Experience # 1 - Geoff Norman

Travelling Indirectly: Revelation as exploration, and traveling by way of different kinds of experiences.

"Happiness has to do with reason, and only reason earns it. What I was given was the thing you can't earn, and can't keep, and often don't even recognize at the time; I mean joy."

Ursula K. Le Guin (The Left Hand of Darkness)

Please! Play this "audio" clip before you go any further!

Holst - Jupiter

Come! Explore the world!

Come! Adventure awaits!

No time! Now hurry!

Quickly now, make haste!

There is no time for dark and idyll shallows; nor for bland and yearning bores;

Come see the world instead, and learn happiness, ever more!

Though it may seem indirect

and only virtually exposed!

Experience awaits,

audacious and unclothed!

Seek me, reach me

beyond land and sea,

Don’t hesistate—

For a second now!

Come and find me!

Our first point in our travel around the world is perhaps not well known, and is slightly off the available path. The city that it’s in is incredibly well known, but the place we are going to start from is an apartment building near the corner of Via Della Conce. Why? Simply because that is where I started from! What better reason is there than that?!

When you click on this link, you will see what I see, and you will be able to walk the paths that I walk. Sometimes I am a person, just like you, placing foot after foot, trying to get from one place to the next. Other times, I am the place, the city of arrival and your next destination. In any case, try your very best to find out what and where I am, and always feel free to walk off the beaten path, and explore! Getting terribly lost, is half the fun of travelling, so feel free to mislead, yourself, and let me know what made your trip all the more worthwhile.

Come now, and follow my path as I walk from here to the Piazza Della Republica! Along the way, make sure that the “PHOTO” & "VIDEO" check box under “MORE” in google maps is clicked, so you can zoom out and see, at your leisure, the many important sights and artwork of Florence (Firenze). Go full screen and take a look at the Ponte Vecchio, and do walk across it and zoom out and take a look at the many photos that others who have come here, have taken! Take a detour and go up to the Piazzale de Michaelangelo and take a look across the city, or go further up the hill to a church where Gregorian chants can still be heard to this day! Or, if you have had your fill of The Duomo of Florence, L’Accademia which houses Michaelangelo’s David, continue down the set pat to the Piazza Della Republica and see if you can figure out what city this next clue is pointing you towards!

Click Here, and off we go!!

Here is the first clue:

Come and find me; see the world;

My letters are sticks

And my numbers are letters

Two wolves made me

And I changed the world

Two empires are made here

One of the fist

And the other of the heart

On the place

That the rock

Made his respite

And his temple,

a church

Some space before spoiling the clue!!

Scroll down when you think you have it, or you want to move on.

Please! Take a look around! I hope that clue wasn’t too hard to unpack, but if you haven’t guessed it by now, the city is Rome.

Get the hang of it? These clues are merely here to pique your interest and to guide you around and help you get used to the idea that with any place you want to go, you do in fact have the ability to get there! You might not be able to go there in person, yet (due to money and any other number of legitimate reasons) but never think that you will never ever be able to see or know anything about the rest of the world around you! The world is at your disposal, you only need to look, opportunities abound, and you have only need to ask!

Now for somewhere completely different:

I am the middle kingdom

I am the seat of heaven

I am the mandate

The seat of Zhou

And the city of western peace

My clay army sleeps

Now unearthed

From the sands

You might have to do some searching around for that one, but how about I give you easy one, and let’s take a look at the tallest mountain on earth?

Make sure you have satellite view enabled! Pictures and Video too!

Here’s another clue!

A city divided

A wall between

East and West conquered,

With its population in the seams

No greater symbol of a war

That barely reaches a simmer

I am whole

But I still remember

Fire

And the reich

How about this one?

When Americans see me,

They are ready to become expatriates

I taught the world to love

And to pity when I fell

The grand boulevards are full again

And triumph remains

A steel tower makes obvious

My in-duplicable fame

There are many more places to go,

And many more places to be.

However our time together is very little, it seems…

That being said, here is one more clue! This time there is a video to help give you an idea of where this place is. It’s not so easy to see, but listen all the same.

What city am I?

What city am I?

I have numbers in the sands close by that can unlock the stars

I drink and live on the waters that give the gift of empire

I am the city of a thousand spires

I am a city of scholars

Of empires’ might

My remains are famous

And are carefully withheld

Preserved by outsiders,

And treasured as well

The capital of capitals

For all the lands to see

I am a riddle, an enigma

I am,

victorious

Curator's statement: I really wanted to convey, in some way, the experience of traveling abroad and its impervious ineffability. It is impossible to condense even a short adventure into one experience, but I thought that by creating a more interactive journey that I could help guide someone, though perhaps only on a one-to-one basis, through an adventure of a different kind. Though it is nothing like actually being able to spend some time in a different country and live the fear, the joy, the wonder, and the confusion (all of which are great), I hope that at least a sense of excitement can be found in this little journey, and that many more to come will happen as a result!

As for where we go to next?

Here is a clue, even though it will become apparent that the end of this experience blends perfectly into the next one:

From a city to a country

And there we shall remain

And yet, what difference it has made

To make the journey, all the same

Safe travels friends!