Posted by Lars (192.129.55.183) on August 12, 1999 at 21:59:51:
First of all I would like to apologize for this long post.
The 11th of August 99 was the first day in a long time, when
the demon showed some mercy.
My alarmclock went off at 4:30 am. I had to get up this early
since I had made a date with some friends of mine for a short
daylong trip. On the 11th was a total eclipse of the sun here
in Europe. So we decided to go to a place, where the total
eclipse would happen. Since the weatherforecast for the
southern part of germany didn't look so good (it was to be
pretty cloudy), we agreed to use a viewing point far away from
the bad german weather.
We hopped into the car and drove off. We came to the city of Liege in Belgium,
did a pitstop there and hit the road again. Somewhat later we came
to the city Mons. Another pitstop and back into the car. The sky was still very
cloudy. From Belgium we crossed the border to France and headed for the city
Reims. But there was a giantic traffic jam in France since we had to pay for the
usage of the "autobahn" there. And of course, we weren't the only ones
going for France to watch the Total Eclipse.
So we had to shorten the route and stopped as soon as we where in the zone of the
total eclipse. We wanted the full eclipse, not only a partial one like in the
most parts of Europe.
We drove of the autobahn and put on our sunwatch glasses.
There was still a thick cloudcover there, but luckily it often enough tore open, so
we where able to see the sun getting covered by the moon. It was awesome.
Just the moment before the sun was totally covered and the corona of the sun would have
been seen a large cloud covered everything up. So we didn't see that part of the eclipse.
But it grew darker and darker in the shadow of the moon and we looked around. In the distance
there was sunlight at the horizon. But where we stood it was dark. Just as if someone had used
a dimmer to switch the sun off slowly. The light faded away, but not like at dusk, there was
no red colors in it. Thru a hole in the cloudcover we were able to see stars.
It was as if nature was holding it's breath, as if time
stood still. I got goosebumps all over me, it was a very emotional feeling. I felt like laughing
and crying at the same time, it was such an awesome experience.
When the light started to come back after approx. 2 minutes my friends and I stood there in silence
looking at each other with a smile and an undescribable feeling of happiness. This truely was
the experience of a lifetime.
After a while we where able to talk about our experience and we drove to a city in France, the name
I forgot.
There we went thru the crowded streets and we stayed for an hour.
After that it was time for the journey back home.
We got into the car and drove off, heading back for Belgium. We planned on having dinner in Mons (a
beautiful city!). On the way back we came into another
traffic jam that was even worse than the first one (it seemed, all ppl wanted to go home again after the
eclipse was over). The cloudcover tore open, blue sky was there, the sun did shine like it should in summer.
It got hot in the car I fell asleep on the backseat of the car with my head in the full sunlight.
That was when it happened! I woke up with a 3 on the KIP Scale and I felt it rise.
I didn't want to disturb my friends in the front with it, so I kept a low
profile in the back of the car. I started to frown a little after the 4 was reached.
I begged the demon to stop, since it had been such a
wonderful day so far. After some minutes of doing this whithout making a noise I realized that
the intensity didn't go up further on the scale.
In fact, after begging for a while, the demon started to withdraw from me.
Within 20 minutes after realizing the attack it was gone.
So I was able to keep the memory of an awesome experience on a beautiful day without CH.
The demon showed mery and it was the first time.
The rest of the story is pretty easy to tell.
We had dinner in Mons and did hit the road again.
After coming home I fell into my bed and was greeted by
an attack after falling asleep.
But the day was so beautiful that it didn't get to my
nerves.
Whew, told you this would be long altough it has not
much to do with CH, right?
Whenever you get the opportunity to see a total eclipse, go
there and do it!
I posted these experiences because I never felt more
alive in my life than on that day and so ppl maybe remember, that there
are so many things in life to live for, things that CH can not take from us.
Please excuse my lengthy babblings,
Lars
PS: I am saving money now, so I can fly to Madagaskar
in 2001, because there the next eclipse will happen :)