The ship happened to be passing Gothenburg just in time for my 4 week stint to finish, so I was able to get off in Sweden. What a relief to miss all the shite of airports, unfortunately the relief will be shortlived I have to head over to Ireland on Sunday for the final exam all going well. Mode of transport, airplane. Object to be passed through in order to reach mode of transport, airport.
I got a taxi to the train station when I paid off the ship, the senses were bombarded by input from everywhere people, cars, movement, noise and smell. I also got a good deal of staring applied to me. I can never figure it out but in Sweden, staring is acceptable as an activity. The phrase “you lookin’ at me” would be well wasted here because if you are in anyway outside the normal run of the mill you get stared at. Wheeling a large yellow suitcase on a Tuesday afternoon on a commuter train is abnormal, hence staring. Speaking English on the cellphone, abnormal more focused staring. Staring back irrelevant. Now if I had been speaking Serbo-croat, almost guaranteed no reaction. As the Americans say “go figure”.
The smell of perfume, cigarettes smoke, car exhaust fumes, fried fast food and a million other smells that have been absent on the ship now reappear to be registered up inside the brain like a test of remember that smell. I sat beside a lady on the train she gave off a soapy smell mixed with toffee, the soap smell was fairly easy to understand, the toffee was less easy, until I noticed her surreptitiously scoffing down sweets that appeared from under the cuff of her jacket sleeve at intervals not exceeding 5 minutes.
The train condutor punches two holes in the ticket in Sweden, to be sure, to be sure? I would say that the conductors at CIE would be most displeased if they had to do the same, it would be double the work.
If you want to avoid being stared at here in Sweden, carry a bunch of Big Issue magazines, guaranteed to get rid of people. Great to be home again.
Archive for the 'crowds' Category
The sun rises on my last but one day for this trip. The city of Liverpool in the background.
The Liver birds on the Liver Building, 10 past 2 time to pack my bags. Leaving by Liverpool tomorrow. The question mark is Urban art, cost a fortune apparently. Its a bit of a sad location on the doors of the disused Cammel Laird shipyard, it almost asks will we ever build ships again?
You never know who is going to turn up in the strangest places, I met a guy today that I had not seen for 8 years, he was a trainee on one my ships, and he was not the best trainee, in fact he was crap, he bragged about losing his drivers license doing 80 in a 30 outside a school, we predicted his future was going to be on the dole que, or at the end of a bottle whixh was one of his favourite pastimes. But there he was large as life on the jetty wearing the surveyors outfit smiling and pleased to see me, I felt a twinge of guilt as I had been pretty tough on him as a trainee, sending him on hopeless missions for long waits and buckets of steam and he bit every time, hook line and sinker. He could have been a bastard today and reject the ship but he was just pleasant and cheerful, chatting about all the people on board when we sailed together, asking me to pass on his regards to mutual friends. Just goes to show you that you never know when the tables can be turned on you. Moral of the story for me is do unto others as you would have them do unto you, even to cocky 18 year old boy racers.
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