1st June 2020
Black Forest Shelter: My Pandemic Escape to Germany
It’s funny how the most unexpected places become home... especially when the world is falling apart.
When the pandemic hit, I was in Thailand. Everything started shutting down, flights were being cancelled, and my attempt to book a flight back to Romania didn’t go through. With borders closing and options disappearing, I had to make a quick decision.
Luckily, a friend I had met not long before also in Thailand, happened to live in Germany. With nowhere else to go, I reached out and just like that, I managed to book one of the last flights with Thai Airways to Germany.
What followed were four unexpected months in southern Germany, just as the world was locking down. I was really impressed by how kind and welcoming my friend was, not just him, but his whole family. Everyone made me feel at home.
They lived in southern Germany, in Stuttgart, right near the Black Forest. I hadn’t really known what to expect, but during those strange, quiet months, I ended up loving the place. The world was holding its breath, and I was hiking through dense pine forests and misty hills like I had all the time in the world.
At the same time, I was struggling internally. I had big plans for a sabbatical year... travel, discovery, maybe even some reinvention and suddenly everything was out of my hands. It was tough to accept that all of it had been put on hold.
But in the end, the place I landed in helped ease that frustration. The calm, the nature, the people around me…hey made things easier to accept. And even if it wasn’t the year I had planned, it turned into a time I’m really grateful for.
When the pandemic hit, I was in Thailand. Everything started shutting down, flights were being cancelled, and my attempt to book a flight back to Romania didn’t go through. With borders closing and options disappearing, I had to make a quick decision.
Luckily, a friend I had met not long before also in Thailand, happened to live in Germany. With nowhere else to go, I reached out and just like that, I managed to book one of the last flights with Thai Airways to Germany.
What followed were four unexpected months in southern Germany, just as the world was locking down. I was really impressed by how kind and welcoming my friend was, not just him, but his whole family. Everyone made me feel at home.
They lived in southern Germany, in Stuttgart, right near the Black Forest. I hadn’t really known what to expect, but during those strange, quiet months, I ended up loving the place. The world was holding its breath, and I was hiking through dense pine forests and misty hills like I had all the time in the world.
At the same time, I was struggling internally. I had big plans for a sabbatical year... travel, discovery, maybe even some reinvention and suddenly everything was out of my hands. It was tough to accept that all of it had been put on hold.
But in the end, the place I landed in helped ease that frustration. The calm, the nature, the people around me…hey made things easier to accept. And even if it wasn’t the year I had planned, it turned into a time I’m really grateful for.
