All Factions in Iraq Agree on One Thing

Quoth Roz Kaveny:

All of the religious factions and militias and Kurdish nationalists and government police in Iraq have one thing that they can agree on, which is killing queers.

Most weeks, three or four people are hacked, stoned, burned or shot to death for being lesbian, gay, bi or trans. The highest Shia religious dignitary Sistani has again promulgated a fatwa calling for the execution of all non-repentant LGBT people - people talk of him as a liberal and in this degree he is - he allows people to repent on pain of death when most of his rivals would just kill. Contacted by the UN about this campaign of murder, the Iraqi government has refused to acknowledge that it is even a problem.

Because despite everthing I am still immersed in het privilege, this never occurred to me. But once you call it to my attention it is so completely obvious.

Sad, angry-making, chilling, creepy. But obvious.

If you complain you disappear, just like the lesbians and queers — Pete Townshend, "Helpless Dancer"

The Surge of Abstinence Education Will Succeed in a Friedman Unit

As we all know, abstinence-based sex education doesn't work to promote abstinence among the young people who receive it.

But wait...! Barbara Ehrenriech has spoken to abstinence-education advocate Joneen Mackenzie, executive director of WAIT (abbreviation for "Why Am I Tempted?"), and asked her about this:

There is, however, one shadow hanging over the abstinence training industry. A study commissioned by Congress revealed in April that abstinence training doesn't work: Students exposed to such training turn out to be no less likely to have sex than those who are not, leading some to question the over $100 million the Federal government spends on it annually. Mackenzie dismissed the study out of hand, saying it had been undertaken before serious abstinence training really got off the ground.

In other words, it's just like Iraq: We need to allow more time for the surge of abstinence-based education to work.

(via Avedon Carol)

Europe Trip: Part 3 of 3 - Amsterdam

Westerkerk Originally uploaded by abostick59.

After six nights in Lund this past June and two nights in Copenhagen, we spent five nights in Amsterdam as the guests of Julie Phillips and Jan van Houten, before returning home by way of a ferry across the North Sea to London. I kept a journal thoughout this trip. Here is that journal, lightly edited to remove some non-travel-related material.

Thanks once again to Kathy Walton for goosing me into putting this trip report together.

Europe Trip: Part 1 of 3 - Lund
Europe Trip: Part 2 of 3 - Copenhagen

6-26-2007

Tuesday morning in Amsterdam.

I awoke several times in the night, disturbed by sore throat, clogged sinuses, and dry mouth. At 5:00 AM, I got up to take a Loratidin and some ibuprofen, and these made things much more comfortable for me.

After getting my writing done, and eating some breakfast, Debbie and I got our act together to go out exploring the city. Before we left, Debbie had done a load of laundry, and we had hung it up on a rack indoors to dry. Debbie's idea was just to walk around, getting a feel for the place. We had a general idea of finding a place where we could both eat and use free wifi for internet connectivity. We walked east into the center of the city, then south a ways, then to the north again. We had found one internet cafe that was also a "coffeeshop," i.e. a place to smoke marijuana and hashish. We decided to hold that out in reserve, and kept looking.

Eventually we got to the stage where hunger was more important than internet, and we chose a Chinese restaurant to eat our lunch. I had a very tasty barbecue pork with noodle soup, and Debbie had duck, barbecue pork, and crispy pork over rice.

Red Light District Originally uploaded by abostick59.

From there we explored into the city center, seeking the red-light district, which is said to be interesting and fun during the day. We found its edges and skirted them for a while, then consulted a map and turned inward, northward, towards the Oude Kerke. We found the red light district, and were impressed. We didn't actually walk down any of the very narrow lanes lined with prostitutes' windows.

Dam Originally uploaded by abostick59.

We sat in the Dam for a while, then sought out the Internet cafe and coffeeshop we had found before. It turned out that they hand no wireless, only desktop computers on which one could rent time. We opted to rent a half hour and to buy a joint for me to smoke. It was a mild weed, easy for me to control the buzz I got, and I wound up smoking the whole thing.

Then we went walking in search of the waterfront. I had gotten my directions turned around, and we walked south, away from the river, following a canal as it looped around the center of the city, and then joined the Amstel river. Debbie got tired and unhappy, and said she wanted to get something to drink. We found a cafe and got seated under the broad umbrellas. I ordered capuccino and she ordered hot chocolate. While we drank our hot drinks, the skies opened up and it began to thunder. We stayed outside for a while, but the wind picked up also, and we were at length compelled to move inside.

While we finished our drinks, I ascertained from the guidebook our location, at the Waterlooplein, and found that we were one tram-ride away from the Westermarkt stop close to Julie and Jan's apartment. So when the rain let up we went to the tram stop and caught a tram that took us home. The tram operator waved away Debbie's strippenkart — the multiple-use ticket used for transit here — so we wound up getting home for free.

We walked a main street until we found a wine shop to buy a bottle of wine for dinner — Debbie picked out a Beaujolais — and then returned to Jan and Julie's flat. We vegetated for a while until dinner, and had a pleasant meal of pasta with a Bolognese sauce that Julie had thrown together. Jan and Julie showed us historical atlases of the city and the region, and then we spent the later part of the evening relaxing. I worked through a bunch of sudoku puzzles. We wound up going to bed shortly before 11:00 PM.

6-27-2007

Wednesday morning in Amsterdam. Yesterday was a cold, wet, and blustery day. Debbie went off to the Anne Frank Museum, which is a short walk from here, while I did my morning writing. She came back with the report that there is a cafe with free wifi and Internet access there. We went out to have bagels with lox and cream cheese, and spent time on the net. I did the most cursory sweep of the net, not really having the attention span to devote to it.

After our Internet breakfast, we returned to the flat, and prepared to set out for the day. Our original plan was museums, but I wanted more time to walk around the city, and Debbie was seeming unhappy and grumpy. I suggested that we go our separate ways, and she was uncomfortable with that. I went on to say that what I really wanted to do was explore the city, and she responded really positively, and so we prepared to set out.

Emily Dickinson House Originally uploaded by abostick59.

We walked north along the nearest canal until we came to the waterfront, and headed along it to the central train station. Then we walked back into the city until we came to the Dam. This seemed like a good time to go to a coffeeshop, and so I bought a lighter at a souvenir store, and we picked a comfortable-looking place. There I bought a gram of sensimilla for fifteen euros. I had to roll my own joint this time, and rolled a small one using only a smallish fraction of the weed. Debbie and I shared the joint, smoking it down to a moderate-sized roach. Then we went on our way again, this time looking for the Emily Dickinson house. This house has a verse of Dickinson's painted on its wall, and as far as we know has no other connection with her.

Bronze Komodo Dragons Originally uploaded by abostick59.

The curves of the streets and canals are confusing, but at length we did find the house. I got some pictures, and also pictures of a grassy square in which were placed cast bronze statues of Komodo dragons.

Hemp Shop Originally uploaded by abostick59.

Then we headed back on the tram to the area where we planned to have dinner, at an Indonesian restaurant, where Debbie was hoping to eat a rijsttafel. We had considerable time until dinner at that point, so she suggested that we split up. She browsed some bookstores, and I went wandering towards the Dam and the Red Light District, taking pictures of what caught my eye and was photographable.

Then we rendezvoused for dinner, which was excellent. We ordered the smallest of the three choices, with eleven dishes (including a dish of coconut condiment) and it turned out to be more than we could eat.

Rijsttafel Originally uploaded by abostick59.

After dinner, carrying our packed leftovers, we walked once more to the Dam and the city center. We stopped off in the same coffeeshop for coffee and tea and to smoke a bit more, then we went windowshopping for a gift for our friend Phoenix Jackson back home. We found a hemp pouch at the Hash Museum, and then headed back home.

Once here, we had a long conversation with Julie, sitting in our bedroom, about how she came to live in Amsterdam. I get the impression that she is hungry for English-language conversation. Then to bed.

6-28-2007

Thursday morning in Amsterdam.

Amsterdam Canal Boat Tour Originally uploaded by abostick59.

Yesterday I was a bit slow to get up, but I wrote my dreaming and morning writing, and then followed Debbie to the cafe beside the Anne Frank Huis for Internet connectivity. I was able only to read some headlines and upload some pictures to Flickr before it was time for us to catch our tour boat, leaving right there on the canal, to circle the city and take us to the museum quarter.

Amsterdam Grafitti Art Originally uploaded by abostick59.

It was a long boat ride — the Anne Frank Huis is the last stop on a seven-stop route around the city, and the museum quarter was stop number six, so we saw virtually the whole tour, including a stretch on the river Ij, which serves as Amsterdam's waterfront. I took lots of pictures.

We got to the museum quarter and first went to the Van Gogh museum. This seemed somewhat of a disappointment, as what it seemed to have, mostly, was a collection of Van Gogh's minor work, with a few of the more known pieces, including some of the self-portraits and "Wheatfield with Crows." We wound up staying there only about an hour.

We had lunch in a cafe — I ate a hamburger and fried potatoes, Debbie had a pannekoek with ham — and then went to the Rijksmuseum. We didn't spend that much time here, either, although there was much more to see. These seem to be pictures that one would have to get to know to really appreciate. There were a number of Rembrandts, including "The Night Watch," some Vermeers, and a number of notable paintings by an artist named Van Steen.

We left the museum and waited for the next boat, which was due in about ten minutes after we arrived — it was at this point 4:30 PM. We took the boat the one stop back to the Anne Frank Huis, and then walked along the Rosengracht to find a coffeeshop to smoke and have a Coke, and then find something to bring back to contribute to dinner. Debbie had hoped to find some good bread; but the only bread store we saw was closed. We settled for a chunk of aged gouda cheese from a delicatessen.

Jan and Julie's Balcony Originally uploaded by abostick59.

Then back to the flat, where Jan and Julie and the kids, Eise and Josske, were all there. The plan for dinner was pannekoeken, and the cheese was a good contribution to the side. It is quite tasty.

The remainder of the evening was quiet. Debbie and Julie talked some in the living room; I drafted a brief blog post on which to hang one of yesterday's photographs.

Today the plan is for me to head to the cafe for breakfast and Internet for a while, and then for us to go with Julie to the Hague, to look at some museums and see sights, and to be Julie's entourage when she reads from the Tiptree biography at a bookstore there. Tomorrow we take the train to the ferry to Britain, and thence take another train to London. That trip will take about eleven hours all told, and we are both looking forward to it.

6-29-2007

Friday morning in Amsterdam.

Yesterday, after finishing my morning writing, I took my PowerBook to the lunch cafe by the Anne Frank Huis to connect with the Internet, check email, and so forth. Lynn Kendall was online, and so I chatted with her for a bit. While I did so, I uploaded the post to As I Please that I had drafted the night before and filled in the links to the relevant picture on Flickr.

I returned to the apartment just before 11:00 AM, as planned, so as to be ready for Julie when she was ready for the three of us to head off to the Hague. Between one thing and another we weren't out the door until about 11:45, and we got to Central Station just at noon. We got train tickets and sandwiches, and then got on our train, which whisked us away across the flat Dutch countryside.

The Hague Originally uploaded by abostick59.

We tunneled under Schiphol Airport, and passed through Leiden before arriving at the Hague just about at 1:00 PM. We walked from the station to the center of town, where the houses of parliament and the Mauritshuis are located. The Mauritshuis is a museum of old Dutch master paintings, including some of those of Jan Vermeer, including "Girl with a Pearl Earring." We wandered slowly through the halls of the museum, taking more time or less with the various paintings as we gauged their interest. Some of the use of light in landscape paintings reminded me of the Hudson River School in America, and I wondered about the possible connection, given the fact that the first Europeans to settle the Hudson River valley were Dutch.

Beach at Scheveningen Originally uploaded by abostick59.

After finishing in the museum, we sat for a bit in a plaza. Then we took a bus to Scheveningen, the adjoining beach town. There we stopped for drinks in a beach club, then walked along the beach as far as the lower walkway went, to the end of the long row of beach clubs. We then crossed inland and walked back along the road. We found a sculpture garden full of bronze sculptures, sort of in the manner of the style of William Joyce, illustrating various scenes from children's stories. The artist's name was Tom Otterness.

Tom Otterness Sculpture Originally uploaded by abostick59.

We caught a tram back to the Hague, and went to the bookstore where Julie would be reading that evening. She checked in with the manager, and got some recommendations of good place to eat.

We ate at a nearby restaurant that at night was also a music venue. Their sound system played American jazz, R&B (such as Aretha Franklin), and some early rock & roll (like Elvis Presley's "That's All Right"). Debbie and I ordered hambugers, which turned out to be enormous, and Julie had a ribeye steak.

Julie Phillips Reads Originally uploaded by abostick59.

The reading went nominally. Julie was anxious about what she would read and how she presented it, but it seemed to me that everything went fine. Because Julie had asked, Debbie gave some advice as to how to make her presentation tighter. But we all agreed that it went well as it did.

Tiptree Books on Display Originally uploaded by abostick59.

We got to the train station just a couple of minutes too late to catch the direct train to Amsterdam, so instead we took a local train to Haarlem that passed through Leiden. On the platform in Leiden Debbie noticed that the train across the platform was going to Amsterdam, so we quickly left to change trains. We got home shortly past 10:00 PM. Debbie and Julie sorted out the details of our train-and-ferry trip to London today, and discovered that we were to have received in the mail train tickets for the leg from Amsterdam to the ferry terminal on the North Sea. Debbie sent a not-quite-panicky email to the people who took the reservation, and also noted that they open at 8:15 AM. This morning she called them and was told that we should buy one-way tickets to the ferry and get refunded when we pick up our tickets at the ferry terminal. All seems to be well.

6-30-2007

Saturday, en route from London to New York.

Yesterday was almost completely smooth travel. We put ourselves together in the morning and said our goodbyes to Jan, Julie, and Jooske (Eise had gone somewhere, to school perhaps, before we got up). We walked to the Internet cafe to have breakfast and catch up on email. Then we took the tram to Centraal Stazione. Debbie had been told by the people who arranged our trip to London to buy one-way tickets to Hoek van Holland and get reimbursed by the ferry operators. The train ride was a bit anxious-making, involving changing trains in Schiedam on a rainy platform, waiting for the correct train, and not being sure we were going the correct direction. But it all worked out, and the train platform in Hoek van Holland was a short walk away from the ferry terminal.

But boarding was too quick to settle out the train tickets, and so we hustled onto the ferry. The boat was huge, rather like a cruise ship; except that it was loading a cargo of eighteen-wheel trailer trucks. We spent essentially all our time on the lounge deck, which had restaurants, a duty-free shop, blackjack table and roulette wheel, bar, movie theater, and other amenities. The experience was like a cross between riding on a plane or train and spending time in a spacious and comfortable departure lounge waiting to board that plane or train.

We had "deck seats," which turned out to be seating in an enclosed, reserved area where free coffee, tea and soft drinks were provided. At the price they were charging in the restaurant for cokes and coffee, I think I made up the extra price of the reserved seat in consumed beverages, although perhaps Debbie did not.

I did a bunch of sudoku puzzles. Debbie and I watched two episodes of Firefly. The voyage was about six hours all told. Debarking was slow, complicated by a bus ride from the vehicle deck to the passenger facilities of the port. Passport control was incredibly slow, apparently because the manager was watching over the young clerks who were therefore being very thorough with every arriving passenger.

We got our train refund settled out at the ticket counter, and waited for our train for London. We had missed, thanks to the passport line, the 9:00 PM train, so we had to wait for the 10:00. This required a change of trains, which fortunately was well-timed and quick. But it was approaching midnight when we arrived at Liverpool Street Station and transferred to the tube. We went to the King's Cross/St. Pancras station, which ought to have been a short walk to our hotel for the night. But because we hadn't noticed that the street we wanted changed its name as it crossed Euston Road, we walked too far and looped around back. We found the hotel by guesswork that turned out to be inspired. We checked in at about quarter of one in the morning.

The clock in the room didn't work, so I set up my PowerBook to function as an alarm clock. But my sleep was anxious, and I woke several times to check the time, the last one being 6:00, at which point I decided to get up and shower.

Betwen one thing and another weh got out of the hotel at the time we expected to, 7:30 AM, but the train took longer than we anticipated to get to the airport, and we were there after 8:30. The airline whisked us through an otherwise horrendously long checkout line, and sent us up to Security, which was nominally slow. We made our plane with time to spare, but not much. Once we were seated in the plane and everything was okay, I went to pieces for a while, tearing up. Not enough sleep, no food, and the relief of stress. I napped while the plane took off and got up to altitude; once cabin service started I turned to writing.

7-2-2007

Monday morning I missed yesterday's writing, because I was tired and jetlagged.

On Saturday the flight from London to New York was nominal. I slept some on the plane, I watched a movie (The Lion in Winter), I did sudoku puzzles, and so on. The seat was reasonably comfortable.

Once we arrived in New York, we had to wait in a significant line to get through passport control. Then we had to wait in a brief line to get our luggage through customs. Then another significant line to the counter to re-check our suitcase. From there, we discovered that we were outside the security cordon, so we had to wait in yet another line to be passed through the metal detectors once again. This is not okay.

We found our gate, and found a restaurant where we could get something to eat. Debbie had a chicken quesedilla, and I had a teriyaki chicken stir-fry which was lacking in vegetables for four dollars more than Debbie's meal, while looking like less food value.

The plane from JFK to SFO was much more cramped and crowded than the transatlantic plane. American Airlines is pretty thoroughly committed to the policy of torturing economy passengers on its domestic flights, while providing business and first class passengers with exaggeratedly comfortable seats. This is a villainous policy.

We survived the flight, and after a wait at the carousel to pick up our suitcase, we met Lynn Kendall at the curbside. Lynn drove us home.

Europe Trip: Part 2 of 3 - Copenhagen

Swans Originally uploaded by abostick59.

It is my practice to try to write five hundred words of something every day, ideally first thing in the morning. By the rules I have set myself, they can be about anything at all, or nothing, but generally what they turn out to be is reporting on the events of the previous day. I have been doing this since the beginning of the year, and I kept it up through Debbie's and my vacation in Europe last June. It has been this morning writing, with the non-travel-related bits taken out, that is the basis for this trip report.

Europe Trip: Part 1 of 3 - Lund
Europe Trip: Part 3 of 3 - Amsterdam

6-23-2007

Saturday morning, in Copenhagen.

Yesterday morning, I wrote while eating breakfast. The plan was that David would meet us at the hotel at 10:00 AM, which he did. We got packed, and checked out, and headed up to the Kulturen Museet to check out the Midsummer preparations. It had rained heavily durning the night, and it was still steadily sprinkling. Nothing would really start happening until noon. We decided to go to the Villa Nottle and hang out there, deciding what to do next.

What we decided was that Debbie, Cathy, and Emma would go to the Midsummer activities, while David, Akiva, and I stayed behind in the apartment. I would meet Debbie at the hotel at 1:30 PM, where we would pick up our luggage and head for the train station. Which is what we did.

We caught the train for Copenhagen just before 2:00 PM, and arrived at about 3:00. We found our way to the hotel, a couple of blocks away from the central train station, and got checked in.

We talked some about what to do. Debbie had been feeling the burden of planning everything and through it on me. That afternoon was the best time, it seemed , to visit Christiania, the self-proclaimed free city on the site of old military barracks. I mapped out a route to walk there, and we followed it.

I don't know how to describe Christiania. Debbie seemed to have a sense of how it worked and what the mindset was in a way that continues to escape me.

We walked along Pusher Street and found a food court where we could buy hamburgers and pommes frittes. Deb had been feeling quite hungry. I had hoped that food would help Debbie's mood, and perhaps it did. Afterwards, we walked through more residential and pastoral parts of the place, and talked about what it meant.

Then we headed back. We walked together to the Christianhavn Metro station. Deb had said earlier about what would be best for her would be to be alone for a while. I suggested that she take some sort of transit back to the hotel, while I walked. She had said that walking was out of the question for her. She agreed readily. I walked back along a different route, along the pedestrian mall that was the main tourist shopping district in the city. I got to the hotel room perhaps ten minutes before Debbie did.

After sitting and doing not much of anything, I got the computer set up to use the hotel's free wifi. It was after 9:00 PM at this point, and I didn't have much mindshare left for actual surfing or blogging.

We watched an episode of Firefly using my PowerBook as a DVD player, and I went to sleep immediately afterwards. I was woken up by the sound of voices in the street at about 4:00 AM (it was quite light), but soon fell asleep again. We roused ourselves at 8 (Deb had been up earlier, using the computer) to go downstairs for breakfast. We came back up, and I got this writing done.

6-24-2007

It is Sunday morning in Copenhagen. We have to get checked out of the hotel before 11:00 AM, and we have a 6:10 PM plane to catch to Amsterdam.

Blegdamsvej 17 Originally uploaded by abostick59.

Yesterday, we set out first to find Blegsdamvej 17, the site of what was once the home provided by the Carlsberg brewery to a distinguished Danish scientist and, when occupied by Niels Bohr was later converted into the Nordic Institute for Theoretical Physics. In the 1920s and 30s, it was the epicenter of the quantum revolution. Everyone who was anyone in the world of physics theory eventually made the pilgrimage to Blegdamsvej, and it sometimes seems like if one did and one managed to live long enough, one would eventually receive a Nobel Prize for one's role in the development of quantum theory.

So I have made my own pilgrimage, and got an assortment of pictures. Unfortunately, it was not the sort of place that was prepared for or welcoming of tourists. Debbie and I had cold drinks in a cafe across the street.

Oestre Anlaeg Vista Originally uploaded by abostick59.

We then walked through a series of parks, past the seventeenth-century earthwork fortification that guards the harbor, and had lunch in a cafe on the edge of Churchillparken. From there we walked along the waterfront to see the Little Mermaid. The statue was a tourist magnet, and at the same time I found myself tearing up at the thought of the story of the unfortunate woman of the sea who gave up everything she knew for the love of a sailor, and spent the rest of her days on land, every step feeling like walking on knives. She sits on a rock on the harborside and stares wistfully back at her home.

The Little Mermaid Originally uploaded by abostick59.

I had been telling Debbie earlier that Copenhagen, being a seaport capital, was more cosmopolitan and worldly than even Paris or London. The story of the Little Mermaid is a dream-expression of that cosmopolitan nature, the foreign-born sailor's wife pining for her home. I wonder what women gazed at her over the years and saw themselves?

Then we found the Museum of the Danish Resistance (which turned out to be the front side of the building of which the cafe where we ate was the back). We spent maybe forty-five minutes there looking at the relics of the history of Denmark during the Second World War and the Nazi occupation.

From there, we made our way back to the hotel, and took some downtime. After that, we went out again to walk through the shopping district and find the restaurant, Riz Raz, that David and Cathy had recommended to us. It was perfectly adequate for the money, but nothing special. Then we walked back, while I ate an ice cream cone. An episode of Firefly ("Objects in Space") and then bed. I slept soundly, but we were both woken by the sound of nearby fireworks some time like midnight.

6-25-2007

Monday morning in Amsterdam.

Botanical Garden, Copenhagen Originally uploaded by abostick59.

Yesterday morning we got up for breakfast some time around 8;00 AM, although it isn't clear, because the church bells that normally rang at 8 other mornings rang at 9:30 on Sunday morning. I finished my writing and was on the Internet, uploading some photographs to Flickr so I could post one or two to As I Please. I had just started to draft a post when the time came to pack up our things so we could check out of the hotel before 11:00 AM.

The plan for the day we had settled on was to take the S-Train to Østerport, walk through the same park we had walked through before, and arrive at the Botanical Gardens and spend some time there. If timing worked, it was my thought that we would also look at the National Art Museum, the massive edifice in the park, but we never got to it.

Hothouse Canopy Originally uploaded by abostick59.

We spent a little time in the hothouse, which was very warm and muggy, filled with tropical plants and trees. We climbed a spiral staircase and walked around the canopy of this forest. Then we went outside and sat for a while, looking at the vista of the gardens, with a round lily pond nearby and a larger lake further away.

Debbie and I walked around the lake in the gardens. We watched the ducks and other waterbirds (including some sort of crane or heron) in the lake. We found a place by the water to sit. Ducks approached us, hoping that we would be feeding them bread. We also saw turtles, one having climbed onto a log floating in the lake, and one poking its head above the water close to us.

We wandered on through the gardens, visiting the cactus hothouse, disappointed that the orchid hothouse was closed to the public. Then we left in search of food, wandering around a large block until we found a storefront that sold bagels and salads, with ice cream on the side. We each had a bagel with a topping, and a soft drink.

From there we walked through the Botanical Gardens again to the other side, across a plaza, and down one of the pedestrian malls back towards the Tivoli Gardens, the central railway station, and our hotel. We sat in the hotel lobby for a while until it was time to take the train to the airport.

The airport was an unexpected hassle. The line to check in was long and slow. Security was easy (although a guard took my backpack apart, searching for God knows what), but once through it, we had a wait to find out just from where our plane would be departing. Apparently, gates at Copenhagen airport are not assigned until the last minute. A long walk to the gate, and another wait until they announced boarding — getting into a line and waiting for a while before they slowly let us on the plane, checking each passenger's boarding pass and passport. The plane was completely full, but I wasn't too uncomfortable, and the flight was not long. I had a window seat, and was able to see sundogs reflected off the cloud cover beneath us.

Once we landed in Amsterdam, it was an even longer walk to the baggage claim area. I began to notice something about the Netherlands and its people: their sense of way and movement clash dramatically with mine, leaving me with the impression that they are intolerably rude. Part of me feels like I am an Ugly American for saying this; and at the same time I didn't feel this way in Sweden or Denmark.

Our train connections were easy and quick. Julie Phillips' directions to her family's flat were clear and easy to follow. The last straw of rudeness for me was the Dutchman who rode his bicycle onto the tram platform to consult the map, leaving no room for me to haul the wheeled suitcase past him. But it was just a short walk to the flat, and Julie and her husband Jan van Houten made us feel very welcome. I was too exhausted and cranky to show my appreciation, however.

As I woke up in the night, I became aware that I was getting a sore throat, and I definitely have one now. I don't feel otherwise under the weather, but I am concerned. I will try to take care of myself while trying to enjoy this city.

Europe Trip: Part 1 of 3 - Lund

Skårby Stone - Lund Kulturen Museet Originally uploaded by abostick59.

In June my partner Debbie Notkin and I traveled to northern Europe, to visit her brother David Notkin, who had been on sabbatical for a year at the University of Lund in Sweden, and David's family: Cathy Tuttle, his wife, and their fourteen-year-old daughter Emma Notkin and their nine-year-old son Akiva Notkin. Debbie and I also spent some time in Copenhagen, in Denmark, and the better part of a week in Amsterdam, in the Netherlands, staying with Julie Phillips, her husband Jan van Houten, and their son Eise and daughter Jooske.

Kathy Walton prodded me into putting this trip report together, lightly edited from my daily journal.

Europe Trip: Part 2 of 3 - Copenhagen
Europe Trip: Part 3 of 3 - Amsterdam

6-17-2007

It's 7:00 AM British summer time, which means that it's 11 PM yesterday in San Francisco.

The flight from Boston to London was uneventful, but rather more comfortable than the leg from San Francisco to Boston. One surprising thing about it was that the cabin crew ran out of afternoon snacks before they served the rear of the cabin. They'd had an accurate head count; it's just that the airline hadn't provided enough food. The flight attendants seemed genuinely mortified, so it did not appear to be a regular event.

We had a long wait in line at Immigration at Heathrow, but everything else was nominal. We took the shuttle bus to our airport hotel, checked in, had a late meal, and went to bed at 11:30 PM local time. Up at 4:30 AM to make our flight to Copenhagen.

Debbie had made a major blunder of memory: she remembered our flight as being on SAS when in fact it was on British Airways. The bad news was that this meant we had to make haste from Terminal 3 to Terminal 4. The good news was that because Terminal 3 is legendarily slow, we had arrived in plenty of time to get to the right place and checked in. All's well that ends well; now we are on the plane, waiting to depart, while the ground crew double-checks the baggage. There was a discrepancy in the bag count, apparently, and the security protocol requires them to double-check, matching bags to people on the manifest. It means that we sit here and wait until the cross-check is complete.

I am feeling tired and frustrated and irritable. I got at most two hour's sleep on the overnight journey from San Francisco to London, and only five hour's sleep in our layover. I want to rest.

I'm in a middle seat here, and Debbie is on the aisle. I'm feeling a bit cramped, largely because I'm writing. If the computer were put away, I would have more room and be more comfortable. Once I'm done here, I will try to get some more sleep.

Apparently at the Copenhagen airport we go downstairs to take a train — the train to Malmö — which goes over a bridge from Heligoland to Scandanavia. That should be interesting.

I made one crucial omission when packing: I did not remember to include the charger for the battery for my camera. That means that I only have so much battery with which to take pictures. I have not been in a picture-taking mood, but I do well on vacations, and I would like to document this trip at least some.

Reading Michael Pollan on an airplane leads me to make the connection between Confined Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs) and American airline seating configurations. This British Airways plane is comparably spacious to the American Airlines flight to London — which was a miracle of spaciousness compared to the AA domestic flights I have taken recently. Comparing beakless chickens in egglaying cages to people crammed into tiny seats — the similarity seems to me to be the indifference to the possibility that the crammed subjects suffer. Another thought that comes to mind are the "stress positions" used by abusive police and military authorities with the excuse that it isn't really torture.

Hotel Room View Originally uploaded by abostick59.

6-18-2007

We are in Lund, Sweden. Yesterday was a very long day.

The flight to Copenhagen was an easy one, once the ground crew found a way to sort out the luggage situation. I tried without success to sleep, and then took my book out to read, finishing it. When we got off the plane, the airport seemed deserted. The short line at the passport control checkpoint was just people ahead of us from the plane — our seats were close to the front. We made our way to the baggage claim area and waited while bags began to appear on the carousel.

My name was paged, in English, but in an announcement that didn't quite make sense. After a few moments' confusion we found the proper baggage handling desk, behind which was a woman who told me that my bag had not arrived with the plane, and that British Airways would arrange to have it delivered to us in Lund. I filled out a form that included my home address and phone, and our hotel address, plus David Notkin's mobile phone number.

We found our way to the train station where we would catch the train to Sweden. Just as Debbie had found a telephone and was attempting to use a credit card to call her brother, a train pulled into the station, and I called Debbie away from the phone. In that moment of confusion, apparently, she left behind the credit card. The train's arrival turned out to be a false alarm — the annunciators told us not to board. Four minutes behind it was the train to Malmö, which we caught with no problem, and learned would take us to Lund. Forty-five minutes later, including a ten minute stop in the central Malmö station, we were in Lund.

We were in Lund without any Swedish kroner, and unable to find a telephone, and when we did find it Debbie was unable to make it work with another credit card — it was at this point that we discovered that the previous card was missing. At length, Debbie went to an ATM and withdrew two thousand kroner with her ATM card. She bought me a sandwich in a store across the street, and while I sat with it, eating, she used the change to try the phone again, and reached David. After a brief wait, David, Cathy, and Emma came to meet us and escort us to our hotel.

I was in something of a state at this point, feeling too sleepy to think straight. The sandwich helped some, and so I imagined that Debbie could use food too.

Cathy and Emma went off on an errand to a pharmacist, while David took us to the hotel to get us checked in. We got our room keys, but it turned out that we had to wait a while for our room to be ready. We went outside and up the street a bit to a cafe, where I got some iced tea, and Debbie got a Greek salad. We talked with David some. At length, Cathy and Emma showed up, and Cathy passed me a box of loratadine — generic for Claritin — which was a great relief as my sinuses had been clogging and my eyes itching in reaction to the local pollen.

Debbie and I took our stuff to the room, and I fell over. Debbie went off to the family's apartment for a while. Then she came to doze with me on the bed.

At 7:30 PM, we met the family for dinner at another cafe, around the corner in a different direction. This time both Emma and Akiva joined us. Afterwards we walked to the apartment.

We returned to the hotel at approximately 10:00 PM, and went straight to bed. I read for a while (Half-Life by Shelly Jackson, one of this year's two Tiptree winners) and then went to sleep.

We woke up early, about 4:00 AM. We lay in bed for a while, and then at about 5:30 we got up and put one of the DVDs I had brought along into Cinnamon, and sat on the couch to watch. The DVD was Walk the Line. It was a smart thing to do, being relatively restful. Debbie took a shower, and I organized the money in my belt pouch. Then I got to my morning writing, which was interrupted by a woman from the hotel delivering a very nice breakfast of tea, toast, boiled eggs, yogurt, juice, and cheese. It was quite satisfying to eat while I wrote.

Lund Street Scene Originally uploaded by abostick59.

6-19-2007

Tuesday morning in Lund. Debbie and I spent the day taking it easy. After breakfast we went out to look at the nearby farmer's market, and walked to the train station so that Deb could buy a phone card. She used it to call the credit card company to report the missing card. We were walking towards the family apartment when we encountered David and Akiva. David was taking Akiva to the train to go meet some friends somewhere. Debbie and I waited a few minutes in a park by a fountain while David dropped Akiva off. When he rejoined us, we walked to the apartment, passing by the clinic where Emma had recently gotten medical help. David stressed how simple and cheap it was for her to get medical care, comparing it to someone in a similar situation visiting in the USA.

we got to the apartment and got settled in. It was easy hanging out at the Villa Nottle. People came in and out during the course of the day: a friend of Emma's; a colleague of David's, and so on. People went out on various errands, e.g. Debbie and Emma to the library. I went out in the afternoon to get a lunch. The place I had intended to go closed at 3:30 PM, and I had gone out at 3:20. So I wandered for a bit and found a pizza place where I got a smallish whole pizza to myself.

Afterwards, I went back and got some Internet time.

Cathy prepared a lovely dinner for the six of us: spaghetti with a variety of sauces to choose from to top it. The prize was one of garlic cloves that had been marinating for days in and sauteed in olive oil. There was also a tomato sauce, a jar of pesto that I didn't get a chance to try, and plenty of cheese to be freshly grated upon the pasta. Also bread, peas, carrot sticks, and fresh tomatoes. It was quite tasty, and the family company was pleasant.

Our suitcase is still missing. The British Airways' Web site luggage tracker indicates that it has been "located, awaiting confirmation." Debbie says if we don't get it by 2:00 PM this afternoon, she is going to turn into a flaming bitch, directed towards the airline.

We got back to the hotel room in the middle of the evening, about 8:30 or so. I washed my T-shirt, socks, and underwear in a bathroom sink and hung them over the radiator in the room to dry. We awoke at the time the clock said was 3:00 AM ... but after resting for a while and getting more sleep, the hotel maid knocked on our door at about 6 by that clock, which was really 8:00 AM. That clock was running slow, and so we got about two hours more sleep than we had thought.

6-20-2007

It's early Wednesday morning in Lund. I woke up between 4:30 and 4:45 AM and got up to piss, and have been unable to get back to sleep.

Yesterday after a leisurely breakfast, I took a shower (but not washing my hair) and we headed up to the Villa Nottle. We caught up on the Internet and made plans for the day. At length, Debbie and I accompanied David and Akiva to a bus stop across the street, waiting for the bus on which to put Akiva to visit friends. Then David pointed us to a museum in which we were interested, the Sketch Museum, and then headed off to his office. Before we went to the museum, though, we ate lunch at a falafel-and-kebab place on the edge of the University campus. I had a falafel plate that included french fries and a salad. Debbie got a falafel wrap that was too big for her. She wound up eating only half, wrapping it up, and stashing it in her belt pouch.

The Sketch Museum is a collection of drafts and sketches made by a variety of artists of work displayed in public places such as city halls, auditoria, public parks, and so on. I thought its organization was too overwhelming, with lots of things packed together, making it difficult for me to pick out something at which to look closely. If a person really cared, one could spend days and days in that museum working through it, getting a feeling for its contents. My eyes were glazing over after something like an hour, so where Debbie's.

Afterwards, we walked towards the apartment. Debbie changed course to check out church on the corner opposite to the apartment, while I went straight back. I got caught up in working out a sudoku puzzle that on the comics page of a local newspaper laying around the living room. Emma sat in a corner, reading and net surfing.

The family gathered together again in the early evening. David went to the bus stop to meet Akiva, and the rest of us started out to the same pizza restaurant where I had lunch on Monday. We reunited on the walk there. The conversation over dinner revolved around a topic that Akiva brought up: why are actors in a film more notable and famous than the director?

We returned to the apartment after eating, and Emma set up the laptop she uses so that she and Debbie (and anyone else who was interested, including me) could watch a favorite movie of hers: She's the Man, somewhat loosely adapted from Twelfth Night by Shakespeare. It was basically entertaining, but parts of it were painful, and it was imbued by a particular sort of gender essentialism that runs contrary to the cross-dressing fun that is the heart of the story. I found it interesting that the lead actress looked kind of boring to me when she was presenting as a girl, but done up as a boy she looked really hot to my eye, in ways that the born-boys in the film simply did not.

I was moved by the ending, which surprised me. Perhaps I was moved by the ending of the movie I wanted it to be.

We got back to the room shortly after 10:00 PM, which was good. Unfortunately, my sleep schedule hadn't adjusted yet, and I was awake (as I said) early in the morning.

6-21-2007

After finishing yesterday's breakfast, I showered and — at last! — washed my hair, which badly needed it. Debbie was ready before I was, and went down to the cafe outside.

I went out and found David and Debbie at the cafe. Deb was ordering her drink and ordered a cappucino for me. We sat and talked for a while, drinking our respective drinks. When Debbie and I had finished, we went for a short walk to the Tiger 10-kroner store to see what sort of tchachkes might be available. I didn't see anything I wanted enough to buy, but Debbie found a couple of things for house gifts

We returned to the cafe and saw that Emma had joined her father. I joked, "Jeeze, David, we leave you for five minutes and come back to find you with a hot babe!" We sat for a little bit, then went on our separate ways, with Emma leading Debbie and I to the grounds of her school. The school had been there and in continuous operation since the eleventh century, although none of the buildings were that old.

From there, Emma led us home, and we hung out there (me on the Internet) until David rejoined us. Debbie and I ate lunch of leftover pizza and falafel from the day before.

Lundagard Fountain Originally uploaded by abostick59.

David showed us where the Kulturen museum was located, on the far side of the Lundagard, then headed off on his own business. Debbie and I went into the museum, which seems to be a historical museum of the region with a vast collecion of archaeological material. They had special exhibits of modernist art (which we didn't see) and on the art of sexual desire (which we did). The desire exhibit struck me as lukewarm as an art exhibit, but I was entertained by the way in which the exhibition was fairly explicit (with giant drawings of erect penii as direction markers) and at the same time having young children — some accompanied by parents, others not — passing through it.

Interior of Lund Cathedral Originally uploaded by abostick59.

After we were museumed out, we went to the old cathedral to catch the English-language tour, but found that we were early. Debbie was grouchy and unhappy, and I decided that both of us were better off if we went our separate ways, so I returned to the apartment, where I poured over a sudoku puzzle for a while until I fell asleep, waking at around 5 PM when Debbie returned.

The family (sans Cathy) went out to dinner at an Indian buffet. We returned to the apartment to play Apples to Apples, but I kept nodding off, and bowed out of the game. At eight Debbie and I returned to our hotel, where I, at least, fell over into bed. I woke for a while around 3 AM, but got back to fitful sleep until Deb woke me at 7:00.

6-22-2007

Thursday morning in Lund. It is Midsummer Day, and the rain is pouring down. It rained all night.

Yesterday, after finishing my morning writing, we headed up to the Villa Nottle. The day was to be an expedition to the Swedish countryside. We were to go in two cars, accompanied by Emma's friend Laura and Laura's mother Eva. Debbie and I rode along with Emma in the car driven by David; Cathy, Akiva, and Laura rode in Eva's car.

It was our first chance to see how the city of Lund fit into the surrounding landscape. We have hitherto been walking around what is actually a fairly small area, lined with cobblestone streets and filled with old buildings. Following the main road out of town let us see how the medieval town center related to the more modern outskirts as well as the surrounding farmlands. Sweden is not heavily populated: it is about the size of California, and is occupied by some nine million people. Once we left the city, which took only about five minutes of driving, we were in the open countryside.

Viking Figurehead Originally uploaded by abostick59.

Our first destination was Foteviken, a restoration of a Viking settlement just outside Höllviken, a town on the coast whose name translates into "Viking Hall." Officially, Foteviken is an active restoration and museum of Viking lifestyle, akin to Old Sturbridge Village or Colonial Williamsburg in the US. People dress in Viking clothing and carry out typical daily tasks — smithing, fishing, making clothes, and so on. There is also, though, a strong element of the community members having chosen this lifestyle, as if they were opting out of larger society and choosing to live a simpler life as Vikings. I didn't think of it then, but the word coming to my mind now is "byworlders" (from the Poul Anderson story of the same title). Opting out is on my mind, because of Michal Pollan's profile of the grass farmers in The Omnivore's Dilemma.

Cathy Tuttle has been studying sustainable living while she has been living here. I feel as if I am missing an opportunity to learn something about it from her.

Thinghöll of Foteviken Originally uploaded by abostick59.

We were given an English-language tour of Foteviken by the community's leader. He showed us a couple of houses and the main hall — the Thinghöll — as well as some of the structures where work was done: the smithy, a wool-working area, and so on. He told us of the Viking Market that would take place the next week when Vikings from all over the world would gather at Foteviken. The gathering Vikings would be much more like Creative Anachronists than the dedicated byworlders here. I thought of the stories I had heard from the 1975 Aussiecon, where Vikings, described as the Australian analog of the SCA, put on a fighting demonstration.

After the tour, we visited the burial mound of King Fote, who gives Foteviken its name. Then we had a picnic lunch.

From there we drove to Skanör, a fishing and beach resort town a few kilometers away, and sat on the beach for a while. I took my sandals and socks off and wet my feet in the Öresund, then sat for a while on the sand with Cathy and Eva. Debbie and David sat on the seawall and talked alone, and the kids played in the water.

Färsk Fisk Originally uploaded by abostick59.

All day, the weather was grey and overcast, which made the beach tolerable, as at that time of day I don't think I would have lasted long under the full strength of the sun.

At length we got back together again, and drove back to Lund. I was nodding off in my seat by the time we got back.

The late afternoon and evening was spent in the Villa Nottle. I copied photographs from my camera to my PowerBook, and uploaded the best of them to Flickr. From there, I used one to anchor a brief vacation-blogging post to As I Please. Cathy prepared a lovely meal of salmon, with rice and peas to go along with it. I nodded off over the computer until it was time to go back to the hotel, where I went straight to bed.