INA WO(A)NDERS: About adventures
Our author Ina has been on the road for many years. Now her biggest adventure yet is about to begin. In her column she sorts out her thoughts about fears and the feeling of being alive.
“But aren’t you scared at all?”
After “Where are you right now?”, this is certainly one of the questions I’ve been asked most frequently in recent years. All alone as a woman on the Way of St. James? By boat from Greece to Sicily? To Portugal by van? And do you always lock it from the inside at night? Most of the time I downplay my plans. Tell me how many people have done this before me. I have statistics ready with which I try to prove that everything is guaranteed to be okay.
Same this time. My goal: palm trees, blue sky, turquoise water, and lots of greenery. In around eight hours I could escape the gray European winter and jet off to the Caribbean. The likelihood of something happening to me on the way there would be very low - the plane is considered one of the safest means of transport. But I decided differently. I will cover the approximately 2800 nautical miles – around 5200 kilometers – by sailboat. I am scared? Sure, of course! Why do I do it anyway? Because it's an adventure! And a climate-friendly one at that.
You need to believe that everything will somehow work out
As a child I was never particularly brave, just a little naive at best. One of my finest moments was on Friday the 13th, when I had the brilliant idea of standing up and sliding down the icy slide on the playground at my elementary school. I landed: on my head – which might explain a lot. And although there was a brief rumor among my classmates that I had lost an eye and would now probably become a pirate, I got off lightly with a small scar on my left eyebrow. From today's perspective, the theory with the pirate is perhaps not so far-fetched. And what also remains: the sometimes somewhat naive belief that everything will somehow work out. And you also need it when an adventure is coming up.
Adventure: risky, extraordinary and exciting
According to Duden, an adventure is a “dangerous situation associated with an extraordinary, exciting event that someone has to endure”. However, I find that only partially appropriate. After all, no one is telling me to cover a distance as long as Berlin to Lisbon and back again using only the power of the wind and surrounded by nothing but water. An “extraordinary, exciting experience” or at least a “risky undertaking” – that’s more accurate. The term adventure has Latin, Old French and Middle High German roots, but is also related to the word “Advent”, i.e. arrival. I like this very special. Because it makes me optimistic that after about 20 days on the high seas I will arrive in paradise.
Cheat life with adventures
However, in my personal Ina-explains-the-world dictionary, I have put the word adventure differently. When I lost a loved one seven years ago, whose end of life should not have come for a long time, I was initially paralyzed. And then, very gradually, something inside me began to tick, to tingle, to squirm. A stubborn, defiant will that I can no longer shake off to live more intensively in the now and here. For me, an adventure like crossing the Atlantic is the best way to cheat life. Sure: such projects could cost me dearly. But at least I've had a good life before evening falls.
Are you, like me, longing for adventure on a regular basis – preferably far from home? Or do you not need that tingling sensation to feel alive?
I am always happy to receive feedback, suggestions or questions – either as a comment or directly by e-mail [email protected].
© Photos: Ina Hiester
Ina Hiester
Ina is a digital nomad and travels through Europe by land and sea. The journalist is always on the lookout for special places for Good Travel, philosophizes about travel in her column, takes photographs, makes music and writes articles on all kinds of environmental and sustainability topics.
2 Comments
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Ina
Dear Astrid,
Thank you very much for your nice feedback, I'm very pleased that you like my column.
I've never been to South America, but who knows, one day... It's just a shame that Bolivia doesn't have a coast.
Best regards from Dominica
Ina
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Astrid Lache
Hello Ina,
I find your style of writing very personal, but well seasoned with humor. I like that. I sing with you in Dorweiler, so I know your parents. Traveling, searching, living intensively... daring to do something. I can understand well. I travel to Bolivia every three years and support various projects there with an NGO.
Blessed Christmas season and good wind in your sails.
LG Astrid