To quit Berlin

Ibiza, November 2020

In January, it will be exactly 26 years since my arrival to Berlin, and my relation with the city had evolved to a big love story of my life. Now, after having spend only about three months there this year, I decide to give it an end. Finally. It took me a while to detach, just like from any longterm love affair or relation ship.

After spending the second covid wave and soft lock down in the Balearic Islands, I realized what a fucking paradise I am in, which I used to call home many decades ago. As a natural consequence, my future base will be from now on there, mainly Formentera but aswell hopping around the rest of the four islands for sure.

Today, for instance, I spend a thrilling day in Ibiza with my new friend Guillaume, who took me all around the island in his red Renault 4, a car I learned how to drive with as a teenager, to discover and re-discover old new spots. I swam in little fishing bays, we took walks in the pine woods and had lunch in a traditional restaurant that I even still remember from the times when we, as a family, used to live in Ibiza, just before moving back to Germany in the fall of 1990.

I guess Mr P is very happy too about that decision of quitting city life, as he manages astonishingly well with my rhythm of challenging yoga sessions three times a week, daily swimming in the sea and cycling around on mountainbike. He still makes me stumble sometimes and loose balance on the many sailing or motorboat trips that Deborah and I are invited to go on. But in general, he really got a little quiet and much more relaxed. How cool is that!

And quickly, I take steps to get the paperwork done in order to apply for residency, to buy a similar red Renault 4 from 1986 and make sure I have something to live in during the off season months. Next summer, it will hopefully be crowded again by tourists, who arrive vaccinated with the new product on the market from german company Biontech in cooperation with the american medical firm Pfizer. And I will sneak off to Portugal meanwhile.

Brave New World