The collected writings of a Renegade Tourist

Tag Somber mood

Le Loi street, 7:15 pm

The street is lined with red and yellow lanterns enticing people in to the various shops and restaurants. Green lanterns have been strung across the street like pearl necklaces. The whole place is bathed in a soft multicolored glow, giving it a special atmosphere. Tonight a festival is in town and there are loads of people milling around, locals and tourists alike. There’s that happy feeling in the air that only a festival can bring about. Normally I would enjoy walking around looking at things but I’ve had some trouble with that lifeblood of a modern traveler, my phone, which … Read the rest

My appartment, 2:42 am

I’ve been playing computer games into the wee hours of the morning but now it’s time to get some sleep. Just as I’m about to go off to bed, an idea hits me, I grab my phone then search out Daniels Jojk on Youtube. I plug in my headphones and the somber tones fill me with a feeling of melancholy bliss. I switch off the lights, lie down on the sofa, the night breeze washing over me, turn up the volume and drift away.… Read the rest

Changan road, 5:48 pm

Twilight, just before dusk, the sky overcast. It doesn’t seem to matter if I have my headlights on or not. I switch them off for a second, I see just fine without them, then turn them back on for safety. There is a continuous drizzle, almost unnoticeable when standing still but speed compacts it, I can feel a constant spray on the lower half of my face and the spattering on my visor blurs my vision and diffuses incoming light into glittering halo’s around its sources. It is cold, my face feels numb and a few moments without gloves is … Read the rest

Murger weg, 9:52 pm

I am passing the point where the street lights end, behind me the street is desolate and gloomy, no people around and but few lights in the windows, in front of me just murky darkness. As I leave the light a feeling rises within me, I don’t think it’s fear, no its not strong enough for that, but rather apprehension. In my mind I can rationalize it, I highly doubt some ill doer would be waiting on a dark road at the edge of a rural German town with the intent to accost a chance jogger. Neither do I think … Read the rest

Stein Holzbrucke 6:05 am

I am crossing a small wooden bridge, the sound of the river rushing past beneath my feet is very visceral. It surges by with a noisome gurgling that drowns out the only other sound to be heard this early, that of my own feet treading the ground. At this hour, the vanity lights of the town church, the small castle and the bridge itself are all out and there are no tourists awake to take pictures of the night vista. Mists hang like a veil in front the grey mountains in the distance and the churning river is a dark … Read the rest

Coastal road, remote fjord, 3:40 pm

We’re on a gravel road, the car vibrates and bounces on the uneven surface, small rocks ping off the underside of the body at a steady rate and we stir up a big cloud of dust behind us. To the left of us the mountains, barren cliffs coming down in terraces towards the sea, the narrow road clinging on to the edge above the blue water and me fighting against the loose gravel to keep the car from careening off the edge. I look out over the fjord to the mountains rising sharply on the other side, and realize how … Read the rest

Newgrange 1:08 pm

We are in the central chamber of a stone age tomb, a vault of crudely cut megalith blocks above us and outside that, a great mound of earth covered in grass. The guide turns off the tourist friendly electric lights and the chamber goes completely dark except for some dim light spilling in through the passageway. She turns on the light simulating the equinox sun and a golden ray shoots along the floor, filling the passage with brilliant golden light and grows in luminescence until it culminates in a thin point on a spot precisely calculated by ancient astronomers. Though … Read the rest

Road around Baoshan Reservoir 5:37 pm

We have stumbled upon this place more or less at random. We only stopped at the reservoir for a quick rest before going home, but impulsively decided to circumnavigate the lake, just for fun. And here, on the small road around it, we found this place, a Christian graveyard. The steep hillside is terraced in numerous levels, kind of like the spectator gallery at a sports arena but instead of seats, there are walkways lined with graves; rows and rows of what looks like sarcophagi with slab headstones at one end. Then only difference between them is the color of … Read the rest

Nangang technology park, 12:32 pm

I’m standing in a garden on a kind of a raised dais looking out over the street. Or, I say street but it’s more like a long stretched park of meticulously planted greenery, slate rimmed ponds, and plenty of fountains. Both sides of the park come pedestrian boulevard are lined with futuristic looking office blocks, with facades of brushed aluminum and glass. It’s like something out of a sci-fi movie; an off world paradise for the rich full of luxury and high-tech gadgets, with the rest of humanity stuck on the burnt out wasteland that the earth has become. However, … Read the rest

Metro train near Alvik, 1:28 pm

The world outside the window is bleak and grey. The bare tree trunks form grey shadows against the milky white sky, the thin branches radiating skywards like so many fingers. The buildings in the distance look deserted, like empty shells. We pass over some water but it is inky black, not a ripple on the surface, with sheets of broken ice floating dismally by the edge. The ground, clear of snow and ice despite the season is either a naked soil black or covered in sickly yellow grass. The dead world outside mirrors the emptiness inside me, a desolation of … Read the rest

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