Tell me about your secret places

In each city and every town down through to the country, there can be found spaces special and unique to us alone, our own secret places. Something lent from within elevates them, we share a portion of our time to escape there. Cautiously we may bring company. Without particular criteria save that inside which guides our selection, sometimes huge and vacant, maybe small tucked away unseen in the midst of commotion. Is the calm pull present now, or do they linger in a memory of once was? Share them with us.

in small servings I have offered a few already,
to start, here are more of my own...

An enclave of grass, tall over my young blond hair, with narrow passages worn weaving through. Winding my way sometimes left at the fork, others right while taking hold of the lush green blades to feel them break as I continue forward without releasing my grasp. Occasionaly the path will tunnel through the dark tangled heart of a bush. I will slow my progress, now on hands and knees over dirt, to negotiate stray branches. Bright sun flicker filtering through the waving blades fills the warm air with sleepiness. I pad down a small nook adjacent to the passage, curl into a light nap spun of the rustling and shifting pale shadows. After the grass was trimmed no longer tall enough to explore lost within, it came stronger and deeper to me in vivid dreams.

On bikes and walking, looking for these specific places to claim secret we spent summer afternoons. Climbing trees, sitting under railroad bridges on rotten foundation logs while the water ran by. Over and among rocks along the river, sometimes stopping to skip small flat stones across the surface, from behind blackberry vines a dark gaping hole constructed of concrete came forwards. The tunnel floor was of two channels, the left a straight passage, the right a interlocking series of short cement blocks causing the water to wind left and right back and forth slowly to the downspout for the river. Interesting only for a while, we proceeded further up the creek which flowed through. Years later under other intentions I visit it now, shared with others we enjoy the open seclusion. Sometimes sitting on dry portions of the concrete to talk and eat the dark dusty berries while taking a rest, listening to the muted passage of cars overhead. Tense, tangled, I may sit alone letting soft water sounds smooth out the complications, grateful to have salvaged a ruined day. The day will grow darker and the tunnel, end lit only, becomes dim so the entrance falls behind our backs as we wearily climb the slope away from it. The winter waters rise too high, there is no way to go in, with the spring rains dwindling I will soon return. I know already that I will see a small square of river framed at the end, first stepping in the tunnel, the feeling is blurry with a year of cold though.

There was a barn, since torn down. Dry hay, dirt, and scraps of wood spread over the floor under a roof showing small portions of sky. Aging, leaning, still strong enough to climb among some of the use forgotten structures and look around. Birds took circuits in and out of the ragged holes in the walls nearly two stories high. One door opened to a small clearing walled on each side with towering blackberry bushes, picking them for pie and other treats or sitting carefully among the rusty nails in the breeze.

We went there so few times that it was hard to find every time we'd decide to go. We didn't dare go often because it was too good to be true. There was the fear that if we went too often, others would find out and it would be ruined.

There was little if any sign that anyone knew but just a few of us. It was a long way out of town, so it took a pretty good commitment to go. It killed an afternoon, and there was nothing to do out there but see it. We did have one friend whose parents had a cabin near it, but it was seldom that he'd actually be out there if we went. And his mom and dad sure didn't want to see us trooping up the driveway.

The last part of the drive to see it was all dirt road. That lasted for at least a half hour. You'd be dusty and hot by the time you got there. But the beauty of what lay ahead would cleanse your soul and your body.

We'd park the car and walk for about 15 minutes. We'd often get lost trying to find it. Even now, many years later, I could find almost any place I've ever been. Except this one. I wouldn't know where to start, except for the city and state.

As we got closer, the ferns on the ground would become more lush. The air would get cooler. And then, there it would be. Just as we had seen it last time, but were secretly afraid we'd never see again.

The big gray rocks went about halfway around on one side, and the other side was almost ground level. As you peered over the edge, you could see directly to the bottom, just as if it were only a few inches away. But it was much deeper. You could smell the clean, clean scent of the underground spring that fed this little accident of a pool. It was only about 10 feet across and 10 feet deep, but when you slithered in and went to the bottom, it could have been Atlantis, buried thousands of feet inside the ocean.

At the bottom, you could feel the origin of the water.

The origin of the water.

The origin of the water.

The bridge, down the hill from the elementary school. It was past the edge of the world, then, just visible down the path from the schoolyard and forbidden. Then in high school, I started going there at night, to smoke.

The bridge goes over a rocky creek, surrounded by trees that shelter the space and make the whole world wilderness, from there. You can stand on the bridge and look at the moon, the only light. I found out there that you can almost be blinded by the moon.

A mythology grew up around the bridge. You only come to the bridge when you have a question. You come there especially when the question defies words. You come there and you stand against the rail until the question is answered.

First you walk to the centre of the bridge, and face the eastern side. You light a cigarette, and listen to the smoke rise. Now you must answer honestly: Do you have anything to throw off of the bridge? I have thrown into the water, in a symbolic letting go, a pen, a pack of cigarrettes, and a photograph.

Now finish the cigarette and you are ready to go underneath. It is dark and wet at night, and you can see trolls if you're afraid. But once you sit, and begin to watch the water, fear and time are gone. You stay there as long as you need to.

a spare swath of land somewhere near chapel hill...not a tree to be seen for hundreds of yards, and the lush grass and creeping ground plants more than making up for the lack. once i walked there in a midnight thunderstorm, holding the ambassador's hand...thunder shook the ground, and the sky held an uncanny electric glow, and we were wild and free in the rain. the place, i am sad to say, is inseparable from the time. it is none too beautiful in the stark light of day.

Past the little pond at the base of the hill where the mallards swim, the horses trot to the fence anticipating a grass'y treat, but not this time, not these times when I've only one thing, one place in mind. Through the gates that remain open nearly all the time, to the start of the most gorgeous of tree-shrowded paths, its beauty is no secret.. but the place that I am going seems to hold so much for me alone. I stroll down the path and as per usual there are insects flying about my face, a bit of an annoyance. They're just the tiniest of inconveniences, and mean very little when put in retrospect. I often stumble once or twice over the roots of trees that have escaped their earthy confines to protrude just above the ground, reminding me that nearly anywhere my foot lands will be another place for the adventurous roots of that which keeps me sane. I've been to this place before, with a number of other little humans.. but we simply walk past and they assume the smile on my face relates to our conversation, not the passing thought that if I were alone I'd stop just then and spend at least a few moments in my secret little place. They don't even ponder the way the grass grows up on either side of the path at this point, the way that it is completely devoid of insects perpetually, though if you lay below the tips of the slender green blades you can watch the little bugs flying overhead, seemingly oblivious to just this one little place, my secret place. I can watch the skyline, admire the sunset, lay on my back and pray that no human life interrupts my what always seems to be brief time here.. it's as if I must take it in small doses as to not disturb the strange way it seems off balance with the rest of the world around it, but in the most intriguing of ways.

Before I knew this place, before I knew the tree-shrowded path that goes as far as to grace my dreamscape at night, there was the ditch, a particular point, just down the road from where I lived. I went there many times after the tornado hit and everyone seemed almost dazed, especially my friends who lost their farm, the universe seemed a little bit.. off. I'd venture to the bottom of the ditch.. almost six or seven feet nearly straight down to the place I'd sit and watch the stream flow through the culvert trickling over and around leaves, twigs, silt. This place is far from any city, and it's arguably no different than any other ditch in the countryside, but to me it was the only thing that seemed unscathed by the violent storm that tore so many people's lives apart. Incidentally, the entire section of trees, bush, on the side of the road opposite my little secret place.. was flattened, completely demolished. I liked to sit there during the cool spring evenings and listen to cars passing by, knowing they couldn't see me where I was but I could hear them. That was part of its charm.. so close to human life but undiscovered, I'd sit there for hours and the world would be oblivious..

There is a large rock, by large I mean nearly the size of a small vehicle, amongst the trees both fallen and flourishing in the forest area behind the house my father built, we lived in it for close to five years. I'd go for walks into the bush as we referred to it, because it was miles and miles of trees, streams, ferns, and little animals. That's not to say there weren't many other things hiding in those trees, behind logs, but that was part of the whole experience, discovering new little things others might have missed or at the very least, viewed differently than I would. I'd make my way to the massive rock, though there were many others there that always puzzled me, I'd wonder how on earth something so large ended up there, it was always this one rock that I would search for. Moss grew from many of the little rocky crevices, and little mushrooms sprouted up haphazardly. I could see quite far as long as my eyes found their way through the trees, and I always felt quite content to be up that high above everything, though it was a task to climb it in the first place. It wasn't entirely impossible to get lost in the trees, but I never seemed to.. I'd always find my way back eventually, or at least end up wandering out onto a side road somewhere. There are many secret places among the trees of my childhood, I only wish that I could go back now because I'm sure I'd appreciate them a thousand times more at this stage in my life.

I've one last secret place.. somewhere I go every so often when this world seems just a bit much for me. It's down another path not unlike the tree-shrowded one I traverse near daily, but this one is almost magickal. It leads to an opening with sunlight pouring in overhead and through the trees surrounding it.. and sometimes there is a little human perched atop the enormous tree stump that I've grown so fond of.. it doesn't bother me, because they only happen to be there if I request it subconciously. This secret place is inside of me, I suppose it could be referred to as an inner sanctuary.. not many people know of it, I've told but one person before this.. perhaps I'll see some of you there at one time or another.

My little secret places, I hadn't even thought of these in so long.. sweet sweet memories both past and present, pukesick you dreamy little human, always spouting the most brilliant of content which causes me to probe the deepest recesses of my feeble little mind. I could float through the universe happily for the rest of my days if I knew that I had even a portion of your ability to think such intensely beautiful thoughts.

On a small island, floating on the Gulf of Mexico, there is a place that is far away from the haze of streetlights. You can look up in the sky, and see it speckled in stars. It is accessable by car, over a bridge. To get there, you have to follow this pathway over a little bridge, and walk about 1/2 mile. Once you are out there, all you hear is the lapping water at the shore. Be careful if you go at night, if there is not a lot of lunar light, you can't see past your nose, so bring a flashlight. We had to make a torch out of lighter fluid, a stick and a shirt to get back to the car, because there are a lot of winding pathways.

I used to have a handful of secret places, back when I had more space. Here in New Orleans, it's hard to have a secret place that other people don't already know about. It is quite a challenge to think of them in terms of physical description, but I will try my best.

A secret place for me is inside a shell inside of which I can still see, if I so choose, the world around me. It puts a layer of something not easily pushed aside between me and the things that sometimes scare me about the world, layers of sheet metal or glass.

One place could easily be my Festiva, my little red car. I don't have passengers usually, and I drive as though I don't expect to. The passenger seat is always full of cassette tapes; my emergency brake has just enough room on either side to hold a medium drink from any fast food joint I frequent. I have that elusive feeling of control. Over the temperature, speed, sound, and motion of my little red bubble. It gives me the illusion of movement and direction, of accomplishment and equality. It makes me feel less incapable of functioning in the world.

....more to come

My own secret place was found after my father and I had a huge fight. I got upset as I normaly do, and left the house, in hopes of finding relief from the situation. As I walked down the gravel road that stretched out from the back of our field, I noticed a small opening in the bushes. I walked into the lush green area, and to my surprise, I noticed a deer, sipping water from a small pond. I sat down on a rock in among the tall grass and wild flowers. I sat for a while looking around and taking in all of the beautiful sounds and smells of the nature around me. I started to cry, realizing how wrong it was of me to just leave without talking things through with my dad. I began to fall asleep, with nothing but the sound of a stream trickiling against some rocks, some frogs, crickets, and an odd sound which even though strange, seemed comforting. A couple hours later, I woke up, silence surrounded me, I looked around and I seemed to be the only thing left in the entire area. I smiled and realized this place was one of great importance to me, I would return to this place whenever I neede to think or to just get away from something I couldn't handle. Sometimes, I just needed to think and in the end, I always had an answer. Someday, when I go back home to visit, I am only gonna show the place to the ones close to my heart, Hamster bong, you are invited. Now that I am away from home, I have found a great deal of difficulty finding a place as amazing as the one back home. Someday I'll find it, but for now, I just think about it in my head.

At The Station

I sometimes see shadows of myself here, walking.
Or folded into corners, watching
Wet crows taking bits of me like worms.

I have jumped a hundred times
Shrieking on the metal tracks
I grow like grass between the stones.

Here I am made small.
Here I own nothing.
I pull the world off like a shredded raincoat,
Transfixed by loss.

It was raining and dark and I didn't want to go home. I dropped everyone off and raced through the wet streets to pass the time, not really knowing where to end up, following the music from inside my little bubble. I passed by a park from my childhood along the river. Grandma used to take me there to see the boats and the big waterfall that smelled like fresh rain. I pulled into the parking lot, passing the steamed up windows of the few other cars strewn about the space.

The engine sighed to a halt. Silence, rain pounding, distant thunder, soft breathing. I got out and ran to the river under the cover of darkness. Carefully I chose a patch of wet grass (only slightly less wet than the air) and sat down. The water soaked through my clothes, my hair, my thoughts. Lightning lit up the air around me and showed the treetops on the other side of the water; another land but really not so far off. A small family of geese clucked their way through the rain towards me. Did they even see me? No, no, they almost touched my legs they were so close. Slowly they groomed themselves and moved on.

I don't know if I will ever go back. Perhaps when things are completely different it will be allowed. Maybe never. I don't know.

My secret place isn't really secret. At least not in the sense that no one else goes there. It is a man made lake north of Columbus, Nebraska. People go there to fish jet-ski, boat and what not. It used to be a sand pit for cattle.

One night my friends just ended up hanging out there sitting on the concrete retaining wall chatting, complaining about not having anything to do, and all the other things that high school youths talk about. After that night this place started to hold great power for me. It was tranquil. Being somewhat halfway inbetween the city and nature, it reminded me of my dual nature, how I am not either really a city boy or a farm boy, but somewhere in between. I like to think I am the best of both worlds.

Occasionally I would visit this place during the day, but it didn't seem to be any of the things it seemed to be during the night. Perhaps there were too many people there. You see at night there was hardly anyone there. The occasional night fisherman, or horny couple (a motive of which I admit had brought me there a couple times), or maybe another group like our own. My close group of friends would occasionally get some of our extended friends to go there with us. I'm not sure if the lake meant as much to them as it did us, or if it even meant as much to my close friends as it did to me.

Cemeteries are my refuge. A place to disappear into markers of past lives. A place to rest my worries, or confront them. These are the parks of contemplation. Okay, it sounds a bit morbid, but cemeteries are the only place where I can really kick back. And ruined graveyards are the most favoured.

When I spent time in santa cruz, california, there was a house I lived in for a few years that was fifteen minutes walk from the beach (could sometimes hear the crash of waves or complaints of sea lions or screams of roller coaster riders), ten minutes walk from the downtown garden mall and my favoured coffeehouse, and fifteen minutes from Evergreen Cemetery, which was situated right on the edge of a Redwood park, nestled in a hill, overgrown with ivy, ruined by overgrowth and earthquakes and vandals. Eucalyptus trees shaded one side, redwood trees shaded another.

I worked graveyard, and was quite the night owl, and would often find myself wandering the streets of the city after midnight on my days off, sometimes just because I could, other times to get my thoughts and emotions together. I'd start off with a stroll down to the coffee joint for coffee, or to the Red Room for a couple shots of jaeger. Then I'd head down to the ocean some nights, either straight down near the Boardwalk, looking at the silent rides on one side, and the echoes of waves on the other, crossing the Lost Boys Rail Bridge, dropping stones into the mouth of the San Lorenzo River. Or heading up towards the lighthouse along East Cliff, with its view of the Bay, and sometimes catching sight of midnight surfers out in the waves. Or just wandering the streets of the city, following the calls of birds, who'd always lead me in some interesting direction. Some nights I'd find myself heading towards Evergreen, and I had several ways to get there: Over near my home in a straight direction and stopping by the Windmill Bed and Breakfast where I could look at/listen to the waterwheel or sneak into their back garden to sit in the grillwork gazebo covered in little white lights and blow smoke bubbles. Up from the red room, going down Squid Row (stopping to play a tune on the big rusty Hummingbird xylophone, or dropping off a dead lighter in the top hatted frog sign with many light sockets now being used by friends and I as a dead lighter graveyard) and up slick stairs to the old Louden Nelson home and across a park in front of the catholic church. Over down by the Sash Mill, where some back road dumped me into the back playing field of a catholic school that was a short cut over towards the freeway overpass that most of these paths lead to. Then up the spiral approach of the overpass, which used to be covered in graffitI that I dubbed the Cola Wars: COKE IS IT! PEPSI ROCKS! RC IS THE BEST!, and then spiral down to walk along a path next to the freeway, kicking fallen eucalyptus leaves and twigs, making sure to step on the one stencil of a footprint with the word CLICK! written next to it and down the hill to the edge of Harvey West Park and if it was the right time of year, squinting in moonlight or lamplight at blackberry bushes for a late night snack.

There is a main gateway to Evergreen, but I always used to take the first entrance, and wobbly stack of bricks that I call the Dr. Seuss steps, and which had a path straight up to the chinese graveyard, which really were just a few headstones way out of the way, and a little wooden deck that overlooked the Army graveyard. A good place to sit and rest and look out for other people that might be haunting the place. Sometimes a group of gothish punks would barge in and rampage around, and I always made sure they never saw me, as, well, they were punks. One time I made some eerie noises and they got spooked and I never saw them there again. Usually the only other inhabitants of the place were wildlife: deer, a skunk, a couple cats, and even a goat! Often it was just sitting on this deck that satisfied me, other times I'd find myself heading along the many paths and up the main stretch, Heritage way, to the highest point. Picking roses from a rose tree. sitting on a crypt and writing by candle light. One night I was doing this near the main road and a security guard for the park drove by and called me over, telling me gruffly to leave, his urgings echoed by a big dog next to him. I got my notebook and went down to the Seuss steps and waited for him to come back. This time the guy was more relaxed, and I asked him what sort of regulations there were about the park, since there were no signs giving closing hours. He said there actually wasn't any closing times, but a month before they'd found a young man in a crypt late at night masturbating among the bones, and so now all the nearby park security were pretty edgy about people in the cemetery. I guess I would be too.

Cemeteries don't creep me out. In fact, they do the opposite: they calm me. They are my place of catharsis, where I think, and think and think until I can't think anymore and all my worries fade out into the place. If I couldn't sleep at night, a trip to Evergreen would at least get me tired enough that I could crash into bed back home. I always left Evergreen to go home with a lighter heart.

there's this place i went to a few years back, a couple or six hours up the coast.
the lake about eight hundred meters wide, a small dirt path all the way around, with little trails going off into the thickening treeline.
a dock, and on the exact opposite side, a huge tree overhanging the water to climb on and sit to ponder for a bit, or dive off.
the lake is full of mud, so soft and cool it feels like velvet slipping through your fingers. all the tiny particles, i suppose. much finer than sand. the water has very cold bits, and very warm bits. you find a warm current and follow it around.
then dive down as far as you can to get a handful of nice silky mud to smear on your arms for no reason.
then sit on the bank wrapped up in towels and if you're lucky a person.
watch the trees do their silent calm tree dance, then watch the sunset.
all red and purple and orange on the scattered clouds. then cook some food and eat.
then swim again, and warm up quickly. then watch the stars for a bit.
snuggle on a blanket on the little dock, or just stand coatily if you're alone.
then walk back to your tent and strip naked, then quickly squirm under the blankets and get warm.
slowly drift off to sleep watching the dying fire flicker against the tent walls.

There are two places that come to mind that deserve mention.

The first would have to be a small, gnarled tree in the back of the parking lot of my elementary school. Although it is by no means hidden from the view of others I spent many private moments here- both alone and with my best friend. This is the place where we would run immediately after being let out of the cafeteria to escape the peers with which we shared a mutual distaste. For some reason they would never bother walking all the way across the cement battlefield to torment us. It must have been too much trouble. Come to think of it another place we used to retreat to for shelter lay in the same parking lot. There was an incredibly tiny, cramped clearing behind a thorny rose bush. We would have to sneak behind a fence in order to climb back over and drop into the clearing. These places were used to share stories and, later, for the creation of our own alternate universe where we spent as much time as we could hiding away from the thorns and barbs of reality. On a return visit to this location a month or so ago we discovered that the tree had been cut down by fiendish gardeners. Apparently some of the overhanging limbs had been causing damage to unwary drivers. There was a long moment of silence. Then we left.

Behind the public high school in my hometown is a field used for soccer and other sports. This is the area where I would meet with a small group of friends every day after school. It is important to note here that I did not attend this school. I went to a Catholic school in another town where I lived largely in solitude. It was only when I came to this place that I was able to walk around without some degree of paranoia and/or anger. Here I had friends. Or at least people with whom I could connect on some level. The field was where we would go to play frisbee or, at night, to just sit and talk under the stars. Many tears were shed here for various reasons and by various people. I still go back there sometimes, but it is never the same. Perhaps this is because I no longer speak to most of those people, or perhaps it is because the field has changed somehow. A permanent marker of our time there remains- a few spots of dried blood on the bleachers where a friend slashed his arm repeatedly after breaking up with his girlfriend.

our secret place was the drain near our house.
my brother and me and our gang got down there one day and found a passage, with a trickle of water in it.
it led to a round concrete chamber, big enough for the six of us to hang out in.
we dragged in old car seats from the dump and cooked stuff on the fire, we painted windows on the walls.
we were around 12 at the time. for the next four years, you could find some of us there, whenever things went wrong, just hanging out and reading damp curled comics by the light of a torch.
the darkness felt safe.

The Creek - A twisting, muddy creek occupied most of my spare hours when I lived on the farm. With a concrete dam that made a waterfall when it rained, and a half-built fort that my best friend & I would sit in for hours and just talk. The creek itself was the home of many forays into the neighbour's property, as well as running gun battles with imaginary guns. Crouched in the running water you could hear the birdcalls, the water tumbling down over small limestone outcroppings accompanying the melody calls, the rest of the world shut out by the brush covered banks.

The fort also became a headquarters of sorts for our frequent flights of fancy, and was the home of numerous alternate time-lines and worlds, discussions of the X-men's Summers Clan and of course, girls.

The Dam - At the back corner of our property, shared with three other owners was the dam. Big enough that we could swim in it, murky and muddy enough that we didn't.

The main feature of the dam was the 6' high mounds of dirt that must have come from its excavation. They provided a barrier against the house and the rest of the property, and thus the area became a quiet refuge from feuding families and physical chores.

The Dam was even quieter than the creek, with the only sound being the soft snorting of the nearby horses, or of distant cows calling out to each other.

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Glad I found this node, been struggling to not node something like this for a while now. Thanks for the excuse to stop resisting.

My secret place isn't a faraway island, or a lush jungle paradise with rhinestone birds and oil-painted creatures. My secret place is a playground, a park, where the halogen lamps light only the farthest corners of the dead grass and rusted monkey-bars. In the middle of the nightfog is the little merry-go-round: the type that you push and hop onto and let the circling spinning blur of grays and browns and blacks carry you away into oblivion. We sat there, stone-still. Even the mosquitoes thought we were dead, but for the occasional rising and falling of your chest against my back, my ribcage moving to press against your clasped hands. It was nice, with my head in the hollow of your shoulder, where your neck meets your collarbone in the perfect angle. I slept. You watched the creases of worry and mania and depression melt away like hot wax, drip into a carefree wintergreen grin. And you lifted gentle fingers to touch my eyelids and my lips. I woke slowly, lazily, to feel warm breath against my throat. You slept, now.

A dying playground can be Eden, if your heart is in the right place.

In the extreme eastern end of the city is the airport. Just beyond the airport is a desolate dirt road named "Creamery Road", after the dairy which used to stand at the corner. Follow the road over the railroad tracks, past the massive radar dome, past the farm, to the end. Park your car and walk north along the airport fence, go underneath the fence at the brook and cross the brook. Follow the fence until it turns eastward, and continue to go north. This is the end of the rarely used secondary runway.

If you came here at the right time of day (that is, night time), there should be a beautiful sea of lights stretching outwards towards the terminal off in the distance. If you're lucky, you can watch an airliner take off, and feel the roar as it turns its engines to full power.

I've made my way around the world and any place I stop at for some time manages to cough up a place or two that become my own.

Growing up in the suburbs of Chicago as a teenager I had a willow treee behind a Dominicks grocery store that I would climb, and a stretch of road heading north out of Cook County I would bicycle on when depressed or angry.

When I moved to the city after high school, I lived in Bucktown. There was a church I would go to late at night with a small stairwell leading down to a door. It was allways locked and allways silent. I would often venture there to think, to smoke, to cry or just to sit. It was my secret power spot in Chicago.

Letter on I got a job as a bicycle messenger and I would often hide myself in skyscraper stairwells inbeteween deliveries in order to smoke pot.

2 years latter I found myself living in Santa Cruz, California... I had a tree I would hide out in in the Pogonip forrest. It was an old burnt out redwood with a small hollowed out hidey-hole. It was great for the silence and the cool air... I even once saw a UFO while spending the night there.

Now that I live in Torino, Italy I have yet to find a secret spot. I mean I have certain intersections that I like and there is a stretch of the Po river that I enjoy walking along when feeling solitary, but nothing that compares to my secret spots from the past.

Well now that I´m living in Bonn, Germany - once again I need to begin the search for a new secret spot. Turns out my spot back in Torino was at this bar called Cafe des Arts. It wasn´t solitary or even secret, but it was my place and I miss it. I could always count on a friendly face and a nice drink.

So now I´m in Germany ... Bonn has the Rhine Rivber and I have noticed a nice small Jewish cemitary along its banks. There is also a weird WWI & WWII memorial in my neighborhood on a spooky cul de sac. But no definet spot yet other than rollin in my byby´s arms.

I'll find it; it'll find me... I'm certain of it.