Baltic Sea Holiday Game of Cricket 

I had always wanted to travel to the Baltic Sea and its surrounds. That area of the world is so pretty, and the countries bordering the Baltic are some of my dream holiday destinations. In particular, Germany. I had studied German at university for a year, and although it was quite a hard language to learn, I enjoyed it. I always wanted an opportunity to practice it, using it in every day language – not just “I’d like a pound of apples, please” and “Does your hotel have a bath or shower?”.

So when my work announced they were opening a new office on the German coast, I jumped at the chance to live, work and be in Germany. I packed up my beloved possessions (including the cricket bat I had treasured since I was seven, given to me by my father. He passed away just after this, and I loved the old bit of willow like it was my dad himself) and headed out the door. I was excited and very much looking forward to my new life. The novelty of a new home in a new country carried me through the first six months, and I soon received a letter in the mail from personnel. It advised me that I had earned two weeks’ holiday, to be taken at a given date – but I could have one week free in one of the company’s hotels. After madly researching the company’s website to see where their hotels were, I settled on a Rügen hotel – Rügen being an island off the German coast in the Baltic Sea. I had grown to love my little one-bedroom piece of the Baltic (even though my view was obscured by a rather large and ungainly tree planted somewhat rudely right outside my kitchen window) and did not want to stray too far from ‘home’.

When I arrived in Rügen, I immediately met two other English workers away from home, like myself. We hit it off straight away, and spent every night in the bar and every day playing cricket on the sands of the hotel’s waterfront. I extended my week’s stay by another week (funded by myself) so we could enjoy ourselves a little longer. On the first day of the second week, one of my new friends asked me about my family, and I told them about my dad. Then I remembered his cricket bat, sitting forlornly by my bed at my apartment. My friend had an idea, and when it came to him it was like a literal light bulb had gone off over his head.

“Fly home, and bring the bat back. We’ll chip in the airfare. Let’s play cricket with your dad’s bat, here in Rügen. He’d love it.” The idea was crazy, but two hours’ later I was on my way back to my Baltic Sea apartment (Ferienwohnung Ostsee), and another few hours’ after that landing back in Rügen, with nothing else but my hotel room key and my dad’s cricket bat. It was the best game of cricket I have ever played, and it felt like dad was playing with us.