Stories' Book

Last summer my boyfriend and I woke up in a little chapel, somewhere in Germany. It was 5 o’clock in the morning. We had to grab our stuff really fast, because we were scared, we would be caught by a priest or old ladies coming to pray.

I guess you wonder how we got there right?

We finally had some days off from the terrible jobs we did. My boyfriend who is 5 years younger than me, used to work in a factory at night. I worked at a day-care for toddlers, but had to wait every morning for my schedule for the day. We wanted to go on a holiday. Because we would soon start living together, we had spent most of our money on furniture.

That’s why we decided to go camping. We didn’t have a plan. We just went on a road trip with no destination.

The first night we stayed at a really nice camping in Belgium – I finished work late that day, so we couldn’t make it further. The next day we swam in a lake and made a stop in Eindhoven, a city in The Netherlands.

It was all fun and games until we arrived in Germany and started searching for a camping place for the night. While my boyfriend was driving, I started calling every camping I found in the neighborhood. One after the other slammed the phone shut with a big grumpy: “Nein!”.

When we arrived at the last camping we wanted to try, it started raining cats and dogs. We ended up taking shelter under a party tent, with some random German guys. We had some chats and drinks together. But in the end, we still didn’t have a place to sleep. And the rain didn’t stop for a single moment.

We came to a point where we got disappointed. We came here for an adventure and it seems like we had failed. We were cold from the rain and decided to search for a hotel. Not knowing this would be an even bigger challenge. We found out that there was a big event in the neighborhood and for that reason all the camping and hotels were fully booked.

We decided that we had no choice but to camp in the wild. And because it was late and we hadn’t eaten for hours we decided to search for food instead of a place to sleep. But guess what… that was also a challenge. In the end some tourists advised us to go to the only place that was still open, where we could eat pizza. They also told us that it is forbidden to camp in the wild and that they are very strict about it.

We drove a bit further, searching for a safe spot to park the car, so we could sleep in there. We found a place next to a strange building. When we went to take a look what it was, we saw that it was a chapel. I told my boyfriend we could sleep here, if it was open. And yes, it was. My boyfriend wasn’t sure, but I was determined.

We grabbed our mattress and sleeping bags. Hoping that nobody would see us. My boyfriend was afraid that we would be cursed. He did not dare touch me, for God would see that we weren’t married, because we didn’t wear a ring. I prayed to God that I would be a better person and would baptize my future kids, if he gives us some time to rest.

We fell asleep for a very short time. Woke up at 5 and left like a bat out of hell with a great story to tell.

Jasmien