Next Stop: Ilse Valley 🥾
Next Stop: Ilse Valley 🥾
To the mountains I want to climb
I'm a food and travel writer from the shores of Lake Erie, now based in Berlin. I attempt to send out weekly essays on my latest mishaps and travels around the globe and in the kitchen. If you would like to support my work, please consider sharing this newsletter with a friend or acquaintance (I’m not picky).
Winter had finally gotten to me last week. The older I get, the more I loathe this season. It’s a dark, dreary stopgap that drives me indoors when I’d much rather be out frolicking in the woods. The frustration weighed on me even more when I realized I don’t have to subject myself to the worst of this season. That realization smacked me over the head with my early January travels to sunny Sicily. Thanks to remote work, there’s really nothing anchoring us to a single place and no reason to stew in wintery misery.
Such a trip would’ve turned me into a puddle of anxiety in recent memory. How could I possibly afford such an impromptu excursion? I’ll be ruined. Ruined, I say! (Spoken with a slight lisp, a la Daffy Duck.)
Except, I can afford it these days. Beyond the essentials (food, shelter, food again), I don’t really spend much money. One of the many benefits of having a small apartment and no car is that you can’t really fill them with shit you don’t need. Not to mention writing gigs have really picked up over the past year (except for that ever-elusive book deal). On top of all that, I recently learned that I’m an illustrious member of a new acronym––DINKWAD. That is, double income no kids with a dog.
Mental health is all the rage these days in that you should do something if you feel a lot of rage. Society has finally acknowledged that it’s a thing and you ought to take care of it. Spending time outside and throwing myself into a physical challenge is, I’ve learned, how I manage my mental health. Some might splurge on a spa trip to relax and take care of themselves. That sounds like torture to me and my restless ass. But like the spa splurger, I’ve decided to no longer hesitate when I need some time outside. I’ll open Google Maps, have a look at the weather reports, and hop on a train to chase the sun and let mother nature give me a swift kick in the tuchus.
That’s precisely what I did last weekend with a trip to the Ilse Valley (Ilsetal, for all you Deutschers) to hike along the Heinrich Heine trail up to the Brocken––the highest peak in northern Germany and a place of legends thanks to German writers, like Goethe. It was in his Faust that he painted a scene of dancing witches atop the mountain and devilish, well… Devils.
The trip was precisely the medicine I needed. I returned to Berlin refreshed and motivated to plan my next challenge. (I signed up for my first ultra-marathon a few days later.) And I won’t hesitate to do it again. In fact, I plan to do it more often, especially as the days grow longer and the weather improves. Because I am an immensely fortunate DINKWAD. And at the end of the day, it’s just money. Who knows what will happen tomorrow? And if the worst should suddenly come, numbers in a bank account or colorful pieces of paper won’t be of much help anyways. So you might as well make the most of life while you can, which is a completely original thought of mine that nobody else has ever verbalized before.
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