The Flux of Traveling so Far
Shortly after the Urban Sketchers Symposium was over, while I was still in Lisbon and haggling with a guy from Turkmenistan who had been supposed to send me the letter of introduction I would need to get the visa by July 26 but hadn’t, I realised that trying to organise the part of my travels that were supposed to go through Central Asia while already traveling was not such a great idea. It would mean worrying too much about money, visas, time and my passport in other people’s hands, and keep me from enjoying the journey before reaching Central Asia. So I cancelled. I did not actually get any money back, nor did that LOI ever reach me, and I still really want to go, but it has to wait for another year. Better planning, more time…
There have been several effects of this loosening of my itinerary. The first is that all the plans that I do make now seem to be even more fickle. They tend to change from day to day, sometimes from hour to hour, and are very responsive to chance influences – things I overhear people say, postcards I see, things I read accidentally etc. This is a bit of a problem for organising accommodation, though, especially as Scotland turned out to be more expensive than I expected and I’ve been mostly hitchhiking and couchsurfing since.
The second is that sometimes I’m getting scared, like I’m in free fall and don’t know when and how I will hit bottom. There isn’t much to hang on to, no routine to speak of, I barely spend more than two nights in the same place. For as long as I can remember I’ve always had a plan, and for years a cherished daily routine. Now I’ve taken that away, and sometimes the lack of plan and routine makes me panic.
On bad days I feel like I can hear my money steadily burning in the background, and my lack of income and absence of a job lined up when I come home add a very real dimension to that feeling of free fall. On those bad days I can’t understand how on earth I came up with this stupid travel idea instead of spending this precious time before my savings run out at home job hunting. Naturally, on bad days traveling doesn’t even appear to be very enjoyable, and therefore not worth it at all. On one such day I redecorated my cotton bag from the Symposium.
Strangely enough, I never panic while drawing.
But those are not most days. Most days are free floating in a good way, too busy looking and drawing for panic. And then sometimes I get a message that somebody has purchased one of the Postcards from Far Away, giving me hope that I’ll actually have enough money to buy frames for the exhibition I’m going to participate in when I come back…
The Lake District fell by the wayside – the Hebrides just looked too good from Glasgow, and Wales too good from the Hebrides. I’ve started forgetting what day of the week it is, and sometimes what month of the year.
Places where I’ve spent at least one night so far:
- Lisbon
- Glasgow
- Oban
- Castlebay
- Daliburgh
- Flodigarry
- Portree
- Glencoe
- Liverpool
- Aberystwyth
- Llanderfel
- Dolgellau
- Llanmorlais
- London
Here is a rough map of those in Britain.
In the meantime I have reduced my stuff to one hand-luggage sized bag-pack, learned the meaning of a couple of new words (crofting, fuel poverty, dehumidifier), seen a beautiful painting by William Turner I didn’t know before in Liverpool, and saw a double rainbow over London.
Tomorrow I’m off to Paris!
Fiona said on September 2nd at 7:41 am:
:)
Thank you for that!
Jasper said on September 2nd at 8:22 am:
Beautiful. Have fun, don´t worry too much.
Omar jaramillo said on September 2nd at 9:25 am:
It is easy to get identified with your post. I decided to make a crazy travel from Lisbon to Germany by the road. I just arrived till the Valencia. I didn’t have a plan and was very bad organized. Even my bags were unapropiate full with free sketchbooks from the Lisbon symposium. I had a lot of fun though! Keep posting I enjoy reading your blog and I hope to see you again when you are back in Berlin.
Liz said on September 2nd at 2:43 pm:
Hi Oona, Great to read your post and see your sketches. I can’t imagine what it would be like to have no plan for my holiday (funny that) but I suppose I would have days like you do. Obviously the solution is to keep drawing. I have been to many of those places you have listed… glad you got to the Hebrides…where my heritage and some real part of me is!
Have a wonderful time in Paris!!!
Catherine said on September 2nd at 9:53 pm:
wunderschön und inspirierend, von dir zu lesen, vielen Dank Oona, thanks for sharing . Wie du malst bewundere ich eh.
Gutes Ankommen in Paris!
Oona said on September 4th at 6:07 pm:
Hey, thank you! I’m much less on the worrying side these days. But so ,uch happening, so much to tell… this posting already feels like I wrote it ages ago.
Johannes said on September 7th at 8:56 pm:
http://playinprogress.net/line/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/Somewhere-between-Llanderfel-and-Bala.jpg
That’s just great.
Liebe Grüße aus Berlin!
Rolf Schaude said on September 11th at 8:03 pm:
Liebe Oona!
Ich kann bis zu einem gewissen Grad mitfühlen, was Du erzählst. Ich habe vor ca. 20 Jahren alle Bands gekündigt und habe mich mit einer Gitarre auf Wanderschaft begeben und versucht, mich von Straßenmusik zu ernähren. Ich hatte mir ein Zeitfenster gegeben: Mindestens 2 Tage, höchstens 2 Jahre. Es wurde dann ein ganzer Monat zu Fuß.
Dir Alles Gute, lass was hören, wenn Du wieder im Lande bist.
Herzliche Grüße Rolf.
BennY said on October 26th at 10:48 pm:
Das Foto in der Mitte find ich toll.
Lieben Gruß
micheal zarowsky said on October 29th at 11:17 pm:
you wrote the following; basically unhappy with paper you are using. why not try HOT PRESS; arches makes a terrific one. got to be 144 lb weight or higher/ otherwise it buckles into uselessness/ fabriano shreds too easily to be useful to work with.
micheal…..
your quote:
The grisly character of the paint once dry, found on both the lightweight Arches and the heavy Fabriano paper. Why does this happen? These are good watercolor papers, but I would expect this behaviour to put many people off. No smooth color coveradge. Or is something with my colors wrong, or my tap water, or whatever, because this is not nice and I would like to understand how it comes about.
The papers that take watercolor well are not fun to use a pen on and those that take pen well are strange and not really fun with the watercolors. So far, none of the watercolor papers allows for the smooth continous lines that I want from my pen (and am used to getting). T
Oona said on October 30th at 9:05 am:
@Rolf: Möglicherweise packe ich demnächst meine Klarinette aus und geh tingeln…
@Miacheal: Thank you for dropping by, but the papers I was talking about WERE already the hot press versions. And I actually like Fabriano paper – I’ve been getting along quite well with the Disegno F4, which isn’t even a watercolor paper, but currently my favourite…
@BennY:-)