

Karnataka/India,  March 2017

The doctor told me Parkinson is treated like a flue and they call it the kawa kawa ( shaky shaky) in India.

So i am spending a great time in the Ayurvedic Center in the state of Karnataka in a small town where no tourist ever puts a foot in besides the clinic's patients. One mostly sleeps or lays around , shits or vomits, waits for the hot tea in the afternoon or ayurvedic vegan food and enjoys the massage treatments.

Its so hot beginning of april that the women giving massages and preparing the steam bath suffer like hell. Therefor the hot butter to clean the eyes feels somehow appropriate to me.

A couple of years ago i had been here already to clean my nose with hot oil as i had lost my sense of smell, not knowing it was the first indication for Parkinson's disease. I will come back next year.

Sisterhood Confession

Rio de Janeiro, January 2017

It was a tough moment for my little sister , pregnant of twin boys, to hear about Mr P as i kept it secret until then. Our mother told her as was not able to confront emotional reaction myself. Too pragmatic and rational to deal with this.  We enjoyed to watch her belly growing and moving inside which was much more important then anything else at that point for me.

My mom was the first person to know right after i knew and she helped me so much being hands on and unemotional. Because of her i know about alternativ treatments and appropriate nutrition. The only thing she asked in return is to wait jumping off a cliff after she has gone. 

Luxuria quod Gula

New Year's Eve , 2016

It has been a while since i took MDMA and it made me move and dance like before. I was too high to think about the tremor and stiffness of my left leg and hand.

Knowing i would soon leave again somewhere sunny and healthy, Berlin's endless nights of lust and excess could be enjoyed as such.

Happy New Year

Andrea, my Love

Christmas Eve, 2016

We knew each other for quite a while in Berlin through the Bassy Club scenery but only fell for each other this summer, spending almost every day together starting from her birthday mids of may in the sauna of Kater Blau. 

She came to see me in Portugal for a couple of days where we got drunk on Vinho Verde almost every night.

I took her son Ole to football matches in Berlin as his parents are not at all into it and he is absolutely fanatic, even though it was damn cold in November. 

We spent Christmas Eve together with Mirjam, my sister Deborah and Felix. Every getting together always turnes out into a big party, especially as we went on to Bassy Club that night where you find Berliners without families in town rocking and raving like hell until dawn. 

Shitty Yoga skills in Mallorca

Ronda, December 2016

Never been good at it but most of the surfers warm up with yoga streching.  I had bought a brand new wetsuit and jumped into the mediterranean waters to try and catch a wave. There are very few beaches on the island where you can surf in the winter. It is very hard though as the swell comes from the wind and not from the ocean's current.. I fail as much as i am able to and dedicate my time to hike around instead. 

Mallorca in the winter is a paradise as everybody knows, especially the little villages inside and far away from the coast are marvellously picturesk and old school. Horses are parked beside cars on the parking lot after a sunday ride on the hills. Funny we never lived here but on Formentera and Ibiza. I forgot my catalán we were obliged to learn in school and only use it amongs sisters to make fun of it. 

Molts anys i bons

Sex on the beach

Portugal , November 2016

Bought my first board to be left in a garage of a couple i became really friends with. It is just a soft board but means alot to me. Waves are far too big for me at that time of the year but at least i get used to being drowned by them and start to understand to read the sea a little better. Do quite a bit of paddling to strengthen my arms and shoulders. 

And I do have time to devour young surfer boys every now and then , who camp in their Volkswagen busses by the beach.

Halloween in Benidorm

Funtastic Dracula Carnival, October 2016

Can't believe i am running around with hardly anything on in november. Benidorm is the european Las Vegas, lots of golden Oldies playing Bingo or Roulette in the Casinos, young british tourists getting pissed and hopefully layed, no waves what so ever and always sunny.

It is the ideal place to host a 60ties Garage Punk Rock 'n Roll Festival for Halloween during three days and nights.  My friend Xaro and i live in a Condo built in the 70ties of 30 floors with a wonderful view on the bay , watching the old wrinkly ladies put their Miami Beach Flamingo sunglasses on and getting even more tanned.

We do enjoy aswell the beach besides living the vampire life, dancing to loud and dirty trash guitar music until dawn. Especially the japanese band made a hell alot of noise.

Open door policy

Berlin, November 2016

Joseph and i decided to become flatmates at a very early stage of our friendship on. As i had decided to travel as much as possible, it did not make sense to keep a flat on my own.

We matched on Tinder with unromantic intentions what so ever and shared everything, including the bed as there was only one at that time in the tiny flat back then. Being used to this life style we went on with the open door policy in the "Schloss" we went to live in the upcoming year. 

Atonement in Portugal

September / October 2016

A month after the diagnose and wild excessive partying i packed my backpack and left for a lonesome hiking trip for six weeks through the backlands of the Algarve on the Via Algarviana starting on the spanish portuguese border and leading towards the Atlantic. Most of my stuff in Berlin had been sold or given away and my flat was rented out. Minimalism at its best.

I had realized that a medical treatment with the common drugs such as Levodopa would not be an option due to the side effects.  Keeping sporty and get my body detoxified felt much better. So i walked , sweated out berlin's night life in the bloody heat, swallowed every morning natural remedies to detox and thought about how i can turn my life even more hedonistic and focusing on what is the most important.

By the time i reached the Atlantic Ocean on the very south part i was really happy about my mental state and followed the coast line hiking up north on the Rota Vicentina. Then the surfing caught me and a new chapter had begun.