While travelling, you will find out that people have very different perspectives of life. The hospitality, beliefs, communications, religion, behavior, way of living definitely varies all around the globe. Some expect a lot from you and some have no expectations at all; some share everything with you, others stay calm.
Always open your eyes & heart, stay curious and get enriched by encounters, conversations, sharing experiences; sharing time with humans and nature.
My last road trip made me writing this post on which I felt more connected than ever before.
I want to tell you a little about it…
Since I never book in advance, it is always a struggle to find a sleeping place in packed destinations. This time we arrived midnight in a packed camping in Monterey after a long day of driving to find a ranger who told us that all is booked out and we have to leave if we do not want to pay a huge parking penalty. In that moment a guy walked buy, listened to the conversation and told the ranger that we are part of his friends now and that we are going to stay on his site… which made us having a perfect sleep on his spot overlooking the lights of the city of Monterey Bay..Angels do not always have wings
After an awesome sleep we were driving down to the beach to have our breakfast there before heading to a new destination..
I watched this man walking up and down the beach for a very long time collecting something. When I asked him for what he is searching, his eyes were shining and he looked at me with a huge smile. He told me that he did not have a job but a family to feed. So he found out that you can produce beautiful things out of old ones and that is why he collects all the glass at the beach which was brought overnight from the ocean. Out of that he produces necklaces and bracelets which he sells with great success… I was very impressed and totally in thoughts when I met him again at the beach parking lot. He walked towards me and showed me a box full of glass jewelry he made… and grabbed out a pendant with the words: “Look Kathrin, that is a wave of glass which I found at the beach in Santa Cruz. This will accompany you!” …what great teacher; and magical & amazing encounter
Our trip went on with a drive to Lake Tahoe. A huge freshwater lake in the Sierra Nevada. At a surface elevation of 6,225 ft, it is located along the border between California and Nevada It shines blue and looks like the sea with water clear and blue like the sky.
A lot of Americans spend their summer holiday there; we could see that as it was pretty packed and all booked out. After a gorgeous day at the lake with hikes and kayaking we tried to figure out a sleeping place and asked all around which let me think of Airbnb and somehow I contacted a host which had still free space. I did not have that much network connection but somehow the message got through and Andrew confirmed our stay in his place.
Just less than 1 mile up the hill from Carnelian Bay we discovered his beautiful wooden house in the woods of Tahoe. His flatmate welcomed us home and we fell in love with that place from 1st second. Wooden terraces, hot tub and barbeque on the terrace, a comfy living room with wood oven and open kitchen and rooms. I stepped outside his porch to do a small walk since there are walking trails all around. After a while I discovered a hilltop and went into remote wood….after I while I had to close & open my eyes again to make sure I am not dreaming.. a fox walked over my way just in front of me..i hurried to the hill top to have a better view and some distance.. what beautiful & random encounter.. I settled myself back to the house and after good talks and a nice evening the stars came out to present all their beauty above us. It gets very cold at night at Lake Tahoe but not if you are sitting in a hot tub.. I spend the night watching stars and listening to hyenas and dogs.. the nature has music for those who listen!
I can say that I am not the same having seen the moon shine on the other side of the world. This experiences taught me a lot about us humans and our earth.. how little are we and how dependent are we on our nature.
How lucky are we to live on this beautiful planet and explore it with our own feet, share this experience with other people and get connected all over. Thanks for this paradise