BY: Germany, 2002

Hi there, my nickname is Germany and even though I don’t have wonderful pictures to share, I do want to share a little bit something with y’all about my trip to NYC. I will make this short and painless, I promise.

It all starts way back when, when Sotnos and I decide to go see Viggo’s exhibit in Santa Monica, but that is another story that can be read here on this wonderful Viggo Mortensen dedicated website. At this point I also want to give many, many Thanks to our great webmaster DB who is ever so patient with us and works always hard to keep this site updated and us happy. O.K., brown nosed enough ;-) on with the story. Where was I? Oh yeah, back in Santa Monica, …we hear about a possible future exhibit in NYC and we decide this will be our next adventure. Since Sotnos has a Thors hammer and I’m German and tall, we manage to get invited to the private opening ;-) Lynn, another bboard-member, is also invited, must be her southern charm.

To some of you the beginning of this story will sound familiar because I have posted part of it on the bboard, for those of you that are not familiar with me... so help you god. Oh, by the way, keep in mind that I’m a full-blooded German and that English is my second language, you get the hint.

10 July'02 Wednesday, day of arrival

Well, I am still alive, didn't crash with the airplane, even so I thought I would...I wish someone would have told me that LaGuardia Airport has it's runway in the water. (Did I mention yet that I hate to fly!) After a rough descent, (VERY ROUGH!), I look out my right window and all I see is water. I thought for sure this was it, this time it was really going to happen, we were having problems with the airplane and we were crash-landing in the WATER! Just when I want to prepare for impact (Germany by now squirming in her seat thinking it’s all HIS fault ;-) I see some land, then a runway, WHAM, touchdown. Holy Moly, that had me going!

At the airport, I meet my travel buddy Sotnos which arrived much sooner but promised to wait for me. It's great to see her again, we say our Hellos and off we go. The taxi ride to the hotel wasn't much better then the airplane ride but somehow our driver manages to get us there in one piece. Now I understand why Sotnos didn't want to drive up here. The hotel room, which wasn't cheap by the way, has a window with a breathtaking view, …a wall! I guess that's what you get for booking the special.

One more thing about NYC traffic, I am very surprised not to see an accident every other corner, and I don't dare step onto the road before the light says, "WALK". I don't think anywhere else in this world do they use their horn as much as they do here. I am very impressed with traffic ;-) Did a lot of site seeing, running around, shopping, meeting Viggo and more running around. We’ll skip most of the story about the running around and the site seeing part and go straight to Viggo, if that is o.k. with y’all.

11 July'02 Thursday, day of the opening

First on our list is Chinatown and we decide to walk. It’s only a few miles but it takes much longer then anticipated since we have to stop at almost every corner for a ” Don’t walk ” light. We meet Lynn and her husband Mark for lunch and finally, I get to put a face with the name. It is great to meet them both and I feel like we have known each other forever.

We get back to the hotel with two hours to spare before the opening starts. Now for you men out there that might be enough time to get ready for a big night, but not for us woman. I let Sotnos hit the shower first, which proves later to be a big mistake. At least she says so while standing in the room, tapping her foot, ready to go while Germany, me, still has some ever soooo important last minute things to do. But HEY, I got a later start! ;-P

Fast forward to the Gallery, we skip the girl-stuff.
So here we are, I thought I would be nervous but at this point, I am just curious. After showing our invitations to the person at the door, we were let in. We are a little late, but hey, that looks good, doesn’t it? I restrain myself from looking around trying to spot Viggo; after all, we are cool, right? Right! We decide to start at one end of the gallery and work our way to the other end. I recognize some of the photos from the exhibit from Santa Monica but there are many new ones and new paintings too. I find my favorite, 7 November (you just can’t miss it) and with a grin on my face, I have to think of all the discussions that we have had about this photo on the bboard and in the chat room. I decide once more that I really, really want this photo but it doesn’t come in the size that I could afford, so I will have to make do with the picture in the book.