I have to give Germany this: we did have an absolutely lovely sunny drive through Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and for a while, it even seemed as if we had magically lucked out and were in for an unexpected weekend of sunshine amidst the summer of rain and gray skies (which we now just refer to as an early fall), but alas...
...pretty much the minute we got the tent up (and I use the term "we" lightly as I didn't actually help one iota. Unless you count taking pictures helping. And driving the car to the camping spot; I managed that at least. :), gray clouds rolled in and wee rain drops began taunting us.
Our grand plan was to set up camp and then head to the beach to enjoy the rare sunshine. Well, we followed the plan, but the weather gods certainly were laughing upon us the entire time, I tell you that.
Sara's outfit demonstrates quite aptly what beachwear looks like in 2012...
After a little more wandering and chatting and waiting out the first of many rainstorms of the weekend, we picked up some groceries and went back to camp to get the grill ready. Micha wisely picked up a new transportable grill for the weekend and rain be damned, we were going to put it to work!
Once again, I use the term "we" lightly, as evidenced by everyone but me hard at work in most pictures.
We were lucky enough to borrow this massive tent (lovingly referred to as a palazzo) from our friend, André (danke, Dreschi!) so that we would have a common room between the two sleeping areas to hang out in. Did you know tents get that fancy?! Cuz I certainly didn't and let me tell you, that covered little common room saved our asses from being isolated in separate tents to eat dinner during the rain - which would have been mighty sad.
I'd like to say we'll get plenty more use out of this grill during sunny park outings this summer, but...yeah...that may be just wishful thinking.
The advantage of having a vegetarian (Sara) around on trips is that boys are forced to allow more than just meat on to their grill plates. :)
Somehow, due to either sheer coincidence or a little pity from the weather gods, the rain stopped after dinner long enough for us to head down to the beach with beers and mugs full of red wine in hand.
When we spotted a bonfire down the beach, we could hardly resist investigating what it was, so we headed on over and ended up in the middle at the Tiki Beach Party with about five other people, four of whom were teeny boppers and the last of whom was the slow-but-careful-with-his-craft bartender.
At least we got a bit of a nice sunset, and even some fireworks, while enjoying our capirinhas before the night was over.
As luck would have it, we woke up at about 5am to the most gorgeous blue sky and by 6am (yeah, we might be crazy enough to go camping in this crap summer but we weren't quite crazy enough to actually get out of bed at 5am), the sun was pounding down on our tent and I was convinced we had a beachy day ahead of us. How easily I can be fooled... By 6.30am, rain was the only thing pounding down on our tent and by 8am the first drop hit me in the face. And my foot. Once we got confirmation from Sara and Christoph that their mattresses were wet, too, we decided to cut our losses, pack up, and head home to, if not warmer, at least drier shelter.
But not before making a last cultural stop on the island.
We headed to Prora, a pretty spectacular, massive Nazi-built structure on a bay a bit north of Göhren, which I'd love to tell you more about in a follow-up post because it definitely is worth its own post.
All in all, I have to say I'm really glad we went against our better judgment and followed through with our decision to introduce me to camping. Because despite the raindrops on my face and the spider that made his home at the top of the tent and the three slugs that we found nibbling on our carrots in the morning (they can chew?!?), I had a pretty damn awesome time!
And how was your weekend?
As usual, all photos by Micha or Nicole
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