bassline

Just found a cool interactive map and article from Good Magazine via Moleskinerie. The journeys included are both from fictional and real travels.

Travel through history



For the couch traveler in all of us:

When Spain commissioned Ferdinand Magellan to find a westward route to the Spice Islands in 1519, the explorer commanded five ships and 240 men. Six years later, nearly every member of the expedition, including its commander, was dead. When the American writer Jack Kerouac tried in 1951 to find the words to convey his wayward journey through the United States and Mexico, he commanded a typewriter and a massive stash of Benzedrine. After a few weeks, the first draft of On the Road was completed. These are just two of the journeys that have left indelible marks on our collective maps, and are endless sources of fascination. Here is compilation of some of the most famous jaunts of all time—both factual and fictional—that show us how far we’ve come, and where we might go next.


LINK

E's on her way. Her plane took off a few hours ago and I'm really excited to know that she's on her way. My day has been long but productive and I really need to sleep tonight. An overzealous mind kept me awake for a good bit of last night and I can't let that happen again tonight, so off to dreamland I go...

Coming down to the wire and things are getting done. The last few weeks have been crazy with me juggling to-do lists with everything but my tongue. Between working on the painting, getting my apartment straightened up, working and dealing with the eye infection, the computer issue and working, I've had a full plate. It's been a lot going on and hard to keep up with, but it all has been working out very well, so far. It helps to have friends like xionin to make life easier. Thanks, Xio!

( coming down to it )

Timing can be a bitch sometimes. E's flight arrives at JFK Airport around 9:30pm on November 30th. The plan is for her to catch a shuttle from the airport to Penn Station where I'll meet her and we'll take the train down to Philly. The problem is that it can take almost two hours to get from the airport to mid-town Manhattan. I was told that it could be less, but no one is sure.

The problem lies with the departure time of the last train out of New York-11:15pm. If we miss that one, we'll have to wait around for the next one out, which is at 3am. We'll just find a deli close to the station to eat and hang out until it's time to catch the train. Probably take her over to Times Square so she can see that and the outside of the Empire State Building. I'm planning on taking her up to New York in January, anyway, so this will be a bit of a tease.

.......

( art adrenaline )

Communication: E and Picasso

Waking up and realizing that I'm almost 10,000 miles from home for the first time is kind of bizarre to me. Not only that, but waking up next to someone you've only known as a voice or letters on a screen for the past few months is even stranger. Every time I looked at her, it was hard not to utter, "I can't believe I'm actually here and we're in the same space"

( just a little different )

La Hacienda Hotel Window

The short of it is, the trip was great...once I got there. All I have to say is this, my travel karma should be good for about five years after my experience, which cost me two days. Read on, if you dare...

( in the beginning...there was a mess )

Walking with *E*

I'm still taking in all that happened in those 10 short days. Not sure how to proceed because there's a ton of stuff I want to write about. Suffice to say that it was an amazing time and way too short. I haven't had much time to update because of the need to rest and returning to work yesterday. I'm slowly returning to my life here, but things are a looking a bit different now. The sensations left from the trip are still very strong and I feel like I still have one foot in Australia and one here. I've definitely been changed by this experience and am happier for it.

I'm back. Tired, happy, overwhelmed, sad, excited, jet-lagged, time-traveled, hopeful...


did I mention 'happy'?

There'll be much more later. Right after I sleep for a couple of days ;)

hope you are all well :)

*E* is in the shower. Tomorrow is my last day here and I really don't want to leave so soon, but I have to. I've had a much greater time than I could have imagined here: great sights, people, clean public toilets everywhere...

The time spent with *E* has been the best I've had with anyone in a very long time. We can make each other laugh with the slightest of looks. It feels like we've known each other for years instead of months. Leaving is going to be difficult, but we're working on seeing each other again in the coming months.

I met her parents, brother, sister-in-law, and best friend over the past few days. So far, so good. Things have turned out very well with them, which makes me feel better. I was almost more nevous about meeting her friends than the parents.

I have a ton of photos to go through which also means lots of material for posts when I return. It's going to be strange trying to get back to my daily routine after this trip, but I'll have something to look forward to in a few months when *E* comes to the states, hopefully in October.

I'm here in Sydney, safe and sound. Only after much travel-related drama, which I'll recount in more detail later. The short version is that my trip, until earlier tonight, was plagued by travel issues I'm sure everyone experiences once or twice, but I got hit with them all at once, over a three day period.

The short version:

• missed connection


• lost luggage


• cancelled flight


• 2-3 hours spent waiting in lines in two different airports

I'll flesh this out in another post, but, things are great now...just as long as my luggage arrives tomorrow...

Well, things started off well enough...up until the time I got to the airport. The short version is that my flight out of Philly was delayed for three hours due to a mecahnical issue with the front nose gear. Two hours at the gate and another on the runway because of backed-up air traffic caused by re-routing. There were storms in the mid west causing problems. Needless to say, I wasn't very happy last night.

Anyway, I get to LAX *just* after the boarding of the plane had taken place. I thought I'd have at least enough time to get to the plane, but no such luck. I picked up my luggage, texted *E* to tell her the news and left to catch the hotel shuttle. Passengers who missed connections were given two night hotel vouchers and that's where I am right now-the Hacienda, not for from the airport.

The only cool thing about this so far was seeing lightning storms from above. That was amazing. I don't get to see things from that vantage point often, so it was something of a treat. I made my first novice traveler's gaffe in not leaving the 'do not disturb' sign outside the door. I was awakened by the maid and had to yell to get her to close the door, as I wasn't dressed and half-alseep. The only thing is, I still forgot to put the sign out and she came around again. I didn't realize what I'd not done until I looked at the doorknob.

Guess what? I get to hang out at the airport today, yay!

bye for now...

Round One

I don't leave until Thursday afternoon, but I began the task of deciding what clothes to take with me to Australia this morning. I'm glad I haven't put my fall/winter things away yet because it's making it so much easier to pull things out and choose. The weather is fairly moderate with high temps in the 60's and lows in the 40's, which isn't too bad. It's their winter, but the temps are more like fall here in the U.S. So, my packing strategy is to take things that I can layer as opposed to having a lot of bulky items. Another challenge is keeping my luggage from being too heavy so I won't have to pay any money for extra weight.

This week is going to be filled with all manner of checking and re-checking lists and bags to make sure I have what I want/need to have with me on the trip. Unlike my daily trip back up to my apartment to get something I've forgotten, once I leave the house on the way to the airport, that's it. So, I'd better make sure my forgetfullness is in check, lol...

I've finally satisfied my Moleskine craving. I stopped into Borders a couple of days ago and purchased two sketchbooks and three small plain journals. I still want to get a larger journal also. Of course, I had a hard time deciding which version(s) to get. It came down to the sketchbooks coming out on top since I have the trip coming up. It'll be nice to have the sturdy pages to work with. The small journals are perfect because they slip easily into my back pocket, so I can access one quickly.

I don't know what I'll wind up doing creatively when I'm away. A few years ago, during my last real vacation, I thought I'd be doing a lot of sketching and so forth, and I did some, but it wasn't much. I did manage to get some paintings out of the experience that worked out pretty well. The sketches I did were from life and really weren't that interesting. The paintings that resulted were much better and reflected my experience of the place in a way that the sketches weren't able to. The difference was that the paintings sprang from an emotive place as opposed to the attempts to record what I saw in the southern Califonia desert directly (boulders, plants, etc...) I abandoned the sketching in favor of taking photos, reflecting and soaking in the experience of just being there. That was much more instrumental to the creation of subsequent paintings than anything else.

......

I forsee using my Moleskine sketchbooks much differently than previous ones. I'm thinking that there will be a combination of quick sketches, writing and collage elements. The pages are nice and heavy, so they'll stand up to a lot of use and abuse. I suspect gluesicks will become a common companion to my Sharpie pens...

Wow, I've been so out of touch with this journal again that it's almost insane. It's not like there's been nothing going on, I've just been otherwise occupied, I suppose and not really able to articulate much of anything. Something snapped between last night and this morning that seems to have gotten me somewhat back in the right frame of mind to post here more. So, there's a million things running around in my head and I'll just commence the babbling now, ok?


( thoughts flitting here and there like scattering leaves... )

For the first time in my life, I'm the holder of a U.S. passport... ( and the first destination is... )