Day one in Norway

August 6, 2017

The trains were not running on Sunday and neither were we [although Daniel & Kim run a lot of miles most days], so we had to take a bus since there are five of us plus baggage. Max & Dylan have been very helpful with my bags. Max picks up my 40 pound suitcase like it’s a bucket of water. This is going to be fun but strange for me. I haven’t been on a family vacation for over 50 years! [I’m not counting all of our campouts at Ravenwood.]

I’ve mostly lived alone for the past 30 years, so touring Norway and Lithuania with a family of four is a new experience. To be fair, I have known them for over 20 years. My swains [the teenage boys] are a lot of fun. We tell 6th grade jokes to each other, and they are both very interested in Norse & Greek mythology, Tolkien, etc. We were tired and cranky early Sunday, but managed to eventually find our tram and arrive at our gorgeous flat in East Oslo. Our hostess was kind enough to meet us at the stop and lug me and the luggage 400 meters uphill. I don’t suffer from jetlag, but we were all out of whack. I woke up at midnight and decided to take a nice, hot bath. We had a two-storey apartment, and I was in the bedroom downstairs. The next morning after Daniel returned from his run he asked, “Why were you taking a bath at midnight?”

“Because I could!”

on our way to Norway

August 5, 2017 ON OUR WAY Beat the Spatzes to the airport by 5 minutes, and the line was loooong, [so it was to be at customs, too]. Had nice front row seats in coach with legroom on our Dreamliner, and we arrived a little early - only 9 ½ hours from Oakland to Oslo. Norwegian.com is very nice for a long flight.  It was pouring down rain when we landed, but I assured the good Daniel that it wouldn’t last, and I’d be searching for shade by the time we cleared customs and so it came to pass.

Euro Travels

Just wanted to let all of you know that I’m NOT going to Milan [& Paris & Prague & London] this trip. The filming and location dates have been changed. We are still flying to Norway on 8/5 and will spend 4 nights in Oslo and 1 in Bergen before we fly to Lithuania for Romuva summer camp 8/11-16. After camp we’ll spend two nights at my favorite apartments on “Freedom Alley” in Kaunas, and then one night in Palanga at my favorite hotel, the bellavila.lt. I thought it’s been hot in California, but just saw that it’s in the 40’s [celsius = 104 F.] in Spain, Italy, and France. We’re expecting San Francisco weather in Norway, so that’ll be a relief. Any of my Norsk friends should contact me, and thanks for all the suggestions so far.

more reasons to admire Lithuania

Thanks to John Quin for sending this to me:

http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/lithuanian-book-smugglers

Summer Vacation

My long-time friend, Daniel Spatz and family are taking me to Norway and Lithuania with them as their professional tour guide. I'm even learning 'Norsk' [Norwegian]. The five of us fly out of Oakland on August 5th and arrive in Oslo on the 6th where we’ll spend four days exploring Oslo and Horten. Our accommodations overlook the Opera House and the beach. 

On the 10th we’ll be taking the ‘Norway in a Nutshell Tour’ riding a train across the top of the fjord and dropping 2800 feet down to the sea and taking a boat tour of the fjords on the way to Bergen [just click on the photo to see our apartment after you click on this link: https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/18971126?eal_exp=1500873628&eal_sig=3943acaadd2f6d4641c63a45e04c06e3733589e7e42fdce6892677376373e5c0&eal_uid=30816042&eluid=0&euid=3b74fa12-cda4-7bc2-f4b5-0fac1c168f99 ] where we’ll hop on a bus tour of the city.

On Friday the 11th we fly from Bergen to Kaunas, Lithuania, the old capital city and will drive from there through Moletai [the geo center of Europe, two observatories, and the other Jonas’ Perkunas temple and campsite] on our way to Romuva Summer Camp in our village. I’ll have a full house, and the boys will have a marvelous time with a 100 other 12-25 year-olds. Camp runs from 8/10-16 with Zemyna’s [the Earth Goddess] celebration on 8/15.

On the 16th we’ll head back to Kaunas via Trakai and Kernave, and will be staying in the heart of the city next to the Romuva theater for two nights. On the 18th we head to Palanga on the coast to see the Amber Museum, Raganas Kalnas [Hill of the Witches], and will be staying at one of the most beautiful hotels I’ve ever seen, the Bellavila.lt. It’s less than 100 meters from the Baltic Sea and the rooms are amazing. On the 19th, Daniel and family head back to the States, and I fly on to Milan for the Eurovision Awards and even more European adventures returning to California on 9/24 via London.

 

2017

The 2017 Celestial Calendars have arrived!

I have the Pocket Astrologer [4 ¼” x 5 ½”] in Eastern or Pacific time for $6.00 each. I have the Wall Calendar in Eastern or Pacific for $11.00 each. I have the Astrologer’s Datebook [4 ¼” x  6 ¾”] with both times zones in it for $9 each.

Shipping is $2.00 for 1^st item and .50 for each additional item. Send money to: Prudence, 61 Russell Drive, Antioch, CA 94509. You can also send $$ to my paypal address which is prudence21@juno.com. I’m going to be in Ohio 11/21-30, so if I don’t receive your order before then, it won’t be shipped till 12/1.

Presentation

I know it's been a while. I still haven't written up last year's sojourns, but thought I'd better send this out while it's still fresh.

It's been too busy this last week and today is the first day to myself in the villa since the conference started. Now that it's been presented to the Congress, I wanted to share my presentation with you. Rhoda did a fabulous job putting my first power point presentation together, and I will probably share it at PantheaCon 2017 as well. It's pretty self-explanatory, and I received nice feedback from both ECER participants and the students/friends who paid to see the presentations on Friday. There were close to 200 people in the Philosopher's Hall. Prague is half the price of SF and just as much fun. I'm staying in my villa until 8/1 and then off to Vilnius.

Please click on this link to access my presentation:

 

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0BzxgeZp3u4vQZDA3azRReUNwMzg