"City? Country? Country? City?"

In the new column series "60 Voices" write our readers. In this article, Daniela Singhal thinks about where to live best. In the city - or in the countryside? "Some things in life are clear, some are not, like my search for the right place to live."

Daniela Singhal, 31, is a freelance journalist and photographer. She lives and works in Bad Belzig. And Berlin. After training at the Cologne School of Journalism and studying politics, she worked for the relief organization Misereor and the Tibet Initiative Germany.

"Oh, I just like Berlin," says my friend Katrin, who often describes herself as a city dweller. "All the great cafes and bars, you meet so many interesting people and men, of course." On a sunny summer's day, I meet up with Katrin at the Monbijoupark in Mitte, we drink Club Mate and let the sun shine in our faces? everything could be good. But while she tells of her urban infatuation, I get the crisis: Almost no green lawn is visible anymore; everything is occupied, everything full of people. Is there actually any place in this city that is not crowded? Even my beloved Tempelhofer Feld, which I once valued so much for the sense of freedom that it evoked in me, is more like a fair in good weather today. And in the meantime unfortunately, too. "Why are you so upset?" Katrin says and looks at me a bit morosely. "Then just move away! If the city is too crowded for you, go on your land." Then go on? S land ... She has good speeches! Did not I just come here? Did not I belong to all the people who fled the West German province to Berlin to experience something? Really wild things. The wild Berlin was somehow too wild for me. First I lived in Neukölln. How is it possible to talk on the street day and night, to row cars over the cobblestones at any time and to throw oneself in front of the subway on Boddinstrasse every other day? I felt the U-Bahn driving too stressful and the ten-kilometer bike path to my workplace in Berlin Mitte, too. I've never been to nightly celebrations and flea markets are not mine either. Unfortunately, a move to Schönhauser Allee did not bring the desired relaxation. People, people, people everywhere. I practiced daily relaxing my body and mind in chic yoga studios, but the city challenged my equanimity over and over again. How could all the millions of people live in this city? Maybe I was just a wimp, basically just jealous that they can do it and I do not. Or was it really time to move on? S land. Only on which?

Cock instead of big city

Regional train from Berlin to Dessau. In the foursome next to me sits a walking group: Two men and two women, estimated at 60, ready for a trip into nature. They wear beige outdoor pants and multifunctional shirts and talk shop about their hiking route. They want to run through the Fläming. A nature reserve in Brandenburg, 80 kilometers from Berlin. I'm not going to go hiking now, I want to live there now. Just try what it's like to live in a small town again, so far away from the city bustle. Just JWD, just live in Bad Belzig. "You're crazy," Katrin said when I told her about my plan. "You do not know anyone." She is right, I do not know many people. Actually, only two: The leaders of a tantra seminar that I once visited. While others move into the countryside with their families in their early 40s, or later to retire, I do it all alone in the prime of my life. This is good in the list of my retiree hobbies: knitting and pilgrimage. My first stay: The Waldhaus. The name says it all: The pretty wooden house is surrounded by pines and birches, you can hear nothing except the rustling of the trees and the birdsong. And the roar of my roommates when they practice Maori war dances in the forest. "That's good to feel and let go of your own aggression," says Sebastian. He has a great Tarot collection, which he also likes to lend: The Mermaid Tarot, the Fairy Tarot, the Unicorn and the Dolphin Tarot. In the Waldhaus we live to eight. Well, on average ten, because there is always a lot of visitors there. For example Bernd. He lives in a commune in Portugal. During the summer he sells pretzels in German stadiums. The Waldhaus is his summer base. In addition to humans, there are two more cats and the cock? King Ludwig ? and his entourage. They all run around freely and occasionally lay eggs. A dog is still missing to my luck. But you do not have to have everything at once. Here lives also the three-year Tim. His dad has built a Mongolian yurt on the square.On the property there are many apple trees and therefore also a lot of work and a lot of fresh apple juice. The Waldhaus includes a sauna and a small hut, which is called by all "poets and thinkers". Here you can retire when it is too rough in the house. Or you want to spend more time outside than inside.

At the forest house

Since the Waldhaus it was really less noisy and less stressful than in Berlin. I walked a lot through the forest collecting herbs and cooking nettle soup. But then one day our roof went up in flames and we had to move out. There was no suitable alternative in the small town, so I moved back to the big city. Somehow heavy hearted, but somehow I thought too: Maybe it works now. Maybe I'll become a pretty city dweller now. And for a moment it was like this: I enjoyed the latte macchiato to go and also the hipsters and the multicultural bustle. I hung out in the urban gardens, got to know nice people at the subway, listened to jazz concerts in Neukölln pubs, visited trendy galleries and thought to me: Fits but quite well to me, the city life. But after a few months came the sun and spring and with it my yearning for nature, for forest and expanse. So I packed my things again.

Now I turn another round of testing in Belzig, this time on another farm. Again, there are many fruit trees, lots of open space and the forest starts right behind the house. I like to go out the door without walking in people. I like it when the road is clear before me, when I can look far and surround me with the sounds of nature, meet a deer while walking and I can lie down in the moss and look through the treetops into the sky. I like it when I know that there are wild boars and deer and wild hares running around in the thicket and all sorts of medicinal herbs are growing along the way, provoking my knowledge of local herbs. There is a lot of forest and few jobs here, a lot of sand and little water. There are quite a few people who are venturing a new life in the countryside in community and others who are going out again. There are Brandenburg philistines, including mix the alternatives. There is less distraction and the rural peace can be both blessing and curse. Every now and then I get bored. The final clarity does not exist yet. This indecision sometimes seems bizarre to me. It's not until Katrin tells me, "Well, I'm always thinking of moving to the country," and I realize that maybe I'm not the only one who does not really care about either.

To listen: "I keep pace" - thoughts about running and listening to Daniela on Soundcloud

War - City Country City (April 2024).