| Naples |
[Aug. 1st, 2008|10:47 pm] |
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Internet at the cafe/wine bar
open till 2 am but at 22:48 getting crowded
thinking drinking starts after sunset
Castel dell'Ovo Castle of the egg
"The castle's name stems from a medieval legend which holds that the poet Virgil, who developed a medieval reputation as a great sorcerer, had a magical egg put in the foundations to support them."
once the egg is broken, the city is doomed
thank gods, the egg is magical
today Pompeii: they found empty holes in the lava and filled them in with plaster. turned out to be dead people
how many holes it takes to fill the albert hall?
tomorrow: Vesuvius, Sorrento? Torne a Sorrento
Circumvesuvia is the railroad
sort of like BART
san francisco is a tradable commodity of stories
san francisco
dave will blog now |
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[Jun. 17th, 2008|02:15 am] |
Kostik took me to Serj Tankian's concert today. He was the frontman of System of a Down, but he was performing his solo album here, and it was totally cool. Check out his YouTube page: http://www.youtube.com/user/serjtankian?ob=1
It's way more mellow than System, the lyrics are quite good, it carries a lot of political content Roger Waters-style (the music too seems Pink Floydian at times), and he is an awesome performer. He did the entire show in a top hat.
The local kids were going crazy. I was in the middle of the crowd on the dance floor and got heavily elbowed by people en masse jumping up and down. |
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[May. 16th, 2008|02:36 am] |
I am running around the city in the haze of sleeplessness, propelled by the desire-need to see everybody at once. The city is all around me, but I have no time to pay attention to it. There is still a huge "I love you" painted in white on the brick wall of the neighboring building. There's a lady selling vobla (fish) across the street from the subway station where my school was (and still is). There is a surprising amount of fruit kiosks. (There had been a lot of kiosks once, then they cleared them all out, now I guess there's a new kiosk wave?). Everybody's eating (serves me with) imported (previously frozen?) strawberries. We're all obsessed with strawberries here. (Meanwhile, all the strawberries in the ground probably froze during the freak snow storm, so everybody who has a garden is buying new plants).
There are some beautiful puddles in the city. There are a lot of puddles -- springtime is puddletime -- and they attract the gaze and demand to be noticed (unless you want your feet soaking wet and your yellow pants completely black and crusted in mud). Puddles in asphalt reflect blue sky and white clouds and the wind and an occasional bird and maybe streetlamps and trolleybus wires. They are like little mirrors that reflect things that we can't see because we have to watch out for puddles. |
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[May. 15th, 2008|03:51 am] |
It is snowing in St. Petersburg today. Green grass, flowers, apple blossoms covered in snow. To be more precise, it snowed last night, and during the day today the weather varied as follows: sunshine, snow/rain, sunshine, snow, thunderstorm, hail, sunshine (around 9 pm). I forgot the golden rule of never leaving the house without an umbrella. Even though umbrella accounted for one pound of reasons why my luggage was 10 pounds overweight.
Life in St. Petersburg is hectic. Personally, I had three dinners (or suppers?) today. I started with cake with Lena and Vadik while baby Alisa was taking a nap, then moved on to have meat cutlets and salad and sweets at my aunt Anya's and cousin Paul's place, and then my neighbors (Kostik and Co) were making mussels and I couldn't not have any, naturally. For all this fun fare, I have criss-crossed the city four times gaining ample opportunity to observe the weather.
Getting to SPb from Amsterdam was no problem, except my parents thought for some reason that I was leaving at 15:50, while in fact I was landing at 15:50 -- which nicely reversed the traditional roles of who waits for whom at the airport :)
Last day in the Hague was my museum day. I went to see the Esher museum -- lots of great prints and a few of his woodcut originals, and also the Mauritshuis, where they have a small but excellent collection of the Dutch Golden Age (17th C) masterpieces. Vermeer's Girl with the Pearl Earring is there. Also a bunch of Rembrandts and Halses, etc. etc. I think I'm acquiring the taste. After the museums, I went to the Haagse Bos, the forest of the Hague -- a huge park in the middle of the city. They've got what they call de Koekamp there -- a cow camp? -- but I saw moose (or deer?) and rabbits! Rabbits are so cute when they hope from tree to tree and munch on grass in the sunshine. Ah, rabbits. Maybe I'll dream of them tonight.
So that's it about the Netherlands for now. I am likely to have lots more to say about it after much deep thought and re-examination of lived experiences (and Wikipedia). Read on! |
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[May. 11th, 2008|05:10 am] |
I had a bit of adventure today. First of all, I was in Amsterdam and in the mood for adventure -- I even went to a cafe that was recommended to me as a "writer's hang-out," but the most adventure I found there was ordering a cappuccino in English (forget my note on the Dutch language, everybody speaks perfect English!). The adventure awaited for me down the street, at the opera. I got the ticket (from a nice man in his 60s or so who had two but only needed one) to see Tristan and Isolde at the De Nederlandse Opera. It started at 6 pm and was supposed to end around 11, but actually ended around 11:15. I knew that the last train to the Hague (the last for the hour, that is) was leaving from the Central Station at 11:30. I could've whiled away a couple of hours in Amsterdam, but instead I ran for it. Why? Oh, why? In my mad rush for the train I didn't really need to be on, I have glimpsed at what appears to be the most exciting city I've ever seen. The amount of people -- crazy, high, intoxicated, in love, in goth, in underwear -- out on the streets at 11:15 -- 20 -- 25 --27 was like nothing I've seen before. I witnessed a robbery and a fights, I saw clowns, a bar or club called "San Francisco" (potentially gay because of the rainbow flags around it), I saw a castle, a huge line to a disco. Running around cars, bikes, crowds, across canals and train tracks, I flew into the station and onto a train without even properly double-checking its destination. Only at the airport I realized that I had no idea where the train was going and I had a momentary panic before I realized that it was all okay, it was just another (not Central) station in the Hague. So I got off there and walked back to Marie's place taking a long way home and trying to untangle my memories of Amsterdam. Wow. I want to go back.
I also went to the Rijksmuseum, getting another doze of the history of the Netherlands (the Netherlands -- a Republic since the 15th century -- also has a monarch, a queen, and the Dutch seem to be fascinated by the house of Orange-Nassau. It's a contentious relationship, but there's definitely a lot of interest). And the opera -- the opera itself was an experience. Not sure how to describe it yet. The soprano, American Linda Watson, larger than life. Throughout most of the performance she seemed to sing effortlessly, and showed strain only during the last area (after everybody was already dead) and she had to sing over the entire orchestra at full volume. Unfortunately, Tristan -- also American, John Treleaven, could not keep up with her. He could not achieve nearly the same power or warmth. I was also not particularly impressed with the staging -- its modernistic angles and inclines seemed like a tired device. One of the inclined surfaces was a grass patch on which both of the leads had to half-lie at the same time, and they looked extremely uncomfortable. They are both rather heavy people, and I think were afraid of slipping. And if they weren't, I was for them. Anyway, for the most part, the setting was innocuous, the orchestra very solid, and Linda Watson definitely amazing.
Also in the opera I saw a woman maybe in her 70s who rolled a doobie and then went out to smoke on the balcony. Awesome. The opera building is very interesting in itself. It's all done in red velvet, and there are no boxes and two balconies. It sits 1663 people and was completely full. I think there's not a bad seat in the house. I was on the second balcony at the far left, and I could see and hear perfectly. Actually, seeing was very very good. They took really long breaks (20-30 minutes?) during two intermissions, and had prepaid buffets (a buffet and a sushi bar), and lots of other things like coffee, wine, and snacks. Not terribly overpriced.
What else? Yes, I saw ladies in the windows; houseboats on the canals; a guy peeing in a special peeing booth that looked more like a phone booth with area from the pavement and up to his knees open to view (and smell); people sunbathing in their living rooms with windows open and legs extended down the windowsills on the outside; flowers growing in crates on the canals; all kinds of public markets; and -- and --
The day before that I went to Delft. Two churches, old and new; a windmill; lots of pottery (for sale and for show); more herring sandwiches; "cookie" flavored ice-cream with chocolate cookies and delicious waffle-cone baked with a taste of nutmeg; a guy playing a street-organ (no monkey); lots and lots of Greek restaurants for some reason; and a hint of Vermeer in everything, especially ever since the big Hollywood movie that brings a lot of tourists. |
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[May. 9th, 2008|01:29 am] |
The buttermilk turned out to be delicious. Marie made me drink it -- she reminded me that she recommended that I try it years ago, and that I chickened out and never did. Well I drank it today, and it was salty and yogurty and creamy. Perfect with a slice of local bread bread and cheese. Yeah. But tomorrow I must buy more Danone Stratiatella yogurt. I don't know why Danon can't make it in the US (Marie thinks its regulations) -- this mystery only compares to the absence of choco-muesli.
As far as Dutch food goes, I had a herring sandwich on the beach today, complimented by fries (with mayo, of course) in a paper funnel. Both were very welcome after the trek I made to get to the beach -- I walked through half of the Hague. The beach is technically a part of the city, but it's separated from the center by a huge not park but forest, and also quiet residential neighborhoods of villas. (I keep imagining Pippi Lonstocking, even though she's from a totally different country). There are some canals. They say that other Dutch towns have way more canals, and the Hague -- only a few. But what they have is very nice. I saw two white swans. I saw roses growing on the banks. I saw people boating for leisure; a guy on a bicycle with fishing rods in one hand who seemed to be looking for a good fishing spot; but most interestingly I saw a thing that looked like an old-fashioned iron -- a metal bucket with a handle -- that turned out to be a ferry. I saw a woman wave to a man on the other side of the canal, and he used some sort of a swivel to send this bucket to the other side of the canal and carry this woman across. (He just stood on his side and rotated a wheel with a handle). Neat!
Thursday in the Hague is a long shopping day. Which also means a beer drinking day. Stores closed around 8 -- 8:30 pm, and the bars were in business long past that. The bars spill out onto the streets and squares (chairs and tables everywhere you look). These last few days, the weather has been absolutely beautiful and everybody is enjoying it. The happening squares and bars or restaurants are very easy to pick out: just look for a bunch of bicycles parked in the neighboring streets. Meanwhile, nobody seriously locks their bikes here. A lot of people do carry locks, but most of the time they seem to just lock the back wheel to the frame -- if that. So far I've seen bicycles with baby seats, men and women in business suites and evening attire (jewelry on bicycles), a guy with a cello, several pregnant women bikers, bicycles that you ride almost lying down. Today I realized what all of them were missing: helmets. Not a single bicycle helmet in the city of the Hague.
Another random observation: colonial times can be read in the geography of the city. There are Javastraat, Balistraat, and Delistraat -- just the ones that I picked out today. My favorite street name so far is Haringkade -- translates as Herring quay. Perhaps it used to be a canal. |
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[May. 8th, 2008|12:01 pm] |
I thought I did really well at the market yesterday. After all, I got milk and cheese, bread, strawberries, bananas. I did that mostly by pointing, paying with large paper bills, and saying one word at the end: "Dank ergh." Ergh is certainly not a Durch word, but to say "Thank you" it seemed like "Dank" is not enough. The dictionary says "Dank u" for formal and "Dank je" for informal. But again, I think the people add something else there. Marie says that I should also say "Alstublieft" for "please" and "Ik wil" for "I want." My experience shows that this information, while useful, is not absolutely necessary -- if we don't mind drinking buttermilk for breakfast, that is. The rest of my purchases are quite edible though. The bread is soft and the cheese has a nice sharp edge to it.
I went everywhere yesterday, in all directions. I've passed by a bunch of museums and palaces, lots and lots of embassies and consulates and consular residencies. Apparently, while the official capital of the Netherlands is Amsterdam, the Hague (former counts' hunting residency) houses all the governmental institutions -- that's in addition to the international ones. Queen Beatrix lives and works here. I've passed by her work-place palace, Noordeinde. The palaces seem to be extremely domesticated. They stand, surrounded by other purely residential or commercial buildings, benches leaning against their walls, a bored guard protecting the entrance and staring right and left at the pedestrians. The one palace I saw that stands behind a large gate and an expansive yard at a significant remove from everything else is the Peace Palace, Vredespaleis, built by Andrew Carnegie circa 1903. It houses the International Court of Justice, etc, etc, and the Peace Palace Library.
In the evening, I listened to an examination concert of a mezzo-soprano, Kristine Gether, at the Koninklijk Conservatorium Den Haag, The Royal Conservatory of the Hague. Marie played Mahler's "Kindertotenlieder" in the orchestra for the second part of the performance. After the show, the singer was toasted with (beer? champagne? I couldn't see) and graded. Interestingly enough, her teacher spoke in English and the program brochure was also in English. There are so many students from all over the world here that English seems to be the operative language. Later that night I tagged along as Marie went out to the put with the other musicians: I've met the other clarinetist, a couple of cellists, violinists, the conductor. And by countries: Canada, the UK, Spain, the Netherlands.
The smell of pot is pervasive (there's a "coffeeshop" right across the street from Marie's apartment). And there are a vending machines that dispense vibrators, vibrating rings, and surprise toys in the bathrooms (women and men) at the bar where we spent the evening. Awesome. |
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[May. 7th, 2008|01:44 am] |
So, the Netherlands. I landed in Amsterdam twenty-four hours ago and took a train to the Hague (half an hour on the high speed train). Marie met me at the station and took me to her apartment, where I promptly proceeded to flood her entire bathroom while taking a shower. I won't blame European showers, after all I should've known better that Netherlands is not Greece and even if the ledge between the shower and the rest of the bathroom is very low, it's still there. Oh well.
Two things of note in the Netherlands so far: cows (sheep, lamb, llamas) that graze everywhere, including by the power lines alongside the train tracks and bicycles. I've seen a lot of bicycles in Freiburg, but this here is really crazy. Sea of bikes at every train station. Bike trails alongside the train tracks (between the train and the cows). Bikes with baskets and with backseats, loaded with groceries and suitcases.
I shadowed Marie yesterday as she went to the American School of the Hague to tutor a 5th-grader spelling and then to Delft to the woodworking workshop where she was making her own clarinet. The American School in the Hague bears a plaque that its cornerstone was unveiled by Mrs. Barbara Bush in 1989 in honor of the first visit by the President of the United States to the Netherlands.
It's quite warm here. Over 70F. I had to switch to summer clothes. Everything is very green and blooming. As the airplane went in for the landing in Amsterdam, we could see the fields of red and yellow tulips. They say that the tulips will grow for the next two weeks, and then they'll get cut down for the annual festival. I'll be in SPb by then. |
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