Itinerary for Curious Folk
So this is the rough plan for my trip, which I'm putting up here so next time someone asks me, I can just send them the link instead of writing it out again.
This much is locked in:
Monday 8th October, 2:20pm, depart Sydney
Arrive in San Francisco about 11am, Monday 8th October*
Things to do include: eating at every organic/vegan/macrobiotic cafe I can find, visiting locations from my most-loved book, The City Not Long After, laying the perfect gift at Emperor Norton's grave, and drinking everything on the menu at the Samovar Tea Lounge. This part of my trip has all the air of a pilgrimage.
Fly San Francisco - Munich: 13th October
Loiter around Southern Germany - mainly Munich and Schwarzwald (the Black Forest).
Fly Munich - London 23rd October
Staying here about five nights at the house of Dee from Dusker and five days at the British Museum, Tate Gallery and Victoria & Albert Museum. I want to see the Rosetta Stone.
The rest is vague, but goes something like this:
Flight to Budapest. About a month in Hungary, then following the Danube River overland to Bratislava, thence to Vienna, then through Brno in the Czech Republic, and onward to Prague.
Prague to Berlin, where I'll stay for a few weeks, during which I will head west to Worpswede (just past Bremen), a centuries-old artists' colony. It is, sadly, pronounced "Vorps-vey-duh" not "Warp Speed", but I intend to mispronounce it as often as possible.
Flight from Berlin to Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania, which includes such highlights as an ex-KGB prison, whose tourguides are all former detainees, and Stalin World, an amusement park which "combines the charms of Disneyland with the worst of a Soviet gulag prison camp," and the world's only statue/memorial to Frank Zappa.
I will go by train from Vilnius to Riga (capital of Latvia) which is famous for its incredible Art Nouveau architecture, then to Estonia, Europe's most occupied nation. Because it was so constantly occupied, it wasn't bombed much, so its capital Tallinn is one of the most intact medieval towns in Europe.
Then I will catch the icebreaker ferry to Helsinki, Finland, where I shall see why the inimitable Architecture in Helsinki named themselves, but mainly to visit any themeparks, museums, farmhouses or fields-in-the-middle-of-nowhere associated with Tove Jansson, writer of the Moomintroll books and queen of my heart.
I know that doesn't sound very vague, but it's over a period of months, and it's bound to change when I'm actually there, and don't feel like doing the things I said I would.
The return flight is from London via Bangkok, where I will unenviably be spending Australia Day. It's going to be hellish, full of the worst natures of drunken, boorish, entitled Australian men. I will probably be in worse danger of sexual assault on that night than any of my time in Eastern Europe. I pity the Thai prostitutes. More than usual, I mean. Maybe I can move my flight
*this surreal arrangement is due to crossing the International Date Line, which I am delighted to be doing for a number of reasons.
1) it's weird. Really weird. In a good way. I know that time-as-numbers (chronos) is just a consensual illusion, but it's a pervasive illusion and arriving before you leave is far stranger than setting your clock back/forward by an hour.
2) a line from Palm Sunday (on board the S.S Within), one of my favourite Go Betweens songs (of which I have a lot)
3) according to long-time friend and owner of the bed I'm currently sleeping in, the reason her love/sex life is so patchy and trouble-marked is that she has not yet crossed the International Date Line. Of course! She insists that I can expect the most fulfilling and flourishing romantic experiences from October 8th onwards. I'll accept any superstition with the flimsiest of rationales, so this one seems good to me.
This much is locked in:
Monday 8th October, 2:20pm, depart Sydney
Arrive in San Francisco about 11am, Monday 8th October*
Things to do include: eating at every organic/vegan/macrobiotic cafe I can find, visiting locations from my most-loved book, The City Not Long After, laying the perfect gift at Emperor Norton's grave, and drinking everything on the menu at the Samovar Tea Lounge. This part of my trip has all the air of a pilgrimage.
Fly San Francisco - Munich: 13th October
Loiter around Southern Germany - mainly Munich and Schwarzwald (the Black Forest).
Fly Munich - London 23rd October
Staying here about five nights at the house of Dee from Dusker and five days at the British Museum, Tate Gallery and Victoria & Albert Museum. I want to see the Rosetta Stone.
The rest is vague, but goes something like this:
Flight to Budapest. About a month in Hungary, then following the Danube River overland to Bratislava, thence to Vienna, then through Brno in the Czech Republic, and onward to Prague.
Prague to Berlin, where I'll stay for a few weeks, during which I will head west to Worpswede (just past Bremen), a centuries-old artists' colony. It is, sadly, pronounced "Vorps-vey-duh" not "Warp Speed", but I intend to mispronounce it as often as possible.
Flight from Berlin to Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania, which includes such highlights as an ex-KGB prison, whose tourguides are all former detainees, and Stalin World, an amusement park which "combines the charms of Disneyland with the worst of a Soviet gulag prison camp," and the world's only statue/memorial to Frank Zappa.
I will go by train from Vilnius to Riga (capital of Latvia) which is famous for its incredible Art Nouveau architecture, then to Estonia, Europe's most occupied nation. Because it was so constantly occupied, it wasn't bombed much, so its capital Tallinn is one of the most intact medieval towns in Europe.
Then I will catch the icebreaker ferry to Helsinki, Finland, where I shall see why the inimitable Architecture in Helsinki named themselves, but mainly to visit any themeparks, museums, farmhouses or fields-in-the-middle-of-nowhere associated with Tove Jansson, writer of the Moomintroll books and queen of my heart.
I know that doesn't sound very vague, but it's over a period of months, and it's bound to change when I'm actually there, and don't feel like doing the things I said I would.
The return flight is from London via Bangkok, where I will unenviably be spending Australia Day. It's going to be hellish, full of the worst natures of drunken, boorish, entitled Australian men. I will probably be in worse danger of sexual assault on that night than any of my time in Eastern Europe. I pity the Thai prostitutes. More than usual, I mean. Maybe I can move my flight
*this surreal arrangement is due to crossing the International Date Line, which I am delighted to be doing for a number of reasons.
1) it's weird. Really weird. In a good way. I know that time-as-numbers (chronos) is just a consensual illusion, but it's a pervasive illusion and arriving before you leave is far stranger than setting your clock back/forward by an hour.
2) a line from Palm Sunday (on board the S.S Within), one of my favourite Go Betweens songs (of which I have a lot)
3) according to long-time friend and owner of the bed I'm currently sleeping in, the reason her love/sex life is so patchy and trouble-marked is that she has not yet crossed the International Date Line. Of course! She insists that I can expect the most fulfilling and flourishing romantic experiences from October 8th onwards. I'll accept any superstition with the flimsiest of rationales, so this one seems good to me.