europe nom my uncle is getting a place in slovenia says i'll be able to stay there if or when i ever go to europe it'll be a hop skip and a jump to venice and vienna he says 060120 ... nom maybe 2007 061111 ... nom septemberoctober 2008 me and my violin 080812 ... warmthofrelease Munich: train station; aunt is in discomfort, there is tension; uncle's presence, trying to mediate without fully understanding the disconnect; money; culture; rental car fiasco; city life my late grandfather, her brother, can't help but think about him, how he might approve or disapprove of what we're spending or looking for or whatever we're doing; learning how to care for someone; at least wanting to learn; illumination and guilt; postcard sent Garmisch-Partenkirchen: time wasted; redemption; continuing to learn; "lifting people up" Oberammagau/Weiskirche: antique shopping; good lunch; sunny snow; church at windless dusk; it's still about good days and bad days it's still just life, but this was a good day; 2 postcards sent Wilderswil/Interlaken/Grindelwald/Thun: got cold, and expensive; the fondue is overrated; the ski village is cute and the lakes are nice; Bern seems nice in an archaic way; I still hate driving in all this Locarno/Lugano/Bellinzona: this is much more my style, treacherous as the drive was I can't tell you how relieved I was to see greenery; aunt did get sick again; I'm starting to feel the pressure of sobriety, but I'm not going to steal her opioids that's a line I just can't cross it's simple enough to occupy myself with wandering, Milan is a bit intimidating I was impressed but not enough to leave the car; it was nice to see 'thanksgiving' come and go with very little acknowledgement; and the Chianti is very fucking good; and I love the hazy lights... Strasbourg: oh now I'm in love; these streets are a goddamn nightmare to drive but no matter because the car will stay in the shed, these streets were made to be walked; the Christmas market; the rotisserie; the girls dress to be older and the women dress to be younger; I could dig in here for much much longer Paris: big city bittersweet; lost lost walk walk connect disconnect music; coming to terms with the empty shape of her in my heart to realize that story was not finished and by god it turned out it wasn't; this is where we had to give up and go home, no Brittany or Normandy or Mont Saint Michel or England, it's time to go; lost lost; but Christmas in Paris was what I wanted and I wouldn't trade the memory of that carousel for all the pithy world even now Frankfurt: hope they don't charge us the cost of the rental car for the scratches but honestly fuck those Strasbourg streets what am I supposed to do; barely had time to shower in the morning; got my aunt through the airport and on the plane to Atlanta somehow; machinations; miles; endurance; leaving; learned I lost track of the postcards 240201 ... epitome of incomprehensibility Enjoyed reading this - vignettes as postcards to the self, to an anonymous audience. Reminds me of Austria (not that I've been there, but maybe...) 240202 ... releaseofwarmth the postcards are not addressed because the audience is not anonymous the audience is YOU (smile) it's all true though, and there were postcards written and sent, they just weren't nearly as consistent nor comprehensive of a summary as this--the postcards are kind of a device in context but to call them vignettes is definitely more accurate 240202 ... e_o_i Sorry that I tossed out words rather carelessly...didn't mean to label anything as if I owned it, just what it made me think of. And now the idea of more-detailed-than-usual postcards also reminds me of a book I read by Allison McCreesh - Norths: Two Suitcases and a Stroller Around the Circumpolar World. She stayed as an artist resident in several places in the near-Arctic, mostly in Europe, and mailed detailed drawings as postcards that she later compiled into this book - https://conundrumpress.com/product/norths/ 240203 what's it to you? who go blather from