Monday, 7 December 2009

bremen


i hung out at the subway restaurant on the corner of papelstrasse and waited for ann to arrive. last time i saw her, she was driving off in her yellow vw hippy van to the mechanics place in tsipova, moldova, to get the broken gear-stick fixed. after her summer trip with max in her van, she came back to bremen to continue her studies in biology. she was also living in a w-g, and after some munchies, lots of talk about our travels. i only had one full day in bremen before the flight out, and as ann was busy in the morning with uni stuff, i got to do a last busking stint.

i'd been busking in bremen before, the last time i flew out from here a couple of years ago. i tried a few different spots, some teenage boys came to join me for a while. they were being complimentary, and hung around for a bit, even dropping their small small change into the hat. another place, i got joined by a couple of buskers, their roots were bulgarian. one was playing clarinet, the other accordian. they asked if they could join me for a 'try'... no problem. we played one number, a very recognisable tune that i don't know the name of. and then they said thanks and left. i got the impression they were regular bremen buskers, and just came to check out the new competition. when i heard them a while later playing down the street a bit, i moved away to be out of earshot. and it was a better place in any case. i really gave it my all, knowing that it would be my last busking stint for a while, maybe ever! at one point, a guy came up and started moving a bit to the beat. he was a bit too close, i had to decide whether he was a potentially annoying drunk or a 'harmless' music lover. but no matter... i carried on playing, and he was really getting into it. when i stopped, he compliments me on the music, saying how it was great that i was doing this. i thanked him, and he kept on with the praise... and pulling out his wallet, takes out 10 euros and hands it to me. wow, thanks! he left really happy, and me too. somebody who enjoyed the playing and showed their appreciation in a generous way. it was a good way to end the busking, as it was time to take the tram to the university to meet up with ann.

at the uni, the students had occupied one lecture room too, like in muenster, and ann showed me around. but she was not active in the occupation and we left to get some munchies at the uni cafeteria. back to the centre to meet up with her boyfriend at his flat... he was studying computer science and the w-g he shared with the other geeks there sure looked like a nerds 'paradise'. i was amazed i was able to cook anything there given the chaos in the so-called 'kitchen'. but after they made a special effort to clean the place a bit, i managed to cook up and dish out my curried dahl and rice.

and then hanging out in their favourite alternative bar, elektro 42. complete with kicker table in the cellar!

next morning, i didn't have far to go to the airport and the ryanair flight back to england. and no hassles at passport control unlike last time, when they created a big fuss just cos their computers showed that i had lost a passport.... five years before!!! aufweidersehn deutschland!

at stanstead, the usual way down to the roundabout had been blocked by police barriers, and so i had to walk down to the hitching spot via the car park. and within half an hour, i got a lift from sami, a pakistani minicab driver. after i sorted out that i didn't know he was a cabbie, and that i was hitching bla bla bla, i had a decent enough chat with him down to edgware. i could tell he was a bit shocked about what i was all about, he probably didn't meet too many people like me, for sure. but he dropped me off in the big smoke, and i thanked him once more.
a top up of the oyster card, and two buses later, i'm back at brother's place once more.

Sunday, 6 December 2009

hitching to bremen

i could've gone back to munsterland east services to hitch up the a1, but decided to walk to the hitching spot for the a1 and bremen. seemed like a good place, opposite the ice-hall. there was a bus-stop layby for cars to pull over and also a petrol station close by. a 30 minute or so wait before i got a lift. i forget his name now, but he spoke good english and we got talking about climate change. he was definitely in the 'natural causes' camp in the great global warming debate, arguing that just one volcanic eruption creates more greenhouse gases and pollution than all that created by humankind. whether this is true or not, i argued that humankind were also contributing, it didn't matter what the balance was, and whilst we cannot do anything about volcanic eruptions, we can choose how much fossil fuels to burn.

  i got dropped off at tecklenburg services cos he was driving onto berlin. i drew up a sign for bremen - hb - and waited at the exit slip-road. another 30 minute wait and olivier stopped for me. he was driving to hamburg, and was also an ex-hitcher. " i used to hitch to football away matches when i was a student", he said. he was a year younger than me, "yeah, i used to hitch a lot when i was young too", i said. "and i'm still doing it!". "oh", he said, "something must have gone wrong". maybe for you, i was tempted to reply, but i understood his reaction. he had already judged me as one of life's loser. i didn't want to argue that i hitch-hiked out of choice, not circumstance. as most 'capitalist' societies judge people on the amount of material possessions they own, then sure, i was very happy to be one of life's big losers. i could see that he was proud of the big car he was driving fast on the motorway, proud of his worth as a man, he was a winner for sure. i did not want to belittle him or his beliefs, i was just happy that he was kind enough and in a position that he could give me a lift. he was really into synth-music from the 80s, ultravox, human league, etc and he played me some of this old stuff, and was impressed with my drum playing. "you have a spirit for music", he said. for me, who would always tell people that i wasn't a musician, just a humble street busker, it was a great compliment. we started to tell each other some jokes. i knew only one, it has three parts: "what do you call a deer with no eyes?" – "no idea" (no-eye deer). "what do you call a deer with no eyes and no legs?" – "still no idea". for years i've been telling this joke, not realising that there was a third, more vulgar, part. alan in uppsala clued me in: "what do you call a deer with no eyes, no legs, and no penis?" – "still no fucking idea". in the age where people get offended by the slightest of sleights, i would like to immediately point out that no deers were harmed in the telling of this joke! olivier dropped me off at bremen-brinkum junction, kindly stopping at the nearest convenient place, a petrol station. i went in and looked for a map of bremen, asking the girl at the counter to orient me. i told her i wanted to go to neustadt, walking. she looked at me, a little shocked. (olivier had said i must be on drugs when i told him the same!) "it's too far", she said. i was used to people telling me that walking distances are too far, cos most times, people never walk much anywhere. i judged the distance on the map to be about 5 or 6kms... thinking, yeah, no sweat... "take the bus", she said, "you don't need to show a ticket to the driver before eight..." i took her advice, got on the bus, which terminated some place, i asked someone there how to get to pappelstrasse, it turned out it was the same bus, which was now a different number! on the bus itself, i asked some more nice people if they could tell me when we reached pappelstrasse... no problem. i'm glad i didn't walk, would've been sweating like a pig!

muenster


first thing i did in muenster was find a place to busk, and made around 22 euros in an hour and a bit. inital impressions were good, it was a saturday so many people out and about. then i found a bookshop and a map of muenster, and took down the directions to find my host.


my host in muenster was christine, studying english at uni. i only planned to stay a few days, but seeing as the w-g ('community living place') where she lived were throwing a house-warming party at the end of the week, i decided to stay for this. an all-student w-g, they were all very friendly and welcoming, and some musicians amongst them too: marieke played piano and drums, flo on guitar, christine herself was a singer. i helped matthias in the weekly run to fetch organic vegetables and bread from the co-operative farm, and distribute them to a couple of places in muenster besides the w-g themselves.


the uni was involved in the nationwide education protests against tuition fees and other grievances and i went along to have a look at the occupied lecture auditorium. in the early hours of monday morning, two vanloads of police had come to evict the place, but the squatters had already made their escape.


the busking was going quite well, i made my usual average. the xmas markets were in full force, and one time, i guess it was the market manager who came up to me and gave me some spiel about needing a permit to play at the market etc etc, and i pleaded that i was only here temporarily, and besides, they were no indications of where the market began and where i could play without a permit... it was all good-humoured, and i was given 20 minutes and told to find another place, by which time it began to rain anyway and i took shelter in the university self-access-centre for internet.


another evening, christine and i organised a street-jam-session in support of the uni protests, but in the end, only christine and her friend julia turned up. so with me on drums and the girls singing and handing out flyers, and the rain lightly drizzling, we performed for an hour and a half with limited success. straight to the market stall and gluhwein for the girls.


the house-warming party was a success, the live band put on a very good show, and i helped out in the bar.... and of course, drumming. and who do i meet at this party? it's brother tino, from bulgarian gathering, and last i saw him was at this year's gathering in ukraine. he had posted me an email telling to come to this place for the party cos he knew i was in muenster, but little did he know that i was already a guest at this house! and that he was friends with laura and ute, two of the housemates. small world alright. another of those random coincidences that pervade the world of travellers in particular, and of everyone in general.
the next night, i was invited to join tino and his friend annalena to another party at another w-g nearby. not so much music or dancing, and the 'kicker' (table football) was the main distraction even though we tried to do some dj-ing. annalena and i teamed up but our poor/average kicker skills were no match against the 'profies'.


next afternoon, i was well late to start hitching to bremen, i said my goodbyes to christine and the housemates that were there and walked to the hitching point for the a1 and bremen. it had been a really wonderful week-long stay for me in muenster, and the friendly young students left a positive feeling that will make me come back to visit again for sure.

Thursday, 26 November 2009

hitching to münster

i had already contacted my couchsurfing host to let her know i was going to be hitching to münster, and i was confident to make it in a day. i was at the hitching point at 9.30 a.m. six hours later, i was still there!! mad as hell of course, but i had to calm down cos it was no use to get angry, i mean, this is hitching after all, there are good days and bad days. but six fucking hours? this was a bad day for sure. ( i was once waiting three days hitching to katherine from tennent's creek in northern terrorities, australia... but that's another story!) finally, a small car pulls up, i didn't even ask where he was going, i just clamboured in happy to have finally got a lift. claudio was his name, an italian engineer now living in czech republic. says a lot that he was a foreigner in this country too. i asked him to drop me off at the services on the motorway before his destination, plzen.


after 45 minutes or so asking at the pumps, i got a lift from a german guy, stefan, to the next services, just before the czech-german border. he was going to germany but the wrong direction for me, and i had to be strong to refuse the longer ride into germany. an hour or so at these services, lots of traffic but no luck, wrong direction or didn't want to take me. i got talking to one african guy hanging around at the pumps and he said he was going to nürnberg with some other people, and so i decided to ask the driver. jon, from prague, was driving his friend and another passenger to bonn, and i had the feeling that this was a mitfahrgelegenheit trip. i asked anyway, and jon said he had to ask the others, which he did... "i can play some drum rhythms for you...", i added to promote myself. it worked. i squeezed into the back with my rucksack on top of me and one of the other guys holding onto my drum. first services in germany is good for me, i had told jon. but as we approached these services just after amberg, jon was hinting that he would like to take me further. they were going to nürnberg to drop one guy off and pick up another passenger, and as we were going there, jon changed his mind and said it would not be fair to the others to take me further. i could see he was torn between wanting to help me out more and being fair to his paying passengers. in the end, we agreed that i would get out at the first services on the a3 when they got back onto the motorway, not that far out of nürnberg. i was happy that i was on the right motorway to frankfurt and we said our goodbyes.


i got another lift, from wolfgang, and it was a chance to practice my very rusty german as he spoke no english. i got dropped off at the services before frankfurt and after sussing out that there was not so much traffic now to ask, i walked into the forest a little and slept rough that night. it was a surprisingly warm night considering it was the end of november.


in the morning, i got up at first light, drew up a sign for a45 and stood by the exit road. not so much traffic, but i would get all of them (the ones at the restaurant, the pumps, and the truckers), i reasoned, rather than asking the very few at the pumps. it was a good tactic cos after half an hour, a truck stopped for me. i climbed into the cab, happy to be away so fast.


jürgen was his name, a trucker for 30 years. again, just german, but no worries. it was a relatively slow lift, but long. to the services before the a1 at dortmund. there, i had my sign for a1 already drawn out, and again waited at the exit road. 5 minutes later, thomas gave me a lift to münsterland services outside münster.


from here, i walked down the service road to a main road 6kms from the centre of münster, and another 10 minute wait for my last lift right to the centre, courtesy of a tamil guy. by the look of his face, i think he was surprised to see me hitching there, but he said nothing, just asked me where i was from. "religious music from south india", he indicated to the music from the cd player. "very relaxing", i said. it was good to end this hitching trip like this after such a lousy start from prague!

prague.... again

helena was helena. we were still fighting about chappatis! of course, this was all symbolic. she was on her way to india and needed a travelling companion. problem is that our ways of travelling are not compatible. she prefers a certain level of home comforts and the direct flight there, i prefer the rough and tumble of adventurous overland travel. india is always calling but it's not the time for me now. there was no room for compromise.


the autumn was in full swing, the trees more or less denuded of their leaves, and it was some beautiful colours to see in the forest... when i could be motivated to leave the house. she was sick and i was not being very helpful... i got the feeling she was milking it a little. the games we play.
after ten days of being holed up in branik, i made my escape. we got the bus together to smichov and said our goodbyes. i took the tube to nove butovice and the hitching point to plzen and germany.

Tuesday, 10 November 2009

berlin

another uneventful bus trip from copenhagen to berlin, via the ferry from gedser to rostock. except, of course, our bus gets pulled over by the pigs after it gets off the ferry. and mine was the only passport they took to radio in. wilkommen nach deutschland. at kaiserdamm, so began the first of my usual cat and mouse games with the bvg ticket inspection teams that rove the metropolitan transport system, looking for fare dodgers like myself. i found a used ticket, it´s valid for 2 hours from the time stamped. i had 10 minutes left on the ticket and at least a half-hour ride to alexanderplatz. ok, let's chance it. i got to alex without incident. no-money-for-public-transport busking traveller 1, mean jobsworth ticket controllers 0. berlin is always changing, that's why i kinda fell in love with it the first time i came here in my first hitch-hiking trip around europe in the summer of 1985. that was an amazing adventure, i could write a whole book about that one month alone. berlin in those days was still divided, one of my fellow hitchers i had hitched with from hanover in west germany through east germany to west berlin had spontaneously given me the keys to his apartment and said i could stay there while he stayed at his girlfriend's place. i stayed a week in the end, with a day-trip into east berlin through checkpoint charlie. and alexanderplatz in those days was filled with broiled chicken stands, and cheap ice-cream. it was a straight 20 west german deutschmarks to 20 east german deutschmarks exchange rate which was obligatory and a complete rip-off, but still it was so cheap on the east side that i ate pretty good that day! the best in that whole month! and later, i passed through berlin every summer ever since the berlin crew who came to party for their summer hols at the isla de port lligat... mac, katrin, uwe, christa, lotte, ramona, luzer and the others. after the india trip, i met up with them again in their squat house in the centre of berlin, in brunnenstrasse... and then after my stay in copenhagen, i had come to live in that house in brunnenstrasse for a year and a half... some good times but a lot of stress too from some people bent on opposing all constructive community actions in the house. most of the good people had already left the house by the time i got a room there, and it was only a question of time before i left too, totally disillusioned by the whole community-house experience. since that time, when i passed through berlin, i visited jens at his collective in voigtstrasse, a much more civilised place. now he is working in another community-house project, at kubiz, in weisensee. i went to visit him and see the place, it's a big house and a big construction project!! i stay now at magnus' place in kottbusser damm. magnus is one of my best friends, i´ve known him since the early brunnenstrasse days when i stayed there for some time in the summer. those were the best days of the house. real collective actions, positive community feeling. but since i didn't live there at that time, i didn't realize that even then, there were lots of differences in opinions about how to live together in the house, paying rent, etc. i was a guest of mac in those days and he used to fill me in on the state of affairs. magnus is back from a trip to the far east, he went overland through the central asian 'stan' countries to china and vietnam, laos, cambodia, thailand, malaysia and australia. so now we have been catching up on our travelling adventures this past year, and jamming with him on a stringed instrument he bought in kashgar, china. he is also studying to be a sound engineer and this keeps him busy. saturday night, we went to syndikat, an old drinking place of his from the old days. and i met up with two people from the old copenhagen days, robin and malene. total surprise. we summed up our lives in brief sound-bites and went our different ways. on the way back, magnus and i heard a saxophone playing from a first-floor flat, and decided to investigate. and so gate-crashed a party, which was in it's death throes in any case... the sax turned out to be a electronic clarinet/sax machine, i had a go on the conga drum, and magnus joined in with the mongolian throat singing. he was getting well pissed by now, and i had to drag him away as the hosts were trying to offer him whisky and beer and other alcoholic stuff... "he's drunk enough", i told them, heading for the door. he doesn't remember the trip back to the flat via the u-bahn. talking of which, total scores so far this berlin trip: free-rider 8, ticket-pigs 0. (which included a trip on the notoriously cat-infested ring lines, so should count at least treble!) there isn't really a good place to hitch out of berlin in the direction of dresden and prague, so i chose to look up a mitfahrgelegenheit ride. plenty to choose from, and the best offer won. i walked to the meeting point outside jannowitzbrüke s-bahn station, there was also another passenger waiting, and michal finally came and drove us to prague, dropping us off at stichov station. it was the c-line so i didn't have to change, a ride to kacerov and then the 106 bus to branik. and back to helena's place, another of my bases in europe.

copenhagen

copenhagen... so very familiar since i had lived here for a couple of years some ten years or so ago. i made my way to christiania to where sigve was staying in a friend's wagon. on the way, i found the moonfishers bar, and their free internet. so now i had the directions to the wagon, but no directions to where the party was. no worries. 

 i left my stuff at the wagon, and hung out in the alcohol-free bar until it was closing up, and then back to the wagon. i rolled out my mat and sleeping bag and tried to get some kip on the front 'porch'. an hour or so later, a bike was parking up and it was rosa, a friend of sigve's. but no sign of sigve himself. 'we were supposed to leave together', she said, 'but then he just disappeared'. she left to wait by the bridge for him, and i got out of my warm sleeping bag and waited too. it was more than an hour before sigve finally shows up, by which stage i was ready to kill him. it was just my usual grumpiness from lack of sleep. instead, we greet warmly, we hadn't seen each other since the dividalen days. sigve shows me the couch, and i tell them that i'm going to hit the sack straight away cos i really needed to sleep, and also because i realized that him and rosa really needed to talk. 

in the morning over a raw-food breakfast, (sigve is 6 months into a raw-food diet), he told me what had happened: just another misunderstanding. and we caught up on all the news since that time in north norway. we went together to a music shop where he got himself a nice digital mic for his music recordings, and then to the christiania bath-house for a well-needed shower and sauna. in the evening, after my now usual fried carrot and onion pasta meal, we had a jam session in the wagon with ras asua, a guy from mali with his balafon, a traditional xylophone percussion instrument. man, could he play that thing! with me on my drum, and sigve with guitar/drum, we made some great music together. in the morning, sigve had to take a train back to norway. that was the reason he was back in copenhagen, to take his stuff and instruments back home. he had lived in the wagon the previous winter. i packed my stuff too, and we walked back to the heart of christiania. at the bridge, we got joined by a friend of sigve on her bike. she was also norwegian, he had met her at the party, the one i missed. we all went to the moonfishers bar for the internet, and after we said our goodbyes to sigve, i got talking to siri. i told her i was looking for a place to stay in copenhagen for a few more days, and without hestitating, she offered me to stay at her place. great! we agreed to meet later at her place in sjaelor, as she was on her bike and i wanted to do some busking beforehand.

 busking on the main pedestrianized street of stroget was a very slow affair. maybe it was the depressingly grey overcast weather, maybe it was the start of the week and month, maybe it was a whole lot of factors, but i didn't make a lot. this wasn't sweden for sure. a young guy from latvia asked to join me with his break-dancing, but still we didn't make any more. however, it was just great to busk together with someone. i took the s-tog train to siri's place, and was just in time for an early dinner, being prepared by bapi, another indian man being hosted by siri, but leaving that night back to germany and paris. bapi cooked a great western/indian fish dish, and after eating, left to drive his car back home. he had been there for the world music festival, playing his tabla drums in a band. i caught up with one of my best friends from the time when i lived here, sune. he was playing in a new band, playing new music! gone was the punk guitar from the ungdomhuset days, now sune was playing a baglama and singing traditional greek folk songs in danish! it was a surprise for sure, but not that much.... he was already hinting at this stuff the last time i saw him a couple of years ago, and from the time i met him and solo in their collective in fyn. and there was also a change in their relationship. my best friends had split up. sune was now with another woman, and solo was bringing up their daughter ronja at her place in vesterbro. we didn't have much time to talk after their gig in the 'smallest theatre in the world' on kronprinsessengade. i went back to siri's place as i had promised to cook her my famous alu gobi sabji dish. the kitchen there was perfect... everything was in easy reach, spices were there, no-stress cooking. siri was allergic to gluten and milk and soya products, and so we made a dough for the chappatis from other flours like rice, and a gluten substitute. i looked at the dough and was a little sceptical if we could make chappatis from it, but i had to eat my hat cos they turned out very good after all. 

the next evening, i went to see solo and ronja and had dinner with them, and got her view of the split. it was over a year ago, and she was not really over it. "what should i say", she said, "he left me for another woman. it totally broke my heart". if it wasn´t for ronja, for sure she would have moved on. but as it was, she and sune had always to discuss and organize times for visiting etc etc etc and of course, they had different opinions on what was the best for ronja. i left quite sad and hoped that it would not be long before solo could put it behind her and move on. i tried to get a lift to berlin via the mitfahrgelegenheit website on the internet. it's based in germany and so mainly german car drivers, and it's a good way to share the cost of petrol for a lift. and for me, to save myself a lot of misery hitching in denmark in the sleet and rain. there was a lift going but she decided not to take up my offer to reduce the price by almost half to 20 euros! okay, no worries. i did another 3 hour busking session and made another 20 euros for the eurolines bus. i just made it to their office in the evening to get the ticket for the early morning bus to berlin.

siri was making a clay sculpture when i got back (she also paints and has an allotment garden to work on), and i made a last dinner of curried red lentils and red rice. delicious, if i say so myself. i thanked her a lot for her hospitality and next morning, bleary-eyed, went to get the bus to berlin.

Wednesday, 4 November 2009

gothenburg

i have been many times to gothenburg. one of the first times was on the occasion of alan and åsa's wedding where i had arrived by ferry from fredriksberg in denmark, in freezing cold february (who the hell gets married in february in scandanavia?). the whole night, i stayed awake in mcdonalds, keeping warm, watching the other homeless folk doing the same, and in the morning, i had tried to hitch to vanernas in -4 degrees... freezing my bollocks off, getting nowhere fast. in the end i took the train. 

long dark nights are not the best for hitching, so i didn't even think twice to hitch that night. instead, i did a stint of busking in the centre, called up alan to see if he had the contact for pia and jimmy, friends i hadn't seen in years. unfortunately, he and åsa had also lost touch with them. plan b: the bus station. seemed like a good idea, i rolled out my mat and sleeping bag, even had a power socket nearby to charge up the mobile. i was just settling down to kip when the security comes and says that they will close up in 15 minutes. damn. i packed up stuff, and walked into the cold night once more. it was around 1.30 a.m. plan c: yep, another stint in mcdonalds. the same one like 20 years ago. of course, the decor had changed since then, (and the down & outs too!) but probably the coffee was still the same. they kicked us all out at 4, and so i traipsed back to the bus station, which was just opening up again.

out came the mat and sleeping bag and i got around 3 hours of precious sleep before security comes to tell me to pack my stuff and go. perfect alarm, cos it was around dawn and light enough to start hitching. it was only a 20-minute walk to the hitching spot at ullevi motet, not the best place cos there wasn't any place for the cars to pull over. one car stopped and he was not really going my way. a traffic warden passed me and asked how it was going. i just shrugged and said "bad". "yes", she said, "and your colour doesn't help". didn't i just know it. i changed place to a couple of other junctions, but they were much quieter. i went back to ullevi. after 3 hours, i gave up, and went back to the centre. did some busking, it was a bit slow, but steady. i went to the bus station to enquire about the bus, but it seemed expensive. of course, it was friday, they hike up the prices! i tried at the train station, and i could get one for 260kr, still expensive but cheaper than the bus."but that's the price now, it will change later". i counted my money, and was 15kr short. i went back to do some busking and was getting really nothing, fretting that that ticket was now probably more expensive than the bus. but from nowhere, i got a 20kr note dropped into my hat. after patiently finishing off the rhythm, i ran with my pack and drum back to the station, and tried for the ticket. "that'll be 390kr", he said. "no way! i was told it was 260kr just 15 minutes ago". he checked his computer, and asked the woman i saw before, and finally he found the cheap ticket for me. what a relief. so with ticket bought, i had a couple of hours to kill, and found a good busking spot, and was really enjoying drumming for the people. who, in turn, showed their appreciation by a steady stream of drops into my hat. which motivated me more.... the train got into malmö, i got some munchies and coffee, got the ticket to copenhagen which was now a total rip-off seeing as there was no choice but to take this toll bridge over the oresund. i asked about the ferry which i used to take in the past, and was told that it had been discontinued ten years ago. i got chatting with one guy on the train, or rather, he got chatting to me and proceeded to tell me of his troubles with his mum not telling him about her past, seeing as he had mixed heritage etc etc. i gave him a sympathetic ear, relieved that the trip to the main station at copenhagen was a short one and so i didn't have to hear his whole tragic life story.

oslo

gobybus bus cruised into the bus terminalen in oslo just around dusk. i had to check the internet place cos i forgot to write my host's address in oslo... so first to the overhead walkway to the shopping centre for a spot of busking... within half an hour i had made 100kroner. emails checked, tourist office found to get a map, and then the walk through the harbour dockyards and the main road and finally i locate my hosts in oslo. rosy and her 2-year daughter live in an ex-squat, a big yellow wooden house on ormsundsvej, about 3kms from the city centre. she and her flatmates made me feel very welcome even though they were in the middle of big renovation works to the first floor kitchen and hallway, and the other rooms on that floor. i got to stay in the wagon in the back yard, it was a bit cold the first couple of nights until i got the wood-burning stove going... and then it was like a sauna! i helped out as much as i could, learning how to plaster with an ecological clay and sand mix, fixing the electrics in their bogs. busking-wise, apart from the stint near the bus-terminalen, busking was a slow affair. many many gypsy beggars sitting on every corner it seemed, and when i did find a good spot, not many drops. every busking stint, the hard skin on my hands would dry up more and the crack on my right hand would open up again. painful drumming. i met up very briefly with marit for a coffee the evening of my first full day... strange to see her without her dreads. and then i woke up one morning from the wagon and decided i would go to copenhagen. i checked my mail one last time and got one from sigve... he wasn't in oslo, he was in copenhagen, and was inviting me to a party. "i'm on my way", i wrote back. so i said my goodbyes to rosy and the others, and as their place was not far from the main road south out of oslo, i only had a minute's walk to the hitching point to gothenburg.
it was a long wait, i was asking at the petrol station from time to time and then waiting at the entrance road, and after three hours of waiting, i finally got a lift. andreas and his son were driving south to sweden, with a stopover at stromstad. andreas was from germany and living in norway for some years now, working as an engineer. he was telling me his theories about how the nordic folks were really difficult to get to know as friends. i drummed for them now and then, before andreas agreed to drop me off in the centre of gothenburg. he was driving 100kms further but to the middle of nowhere place, where from bitter past experience, i knew better not to try hitching from such places! not that i had better luck from gothenburg in the past, but if i did get stuck, i could always do some busking and take the bus.

Wednesday, 28 October 2009

sweden


the ferry was to stockholm was a long slow affair, weaving around the archipelago of both finland and sweden with a brief stop at marienhamn in åland. i didn't see any other 'traveller' types on the ship, reminding me that this wasn't really traveller season now... if there is such a thing. maybe tourist season was over but travellers just plod on, all year round.


it was dark when the boat docked, and i had to walk from the terminal to downtown stockholm, straight to my usual busking spot on drottingsgatan by the kulturhuset. i got hassled by a drunk there, but after i sought refuge in the coffee place for a bit, i ventured out again and got a 50kroner drop.... enough now to get the bus to uppsala.

the bus got into uppsala and i found my way to alan and åsa's place at the other end of town. it was a complete surprise for them, but the timing was spot on as åsa had just returned from the states 3 hours before, after being away on a 2-week presentation tour. so my favourite scientists were doing great, and the kids were all thriving too, and growing up fast. elsa had taken a break from the football, and god-daughter molly was more into indoor hockey and horses too, but james was still into it, and we went to see him play a couple of training games.

football politics had pervaded into the 10-year old's game: a rival team was 'poaching' the best talent from alan's uif team, and james also wanted to play for the prokion team cos all his mates were there too. apart from the busking, which was good, i got to make molly a hand-make book with her own drawing of a horse as the cover, and time also to read something from the packed bookshelves, richard dawkin's book, 'the god delusion'. agreed pretty much with his total rejection of organised religion, and his god-like reverence for darwinism (his religion?), but somehow, it left an impression that his rationality couldn't just dismiss the whole spectrum of spirituality completely.
a misunderstanding meant that i had to walk to the hitching point out of uppsala, from where i waited 30 minutes and got a lift from george and his son, originally from romania but living in sweden for 20 years or so. it was good to talk to them about their experiences, and mine, in this country. george was kind enough to drive me out of his way to the centre of town, and then slapped a 50kroner note into my hand. i tried to refuse, but he insisted: 'get yourself a coffee'.
great guy. i made my way to the kulturhuset and the library... and, yes, i got myself another library card. nice collection i have now. and yes, it was to use the free internet service they provide. then back to the corner and some drumming. it wasn't so cold like the raw weather i had the saturday before, but the skin on the hands was cracking up enough to make busking painful. i had phoned sophia from uppsala to meet at the kulturhuset at 4, and so just before, i went to get a last 15 minute session on the internet. and that's when she came up to me as i passed her on the way to the library.
we went to get my ticket made for the bus to oslo, cheaper via internet and credit/debit card, courtesy of sophia. i gave her the cash equivalent, and then we took a coffee to catch up on the news since we had last met at that gathering in that amazing place in the north of norway known as dividalen.

sophia was staying at her parent's summer cottage in the countryside, a metro and a long bus ride west of stockholm. and so i got to stay there for a day and a couple of nights. a quite and relaxing place away from the hustle and bustle of the city life. sophia is a graphic artist, studying and soon to be working on an internship at a place in gothenburg.

she was critical of my wishy-washy plans to change my traveller ways, not because of wanting to change but of the wishy-washy way of going about it. i was grateful for that, most people would just have gone along with my way of thinking, thinking that of course i knew what i wanted and where i was heading and where i wanted to go... where the wind blows... but then, only dead fish go with the flow.


back to stockholm, sophia had to get her train to gothenburg, and i had another day and night to wait for the bus to oslo. sophia was wondering where i would spend the night as nothing had come back from the requests i had sent to couchsurfing/hc hosts. "something´ll come up", i said, "it always does". there was nothing for it but to have another go on couchsurfing website.

so back to the kulturhuset library, 11 o´clock on a sunday morning, i'm surfing the couchsurfing list for stockholm, not feeling very confident. a couple had also come in, i could hear them on the computer to my right, and with half an eye on what i was doing and half an eye on them, i pointed out the other internet computer to the left of mine for them. at this point, the guy calls out from behind me, "ahh, couchsurfing". i turn around and face him. "yes, that´s right, are you on couchsurfing too?" "yes", he says. "do you live here in stockholm?", i ask. "yes". "oh, i'm looking for a place to stay for tonight". he talks to his friend who is busy logging in on the other computer, and they confer a bit, and then he turns to me and says, "yes, you can stay with us". great!! i introduce myself to alberto, originally from pulgia in italy, and maja from stockholm, and her 3 year-old daughter estelle.

i got to hang out with them the whole day as i had "no plans" at all. apart from other artistic pursuits and talents, alberto had an eye for finding 'stuff' on the streets, usually very good stuff with only a little bit 'wrong' with it. it was the scandanavian disease to throw out perfectly good stuff. "it´s crazy", he said. "they throw away good things and then they go to 'trendy' flea-markets and 2nd-hand places and buy it back it again!" he had just found an abandoned bike whilst we had been walking, the back wheel was off, it was missing a brake lever and cable, but otherwise, all the other parts were in almost mint condition. we put the back wheel on and wheeled the bike off. and after meeting up with his sri lankan friend/manager at the lebanese restaurant, we met up with maja again; taking the wheels off the bike with the help of my swiss army tool and chucking it in the back of the car. and then finally to maja's place in ropsten. i cooked a pasta dinner for everyone with some leftovers from what i made at sophia's place, turned out great. and early next morning, i left the flat with those magic people still sleeping and took the metro to t-centralen, and the bus-station at city-terminalen. i was just chilling out there with a cheap coffee and croissant i got with the last of my coins when who do i see come to greet me? it's petri, from finland. he was with some friends from his yoga group ("ah, the sex-cult", i said, teasing him), on their way back to hki from copenhagen.
the busking had been good in sweden, not just for grub, but enough for the bus to oslo and also to change into some euros.

Saturday, 24 October 2009

turku

i made my way to the hitching point to turku, newly attired in a second-hand combo rain/fleece jacket i had bought the day before. shame i had misplaced my gloves, cos in the hour and a half i was waiting there, my hitching hand froze in the humid cold weather. a couple of immigrant iraqi kurds saved me from becoming a permanent frozen fixture at the start of the motorway there, and drove me to salo. there i waited 5 minutes and a couple of afghani students took me the rest of the way to turku, dropping me off at the port like i asked. great guys. friday night... and the vikingline crossing to stockholm would be 3 times the normal price. no way! i walked into town and found a cosy corner at the cosmic comic cafe to stay out of the rain. couchsurfing and hc had for once come out with nothing when i left hki, so i phoned aleksi and got iivi's number. and after i called her and got a text back, i got to stay at the place which she was sub-letting to a belgian couple, lotte and nick.

who turned out to be really great. as it turned out, lotte was doing a evs stint on the estelle, a ship promoting the fairtrade ethos (and on which aleksi had also worked). and after we did some dumpster-diving and got a whole lot of bread and other stuff back to the flat, we cooked the pork chops and ate it with the organic rice i had got from alex. and then we got an invitation to take a sauna on the estelle.... a fitting way to leave finland! in the morning, i walked the short distance to the terminal and boarded the ship to stockholm. goodbye finland. until the next time.

Tuesday, 13 October 2009

hki blues

mata amma arrived in finland last week... this living saint, the amazing bundle of hugging energy. of course i had to go and get a hug. alex and i drove to energiarena in vantaa, and the big hall there. i queued up for my voucher and waited. alex came back a while later and as we were waiting to collect his voucher, two guys approached alex and asked for an interview. they were from bbc radio. of course, alex was delighted. and after we walked off, they followed us and interviewed me as well seeing as i was from london. can we do a before and after interview, he asked. sure, i said. so i told them i was curious to see what it was like to get a hug from amma, i had no expectations, i didn't come because of dogma or religion or to be enlightened, just curious. after some time, i joined the rows of chairs in front of where amma sat, hugging away. we moved forward at a steady pace and finally i found myself kneeling near the front. amma's attendees were asking me what language i spoke... english i said. "native language?" "punjabi". she whispered "punjabi" into amma's ear and suddenly amma grasped me into her bosom and whispered into my ear... "my son, my son, my son..." and some word i didn't recognize as punjabi but was like the english word 'more'. she thrust a sweet and a small brown packet into my hand and i clasped my hands together and bowed thanked you. and the attendees guided me away. "it was over very fast", i told the radio reporter afterwards. "yes, i felt something, i felt happy, joyful... i think i'm still feeling it now."


i went busking later that day and made the best i've ever made in helsinki, in the hot autumn sun. oh, the contents of the brown paper packet... some scented talcum powder maybe? alex and i weren't too sure what it was, only i spilled some of it into his 'new' car and he wasn't happy! "don't worry", i said, "it's been blessed by amma"!

nea got back from her trans-manchurian trip a week ago, and i met up with her to relate travel stories. she also helped to find a job for me via the internet, but more and more i am getting wary of the impending freeze that will descend upon this place very shortly. it snowed yesterday, ok it was more like sleet, when i went to sirpalesaari to help aleksi construct a shed for his boat. some days ago, i had helped get the mast off the boat: with the help of heikki, we manoeuvred cendrillon to the crane dock and tied up. with the the stays and shrouds loosened off and the crane line hooked around the spreaders of the mast, we lowered the mast onto the two-wheeled trolley and rolled it away onto stands. then we tied her to the pier once more. banda madrugada had their cd release party on saturday, and we all dressed up for that, alex lending me some trousers and shoes to go with the shirt i got at that little 'back-yard' market in tallinn. fantastic music and my dancing skills are improving. of course, alex got to the chance to show off again!
aleksi had to be at the boat-yard early the next morning to get cendrillon lifted out of the water and onto stands. now the base of the shed has been nailed up, and a tarp wrapped around the boat as a temporary quick fix before the rest of the construction can be made. our hands were frozen by the time we finished up for the day. soon it will be time to say my goodbyes once more.

cruising the finnish archipelago 2




some rain had passed in the night, but we woke to a bright sunny morning. we got our superglue, and got the sail up. it would be a while before the glue dried and we could think to use the motor again. with the very light winds, we had to jibe a few times to make any headway. georg decided the glue was dry enough and we got the engine started... and it worked well, finally glad to get away from jussarö. we took the line through the skerries again, looking out for the port and starboard marks (red and green buoys), and also the north, south, west and east marks too to navigate us through the skerries. it was another glorious sunny day, we could see some rain clouds out to sea and some inland, but these were holding off and we were lucky to be sailing with sun all around. i made breakfast of porridge and fruit.


skipper decided to forego the easier but longer route through barösund and take the line through the skerries to the weather-station at bågaskär. here, we had to decide again which route to take, the more sheltered route nearer the mainland, or the short-cut crossing porkalafjärden. time was definitely of the essence for us, so it was the shorter, but more open route into the sea towards sommarö and mäkiluoto. george navigated us around the rocky waters around bågaskär and into 'open' sea, where in the absence of the skerries to act as breakwaters, the boat began to roll around a far bit in the bigger waves. the engine gave way again after the propeller lifted out of the water causing the motor to rev at high speed... and causing the small plastic bit to break again.

the weather got worse, some light rain, we even saw a rainbow. by now, i was definitely feeling a bit queazy, not full-on sea-sick but not far away. we had almost crossed porkalafjärden before i decided to get into the cabin to lie down for a bit. the winds had picked up, and it was hailing for a bit too, but i missed all of that; i was not feeling well, the rolling boat, too much sun on the head, too little sleep and not drinking enough water... i must have conked out for an hour or so. when i finally emerged to the deck, the weather had eased a lot... we were in the shelter of the skerries again and heading for the isle of kytö. we could see the distant skyline of helsinki surrounded by very grey skies. goodbye sun. we were heading for the low pressure system and it would not be fun. georg had got the motor going again by fixing the fuel line directly to the engine. once around kytö and the the two small skerries of södra ktökaringen, the guys decided we should make a run for it and take the shortest possible route into helsinki. this meant taking the line into open waters again and rounding the isle of rysåkari. it was dusk now, and we were following the line of the flashing lighted marks in the distance, looking out for the north marks at rysåkari to let us know when we should jibe and make the turn for helsinki. the wind had really picked up now, the engine was not needed. we must have been surfing those waves up to 9 or 10 knots. georg went to the mast and with the boat heeled over, managed to turn the boom a few times along it's axis to reduce the sail area. we were lucky the wind, and the waves, were from behind us. the situation was a bit hairy alright, and the seriousness really struck home when georg asked me to bring out the life-jacket for aleksi, and to put one on myself as well. by the time we got to rysåkari, it was night. we made the jibe pretty well, one of the lines got stuck and we couldn't secure it... and i was not up for clambouring up to the mast to free it. so georg went instead and the line was secured. i desperately had to piss but there was no way of doing it overboard, so i cut up a plastic bottle and pissed into that instead and poured it into the sea. again we followed the line indicated by the flashing marks, georg was navigating... we got a bit disorientated cos one of the marks indicated on the sea charts was not lit.

when we got level with the sector lights at koirakari, we had to jibe again. we took it a bit too fast this time as the boom came crashing across, and the boat heeled over violently to one side as the sail caught the wind. i have to admit that was a really scary moment. again we followed the flashing marks to indicate the line to take, it was too dark to see the unlit direction marks. georg pointed out the coloured port and starboard marks indicating the channel to the west terminal, jibing one more time as we sailed along the mainland towards sirpalesaari. the line got caught again, but i felt more confident to release it this time, seeing as georg was busy as well with getting the engine started. skipper was at the helm all the time as we came into the port, getting georg to shine his light to show other boats we were there. i took over at the tiller while he tried to get the engine going, before aleksi came back to circle the boat for docking. it would be tricky again to dock under sail-power, and as we came up to the buoys, we stalled directly into the wind. georg had another go with the engine, and this time, it sparked into life. whilst georg and i took the mainsail down, aleksi took her out again to make another pass for the buoys. aleksi attached the latched hook to the buoy and georg counted down the metres to the pier before jumping off, indicating time to brake at the stern end. i could sense the relief in the skipper's cry of "yes!" when the boat was tied up and secure. it had been an intense last hour bringing cendrillon in but we had made it. after making her ship-shape, georg left to take the short trip by the ferry to the mainland. aleksi and i organized our stuff and then also waited for the next ferry. it felt like the wind landside was getting more blowy, and then the storm broke. it rained for the next few days. a shower at a friend's place and then straight to see banda madrugada play once more, and to dance a little.