This is summer – some are watching
Understanding the promises
That drift away – they drift away
Nothing to share in low water
Over above an avalanche she falls away
This summer – some are August
Crying far air not to be had
Is this the way is this the way
More than enough move to the side
Watch him pass he passes by he gets away
If I could lose myself and dream away
Day upon day upon day upon day
In an avalanche she drifts away
Over its over its over its over
I wish we could be together
I wish we could be together again
Like a play on words
I was talking with Daniel Swensen, who is the funniest guy in the world and who also has a fantasy novel coming out called Orison. We are both mystified by the workings of Klout. Our search for the truth about social media led us into a dark, ominous, disturbingly amusing carnival of the damned.
@surlymuse Seriously! James Franco? WTF was that about? Also, it thinks I know something about graffiti.
— Marguerite awaits the Meteor ☄️ (@MargueriteZilla) July 19, 2012
After taking the train from Krakow to Przemysl, which took all day, and then a bus from Przemysl to L’viv which took three hours on top of that, it was dark by the time I got to L’viv. I couldn’t find the address of the person I was to stay with, so I ended up walking around L’viv all night long in the rain. It was green, leafy and beautiful, but the sidewalks were so broken in places that they looked like pieces of a puzzle. It wouldn’t have been so bad had I not been dragging my heavy luggage with me all the way. Finally I found a hostel that would let me in at 4 am and I crashed there. It was a very rough introduction to L’viv.
Lviv train station in the rain
L’viv is actually a very pretty, pleasant city. Unique among Ukranian cities because of its baroque architecture that rivals that of Krakow.
Streets of Lviv
Here is a cute young street musician singing a song about capitalism. I gave him a few Ukrainian gryivnas. He smiled shyly at me when he realized I was filming him.
I found the prices here about 30% lower than in Kiev. Food, hostel, everything was cheaper and less crowded. You could get a tasty, filling meal of Ukranian food plus a tall glass of excellent Ukranian beer for $6-$7 total.
Delicious Ukranian food at Puzata Khata
I’ll be back. And not just because I forgot my slippers at the hostel.
You can walk forever in the green park that surrounds the center of Krakow. Really. You can. And you will, unless you realize the park is actually in the shape of a ring so you never reach the end.
Drifting through an endless sea of green
I keep getting lost here. But so very pleasantly lost in the cool leafy shade.
I couldn’t meet my friend last night at all to give her the painting, and she won’t come back until I am gone, so I have to leave the painting behind at the hostel for her to pick it up.
Not exactly the moment of triumph I had been expecting.
The hostel I am at (The Mosquito Hostel) is wonderful, and I got a delightful comfy bed with clean crisp sheets for a mere 11 Euros a night, but I was unlucky enough to get a roomful of really annoying people – the first time that has ever happened to me there. I’ll write a post about rude hostel behavior later when I get home.
This is the only full day I will spend in Krakow, and that makes me sad because I love this city like no other. I would live here if I could. Perfect weather in summer: cool, misty and rainy. (Well, that’s perfect weather for me.) And it’s green, green, green. And they have wonderful beer.
Tomorrow I will take a long long ride to the Polish border and try to cross it on foot. With luck I’ll be blogging from Lvov, Ukraine. (Actually they call it Lviv now.)
Oh, before I go: check out this kid playing guitar on the streets of Krakow.
.
.
I took the video with my digital still camera (and it’s a super-cheap one) so I apologize for its low quality, but…this kid is talented. I didn’t get his name. He was too busy playing for me to ask him. After each song he just went right into another one. I could only get a few minutes of it because my camera will only hold that much.
No time for a long post – I have a trip to prepare for and a large painting to finish first – but I just want to say how funny it is that this search phrase is now the #1 reason people visited my blog in the last couple of days:
“new movie wayland song richard jobson m k hajdin”
This is probably because I talked to Richard on Twitter about his new movie Wayland’s Song, and Google is indexing my tweets. I still think it’s funny because it implies I’m a movie star. Definitely not! I’m an exiled star.
Exiled Stars are officially “Hypervelocity Stars”
But you can still go to Richard’s website and buy all his movies if you want, and you would be vastly entertained if you did.
Here is Richard singing “New York City” with the Armoury Show sometime in the 1980s. Cheery git, isn’t he? 😀
I am staying up all night working on a portfolio and grant proposal which is due later TODAY, so here is a music video from the 80s on this very topic: “Up All Night” by the Boomtown Rats.
I am sorry for making you watch Bob Geldof lick a python and then try to argue with it, but the song is great. Listen for this truly classic line that still makes me laugh out loud:
Exiled Stardust 