Adventure – eMag Uni Augsburg

One breath away

Endorphin-rush is guaranteed

Spit in your goggles, one last check if the air is flowing, confirm with your buddy and jump right in. Let the cold water enter your soul, taste the salty water on your lips, feel the pressure surrounding your body. If your buddy and you are ready – the adventure may begin.

You start to go down and the deep blue finally surrounds you, feeling weightless. It’s a completely different world you need to get used to. Weird noises – where do they come from? You try to touch the rock in front of you but completely miss him. Is the fish red, orange or yellow, or might it even be just brown? Humans are used to be surrounded by air. The behavior of light, sounds and movements is normal. But being surrounded by water: it is like being a child again, that needs to learn everything from scratch.

The new and unknown world

Breathtaking views, unique encounters with unfamiliar animals, a rush of adrenalin, getting in touch with nature on a new level, exploring sunken secrets, finding hidden treasures – who knows what’s behind the next rock or after the next wave. The sea is a place of innumerable astonishing, wild, raw and of inestimable value moments, which actually can’t be described in a few words. It simply has to be experienced. Where to go? The lake around the corner? Or how about a freezing cold lake in the alps? Or maybe the Mediterranean Sea where you surely won’t meet any sharks? The cyan, aquatic, turquoise blue sea is filled with exotic fishes and beautiful coral reefs. Another option is to drive with a boat away from the shore, out to the big wide ocean, not being able to see the beach or any houses – out there awaits the most precious, awe-inspiring, unbelievably, once-in-a-lifetime moment: a rendezvous with whales.

DON’T EVER STOP BREATHING!

That is the most important rule for diving. Without having internalized that specific rule, diving won’t be possible. But there are also other things that need to be taken into account. Diving is not a sport or hobby that can simply be started out of a feeling or a mood. Certain things need be considered.

Respect, appreciation, decency and concinnity are mandatory and unavoidable traits of a diver. The new world needs to be valued and secured not polluted, destroyed or treated without careful consideration. Just as important and fundamental is the proper education and qualification. A diving partner, so called buddy,is a crucial factor. Also, you may never go diving without the correct equipment, it is indispensable. (So, find a trustworthy, authentic and dependable diving-school or -club!) A sadly bitter aftertaste: none of it is super cheap.

But be sure of one fact: it is absolutely worth it, as it is an outrageous, unprecedented and pure happiness bringing experience, which will never be forgotten!

Author: Manja Klauschenz

YES THEORY

Monday morning. 6:30 am. The alarm clock rings. You get up, make yourself a nice hot cup of coffee (because you can’t do anything before that caffeine kicks in), then read the paper, get yourself ready, go to work, come home, have some leftovers from the day before, watch your favorite TV show, check up on social media and go to sleep. Next day, it’s the same procedure. Eat. Sleep. Repeat.

Is this what your life might look like in five to ten years’ time? Or does it already look that way?

The great feeling of knowing what to expect

Routines. We love them. We humans are creatures of habit. Schedules, plans, simply knowing what to expect when we wake up in the morning – WE LOVE IT. And most of us seem to do really well with this kind of structure for their days, weeks or their lives.

Let’s take this scenario and alter it a bit

Monday morning. 6:30 am. The alarm clock rings. You get up, make yourself a nice hot cup of coffee. Then read the paper, get yourself ready, go to the airport, take the
first last-minute flight they offer you and spontaneously go on an adventure to the Bahamas.

YES THEORY

Sounds fun? Scary? Crazy?

We fear what we can’t predict. That’s why most of us so vigorously cling to our comfort zones. But you know what? Life begins at the end of your comfort zone. This is the philosophy four Canadian guys in their mid-twenties live by. They seem to have found the key to living a good and happy life: seeking discomfort. Together they came up with the concept of ’Yes Theory’ in 2015.

Things have changed quiet a lot for these guys, who used to live a rather ordinary life. They decided to step out of their comfort zones whenever they can – causing them to have unbelievable experiences. They moved to LA, went skinny dipping with strangers, sneaked into a Hollywood premiere and hitchhiked to Mexico. And that’s only listing a few of their countless adventures. And their intentions pay off: they’re all living and enjoying life more consciously and transform their anxiety into happiness and excitement. Getting curious? Go check them out at ‘Yes Theory’ on YouTube or on their blog and follow their miraculous journey.

Saying ‘yes’

Are you living a calm life right there at this warm and cozy spot in the middle of your comfort zone? And most importantly: do you feel the need to change something about it? To feel more alive, maybe? Do you miss the feeling of your blood rushing through your veins? Yes? Well, then be inspired by the ‘Yes Theory’ and try to say yes more often (starting with that very first ‘yes’ you maybe just said).

‘What makes you uncomfortable? What are you gonna do about it?’ (quote by one of the members of ‘Yes Theory’)

So after reading this, do you want to change your life for the better? Well, you don’t have to hop on a plane to another continent right away. Let’s start with baby steps out of your comfort zone, but most importantly: start.

Go to the movie you want to see so badly – by yourself, because no one wants to join.

Go jump off that cliff that seems to be way too high for you.

Go ask that boy or girl you’ve had a crush on for so long for a date.

Do what the dark, mean anxiety in your head tells you not to.

Enjoy life more consciously.

Be crazy, loud and spontaneous.

Seek discomfort.

Be happy.

Text: Lena Zimmermann
Picture: Fabian Prinz

Fairies, sheep and solitude

So, burning out on those end-of-term exams? Struggling with your essays? Just sick of all the people crowding you each day, demanding your attention and generally being a bother? Well, how about just getting away from it all? Like, really far away?

To boldly go…

In recent years Iceland had been in the news a few times, especially during the European Football Championship 2016, when as many as 10% of the nation’s total population visited France to cheer for their team and subsequently charmed the other nations with their jovial demeanor. This, in turn, caused a surging interest in Iceland, especially in vacations there. Even the author of this article, otherwise couchpotato extraordinaire, got interested and took a hiking trip on the island.

Small-town charm

Stepping off the plane in Reykjavíkurflugvöllur, Iceland’s main airport, the capital city of Reykjavik will spread out before you. A large town by conventional standards, it is nevertheless the bustling heart of the nation. But it’s really outside the “big city“ where you will first become aware just how vast and sparsely populated the country appears to be. Over one and a half times the size of Bavaria but with less than 3% of its population (of which around one third resides in the capital), most visitors from central Europe will be struck by the solitude one experiences even right outside the few population centres, let alone out in the wilderness.

Entrance to another world

Between rocky outcroppings, hardy vegetation and sulfurous springs you’ll rarely see anything but free-roaming herds of bleating sheep and the occasional group of tiny horses. And you might well hike for hours on end without ever happening across another living being. No wonder this kind of environment causes the imagination to wander. Mystical beings supposedly inhabit the country in large numbers and their influence, it is said, can be seen and felt everywhere. There are rock formations that are giants’ bathtubs, cave entrances leading to elven kingdoms and ponds infested with lurking demons.

Sights to behold

You might laugh at the superstition, but Iceland does go out of its way not to upset the Huldáfolk for fear of their displeasure, up to and including relocating entire roads and buildings. Unsurprisingly, this lends itself to an astoundingly pristine outdoors. It is no wonder much of HBO’s fabled Game of Thrones series was filmed in this enchanted landscape, since much of it looks like it was taken straight out of a fantasy novel, with active volcanoes and massive glaciers right next to each other and mountains sloping dramatically right into the ocean.

Language barrier? No such thing.

Interested yet? Well, should you consider a vacation there – don’t worry about communicating with those few locals you might meet. Reading this text shows you will have no issues in Iceland. Most Íslendingar (Icelanders) speak good to excellent English and quite a few, especially those from the younger generations, also speak German, French, Polish or Spanish.

Author & Pictures: Simon Benseler

Yorkshire

What did you think about the Twilight Franchise? Did you like it? Or was it too cheesy? As far as my vampirology knowledge goes, vampires are supposed to resemble demonic, sublime characters with a twisted romantic touch. But where does this misguided love theme in Coppola’s Dracula movie and the sinister notion of vampire films like Nosferatu come from? Well, it was the Irish author Bram Stoker who kicked it all off with his Gothic novel Dracula, in 1897. But where did he get his inspiration from?

A northern English town called Whitby, located in Yorkshire, inspired Bram Stoker writing his novel Dracula. The weather conditions and the local dialect are worked into the novel and even the novel’s name itself – Dracula – derives from a book about Walachian and Moldavian history, which Stoker stumbled upon in Whitby.

Not only did Dracula put the town on the map internationally, but also well-known explorer Captain Cook acquired his early nautical skills in this Yorkshire town.

However, Yorkshire has more to offer than vampire-related trivia and nautical history. It was also home to the famous Brontë sisters, Emily, Charlotte and Anne. Emily’s novel Wuthering Heights, for instance, is regarded as an English masterpiece of the nineteenth century. The three lettered sisters lived in Haworth, which is one of many picturesque towns you can find all over Yorkshire. If you like cobblestone streets and dry-brick walls, you’ll get your money’s worth in the countryside of this northern English county.

If you’re not too interested in vampires, sailors and classic literature, don’t worry! Yorkshire has you covered. The county features three of the biggest cities in England, namely Leeds, Sheffield and Bradford. Leeds is considered to be among the top ten towns for live music and upcoming bands. Sheffield doesn’t make this list, however, even though both bands Pulp and Arctic Monkeys come from there, which tells you a bit about the quality we’re talking about.

If this doesn’t sound hot enough for you, visit Bradford, which was named “Curry Capital of Britain” for the sixth year in a row in ????. Thanks to its many citizens of Indian descent, you can find the best and most original Curry in the UK here. Maybe spicy food isn’t your cup of tea, though; in this case you can always go for a hearty Yorkshire pudding – a traditional Sunday roast.

The historic town of York gives its name to the entire county, the already-mentioned pudding and it’s definitely worth a visit. Not only York, but also Leeds and Sheffield have tradition-steeped football and rugby clubs where you can experience authentic English passion. Luckily the football teams don’t compete in the Premier League at the moment, which makes buying a ticket more affordable and less mainstream.

And if none of these aspects intrigue you, you can still go for a hike and enjoy the beauty of the Yorkshire Dales.

Author & Pictures: Johann Beß

Camping from Windhoek to Cape Town

Etosha National Park

My first – and let’s be honest best – highlight from Namibia was the Etosha National Park.

As our tour started, the first thing we did was to drive five hours from Windhoek to Etosha. On the road, we had lunch and I tried not to freak out because I was so damn afraid of malaria…

Our first game drive through the park became very exciting pretty quickly when we saw the first elephant. I took about a thousand pictures and was convinced that this was the most beautiful elephant I’d ever seen and will ever see. We also saw a lot of springboks, antelopes and kudus, which honestly weren’t as appealing as a 2.5m elephant. When we arrived at our camp site, our first mission was to put up our tent named “Giraffe”, which turned out to be quite a challenge. Slowly but surely with the help of our guide “Doctor” we managed to put it up and were ready to have dinner at the camp site. Then that night we spotted elephants at the water hole and were seriously ecstatic. However, the night was extremely cold and I didn’t think I would survive the next eleven days of camping.

Luckily, I didn’t die that night and even woke up around 5:30 am for a one-day of game drive through the park. It was super interesting and quite an adventure, but to be honest, after a while, I did get a little bored of seeing the fiftieth elephant or the seventy-third giraffe. Of course, I wanted to see the Big Five (elephant, rhino, buffalo, lion, leopard) but we only managed to see the “Big Three” (elephant, rhino, lion). But favorite memory and the most impressive panorama was seeing the biggest group of elephants with their cutest young ones at the water hole at our lunch site!!!

Himba Tribe

On our way to Swakopmund, we also visited a Himba community close to Kamanjab and had the opportunity to interact with the people who live there.

In the tribe we visited, the tourists who would like to get a better understanding of the way of the Himba, their lifestyle and their traditions can do so, without interfering with those still living in their natural environment, the “real” Himbas. The income that this specific tribe generates from the visits goes towards the education of orphaned Himba children, a scheme which we were of course happy to contribute to. There’s also a market, where the women hand-made jewelry and obtain a small income.

It was interesting to see their red-clay houses and the Himba women preparing incense as an anti-microbial body cleanser/deodorant and fragrant. We also saw how the women made otjize paste out of ochre pigment to cleanse their skin. But as interesting as the experience was, the educational village did feel more like a super touristic attraction than the Himbas’ natural habitat I was hoping to see.

Sossusvlei Dunes

Located in the southern part of the Namib desert, Sossusvlei is a salt and clay pan surrounded by high red dunes. One of the most fascinating places around the middle of Sossusvlei dunes is the Deadvlei. Vlei means a lake or marsh in a valley between the dunes in Afrikaans.

The Deadvlei is a dry lake covered in white clay pan. It’s full of dead trees and the white really stands out against the bright red of the dunes. We also had the pleasure of climbing Dune 45, which is a 170m star dune that’s composed of 5 million-year-old (!) sand. The panoramic view over the dunes at the top is tremendous but let me tell you – the climb is tiring as hell!

Swakopmund

Known as the biggest city on the coast of western Namibia, Swakopmund is surrounded by the Namib desert on three sides and the Atlantic Ocean on the East.

As Namibia was once a German colony, Swakopmund is still a very German city. You can hear many people speaking German on the streets and there are lots of German signs outside of cafés and shops.

Numerous activities like camel riding, squad biking and sandboarding are offered in the desert, and you can also go on dolphin and seal cruises or go fishing. The city itself isn’t very big but we were all happy to have a day in civilization after the desert. It was also our only accommodated stay on the whole tour and I was very excited about a soft bed and my own shower!

Cape Town

Cape Town is the most populous city of “the Rainbow Nation South Africa” after Johannesburg. It’s one of the most multicultural cities in the world and is very modern and westernized.

And there’s plenty lot to do there. One of the best-known attractions is of course Table Mountain, which you either can hike up or use the cableway up. At the top, you have an incredible 360˚ view over Cape Town but be ready to stand in a looooong queue on the way up. Another typical tourist attraction worth seeing is the Cape of Good Hope, the south-western most point on the African continent. Not only is the Cape itself a beautiful view but also the roadtrip there is full of breathtaking landscapes.

If you’re strolling around the city near Long Street, I would also advise you to make a detour to Bo-Kaap, a part of the city filled with colorful houses and amazing places to take photos at.

However, in my opinion, one of the best parts of Cape Town, apart from the people, was the beautiful coastal areas like Camps Bay or Hout Bay. To explore the coast, I would strongly recommend you to buy a ticket for the hop-on-hop-off bus, as it gives you the chance to tour the coastline and stop anywhere you want to in order to explore the beauty of the beaches.

Author & Pictures: Maya Egger

Things that happen on the tram

Monday, 7.40 AM. Fog pours into the streets and the square starts to fill up as another workday has just begun. People are accumulating on the platform, ready to fight. Yes, fight. Some of them are quietly staring at their smartphones, but expectation is hanging in the air. Then there’s a light chime. With its awaited, growing rustle, the tram appears at the beginning of the platform. The heads turn and follow automatically that cable-driven truck, everybody hoping to be the lucky guy who finds themselves in front of the sliding door. The tram stops. Time stops. The doors open and the melee pushes inside, grumbling and trying to reach the most longed goal at that moment: a free seat. After less than a minute of catch-as-catch-can each passenger has found their place in this little ecosystem on rails.

Equilibrium principles

More than any other ecosystem, the tram needs to maintain a certain equilibrium during its urban rollercoaster ride. The public transport in Augsburg (aka AVV Racing Team) provides a unique service of balance training, thanks to sudden accelerations and abrupt braking, no matter if you’re sitting or standing. Grasping on to any possible object in the tram is the basic rule of such peculiar environment; it could be a pole, a strap or…another passenger. The latest extreme example of savage desperation to find the right equilibrium was a short woman who leant against another one’s breasts during the whole ride to Kö. No, the two women didn’t even know each other.

Fighting without referee

As we’ve already seen, the tram is a very “physical” space. A place where all kinds of dangerous studs-up tackles and nudges will never be subject to a yellow or red card. But not only body parts are involved. The most life-threatening weapon in this case is the backpack. These self-propelled bags are kind of their own life form, with the owner apparently not knowing the real bulk of what they’re carrying. Thousands of victims suffer on a daily basis: innocent noses, shoulders and backs which can’t even seek justice as what happens on the tram, stays on the tram!

Riding into freedom

In some ways this is the secret beauty of the tram: anyone is free to do what they want during the ride. You can listen to a wide variety of languages spoken by passengers, whether they are tourists or foreign inhabitants, or you can turn on you MP3-player and pretend to be in a music video. You can chat with interesting urban philosophers or chat on your smartphone, keeping an eye on your neighbor who is probably craning his neck to snoop your messages. You can look out of the window or steal a glance at other passengers… Oh no. That old man’s wearing tight shorts…Without underpants… I must get off. “Ding dong. Next stop: Cathedral”. Thank God!

Author & Pictures: Veronica Armellini

Brazilian road trip in a VW Kombi

I’d like to tell you something about my beautiful country, Brazil. In fact, we’re heading for Pantanal, the world’s largest tropical wetland area, in a Volkswagen Kombi, attached to which is a 1966 Willys jeep. On top of the Kombi, you can see a kayak and two bikes. Everything’s set for an unforgettable family road trip with lots of adventures!

It was March 2016 when we set off from São Paulo heading up to the state of Mato Grosso, where Pantanal is located. We drove a total of almost 1,600 km, and spent two days on the road and a few hours of sleep in a cheap motel somewhere. The amazing caimans welcomed us; they were everywhere and we could see them the whole time – what a feeling!

The local road is called the Transpantaneira. It isn’t asphalted, so the cars struggled in the mud caused by the previous day’s rain. The trip along this road is 147 km long and has 120 wooden bridges in an extremely poor state of maintenance. Yes, the rickety constructions play a big role in this adventure, because going over them is a very risky business, as you can see below. But the reason why using up so much adrenaline was worthwhile was meeting so many amazing creatures. These guys impressed me quite a lot: giant otters. Seeing a pair of them right in front of me was a dream come true; I didn’t know if I should take a picture or step back a bit and be sure I was safe. Giant river otters are extremely cute and are innocent-looking, but they’re very dangerous and are capable of attacking and even eating a caiman! Take a look yourself and see how photogenic they are – one of them even looked into the camera! How adorable is that?

The next lady is very special, a seriema, a large, long-legged terrestrial bird, which had me enthralled because of those eyelashes. Girl, you look fabulous! (I’m not sure whether it’s a “girl” at all, but I wish I had these lashes. Don’t you girls?) We also saw anacondas, blue macaws, toucans, southern crested carcaras, capybaras and lizards. The only animal we didn’t bump into was the gorgeous jaguar. Maybe we’ll be luckier next time, on another road trip around Brazil. Until then, let’s keep an eye on the natural world around us and enjoy it as best we can!

Author & Pictures: Gabrielle Pinheiro Machado Rehm