Chill packing
Chojna - Müritz - Rügen - usedom
This year, we gave our annual trip a working title: chillpacking — a hint that we'd ride a bit less than in years past, and focus more on quality time, deep conversations, and long moments spent staring at trees, lakes, and skies. For the first time in three years, we even planned a proper rest day: no riding, just staying somewhere we liked and enjoying ourselves.
Igor and Jacek arrived in Chojna, near the Polish-German border. I started that day in Angermünde and rode to pick them up - originally, we were supposed to meet right at the border, but their train was slightly delayed, so plans shifted.
The trip started with a challenge: the boys had forgotten their IDs. We arranged to have them sent to a hotel in Waren (Müritz), where we’d pick them up a few days later.
That mishap meant two nights of wild camping - and it turned out to be incredible. In Brandenburg, it's actually allowed outside of nature reserves or protected areas. A minor fuck-up became an unexpected highlight.
3 friends - 570 km - 8+1 days
Days 1 and 2 took us through the beautiful forests of Brandenburg, with wild camping under open skies—one of the unexpected highlights of the trip.
On Day 3, we reached Lake Müritz, the second-largest lake in Germany. It’s surprisingly shallow - you can walk almost a kilometer in and still have water only up to your waist.
Days 4 and 5 were all about getting to Rügen. By the end of Day 5, we finally crossed the sea via a long bridge and spent our first night on the island.
Day 6 was dedicated to traversing Rügen from south to north. The island is so expansive that, at times, it felt more like rural mainland Germany than a coastal destination - fields, small forests, and a lot of quiet roads.
In Drewoldke, we arrived at a campsite nestled in the dunes, just a couple of steps from the beach. We all agreed: this would be our rest day spot.
After a well-deserved break on Day 7, we continued along the coastline. Day 8 took us to the eastern edge of Rügen, where we boarded a small ferry to Usedom. We spent our last night together there, recorded a podcast on the beach, and said our goodbyes the next morning when I boarded the train to Leipzig. The boys used their final day to reach Świnoujście, where they caught a train back to Kraków.
