Orkney Islands, Scotland

Dear reader, finally I have visited a truly unusual place - not just another typical tourist attraction or crowded little town that welcomes hungry & thirsty tourists ready to attack shopping malls, but a isolated spot far away from mainland and literary mind-boggling experience. Though most of my ship destinations I take for granted since after all, I had seen them countless times and its they are not my choice anyway, this time I was grateful for working on cruise ship otherwise life would never in a million years bring me on Orkney Islands above Scotland.

It just happened that recently I have been reading Bill Bryson's entertaining book "At Home" and in it he had mentioned Skara Brae, one of the oldest preserved villages in the world, older than Stonehenge and Pyramids of Giza. By strange coincidence, place is also currently featured article & cover story of newest "National Geographic" magazine, which I took as a sign from above that this needs to be seen. And since my ship sailed in direction of little town Kirkwall (capitol of Orkney Islands) I was absolutely determined to get out and see it, if its the last thing I do. Even the fact that I was actually supposed to stay onboard on duty did not prevent me, I just convinced my roommate to stay instead.

Kirkwall was a very cute little town (with impressive cathedral) but I saw it only shortly before bus took us towards Skara Brae which was on the other side of the island - off we went trough the cold wind and rain, my ship passengers bickering about the places and who was first in the line, baby crying (why would anybody take a little baby on what is basically field trip?), people trying to avoid rain on open air double decker, not very pleasant at first. But slowly, the rain stopped, the weather cleared up and we relaxed enough to actually pay attention to countless turquoise lakes, sheep and cows grazing everywhere, little grey farms and a quiet life around us. When we arrived on the another side of the island, where sand beach almost erased our prehistoric destination (the sea was much further in earlier times and now it comes almost to the edge of Skara Brae) we were already thrilled to be there, not to mention hungry and thirsty - first hot chocolate (with marshmallows!) and home baked scone than off we went to walk into this amazing place.

Skara Brae was inhabited 4, 500 years ago, long before pyramids were built in Egypt. What is so fascinating about it is that this is the only place in the world that is so perfectly preserved from Stone age, houses actually have furniture! The sea had washed away quite a lot but we still have village with 8 houses (connected with tunnels and streets) and surrounded with protective wall. It appears the whole tribe of people lived here together and each house had very much same pattern of "furniture" except house nr. 8 which was a workshop for tools. Covered tunnels/streets are quite unique phenomenon and each house also has lots of decorations & carvings, not to mention mysterious stone objects beautifully polished and carved that nobody knows what they were for - some objects are easy to identify (whale bone bowl, a pendant, axe, bone jewelry, a walrus tusk, pin from whalebone and two dice-like objects). Visitors can walk around village (which is beyond our walking level today) and afterwards we went to see the mansion of a local aristocrat on which property Skara Brae happened to be.

Skaill House is a very interesting old house from seventeen century that belonged to ancient Scottish aristocratic family Stewart and passed in other hands trough hundreds of years. It came to be a property of Bishop George Graham in 1615 and since that time what was originally just two buildings was later re-constructed and re-built into a small but very impressive group of buildings with inner courtyard. Its fairly simple and small but uniquely beautiful and elegant in its way, nothing from outside prepares visitor for atmosphere inside, including the Entrance Hall, the Gun Room (with military memorabilia), the Dining Room (once used as exhibition for Skara Brae artifacts), beautiful Drawing Room full of light and magical Library with portrait of house owner's son who tragically died in a horse accident at age of 14. The house itself is so interesting and pretty that I would have been perfectly satisfied with this visit but there was more.

Not far from Skaill house and Skara Brae is a little hill (situated between two lakes) with ancient circle of stones, not unlike one at Stonehenge, its called Ring of Brodgar   - this is not just some random spot because there used to be ancient road that connected Skara Brae with this ring and another ring of stones nearby (Standing Stones of Stenness) and a burial hill Maeshowe, its all in a walking distance. I was thrilled to death to actually walk in these places, not to mention how impressive was to actually be in such obscure part of the world with almost no people around (except annoying tourists from my bus, I was ready to sacrifice several of them there and than, right in the middle of stone circle). Naturally nowadays we have no clue what was the purpose of these stones but we can guess it had something to do with Sun worship and astrology. Cows nearby were chewing lazily and looking at us like we are some aliens bouncing around, in and out of our buses. And than arguing who took whose place inside. I did not bother with people's rudeness because I was too excited with everything so I just took a seat anywhere and enjoyed the view from the top of the bus, even though it was very cold & windy without a roof but I soaked the scenery with greatest pleasure and was still excited later at work that evening. I still am - I am very thrilled that I had an opportunity to see such unusual & historical place that nobody knows about.

Dublin and Belfast

These are, naturally, just my impressions - after all, dear reader, cruise ship workers get exactly two+ hours to run outside (waiting patiently until elderly passengers wobble their ways out with their sticks, walking trolleys and all sorts of wheelchairs), quick, quick, fast, fast and than back onboard (waiting again for passengers to crawl their way back out of the bus) so what I actually see is only a glimpse of town and a general image of streets, faces & atmosphere. If the daily program says "in port full day" that usually means morning & afternoon for passengers - who are mostly busy with shore excursions - we have all sorts of obligations and time limits, so what can you see in these two hours depends on how fast you can move and get back, exhausted.

I been to Dublin years ago - memories of a pretty place with constant rain showers. It is still the same, except that it seems even more crowded that I remember. It reminded me very much on any large city with a trendy, young people walking around, lots of inviting nice shops, advertisements and pubs everywhere. Since I went out with a mission - to get some clothes, do quick shopping and run back to the bus - pubs and beer were not on my mind. Yes this is Ireland but I can live without guzzling pints of Guiness for a time being. Rain showers continued (surprising only tourists, locals are used to it), I was approached with begging young mothers pushing baby trolleys and could hear true Babel around me - every language under the sun. However, it is a nice place and I could easily live here. I can live in a place that cherishes its poets and wallows in a enchanting music.

Belfast was another story - this is Northern Ireland and a place where working class, no-nonsense people live. I had impression that you don't play around with them, this is a rough bunch. The town itself is surprisingly pretty - I saw some very beautiful buildings, mostly historical palaces and towers sitting quietly amongst new architecture and even new buildings were amazing, monuments of steel and glass. However, my focus was Titanic museum - the famous ship was built here - so I walked there to check it out and it was excellent. The museum itself stands near the ancient shipbuilding place (dry dock is still visible) and is an unforgettable experience, focused mostly on the beginning of the story - what Belfast was like at the start of 20. century, shipbuilding area and its workers, how "Titanic" was build and events that led to his first voyage to Southampton (there is another museum in Southampton that I had also visited). Visitors gaped in amazement (special effects were very, very good, everything ultra-modern and computerized) but naturally for me this was all a bit eerie and spooky as I see it from different perspective. I was fascinated with daily life of those people, their cabins, pianos, furniture and 18 000 bed sheets (no washing machines back than, everything was used and packed to be washed in New York) and could easily imagine what it was like. Than back trough crowded streets, push here, squeeze there, wait for passengers to wobble their way in & out of the bus and back onboard, not to sleep and rest, but to dress up for work and be on time. So after all this, I usually feel exhausted.
To see these cities properly I would really need a week and than I could write something more about them, this is just an impression.

"Salem's Lot" by Stephen King (1975)

Father Brown will have to wait a little more, because I continued with my dive into Stephen King's bibliography - as I already noted earlier, his novels were filmed so many times that I had impression that I am familiar with them, where in fact I actually had not really read them. So right after "Carrie" I turned my attention to his second best-selling book, but where during "Carrie" I couldn't get Sissy Spacek out of my head, this time around everything was new to me since I don't remember movie at all.

It is a vampire novel - not bad, but kind of mildly interesting, since frames of vampire stories are strictly set in stone since days of Bram Stoker and we are already well informed about the whole garlic/cross/mirror rules of the genre. So there is not a real horror here as it all borders of fantasy and supernatural nocturnal things flying around - what Stephen King cleverly does is, he presents real enemies not as some hidden bad forces (although there is a vampire master & servant couple that arrives in town and is responsible for vampirism) but the way friends and family turn into blood-sucking killers. I guess the whole intention was to portrait horror coming from familiar faces, when one is opening doors and inviting murderer in the house. As the story progress, the whole fictional town of Salem's Lot becomes infected with vampirism and yesterday's neighbors are today's killers - even though it's clear that King enjoyed toying with citizens of Salem's Lot and describing them as they were in every day's life before nightmare occurred, I found a beginning of the novel surprisingly slow as he insisted on putting so many characters in that at certain point I truly lost the count of who's who. Yes, there is a small group of brave people who are fighting vampires and ten thousand others who are described only on one page never to turn up again. So this was kind of bummer, because I desperately tried to remember who is who. It did keep my interest, though, so I shouldn't complain - its just that the whole genre is kind of overused and I am a bit tired of the garlic/cross saga. Besides, Anne Rice is the only one who really polished this kind of stories to perfection and even she became tired of it. I know this is supposed to be a horror story and it is Stephen King we are talking about (the guy who enjoys shocking and grossing out his readers)  but there were some scenes I wish he didn't put on the paper - abusing mothers who are beating their little babies, this was just too much for me and I hated it, in fact could slap Stephen King over the head right now this moment when I think about it. It did not matter at all in the concept of the novel and it could have easily been left out.

"Carrie" by Stephen King (1974)

Actually I had started to read collected short stories about Father Brown - another classic of crime & mystery genre (very popular literary character in pre-WW2 times) but got distracted with a thought that I actually don't really know Stephen King's early novels - so many of his works had been filmed that we all have feeling like we read all these books. In fact, come to think of it, what I actually read from him could probably be counted on fingers of one hand - "The Shining" of course (that was my first ever introduction to King), "The Stand" and few others. So I found few of his early books in chronological order, added them to my virtual library and last night decided "just to have a look" at "Carrie".

Now, Stephen King has a rare gift - he is literary the only author I have ever encountered who grabs the reader from the very first page and holds the firm grip of excitement until the end. With everybody else, you need to slowly built a interest after a few pages or even chapters, but Stephen King really knows how to keep you turning those pages. The memories of 1976. movie are so strong that of course plot did not have much surprises here, except that characters thoughts and feelings could never be expressed as well as in the actual process of reading. Carrie herself reminds me - and probably everybody else - on certain girls we all knew in school, poor outsiders who were never popular or fashionable, always ridiculed and poked. Here she is a everybody's favorite punching bag and cruel as it is, seems that nobody ever bothered to be nice to her, which is also reality unfortunately. What I don't remember from a movie is the fact that Carrie actually never wanted to create death and mayhem, her idea was to use her telekinetic powers in order to lock everybody in and have water pouring on them, just as blood poured on her - it was unfortunate accident that electricity and gas connected with water and killed so many people, that probably didn't occur to her at all. And of course, the character of mother religious fanatic was sheer terror - even if novel was actually quite clumsy and raw when compared to King's later far more polished and perfected style, this was pure, classic Stephen King character, talking to herself and sinking into madness.

This was the book that actually put Stephen King on a map - definitely not his best work but exciting nevertheless. I have no desire to see the movie again and that is why it was so interesting to read the story (finally) as imagined by its author. It kept me awake until 4 a.m so I guess I enjoyed it. Father Brown will just have to wait.

Book 100: Jorge Luis Borges

A quick glance on this blog made me realise that so far I did not pay enough attention to books - until recently, for some reason my essays were mostly focused on music where in fact, dear reader, books were my first love. Who knows why all those album reviews poured out of me so easily and I simply have not been thinking about other subjects (like my favourite poems or paintings, for example). I read much more than noted here, however not all the books deserve an essay. Sometimes it turns out pure fluff, better forgotten.

So for the book 100 here I have selected something that would be memorable (or at least so I hoped) and with some trepidation I turned to Argentinian writer Jorge Luis Borges whom I expected to be complicated and probably too difficult for me (guy is much beloved by small cult of true believers). However, curiosity led me there so off I went, in a world of short stories. Just like with Herman Hesse, it turned out a beautiful experience - maybe even better, because with Hesse I enjoyed writing style from a distance and with this guy I actually felt closeness and kind of spiritual connection. It sound strange, but Borges writes about all those things that usually echo around my head when I'm alone, all sorts of dreams, fears, feelings and even nightmares that visit in a moment between sleep and reality. The whole idea of short stories was a bit unusual, because he really crammed so much ideas and inspirations in these few pages that other authors would probably use them as material for the whole books - in the beginning I treated myself with a story per night but than gave up and just wallowed in them at once. There was one short story (titled "The House of Asterion") that really got me, it had only three pages and it shook me like an earthquake - it was written from a perspective of someone who is outsider, who has a mind and heart but will never be part of a group, of a human family. And it slowly downs on us that this is mythological Minotaur and that he actually welcomed death as a relief and freedom. Now, this is something I hardly ever elaborated before or bothered to explain to anybody, but the older I get, more compassion I have for all sorts of "monsters" (mythological, imaginary, in literature and movies) since each Cyclopes, each Loch Ness "Nessie" and each scary creature when looked from different perspective appears lonely planet whom everybody fears. I wont really go too deep in this, but Borges apparently understand what I mean, because he describes his Minotaur with some kindness and gives him certain sensitivity so when finally morning sun shone on Theseus bronze sword I actually felt sadness for Minotaur, because he welcomed death and waited for a world without walls. Completely unexpectedly I found a spiritual brother in Argentinian writer whom until yesterday I knew only by name. Sure, there were many complicated ideas that simply went over my head but for most of the time I just glowed in dazzling light of his genius. Each of these little stories was full of unforgettable sentences and pictures, of characters that just poured and poured out. At certain moments I felt that he reminds me on Umberto Eco and this is not just accident because Eco loves the guy and named one of the character in "The Name of the Rose" in tribute to Borges. I truly love this collection and its one of the joys of life to have been able to discover something so beautiful at this point of my life.