November 2013 – Page 2

November 6, 2013November 5, 2013

Bergen Funicular Provides a Spectacular View

An easy walk from the wharf area to the funicular.

One summer’s evening I went for an after dinner walk and rode the Floibanen funicular in Bergen, Norway. A funicular, according to Wikipedia, is “a cable railway in which a cable attached to a pair of tram-like vehicles on rails moves them up and down a steep slope; the ascending and descending vehicles counterbalance each other.” I makes for a quick ascent in comfort. There are glimpses of Bergen along the way with the final big reward at the top. The views of Bergen are spectacular.

The Floibanen takes about 8 minutes to reach Floyen at 320 meters above sea level. Floyen offers a restaurant, souvenir shop and snacks. After admiring the view and taking pics, I bought a bottle of water and began the approximately 30 minute walk downhill to town.

Modern and comfortable way to ascend to Floyen.

All along the way there sights to admire–interesting plants and birds, exuberant Norwegians exercising, beautiful homes and neighborhoods. I had an interesting conversation with a local who drives in to use the trail for exercise. She shared the current housing prices ($4 million NOK, July 2013) and tolls to enter center of town by car (just increased from 9 NOK to 20 NOK) and other local knowledge. Living in Norway is expensive!

It was terrific exercise–I felt it in my legs for the next couple of days–and good practice for Pulpit’s Rock.

This is affordable entertainment: adults can ride one-way for 40 NOK or 80 NOK return. Children ride for half the price and a family of four can travel for 200 NOK.

It is a 10 minute walk from the cruise ship wharf to the bottom station if you are stopping for the day in Bergen.

This was my first ride on a funicular and I began to notice how many places have one–to Notre Dame Cathedral in Lyon, to Sacre de Coeur in Paris. Recently I used the cable car version of a funicular in Wellington to quickly get to the top of the Botanic Gardens. It is novel transportation and saves your legs when you are trying to see as much of a place on foot in a day.

November 4, 2013November 2, 2013

Travel is Life

I am participating in National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo, this month. I have several longer travel-writing projects I want to pursue and I am challenged with carving out the time needed to complete these and get them to publication. I am excited about this challenge. I completed a 50,000+ word novel in 2011 while I was living in St Heliers, Auckland and it helped me discover myself as a writer. I wrote the first draft to a mystery novel called Death by Sand and Gravel. Over time I discovered that I make a better travel writer than mistress of mysteries, so I am using November to recommit to a more disciplined approach to my writing life.

November is National Novel Writing Month.

The reward will be a couple of long essays that I can independently publish through On Your Radar Media Company and many, many blog posts. There are other rewards. To write “The Hip and Chic Knitter’s Guide to Norway,” I will also knit a pretty-in-pink project that I purchased in Bergen. This will involve some pattern translation challenges and may involve interviewing other knitters who regularly translate patterns from other languages into English. This child’s sweater will also be a Christmas gift for a friend’s daughter. (Sorry to remind you that Christmas is coming.)

Thinking through how I am going to translate this pattern–asking my friend Susie in Sweden to help me and coordinate with her friends in Stavanger–got me to thinking about how travel is no longer a time set aside with strict bookends. At one time it felt like my “self” on adventures abroad was somehow different that the duller, more cautious Julie who lived a work-a-day life in NorCal. At some point, my travels and the friends I made on my adventures became so numerous that they could not be easily contained in a 2 week time slot called “vacation.” The transition was complete when I redesigned my life to be less about earning a paycheck and more about living a full life. I now have as many or more friends living abroad and I see my travel adventures as bright colored threads woven into my life tapestry, not a separate scarf only donned at the airport. Nor are my work threads the beige neutral threads in my life; they are full of vibrant color too.

November 2, 2013November 5, 2013

My Renewed Passport in the Post!

I just got my renewed passport in the mail. It was a quick turnaround taking just 2 weeks without paying extra for speed. I mailed it on October 16, which turned out to be the last day of the federal government shutdown. Maybe mailing it on that day sounds like an act of faith, but I brimmed with confidence in the State Department and the US Postal Service when I dropped my old passport and my check in the mail. I have had a passport since I was 16 years old and I retain a certain nostalgic attachment to this travel document and the inscription inside: “The Secretary of State of the United States of America hereby requests all whom it may concern to permit the citizen/national of the United States named herein to pass without delay or hindrance and in case of need to give all lawful aid and protection.”

When I renewed my passport in the past they returned my old passport with a hole drilled through it like a used deck of cards from a casino. Alas, this time I did not get my retired passport back. Gone forever are the stickers from The Kingdom of Cambodia and 10 years of country stamps (when I could get customs to stamp it).

My new passport is covered in stiffer navy blue paper and every page is designed to inspire, from the Liberty Bell and quote from George Washington, “Let us raise a standard to which the wise and honest can repair,” to a space vehicle on the back inside cover. Does this mean that I will need my passport if I go on a voyage to the moon?

There is new electronic technology incorporated so there is a new admonition to not bend or “expose to extreme temperatures,” so if I go to Antarctica I will need to insulate my passport! There is also a new page of important website addresses that made me look for the ubiquitous, “Like us on Facebook.” I guess the State Department has not stooped to that yet.

My overall impression is a document that is no longer as serious as dignified as passports of yore. In fact, it rivals the US Park Service “passport” for information and childlike inspiration with drawings of eagles, buffalo, cowboys and longhorns. However, it acts as the passport to enter foreign countries and legally return home and that is serious and inspiring.

UPDATE: I received my old passport in the mail on November 4. Not sure why it was sent separately, just glad to be reunited.