sunday, march 28
a night train from barcelona to milan, an hotel on tracks. we (myself and my friend, melanie) left from estatio de francia at 7:30pm in a tiny sleeper cabin bound for arrival in milan the next morning. no airport, no ridiculous security (except for our luggage being x-rayed), and no hurry. sleeping on a train is actually a wonderful event, almost like being in a cradle gently rocking into slumber.

monday, march 29
arrived in stazione centrale 2 hours late after the train was delayed in france to arrest a traveler. most of it happened while we were sleeping and the delay into milan was nothing but a “who cares” moment. we checked in to a hotel near missori and decided to check out the city for the day. saw the duomo, hit a tiny place called luini for a yummy pizza dough “empanada” filled with fresh mozzarella and tomatoes and snacked in front of la scala and the statue of da vinci.

next some window shopping in the quadrilatero d’oro, a sight amongst the hip shoppers on their way to hermes, valentino, etc. (insert name of big fashion designer). even the bicycles were swanky

this town knows how to get around, and i am not talking about motorcycles and vespas. they were beautiful glossy black with wicker baskets that really made me miss my “il duce” cruiser. even their public bike system had nice bicycles. florence had them too, just grittier homemade painted versions.

then to navigli to check out the canals, imagine our surprise when there wasn’t any water. but we did have a great dinner in an antique pizzeria and gelato before walking back to the hotel. we wandered past san lorenzo alle colonne, sixteen corinthian columns in piazza vetra lit with coloured lights that opened out of nowhere. a nice beginner introduction to milano.

tuesday, march 30
a note about public transport in italy…after being educated on the systems of barcelona, the italian rail and milan metro are easily navigable. before we knew it we were at stazione de santa maria novella in florence. we found our hotel de la pace and walked down to the duomo to join our fellow touristas in reveling at the sights.

on a side street we found a very popular panini stand, il fratellini. wonderful fresh bread, jamon, goat cheese and ruccula. we had arrived late for lunch so they only had enough bread for one sandwich, but well worth the find, we shared the treat on the street. next piazza della signoria in front of the palazzo vecchio. i wanted to see the statues in the loggia – perseus with the head of medusa, rape of the sabine, and the plaque to savonrola’s bonfire of vanities and the fontana di nettuno.

on to mercato nuovo to try our luck at the fontana del porcellino. rub the boars nose and place a coin in its mouth. let go and see if it falls down into the well (good fortune that says you will return to firenze someday). no such luck. oh well off to the ponte vecchio to see cellini’s bust where lovers place locks on the iron fence and throw the key into the arno. all the locks had been removed (in 2006 the statue had 5500 lucchetti d’amore-love locks!) now all that remains is a notice stating 160€ fine for placing a lock. how sad all those keys settled into the silt of the arno, and no locks to stand defiantly over not opening. i was humming in my head “you got the right key but the wrong keyhole”. across the river we stopped at palazzo pitti. the weather was threatening rain unfortunately, because the long sloping piazza would have been great for a lay in the sun.

the weather- april is a strange time for tuscany. quick moving rainstorms with thunder and lightening that melted into blue skies several times a day. the wind is cold and so were the temperatures.

we continued along the arno opposite to the city center walking past piazza poggi where one of the many city gates still stand. finally crossing back over on the ponte san niccolo, we passed through piazza beccaria and pizzale donatello to make a 7km circle back to our hotel. we asked for a “close by” suggestion to eat at the hotel. Tito’s a small restaurant serving homemade pastas – the parpadella with wild boar was amazing! i watched the table next to us order a menu, first course hams and salami, next huge chunks of three cheeses, wine, pasta and then finally steak to finish. i was a bit jealous that i didn’t have the courage or the stomach capacity to order that kind of dinner.

wednesday, march 31
our first plan was to go biking through the countryside, but due to the weather and a goof up by the hotel our ideas were dashed. so where to go….siena, san gimignano, lucca, volterra? but first to find an ATM.

ATMs are not easy to find in florence despite what the guidebooks say. we asked, got wrong directions or broken bank machines. unless you are near the tourist hot spots, an ATM can be hard to find.

we decided to go to siena via regional train. the clouds seemed to part and the sun came through once we left florence. a sign that we had made a good decision. i expected siena to be smaller, i don’t know why. when we arrived at the station, we found the tourist office closed and were forced to purchase a map of the city. it was a bit confusing as to how to get to the center, by bus or walk? we couldn’t figure out how to buy bus tickets and the bus driver was talking on his mobile. we jumped on the bus anyways, ticket or not, but got back off two stops later out of guilt for not paying and because it was evident that walking was possible. siena is a beautiful walled city.

the highlight, piazza del campo, was worth the ride. it looks like a very expensive bathroom sink (guidebook lonely planet’s description not mine), it really does. a long gently sloping bowl towards the palazzo comunale. it may be that i liked this piazza because of the sunlight and the urge to lay down and sunbathe. imagining “the palio” in this plaza made my eyes water. all the viewers in the sink while men and bare backed horses race around the lip. what a sight it must be. only early by 4 months. back in florence, we found a great spot for dinner, trattoria marione. it felt like a family. papa yelling out orders and running things from behind the bar, brothers/daughters/uncles waiting tables all joking with each other. a good end of the day.

thursday, april 1
we need some wine! we decided to go on a wine tour in the region “il chianti”. travelling to a vineyard castillo di querceto, a 12th century castle owned by the same family since 1897. producing chianti and super tuscan wines. the cellars were gorgeous, holding bottles as old as 1906. we sampled bread with the vineyard’s own olive oil and tasted 3 wines. we were sitting with a group of 4 who were talking in English, so I asked where they were from. mom and daughter from chesapeake virginia. go figure. we had some good laughs.

next onto greve in chianti for a short look around. the main plaza had butcher shops with tempting local salami, and enough chianti products to ensure any wine aficionado happiness. it was brief but we said goodbye to the birthplace of machiavelli and verrazzano and headed back to florence.

the last section of the city we had not encountered was santa croce. the beautiful church in the main square where michelangelo and galileo are buried elicited more appreciation from me than the duomo. on a suggestion from our friends on the wine tour we headed to cafe italiano for some pizza. a swanky restaurant with a side door to the pizza oven with a small selection of wood tables to eat pizza and listen to the cook singing. of course the pizza portion was full, so we hesitantly wandered to the main part of the restaurant. it may have been expensive but worth it. the stewed lamb in wild flower honey and grilled artichokes was heavenly.

then the fright…melanie had misplaced her wallet and was unsure if she had gotten it stolen or left it in the hotel. yikes. on top of that we needed to walk to the train station to buy tickets for the following day to milan. we were worried about traveling on good friday with the rest of italy. 10:30 at night is not the time to walk to the train station, but we did it and tickets in hand raced back to the hotel. wallet was in the room, whew.

friday, april 2
headed home. weird day. empty anniversary (i will not elaborate). we were in florence until 3 wandering past all the familiar sites. one last look at my favourite statues in piazza della signoria. milan until 7:30 where we purchased a pizza and beers for dinner on the train. if you want to get stared at in milan don’t try wearing couture just walk around with a giant pizza box. it was a wasting time kind of day. but then came the journey home. there is something in travel by train that is romantic to me. the slow pace of time and distance that gives you time to ponder the place left and the destination. flying is like cell phones, facebook or twitter…instant gratification that leaves me empty. no real connection. on the train, sharing our cabin with 2 other girls thrown together by chance, we found connection and conversation and most important, time. time for it to develop. ease to sleep among strangers, laugh at shared victories and defeats and to leave knowing something was shared.

favourite song from my “train travel” playlist – love in vain by the rolling stones

a giant piece of lit up pasta? in barcelona, even this doesn’t surprise me. but it did make me take a photo and go and look up the explanation…barcelona this year, along with new christmas decorations and lights on the major shopping streets, have installed sculpture pieces representing the holidays. pasta? not my first choice, but ok. well traditional catalan christmas lunch is a soup called ‘escudella de galets’. the galet is the pasta. apparently there will be other sculptures: turkeys, chickens, bottles of cava and roscones (traditional biscuits) which will be distributed around the city. i can’t wait to see them all dressed up in their electric holiday glow…

the barcelona public biking system…more often than not you will find that your bike is broken in some way, but it beats trying to find parking. plus better for the environment.

while on a recent trip driving through minnesota, land of 10,000 lakes i kept seeing caution signs for horse and buggy. wasn’t sure the reason until i passed this gentleman on the road. it is a bit reassuring that even in this electronic age that there are those that still manage to live simply.

today’s snapshot is a staple on the table while i am writing these posts. in fact it factors into almost every day. it may be small but doesn’t it look delicious. yeah for spanish coffee.

i know it is a little bit of a stretch, but i am putting this post under art. our visit to Berlin did have an architectural theme, and all of the bars below were praised for their interior design.

our first contestant, i mean bar, is The Green Door. it really does have a green door. behind the door is a very intimate cocktail bar, styled in that classic, trendy 70’s retro feel. out of all the bars we went to, this one was my favorite. Jason had a Chartreuse Vert martini that sounded scary but tasted amazing. he commented that only a really good bartender could make that drink correctly, if the proportions were off by the slightest the drink would have been ghastly.

way to go Green Door! we award you eighteen martini onions, two blue-cheese stuffed olives, and one german radish!

second up is Universum Lounge – Extraordinary space-age Charlottenberg design bar rightly rated by Wallpaper* as one of their best bars in the world. located in the glorious 1920s Bauhaus Universum Cinema, walk inside and you might as well be in a movie – some sort of James Bond-meets-Fellini glamour fest. sounds great, but it was a bit of a let down. the drinks were not extraordinary except in price and the interior looked as though it had seen better days. the “space” theme was cool and the staff were nice. it may have been more exciting if more people had been there, the place was a little dead.

Bad job, universum, we award you four martini onions and a packet of stale crisps.

how sad, no photos.

next…6vorne – featured in FRAME magazine ‘think clean lines, dark walnut features, lashings of Germanic minimalism all bathed in the most wonderful of orange and green lights. this is why ‘6Vorne’ is the talk among Berlin’s fashionistas.’ where had the vision gone? the decor was still there along with “Marlboro” ashtrays, “Redbull” wine buckets, “Smirnoff” glassware, I thought I had died and gone to marketing hell. yuck. the owner was really nice, maybe a bit too “how’s everything”, “how are you doing?”, etc. maybe he was just curious how we had found out about his place or thought we were important. we had a good laugh after leaving thinking that the owner must have thought we were magazine reviewers or something.

On the fence about this one, we award 6vorne nine martini onions and two anchovy stuffed olives

our last, CSA – Friedrichshain used to be a run-down former East Berlin neighborhood, but is now something of a hipster hangout. and one of its hippest hangouts is CSA (the acronym for Czechoslovakia’s national airline which used to be located in this building). it has a stylish Soviet retro feel and is laid-back in a way that lining up to buy your one-way ticket to Prague in the old days never was. when we stepped out of the Ubahn onto the street, the town looked deserted and were not hopeful we would find the bar since we had forgotten the physical address. but there it was, unusually quiet. it was open but we were the only ones inside. We wondered “what time do the Berliners drink”? Had we missed the rush? Oh well. It was a nice place, groovy music, with not a hipster in sight. With damn good drinks and very cool retro airline furniture.

Excellent job, CSA! We award you 16 martini onions, one blue cheese stuffed olive, and a single very fresh oyster!

Over all, a successful haunt of Berlin’s most notorious bars.

border
the line that separates one country, state, province, etc., from another
the frontier of civilization
brink; verge
an outer part or edge

this week i planned my first “meetup” event. we went to the Centre de Cultura Contemporania de Barcelona (CCCB), to see an exhibition called Fronteres (Borders). the exhibition was designed as a journey through passage ways representing the path through different worlds…”in a movement that brings together history and geopolitics, the gaze of photographers and eye-witnesses, sounds and maps, general reflections and field studies. a reflection on the concept of the border, its types and a review of some of today’s geopolitical borders (the boundaries of Europe, US-Mexico, Israel-Palestine, North Korea-South Korea, Kashmir, Miami-Havana, the case of Melilla (Spain/Morocco)). quote from the CCCB website

it was an interesting show and well laid out, i was even amazed to receive an english brochure that didn’t suck. usually the english translations are almost non-existent or at the best a small paragraph that the editor was confident that they could write in english. i learned a lot. of course after living in Arizona i was fully aware of the conflict of people crossing the US/Mexico border, but i did not know that Spain still had land on the the continent of Africa, a town called “Melilla” that is a completely enclosed by fences because it is a part of Spain that is in Morocco. or what some illegal immigrants go through to go from Africa to Europe. or how maritime borders make the ocean look like a jig saw puzzle.

the meetup group included myself, super-jason, anna (our fearless leader), rosa, jose, melania, and marije. besides myself, most of the group had a good grasp of Castellano and so when we bumped into a tour group being led by a journalist, all aboard! i stayed behind and just slowly read through the 6 pages of translations. i found out that i missed some good personal commentary by the journalist, but i wouldn’t have understood even if i had kept up with the group. i got a good translation afterwards from Melania and Rosa, and we had a wonderful roundtable discussion on our viewpoints. i was surprised to find that a lot of Europeans are not aware that US citizens cannot travel to Cuba (well not easily and definitely not legally)

Travel Journal of an Illegal Immigrant

Kashmir, the Forgotten Paradise

Rromano Than, Exiles & Refuges

Exile – OceanMaleconDrive: Transatlantic Street
Miami’s Ocean Drive & Cuba’s Malecon

all in all it was a successful experience. I met new people from Barcelona and Netherlands, saw some beautiful photography, and stopped to think about the world.

Crossing borders helps us to see and understand. Looking beyond means taking risks of venturing on to a foreign continent, of facing up to a different horizon, of being surprised by new faces and finding oneself without a home, without identity or, at least, implicated. A mirror effect. What will we know a the journey’s end, once we have crossed the final boundary? quote from the Borders pamphlet

all pictures shown are my own pictures of the photos in the exhibition. they didn’t stop me or tell me not to do it, so….

the exhibit we had come to see was “A Theater without Theater”….sounds intriguing. this was another “Meet Up” event, and our cast for the evening included: juliet & rich, anna, henrik, kim & suzy, and of course yours truly (well and that husband of mine.) The point of this theater without theater was to ……”examine the relationship and interchanges between the theater and the visual arts during the 20th century” as quoted from the pamphlet. the problem was that our tour was in Catalan and the only person who remotely understood was anna. so the rest of us slowly wandered from room to room coming up with our own interpretations.

first was the polish theater in the round with very religious overtones (we were seeing a video, not live.) basically a guy gets beaten by men in robes until he is screaming in agony and then he dies, and some woman puts him in her lap. next…..

we moved on to performance art pieces….in which we saw a women who stood on a corner in paris for 110 minutes and let people suggest what she should do. all i have to say is there are some naughty people in paris because that women was putting some vegetables into some strange places. next……

a brief overview: futurism, dadaism, constructivism, and minimalism were all avant-garde movements (thank you college course in the history of theater) which the museum was trying to show their consequences and contributions to art in the 21st century, but it really just came off as a bit $%^&*! Cerebral and full of its self, but i found it was interesting.

there were a lot of theater posters which were fun to look at…..

after the exhibit we stood outside and asked each other what was our favorite piece. i think henrik’s answer was the best – “the rooftop terrace bar”.

I don’t mean in the christian salvation way….I mean I saw Jesus walking down the street in a burlap tunic carrying a nice leather briefcase. Not exactly something you see everyday….a scrubby looking guy wearing next to nothing looking as though he has given away all his worldly possessions, well all but the briefcase. Besides that great visual, I also saw some great urban art while walking today.

The art is this town is inspiring. Everywhere I turn I see some statue or graffiti or advertisement that is just makes me smile. Now of course there is the obvious Gaudi architecture everywhere, but it is more than that. On Rambla de Catalunya, Jason and I ran across an public installation going up in the main walkway that runs down the middle of the street.

Every little space is used, you look out a store window and see a beautiful terrace hidden from the world. Here it seems beauty is not just on display but is begged to be discovered. Under, over, through, inside she beckons you to take a look and see what you might find.