i am in berlin

i am in berlin
after a nervous trip from paris
i wanted to continue but for some reason i didn't want to go

i here resolve to not miss an opportunity to connect with lovely people
because there are so many lovely people
and i must get better at accepting the flow. . .as my lovely polish friend (yursef -spelled as i heard it) and i must get better at asking people to write down their names.
i have a terrible memory and a terrible tongue for speaking out names.

leaving

the great thing about travelling is the people you meet
the horrible thing about travelling is leaving
live in the moment of joy
learn and do what you can in that moment and then let. it. go.

Take Care

Love, Ruth
~Life is Mad Love! Das Leben ist wütende Liebe! La vida es amor enojado! La vie est amour fol! La vita è amore pazzo!

must learn french

okay still in paris
love it
must learn french
i start a conversation which is interesting; with someone curious and it quickly dissolves into missed words, single words, gestures and scrambles

lovely sunday though. . .

had planned a park day -relaxing on the grass

which i did

but yesterday when i said i had been to the place where mondigiani was buried i mis-spoke

actually he is entombed in the cemetary pére la chaise

so i went there

so hot

sat in shade and read newspaper- dodgey stuff in the world

it is falling apart

stumbled onto oscar wilde burial place -ironically it is covered in lipstick marks

found the artist i was looking for-very much by accident of meeting a fellow devotee

yahoo beer in the sun at the grave site



this evening i met an artist named royland on sacre coeur -every weekend sets up this amazing stage he is the reason i must improve my french

Take Care
Love, Ruth
~Life is Mad Love! Das Leben ist wütende Liebe! La vida es amor enojado! La vie est amour fol! La vita è amore pazzo!

i was sure i said. . .maybe i got you mixed up. . .i am coming on tuesday the 29th of april.
please tell me you'll be there.
please tell me we will have a party to celebrate may. . .maybe just a beer!
 
i did go to the cemetary of morrison did not go to the grave
all the souls and important there no one rises above
drank beer there and ate bread
how religious of me
 
went to sacre coeur last night
it was a festival
drummers and fire dancers -classical violionist
found a fabulous brasilian jazz club where the drummer and diva were doing battle for the highest energy
 
saw beautiful pervian artist -elena izcue
look for her
delicate fabric and domestic art
 
and to the contemprary art gallery
-sadly the exhibit of mondigiani is temporarily closed . . .
 
tomorrow day of reflection
sit on hill
watch clouds
and people

Take Care

Love, Ruth


~Life is Mad Love! Das Leben ist wütende Liebe! La vida es amor enojado! La vie est amour fol! La vita è amore pazzo!

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still in paris. really loving it

okay still in paris.
really loving it.
moved areas of town, into montmartre
immediate reaction this is town for ruth
colour, beauty, joy. . . life
love

went to the musee rodin
lucky me there is an exhibition at the same time of his wife who was also a sculpter
i liked her more
she seemed closer, more precise and intentional rather than grandoise

then on my way home i passed by an open air exhibit for the magazine figaro
amazing, depressing, awakening
information we all know though maybe do not realize in our everyday actions.

i had a yummy supper of vegetables and couscous- this time all by me. so much better
did i mentition i love it here.

Take Care

Love, Ruth
~Life is Mad Love! Das Leben ist wütende Liebe! La vida es amor enojado! La vie est amour fol! La vita è amore pazzo!

still in paris and pissed off

okay still in paris and pissed off with computer technology that loses mesages so i have to retypelong pieces of writing twice. . . .
anyway
still in paris and loving it. . .i went to the catacombes today, deep underneath the twisty parsian streets entering the empire of the dead. Oie was i glad to resurface into sunny weather.
After which i went to sit in the cemetary of montparnasse. and for elizabeth i drank a beer (very good beer weather) and i also saw the most beautiful man i have ever seen. . . this bears repeating again. . .it is surprising i did not mentition it to him. i maybe should have because i do not think he knew, which may have been the reason i thought he was so lovely. however he was eating a banana minding his own and so i clamly walked by bathing in his resplendent glow.
 
okay off to eat some yummy veggies and couscous for my supper.

did i mentition that i really love it here
 
tomorrow rodin i have many recommendations of this place including yours shelly! also if i can there is a goya exhibition and a wild peruvian artist of wild imagings. 

Take Care
Love, Ruth
~Life is Mad Love! Das Leben ist wütende Liebe! La vida es amor enojado! La vie est amour fol! La vita è amore pazzo!

twisty long long streets of paris

thea,

no way i am mad except with love. . . study hard do not worry about me. . . i will see you soon and we will have the most beautiful time.


i am in paris now.
i am staying at a hostel of course, it is okay because i am not planning to be there much.
i arrived yesterday
it was so hot compared to the mountains of norway where it is still in the depths of winter
i walked all over in my slipper sandels because i could not bear to put on my sweaty shoes not too much damage done

i ended up quite grumpy at the end of the night with the twisty long long streets.
i might have swore a couple of times at the absence minded-ness of the parisian muncipality to clearly label streets.
mostly i found what i was looking for. . .which is what i'm not sure
today more walking this time with sensible shoes.
to the louvre which is so much of a zoo i decided not to go into the exhibitions
it is mostly leftovers from colonial idealism and there are more interesting ways to learn the history of place.

i climbed up to sacre coeur and then down to a local brasserie for a beer
sweets and beer seem to be what i am living on here. . . .
i met a political artist and he spoke english so i was too shy to test much of my petite francais
though he was very sweet and said it was nice to hear different accents.

every place i am i think i should stay longer. maybe live. first i need to find a job.

okay i am off.

elizabeth
where are you will be in edmonton when i return?

Take Care
Love, Ruth

~Life is Mad Love! Das Leben ist wütende Liebe! La vida es amor enojado! La vie est amour fol! La vita è amore pazzo!

back in oslo

back in oslo. sitting in internet cafe. waiting for bus. this part not so interesting-going to paris very much interesting to me. shall see what i find. no books from southlands of norway (all in norweigan and very heavy) it was a interesting time and a somewhat packed schedule. not my usual way though it came at the end of my norway time and so it happened that way. i am thinking right now-this may change- that i should come back and stay for a while. however this could be a result of a few days of not travelling ruth style. in a few hours i will be on a bus to france. and the results of the poll so far says i should go to the pub. okay who am i to disagree with the majority of the voting public.

Take Care
Love, Ruth
~Life is Mad Love! Das Leben ist wütende Liebe! La vida es amor enojado! La vie est amour fol! La vita è amore pazzo!

the giant & the night journey

okay i am in kristiansand now. after night journey and interesting conversations in train stations. met a very nice and extremely tall man on the train to here he had with him the sweetest best behaved black lab and the heaviest army backpack i have ever tried to lift. probably because he is a giant he had no problem. got here very early in the morning and went down to the docks in the early morning sunshine to read and doze because it is hard to sleep on the train when you are thinking about missing your stop and sitting straight up and down. the giant seemed to have no problems though, probably because he was in the aisle seat and his massive limbs spread out into the free space.
i have had my morning coffee and a delicious freshly baked bun and found the library. . .a very productive day so far.

Take Care

Love, Ruth
~Life is Mad Love! Das Leben ist wütende Liebe! La vida es amor enojado! La vie est amour fol! La vita è amore pazzo!

boat+train ride through fjords and flam

today was terrific. i waffled all day yesterday over the decision to make a boat+train ride through fjords and flam. i had all but decided not to when whamo! bright an early this morning i woke up and without really knowing started to get ready to go out for the day. i arrived at the trainstation just in the nick of time and a very nice conductor arranged for me to pay at the next station. yeah for nice people -we are taking over the world, or at least we would if we were not so nice.
the boat ride was beautiful and the sun shining the whole day. water meeting earth meeting sky.
on the boat i met this lovely australia lady named angela and bill the geologist. She told me about funny wooden churches across norway that are writ large with pagan symbols. He took many pictures and was always dashing off to different places. on the wait inbetween the boat and the bus we all got to sun ourselves like seals andfound a local beer to drink along with my packed lunch. it was dark and sweet and thick.
the train ride was so much fun with my head hanging out the window half the time. i met this two indian people, one now working in california named deepta (probably spelt all wrong) and one working in denmark named sankrita (again spelt wrong). they had been students together 20 years ago and were taking a vacation together and bickering so sweetly each to the other.
the scenery was stunning, the pictures i took will not do it justice and words are inadequate.

come and see for yourself


Take Care

Love, Ruth


~Life is Mad Love! Das Leben ist wütende Liebe! La vida es amor enojado! La vie est amour fol! La vita è amore pazzo!

still in bergen

okay i am still in bergen, still lovely-wonderful in the sun. i spent all morning sitting outside. there is a huge park close to the centre of the city. with mountains in front and water fountains and man playing a sweet flute. in the afternoon i went to the art museums- there was an exhibition of picasso which was okay. I did not realize he lived into the 1970s and was quite old when he died. it is interesting to pass through the layers of history of museum and especially in art exhibits see how people have their daily lives. AND more interesting still when the layer of history, power, politics and community. i went to an actual bakery not just a grocery and bought a loave of whole grain- full of seeds which made the best sandwich i have ervey tasted. Probably because i was so hungary and after a walk out by the sea.
still Free internet. YAHOO!
Take Care

Love, Ruth

~Life is Mad Love! Das Leben ist wütende Liebe! La vida es amor enojado! La vie est amour fol! La vita è amore pazzo!

sunday night

okay bergen is living up to its name of being a rainy and cloudy place to spend one's time.
still good and i intend to enjoy all my moments
it seems that many of them will be spent under a rain jacket.
i went out walking under a grey sky today, but not so cold and soon found my self lead by interesting corners and alleyways up and up i am not sure wherebut about half where there it began to pour out in buckets of rain. the views across the water were still lovely in between the rain drops and through the fog. i am not sure where i will go tomorrow i'm sure i will find something.
though i will probably tell you soon because this hostel has FREEinternet and i can stand here all night. though i will go for tonight because i am sharing freebeer with someone who is leaving tomorrow and so wants to use up their supply. Happy to help!

most things are closed on sundays here and there is this werid prohibition against selling anything but lite-beer or hard alcohol on this day. this is what some people in the hostel are tellng me

Take Care

Love, Ruth

~Life is Mad Love! Das Leben ist wütende Liebe! La vida es amor enojado! La vie est amour fol! La vita è amore pazzo!

tumainigroup.com

opps. . .here it is really

tumainigroup.com

Take Care

Love, Ruth

~Life is Mad Love! Das Leben ist wütende Liebe! La vida es amor enojado! La vie est amour fol! La vita è amore pazzo!

name of that group

here is the name of that group that was stay in trondheim

Take Care

Love, Ruth


~Life is Mad Love! Das Leben ist wütende Liebe! La vida es amor enojado! La vie est amour fol! La vita è amore pazzo!

bergen is subtle

okay i'm in bergen

nice place

subtle



Take Care

Love, Ruth



~Life is Mad Love! Das Leben ist wütende Liebe! La vida es amor enojado! La vie est amour fol! La vita è amore pazzo!

bergen beyond

so i almost forgot to tell to about about trondheim. it is a very nice city- right on water edge like haida gwaii and west coast of canada; many high houses built into hillsides and homes up on on chicken legs near the water.
cathedaral is huge and very old the day i went there was a choir of 500!!! women from across scandinavia practicing for a big concert. amazing. . .lucky me for stumbling onto such big sounds.

also there lucky me there is an artist group of musicians and dancers from tanzania staying at the hostel so every night there is always much excitement and bursting out into song.

there is a saturday farmer's market in the centre of town and i got some yummy lefse (potato flatbread) for the trip to bergen.

Take Care

Love, Ruth

Edmonton, Alberta
757 -5459

~Life is Mad Love! Das Leben ist wütende Liebe! La vida es amor enojado! La vie est amour fol! La vita è amore pazzo!

flakkified

okay amazing techno-lizzie fixed my bloggy thing and maybe it works now yahoo!

i went to the second flakk it was very nice.
it is maybe 4 hours north of trondheim and beautiful train\bus trip right on the edge of the water.
again the train was less expensive than going the whole way by bus. and i heard it was the opposite before
i left bus first in bangsund, just a small collection of houses and a stanoil gas station\ store.
i stopped there for directions and happliy found some very warm gloves because i left my own in the fruit store in oslo as i was rushing for the train.
i was so glad to have warm hands. there is no spring in flakk yet- still very cold.
i walked 2km to the farming community of flakk and found a man named rogerwho was building a house on top of a high hill with a lovely view across the water. He stopped his work and i ate juicy red grapes and talked about many things. he remembered the name petra flak and told me where he thought the farm might be. i went
but no one was home, so i went next door and met elin and nils atle (very nice people). we had mush coffee and sweeties and they showed me where maybe the farm house stood. two possibilities. the petra flak that roger had rememberedwas a second petra because she died in norway in the 1970's.
elin drove me to the church at klinga and we looked fior the graves but could not find them.
nils did give me a topographical map of the area, including the sawmill -very interesting.
i left a book with them and they were very interested in it.

today i leave trondheim and i go to bergen.
Take Care

Love, Ruth

Edmonton, Alberta
757 -5459

~Life is Mad Love! Das Leben ist wütende Liebe! La vida es amor enojado! La vie est amour fol! La vita è amore pazzo!

second testing

testing testing. where is my beer.

beer testing beer testing

Hey now I'm posting straight from my email...direct post! ....but is my computer in Norway? Or in Edmonton?
Am I drinking beer? Or just wishing I was?

who am I?...

Take Care

Love, Ruth
~Life is Mad Love! Das Leben ist wütende Liebe! La vida es amor enojado! La vie est amour fol! La vita è amore pazzo!