Endless Summer

Brandenburg, October 2018

It's incedible how climate change has affected northern Europe this year.  My ritual of having the last swim of the year in exactly this lake was an easy job this time as the water was unexpectedly warm and tender. 

I shared a piece of land with my ex husband nearby and the evening run around the lake was my high light before starting fire on the grill under the huge oak tree. This lake is still a secret spot as usually all the rest of lakes in north-eastern part of the city are highly frequented by Berliners seeking for wild nature. 

This area in Germany is definitely one of my favourites as it has this air of the Mediterranean due to the pine forest and sandy soil. It is only about two hundres kilometers away from the Baltic Sea. Everyone raves on about Bavaria i know, but not my cup of tea at all thus the Alps in front of Munich's doorstep. Lived there aswell as a teenager and, to be honest, it was the most boring and unsexiest time of my life. Left that town twenty years old in 1995 and the big love story with Berlin had begun, never to be fading away. Had a little gap when left to Madrid for five years , shortly after the Helmut Kohl era had finished and the social democrats in coalition with the green party had taken over. I remember the huge party celebrations the night of the elections. Actually, the whole decade of the nineties was nothing but party, enjoying the city as a big playground. So happy to have been for once in the right place at the right time , after growing up amongst Hippies telling endless stories about the 60ties and 70ties. While in Madrid , everyone raved on about the 80ties , Post-Franco time and the so called Movida Madrileña, most exiting time in new born democracy. 

I dont like the idea at all of 'everything was better before'.  Even now my generation complains about the changes in gentrification , the tourist swarms and expats flooding Berlin. I think it is always good to move on and nutrivate from the present and future, accepting new ideas and experiments , staying flexible. Otherwise we stand still and become grumpy old couch potatoes awaiting the result of elections in Bavaria tonight.