Einen Tag am Meer

Since the hotel manager told us yesterday that we would have to move to another apartment today, we didn't bother unpacking. When we asked this morning when we could move to the other apartment, he just said we could stay in ours. That was good news. We slept in late and had a big breakfast, a tomato-onion omelette on toast. It was almost noon by the time we made our way to the beach. We've been in Goa for five days now, in an apartment about 200 meters from the beach, but today was the first day we spent at the beach. That's because we do a lot of schoolwork with the kids and we've had to move and search for accommodation. The path to the beach is a mix of jungle and garbage dump and we often find ourselves in a cloud of smoke from burning coconuts. The Indians do this a lot to keep mosquitoes away, or so they say. I personally prefer our mosquito spray because burnt coconuts smell really bad. Another thing the locals like to do is sweep. They especially like to sweep the street. I still haven't figured out why because it's like sweeping a garbage dump. But the path to the beach is still worth it because the beach is beautiful. Unfortunately, the flag is always red, which means we're not allowed to go into the sea. I have to admit that I haven't taken the flag colors seriously since Barcelona, but here I have respect. The waves are very high and the currents are very strong. So I stay on the beach and only go a few meters into the water. But it's also nice to hang out on the beach. We lay on the beach chairs at a beach bar and drank shakes while taking turns reading Harry Potter. I also like to watch the Indian women go in the water with their beautiful dresses, the kind we would wear to a wedding. I've seen the same thing in Thailand, where women go into the water fully clothed, wearing makeup and earrings. And here we are, stressing out about showering and changing after going to the beach or pool. It would actually be much more practical to let our clothes dry and go out.

When we started to get hungry, we left the beach to go eat. But not before jumping into our pool and playing a little ball. Lately, when we go to eat, I've been closing my eyes, a family member says "Stop," and then we choose the dish based on where my finger lands. And I have to say, it's always delicious. I really like pickles. They're different sauces that luckily you can also find in Heidelberg and they taste just as good.

Afterwards, as is almost always the case, we went to Decathlon. Surprisingly, I always find something new that absolutely must be bought. Mattis likes to stand in goal and try to block the balls that various Indians shoot at the goal. We end the evening, as we almost always do, with Harry Potter.