Keilyn's Life In London

2001-05-28 - 10:20 p.m.

* Warning - this entry somewhat lengthy and a bit introspective

I just got back from Double Wars, probably the biggest SCA event in Europe. It was pretty good overall, and I'd recommend it to my fighting-crazy friends in the States although I made some interpersonal mistakes that may have implications in the future that I'm pondering over at great length. (Thus the introspection)

A great frustration was that the cheapo Valu-Jet-esque airline we took has very strict luggage requirements (20kg per person), and my armour weighed too much to bring. Bad Item #1, and ancillary cause of several others....

Cheapo RyanAir also only runs 2 flights from Stanstead to Malmo, Sweden, so we had to be at the airport at like 6:15 am (ugh!) but we managed it, went through the duty-free shop and made it to Malmo actually early! Which was actually a bit unfortunate as they had a miscommunication about who was supposed to pick us up - so we weren't picked up for a couple of hours. Sigh.

But they did come get us, we made it to the site, got our stuff settled into the Royalty Room (there are advantages to traveling with royalty, although this may have also been mistake #2), and went out to help supervise the erection of the sauna tent. We had a lot to drink (the next morning I found out that Her Highness's new bottle of Absolut was empty and I'd put a serious hurt on some single malt mostly by myself), hung out with a couple of Elffin's squires and Lord Michael from Scotland, and crashed very late. This may have been mistake #3 all by itself.

Sunday I spent most of the day nursing the adorable princess through her second-ever hangover (which was fortunately mostly gone by the time His Highness showed up that night!) His Majesty showed up that day too. During the day there were various fighting activities and stuff - nothing super organized but still good stuff to do. That evening there was another party (figure that this is true every evening - the Finns and Swedes are a sturdy lot!) and I made an inappropriate and unwelcome pass at someone dear to me (mistake #4) while drunk. And stayed up way too late watching the sunrise with friends.

I think I spent most of Monday in bed. Tuesday there were a couple of tournaments so I watched my friends fight. They started to run out of water at the site sometime around here, which was frustrating, and there were various issues with feeding people (the tavern was supposed to carry food and didn't, although breakfasts and lunches were available from the event).

Perhaps I should say something about the tavern, for the benefit of my American audience. They sold beer and cider on site in the tavern every night. And not just cider, these amazingly good Swedish fruit ciders - Cloudberry and Gooseberry and Pear and Mountain Berry and all of them really delicious. And only about $2 for a half-liter bottle (American $$). The crazy Finns then take these delightful beverages (which are about 4.5% alcohol) and mix them with Absolut vodka to make Absolut Cider, a delightful and deadly concoction. (Mistake #5 or whatever we're up to, needless to say! Thank you Helena and Jade of Starfall!)

Somewhere in here I sat in on a spear class with Sir Kragon from the Outlands which was great - he's a fun guy, and deadly with a spear (although entirely too flexible for me to duplicate his style very well - wah!) I got to spend some time with his lady, Sarah Montgomerie during the week too (another old Atlantian - whoohoo! and beautiful and talented to boot!)

Wednesday there was a war practice and I finally found something useful to do, carrying water and helping organize crap for the battles, especially the woods battle (fought with 2 liters of water available per team!). Michael got injured in one of the bridge battles, which wasn't much fun (groin pull) so I helped get him off the field and up to camp, etc. (and fussing over him gave me another project for the week - mistake #5?6?) Plus my second politely deflected pass of the week (mistake n + 1)

There were more battles the rest of the week, and some tournies, including a rose tourney (challenges, loser gives victor's consort a rose), a two-on-two bear pit, plus some fencing to watch with Her Highness and Her Majesty. There was the Knackebrod ceremony to open the Knackebrodkrieget (or however that's spelled) - the war over whether to put the butter on the flat side or the holey side of the knackebrod. While that was going on the tavern cleared out and Terafan, Maximilian, Marguerite and I began to worship the great god Ralph, bringer of heat and warmth (a portable heater in the tavern that we took over to the least-windy corner and all snuggled around) which led to much entertainment for the rest of the week.

There were courts a couple of nights, one almost entirely in Swedish (to present the folks who fought in the Coronet Tourney the next day) and a pretty good although longish one on Saturday (which I was lady-in-waiting to Their Majesties for, as a stand-in for Marguerite who was packing up camp.) Sunday there was much confusion getting to the airports (including a longish side trip to Malmo) but I made it home. Next time, I'm paying to fly a real airline though - I think I made up the difference in the flight costs with the cab home from the airport!

One of the best things about this whole event is the schedule. Breakfast was served from 8-10 am (for about $3 US) - I only made it up for breakfast a couple of times, and I know a number of people slept later than I did. People lounge in the morning, or do pickup fighting or classes or stuff, shoot archery, make runs into town. Around noon, there's lunch (for about $3.50 US, and you can pay for all these meals in advance at troll, so it's very straightforward). Then fighting from about 1pm til about 6 or so (it stays light in Sweden really late - maybe 10 pm?) There's usually a tavern with supper stuff for sale (although this year that got a little screwed up) but there's also a kitchen on site that folks can use in shifts and town isn't far away either. If there's sufficient interest and wood, the sauna opens around dusk. Around dark the tavern opens selling 1/2 liter bottles of cider and cans of beer for about $1.50 to $2 each (see above) and there are parties that last until dawn. Thus, there aren't a whole lot of people up for breakfast.

Then there's the weather. Did I mention the weather? Sunny but not hot (70's maybe? I was comfortable in a chemise and gown most of the time, with pants on underneath, although I'd get warm if I sat in the sun) and a strong breeze blowing the whole time. And cool to cold after dark. No belly dancing or drumming. Some nice folks too.

Oh, yeah - and the event fee for SCA members was something like $20 for the whole week, plus a smidge more if you stayed indoors....

Okay, so I'm missing a lot of the planned introspection but it's late and I'm tired. Maybe tomorrow....

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