Awakenings

Deadlines are decidedly not my forte! I was having a few giggles re-reading this here blog which has more in common with a hopscotch than any kind of diary - when lo and behold...OH diddly squat! There's a big yawn somewhere between leaving Denmark and arriving back in Germany - 3 months and two voluntary festivals left high and dry. Just not good enough! Ergo I'm gona rectify this uncharted piece of the map without any further ado using memory, photos, chunks of what I actually wrote by hand in the fray and perhaps a good dose of imagination .... .(including an ice cold beer and a packet of Minstrals)
Seriously I mean it about the 'ado'...no more 'To Be Continued'..- like a fun tv programme suddenly selling off to a channel you've never heard of !

Cast your mind back to one ferry boat escapade on route to the shores of No no no no Norway !
It came to pass that I actually managed to arrive at my destination despite going one bus stop too far .....

So the tenses aren't quite correct, but as we all know thanks to the Doctor - timelines are pretty screwed up anyway :p 

The Road Goes Ever On

Naturally it has been ''some time'' since i have last updated my travel musings. A whole lotta shit happened in the last 48hrs ergo figured tis a good moment to spill the beans :)

I still have to fill the details in on Norway and Sweden, but for the moment lets fast forward to Finland! My heart touching the midnight sun again..okay okay no mush, I just left Suomi last Friday, its crazy to think i've been on the road for 6 months, 3 whole seasons and now the end of summer! I'm putting the world behind me and home ahead ...with a little celebrations along the way, well chasing festivals. W.O.A, B.O.A haha Who knew i would be going to hell in a handbasket!!
Helsinki..(ahem no pun intended there) a very hot day, nearly 30 degrees so I ambled around the markets, the parks, killing time before catching the evening ferry to Rostock, Germany. On my way back to the harbour - Low and Behold, theres my ship sailing out to sea! Bugger, i sit perplexed for a while waiting to see if another Tallink boat will dock..the clocks ticking. .. ticking. After dragging myself to the terminal to see whats going on, it turns out that im at the wrong fucking terminal! Apparently i should be at Vuosaari, which the lady said was at least 20 minutes away by car. No Kidding!! I booked it to the taxi rank in Senate Square, mind reeling at my unfortunate stupidity or just twisted fate of things. 6pm I'm in taxi, yelling inside 'FLOOR IT' ... made it to this island with 10 minute window.
Great, now to settle in for 26hr trip. It was a new experience getting my sleeping bag out on the ferry. ~There were these rooms of cinema type seats, of course they were bloody uncomfortable hence camping out on the floor like everyone else! Suprised i managed to sleep...until i was awoken by the most colossal snoring on either side of me..ridiculously loud ..so i got up then in a similar fashion.
My next task was to find a couch surf for Rostock, yes on the ferry, last minute nail biting here! To cut many hours short i finally had an answer from a couple of girls who were amazingly coming to pick up another CSer on the same ferry! On the down side I couldnt get through on the mobile no. they gave ...Oh fuck! Fretting waiting for the bus to get us off bloody ferry, this other CS person could be standing right next to me ..as luck would have it ..my ears pricked up to some english, then recognised them from profile picture. My face must have lit up like a lighthouse as i reached out and one of them said 'Lou?'
I couldnt help wondering what i would have done if i hadnt found them, because again the ferry was in the middle of nowhere and when we got to the city (despite it being a historic place) ..it looked pretty rough!

Sunday....i thought about staying one more night in Rostock since my hosts were happy and even reccomened i should...perhaps i should have, too late now! Back on the train at 8.30am ..sky looking rather blackened, felt as if i fell out of eternal sun blessed realms ..was it a sign? In Hamburg i nearly fucked up once more. Platform 13 a ....i found 13 and i found 'A' ...but in germany they have numbers on the platform for the carriages, i realised this at the last moment and ran down the platform to hurl myself on to the right goddamn train as the doors shut. literally, my backpack forced it open. Thats what you call a close shave !

The rest of the journey when smoothly. I texted my friend to let him know when i was arriving. It sent so i didnt know anything suspect. Rolled up in Aarhus Demark 4.30pm - Revelation - nobody there, phone the number, it doesnt bloody work ! No Way! NO WAY! Drawn to legenday Macdonals with free-wi fi all over the globe, but guess what ...my laptop rat bastard wont connect to it ERROR. Couldnt believe, what kind of fresh hell was this ? Shit happens, hah understatment of the year!
Well i had been here before, so tried to remember which bus we had taken to get to the flat, at first i thought 11...then was it 6, or 9 ...oh heck just jump on first bus that comes around the corner. Had a nice ride to some random part of the city ..and back again ...no. 9 supposedly my lucky number ..which i now greatly distrust, went even further, past cornfields and other godforsaken lands. Feeling, lost, isolated, PISSED OFF... then suddenly i didnt care anymore. All i wanted was a hot shower and a place to put my feet up! I think i fell into a kind of trance on the way back (we drove quite far out) since i'd mostly eaten chocolate, water and a few swigs of the koskenkorva (finnish hard liquor) to quell the rum cards i was being dealt.
I still cant get over how i can screw up travelling into one big gilded disaster! What was worse was that i recognised places and knew their flat was just round the corner somewhere, so close yet so far!! I'd made something simple into a giant mountain. The whole journey i felt i've been standing on the beach, and a huge wave has just bowled me over, i could have ducked behind a rock or packed my waterproofs but no, too busy making footprints in the sand...now i am soaking wet, bet heck IM STILL STANDING! ....(yeah yeah yeah )
Anyhow, once i was back in the city again, i made a direct line for the Scandic hotel, whipped out the old credit card and booked myself a cheap room. Here i am now, hot shower never felt so good, sorted out meeting tomorrow with mates ..and got breakfast too. :)

Hanging onto a runaway train ahahaha, Avantasia...its times like this when you wish you were travelling with someone, because then whatever happens doesnt seem bad as you're not alone and theres another soul to put their arm round you.

Now the bells are tolling midnight .. i had to get that out of my system :) before hitting the sack ..so without any further ado ZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Mission Accomplished: Blogging Failure..Part 1

If only I had ended my last note with 'To Be Continued.....1 month and 25 days later." What can I say but total fuckage! Humpf. Now lets see, Denmark seems an age away, unfortunately my time sumed up as  Island - Itis and found myself breathing a sigh of relief when the little ferry sloshed up on the crystal waves of the fjords to the docks of the hard world  ..bidding adieu was marginally awkward ..although it should be stated that as an optimist there was a brighter side in Paradise which i did enjoy!
Also hoped to mention my three CouchSurfing experiences ... First stop Aarhus - the icing on the cake of surfing, superchilled enough to make an icecube quake! I felt suddenly with friends the minute i stepped off the station. Three bookworms around the table . Background music, drum and bass :) Glossy pages we leafed through, wildly hot Polynesian men inked in black ..tribal warriors of south pacific ! hehe Well Jen and I certainly appreciated them! :p MB, Cs host was tattoist in south pacific style, great artist, it was really interesting to see the mythology behind the swirls and arrows ..and dare i say, will be returning for another visit! hehe but it wasnt all a world of blackness, around the city discovered more music and books Yay - watched 'The Wedding' with them too, laughing at all the terrifically terrible hats over chicken nuggets hah!
Second stop, Aalborg..with R. ..whopper of an IQ doing lots of chip technical jumbo at Harvard. A somewhat strange CS, particular existential conversations and contradictive jargon . ie. how can you know fairtrade is really fairtrade? Good cook however and yet that one glass of wine went to his head..felt better when another girl came over..but still felt to barracade the door after going to bed! :S
Last Cs invasion in Denmark was in Frederikshavn, beautiful little costal town, this time with young lad who was playing three guitars and i was soo very jealous ! Mucked around WW2 bunkers, gate crashed a friends gig, and took the fire escape up to the roof of some posh apartments to watch sundown. :) Early ferry, bless his mum made me a packed lunch for the journey aww!
Denmark to Norway in about 6 hours, bought pack of discount Carlsberg and face pack and headed back to the cabin! hah! Docked to Oslo about half 6, wandered like a lost soul around various maps and bus timetables. I was sure the centre was close, at least so sayeth Lonley Planet! Asked cabbie, who would have me pay 140krona, nearly £16 pounds which took me 5 minutes to walk to station! Ridiculus! I told him to screw it and did in fact walk! Ahem got lost of course, lucky to find nice couple who actually took me to central stationm and the guy carried my bag, what a gent!
Another train, then bus ..yes the bus i managed to jump off the stop after the one i was supposed to! Hallo Arstun farm. Showed to my 'box' yup thats what he called it, where i promptly crashed into bed. The next three weeks were going to be rather half-baked ...

To be continued...tomorrow i doth vow :p

Step Away from the Cookies!!

Great food is like great sex. The more you have the more you want!!

I'm sure you're getting bored of hearing it but there really is no eating rationally here. In fact try being rational when you're trapped in a paradise! No wonder Adam and Eve wanted to run riot!!
 Some women say they would love to marry a chef, personally i would be happy with a man who could cook a good pasta, if i married a chef i would be half the size of a house.
I can feel those love handles growing as i roll out of bed to the ..well, how about 'walk in' fridge! Im treatingthis as a new misson of self control OM NOM NOM ..its sounds pathetic i bet, its torture. They bake table platter size cakes everyday, now its Easter..double trouble melted in chocolate! And running around the island upgrades my loopyness each day. Bananaramic brain like Capt Jack in second movie in the desert full of white sand! I attepted to swim last week, the water was cold as ice, hehe uh if there had been a sauna i would have thrown myself in, i got as far as ..splish splosh..fuuck thats fucking cold!

On the other hand since N was told to never come back I've been pitching in with Salad prep, it seems every vegetable has its own magic trick, I can now cut onions and lettuce to burn dust in Hells Kitchen. :p
Also there's really nothing else to blog about, because i work in the kitchen ..as it were. Ha I
was just about to mention my trip to Flensburg with KS but that ivolves sweet ...OMG we went to this
amazing olive bar in town for supper, and they had elf food (vine leaves) that didnt taste like rubber!
Then next day was Krutz cafe for breakfast which was DIABOLICAL a trophy of creamy goodness, Quark which is somewhere between, icecrem, cheese and yoghurt with fresh saucy berries!!

With reference to the above, my second job as of yesterday is to FEED our new Chicken..dubbed Freedom!
A chicken called Freedom, cool - this is going in my novel! She laid an egg today ! When R resuced her from the Ikea box of Death you could tell she had been traumatised, her clucking was wobbly, nevrous, unsure...sounded like she had a bad throat but was trying to call out  - imagine being stuck in a nightmare and trying to scream in fear yet your voice its hardly above a whisper. It made me sad. To thing of this one ..and all the other cruelty we do to living animals just because we happen to be at
the top of the food chain. I will always be a carnivore of course, but i hate that people dont give
a damn about the terrors we cause.
oK So that was a GreenPeace Wave but, seriously, all living things should be cared for ..before we give them a stroke and go BANG with the pistol! Dinner is served. Tender and Divine.

Today...uh Sunday I actually worked all day long. I was never so happy painting the bar ..we did the whole room in one day ..theres about a week and a half before im due to make my way to the top of Denmark....Couch surfing a godsend! - and then into Norway for some organic farming and Midnight Sun! Nearly halfway through my Tour of Nordic Europe ..Wow..weird

lucky its Church of England! Cake or Death?!

Browsing though previous posts i have realised what a torrent my stream of conscious has been ..its even hard for me to read! Methinks a prosaic update would be the order of the day. ...

Tuesday ....
Hang Fire..screw the days of the week - i have been in short - neglectful once more of blogging daily, at least a week has gone by, so if you can bear my rambling of Ox Island hooplas then please without any further ado, make a brew and settle on a soft cushion!

It came to pass that the wind howled mightly..like this hhhhhhhhoooooooooooooowwwwwwwwwwwllll !!
all day long - more than bracing, on top of the island i could have been flying! The squally weather sweeps and rips up the fjords which were mirror placid last night .. solar spell has been pretty quiet if you dont count the wind, then when i wasnt holding onto my hypothetical hat, i was  cleaning a boat to be listening to johnny cash and having an arguement with the washing machine which wouldnt give me my clean smoke free clothes!
Now i'm back in the bar ..leena, the island doggy is slumped under the table keeping my feet warm!

ARG! M keeps trying to persuade me to go rowing together, but i emphatically am disinclined to aqueisce to his request. Its not that i dont trust him persee, i simply have no wish to be trapped in little wooden raft, where i cant escape before he swings his arm out to point at something and the boat capsizes. In fact the first time he went out, he discovered the boat was LEAKY ...ahem for 4 hrs sailing around bailing water out
He thought i was scared of water, or couldnt swim...I'm trying hard not to be rude to the guy with the blunt truth of No! just not with You!

----------------------------------------------------

By the way, I have a new mission to add to the ever growing list! Be a Viking! Over a bottle of red with K, I discovered she was part of a viking renanctment group - it sounds amazing - particulary ..apart from being totally cool, the history N all that jazz...it also about getting back to nature, the way things were..and making things from scratch, which i am a big fan of! ...Agatha Cristie once said about technology/invention..arising directly from idleness, possibly also from laziness - to save oneself trouble.
 K is a blacksmith and crafter...impressive long bow and quiver full of arrows made out of a pair
of old cowboy boots! As a woman - if you want the proper experience you need to be a fighter, otherwise its back to washing dishes!

Possibly Monday..Busy doing nothing itsnt it just a crime!!  i spent the day on the beach - with nobody else, apart from the occasional goose. Later on I went with S.k... B's daughter on the little speed boat for a practice run ...bad idea giving me the wheel...Varrrrroooouuummmmm...splash splash...imagination soars to boat chase alla james bond!!
kiddo told me all her boy problems - I switched to big sister mode ..with some help.."I will not fall for any of the following: alcoholics, workaholics, commitment phobics, people with girlfriends or wives, misogynists, megalomanics, chauvists, emotional fuckwits or freeloaders, perverts."

To cut a long story short, some mates of hers were coming over because it would be cool to have a party on the island. First we went over to pick them up..but had get Olie to jump start the boat since she couldnt seem to get it started and we ended up comically paddling away from the sandbanks!
 There was a Mr Hotshot avec greased lightening ego swaggering around because he could make a Mjoito,

..Reminded me of uni..drinking games! been though that path and closed the gate after me, so it felt weird to be in the room with them. I was sitting at the bar with Olie, hoping to make a quick exit at ...before....I was ....playing a dice game which i didnt see the point in lol, bit like cheats/pontoon with cards but with two dice. Uno was better..
Cue girly chat in secet code :
Do you want to go outside?
Me: Why its cold!..after a moment click OOOH ---do you want to go outside?
.. lovely moonlit wander about the shores of island with stars overhead. Apparently she wasnt much acqainted with these guys, but with another boy who failed to turn up. So she really didnt want to be there any more. Showed me an awesome swinng under overhanging tree on beach with a driftwood seat.  :p Nearly went for a swim in the shimmery baltic waters ..perfect night for it...but we couldnt just ditch the 'party' ..well..
Came back to discover four more people at the table, Woo so ..can i go to bed soon. ??
On a random note..when one of the guys asked me my age, he was somewhat startled because he thought i was 17/18 ..(i was older than the lot of em)...What!!! ...Heck just goes to show what a tad of makeup and goodnights sleep can do..the other day, N our chef thought i was about 25!
............I vanished in one of those natural lulls with a mug of hot chocolate and left them to it! ...
And glad I did! They woke Olie up at 3 am because they wanted to go home! Then to all reports hung about for another half hour!!


Tempers flew over the ..weekend? 90..yes i repeat 90 people were coming to the island on some crazy survival trip and they wanted to slaughter 90 LIVE chickens ...apparently word is that N, forgot to mention this point to R who was furious to find these poor animals - 8 in what sound like a plastic box ..general ikea storage container. Its also illegal to slaughter animals here on island. Thing is both guys are cholerc people and there was a great trouble of mis-communication...much shouting in angry Deutsch, then I blinked and N swung a right hook at R, knocking him onto the table, with B beating at N to get off. N isnt with us anymore. ....

Some idiot on the island...

this is ridiculus im hiding in my room away from the kitchen and delicious smells...i know i said i wanted to explore and eat cake ..could munch my way through eternity here, not a good thing on island..so if life is peanut butter and jelly then  the peanut butter of life is stuck to the roof of my mouth....oh my god to say i regret cake!! Whatever is happening must be truly evil!!
Stupid idea for a restless nomad to put herself on an island ..where all i do is run around in a circle!!

Right perhaps i will leave it there for now ...although
Another curious thought from Agatha...the best time to plan a book is while you are doing the dishes!

TGI...YOU KNOW WHAT!!!!

Tis about half 4 Friday afternoon, last night was FolkBalitica ... hobbits grand night out! :p
The day was interspersed with doing some final touches to the boathouse, love all the red velvet .....What the..am sitting in bar right now, and suddenly the speakers are blaring somekind of freeaky laallaalaa garble ...cranks up Judas Priest!!! Bah Anyway...hmm back in the kitchen, at least the chef has decent music as we work preparing food for 275 guests ... dreading the aftermath!!
Liedertach arrived not long after midday ...wooo big hug from my helpX Ma Angelika..feels so much longer than a week!! Ocassionally i felt like saying ..pleaaase take me back with you!! But that would be giving up and i would shame myself as well as my hosts. Store Okseoe is a wonderful place, people very chilled out....but i hate smelling like an ash tray and doing mind infuriating jobs like washing dishes. On the other hand the pace is soo slow that i have really got some great time for creative writing, a fated bonus i guess. ... and...OMG FARMER JOE MUSIC... and i guess i should stop grumbling - im in Denmark for godssake scratching those itchy feet....!!
On one of my many forays out to the bar..now signed Backstage only..I stumbled into tall blonde fella ..jeans - white T - leather jacket--.Mmm. He asked me if there was somewhere he could lie down for a bit, bless him ...No lou, you cant take the Irish boy back to your room...that was the first place i thought of haha because i hadnt clue where else - K suggested stoned chefs room ..which she told me in German, and I actually understood ..I said, follow me - to the sleepy honey then looked back at K as we both realised the language bafflement.

Working in the kitchen....there are glass doors looking in on us from the patio - which probably isn t always a good idea....since it can look pretty hetic in a messy way ....and a few beer bottles dotted about the place ..yep its best you just eat the yummy food and dont think about the scenery it was made in!
Thankfully i wasnt chained to the kitchen all night, R told me to go enjoy the show..so i did :)
Two bands tonight.. the Norwegian Irish Duo..played pretty funky music..weird how an accordian and various guitars worked together.
Liedertach were good - had audience stamping feet and clapping.
One moment ..I was in and out of our secret door to the concert all night ...with a bottle of Blackbird, a guy came up ..to ask where he could get such a bottle of beer..no no its just for us special workers ..Sarah came up - my kitchen slave buddy - to repeat in Deutsch ..Oooh shame - he smiled and raised an eyebrow, which was more than an eyebrow if you know what i mean!
Pah Dont trust his english :p

N reckoned we were going to get really wasted tonight! Am pretty sure i was on par with no. beers..but nope still have all faculites..what the heck was in those bottles ..not alot obviously.

It was a beauty of a night, clear sky, crescent moon- looking very picturesque with little lights shining way to the ferry....which can now only hold 12 people due to some rule...yup 275 coming over in sets of 12!

This is a random blog to read i can imagine, with patchy descriptions of the night...because my brain cant compute with this loud music too folky to work to!

This morning was lazy recovery day ...M was up a godknows what time tackling the mountains of dishes and hell left over from last night!! Crazy!!
I went to bed for a bit...showered, smelling clean but only for a while i guess before entering the chimnies !! Ok this is ridiculous i am getting a flipping headache OWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW

Grey Days..

Somehow i managed to miss a day ...its wednesday already !! What day did i miss!! Perhaps its all the smoke in this place ... I should add that i havent felt the need to light up since the day after i arrived ..honest to god ..apart from this morning, after i read Mango's blog. I cant let go of this, the world just wont function if the Mango light isnt on it. She wrote and let go of all her fears ... really deep. Heck. knowing what we know, what to do...i still stand on the belief that after the dark days have passed she will be in kenya with a farm of honey beers..i mean bees!
Life is on the edge of reality...a thorny edge.. of late...i toss my lot to go travel ..discover such beauty and yet the further i go the shitter the world becomes...a painting of bright colours on a black canvas.

The dawn was grey. In fact, there was no dawn, the clouds soaked up all the light...just a windy tempest. Although it was refeshing to be blown about atop the cliffs ..ok hillocks .. lull'd by soft zephyrs. . . .

M. whizzed into the kitchen this morning to tackle the washing up. I tried to do that yesterday, but i couldnt work the steam machine, so i kept quiet about that. The we sorted out the coldcuts etc for lunch, prepared bit early..M started munching, said we should eat now cos probably have to clean out -- steel tank --- the kitchen afterwards. Ha! Not bloody likely ..ergo time to bugger off for a brief walk. .
I think im eating way too much bread here...they gotta stop baking it fresh..i cant resist the smell!
N turned up later ... i thought we were supposed to be helping him out for tomorrow, but R found a wonderful job...washing windows!!! Sounds like a boring chore ..on the contary..it meant i could be outside doing something productive. If i had started this earlier I can tell you i would have blitzed all the windows on the island! As it was i did the thatched cottage ..a pair of kitchen windows, and two doors..spit n shine!!
AAaannnd that, was my job for the day! Wicked .. and i finally donned the jump suit they tried to get me to wear yesterday, certainly now look the part. eh trendy :p
Soooo time for more cider and story scribbling on the windy cliffs. . .

Now had the Abendessen..homemade Mousaka ..mmm my favourite!! Danish version cant beat the Greeks from Erasmus though!! it looks as if everyone has gone to bed ...just me prattling away on the pc, oli ..guessing by the redness of his face ...its in steady stupour of beer, leaning on the bar with a cigarette.

Big day tomorrow..the bands are arriving about 4pm ....yep he's drunk..stumbling sailor! ... ANYWAY..i will see Angelika again :D and possibly be helping out in the kitchen ...R also mentioned there will be a group of Irish musicians and it would be good to get ..pally with them?? I think thats what he suggested...bit vague on that part. Interesting day tomorrow for sure!

Right well, I reckon i might hit the decks...stoned chef and drunken sailor ....bbyyyyyeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!