estwärts

On Tuesday evening, Lukas, Anton, and Lola are sitting in front of the fire. Lukas and Anton are reading the newspaper, while Lola tunes the guitar. Hagen — that’s me today — is also sitting there writing blog articles as if we had never been away. We are back in Rihula, and there will be regular blog posts again throughout most of August. We’re not revealing all of our big plans for this year just yet. But this much can be said: whereas last year’s construction focused largely on repairing roofs and mowing undergrowth, this year will be more about the infrastructure under those roofs and on the meadows that have been created.

The camp has been going on for just under 24 hours, but there is actually much more to tell: we perpared this year’s works for several months and had preparatory meetings in Vogelsberg and Werleshausen. But things really got going for us on Friday. Hagen arrives in Marburg on the ICE train – right on time, in fact. And because, in addition to his backpack, he also has a heavy bag full of cables and power tools in one hand and in the other hand numerous jars of jam that he has just been given as a gift, Anna, Lola, and Anton pick him up from the train station before heading up the steep hill to a shared apartment, that not only consists of a handful of residents, that are members of the association, but also serves as our headquarters. Numerous packages have already arrived here in recent weeks. Photovoltaic modules, a fuse and distribution box built especially for us, a donated wood-burning stove, petroleum and lamp wicks in bulk, treasure troves of tools, and a new cooler. The two new cast-iron gas stoves in particular drove our delivery driver to despair. The shared apartment in Marburg has already diligently inventoried all these new purchases and donations, which are now labeled, numbered, and weighed in the living room at headquarters.

Saturday morning begins with a joint breakfast, and while Lola and Hagen do some last-minute shopping, Lionel, Anna, and Anton load the boxes from the living room onto the trailer that is heading to Estonia tomorrow. In the end, everything fits perfectly, with enough room for a cover and a safety net on top, and without exceeding the trailer’s maximum load capacity. In the evening, we have another dinner: potato wedges, roasted vegetables, baked feta, olives, and yogurt sauce. And the dirty dishes go into the dishwasher. We won’t be eating this well and comfortably again for a long time!

Sunday morning, quarter past 8 a.m.: We are sitting in the car, with a 700 kg trailer and luggage behind us. In the back seat is not only the new cooler, filled with caffeinated soft drinks, fruit, and cheese. A passenger is also coming along for the first few miles. We have 2,000 kilometers ahead of us, through five countries: Germany, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia. We’re making good progress; after all, it’s Sunday. A police car appears behind us and follows us at 80 km/h for a few minutes. Surely they can’t find anything wrong with how we’ve secured our load? Then they overtake us, and we’re sure we see a few appreciative glances. We have lunch in Germany, and by the afternoon we are already in Poland. But Poland is big. It takes us the whole afternoon, a late shift until 11 p.m., a night shift until 2 a.m., and then a second night shift until 5 a.m. before we finally pass Wroclaw, Warsaw, and Suwalki and approach the border. A bathroom break and a quick sandwich at a gas station somewhere between Kaliningrad in the west, Lithuania in the north, and Belarus in the east. After a quick glance at our license plate, a truck driver wishes us “Guten Appetit!” in an Eastern European accent. And at just before half past five, Anton, who wanted to drive into the sunrise, eventually takes us across the border into the Baltic States. Poland is finally behind us! Many hours of audiobooks and a creepy podcast series, together with caffeine soda and a good shift schedule that allowed everyone a few hours of sleep, got us through the night.

The rest feels like a stone’s toss away. Only a few hundred kilometers to Estonia, which will surely go by quickly. And so, on Monday evening at 6 p.m., we are actually standing at the train station in Rakvere, picking up Lukas, who had traveled by bus and train. Half an hour later, Georg welcomes us in Rihula, where he has already mowed the campsite for us. We can move in right away. What an improvement compared to last year! There’s also a little surprise: Rihula has gotten neighbors. Half an hour’s walk away, a couple has built a nice weekend cottage with a beautiful garden. We are warmly welcomed and hope to get to know each other better at the midpoint celebration.

But before we can cook hot meals and, above all, drink coffee again, we have to pick up the gas bottles from Marju and Jaan tomorrow. And that’s pretty much how today, Tuesday, is passing: trips with the trailer, tearing the boards off the doors, sweeping the kitchen, cleaning the shelves, unpacking and putting away boxes, pitching the tent, and setting up a fire pit, not to protect us from the cold, but from the mosquitoes. They’re back again, but this year we’re prepared. How exactly? We’ll report on that in a few days. See you soon!