NORWAY...LAND OF THE MIDNIGHT SUN

Norway...land of the midnight sun...land of Ibsen and Grieg...land of wild reindeer. But, mostly...land of great fjords.

I had visited Norway back in 1988, when I was on a round-the-world modeling junket for GQ Magazine. I had learned to speak fluent Norwegian, as well as Swedish, Finnish, Danish and Icelandic...all related but minutely different...when I was attending the Nassau County School for Boys. Many of the other teenage male models were shocked when I placed a dinner order at a restaurant in Norwegian...but not Petter Nordstrom, who came from Konigsberg, a suburb of Oslo.

In the middle of summer, one of the most shocking sights (if one is not used to it) is seeing the sun just skimming the sky as it "sets" in the west then skirts the horizon to "rise" in the east. This is because the sun never sets during the spring and summer. Also, it never rises during the fall and winter...henceforth, Norway goes through six months of daylight and six months of night.

One of the most beautiful sights is this fjord and lake...one of hundreds throughout Norway. The mountains are always topped with snow and mostly unclimbable. To attempt it without the proper equipment means certain death to even an experienced climber.

The water in Norway is untouched by the outside world, clear and blue. No wonder when Edvard Grieg and Henrik Ibsen left Norway for even so little as one week, they could not wait to return. I'm hoping that, someday, I can return here.

For those who know Norwegian, attending church on Sunday morning is no different than attending it anywhere else in the world. This stave church...so named because it is built with staves of pine from below the ground to the steeple...is one of thousands throughout the countryside. Synagogues can also be seen in Norway, though the Jewish religion is not as common here as it is in other countries in Europe.

Only the most daring person in the world would ever attempt what this young woman is doing. The rock she is standing on is caught between two cliffs almost two miles above the river which empties into the lake seen below it.

I may be daring enough to perform actual martial arts in films or on TV...but I'm no fool!

JAPAN...COUNTRY OF MYSTERY

Japan...land of anime, geisha and Godzilla!

It is also one of the most populated countries in the world, with apartments so small that a four-bedroom apartment is as big as a living room in a four-bedroom American home. And yet, it's still very comfortable.

Tokyo, the capital, is one of the most beautiful and colorful cities in the Far East. As a matter of fact, the colorful lights brighten the streets so brilliantly that it's a wonder that anybody can get to sleep. But, one look at the inside of your hotel room and you can see how easy it is to sleep amidst all the chaos outside. Windows are heavily tinted to dull the bright lights and insulated with the walls to offer unrequited silence so the weary traveler can easily fall asleep.

There are many sights worth visiting in Japan that the common traveler cannot take it all in in one or two weeks. It would take months! For instance, west of Tokyo (and yet visible from the rooftops of hotels) stands Mt. Fuji, its summit crowned with snow all year round. South of this majestic mountain are the cities of Kyoto and Yokohama, both equally as bustling and beautiful as Tokyo.

On the northern island of Hokkaido is the city of Sapporo, one of the most beautiful cities outside of the bustling cities on the island of Kyushu.

Far to the west on the island of Kyushu is the new city of Hiroshima, sight of the most powerful explosion to rock the 20th century. Yes, the city has been completely rebuilt except for the area directly around Ground Zero. There, one building stands as an eternal monument to atomic power. At its base are the names of the 80,000 victims of the first atomic bomb ever to be detonated.

Seventy miles west-southwest is a similar monument, listing the names of the 75,000 victims of the second atomic bomb in the city of Nagasaki. It is said that the blast was so powerful that it was able to be seen in mainland China. British author J. G. Ballard, author of the autobiographical novel "Empire of the Sun", told that he thought the flash was an angel who came to retrieve the soul of a woman who he sat with as she died. Even though the bomb exploded over three hundred miles away, Ballard said he had to shield his eyes from the sun-like brightness.

Today, the people of Hiroshima and Nagasaki harbor no ill feelings to the Americans. Many believe the bombings were deserved for politicians eagerness to start a war with "a sleeping giant".









Arthur Golden wrote in his most famous novel, Memoirs of a Geisha..."A story like mine has never been told...for my world is as forbidden as it is fragile. Without its secrets, it cannot survive".

The world of the beautiful geisha is one solely of women. It is comprised of women and one woman...the okasan, or mother...runs the entire okiya (geisha house). Her sole job is to raise young girls to become the most desirable women in the hanamachi (district). The girl starts out her life in the okiya as a worker...a servant. She cleans the clothing of her okei-san (big sister) as well as her room. She also cleans the okiya and, if the okasan believes her to be ready, sends her to a school whose sole purpose is to teach her to dance,










play the shamisen (a Japanese stringed instrument, not unlike the guitar, which is played with a stiff brush instead of the fingers),





and to entertain in a teahouse and be a hostess to a certain man who may someday become her danna, or patron. If she is lucky...and is chosen by a very wealthy man...she can be set for the rest of her life. If he is single, she may eventually become his wife. However, if he is already married, he remains married...yet she remains his mistress and may one day be chosen to become the next okasan of the okiya, a position no less beautiful and no less honorable. Fact: the geisha is not a prostitute. She is an paid escort and, as her title's translation speaks for itself, an artist. All the money she earns goes into the funds of the okiya, to be inherited by whichever geisha is adopted by the okasan as her daughter.

Today, Japan remains just as mysterious as it had been for the past 10,000 years...and its mysteries are there for one and all to solve.

FRANCE...THE LAND OF FINE WINE AND ROMANCE

St. Tropez...the holiday and vacation Mecca of the rich and famous and the jet set! This is one beautiful city, just a proverbial hop, skip and a jump down the beach from the principality of Monaco...and the casinos of Monte Carlo. Jennifer and I went here to celebrate our "paper" anniversary. And, boy, did we ever spend a lot of paper! After all, France may be a beautiful country...but it sure isn't cheap! Just one day alone can cost the average American over a thousand dollars. And, that ain't hay!

France, like Greece, is a land brimming with history. Just driving through the countryside, you can almost see the ghosts of Joan of Arc, the fighters of the Hundred Years' War, King Charles VI and his court at Chinon, Robert de Baudricourt and his garrison at Vaucouleurs...and so on.

One of our long travels began in the city of Nancy, not far from the village of Domremy-la-Pucelle. The house of Joan of Arc was a small place (by today's standards). It consists of two floors...the ground floor being the dining and milking area and the upper floor being where Joan, her three brothers, two sisters and their parents slept. Outside, behind the house, is the bathroom. The family used the nearby stream to bathe...which was often done without much privacy, because the countryside was brimming with English soldiers who just couldn't wait to find a young, naked girl to rape and a boy to hang and laugh at as he choked to death.

From Domremy, we followed Joan's trail which led us to the village of Vaucouleurs, where Joan met her first "helper" in her crusade...Robert de Baudricourt. It was here she performed her first "miracle"...keeping the hens and cows from laying eggs and giving milk until de Baudricourt seceded to her demands of armor, a horse and several soldiers who would accompany her to the court of the Dauphin. As soon as de Baudricourt gave in, the hens started laying eggs like mad...ten dozen eggs in one minute! It was then that de Baudricourt realized that he was actually helping a living saint.

Next on our trip came the city of Chinon...and the castle in which the royal court was exiled while the English held Paris. Within these walls, one could almost see Joan talking to Charles in private and telling him of her plans to take Orleans, thereby freeing the way to Rheims...and making Charles the true king.

Our final stop on the "Joan of Arc" route was the city of Rouen, where, on May 30, 1431, Joan was burned at the stake in the marketplace. The centerpiece of the marketplace today has a beautiful statue of Joan in full armor, her sword touching the ground and her gauntleted hands on the hilt, her eyes facing the church.

The final stop of our trip to France was the 495-foot tall Eiffel Tower, one of the most beautiful structures of nineteen-century technology. Greta Garbo once climbed to the top (while Melvyn Douglas took the elevator) and Superman foiled a terrorist plot to blow it up, saving Lois Lane in a plunging elevator at the same time.

Built by the same man responsible for the Statue of Liberty, the Eiffel Tower boasts a daily log of 15,000 visitors as well as hundreds of diners at its midpoint restaurant. The food there is exquisite. Just don't order French fries with your filet mignon. Be sure to order pomme de terre julienne (French for fries). One piece of advice for the first-time visitor...learn the language before you go. The French waiters cannot tolerate customers who can't speak the language. Sort of reminds you of the U.S....doesn't it?

GREECE...LAND OF MYTHS AND LEGENDS

I had always felt Greece to be a beautiful country...mostly, because I had always loved the tales that I used to read when I was growing up. The Trojan War, in which the young prince Paris had taken the Queen of Sparta as his bride...his gift from the goddess of love for choosing her as the most beautiful of all the goddesses of Mount Olympus, thus earning the wrath of Hera, the queen of the gods and the protector of wedded couples.

Hera sided with the Greek forces, led by King Agamemnon of Mycenae and elder brother of Menelaus, King of Sparta. Among the gods and goddesses of Olympus, Zeus alone chose to stay out of the battle...since it was his job originally to choose the most beautiful of the goddesses. Hera was his wife...Aphrodite, his daughter. He chose his other daughter, Athena, goddess of war, to pick which mortal would be given the honor of deciding which goddess was the most beautiful.

Athena, who always thought the Trojans to be the most valiant of warriors, chose Paris because he was fond of beautiful women and, therefore, had no problem choosing which was the most beautiful. The competing goddesses, however, knew that in order for the mortal to choose properly, he must be "bribed" properly. Hera offered Paris riches beyond compare; Aphrodite offered the most beautiful of mortal women. It didn't matter to Aphrodite whether the woman was married or not. So, Paris chose the goddess of love and beauty...and, in return, was offered the love of Helen (who happened to be Zeus's daughter, for whom he named the country which was to go to war with Troy).

Before going to war with the Trojans, Agamemnon sacrificed his eldest daughter, Iphigenia, upon the altar of Athena. Athena, however, did not like this blood-sacrifice. It didn't matter to her that Agamemnon built one of the most beautiful temples in her honor...the Pallas Athena, or Parthenon (pictured above), one of the most enduring structures of the ancient world still recognizable today.

After the fall of Troy, King Odysseus of Ithaca cursed Athena for the time he lost with his wife and infant son. In her anger, she pleaded with her sister Thetis (whose mortal son, Achilles, had died in the war) to persuade their brother Poseidon to raise the sea and winds and delay the mortal's return home for an equal amount of years that he had been away from his queen, Penelope, and son Telemachus. Only when they decided that Odysseus was punished enough did Poseidon calm the winds and waters and allowed the hero to reach home.

Santorini...the remnants of a long-dead volcano, the caldera of which is seen here beyond the church. In the year 1250 B.C., this volcano became the cause of the well-known plagues of the Old Testament. It was this volcano, when it exploded, which churned up red mud for hundreds of miles in all directions. It, too, was the cause of the parting of the Red Sea, drawing the waters into its empty caldera and creating the dry land which the newly-freed Hebrew slaves used to escape from Egypt. At times, minor quakes can churn up the mud and the center of the lake turns blood red. The church in the picture was also the headquarters of the Resistance during World War II. Unlike many other religious buildings, it has never been conquered.

The beautiful inlet of Parga, created by a ring of mountainous islands...itself the remains of an ancient volcano. It was here that I did my first piece of modeling during a two-country photo shoot for Italian designer Donatella Versace, whose brother Gianni was murdered only a few months earlier...and who had given me my first modeling job when I was 15. On this trip in 1997, I took my girlfriend and, dressed as Paris of Troy, got down on one knee and asked her to marry me. When Jennifer accepted, Donatella Versace was so happy that she went right to work designing a wedding gown for her.

The boat-filled harbor of Mykonos, one of the most well-visited islands of the Cyclades. The building just off-right near the top was the hotel which Jennifer and I stayed at when there. It was this harbor which was the backdrop for the Sophia Loren film "Boy on a Dolphin". The pier (left of the hotel) is where the film's finale took place, where Alan Ladd chased Loren down and kissed her. While we were there, Jennifer and I re-created the scene...with the same results!

While Jennifer and I were staying on Mykonos, we usually had our meals at this beautiful seaside cafe. I loved the sea breeze as it brought the salty smell of the water. Of course, someone could have told me that the salt also deposited itself on our skin and clothing...and, unfortunately, sometimes in our food! But, the scenery was so beautiful that we mostly overlooked it. After breakfast, we would walk, hand in hand, along the beach. After lunch, we would go for a swim in the beautiful clear blue water and swim into the caves and grottos. At night came another walk, readying us for sleep.

One of the most beautiful places at which to relax and just soak up the sun is the beach on the Aegean island of Samos. In Greek mythology, it is said that Samos was the true home of the sea goddess Thetis. It is here where she actually met a mortal named Peleus, an Argonaut who became king shortly after returning from Colchis, where Jason found the Golden Fleece. Peleus went down to this beach and was entranced when he saw the beautiful goddess. It was said that after they married, he went away to war and never returned home. However, Thetis was pregnant with his child and chose to bear their son, Achilles, near the river Styx. It was within this river that she dipped her child and endowed him with invulnerability. Sad to say, during the Trojan War a well-aimed arrow shot by the Trojan prince Paris destroyed that invulnerability when it was shot through the heel that his mother held him by...the only part of his body that did not receive the benefit from the river. After Achilles was killed at Troy, the goddess waited until after his body was cremated to gather the ashes and sprinkle them along the stretch of beach at Samos.