Via Malina

—Lofoty 2012 LiveFeed—

Tomas Griger — Sun, 29 Jul 2012 12:45:32 +0000

Setting off against the night. I don't dare riding on slovakian roads during the day in full traffic... too dangerous. My destination is island of Vaeroy in Norway, 2000 miles away. I have one less bag of luggage. Even from those very few things I had with me last year, I was able to exlude some. I'm not taking 5l jerrycan of petrol with me, amount of clothes was reduced to one half, I don't need 3 pairs of shoes, razor, no shampoos for Malina and also the 10kg of tools and replacements parts was reduced hugely to only the most probable problems I can encounter like flat tyres and blown lightbulbs.

(51) Estonian Silence

Tomas Griger — Thu, 10 May 2012 16:20:00 +0000

People change at night. From educated lawyers and consultants, sensitive artists and even from careless bankers, all that's left are dark silhouettes of tired corpses with senses so weak, they can't see the far corner of the street, not even with the help of streetlights. And they get weaker on the inside, too. They'd like to be hugging with someone in the their beds and those who are left alone are falling into depressions from loneliness. Allmighty humans... plain darkness is laughing at your vulnerability. All this I didn't experience during my 6 weeks of polar day. But now, the ferry left me in the middle of deep dark night in an unknown city, I can't see much and more than during the day I am taken by the fact that there's no one waiting for me...

(50) Summer in Helsinki

Tomas Griger — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 07:18:37 +0000

Painter Pentti Ikäheimonen handed me a glass of orange juice inside his studio with shiny floors and posh armchairs. He doesn't speak any languages a so he talks Finnish to me, very slowly and clearly. No, I have no knowledge of any Finnic branch of languages, but I do get what he says. This "château" is his studio. He doesn't live here, he only works here on his paintings. He called me inside, because not many people get here through the 3 miles of forest lanes, certainly not on a scooter and definitely not all the way from London. After he showed me all the rooms with all his paintings, I expressed my admiration and left to set up a camp by lake which he marked on a map for me. I can go for a swim to wash off all the dust from the road before I enter the crowds of the city...

(49) At the end of forest

Tomas Griger — Sat, 14 Apr 2012 19:24:02 +0000

They're warning me from bears, overpopulated in these forests. It is not safe to sleep outside anymore. This is their forest, their taiga. And so I walk every evening many miles through the forests to seek shelter in log cabins. There I can tease the bears safely with my opened cans of tuna. Even today I walked across deep forest when suddenly a person appeared in front of me. He was wearing wide hat and was very sweaty, tired and surrounded by massing mosquitos. He asked how far it was to the road. "Only one hour." he could hardly believe and showed me the map of his trip, 6 days walk across the forests from the russian side, where no roads go...

(48) Darkfall

Tomas Griger — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 09:57:02 +0000

For 50 nights, the sun hasn't disappeared below horizon. Even last night, it was still sliding just above the water surface and shining through the branches of pine trees. But further south I get, lower the sun goes, and inevitably there will be one night, when it'll fall down too deep below the roots in the earth and all that will be left will be torturing darkness. It was one beautiful polar day, with no worries of evenings, with no burden of nights and all the problems connected with them such as cold, gloom and the necessity of hiding in any kind of accommodation. Now, I will have to learn to live with darkness...

How I learned to be alone

Tomas Griger — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 09:30:14 +0000

They degraded love to sex and friendship to a Facebook like. Look for your happiness in an instant world, buy yourself something, feel the happiness. Chase away feeling of hunger, stink and loneliness, look for feelings of comfort, softness and security… it is all about feelings, feelings superior to emotions. Today, I chose to sit here by lake, I have nothing and I’m alone. It is quiet, the water surface is one large mirror and only sometimes the air shivers from the deep sound of distant thunders. No one is here and no one is going to come here. I have no connection with the world for several days here in Lapland. Such bad boy… I should be flying around the town, buying drinks some girls with lipstick, entertaining people with stories and enjoy their courtesy. I don’t want it anymore, leave me in my silence, I’m fine here, alone…

Often I sat alone inside crowded London tube. Hundreds of people around me and every one of them just as alone. To be alone between masses of people, that is scary kind of loneliness. Shallow, meaningless illusion of separation in the middle of crowd. Here it