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bersonwriter · 6 years

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Scotland. (Glasgow, Edinburgh, month of August-2018)

Hey all.

I feel rested this morning, somewhat restored in body (something that has been through a lot on of exertion this trip), and in fairly sound mind, restful and calm and subtly energized too. I feel collected and focused. This is for different reasons, part being that the hostel room I’m in is basically empty except one other guy around my age in with a north face bag and wearing scrubs to bed who I lent some toothpaste too the other night he arrived when he approached me and asked if I had any extra, across the room from me.

In the constant unfolding of my time here in both Glasgow and now Edinburgh since I’ve been in Scotland, I haven’t felt this too often at the start of the days, which is something I’m working on attaining and sustaining. It’s all been worthwhile, as everything has been since I left home nearly four months in the past. Though with the constant balancing of planning and spontaneity, focused disciplined body/mind self work, and more free and non-directed wandering and experiencing, I haven’t felt this way all the time.

This feels like it’s been a process, journey even of mind and being, connections and separateness, alone through the place of others… and is merging into how I really need to live and be alive in this life. It’s happening, and this morning is a touch-point and experience of that.

This morning I’m seated upright, cross-legged up against the wall in a 12 person bunk dorm room at the Containers Hostel in Edinburgh. It is a temporary but standard-like hostel made of shipping containers in a vacant lot in a residential area called Gorgie, about a half hour or so from the center of the city, Grassmarket and Princes street, and iconic castle that this place is known for. (Its stone walls rise up overlooking the city in all directions, and can be seen in many places in a fully circumstance around its location.

I planned to go up to it (the castle) yesterday afternoon, only succeeding in reaching a dead-end after 15 minutes of reaching the ramparts at the top of the thorn and grass covered rock formation covered slope/incline, and was stopped at the walls. They are over twenty feet tall at that point, apparently there is an official entrance on the opposite side where you can pay 20 quid to go inside, which a homeless man named Andrew who I gave half of a corner-store bought can of cold coffee (rare purchase, reminded me of all those cold brew and other ice coffee in a tall can I was buying and drinking as staff at Upper Limits all winter/part of spring before I stopped spending money on food/drinks, saving it all for this trip) told me yesterday who I talked to outside of a grocery store, where he was sitting with a cup for change, (as many do here), except for once a year when the open the place up for free.

I saw at the base and looked out over the city, feeling incredibly free and with so much perspective, and also very alone and feeling like even with the vista before me, I was still not feeling it all there, as it is currently.

That’s about to change this weekend, even in a few hours when I finish writing this and take off for the day, now, end of August 2018… or at least, I fully intend it to.

I’ve been in Scotland for close to 3 weeks now. I arrived on the train through here and to Glasgow from Cambridge on the 9th. That was 21 days ago, so actually 3 weeks to the day just about. I’ve really been able to go all in to be here and follow my plan, or more accurately live the life-vision I had for this trip.

I plan on returning to Glasgow from here in Edinburgh this weekend, and prepare possibly stay with someone I met named Luke through the workAway person I was lived with in a part of town Cess Nock which I like, as it was the beginning of my time here and feels like and is the origin of my trip to Scotland. There I plan to prepare my things for and head north, and possibly just head straight there from here.

I have a few different ideas of where I’ll go. They include

- a workAway on the Ardanamurchan Peninsula,

- Searching for and finding people to possibly go climbing with in different places around the region, both coastal and inland in the “hills.”

- There is up by Inverness like 4 hours north a sort of spiritual/mindful/international community/nature-based eco-village center of sorts on the northeast coast, which seems promising and might be my first stop after this weekend.

- Aikido along the way as often as possible.

- Drink more of and experience quality scotch whiskey.

- Try and learn some Gaelic.

- The workAway host I stayed with, Misha, is also a really outdoorsy person and has a lot of experience and knowledge, as well as having grown up in the northern part of the country, and he recommended a place off the coast on this island not too far from Glasgow, and copied me a topo map of the area and lent me his stove and ground pad, so I’m hoping to head that way too at some point, maybe even with another traveler if I meet someone up there, which I’m hoping and feel is likely could happen. I definitely feel the need for that, though being solo is also really significant for me right now.

Part of me is also drawn to the Stones of Callanish, way up on one of strings of northern Isles in the Outer Hebrides. It’s like the Stonehenge of far north of Scotland, and I learned of it and saw pictures of it in this coffee table book of powerful and beautiful places on earth in a book while on our Colorado family ski trip this past winter. At most there is something mystical and other-worldy about, with either of Celtic or druidic connection, though I’m not sure which. Possibly it was a different group who created the colossal circle standing stones. I’m on the fence about this sort of thing, I have felt/thought about the potential truth of both possibilities. Even if they’re nothing more than really interesting collection of tall rocks, it’s still a striking and rare sort of place that could be really worthwhile to see and experience as a final destination for my trip here to Scotland at this point in my life.

I’m not expecting all of this will happen, but it’s the “loose structure”/”flexible plan”. In the days to come it’ll start unfolding, one way or another. I plan to return to Burwell, outside Cambridge, for a Aikido seminar the 14-16th of September with the really knowledgeable and perceptive teacher I met there, Quentin Cooke, about not only Aikido-itself and a lot of which for him is an emphasis on “ki,” but its application and connection to, in, and for life.

After that… either back here or straight to Ireland, and then home. It all is connected to who I meet in the weeks to come, what I feel/think/experience, what is happening in me, and the how far the money I have left can keep me here. End of September, and maybe into October is the idea of far this trip will go, is what I’m striving for now.

From there, I’ll return home to the US, St.Louis, Creve Coeur, the depth-friends I’ve found there, the couple close old ones too, my family, work at Upper Limits and Picklemans if possible… and the reality and life that is that country and the place that is my origin, that I intend live and work and begin a life there into the future. Something else could happen that changes that, but either way I plan to be home this fall. It’ll mark almost a full year since I came out of the near 7 year offness and non-life having “woke up” again, and though I did lose so much of that surge of the late fall and winter some of you out there will recall, and definitely started to and still struggle with my mind… there has been a new dimension of possibility and development, and my 26th year might have been the most important and transitional in a decade, even life. Maybe even the most healing too… I intend to really go into this with the rest of the trip.

Okay. That’s all the reflections, if those of you out there reading this really wanted to know. If not, its there for me. Writing is known for its potential for reflection, working with words and language to cohere thoughts and feelings in a way that sharpen vision and process the past and present and look into the future.

So there’s that.

Okay then...

Here are a few photograph-in-writing snapshots of my time here so far (Glasgow/Edinburgh, month of August 2018) –

Arrival in Scotland; transfer at the Edinburgh train station. People everywhere, mostly white but different races, my encounter with how diverse this country (or at least these cities) really are, mostly middle-eastern looking, most of whom I found out later were Pakistani.

And… there’s all Scottish. Most of them. Even the ones who aren’t what one might think of as being Scots, (of celtic/scots origin)… Walking and hearing that amazing accent that is part of drew me here and have always felt a connection to for some reason. An hour ride to Glasgow and the station there really similar.

Exiting the train station, walking down the streets of downtown Glasgow. Grey, overcast, clear and having that quality of air that feels at least for me uplifting and energizing, very similar to the Pacific Northwest of the US. A lot of people around, though not overly crowded, and a even di

Riding the subway a system of two concentric circle train lines, the Outer and Inner Circle, about 9 stops maybe on each one, really excellent, not too large, maybe 3 or 4 cars per train, with a frequency of arriving every 15 minutes or so all day and most of the night. Loud, comfortable, fairly standard as far as undergrounds seem to work.

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NOTE: I left the writing of this and went to meet a Couchsurfing host named Michael who was unable to let me stay with him, but we connected through the messaging and planned to meet a this volunteer-run collective café of sorts, so I had to leave to go off and meet him.

It’s the following night, and I want to write some more of these snapshot/perceptions/photographs-in-words, and finish off the entry. Yesterday after I went to the café, I got iPhone fixed (the charge port wasn’t working… cost 25 quid, which is a lot but for a phone I’ve had since 2016, the only iPhone I’ve ever owned… it was worth it. Soon after I was walking through the city with new warm wool clothes I acquired at some thrift stores in preparation for my trip north, and a little class with a group called “Still Point Aikido” at a local high school where two men in their 50s and 60s, (both very skilled dan-grades/black belts and very skilled, both teachers) proceeded to remind me how little I know of it, and learned a lot in the hour and a half I was able to train with them.

Right. After that I charged up my phone (now that it was possible too) at a coffeeshop, I decided to head for the summit of the Crags and Arthurs Seat, the huge and beautiful cliffs and mountainside/wilderness/park right off to the side of the city. I had seen it when I first arrived in town, through some buildings near the University of Edinburgh, Holyrood campus, and I remember my face lighting up with a smile. So “Scotland”. I hadn’t known that was there.

So I went up it, barefoot, on a path. There at the top I watched the sunrise, and spent the morning hanging out up there, resting, meditating, qigong and some yoga and just working on the ongoing process of working with my body, which a lot of what I spend time on day-to-day in life now on this trip. It is both alieving the back pain and tension that is fairly frequent with the amount of time I spend wearing a backpack, and other reasons too…. and, like with the Aikido, striving to unify body and mind and become as supple and full a person as possible.

When I decided to finally come back down, I left the top of the Crags overlooking all of Edinburgh when the sun had already risen some ways. That point where I was before I hiked back down the side was a really nice location to be out/up there. If I stood in a certain way, I could hold my left hand out framing the ascending sun, and the other out to the west and frame the descending and waning half-full moon that was there all night travelling over me as I climbed up the Scottish nature, coast to one side, city on almost all sides but the peak and valleys below it and layered rocks formations ascending up to it.. it was like nowhere I’ve been before in life. Though there too I was not “all there”, I was more than the “half-way” as I often reflect. I was closer, closing in on it. The gap closing between me and full experience… I know it is not going to be that much time from now Soon. Very soon. The north, the coasts, the highlands. Even the outer islands… there it will happen.

That said, it was really worthwhile and significant, the turning point of my time in Edinburgh and maybe all of this trip so far to Scotland, even all of it, in a way.

Now, 24 hours later or so, I’m back at the laptop late at night at the hostle, “kids” partying in the kitchen being loud and drunk and exclaiming things off and on, and I’m in the entry/foyer container of sorts, a room of big leather beat-up sofas, a TV, old vintage game systems, a rack of DVDS, board games, a few instruments (acoustic guitar, ukulele)… it’s a good place. The lights are off because someone was asleep on one when I came in to write here.

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Photographs in words of the last 3 weeks here in Scotland, Glasgow something like 10 days and Edinburgh just over a week…. there’s so much. It’s very late as well, and tomorrow is my last full day in Edinburgh before heading up the northern highlands and Inverness area. You know… I’ll write more on all of it in the future. For now I’ll leave this here, though I didn’t write a lot about it all so far, it’s been more of plans for what’s next. That’s important too. I’ll share a few limited thoughts on my time here so far, and call it a night for now.

Scotland so far… I basically spent half a week in Cess Nock,a fairly diverse part of Glasgow 10-15 minute bus ride/subway ride from the city centre and central train station, workAwaying with this guy Misha, a 38 year-old friendly and hard-working Scot, who is also an outdoors enthusiast and explorer, both in the winters of the Scottish highlands, and also much of Africa.

Through the workAway agreement I was able to stay in spare room and access to food/meals in return for a few hours of work each day (plastering, sanding, and miscellaneous projects and at one point taking one of his bikes to go buy supplies from a store) on renovating the flat he was living in, a very old tenement building that he’s fixing up there.

Definitely formed a connection, when I left he lent me his backpacking stove, a camping mat, and a map of place to go on a camping trip to, which he said I can return when I pass through Glasgow after that part of the trip (which I fully intend to, I really like Glasgow. There’s also 2 climbing gyms within 10 minute walk in both directions of his flat, which was perfect, and I bought a month membership at one and went a number of times both weeks).

The place he recommended after he heard of my idea of what I wanted to experience was island of the coast not too far up and out, beyond Glasgow, with allegedly beautiful places and a “bathe”, old structures designated and sometimes fixed up to be used a permanent shelters for travelers passing through those regions.

Alright time to finish off. I ought to write about all the Aikido classes I went too, each of them that was happening, beginning with a few hours after I arrived there at his flat. I had contact the sensei and learned about a class that was occurring that night, and so hopped right back on a train not too far after I arrived to Barrhead, a further away part of Glasgow where there was a group of most high-grade/”dan”/black belt-levels (though a few beginners) and an amazing teacher named sensei Dunne. Thick Scottish/Glaswegian accent, need to really be listening to follow all of his words. Very subtle, and very powerful. He’s also slightly less than my height, and is in his late 50s. I think he said he’s trained 3 times a week for something like 27 years there and eventually became the head sensei when his teacher died. The classes are not easy but very accessible, and other experienced students (and him) work with you.

Alright- maybe more on all this time in the future. When there is time to write it. This is all I have for now, end-of-August-2018, though looking down at the bottom right hand corner I see it is September 1st.

September. Its transitioning from summer into fall… it came into my thoughts earlier today that I left home in the late spring and lived overseas and travelled on this trip for the entire summer, and now into autumn/fall. It’s significant. I posted on facebook today also, a short half-minute or so video of walking on the Royal Miles, one of the main streets of Edinburgh, seeing/listening to a man busking… with bagpipes, and the vista, and century old stone buildings and cobble-stone roads, the inclined sloping streets and very narrow walking alleyways and stairwells connecting streets and levels of the city, “closes” as they call them … the facebook was

“After almost a month, it's finally starting to sink that I'm really here.”

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I hope everyone back home is fairing okay. Here’s to you, and me, and doing all we can to embody our intentions for anything we can to accomplish and fulfill our ‘purpose and intent” and benefit in depth-ways another, and/others….

…. Goodnight all. Hope you’re doing okay in all things that you’re experiencing/moving towards all need in your day-to-day as the time goes by and live is lived and felt and thought and is happening inside and between and around us all of the time.

Josh(ua) Berson, alonaryk

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touristguidebuzz · 7 years

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Cuba – As a Volunteer for an Authentic Expedience

Out of Town Blog Cuba – As a Volunteer for an Authentic Expedience

Cuba – As a Volunteer for an Authentic Expedience

In mid-January, I flew from Tampa to Havana on a trip that would introduce me to a country that has been off limits for me (and most Americans) for most of my life. I participated in a one-week service program in Cuba with Global Volunteers, a non-profit, NGO based in Minneapolis.

View on block from my casa particular in Miramar, (suburb of Havana)

Along with 19 other volunteers ages 30-78, I spent a week on various work projects that included painting a fence at our base (The Cuban Council of Churches), spending time with seniors at a senior care center and working with students on English in an evening program. Another team did crocheting with a women’s group for part of the day.

Every afternoon we had a few hours of free time before working with students practicing English for about two hours. Later we all met for dinner, with our excellent team leader, Stephanie, at various locations. The trip was a combination of helping our host community and a wonderful cultural learning experience for a group of Americans, most of whom, had never been to Cuba.

Living the Locals

We stayed in Miramar, a nice residential suburb of Havana near many of the city’s foreign embassies. All 20 volunteers stayed in guest houses within three or four blocks of each other. We were two blocks from the water and near our base at the Council where we met each morning around 9:00.

The joy of staying in a suburb is that you have the opportunity to observe people going to work and school and regularly interact with the locals. Put simply, it is a more authentic experience than staying in a hotel. You feel like a part of the community, particularly since you are there to help in some small way.

Visiting and meeting with seniors at a seniors center in Havana

We walked throughout the area every day and night. I never felt nervous nor did we see anything that looked questionable. The only danger I encountered was the uneven sidewalks which like many of the buildings are in disrepair. Also in the evenings many streets did not have lights so we walked with caution and used flashlights when necessary.

Getting Connected

There is very little internet on the island. Missing connectivity, we asked our hosts about options. They told us there was an “Internet Park” about a twenty minute walk from my casa. There, they said, we could purchase a card from a mini mart or store, but we were told there are long lines and forms to fill out along with passport information. The alternative was to walk to a certain small park and connect with a young gentlemen and his pals who our hosts said would sell us a card for 5 Kooks (approx $5.00 ) for one hour of internet. The card provides a password and username.

My three new Global Volunteer friends and I decided to visit the park. It was trashed with empty beer cans and bottles and many young people on their phones sitting on the ground. There was a group of men standing around that looked like possibly our connection.

Street Photography in Cuba

We approached the young men, and they immediately offered each of us an internet card. With our $5. purchase complete we took a photo together with the “sellers” and then enjoyed the internet for about 30 minutes. (We kept the card for another day’s use.) Mission accomplished. As we walked back to our work site I wondered, would I even consider walking up to a stranger in, let’s say, Central Park or Chicago and purchasing an “off the grid” card with the hope it worked? And then take a photo with them? Probably not.

Night out – Havana

Music, Art and Entertainment

If you choose to stay the weekend, you have the option of adding on the weekend package of people-to-people activities. Or you can make your own plans for the weekend. The Global Volunteers program includes a tour of the Ernest Hemingway House, art galleries, Old Havana and a morning lecture from two local

professionals who discuss history, education and some politics. All and all it’s a great value that includes meals and accommodations.

My favorite weekend activity was the excellent quality live music everywhere day or night. Street entertainers, restaurants and bars and coffee shops all have talented solo or group performers. Artwork is plentiful and there is a wide variety of architecture including colonial, Spanish, Art Deco and contemporary.

Entrepreneurial Spirit

My students on two evenings were a young couple in their early 20s. Allen is an independent contractor at a tour company and is eager to learn English so he can better communicate with visitors. His wife Daniella takes care of the home. She knew some English and is eager to help him. We review his tour prices, look at what’s included and add some language to make the tours more appealing. We go over phrases such as, “Welcome to Havana, my name is Allen and I would love to show you my country. What is your name?

Selling onions :potatoes in the neighborhood

After some competitive analysis, we determine that he is competing with the fancy old American cars that all the tourists seem to love. Their hourly rate is $50 per hour. We work on an appropriate response. “Yes, those old American cars are beautiful, however, instead of $50 per hour you might want to consider my van at only $15 per hour.” Allen masters three or four sentences that we work on intensely for two nights. They are sure to enhance his business opportunities.

It’s a pleasure to see a 23-year-old happily married, entrepreneur with such enthusiasm and eagerness to succeed. When we finished the second night, he looked at me and said “God Bless you and thank you.” I was beginning to see how individuals can make a small but significant impact in a short time and, more importantly, understand these very warm and welcoming people.

Street Vendors in Havana

In addition there are people who are operating and creating small businesses out of their homes or garages that are serving meals, coffee/beer and other small businesses like repair shops and such. Homes are renting out rooms to visitors for additional income. This is all new and Cubans seem very happy with new opportunities.

Yes, the streets, sidewalks and many buildings are in disrepair, run down and there is much need for improved infrastructure, painting, plumbing, electrical etc. Litter is an issue in some neighborhoods. For many, work is hard to find and salaries are low. Supplies of every kind are limited. Many of the local grocery store shelves are sparsely stocked.

Looking Ahead

The refreshing thing is you sense the change that is coming. In a lively conversation with one of our casa owners, she described it like this. “It started like the snowball on top of the mountain, it’s rolling down and getting bigger and bigger and you cannot stop it.”

Walk in our neighborhood – Miramar

Tourists from all over world have been visiting Havana for years and now there are many American visitors. In Havana we saw a cruise ship, red double-decker tour buses and souvenir shops. Colorful flora and fauna are everywhere and a walk along the Malecon — a walkway along the sea wall — is the perfect place to people watch.

The city of three million is bursting with activity and a colorful history that people want to experience. It’s old, it’s new, it’s Spanish, European, modern, young and fun!

I only saw a small part of Cuba on this trip. But I’m sure I’ll return again to visit Varadero, Santiago de Cuba, Trinidad and other places on this fascinating island.