If there’s an ecovillage I wanted to visit in particular it’s one in Poland where they practice a unique ritual burning cow dough during sunset and sunrise. The place is actually an healing centre. They play with energy. Well, I don’t know if “play” is the right word. They cleanse the energy through a practice called “agnihotra”.
Agnihotra is a healing fire from the ancient science of Ayurveda. It is a process of purifying the atmosphere through a specially prepared fire which is performed daily at sunrise and sunset. The beneficial effects of Agnihotra help to reduce stress, improve health and give one increased energy.
The ecovillage is in south Poland, close to Tatras mountains. I could have flown to Krakow, which is only an hour away from the ecovillage, but that would have been too easy. I wanted to add some travelling to the experience. To make it more adventurous, and spicy.
So I looked for the cheapest flight within a range of 300km from Krakow.And that’s how I found my 10 euros flight ticket to Budapest.
I arrived in Budapest and walked around the city with just a book in my hand and a camera in the other. The simplicity of going without a direction and nothing planned for the rest of the days (or even the next days) was just beautiful. At every step my head was cleaning up, my thoughts were less and I had less worries about my life in general.
I booked an hostel for the night, just 11 euros for a bunk bed, I could have afford an apartment all for myself on airbnb but I didn’t want to stay by myself, I wanted to see other travellers and what’s the best for that than an hostel in Budapest?
I couldn’t be more right. As soon as I got back to the hostel I met the guy who had the bed on top of mine, Gabriel was his name. He travelled from Costa Rica, and wanted to explore Europe, starting from Budapest. He said eastern Europe was much more appealing for him as cheaper than the west and more authentic. I agreed with him, I think big cities such as Paris, Madrid, London and their surroundings have lost much of their beauty through gentrification. You have the same shops in every city centre, same prices, and cultural differences are now very little, looks like everybody speaks the same language: what money can buy?
Gabriel introduced me to few friends he met at the hostel: Adrian and Carlos from Messico, Mehmet from Turkey. At 10pm we cannot stay in common areas, living room and kitchen close, but Gabriel has a great idea: finish our beers sitting on one of the 8 bridges that cross the Danube. We choose Liberty bridge because of his beautiful structure. We sit on the pillars.
When we come back to the hostel is 1am already and I have an early wake up: I want to go the thermal baths with Antoine, a Parisian I met the day before.
Budapest is well known for it’s springs. It has so many that the Romans, the Turkish and the Austro-Hungaric Empire all built their own baths.
We went to one built by the Turkish during the Ottoman Empire, the place is stunning: if feels like we are back in time, back in 1571 to be more precise, when it was founded. Rudas Bath is claimed to have medicinal properties. To date, it retains many of the key elements of a Hammam, exemplified by its Ottoman dome and octagonal pool. The bath has six therapy pools and one swimming pool where the temperature is in between 10 and 42 °C.
I’m travelling very light, carrying only a small backpack, so I don’t have to go back to the hostel to collect my stuff, I already have everything with me.
We leave the baths around noon. I say goodbye to Antoine with a hug. I tell him I hope to see him again. He say: You should come to visit me in Paris. Maybe I will.
I get on a bus. Get off the bus and in a shop to buy something to eat and drink for my journey. I’m leaving Budapest and Hungary to Slovakia. My train is already there, I walked to the platform, get in and sit. The train is nice, clean, with plugs and spacious. I love crossing borders by train, especially when looking at the gps map you see this little dot moving from one side of the line to the other: you’ve changed country. The landscape around you didn’t change much but everything else did. A different language, money, traditions.
Three hours later I’m in Kosice, second biggest city in Slovakia after Bratislava. I don’t check the city centre, I rather spend time with Matej and his family. They are hosting me for the night. They are cyclist and I’m too. There’s an app we can use to find people available to host you, and in return you do the same (but that’s not a rule). No, I’m not telling you the name otherwise it gets too popular and I’ll struggle to find hosts. Anyway, I arrive at the central station and look for a bus to reach Matej’s house. He lives in a small apartment north of town with his wife Natalia and two child: Felix and Arthur. Felix is 3 years old and Arthur just 3 weeks old! I’m surprise they accepted to host me with a new born baby. But they did and I’m not sure if I have to be happy about it or sorry for the night I’ll spend mostly awake.
But that’s the beauty of travelling: meeting people and sharing intimate part of our lives. I feel privilege I can see how a young couple raise their children, I’m lucky to have that access in their lives. Even though this means not having much space for myself, but that’s ok for one night.
Arthur, the smaller child, eat, sleep and poo, so he’s not trouble at all but Felix is another story. He keep interrupting his dad when he try to tell me something. He never finish a sentence, three hours of broken conversion that leaves me why more questions than when we started talking.
At 10 Felix is out. He went asleep, thanks god, I can finally chat with Matej. He helps me to find the best route through the Tatras mountains from Slovakia to Hungary. Apparently is not that easy to go from the south side of the mountains to the north because the two countries are not well connected, maybe they don’t want to be connected. So I have found a village up in the mountains that I can reach by train (and that’s great because I love trains) but from there to the Polish side there’s no connection. No connection apart from one bus that nobody on Slovakian soil ever heard about. After some research I understand is a Polish company that run that small bus, and it’s journey is limited to cross the mountains, then it leaves you in polish town where you can get other polish buses to go around the country. Full of hope I want to try that the next day, but for now I still have three hours of light so I’m going to hike up into mountain.
I missed being immerse in wild nature. These trees are covered by fog, there’s also a waterfall nearby, I can hear the water gurgling. So much water in the air and everything here is taking in that water, growing bigger.
I climb up to 1400 metres. Walk in trail made out of stone, it’s beautiful but makes the walking slow and I don’t like that. I like when you walk without looking down, lost in your thoughts, looking at trees, getting inspiration from the sky.
Before coming back at the hotel I stop in the only place opened after 9pm. It’s a pub but the also have a kitchen. I eat some fries and drink a local beer while everyone in the room is watching a ice hockey game at telly. The owner of the hotel I’m staying told me ice hockey is the most popular sport in Slovakia. They were really good at it when Cecoslovakia was just one country but since they split in two Slovakia lost everything and they had to build the team from scratch. It took them all these years but now, he said, things are better.
I wake up at 8am to have breakfast in the hotel. Even though I could have slept for two more hours to say the least. I didn’t have much sleep the past nights but after yesterday I feel much better.
After checking out I walked towards the village, the hotel is 20 minutes away from the village. I arrive at the bus stop but I’m early so I sit down in a cafe for a cappuccino. It’s four euros, definitely one of the most expensive cappuccino I’ve ever had.
The bus nobody knew it existed arrive at the bus stop. I’m the only passenger. The driver doesn’t speaks English but I manage to ask him a few things: “Can I pay with euros?” I ask. I don’t have polish zloty obviously.
One hour and a half later we arrive at the Polish town. In the bus station there’s a market so I get some groceries and a bottle of wine.
My next bus is in less than 20 minutes. It’ll take me to Jordanów, where someone from the ecovillage is going to pick me up. I’m tense. I don’t know what to expect. Is this place really going to show me a better way to live?
Jarek picks me up from the main road where the bus dropped me off.
He is polish but he grew up in England, where he had his education. He’s a character: sometimes funny others rude. He’s taking something out of his teeth, the all hand in his mouth. I look straight out of the car, acting like I don’t see him.
He ask if I’m carrying enough food for my staying and if I had lunch already. I have a sandwich, two small roll bread and an apple and no, I didn’t have lunch. I say that I can buy something else if we stop in a shop. But I’m feeling funny about this: seems like I’m going to stay by myself in a hut by the mountain. What about the others? Don’t they eat? I thought of sharing a meal all together. I even have gotten the wine. But that’s okay. I’m not going to stay long in the Ecovilage anyway, whatever it’ll be like I’ll be out of it in 24 hours or so. I get some cheese, more bread, and veggies.
While in the car. I ask permission to film while is talking. “Of course, film whatever you like he says”. I take his word for it.
We drive through a forest full of trees, the road draw a black line into the green scenery. Jarek stop the car when a young girl dresses like a elf appears. She is Marta, daughter of Rory and Aisha. “She is a great artist” Jarek says. I’m relief in seeing a teenager living in the ecovillage and also someone who does look conscious of the world outside the village. We shake hands across the car window.
At the ecovillage Jarek walked me straight to the house I’m going to stay. It’s a three bedroom house on two store made of wood. The room designated to me it’s small but nice, has got big windows facing the forest. The house has a porch and a balcony that stretches all across the living room, a wooden shelve with many books and a tea table made out of a big trunk give a nice touch to the place.
I meet Maria. She ask about me, where I’m from and what I do. I say I’m from many different places but I was born in Sardinia and I’m a videographer. She is happy to heard that and says I have to give her 31 euros for the room. It’s actually 23 euros for the small room plus 8 euros of cleaning fee. Cleaning fee? I suddenly feel like I’m renting a room through Airbnb. Being in Poland, far from cities the price is pretty high, also considering my position there as someone who will be filming and doing interviews (and sharing all the raw footage with them) I should have a better treatment. That’s not the welcoming I was expecting. First the meal situation, then this. I start asking myself why am I actually there. What I’m expecting to find in that place?
Not having the time to answer that question I thought myself out of the house. It’s 4pm and Jarek it’ll start showing the ecovillage space in a tour specifically organised for the guest. In fact tonight there will be a concert in the main building. Some musicians from Holland that also practice agnihotra will be chanting mantras while playing guitars, jambes and a small organ.
The walk is great. Even though the guest are all Polish Jarek talks in English. He seems to be caring about my video now. He waits for me, at least most of the times, and talked directly on camera. I feel good. That’s the power of the camera: it connect people, it’s able to share incredible stories to others.
I want to lay down on my bed for a little bit but there’s no time for that. Jarek’s tour ends in the The house of Light where the concerts was due to start very soon. Musicians are here already and many people wants to talk to me. So I can’t go back to my rented room. I cannot lay down at all.
The concert lasted three hours. I’m knocked. And if we were mostly sitting, drinking tea and eating cakes I feel like I missed something. Like there should be something in that evening. I know what is it! We should have ate dinner. I didn’t eat at all. I’m starving, I’m tired and I’m starving. I arrange an interview with Rory, one of the oldest inhabitant of the ecovillage, for next morning. I go back to my place.
I’m hungry but I don’t eat anything, I’m too tired. I can make tea though.
While I’m doing that Maria comes in. She said she is sorry but she have to ask me the money for concert. I thought it was based on a donation I say and I have already contributing filming and sharing this story with, I hope, many people. But she doesn’t buy that. She wants cash; and she want it right now. She say the donation amount is 20 euros. Shooot! That’s a lot of money for that concert. They should have paid me for staying there for three hours filming that thing. I would like to explain her that but I don’t think she would understand so I simply go back to my room, take 10 euros and come back to the living room. “This are the only money you will get from me.” I say. “I feel I’m already contributing with my film.” I mean that but doesn’t seem too impress. She writes down my name and a number: 10, followed by a question mark. I can’t really share with my thoughts on her so I’ll skip to something else. There’s something else to think about: tomorrow morning I’m waking up at 4:45am. Why? Because then decided to raise that early that day and this ecovillage is famous for a practice the do to heal animals, the land and the all planet if they can spread the good energy that far. They do that by burning dry cow shit in a small metal pot every mornings and evenings, at sunrise and sunset. I cannot miss that so I set my alarm at 4:40 with a not-so-happy face.
When I think the day have already gave me all the possible range of emotions I realise I was wrong. It’s not over. Maria is still in the living room. She stop me and says: “Luis, I opened the fridge, I saw the bottle. Is that your wine?”
I say: “Yes! That was my present for you guys, but since we had no dinner it stayed in the fridge” She turn pale and look at me straight in the eyes. “We DON’T drink alcool here!” That bottle is not suppose to be here, why did you bring it? I have to take it from you.” I’m surprise and sorry about the all thing, I didn’t know that but apparently alcool, next to drugs and sigarette, are not allowed in the all ecovillage. It doesn’t matter if you don’t consume them, they bring “bad energy” and they have been working so hard to clean that energy. The oldest residents of the place are burning shit every day, twice a day, from 1995. That’s serious stuff. Or at least it should be because I cannot take it seriously now. The all thing seems a bit absurd and I feel like she is the one delivering bad energy since I met her.
I wake during the night. I switch off the alarm. I think: “Fuck it.” But God or someone up there didn’t agree with that and He wakes me up at 4:45am. I take my camera and run into the small room where Barbara, a resident of the ecovillage, has already started the ceremony. I gently knock at the door and I walk in. She just light up the cow shit. We stay there silent. We breath and I feel strange. I look around me and up. There’s a lot of smoke in this little room. I want to couch but I force myself too. I feel like that’s not polite towards whatever saint or god we are delivering that sacrifice to. So I keep breathing that smoke but it’s not the usual smoke you get from combustions. It’s more gentle. Ten minutes later I’m in bed again, but I can’t sleep. One hour pass and I’m still awake.
I hate when people tell me what to do. That’s probably why I don’t live in an ecovillage. I share with them the vision, the need to restore our connection to nature, but I usually I don’t like the community rules. I’m not saying they could live better without rules. Having clear rules and respecting those is fundamental to live in society, big or small that it would be. But I personally don’t perform well under these rules.
I leave the ecovillage on Sunday at 4pm. In the morning I’ve interviewed Rory and his wife, had an amazing breakfast at their house. Then I interviewed David, had a quick sandwich around 2pm before running to Jarek and Pavani house. I interviewed them too in the upper level of the oldest house in the ecovillage.
