Spain+Portugal 2007

So I am going to spend a couple of weeks between Spain and Portugal at the end of the month.
Finally, after years of false alarms, I have made my mind.
Or, better, I made my mind about going, but I have no clear idea of where I am going yet...
but that's the interesting side of the all thing, I will decide at the last minute where to go and what to see, I want to travel light, not many thoughts in my head...
wanna join?

"It is almost axiomatic that the worst trains take you through magical places." -Paul Theroux

The sky above Berlin

There is a movie of a kind I haven't seen in the last few years... It's a german movie, in black and white, terribly slow and poetic, about angels, love and Berlin.
It's called Der Himmel uber Berlin. What I remember as a striking feature of that movie is the sense of thoughtfulness and at the same time of irony that the city was communicating. I wasn't expecting it but I had the same feeling in East Berlin last weekend.
I like that city, it is still full of open spaces, like grass fields among the buildings, sometimes modern buildings sometimes really old ones. and the germans are sooo relaxed! Don't believe what they say in Italy: at least in east Berlin people are taking things really easy and that's a good thing. Actually, there is a thing they are really seriuos about and that is electronic music (loong night on the Spree on Saturday.... not really used to it anymore)!!! again, I am lucky to have friends that are living there, definetely the best way to enjoy the city!!!! A really great weekend!

uhm.. and now?? back to Italy next weekend!! and then I will have to stay quiet for a while... otherwise I will have serious problems in deciding where my "home" actually is! God, I have the travel bug!!

Stories from the city: part II

And now the city, NYC, the big apple.... (actually I discovered why it is called big apple, nothing regarding the shape of the city as I was thinking before...)
The first thing I noticed was the size: everything is bigger there; cars, supermarkets, streets, buildings, people, portions (god, I am still dreaming of those bbq ribs)... And then I saw the yellow cabs, the trucks, the skyscrapers and the police cars and I had this surreal feeling that I was in a movie, not in a real city... it was so strange!

I booked a bed in an hostel on the 30th street (part of the Chelsea Star chain, nice, I would recommend it) so I was quite close to the center (where center is probably a concept you can apply to the whole Manhattan). The first night I just went to Times Square, before the effects of the long nights at the synchrotron took their toll, but the rest of the visit was pretty busy.
I am lucky to have a few friends which are spending a year of their PhD there and together we did a pretty intensive sightseeing weekend (grazie un sacco ragazzi, sarebbe stata una visita molto piu grigia e solitaria senza di voi!!!!).

A few highlights: Grand Central is definitely the most impressive train station I have ever seen: it makes you think of the gold age of the trains, of the beginning of the 20th century, of ladies in long dresses and little umbrellas sat at a coffee.... I really enjoyed the Metropolitan Museum and I think that the MoMA has the most amazing collection of modern art I have seen so far (sorellina, you have to go!!!). Then Ellis Island is really a must, especially if you feel a little bit an immigrant like I do; the museum is really well organized!! and obviously the view of Manhattan from the top of the Empire State building was breathtaking, but for this the pics are a better way to explain!!!

I found that Manhattan is not so big but more compact, more "vertical" than London (I couldn't help myself from doing comparison between the two cities all the time... they are so similar in their being multicultural and frenetic and then so different in a million little things..). Strikingly, NYC is made of straight lines but as in London crossing one street can suddenly change the environment completely so maybe this is a trait that all big cities have in common. The fact is that they are both really really big cities so it's difficult to grasp their nature, especially with only a few days available... I had the impression that New York is more vibrant than London, especially in areas like the East Village and Chinatown but I am not sure I really would like to live there, in a way it lacks of history, everything is relatively new and I had the feeling as if they are in search of myths all the time, as if they are still trying to build their history. Nothing bad with it, don't get me wrong, although sometimes this makes them a bit overexcited for things that are not so exceptional... I think.

A rushed judgment? Ok ok, I hope I will have the opportunity to go to the states again... so many things still to see.. but the first bit of the big apple was good... ;)





more pics on facebook: http://kcl.facebook.com/photos.php?id=762585025, but you have to register with them if you don't have an account yet, I am afraid.. but then you will discover how addictive facebook can be!

The big apple....

Oh yes, so don't hold your breath (I am pretty sure it's not the case...) if you don't see any new post in the next ten days or so: I am going to a course on crystallography outside New York, obviously followed by a few days in the big city!!!
I can't wait to be there!!!

Derive... or how to get lost on purpose

Easter weekend.. the weather has been really nice so far so I went for a walk in East London with one of my flatmates yesterday. I like wandering randomly in London, I think it is the best way to discover its hidden little treasures... (actually you can even make a kind of philosophy out of it, but that's another story)

We started from Highbury and Islington station and headed randomly south. The Islington area is really nice and has experienced an intense renovation in the last few years. Maybe something like this will happen to Willesden Green at some point but probably I will not be around to see it happen..
Walking down Upper Street you can see churches with nice little parks and little opening among the old houses that give the all area a quite relaxed atmosphere. Not many people around, almost no tourists... suddenly a random invasion of people with painted eggs in little baskets announced us that we were close to a polish church: How weird!

After passing through the busy Camden Passage with its vintage little shops (I didn't know there was something like that in the area!) we walked along the Regent's Canal (and as usual I had to realize that canals are everywhere in London) with its old warehouses that make a striking contrast with the newly built, expensive flats with view on the water. We ended our walk passing trough Hackney, probably not the best borough of London but not lacking of its own nice spots. Like Columbia Road, where every Sunday there is a big flower market and where we ended our stroll in a cafe, in front of nice salad!! (food is good...) I still think that the all area around Bethnal Green, Shoreditch and Wapping deserves more exploring, but this will be another walk. Summer is coming!

Amsterdam 2007

Such an amazing city!! I fell in love with it...
Not many photos taken I am afraid (the insides of the coffeeshops are not really famous for being good places where to take pics :) but here are a few.

Bristol

Lo scorso weekend sono stato a Bristol. Il cielo e' stato per lo piu' plumbeo (ma ormai ci si e' fatto il callo..) pero' la citta' mi e' davvero piaciuta: bella perche' piena di salite e discese, di case a riviera che mi hanno ricordato Bath, perche' la si puo camminare praticamente tutta e perche' la gente e' fisicamente e mentalmente piu' vicina, se capite quel che intendo dire. La dimensione e' la cosa che piu' salta all'occhio arrivando da Londra: e' umana, puoi pensare alla citta' come a una entita' singola, mentre Londra la devi spezzare e dividere in citta' minori per poterla definire (London is a state of mind, ma questo sara' argomento di un altro post...). Ovvio poi, le cose da fare e vedere sono limitate e non la scambierei con Londra, ma e' stato un piacevole modo per staccare dalla metropoli, almeno per un weekend. Poi la gente li si diverte di brutto! Mi ci son voluti due giorni per recuperare (mitico Antrix!)..

Travelling...

I wanna hang a map of the world in my house. Then I'm gonna put pins into all the locations that I've traveled to. But first, I'm gonna have to travel to the top two corners of the map so it won't fall down.

Mitch Hedberg (1968 - 2005)

almeno ho gia la mappa...