LAST AMERICAN SANDING

I was. Literally, on the pure white sandy beach in the town of Ahlbeck,
on the northern tip of Germany. The ocean in Ostsee. Also known to American's
as the Baltic Sea. I was born with the ocean nearby in Brooklyn. I have
been to the ocean along the Atlantic coast and of course the Pacific ocean,
which I have spent many days of my life north of San Diego and many many
times on the the waves of Zuma beach in Malibu, California.

I love the ocean, with its pure air, breeze, and its natural high. Just
being at the ocean takes away all thoughts of real life. It washes away
anything that is clogging your mind. The best brain drain of all!

On Sunday June 6, we executed our plan of the day before, of deciding
at the last minute on Saturday, "let's take a drive up to the ocean",
Gabrielle and I exclaimed to one another. A great idea! It was going to be
a warm day, so let's do it! Yeah! Yeah!

So she pulls out a huge book of maps of the world. She shows me Ostsee, and
I say, "That's the Baltic Sea", and she says "no, it is Ostsee". I said genau (okay).
Later that day on Facebook, new friend Rik De Lisle confirmed my guess.

We started pulling things for the trip. Excitment buliding!



Sunday morning, after getting ourselves ready, we got in our car, and
and off we went at 11 am, believing from our navigation system it will take us a little
over 3 hours, maybe. lol We got on the autobahn and I massaged the pedal
to 120 km's and higher. That's a another rush in itself.

The drive at one point takes you to a long, and I mean a very long two
lane highway, more often lined with huge green trees, than not.

After about 3 and a half hours we were in Usedom. But, our navigator
wasn't being polite. It was taking us in a circle. We ended up in that
same town three times. It got to point where we pulled into a roadside
cafe for coffee and sweets to chill and figure out how to get from
Usedom to Ahlbeck. Ha ha.



With humor in us by that time, we asked two different people and they said
we were merley 22 killometers away from our destination. Damn, really?

Okay, after a little over 4 and a half hours we finally arrived!



It was worth all the driving and time. There it was. A unique
seaside town. Many people walking, eating at restaurants on
the many streets. My first thought was, this rivals Delmar,
north of San Diego. Nicer than Malibu. Quaint, would be the
operative word. Yes, quaint, and freaking clean like hell.



We parked the car on a side street and walked a short distance to
wooden boards surrounded by sand dunes, and walla, there it was!
The sights and sounds of a summer ocean day.



We walked until we found our spot and lay down a blanket. Rolled up our
jeans and just relaxed, talked of dreams of living by the ocean in
the future, and watched people, birds and the waves crashing in.

That's what it's all about isn't it? The ocean has a carthartic effect.

We spent over two hours soaking it all in, and started getting that
feeling that your stomach warns you of hunger. We were
pretty much the last people to leave the beach. So we found a
nearby fish restaurant Uwe's Fischerhütte. I had fish soup and halibut,
and Gabrielle had a full on trout with head and eyeballs still attached. She
cut the head off, of course. The food was good.

We had our two hours in the sun, and now was time to leave and make a short
trek over the border to Świnoujście, Poland to buy cheap
cigarettes. Kind of like driving to the Indian reservation in Arizona, but a lot
further of course. It took all of 10 minutes to cross the Polish border and
we found a stand right away. 10 carton's of Route 66 smokes at a
210 Euro pop. That would be half price of the same in Germany.

Now I have to tell you, I drive barefoot, which I would imagine is
illegal anywhere except maybe the Arabian desert.

As we crossed I noticed 3 German Customs agents on one side
beckoning drivers to pull over.

Our transaction took 5 minutes, and now we are headed back
and I thought to myself, we will get pulled over, so at least I
had enough sense to put my shoes back on. Sure enough, as
soon as we approached them, bingo, got pulled over.

After a brief lecture about, next time no more than 8 cartons, we
were summoned on our way. My only thought was, why didn't
they ask for my drivers license?

So that was our day trip. Fun filled, big smiles, mission accomplished.



So, there I am, the last American sanding at 6 pm at Ostsee!
Great day!


All photographs by Gabrielle