I’ve only been outside for a couple of minutes but I’m already utterly and completely drenched. My shirt clings to my back like a wet dish cloth, my jeans are heavy with water, sticking to my thighs. Every time I brake or change gear, a torrent of cold water runs down my legs and sloshes around in my shoes. When I speed up the heavy drops pound my chest like a fistful of marbles, I’m suffering unmatched levels of discomfort. I see the light turn green and the riders preceding me hit a giant puddle on the opposite side of … Read the rest
We are in the central chamber of a stone age tomb, a vault of crudely cut megalith blocks above us and outside that, a great mound of earth covered in grass. The guide turns off the tourist friendly electric lights and the chamber goes completely dark except for some dim light spilling in through the passageway. She turns on the light simulating the equinox sun and a golden ray shoots along the floor, filling the passage with brilliant golden light and grows in luminescence until it culminates in a thin point on a spot precisely calculated by ancient astronomers. Though … Read the rest
We have stumbled upon this place more or less at random. We only stopped at the reservoir for a quick rest before going home, but impulsively decided to circumnavigate the lake, just for fun. And here, on the small road around it, we found this place, a Christian graveyard. The steep hillside is terraced in numerous levels, kind of like the spectator gallery at a sports arena but instead of seats, there are walkways lined with graves; rows and rows of what looks like sarcophagi with slab headstones at one end. Then only difference between them is the color of … Read the rest
I’m standing in a garden on a kind of a raised dais looking out over the street. Or, I say street but it’s more like a long stretched park of meticulously planted greenery, slate rimmed ponds, and plenty of fountains. Both sides of the park come pedestrian boulevard are lined with futuristic looking office blocks, with facades of brushed aluminum and glass. It’s like something out of a sci-fi movie; an off world paradise for the rich full of luxury and high-tech gadgets, with the rest of humanity stuck on the burnt out wasteland that the earth has become. However, … Read the rest
We have just passed through the clouds, and so too, apparently, has the sun. For when you leave the colorful sunrise behind and come down beneath the cloud cover, you kind of expect the day to be dreary and grey. What a surprise then to be greeted, as you leave the layer of mist behind, by a brilliant, dazzling golden light that fills up the otherwise dismal world with warmth and brightness. A fleeting moment of bliss that dissipates as the golden glow fades.… Read the rest
The world outside the window is bleak and grey. The bare tree trunks form grey shadows against the milky white sky, the thin branches radiating skywards like so many fingers. The buildings in the distance look deserted, like empty shells. We pass over some water but it is inky black, not a ripple on the surface, with sheets of broken ice floating dismally by the edge. The ground, clear of snow and ice despite the season is either a naked soil black or covered in sickly yellow grass. The dead world outside mirrors the emptiness inside me, a desolation of … Read the rest
The view from up here is magnificent; all around in the distance the stupendous mountains of the Swiss Alps, snow-clad broken tips and bare cliff faces. The sky is overcast but lively and and on the horizon, just above the mountain tops, is a gap in the clouds showing a strip of azure blue. The weather however is bad, my provisional winter clothes that have worked well so far, are insufficient to withstand the cold. The wind blows icy needles into my face that sting my eyes and my hands quickly turn to frozen lumps. I cannot remain here. No … Read the rest
It’s drizzling, not very heavily, but enough to make the world damp: a steady layer of water on the road surface that soaks through my shoes when I set my feet down; drops all over my clothes that collect in little puddles in the folds of my jacket, and spray coming off the wheels of passing cars. As soon as the needle of the speedometer indicates more than 40, the droplets hitting my face feel like a sand blaster, and the chill of the air is quickly transferred to my bare hands. General all around misery! But there is one … Read the rest
The smell of fresh pork meat pervades the surprisingly lively street market. Despite the hour, very late, or very early depending on your perspective, vendors are setting up their stalls and preparing their wares for sale. To my right, men are cutting up freshly butchered pork, from which arises that special smell which we buyers of Styrofoam packed meat are not used to. To the left women are sorting various vegetables and putting them up for display. All around, men are unloading boxes of produce from delivery trucks, or zipping around on motorcycles. There are no customers yet, so far … Read the rest
“That weird light is back!” The thought occurs the moment I step outside. It’s the same as when leaving work one evening, about two months ago. Sunlight is slanting in past grey tufts of cloud, moisture in the air, not quite thick enough to be fog, diffuses the orange sunset glow, steeping everything in a strange, pinkish yellow hue, like watching the world through tinted glasses. The multitude of droplets just sort of floating in the air make the power lines over the train track buzz and crackle menacingly, but there is no forboding this time, just a lazy feeling … Read the rest
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