First, thank you for the kind comments on part 1. One thing I do want to add is that this trip has reaffirmed for me something that the Dalai Lama taught and that is this. All people, without exception, have the same primary goal in their lives, to increase their happiness and decrease their suffering. If you always remember that then even if you meet someone in less than perfect circumstances, then you have something in common with them and your interaction with them can improve their lives(even if only a very little). I cannot overestimate how much this view helped me, even when the journey was very rough.
Second, in regards to my handle. The 235 part of it is 23 and 5, the holy numbers of Eris, the Goddess of Discordianism(for the record I am a Tibetian Buddhist, Taoist, Discordian, and generic Godless Heathen). The SGawain part is Sir Gawain. Basically when I was young and impresisonable I got my "how one should behave" from reading about chivalry and knights and that sort of thing. Because of this the code of conduct I default to when I'm not thinking about it tends to be, for lack of a better term, "knight-like". As I found out in Iceland, when I get really drunk, I default to that code of conduct and become like that even more.
So, with that added, back to our adventure.
When last we left our intrepid traveller, he was on a plane from Iceland to Oslo, Norway.
The flight to Oslo was actually fairly mellow and I touched down in Norway in the mid afternoon. I got my bags and began the rush to try to get out of Oslo. After going to the ferry I found out that the ferrys were booked so I headed to the train station. I found out that I could get tickets to Copenhagen and from there via Germany get to Amsterdam. Unfortunately the train didn't leave until the next day(4/21 at 7AM) so I would miss the 4/20 celebrations and most likely all of my friends from ACD and the Grow Report. That was one of the three dark times of the trip and here is why.
As this was my first time to Europe I was planning on making the experience less frightening and less, well, "foreign" by having people that I already knew with me during a good portion of it. That was my safety net and comfort. Now I was flying without a net. I was alone, didn't speak the languages(Icelandic, Dutch,Danish, Swedish, and German) and my support was a very, very long way away. I felt The Fear creeping up on me. But I took a deep breath and remembered my Buddhist practice. Compassion, strength, and honor. I would make it through this. Also, in case you were wondering, this is the part where the playlist on my Ipod put on "Churchill's Speech" from Iron Maiden's Live after Death. There are few things that can inspire me to go on than hearing Churchill say, "We will never surrender!" Yeah, I'm kind of a dork.
I would make it to Amsterdam.
Period.
I booked a room in a(disturbingly clean) hostel in Oslo and on 7AM began my trip.
The first part of the trip happened uneventfully, I made it to Copenhagen. From there I got train passage via Germany to Amsterdam.
It was on the train to Germany that the second dark part of the journey happened. This one ambushed me and started with a conversation with the guy on the left(he was one of the guys who worked on the MP3 standard, the guy on the right worked for the consulate for some country in Egypt. I had a habit of running into the most interesting people while I was on this journey.).
I was expressing concern about missing my connection to Hamburg and he said that I shouldn't be at all concerned as he had never heard of the train missing the ferry.
I looked at him and thought he didn't say that right.
What..ferry?
Come to find out that the whole train was going on the ferry and train, people and all were going on the boat to Germany.
Now I hadn't been on a boat in 20 years and was a little scared of big open water.
But I was going on this boat so I just had to keep calm.
The boat pitched back and forth, the waters were rough. I was barely able to hold down the fries that I had on the boat.
We made it off the boat and continued on the journey which went somewhat uneventfully until Munster.
That was the third and last dark time before Amsterdam. I was in the train station from 1AM-5AM waiting for the next train. For reasons I have never fully understood the people running the train station decided to hold all the doors open and there wasn't anything to sit or lie on. I was cold, tired and sore, but I was close. So close.
Warmth, weed, Amsterdam.
5AM rolled around and I got onto the first train out of Germany.
Next stop...Amsterdam Centraal Station!
Part 3 coming very soon(tomorrow at the latest!
