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Packing for Tristan
One thing I learned about taking a cruise of the fjords of Norway in the middle of the summer is that being on board a ship can be quite cold. Some of the passengers had past experience cruising the northern waterways and came prepared with toques and gloves. I only had a thin jacket with a hood. I had brought no long-sleeve shirts at all on that ( Read more... ) -
OutGames opening ceremony
On 3 August Mark and I attended the opening ceremony of the third World OutGames in Antwerp, Belgium. I recognized a few Canadian faces as we assembled under the maple leaf before we all marched in together. One of those faces was Steven Bereznai, a journalist for Xtra magazine who himself was competing in water polo. Steven took our photo and said ( Read more... ) -
Sailing to Tristan da Cunha
I have just returned from a vacation to Europe and I'm going out again, this time to a faraway island known as the most isolated inhabited place on the planet: Tristan da Cunha. (The last word in the island's name is pronounced COO-na, as this is a British dependency and they do not pronounce the name with the nasal as COON-ya.) Where is Tristan da ( Read more... ) -
We have just arrived in Kirkenes
It is a little after 10:00 in Kirkenes, Norway, and our fjord cruise has just ended. This morning at 03:45 I woke up to see the arrival in Vardø, the most eastern town in Norway where I visited in January 2002. It was a moment of extreme beauty. Mark got up and two hours later we saw Vadsø, where I also visited eleven years ago. Now we are watching ( Read more... ) -
Sun on the seventieth
I have just had breakfast and in a couple hours we will dock at Honningsvåg. Honningsvåg is slightly further north than Vardø, which I visited in 2002, yet not as north as Mehamn, which lies just north of the 71st parallel. Mehamn is a village we will see later on today. Yesterday we spent the day walking around Tromsø, a major town of 70.000 ( Read more... ) -
Tight squeeze
The sun has finally come out during this fjord cruise. We awoke to a shaft of strong sunlight slicing through our cabin window and when I opened the curtains it blinded me. Up to now we have had rainy weather all day. Yesterday the ship had a lengthy stopover in Trondheim and Mark and I stopped into the information centre and got a book in English ( Read more... ) -
Exploring the fjords
Yesterday Mark and I walked around Bergen and took a brief tour of the harbour, where we saw an enormous yacht named Katara, with the Qatari flag on display on its stern. When Mark asked the captain of the boat whose yacht it was, he confirmed that the emir of Qatar owned the boat but he was not in town, however four of his wives and eight of his ( Read more... ) -
's-Hertogenbosch and Oslo
This morning Mark and I left Antwerp for the Dutch city of 's-Hertogenbosch, which no one actually calls by that name. Everyone calls it "den Bosch" for short. Right now it is late at the hostel in Oslo, where I am happy both that they have free Internet as well as QWERTY keyboards. No more constant backspacing to make corrections. We were in den ( Read more... ) -
Gold and a bit of rainy Baarle
I have just returned from the table tennis medal ceremonies. Mark competed on Tuesday yet since there were three days set aside for table tennis, all of the medals were awarded at the same time. Mark, I am very proud to report, won a gold medal in men's singles, "D" division. He only lost one match, yet two games went beyond the requisite eleven ( Read more... ) -
Antwerp
Mark and I arrived in Antwerp two days ago, and I am writing this on an AZERTY keyboard, which has returned me to one-finger typing. I started to write this yesterday afternoon inside the fitness centre that all registered OutGames athletes, as well as non-competing registered guests such as myself, are entitled to use for free. I have resumed ( Read more... )