A Shared Life: Elphie & Joel's Upper Midwest Road Trip (08.31.2018 - 09.05.2018)

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLh9ZwEF2QQpO6H_lfxQ5iptIdZdlZWIBo
Over an extended Labor Day weekend, Elphie and I decided to take an Upper Midwest Road Trip with the main goal of visiting North Dakota. This would knock off another state for Elphie leaving two left of the 50 that she has not yet visited (with plans to achieve that in 2019). I felt that since we would be just south of the border, why not cross back into Canada and add Manitoba to the provinces visited and Winnipeg to the cities visited...I also hoped to get some Poutine! This trip relied heavily on Atlas Obscura and Roadside America. We pretty much completely routed the entire trip based on interesting things we found, other than ensuring that we would get to North Dakota and Winnipeg, Manitoba.

Overall, I think the trip was great but I feel the video work still could stand improvement on my end using the Canon Rebel T6. I am still getting used to working with that camera and handling its weight compared to the iPhones or other previous cameras that I have used. I hope in future projects, I will see more improvement in this regard.

https://youtu.be/jj8cEJ87wvQ

Animating the map for the intro and "teaser trailer" was done in a similar method as previous projects. I picked the map using google of the whole area we would be traveling. I decided to have pictures of the various stops fly by...the idea was to be like wind blowing the pictures around. I also added in flags representing the places we were traveling to and from. The rest of the maps were zoomed in closer to locations we would be hitting on each day so the image would hopefully be somewhat clearer.. I used a silhouette car image to drive along the dotted line that I had animated on the map going to each location. I also manipulated the view to zoom in and out further. All the maps and animations were done using Motion 4 on a Macbook. The soundtrack is a clip from "Traveler (Mora Brothers Club Vocal Mix)" by Kevin Max.

https://youtu.be/2tZ4G85XGso

We left after work on Friday, August 31st. It started as a bit of a hectic day and we got going quite a bit later than we had hoped, delayed in part by a thunderstorm rolling in as I was loading what we needed out to the car. Eventually I was able to get everything out to the car and we left while the rain slowed and headed north to Wisconsin. I chose to avoid tolls to keep our costs down. Our first destination was Madison, Wisconsin to see a plaque to commemorate Elvis Presley stopping a street fight by getting out of his limo and taking a karate stance. He died 52 days after this. I opened the soundtrack of the project with "Hound Dog" by Elvis Presley due to this being the first site we would stop at during the trip. The rain had stopped but there were a significant amount of large mosquitoes who wanted to eat us so we did not stay too long.

From Madison we drove a short distance to the town of Mount Horeb to see the trolls of the Trollway. As we got into the town, we didn't notice much in the way of trolls. One here or there but then we got in the center of town and saw quite a few. The town was founded by Norwegian settlers and trolls are of Scandinavian folklore so it became something the town would embrace. The town's welcome center had both the American and Norwegian flag and had "Velkommen" written on it which is welcome in Norwegian. We walked around for a bit checking out the wooden sculptures before heading out. I used "Vegetable" by Dark Valentine for the soundtrack.

It was quite late at this point so we made our way to our last destination that we had scheduled for the night...the Wisconsin Dells. We planned to pull off there somewhere to sleep. We found a Wal*Mart and parked then rearranged our things so that we could go to sleep in the car.


https://youtu.be/fgLRGyZTD5c
if blocked, follow this link -
https://drive.google.com/open?id=16xnFJDAbjggLO7ZDP2xG-3P9FdICYyy-
We woke up Saturday, September 1st to some clearer weather and got ourselves going to Plainfield, WI to try to find the grave plot of Ed Gein - a murderer who is the inspiration for Buffalo Bill in Silence of the Lambs, among other characters. It took us a while, searching around the cemetery but with help of others who also were looking, we did locate it. A small plane would fly by from time to time as well. "Vegetable" by Dark Valentine continued to be the soundtrack for this part.

We headed to Athens, WI next to see a Geographical marker for the spot where 45 degrees latitude and 90 longitude meet. We passed by a junkyard to a farm field where we parked the car and took the short walk into the field to visit the marker. Afterwards, we drove over to Wausau to write our name in the book and get the commemorative coin. I used "On The Road Again" by Willie Nelson as a soundtrack for this section due to the nature of the trip of being on the road. I also included "Queen Of The Northern Soul" by The Trigger Code. Since we were in northern areas, it seemed that it would fit.

We then drove to Tomahawk, WI for a barbecue picnic with Carrie Lang, her husband and friends. I was able to get in a shower at this point before another night in the car. The food was wonderful and it was a good time hanging out before continuing our drive north through Wisconsin. We experienced the sunset as we drove toward Lake Nebagamon. We passed through a town called Phillips that had a concrete park with concrete figures which I noticed from the road but we didn't realize it was an Atlas Obscura site until after the trip was over. I used "Small Towns" by Triple Stitch as part of the soundtrack due to traveling through a lot of small towns and Triple Stitch being based in Minnesota.

We arrived in Lake Nebagamon after dark and unfortunately it appeared that the shed which houses the World's Heaviest Ball of Twine was closed and we were not comfortable trying to explore further in the dark on the creator of the twineball's private property.

We headed for Duluth, MN next. We crossed into Minnesota then found somewhere to pull off so that I could get some coordinates on the things we wanted to check out. As it turned out, I had pulled off next to the SS William A. Irvin which was on our list of things from Atlas Obscura so we took a look at that. Elphie needed some time to relax so I drove somewhere that was away from everything which involved crossing an interesting bridge. While she took her time, I looked into how to get to Uncle Harvey's Mausoleum. I explained that it looked possible but required parking that might be paid then walking a bit to where viewing could hopefully be possible. Elphie decided she would take some more time to relax and I walked out to find the Mausoleum. While it was dark, I did get to see it and tried to capture some footage of it and a sign with some information about it. We headed over to the Glensheen Historic Estate next which was being used for a wedding at the time. We snuck around the grounds of this place that is thought to be haunted. I also took the opportunity to put my hand into Lake Superior leaving Huron as the only great lake I have not yet touched.

We left Duluth, MN for Cloquet, MN where we planned to sleep in another parking lot. Elphie thought we could possibly use the lot of the Frank Lloyd Wright gas station which we checked out in the dark but I felt more comfortable using the nearby Wal*Mart again as it was open. "I had added "Girl From The North Country" by Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash as a soundtrack here again using it for its reference to the north and Bob Dylan being from Minnesota.


https://youtu.be/1fbUpV-T-o0
if blocked, follow this link -
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1mlrMKT56WhM391N0axWhnwf8MslkNR0O
We woke on Sunday, September 2nd, once again in a Wal*Mart parking lot, still in Cloquet, MN, and it had rained overnight. We got ourselves together then drove back to the Frank Lloyd Wright gas station to see it in the daylight. "Girl From The North Country" by Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash continued as the soundtrack to begin this section.

We drove to Bermidji, MN through a few small towns and crossed over parts of the Mississippi River. Somewhere along the way, we saw a large wodden lawn chair. We arrived in Bermidji where there were two sites to check out from Atlas Obscura - the Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox statues and a fireplace with stones from all 50 states and other areas. We spent a bit of time here looking at the various Paul Bunyan "artifacts" and eating some lunch.

We headed toward Itasca State Park next to see the headwaters of the Mississippi River. I crossed the water as we walked to the headwaters while Elphie took a bridge. We got into the water at the headwaters which is where the river begins leaving Lake Itasca. There are rocks that I guess officially mark the boundary of where the lake ends and the river begins. I once again crossed over the river at this point as well. I also shot some footage of a thee dimensional model of the entire length of the Mississippi River and a few other things surrounding the area.

In this part of the project, I used "Big River" by Johnny Cash and "Black Water" by The Doobie Brothers due to both being about or mentioning the Mississippi River.

We would have liked to have spent a little more time there but had set a deadline for arriving in Ada, MN, our next destination. I actually ended up getting us there a little faster than anticipated. We crossed through White Earth Reservation along the way. In Ada, we spent time with Cynthia and Tina, some Audiofeed friends and had another barbecue picnic. Just down the road, one of Cynthia's friends had his basement set up as a small club so we went there when it got later and the sun had gone down and he spun some goth music. I captured a bit of that with some Depeche Mode playing from the system.

We drove to Fargo, ND afterwards where we would sleep at Tina's house for the night. I got gas on our way into town. I added in "Summer" by Il Neige to the later part of this section of the project because Vanessa lived in Minnesota and is Canadian.


https://youtu.be/C-a-gJekl-Y
We wpoke up on Labor Day, Monday, September 3rd, in Fargo, North Dakota but not in the car in a Wal*Mart parking lot but in a bed in our friend Tina's apartment instead. It was a nice change! We had some breakfast then went to the Fargo/Moorhead visitors center to see the Woodchipper from the movie, Fargo. There was one outside in the middle of a Walk of Fame so we checked out the Walk of Fame as well. Instead we saw the Woodchipper from the movie with a foot inside it along with other artifacts from the movie. It is interesting how the movie is called Fargo yet it is set entirely in Minnesota. Elphie purchased a hat and I ended up getting a free patch before we departed toward Canada. "Summer" by Il Neige continued as the soundtrack then I added "Blowin' In The Wind" by Bob Dylan next, again because he is a native to Minnesota and due to the windy conditions.

It was a long drive on a long stretch of straight road to the border. Our car seemed to get louder than ever during this stretch while we were permitted to go 80mph. The border crossing was fairly easy this time and we spent a little time at the visitors center getting pictures and video of signs and flags. It was very windy. I added the song "When The Summer's Gone" by Ampersand (Derek Webb and Sandra McCracken) here because this trip in a way signaled the end of the summer season for us.

We continued our drive to Winnipeg and to the Travelodge where I booked a suite so we could enjoy the hot tub. It also had a pool. We took a few minutes to relax then went to find some dinner. Elphie decided she wanted Subway which was nearby and I figured I would try to get some poutine.

After getting Subway, we drove east to find the Longitudinal Centre of Canada near Lorette. We passed the new park that was made to commemorate the spot while looking for the sign so we crossed over the area twice before stopping at the park. As we left, the sun began to set so we got some good footage of it as well as some pictures.

We drove around a loop of Winnipeg in hopes of finding the "cement cemetery" to the west of the city near Rosser. We could not see it with the night setting in and with later resarch, it appeared we may have been a mile or so away from the location and even drove by where we might have been able to catch a glimpse had we been aware. We returned to downtown Winnipeg and I tried to get poutine only to find that Smoke's Poutinerie was closed. I dropped Elphie off at the hotel then tried another Smoke's location but it was also closed...apparently due to Labor Day. I was a bit bummed and ended up eating cans of ravioli then partaking in the hot tub. "Rockin' The Poutine" by KBDProductionsTV was used as a soundtrack to end this part of the project for obvious reasons.


https://youtu.be/SH_AM770jwQ
if blocked, follow this link -
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1hqBeEi_DWq17qtZsxduo4XaTnohSAEhH
We woke up from our nice hotel suite at the Travelodge in Winnipeg on Tuesday, September 4th, and began our long drive back to Chicago...but not before I made another attempt to get poutine! This time I had success and I ordered the largest option available to go from Smoke's Poutinerie. It would be really nice to have a Smoke's in Chicago. Poutine is not the easiest thing to eat while driving but I did the best I could as we drove toward the border. We passed the Bell MTS Place where the Winnipeg Jets play as we left the city. We passed another stadium along the way and we noticed a little church in the grassy median between the north and southbound lanes of the highway when we were driving into Canada so we made sure to get video of that as we left. I continued using "Rockin' The Poutine" by KBDProductionsTV as the soundtrack for this part of the project.

Crossing back into the United States of America proved to be a more difficult experience than crossing into Canada or really any other border crossing that we have experienced to this point in our travels. Apparently, one of the border patrol agents thought capturing the signage and border building on video or taking pictures (by the passenger, not driver...just FYI) was suspicious so we were questioned then told to pull our car into what appeared to be like a little garage, leave all electronic devices in the car, and empty our pockets. We were asked about any fresh fruit we might be carrying on board and told it was illegal to cross the border with fresh fruits...even ones we had bought in the United States. Next, we were told we need to go in a little room while they searched our car and I hoped that they would leave my poutine alone. After they got done searching the car, they asked Elphie to show the clip she was filming as we pulled up to the border. They were satisfied that they did not appear in the video and they let us go (As it turned out, they did indeed appear in the video as I found out during the editing, ha!). I used the song "Dakota" by Bradley Hathaway in this part of the project simply because of the title.

We made the long drive toward Fargo and Moorhead where we planned to meet with Tina again so we could get some things we had left behind in case of any search issues and the border. It turns out that was good thinking on Elphie's part, ha! We met Tina at a Dairy Queen in Moorhead where the Largest Dilly Bar stands. We got some ice cream and hung out for a little while then, as we were trying to leave to make it to our other intended destinations, Tina convinced us to take a few more minutes in Moorhead to go to the Hjemkomst Center and see the Viking ship and church. They were pretty cool to see. As we left we checked the forecast because it appeared the weather might be taking a bad turn and we were hearing reports of a severe storm coming into the area. I used "Purple Rain" by Prince as the soundtrack with the return into Minnesota since Prince is a native of the state. I asked Elphie if she had any thoughts on a Prince song to use and she suggested this. I had thought of using this myself as well with the rainy conditions during this part of the trip and being in Minnesota.

We arrived in Alexandria after driving through some rain but it was dry in Alexandria. We saw Big Ole, the viking statue the accompanied a rune stone to the World's Fair. The rune stone is in the nearby Runestone Museum that was closed at the time we arrived.

We made our way to Belgrade next and I think it stayed fairly clear during that short trip. In Belgrade is the World's Largest Crow so we checked that out and the accompanying park around it. We arrived as the sun was setting giving us some nice colors to see as we drove.

We went to Darwin next to see the World's Largest Ball of Twine Rolled by One Man. Unlike the other twine ball we tried to see, this one was housed in a light up public building. We checked it out and the things sitting in near proximity that we could see in the dark before heading toward Minneapolis.

As we approached Minneapolis, Elphie got in touch with another one of her friends so we made a slight detour to see her. It seemed no one we were connected to in the Twin Cities area was available but it turned out that we had the wrong phone number for one couple Elphie was trying to reach. We rested a bit while Elphie caught up with her friend then we went to downtown Minneapolis to see the Mary Tyler Moore statue and crossed into Saint Paul to see the statue of Herb Brooks near the XCel Energy Center where the Minnesota Wild play. We also stopped by a bar that had a baby changing table with "place child sacrifice here" written on it but it seemed that the phrase had been removed.

We drove a bit longer to Rochester, MN to find a Wal*Mart parking lot to sleep in for the night and settled in for a few hours before another long day on the road back to Chicago. I started "Traveler (Mora Brothers Club Vocal Mix)" by Kevin Max to end this part of the project.

https://youtu.be/twoozv4UZWY
Wednesday, September 5th, we woke up and prepared to leave the Wal*Mart parking lot in Rochester, MN. Elphie went inside and ended up finding some Halloween stuff to buy saying she felt she should buy something since we slept in a few Wal*Mart parking lots on the trip.

This was a day of pretty much driving back to Chicago. We really only had one stop figured out for the day in rural Wisconsin. We ended up going passed the World's Largest Six Pack in La Crosse, WI, after we crossed the Mississippi River one last time. I failed to capture it on video because I didn't realize it was an Atlas Obscura site or had any real significance until later. It was silos of the city brewery made to look like beer cans. As we drove we went through a town and several other areas that had recently been flooded. We saw some major damage to roads and buildings but we thankfully could continue to pass through without too much difficulty. In the early evening, we eventually made our way to  the Gravity Hill in Shullsburg, WI and experienced the illusion of appearing to roll up hill. We entered Illinois near the town of Apple River and had to get gas. Our GPS then put us on an impassable road. I navigated us toward the highway to get us home.

We stopped for dinner at a Taco Bell near Freeport, IL. We drove through Rockford, Elgin, then into Chicago and home! At home we were greeted by Stein who seemed to be quite happy that we were back. I continued to use Traveler (Mora Brothers Club Vocal Mix)" by Kevin Max for the additional soundtrack on this part and on through the credits.

The trip went well overall. It was a lot of road time and the car has been getting loader and running harder but we made it through and saw a lot of interesting things. We were happy to see some friends a long the way as well. This was a good trip!

The Complete Project Soundtrack: “Hound Dog” by Elvis Presley, “Vegetable” by Dark Valentine, “On The Road Again” by Willie Nelson, “Queen Of The Northern Soul” by The Trigger Code, “Small Towns” by Triple Stitch, “Girl From The North Country” by Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash, “Big River” by Johnny Cash, “Black Water” by The Doobie Brothers, “Summer” by Il Neige, “Blowin In The Wind” by Bob Dylan, “When The Summer’s Gone” by Ampersand (Derek Webb and Sandra McCracken), “Rockin’ The Poutine” by KBDProductionsTV, Dakota” by Bradley Hathaway, “Purple Rain” by Prince, “Traveler (Mora Brothers Club Vocal Mix)” by Kevin Max

Footage filmed using a Canon Rebel T6 and iPhone 6 and 8 by Elphie and Joel A. Swanson. Editing done using Final Cut Pro on a Mac Mini by Joel A. Swanson. Titles and animations created using Motion 4 on a Macbook by Joel A. Swanson

A Shared Life: Elphie & Joel's Eurotrip 2018

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLh9ZwEF2QQpOQoreA6Bafs5PBOJSkav6E

This project is the video documentation of the trip to Europe that Elphie and I went on in May 2018. We planned the trip around an event in Leipzig, Germany that Elphie really wanted to go to called Wave Gotik Treffen. We planned out a trip that included several other stops around the continent in England, Sweden, Denmark, France, Switzerland, Germany, and Iceland. Elphie's friend Mel lives in Switzerland so we planned for the trip to include a visit with her and ultimately worked out that she could come to Wave Gotik Treffen with us. If I am remembering correctly, the vacation time she could take was in the week before Wave Gothik Treffen and dictated the rest of the planning of our trip. Sweden and Denmark were added in as part of the trip so that I could visit the places of my heritage. We added England so that we could visit with our friend Dougle and he was able to take some time off of work as well to spend with us. France was sort of an accident as the airport we flew into to go to Switzerland happened to be in France but we also were able go to a spot where Germany, France and Switzerland all meet. We had hopes of spending a day in Reyjavik, Iceland on our way home...maybe even a night but that wasn't in the cards for us. After the trip and a day to recover, we then drove to North Carolina over the weekend to see Elphie's niece get married then we returned to Chicago on Memorial Day to bring this trip to an exhausting end...it was all worth it though!

https://youtu.be/B_tUoI5rRcc

Last year, when working on the video project for the road trip Elphie and I took through the Northeast in 2017, I wanted to make an animated map to show where we were going so I researched at the time how to do a very basic animation. I took what I had learned before and tried to up my game a little bit on this end so I also added in images of the various modes of transportation that we used to follow the dotted lines to our destinations. I also tried some other effects to show movement from one spot to the next and zooming in and out of the map areas. I think that I made some progress in regards to this form of animation but I know that there will always be room for improvement. Along with maps showing movement from one place to another, I made one full map version which shows the trip in its entirety for an "opening credits" sequence that is also part of the teaser trailer linked above. Elphie had written a summary of the trip that included her highlights and favorite pictures we had taken so I thought I would integrate this into the opening credits and teaser as well. The idea I had was to make it look like the pictures were being dropped or dealt in like cards so I did my best to create that sort of an effect. I put the flags of the nations we visited in the background then wanted to add in one more shot of the flags changing quickly at the end. I put several hours into creating the maps and other title related clips over a period of a week or so in late January 2019. All this was done using Motion 4 which is part of the Final Cut Pro package. I had to use it on my Macbook due to an update rendering Motion 4 incompatible with the operating system on my Mac Mini.

I wanted to wait until I was close to finishing the project as a whole to release my idea of a teaser trailer. I waited in part because I was trying to determine some of the soundtrack and what would fit into the teaser trailer and I ended up going with "Trans Europe Express" by Kraftwerk with the traveling theme to Europe. The decision on text effects on fonts were made collaboratively with Elphie.

Part 1: Packing, Opening Credits, Leaving Chicago For The United Kingdom (O'Hare to Gatwick Airport); Swindon and Oxford, England; Oxford To London To Stansted Airport (May 3 - 7, 2018)

https://youtu.be/DNlGsBIUvgY
(or try this link if YouTube blocks you:  https://drive.google.com/open?id=1PSoK99R7AF-78DcAQa65gaHjynxfYLpl)
Though Elphie and I had been preparing quite a bit before this, on Thursday May 3rd, 2018 we began our final packing for our trip to Europe. Stein was in the middle of everything as we packed and decided to sit in our luggage before we closed it up. I decided to put this first before the opening credit titles which are the same clips I used in the teaser trailer. I used "Trans Europe Express" by Kraftwerk as the soundtrack again which continued into the footage from May 5th. It seemed appropriate with the traveling to Europe though the song seems to be more about train travel and set more in the central regions of Europe than flying over to Europe.

On Friday May 4th, 2018 we boarded our flight on Norwegian Airlines for our overnight trip to England. I worked during the day so I documented my commute into work and then from work to O'Hare Airport. I animated a map to show the general idea of the commute as well. I also animated a map of our flight to England. Elphie arrived at the airport before I did and we both got through the security checkpoints without much difficulty. The flight was in the mid evening. I wasn't too hungry at that point but Elphie got something to eat before we boarded in case the on-flight meal didn't satisfy her. Of the entire trip, I felt Norwegian Airlines was the best service we had. I thought that the meals we were provided were good, it was a mostly comfortable experience, and there were screens to watch things on the back of the seat in front of us. I watched through a couple movies...I found the language edits to be funny. I tried to sleep but struggled to really rest much.

We arrived at London Gatwick Airport on Saturday May 5th, 2018. From there, we passed through customs after a few questions and really no difficulty at all, then found our luggage, then found our way out of the airport to the proper area so that we could board a Megabus and make our way toward Swindon. It was on the bus that I was able to get some sleep. We had to switch buses somewhere along the way. We arrived in Swindon and met our good friend and host, Dougle McMysteron, then took a cab to where he lived and met his roommate and our co-host, John Derry, who made us some nice coffee. We found out that John Derry had become associated with Tommy Green and Revolution Reality ministry which is pretty cool. We didn't do too much this day but we did take a walk through a park to a grocery store to get some dinner and hung with Dougle at his home the rest of the evening.

We slept in fairly late on Sunday May 6th, 2018 so we missed out on some sight-seeing that Dougle had in mind but we went to the Derry family's residence and had a barbecue with the family. We also got to check out the nearby Barbury Castle, thanks to Chris Derry. This was an old medieval fort built on a hill using the natural elements of the hill itself. Dougle pointed out the change in the color of the grass as where the natural hillside becomes man made. There are no longer any buildings and it is basically just a mound now along an ancient footpath but it was cool to see. We also encountered a little bit of livestock and both Dougle and Chris told us about this area and some nearby sites that we unfortunately would not get to. That evening we went to a rave in Swindon at Boston Brothers. John Derry had been getting himself involved in that scene and his brother also has been part of the scene for a while. Elphie was excited about this opportunity so we went along with them. It was interesting. I noticed a young guy who had been asked to leave attempt several times to get back in which was amusing. Afterwards, we ate Kebabs from Korkys. Apparently I ate too much at the barbecue as I could not finish my Kebab so I gave what I had left to a guy who was living on the street nearby. This was about the only encounter we had with homeless folks during this trip. It seems to not be a big problem in most of Europe because of differing views on housing than in the United States of America. Because we are in the United Kingdom, I added "Anarchy in the UK" by The Sex Pistols into the soundtrack...I had to.

On Monday May 7th, 2018 there was bank holiday being celebrated in the United Kingdom. We got up early and had breakfast at Sir Daniel's Arms before boarding a bus toward Oxford. Elphie had an English breakfast while I stuck to what I know by having an American breakfast. I animated maps for the traveling we would do on this day by bus. We passed through the Magic Roundabout on our way out of Swindon which we had hoped to experience after seeing it listed on Atlas Obscura. John explained how it does work more efficiently despite the appearance of chaos. Dougle pointed out to us the thatch roofs on some houses along the way. We did not consult Atlas Obscura before we went to Oxford, but in looking back, we found that we did see a number of sites listed including the Saxon Tower at St. Michael at the North Gate.  We stopped by Ashmolean Museum to drop our belongings on a locker. While in there, we watched John and Dougle play a game. We made our way through Oxford and the colleges of the University seeing Another Time II and the Sheldonian Theatre as we went along our way. We made a  stop to get coffee at Colombia Coffeee Roasters. As we continued, we checked out All Souls College before heading over to the Magdelen College. With the religious imagery and names of the colleges, I felt the song "Release" by Afro-Celt Sound System featuring Sinead O'Connor seemed appropriate. The stop at Magdalen College allowed us to see the Addison's Walk where J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis debated Christianity and ultimately led to the acceptance of the faith by C. S. Lewis. We had to hustle back to the Ashmolean to gather our belongings after this then we went to the Eagle and Child pub to sit and cool off for a bit. We sat in the front room of this pub where the Inklings would meet regularly. As we left the Eagle and Child we passed the Pusey House which we documented because we found it funny. We also encountered a telephone booth that Elphie explored closer than the rest of us. Both John and Dougle warned about the sanitary conditions of the telephone booths inspiring me to use "Dirty Old Town" by The Pogues for a soundtrack. It had been planned to have a picnic dinner so we went to the local grocery store to get some food. Because it was a bit crowded and we had our luggage, Elphie decided to stay outside. When we came outside, she was no where to be found. It turned out that Elphie had to use the restroom and it was becoming an emergency so she walked back to the Eagle and Child which was a bit longer of a walk than she anticipated. I tried to contact her but we were limiting our phone use to try to save on our costs. In Europe, restrooms aren't as accessible as they are in the United States of America. Public restrooms cost money and often require exact change. Elphie decided to go back to the pub because we had just been patrons so she figured she could use that restroom again. So while we started to get a bit concerned and searched around the general area and while I tried to contact her phone, Elphie walked back thankfully unscathed. We settled down then made our way to a nearby park which was a church yard with a cemetery to relax, hang out, and eat our meal until it was getting near our time to board a bus to London then onto Stansted Airport. We said our goodbyes then boarded the bus. I added "London Calling" by The Clash into the soundtrack at this point because of going to London.

I had hoped we'd have enough time to see a few things in London but it didn't really work out. When we arrived in London, we accidentally got off at the wrong location which was not too far off but we did have to walk to where our next bus would be. I needed to use the restroom so I tried to get change but the nearby Starbucks said they couldn't possibly do that for me. We saw the bus we would need to board so we just got on it and used the on-board restroom so the sites we saw were what we could see from the window of the bus...sites like the Parliament building with Big Ben under construction, The London Eye, and the Tower Bridge. We arrived at Stansted Airport around 1am or so and joined a large group of people who were also there essentially camped out for the night to wait for their early morning departures. I used the airport wifi to watch the final playoff game of the season for the Pittsburgh Penguins.

https://www.facebook.com/0rawr.go.away/media_set?set=a.10214497350561764&type=3

Part 2: Leaving England For Sweden (Stansted To Skavsta Airport), Sweden Visit, Sweden To Denmark by FlixBus, Denmark Visit, Leaving Denmark For Switzerland (Copenhagen to EuroAirport), arrive In Basel, Switzerland (May 8 - 11, 2018)

https://youtu.be/2n2nv0Ubu18
As morning came on Tuesday May 8th, we along with the hundreds of other travelers camped out at Stansted began to get in lines for our respective flights to wherever we would be heading next. For us, that was Sweden by way of Ryan Air. While waiting I found out that we needed to have printed tickets which we were not able to print before we left the United States of America so we needed to talk to someone with Ryan Air about how to get our tickets printed with hopes of not having to pay the 50 pounds charge. So we get in a line and are near the front...feeling tired and a bit irritable and I'm sure we weren't the only ones. We were standing in the line for an hour or at least close to it when the line begins to move over to another area but no one is saying anything to us, the customers. By the time we realize what is going on, we have lost our front of the line status. Elphie was not having it though, we went and stood near the new line and she went ahead of the customers so we could find out what we needed to do about our tickets. Then we were redirected to another line so frustration was mounting. We got in that line and thankfully it wasn't as long and moved quickly. We learned that besides our little issue, there were flight cancellations to Italy because of a union strike with their airports. When we got to the employee, in a hushed voice she explained to us to go to a kiosk where the person could print us our tickets and it would only cost us 15 pounds or something instead of 50 pounds each. So we go and get that taken care of fairly easily then get back in line to check our luggage and make our way to the terminal but we are told that we are too early but at least we have our luggage tagged so it should take a little less time when we come back in an hour. Elphie was hungry so we went to check out what breakfast options we had. Elphie ended up choosing Burger King but what she ordered or at least thought she ordered was quite different from what she got, which was disappointing. When it was time to go through security, we get our checked bag taken care of without difficulty then we go through the detectors with our carry-ons. They searched my bag and determined my full sized deodorant and toothpaste was not in complaince (even though they did pass through O'Hare). I said, "throw it away then if I can't have it" and the security person just looked at me like somehow I would remain in England instead of boarding my flight over a few dollars of wasted hygiene supplies so I repeated myself. Perhaps I had an irritated tone and/or look on my face. Anyway, he did throw it away and I repacked my bag and we were off towards the terminal through the land of the Duty-Free stores. I bought new toothpaste and deodorant that would be in compliance (hopefully) for the rest of our flights and continued on our way. We noticed this airport was on the "posh" side. At one point, Elphie decided to approach one of the ladies spraying samples of perfume for prospective customers...the lady turned her back on Elphie and began to adjust the fake plant near her to "look busy." We were humored by the snub, ha! We arrived in the terminal and waited to see what gate our plane would depart from. At this time, I began to feel hungry so I began to look to see what I could afford with our remaining pounds. I settled on porridge and it wasn't too bad. We finally were able to head to our gate and board Ryan Air and get out of Stansted Airport. We would prefer to not use that airport again if we can avoid it, ha! We boarded our flight on Ryan Air from the tarmac which was unexpected to me. Finally, we were on our way to the land of my heritage, Sweden! The soundtrack continued to be "London Calling" by The Clash in the airport.

We arrived at Skavsta Airport and went through customs again then got the information and boarded a Flygbussarna to Stockholm. I slept on the bus and Elphie spoke to some locals about where we could get lunch once we arrived in Stockholm. Based on that information, we decided to walk to KungsHallen for lunch. After we ate, we then walked to our AirBnB, taking in the scenery and churches along the way. We got the key from the gentleman working in the flower shop below the apartment and had a nice conversation with him for a bit before going to our AirBnB. I took the opportunity to shower and found Elphie asleep when I got out so I laid down as well...we ended up sleeping a few hours then met our host. I went back to sleep and slept through the night. Elphie woke up and watched some movies on Netflix. She got hungry but didn't realize how late it was so her only option turned out to be a Circle K hot dog from the nearby Circle K. The soundtrack I chose for the flight and the beginning of our time in Sweden was “Shekina” by Blindside. I chose it because Blindside is a Swedish band.

On Wednesday, May 9th, we woke up, had some breakfast provided by the host of our AirBnB, then headed out to explore Stockholm. It turned out that Stockholm is a fairly easy city to walk around in...at least from where we were staying to the main parts of its downtown. We decided to start by going to Shock, an alternative rocknroll type store. It was on Drottninggatan which we later learned was a main commercial district with a whole lot of shops. We would end up stopping in a vintage store called Beyond Retro that had an old Steelers sweatshirt, then went to C.U.M. Clubwear before entering the House of Candy to get Swedish Fish in Sweden. We stopped in a few other stores along the way until I realized we had gotten a bit offtrack of where we wanted to go so we turned in the proper direction and encountered an old church and cemetery. We went from there to a hotel building that was once a bank that had been robbed and is cited as the first case of "Stockhom Syndrome." We found this on Atlas Obscura and had it among the sites we would try to visit. Due to the Stockholm Syndrome thing, I put in “Black Eye” by Derek Webb for the soundtrack. We took a short rest then started walking toward the Olympic Stadium from the Stockholm games of 1912. As we made our way, we passed the Wiener Cafeet that we found to be funny so we documented it. We also passed a barbershop called Sweeney Todd. We walked around near the Stadium while we waited for Sarah, a Stockholm native that Elphie met through Sadgoth.com and she offered to show us around for a bit. Our first stop was at a Subway so we could get some lunch and use the restroom. We walked a while and Sarah would point out interesting things along the way such as the first skyscraper of the city. We passed by the Battle of the Elms (an Atlas Obscura site) but I wasn't aware of it at the time. Sarah took us to the Royal Palace then we walked around Old Town. There was an interesting alley that becomes quite narrow at one end. We passed a strange little statue near on of the buildings but I'm not sure what it was about. While near the waterfront, Sarah told us of a Royal Ship that had sunk. I caught a clips of the Kastellet Stockholm while we were there. Some of the museums are free including the Medieval Museum so we went in there for a while. I put “Our Flags Held High” by Dödsmarsch (Scandinavian Black Metal Alliance) as the soundtrack. It seemed appropriate. Sarah took us to N3rds Arcade Bar and along the way we passed Katarina Elevator. We left the arcade around dusk so we saw the skyline with the sunset. The sun set much later than we were used to because we were farther north than we were used to. It also would rise earlier which Elphie had found out that morning around 3 or 4am. As we made our way back we happened to take Drottninggatan again and by chance we found Rag And Bone - a scultpure in honor of those less fortunate. We passed a lit up tower and a Saxophone playing man then found ourselves at Kungsgatan where we walked the first day. We were hungy for some dinner so we went to Max Burgers before returning to our AirBnB. I took a shot of the room before going to bed.

On Thursday, May 10th, we packed up and headed out to the bus station so we could leave our luggage in a locker then headed toward the Royal Palace to meet with Mikael, another person that Elphie met through Sadgoth.com. I put in “Faces” by Dark Valentine for the soundtrack...another Swedish band. We passed a church and cemetery along the way and then passed Rag And Bone again as well. We heard a guy playing cups on the bridge then arrived in the courtyard of the Royal Palace. Our plan was to see the changing of the Royal Guard but we thought we were a little too late. It turned out we were early due to the Ascension Day holiday. We met Mikael then watched the ceremony for the changing of the Royal Guard. Mikael took us to Riddarholmen, a church where nobility are buried, but it costs more than he felt it was worth for us to take the tour so we left. We ended up going back through Drottninggatan where I got some souvenirs and a Swedish Flag then we got ice cream at Stikki Nikki. We went through another street seeing some art pieces then we decided to ride transit to the Globen Arena where concerts and hockey games occur amongst other things. The Globen Arena is the "sun" for the Solar System model the covers the entire city. There is also a nearby stadium for soccer and apparently there had been a game so people were beginning to leave so we also left to try to stay ahead of the crowd. As we waited on transit, I noticed the Metro Art that graces all the transit stations in the city. Mikael too us to Garlic And Shots, a restaurant which serves garlic with everything. I went simple by getting Swedish Meatballs with mash potatoes...Elphie got a Bull Ball Burger and her meal came with a whole clove of garlic. I learned while eating this meal that parsley neutralizes the smell and aftertaste of the Garlic. From here, Mikael took us to Big Ben Stand Up Klubb for some English speaking comedy. In the restroom I noticed a peculiar sight of flys painted in the urinals. Mikael helped us navigate back into Stockholm and we made our way back to the bus station to wait on the FlixBus to take us to Copenhagen, Denmark. We rode overnight.

In the early morning of Friday, May 11th, as we rode the FlixBus we stopped at a toilet dumping site. We passed through the city of Malmo then crossed over a bridge that turned into a tunnel into Denmark. We arrived early in the morning in Copenhagen then began to walk around taking in the scenery. Even though they are Swedish and not Danish, I put “There Must Be Something In The Wind” by Blindside as the soundtrack for the soundtrack for remainder of this part of project. We took a picture with a man in the nude photobombing us ha! We passed Tivoli, an amusement park, many churches, and I believe the Royal Palace. We stopped in a coffee shop to get a little breakfast. We passed an ice cream shop with Cookie Monster in the window. We also passed by a park with ducks and other birds, one which was eating a small fish. We went into a cemetery and I came to realize we had gone too far in our attempt to get to Freetown Christiania. As we got closer, a problem began to brew where Elphie was in need of food. She had thought we'd find food at Christiania but if they did have food, we were way too early. In the midst of the chaos of this, I found a British breakfast place and Elphie was able to eat.

We then got on transit to the Copenhagen Airport so that we could fly to Basel, Switzerland. I took the time while in the airport to get some Danish souvenirs and a flag. This airport experience was pretty relaxed and easy. We had to wait in a main terminal to find out where we needed to go. During that time we found some food to eat as well. We flew using EasyJet. Once again we had to go on the tarmac to board the flight.

We arrived at EuroAirport in St. Louis, France. This was a bit of a surprise for us that we would end up in France on this trip, ha! We actually would end up going into France again during our visit to Basel with Mel. When we got into the airport, we tried to reach Mel. She ended up calling my phone and a short time later she pulled up to pick us up to take us to her house. Mel takes part in Couch Surfing so while she is a friend of Elphie's that gave us a place to stay...we technically participated in Couch Surfing as well.

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https://www.facebook.com/0rawr.go.away/media_set?set=a.10214516304835609&type=3

Part 3: Basel, Guyeres, and Bern, Switzerland (May 12th - 16th, 2018)

https://youtu.be/K13mt-65dso
After getting settled in and getting rested, we woke up on Saturday May 12th, and Mel took us down to the Rhine River to watch a tightrope walker cross over the river. This was the first time I had seen something like this in real life and it was pretty cool. I added "The Balancing Act" by Cool Hand Luke to the soundtrack due to the tightrope walking. Afterwards we crossed to the north side of the river and sat along the water for a bit. We got something to drink then crossed back over on a ferry. Mel drove us to a place where France, Germany, and Switzerland all come together. We crossed the Three Countries Bridge and hung around that area for a bit before returning back to Mel's place then taking another short walk to a park to have a picnic with food cooked on her charcoal grill. That night a storm came in and I got a shot of some lightning in the area.

On Sunday morning, May 13th, we took a trip into Germany to have breakfast with Mel's boyfriend in his van that he lives in sometimes. It was a fun and interesting experience. From there we went to Gruyères, Switzerland and the H.R. Giger Museum. We got dinner at Des Ramparts restaurant before heading back to Basel.

On Monday, May 14th, we had breakfast with Elphie's friend Diana who she met during a mission project in Hawaii. Afterwards, we walked around Basel for a while. We saw some interesting scenery and I got some clips of street performers making music. There was a fountain with some interesting inventions shooting water around. I added “The Chronometers Of Switzerland” by Joy Electric to the soundtrack here in part due to the title and also due to those inventions in the fountain.  Elphie tried some edibles to see how they might affect her. Later in the afternoon going into the evening, she was very tired and went to sleep.

On Tuesday, May 15th, we had breakfast with Elphie's friend Joel who she also met during her time doing missions in Hawaii. He showed us a music video of his music project. I added that song, “Bumerang Bum” by Chéjs Romero featuring N.D.A. and Grischa Engelhardt as the soundtrack here. After the breakfast, we ended up going to Germany again. This time for dinner which was raclette with Mel's boyfriend and his housemates.

On Wednesday, May 16th, we went with Mel to her parents home to return the car. We got a tour of the slaughter house that her family runs as well as the rest of the property. We had lunch with the family and their employees which included these really good chocolate covered marshmallow thigns. After lunch, we went to the nearby Kambly cookie factory. We headed back to Basel by train taking a slight detour to Bern to see the Child Eater statue from Atlas Obscura. We got back into Basel then prepared for our journey early the next morning by train to Leipzig. Due to the train rides, I chose to add "Eurorail" by Kevin Max as a soundtrack during this part of the project and continuing into the next part with the trip to Leipzig.

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Part 4: Leipzig and Wave Gotik Treffen (W.G.T.) (May 17th - 21st, 2018)

https://youtu.be/3XBpJCoZirY
On Thursday, May 17th, we left Basel with Mel early in the morning by local transit then by train on the Deutsche Bahn to our next destination which was Leipzig. We bought the tickets for the Bahn online months before the trip with Mel's help but it was still a bit confusing. We ended up having to order twice because I made a mistake with the first order but we were able to board the train and had the seats that we had ordered so it all ended up good. Leipzig is in Germany (formerly East Germany) and the site of Wave Gotik Treffen which was the catalyst to get us to Europe on this trip. We arrived at the main train station in town then crossed the street to get our wristbands for the festival. It was a long line and what we heard seemed to be true...the whole town is taken over by goth people of all types from all over the world. After this, we went to our AirBnB and met our host. We would be getting the entire place for this AirBnB so once he made sure we were situated, he left us to do our thing. Next we went to Aldi to get some groceries before heading to the Ratskeller for the Sadgoth.com meet up. We found that Aldi had the chocolate covered marshmallow things we enjoyed at Mel's parents house so we bought some. We had dinner at the meetup and met Amy Black who connected us with the local goth club in Maine during our trip the previous fall. We also reconnected with Mikael from Sweden and Ted and Rose, also from Chicago, sat with us for dinner. We then tagged along with them to find the Moritzbastei for the Chicago meetup later in the evening. We ended up bailing on the Chicago meetup because the Moritzbastei was too crowded. We went back to the AirBnB and got a decent night's rest. From here and through most of the rest of the Leipzig part of the project I used "St. Glockenspiel's Science Faire" by Joy Electric as a soundtrack.

We got up and going on Friday, May 18th, and decided to go to the Victorian Picnic and see what we could see. We rode the tram to the park and took a walk through seeing the various ways people dressed up for this event. We returned to our AirBnB then headed toward the main spot of the festival: The Agra. Along the way, we stopped at the Pagan Village to see what was going on and what they had for sale. The music seemed to be celtic/folk based. We went on to the Agra and walked the merchandise area then got some food. We eventually went into the Agra Halle to see the band Schandmaul. I included a playlist with all the bands and further description in the next section. After Schandmaul, we walked around other areas of the Agra to find that there were DJs and parties going on. in Agra 4.2 we found the space that had the industrial that Elphie loves so she was excited and had a good time dancing. I believe the DJ was Thomas Rainer.

On Saturday, May 19th, Elphie and I headed toward the Agra again while Mel did something else. On the way, we stopped at a Goth Thrift Store and in a park nearby there was another festival going on called Gothic Pogo happening so we watched some people dressed as robots dance around to a DJ. We arrived at the Agra to see ZeroMancer, 3Teeth, Oomph!, and Front Line Assembly. Elphie had some trouble with the large crowd and constant flashing light so I helped her get out of the crowd during Oomph! Once she was settled we decided she could go sit and people watch while I went back in to see some of the Front Line Assembly performance.

On Sunday, May 20th, we got up and went with Mel to a church service called Gothic Christ which was held at Peterskrische. The church was an old beautiful building that had survived World War II. The damaged stained glass windows were not replaced with color but with grey panes instead. Some of the other damaged icons and decor of the building were preserved and on display along with information on the history of the building. The service was in Deutsche so I did not understand what was said but I enjoyed being there. I learned more about Gothic Christ and found that the service occurs during Wave Gotik Treffen each year. It focuses on Pentecost which is the weekend that Wave Gotik Treffen is scheduled each year. The religious holidays are remembered and celebrated in at least as much as getting a day off of work in Europe despite a more "secular" culture while most of these days are barely acknowledged in the United States of America. After the service we returned to our AirBnB and got ice cream at Cafe Yellow Brasil...I got the black ice cream! Mel suggested going to a restaurant that serves vegan burgers for dinner so that's what we did...we went to Curry Sud Burger then we went to Dark Flower to see The Pirate Twins DJ for a bit. We headed out at this point with intention to go to another party that had a Depeche Mode theme but the place was too packed. I was going to leave Elphie and Mel there to go see The Jesus And Mary Chain at the Agra but they ended up coming with me but staying outside while I watched the set. I tried to get a clip of a building we kept passing on our way back to our AirBnB that looked interesting but I wasn't able to get a good shot of it.

Monday, May 21st, was the last day of Wave Gotik Treffen. We decided to check out a different venue and Elphie believed it was where there would be industrial music all night. The venue was called Volkspalast and held two performance spaces called KuppelHalle and Kantine. I think most of the artists that performed were more experimental and noise but there was some industrial in it. We ended up seeing SARDH, Svartsinn, Author And Punisher, Trepaneringsritualen, and Teho Taerdo and Blixa Bargeld. We left and ended up meeting Mel a the main tram hub before walking through downtown Leipzig. We came to the Moritzbastei and it was packed again but I did go in and found the room called Veranstaltungstonne which had Industrial GNM going on and I think Elphie might have liked that the most if she could deal with pushing through the crowds to get there. We eventually went back to the AirBnB to get some good rest in before we finished up our trip with a night in Berlin.

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This link is a playlist compiling all of the live music clips I captured during Wave Gotik Treffen 2018. Just below that is each clip individually with some thoughts on what I experienced.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLh9ZwEF2QQpMTyLTpiRbmrQm5Te6lLOm8

Schandmaul LIVE @ Agra Halle during Wave Gotik Treffen (05.18.2018)

https://youtu.be/gJ1RzIDXleE

Schandmaul was the first set we watched during Wave Gotik Treffen. Mel described it as "pagan" but to me it just seemed like folk rock. I guess it's just a difference in cultures on how musical styles are labeled. We had heard a little bit of music earlier in the Pagan Village but this was the first full set we watched. This was in the Agra which was the main event area of the festival and also where merch could be found as well as an art gallery and some parties with DJs spinning good music.

ZeroMancer LIVE @ Agra Halle during Wave Gotik Treffen (05.19.2018)

https://youtu.be/BMZ9joWmqxk
Saturday night we caught several acts at The Agra Halle. First up for us was ZeroMancer, a Norwegian Industial band. We enjoyed their set and it was a good start to the night.

3Teeth LIVE @ Agra Halle during Wave Gotik Treffen (05.19.2018)

https://youtu.be/TnG-7mWhwAI
3Teeth opened for Rammstein a few years ago so I was already familiar with the band and their music. This would be the only act at Wave Gotik Treffen I could say that about.

OOMPH! LIVE @ Agra Halle during Wave Gotik Treffen (05.19.2018)

https://youtu.be/O_7fmtboRQI
OOMPH! seemed to be a favorite of the folks at W.G.T. They are a German band that seemed a bit more in the metal vein to me than industrial. Their vocalist was DJing before The Pirate Twins at Dark Flower on Sunday.

Front Line Assembly LIVE @ Agra Halle during Wave Gotik Treffen (05.19.2018)

https://youtu.be/Xlq4rbcZx94
I was interested in seeing Front Line Assembly. What I had heard had me interested as well as their stage set up. I watched most of the set before meeting back up with Elphie and Mel.

"SnakeDriver" by The Jesus And Mary Chain LIVE @ Agra Halle during Wave Gotik Treffen (05.20.2018)

https://youtu.be/tgnaumjCAxU
I wasn't sure I was going to get to see The Jesus And Mary Chain but when I saw the lineup, it was the one band that jumped out to me as the one I would most like to see. Thankfully it did work out to get over to their set and see the whole thing. I captured "Snake Driver" because it was the song I was most familiar with due to The Crow soundtrack.

SARDH LIVE @ Volkspalast KuppelHalle during Wave Gotik Treffen (05.21.2018)

https://youtu.be/4veps3R8toM
SARDH reminded me of some of the underground noise artists that I had booked and/or otherwise worked with while I lived in Cincinnati doing the shows at Covenant and Witler. It was very experimental, weird, and pretty cool.

Svartsinn LIVE @ Volkspalast Kantine during Wave Gotik Treffen (05.21.2018)

https://youtu.be/OcKKinOjAcA
Svartsinn also reminded me of those artists I worked with in the past with the experimental noise but an added element was a video production. Also strange but quite cool.

Author And Punisher LIVE @ Volkspalast KuppelHalle during Wave Gotik Treffen (05.21.2018)

https://youtu.be/QrDl2I_qaAc
Author And Punisher again reminded me of those experimental noise artists but also brought back some memories for me of Travelogue with the custom building of his instruments. This might have been the most interesting set to me and among my favorite things I experienced during W.G.T.

Trepaneringsritualen LIVE @ Volkspalast Kantine during Wave Gotik Treffen (05.21.2018)

https://youtu.be/WtYDjpWltjg
Trepaneringsritualen had some religious imagery in their video production. I also enjoyed this set of experimental, noise, industrial music.

Teho Teardo And Blixa Bargeld LIVE @ Volkspalast KuppelHalle during Wave Gotik Treffen (05.21.2018)

https://youtu.be/oHUdooPKUz4
Teho Teardo and Blixa Bargeld ended the night in Volkspalast. It was a more classical style of music than the rest of what we heard. I am not really familiar with either of these people or the acts that they are associated with but they drew a large crowd.

Part 5: Leipzig to Berlin, A Night Wandering In Berlin, Berlin to Iceland, Iceland to Chicago (Home!) (May 22nd - 24th, 2018)

https://youtu.be/z78AdsogOGo
(or try this link if YouTube blocks you: https://drive.google.com/open?id=13KpLhLu1r30AH4lvqydMpM9MxubH5Koq)
On Tuesday, May 22nd, we left our AirBnB stopping at Aldi to get some more of the really good chocolate marshmallow things we found and enjoyed throughout our trip then boarded a Flixbus for Berlin. Starting a little before in the Leipzig section and through the ride I used "Autobahn" by Kraftwerk as a soundtrack. We ended up having a detour through some small towns on narrow, windy roads due to an accident on the Autobahn. I researched a little bit using the footage we had and found that one of the towns we passed through was called Niemegk. As we entered Berlin I saw out the window the Tempelhof Airport from the Atlas Obscura page. Most of our night was spent searching out sites from Atlas Obscura. We arrived at Alexanderplatz with a dire need to find a restroom due to not being able to get the key for the toilet on the bus. Once that crises was resolved, we then sought out a locker to put our belongings in while we wandered the city all night. We took in the sight of the Berliner Fernsehturm, a large television tower with a revolving restaurant inside, then checked out the Weltzeituhr, a world clock. Wew passed the Rotes Rathaus and used the free wifi for a moment to figure out where we wanted to go next. We passed by Neptunbrunnen, St. Marienkirche, and one of many bear statues...this one appeared to be commemorating the German Olympic team for the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece, as we made our way to the AquaDom at Radisson Blu. This is the world's largest free standing aquarium. From here we walked passed museums, halls, and government buildings that seemed maestic and old. It seems that while writing this and looking at the history of some of these buildings, it is likely most were rebuilt after being damaged during World War II. We got quite a bit of footage of the architecture during our walk to Check Point Charlie. Checkpoint Charlie is a tourist spot that during the Cold War era while the Berlin Wall stood, folks had to pass through to get from East to West Germany. We got quite a bit of footage here as well. We spent a fairly long time here...we even heard some Dropkick Murphys playing from the nearby Murphy's Pub. We were fortunately permitted to use the restroom here then we made our way to the Berlin Public Transit system so that we could get some dinner at just after midnight. The soundtrack I chose for this portion of our night in Berlin was "Berlin" by Black Rebel Motorcycle Club and "Berlin Kitty" by The Violet Burning simply because of the names of the songs.

We bought a ticket to ride the train in the early hours of Wednesday, May 23rd, and made our way to Burgermeister. The system was set up in zones and I bought the ticket for most of the downtown Berlin area for one ride for two people. We rode on that ticket the remaining hours that we were in Berlin including to the airport. We caught the last train running that route and got to Burgermeister where we ate some burgers and rested our legs for a while. We found out about this through Atlas Obscura. Burgermeister is a burger joint that is housed in an old subway station restroom. The seating was just a bar similar to that of a bike rack so it wasn't very comfortable but we were able to rest for a while. It turned out that right across the street was the Ramones Museum. It had closed a few hours earlier but we went over to it anyway. I felt it appropriate to include "Blitzkrieg Bop" by The Ramones in the soundtrack here. We also had to pee again so we took advantage of the dark night and used a vacant lot. We also encountered some strange statues in the area. We didn't have much of a plan at this point so we just started to walk and crossed over Oberbaumbrucke which is a cool looking bridge with lit art installation that play "Rock, Paper, Scissors." It gave nice night view of Berlin as well. After crossing the bridge we noticed a strange cow on the side of a building as well as a business called Pirates Berlin all next to a wall covered in graffiti and other art. It turned out that we happened upon the Vestiges of the Berlin Wall or the Eastside Gallery. It is a long stretch of the Berlin Wall that remains as an art exhibition. I choce to use "Holidays In The Sun" by The Sex Pistols here due to the mentions of the Berlin Wall.We walked along here for a little while then took transit to another part of the city to try to see "Return of The Cows" from Atlas Obscura which was on Dietrich Bonhoeffer Strasse. It was too dark to really see it well and even harder to get a picture or video of it. Also adding hindrance to this endeavor was that the area appeared to be under construction so getting close to the art installation was impossible. We got on transit again and figured out how to get to LegoLand Berlin as daylight began to show and found out it was just a store...not an amusement park as Elphie was expecting. Apparently that is somewhere else in Germany. We saw some more pieces of the Berlin Wall and markings of where it once stood. We got on transit again to head toward Bahnhof Berlin Zoologischer Garten. This transit station has a history with the drug culture that is documented in the music of David Bowie, Iggy Pop, U2, and others. There is also a book and movie about it. Just down the street was Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church. This was the only ruin we saw that was a reminder of what the city would have been like when World War II came to an end. It was definitely a jarring site. Also nearby was the Mengenlehreuhr, a unique clock which tells the time with a series of lights and set theory. We were quite tired at this point but there was one more site we wanted to see and to get there we would need to ride transit again. This was the first time we encountered ticket checkers who looked out our ticket and moved on without saying anything. We arrived at Dahlem-Dorf U-Bahn Station and found the benches from Atlas Obscura that we came to see. We gave them a quick glance then got on the incoming train back toward Berlin. Elphie took a couple quick naps during these rides. While waiting for a transfer I could see the Siegessaule (Victory Column) from the window of the transit station. We also got a glimpse of a some workers doing their early morning duties. Upon our return to Alexanderplatz, we found our luggage locker was behind a fence. We hung around by the Brunnen der Volkerfreundschaft then got yelled at in German by a security officer for waiting in the hallway for Burger King to open so we went back outside for a couple moments until Burger King opened. Earlier when we stopped at a McDonald's and while we were sitting in Burger King waiting until it was time to try to get our luggage and board transit for the airport, I noticed the restroom signs were pretty funny so I documented them. After using the restroom, we went to try to get our luggage but the fence remained in our way. I tried to find a weak spot or a gap to get through. Finally, a person working came and directed us around the fence so we could get to our locker and get our belongings. We headed to the transit station and found the train heading toward Schönefeld Airport. Along the way we passed the Molecule Man scuplture in the river.

Schönefeld Airport was the last stop on the line and apparently it is also in the zone we did not pay for...well we didn't pay for most of our transit because we really only paid for one ride for the both of us but anyway... A ticket checker came on and demanded to see everyone's ticket going to the airport. He got to us and informed us we did not buy the proper ticket. He reprimanded us slightly but let it go. The next person also did not purchase the proper ticket but he gave her a much harder time and we got off the train at the airport and went on our way without further incident with the ticket checker. We arrived at Schönefeld Airport hearing some accordion music on our way in. We got our luggage checked and tickets for our Wow Air flight from Berlin to Iceland. We decided to try to spend our remaining Euros on food and Elphie got herself a new winter hat as she lost the one she had somewhere during the night. I used "Berlin" by Relic Pop as a soundtrack because of the song title. I added "Care For You" by Wolfsheim because Elphie really likes the band and this song in particular, they are German, and felt like this was the best placement for the song as it continues through the flight and Iceland visit.

As we flew over the coast of Iceland I could see some of the snow on its mountainous terrain. When we landed Keflavik Airport we had hoped we could find a way to stay the night there so we could explore Iceland but it wasn't going to work out. We tried to see if there was a bus available to take us into Reykjavik as advertised but that also did not work out...it seems the bus service is much more limited than the website let on. So we just decided to wander around the area outside the airport venturing as far as the edge of the parking lot. There were a few strange sculptures and we could see some of the mountains in the distance on one side and almost see the ocean in the distance on another side. It was a bit cold so we decided to just go back in the airport, find some lunch, then rest. As we went through the first part of security, Elphie had to go again because she had forgotten to empty her water bottle. We got to the area where there was food and found out that there are apparently multiple food courts and you have to go to the proper one...we had to show our tickets as proof as well. Our moods weren't the best at this point so these policies added some aggravation. When we went to get to our gate area, we encountered yet another obstacle. I got to be one of those lucky people to be randomly selected for extra security screening and found out because Elphie got through the gate but my ticket would not allow me to go through. Someone came to see what the problem was then sent me immediately into a security room and I was searched a little more thoroughly than I had been so far. Thankfully it wasn't too bad nor did it take too long but it was unsettling for Elphie who didn't know where they took me or how long it would be. Once that ordeal was over, we found the basic area where our gate would be and found somewhat comfortable benches and laid down to take a nap. Elphie sent out a message to see if anyone might be willing to pick us up at O'Hare so we wouldn't have to ride CTA. Just before boarding or next leg on Wow Air, we tried to spend as much of our Icelandic Kronor as we could on some more food. For the first time since leaving Chicago, we boarded a plane directly from the building instead of walking out on the tarmac We also found that Nemiah had offered to pick us up at the airport! The captain said that we would be flying over Greenland then south through the Hudson Bay but I was too tired to watch and slept most of the flight. Elphie unfortunately got a cause of vertigo it seemed which affected her for some time afterwards.

We landed in Chicago at O'Hare and passed quickly through customs back into the United States of America. We gathered our checked luggage and went outside to see Nemiah there waiting for us. We thanked him and offered him one of those wonderful chocolate marshmallow things and he got us home nice and quick from the airport. We re-united with Stein and then we went to bed sleeping most of Thursday, May 24th, away other than getting some dinner at Bree Thai.

https://www.facebook.com/0rawr.go.away/media_set?set=a.10216015925765195&type=3

https://www.facebook.com/0rawr.go.away/media_set?set=a.10216021713469884&type=3

Part 6: A Wedding Roadtrip To North Carolina / End Titles/Credits (May 25th - 28th, 2018)

https://youtu.be/-o0fv6T7mvY
After one day to recoup, Elphie and I headed south for her niece's wedding in North Carolina. We hit the road on Friday, May 25th, and stopped at Albanese for gummies. We arrived in Cincinnati, Ohio to stay the night at the Sheehy's as we usually do on our way through. Lisa came over and we hung out for a while.

We got up early on Saturday, May 26th, to hit the road and encountered more and more rain as we went. Our GPS directed us off the interstate on some windy, wet mountain roads so our trip was a little more interesting. We arrived at the wedding site which was to be an outdoor wedding but had to be moved under a roof, unfortunately. They were able to take pictures outside at least and the reception and party that followed also could occur outside for those who wanted to be outside. That night we stayed with some of Elphie's friends who lived nearby.

Before we started to head back north on Sunday, May 27th, we got breakfast at a diner in Hendersonville and checked out a street fair. We drove back to Cincinnati to stay the night and I went out to see some friends for a bit.

On Monday, May 28th, I picked up some Skyline Chili as we returned to Chicago...exhausted but thankful for our trips and all that we were able to do throughout our travels.

For this trip to the south I decided to use the song "Sweet Tea" by The Gotee Brothers. It feels like an appropriate song for traveling to that area but we usually do that trip during Christmas. It has a feel that's more summer time so I was intent on using it for this trip.

The end titles and credits clips are fairly basic but I did use Motion 4 to create them. I took a screenshot from Elphie's fundraiser page to use as a thank you to those (you know who you are) that donated, helping to make this trip possible. There are others of you that helped make it possible in other ways as well and you also know who you are. We really do appreciate each and every one of you. Elphie offered to make bracelets and design mandelas and thank you cards for those who donated as an act of appreciation.. If you want to see Elphie's fundraising page and all the work she put into it, it is linked here. I also had another page to acknowledge and give further thanks to those who help us by giving tips or information or giving us a place to stay and the various companies that we utilized during the trip.

https://www.facebook.com/0rawr.go.away/media_set?set=a.10216028072068845&type=3

Additional Soundtrack: "Trans Europe Express" by Kraftwerk, "Anarchy In The U.K." by The Sex Pistols, "Release" by Afro-Celt Sound System featuring Sinead O'Connor, "Dirty Old Town" by The Pogues, "London Calling" by The Clash, “Shekina” by Blindside, “Black Eye” by Derek Webb, “Our Flags Held High” by Dödsmarsch (Scandinavian Black Metal Alliance), “Faces” by Dark Valentine, “There Must Be Something In The Wind” by Blindside, “The Balancing Act” by Cool Hand Luke, “The Chronometers Of Switzerland” by Joy Electric, “Bumerang Bum” by Chéjs Romero featuring N.D.A. and Grischa Engelhardt, “Eurorail” by Kevin Max "St. Glockenspiel’s Science Faire” by Joy Electric, “Autobahn” by Kraftwerk, “Berlin” by Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, “Berlin Kitty” by The Violet Burning, “Blitzkrieg Bop” by The Ramones, “Holiday in the Sun” by The Sex Pistols, “Berlin” by Relic Pop, “Care For You” by Wolfsheim and "Sweet Tea" by The Gotee Brothers.

Filmed using an iPhone 6 and 8 by Elphie and Joel A. Swanson.
Animations created using Motion 4 on a Macbook by Joel A. Swanson.

Edited using Final Cut Pro on a Mac Mini by Joel A. Swanson