So it turns out the Sea does look just like a big lake, or leastwise, that's what it were like when we first saw it. That's on account our first glimpse, a couple days out of Mundburg near a city they call Pelargir what's at the mouth of the Great River, is in the narrowest part of the Bay of Belfalas, so you can see the other side easy enough. During the next few days of riding, we followed the shore, and the Bay got wider and wider. Couldn't see the other side fair soon, and it got to looking like a vasty, threateningly wide bit of wet nothing. Being out on a ship so far out there that you could barely see the land don't seem like a wholesome thing to do. Some of me is curious what it's like, and most of me thinks, you couldn't get me on one them things for all the silver in the world. (Though I did take my boots off so's I could step into it just so I could say I done it.) I can't help wonder, though, whether that's just me. Wish Beoda could be with us to see it, so's I'd know what she'd think.
The other reason is, I can't begin to describe some of it to folk. First there's the wind. Sometimes there's wind on a lake, but this wind is different. It never stops, for one. And while it can be chill, and cut right through you, when the weather's foul, it's got something in it that's not like any other wind. A breath of it makes you feel stronger, more awake, and I can't say why or how. But it's also relaxing, strips away the cares and worries. Might never want to be on the Sea, but it's nice being next to it, on account of that wind.
The other thing that's different is the smell, and there's no way I could describe it because it's not like anything else. The folks here will tell you the word for the smell is "briny" and they're not even joking, that's a real word. But if you ask them what it means, they can only say it's the smell of the Sea. So it's no help at all describing it to someone what never smelled it. What's the Sea smell like? Briny. What's briny mean? It's the smell of the Sea. Well, thankee for that! One fellow said it smelled salty, and aye, there's salt in the smell, but that's like trying to describe mead to someone by saying it's a bit watery, which is true but it leaves out all the bits what matters.
Day after day we passed through the places in Gondor what were near the Sea. There were proper, well-kept roads, and cities every so often, with pleasant inns and people what made us feel welcome, so long as we could pay. Out near a place they called the Cape, it felt like everyone we saw was as wealthy as a Thane and we felt out of place just being amongst them, being simple folk without gold in our pockets. And everywhere was the wind and the smell of the Sea, even when you was out of sight of the waves themselves. The creaking of the wood of ships in the water, rocking in a way that just watching it made me lose my appetite. They say there's good fishing in the Sea, especially out where the water's deeper than the sky is tall, but I think I'll stick to rivers and lakes, thank you very much.
It's coming on late in the day as we are finally coming to sight of Dol Amthor, the city we've been heading towards all along. Adri told me it were built by Elves what left (I think), and now it's a city of Men what moved in after. Since the Dwimordene weren't nothing like Imladris I reckon as every Elf city is not like any other, so it won't be like neither. But from here, where we first see it in the distance, it just looks like a city of Gondor, white and tall, standing proud above the land instead of nestled inside it like a babe in her ma's arms. Maybe when we're there, after we had a night in its inn and can start to explore it, we'll be able to see what shows it as made by the Elves.
