Italy
Posted: July 29, 2005 Filed under: BLOG | Tags: italy Comments OffYesterday I said goodbye to A., and considering she had been my travel partner in crime for almost one and a half months, no wonder I felt a bit lonesome afterward. And my first day back solo wasn’t too great an indication of things to come…
I was walking the streets of Florence when this dude tries to chat to me. I get bad vibes from him and give him my polite but firmly ‘not interested’ tone. He, however, persists and asks if I had been the Piazzo Michelango yet, which he claims is beautiful. Thing was, I did have some time to kill so I thought, why not, I’ll head there. He says he’ll take me there, for free even, – I insist I’m happy to walk on my own after he shows me where it is on my map.
The walk up to the Piazzo requires negotiating a windy path through some bushes. And it is while on this path, huffing and puffing away, I should be surprised by a fat, old guy jacking off and looking directly at me with eyebrows raised (not the only thing raised) in a, “so what do you think about this?” expression. Even more insultingly he tucks it away and sits down to appear a very ordinary guy when some tourists further along come by, so that my explosions of “you dickhead! You should be ashamed of yourself!!!”, may have seemed sort of strange.
The joy from the spectacular view of Florence afforded at the top of the climb was tempered by my concern as to how I would get back to the bottom without running into the wanker (literally).
All in all, however, our time in Italy has been great. Sure, half of it was spent in lines (lines to museums, lines to toilets, lines to ticket machines) – but the other half was so splendid it all made it worthwhile. We’ve been Total Tourists here – seeing the sites, doing the museums and churches, going on tours, snapping away with our cameras and soaking up a lot of history. And when we do see these great things (Vatican City, Colosseum, Roman Ruins, Amalfi Coast, Pompeii, Duomo, Leaning Tower of Pisa, The David, Uffuzi Museum, Seina, Cinque Terra etc. etc.) you don’t care that it’s so touristy, and everybody does it, and you’ve seen a million pictures of it already – you’re simply and purely blown away and so moved and ecstatic to be seeing it and now you know why it’s popular and why you had to wait 2 goddamned hours in the line to see it and pay a ridiculous amount to do so – because there is power in these things. They are Old. And Beautiful. And Universally Incredible.
Another thing – I may end up a Cat Lady, but at least I’ll be a Cat Lady in Armani. (OK, Armani Jeans not Emporio, a beautiful candy stripe silk blouse that was on sale and still ridiculous expensive, but hey, we were in Milan, and buying designer goods in Milan is like seeing the David while in Florence – it’s just got to be done.)
Me. My mum. Nicole. And the cats.
Posted: July 22, 2005 Filed under: BLOG | Tags: cats Comments OffI’m going to die
- old, ugly, and alone.
I know, I’ll stay with my mum.
She won’t leave me.
And we’ll buy cats.
Lots of them.
They’ll die
- but we can buy new ones.
Fuck, mum will die too.
Better get the cats to kill me after she does.
Hmm.
While Tom has had all these new girlfriends,
what has Nicole been doing?
Making a fuck load of great movies, that’s what.
Finally.
I have direction.
I’m looking down the barrel
of a breakfast table
Me. My mum. Nicole.
Surrounded by cats.
Lots of the them.
Vice paper doll
Posted: July 18, 2005 Filed under: BLOG | Tags: photos Comments Off
When you’re surrounded by words that you can hardly attempt pronouncing let alone understanding (like “pfeiffen”) you find yourself reading anything in English. Vice Magazine in Scandanavia includes paper dolls with matching paper clothes – Swedish boys very prettily do a Cute’n'Clean version of indie.
More photographic evidence put up on my flickr blog: click here to view.
Unexpected delights
Posted: July 18, 2005 Filed under: BLOG | Tags: art, City life Comments Off(1) F.’s Place: F. is a Swedish friend of mine I met while she was studying in Australia. We were lucky enough to stay at her place for a few days, a lovely house in the suburbs with a backyard and by a beautiful bay you can swim in. I can’t explain to you the simple joys of being able to sleep and eat in a nice cosy home after 2 months of communal kitchens, bathrooms strewn with other people’s toilettries and underwear, or bunkbeds and early checkouts times. Thanks times 10 million F!
(2) Modern / Contemporary Art Galleries: Of course the Swedes are famed for their design so I was keen to check out their Moderna Museet. And I was well rewarded. Not only does the museum have several rooms of famous pieces that will basically give you a comprehensive run down on modern art from the last 100 years, from Mondrian and Picasso, to Bridget Riley and Cindy Sherman – but there’s the works of current Swedish artists, a room of excellent books to flick through and a line of computers with some wacky films and video art.
I’ve come to realise that I really prefer modern art over the classics. I mean I ‘get’ the classic stuff, it’s beautiful and technically brilliant and moving – but for me modern art is about ideas, and bold statements, and exploring complex ideas and the negotiations and ethics and situations of daily, contemporary life – which is obviously far more relevant and personally inspiring and thought provoking and exciting etc.
(Also note, Stockholm has an incredible number of fantastic museums, lots of them for free. The Kulturhuset was excellent, a cultural and artistic playground!)
(3) Running into People: No joke, while walking up a street in Rome ran into Norton who some of you might know as a former blogger. He is the 3rd person I know from Sydney that I have ran into on the street without having made any plans to meet up (Jackie – teeny random little bar in Sevilla, Spain, Julian – funky shopping street in Berlin, Germany). I mean hell, when we’re only in a place for a few days it’s coincidence enough that our time in the city overlaps, but the chances of us actually running into each other, in such a big city – I swear we’re all cosmically linked.
Photomania
Posted: July 8, 2005 Filed under: BLOG | Tags: france, germany Comments Off
Lots more photos fo yo ass! Click here to see them all.
Paris While France and Germany are similar in that they both have a certain refinement, a distinctly European dignity, in terms of their culture, architecture and history, Germany is the more mechanical and masculine of the two, while France is certainly the more feminine and emotional.
Some of the most beautiful things I have seen on my trip so far belong to Paris – the Eiffel Tower, the Arc d’Triomphe and my favourite, the Sacre Coeur. The Moulin Rouge, however, from the outside anyway was a bit of a disappointment (couldn’t afford the 90 euro entry fee!) and, like our local version, is located in a Kings Cross style suburb. But unlike our KC it is without the clubs and restaurants etc (so just a yukky red light district).
All in all the city was a little too overwhelmingly big for me, the streets too claustrophobic being packed densely with people and buildings. I wonder if I will react similarly to London and NY.
