October-November 2021
Northern Germany was my home for the majority of the following months. When I first got to Rendsburg, the boat was supposedly going to be ready to leave the shipyard in three weeks time, but it got delayed an additional two weeks. During that time, my job was fairly simple: organizing stuff, transporting it, labeling and cleaning here and there. Nothing stressful really. The overall pace of my life slowed down and I enjoyed it. I finally had time to select and edit some of my pictures, watch some documentaries, workout, etc. Being located in the middle of small German towns did not really bother me beyond not finding movies playing in English in theatres. On weekends, I would go for a walk by the canal, pray, sometimes read a bit on a bench. However, I eventually started feeling a bit lonely. Being removed from a major town, decreasing hours of daylight and not having friends all started weighing on me. But not for long… The highlight of my time with Moonsand were my girlfriend Zaynah’s two visits. Both times she came all the way from the U.S. to Germany, a wonderful display of commitment. Naturally, we would make the journey well worth it.
Peaceful evening by the canal.
During her first visit, we saw each other after work during the week, visiting Rendsburg a few times. We traveled to Copenhagen and Hamburg over a long weekend. Copenhagen lives up to its reputation as a lively nordic city. It is pretty, modern and believe it when you hear it is EXPENSIVE. We toured around day and night and even had the chance to meet up with a fellow diver and friend we met in Tofo! My two favorite activities while in Denmark were attending opening night of a ballet at the Royal Danish Theater and visiting Krönborg. The ballet was one of the most impressive live performances I have attended. We found out about it by simply walking into the theater; it is a beautiful building and it caught our attention as we walked by. Krönborg is a castle located about forty minutes north of Copenhagen. Learning that this castle was Shakespeare’s inspiration for the castle in “Hamlet”, made it an essential stop. Eventually, I even bought the book of the play. Clearly, the castle was solidly built as it stands strong and healthy today. Most of it is open to the public. One of the facts I found most interesting was that the Danish royalty would travel with most of the furniture they had in the castle and leave it almost empty while away. Talk about packing light!
Stroll by Nyhavn.
After three days in Denmark, Zaynah and I took a train to Hamburg to continue with our tourism activities. Hamburg is an industrial, vibrant and very good looking city in my opinion. This time, the activity I enjoyed the most was a guided tour of the city hall. It is a magnificently decorated building with a fascinating history and symbolism in every one of its corners. Inevitably, all things come to an end, including our trip, but not without one last emotion. With little less than two hours before my bus departure, we decided it was a good idea to have dinner in St. Pauli, a neighborhood distant from the bus station. Time would be tight but it would be ok, until we learned on our way back the subway line we meant to use was under repair. We scrambled to find a bus, an uber or a taxi, no luck. Our last resort was riding a scooter in the rain to get to the station and it worked! After a dramatic goodbye in the middle of a street, I ran for the last stretch of the way and got to the bus stop just 5 minutes late …only to wait another 25.
The rest of my trip back to Rendsburg was almost faultless. I say almost because after getting off in Rendsburg I forgot to grab my luggage. Seconds after the bus left I realized my suitcase was missing and sprinted around town until I caught up with the bus at a red light. Bet you those Northern Germans had not seen a Mexican that fast on a cool autumn night. I reached the boat later that night, ready for work the next day. Only two days later we finally left Germany for a month’s long trip to London, another eventful episode I will write about.