Neither of the cafés in Zingst have wifi, I’m posting this from the (very weak) mobile signal. There’s a water shortage in the town, so it’s rationed and there’s no water at night. Feels strange considering it’s surrounded by water on two sides.

I there was a small restaurant making home-made fish specialties, presumably with freshly-caught fish from the area. I waited around for it to open but it never did, or maybe they were just super late. In any case I went to Subway in the end. I was hungry, I would have taken anything, even a McDonalds if they had one.

There’s a lot of businesses here which are shut down, and a lot of houses listed as for sale. I wonder what happened here? It’s like the place has been hit by the plague. Anyway, I’m only passing through and the youth hostel is excellent. I’ve got a dorm room all to myself, and I suspect I’m the only guest.

I get the feeling that it’s only Germans who go out of their way to visit the north, and even then the Germans who can afford it would rather go skiing in Bavaria. What’s left are these little clusters of holiday cottages dotted about along the coast, that and the remnants of old fisher-farmer communities. The public beach near Home Dune is backed up against a navy base, no matter how hard they try to disguise the fences that won’t be a successful tourist spot. People don’t feel the urge to travel to these places, which is a shame because they’re missing out.

The actual cycle journey today was long but rewarding. There was a point where I had hadn’t seen anybody for a while, and all I could hear was the wind and the wheels of my bike crunching the path. It was peaceful. I remember finding these journeys endlessly boring, but today I was motivated and enjoyed passing through the different landscapes.

I’ve learned not to trust the official cycle ways, one of them this morning led me onto a sandy beach (where I could not cycle). Another led to a boggy track through a forest; another wasn’t signposted at all, and I wasted time trying to find it.

Tomorrow I’m going to try to cover most of the mainland section by train. Based on today’s experience I won’t be able to get to Binz before it becomes too dark to navigate. If I had another hour of sunlight I could probably do it, but anyway I don’t want to take the chance. Hope the train isn’t too expensive.