Sweden-The Power of New

Travelling is like flirting with life. It's like saying, I wanna  love you, but I have to go; this is just the way it is.

The bigger the summer vacation the harder the fall.

Vacations are like gambling, and  always connected with winning and losing, and generally where it is least expected we receive, more or less than what we hoped for. Especially if you say the T word, tourist. 

The march of stupidity and the routines of tourism are even more monotonous than those of daily life. I would never do a tour in Stockholm, that is too old school, too sacred...a royal pain!

 In an excursion, when you are always sure of reaching your destination, where everything is so well arranged, souvenir shops sell made-in-China-junk,(adding drywall to the tainted pet food and lead-painted toys), taking a tour is a kind of self induced torture, like going on a  wild stuffed animal safari, with stupid rules like  Do not feed the animals and  No flash photography applying. When you have taken enough of these  tours, however,each additional one you may ever take again, is both unbearable and trifling. Saint Petersburg´s  Hermitage and  Rome´s The Vatican come to mind.

We travel, some of us forever, to seek other states, other lives, other souls Anais Nin

Impossible Is Nothing

I stayed  four months in Stockholm in 1995; with the obstacles, the fatigue, the ambiguity, and even the danger. In a very practical way, it was the act of rebirth. I delt with completely new situations; the days passed more slowly, and most of the time, I didn't even understand the language the people spoke.It actually made me more accessible to others, because they helped me out in difficult situations. Nobody  remains quite what they are when they recognizes themselves.

The idea occurred to me when I was there. At first it was only a vague idea, a question looming — what should I do? — with an answer taking shape: nothing.

Doing nothing  always carries with it the sense of violation, of sacrilege.It´s evil, dangerous, and  subversive, at least for we Americans. It´s a poor workman who blames his tool, and doing nothing is a powerful one. The time I enjoyed wasting in Sweden wasn´t wasted time. I made some great friends.