Major life event

You guys!

This year I opened my very first art exhibition. It was a given to be centered around the subject of sustainability and the beauty of the living world. The name of the exhibit came from one of the poems in the artworks: “See seeds grow”.

The beautiful gallery that kindly offered to host the exhibition is way out on the Swedish country side  – which also happens to be right where I like it (as not all art, innovation and development should take place in the cities). I want to be a part of the ruralization movement and make sure all places on Earth are equally valued again.

That is why I am so excited to show my work at this “rural collective” co-working space for a coupple of weeks this summer. Welcome to Glesbygdskollektivet!

I wanted to share with you the most important aspects of this exhibit because there is more to it than what the eye can see:

1. Eatable paint

This show is ALL about painting colours and how we can start rethinking about our working tools as artists, but also really of all trades. Where do we put ourselves at risk and what changes can we make to surround ourselfes with more non toxic, healthy, sustainable supplies?

2. Slower pace project

Another super important part of this project has been for me to keep the work slow and meaningful. Not to get caught up in the whirlwind of todays society with high speed and high goals. “Just enough” has been my motto and a pace in which I have time to think and reflect all the way through the process. I think that someones working pace can be different for different people. For me it is a little bit slower than what is considered “normal” for most people I think. It has been such a lovely time to explore what happens when a human gets to work and produce new thoughts and experiment at a slower than normal pace, without thinking about money or a perfect outcome.

3. Community supported 

From the start I knew that I wanted to fund this exhibition with the help of my Swedish community. In the beginning of the project (early spring) I thought making it happen was all about the money. At the same time I was a bit shy to ask for funding without really knowing what the end result of the exhibition would become. I didn’t want to promise too much.

So instead I asked people to help me out with small favors and things as the project went along: “who can help me find sustainable artist paper to paint on? Who can help me with transportation today? Who has some left-over picture frames laying around?” What this method resulted in was many, many small efforts from people around me that all in all has helped me to put together an entire exhibition almost entirerly without any money involved at all!

The many joys of walking up a hill

So, this will be a deep dive into the metaphor of ascending a mountain. Ever since one beautiful winters day that I walked up a hill in the absolute smack bang geographical centre of Sweden in the beginning of March this year I have had these notes with me. Actually I had been thinking about the many joys of walking up a hill even longer than that. Because a few days before a friend had asked these particular questions on Facebook:

“Uphill. Do you have any uphills in your life?
Do you consider it taking height or does it mostly burn energy?”

Thank you Joel, your questions definitely got me thinking.

So needless to say. A couple of days later I found myself walking in an actual uphill but also mentally climbing some hills. It got me thinking through the many ways of metaphorically enjoying the uphills of life.

So I decided to make a list and post it here to share my thoughts about it with you and maybe even get some new perspectives on it. If you have anything to add to my list, feel free to comment below. Let’s start treading!

1. The challenge

To take on a hike like this one needs to be aware of the challenges on beforehand. To climb a mountain, however small it is, will always push you and take some energy from you. But it will also challenge you in good ways, like building strength or proving your own capability and capacity to yourself and the world. It will test your boundaries and perhaps even show you your limits of your capacity. Which also is valuable knowledge in life.

2. The preparation

I always love preparing for adventure, however small or big it may be. I enjoy thinking ahead and gathering all the necessities that I can think of. And then taking some of them away to not make the pack to heavy for me to carry all day. It’s partly knowing the risks and trying to prepare for them, and partly actually taking some extra risks in order grow. I always bring a lot of snacks and warm clothes, but usually unpack the second spares of dry socks and sometimes even my mobile phone (depending on the safety situation). I feel good knowing how prepared I am, and also that I will get to test my skills at handling things as they come along during the hike.

3. The longing expectations

While planning any excursion there is hopefully always some longing and excitement involved (if not you should consider if this hill really if yours to climb). There has actually been a bunch of research done saying that the anticipation of something good to come can be even greater than the actual experience. This is definitively one of the many joys of hiking adventuring for me. The planning.

4. The adventure

As you know life is itself an adventure, but hiking or doing everyday excursions into nature really ads something extra to the sense of living my life. As long as I can chose the scale of it and adapt the effort and risk taking involved to my capability it is a true joy to go out looking for new adventures in life.

5. Slow travel

To slowly walk uphill, or go by skis or bicycle, makes you notice things you might not see from the window of a car or even during the faster descend. It’s easier to keep the eyes lifted and take short breaks to really notice nature, how I feel, what’s above and what’s below. Scents, sounds and vistas are so much more easily accessible.

6. Being in nature

There are so many well documented health benefits of hanging out in nature soaking in some sun, breathing clean air and just hanging out with the trees. Besides what the research so clearly states, I just have to mention one of my favorite ecotherapy ideas which is Shinrin Yoku, a Japanese concept that translates to “forest bathing” and which is used as therapy or as alternative medicine for humans to feel good.

7. The best things in life are free

Have you heard it before? It doesn’t make it less true and wise.  To take a hike up a hill for one day not only improves your health but it’s near completely free of charge. At least my hike was free due to the fact that this mountain sits just outside the village where I live. So no paying for transport, no admission, no gym membership fee. Just fresh air, a good workout and a nice view.

8. The overview and perspective

Reaching the top is not so much a goal (you still have half the way to walk back down again) but still gives yet another treat on the journey. Peak hike if you will. To see the world from above gives so much clarity yet is still so humbling. The houses seem small and the cars are tiny. The people can’t even be seen from this far above. Maybe almost none of the personal issues you may have really matters in the big run?

 

9. The reward

Another perk of peak hike is that even though you’ve only reached the halfway mark this is the time to celebrate. Take a longer break, relax and enjoy the view, some food and the stillness. It’s almost silly how luxurious it can feel to have a big celebration half way. One of the many joys of walking up a hill, indeed…

10. The descent

But wait a minute! Because toward the end of the hike it actually gets even better. What was tough and straining in the beginning of the journey now gets easy and fun to do. Ah, downhill. The backpack is lighter with less food and water in it and all muscles can relax a bit and work in new ways with some help from gravity. The pace speeds up and you look at the scenery with a new perspective, from the other way around.

10. The memory and sense of accomplishment

Once the hike is finally over and you’re back home again after many hours walking, the things you would usually consider mundane and boring can all of a sudden become highly appreciated. Roof over the head, a nice comfortable bed to rest in, a meal of hot food, a nice shower and a safe and peaceful place to live in, are at an instant clearly things to feel great appreciation and gratitude for. Since the hike was major and took a day to do it will linger in the memory for a while.  The experience will keep giving insights, a sense of accomplishment and some muscle pain for at least a week to come. Or as in my case two months and counting…

 

So all and all my daylong excursion turned into a quite spiritual exploration of the concept of hill climbing. And funnily it has stuck with me ever since. What do you think, did you find the metaphor of “walking up a hill” helpful to understand challenges in your day-to-day life any better?

Here is some bonus food for thought:

“To see the mountain more clearly you have to put some distance between you and it. To experience the mountain fully you have to be willing climb it in your own pace.”

The Unnecessary Future Project

Hi guys,

In a theoretical scenario, that I sometimes play out in my head, I have this really cool conversation with future young people. I will be an old lady by then and I am staying around to answer their seriously awesome questions that I’m sure they will have for me. The questions are actually for all of us that lived during the big shift in the world that was the era of transformation for the climate.

“Lady, what did YOU do, to make a change while it was still possible, and so very obvious what was about to happen to the planet?” , they will probably ask of me. For your knowledge, the conversation with the kids is happening AFTER the big collapse, in post apocalyptic times if you will, caused by the global climate weirding and followed by the great wars about what should be shared resources, like clean water. There will have been movements of entire populations of countries…

And this is the answer I am preparing for them. I truly hope it is an unnecessary project. I just keep making these short films from my life during the transition to a more sustainable future, in the hopes that more of us will join in a simpler lifestyle that eventually might render this whole theoretical conversation in my mind completely obsolete:

I PICKED my bilberries instead of working to BUY them

 

I slowed my life right down as an act of rebellion

 

I went looking for wildlife in the mountains, making sure it hadn’t gone extinct yet

 

We didn’t spend our ONLY lifetime on a day job, but in a cottage, making cheap breakfast for hours by the fire

 

We decided to go enjoy life and breath ocean air while it’s still unpolluted

 

We took time to hang out in the (still thriving, but biodiversily struggeling) forests

 

“I wanted to film and capture my everyday life the way I conciusly chose to live it in 2016-2018, while the world and civilisation carried on with its destructive habits. This was my contibution to the lifestyle changes necessary to slow down our consumption and exhaustion of global resources in the early 2010s.”

 

A letter to Earth

Dear Earth,

I know I have been a bit of a slow starter when it comes to understanding these things. It took me just about thirty years to grasp fully how truly magical the notion of life is, and how marvelous it is that it works in my favor almost every day.

So I want to thank you, Earth, for providing me with all of the ecosystems a human could possibly ever need to be able to thrive and live in abundance on this forest garden planet. It is truly an honor that I get to take part in this particular journey every day for my whole life.

Now that I do get it, I feel so very ready to honor it by living life to its fullest. To appreciate my body and practice self love, maybe to help others appreciate their experiences on Earth, and maybe to help explain in all ways that I can why this insight is so important, and why it is so important for all of us to honor life itself more.

We have gone a bit too far in our way of overusing natural resources. And we have done so to such extent that we don’t even seem to care what is left behind anymore. It is so sad to see that what we lose isn’t only biodiversity, good air quality, healthy food, chances for finding new medications and resilient global water systems. It seems we are leaving our own humanity behind, and with it our grasp of that what is unique is also what is important. We are losing our self respect, self love and love for our own mother. We ARE Earth, goddamnit..

So, I hereby declare to live life fully and to practice being my own unique self every day. To really honor the fact that I exist here on Earth in this lifetime out of all lifetimes in all of eternity. I am so very ready to appreciate that I live in abundance and to share the abundance. There is enough for everybody, without over usage of anything.

Thank you, Earth, for still providing me with fresh breathable air. For breathing is what’s moving us forward and what’s keeping us alive. Just imagine what would happen if we couldn’t breath anymore. That might be where we are going if we don’t change things from here.

This feeling of breathing through life inspires me to think: how can I use the knowing that breath moves us forward? Maybe I can take the fact into my life as a principle for living and a reminder to live fully. Where do I need to go next to take another revitalizing breath in life?

And where do we as a civilization need to go to take OUR next revitalizing breath, as a way for us to find ways to feel alive, without doing any harm?

Always a part of you,

Sincerely
Tove

 

Sustainable art supplies

I have always loved painting and drawing. From the age of six my friends and I used to dream up and manifest whole little worlds together on shared pieces of paper.

Throughout school I always found that art class was my favorite. Even though I wasn’t always the best at it, it just felt so good to be able to create something with my hands in an instant.

As I grew older and changed schools a couple of times the drawing games from childhood stuck with me. Eventually I became better at it, and even gained my classmates admiration sometimes. But still I didn’t have the courage to explore my craft further when it came to choosing an occupation as an adult. I majored in communications science and became a sustainable packaging designer. Until two years ago.

Just letting the imagination free with blueberry paint on home made paper.

Blueberry gnomes climbing a vine.

Blueberry forest letter stationary.

These past years, as I have begun to shift toward a more sustainable lifestyle in many ways, the subject of creating a good work life situation for myself came on the agenda. And this time I had the courage to listen to my intuition. Was I really doing what is most meaningful to me, using my potential? And most importantly was my work situation suiting my life in a more cosmic sense? As my journey toward a more sustainable life began, so did my search for sustainable art supplies.

“The meaning of life is to find your gift, the purpose of life is to give it away.”
– Pablo Picasso

Paints and colors

The first thing I did when transitioning from amateur painter to sustainability explorer was to question my art supplies. In the acrylic colors I had been using there was sure to be some plastics and chemicals. I have no idea how they are produced, or where, or by who. And without much hope to find out easily I decided to make my own artist paints out of food scraps instead. What a win-win I thought, to both reduce food waste and produce my own supplies.

Food waste I have tried to use for paint:

• Coffee
• Tea
• Spinach
• Strawberry juice
• Blueberry juice
• Black bean water
• Black currant juice
• Beetroot decoction

I am not counting on any of these food colours to last more then a few years as they will start to bio degrade. To me that’s the whole point and an important part of the project. To question how important it really is for me as a human to leave long term marks on this planet. However, if the great artists through out history would have thought like this in their work we would perhaps not have as many important pieces of art preserved from history. There is a balance to everything.

 

Painting with spinach on aquarelle paper.

Spinach water from defrosting frozen spinach for cooking.

Beetroot trials.

Black bean housing.

After boiling beetroots for dinner I got this lovely painting color as an extra perk.

Coffee is super difficult to paint with. But pretty!

 

Paper and canvases

The next thing I was curious about was the sustainability of the paper or canvases I was using. For starters most paper comes from renewable resources, trees and such, but as with anything new you can count on a lot of energy going into the paper making process. And why chop down even more trees to create my art?

Being who I am means I somehow didn’t even consider ordering something organic from overseas or anything like that. I wanted to learn how to make my own paper myself. Mainly to find out what ingredients my supplies need to contain and also to find out if there are ways to make use of “waste materials” just like with the painting colors.

 

Trying to make paper with some egg cartons in it.

Egg carton paper finished.

Small home paper mill.

It’s not so easy at first!

The comments I received during this process were usually something like “Oh, you are making paper, just like they do in kindergarten?”. My reply being “Yes, just like kindergarten or like they do in the paper mills”.

My paper is still not very easy to paint or write on, but I’m learning the craft as I go. If you have any tips for making good quality sustainable paper at home please write me a comment down below!

I still haven’t tried making my own canvas yet, but am looking forward to trying it out with some old fabrics or cardboard sheets. Also, just painting onto old book pages would be really cool to try!

 

Brushes and sponges

My next endeavour will be to try and figure out how to make pencils, brushes, sponges and ink. These are the first trials, but I’m looking into making ink with blueberries and maybe make my own brush set with some sort of fur or hair. I don’t know, tip me off in the comments down below if you have any clever ideas lined up for me to try!

Charcoal pen straight from our picknick fire.

Testing charcoal pen.

Charcoal tree on home made paper.

More techniques

I have also tested etching on wood, making collages with pictures from reused magazines, making my own glue with flour and water, making stamps of old wine corks and erasers, making bracelets of second hand beads, and a whole bunch of other stuff all with the aim of being completely climate neutral and sometimes even climate positive.

Heat on driftwood.

Using second hand beads to make new bracelet with morse code message.

Stamps and blueberry ink.

Coffe painting.

Coffee and ink.

Blueberry gnomes and morse code braclets in the same picture!

Gaudí in blueberry ink.

Blueberry portraits.

Painting with tiny pieces of magazine paper.

Collage technique.

Testing lab.

Fun facts about sustainability in art supplies:

1. Glitter is micro plastics instantly ready to mess with the ecosystems. Please, make sure to use the bio degradable kinds of glitter for your crafts.
2. Many traditional techniques and hand crafts are using locally sourced and natural materials such as leather, wool, plant dyeing and so on, which is very inspiring to me.
3. Land art is an art form in which artists venture out in nature and using nature itself to create art on location. Such a beautiful idea.

 

As you probably could tell I am not fully educated in this area yet, and it is a definitively a work in progress for me to figure out more about sustainability as an artist. I am still adding new materials and ideas to my art supply set and can’t wait to see what cool things can be created when I have gathered all the practical tools and skills an artist needs.

Please let me know if you have any further tips or thoughts about sustainable art supplies. It would be great to to hear about it and maybe explore further together!

Inner peace for a sustainable life

At the end of a yearlong sabbatical with my boyfriend, about year ago or so, I was completely certain that my health was in good condition, stress levels at an all time low and that my reading list was shorter than ever after a whole year of soul searching and climate studies. As it turned out there would still be much for me to learn about sustainability and health in the year to come…

We traveled through Sweden to find sustainable alternatives to our hectic modern lifestyle.

Lecturing about our sabbatical and how we made the necessary lifestyle changes for the planet. Photo: Henrik Muskos

After all of our massive research about alternative lifestyles, greener living, future of housing and sustainable food systems there was something left to ponder that I had completely missed out on during planning. The fact that all of those categories mentioned were external factors. It didn’t matter what green technology I used or however sustainable the material with which I was building our house was if I myself continued to be the same effective, productive, manager type person on the inside!

We spent the winter in the Swedish mountains to reflect on the learnings from the sabbatical. That was when my body decided I had been productive enough for a few years and sent me into a physical and psychological meltdown.

So, what happened was that after the sabbatical year my body and mind crashed as I had triggered an autoimmune decease due to my in fact quite unsustainable lifestyle. The physical reaction came as a respons to the big project our sabbatical had turned into, with a good amount of media exposure and people coming to ask our advice, adding to the previous years of intense work in projects – ironically, all of them concerning sustainable development.

The way that we put pressure on each other and our selves in modern western society is a mirroring of what we are doing with the planet. We expect production to increase every year and that our resources are ever growing. As I discovered that is not true. Not for the planet and not for ourselves…

It really doesn’t matter how conscious you are about the state of the world, what foods to avoid and that plastic is bad if you don’t consider what you are putting your body and mind through in the process. EVERYTHING has to be sustainable, including the way you treat yourself in the process of transitioning into a more sustainable external lifestyle.

Taking care of myself is equally important to taking care of the world!

Now another year has passed since the sabbatical and my health has slowly started to improve. My body seems to have taken matter into its own hands and shut down some critical functions in order for me to understand the importance of keeping my own internal ecosystems in good health. By the end of it all, this has been my realization:

“Being a good protector of this precious planet of ours really starts with taking good care of our selves, our bodies, our inner ecosystems, and truly respecting our own boundaries. Just like we need to respect the boundaries of the planet as a whole.”

Ethical Consumerism: What Can We Do?

We live in a world where consumerism is rampant. With low budget retailers and constant competition from the high street, what can we do to be more conscious about what we buy, what we use, and where from, especially in the run up to the biggest consumer period of the year, Christmas?

It would seem that the age-old saying of knowledge is power is apt yet again in this case. I know that the world runs at an insane pace, with jobs, education, friends, family, pets, and whatever life throws at you all taking up an insane amount of time – who has time to research where their things come from, source and who has enough money to buy ethically, and why is it important?

Like you and me, the manufactures have to make a profit in order to run successfully. You take a look on EBay, Amazon, ASOS or any big retailers, you’ll see they’re off run with cheap Chinese knock offs, which probably weren’t manufactured in the most ethical way – but it isn’t just clothes, or consumer items, or even just food – it’s everything on the market. You may have heard the awful case of the Apple factories in China having to put suicide nets outside their windows, or several companies who have had messages of desperation hidden in their goods. All these goods have to be made by someone, either manufactured of processed, and cheap goods come at a price.

It’s understandable that companies have a make a profit, but this is passed down the chain one way or another. If a company charges virtually nothing for their goods, how can they pay their employees? These issues aren’t always far away either – like the voices calling for a ‘living wage’ both in the UK and worldwide, providing employees a wage they can actually live off. Giving those who work on our food, clothes, and other consumer goods is so necessary – we all need to survive.

On top of all that, there’s the carbon footprint of all goods. Everything we manufacture has an affect on the environment, even the manufacture of paper contributes a huge amount to the carbon dioxide in the environment – do we really need everything to be so disposable?

There have recently been great waves of companies claiming corporate social responsibility by offering products that are organic, fair trade, ethically produced, or somehow socially responsible, but few people actually know what they mean – so how can you educate yourself and what can we do in reality? The little steps to making the world a better place start with you.

• Inform yourself – Naomi Klein’s No Logo is a great start, as well as The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism, also by Klein. The Establishment: And how they get away with it by Owen Jones. The Rough Guide to Ethical Living by Duncan Clarke. There may be other books more specific to your location.

•  Stay up to date – If a company you buy from has been in the news to do with their structures and policies, maybe you should probably think about stopping buying from them. If there’s a company you’re particularly interested in, think about setting up a Google Alert to stay on top of what’s going on.

Photo credit: Joe Brusky on flickr

• Make the most of technology – If animal welfare is up your alley, PETA have a great search engine on their site where you can check whether a retailer is cruelty free in an instant. They also have an app for the tech savvy. Animal guilt free shopping in an instant! If only there was a similar app for conditions for humans. Oh wait, at least as far as clothing is concerned, the aVOID app helps you steer clear of products made using child labour. And there are a ton of other apps that help you become a so-called conscious consumer. Check out a rundown here.

Photo credit: Mister G.C. on Flickr

• Source your food – Look around to see where you can buy your goods from! If looking at food, see what you can source locally, from farms nearby or local markets. You’re not only supporting the local economy, it’s most likely it will genuinely taste better as well. It’s not always more expensive as the rumours have it, and if you can’t afford to buy all your food this way, set aside a small amount of money towards buying at least a certain amount of your weekly shop from sustainable sources.

Photo credit: Gemma Billings on Flickr

• Think before you shop – It’s not just your food. There are lots of initiatives which allow you to buy your clothes which are manufactured in fair conditions – in all areas. There are larger companies such as People Tree, Bibico and American Apparel – so you’re not forced to go obscure. Of course there are lots of smaller places where you’re able to go too – if you want that one off piece – search for handmade things on the net, or even sites like marketplace sites like Etsy. You’ll almost definitely be able to find anything and everything you’d ever want, and you’ll often be supporting local economies.

Photo credit: Leanne Surfleet

•  Sell and Swap – Thanks to EBay, and many apps, such as Gone, Vinted and Craigslist which allow for you to sell your belongings, instead of throwing things away, sell them and make a few dollars. It contributes to lowering emissions and waste a huge amount. There are also car boot sales and often places where you can rent market stalls if in-person interaction is more your thing! If you’re lazy like me, there’s also alternatives – arrange a swap of belongings between friends, go to an organized clothes swap, have an open house day where people can take things – it doesn’t have to be difficult!

Photo credit: Oxfam International on Flickr

• Use only what is needed – Next time you’re in the supermarket – look at how much unnecessary packaging there is – plastic and paper galore (except at Berlin’s Original Unverpackt, of course). Not all products have it, but some companies are currently introducing lesser packaging options, bear this in mind when shopping. Think whether you need an extra plastic bag – or take your own reusable bags. It’s also in the workplace and at home – do you need to print that extra page or use all that clingfilm?

Photo credit: mbeo on Flickr

• Think – Do you really need it? Just because it’s cheap, if you don’t need it, it’s not a good deal. Try and be mindful about your purchases – do you really need what you are about to buy? Asking just this one simple question can help you cut down on waste and save money too. If you’re thinking about buying something like clothes or shoes, maybe take a step back and wait a few days to see if you’re still obsessing about whatever it was you wanted to buy. Often you’ll find out it was just a passing phase, and you will have forgotten all about it two days later.

Photo credit: Gaby Av in Flickr

In short – find out as much as you can and stay aware. Things are constantly changing and there has been a push for companies to have better policies for their employees, consumer waste, treatment of animals, but the issues that affect what we consume is never-ending – we can no longer pass the buck and we must be more aware of how, what and when – take up the challenge to be more responsible for your consumerism and you’ll find the little things are easier than you think.

Escaping the city: weekend trips to Rügen

In another attempt to practice the art of “slow travel”, and not get in an aeroplane in search of exotic adventures, I went for sun, sand and slightly sustainable instead. Yes, this summer, after more than five years in Berlin, I finally got around to visiting Germany’s famous Baltic Coast, the Ostsee, as some people (German ones) call it, otherwise known as Brighton for Berliners. In fact, I actually ended up going to the same island, twice, doing pretty much the same trip in about 10 days and travelling back to Berlin for about three days in between. Why? Well 1) because I am a ridiculous person and not good at organization and 2) because a trip to the Baltic Coast is the perfect weekend trip from Berlin. It is SO NEAR. (How did it take me five years to get there? Well, see point 1))

More importantly, I only saw a tiny bit of the island of Rügen and the weather was pissy 50% of the time, but it was still pretty much all-round aceness. So everyone should go.

Rügen Part 1

The first trip took place right in the middle of this summer’s two heatwaves, when it was rainy, windy, and cold, with a few little splashes of sun in between. The weather was so schizophrenic, even on the one whole sunny day we had there, at one point the sky went dark and there was a massive insane hailstorm. But there is of course one obvious advantage to clouds, at least broken ones: sunsets. This is the one that greeted us on our first evening (after it had stopped drizzling).

The next two days were mixed too, meaning we saw the beaches greyish and ominously dark…

And also some Simpsons style sky…

But it wasn’t enough to stop people walking down to the water and jumping (most of them naked, we are in former East Germany after all) into those (really big and crashy) Baltic Sea waves.

The first night we just parked in a road near the beach and actually slept in the car that we came in (Please don’t do this, apparently this is not legal. But it only cost us 30 euro when we got caught, so, actually cheaper than a campsite...)

The second night we stayed in the aforementioned expensive campsite which was only about 10 minutes from a beach, in a place called Thiessow in the most south-easterly point of the island. This sign lists the different types of beach you can find on this part of the island: nudist, dog, and “textile”. A difficult choice. Take your pick.

Here are some of Rügen’s vigorously fenced-off and really quite lovely dunes.

This trip also took us to the most northerly point of the island, the lighthouse at Cape Arkona. The weather was the grossest. I’m posting one picture and that’s it. Here.

Right? We got back in the car and left quite soon after this assault of wind and rain and grossness. FYI, this is kind of what Germany (almost always) looks like from the motorway.

Rügen Part 2

The second trip was to the neighbouring corner of the island (the most south-westerly point), to a place called Zicker. Only three days later, but the weather was slightly different.

One day I took a walk down to the very very southern-most point of the southern-most part of the island, to a place called Palmer Ort.

After about two kilometres of pretty much deserted road, heading towards the sea and about 100 metres from the beach, you run into something really cool (if you’re into this kind of thing) and completely unexpected.

Abandoned houses! A whole group of them! Inspired by the beauty that is Abandoned Berlin, I tried to capture them in all their crumbling, faded glory (and failed). They were incredibly cool though, pretty much open still, and with lots of retro fittings (see 70s print curtains at the windows).

The beach when I finally got to it was pretty nice too. Yes, amazingly, this is Germany.

Walking down to the very tip of the island and seeing the waves lapping on each side was pretty special too. Access to the island is usually over a bridge, not via ferry – so it’s easy to forget you’re on a piece of land surrounded by water, Rügen just doesn’t feel like an island most of the time, and it’s massive too. Here you were reminded of the amazing geography of the place.

Getting to Rügen from Berlin

I’d recommend getting the train from Berlin to Rügen – it doesn’t take much longer than driving, even with the regional trains, as getting out of central Berlin can take forever in a car.

There are direct (!) regional trains to Stralsund from Berlin Hauptbahnhof that take about three hours. From there you can change to another train depending on where you want to go on the island.

When I go again I’ll head for Sellin with its huge and crazy pier:

Photo by xuxxy on Flickr

And to see the ancient ruins down by the beach in Heiligendamm:

Photo credit:
PercyGermany on Flickr

Original Unverpackt, Berlin: Shopping with no-added plastic

Photo credit: Jendrik Schröder for OU

According to the German Environment Agency, there are up to 140 million tons of waste at the bottom of oceans, floating in the water, or washed up on beaches.

This shocking statistic is one of the first things you’re confronted with when you visit the website of Original Unverpackt, Berlin’s first packaging-free supermarket, that this month celebrated its first year anniversary. Original Unverpackt means something like “Originally Unpackaged” in German, and the concept is simple: they offer the same products as a normal supermarket, but they buy them in bulk, and the customers bring along their own jars, bottles, boxes and bags to put their items in (or they pay a small deposit and borrow some containers from the store). Fruits and vegetables are all free of plastic packaging, and dry stuff like rice and cereals are in big vats where you can take as much as you want to fill your container.

Photo credit: Katharina Massmann for OU

It’s all really simple actually – the only thing you have to remember to do on your first visit is to weigh the empty containers before you start, so that the weight of the container can be removed from the total weight at the till, allowing the cashier to work out how much of each product you’ve actually bought. (I forgot to do this a couple of times on my first trip, but the workers there were really nice, and very patiently helped me empty, weigh and then refill my beloved mason jars).

Photo credit: Jendrick Schröder for OU

And at the end of it you end up with a whole load of groceries, minus the added plastic, and for a similar price.

This is what a quick trip to a normal supermarket in Germany usually ends up looking like (particularly because I usually try and buy organic things, which until recently at least, were for some reason always packaged in more plastic than the non-organic ones, example: bananas in a “bio” plastic bag). And yes, I went to Netto rather than an organic supermarket, where lots of things are sold in reusable glass bottles, so it ended up looking pretty horrible and package-y…

And this is what my shopping looked like after a trip to Original Unverpackt.

I was surprised that they even had things like tofu (pictured in the jar in the middle), that was locally produced, and lots of different sweets, nuts, cereals, spices and herbs.

Photo credit: Jendrik Schröder

The only thing I couldn’t find that I usually buy every week was soya/rice/almond milk. I’m assuming this is hard to source directly in bulk from a supplier, and maybe it’s something that they’ll start stocking in the future. They had normal milk though, and they even sell beautifully-designed (and very expensive!) glass bottles for you to take your liquid stuff home in.

And I was surprised that they had vodka on sale…

…and even red wine!

I went there on a Saturday evening (just before they closed for the weekend – German supermarkets aren’t open on a Sunday), when supermarkets are usually really busy, and Original Unverpackt was no exception. This shop was busy. It was almost difficult to move around. And it wasn’t just the kind of people you might expect to be shopping in a place like that (women in long hippy skirts and men with manbuns maybe?), but a completely average mix of people.

I was annoyed for a second at first when I realised that they didn’t have some of the things I wanted, particularly when it came to fruits and vegetables, but then I realised that that is actually exactly how a supermarket with fresh produce should work. If their shelves had been full half an hour before closing time, they would have had to throw away a whole bunch of stuff, just so that I could have the luxury of buying that one pomegranate, or whatever it was (I can’t even remember, that’s how important it was).

Photo credit: Katharina Massmann for OU

Okay, so I have to admit I haven’t been shopping there regularly since – it’s just too far for me to travel for a few things – and I tend to get most of my food from the sort-of-dumpster-diving organisation known as Foodsharing (an article about that will follow some unspecified time in the future). Doing your main supermarket shop here requires dedication, like any lifestyle change does. You need to plan ahead and have your containers ready, and be ready to transport your really heavy shopping home (there’s extra weight of course, because glass jars are way heavier than flimsy plastic trays and cardboard cartons). You basically need to be ready to not be as lazy as I am.

Despite all that, going there is definitely an eye-opening experience, and a really good reminder of how much waste we as consumers create in our day to day lives. And although I’m currently too lazy to go all the way to this shop to buy my groceries, there are other things I try to do when I do end up in a supermarket, as an attempt to minimize the amount of plastic I end up taking home. Like trying to avoid putting my vegetables in a plastic bag when I buy them – either choosing a paper one, or just putting them loose on the conveyer belt (even though this means the cashier and the other customers look at me really strangely while my tomatoes and all other round things roll all over the place), and choosing things in paper packaging rather than over plastic (like really simple bags of oats, rather than buying the fancy pre-mixed müsli in a plastic bag). Actually, even just writing this article has inspired me to go back. After all, is there a better sight in the world than a mason jar full of goodness?

Photo credit: Daniel Lee on Flickr

For an interview with the owners and a look around the shop in more detail, check out the video below

Our thoughts go out to you

Our hearts are bleeding for our fellow travelers that are fleeing through Europe. It could have been you or me. It is hard to grasp the kind of reality out there, it is such a different journey. We are all just trying to find a safe enough place to live. I try to imagen that this is happening to me. And in the bigger sense – it is! We’re all part of this world.

Right now I am thinking of how I can prepare for a more long term solution in helping and making a better place for all of us. These thoughts are of course to be continued …

… A way of learning more about the situation and to maybe help in a small way is to read more at the websites of UNICEF, Doctors Without Borders, the Red Cross or any other big aid organization. Let’s try to make this world a place where everyone is welcome.