Cafés are my best places for writing. When I travel the world, I always find a small café to sit down with my moleskin travel diary, with my stationary, with postcards, with scraps of paper for notes. I remember once sitting in a small café in Venezia, it was during carnival. Still early in the morning I was alone in the café for a long time, enjoying the sight out the window, the humming of the waiter, the delivery man coming with a huge box with freshly bakes pastries. From time to time I wrote in my diary, or read a few pages from Miss Garnet's Angel. Then the door opened and three persons came in, a young woman, two young men. Dressed up for the carnival. All of a sudden the setting of a novel formed in my head. I wrote down some notes in my diary and kept the story in my head for the rest of my days in La Serenissima. The notes are still there. Who knows, may be it can come to something more one day.
Ever since I started Trondheim Through all Seasons last summer, early Saturday mornings have been my time to wander alone in the city with my camera, and somewhere along the walk finding a café for a caffe latte or a cappuccino. Sitting down I bring out my bright red moleskin, the one which is used for my (hopefully) upcoming book.
There are alot of nice cafés and coffee bars in Trondheim, and I have tried most of them. Somehow though I have never found the one perfect for my purpose. I can't really tell what I have been looking for, several coffee houses have come close, but not quite The Thing!
Yesterday I enjoyed a very nice walk along the river and the area of Bakklandet with all its charming old wooden buildings, and as so often before, I anded up at Solsiden (The Sunny Side :-), a shopping and restaurant area built where there used to be built ships in former times) Bare Blåbær (Only Blueberries or Piece of Cake as Englishmen would say) is a charming café where we have been several times during summer, sitting outdoors. The café has two areas, on each side of the builting, and today I decied to try the area where I have never been before.
And there it was. My perfect The Thing. Still quiet in the morning, worn to suit me perfect, well at least made to look worn. And the warm colours embraced me.....this could be my writing place.
I sat down with a huge caffee latte, welcoming the words that came.
Writing is not easy. Right now I find it harder than ever, I even find it almost impossible to believe that there will be a next book.......I still like the prosess, the searching for words, the forming of stories. I've found my coffee house, and next Saturday I'll be there again.
Where do you find your creative spot?
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I have finally picked a winner from the travel tale challenge. Kristi Jalics, I know you already won a pair of miniature mittens, but I was so charmed by your story:
Most of my travels began when I married in 1972. I had not been outside of the US, except to go to Canada and Mexico until then. But my husband grew up in Hungary and wanted to show me the world he came from, so in '73 he took a post at the technical university in Stuttgart and we lived there nearly two years and traveled to Hungary many times, and had a lot of adventures. But I just remember the first trip east across Germany and Austria. I had never even seen pictures of Germany. Perhaps this was because I grew up so soon after WWII - the war wasn't over the day I was born, which was the day Auschwitz was liberated. But I had no idea southern Germany and Austria were so beautiful and would look like the pictures in the fairy tale books I read as a child. When we crossed the border into Hungary it was a shock. It was like moving back 60 or 70 years, or so I thought. On the main road from Vienna to Budapest (a country sort of road, no highway) more of the traffic we saw was horse and wagon than car. I fell in love with the little villages where most of the houses were painted grass green or pumpkin, and many people were dressed very differently from anyone I'd ever seen. It was still a very poor country, but the people were full of kindness and humor. What good memories.
A big and heartfelt thank to all of you for sharing your memories. I must confess that the comments Britt-Arnhild's House in the Woods recieve, is among the most important things that get me continuing blogging, day after day.....for more than 5 years now.
