Colour26 ... Poetry and Words Where Have I Been?

Words for Wednesday ~ August 12, Words supplied by Mimi @ Messymimi's Meanderings. The Words can be found there and at River's blog: Drifting through Life.

Plastic
Remain
Tooth
Wisecrack
Distant
Enjoy
    and/or the following phrases
Heads up (an advance warning)
Not all it's cracked up to be (failing to be as good as other people claim)
Playing possum (pretending to be dead, or being deceitful)

Using all words and expressions in the order they were given, dramatic and over the top, based in truth:

Plastic seems to be all that remain of my poor tooth. My dentist said the following wisecrack: Your teeth are all soon to be distant works of art, enjoy them while they're still there.

In other words, she gave me a heads-up to start saving for some major work. I do not think dentures are all they're cracked up to be, so I'll go on trying to retain my few remaining teeth and play possum when the subject arises, until it can no longer be dodged.

Poetry Monday ~ August 10, prompt: Bluebell
This prompt was given for Monday 10th, the birthday of one of my sons. And in my head rolls a tune, I always thought to be Bluebells of Scotland, but is not. One of my other sons participated in a theatre at school, where this tune; the 'not-Bluebells of Scotland' was used. It went on about sheep, about sheep-shearing, and of sheep-shearers up in the highlands. I think it was made for the occasion, as I cannot find it anywhere.
     It wholly and totally prevents me thinking any sensible thought on Bluebells.

And the Colour of August:

One photo from last week

That's not Denmark 😉. We were away on a mini-holiday, visiting Ribe, Hamburg, and Lübeck. This is from Hamburg, a picture of what I called the "Terrible Tower" The church was bombed during WWII, the tower still stands, fortified, and a lift takes you to the top of the then tallest, now still fifth-tallest church tower in the world. During the trip up and down you can look directly down and out through all the holes and missing windows! Did I ever tell you that I'm not fond of heights?


And Wordle for Tuesday, August 11 ... the day I returned

Wordle 1.879 5/6
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⬜⬜⬜⬜🟩
⬜⬜⬜🟩⬜
⬜🟩🟩🟩🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
once again earning me the "Sea of Green"

Poetry Monday :: Back Pack

Poetry Monday is a blogging game invented long ago. Mimi of Messymimi's Meanderings and I are keeping it alive until Diane @ On the Border returns home from her break of health and relaxation, travelling the world with her husband as far as we can tell.

We just hope she's going to take back over once she returns home.

The prompts now come from 365 Days of Drawing Prompts and other Arts group. This is a Facebook group with a prompt for each day of the year, but no worries, the prompts will still be here and at Mimi's blog.

Today's prompt is: Back pack.
An ode to my old friend it is then.

We've travelled the world, me and my back pack
We walked down roads and off beaten track.
I carried you, you carried my stuff - and a snack
A bottle of water and my sleeping bag.

You met with an accident bitter and black
The bus with us in it was hit with a smack
You bore the brunt of it and now you're a wrack
I have to find a new one that has my back.

Another true story form one of my many travels. The bus we sat in - and where the luggage was stored in compartments under us - ran into a wall or another solid object at a very low speed. Most important nobody was hurt, and almost nothing was broken apart from my poor backpack, the frame of which was twisted and bent beyond repair. It made it home with me, but not without chafing and trouble for me.

- - - - - - - - - - Coming Themes  - - - - - -

taken from the 365 Days of Drawing Prompts and other Arts group.

May 11 Futuristic Landscape
May 18 Balcony
May 25 Scooter
June 1 Blue
June 8 2 minute Sketch
June 15 Cobweb with Dewdrops
Jun 22  Lily
Jun 29  Northern light

A-Z Challenge ~ Z for Zones

This year again I choose an easy way out. Each day I'm going to solve the Wordle of the day, using as starter a word beginning with the letter of the day. I plan to post the A-Z post around noon every day of April.

As the alternative badges, as supplied by Lissa suggest travel I'll prefer travel-related words as starter words, and if at all possible, I'll avoid words containing the same letter more than once.

I'll maybe add a few words about my chosen starter word if fancy takes me and I have time and energy for it, else I'll just post the solution - or not in the case that I did not solve it.

Today my starting word is Zones.
The average today is 5.3 guesses out of 6, or very challenging. I am below average again today.

Wordle 1.776 4/6
⬜🟨⬜⬜⬜
⬜🟩⬜🟩🟩
⬜🟩🟩🟩🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

Zones - When travelling you tend to forget that borders are more than the international ones we normally know and have to show our passport when crossing. Many countries have intern borders, partitioning the country into zones. And you have to have permission to leave or enter these zones, just the same as borders. We ran across this in Sudan. We were seven of us staying in a small village some hours' walk from Loa - which is situated between Juba and Nimule (This is a partia re-tell).


    The people in the village had lots of fun putting us to all sorts of jobs we couldn't really manage, like cleaning grain, grinding sesame seeds, weaving baskets, making bricks, or washing clothes. Then, when we were messing around the women, laughing and teasing, pushed us away and, gesticulating and talking loudly, showed how to do it. Even though we did our best, the results were not good to put it mildly, and there was much laughter.

At 6 pm the sun set and it got dark in less than ten minutes. After eating everybody gathered in a big hut and shucked corn off the cobs while people sang, talked and laughed. There was alwaus laughter, and we were annoyed at not being able to understand anything.

One evening, while we were shucking corn, the police arrived. They said that white people were not allowed in the native zones after sunset, and drove us to a "town" nearby. There weren't many more houses than in the village, but they were square and two-storey, They dropped us off at a cheap hotel. We were told to report to the police the next morning. It seemed very deserted. There we had to sleep and stay for a few days before the transport could talke us back to Juba again. We probably should have just given them some money - aka. bribed them, but we weren't that clever.

And now for today's Wordle:

A-Z Challenge ~ W for Wagon

This year again I choose an easy way out. Each day I'm going to solve the Wordle of the day, using as starter a word beginning with the letter of the day. I plan to post the A-Z post around noon every day of April.

As the alternative badges, as supplied by Lissa suggest travel I'll prefer travel-related words as starter words, and if at all possible, I'll avoid words containing the same letter more than once.

I'll maybe add a few words about my chosen starter word if fancy takes me and I have time and energy for it, else I'll just post the solution - or not in the case that I did not solve it.

Today my starting word is Wagon.
The average today is 6 guesses out of 6, or very challenging. I am below average again today.

Wordle 1.773 5/6
⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
⬜🟨🟨⬜⬜
🟨🟨⬜🟨⬜
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

Wagon - One of the parts a train is composed of. In Egypt took a train along the Nile through desert and ferile lands down to the Aswan dam - that's the train journey with the Nomads from N.

We stayed in the train for a very long time. It was strange to be suddenly analphabetic. But as we did not read much Arabic, we were functionally analphabetics here. Every time the train stopped, we asked, along with quite a few Egyptians actually: "Where are we?" And some smart person looked at the name of the station and told us.

We also drowe through a sandstorm, not a bad one, but we had sand everywhere. Even in the inside bottom end of my sleeping bag, that had been rolled together during the trip. I did not sleep in the train, but many did, and as the train emptied, some of the smarter ones crawled up and laid down in the overhead luggage racks. We even made a song about this, on the tune of Jailhouse Rock which had been made in a Danish version only a few years earlier. We had much fun and sang much during this journey.

And now for today's Wordle, which at the beginning made me think that they did not use any letters. Well they almost did not:

A-Z Challenge ~ V for Visas

This year again I choose an easy way out. Each day I'm going to solve the Wordle of the day, using as starter a word beginning with the letter of the day. I plan to post the A-Z post around noon every day of April.

As the alternative badges, as supplied by Lissa suggest travel I'll prefer travel-related words as starter words, and if at all possible, I'll avoid words containing the same letter more than once.

I'll maybe add a few words about my chosen starter word if fancy takes me and I have time and energy for it, else I'll just post the solution - or not in the case that I did not solve it.

Today my starting word is Visas.
The average today is 5.3 guesses out of 6, or very challenging. I am a bit above average here - but I feel a bit cheated. While looking for "how many Wordle solutions" out of curiosity and cited in O for Ocean, I read that Wordle does NOT use plural forms! I see now, searching further, that this was a half truth. Wordle does indeed use plurals, but only irregular ones.

Wordle 1.771 6/6
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⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
⬜⬜🟨⬜⬜
⬜🟨🟩🟨🟩
⬜🟩🟩🟩🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

Visas - To travel like we did through the countries behind the Iron Curtain, we needed lots of visas.

We spent at least a week waiting at embassies, consulates and whatnots and speak to often stuffy bureaucrats, only reluctantly giving us the required stampings in our passports. Some of them were beautiful, in multicoloured ink or flourishing fonts often in other alphabets. Later on we also acquired some in Arabic one of these even came with a stamp. I think it was the Egypt one. 
No drama here, only quite a bit of train trips to Copenhagen, where all the embassies were - and a lot of time wasted waiting.

And now for today's Wordle:

A-Z Challenge ~ S for Shots ~ Updated

This year again I choose an easy way out. Each day I'm going to solve the Wordle of the day, using as starter a word beginning with the letter of the day. I plan to post the A-Z post around noon every day of April.

As the alternative badges, as supplied by Lissa suggest travel I'll prefer travel-related words as starter words, and if at all possible, I'll avoid words containing the same letter more than once.

I'll maybe add a few words about my chosen starter word if fancy takes me and I have time and energy for it, else I'll just post the solution - or not in the case that I did not solve it.

Today my starting word is Shots.
The average today is 5 or very challenging - I am below average today - with some luck.

Wordle 1.768 3/6
🟩⬜🟩⬜⬜
🟩⬜🟩🟨🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

Shots - I cannot believe I never told this story, but search as I may, I find no trace of it. I hinted at this too in my Bucket list part two - the have done-list:

Seen forest fires and deserts grand.
I've been to many a foreign land.
How many? Well, I cannot count,
As many are no more around.
I've been shot at in Damascus once.
I've candied quince,
Dined with a prince,
And also stayed for days with nuns, 

... "I've been shot at in Damascus once." is the line here. 
As I vividly remember having told this tale in writing once before, I'm going to search some more.

I found it - maybe I posted it as a comment to a long ago post on shootings, anyway here it is:

I have been shot at in Damascus once ... Me and one other girl from the travelling school with buses were on our way to the harbour, walking down a street, talking, fooling around, trying to find our way, and totally only mending our own business. Then suddenly we heard some loud cracking noices. Firewroks, we thought, but then we heard a zing-like noise close to us, and saw a hole appear in a wall in front of us. They were shooting!
We looked back, a group of men stood there, guns (rifles I think) at the ready.We looked ahead, more men, more guns. Loud yells from one group was answered by yells, waving of guns and a single shot from the other end of the street. They were angry. Not at us, but at one another. We were just in the wrong place, and we wanted noting but out! The street was fairly broad, but the rows of houses went on unbroken on both sides, no byways, no door opnings to shelter us. But a telephone booth stood near by. Old, worn, some windows broken, but for us it was golden! The lower "windows" all the way round were made of metal. We dived in. Lay down half inclined on our backs. And then we waited, smoking cigarette after cigarette. We heard more shouting, more shots, some whizzing close by, one even hitting the top of "our" booth. When silence finally fell, we barely dared move. But looking out, we saw a clear street, no black clad, shouting men, no dead bodies, nobody in short. We walked off, hastily, but not running. And we never told of what happened, as we had been in the wrong.

And now for today's Wordle:

A-Z Challenge ~ R for River

This year again I choose an easy way out. Each day I'm going to solve the Wordle of the day, using as starter a word beginning with the letter of the day. I plan to post the A-Z post around noon every day of April.

As the alternative badges, as supplied by Lissa suggest travel I'll prefer travel-related words as starter words, and if at all possible, I'll avoid words containing the same letter more than once.

I'll maybe add a few words about my chosen starter word if fancy takes me and I have time and energy for it, else I'll just post the solution - or not in the case that I did not solve it.

Today my starting word is River.
The average today is 4,5 or moderately challenging - I am well above average today even with a lucky guess.

Wordle 1.767 6/6
⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
⬜🟨⬜⬜⬜
⬜🟩⬜🟨⬜
🟩⬜🟩⬜⬜
🟩🟩🟩⬜⬜
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

Under B for Beach, I promised more of me, tides, and not learning from experience. I also hinted at it in my Bucket list part two - the have done-list:

I've worked at an assembly line,
And nearly drowned in tidal brine.
I drove a bus down hairpin bends,
so sharp that sparks flew from both ends.
I've swam at night into the sea
Been baked in sunshine, drenched in rain.
I've baked a bread from newcut grain
And pilfered mango from a tree. 

... "And nearly drowned in tidal brine" is the clue here.  Some days before the beach incident, we wanted to visit the desert across the river. We could of course have gone the long way around, up to the road, down the road to the "forbidden village", where the smugglers lived, and then further on along the coast to the desert, but this was a giant detour, as the desert lay just across the river from where we stayed. We decided to wade across. We stripped apart from underwear, and bundled our clothes in a nice bundle which could be held in one arm.
    The river was broad here, hip deep in the deepest spots, this we knew from earlier swims here.  There was a nasty spot in the middle, where it was at its deepest, and where the current was fast. We put our bundles up on our heads, and held onto one another with our free hand while crossing this stretch. But just as we all were there, in the deepest spot, the tide turned and all the water from up the river came tearing down, making the waters reach our chins and the current even more violent, We held onto one another and mashed our toes down into the stony bottom of the river bed, holding on for dear life and just hoping that we would be able to hold out until the worst was over. The river mouth was beset with jagged cliffs and boulders, so a slip would most certainly mean death.
     Just as we felt we were unable to hold on any more, and me and one of the boys were about to give up, we felt a lessening in the current, and we began carefully, only one person moving a any one time, to inch back to the bank we had left. The waters reached to our chin almost all the way to the bank, but soon we were out of the middle, and out of the current. We threw ourselves upon the grassy bank and just lay for a long time before moving again.

And now for today's Wordle:

A-Z Challenge ~ Q for Queue

This year again I choose an easy way out. Each day I'm going to solve the Wordle of the day, using as starter a word beginning with the letter of the day. I plan to post the A-Z post around noon every day of April.

As the alternative badges, as supplied by Lissa suggest travel I'll prefer travel-related words as starter words, and if at all possible, I'll avoid words containing the same letter more than once.

I'll maybe add a few words about my chosen starter word if fancy takes me and I have time and energy for it, else I'll just post the solution - or not in the case that I did not solve it.

Today my starting word is Queue.
The average today is 4,8 or moderately challenging - I am average today.

Wordle 1.766 5/6
⬜⬜🟨⬜🟩
⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
🟩⬜🟩⬜🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

Queue ... During my travels in the countries behind the Iron Curtain, I have seen my share of queues.
The first few times we saw a queue, we simply queued up as did everybody around, because we supposed something valuable was to be had at the end of the queue. But after standing in line for a long time in inclement autumn weather for umbrellas and fake wool suits, we learnt to send a person up to the the head of the line to espy what exactly we were queueing for.

We had been told that that there was no unemployment behind the Iron Curtain, that people ate well and that children and young ones were well educated and everybody worked for a brighter future.
    I had a hard time reconciling this to what I saw and heard. When we went shopping for instance, we saw shops that were more often than not half empty and it was a time consuming endeavour to go shopping. Once inside the store, we queued up more times. First we stood in one line to place our order, often asking for several things not in stock until we hit on a compromise item. We got a note with the price, then waited in another line to pay and get a receipt to go with the note, and then in a final one where we handed in the note and got the now carefully wrapped item. Guaranteed full employment, sure, but what a glorious waste of time.

And now for today's Wordle:

A-Z Challenge ~ P for Palms

This year again I choose an easy way out. Each day I'm going to solve the Wordle of the day, using as starter a word beginning with the letter of the day. I hope to post every day until the end of April.

As the alternative badges, as supplied by Lissa suggest travel I'll prefer travel-related words as starter words, and if at all possible, I'll avoid words containing the same letter more than once.

I'll maybe add a few words about my chosen starter word if fancy takes me and I have time and energy for it, else I'll just post the solution - or not in the case that I did not solve it.

Today my starting word is Palms.
The average today is 4,3 or moderately challenging - I am well below average today with a lucky guess.

Wordle 1.764 3/6
⬜🟨⬜⬜⬜
🟨⬜⬜🟨🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

Palms ... We saw lots of palm trees on our journey through Egypt and Sudan. I'd like to re-tell a bit from earlier, as it contains palm leaves. We - seven of us - were staying in a small village some hours' walk from Loa - which is fairly close to Nimule on the Uganda border:

  The women in the village amused themselves by putting us to all sorts of jobs we couldn't manage, like washing clothes and grindin sesame seeds. Then when we were messing around with a tub and a washboard, the women, laughing and teasing, pushed us away and, gesticulating and talking loudly, showed how to do it. The boys experienced the same thing, being set to weave cages from palm leaf stems. It looked easy when one of the men did it. With a knife, he split the stem into four, drilled a few holes here and there, split another stem, folded and bent, and poof, he had made a small box with a lid that could be opened able hold 3-4 kg of tomatoes. The boys' first attempt was not good, to put it mildly, and there was much laughter.

And now for today's Wordle:

A-Z Challenge ~ O for Ocean

This year again I choose an easy way out. Each day I'm going to solve the Wordle of the day, using as starter a word beginning with the letter of the day. I hope to post every day until the end of April.

As the alternative badges, as supplied by Lissa suggest travel I'll prefer travel-related words as starter words, and if at all possible, I'll avoid words containing the same letter more than once.

I'll maybe add a few words about my chosen starter word if fancy takes me and I have time and energy for it, else I'll just post the solution - or not in the case that I did not solve it.

Today my starting word is Ocean.
The average today is 4,5 or moderately challenging - I am still at or just above average.

Wordle 1.763 5/6
⬜⬜🟨⬜⬜
🟩⬜⬜⬜⬜
⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
🟩🟩⬜🟨🟨
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩


Ocean ... Have I ever actually sailed an ocean?

I do not think so. It depends largely on your definition of an ocean. I sailed the Mediterranean sea - which according to some sources is a part of the Atlantic ocean, but I think it's not. Anyhow this trip was quite dramatic. We're still back in time, travelling to Aftica in old buses. We left the buses behind in Latakia, Syria and went to Egypt and Sudan.
 
We boarded a Russian passenger ship in Latakia bound for Alexandria, Egypt late one Thursday evening in September ... but the ship did not set sail until next morning.

We had a storm, a humongous one. The trip, that should have taken us only one day, took three. One morning the sun rose, at the starboard side of the ship, and later set in the very same spot. After the first morning we had our meals handed to us in vomit bags - and nothing to drink. The crew on the Russian ship was of the conviction that drinking made you sick. Of course we raided the bar for Russian Pepsi-cola, and drank it down. When we could get any, that is, because the sales persons were sea sick, and the bar was closed most of the time. One of the boys was big and brawny, and not afraid of anything. He went and spoke to the captain, and from then on one of the ship's crew manned the bar, and we bought and drank until the bar ran out. It was well stocked with drinkables for a one-day trip, but this one lasted three.
I do not remember what we did then, but I had one of those Russian Pepsi bottles with me on the whole journey and for long after - until it broke, actually. It was closed with a flip-top. Don't ask me why I brought one along for the journey, but I did.

Even if a lot of us strangely did not become sea-sick (we slept out in the open on the deck instead of down below in the stuffy cabins, I do not know if this helped) it was tiring to be thrown around all the time. And the noises were incredible. The propeller of the ship often went above sea and turned round with a whining sound, shaking the ship,  until it again submerged. Me and a few others went to look at it, and were chased away by the crew, the big waves washed over the deck and it was dangerous.

When finally we made it to port, we were not in Alexandria at all, but in Port Said. Still Egypt, but far off the mark.

And now for today's Wordle:

Knowing now what I answered Mimi: Wordle has 12,966 valid five-letter words. Out of which, 2,309 words are official answers. 10,657 are available to use as guess-only words. I think that there's quite a lot obscure words among the solutions.

A-Z Challenge ~ N for Nomad

This year again I choose an easy way out. Each day I'm going to solve the Wordle of the day, using as starter a word beginning with the letter of the day. I hope to post every dayuntil the end of April.

As the alternative badges, as supplied by Lissa suggest travel I'll prefer travel-related words as starter words, and if at all possible, I'll avoid words containing the same letter more than once.

I'll maybe add a few words about my chosen starter word if fancy takes me and I have time and energy for it, else I'll just post the solution - or not in the case that I did not solve it.

Today my starting word is Nomad.
The average today is 5,5, or very challenging -- I am still at or just below average, and I could have done better, guess number four was not smart, as I knew this could not be the solution. But even after getting it, I was not sure of the meaning of today's solution and had to look it up after.

Wordle 1.762 5/6
⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
⬜🟩⬜🟨⬜
🟨🟩🟨⬜⬜
🟩🟩🟨🟩⬜
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

Nomad ... Yes we met nomads while travelling.

In Egypt, we took a train from Cairo to the Aswan dam - more I hope later.
As we rode the train through the desert, where we experienced a sandstorm, the train stopped in small towns or near villages. Once the train stopped in the middle of the desert. There was a building next to the track - more like a glorified bus stop, open to one side with an overhanging roof. I guess it was for shelter against sun and rain for waiting passengers. Three men, dressed in flowing robes got off here and started walking purposefully away over the endless sand. As far as we were able to see - and we looked at the men for a long time - there was nothing but sand and the ruler straight line of the train tracks with the stop, dwindling in the distance.
Our guess was that those were nomads, due for the nearest oasis.

And now for today's Wordle:

A-Z Challenge ~ M for Mango

This year again I choose an easy way out. Each day I'm going to solve the Wordle of the day, using as starter a word beginning with the letter of the day. I hope to post every day all through April.

As the alternative badges, as supplied by Lissa suggest travel I'll prefer travel-related words as starter words, and if at all possible, I'll avoid words containing the same letter more than once.

I'll maybe add a few words about my chosen starter word if fancy takes me and I have time and energy for it, else I'll just post the solution - or not in the case that I did not solve it.

Today my starting word is Mango.
The average today is 5,6 very challenging -- I am still well below average:

Wordle 1.761 4/6
⬜⬜⬜⬜🟨
⬜🟨⬜⬜⬜
🟩⬜⬜⬜⬜
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

Mango fits nicely with travelling in Africa.

On our way through Sudan we once waited for a bus. We were told that the bus would leave at six in the morning from the market. We were at the market a bit early, because having a seat was a free for all. Only there was no bus. We asked as well we could, the people at the market for a bus to Loa. They pointed at the giant mango tree growing next to the river close to the road, And on our question of 'When' they held up six fingers and said Seta which means six in Arabic as well. So we sat ourselves under the giant mango tree and waited, and waited.
We took turns going to the market for food - more triangular breads with beans, ripe fruits and bottled water.
We even pilfered some mangos from the big tree after seeing some local children doing so - one for each.
Slowly more people arrived, all bound for Loa on the six am. bus - which finally arrived a quarter to eleven and left close to noon ;)

And now for today's Wordle:

Anyone comparing will see that my solution to share - those small coloured squares - and this one does not tally. It's because I mistakenly solved it using yesterday's spare word, Latte. Discovering my mistake, I opened Wordle in my other browser - which is not really compatible with NYT's page and "solved" it there. On purpose using the same number of guesses, and the same words except for the starter word.
As the overlay, where you can click on "Share" and have those coloured squares, is an 'underlay' in the other browser, the share-button is hidden by the Privacy policy link.
Here's my original, using Latte:

And how the other browser looks with 'underlay':

I can - sometimes - make the underlay go away by refreshing the page - the X in the corner does not work. But the 'Share'-button is never accessible.

A-Z Challenge ~ L for Lands

This year again I choose an easy way out. Each day I'm going to solve the Wordle of the day, using as starter a word beginning with the letter of the day. I hope to post every day except Sundays.

As the alternative badges, as supplied by Lissa suggest travel I'll prefer travel-related words as starter words, and if at all possible, I'll avoid words containing the same letter more than once.

I'll maybe add a few words about my chosen starter word if fancy takes me and I have time and energy for it, else I'll just post the solution - or not in the case that I did not solve it.

Today my starting word is Lands.
The average today is 6 or very challenging -- I am absolutely below average today, which is a good thing to be when playing Wordle ;)

Wordle 1.760 4/6
🟨⬜⬜⬜⬜
⬜⬜⬜⬜🟨
⬜🟨⬜🟨⬜
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

Lands as in dry lands describe the opposite of oceans, but it's also a synonym for country, as in foreign lands. And when travelling, this is what you do; visit foreign lands.

Today I'll bring a boring list of the foreign lands I have already visited. This was my first choice for this years A-Z, but as I have not visited countries for all the letters, I had to find a new theme.

A
Andorra
Austria

B
Belgium
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bulgaria

C
Croatia
Czechoslovakia- now split into: Czech Republic and Slovakia
Czech Republic

D
Denmark

E
Egypt

F
Finland
France

G 
Germany
German Democratic Republic - now united with Germany.
Greece

H 
Hungary

I 
Italy

J 
None

K
Kosovo - a bit of a cheat, as not all recognize this a s a country.

L 
Liechtenstein
Luxembourg

M 
Monaco
Montenegro

N 
Netherlands
North Macedonia
Norway

O 
None

P
Poland
Portugal

Q 
None

R 
None

S 
San Marino - A cheat, see below.
Saudi-Arabia - A cheat, see below.
Serbia
Slovakia
Slovenia
Spain
Sudan
South Sudan - A cheat, see below.
Sweden
Switzerland
Syria

T 
Turkey

U 
United Kingdom - Only England

V 
Vatican

Y 
Yugoslavia - now split into: Serbia, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Montenegro, and North Macedonia

Z 
None

This makes for three continents:
Europa, where I visited 33 out of the 43 now existing countries.
Asia, where I visited only three countries.
Africa, two (now three) countries visited.


Cheaters:
San Marino: We sat on the wall surrounding this small state, and hearing that we actually sat on the border, I stretched out my right arm, and leaned as far as possible without taking a tumble, so at least a part of me has been in San Marino.
Saudi Arabia:  I was in transit in the airport of Medina for four hours ;)
South Sudan: Sudan and South Sudan was still one country when I visited. But I went to Khartoum and to Juba - both of the capitals.

And now for today's Wordle:

A-Z Challenge ~ K for Kiosk

This year again I choose an easy way out. Each day I'm going to solve the Wordle of the day, using as starter a word beginning with the letter of the day. I hope to post every day except Sundays.

As the alternative badges, as supplied by Lissa suggest travel I'll prefer travel-related words as starter words, and if at all possible, I'll avoid words containing the same letter more than once.

I'll maybe add a few words about my chosen starter word if fancy takes me and I have time and energy for it, else I'll just post the solution - or not in the case that I did not solve it.

Today my starting word is Kiosk.
The average today is 5,3 or very challenging.  I am a bit above - or is it below? - average:

Wordle 1.759 6/6
⬜🟨⬜⬜⬜
⬜⬜🟨🟨🟨
⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
⬜🟨🟨🟩🟨
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

Kiosk is a Turkish word, but they now exist all over, and I'm once again going to Africa.

When travelling to Africa I belonged to a group of people in a bus, a Danish travelling school. In our buses we drove all the way there - meaning that we went through DDR (German Democratic Republic), Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Yugoslavia, Greece, Turkey and Syria, where we left the buses.
We arrived to Egypt by boat, and travelled by train, bus, boat and whatnot all the way to Khartoum in Sudan and back again.

Over Christmas we spent some time waiting in Khartoum ... I no longer recall for what or for whom we were waiting, but it was a much needed break. We spent the waiting time in a hostel of some kind. Lots of small rooms in a three winged, low building, with all the doors from the 6-bed rooms leading out to a porch surrounding a green yard. The third side was taken up by trees, a wall, some buildings and a kiosk. This kiosk delivered all kinds of to us exotic foods. We were frequent customers, we enjoyed the food, we washed us and our clothes, we wrote letters, drew, sung and relaxed.
    On Christmas eve I recited the gospel from memory, and next day we had presents from home. A big bag of mixed candy, mostly liquorice, which most Danes love, and which is not to be had south of the liquorice-line, placed somewhere in central Germany - Netherlands.

And now for today's Wordle:

And I think today's Wordle deserves an advertisement for the Pen & Paper solving method! At least it saved me from a Fail today.

A-Z Challenge ~ I for Inlet

 ⚠ Warning! This post contains the answer to today's Wordle ⚠
⚠ Proceed at your own risk ⚠

This year again I choose an easy way out. Each day I'm going to solve the Wordle of the day, using as starter a word beginning with the letter of the day. I hope to post every day at noon my time (GMT +2. Dang you DST!).

As the alternative badges, as supplied by Lissa suggest travel I'll prefer travel-related words as starter words, and if at all possible, I'll avoid words containing the same letter more than once.

I'll maybe add a few words about my chosen starter word if fancy takes me and I have time and energy for it, else I'll just post the solution - or not in the case that I did not solve it.

Today my starting word is Inlet. This was the solution Wednesday -- Strangely the same thing happened last year with Hazel. But unlike then I did not make a fake 'solve in one' for today. That I solved it today at all was sheer luck. I did not even know the word!
The average today is 5,3 very challenging -- I am still average:

Wordle 1.756 5/6
⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
⬜🟨🟨🟨⬜
🟩⬜🟨⬜🟨
🟩🟨⬜🟨⬜
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

Inlet and travelling fits nicely together.

When travelling to Africa we drove all the way there - meaning that we went through DDR (GDR), Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Yugoslavia, Greece, Turkey and Syria - I was there with a group of people in a bus, we belonged to a Danish travelling school.

I remember one beautiful morning ... we had been driving through the night, and now it was early morning, somewhere in Czechoslovakia. The dawn broke, and it was like in the song, Morning has broken ... I had to stop the bus and admire the view over the mountains, down to a lake with trees all around and a small, sea green boat just leaving an inlet, bright and clear in the sunrise.
We all went out of the buses and just stood there looking. It was as if the world was created all anew just for us.

And now for today's Wordle:

A-Z Challenge ~ H is for Hamam

This year again I choose an easy way out. Each day I'm going to solve the Wordle of the day, using as starter a word beginning with the letter of the day. I hope to post every day at noon my time (GMT +2. Dang you DST!).

As the alternative badges, as supplied by Lissa suggest travel I'll prefer travel-related words as starter words, and if at all possible, I'll avoid words containing the same letter more than once.

I'll maybe add a few words about my chosen starter word if fancy takes me and I have time and energy for it, else I'll just post the solution - or not in the case that I did not solve it.

Today my starting word was to have been Hamam. But unlike in Danish and Turkish, Hammam in English has two m's in the middle and thus did not fit. I solved today's Wordle using another travel-related H-word, but I'm going to stick with hammam for my short story.
The average today is 4,3 -- I am still average:

Wordle 1.755 4/6
⬜⬜⬜🟩🟨
🟨⬜⬜⬜⬜
⬜⬜🟨🟨⬜
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

Gnome and travelling - how does this fit together?

When travelling to Africa we drove all the way there - meaning that we went through DDR (GDR), Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Yugoslavia, Greece, Turkey and Syria. We spent a long time in Turkey, driving almost all the way to the Turkish-Iranian border. This was because the original plan was to go to India, but we reached there mid-November 1979. Remember the Iran hostage crisis? So we turned around, bound for Africa instead.

Driving through Turkey in November was tough, it snowed, it rained, mud and snow made for lots of vehicle pushing, the vehicles broke down and needed repairs. In short, we were often in need of a bath. And luckily even the smallest of hamlets normally had a hammam. Beautiful buildings, with vaults and water, lots of water, hot water, and soap, and towels. Heaven for the frozen and dirty traveller. In the smallest hammams boys and girls were separated in time, in the larger we had separate wings, but anywhere, big, beefy women or men - according to your sex - stood ready to scrub you clean with big chunks of soap and dry you off with big, coarse towels. The hammams were not always impeccable, but the towels were pristine, and all of one's body tingled afterwards. A glass of hot and sweet tea tea at the nearest tea parlour finished off the treatment.

And now for today's Wordle:

Where Did We go?

Normally when I totally disappear from Blogland for more than a few days it is because I'm not at home and able to use my computer.

It was like this ... we rose in the middle of the nigth on January 30. Then we went to Copenhagen by taxi, train and metro - the buses had not started running yet. Then we fought a digital device ... standard for us apparently on these occasions - stood in line, then we went out into the dark and cruel cold night and waited some more and took another vehicle, waited once more, then we waited some more and took a bus ...

And then we were here:

Next day I was woken up by a solitary bird singing from a plane tree:

We visited the church dedicated to this guy and afterwards we went down into the catacombs

 

I think by now you all have guessed that we went to Rome.

The Scandinavian bishops' Conference had organized a pilgrimage for the holy year, and we were 150 from all Denmark and around 1000 people from the Scandinavian countries, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Iceland and Finland. Including all seven bishops! One from each of the dioceses of Sweden, Denmark, Iceland and Finland, and all three from Norway.

More pictures:

Waiting for our turn to go through the holy door in the Lateran Basilica, the bishop of Copenhagen tells a bit about the church.

That same afternoon we went through the holy door in S. Maria Maggiore.

Next day was the high point of the pilgrimage:

Meeting the pope

Through the holy door in Saint Peter's

And mass with all the Scandinavian bishops there.

Of course we also saw other places, ate pizzas - not much ice, as it was quite chilly - drank cappuccinos and just enjoyed the stay. Of course we hope to return to this city once again.

I even succeeded in using almost all the Words for Wednesday:
1 - cruel
2 - return
3 - sneak
4 - solitary
5 - middle

And my colour? I'm sure the sky, or the mosaics or the water or ...contain