To the Moon and back

The first time I met the rich assortment of glorious dirty hippies I fell in love with them and realized I have found my place in the world. For the purpose I needn’t cross the border, contrary to popular belief. I found those beautiful people in the Rhodoppe Mountains because of a boy, who, thank God, didn’t even show up. I knew not what to expect but him, so initially I was startled and disappointed of his absence. As I set foot in the shrine of the Earth lunch had just passed, but a bowl of lens soup managed to find its way to me. Later I would discover that the camp had been set at the perfect spot in those savanna-like hilly lands, as somewhere above it sprang a stream and lower lay a lazy river, which cooled the burning afternoons. I was still a rookie in outdoor adventures so I hadn’t brought my own tent and had to sleep under a shelter called Chai Kitchen, where masala tea and coffee were prepared. I stayed there no longer than five nights, three of which I spent awake, chatting and laughing with a Berlin girl, a few Polish guys, and an Italian or two. During the days I swirled and hurled myself around another few hundred people, which seemed to me to be one’s prime goal. Namely, constructive relaxation, and as that is a fact, my company and I were either laying around like a pride of lions, or swimming in the river, or sharing words and tricks of wisdom. However, besides recreation, the human body needs a thing or two we had to take care of. Regardless of whether it was cooking, serving, gathering wood, bringing water from the spring or helping in the kitchen, everything we did, we did voluntarily and collectively. Willingness to help others by helping oneself, both in the realms of the physical, was what enchanted me and attracted me so strongly to those dirty people with pure intentions. To find a place within oneself where one is content and calm, there is no need to travel thousands kilometers or find the strangest people. No. It is simply a matter of finding the right people and letting them “unlock” it.