Berlin

I arrived in Berlin later in the evening and navigated my way over to Neukölln, where I was going to see my pal Jonathan Philips, who I worked with at Vicbooks in Wellington in 2012.

I hadn’t seen him since about then so there was much to catch up on. We gouged a bottle of wine with his Christchurch pal Seb before going out to a gig at a warehouse a few stops down the line. The bands were as interesting as you’d expect as you entered an unsuspecting warehouse in the middle of Berlin.

Luckily for me Jon is a mature gentleman who respects his body enough to not party heavily on a school night, and as he is a teacher at school in Berlin, when the bands were finished at 11:20 we were straight out of there and off to bed.

Due to his early schedule, I had farewelled Jon before bed, so in the morning I had a leisurely rising before going and meeting up with Stefan, who was flying in from the UK that morning. I found him in central Kreuzberg, and met with a warm embrace after 2 months of daddy separation. He had a couple of surprises up his sleeve for our Berlin adventure which he had been hanging on to.

We walked west through Kreuzberg and down an alley way into a courtyard and entered a lift. We found ourselves in the office of Stefs friend Marcus, who had lent us him central Kreuzberg apartment for the weekend!

After acquiring the key we walked down the street to the house, via a place to get some eggs. Marcus had forgotten to give us the key to the two doors to the building, so we had to jimmy our way in with a credit card, which eventually worked a treat. The apartment was a lovely one bedroom with a tasteful simplicity to its styling. We took a moment to sit and chill for a moment and have some eggs.

We left the apartment to go have a Berlin ramble around. We walked over to the east Berlin art gallery via gorlitzer park. I had missed the art gallery the last few times I had been in Berlin so it was nice to see some new bits and pieces.

We headed back to the apartment to drop some things off and grab a bit to eat before heading over to the arena to see Gorillaz, which was the catalyst for this meeting in Berlin. To my surprise, we were joined by none other than Steven Andrew, who had decided to join at the last minute, followed closely by Tan and Caleb Jaquet! We were an excited we crew and absolutely blown away by the spectacle that the dozen strong band put on, playing all the greatest tracks of the first three albums and a selection of tracks from the latest release. The whole thing was pretty overwhelming. Another musical hero ticked off the list – and in the nick of time.

We left the arena together and once in town went our seperate ways. Stef and I got some daddy kebabs which was super cheap and delicious and went back to the apartment to drink beers and fizz about the show. Steve showed up a little later and we drank and chatted until very late and each of us was sprawled on a surface asleep.

On Saturday we all ate and drank some coffee together before embarking on some sight seeing curated by Stefan. He was keen to show me Treptower Park to see the monuments commemorating the soviet soldiers killed in WW2.

It started absolutely pissing down with rain just after we left the park, so we took refuge in a vietnamese place for some Tom yum and spring rolls, which they charged us way too little for. Steve departed our company for a bit and Stef and I stopped at a record store to pick up a gift for Marcus as a thank you for lending us his place. Appropriately enough we found a copy of Blurs Modern Life Is Rubbish (Damon Albarn’s band before Gorillaz), so it was a no brainer.

Stef and I scuttled through the rain to Friedrichshain where we found a couple of bars in a rejuvenated warehouse district in which to drink a few beers and warm up. We met up with Steve again around 10 and walked back to the apartment, intending it to be a pit stop, but we ended up repeating what we had done the previous evening. A preferable way to spend an evening for us ageing partners.

On Sunday Stef was flying back to Liverpool in the afternoon, so after tidying up the house we went and walked around, eating kebabs and having a few beers and finding a hill to climb to get a bit of perspective.

I left Stef at the train station and went over to Wedding where I was catching up with a Freya who I met last time I was in Berlin, and who would be providing me a couch. We had some wine and caught up, blown away by how quickly 6 months can pass.

The next morning I made my way over to the central station where I got on a bus to Hamburg, so see and farewell my friend Lisa, who was my second host after leaving Liverpool back in May. Everything really came full circle with her, as she makes the beginning and the end of this European/US leg of the trip.

On Monday I flew back to the UK, to tidy up some loose ends and say a final goodbye to the people who have come to be my Northern Hemisphere family over the last 2 years.

Wroclaw

I’ve just spend the last three nights with my lovely friend Karina in Wroclaw, Poland. Karina and I met through couchsurfing when she came to stay with us at Huskie in February. Having been to Poland in April last year I had always said that I would go and visit her to get another taste of Poland.

I arrived at her place on a cold Monday evening after flying and busing from Stavanger to Wroclaw via Katowice. We stayed up and chatted for a few hours, making some vague plans for the next few days before sleeping.

One Tuesday we went out in the morning to a ‘milk bar’, which is basically a no frills restaurant where you can get real polish food with real polish people. It was so good! I had Gołabki which is pork and rice wrapped in cabbage covered in tomato sauce. Karina had what is essentially pierogi dough with stale bread crumbs crumbled on top. I didn’t quite get that one.

We headed to another part of town because Karina had to go to the dentist, and rather than doing my own thing for a bit felt I could be of more value being moral support, as she wasn’t too happy about. We got the tram over and had a wonder through a park before going to the dental practice. Whatever it was didn’t take to long, she said it was a route canal but I’m not sure, i thought that would take longer and cause more damage. But I’m no dentist.

We walked back towards town and stopped for some damn excellent pierogi, they are just the best food! Maybe my favourite food discovery of this whole trip. Big call, but it could be. We kept walking into town and stopped at a cafe that her pals run to say hi. One thing that is pretty unique about Poland is, and talk about monolingual problems, that they don’t speak English when and English speaker is around. Good on them, they of course shouldn’t have to, but in my experience that is pretty uncommon. If everyone speaks it they will at least have 40% of the conversation in English just to give you a go.

As the sun set and the cold sunk in we decided to head to some bars. A bit out of character for this cheap skate, but the drinks are pretty cheap here so I felt it was time. We had a few mulled wines and one place, followed but another at another night rum bar. Another nice bar followed for a negroni, another for a caipirinha and one more for a Jameson and I was done. We giggled our way home in the cold and slipped into a sweet, mulled wine sleep.

Karina is moving from Wroclaw back up to her native Gdansk just before Christmas, and naturally, after two year she has a lot of shit to get rid off. On Wednesday morning we had set a task to transport a 2.5 metre tall pot plant from her house to a tattoo studio she used to work for using just our brain power. We found a small human powered scooter which she had found in a dumpster which seemed perfect.

After hauling the tree down 5 flights of stairs we placed the pot on the scooter, one person steering the scooter and the over keeping the tree upright. It worked a treat and in no time we were around the corner to the studio. We hung out in the super cool studio for a bit for a coffee, once again finding it awkward to engage being the English speaker. But lots of very interesting creative work going on so it was happy slipping into the background and observing.

After this hard work it was time for – you guessed it, pierogi! I seriously can’t get enough of them, but I really think I have some kind of non celiacs gluten sensitivity because, after an experiment I did in Norway were I ate nearly no carbohydrates for a week, which reduced my gassyness dramatically, I’m now super super gassy again. This requires further investigation involving some actual science, but an interesting observation non the less. Regardless, I sacrifice my comfort and dignity for the pierogi.

After the pierogi and a stop at the post office we set off on a massive walk of the city. Wroclaw is known for its hundreds of bridges and its University. Krakows famous market square is based on that of Wroclaw.

We walked all afternoon and as evening fell we went back to her apartment to relax and to tidy a bit is some people were coming to see her room. We talked a lot (after the viewings) about how stiff polish people can come across and how the majority aren’t like that. Also about divides between Polish and Ukrainians, and how Ukrainians living in Poland tend to insulate themselves from the community, seeing it just as a place to make money – not to make friends.

We went for another walk around the city later in the evening. It was a very cold, still night. We passed the **** where Hilter gave speeches back in the day. We got home around midnight and hit the hay.

On Thursday we did another quick culinary tour of Wroclaw, with pierogi from a number of difference place in the late morning and early afternoon before ambling gently around the city to the bus station.

We said our goodbyes around 2pm and I boarded a bus to Berlin.

Stavanger

Over the weekend I was by myself on Langoy, as Jess had gone to Berlin to visit Hans. I was to be no layabout, mind you. Having gotten back on Friday night from the Fjord adventure, I enjoyed the luxury of a bit of alone time that evening. On Saturday, I had been invited for a spot of cycling with Daniel, another friend of Jess and Hans. It was a wet old day and I made my way over to Stavanger at midday.

This was no cycle around the park, we were going mountain biking – something new to me. With my participation in sport limited to none in general, extreme sports are never on my to do list. 2014 was probably the last time I had taken part in anything related. My expletive use hit an all time high during my first (and last) time skiing, during which I’m convinced I got a hernia.

At Daniels I was entertained by his toddler who was dressed as Spider-Man but simply wouldn’t admit that he was Spider-Man. Brothers Oliver and Hugh arrived to join our little crew and we strapped our pads on and mounted our fairly heavy duty mountain bikes.

We cruised through the city streets up to Ullandhaugtårnet where I had been with Hilda Lisa and Oscar the other day. This was our mountain. The ride up was tough, but not anything new to me. We climbed in stages, and eventually got to the top. There was a brief chat at the top, a lowering of the seats, and a brief instructional guide before we were off. Before I knew it we were putting our faith in gravity, hydrolics and the sweet lord.

It was like a rollercoaster that you had full control of. After kicking off we were suddenly facing drops and slopes that freaked me the hell out. Not being used to the kind of bike that bounces out of steep drops rather than throws you off I felt I was at deaths door. I hit a more or less 45 degree slope which the others screamed down while I pulled as hard as I could on the breaks.

The trouble being, you have less control on the uneven terrain if you are slow and terrified. The others were waiting when I slowly got to the bottom. After a few tips and some reconfiguring my line of sight, I did start to get the hang of it and put by faith in the bike, but this was on more cruisey forest paths rather than straight down rock faces.

The great thing about being completely armoured is that when you do come off you just have to roll into it and not worry about scraping anything. I had came off several times, but you can just shake yourself off.

After a few more it was starting to get dark. But that wasn’t stopping the guys, so we hit a few more slopes, in almost complete darkness. My good sense got the better of me in a few spots and I decided to walk down to the bottom. I was relieved when we were done and we were on our way back to the house. This was not the beginners course I had hoped for, but not unfun despite being a little shaken.

We had a beer and washed the muddy bikes before we parted ways. Exhausted and super sweaty I got the first boat I could back to Langoy and chilled for the evening.

On Sunday I hung out at the house and got it clean for Jess and Hansis return in the afternoon. It was so great to meet Hans finally after meeting all of his friends and family. Such a bloody nice guy. We all hung out in the evening and made some plans for the next day.

On Monday I hung out with Hansi and gave him a hand with some bits up at his studio. We went into the city together and had a coffee together. I left him to do some work while I went to a lunchtime concert performed by a local musician called Hanne Vasshus. It was all OAPs singing along to classic soul hits. I had a nice sing with a wee old Norwegian lady who was kind enough to share her song sheet with me.

I went and found Hans again afterwards and we caught the bus up to his studio. We moved some bits around and tidied up before settling into a few hours work. Later in the evening we went to meet jess and did a shop with her before helping her to the boat and going to see a friend of Hansis who was to instruct us in an hour long yoga session. This was hard work, having been coached through a little yoga by Stefan in the past but never for an hour. However I made it through and felt better for it.

We went back to Langoy where Jess had whipped up a lovely dinner. She had just started a new job installing two new exhibitions at the Kunsthall Stavanger. Having yesterday laughed at my suggestion of lending a hand because it was a “real” job, Jess this evening said that they actually needed some help. I naturally held back my acceptance as punishment for last nights reaction but in the end was happy to offer my help.

So that’s how the next three days went. Kunsthall Stavanger is run by a lovely bunch of gentlemen and ladies who were most grateful to have a volunteer. The first of the two exhibitions was called I Heard You Laughing, an exhibition of video work from the Middle East in its broad acceptation, curated by Myriam Ben Salah and Martha Kirszenbaum.

I Heard You Laughing reflects on the importance of popular culture, the omnipresence of technologies and the role of music and dance, while tackling a form of vernacular disorientalism and conveying a certain digital cosmopolitanism. It comprises selected music videos from iconic Middle-Eastern musicians of the 1950s-60s-70s alongside video works by contemporary artists that reflect the complexities of this often oversimplified ‘East-West’ configuration.

Tuesday was spent covering massive windows with black out sheeting and patching up paint on the walls. Later that evening we were invited up to Ingars for dinner, where we had beautiful pumpkin soup and wine, followed by wine and balcony time overlooking the glowing city.

Wednesday Jess and I were flat out hanging televisions and fiddling with projectors. We ended up doing a 12 hour day which was great work. We got so much done that Thursday ended up being a breeze. Even so, we worked right up until the opening at 6pm getting everything ready. This truely made me appreciate the effort it takes to set up an artistic space. What looks like a couple of projections and wall mounted TVs is several days of hard work and problem solving. Jess and I enjoyed several glasses of wine at the opening, while rubbing shoulders with much of the artistic community I had become familiar with over the last three weeks.

Friday was a home day, with Jess sorting through 2018 applications for the studio that she runs in town. I hung around and made coffee and sorted out some of my affairs.

Saturday Hans and Jess were hosting the jurying to select the 5 arts they would exhibit from the 150 applicants. I stayed out of their way, enjoying a bit of a Robin Williams appreciation morning and watching One Hour Photo and making a verge lasagne for the panel, who were very grateful to be catered so well.

By the evening the jury was over and the works selected. Hans went into the city to babysit his nieces and nephews. Jess and I had gotten on the guest list for a concert at the Kuntcentar that evening. We had some classes of wine (and vodka) at the house before catching the ferry and drinking a few negroni’s at a (previously) quiet cocktail bar. The bartender knew family bars and colleagues of mine in Liverpool, from where he had just returned. Small world. We drank our drink and got deep and meaningful before riding up the to concert where we saw all the regular faces.

The concert was local composer KAADA who did a lot of looping and piano stuff. It was pretty pretty good.

By the time it had finished my eyes were getting heavy and we decided to catch the midnight ferry back home, after a boogie to the DJ following Kaada

On Sunday Hans had to go to the next town over where he worked as an art teacher in a few different schools. Jess emerged a little worse for ware after last night which fortunately for us inspired her to throw together some delicious breakfast Mexican food. After a bit of running around Hans was off and we bid him farewell, I would not see him again.

Jess and I hung in our PJs for the afternoon until I insisted that we go for a walk around the island, which we spent an hour or so doing, bush bashing through the scrub until we couldn’t get any further because of the bog. It is only a small portion of the island that is residential, with about 3/4 of it farm land forest. Pretty cool place!

Back at home we got the fire on and made some dinner, finished Stranger Things 2 and watched The Matrix, which I had never seen and was damn good! We ended with some more wine and giggled to Unauthorised History of NZ. The last night on Langøy.

Monday morning we had some coffee and went into the city at 10.30. I had some printing to do so we stoped at the kuntsentar before going to grab a coffee and saying our goodbyes. I boarded the bus to the airport at midday to catch a flight to Katowice, Poland.

Smooth sailing and zero boarder security had me on the streets of Poland by 5pm, and with an hour and a half before my next bus I hunted down some sweet sweet pierogi and went to town. I got the bus from Katowice to Wroclaw and made my way to my friend Karina’s house.

Cabin in the Fjord

I was extended an invitation early in the week to acompany Hansis parents Arnhild and Noel down to their cabin on a tiny island called Risholmen, just off a larger island Andabeløya, about a 2 hour drive sound from Stavanger.

We left early on Wednesday morning and arrived by lunch time. We parked the car outside a series of boat sheds and proceeded to one of their boats which would take us the rest of the way to Risholmen.

The house is amazing, comprised of the main house perched on top of a large rock, and two large boat sheds, each with more dwellings above them complete with bathrooms and kitchens. There is a large yard with gardens – the result of shipping a few tonnes of soil to the island, which is just a big rock.

I get the tour around the place, being shown the trophy room with its two deer and moose heads and the basement man-shed with all the lines, nets, buoys and other bits for leading a boating and fishing life.

We settled in and have some lunch in the early afternoon before Noel and I both fell asleep in our respective arm chairs. Noel was going out to a meeting at his Mason Lodge in the evening so Arnhild and I sat around in the warm as a gentle storm picked up outside. We had a lovely roast chicken for dinner. Noel returned and we all sat around some more before retiring.

The next day I was put to work. After breakfast we went about trying to get rid of some slippery moss that was growing on the desk and making it fairly hazardous in the wet. I was given the hose duty as Noel and Arnhild scrubbed at it with brooms. It kind of worked.

Next Noel and I took a boat over to Andabeløya where we had to move some bags of green waste around, after which we had a cup of coffee with the locals in their wee coffee shack. Arnhild has grown up in this area, in which her brother and sister still live. The close nit community of Andabeløya has all sorts of initiatives in place to keep their village nice. They wanted a general stop, so everyone paid for it. Same with a little conservatory attached in which people can sit and chat all day. The next project was a petrol pump on the dock.

After our coffee Noel and I headed back over the the house and we had some lunch and a short nap before we went out fishing. We went out and set a net and some crab pots which we would pick up the next morning, then we drove slowly around some hot spots along coast with our rods. Our catch was pretty sad, getting only 3 between us (mine was the biggest) which were not sufficiently big for a meal, which was our goal. As the light was dropping we got right up close and personal with the Blackhead Dolphin, a giant oil rig on the fjord. We sat underneath its spotlights to give it one last chance but nothing was biting.

We headed back across the fjord to the house with the full moon lighting our path on the otherwise dark, freezing fjord. Back at home we gave Arnhild the bad news and she made other plans for our kai. We had Kjøttkaker (Norwegian meat balls) with lots of salad. We sat around after dinner with the TV on until I decided to go to bed so that I could get up early for the haul.

Noel and I went out at 8am before breakfast on friday to go pull in the net, off which we got about 20 fish, some a good size for eating. They were mainly mackerel and reel, the later of which Arnhild was keener on. We went back via the crab pots and pulled up have a dozen big pinching crabs.

We got back to the house and Noel started to prepare the fish, sorting through the ones we would have for lunch and the ones he would freeze for bait. We had some breakfast after which Noel and I moved some soil around the property, which he was digging out of cracks in a giant rock behind the house which he had put there years before in which to grow strawberries.

Once this especially physical labor was done we went inside to eat our catch, fresh from sea to plate! Wonderful what you can do with a bit of nohow!

After lunch we packed up and drove back to Stavanger, stopping to look at the beaver dam and observe from afar satellite dished which broadcast the radio signals to 3/4 of the earth, as apparently that point is where, if the world were split into four pieces like an orange, all the piece meet join.

When we got back to Stavanger I got on the ferry and head back to Langøy.

Norway Life

We have been so busy in the last week that it has been hard to find a moment to sit down and write about it. Aside from running around derigging Screen City we have managed to find time to go out for social engagements and have a bit of an explore.

On Wednesday Jess finally managed to have a day off, without having to attend to anything. We got on the ferry to the mainland with our bikes and after a coffee embarked on an afternoon adventure.

We navigated through the city and headed out west, passing the reservoir called Stora Stokkavatnet to get to one of the larger fjords in the region. This is home to Sverd i Fjell, a sculpture consisting of 3 10 metre high swords in bronze to commemorate an historical battle which is supposed to have taken place on the water. This battle united the three kingdoms of Norway under one crown.  No archaeological evidence has ever been found to confirm the occurrence of that battle, but the victorious kings name was Harald Fairhair – which is pretty good.

We attempted to circumvent the coast around the water but got stuck at some farm land as the rain was coming down sporadically, so we took an alternative route back towards the city which gave us a great view of the coast leading into Stavanger.

Once back in town we parked our bikes at the ferry terminal and caught a bus over to the most populous of the islands, Hundvåg. We had been invited for dinner with Jess´partners parents, who wanted to feed me moose. They were out when we arrived so we put our feet up for a bit before Hans´mother arrived home. We sat down to eat, eventually being joined by Hans´dad Noel – who is a Kiwi from Timaru. Jess we delighted to have someone with her who appreciated hearing a man speak Norwegian in a thick, southern man accent.

We ate and were merry for some time, being joined by the eldest of the daughters for a time as well. We had an early ferry so had to be off by quarter to 10.

On Thursday we spent most of the day attending the festival errands. I was able to take an hour to experience one of the pieces by an artist I had encountered in 2010 called Duncan Speakman – an artist who composes and assembles soundtracks which take the listener on a journey within their environment.

This work was titled It Must Have Been Dark By Then, and was comprised of a book and audio accompaniment. The experience uses a mixture of evocative music, narration and field recording to bring you stories of changing environments, from the swamplands of Louisiana, to empty Latvian villages and the edge of the Tunisian Sahara. There is no preset route, the software builds a unique map for each person’s experience. It is up to you to choose your own path through the city, connecting the remote to the immediate, the precious to the disappearing. As I was exploring an unfamiliar location it made the experience all the more moving.  It was damn good.

I had a wee cycle around while I waited for jess to finish, after which we went for some delicious burgers before heading back to the island.

On Friday I had my first shift at the information centre of the festival, where my job was to give people general information about the festival and show people how to interact with the two artworks on the site. The weather was pretty shit though so I didn’t have many people come by, so a pretty easy afternoon for me. Come 5pm it was time for a changing of the guard and Jess and I had an appointment with some old colleagues of hers who had gotten together to take a tour of the festival.

We met them at a bar and, after a few beers and given the weather situation decided that they were happy drinking and being dry. They were from a Stavanger based marketing firm which was small, but doing quite well. They treated us to beer and pizza with their marketing money before we had to excuse ourselves and head up to another gathering.

We cycled across town to the apartment of an architect friend of Jess´ called Ingar who popped a bottle of bubbly and we sat in his 9th floor conservatory admiring the glowing city below. Jess had to run away down to town to attend to one last festival duty – so we decided to stay put and keep drinking bubbly. We talked for a while before getting a call from her wondering where we were – we had totally lost track of the time. What are we like?

The evenings engagement was a surprising leaving/goodbye party for their canadian friend Ryan, who had just had the most adorable little girl. The party was hosted in a quiet bar in the centre of town and was choca. I spent the night working the room and stealing all of Jess and Hansis friends, many of whom were offering to show me around when I am free. We were so into our boogieing in the basement that we missed our midnight ferry and had to wait for the 1.30am ferry. We got tired of dancing (and the party) not long after this and escaped into the evening to get something to eat and wait for the boat. Jess told me I had to try a baked potato, which is classic Norwegian cuisine. We eventually got home and poured ourselves into bed.

On Saturday I was being taken on a tour is the area by Hansi´sister Hilda Lisa and her 4 year old son Oscar. Hilda Lisa is an architect who spent some time studying in Christchurch and Wellington. I got picked up in the city and we went up the hill to Ledaal, a manor house built in the 19th century as a residence for the King of Norway. Across the road is Breidablikk, a similarly grand manor of a different style constructed some 50 years later – causing a bit of a stir with the locals at the time.

From there we drove over to the Iron Age Farm, a reconstructed farmstead from the Migration Period (350-550 AD). The grounds were totally empty, apart from big fluffy sheep. We played hide and seek while getting a good dose of history.

We drove over the isle to Ullandhaugtårnet, the telecommunication tower which looks like a giant cigarette lighter. Up there we got a great view of the whole area, Stavanger town to the north and the great fjord to the south.

After a look out and some races up and down the hill we continued on to a medieval church near Sola which was deconstructed during world war two because it was being used as a beacon for british planes to drop bombs on the germans camouflaged airport. Before its deconstruction however, a man had the foresight to number all of the corner and arch stones to make its reconstruction possible. Today these markings can still be seen.

We headed over to the beach on the west side of the isle and, after a coffee proceeded to chase Oscar up and down the beach as a storm approached. We drove back into the city and Hilda Lisa dropped me back in town and I went and found Jess.

In the evening we had the volunteers party being thrown by the director as a thank you for all the help provided my local art enthusiasts. The directors parents had done a lovely job catering the affair and there were some pretty nice people around to chat to. There was a storm brewing outside and as the party was on a boat this made it a pretty rocky gathering. Once the gin and tunes came out it was a little more rocky. The sea outside was swelling like crazy, spilling up over on to the roads and there were a couple of pleasure boats which had to be tugged to more solid mooring as the swells were up to 2-3 metres high. We were a big boat so we were fine, just swaying a bit.

After a while Jess and I were done with the party and not wanting to make the same mistake as last night we made our way to the midnight ferry. The wind was howling and our bikes got carried by it pretty successfully all the way to the terminal, while being lashed with sea spray. The ride over to Langøy was rough to say the least, but we made it in one piece.

Sunday was the first of our pack down days. We started up at Studio17 where I disassembled a work and reset the room for an artist who was due to arrive the next day. We moved around a few more of the venues and I did a cover shift at one of the artworks where I enjoyed a few chapters of Michael Kings Penguin History of New Zealand. Jess and I ran more errands before picking up some dinner and heading to the library of the Rogaland Kunstsenter (in the same building as studio 17) where we ate and watched the first episode of Stranger Things 2 before getting ourselves down to the ferry.

Monday and Tuesday were full swing pack down, but we mananged to get the majority of the work done with only a few hands between us. There was lot of (illegal) driving, picking up trash and deconstructing artwork. After a monday afternoon of tedious tasks like peeling tape off floors and collapsing screens Jess, Agne (the volunteers coordinator) and I went for some pizza before finishing a few things off. I was feeling mighty sore by the end of the day so treated myself to a bath, in which a promptly fell asleep.

On Tuesday evening we managed to get on a comparably early ferry back to Langøy and had finally found the time to get to the supermarket. We went back and relaxed, made some food, watched TV and farted heaps (still from the moose meat).