a dream i had

it was around summer 2020 i believe i had this incredibly vivid and lucid dream, i was drinking a ton of mugwort & kava tea around this time.. and i think that may have had something to do with it. 

anyways! 

So in my dream i was living where i live now- except off the shore from one of the beaches here (if you could swim out far enough) was this giant abandoned castle, like, something out of a ghibli film. The castle was the only thing sitting on this miniature island out in the middle of the water, there was nothing else around it and nobody inside. In my dream i was with some friends who were not as eager to swim a long ways to get there- so i left them behind and made my way to the building.

The way up was fairly difficult to navigate, there were so many dislodged rocks and broken pieces of what looked like pillars, but i somehow managed to hop my way around to the main entrance of the castle, and let me tell you - it was fucking incredible. 

like, one of the most beautiful things i have ever seen in my life (and it wasnt even real!) 

i walked around the corridors and hallways, checked in all the little rooms, the dining hall, the kitchen (that was huge!) and  the master bedroom. the wallpaper inside of the rooms were all faded, but everything was left fully furnished- now with thick layers of dust sitting on top. There were these incredibly detailed pieces of artwork, nothing i can truly describe. obviously it was my dream so it mustve been some kind of fusion genre of what i was interested in at the time but i remember thinking whatever royalty lived there had GREAT taste. (lol) 

there was overgrowth and foliage everywhere, vines and flowers hung down from anything they could get a mere grip on, blossoming trees and layers of leaves on steps that hadnt been swept in years... 

nearly everything outside of the castle had some kind of fuzzy moss growth on it, probably from the exposure to humidity and a lack of maintenance. 

there were potted plants that had grown completely out of control, blooming with brightly colored flowers that left colored stains on your hands if you touched them. their leaves growing taller than any ordinary potted plant you might find on your front porch. It almost seemed as if they were reaching their hands up to the sun, feeding for light and the occasional sea mist. 

i had not bumped into anything but plants and furniture there however, there were no animals to be seen (not even birds in the trees) and definitely no other people around. The island was only big enough to fit the castle, so it didnt take long for me to completely cover the quarters of the land. 

nothing particularly significant happened in this dream, nobody said anything insightful, there was nothing that went out of control- in fact-- it may have just been the most realistic dream ive ever had. and maybe thats why it was so memorable to me, it almost feels within reach on earth itself. 

later after waking up i googled the fuck out of ocean locked castle islands- none of which looked close enough for the dream. i did find out about the mont saint michel - which is probably the closest thing i can compare to what i saw. 

i sometimes still think of this dream & castle, two years later. 

i wish i could visit this place in my dreams again- and take photos.