Berlin 2009

Coming back from this third and finally "deep into" experience, a sort of strange sensation arises leaving Berlin: am I currently living in the jungle ?

I'm aware I keep on being too ironic about the Italian lifestyle and I also guess these times they do demand for it, but I believe there is something more than the usual Italy vs Europe fight, with all pro and cons it is made of.

Berlin it surely has all the "cons" of a north European town: cold weather, polite but unfriendly people (Germans...OF COURSE!!!), a made up mind, unhealthy food.

It surely has the known "pro" as well: efficiency, cleanliness, order.

What more about the well known?

It costs nothing, probably the cheapest capital in Europe.

It is Spacious with its wide squares, large streets and huge stretches of green.

It's modern, a costant growing wave of wonderful designed buildings with Potsdamer Platz (years ago completely desert) and the German Parlament (Reichstag) above all.

It's well connected with a very branched subway, cycle tracks everywhere and no traffic jam at all.

Is this all suficient to believe am I living in a jungle called Rome ?

Yes it is, the most beautiful Jungle perhaps, a place where eyes are rapt by such a magnificence every single day, where sun is often shining and people can be as unpolite as really friendly, where food is special as well as the whole Italian fashion.

Would it be so Fucking difficult make a first damn step to civilizations ?

My bicycle is set and waiting on the balcon to climb a metro station for the first time in its life :-(

E.

P.S. Travel Information, we liked our stay in the Leonardo royal hotel ( http://www.leonardo-hotels.com/Royal_Berlin_Hotel ) , 70 euros per night the whole room, close to Alexander platz, clean and well designed location.

Today's Running Playlist

Keeping on my "losing weight project" I'm realizing how hard can be when you're 40 as I haven't lost one single F. kilo so far.

Telling the truth, I'm not trying the hardest I can but at least I'm not giving up and today's warmth is giving me some more energy today.

Setting up my Running playlist (which I don't always prepare as I every once and again prefer to play random mode) I feel today inspired by some 80's new wave rhythm and when I think to my 80's wave I think to Simple Minds, by Muse which I'm getting to know better and better, by a mix of catchy, electronic, rock sounds and of course by Radiohead, who are source of inspiration since a very long decade.

E.

A Wolf At The Door - Radiohead

Hunter And The Hunted - Simple Minds

Big Sleep - Simple Minds

Endlessly - Muse

Myxomatosis - Radiohead

Nei Nostri Luoghi - Subsonica

Promises - The Cranberries

Plug in Baby - Muse

Keep Talking -Pink Floyd

Porch - Pearl Jam

My unconvenient truth

While zapping with my remote control some night ago I came across with Al Gore "unconvenient truth" which actually it was long time on my pending list movies.

I didn't need to be convinced or moved cause it's quite some time that the whole Global Warming matter is catching my attention in a particular way, but I got more aware and more scared.

Under estimate the problem I've always believed it's not just a privilege of some very powerful politician, it's a matter of everyday and common people's inaccuracy, among them...me.

I don't opportunistically ride the wave of the good environmentalist now, with my thousands of mistakes which everyday I do or I am forced to do, but I did change my lifestyle since some time, step by step.

Little and easy tasks:

Fuck the plastic bags, I'm using a low environment impact bag (still guilty, I forget it sometime).

Recycling always, I got 3 new little boxes in order to differentiate my trash.

No air conditioned if not absolutely necessary, no wasted heat in the house when I'm not there or when it's not really needed.

Eating local food as much as it's possible whenever I'm on a journey.

More complicated tasks:

One above all, trying not to use car (mainly) or motocycle as much as it's possible and here I face a very tricky point:

Rome as like as most of the cities in Italy, is the most disappointed place where someone could live without dealing with traffic jam and related car pollution.

No bicycles allowed on any kind of metro/train, no cycle tracks through a decent long path, no subway efficiency in covering the whole town or the best part of it (e.g. London), no easy connection bus/underground.

Still, no OPEN MENTALITY in really wanting to do this, we are "il bel paese" as well as we're very ignorant and governed by the worsts.

On my side, together with my being impressed by road accidents (and in Rome you face them almost everyday) and an opportunistic need of some more motion, I'm facing these last few days a little sacrifice of 50 minutes Home-->Office (and viceversa) instead of the usual maximum 20 minutes by scooter.

Of course it's not just walking, it's a mixed transportation path, that is:

Few minutes of bus from home to Train Station, 9 minutes to my Office closest metro Station, 1.8 km by walk in 20 minutes.

Resuming:

not much time to read a book, which I bring with me anyway, many minutes stolen to my out office precious time, but still is a good begin on which work a litte.

Solution:

buying a very second-hand bycycle to leave at the metro station to ride till office, using the car only from home to the closest metro.

Can't be everyday, can't be in any condition, let's keep on trying to put a single jigsaw in this very big puzzle.

E.

English Course

One of the "must" of this blog is to practise the English Language as much as it's possible.

I do post often in English and as much as I could I've always tried to keep track of things I've been learning with years.

You know, things like this you need to read and read again to stick them into your mind, so here you are a little shot of my knowledge as I wrote Idioms (which I adore), phrasal verbs or simply words that are unknown to me and that need to be recorded somehow.

I don't know wether will ever be useful to someone else, but a dedicated section on the sidebar is probably worthing the while.

Cheers

E.

P.S. I got aware of limitations with Blogger in creating static pages so it's not possible to link something to another page inside the same blog account.

To partially solve the problem I found a work around creating posts with old data (so they won't appear as last post) and then create on the sidebar a link to it.

Not much of a big deal but better than nothing !!!

The longest way home.

I've came across an article on the web this morning, about a man and his blog that is online to describe a long trip around the world.
It's not just a trip, a man from Protugal, Dave aged 33, leaves anything he owns to find his "home", the best place to live in this earth, at least according his desires.
While travelling he is persuaded to track somehow sensations, opinions and thoughts about the place he is visiting, so that he creates and updates a blog: www.thelongestwayhome.com
Every site has its review, do's and do not's, photos, recommendations and other useful stuff in a way that makes of this blog a very interesting one.
Also interesting the interactive nature of it, people suggests him place to see, how to get a job, a sponsor and he always answers, give people suggestions on the place he has been.
It's not a person the main actor of this blog, it's the idea, the project of finding the best place so that it's probably not the final destination the best part of it, but the road to get it.
As it's easily comprehensible, I've been fascinated by this project cause in a way it's the best evolution of my little blog project (also names are similars) where sharing ideas and visited places was the basic idea.
Furthermore finding a perfect place to live is my ongoing fantasy (see also previous posts) since ages :-)
E.

"Losing Weight" project - Today's running playlist

It starts today a serious "losing weight" project.
I've been fighting many months already with my scale which rudely told me I'm close to 87 Kg now, need to get at least 82 ASAP !!!
I'm therefore setting up my running list for this evening Jogging, that is:

Two - Motel Connection
Toop Toop - Cassius
Preso Blu - Subsonica
Why did you do it? - Stretch
This Mess we're in - Radiohead & Pj Harvey
Fascination Street - The Cure
Heavy Cross - The Gossip
Wrong - Depeche Mode
Pop Porno - Il Genio
Future Proof - Massive Attack
I'll Fly with you - Gigi D'Agostino


Run Enzino Run !!!
E.

Living in Vancouver

Where would you like to live?
There are few answer I could give to this question, which actually I've been asked often lately, and the answer is always the same: maybe London if it were not so raining, most probably Spain almost any town, surely Vancouver.
Neverthless if for the first two options I have some knowledge of the place, having been there, Vancouver has always been a sort of "I've heard" stuff, an idea that has arosen with time in my imagination.
Yesterday I came across an article on the web and I understood why Vancouver it's the top place on my "where would I like to live" list.
Here you are the article (unfortunately in Italian):

http://viaggi.repubblica.it/articolo/vancouver-superstar/218351

Secondo l’Economist la città canadese che ospiterà le Olimpiadi invernali del 2010 è il posto migliore del mondo dove vivere. Vediamo perché


Verde, ricca, colta, confortevole, con un clima temperato, ottime scuole e infrastrutture ipertecnologiche. Ecco perché il settimanale britannico Economist ha sentenziato che Vancouver è la migliore città del mondo dove abitare. Ecco perché nel corso del tempo tanti italiani, giapponesi, cinesi e coreani si sono stabiliti in questa città del Canada sulle sponde del Pacifico, convivendo in grande armonia.

La popolazione di origine asiatica è talmente numerosa - con la seconda Chinatown più grande del Nordamerica dopo quella di San Francisco - che la città è stata ribattezzata Hong Kouver. In vista delle Olimpiadi invernali, in programma dal 12 al 28 febbraio 2010, Vancouver e i dintorni come Whistler, che ospiterà la maggior parte delle gare di sci, stanno acquistando un volto ancora più moderno, tra edifici slanciati in vetro e acciaio, ristoranti, locali raffinati e oasi per il palato come il Crab Shop (Dollarton highway, 2464), dove il cantante e illustre cittadino Michael Bublé fa grandi scorpacciate di granchi e fish’n’chips.

Ma a lasciare strabiliati i visitatori sono soprattutto le bellezze naturali. La città canadese della Columbia britannica, innanzitutto, è il paradiso dei ciclisti: una rete di 240 chilometri di piste attraversa la regione, mentre sugli SkyTrain e sui SeaBus le biciclette viaggiano gratis.

Con il suo paesaggio variegato, tra le montagne e il mare, inoltre, la zona è ideale anche per chi voglia cimentarsi negli sport: mountain bike, sci, kayak, snowboard, free climbing, windsurf. E per gli appassionati della natura è un rifugio ideale. Con i suoi 400 ettari di foresta sul Pacifico, Stanley Park è il secondo parco cittadino del Canada per estensione, con una flora e una fauna ricchissime: abeti rossi, abeti del balsamo e di Douglas, cedri rossi europei, pini bianchi e aceri da zucchero, prati e decine di sentieri per le escursioni tra cui lo splendido Seawall, dieci chilometri lungo il mare percorribili a piedi o in bici.

Uno spazio verde immenso, affollato di papere, oche canadesi, procioni, cormorani, cigni, anatre, puzzole, coyote, aquile, aironi blu e perfino di scoiattoli grigi importati dal Central Park di New York. Per mappe, brochure ed esposizioni sul parco vale la pena fare un salto alla Lost Lagoon Nature House. Il Vancouver Aquarium Marine Science Centre, invece, è una tappa irrinunciabile per chi è affascinato dalla vita negli abissi dell’oceano. Con oltre ottomila specie marine, è uno degli acquari più grandi del nord America. Percorrendo l’itinerario Canada Artico, può capitare di imbattersi in mastodontiche balene Beluga, mentre le aree dedicate alla foresta pluviale amazzonica sono abitate da pesci grandi come esseri umani.

Il lungo viaggio prosegue nelle altre vasche tra bradipi con le zampe a tre dita, leoni marini, piranha e squali, mentre la mostra Pacific Canada è dedicata ai protagonisti “locali” del mare come i salmoni, i delfini bianchi e i polpi giganti del Pacifico. Seguendo le tracce dell’uomo, infine, il Museo di antropologia dell’u niversità della British Columbia vanta una delle più straordinarie collezioni del mondo di arte indigena. Giganteschi totem e antichissime sculture in legno, oltre mezzo milione di oggetti, cinquemila manufatti tessili, 3.500 monete e 4.400 oggetti di carta provenienti da diverse parti del pianeta: Pacifico meridionale, Asia, Africa, Europa e Americhe. Alcune mostre si possono visitare anche sul sito web del museo all’indirizzo www.moa.ubc.ca/exhibits/online_exhibits.php

Travel Informations

I've always wanted to create something useful in order to track down informations about my trips.
Here you are my "Travel Information" link (on the sidebar) with worthy places I've had the fortune to experience, could it be nice (and of course cheap) Hotels as like Restaurants or Pubs or whatever.
I thought could be of some help to anyone interested in visiting those places and also good to me, to remind me nice memories.
Besos
E.

"Feisbuc" Time

I've been rooting around the web lately, specifically blogs and I've noticed many of my friends have disappeared a bit, myself included telling the truth.
I'm sure it's a general condition and surely as "Video killed the radio stars", Facebook has killed blogs and similars.
I guess it's the opportunity of being fast, over-exposed to the whole world and mostly it's this strong curiosity of giving a look to someone else's life.
Surely questionable things, but still good the opportunity of sharing ideas and informations or the chance to pull out from your past someone who had disappeared in the mist.
Neverthless, when something becomes so popular it can gets weary and as always "everything can be fine only if used with intelligence".
This means, I DO NOT:
- post "I need to go to the bathroom"
- send and receive any "hug or kisses"
- get fan of Coca Cola or "Kissing into the sea"
- allow anyone who's not somehow special to me, to scan my trousers.

and I should not abandon this blog.
When I first created it, I wanted to share my life with people I met and spread all the world, as everything could be lost with time if I had not created this link.
Now I feel like I'm all alone over here, a sort of intimacy with my blog while everybody else is surely on Facebook right now, and it makes me somehow feel comfortable.
It will probably be that when you are 40 you find it stupid to be in the spotlight or you're just getting an old grumbler, so that I'll keep my FB link with all the world but I'll prefer to find a proper time to write something more personal here.
E.

40 in Istanbul

Bella, affascinante, orientale e moderna allo stesso tempo, questa città ponte tra Asia ed Europa ti coinvolge e ti sorprende.
Entrare nei vicoli e nelle "nudità" è un'esperienza di profumi e odori che si contrappone alla maestosità e bellezza dei suoi templi.
Oltre alle già rinomate visite a Santa Sofia , Topkapi e Gran Bazar si aggiungono il mercatino del pesce (ponte Galata verso Taksim subito a Sx) dove si pranza a pochi euro in riva al fiume, e la gita sul Bosforo con le sue meravigliose case affacciate sul mare.
Aver deciso di festeggiare ad Istanbul il giorno dei miei primi 40 anni è un regalo che consiglio a chiunque abbia voglia di evitare lo stress dei festeggiamenti "dovuti" per avvolgersi di atmosfera e fascino.
E.
P.S. Appunti di viaggio:
Mercatino Pesce : ponte Galata verso Taksim subito a Sx, si mangia pesce fresco a pochi euro.
Hotel Sapphire : localizzato in Sulthanamhet, al centro di tutto e ottimamente collegato. Pulito e abbastanza economico.
Ristorante 360: già indicato nella top list del mio Travel Information, si trova a taksim all'ultimo piano di un grattacielo, ottima vista, cibo ottimo e prezzi moderati.