Venice is a 4-Dimensional Hypercity

- Venice / Florence : Nov 25 to 28 –

Overnight train from Vienna to Venice. Another snorer, and my irregular sleeping patterns in Vienna made it such that I had a late start to my sleep; but sleep did come, and this was a longer-than-usual night train, so I got a good 7 hours or so.

I arrived in Venice in the morning – close to 9 am. I had heard mixed reviews about the city, and it seemed quite small and touristy, so I decided to make a day trip of it, and catch a train into Florence before nightfall, where I would spend the next few nights with a host. Given that I had chosen to spend just one day in Venice, I knew I was taking a weather risk; the one day could be good or bad, but I’d only have the one. Well, turns out it was bad. Luckily I had downloaded two new albums for my MP3 player – Hawksley’s Los Manlicious and Jenny Lewis’ Acid Tongue. Those albums got me through the day.

I felt brave stepping out of the train station, and decided that I wouldn’t get a map, I would just wander and trust myself to find the way back. Was this a good move? Perhaps not, but in another way, perhaps so. But probably not. First direction: 90 degrees counterclockwise to the train station exit. I wandered into a residential-looking part of town; no tourists, loads of dead-ends, and nothing particularly fun. I wandered back to station following the exact route I had taken out, since any shortcut I tried to make lead me to a dead-end. A dead-end in Venice is basically a sudden disappearance of sidewalk, followed by water. Back to the station. Now I went straight out from the station, 90 degrees clockwise to my original direction. More touristy now – it’s an interesting city, but I didn’t see anything to really catch my eye. I ended up at the Architecture College, which appeared to be the very tip of one of the islands, so I turned back. Chose another direction from the train station, and again ended up at the Architecture College. Weird. Turned back, chose a new direction. I knew there was a second island that I felt I had not yet seen. Ended up at the Architecture College again. This is stupid. It was impossible to get away from the college. It was also raining and getting quite cold, so I found a restaurant and grabbed a meal – half decent but pretty expensive. By the end of the day, I kept finding new routes to the Architecture College – even though I felt that I was going in the exact opposite direction. It’s like Venice kept folding that way. So whatever, I hate Venice. Took the train to Florence and that was that.

Got to my host’s place in Florence – Tusk, we’ll call him. He was a really happy and jovial kind of guy. The next morning, I was to explore Florence. Now, Florence was a city I had not at all looked into beforehand. I didn’t know what it was famous for, or what a traveler was supposed to see – besides the David, of course, which I had only quite recently learned was in this city. But I was certainly quite impressed with it all. I found a vegetarian restaurant, had lunch, then wandered into the city centre – the old city. Much like other old cities I’d visited, it was quite beautiful, and I was caught by surprise at the sight of the bridge spanning the Arno River with all the shops on it – it looks like it’s tremendously unstable. I guess that’s part of its charm. I spent the day quite happy with seeing things from the outside, then I drew a statue until my hand was useless from the cold (it was still a beautiful day), and called it a night. Me and Tusk went out for a drink, had a conversation that was more open in some ways than any I’ve had in a long time, and walked home. We passed a pigeon with a broken wing. It clearly wanted to fly away from us but couldn’t. As we walked past it, so did a pair of girls, one of whom kicked it. I know there’s a general annoyance people have toward pigeons, and she couldn’t have known this was an injured one, but I reacted by shouting what I hope was a universal “hey, hey, hey!” Tusk said something in Italian; I assume he told her about the wing. We walked our separate ways, these girls and us, and kept looking back. The girls were looking back too, at the pigeon, as if to suggest they would go and kick it again as soon as we weren’t looking.

Next day, I met with a CS’er who goes to art school in Florence. I say “art school” to simplify the actual name of the program he’s in – some very technical realist painting program. He only had very little time, so we grabbed lunch at a nearby restaurant with some good authentic Tuscan food (I gathered), and a brief conversation about art and other things. Pleasant. Then I went to the museums. Saw the David, and was actually kind of impressed. It’s pretty massive. They had a guard making sure no one took pictures of it. What a stupid and useless rule. I mean, do they really pretend that there aren’t a million photos of the statue easily accessible on the Internet? Do they really think it’s gonna hurt the sales of their lame-ass postcards? (Okay, maybe it actually will, but they should still shut up about it). I just don’t think they have a case. I didn’t even wanna take any crappy pictures of their dorky statue.

Then I went to the Uffizi Museum. There was a pretty girl there who had a very slow pace, stopping to see everything. I recognized the urge to do the same, matching her pace, but that’s usually the kind of thing I talk myself out of. So I said, “I’ll go at my own pace.” Well, despite trying hard to do that, and even getting intentionally far ahead of her, our paces ended up being about the same. This was a mild source of anxiety, you see, because if she’s out of sight, then there’s nothing I can do, and I can feel okay knowing that. But when she’s around, well, there’s this voice saying, “attract, attract, attract,” or something to that effect. Well, anyway, in the very end, we shared a moment where we were both peering into the semi-translucent covering of a statue under retouching (I started, then she did it, so if anything, she copied me this time), then we met at a corner, bumped into each other and smiled. Then went our separate ways. That little interaction was enough to ease my anxious mind.

I caught a view of the city from Piazza dei Michelangelo, which is a nice high point in the city. Tried to make it there for sunset, but just didn’t. Me, Tusk and a friend of his went to an “original-language” film festival at a local theatre, which basically meant English movies. Saw a doc on an American photographer – little boring – and one on the creation of the Bird’s Nest Olympic stadium in Beijing – pretty interesting. Made me want to look into the artist Ai Weiwei. I haven’t done this yet.

The next day, I was to catch my train to Rome. And I did. I’m getting better at being on time for my trains. My train, on the other hand, was an hour late. Better it than me, I suppose.

Oh, I also had some coffee-flavoured gelato in there somewhere.

Savy Enemy

- Vienna: Nov 20 to 24 -

Late starts. It's hard to wake up when you don't have anywhere to be, and you don't know what you're going to do. Every morning is a struggle with this feeling of aimlessness; If I wake up now or in another hour, what difference will it make? No goal, no drive. I can deal with cold, I can deal with hunger - but the two basic sensations that bring me down the most are tiredness and having to use the bathroom. So I've been getting up late. I think there's a deeper lesson here about choosing to get up every day without the need for a goal. I think goals are a little delusional; there's nothing that's so important that it must be done before I die. I want to be creative though - I want to be at least a little productive. As I walk the streets, I try and write songs in my head. I plan to take a cafe day in Venice tomorrow and maybe write some stuff down. I fear that if I don't at least produce a little bit of creative product, I'll feel that I've traveled for nothing.

Point: If you get home from traveling and have nothing to show for it, why did you even leave in the first place?

Counter-point: No, no, no. The lesson to be learned is that life is to be enjoyed, and creativity comes as a natural by-product of enjoyment and experience.

Okay, counter-point, I'll try to enjoy myself.

Vienna's great. I love the alleys of the old town. I attended the Critical Mass bike event, had some dinners, lunch and brunch with more Couch Surfers. I'm slacking a little on my host-finding - I used to do it at least two weeks in advance, but now I don't know where I'll be in a week. In a way I'm okay with this, because I'll get to see both sides of the planning coin: the nicely planned side, and the not very well planned side. I feel like there's something to the idea of just going somewhere, and not knowing anything about it, and just finding a place to stay. If I can't find a host, I can always stay at a hostel too.

So Vienna. Okay, nice host, though I feel guilty about getting my late starts. I'm sitting here typing away in the afternoons when there's a city out there. I feel like it's shameful behaviour. I am ashamed. But I have seen a fair amount.

We went out to several small Christmas markets here, which is good fun. I'm really quite fond of the smells and lights at night, especially with the snow falling. And gluvine is something else I've grown quite fond of. Perhaps a christmas tradition I'd like to bring home.

I checked out the museums here - there was a Van Gogh exhibit that was not to be missed. I don't know - I got to draw on my host's wall as a parting gift, and I pretty much called it a night on my last night here before catching the night train to Venice. Oh, I also had sushi for the first time in months. Mm-boy!

A Story I Forgot About from my Last Night in Sweden

When I was heading to meet up with the two Couch Surfers in Sweden for a vegetarian meal, I had to pass through an alley, a wide alley. Ahead of me were four young kids, maybe ranging in ages from 10 to 16. They had their hands on a movable gate - like the kind that goes up around an open manhole or something. I imagine they just found it, and considered themselves very lucky, imagining the possibilities that their new possession presented. So I walk through the alley, and they block my path with the gate. One says something in Swedish. "Sorry, I only speak English." He repeats, "You can't pass here. This half of the alley is blocked. You have to pass over there." He points to his left, to the other half of the alley. I start to walk around, but they carry the gate and block me again. "Now this half is closed." I laugh, and walk some more - every where I go, they block me, naturally. To my left, I see a fence - beyond it a slight drop, then a staircase that leads up into the alley beyond the children. So I make a quick move to hop over it, then run up the stairs, and I'm past them, but they keep chasing me with the gate, so I keep running. Finally they give up.

I thought that was just a fun thing.

I'm so into...

• Free wifi
• Thermal long-johns
• Couch Surfing meet-ups
• Sleep, sleep, sleep
  

Free wifi, Paid toilets

- Copenhagen: Nov 10 to 12 -

And now I come to one of those points in the career of a blogger where I must decide how much information from other people's lives I divulge. Not that I have anything huge to divulge, and I'm using nicknames, but anyone with the slightest wits about them could simply go to my Couch Surfing profile and match up a date and place to the person in question. Anyway, no matter. I'll just say a bunch of stuff, and hopefully none of it will upset anybody.

I spent the morning with Burning Man, after getting off of the night train. This night train was much more peaceful - my bunkmates were non-snorers. Me and Burning Man walked around Copenhagen, having a look at the basic sights of a new city: the waterfront, the old town, the statues. We saw the Little Mermaid statue, built as a monument to Copenhagen's hero, Hans Christian Anderson. Crap statue, if you ask me.
I headed towards my host's place, and Burning Man went to check into a hostel. My host, the Guru, took the two of us (my host and myself) to a spa, since he got a bit of a discount. It wasn't exactly what I had expected - it was a very self-guided experience, with no real theme or goal. I guess I pictured spas as places where there were set activities. We had a decent conversation in the 100% humidity sauna room about - I don't know - meditation and happiness and stuff. Turns out his girlfriend had just broken up with him the day before. His friend at the spa had also just ended a relationship the day before. This gave the two of them something to click on. I felt a little weird, since I didn't really know either of them, and couldn't offer any specific condolences, or say anything of much significance, for that matter. And naturally, it was something they wanted to talk about. We all went to her house after closing up the spa (she, the friend of the Guru who worked there). Again, I felt a bit strange, for all the aforementioned reasons. I was also really tired by this point, and was getting up early to meet the Burning Man for a bus tour of Copenhagen. I cycled away by myself, leaving the Guru and his friend to chat, which I felt was appropriate.

Bus tours are crap. Everything in Copenhagen is expensive, sure, but this bus tour was $40. Yeesh. The unfortunate coincidental part was that the tour roughly followed our walking path from the day before. Sure, it was coloured up a little by the bizarre woman who was our tour guide giving us the history, but it wasn't anything more than we could have gotten from a free pamphlet or something. I'm not bitter about spending that money; I just won't do it again. Burning Man then went to catch his ferry into Oslo, from where he would go to Bergen. Lucky guy. That was the last time I've seen him thus far, but we may cross paths again.

I then went to get a lunch at a place that I had noticed on the way to the bus tour, where they offered free wifi. I'm so into free wifi. I think a business giving out free wifi is making a very good decision. On the contrary, a business charging to use the toilets is making a criminal decision. This is a rant that will come later. I'm so into free wifi. I'm so against paid toilets. Anyway, I spent about $17 at this place for a sandwich and a coffee - that's to give you an idea of how comparitively expensive Denmark is.
Was it a good coffee?
Yes.
Was it a good sandwich?
Yes.
Then stop complaining.
Okay.

I wandered to the Tycho Brahe planetarium, which ended up just being a crappy general-purpose educational movie theatre, and had not much scientific merit whatsoever. Then wandered back to the Guru's place to make dinner. Shepherd's pie. Worked out pretty well.

From Nov9-11

Next morning, up and on my way to Berlin. Running late, as always.

- Berlin: Nov 12 to 16 -

It's always a strange experience leaving one city and going to another; leaving behind people who you've only just grown comfortable with in order to have to introduce yourself all over again to new people in a new place. Maybe if I didn't have a generally long phase of shyness after each introduction, I'd be more comfortable with this, but I know my patterns, and I tend to follow them every time. I'm quiet, polite, and a little on-edge when I first arrive at someone's place; I'm so afraid of committing a faux-pas that would put me immediately in their bad books.

Anyway, so I go to Berlin. I pass through Hamburg Central Station, which was quite familiar to me now - I reflected on this fact briefly, with a bit of pride. I was reminded of Shigeru Miyamoto's thoughts on developing the Legend of Zelda games. Something to the effect of: When you first start, you're a frightened child in a world that's strange to you, and you have no weapons. But after you play for a while, places become familiar, and you become a little braver because of your growing familiarity. There's something to this.

Berlin was great. My host there I shall call Bio. She had a wicked flatemate and a tiny kitten, who I shall nickname Prestige. Super-cute little thing.

From Berlin_Prague

Bio took me in as a last-minute guest - me having sent an email to her just the day before. That was the closest I had yet come to surrendering to a youth hostel, which I actually kind of want to try at least once. Maybe Rome.
I checked out some Berlin stuff by walking around the city aimlessly, as I am wont to do. I always seem to find my way toward the major shopping street in every city I visit; maybe I am subconsciously drawn into the light and sound.

I was having insecurity issues about how I looked. I feel a little scummy sometimes, what with my facial hair all wild the way it is, and my clothing having been chosen for functional, not fashionable reasons. I have to keep reminding myself that I'm not here to attract girls. I had it in my head that I was going to buy a new jacket. Something black, so that it wouldn't look stupid with my brown quick-dry pants. (I presently have a brown jacket, which certainly does look at least a little stupid with said pants). Then I get into an endless internal debate.

Point: You are at dis-ease with your present jacket, therefore you should just buy a new one and then you will be happy.

Counter-Point: Appeasing your feeling of dis-ease will only send you into a habit pattern of trying to solve all your problems by buying something. Instead, come to peace with your appearance, then the feeling will go away naturally.

Since I'm such a practical guy, my counter-point voice won the day. But it may come up again before the end of the trip.

I went to another CS meetup in Berlin. This one was huge. I get there and start talking to the first people I see: an attractive female, and a male, who I barely see, because he is in the company of the attractive female. Again, I'm totally not here to attract girls or anything, but I was confronted with a sudden and distinct mind-freeze when I tried to talk to them (her). I noticed this quickly, and used the opportunity to use the bathroom. This is what happens; this is why I am bad with girls. I can't push my attraction out of the way in order to hold regular conversations. This would happen again a few nights later in Prague. I can say this now, because though it is in the future of the present narrative, it is in the past to myself, who is now in Vienna. More to come on that.
Anyway, beyond the initial hiccup, the night goes very well. I talk with lots of people, including another Canadian girl - who I'd meet up with the next night - and another really cool girl who basically shared every single fundamental value with me. I call it a night, and head back to Bio's place.

I spend more time wandering Berlin the next day - nothing eventful to report.

I caught my train toward Prague on the 16th. I had planned to make a day trip to Dresden, then head to Prague in the early evening, but I'm much to lazy to be ready to go first thing in the morning like that. I'm always just on time for the train I need to catch. On the one hand, phew, I always make it; but on the other hand, I hate that state of anxiety associated with never knowing if you're gonna make it this time. If I were cooler, I'd be able to handle it.

- Prague: Nov 16 to 20 -

Prague's different, man. I felt a little bad about the homogeneity of all the cities I'd been to before - and, okay, Prague still has its McDonald's's and H&M's like the rest of them - but Prague was different somehow. I got on the subway and went straight to my host's place. I contacted this host because he is quite prolific on the CS discussion boards, and clearly takes much interest in Couch Surfing - I was hoping to gain some insight on this matter by staying with him. In fact, I don't know if I would have even gone to Prague if he couldn't host me; it wasn't included in my rail pass (though it was cheap enough to get in and out).

I arrived, and we headed out to a pub. My host, Monster (an affectionate title - unrelated to behaviour or appearance), took me on a walking tour the next morning, during and after which we met up with a few of his friends in the Prague Couch Surfing community. Some cool blokes. I feel like sometimes I meet cool people, and when describing them here, I just kind of brush over them. Fact is, I found these people really interesting. No great stories here, just wanted to emphasize that.

Toured Prague alone the next day. Late start. Took photos of the nearby soviet tower decorated with babies. (That's what I mean when I say Prague is different. There are babies on the soviet ex-TV tower.)

From Berlin_Prague

Checked out the main castle in the area of Prague's first district. The castle town reminded me of Ocarina of Time. Huh, that's the second Zelda reference...

The next day, I went to do what I've been waiting to do for a long time. That's right: It's the cathedral decorated with bones! It's in a town just outside of Prague (about an hour by train), called Kutna Hora. Again, had a late start that day. Oh, but first I went to the cemetery just outside my host's place - apparently one Mr. Franz Kafka is buried there. I had a look around, but couldn't find him. Still, a really cool cemetery.

From Berlin_Prague

Anyway, on to the Ossuary of Doom! Kutna Hora. This is the town that, of all those visited so far, most reminds me of Resident Evil 4. (Okay, that's too many video-game references now.) This was a creepy place. Farmers out toiling in their run-down-looking yards, dark sky... I made my way to the Ossuary. It was easy to find - there's basically one main road into the town. It was a small place, but very cool. Totally worth the trip out. Loads of pictures. Feel free to check them out.

From Berlin_Prague

On the way back, I shared a room on the train with four Welsh travlers, roughly between the ages of 30 and 60 - two young, two older. They made for a very entertaining ride, the way they jokingly bickered back and forth. They each had their role - there was the smart-ass, the know-it-all, the silent-one and the wise-one. Their argument for most of the ride - mainly between the smart-ass and the know-it-all, since they were best-equipped to riff off each other - was about whether train wheels skid on the tracks when the brakes are pulled in an emergency situation.

Got back to Prague, went out to a meetup that night with Monster. The CS'ers I'd met the other night were there, as well as many others now. Very good meetup. Again, there was an incredibly attractive girl there, and I just felt stupefied by her presence - totally unable to say anything intelligent in front of her. This is a serious defect, y'all. Again - it's not like I have any designs on picking up women, but I'd like to be able to be myself in front of people. I don't know - whatever.
Unfortunately, when we were leaving, a few people had mistakenly skipped out on their portion of the bill, and Monster was stuck bearing the brunt of the extra cost, since he organized the whole thing. Bummer.

I had to be up early the next morning - this morning now (all caught up!) - to get into my next stop, Vienna. Woke up, got ready, and made it to the train with barely any time to spare, as usual.

SNEAK PREVIEW ABOUT VIENNA:
So far, so good.

Overheard in Prague

One of two American guys who could not have been over 21 years old, dressed in suits on the streets of Prague today:
"I don't see why everyone doesn't wear suits all the time."

EDIT Nov 20 / 08
"where" corrected to "wear." I've been away from subtitling too long; I'm mixing up homonyms.

The Further Adventures in Scandinavia

Boy, I'm falling behind. I've been through Copenhagen and Berlin, and I'm now in Prague (graphic to come), but I wanna make sure I write about the last few places before talking about the present. I should hate for those memories to grow foggier.

FC, Burning Man and I checked out some sights in Stockholm for the next two days. There was also a sauna party at Silkybeard's place, where about 10 CS'ers showed up, most of which, by coincidence, spoke French as a first language, so it was a good time for all. Silkybeard likes his saunas to approach maddeningly hot degrees, 100 of them. 100 maddeningly hot degrees. The sauna temperature was literally approaching the boiling point of water, that stuff that I'm mostly made of, so I could only stay in there for short bursts at a time.

Next day, me, FC and Burning Man saw the open-air museum in Stockholm. I had a good feeling the whole time, as we talked and walked around, like having friends. This was something I was worried I wouldn't have at all while traveling - that any bond I had with other people would be shallow and fleeting, but I guess I was being too pessimistic. I really felt good, felt like I could joke and laugh with people. This is an important feeling, and I'm glad I've had it, because it means I will likely have it again as I move on.

FC had to leave to catch her flight back to Hamburg, but me and Burning Man hung out a bit longer to check out another museum. He also decided to book the same night train to Copenhagen that I was taking that night, so there was a good chance we would hang out some more there. I'm always afraid that I'm being kind of clingy to people - I know I can act out of fear of being left alone - so I played it all cool, but I was really glad that I'd have a friend in Copenhagen, and it wouldn't be another Oslo.

We parted for the evening, as he made his arrangements, and I checked out the Stockholm Science and Technology Museum. I really dug it. I played a game of "Mind Ball" against this other guy who was there.

How Mind Ball works:
You strap a thingy on your head, so does your opponent across the table from you. You place the Mind Ball in the centre of the table, press the start button, and the thingy on your head reads your brain's alpha and theta wave output. This is connected to relaxation and focus. The ball will move toward your opponents "goal" if you are able to relax and focus more than they are. Then you win.

This guy beat his two daughters at the game, so I challenged him. It was intense. The ball was closing in on my goal, then I really went all zen and shit, and turned the tables. After what will surely go down as the greatest game of Mind Ball ever, I came out victorious, 1 - 0. I was born to play Mind Ball.

I left, had a vegetarian meal and a good chat about ethics, vegetarianism, politics and environmentalism with two other Stockholm CS'ers who I made plans with, and headed for my night train to Copenhagen.

Stockholm was a good time.

An Account of Scandinavia Continues

- Kristiansand : Nov 5 -
I spent a day wandering through the small city that is Kristiansand, on Norway's south coast. It very much reminded me of Aalborg, in that there was the clear "shopping street" and not much else in the surrounding area. I took the opportunity to develop my mental-map-forming skill, which I knew would be handy later on, in the bigger cities. I climbed up a cliff that overlooked the city, then climbed down and wandered around aimlessly more. Bought a meal of cheese-bread and fruit out of a grocery store, and met back up with the Captain after he was finished work. We went out for Mexican food (while at the Mexican restaurant, he mentioned that the Indian restaurant next door was his absolute favourite Indian place in the world - and he's seen the world. What a bummer). I planned my voyage into Oslo the next day. I wouldn't be staying any nights there, since I hadn't found a CS host, and I had already arranged with my Stockholm host to be there on the 7th. So the plan was, morning train into Oslo, night train out, arriving in Stockholm the morning of the 7th.

- Oslo : Nov 6 -
And that's exactly what I did. Arrived in Oslo at around 9 or 10 in the morning, and just wandered. I'd occasionally stop and use my iPod touch to check for free wireless signals; if you're willing to move around and look like an idiot, it's not too hard to find some.
I think I learned the streets of Central Oslo pretty well, though not by name, just by "feel". I took the day to work on a few more skills: Mental-map-building, WiFi-detection and the ever-important free-bathroom-using. Most washrooms in Europe cost money to use. In malls, train stations and even some restaurants, this is the case. This is absolutely absurd to me, and I refuse to pay to use a washroom, which forces me to be a little bit crafty. I've generally found that the best strategy is to employ the two S's: Smile and Strut. Walk in somewhere like you own the place, and don't be afraid to make eye contact and smile at the employees there. The best places for this are movie theatres and museums - places where you have to pay to enter, but they foolishly place the bathrooms before the point of payment. If a McDonald's is busy enough, these are also good places.
I checked out the Oslo Cultural Museum, which was pretty mediocre. I saw some American tourists in my age group up at the palace. I thought about approaching them, since talking to strangers is on my list of things I've got to do more of while traveling, but I just didn't do it. I think this got me down all day, because from then on, the day was pretty bleak. I stopped at a vegetarian restaurant for lunch (which I looked up using some free WiFi) and just waited for the day to finish so I could get my night train out of there.
The day did indeed come to a close, and I got on the train, introduced myself to the two people I'd be sharing a room with and started the process of going to sleep. But, oh, was the man above me a snorer. It took me hours to get any amount of decent sleep, and even then, all my dreams were about how angry I was. In one dream, I got up and complained to the conductor that this guy was snoring.

- Stockholm : Nov 7 to 9 -
Oh, boy, did I have a good time in Stockholm. I mean, not, like, a euphoric time - by a good time, I mean my mood was good, balanced, and I really enjoyed myself in all that I was doing. I showed up at Silkybeard's house in the morning after the night train. I was tired and a little grumpy. Also, I'm always a little shy with new hosts, and it's hard to be overly polite when you're tired, because you know it would be polite to offer to do things, but you just don't want to do anything. So I was afraid that I was giving a bad impression. Well, he treated me to some muesli - which, I have noticed, seems to be a very popular breakfast here - covered with filmjolk, a Swedish sour milk. Very much like yogurt, but not sweet. Kinda gross, actually, on it's own, but with sugar and muesli, no problem. Anyway, Silkybeard was exceptionally hospitable, and after I had a shower, did my laundry and napped, we got to talking more, and went out to the CS meetup for Stockholm that week (some cities do weekly meetups, some monthly, some not at all). The meetup was great. I made plans with other travelers to explore Vaxholm the next day - an island to the north-east of Stockholm, accessible by ferry.
That night, after the meetup, another Couch Surfer arrived at Silkybeard's place - we would both be hosted by Silkybeard for the next two nights, and it was a tight fit getting all of in there, but we managed. Let's see, I need a nickname for her...
I'll think of that later, when I finish this post, and account my travels in Stockholm

For now, it is night in Berlin.

Song of Praise to Couch Surfing.

So I've noticed a trend, that I tend to post things with a low slant, as if to give the impression that my mood is generally low. I hypothesize that this is because it is usually when I'm feeling particularly lonely and homesick that I have the urge to sit and type a blog entry, because it's a form of therapy for me, in a sense; a way of reaching out to home. The consequence of only writing while in this mindset is that the mood is generally low, as I have said. This, of course, is a misrepresentation. Homesickness is there, but it is not consistently and continuously there; it is there when I am alone and wanting to talk to someone, because that's when I start to think about my friends and family at home, who I miss. I don't usually relate with the feeling of "missing" people. People sometimes say that they "miss" me, and I generally can't relate. On this trip, however, more than ever before, I can genuinely say I know what it feels like to miss people.

But anyway, there I go again, giving the impression that I'm down.

Well, today, I am up, in general. So I felt I should tilt the scales and post while the high lasts. This will be a short entry, but I want to say that so far, the last two weeks in mainland Europe have been made great thanks to Couch Surfing. I've made brief allusions to my Couch Surfing hosts in previous entries (even going as far as suggesting that I was afraid one was racist - I want to be clear that this was not an accusation, but just an expression of a worry I had, and that he was absolutely not such a thing). All of my hosts and meet-ups have been happy and warm. To the Madman in Montreal, I admire the effort he puts in to showing travellers a good time. The Cop in Rotterdam, Humble in Hamburg, Soldier in Aalborg, the Captain in Kristiansand and now Silkybeard in Stockholm (as well as the people I've travelled with during the days and met with at the evening meets (coming up with nicknames takes time, and I don't wanna use people's real names, but I separately remember them all)) have all been great hosts, great friends, and have made me, a shy Canadian, feel that much better about my place in the International Community. So I want to, for now, sing a praise for the usefulness and good-spiritedness of Couch Surfing and those individuals who gravitate towards it.

Anyway, I'm being rude at a party at Silkybeard's place right now, so I'll wrap this up for now and recount my days in Kristiansand, Oslo and Stockholm a little later - maybe a few days.

Happiness is the state of not wanting anything.

Photos!

Nov3

Stockholm-Vauxholm

Convoluted Passage to Norway

Right now I´m on a sailboat in Norway - Kristiansand to be exact. I´ll get to that.

After Scotland, I took a ferry from Newcastle to Amsterdam, salvaging my plan to get a ferry into the mainland of Europe, which, as I mentioned before, was blown to shambles upon my learning that ferries between Scotland and Norway don´t operate year-round.
On the bus to the ferry terminal, I sat next to another solo guy with a big backpack - I figured he was also travelling alone. I ran into him again on the ferry, and decided to make conversation, you know, making travelling easier for both of us. I approached him and started to say, "How´s it going?" At which point he made eye contact, shyly said "hello" and then slunk away. And that was the end of that. I decided to trim my beard, in case that was some kind of critical factor in the exchange (though I´m sure the more critical factor was this dude´s shyness and/or lack of English proficiency).
Spent one night on the ferry, got into Amsterdam, then immediately headed to Rotterdam, where I´d meet up with my host there. She´s an organized crime investigator who I´d met in Toronto the previous month. I took some photos of Rotterdam´s shopping facilities, which I´ll post later, then I accidentally crossed paths with my host on the street, a few hours before we were supposed to meet. A happy accident. We grabbed a coffee, since she was only on her lunch, then she returned to work.
I hate to say it, but the first few stops along my way to Norway I only saw as intermediate steps to a greater goal. I never really had my heart set on seeing Rotterdam - didn´t even know what was there, but it ended up being nice. I borrowed my host´s bike and cycled around the city. Later, I climbed a tree in a park, and saw a van pull up. A man in a uniform got out and told me to get down. He asked why I was climbing the tree. His English wasn´t too strong, so I explained thusly, "for fun, amusement." Pretty accurate, I guess, and he seemed to accept it, so he gave me a "don´t do it again; you could get hurt" and was on his way. Personally, I don´t wanna spend too much time in a city where I´m not allowed to climb trees. I left the next morning (as had actually always been the plan...)
Next stop: Hamburg. This was my first big trip on Europe´s rail system. I was afraid I was gonna screw something up. But I had the mobile number of my next host, so even a minor mishap would be correctable. But no such mishap occurred. I got to Hamburg and headed to my host´s place. This host, who I´ll call Humble, had the distinction of being the first Couch Surfing host who I had not previously met. Humble got home from work, and we went out to a CS meetup in Hamburg. This was a good time. Lots of travellers and locals. I met a few Americans who teach English in Germany. One of them offered to give me a day-tour the next day, so I took her up on it. Next day, had the tour, which turned out all right, again considering that I had only made Hamburg a destination on the route to Norway. I made dinner for Humble and myself, then we went out to a friend of Humble´s for a poker night. I don´t really play poker, but this is what Couch Surfing is all about sometimes - interacting with local people, so I tagged along. I ended up winning the night, due to a few lucky hands in the end of the game. Not too shabby.

Next day, I tagged along with Humble as we helped lift a dishwasher into his girlfriend´s flat. His girlfriend and her mother then proceeded to take us around for the day, going to a photo exhibit at a local gallery, then to dinner at an Italian restaurant, where they just shout Italian phrases out every now and then, even when they don´t make sense in context. This is the weird part of Couch Surfing, I guess - I wonder how it must seem to this woman and her daughter that I´m a non-German-speaker tagging along with their day, which would otherwise just be them. But they seemed to accept it all right, which made things easy on me. We had a few brief exchanges, which were pleasant, and that was that. Humble then brought me to another friend´s place, where he had to drop off a gift. Here´s where I felt a little awkward, since we stayed for about an hour, and they just spoke German to each other all night. I wouldn´t expect them to speak English for my benefit or anything, but it did feel odd that I would tag along for this. No matter.

Next day, off again, toward Denmark. Again, though, just another stopover on the real quest for Norway´s gold! I stayed in Aalborg with another CS host, who I´ll call Soldier. We went grocery shopping, and I offered to pay, being the nice guy that I am. Then my credit card was declined inexplicably, and I felt like a real chump. We went home, and put on a movie, I apologized profusely for the card deal, and promised to pay Soldier back. He was very nice about the whole thing though - never gave me a hard time about it.
Checked out a Viking graveyard the next day. The place was fenced in, so I let myself in. Then a truck pulled up, and I was reminded of my experience with the tree in Rotterdam. I kind of laid low, which was easy, given the terrain of the graveyard, and no incident occurred.
I felt pretty crummy in the morning - missing home, and wondering why I was travelling in the first place. Me and my sister were just talking about this, though, and it we agree that the cure is to just get out and walk around. It´s a magical cure, really. I walked the streets of Aalborg and it really made me happy. I felt pretty good by the day´s end.
I made it home early, and was looking forward to a quiet evening, when I accidentally downloaded a computer virus on my laptop, while trying to get a serial number for a piece of software I wanted to use. Crap! Then Soldier got home, and he´s a bit of a computer guy, so he spent the next few hours (three, I believe) fixing my mess for me. This combined with the credit card thing (Oh, I had paid him back that morning), and I felt like I took on the appearance of someone who had no idea what he was doing. Anyway, he fixed it, we went to sleep, I got up the next morning to continue making my way up to Norway.

And now here I am. Yesterday I met with my host here, who lives on his sailboat here in the harbour of Kristiansand. We took a short ride out to have a look at the coast, but the weather is very cold here, and it gets dark so early, so it didn´t last long before it was time to come in. I´m gonna go exploring today, see what Kristiansand has to offer, then tomorrow I make a day trip into Oslo.

Photos to come!

EDIT: I've moved this part of the entry to the bottom here so that it cannot be immediately connected with the host I am talking about. I feel this is more fair than what I had before, since I really don't want to suggest something negative about this person.
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We watched Tropic Thunder, and at one point, the host made a comment that made me wonder if he was a racist. I panicked. I remembered a bit by the stand-up comedian I had seen in England: "If I wanted to agree with a racist comment out of politeness, I´d go to a family dinner." Something like that - longer bit, but the theme was agreeing with racist comments out of politeness. I tried to address it, but it turns out he didn´t really mean it in a way that was motivated by race - and he was a very tolerant kind of person, in general, so it just goes to show something, but I don´t know what.