Walk - Eat - Sleep - Get Up before Dawn - Repeat

April 4, 2016 Dorija Parsley

The recent weeks of my life up in the clouds of the Polopos village has been full of little pleasures. I've been out on morning hikes around the village, found a group of hikers who meet up for a days hike around the Sierra Nevada every week (age average: 65 years - can't stop admiring their motivation for the outdoors and movement), (successfully) dragged my english dad Alex to join the hikes, too, went on a spontaneous Easter road trip around Andalusia, was even photographing and working creatively on an assignment, was learning Spanish, attended even two village wine fiestas, met many new lovely people and convinced Alex to let me drive his new car (and started looking for a future dream car (current status: Citroen c15d - because it's a simple, practical van and you can sleep in it! #vanlife!)). And in between the list of events time is filled with thoughts. Sometimes a few of the negative ones. Even thought I'm having a blessed relaxing time of my life at the moment, worry about future and it's caused mood swings don't give me a break. I start questioning too much, open rooms in my head which should not be opened. Thats nothing new to me nor anyone - we all have it. But the good news is that with years you learn strategies how to overcome your biggest enemy at times - yourself.

As I feel like standing on a thick fog crossroad with the unexplainable urge to quickly choose one out of a dosen ways, first time I simply don't know which way to go. 'Following my heart' or 'going with the gut' doesn't give me the right impulse just right now. Being very afraid to fail, one amongst many reasons. For sure some might say - this girl is an ultimately spoiled Generation Y child. But it's not necessarily a bad thing!

So, instead of crying around I'm doing one thing - getting a bus ride throughout Spain from the very South to the very North, to the city of Oviedo and starting the Camino Primitivo, one of the St. James Way trails that leads to Santiago de Compostela. Length - approx. 300 km. It's one way to go - straight on to the West, always following the yellow arrows. Walk, eat, sleep, get up before dawn, repeat. And that for a couple of weeks, hopefully with least possible crossroads ahead.

You gotta break the circle of your own habits and routine, through a stone in a vacuum full of thoughts, to roil the water and bring in some good vibration. By walking. This keeps my mind clean. And I'm looking forward to discover and report.

Here's a little collection of life recently in and around the life in the cloud.

Dorija Apple Parsley_Polopos Projects-7362

Dorija Apple Parsley_Polopos Projects-7357

A few things I came across during the last few weeks:

new old music even better in a concert

great new blog to follow along

a podcast for my preparation for the Camino - will be following this one for sure

Thru-Hiking Will Break Your Heart - a very personal and inspiring book I'm on right now

And just before you close this tab - my Instagram - will be documenting my trail over over there, if I don't decide to disconnect completelly

Leaving Helgoland

January 19, 2016 Dorija Parsley

Maren came to visit me back in October last year. We explored the autumn sun of Helgoland, checked if the seals were still chilling on the beach. I kept on testing out my new Fuji x-t1, trying to catch the rays before they settle down for the winter, much photographing against the sun. Back at home, between tea sessions, a little cold that I caught, veggie english breakfasts and birdy visitors we also made some photos of Maren which I published already few posts back. Also, I sat down for a few self portraits with my slightly sick face.

Now, every day the sun stays up for a few more minutes. Yet I will be leaving Helgoland by the end of this January for good. On the day I leave I will have spent sixteen months of my life living on a 1,8 square kilometres piece of land, 50 km away from the next mainland shore. Building up new friendships, diving into daily office work life, changing my personality a bit, fulfilling one of my fundamental dreams - to live at the seaside, to live in the middle of the North sea - a few of the things I’ve done at the time of my stay.

Truth is - this island actually is a magical place. Here, I understood a lot not only about myself, but the dear old Universe, you call it. I was raising questions and I got a few answers, very simply while doing every day things, walking from A to B and observing some amazing everyday 6 am sunrises. Then I forgot the answers. In good moods I remembered them again. Helgoland comes from ‘holy land’ and you start feeling different once set foot over here. The longer you stay, the stronger the impact.

Will I miss the constantly fresh healthy air? Yes. Will I miss the quiet mornings with seagulls calling to begin the day? Also, the evenings with the noise of strong wind blowing along my windows as the biggest noise that the street here can offer? Yes. The lighthouse beams scanning my bedroom from one corner to another at night time? So romantic - yes. Will I miss short ways from house to work to beach to shop to anywhere? And everyone saying hello to you all the time because it’s just those 1300 people living on the island and you sort of know two thirds of them? Yes. Will I miss tax free internet shopping? Hell yeah! Sauna spa with a view to the stormy waves while you’re sitting all sweaty salty in all lavender mint orange pine tree - you name it - scent in the air? Well, guess the answer.. The ocean view everywhere? Oh, my ocean, my daily moon arisings over the ocean. Yes. My dear friend Nadja, her I will miss a lot, too.

Even though, I’m not sad to leave. The reasons are more complex and private then the need to write them down over here. There are things I won’t be missing at all, nonetheless I leave the option wide open to come back here again and spend some later years of my life over here.

Even though I’m risking much by leaving, much needed stability, regular income, this safety feeling on this island in general, even though - I’m embracing all new whats there to come and encounter me soon. Or rather even - I am going to take and hug nicely all what’s been calling and waiting for some time already.

back in time

November 7, 2015 Dorija Parsley

i wish we could go on a hike again. i wish i could capture her movement, her heart, hear thought again and more often. i wish we could talk again sometimes. the labyrinths behind aquamarine eyes would soften and let the daylight through. i don't wish for anything to be the same. but for new ways. new hikes.

Helgoland Friday

July 11, 2015 Dorija Parsley

oh how delightful it is. the silence, the calmness of island life. sometimes is does get on your nerves a lot, but then again, in those good mood moments and days, life is so blissful and beautiful on an island..on a friday afternoon i met Nadja for a tour in the Helgoland ornithological station - second oldest in the world. in there many voluntary helpers work for the sake of gathering information about the most seldom bird kinds of Europe and World. they help the wild breeding couples with their babies, like the guillemots, which jump out of their nests into the water in order to learn to fly (they actually jump into the sea so they can learn to fly from there and survive on the fish they find on the surfice of the water). the little hour of nature joy was followed by a delightful best friday night Bulgarian dinner which Nadja made specially for me. pure relaxing, pure joking, talking sense and nonsense.. and water-colouring!

Nadja is in love with this picture and the magic of lens aperture =)

i love this one picture on the right with the casual relaxing legs. i love the little details of the couch cover and the socks. hyper coziness when i see it. and then i lit the candles, so the water colouring could start.

a little jump to the day before. on Thursday we went out to watch the storm and waves around the island as we had a storm passing this area and cutting off any ship connection to the mainland for two days. so, wearing a winter coat again, we walked around the edges to experience the wind playing with our bodies and all sorts of greenery.

these water coloured flowers actually made me think about painting beautiful things again. and do it happened the night after.

back to Friday. after leaving Nadja's place i saw the sunset hour coming closer, the water so still after the stormy days, fresh summer breeze back up again. i decided to go for a kind of a sunset run session which was constantly interrupted by the beauty of every corner - i needed to stop and snap a picture on my phone. after all, all i can say is - i love this island, i love being a part of this nature, i love to be so much excited by the sky every time i go for a run. i love to be interrupted by the crazy sheep standing somewhere on the hill in bizarre compositions. right now - i just adore the smell of the rose hip along the beach. it's insane that this can be and is my nearly every day life at the moment. i recommend it to everyone. cities are great, but this - water all over in the horizon, sand on my skin, the greenery smell, seashells on strings.. this is actually the life environment i was wishing for. and somehow - i got it.

i wish all a good weekend.

ps: and leave some thoughts in a comment. i always appreciate <3

f e e l h o m e

May 18, 2015 Dorija Parsley

the ones who know me a little bit also know how much home, coziness and hospitality means to me. like those little details - seashells on the window ledge, found drift wood and branches together with grandma' flea market pictures hanging on my walls, blanket patterns and a cup of tea each hour... all in a very certainly organised happy mess. rethinking what home actually means to me is a very frequent topic on my mind. when you move several times, change countries, leave family or, after all, brake up with people in whose arms you were feeling so warm and peaceful -like home-, after you go through all that circle a few times i guess it becomes natural, that practical and philosophical questions arise and wait to be stilled with an answer for that one little while. for me as a child of migrations this topic is a huge thing and never off the table. nevertheless there are those two battling sides of mine - the shelter craving snail versus the butterfly jumping from one flower colour to another to whom the whole meadow is his home. the butterfly still wins the most of those battles.

up till this day the places i stay in - even for years - still tend to feel like stations. nonetheless i feel this grand wish arising to start putting the first stone down for a place to call my home, and a place to come back to. i'm still very much on a silent slow search, but i can't wait till the day i find this right piece of land - close to the ocean, surrounded by trees, with space and blankets for best visitors, and candles at calm rhythm dinners. a place i feel safe, warm and peaceful in.

now even thought i don't know how to define this upcoming sentence do that anyway - call up your mom or dad or your best mate, for in their warmest voices one will always find home.

* the photos are from my best friends place a few weeks ago. a place i can always feel so safe and cozy in *

if you don't bother just tell me what you think about the definition of h o m e, even on a comment bellow. i would like to have more words to describe this feeling with.