WWOOFing in Germany - Number Two

"The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion which stands at the cradle of true art and science. Whoever does not know it and can no longer marvel, is as good as dead, and his eyes are dimmed."

- Albert Einstein -

"An intelligent person is not closed-minded. He does not behave like an ostrich burying his head in the ground, trying to avoid new ideas and developments. An intelligent person is not gullible. He does not accept ideas blindly. He studies and digests them thoroughly, then evaluates them against his reason; he tests these new ideas and developments through experiments and his experiences. An intelligent person studies these ideas with a clear objective mind."

- Master Choa Kok Sui -

My second WWOOFing experience was certainly an eye-opening one. An experience, I imagine, that I will remember for the rest of my life. It is also an experience that I feel incredibly grateful to have taken part in.

I arrived at the farm near Mannheim, Germany on a Tuesday evening after a long day of travel from London. Chris, an Australian, picked me up from the station and introduced me to the owner of the farm, Mabel, half-American half German, and her sister June. Chris also showed me where I would be sleeping and the rest of the farm. 

It was in the evening, having eaten dinner, when I had my first introduction to the main aims of the farm and its people. Mabel began telling me about the theory that every living organism has an invisible energy field, an aura that follows the contour of the living thing. A little confused and a little taken back, I questioned whether this was a belief of Buddhism, or perhaps some other religion, to which she told me it was a scientific finding. She explained to me how the people on this farm used this theory on their farm work and how they have seen dramatic improvements in the quality of their produce since they introduced it.

I went to bed puzzled, confused and, although these people had been very kind, I thought I had come to a mad house.

As the days progressed and I got to know more about Chris, Mabel and June, I began to learn more about this theory. They called the energy that follows the living being "prana" and they began to tell me about how this prana can be used to help cure illnesses, injuries and diseases of human beings. This is called "pranic healing", I was told.

Apparently all three of them are pranic healers, having completed various courses, and that they regularly conduct healing sessions on their family, friends, the general public and themselves. Naturally I was very unsure of this theories truthfulness. Where is the evidence? They gave me examples of how their treatments had cured simple ailments such as burns and headaches and told me that they have experienced examples of more severe diseases being cured, such as cancer. 

It is important to note that they emphasised that pranic healing goes hand in hand with modern medicine - it is not meant to replace it.

Amazed and increasingly curious I began to ask more and more questions. Was this possible and, if it is, how can I learn to "pranic heal", how can I learn to feel this energy or "prana". Conveniently Chris was conducting a pranic healing level one course at the weekend and after some consideration I decided to enroll myself on the course. I completed the two day course and so I am now a certified pranic healer! 

I have learnt how to feel our energies and heal the aura! I have learnt how to use this prana to make myself healthier and I have found techniques for great, quick and easy meditation! Needless to say, it was a crazy few days. I arrived on the farm completely unaware to what they knew on the farm to leaving, just a week later, with a whole new "skill" and completely different outlook on life. Now there's a travel experience! 

Briefly I will explain what happened on the course. There was myself and a man from Paris who were Chris's students. We began by learning how to see and feel the prana. We were educated on how the pranic healing works and felt each others aura's. We were then told the technique to pranic healing and we practiced healings on each other. We conducted experiments to see how praying can increase the aura and energy, practiced how to do distant healing, we learnt how to self heal, studied theories on karma and practiced some meditation. 

Of course, all of the above sounds absolutely looney. It is something you need to experience yourself before you fully believe it. I'm still not sure I fully believe it but why can it not be true? I went into the course incredibly skeptical but also very open minded and I believe I have "learned" an invaluable skill.

I put "learned" in inverted commas as it is not a skill I just acquired over the course. Everyone has this ability in their locker. We can all do it. You do not need to be born with a special skill and the healings are not miracles but, as seen in the eyes of pranic healers, they are blessings to the human race. We have the ability to heal with our hands. It sounds madness, I know, but I firmly believe there will be a time, in the not so distance future, where this healing will become a lot more popular in the west. Until then, I'm quite happy with people thinking "Dan lost his marbles out in Germany".

All you need to do is learn the technique. I firmly believe everyone should be taught this in primary school. But, our society, in general, is not built to be open to such an idea. However if you want to learn the technique yourself you can go online and find courses in the UK that you can enroll on.

I'll finish this post off with the moment that, during the course, really made me sit up and begin to believe that this theory was real. So the other student on the course was cleansing (basically removing bad energy) my Solar Plexus chakra (a chakra is like a organ for your aura) during this cleansing I became very relaxed and chilled out (the cleansing took maybe 90seconds). He then proceeded to the next step which is to energise the chakra (basically putting clean energy in). You are generally supposed to do this for 5 breathing cycles but, being new, he did it for 15 breathing cycles and therefore over energised my chakra. My emotions at this point were completely different to a few moments ago. I became excited, my heart rate increased, I felt good... I was buzzing. This crazy turn of emotions and energy that I felt in the space of maybe 3 minutes. The Solar Plexus chakra is in charge of many things in your body but one of the most important is your emotions.

Feeling or seeing the energy with your hands is one thing but feeling the effect of the energy on your body is a different matter entirely.

I am massively grateful to Chris and everyone else on the farm for introducing me to pranic healing. With it comes a great degree of freedom and empowerment and I would urge everyone to give it a go or, at the very least, be open minded to the idea.

To Barca!

I love trains. Weird, I know. Is there a better mode of transportation? Ok, I suppose it depends on where you need to go. A trip from London to Sydney by train is probably a disaster waiting to happen. Meanwhile if you want to visit a remote village then a car is more likely to be easier.

But Inter-City travel I don't think there's a better way. Firstly the train takes you directly into the city centre. For example, get a train to Amsterdam Centraal and you are 5 minutes from the Red Light District. There's no room for an airport along that strip!

Secondly, they're pretty comfortable and relaxing. Other than buying a ticket and turning up on time you do not need to worry about anything. You have your own driver so sit back, read a book, do some work or, as I am doing now, update your blog.

Third, trains have windows with good views and a good opportunity to see the landscape of the country. I'll never forget the rows of colourful tulips that spread as far as the eye could see as I traveled through the Netherlands a few years back. You don't get those views on a plane.

Do not worry though, I'm not intending on taking up trainspotting!

So I'm currently on the train to Barcelona from Madrid. Madrid was awesome. I did another pub crawl the other night, met some cool people and drank too much Sangria. So yesterday I staggered around the Santiago Bernabeu stadium nursing a hangover.

Real Madrid's stadium and tour is very impressive. The tour was good as although there was no tour guide it did mean you could go around the stadium at your own pace. I think I spent a good 3 hours going around. They had a museum (they certainly like to show off their success, a very arrogant club it has to be said, but maybe they deserve to be?), we could sit in the dugouts (where Chelsea legend Jose Mourinho has won a La Liga title from), go down the tunnel, see the home dressing room, press room and a few different views from the stands. A very impressive stadium that I would love to see on a matchday.

So I only have a few more days left til I go back home after just under a month of travel. While I'm looking forward to seeing family and friends the thought of not traveling again for a while is not a good one.

While traveling I've met a lot of people who do travel permanently. Or at least very long term. A German guy in Prague had traveled for 3 years without going "home". He spent some time working in Australia to fund part of the trip and he had seen most of the world.

The other evening in the hostel bar in Madrid I got talking to a S African who does travel permanently. He works on a ship. Doing cleaning or something. He travels obviously where his ship goes and gets to see the places that the ship docks in. Occasionally he gets a few weeks off which he spends traveling to where he wants.

In the new year I should start my TEFL adventure. Teaching English should be a good way to see the world while earning money to fund the travels. But if TEFL doesn't work out then there are other ways to travel long term. You've just got to find the opportunity and then take it.

I have made a pledge to myself to see every major city in the world by the time I am 30. But I don't just want to turn up at the city, take a few photos and then leave. I won't gain anything from that. Travel isn't just about moving around and seeing the sights. There's a large part to travel that involves meeting new people, learning new things, experiencing new cultures and going out of your comfort zone. That is when you can start reaping the full benefits to traveling. Working abroad (whether paid or voluntary) must be a great way to do this. So while it's sad that this trip is coming to a close, I know there's plenty of other adventures ahead!

Madrid!

I don't think it's wrong to say Madrid is busier than London. I've only been in the Spanish capital for one day but the place is heaving. Even late at night, albeit it was a Saturday, there was barely any room to walk around Sol Square. I think it's Lonely Planet who say something along the lines of "Madrid is the most alive city in the world" and I do not think they are wrong.

It's a far cry from Warsaw which was pretty drab. Arguably had the most rude hostel receptionist ever as well. He reminded me of the comic book guy in The Simpsons. Fat, hairy, sweating from his seat, mono-tonal voice and unhelpful, unapproachable demeanor. The beds weren't the best either. I think my mattress was, quite possibly, filled with bricks rather than feathers. The pillow definitely was.

Fortunately Krakow left a much better impression on me. This is a brilliant city with a good days worth of sightseeing in the city centre and a day each for both Auschwitz and the Salt Mine. Auschwitz, in particular, was very memorable. Visiting the camp really put into perspective the amount of people that were murdered there during WWII. In one room there was a cabinet, about 8feet deep and 30 yards long full of female human hair from some of those murdered in the camp. Apparently the Nazi's cut off the victims hair as they entered the camp and sold them in the German market to help manufacture goods such as rugs. When you see this cabinet and the hair, some of which is still platted, it really does give an overwhelming perspective on the scale of what went on. Seeing the gas chambers, the rooms where people were starved or suffocated, the prisoners living conditions and seeing some of the personal possessions of those murdered was also shocking. But it is that cabinet full of human hair that I will never forget.

My trip into Krakow is also worth talking about. It was about an 8hour journey from Prague including a couple of changes. The last change was in the Polish city of Katowice. Here I waited for my train to Krakow. Being a inter city train we can normally expect new, clean and quick trains. But no. What turned up felt like something that had been top of the range in the mid 1970's. About 4 carriages (you could not walk between the carriages), hot, dirty, literally a hole for a toilet and a top speed of what felt like 20mph. It stopped off at a dozen small Polish stations that did not look inviting at all and every time the train tried to get going again it jolted and shuddered. I prayed we would not get stranded in one of these derelict Polish stations!

So I'm now in Madrid. I'll do a tour of the Santiago Bernabeu stadium tomorrow and then off to Barcelona for a few days on Tuesday. For now, adios! 

The Polish Pauline Fowler

As of about Sunday morning I started filing my t-shirts into groups. Reasonably smelly, pretty damn stinky and holy-sh*t "are you a tramp" smelly. As of yesterday I realised that 75% of t-shirts were falling into the latter two categories. So I went in search of a launderette.

Having asked at the hostel reception where the nearest one was I was told to show her my map of Krakow. She placed the map on the desk and proceeded to point at a street just a few minutes away from my hotel. "Great", I thought. She then proceeded to run her finger along this street, moving further away from my hostel, her finger then slid off the map and onto the desk and continued to travel another 2-3 inches off the map. She then looked at me and said, "Here, you turn right onto this street" and she wrote the street name down for me. Joy.

So my trek began and I was pleased to realise the walk was nowhere near as bad as her finger slide led me to presume. She had no idea of scale. Or she decided to ignore the maps scale and create her own. Either way, it did not matter. She was helpful and I found the launderette.

Inside I was expecting Pauline Fowler. Instead I got a 6'5", well built, Polish man jogging around the washing machines. I filled the washing machine up with my stench, gave the guy the equivalent of £18 (seemed very expensive to me, especially as Krakow is relatively cheap - but I know nothing of launderette prices so I did not query) and as I left he told me that he would drop my clothes off at the hostel that evening. I wondered if I'd ever see my clothes again.

Fortunately I did and I feel like a boss walking around with wonderfully smelling clothes again. :)

When solo traveling it is inevitable that you will have to go to a restaurant by yourself. For me, this was the toughest part of the day. I would spend ages walking around trying to find the perfect restaurant where I wouldn't look weird sitting by myself. I'd make excuses not to go in one, even though I would be ridiculously hungry. Too busy, too quiet, too expensive, too exotic, too posh, that one is part of a hotel, too much fast food, not a good view. The list goes on. There becomes a time though when you stop making excuses (or at least most of them) and now I just do not care about sitting in a restaurant by myself.

In fact, once you get over the slightly awkward beginning where the waitress'/waiters are unsure if you are by yourself then it becomes quite an interesting experience. You get to see restaurant life from a new angle. You look around and notice, quite often, but not all the time, that the customers who look most relaxed are the ones on their own.

Of course sometimes you want that extra person for company but sometimes it's nice just being by yourself. Solo travel forces you to become independent. It makes easy situations, such a getting food, a lot harder but when you do it, by yourself, you feel good and you improve. So, what if you get sick of being by yourself? You're own thoughts start annoying you? Well, in your next city book a more sociable hostel (one with a bar and pub crawls) and force yourself to get talking to other solo travelers in the bar. That's my plan in Warsaw but for now, in Krakow, I'm enjoying my own company - it's something you don't get that often in "normal life".

(P.S. - I'll do a separate post on what I've been up to in Krakow some other time and photos will be uploaded when I get home).
 

To Prague!

It's been a while since I updated this blog and quite a lot has happened since. Eminem at Wembley stadium kicked my "career break" off quite nicely. The following day we headed to Milton Keynes to see the likes of Calvin Harris, Martin Garrix and Avicci do their thing. The Sunday after was a welcome chill out day followed by the World Cup final in the evening. A brilliant weekend.

I then headed to Germany and worked on a farm near Mannheim for one week. A lot happened on the farm so I'll type that up on a separate blog when I have more time.

Wednesday I said my goodbyes to those on the farm and I headed 90 minutes east by train to Würzburg. My intention being to keep going east until I hit Prague but breaking the journey up with a night at a few different German cities - Würzburg, Leipzig and Dresden.

So Würzburg was the first pit stop. A surprisingly really beautiful city. I'm surprised it is not more well known as it would be a nice, relaxing place for many Brits to go for a weekend. One off the beaten track.

A day was enough for me there so I continued my journey east by taking a 3 hour train journey to Leipzig, a previous East Germany city just south of Berlin. Not going to beat around the bush - Leipzig was a bit rubbish. Cloudy, cold and wet reminded me far too much of the U.K. and bar a moderately interesting Stasi Museum there wasn't much to see or do.

I decided to skip Dresden. Germany is a wonderful country. Beautiful cities and towns, tasty food, far too perfect beer and some of the friendliest people I have met have been Germans. But I've got bored of the country and I thought it'd be better to spend an extra day in Prague (a new country for me) rather than do Dresden. Also I heard the weather was better in Prague.

I was right about the weather. Hitting the 30's here in central Europe which will even out my unusual tan lines (my hands and wrists are white, my arms are brown - if anyone can work out why that is I'll give you a virtual high five).

I'm just reaching the end of my first full day in Prague and it's fair to say I'm really impressed with what I've seen so far. Friends and family have said a lot of good things about the city and they were right. It's great here. I had a beer, one of the best I've ever tasted, for the equivalent of £1.10 and a good sized burger and chips for about £4. Albeit this was in the hostel, but still, these prices are ridiculously good. To top it off, I paid 0.03 Czech Koruna to use a public toilet. That's the equivalent of £0.0009. Unreal. London take note.

It's not just the fact you can save a lot of money in Prague (compared to other European cities) that makes it so appealing - there's actually a lot going on in the city to make it even more value for money. It's very busy, lots of traffic, lots of tourists, lots of bars and restaurants to choose from and plenty of sights that takes a lot of walking to see them all. All signs that ring true in cities such as Paris, Rome or London. Prague is right up there.

The nightlife is also pretty decent. Last night I met a few other solo travelers in my hostel. Kevin from the USA, Xabia (probably wrong spelling) from Australia and Spencer from Canada. Kevin headed off early to try an ice bar in his shorts and t shirt. Fair enough. Not sure the alcohol blanket will work in there though.

So us three joined the hostel's pub crawl which was pretty decent. Lots of free drink and a good opportunity to meet some other people. It ended up at Karlovy Lázně, "the biggest club in central Europe". It had 5 floors, each with a different type of music and from what I remember it was pretty good. Staggered back to the hostel and then walked around the city today to take in the sights of Prague's Old Town area.

I'll chill out tonight and then see the rest of the cities main attractions tomorrow. So until then, sbohen.

Super Frank!

It's been a couple of weeks since Frank Lampard announced his decision that he would be leaving Chelsea this summer after 13 incredible seasons at Stamford Bridge. It still hasn't sunk in that we will not see Super Frank pull on the blue shirt again. It could take many seasons for it to fully sink in and it could take many seasons for the club to adjust to life without the midfield maestro.

That's despite the signing of the wonderfully gifted Cesc Fabregas from Barcelona - a deal that will not get Chelsea fans out of their seats but will certainly get Gooners hiding behind theirs.

But that is perhaps harsh criticism on Fabregas. No man can replace Frank - it is hard enough to match the man in terms of football ability but in terms of the consistent and unflappable relationship he had with the fans, maybe only one or two men in our history have managed such standards. And that will tell you a lot about the stature Lampard has at Stamford Bridge. It is surely just a matter of time until we see a statue of him erected outside the ground.

For me, Lampard is Chelsea's greatest ever player. And I don't say that lightly. I have considered the breathtaking Gianfranco Zola, the prolific Peter Osgood, the domineering John Terry and, of course, the immortal Didier Drogba when I consider the all time greatest to wear our shirt. Frank Lampard doesn't eclipse these legends but, in my opinion, tops them ever so slightly.

His ridiculously, consistent incredible stats over his 13 years. The unbreakable relationship he formed with the fans. The way he so easily took to our culture and history having grown up at West Ham. The endless goals he scored and trophies he lifted. Bolton away. Liverpool at home. Everton at Wembley. Sp*rs at Wembley. Man United in Moscow. West Ham at home (and all the goals vs West Ham). Aston Villa away. That 09/10 season.

Lampard - taken at the end of the 12/13 season

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