Sunday March 10th 2002 – Bobfest ending… L

Without doubt this is the shortest night in Sweden. I slept only five hours. We are going to a church service that finishes the Bobfest and starts at 11:00 AM. At the church we're just in time to see the guys from Extol leave. They probably have a long way to go and so they depart. The congregation itself is there and so the service looks more like a normal church service. Only the public is a bit different than what it normally is. A lot of metal people dressed in black. Pastor Bob remarks that he's happy "there's so much hair present in the church" J. It's also fun to see the guys from Sanctifica.

In the Swedish language a call is made for everyone who needs prayer to come forward. As it isn't translated, we don't understand this. It becomes clear as we see that Sanctifica goes forward and start praying for each other. Super cool!

As there's another service in the afternoon, we doubt whether we got the right service. But we don't take the risk.

Back at home we eat soup. Then Raffi, Daniëlle, Mark and Prem return to The Netherlands as they don't have any free days left. We all end with prayer. We pray that they won't face too many difficulties on their way home.

With the remaining people we walk through the forest and make a relaxed day of it. In the evening we go to the local pizzeria in the village. On our way I make a picture of a typical Swedish house. The owner sees this and comes out and asks me in Swedish what I'm doing. As I don't understand it, I ask her if she speaks English. She doesn't and so a daughter and a friend are called (that this should happen to me...). In the end it becomes a social talk about Sweden and the Bobfest (she asks me in which band I play...) after which we walk on to the pizzeria. The owner is very happy with such rise. We all order a kebab dish. There's no garlic sauce but the owner starts making it as soon as we ask him for it. It tastes really well!

In the evening we sit down in our shelter to play with cards. "Pesten" and "Liegen" (the English word of it, literally, is Lying). Mariëlle is particularly good at "Liegen". Kim tries too but as the beer works as a serum that makes him speak the truth, it doesn't go well for him ;). While playing cards a very profound conversation starts about the way men and women should deal with each other. Quite some useful hints are mentioned, I have to say, as we seem to have a bunch of experts among us. Time will tell if the results will show.

Monday March 11th 2002 – Time to relax

I wake up feeling terribly sick. The hollows in my head are filled and, in fact, I didn't close an eye this night. How I got this, I don't know... I can't remember it at all, as I didn't get as much beer like that ;).

We eat breakfast and lunch at once. Our plan is to go around Sweden this afternoon, searching for castles/ruins and parts of unspoilt nature in the woods and somewhere near a lake.

With two cars we go out. Quite soon we find a nice ruin with a small church and burial ground. It appears that this was a monastery once. The stairs to the entrance door and the creepy tree in front of it are a bit horrifying, but that only makes it so much fun J.

Then we go into the evil woods. It's great to see how beautiful it is. The Veluwe can't match this. The woods aren't planned. They only grew like they are, with lots of rocks and fungus. You have to watch out, as it can be slippery. If Fear Dark is looking for some covers for their bands, the Swedish woods will undoubtedly do well.

That night we play cards again and we get into another profound chat. Kim doesn't get too much beer J. That night I don't sleep well again. Quite irritating.

Tuesday March 12th 2002 – Back to Holland

I'm the first to awake from a sleep that I didn't sleep. I don't feel like trying to get asleep, so I jump under the shower. Unfortunately my alarm clock starts ringing while I'm showering (and I can't hear it) so that the whole house wakes up. Sorry! But we have to get up anyway as it's time to pack our stuff, so...

At 9:00 AM we finish together with prayer. Around 9:30 AM we drive away after giving back the keys and paying. On the bulletin board at the pay desk hangs a Slechtvalk flyer. Guess who put it on there...? J

JP, Debora and Mario remain behind as they have the rest of the week to celebrate their holidays in Sweden.

On our way home we pick up Samuel, boss of Endtime Productions. He's on his way to Brussels so he can travel to The Netherlands along with us. At a gas station we get petrol and hang around for a while. The door of one of the cars (I won't say who's) gets locked while the keys are still in it. Ouch... that's hard to get in. In the end the Swedish road service is needed to get it open. This isn't an easy job so the owner can be happy with a safe car. In total it's about 1,5 hours later before we can continue our journey. The same journey back with the boats in Denmark.

At the moment we arrive in Germany it's dark and it starts raining again. Hey, we didn't have any rain in Sweden! Just past Lübeck we stop at a Rasthaus to eat. There's a traffic sign that says that two parking places need to be kept free so the women can park their cars too...! Weird guys, those Germans! The food is perfect anyway.

Then we need to go to the bathroom. It's a bathroom where you have to pay. The man, an imported Italian who receives the euros, is extremely happy with his job. He welcomes us heartily and shakes hands with each of us “Allo meine Freunden, willkommen!”. Then he shows us the way and I'm relieved that he doesn't try to help with the steering... (he shouldn't have tried that though!). Anyway, when I've washed my hands he comes running again with rubbing cloths. He asks where I come from. “Holland” I say. “Ah Holland! Amsterdam, Rotterdam, hasjiesj, drugs rauchen!”. “Ich nicht” I say. “Ich wohl” he says. J All right, a nice break on a fourteen-hour long journey.

We move on again. In Holland, near Oldenzaal, we take another big pit stop and I walk a few rounds as I have pain in my knees because of sitting still in the back seat.

At 1:30 AM we're in Gouda in the Fear Dark den where we drop off Samuel at Raffi and Daniëlle's place (did you know that Raffi even sleeps wearing his Kekal shirt?). Then it's only a small detour to Boskoop. There we unload all the Fear Dark stuff (for what hasn't been sold) and we sit together for a short while to drink something.

At 2:15 AM Arnoud and I leave. I feel horrible, but I still want to sleep in my own bed (Mariëlle offered me to sleep in Boskoop). Tomorrow I'm free and then I don't want to have anything to bother me with the whole day where or whenever I wake up.

On any account it was a great holiday. There's been some talk about a photo reunion. Well, if that happens, I'll be there! To make picture of course! ;)

André J.C. Bor, March 20th 2002

________

A whole bunch of photos can be found on the photo page of André J.C. Bor.

Join Mailing-List!