Читать книгу Wanderlust: A Tiny Isle in the Northern Sea - Katja Just - Страница 4

It was in August 1995 when my mother called and said: "We can buy the house where we are spending our holidays! What do you think of that?"

"Well, that's a nice souvenir you want to bring back from your vacation. Something different," I said surprised. "Is this some kind of joke?"

No, it wasn't a joke!

My parents, by which I mean my mother and my stepfather, were once again guests at Hooge and this time they lived in a house on the Ockenswarft which they had discovered a year earlier during one of their walks. A small thatched house, over three hundred years old, with a large wild garden and a holiday home. The Ockenswarft is located in the east of the Hallig, far away from the hustle and bustle that can occur on a Hallig, at least during the summer months. A terp is an artificially raised mound of earth, mainly from clay soil, which looks like a round settlement hill, depending on how many houses stand on this hill, which is about six metres high. With around ten buildings, the Ockenswarft is one of the larger of the ten inhabited warps on Hooge.

My parents had just been on Hooge for a week when the landlady asked to go through the apartment with a real estate agent. She had to sell the house and therefore an expert opinion should be drawn up. So it was over with a quiet and relaxing holiday, because my parents had fallen in love with the house and were now considering buying this gem themselves. A decision that could turn her life upside down from now on.

In fact, my mother and my stepfather were making nails with heads. She had already stopped working and he accepted his employer's offer to take early retirement. The sale of the house in Munich was initiated and the move to the Hallig was organized for the beginning of January. For both it was not the first move, so nobody thought that this move would be different from the others. Also there were moves in the wintertime. But a move to a Hallig in the winter - in this case the people from the mainland are directly put to the first test. The ferry between Hooge and the mainland port of Schlüttsiel transports everything that has to go back and forth between the mainland and Hallig: Goods, merchandise, two- and four-legged pensioners and - as in our case - whole households.

Wind forecasts, tidal calendars, jetties - what role does it play when the wind blows from the east and the water level indicates that water is running out? That doesn't influence an established moving troop from Munich! But the fact that wind and water definitely have the last word was felt by the helpers on the ferry. The journey was almost complete, the truck was parked on the ferry and the first round of warming tea punch was ordered. The 75 minute crossing was a welcome break. Everyone had just made themselves comfortable when the captain stepped up to the table.

"We don't have enough water under the keel! This means that the truck on the Hallig cannot drive down from the ferry because the slope of the bridge will be too steep. You need to reload."

That was it with the longed-for break, because everyone was immediately clear what that meant. It was about an hour now to pack the cartons and furniture onto the trolleys carried by the ferry. A feat of strength! Exhausted and hungry, the squad grabbed the truck again and gradually moved out of the truck and onto the trailers. In spite of the time pressure nobody got into a sweat, because with the icy east wind that is usual here this is almost impossible.

Arriving at Hooge, my stepfather and I received the tired helpers and the fully loaded trolleys. Both of us had arrived a week earlier with my uncle to do the preparations. Sleeping and parking spaces had to be created. At the jetty a Hallig inhabitant came to our aid with his tractor. He drove the three fully loaded trolleys one after the other to Ockenswurft. On the way past the first two terps I sat high up on the car and tried to hold cartons, living room lamp, sofa and rubber tree at the same time. Until then, I had no idea how long the route from the jetty to the Ockenswarft could be. If we drove with the car otherwise only a few minutes, it took this time a felt eternity. I thought all the time Hopefully no one will see that, but you can confidently delete that sentence from your vocabulary if you pull on a Hallig. Half way the kitchen cupboard fell from the trailer, because the wind was not only icy, but blew with force six from east. Even if the piece of furniture had been within reach for me, I could probably only have moved in slow motion, my limbs had frozen so stiffly. So I made myself heard loudly and meant the helpful tractor driver to stop. The kitchen cupboard was lifted up once more and the adventurous journey continued. In the meantime it had become dark and dark means in winter on the Hallig very dark! There are no street lights and when the moon is not shining, sometimes you can't see your hand in front of your eyes. But since the cargo lay unprotected on the trailers, everything still had to be brought into the house, no matter how tired and frozen we were. Sometime late at night, my parents finally said, "Welcome to the house on Landsende." That was in January 1996.

It was to take another four years before I, too, would register my first residence on the Hallig. Until then, I visited my parents as often as possible. Sometimes I flew for a long weekend, sometimes I drove the route by car, together with a friend, and when I really wanted to enjoy it, I rode the bike.

In these four years I have witnessed how my parents' new home developed into a gem. With devotion my mother transformed the wild garden into a blooming idyll, based on a monastery garden. Box trees border a total of five flower beds, each with red, yellow, white or blue flowering plants. There's a stem rose in the middle and something always blooms. Thus over the years a real small oasis has developed. An oasis where guests of the house also like to spend their holidays when they spend their holidays in one of the two holiday apartments that have been extended on the first floor. "The Green one" already existed. However, it has been completely refurnished and decorated. This apartment is the larger one, it can accommodate up to four people. It is kept in a warm green, the ceiling is not quite as high, old wooden beams can be seen, which gives this apartment something cosy and cosy. Especially in the winter months. Two years after moving in, my parents extended "The Blue ones" and furnished them in the Gustavian style, i.e. with Swedish warmth and cool colours. Also here there are two alcoves, which offer place for two persons. Guests often ask me if one could sleep in such a closet as a couple.

"It all depends on how much you like each other," is my answer. It is rare to lie like a match in a box, so two metres long and one metre wide are actually sufficient. Even very tall guests give me feedback that they find the alcoves very comfortable. I love sleeping in the alcoves, and they're space-saving too. My parents have not only created a new home for themselves, but also a place where holiday guests feel at home.