Those Crazy Swedes

Mom and dad are in Sweden right now buying a car. Kind of an odd thing to be doing there, if you ask me. But when Volvo says "if you come to our factory and pick up your new car, we'll take $5000 off the price tag, pay your round-trip airfare, pay the shipping and import tariffs, and roll it down a red carpet to you during the prsentation ceremony", it's hard to say no.

If you are like me, you wonder what the horrible catch must be. Here it is - they can only (for wahtever reason) import a used car. So what that means is that mom and dad "have" to drive it around Europe for two weeks to put some mileage on the thing before it can be shipped back here.

lucky buggers...

So they flew out of Seattle on Sunday and found themselves in Gothenburg, Sweden after a stop at Copenhagen. Although their luggage managed to miss the flight (a twist all good vacation stories must include), it sounds like they got the car thing all taken care of. They are driving from Gothenburg over through Sweden to Norway, heading north along the coast, back into Sweden to Stockholm, then driving across the bridge over to Denmark to do some cruising around Germany till they get to Bonn or Bremerhaven or wherever it is they're dropping the car off. They've got just about two weeks of stops planned, it sounds fabulous. I wish I could go with them, or at least do that trip myself sometime (since road trips with my folks are a little weird).

And on top of it all, during the two weeks they're gone, they will miss my birthday, Father's Day, and my sister's birthday. They better be gettin us some kick-ass presents over there...

They deserve it though, it's their 30th Wedding Anniversary this year and they haven't ever really taken a vacation just the two of them as far as I can recall. I'm sure they're having fun!

Wherever

Mother’s Day came around this year (as it does every year, except for the ones that I forget), and I was trying to come up with something cool to do for mom. I know she appreciates time, so what’s fun and entertaining and good times with mum?

Cirque du Soleil, that’s what.

Have you guys ever seen one of their shows? We rolled up in my Hott Wheels (ok, it’s a 1990 Civic named “Priscilla”, but whatever) and you could see this place from miles away. A huge system of tents set up in a park, all glowing yellow and blue spirals going up to the peaks. I was excited to be going to this thing, I’ve been wanting to see a Cirque show for years. But that moment when I saw the spirally tents I knew this was going to be awesome.

We park, we get our tickets and our seats and peruse the merchandise before the show. They had the coolest stuff, it was fantastic – little dolls of the characters in the show, hand-dyed velvet masques covered in feathers and beads, even the “been there done that” t-shirts were incredibly artsy and stylish. I could have dropped hundreds of dollars easy.

The show itself was, well, really indescribable. I don’t even think I’m gonna try, you hafta go see it for yourself. The show was titled “Varekai”, which apparently means “Wherever” in the language of the Romany gypsies. It loosely describes the journey of the character Icarus, who begins the show bound and netted and stripped of his wings. He journeys through a fanciful, vibrant world filled with bizarre and whimsical creatures as he learns to fly free again. (I stole some of that from the official website, take a look)

The whole spectacle was just mind-blowing. I literally had no idea what to be looking at, what to be watching, what to be listening to – total and exhilarating sensory overload. Many of the acts were three-dimensional – four girls doing acrobatics on a triple trapeze, two guys flinging themselves around throughout the tent on the aerial straps, and the incredible opening act of Icarus’ Flight 20 feet above the stage doing aerial gymnastics held only by a net. Others were performed on the stage, and were no less awe-inspiring: contortionists, juggling, body skating on a special slick surface, Georgian dancing and “water-meteors”, and one of my favorite acts – the Icarian Games. I’d never seen foot-juggling before, I didn’t even know such a thing existed. Basically, it involves two people. One lies on his back in a cradle, and juggles the other person with his feet. They flip, twist, roll; it’s simply unbelievable. I can’t imagine the strength and dexterity needed to pull it off.

The costumes were stunning, they were so imaginative and colorful and, well, simply unusual. The whole thing was built around the idea of “whimsical”, that’s really the only way I can describe it. Color, streamers, crazy masks and hats and body paint and who knows what else. One guy even had pogo sticks or something built into his, so that he bounced across the stage.

The stage was equally incredible. It was a thrust-stage set up, which is viewed from three sides with a back-stage area on the fourth. This meant that even though we were seated around the side, the view was still good. The backdrop to the stage was a forest of brass poles, many of which were inhabited by other performers throughout the show. Out of this forest rose a fragmented walkway, which lead to the ceiling and was used throughout the performances. The lighting was very well done, and I won’t bore you with details. Suffice to say that it perfectly complimented the fantasy of the stage and costumes, and unified the whole thing into one brilliant image.

But the best part of the evening was getting to share it with mom. I don’t see her as much since I moved to Seattle, and getting to share the experience with her was just awesome. We got to have a nice dinner, pleasant drive, and good conversation. We got caught up on family stuff, work stuff, personal stuff, and all that important and maybe not so important information. And just being with her in the Cirque environment, getting away from the normalcy of the world and sharing an evening outside the boringness of the every-day world: that was just great.

I would really encourage you to go see a Cirque du Soleil show sometime. It’s a beautiful way to experience something unusual and to expand your senses and mind in an atypical way. But be sure to take someone with you, because it is definitely best to be able to share that experience with someone you love.