Tag: hiking

Some solitude and connecting to the Heart Sutra (August 2022)

After Beglika, I felt like I want to have some time on my own again. And so I went east and south. More into the mountains and there I discovered something profound.

On my, way I met two friendly border policemen. I can remember that I felt somehow reserved when meeting or encountering the German police. But since I left Germany, that changed. These two guys were super nice and mostly interested in Rosinante and how the cabin is attached to the pickup. One of the guys showed me enthusiastically photos of the self-build modifications on his jeep.

I found a super nice, quiet, lonely place on top of a small hill. I observed a couple of times before, that after more closed places, I like to go to more open ones again and vice versa. It’s interesting. After all the impressions of the Beglika festival, I enjoyed being on my own. Reflecting on the impressions. Feeling how they changed me.

At that place, I rediscovered the Heart Sutra, and this time I connected so strongly to it. It was magical. The Heart Sutra is kind of a summary of everything Buddhism is about. It’s profound and beautiful. I felt like it was absolutely what I in a way needed at that time. Sounds like attachment, right? And in a way, it was like that. One of the things about the Heart Sutra that I love most is that it states that the world as we perceive it is illusional and that Buddhism and the Heart Sutra itself are illusional as well. So it states that attaching to itself is not a healthy way as well.

If you like to get an understanding of it, make sure to check out these two episodes of the Zen Studies Podcast:
19 – The Heart Sutra Part 1: Introduction to the Most Common Mahayana Text
20 – The Heart Sutra Part 2: Line by Line Explanation, Continued
And if you feel like talking about it, write me on WhatsApp.

I did a hike in the area around my home and then I felt like contacting Artha and asking her if she would like to meet again.

Meeting the loveliest family, a stone man, a real man, a wooden bird, real insects, a waterfall, the water itself and feelings (July 2022)

After another hike near the meadow of horses and meerkats, I restocked my food supplies and drove about 50 km to the next home. On the way, I stopped at that big rock man. Monuments like that are pretty common and to me, they feel a bit weird. Maybe because they are so heroic. I don’t know…

The next home was a picnic and barbeque area. A really big one with a soccer field, multiple levels, a playground, and everything else.

Most of the time, I was in solitude but on the weekend other people came along and I met this wonderful and lovely family! They were just gorgeous and we spent some time together. Went together for a swim in the nearby river and had dinner together. The grandmother (not in the photo) tried hard to feed me with all their homemade and super delicious food and we had a great time. The daughter mostly translated my English into Turkish and partly Bulgarian and it was awesome to have this time with them.

The other day, a Sunday, the place got crowded. It had been very quite and relaxed and out of nowhere two small transporter arrived next to Rosinante. Out of the transporter jumped about twenty children and from there on it was a colorful and vivid place. Soon some more guys joint with their horses and cars. One guy drove his VW Golf through some trees over crazy roots to play, what I should learn later was, Bulgarian gypsy style music as loud as possible. It was like in a movie for me.

The other day, I did a hike and met a super nice Bulgarian. We did most of our hikes together until our paths took different directions. It was super nice as well to hike with someone again and to talk about the Bulgarian culture and living in this country.

Despite the company of the lovely people I met, I started to feel somehow lonely at that time. In the beginning, I felt kind of left behind. And started craving for connecting with other people. Now, in retrospective that appears pretty clear to me, but at that time, I was just confused. I even installed dating apps to get to know someone. I felt somehow underfucked as well… Maybe one thing that called these feelings inside of me had the time together with Michele. For me it’s life is different when I have someone around me most of the time. And maybe that contrast of being mostly in solitude again let something pop up inside of me. I never felt really bad or sad, but I was somehow unsatisfied with something. I meditated as usual an it was interesting to observe these feelings.

My longest hike to a shelter rocket (July 2022)

The weather got colder and wet in the Rila National Park of Bulgaria and so Michele and I decided to move further east and north to the area of Kalofer and Botev Peak. I was struggling a bit to go there because I felt like there is something left to discover in Rila and I always try to burn not so much diesel for going back and forth. But in the end, it was a good decision. The weather near Kalofer was super nice and the whole area there is beautiful as well.

At the meadow which we called home there were horses and a kind of meerkats. They came every morning out of their little home holes to greet the day. Beautiful. We had some chill time there and one day it was time for Michele to take a train to Sofia to then fly back to Germany. The time with him was super nice and lovely and I always smile thinking back at it.

On my way back to the meadow where Sebastian and I had stayed for a couple of days, I refilled my water tank and canisters. While refilling, I put the lid of Rosinante’s water tank on the roof of Rosinante. After refilling, I forgot to put the lid back on. I realized that after driving about one kilometer away from the water fountain… And then I started searching for it… For about an hour. But I never gave up hope and when I finally found it, I was happy as shit.

I wanted to go to Botev Peak but the internet said it should be done as a two days trip. I don’t know why, but I didn’t feel like going to the mountain hut near the peak and so I decided to do it just in one day. It was an awesome hike. Especially the Tarzan Trail near the waterfall “Raisko Praskalo” I loved a lot. That part was a bit adventurous. The peak was a totally different world: flat, not very romantic, occupied by something that looked in between a rocket or a nuclear war shelter.

In the end, I did 30 km and 4.700 hm in 8 hours and felt awesome about it. Since I did this hike, I feel much more relaxed while hiking. It’s weird, but something changed in me. Before I sometimes hiked very slowly and sometimes fast. Sometimes I did some trail running, sometimes I took breaks of an hour or longer with meditation, etc. And I’m still doing it the same way. But still, it feels different… It’s really weird… I guess my ego feels like it has proven something with that hike. And just think about that. Isn’t it funny? Somehow something inside of me changed because of having done something. Somehow my inner concept of what is hiking or how I feel about it changed. But without an intention to do so. For me it’s just another example what the subjective reality is like: delusional and impermanent.