Category Archives: berlin

Berlin 2022 day zero

I’ve been sitting on tickets to see Seeed since 2019, and my friend Alex pointed out that the concert was actually happening this year, and that I better book tickets and lodging if I intended to see them this decade. Kara graciously picked up the childcare slack for a  five-day sojurn (two of which will be occupied by travel). This is very sub optimal trip design in that I’ve not amortized the very expensive part, the plane tickets, across a longer trip. However, I’ve been trying to see this band for about two decades (during which they lost a vocalist, RIP Demba).

I flew from Portland to Reykjavik (sedated myself with edibles right into oblivion), and then woke right up for the transfer and to get bright morning light in my eyes to start recalibrating my circadian rhythm).

Hello, mountain!

In the Schengen passport control in Reykjavik:

The whole world runs on Nginx, dontcha know?!

Icelandair won’t let you put your bags on the floor in the exit row during takeoff and landing, as takeoff and landing are when very nearly most aircraft problems hit. The 22 year old fight attendant was very stern with me about this, which veritably gave me the tingles.

Icelandic women are impossibly, ethereally, brain-meltingly beautiful. Imagine the Teutonic, Brunhilde-esque paragon of cancelled Aryan wet dreams, and add in a touch of the fey, and an English accent like you’ve never heard. Their children are also adorable, and that is all that I shall say on that topic.

I would have loved for this eco-lid to be awesome, but it turned out to just suck.

I’m exposing myself to the human flux along the  canal (augmented by motherfucking SWANS), crash-calibrating my circadian cycle to local time by getting real live sunset rays into my eyeballs (it’s important that your brain sample the sunlight as the fire god himself drifts below the horizon…), and sampling local brews. Next step is to get some more beers, bike around the abandoned airport, and then rustle up some dinner before stopping in at the jazz club (Donau115) that I just discovered around the corner.

Signing off from the canal!