Winter Wolf Forge

Recently I had a small debate with a man about the differences and similarities between religion and science. I find it amusing that (stereotype warning!)
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I am in a cesspool of what is the epitomized example of what too much pot does to people. I mean, for a vacation spot I am sure it is purely fantastic. But
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Local Time|March23,1940hr
Location|Mannheim, Germany
It would seam I have sustained a bit of a knee injury. Que parental panic. But before we get to that, and to add some suspense, there are multiple layers of irony at work here.
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Local Time|1556hr
Location|Heidelburg Station, Germany
Music|lounge music
Watching|People

Well here we are, March20. This means that I have been traveling for 56 days. What a trip! And still many to go! Looking at the numbers reminds me of the time before I left. The people that understand the psychology behind traveling, being ‘being a traveler’ and behind this journey, simply said ‘fantastic, I am excited for you’. There are plenty of other responses in there, but the one on the other end that I never did get, and still don’t really, is the ‘5 months? Is that really necessary? I mean, can’t you just take a vacation for 3 weeks?’

Yes, 5 months is a long time. Pat yourself on the back now if you’re thinking ‘I told you so’. Your first mistake is to call it a vacation. I mean, yes technically that is what it is. But there is more to it. There is a lifestyle and an existence behind it that separate it from vacation. There is self discovery and self expansion; actualization and realization. I have come upon so many live-changing epiphanies on this trip that I cannot possibly consider it ‘overkill’. The true implications of ’5months’ are so much more profound than you can imagine that it is akin to throwing a pebble at a pond, and missing, all the while never to realize that the pond was actually the tiny inlet of a massive ocean. Maybe that is harsh, but there is a solid serving of truth to it.

Unfortunately, at least for the United States, there is a very extensive infection of cultural isolation. Here in Europe, everyone is proud of their own country and heritage, but interacting in a very close-nit international community. We do not have that in North America, and I think it produces this ‘pebble at a pond’ effect. How could you know, you aren’t even close enough to look around the bend and see the ocean. One of your 3 week vacation wouldn’t cut it either, you’d have to do multiples, which is what normal people do (read: I am a little crazy). And even then you don’t get it as well as a solid chunk. Hell, I am moving so quickly that I am not even getting it entirely, but the extent of my immersion in the international scene in general is compensating well enough for now.

As a brief update semi-related to the Indie-go-go project that was somewhat successful: I am writing a LOT more than I expected, and drawing quite a bit less. I have plans for initiating a post-graduation academic certificate system for myself. Aka, I am making skills and knowledge checklists on a term-based schedule for self-study. Nerd. I am finding that while I need focus in my business to establish solid branding, I am not 100% solid on where to put that focus, so hopefully more resolves as I continue.

I am healthy, happy, in excellent shape (I have an extra muscle on the front of my legs over the ridge of my shin-bone. It’s very strange, and not terribly sleek looking, but my 25kg pack no longer feels that heavy… and I know it is because I found a can of Guinness, some german bread, bulgarian spices, and a bottle of absinthe on the way!). If you were worried, stop it. If you still don’t realize I am not in Oregon… I have nothing for you. if you miss me, be patient, but be warned, Post-travel Cedric might be a bit feisty.

All in a days work.
-Douglas Cedric

Local Time|March16, 18hr50
Location|Marco Polo bookstore, Venice, France.
Sickness |ears and sinus, minor
Drink|Free Tea

I have only been here for 50 hours and will be leaving in 3. I have seen things. I have been places. I have walked the entirety of this island, including half of the backstreets. I have navigated to grocery stores, coffee shops, bookstores, water-bus stops, and even found a geo-cache. I have only gotten “lost” once. It started by passing the Illuminati Exhibit Entrance three times without being entirely sure how and ended with getting to the south shore much quicker than I expected on the road I was on, but upon seeing the water knew instantly where I was and kept going. I am not Venetian. Here is my guide to navigating Venice.

First off. If you thought you were in a city. You’re not. You’re on an island, covered in buildings, dissected by canals, filled with boats, and largely devoid of cars except for near the station. The Venetians will tell you to get a paper map, and more or less assume you are an idiot. This is ok, because this city has managed to confuse many people before you, and likely many more after.

Second off. If you can navigate a topographically volatile piece of land covered in forests, you can navigate Venice. The first thing you need to do is stop trying to navigate like a city. Instead, look for shapes, and follow your compass. North will always be in the same direction as long as you’re here, unless the poles flip early. The Sun has a fairly predictable path, use that. In my travels have been through more big cities in the last 50 days than I had honestly been in over the first 25 years of my life. I usually don’t like cities. But things change. I still would never want to live in a big city for very long, but I have found an appreciation for this unique and rare type of wilderness. This is not one of those cities.

The skeletal structure of Venice was defined long before now, when grids were not attractive and people were better with directions. If you enter this place expecting right turns to be right, and left to be left, you’ve already doomed yourself. Sometimes a Right turn is a ‘jig to the right’. Sometimes it is nearly back the way you came. People will give you directions, but depending on the narrator, they may choose to exempt some of these jigs from the navigation, or put so much emphasis on them that you will be looking for a turn when all that you will get is barely a narrowing of the lane.

the two tools I would suggest you have are not the usual city navigation tools. you should have a compass. if at the very least to orient your brain to the labyrinth when you get lost. The second is a space-phone capable of google maps and wifi. Do not waste your money on data services if you can help it. Google maps is fantastic, because the map is not drawn with historical reverence, but instead the impartial eye of satellites and highly specific GPS backpacks. In the case of well known cities like Venice, they even have building outlines built into the map. Do you know how fantastic that is? A hand drawn map of Venice may leave out the fact that you go under 90 meters of over-head building. Or that it is actually a hobbit-height tunnel under an apartment. Google maps shows you the building outlines and the roads. So you know if your road is actually the border of a plaza, or a gang-plank on a canal.

First off, don’t ask a Venetian about this strategy, they will tell you it is silly. They live here. How could they know? Here’s my strategy. When you get to Venice, or preferably well before hand, find a place where you can log your phone into a wifi spot. Again, data-subscriptions through your phone provider are over-rated and over-priced. You don’t need to be that plugged in. Google maps has this fantastic feature called Pre-Caching. Basically, you pick a point on the map and tell it to pre-cache in the sub menu. Google maps downloads the map to your SIM. this usually includes all roads, building outlines, and most road names. It also includes well known hot spots like famous restaurants and hotels, plazas, tourist traps, sites, and metro stops, which are all good for reference. Once it finishes, you can turn your wifi off and still zoom in and out of the city at will. No paper map can compete with this.

As you walk, you are going to stretch your spatial awareness so extensively in Venice that you might feel your skull bulge. Cross reference canal shapes and road-angles in relation to the compass directions. The addition of building outlines is a fantastic addition. Stereotypically speaking, artists and women will be better at this because they can generally navigate by visual better. Regardless, use whatever street names you can. Whenever you find yourself at a wifi hotspot, you can log-in with your phone again and use google maps to get specific point by point directions to your next destination. Leave the map window open until you get there though, because the phone may drop this new-navigation if it resets the temporary cache.

This strategy works in nearly every city, but is probably the most fantastic in Venice. Word of Warning: a prime example of Venetian navigation versus google would be the difference in turn points Navigation from my hostel to Marco Polo, as per google maps directions contained 26 turns. Visually, I only counted about 8. This is either because Venetians are very picky about the angle of road intersections, and any deviation off of perfectly straight justifies a new street name, or the city was built one block at a time and every additional block got a new name. Either way, you’re still going to be using google-directions in terms of shape and compass direction.

And if all else fails, walk as accurately in one direction as possible and you will get to the edge of the island in less than 20 minutes in any direction. from there you can re-orient, check the position of the sun, and dive back into the labyrinthine.

-Douglas Cedric