Writhe and Shine

From Writhe’s journal:

Got back from Bergen and found the hostel in Oslo was full. Stayed at T’s place again except he was out of town. Went out with one of his roommates and met two people at So What. One guy was someone I met in London. Small world. Met a girl who dies a comic called the Black Pages. Goths seem to really like it and it’s in a lot of publications. We all talk about nothing in particular except a Black Metal bar in Oslo. People from all over the world seem to go there to see their Black Metal heroes and get disappointed because they’re all 17 and trading football cards.
Saw a guy on drugs in the subway and talked with T’s roommate about dancing. The countryside between Bergen and Oslo was awesome. Scenic river whitewater in a valley with low-hanging mist, small houses and shacks littering the countryside. Moss colored rocks, bleak terrain gradually turning into forested hills and mountains touching the very clouds. Ear-popping and restless. Moved around on the train several times and ate salami and cheese sandwiches.

Gothenborg, Sweden. It was raining when I pulled into the train station. There was an old man who didn’t know where he was when we were getting off the train. I stood in line at the pay phone and talked to an American, an Englishman, and a Dane. I called C (my contact here in Sweden) and he said he would be at the train station in 10 minutes. He and his girlfriend were very close by. The phone ate my money and I hung up as soon as it cut the connection. I waited by the main entrance when two short, long-haired goths in leather pants and leather trench coats came out of the rain. C’s girlfriend P can speak almost fluent English while C himself seems to still be learning. It makes me think that’s what I sound like trying to carry on a conversation in German. We walked in the rain to a mall to buy her cigarettes. Apparently some tobacco tax is forcing everyone to not have cigarettes and she had to buy them under the counter. By the time we got to his car we were pretty much soaked and my backpacks had a pool of water on the top. We shoved my packs in the trunk and drove a foggy-windowed, small red car through the crazy streets. The streets have no rhyme or reason. We picked up a friend who partly runs the local club and we headed straight there. They dropped us off and the guy gave me a tour of the club. It wasn’t decorated and there was no DJ equipment. He started decorating and drinking some beer. C and P came back and we talked.
The guy stayed at the club to wait for his partners and C and P left to get some pizza. We brought it back to his “apartment” which was actually a dorm room. I ate quickly while they dyes each others hair. His roommate came back and we decided where everyone was going to sleep. I ended up on the floor in a very old Swedish canvas sleeping bag, the smell of which reminded me of my very first Boy Scout camping trips. That night I had a weird dream of being a crazed lab experiment running around trying to escape from lab techs in white coats.
We wandered around town the next day and didn’t really see much. Not many stores. Ate a bagel sandwich at a cafe. The music stores weren’t that great, or at least not as good as some of the one’s I’ve seen so far on my trip. The only good store was in the middle of the mall. Came back to the dorm room, dyed my hair and took a shower. Playing CDs for each other. C has pronounced cheekbones and very wide grey eyes with small pupils. They LARP Vampire The Masquerade and talk about it a lot. We went into this store that sells alcohol (government controlled). You can’t buy alcohol anywhere else in the country besides these stores. Fantastic! Everything was in cases and well labeled and described and there was everything you could think of! Wish we had one of these in New Orleans, but I know it would soon be corrupted somehow by the local or state government.