I also enjoyed my class. We used a water stone, which I had thought about buying before. I also thought about getting a Belgian Stone (https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belgischer_Brocken)

The lesson was meditative, and I really liked it, but I realized that this way of sharpening knives is totally impractical for my day-to-day life.

In the end I followed the teacher's (also store owner) recommendation and got those two:

https://ioxio.de/sharpeing-rod-duo

https://www.windmuehlenmesser.de/en/product/streichriemen-ki...

That's enough sharpness for me, I don't need to slice a tomato horizontally without holding it with my hand. Although it looks cool on YouTube, and I certainly watched that more often than it would be sensible.

The best part: it's fast. Using the strop (before every use) is a matter of seconds, using the ceramic rod (every now and then) takes a minute or two.