Trip Nostalgia

Scan of crappy 1990 photo of me and my sister at Berlin Wall

My computer has been acting like a jerk lately. I did extensive research (3 seconds of googling) and apparently have a kernel panic problem. Am in the process of providing my kernel with some sedatives. Relax and be cool, kernel.

I read that Blogger isn’t pulling the plug on FTP until May 1st now. Yay! One more thing I can put off for later.

Scan of crappy 1990 photo of me and Tante Hilla on the bank of the Elbe River.

I hate this part of trip preparation. The part where everything is still all chaotic and unconfirmed. Travel arrangements that I thought were solid have fallen apart and solving the problem is a huge time suck. I’m anxious and leaving myself notes everywhere.

Bob bought me a new bag and I’m doing a trial run on packing but then half the stuff I wanted to take was dirty so now I have laundry in. What I really want to do is crawl in bed and try to finish this paperback that I foolishly started last week thinking I could finish it quickly. I don’t want to take a half read book on the trip but I hate to leave it sitting here for two weeks.

I already picked my books for the trip. I’m only taking 2. Both have been sitting around here forever. A Man in Full by Tom Wolfe, 787pp. mass market paperback and A Game of Thrones by George RR Martin, 807 pp. mass market. The Martin one is part of a series and it would probably be smarter to bring the second one of these but I’m not doing it that way.

Bathroom prices in what was then Yugoslavia but is now Slovenia.

I was going to do a whole week of old trip photos and travel notebook snippets but I think I’d better use my time for getting organized.

The photos in this post are from a 1990 trip to celebrate my cousin’s wedding. I don’t think I have a travel notebook from that trip. Hard to believe but if I have one I don’t know where it is.

I found my notebook from my 1997 trip which was a one year anniversary trip with my sweetheart and I’m going to include an excerpt below.

At this point, I’m looking forward to the actual trip part, when you get on the plane and everything is in motion. You can’t worry about it any more.

Meanwhile, I need to try to fix a hotel reservation.

Menu in Postojna. We went to these caves. I remember thinking that Yugoslavia must not have tort law because the caves were a giant lawsuit waiting to happen. There was this roller coaster-like ride through the caves and I swear if you sat up too much your head would have been taken off.

Excerpt from 1997 travel journal. I chose a boatface related item.

Backstory: we took a tour from Hamburg, Germany to a resort island called Sylt and then took a ferry to Denmark. (Aug 21, 1997, as in original)

We get on the ferry and it’s like this cramped packed dining room — hot with people smoking and eating meat. Is that a recipe for vomit or what?

I don’t know how to find things and walk around the boat which can I bitch? Why the f#@!!ing hell are there no maps. I’ve yet to see a map of our ferry route — not like I’m driving — but I’d like to know. Anyway. I’ve found a great seat on the top level outside. Fresh air, cool breeze, view of the wake. I am happy.

It is unfortunately very gray. Sky and water meet in a blue-gray blur at the horizon. I can’t see what would not doubt be a fabulous view of Denmark. … I can now glimpse a tiny stretch of dune. [note: am I writing this on the ferry out on the deck?] A narrow bit of sand and shrubs.

We go to Sonderberg-captirol, I think, and then to another ferry and then 2 hrs. home. Then I hope that’s the last of the boats on this trip.

There are some great photos of this trip but they’re downstairs somewhere and I can’t go dig around right now.