The morning of the start of our journey was bright, and as we all met near my flat in Kingston we were cheerful, if all still a bit muzzy. As we chattered, my neighbour from across the street, a middle-aged Indian woman, came out, roused by the sound of our voices. She informed Emily, our companion for the first leg of the trip, that she has a habit of rising to greet the sun, and at the sound of our voices felt compelled to come and see what was happening. When we told her that we planned to travel round Europe, she immediately dissapeared inside, only to return moments later with two limes in her hands. She placed on under the front right wheel of the car, and the other in Emily's hand. She then guided her through a Hindu ritual, grasping Emily's hand and moving it in circles as she muttered a blessing. She told us that the lime was the king of fruit, and that it would bless us on our travels. As we drove off, the car's tyre crushed the other lime, and our journey had begun. The Fellowship of the Lime had begun their travels.
When we arrived at Dover, traffic (and our afforementioned fateful delay) meant that we had unfortunately missed our ferry by mere minutes. However, the next one was due to leave a mere hour later, and we were immediately granted admittance. Already we realised that even if we cocked up, the Lucky Lime, as we had taken to calling it, would get our backs.
A short ferry journey later, that involved the first of many journeys to the bathroom in the next few days for both Emily and Greg, we arrived in Calais. Her Alex embarked on the rather difficult task of acclimatising to driving on the right hand side of the road with a right wheel drive car. A complex enough task with a modern car, but when you are touring Europe in a 1967 Volvo 122 S Amazon, the task becomes infinitely more involved. To his credit, Alex took to it with relative ease, after nearly driving down the wrong side of the road a few times and occasionally forgetting which right of way was meant to go to. It probably didn't help that the left wing mirror insisted on residing at a jaunty, if entirely useless, angle, and that the parcel shelf was stuffed with backpacks and the front-piece of my Boba Fett helmet.
To cut a long, if relatively pleasant journey short, we arrived in Amsterdam by way of France and Belgium. The only major distinctions of the passing of these countries was Greg and my resolution to eat a McDonald's cheeseburger in every country we visit (so far so good), and also that there was NO border. Just road, and a sign saying, effectively, 'Um... Belgium!' Also, it came to my attention that Holland's windmills, while technically still in existance, seem to have been replaced with a large number of wind turbines. While somewhat less traditional, and less wooden, they do have a rather attractive green gradient pattern on the bottom of them, so as to less disrupt the panoramic vista...
And then... 'Dam!
Some adventures were had, I can tell you. We arrived at our campsite in Zeeburg, east of Centraal Station, and set up our tents in the rather ominous weather. The staff seemed friendly enough, the facilities decent, and apart from Greg and my rather awkward camp beds (NEVER GET CAMPING STUFF FROM ARGOS!) everything went up without too much trouble. There was some swearing, however. Eventually we got into town, and smoked our way about the 'coffee shops', sampling the finest they had. Also some of the cheaper stuff. Basically we partook, and had a rather good time.
For reasons that are probably self explanatory, going into detail over the Amsterdam experience is rather a difficult task, especially at 4am after rather a few beers and so forth.
However, a few moments will stick in my mind for a very long time. Something that was a very powerful experience, and also quite mind opening, was when we took truffles, and then their bigger brother.
On the Tuesday, the idea was floated around to take some truffles, as they were one of the experiences that Amsterdam had to offer, and we were, after all, at the start of what is meant to be a trip that is all about experiencing new things. Some reservations were mentioned, and we cosidered it carefully, then thought what the fuck and bought some. We went down to a small grassy stretch over the river from our campsite, and, surrounded by the ducks and coots and crows, we had a rather lovely little trip. We all had our own experience of it. I know that I have never looked at an animal more closely, more seen more natural beauty in a creature, than in the way that those birds moved. Even if they were trying to eat my packet of crisps, the bastards. Shortly after, we all came out of our trips, and we had cheerful and silly conversations. We took turns braving the route back to the campsite, as un-natural, man-made things were somewhat disturbing to be near. I finally started to understand why friends had told me that being in nature was so important...
After that, we were hooked. We all wanted to have another trip, however we also had a comittment that evening. Ramin, Greg's friend from Germany who put us up on our last visit, had kindly organised a BBQ for us, and we obviously weren't going to turn down good company and free meat. However, we also wanted to have some more of what we felt earlier. So before we went, we went to a shop in town to get some more truffles. I can't go into much detail, but suffice to say that we got our hands on something somewhat stronger that we had had earlier in the day. As Alex had arranged to meet another friend, Greg, Emily and I went to Ramin's, and munched on our new goodies when we got there, expecting the same effect as earlier. We had no idea...
I'll not go into too much detail, as the experiences we had are stories better told in person. If you read this, and are interested, feel free to ask me what we got up to that night, and also the night two days after where we went camping by the beach. I hope that it suffices to say that we had an absolutely magical experience. If that doesn't suffice, then this poem that I wrote after the first night will.
-------------------------------------
Dark Chocolate
Let's just stop, and play here!
No... there are still people. Just a little further.
Light flashes through a fence,
Blinding, confusing.
Eye closed I drift on.
Here we are!
Perfect
Nature
An exctasy of greenery
A fly buzzes in my ear.
What do you see?
More that you possibly can.
Leaving my brother and sister
I wander down the magical snaking path
I meet a tree, gnarled, trimmed, an old soul.
Its bark is a landscape, moss the grass,
Furrows and mountains over which ants scurry.
Closer than I have ever seen
Eyes wider than they have ever been
But.
I think I see eyes!
A jarring disconnection.
I smile
You have no idea...
We laugh together, seperate from him.
Someone is coming... Look normal.
Stifled laughs as they pass.
Our playful pixie claims her tree,
Acorn hat topping flaxen hair
She and the tree are one, entwined.
Your friends are climbing trees...
I have to go back.
Finally!
Time to play!
Cartwheels and giggles, climbing and euphoria
Together we touched life.
A connection made, a discovery reached,
Layers upon layers
Depth beyond closed eyes.
-------------------------------------
Well... I suppose I can mention a few things to give you a hint of the fun we had. We got lost of a stretch of path around 100 metres long, we couldn't find a bench to sit on despite standing next to it, we hugged and then climbed a tree, and I appologised to the ground-plants for weeing on them. Good times!
This was written, incidentally, when we were being put up by a lovely fellow called Aaron, who I also met on my last visit. Despite some nosy neighbours our visit was mostly just relaxed, with a fun evening of drinking and smoking and cards.
And that about covers most of the first week. I still have to write of our experiences once we crossed to border into Germany, and the fun we've had in Berlin. Some great times have been had, and there are plenty more on the horizon. Every day we have many options. For example, when I'm woken up by one of those reprobates, be it Alex or Greg or Philip (we are staying at his house, more on that later!), we shall decide whether to take part in the Beer Mile back in Berlin, or to head to Prague, or to go to Greg's Dad's place in Neurembourg. Choices choices!
I'll write the story of our next week or so in the next few days, but for now, I hope you guys are enjoying the beautiful summer as much as we are! Two days of sun and counting!
NEXT TIME: An Explaination of the Retard Bracelet, Bumming around Berlin, History, and probably other things too!
PS Sorry for spelling mistakes, it's late, I'm drunk, and for some reason my computer now thinks it's German.
No comments:
Post a Comment