Tag: photo

Visiting Mystras and living on an olive farm

It’s about the mid of April 2022 and I’m driving Rosinante through an olive farm right next to the famous ancient site of Mytras in Greece. These olive farms can become pretty tricky to drive through from time to time. They tend to narrow down and passing the sometimes low-hanging branches of the trees can be tricky as well. I’m always wondering how the farmers are making it up and down the steep slopes on tracks full of loose stones and sometimes pretty big stone steps.

Right next to the little track I took and on the foot of Mystras, I’m happy to find my new home in the center of the olive farm. Hesitation arises in me as I think about if it’s ok for the owner of the farm that I’m staying here for a couple of days. I lay this thought away by coaxing myself. Just at this moment, I hear some low sounds of people working on the farm and I’m pretty sure that they will come along sometime and so I’ll be able to ask them.

I’m exploring my home in between beautiful nature with all its fresh green, olive trees, a meadow, and a nice small stream. The small area I call home now seems to be the dump of the farm because there are some small piles of rubble. It’s funny how different perceptions can be: for me this dump zone is so beautiful that I want to stay here for some days. For the farmer, it might be the most unproductive and worthless area of his whole farm.

A couple of hours later, I’m hearing a tractor approaching and meet it on the small road. I’m waving and smiling and the driver seems to be a nice guy. It’s the farmer and I’m asking him if I can stay for some days. He is absolutely fine with this. We have a short chat about a lot of things and he gives me tips about what to visit in the area. Once more I see one of my beliefs confirmed: if I’m meeting people friendly and open, they do the same to me. It’s like a principle of friendliness attracting more friendliness.

The next morning I start my way to the ancient site of Mystras. After a couple of meters, I’m deciding to try going barefoot for the whole day. As a fallback, I’m tieing my flip-flops to my backpack.

The ancient site of Mystras with its ruins and reconstructed buildings in the rising spring is very beautiful. But the most beautiful part of it is the view from the top of the fortress on top of it. I’m hanging around there for quite some time and thinking about what side of the view I like more: the nature side with its mountains or the valley side with the roads and little settlements? For me, it’s an easy choice and I decide to climb up one of the mountains tomorrow.

After about eight hours I’m arriving back at Rosinante and my barefoot experiment went pretty well. After the first hour of getting used to especially sharp gravel laying on flat concrete, it felt super good and slowed me down a bit. But after having my soles backed on a dark tarmac road it’s super intense to walk on these little, sharp stones.

Finding truth about perception and sexualization

It’s the beginning of April 2022 and I’m following the camper of a new very good friend along the Greek countryside. We have left the Hippie Camp and are heading for a more remote and lonely place. We don’t have an exact plan, but after some time we enter a small dirt road to a small chapel on a hill on the Peleponnese in Greece.

The spot is perfect for what we have been looking for: it has space for barely more than two campers and so there won’t be any other people joining us. What is more both of us have a little private area and in between these areas there is a small ruin of a small building whose flat roof is a perfect terrace for hanging out, doing Yoga, Chi Gong and hanging around.

In the morning when my new friend arrived at the Hippie Camp more than a week ago, I had the very strong impression that it was going to be a very interesting and challenging time for me. And I should be proven right. Our first conversation had been about mindfulness, Vipassana, living full time in cars as a nomad, etc. It turned out that she has been living alone in her car for three years and is traveling around like me. At the Hippie Camp, we spent pretty much time together and I learned a lot of new perspectives on topics and more practical things like picking wild food. The time at the Hippie Camp has been great and the time we are spending together alone now is great as well, but there has been and is something else between us.

At the Hippie Camp, I have been feeling not good all the time and partly the reason had been what I let her trigger inside of me. She never intended to trigger or harm me, but it’s been and is like so often in life: people are triggering stuff inside other people. But this time it’s been very different for me, because already at the Camp, I decided to talk about what was going on with me. Our conversations at the camp have been very honest and benevolent and continue to be so in this time we are traveling together alone.

Back at the Hippie Camp, I’ve been feeling like having a crush on her. But at the same time, I felt the deep and true realization that I’ve not been seeing her as the person she is. Of course, she is a wonderful person, but it felt like I’ve been seeing someone different. Like I’ve been projecting something from my mind on her. I found that to be so unfair and mentally abusive, that I wanted to understand it. In addition to this, I started to ask myself what my feelings are based on.

I’m believing that we humans don’t see anything as it is. Instead, each of us is perceiving everything through a very unique lens and that makes up our unique reality. This lens is formed by our mind, memories, the thinking patterns, we have learned, and all the other stuff. Most of the time this is a good thing and it makes living easier, but on the other hand, it can feel like being remotely controlled by my past. I’m aware of that for a long time and regarding many things in my life, I felt the true truth of this.

But when it comes to my perception of other people, I never felt the truth of it like now. Our conversations are helping me a lot and bit by bit much about my past romantic and sexual relationships are becoming clear to me. More and more I’m realizing that especially the women I’ve been in love and relationships with, I did not see as the persons they are. That, for sure, caused a lot of tension in these relationships. And what is more, I’m getting aware of how I’m sexualizing women in common and what a strong impact this has on me. For me, this feels so encroaching and like mental abuse now. And although I’ve been aware of these topics for so long, I only now feel the deep truth of them. I’ve never intended to think, feel or act like this nor did I want to harm someone, but still it’s true and I’m feeling sorry about it. Realizing all of this feels like a huge relief from something that had been controlling me a lot for a long time but breaking loose from these patterns seems to be a neverending process of change.

We are traveling together for some more time and have adventures and conversations that let us learn so much about life from each other. Even though our physical ways have parted, I am happy and grateful that we continue to walk our spiritual paths together.