Prologue

I always wanted to become a sailor when I was younger. I wanted to sail the seven seas, I wanted to see parts of the world no one has ever been to before, I wanted to travel the world, I wanted to be free.

But I ended up kind of the opposite: Now I’m trapped in an old but cozy flat in the middle of London right above a little bookstore. I can see the Thames from my window, and I often imagine that it is the Atlantic or something like that. If the real world doesn’t work it out for me, I just have to use my fantasy. A year ago, I would have loved to go outside when I finished my homework to walk up the Thames or build a raft out of wooden pallets and play with the kids who were around, but now I spend most time sitting in my room or downstairs in the bookstore with a cup of tea next to me and some book about the water bodies of Europe and their myths in my hand. 

I always loved reading about sea monsters such as Loch Ness, Grindylows, the Kappa or thousands of millions of others. If someone had a lot of knowledge about everything which was connected to the sea it was me. It was kind of my way of escaping reality, escaping into different worlds I’d love to experience by myself one day. Reading about other people and their problems was refreshing for me, I guess. But it was also the only topic I had knowledge in. But who the hell would ever have to use the binomial formula? Maybe a mathematician, astronomer or architect but not me, definitely not me, I want to be an adventurer, an explorer, I wouldn’t have to know how to analyze a poem, or do I look like a writer?

Nevertheless, I always knew that there would come the day, when I couldn’t just read about these fascinating creatures and breathtaking landscapes anymore but experience them by myself and, yeah, I believe the time has come. Are you ready? No? Well, then I’d recommend you closing the book you’re holding in your hands, but if you are: Just keep in mind, this isn’t something I have come up with and it for sure isn’t just a silly story of a little kid with too much fantasy. It’s my story! So if you have read this, I hope you’re ready to write yours!