Apart from desperately needing to see the sea (this time the Baltic Sea – not a real sea if you ask me, but it will do for now :-)) – the reason why right now was this Fotofestival Horizonte Zingst,

Day one arrival on schedule, finally getting some value out of my Deutschlandticket :-). All of Zingst dominated by all things photography.

Going for a walk after dinner, I noticed scores of swallows doing their superfast, erratic aerial acrobatics, so that is something I will be practising – finally getting a decent photo of one.

Zingst is a very pleasant town, touristy obviously, but people behaving normally, no hordes of druken, loudmouthed Scandinavians or British tourists. A good variety of restaurants, though only German and Italian, some of them very good indeed. Unfortunately just one Asian restaurant – Chinese – which was OK but not great.

I nearly forgot to take photos of Zingst itself just to show what it looks like – until the last day, so there are a couple of photos at the end of the post.

Conclusion – “Horizonte Zingst”, the annual photography festival, was a wonderful experience and I am definitely hoping to attend next year, and this time for the whole festival, and perhaps a bit.

26 and 27 May I attended this Masterclass Abstraktes und Kontraste, masterfully led by Kai Hornung and Nicolas Alexander Otto

Photos from day one (26 May afternoon and evening):

Photos from day two (27 May 03.30 to 06.00 and 14.00 to 18.00. I have to say, Kai and Alex have a real talent for organising sunrises. No mean feat in a week of mostly clouds at that time of day,

I did get a lot of good tips and tricks during the masterclass, but did I really learn something I did not know already? A lot of ICM was encouraged, and I have been doing that on and off for years, until I decided that I actually find it a bit kitchy, and then I stop, until I need to do something diffferent or am reminded of the option in a course or workshop.

Day 3 – 28 May – weather forecast said thunder and lightning so I visited most of the exhibitions before attending Kai Hornung’s inspirational pep-talk in the late afternoon. Also spent some time on the beach before and after the talk.

On my last day I had no firm plans, except parts of the festival programme, which I ditched since the weather was nice and I started by walking south to the inland harbour and hop on a short boat tour overlooking the large island which is a bird sanctuary to Barth and back.

Took these on the way home on 30 May:

Another example why Germans are obsessed with phone calls and refuse to use e-mails: They can be rude and lie to you without any documentation (unless of course you record the phone calls, which I should have done yesterday). One of the many reasons I keep my phone on silent and never answer it when it rings.

However, @Global Reparaturservice, https://waschmaschine-reparatur-berlin.com/, mostly refuses to use e-mails but keeps calling and yesterday I finally gave in since they have had one of my kitchen devices for repair and I was looking forward to receiving it back.

After the time slot they had given me had passed, I e-mailed asking whether I should still stay at home and wait, and as usual, they immediately called me and stupidly, I answered. First of all, they claimed they had been at my door, but I had not opened. A downright lie (a local sport – not sure if it is national or just a Berlin thing, but I can no longer count the times I have been lied to after I moved here) since I was at home all the time, and my doorbell works.

Secondly, there was a lot of noise on the line, and they spoke very quickly (another national sport the minute they hear that the customer’s German is far from perfect) so I had to ask them to speak a little more clearly. They then almost shouted, and very, very slowly, completely exaggerating, as if I am both deaf and dumb, gave me a day and a time slot. (Which they subsequently, by e-mail, surprisingly, denied having given me).

And yet, people wonder why I prefer to conduct all such exchanges by e-mail and not by phone.