the other side
Five years ago I quit my job to travel around the United States and then go to Europe.
A near-fatal car accident stopped me from going to Europe, but I wonder if a part of me was afraid to travel without a car to places where I wouldn᾿t know the culture or the language.
Going to Europe now, I wondered what Europeans would think of Americans after our headstrong President decided to get his rocks off by being the bully and beating up a smaller country. I still felt that fear of not fitting in, even when I have `the strong and intelligent John with me. He says he knows some German, so we should be fine in Austria, Germany and maybe Switzerland. But we᾿re going to 8 countries (and we don᾿t know Italian or French), so we᾿ll learn phrases in other languages so we can TRY to be respectful...
On an Airplane With a Frequent Flyer
ᾸI was once on a flight to Hawaii and I was waiting in line
for the lavatory. There was always a line for a flight
this long, you know, it seemed the washrooms
were always on demand on a flight this long. So
I finally got into the washroom, you know, and I
looked into the toilet, and someone, well, lost the battle
against a very healthy digestive system and left the
ᾸspoilsᾹ in the toilet, stuck. Maybe it didn᾿t want to go
down into the sewage tank where all the other
waste from this long trip went to. Can you imagine
all the stuff this airplane had to carry across the ocean?
Well, anyway, so I saw this stuck in the toilet, and I
went to the washroom, and when I was done i flushed and
it still wouldn᾿t budge, and so I opened the door and walked
out into the aisle of the plane again. And there was this
long line of people waiting to use this cramped
little washroom, and I just wanted to tell them all,
ιyou know, I didn᾿t do that.᾿ And then it occurred to me
that everyone, when they leave the bathroom on that
plane, will think the exact same thing.Ᾱ
While at O᾿Hare Airport, we just went through customs and I was held back because there was metal either in my shoes or in my watch.
But being here reminded me of the many times I᾿ve traveled before, the many times I᾿ve waited at airports...
done this before
My flight was delayed, I᾿m at O᾿Hare Airport, the airport that departs three planes every second, or is it one plane every three seconds, oh shit, I don᾿t remember. I have to wait at least three hours for my next flight, hey, if so many planes take off here, then why can᾿t I get on one of them? Oh well, so I decided to waste my time in one of the airport cocktail bars, by gate L 4.
I᾿m so exasperated, I hate to wait, and all I have is a good book to keep me company.
It really isn᾿t bad here in the cocktail bar by gate L 4, the chairs aren᾿t that uncomfortable, even though they᾿re a pretty ugly shade of green that doesn᾿t match anything in the room. It really isn᾿t that bad, going to a foreign city.
You know, there᾿s a blonde girl dressed well with a bad perm across the bar, and she᾿s smoking a cigarette. I know I don᾿t smoke, but I᾿m almost tempted to ask her for one; I᾿d like to taste the tar, the nicotine; it᾿s neurotic, but sometimes I need these crutches to keep me sane.
They᾿re playing a song in the cocktail bar, a song that reminds me of an ex. I wanted to marry that man. He had a knack of being able to envelope me, to take my troubles away.
I don᾿t know if I can take away my troubles myself anymore.
I don᾿t know if the liquor᾿s helping, or the cigarettes. Your photo helps, my little bookmark in the only thing that keeps me company right now.
Sitting in this L 4 cocktail bar reminds me of my brother. When I was young he᾿d always pick us up at the airport, but if he wasn᾿t waiting at the gate we knew to look for him at the seafood cocktail bar. a part of me expects him to come walking through the doorway now, flannel shirt, ski jacket, wind-blown greasy hair, coke-bottle glasses. You know, when I᾿d look at his eyes through those glasses, his eyes looked twice as big as they actually were. But now he has more to worry about than his little sister.
So I᾿ll just sit here at this airport cocktail bar, remembering the days when I᾿d sit with him in a place like this and I was too young to drink.
I took your picture out of my wallet, the wallet that has so many pictures of men who have come and gone in my life, men who have hurt me, men who I have gone through like... like dish washing liquid, or like something I use all the time and replace all the time and don᾿t think twice about.
I᾿ll just sit here, in this airport, trying to care just the right amount, looking at your photo, and wondering if I᾿ve done this before.
You know, I didn᾿t put any thought into leaving the continent, I mean Hell, I had been to every state, Even the ones that aren᾿t continental. But I was going through customs, and I needed my passport.
I have had this God-Damned passport for eight years, and I remember after recovering in the hospital and losing my home, I wanted to know where my passport was. THIS WAS IMPORTANT TO ME, I know I could get another one, but I wanted THIS ONE, I wanted to have something of my life back.
But after customs - this was when it hit me. I᾿m leaving everything I᾿ve ever known here. I᾿m leaving my language, I᾿m leaving my culture.
Packing
there are too many times
when i᾿ve said this before
but now i sit here
in this apartment
popcorn bowl on the cocktail table
eleven thirty at night
the television playing static
it looks too clean in here,
not lived in
so i decide to take a trip
get out of this place
into the bedroom, time to start
packing: two dresses, two
pairs of shorts, shirts, loneliness,
anger, make-up, extra socks
it᾿s amazing how much of your life
you can fit in a single suitcase
In Austria, other than The Sound of Music, John found out that Mozart, whom I love, was born in Salzburg, Austria.
John knows a little German, and we have translations of basic phrases in assorted languages to try to cover ourselves, like ᾸWhere is the toilet?Ᾱ (because the toilet in separate from the shower, so you can᾿t just ask for a washroom), ᾸWe do not speak (the language),Ᾱ ᾸWe speak English,Ᾱ ᾸI am a vegetarian,Ᾱ ᾸDo you have an English menu,Ᾱ or ᾸWhere is the (correct) train station?Ᾱ
We got though the airports in Salzburg, where we had to take a bus to the terminal, we heard the usual: ᾸAre any of the items in your luggage not your own,Ᾱ or ᾸDid anyone ask you to carry anything on board with you,Ᾱ or ᾸHave you ever left your luggage alone since you have been at the airport,Ᾱ or ᾸAre you in possession of firearms, contraband or fireworks...Ᾱ
But I saw with John in Salzburg a lot of references to ᾸSalzburgerᾹ at little diner signs, and I thought it was a reference to burgers from Salzburg, but John told me that in German that just meant they were from Salzburg.
I᾿ve seen mountains, but it᾿s amazing to be nestled in Bad Gastein with beautifully painted buildings, surrounded by the Alps.
There were cool things to notice here:
• We noticed that the doors here are ᾸthickerᾹ than American doors; the part that sticks out is wider than the frame to stop light form other rooms from coming in.
• There᾿s a Jacuzzi here, but its like 84ΒΌ, so I called it a Ᾰtepid tubᾹ to John, and we won᾿t go in. And you pay to go into the sauna, and the pictures had naked people in the sauna. We᾿re passing on this one too...
• Tipping is more like 10% for food. And people serving drinks don᾿t expect a tip at all.
• You don᾿t take food home with you from restaurants; that is considered very rude. So when we ordered, we᾿d have to stuff our faces because we couldn᾿t take food with us, which meant we went out to eat less often..
• Because of a lack of rainfall, there a pools of yellow pollen all along the sidewalks.
• Clocks are on 24 hour time; PM doesn᾿t exist, so remember military times when you read times like 17:30 and 22:14.
• Gorgeous cars and names are all over on the road. I᾿ve seen Alfa Romeos, Opels, Lancias, Fiats and other excellent names. I saw a strip of parked cars with an Audi, a BMW, a Mercedes, a Rover, and I said, ᾸWow, this must be where all the expensive cars park,Ᾱ and John said, ᾸThese aren᾿t expensive.Ᾱ The prices are just jacked up for the United States.
I wondered if English songs would be played in European countries, and last night we were in a bar, and a song played that I thought I recognized, and I said, ᾸThis song sounds familiar. I don᾿t know if I᾿ve heard it.Ᾱ
John replied, ᾸIt᾿s Bob Dillon.Ᾱ
I was a bit stunned. ᾸOh,Ᾱ I said, ᾸI thought this was someone in German.Ᾱ
John laughed his ass off at this, because it was a song I should have known, All Along The Watchtower.
When he started laughing, I said, ᾸWell, it was a voice that sounded unrecognizable to me...Ᾱ which made him laugh more.
We went to a bar where everyone spoke German, and I was standing near the doorway and the door opened, so I backed up, and a drunk old Austrian man came in and started talking to me, in German, and I had no idea what he was saying. John couldn᾿t understand a single word this old man said, so I᾿d try to think of a single word to say, and I don᾿t know German, all that was going through my head were Spanish phrases, so I᾿d try to say something in English and he᾿d respond with another single-word in German, and he᾿d say it repeatedly to me (like that helps when you don᾿t know the language), and panicked, I᾿d try to say something in English, then repeat it in English (we both repeated things in other languages, like that helps), but then the bartender commanded him in German to leave as he kicked the drunk Austrian out of the bar.
sometimes the light
Sometime the understanding
Travels into the realms of the unknown
All we can do is hope
search
dream
Because we will never find.
Sometimes the light is not enough.
Too Much Light
too much light makes the baby go blind
and too much light makes the moth
rush into the flame
and die in a final
blaze of glory
and I have seen the light
and I have seen it
what is my choice:
burn in the flame
to burst quickly
to die young
or to slowly slip away
to die slowly
day by day
to let people in darkness
pull me in
inch by inch
until the light
kills me
We went to the Gastein Curative Tunnel - a place in the ᾸHohe TauernᾹ mountains where the air temperature ranges from 98 to 120 degrees, with humidity between 75 to 95 percent. There was a huge amount of Radon in the air there, and staying in the tunnel for certain lengths of time helped people with their ailments, because the Radon in the air helped make their body heal itself faster.
We went from Bad Gastein to Salzburg, then left Austria and went to Munich in Germany, w ewalked everywhere before going back to the Alps (with more mountains).
John noticed that the trains are amazingly quiet, and have huge windows on each side of the train.
And I noticed that every small village had one church, with a huge steeple. I wondered if it was there so people would be able to find the church easily, and John wondered if people had such a tall church to show the world how God looks upon them so favorably, because they have such a large church to worship Him in.
When walking home today, John noticed a radio station on a car tuned to 88.6, because Europe᾿s radio stations fall on even numbers, unlike America᾿s radio stations.
Almost as interesting as the fact that there are metal roofs throughout this town - it᾿s cool to see the decaying, or painted homes.
Oh, I learned that in some countries that when eating, your hands should be above the table until you are done with your food. This was a tough thing to remember to do, but you din᾿t want to look like an outsider.
We once tried to hike up a mountain in the Alps. It was wet because it was early and the dew and frost hadn᾿t evaporated, but we went a while and we got to what we thought was close to the end, at the end of the ski lift. My shoes and socks were soaking wet from the puddles and mud we had to get around to get there, but John saw that the path continued. He guessed that we were only two thirds the way up the mountain. Since it gets colder the higher up the mountain you go, and since there wasn᾿t a cloud in the sky to hold any of the heat to the earth, it was really cold, and we didn᾿t bring clothes for cold weather, but we left, and the path almost disappeared. Then I saw that there was a twenty foot wide pool of mud that you᾿d have to walk through to continue. I just stopped in my tracks. I was already cold, and my feet were already soaked, but I was not going to walk through mud to have wet, muddy, cold feet.
When John saw the mud, he agreed that we᾿d just go home.
Well, at least we tried.
Went to a bar, and there was a big bread bowl on the bar, just sitting out. It᾿s funny, but here foods don᾿t have a ton of preservatives, so you can᾿t keep bread sitting around. People buy everything fresh, from breads to fruits and vegetables.
John said this is why Europeans eat better; they have healthier food and don᾿t eat processed foods. I thought if Americans ate so many preservatives, would we stay preserved longer if we were dead, but you᾿d think that if Americans were so health-conscious we᾿d eat better, but John said that Americans probably rush through life so much that they don᾿t have the time to treat themselves better...
It was also so cool to go into a ᾸpharmaciaᾹ when John needed to get an over-the-counter pain medication; unlike a Walgreens or a United States drug store, this place was a small shop with apothecary jars of medicines all along the walls. You actually felt like you were getting medicine, not that this was some generic little coated pill in a generic mass-produced box.
German was the second language John learned, but I forgot that he᾿d love drinking excellent weisse beers too...
We spent a day in Dachau, because we wanted to see the Concentration Camp Museum there. I have been to the memorial in Washington, DC and it was amazing, with all the information and artifacts; it took me five and a half hours to go through it alone in 2002. They had lighting right for the barracks, and you walk through quarters the size the prisoners were in. You even walk over planks the Jews had to use because the Germans wouldn᾿t let them walk on the same land as them. There were glass boxes that housed the things the Jews had to give up once there were in the concentration camps, so you᾿d see a glass box filled with hairbrushes or black shoes. So if the United States museum was amazing, it should be stunning to see the Dachau Holocaust Museum, which was once an old concentration camp.
After getting to Dachau we walked about two miles (3 Kilometers) to get to the Dachau Holocaust Museum.
They had the original door to the concentration camp at one edge of the grounds, which said (in German), ᾸWork Makes You FreeᾹ (John photographed it). They left the paint chipped away at parts of the wall so you could see what the walls were like. But they cleaned up a large part of the hall, and the entire museum, was us just moving from room to room with large posters and sheets of data to read.
Dachau was one of the first concentration camps in existence, and it was one of the only ones that lasted throughout the reign of Hitler (who, by the way, was not only Austrian and not German, but also was short and had hark hair and dark eyes and was able to tell people that the better people were tall blondes with blue eyes). The Dachau site was used as an example for all future sites. The prisoners were even put on work detail at one point to build a new, larger camp, so others could be imprisoned like them. Later, people were arrested and sent to camp because they were ᾸpotentialᾹ criminals.
We saw a scale model of the entire grounds as it was during the Holocaust, and we were seeing only a small portion of the site used to be like. Seeing that the entire concentration camp area was that much larger was the only thing that helped me to see how monstrous this place actually once was.
We went back to Munich. The locals must have loved seeing another stupid American with her camera on a strap around her neck, but the architecture and statues and fountains were beautiful.
We found a small bar there, and the old regulars there kept yelling in German that they wanted music, but not with American voices. Well, someone else put a song on the jukebox with American lyrics, and they looked at us like it was our fault (we didn᾿t do it, I love being blamed for something we didn᾿t do, it᾿s making me feel like I᾿m at home).
We got to the train station & saw Paulaner weisse beer cans (that cost less than in bars in Austria).
You know, the beer just tastes better here, with no preservatives, the cans even tasted good too.
In Italy, Cicely had pieces of architecture from Greece there, and it was much more preserved than in Greece. But before that, we was Venice, where it is SO expensive. People come here to see the sights, so everything has a jacked up price.
Architecture was under construction. But it was cool to see parts of buildings - and it was cool to see stairs that led from the sidewalk to the water. Over time, sidewalks, roads, and foundations for buildings would be lost to the water.
I did start to see excellent things here for food, though - like a caprice salad that was just cherry tomatoes and circles of fresh mozzarella with oil and spices - and fresh mozzarella sandwiches too..
Venice is the city that fell into the water, with gondolas and gorgeous churches now. Being there reminded me of New Orleans, with painted masks and liquor for sale everywhere - it᾿s cool to see where these things you see in New Orleans actually originate from.
John also noted that he saw that the soccer fields we saw while traveling in Italy had concrete walls and THEN the stands, and there would be a fence around the field with barbed wire along the tops of the fences.
You think we have violent sports in America; you can᾿t compare it to Europe᾿s audience participation...
We got off the train in Napoli (Naples, to us stupid Americans), and ... it was a very dirty town. No place took credit cards; nobody spoke English, and it᾿s hard to guess what people are saying when we only know a little Spanish (which is only somewhat similar to Italian). We tried pizza in Napoli, and it tasted like soggy cardboard.
Street vendors had tables selling crap like belts, kitchen supplies, cell phones and sunglasses. Useless stuff on the streets in a useless town.
And as soon as we got on the train to leave, it got sunny.
I wouldn᾿t expect less.
Once we got to Pompeii, John also saw a family of 4 on a scooter while we were there, so this was another chance to see how scooters were very common versus cars in this part of Europe.
We spent the entire day, after walking through town, to get to the Pompeii ruins. There is a complete area of resurrected land from the ruins of this ancient city covered by ashes during the eruption of Vesuvius in the year 79 AD. It was an exhaustive tour of buildings, where we could see kitchens, eating areas and bedrooms.
We then went to Cicely to see Agrigento, for sites where Greek Ruins were preserved, and we spent hours in the sun walking around, taking pictures of anything. There were buildings, columns and remains; we walked everywhere twice, to make sure we saw everything.
One thing John noticed while we were traveling in Italy - he said that it᾿s a dirty country. John saw one guy spit on the floor inside in the train station, and the both of us even saw a girl throw her trash out the open bus door on one of its stops as we were going to the Greek ruins.
We were learning how to get around once we got to Rome. Every sidewalk in Rome was made of 3 to 4 inch bricks with no grout between the bricks, so the were very uneven.
There were no street signs anywhere near the train station, so we didn᾿t know where to go. But we made our way around, and it was cool to walk around the Colosseum and see all the gorgeous architecture.
I had this mortal fear of everyone hating us in France. I know, I know, the French sell Americans crap at insanely inflated price (who started the preposterous idea of selling water, other than the French company Evian?), but I think most Frenchmen think Americans are classless and tacky.
Well, we may be classless and tacky, but I just get this feeling that everyone in Europe is going to hate Americans because of the war. President Bush said Iraq has weapons of mass destruction, but there᾿s never been proof. France and Germany were the two countries who protested America᾿s decisions, and I fear they᾿ll hate us in France because we go to their country to see the Eiffel Tower.
We told some Texans who were visiting that we were going to go to Paris, and I told them my fears. Megan there told us to speak with an English accent and be British. John couldn᾿t pull off being British, so I thought we could be Canadian, I could pull of that accent with no problem, eh... Then it occurred to me that half of Canada speaks French, so I᾿d be screwed with that too...
Honestly, I am interested in seeing the Eiffel Tower, and we have interest in seeing the Louvre and the Notre Dame Cathedral.
We hoped that Paresians would also know English, so I hoped we wouldn᾿t have a problem. We practiced assorted phrases in French, but I was still more interested in taking pictures when we got there. I even tried to take pictures while I was in the taxi. I think that for a while I was sticking my head out the window to take photographs, like some sort of dog with their tongue hanging out, maybe like one of the billions of little dogs I saw people walk around with in Europe. Once when the taxi driver heard me saying I thought a building was beautiful, he even pulled over so I could take a photo of it. So, I guess Parisians do know English, and people were nice to us (even though I was paying him for a taxi ride).
We took photographs of the Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame, The Louvre, and a ton of other gorgeous buildings. It was also helpful to listen for the bell ringing of bicycles, or horns of scooters, which don᾿t seem to care sometimes if they use the street or the sidewalk. People also drove maniacally on the road too (even though it wasn᾿t as bad as in Italy).
So... the architecture was gorgeous, and Paresians weren᾿t rude to us...
Then we took the train to Bruxelles in Belgium. But they even served cocktails for the one hour twenty minute train ride. The chairs were even comfy - there᾿s a writing table attached to the seat, like an airplane, there are foot rests, but everything is larger and more comfortable than a plane. I mean, you even got a face towel for cleaning up.
The diversity in the architecture was really intriguing, and John said he was so surprised by my love of architecture. My family has been in construction for almost a century, and my brother is an architect, and I᾿m a dutch girl; the countries I came from were known for their excellent architecture, and the some of the greatest architects in history came from here.
After taking pictures and seeing sights in Belgium, we had to take a train to Amsterdam in the Netherlands.
A woman on the train came around with meals, and a fish plate with kale in a Jello mold (gelatin has animal products in it too) was put in front of me. I᾿m a vegetarian, so I asked if there was anything vegetarian, and she this was their vegetarian meal. So I don᾿t eat because people don᾿t know the definition of vegetarian.
Hell, I thought, if people go there for assorted drugs, maybe Ammsterdam is a place we should at least see.
Saw that Anne Frank᾿s house and Museum were there, where Anne and her family hid from the German occupation forces.
Amsterdam is not open late. There aren᾿t many people out at all. I know, I know, I know, they have legal drugs there. They say Marijuana is legal and ιMagic Mushrooms᾿ are considered a Ᾰsoft drugᾹ (I didn᾿t know powerful hallucinogenic drugs were considered ιsoft drugs,᾿ but what the Hell, I guess that᾿s the beauty of a monarchy or socialism), but you get Marijuana in coffee shops, but we didn᾿t want coffee.
We ordered drinks at a bar, and we then found out that that only accepted cash. One round of drinks cost over 27 Euros (over 40 American dollars).This pissed me off, we had to find a placr that accepted credit cards, and the only place was a Mexican restaurant that wanted us to eat food; we ordered soup so we could drink a half liter of Heineken.
So what does that mean for the night for me? It means that I didn᾿t see any pot on any menus, I didn᾿t see anyone smoking pot, I didn᾿t see anyone offering it, I saw nothing. I paid almost 50 American dollars for two rounds of drinks and soup.
We did go to the Anne Frank House - it was really cool to be in the house she hid in and see films and artifacts in English as well as in Dutch.
Okay, I᾿m not into the drugs. But At least I saw the place...
Not even big enough on most maps of Europe to contain the letters of its name, Lilliputian Luxembourg makes up in style what it lacks in size.
On this train we stopped in Maastricht in the Netherlands on our way to Luxembourg, then went to Liege before we reached Luxembourg.
But a night in Luxembourg was better than a night in Amsterdam. We ended up at a good happy-days-styled bar, and the owner bought drinks for everyone that night too. The bar prices were better, there were more people, and the atmosphere was better than our experience in Amsterdam.
John corrected me and said that actually, Amsterdam sucked.
I wore shorts for the first time on the trip.
Now, we᾿ve tried to fit in when traveling, but I never knew that ᾸshortsᾹ were an American thing; women only revealed their legs by wearing skirts. So I was the only one wearing shorts, and all the guys grinned looking at my legs, and all the women wouldn᾿t even look at me.
Oh, yeah, and John didn᾿t understand how I could feel awkward there because I was being gawked at.
We passed a bunch of towns in France before we got to Zurich, Switzerland, but after a while the scenery started to look the same, like we were driving through Midwest United States. It started to look like driving from Ohio, to Indiana, to Iowa. You do this for a while, and it starts to look like the same hills, same foliage... Same expanse, looking for something new.
after sightseeing, we took a 6 hour night train from Zurich in Switzerland with sleeper beds. John woke me at 3:45 in the morning (8:45 in the evening Chicago time) so we could get off the train.
Even though we were exhausted, I photographed more buildings in Salzburg. We even climbed to the top of a hill and photographed the outside of a castle.
The flight to Frankfurt was short, so we saw what we could in our last stop. I was still amazed at the beauty in the ancient architecture, and there was so much forest when you looked at the landscape from above. Towns look like they took up about one quarter of all the land. Trees were packed everywhere.
Even though I was really tired,I was too wired to sleep on the flight back home.
venture to the unknown
I᾿ve always loved the idea of being in outer space,
so when my chance came
to be a part of a crew
to explore a foreign land
to do what no man has done before
I
I jumped at the chance
People ask me what it᾿s like to be in space, see a new planet.
it᾿s hard to explain all of the details,
there are so many you forget,
like when you see the sun in the sky,
you even see Earth in the distance,
it is still dark where you are.
the Earth᾿s atmosphere makes the sun᾿s light omnidirectional
but here the sky is black too, even during daylight.
Without the Earth᾿s atmosphere
the stars are always out,
there are so many stars in the sky,
so many asteroids,
you can even see the dust in the air.
The Earth᾿s atmosphere is insulation
that stops us from seeing all in the universe.
They create gravity in parts of the space stations
to help people acclimate themselves
but in some stations you have to always hold your equipment
because it can float away
and when we go for mission walks
every step disturbs the land
dust and dirt explodes with every motion
it᾿s a fragile, delicate balance we try to strike
when we venture out into the unknown
Copyright Janet Kuypers.
All rights reserved. No material
may be reprinted without express permission.
|
