Finding Something More: Two Weeks in Rathenow, Germany

It’s been just over two months into my travels. I’ve spent hours on the beaches of Tel Aviv, got some retail therapy in London, did naughty stuff in Amsterdam and went to some of the best clubs in the world in Berlin. These cities have really shown me a different side to the world, a side that (from Cape Town) I only knew through the pixels on a computer screen. However, something of particular significance occurred to me whilst sitting on my bed in a hostel in Berlin, at which time I was feeling especially exhausted after a full few days of razzling. Whilst thinking (and in fact stressing) about my ‘next step’, I recalled a moment that occurred a few weeks before I left Cape Town to embark on my journey.

It was on a First Thursday when I went to see a friend’s girlfriend play a gig that I bumped into his older brother whom I hadn’t seen for quite some time. We inevitably began talking about the travels that I had been planning, and as an avid and experienced traveller himself we had a long exchange. After I had explained all of these wonderful cities that I wanted to visit, he said one thing that has stuck with me ever since. Preceded by the question ‘Have you ever heard of Workaway?’ he followed by saying: ‘at some point, you will look for something more…’ And having never heard of Workaway before, he suggested that I signed up immediately as it could be useful in that abovementioned moment of desire for inner fulfillment.

Although skeptical, I decided to do some basic research into the platform and eventually signed up (admittedly with a ‘well-what-do-I-have-to-lose?’ kind of attitude). What I discovered was that Workaway essentially allows for travellers to apply for accommodation for which one is required to perform some sort of labour exchange for the ‘host’. There is a huge database of these ‘hosts’ from around the world with a plethora of different requirements, and up until my time Berlin I hadn’t really found anything of interest (and to be honest I don’t think I was particularly motivated to find something as I was living in relative comfort up until that point). However, as I sat with a fading hangover in my hostel I indeed began to feel this desire for ‘something more’, something away from the city, something that would allow me to reset myself physically and mentally. The timing just seemed right for this kind of activity, so my search began...

View from the top floor [photo cred: Jonny]

As I checked out of my hostel I felt a new sense of excitement, as I was about to enter the field of the unknown. As usual, I made sure I knew exactly which trains I needed to take and took extra care in figuring out the correct transfer to get the most efficient ride to my final destination. But as things tend to go with travelling in a new environment I somehow managed to miss the train I was meant to board. A moment of mindless hesitation landed up costing me an extra hour’s wait at a rather empty and dull train-station. This was nothow I intended my new adventure to begin. I was left with mixed feelings thinking that perhaps I had made the wrong decision and should’ve stayed for an extra two weeks of debauchery in Berlin.

Luckily my current travel partner, Jack Keraouc’s seminal ‘On The Road’, served as a reminder that these unforeseen incidences are a critical part of one’s journey and often lead to the most interesting outcomes. After a few pages of reading, the next train approached and I entered with a renewed sense of enthusiasm. Although exhausted, I managed to keep my eyes open to absorb some of the lesser-known landscapes of the German countryside, and in what felt like no time at all I exited the train station and followed the ever-faithful Google Maps to the building that would my home for the next two weeks.

Affectionately known as ‘Palazzo Pitti’, I approached its old green gate and made a quick call to its owner, Sebastian, to notify him of my arrival. Expecting that he was going to open the door in person, I was taken by surprise when I was instead greeted by a Mexican ‘Workawayer’ with an uncanny resemblance to Hagrid from Harry Potter. However, I was swiftly shown the way to Sebastian’s office where we had a light-hearted introduction and got some of the minor ‘formalities’ out of the way. Thereafter a tall Hungarian fellow (whose name took me a few days to understand) escorted me to my room, a clean, white-walled, one-man space that neighboured his.

Once I dropped my luggage, Bence (the above-mentioned ‘fellow’) took me on a short tour of the vast ‘Pallazzo’ and after a few minutes of chatting with some of the other attendees I was notified that lunch was to be served (rather conveniently timed I must say!). My first lunch allowed for some inter-mingling with the rest of the ‘Workawayers’ who, at this point, were showing visible signs that they had just finished their mandatory work for the afternoon. After wolfing down my serving, I was invited to sit with Sebestian and his wife Amrit for a brief, yet enlightening, conversation.

Any lingering doubts that I had about my decision to embark on this two-week journey were immediately voided. The passion I felt from the hosts was undeniably authentic whilst our perspectives on life in general seemed to have some poignant overlaps despite our vast differences in age and background – and for this reason I found solace and was ready to give the experience my all. Already that night I was put out of my comfort zone as I was asked to join in for an open ‘music session’. It had been a while since I had picked up a guitar, but despite this, I consciously decided to ignore the nervousness and participate in the best way I could – and needless to say, it was rewarding!

This marked the first of many jam sessions with Sebastian, a man who’s profound skill as an accomplished architect could easily have overshadowed his will to grow – however, I noticed how he developed into an open-minded and avid learner and I was glad to be able to pass over some of my own knowledge. Later on that evening I had some further conversation with my fellow Workawayers from around the world as we shared similar views and experiences. Thereafter, it was time for my (much-needed) first night of sleep in the Palazzo. To describe each day in consecutive fashion would be slightly futile at this point as most consisted of the same routine.

However, instead, I would like to highlight some of the more unique aspects of my experience at the house. Firstly, the compulsory yoga practice in the morning became a particularly important part of my journey at the Palazzo (as I know it did for most people). Having done some basic yoga in Cape Town a few years prior, I had certain expectations of what it would be like. I also understood that we were going to be engaging with the Kundalini form of yoga, which I was aware was quite different to the yoga I previously participated in. Having said this, nothing would prepare me for what was to follow.

Waking up early in the morning was never something I enjoyed, however, with the structure of yoga in place I learned to appreciate the value of getting the body and mind functioning in the early hours. What really surprised me though were the ‘meditative’ qualities of the Kundalini form and the benefits of these. Often we are so involved in the physical aspects of our bodies and neglect the power that the mind has over controlling these more corporal forces. Through the various breathing and subtle movement exercises I felt things that I have never felt before. The mind entered a space of pure focus that allowed for both introspection and control over any physical discomfort.

Admittedly, the techniques were difficult to grasp – often I felt myself becoming distracted by external stimuli that broke the mediation. However, each day I tried harder to hold these moments of spiritual engagement for longer and longer – and once I felt improvements, the benefits followed immediately. After a good yoga session my body and mind felt ready to conquer a day of graft – but on the contrary, when I didn’t have a particularly engaging yoga session, I felt that my days weren’t as productive. This really proved the power of the practice to me.

Coupled with this, we were encouraged to follow a strictly vegetarian diet. Again, this was another challenge, as most of us were used to meat-based diets – yet with the yoga and work routine it seemed to come almost naturally. I felt obvious changes in my body and energy levels, again proving the power of considered dietary habits within a physically demanding work environment. My stomach took a long time to adjust, but this also made me realize how conditioned my body was to eating in a certain way.

Architecture in San Souci Park, Potsdam

In terms of the actual ‘physical’ labour, we were assigned jobs based on our individual skills (some being more demanding on the body than others). My job from the first day was in ‘window restoration’. There was already an established team for this, so I was duly integrated with the people who already understood the method. I was given a brief explanation of the requirements by my colleagues, and off I went! Like with any new experience, I needed a day or two of ‘feeling out’ the process and learning in an intuitive way. Having been involved in creative and craft fields for many years I quickly felt comfortable with the activity and understood the delicacy it required.

Being something of a ‘perfectionist’ I took the job of the windows as an opportunity to really do the work to a respectable standard without wasting too much time over the microscopic details, particularly as I felt that many of the windows weren’t given this treatment. Naturally, this stance of mine fueled someArchitecture in San Souci Park, Potsdamminor conflicts of interest along the way, but this also taught me a lot about myself and the dynamics of working with individuals. It taught me to accept that not everyone has the same understanding of tasks at hand and to respect people’s differences in approach to things.

Just because I felt the need to do things to a certain level of quality didn’t mean that everyone else had to feel the same. As individuals we are brought up with different schools of thought and therefore our engagements with certain activities will never be the same. Along the way, you meet people who see things in a similar way to you, but more often you will come into contact with those who don’t, and it is important to be sensitive to this. Having said this, my experiences with Sebastian became particularly personal, as we immediately discovered that we had a parallel appreciation for similar things.

As an architect he understood the values in craftsmanship and seeing things with a fine eye – a sentiment to which I could closely relate as one who studied art for four years. Due to this we spent a lot of time together, a highlight of which was when he took me along with Amrit to spend the day in Potsdam whilst the rest of the team spent the day in Berlin. It was in this moment that I really saw the two of them as ‘normal’ people. It may sound strange, but when you are used to the authority of people within a certain context, it is especially enlightening to see them when these confines are no longer in place. I learned a lot just from seeing them together as a couple and their mutual love for one another and their mutual desire to change the world.

They had allowed me, a random twenty-something from an entirely different part of the world into their personal space and treated me like family – it is truly not often that one experiences this level of hospitality and unconditional willingness to share. After a tough week adjusting to routine, this weekend came as a reminder to look past my personal difficulties and perform to a level that would satisfy both my hosts and myself so that when the day came that I needed to leave I could say ‘I’ve given my best’.

Last night in Berlin

However, Monday morning took something of a strange turn. After a good weekend and enough rest, I thought I would wake up in the morning feeling refreshed and ready for another week of productivity. Unfortunately the universe didn’t seem to have the same plan for me. I struggled to get out of bed and was very close to missing the new yoga program led by Amrit’s daughter, but I decided to pull myself together and head down to the deck for the session. For some reason, from the moment I got out of bed I had a strange feeling about something (but I wasn’t sure what). Naturally, this negativity seemed to rub off on my yoga session as I found it especially difficult to

engage and focus.

When it came to breakfast I was in no mood to talk and passively isolated myself from the group to try and get past the morning blues. After a hearty breakfast I quickly went up to my room where I found a heap of soil on the floor. It took me a few minutes to work out what had happened, but after some investigation it turned out that I had left my window open and the pot-plant that was perched there was knocked over by the window which had been blown further open by the wind. Although frustrated, I accepted the fact that this was to be one of those days where things weren’t going to work out perfectly.

There was no point in getting angry, so I took a deep breath, cleaned up the mess, and got back to work. Coupled with this incident, this day marked the mass exodus of many of the old Workawayers as a new group was arriving. The combination of these changes and incidences was a clear indicator that there were more challenges to come. However, the team stayed strong as we welcomed the new faces into the house and prepared them for the tasks at hand. The day was not the most productive, but it was nevertheless a good opportunity to reset ourselves for the rest of the week. Within the next few days, the team had re-integrated into a strong force with everybody pulling their weight.

New relationships were made and it was clear that the next set of goodbyes was going to be difficult. I became more involved with the process of the window restoration and made a point of trying to restructure the activity in order to make sure that whoever would take-over from me would have a firm understanding of what was required of the team. Each day I set targets for myself whilst trying to keep the rest of my group motivated to achieve the best possible standard in the most efficient way. It is not in my nature to be the ‘boss’, but in this case, I didn’t have much time on my hands so I had to get people to work with me in the most positive way possible. Having said this, I learnt a lot from being put in this position as I had my own targets to reach, but I also had to make sure that the overall workflow was productive.

A seemingly mundane job, the act of refurbishing these windows became a therapeutic and meditative undertaking, as well as a physical challenge, whose routine was an integral part of my experience. What I learned from this was the clear importance between the balance of the physical and the ‘spiritual’ and also that this ‘spirit’ may occur even in the most unexpected of places. It is not always this incomprehensible force, but in many cases simply an engagement with a certain state of mind that we are often too busy to recognize in ourselves.

On the final weekend of my stay, I decided to return to Berlin with my new friends from the house. It was a moment to both reflect and celebrate the time we spent together and what we had achieved in (what was for me) a short space of time. I had certainly ‘found something more’ in this experience and a large part of me wanted to stay for longer, but it was inevitably time to move on…