Past the solstice

The trip was excellent; had very different imagery and events than I anticipated. There were blunders, such as my search for the site of the bunker where Hitler committed suicide. Based on the Lonely Planet guide to Central Europe, I went up and down Vossstrasse in Berlin, puzzled when nothing leaped out at me. Finally I decided a piece of vacant land might be the top of the bunker, but was still bemused at the absence of a marker. I asked a guy who looked Roma and/or Eastern European (he was selling "Soviet/East German" memorabilia, gas masks, medals and the like on a table) where the fuehrerbunker was. The seller responded in a mixture of English and German, indicating the directions, but I couldn't quite follow what he meant. Gave me a poignant feeling when I reached Wroclaw/Breslau -- I was the first member of my family to go to that area since the 1940s, at the latest. The whole reverse immigration dynamic realized.

On my last evening, in Frankfurt on Main, going for a casual stroll, ran across a Thai Cultural Event, hosted by "Miss Germany 2009" (I believe) and featuring blasting dance music and graceful, completely uninhibited Thai female impersonators (pictured -- the other photo is myself on Jomfruland Island, Norway)... Lots of Thai women with old German men in the surrounding crowd.... I wasn't sure if I was in Germany or Patpong road in Bangkok (no, I haven't been to the latter). The event was capped with the sight of a guy collapsing on the street, drunk out of his mind, eyes switching different ways, wielding a bottle of liquor, surrounded by people calling for help. Finally ambulances converged on the area.

Berlin

Writing from the Western part of Berlin... After several days spent here, and a trip to Wroclaw Poland as well... I had some absurd idea I would find my greatgreatgreat grandparents' parsonage, (of course I didn't in a huge urban area, if it even survives) but did find an intriguing Gothic layer beneath the communist housing block artifacts and the bustle and office buildings of modern Poland... (My great-grandfather was also raised in the parsonage -- I posted a photo of it in the November 16 2008 entry.) Ducks skimming the Oder river, fanned by the setting sun underneath cathedral spires... The areas around what used to be Breslau, (now Wroclaw) after regarding them, yeah it's possible the parsonage could have survived the decades, seeing cryptic Prussian towers and farmhouses along the rural passages the train took, roughly similar to the style... I rode along in a deserted compartment on the way there, almost expected to have Count Orlok from Nosferatu greet me when I clambered off the train.

Also spent a bit of time in Luebeck Germany.

Copenhagen

haven't been able to keep these up as much as I would have liked, hard to find internet cafes and the like, but am now in Copenhagen, winding up my stay here. Has been ungodly cold, rainy and windy; spiral architecture winding toward the sky, wind generators rotating in the offing. Visited the free city of Christiania, and meditated on the leathery displayed face of a sacrificial (or executed) iron age victim in the National Museum, among other things. Also had quick stays in Oslo Norway and Gothenburg Sweden.

last day in bamble

I still haveæn't completely gotten on my feet on this trip yet, has been taking longer than usual to adjust. Also coming down with a cold, which might have something to do with my feeling of unsettledness.

Went to a classic car rally with R. and H. today, spotting a gleaming Edsel among other things. Also an exhibition of line dancing, with plenty of down home "yee haws" scattered in the Norwegian.

Jomfruland

over the past 24 hours R. and I went to Kragero and the island of Jomfruland. Got to walk up to a statue of Edvard Munch at a famous vantage point, from where he received the inspiration for his painting The Sun. We camped in a campground [on the island] lined with luxurious caravan vehicles. We stayed in a little tent. A little the worse for beer, I was all settled to lie down and sleep on the cold ground beneath the eldritch moon, in the eerily brief northern night. We were jolted by an inexplicable sound, which turned out to be [apparently] kids throwing gravel at our tent. I froze still, uncertain what to do, while mysterious voices whispered outside, and further showers of gravel hit us. Then finally, the terror was over, and I settled to talk with Morpheus. Today we had a barbeque on a "one time grill" on the skagerrak ocean side of the island, perched on a titanic rock shelf which looked like the surface of a moon of a trans-Neptunian planet.

Thor's day

still in Norway, yesterday R. and I walked across a perilous dam ledge over gurgling waters down past a telecommunications shed over twilight scudding past the rim of the earth scraped my shin

norway

and i am writing this entry from a village in norway... primordial woods dripping with boreal rain and diffuse light about me... neat as a pin farmhouses and passing screams of seagulls.