Our hobbies

If you would search information about Varkala, you would find not much more than cliffs and beaches. So you might think our everyday life is like this:

No, it is not.

We will share with you some hobbies we have, which are also part of our life here in Varkala (India), where we will stay another 3 months. It is important to mention that whenever we have been living on the road (like in Latin America), there was no space at all for enjoying our hobbies. Being on the road means spending lots of time with people we stay with, being dependent on them in certain ways. Also cooking 2-3 meals per day while being mobile takes a couple of hours daily. Life on the road also means having no private space, something necessary for expressing yourself and living your creativity. Last year we realized how important it is to have our own place. Let us call it “Home”. Actually, we always call “home” any place we stay in. However, this time, we are talking about Home with “H” in front. Alright, it is still kind of a mobile Home – few months here, few months there – nevertheless Home. At least it is what we need to fully enjoy and discover ourselves. Ok, let’s get back to the topic.

Painting and Drawing

This is what Katja was missing the most during the last few years. Now she has a corner for all her tools (brushes, pencils, chalks, colours…) she needs to express herself whenever she feels like. All this “equipment” is too voluminous for our backpacks while being on the road. Now Katja is the owner of her own time and space, so she can sit down and be creative whenever she feels like – in other words no limits 🙂

Reading

Katja has a hard time when she has no books next to her. She needs intellectual input. She enjoys reading about reality and spirituality. Real stories, real people, sipiritual and esoteric books. In comparison, I am very bad in reading books. Somehow things are happening too slow for me 🙂 In the last 10-12 years I have started probably a dozen of books, and managed to finish only one of them. Wonder which one? “Dharma Punx” by Noah Levine – from punk to buddhist. It took me 2 days to “eat it”.

Raw Food

Katja tried to introduce raw food recipes in our menu 2.5 years ago, when we lived 5 months in Ecuador. However, something was missing. Maybe taste? Last summer in Lithuania I watched a reportage about a former military officer, a young guy, who decided to live raw. It was shown how he blends various wild plants and herbs with the blender. In order to beat the taste of Green Grass he added fruits (e.g., apples). That hooked me. I tried that and I liked it. Since then I have periods when I feel like trying something new and experimenting with raw food recipes. We make energy nut bars, raw almond cakes, or marinated carrot-pineapple with cashew cream. Delicious! To make it short – time to time I read and watch videos about raw food, its advantages, and try new recipes in the kitchen.

Magic

One of my biggest hobbies since I was a small boy. We are talking here about creating illusions and art of illusionism, and not weird stuff. During our journey in Latin America I used to show some magic tricks to the kids and families we have met on our way or stayed with. Here in Varkala I am concentrating on learning more about the art of magic. More about performance rather than just secrets. Yes, I want to be a magician! The happy thing is that in Trivandrum (a city 50 km away from Varkala) there is a Magic Academy, where everyone interested in magic is welcomed. They offer courses for magicians of different age and level. At the moment I am taking private classes with the magician Raja Moorthy, an expert in street and close-up magic who is compared with David Blaine inside the Academy.

Writing

As some of you know, Katja has fully documented our 1.5 years journey in Central America, Mexico and Cuba. The overwhelming lot of material Katja documented about the other 1.5 years of our journey in South America are waiting to be shaped. And due to Katja’s creativity, so many new ideas about books are popping up, that at times it seems a real quest what to focus on first.

Guitar

Since Katja got a guitar as a present for her 30 years birthday, she has a dream to learn playing it. There were thoughts to take a guitar along with us on our trip to Latin America. The question was, how to fit the guitar on Katja while she is wearing a huge backpack? There was just no space on her tiny shoulders left, so we finally decided against taking it (to Katja’s sorrow). This time she brought her guitar all the way from Germany to India. Now she is very serious about studying music by herself (PS: any help and advice welcome!).

Singing

Katja is a symbol of creativity. She dreams about everything what lets her express and share herself through creativity. Professional singing is another dream of hers.

Cooking

It is more like a frequent activity, rather than a hobby. Katja likes it more than me. Actually, I recently like raw food cooking (something new, suprise for both of us!). Everything else is Ok.

Internet

Yes, I like it too much. Katja can’t stay put behind the screen for long – she has too many ants in her pants! What are your hobbies? How do you combine them during travels?