Today we went to a lake called stopfensee or something like that. We went there for about four hours. I swam for a while my mom read lying on a mat on the beach in the sun. Then we found the bar and had maracuja schorle/ passion fruit juice with bubbly water, it’s sooooo delicious, one of my favourite drinks.
Talking a break from the sun at the bar
Then we went into the water for a while. We then went to a food vendor and got burger and fries for me and my mom. There was also a floating parkour course on the water and I went on it. It was 10 million euros per second. Just joking cause no one could afford that, it was 10 euros per 45 minutes. It was real fun but I was super physically tired on the bike ride back home. Bye.
This has nothing to do with my other boat post. Yesterday me my parents and seven other people went on a boat trip/slash trip on a platform with a motor. There was also a grill,couches and a bathroom. We were meant to go on a grill boat last week but the weather stopped us. We hired a boat driver as well. We were on the water for about 3 hours and we swam multiple times. We also ate some burgers, sausages and home made peanut butter cookies that were amazing. I had a lot of fun on the boat eating, relaxing and swimming. I think that is everything bye bye.
Hello my name is jasper. I am currently going to the klax workshop every day. Klax is a wood working and building workshop and I got to use a laser cutter which is sooooooooo cool. I am in a class of six people including myself. One of my best friends is also in my class. His name is Simon. Today we had a boat race. My boat was made of wood connected by silicon sausages/ hot glue. My boat was painted cyan. I used acrylic paint because it’s waterproof. We had a field trip to a park were there is a river where we could race our boats. We started with a looks contest but mine looked horrible and is lost. We then did three rounds of a speed contest. 1. First place, 2. Third place, 3. Second place. Speedy boat. Good by.
Hello, on 31.7.2020 me and one of my best friends went to a climbing place where you zip-lined and climbed and balanced trough the trees. We were there for three hours. There were 5 levels. The levels where green,blue,red,black and black plus. It was scary at first but we knew that we were harnessed onto metal rope/ cable. We did green long and blue short. Green was super easy, but blue was sooooooo hard !!!!!!!!. And scary. We were pretty high up and the zip lines were scary but soooooooo fun. We ate lunch in a windmill and I had a bockwurst mit pommes.
Hello starting the Sunday before yesterday, I was at a skateboarding camp called TREE OF LIFE SKATE CAMP. It was in the middle of no where. We would wake up at eight and have breakfast, then I would do my morning skate boarding, after that I would chill and watch skate boarding for a while, then eat lunch another round of skate boarding, read, dinner play some cards or a game, bon fire, chill at bonfire, brush teeth at eleven, go to bed. If it rained we go into our tent and red,played on our phone or talked. The food was much better than I thought it was going to be and I made some new good friends. If you want more on my skate camp or other topics just message me or my parents. Bye Bye.
Although, we left Berlin with no planned route, no reservations at campgrounds and only general desires for our adventures. We did think that we would travel through Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. However, 8 days into the trip and on the move for most of everyday except one, we realized that covering ground and ticking new countries visited off the list was definitely not the happiest way to spend our time.
We were almost at the border to Estonia and had received great recommendations of places to visit from our good friends Lille and Joonas. After a night of sleeping on it, we made a promise that we would make a separate trip to Estonia to have a full experience instead of just a drive by and turned Olaf west to the coast.
Instead, we visited a cool castle ruin where we climbed a restored tower that gave sweeping views of the surrounding National Park (https://www.turaida-muzejs.lv/?lang=en) if you are interested. It also boasted a Lithuanian Folklore sculpture garden.
The sculpture aspires to be as buff as Sean
We ended up at an absolutely fabulous campground with spots right at the beach and an 180 degree view of the Baltic Sea. The day we arrived we were almost blown away but that didn’t stop it being breathtaking. We planned to stay 2 nights.
However, on the second day as we returned from an adventurous 12km bike ride that hugged the beach, took us on wide gravel logging roads and a 4km stretch of highway (where 18 wheelers blew past us!). We returned to find new neighbours to Olaf that said hello.
Their open and engaging friendliness was new to us on this trip. They were from Finland and bonus had a son around Jasper’s age. We all became fast friends. The boys tearing around the camp on their bikes and talking a mile a minute.
We shared fire, food, drink, laughter,conversation and the parents enjoyed that the boys were entertaining one another!
Hello,this step by step only works for Lithuanian, Latvian and Estonian picnic traps. I hope it is still usefull to you.
Nacho cheese Dorito dust
A slice of pizza with meat
Yourself
Extra pair of clothes
Your own clothes
A picnic
White vinegar
Okay now that you have your materials here’s the step by step directions
Approach the picnic trap carefully.
Put the pizza in the spare clothes and toss it onto the picnic table,this will cause the tree to snap down and kill the pizza person and the picnic table will eat it.
Sprinkle the tree with nacho cheese dust and rub it in.
For us the initial draw was the fact that it was something weird and unusual. We like to seek out the different. It looked like a UFO and futuristic buildings in the middle of the forest in Lithuania.
It is the actually the LITHUANIAN MUSEUM OF ETHNOCOSMOLOGY
What is ETHNOCOSMOLOGY you ask? At least I did. This term and the idea was born here in Lithuania and encompasses the idea of humankind’s relationship with the visual, emotional, ethnic, spiritual, and cognitive aspects of the Cosmic World. If you are curious to learn more check out https://etnokosmomuziejus.lt/en/
The rain stopped long enough for us to explore around the grounds. Marveling at the dichotomy of glass and silver metal against the lush green of tall trees and flash of light on the lake. The sky was opaque with clouds so there was no possibility of looking through either of the two telescopes that belong to the attached Moletai Astronomical Observatory.
Jupiter
The hill that sloped down from the observatory contained two circles of natural objects, manipulated by people. A circle of stones, some with runes carved into them, and spherical rocks placed in an enormous solar system. As well as a circle of tree trunk size carved totems of Lithuanian pagan gods.
I was sad not to be able to engage in the museum, a tour, but mostly to peer through a powerful telescope out into the universe in which we are spinning. However, the experience will continue to spark ongoing conversations. It also solidified my desire to go to an observatory in a more ideal sky state to see the planets and stars that we spin with in a choreographed dance around the Universe.
I am so glad that we brought our bicycles with us! I love having the dexterity to get off the beaten path, to move more slowly to feel the land passing due to the strength in my legs and the ability to pause, breathe and take it all in.
We took advantage of a break in the rain clouds to explore the area around Campsite Papartis (www.campingpapartis.lt/) We were lakeside and I made an assumption that the road we took would bring us around the lake. It did not…
We saw empty vacation compounds reminiscent of Dirty Dancing. Groupings of cabins, around tennis courts, main buildings, beautifully landscapes trails and beachfront with peddle boats. They looked like they were ready to receive but the people are not there.
The paved road quickly gave way to rock and loose sand and led us through more farmland, with cows and fields of baled hay. The dwellings were varied, wooden cabins that felt almost Swiss in style (to my North American stereotypes) to colourful cottages, and big farm houses with barns.
What all of them shared were meticulously kept, landscaped yards and large gardens of vegetables which I assume would be preserved in a variety of ways to be enjoyed year round. This reminded me of my beautiful, talented, strong and resourceful Aunt Elaine and the amazing summers that I got to spend as a child at her farm, in her garden, and most powerfully in her kitchen and at her table!
Lake divided by light
The dark clouds with a visible wall of rain sweeping across the lake towards us chased us back to the comfort of Olaf where we made tea, and I curled up with a book, Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardino Evaristo (recommend for shifts in perspective) Jasper sat at the iPad and continued to write a story he is working on, Sean had a successful work call from his office with a view.
Our camper van is very well appointed, it’s downright pampering, but it’s still small. Really small, at least compared to what we’re used to having as a shared space.
At first it was new and exhilarating. Then it was comforting and convenient. In fact it still is! But for a brief moment, it felt small and confining. The weather was cold and wet, we had not kept up with putting things back in their place when we were done with with, so our small space was now small AND cluttered.
It started to get me (Sean) down a bit. I wanted it to be sunny, with a warm breeze, and unicorns snacking on caramel corn in marshmallow pastures. Ok, I just wanted it to be warm and sunny and to have more space that I didn’t have to share.
But Olaf, our camper van, has enabled us to see things we’ve never seen before, go to places and countries we’ve never been to before, and remind ourselves (or at least I’ve been reminded) that the space, the weather, and all the other little things are secondary when you can share meaningful moments with the people you love.
I choose to enjoy the moments, and give less fucks about the little things, it will be sunny and warm one of these days, and if not, there will be hot chocolate.
If you’ve read this far, thank you, and know that we love you. 🙂
The Ditzman’s European Adventure 