In August I went swimming in Port Valldemossa in Mallorca, Spain. While frolicking peacefully in the crystal clear, calm waters of the Mediterranean under the big bright blue sky I thought how lucky I am: I am living in Europe and I am now able to go swimming and to be certain that no creature big, small and/or creepy is going to attack, eat or sting me.
I looked back on my seven years living in Australia, where at the very back of my head (and that countless times) I thought: what if … I went in and out of the water, jumped, swam backwards, swam forwards, trod water, floated on my back and pretended to be dead … you get it, I was ecstatic about how beautiful life is.
I looked back on my seven years living in Australia, where at the very back of my head (and that countless times) I thought: what if … I went in and out of the water, jumped, swam backwards, swam forwards, trod water, floated on my back and pretended to be dead … you get it, I was ecstatic about how beautiful life is.
Until out of a sudden it felt like someone injected boiling olive oil under the skin on my back and that four times in a row, it was severely painful and I had to make my way back to the beach. There were several others who got stung while swimming in the bay; a waitress of a local restaurant helped everyone involved and handed out a soothing skin cream. Obviously, locals know about the danger.
I had been stung by a pink jellyfish (Pelagia Noctiluca). I felt the pain for a few hours after I got stung, then I started to have cramps on the left side of my back around the area where I had the biggest stung; my whole left side felt sore. Three days later it started to itch heavily and weeks later I still had to take antihistamines every day. I do have four burn marks on my back. I reckon authorities don’t put up warning signs to not scare away tourists.
It was a troublesome experience, but I have to laugh about it all the time, since it is so absurd. I survived seven years in dangerous Australia and I go swimming in (out of all places in the world) Mallorca and get stung by a venomous jellyfish. Bizarre, isn’t it?
From Berlin with love