Love and Anarchy: Camille Claudel 1915

I still need to mention this one film, Camille Claudel 1915, that I saw at the Helsinki International Film Festival, because I happened to visit a little exhibition of Camille Claudel at the Musée Rodin in Paris by coincidence a week later.

Jeune fille à la gerbe, by Camille Claudel. Photo from the website of Musée Rodin.

Camille Claudel was first Rodin's student and later his lover. It didn't end up well as we learn from the film. Claudel ends up in a mental institution where she spends the rest of her life, though she obviously doesn't belong there.

Juliette Binoche played Claudel in the film and she was absolutely fantastic in the role. In her face, you can feel Claudel's dolour, despair and hope. Not much is happening in the film, but the intensity of Binoche's presence is outstanding. The use of actual mentally handicapped people in the casting was courageous, but as it turned out, the best possible solution. I can't understand how the people next to me in the theater could have been eating popcorn - constantly, during the entirety of the film - while watching a film as agonizing as this (who invented the combination of popcorn and cinema in general? Argh!).

At the Musée Rodin, which is by the way a very comfortable museum to visit, I wasn't very impressed by Claudel's works (above one of them). But I really like this one sculpture by Rodin: Voix intérieure ou la méditation.

Love and Anarchy: Grigris

Grigris, an African film from Chad, that I saw at the Helsinki International Film Festival had pretty bad actors (or maybe I'm just not used to African style of acting) and very traditional storyline, but I just loved watching it. I felt so happy seeing the African landscape and the African dusty roads and villages. It must be pretty weird, but I felt a bit home-sick.

Too bad, my next holiday flights are already booked for Asia... 

Hmm, I guess I need to live Africa through culture for a while then. Luckily, I have a pile of African literature waiting for me and our last book club reading was The Last Flight of the Flamingo by Mia Couto from Mozambique. How funny, by the way, that we wanted to pick up an African novel by a female author and chose this one among many alternatives. So it was a bit of a surprise when I opened the book the first time and a photo of a white guy greeted me. Mia...

Love and Anarchy: Omar

Once again the Helsinki International Film Festival "Love and Anarchy" offered an excellent selection of movies. 

I went to see five films and while I can recommend all of them, I was perhaps mostly touched by the last film I saw on Saturday. It was a film called Omar by a Palestine film director Hany Abu-Assad. Probably I would have been satisfied just watching the gorgeous principal actor Adam Bakri, but not only that, the film was excellent. The story was like a Shakespeare's tragedy and the spectator can only wish the movie to end quickly so she knows how badly it will end. At some point you just realise that it won't end with a honeymoon in Paris.

Already the beginning of the film is powerful, showing the crossing of the wall surrounding West Bank. The wall is absurd and depressing, anyone should see that. However, the film is not strongly taking sides in the Israel-Palestina conflict. It rather shows the human tragedy taking place in this context - love, betrayal, loyalty, trust. The insanity of wars! The vicious cycles connected to this conflict. In short, a film worth watching, though be aware of some post-film anxiety. 

The conflict in the Middle East hasn't interested me for ages because it seems to be without an end. However, after a good friend of mine spent some time in Palestina as a volunteer, I have taken a new interest in the place. Omar also shows beautiful aspects of the country (and I'm not only talking about the actor playing Omar, but the film in general). Definitely a place to visit in the future.

Hoarding for autumn

I arrived to England yesterday morning. It was freezing in York. I needed to take a long bath (though I don't complain, there's some luxury into it) in the evening trying to warm up myself. And this despite the fact that the first thing I did in York was to buy an umbrella and a cardigan.

After equipping myself for the British autumn weather (and well, after some conference stuff), I went to discover Marks and Spencer's food department and purchased some nice souvenirs: jam, crumpets, cookies, tea, fudge, and some odd but super delicious Welsh cakes (already gone!). Today I continued with some more cookies and chutney in Bettys, which seems to be the top place to have afternoon tea in York (at least their take-away scones were fantastic). 

Though England is a bit like Switzerland - it doesn't move me much emotionally - I love the grocery stores and the little delis here. I might have even got a bit carried away with my shopping, but after building up this hoard of English goodies, the autumn is very welcome in Helsinki as well. How nice to eat an onion chutney sandwich in a park and watch the leaves fall down from the trees.

A Swiss carpe diem

It's good to have the courage to seize the moment and see what happens. This is what I did when I booked flights to Switzerland following a tall and handsome Swiss guy that I hardly knew. Instead of a romance of the life time, I got back home with some great gruyère cheese. Not all the stories end up like some Hollywood films (not that I was expecting that in this case or of my life in general), but you live and learn. Hopefully, the next tall and handsome guy lives in some place a bit more exciting...

                         

To be completely honest with myself and you, it would have been nicer to visit my friends somewhere else in Europe, but I decided to be happy to discover Switzerland a bit. It's funny how the country is beautiful and it has wonderful nature, good bike lanes, town squares filled with cafés and markets full of organic products, but still it doesn't make me say "I just love Switzerland". It's a bit like Belgium (except the opposite in almost any other sense) that it somehow lacks spirit, enthusiasm and passion. It combines good things from France, Italy and Germany and still it's not the sum of these countries, but less.

                           

The Swiss towns are cute however. I enjoyed the beautiful views in the French-speaking Fribourg during the last summer days of the year. Drinking rosé wine at Rue de Lausanne and discovering the small medieval streets in the old town. In Basel, I walked on the banks of the Rhine watching people floating on the river with their picnic stuff packed in water-proof bags (never seen such a thing before). Big groups of people had gathered on the river, probably many of them having got there by swimming (photo below). And the capital, Berne (photo above), had obscure little shops under the long arcades circling around the whole centre and wonderful views from the Rose Garden. Definitely nice places to visit, but maybe not the most memorable towns for tourists.

                             

Perfectionism

No sign of perfectionism when I'm baking. Compare the photo in the cook book and my cake. Mine was delicious however, so who cares. But honestly, I don't how I could have it so wrong...

Life out of balance

The Helsinki Festival had a special focus on the American composer / pianist Philip Glass this year. I went to see his beautiful piano recital, but of more interest was the film Koyaanisqatsi for which he had composed the music. The festival also presented the film in the Music Centre of Helsinki with live music, but I opted for the cheap version in the cinema (perfect!).

The film was absolutely gorgeous and the theme was obviously close to my heart: the exploitation of the planet by humans, the consequences and the craziness of it all. The film is directed by Godfrey Reggio and it was made already thirty years ago. However, the theme is even more actual now. In fact, it is devastating to see how things have only got worse. When will we learn that our way of life is not good for us or our surroundings?

The word 'koyaanisqatsi' is Hopi indian language, meaning 'life out of balance'. How wonderful that they have a specific word for that, it is a truly useful word. The film excellently portrays how life is out of balance: that is, humans and the nature are not in balance and humans are not in balance with themselves.

The film starts with amazing images from somewhere in Arizona or Nevada desert. At first, you think that it will be a film of the beauty of the nature. But suddenly, the tone of the music changes and emerge the tractors, the huge machines turning around the soil, explosions, oil rigs. Exploitation of the planet. After the beautiful images, it's a shock. The film goes on to show images of cities and human constructions. 8-lane highways in the USA. Skyscrapers. Big cities. You are simultaneously aghast but also admiring the capacity of the engineers to create and manipulate our environment. A capacity that is so grand that it makes you a little scared as well. 

However, all these constructions and destruction of the nature doesn't seem to make us happy. A sequence of the film with fast and almost psychedelic music and images makes you think of the craziness of our busy and stressed out lives. Like ants working working working without any idea why, no time to think what we are doing and why. And could there be any other way. We don't treat only the nature in a shameful way but also other nations, other people.

The films ends with the explosion of a spacecraft,  I guess the images were of Challenger exploding after its take-off. It was a great symbol for the capacity of the humans to create unimaginable things, but also how this engineering intelligence and greediness lead us to our own fall.

Hiking and haikus in Jotunheimen

After reading Johanna Sinisalo's novel Birdbrain (could be added to my list of eco-lit), I've been dreaming of leaving the civilization behind for a while and go hiking with one week's food packed in my backpack. Be at the mercy of the nature and/or admire its wonders. Well, I didn't quite shake the civilization's dust off my feet, but I had a wonderful 6-day hike in the Jotunheimen National Park in Norway with a friend of mine.

On Leirvassbu-Gjendebu route.

I have to say that I didn't quite understand that there are such amazing mountains so close to Finland (unfortunately Lapland now feels pretty lame). No need to fly all the way to the Alps. Yet alone to the Himalayas that my friend was recalling at the sight of the Norwegian mountains and valleys. Though flying would be easier than our night in the boat to Stockholm, 6-hour train to Oslo (almost 90 EUR), 3 hours bus ride to Fagernes (around 40 EUR) and hitchhiking for the last 1.5 hours until Gjendesheim (although we were lucky to get a ride in around 5 minutes straight to our final destination). However, this slightly cumbersome trip only put me into a real travelling mood.

For good information on the hiking routes, I used the website Tilltops. It has short descriptions of the routes shown in the map below. We did the following route: Gjendesheim-Glitterheim (1), Glitterheim-Spiterstulen (27: because the route 2 via Glittertind was unrecommended due to bad weather), Spiterstulen-Galhøpiggen (4), Spiterstulen-Leirvassbu (29), Leirvassbu-Gjendebu (28) and finally Memurubu-Gjendesheim (3).

And on this blog, I have written my own description of our 6-day hike in Jotunheimen and illustrated it with some photos taken with a digital pocket camera (everything you pack, you need to carry all the way...). When Tilltops wrote something like "a slight climb" it usually meant something more like "a hell of a climb up if you're not a native Norwegian huntsman", and when it said "a bit stoney", it was more like "what the fuck is wrong with this country", and when it described the path as "unexciting" for us it was spectacular views.

By the Lake Gjende.

After the first - and extremely windy - night in our ultralight tent by the Lake Gjende we were full of energy to start our hike. My friend opted for a heavy breakfast in the Gjendesheim guesthouse (140 kr, or almost 18 EUR), but I was impatient to try out our cooking equipment and lighten my backpack with some grams (the weight of your bag becomes very important after a long way in the mountains). Breakfast included 2 dl of porridge with some goji berries (just pour in the boiling water) and green tea. I had exactly measured this for 6 mornings. The sun was shining and I enjoyed the lovely landscape of the mountains and the green lake. Holidays!

Day 1: Gjendesheim-Glitterheim.

Our first hike was estimated to be 7 hours long, but with our breaks it took around 10 hours. It was our longest, and also the hardest, day trek during our trip. At 8h53 we set off and immediately tested the strength of our thighs on the steep path towards the mountains in the North. The views were spectacular from the beginning. We walked by the Lake Bessvatnet (altitude 1370m) and had a longer break by the Lake Russvatnet listening to the rapids nearby, admiring the snowcapped mountains and writing our first haiku poems. Beautiful everywhere you looked!

"Hennosti kasvaa

Vieressä virtauksen

Runosuonikin."

After lunch I already encountered the first slightly scary moment when we had to cross rapids where a bridge had been destroyed. Adrenaline floating, I surpassed my own fear, and continued with a stronger self-confidence. Wonderful!

After three o'clock I started feeling the hike and the gentle slopes in my muscles. But this was only when the climb really started. The rest of the hike was uncomfortable stony way but the surrounding views were great. Just when I thought we must already be close to our camp site, there was still one steep hill and crossing of snow. This was a moment of slight disheartenment. The last hour was quite painful - gladly, this was the only time during our 6-day hike that I was feeling a loss of energy. 

We put up our tent and measured that it wouldn't be too close to the Glitterheim guesthouse. There was always an official camping ground around the guesthouses, so we had to make sure that we were 1 km away from the house or somehow hidden behind rocks or trees (in order not to pay the around 10 EUR camp fee per person). This meant that we weren't official customers so we had to pay for the shower and weren't really allowed to use the toilets. In Glitterheim the shower was 5 kr, or less than 1 EUR, for three minutes of hot water. Ah, a relief (and the last hot shower during our trek).

Day 2: Glitterheim-Spiterstulen.

We woke up with a very heavy wind and some grey clouds in the sky. After some reflection, we decided (wisely) not to climb Glittertind (2466m) on the way to Spiterstulen but opt for an easier (but "unexciting" said the guide) route. The (not so unexciting) path started with some duckboards, and there were also some spots were there could have been duckboards. I needed to use my friend's hiking sticks to make it safely over these spots. However, in general, the sticks are not needed on the trekking routes we took.

The heavy wind continued and after one hour of hiking it also started raining. Some reindeers (basically the only animals we saw during the entire hike) were watching our smooth journey between the mountains. Before we were half-way through there were some exciting moments when we had to cross steep snow patches. A slip could have ended up in a half-frozen mountain lake.

After a long stoney path (see below this annoying and ankle-twisting path), the last leg of the hike was downhill. The route was estimated to be 5 hours long but again we exceeded this by almost 3 hours.

In Spiterstulen, we had to look for a camping place quite far from the guesthouse, but found a nice and calm spot along the river. After the cold and rainy day, when at moments I had been dreaming of a glass of red wine, we ate pizza at the guesthouse's cafeteria. It was expensive as everything in Norway, 150 kr, almost 20 EUR, but the leftovers served as a great lunch the next day.

The harsh conditions in the mountains don't discourage pretty little flowers from living there.

Day 3: Galdhøpiggen.

From Spiterstulen it is possible to reach many of Norway's highest peaks. We of course chose the highest of them all, Galdhøpiggen (2470m), the highest mountain in the whole Northern Europe.

 The way down was fantastic fun sliding down in the snow.

After an early morning haiku, we started our climb already at 7h20 as the weather forecast had promised sunny weather until noon only (but it was sunny the whole day).

"Aurinko noussut

Kasteisella nurmella

Kaasu pihisee."

That early, it was extremely cold, I was wearing my leggings, hiking trousers and my rain trousers. But the sky was cloudless and we had wonderful hiking weather.

The climb up was hard and steep but already after 2 hours we could see the peak. However, I wasn't fully convinced, the climb up was supposed to last for 4 hours (for a hardcore Norwegian hiker). Indeed, it turned out, this was only the first peak over 2000m on the way to Galdhøpiggen and we had to conquer yet another one to see our final destination. It took us the full 4 hours to reach the café at the top of the mountain. We were among the first ones there at 11 o'clock.

The views were gorgeous 360 degrees around us. Snowcapped mountains and glaciers everywhere. The sky was still cloudless but it was cold and windy at the top. We dried our sweaty clothes for a while in the café sipping overprized tea (40 kr or around 5 EUR). The young man in charge of the place told me that he skies down to another tourist hut 1.5 hours away once a week for a day off and to stock up.

The place started to get full after an hour so we headed down towards Spiterstulen. We took it easy; the rocks had begun to heat up in the sun, so we sunbathed and relaxed in the unwindy spots. Who would have thought that we get a marvelous tan in Norway... 

Although the way up was challenging, it didn't feel that bad as we only had light day bags with us. On our way down it was still nice to look at all the people sweating as they climbed  towards the peak. Ah, thank god, we did it already!

Down in Spiterstulen, we have deserved beers (75 kr, or 10 EUR). Ah!

"Pohje kasvanut

Vuoret valloitettu on

Eräretkellä."

Day 4: Spiterstulen-Leirvassbu.

This was a bit less exciting route. It was again a quite sunny and warm day, so we didn't rush and made the 5-hour distance in around 8 hours. The path followed a river for a long time and only had a gentle slope towards the end of the trek. The views were slighlty more spectacular closer to Leirvassbu when we passed a few mountain lakes.

We set up our tent by the Lake Leirvassbu across the guesthouse. This time we decided to eat at the gueshouse as well, and I finally got some red wine. The guesthouses in Jotunheimen serve full 3-course menus (340 kr, or almost 50 EUR) but it was also possible to choose only a 1st or 2nd course. I had a mushroom soup for 100 kr. Like the other guesthouses, this one as well was very cozy and atmospheric. The dinner service was almost fully booked (the prices are not an obstacle for the local tourists) and there was a real ambience of a trekkers get-together.

On the way back to the tent, my friend dared to have a dip into the lake while I was admiring the beautiful sunset.

Day 5: Leirvassbu-Gjendebu.

My idea of surviving with the food I brought didn't hold the whole time. On the fifth day, we decided to enjoy the breakfast buffet at the guesthouse. It was a very good deal. For 100 kr you can eat as much as you can (fresh stuff, yam!) and also pack some sandwiches to go.

"Muilutettuna

Muna aamupalalta

Lounaaksi syödään."

We had a superb hike in a sunny and warm weather (shorts!). Lakes, fine rapids, mountain chains. As the weather was perfect, we sunbathed half naked next to piles of snow. There were couple of nasty rapids on the way, but at this point my self-confidence started to be pretty high, so nothing that I couldn't have survived even though these were exactly the spots I was most afraid of before our trip.

The route wasn't difficult but it was quite long and we only reached Gjendebu at the other end of the Lake Gjende around six o'clock. My friend swam in the lake once again but, even after a hot day, I only had the courage to dip my feet.

The lovely Gjendebu guesthouse.

Day 6: Besseggen ridge (Memurubu-Gjendesheim).

On the last day of our hike, we took a boat to Memurubu and left our bags to be taken until Gjendesheim (120 kr + 60 kr for the bag). This was maybe the most famous, or at least  the most popular, part of our entire trek. It was the part shown in all photos and book covers and it was also the one that I had been afraid of. In the photos, the ridge looks amazingly thin and those afraid of heights had been writing in blogs that it is reaaaally scary.

Maybe it was because of my greater trust in my hiking capacity but I was almost disappointed. It wasn't scary at all. The part where you walk on a sort of an isthmus between the blue Lake Bessawatnet on the other side and the green Lake Gjende on the other is not thin at all. You could do somersaults and yoga there without any danger. Ex ante stress for no reason.

A bit later, when you need to climb up using both your hands and legs, it's potentially a bit more freightening but above all, fun and physically challening. (There were little dogs doing the route. That's amazing!)

The place is beautiful, there's no question. So if you decide not to go there because you feel you couldn't do it, it's a shame. I guess it is much more challening if you do the route with your heavy backpack and you're coming from the other direction (from Gjendesheim). But with our strategy it was not a problem. This was actually the only time we made the route faster than estimated in the guide. We were in Gjendesheim in 5 hours (in comparison to the estimated 6-8 hours) and made it easily to the bus to Oslo.

Summa summarum, it was definitely a magnificent trek and truly recommendable to everybody with a slightest interest in challening your own body in the most beautiful surroundings. My own favourites were the climb to Galdhøpiggen from Spiterstulen and the hike from Leirvasbu to Gjendebu. We were also extremely lucky with the weather as just before our trip the temperature had been much lower and it had rained almost continuously. I'm already looking forward to my next hike - perhaps in Scotland. For sure, this is the way I want to travel and get to know places in the future.

Some little things that are good to know if you're planning a trek in Jotunheimen:

-Water is available in the countless mountain streams, so no need to carry a lot of water with you. Makes it easy and light!

-No need for a flash light if you go in early July. This was the only unnecessary item with me.

-Pack light. A bit lighter is even better.

-There's breakfast and dinner available in the guesthouses if you have the money. Credit cards can be used. You can make yourself a brown-bag lunch during the breakfast buffet.

-There's no real shops on the route, but you can buy some snacks in the guesthouses.

-The routes are very well marked, but a map is handy for a curious mind (and if you somehow happen to get lost). You can buy the map at the Gjendesheim guesthouse (150 kr).

-There are some direct buses to get to Gjendesheim from Oslo (by Nor-Way Bussekspress). It takes around 4 hours. The timetables are a bit hard to read as they contain many exceptions ("only the third Thursday of the month...").

-Gjendesheim was a great place to start the hike. Other possible routes are available.

-There is a boat circulating in the Lake Gjende. You can get between Gjendesheim, Memurubu and Gjendebu. You can also just send your bag to your destination with the boat. Several boats per day during the high season.

-It is possible to leave some stuff in Gjendesheim for the duration of your hike. The ski hut where you leave the stuff is unwatched and unlocked though.

-You might get hooked on hiking!