Friday, October 31, 2008
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Agnes Musings.
Tuesday, 14th October, 2008. 2:01AM. Location: Berlin.
There are at least two types of travel: The Tick-the-Box Adventure, or Choose Your Own.
When traveling, it is very easy to get caught up in your Lonely Planet guide and the tourism hype which encourage you to cram as much as possible into the amount of time you have in any given location. In every book, on every website, in each conversation held leading up to the day you leave there is a mention of something you should see or do on your adventure. The outcome is a mental formulation outlining what MUST be seen before leaving to have made the trip worthwhile.
TO BE CONTINUED. I just realised it's 2:11AM and I'm here rather than sleeping. COMMENT to make this all worthwhile. I'll finish this post when I'm awake.
Sincerely sleep,
Agnes B Demented.
I just ended on a cliffhanger. Poor form to be jumping the shark so early in the piece.
There are at least two types of travel: The Tick-the-Box Adventure, or Choose Your Own.
When traveling, it is very easy to get caught up in your Lonely Planet guide and the tourism hype which encourage you to cram as much as possible into the amount of time you have in any given location. In every book, on every website, in each conversation held leading up to the day you leave there is a mention of something you should see or do on your adventure. The outcome is a mental formulation outlining what MUST be seen before leaving to have made the trip worthwhile.
TO BE CONTINUED. I just realised it's 2:11AM and I'm here rather than sleeping. COMMENT to make this all worthwhile. I'll finish this post when I'm awake.
Sincerely sleep,
Agnes B Demented.
I just ended on a cliffhanger. Poor form to be jumping the shark so early in the piece.
Day Forty Nine
A note on Day Forty Nine: Traveling from Sydney to Singapore en route to Paris creates obstacles, which unfortunately resulted in a lack of photograph for Day49. Instead I present a recreation of the 'Emergency Footwear' deployed at Singapore Changi International Airport. Apparently wearing dowdy slippers on aircraft is not just a fashion faux pas, but also quite wise.
Emergency footwear for a Singapore fling.
Sincerely wishing she was sleeping,
Agnes.
Day Forty Nine
Emergency footwear for a Singapore fling.
Sincerely wishing she was sleeping,
Agnes.
...
IT'S THE END OF THE RADIO SILENCE.
I promise I will update properly later on today. Damn interesting outdoors getting in the way of the cyber social.
I promise I will update properly later on today. Damn interesting outdoors getting in the way of the cyber social.
Saturday, October 4, 2008
Quatre ans
I cannot believe I am in Paris.
Fears confronted today:
* Heights
* Depths
* Stairs (or falling down them)
* Small spaces
* Small spiraling stair cases
* Death/dead
* Confrontation
Today, we visited the Catacombs. There is no way to describe the feeling of being around so much death. There is also no way to accurately portray the exact level of anxiety experienced by a person afraid of basically every aspect of the catacombs.
A sign at the entrance warned those of weak constitution to be aware of the amount of steps, the 1.7km distance to be traveled, the overwhelming sensation of being surrounded by dead bodies and also that the space was very small.
After paying the 3.5Euro entry fee (Discounted as we are both under 26) we proceeded down a small, spiraling stair case. There were 160 steps to go down. The space was about 70cm wide. There was a hand rail on one side only. 20 steps in, I began to feel so anxious that I was considering telling R that I would need to exit NOW! I 'pulled over' to let some other English speaking people pass (They had odd sounding Australian accents - I think they may have been from Adelaide). I took a deep breath and carried on. I had wanted to see the catacombs and I was going to.
On we went. More stairs, more spiral, dizzy, breathless (combination of undesirable fitness level and sheer panic). It was dark, damp and there was an odd odour. Again, wanted to run back to the surface. We had nearly reached the bottom of the stair case. Panicked. Self talk helped.
Agnes: "WTF AM I DOING? GET ME OUT OF HERE!"
Agnes: "Calm down. Take a deep breath. Think about this rationally."
Agnes: "Rationally? It's irrational that I even considered doing this!"
Agnes: "Probably... But consider this: To exit here, you'll have to walk up 160 stairs. If you wait, there's only 80 stairs at the end of the 1.7km"
Agnes: "FINE!"
So on we walked (R and I, not me and the voices).
Fears confronted today:
* Heights
* Depths
* Stairs (or falling down them)
* Small spaces
* Small spiraling stair cases
* Death/dead
* Confrontation
Today, we visited the Catacombs. There is no way to describe the feeling of being around so much death. There is also no way to accurately portray the exact level of anxiety experienced by a person afraid of basically every aspect of the catacombs.
A sign at the entrance warned those of weak constitution to be aware of the amount of steps, the 1.7km distance to be traveled, the overwhelming sensation of being surrounded by dead bodies and also that the space was very small.
After paying the 3.5Euro entry fee (Discounted as we are both under 26) we proceeded down a small, spiraling stair case. There were 160 steps to go down. The space was about 70cm wide. There was a hand rail on one side only. 20 steps in, I began to feel so anxious that I was considering telling R that I would need to exit NOW! I 'pulled over' to let some other English speaking people pass (They had odd sounding Australian accents - I think they may have been from Adelaide). I took a deep breath and carried on. I had wanted to see the catacombs and I was going to.
On we went. More stairs, more spiral, dizzy, breathless (combination of undesirable fitness level and sheer panic). It was dark, damp and there was an odd odour. Again, wanted to run back to the surface. We had nearly reached the bottom of the stair case. Panicked. Self talk helped.
Agnes: "WTF AM I DOING? GET ME OUT OF HERE!"
Agnes: "Calm down. Take a deep breath. Think about this rationally."
Agnes: "Rationally? It's irrational that I even considered doing this!"
Agnes: "Probably... But consider this: To exit here, you'll have to walk up 160 stairs. If you wait, there's only 80 stairs at the end of the 1.7km"
Agnes: "FINE!"
So on we walked (R and I, not me and the voices).
Photo of the day
I will endeavour to post the photos I've been taking for my 365Day project as soon as possible.
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