Amsterdam unmediated

If you follow my posts, you already know that I am the type of person who likes to experiment with recreational substances. It's the kind of substances you can legally purchase and use in Amsterdam and only in Amsterdam. I'm not into any addictive type of stuff, I just like to get stoned now and then, that's all. I would do it more often if it wasn't illegal in the place I live. Imagine how hard it was for me to walk around Amsterdam and still resisting the temptation of a good joint!

This is not the first time I visit the Capital city of Netherlands which is built on the delta of Amstel river. Amsterdam is a big port, although it is not built  on the Atlantic coast, but at the inside of a well protected bay. It is built in chronological layers of building, that create an amphitheatric shape, with the Dam square being at the center. The Dam is not just the central square, it is also the oldest part of the city. As a rule of the thump, the longer a buildings distance from the Dam, the older it is. Of course, there might be exceptions to this rule, but I don't care enough to find out.

A taste of eternity: Rome

Here I am, in a jet plane, touring the cradles of western civilization: from Athens to Rome. Athens is too strange and mysterious to cover, maybe another time. So l decide to spent my flight time watching a Hollywood blockbuster. "The Expendables" keep me company during the flight, but they affect me in a strange way, so when I'm trying to find my way from the airplane seat to the airport bus, I literally cut through them with my knife. The annoying japanese kid that was constantly crying next to me is now speechless (his head is cut off) and his mother pleads me to release her too, which I do with a fast cut that divides her head in two. The Greek couple on the front seat, who were fighting during the whole flight have now their heads stuffed to each others private parts. I cut and kill, I dismember peoples bodies. Most are dead, the others will be soon. There is blood everywhere. The sounds of the arriving police cars become noticable. They are not going to get me alive.

Corinth: a place you'd rather miss

Unconventional is what I'm trying to become during the last few posts. I must stop that, it doesn't work.  I started the whole "being unconventional" thing because I was after true experiences of traveling, knowing new things and meeting exciting people, changing my self in the process and all that crapy stuff you expect from a 100% teenager. Since I'm not a teen anymore, I though "hey, what was conventional back then, could be unconventional now". So, I started being unconventional by planing some unconventional trips. And now that I have had the first, I regret it.

What to expect (introducing the concept of appetizer trip)

The people who pay me to keep this blog alive (some major international corporations are among them) require that I show some professionalism. I have explained them a thousand times that for this blog, professionalism is a drawback! Meticulousness is my enemy! Schedule always sounds as an insult to me! But I'm still human and I have needs (=sex, money), so I have to write down a few notes about what I'm going to post next.

First of all, I have some extra memories from various Greek Islands in the form of digital pictures and, well, memories. But I'm also planning a trip to a place in Peloponese, Greece. I don't know which, but I have a method to find out: I will choose the roads that give me the vibes and see where I will be led. Then, I'm fleeing!

Rome, Amsterdam and London are in my schedule (what? My mother is a saint!). Actually, Rome and London will be visited by my highness (in that sense) for only a few hours. That is because I will only use them for the airports. One might say that it's a pity to visit Rome and London for only 3 or 4 hours each, but I'm not worried about that, because I have just made a small theory to argue that this is a good thing.

Pirates of the Sporades

Dear readers,

It’s has been a long time since my last post. I’m sorry for that. NOT. You see, the reason I wasn’t able to post is that I was sailing at Sporades formation (a few small islands located at North-West Aegean sea, Greece). Before you proceed further down the post, you have to be warned: some of the photo material is the product of moderate digital processing I did on original material acquired from my friends without their permission. If you believe it is a crime, don’t look at the pictures.

This was our sailing boat. Kidding. Actually, this is a reconstruction of an ancient Greek ship of the "Argo" class. According to the old myth, Argo was the ship that helped Jason to his quest for the Golden Fleece. The modern city of Volos, our starting point, is probably built over the ruins of ancient Iolkos.

Some good friends of mine (all guys, unfortunately) are into sailing and stuff (stuff: sailing, diving, underwater fishing and stuff - recursively). Every summer for the last 4 or 5 years they rent a sailing boat and sail around various islands and wild coasts. They swim by the dolphins, they get grate tans. They are all guys. That’s why I had always been negative to the idea of participating in their “gay cruises”, as I usually call hem (after hearing that, they started disliking me). But this year, one of them asked me to join them, on the ground that “there will be quite a few chicks there, too”. I was skeptical at first (and maybe I should have stayed that way), but the solid hand-waving arguments of my friend convinced me to follow their metro-sexual cruise.

Zen Driving: the theory behind

I was pleased to read so many responses regarding my Zen Driving post. Most of you like the term and the meaning I assigned to it. Some even suggested various improvements to the procedure. I, my self, am also new to that thing, so I will have to try everything on the street. I will even test some ideas of my own. If only I had a theory to support the practice... Well, let's make some.

The Butterfly Valley in Rhodes, Greece is full of butterflies, (most of the brown stuff is  butterflies - no, they are not dead, they are resting). This is irrelevant to the post, since you can't drive through the valley.

First of all, we need to clarify the purpose of Zen Driving. The purpose of Zen Driving is to have a personal experience that involves your vehicle and the environment. It is a way of feeling the environment through your vehicle. Now maybe some people will think "travelin-blogger just lost it", but the truth is I have always been a little crazy.

South Rhodes and the concept of Zen Driving

Depression always strikes after a good trip (probably true for LSD too). Sure it’s good to see my cat, my friends, my girlfriend or my boyfriend (I’m not telling which, because I don’t want them to fight about it). But on the other hand it’s boring to sleep on my comfortable bed when I used to rest openly on the hardest, noisiest and dirtiest surfaces of the most international airports or secretly on wooden sticky student dorm floors. Sure it’s good to have good meals on time, instead of feeding in other peoples leftovers, but the later was more adventurous and, after all, fulfilling (not always for the stomach). That is why this weekend I went car driving to the southern part of Rhodes, Greece.

Beaches from the South-west coast of Rhodes island, Greece

The interesting thing about the island of Rhodes is that civilization gradually dissolves as you travel south. The town of Rhodes, Aegeans largest, one of the most lively towns in Greece and a favorite destination for tourists around the world is built at the Northern peninsula of the island. The are other, smaller towns on the island too, the most populated of which are located just a few kilometers souther than Rhodes town. As I drive souther, there are fewer towns and not so many huge hotels as before. Instead I could see some lively villages with small hotels and bungalows. As I was driving even souther ...

The Milanese Drift

Scenes from Milan streets

 I had to stop to Milan once more, but this time I was prepared to face Malpensa Airport and its deliberately (?) confusing escape routes. I had to plan my escape to the city,  and my fast return too, otherwise I could fail or even miss my flight home. First, I had to take the free airport bus to change from terminal 2 to terminal 1 (central terminal). The central terminal is the place where all facilities can be found, while terminal 2 can only offer a few thinks to the demanding traveler. For example, if you need a locker to leave your thinks, the only way to simulate that is to go to the “leave baggage” point of the central terminal, show some id and pay the 3.5 euros per day when you return to claim your stuff. There is a guy dressed in some kind of uniform guarding your stuff, so I guess it's safe. Then, you need a mean of transport. Train costs 11 epp per route (so 22 euros if you actually want to come back to the airport), while the Malpensa Shuttle Bus Line can take you forth (Milan) and back (Airport) for  a total of 8 epp. Some online travel guides indicate that a bus might be stuck in traffic, while the train is always in time, but If you have 5 or 6 hours to spend it’s quite safe. And that’s what I did this time: I took the bus to Centrale (the central train station). (A Malpensa Milan fact: if you need to go to the central train station, take the bus, because the train won’t go there).

Milan is a live exhibition of different styles of buildings

A list of all external links used in my Lisbon posts.

Related to Lisbon

• The Lisbon center: a detailed post with pictures, by Isabel, a teacher in Lisbon
• Rossio: a photograph showing the Lisbon central square
• Belem Tower: a detailed site with information and pictures
• Praca de Commercio: the English Wikipedia lemma of one of Lisbon central squares
• Bairo Alto: the English Wikipedia lemma for the area and some more spontaneous photos and comments and some google images.
• Gare do Oriente: a detailed site with information and pictures

Related to Portugal

• Portuguese cuisine: a post by Mary Mimouna and also the English Wikipedia lemma
• Portuguese beers: Super Bock and Sagres official sites
• Vihno Verde (Green Wine): The English Wikipedia lemma
• Piri piri: a hot pepper featured in some Portuguese plates
• Sintra: the English Wikipedia lemma
• Pena National Palace: the English Wikipedia lemma

Last evening in Lisbon: Santa Apolonia and Vasco da Gama at Oriente

I run out of time. I don’t mean I got old and I’m going to die. (we all are some day, of course). I don’t know if I’m going to die soon or not. Only He Knows and even His Knowledge is a posteriori. For you people who don’t know how to impress your friends with a few super-famous words from dead languages, I meant: He Will Know after my death. And when I say “He” I mean my cat, Bulukos, whom I miss each time I travel. But I think I somehow lost the point here, which is a very bad sign if it happens at the very first paragraph of the post.

Night shots of Lisbon at night. I would have more of them, but I don't have the right equipment. If you agree that I deserve a decent DSLR camera and you are willing to buy it for me, please let me now.

My point is I spent almost all of my 5 days time and I haven’t seen that much of the city. I expressed my concerns openly to a group of Japanese tourists, I met during "breakfast". They smiled at me, then asked directions to Vasco-Da-Gama-something (sorry, I know my English accent is not that good either, but that doesn't mean I can understand all other strange accents). Vasco da Gama what? Statue? Street? Square? There must be enough of all of them. If I was the major of Portugal, and one of them hadn’t been built yet, I would built it. Of course, I don’t know where any Vasco Da Gama statues or squares are located, but that’s why we have smart phones with Internet access, right?

They might not have free WiFi anywhere in the city, but the parks are quite relaxing. I'm sure those playing-card people at the park side appreciate that fact too.

Sintra and the Football World Cup Finals

After reading the responses on my previous posts I came to the conclusion that people don’t want stories about drugs and aimless walks anymore. Maybe in the ‘60s or the ‘70s that was exactly the selling point for a blogger, who would have to curve his posts on paper, put them in a bottle and throw it in the sea (actually by this method you can access as many readers as most bloggers have). This is 2010, and people want practical advice like power plug types, voltage levels and airplane ticket bargains. They don’t care about your photoshoped iPhone pictures, they would be as pleased with a few cart-postal pictures of the main sites, the ones you can find everywhere else. I’m pissed with you people, and that’s why I decided to punish you, by going to such a boring place as Sintra and writing about it. Actually, the reasons I'm going are not that clear, but we will come to that later.

The town of Sintra, Portugal.

Sintra is a nice village a few minutes by train from Lisbon, so I had the opportunity to use a train in this country as well. It stoped to some Lisbon districts, like Benfica (If you are not a football fun, this name won’t ring a bell - and by football I refer to the sport most people on the globe call “football” - since it is played mostly with feet and a ball: foot-ball, get it?). While at the train, I wondered why I’m going to Sintra. Maybe my friend, who is sitting next to me, knows the answer.

- Dude, why are we going to Sintra?
- I though it was your idea!
- Why should I suggest to go to a place I didn’t even know it exists?
- Is this rhetorical?
- Dude, I’m telling you, I didn’t suggest Sintra or any other place. The first time I ever heard about this was this morning, when you said “OK, get ready, we are going to Sintra”.
- Yes, but I thought we planed that yesterday, when you said “hey, let’s go to Sintra tomorrow”.

Was that true? I had to find out.

Not being a tourist: Lisbon center and Bairro Alto

Some times I like to be a tourist, but then there are those moments I hate it. When I’m on the road (or the boat, the plane, the train, the camel, etc.) it is difficult not to be a tourist. In everyday life it is even more difficult, but when traveling, I beg to differ, like everybody else. If you are a tourist by definition, how can you avoid being one? This is the question I’m trying to answer in this post, while wandering at the most central streets and paved areas of Lisbon.

I gave a lot of thought to my not-being-a-tourist plan. I did that while I was stoned, but that’s how you get great ideas, right? Well, my plan is this: I will try to ignore the names of the main monuments and tourist attractions of the city. I will visit some of them (especially if I don’t have to pay entrance fees), but I won’t look for them. My plan is based on the scientific principle of fate: if it is written to visit an attraction, it will happen. Of course, I have to start from somewhere. Let’s see the metro map, choose the most central metro station, buy a ticket, ride the metro, get out and forget the name of the station. Done.

I was supposed to now what those things are, but I don't, because they are for tourists and you can find them at the center of Lisbon.

An erasmus day in Lisbon: Alfama

“Hostels in Lisbon are very good”, was the first thing my hosts told me when we met. I chose to take that remark as an informative one: “Thank you, now that I know that, I won’t have to see one”. They weren’t happy with the answer, but the pursuit of happiness is not easy. You don’t get happy with answers, you get happy with drugs. Is this “happy” or “high”? Sorry, my english are not very good.


I’m not a drug addict, but my hosts are erasmus students to Lisbon University and we all had to stay in a minimum sized bedroom, designed for one medium sized person and furnished with two small beds. Obviously, I had to sleep on the floor for 5 nights. It wouldn’t be easy without the proper Moroccan chocolate. Yes, that’s right, candies help you sleep.

Miraduras are a favorite place for students and young people in Lisbon. A mirdura is a terrace or a park with a view.

How to communicate with a Portuguese person (or anybody else, for that matter)

Lisbon is sunny and fun. I got the good vibes from the first second I step my foot on the floor of the arrivals room at Aeroporto de Lisboa. I was happy with everything: the sunny whether, the ease I got out of the airport and found bus 44 to transfer me to the Comercio station, the way people responded to my english or the music that was selected for me by the shuffling mechanism of my mp3 player. The only thing I didn’t enjoy that much was the prices of the means of transport, but on the other hand the quality of the service is high enough to match the price.

In a previous post I have admitted that English is not my native language, but it is the one I use when I travel. That comes out instinctively and sometimes it is very useful. English is an international language and it is spoken in every airport and major train terminal. There are also some countries where most people can speak well enough. My home country is one of them. Italy and Portugal aren’t. But this is not a problem.

Trams (old and new) are part of the charm

 Local people are not getting excited about the interiors of their old trams anymore 

You see, Italians as well as Portuguese people will try hard to understand what you say, even if you speak a completely incomprehensive language, because they know how to read the language of the body, infer meaning from the context or use some common sense. techniques. For example, if they see a person alone in the middle of the desert saying “water, please, water”, they don’t need to speak English to understand that this person needs water. Or if they see a tourist with his giant baggage on his back asking “what is the bus line to Comercio station”, they don’t need to understand more than the key word “Comercio” to tell you to take a cab.

Yeah, I know, I shouldn’t have asked the taxi driver for bus information, but my point is I could communicate easily with that taxi driver, although he was speaking Portuguese and I was speaking English with awful accent. I also have to add that after a while I stop speaking English, and I start using my first language, which sounds Greek to most people, and it made no difference. You see, the taxi driver couldn't understand the words anyway. This didn't stop us from communicating. If it was an oral communication, it would go like this:

- Hi, I want to take the bus 44 to comercio. Where is the bus stop for that?
- You want to go to commercio? Why don't you take a taxi?
- A taxi? But I want the bus. How much will it cost me, anyway?
- Don't worry about the cost, my friend, the taxi is safe and convenient! In the bus you will have to be errect the whole time, and not in a good way, if you know what I mean. What's more, they are going to steal your money and rape your girlfriend.
- But I don't have a girlfriend.
- Of course you don't! Girls don't like people who take the bus in stead of a taxi. The taxi is nice, girls love it!
- So, you are not going to tell me then?
- I can tell you anything, just ask!
- OK, where is the stop for bus 44?
- Hey, weren't you listen to me all that time? What did I tell you? Do you want to get laid today? Take a taxi!
- Yeah, OK, thanks, I will ask at the tourist information desk over there.

All that without the words.

A beautiful silver tram. Most of them are yellow

 The great Lisbon bridge connects the two bands of the Tago river. It is one of the longest in the world

To conclude, the communication method I present here is called “don’t be a snob”. If you really want to communicate, you don’t need to speak the same language as the other person. Move your hands, show things with your fingers, speak as clearly as possible, try to use words highly possible of being used in the other persons native language (e.g. taxi) What’s more, pay attention to what the other person is saying and doing, try to understand his or her position, don’t look for mistakes, look for meaning. This should be a lesson to all you English and French people out there, who are sometimes too scholastic about the correct use of your native language by foreigners.

Lisbon is a beautiful city and I can’t stress that enough. I fell in love with her from the first day. But for the moment, I will post a few photographs from the means of transport, so that I won’t have to do that again. An exception to this rule for the old trams that are still in use and are so nice when passing the dreamy shaped, tile-decorated, stone-made streets of downtown Lisbon.

Old tram with fish decoration. I don't know why

Types of coffee in Athens and Milan

I woke up at the end of the line. I exit the train station and started looking for a place to abandon my luggage. When I was younger, I would abandon every material possession of mine and enjoy the down town cite seeing without worries. I ‘m not that young anymore, but I ‘m still young enough to carry my luggage and be amazed by Milanese women. They are so stylish!

My energy was enough for a 2 hour wandering at Duomo and the streets around. Duomo is the center of the city and is surrounded by some astonishing buildings, like the homonymous cathedral or an equally giant archway that leads to the famous Scala di Milano. If you need more information, use the internets. The only thing you will learn from me is that Duomo plaza is impressive. If you enter the archway, you realize it’s actually an impressive 100 year old shopping center. Some of the well known Italian fashion firms keep permanent exhibitions of their collections here (some of them also serve coffee).

The Duomo Plazza, the Cathedral and the archway

I could not help but compare Milan to Athens. First of all, people behave the same. Of course, Athens is full of immigrants from Asia, Africa and Eastern Europe. I expected to see some of them here as well, but turns out most people walking in the center of Milan are Italians.

Think of the children

Malpensa airport of Milan is OK for spending the night. I read somewhere that it is possibly the worst international European airport, but so far I don’t see why. A poet once said that when you travel, the obstacles are put there by you, your mind creates them to scare you away from an adventure, or to drag you deep inside one.

My adventure is unworthy of your attention, because I’m a european tourist in a major european city, traveling without a passport (intra-Schengen). People like me usually have adventures like “I can’t find my favorite brand of tea” or “I can’t find a place to park my rent car for free”. Actually, both examples are from my intra-Schengen tourist adventures, except that it was coffee, not tea.

This time, my problem is that I can’t charge my batteries. And when I say “my batteries”, I mean my children's batteries.And when I say “my children” I mean my MacBook and my iPhone which are, of course, like children to me. My younger can be charged if connected to the older, but how will I feed my old one? Yes, I have the power cord with me, but it doesn’t fit in the Italian plugs, which is a good thing, since Italian voltage is higher than 220V.

The good thing is I have an extra battery! If I use it correctly, I can enjoy the services of both my kids. I hope that my Lisbon hosts will provide a power adapter suited to my children’s needs. Mental note for the next trip: get information about power supply of the target country, or don’t carry any rechargeable electronics with you.

Airports

The late Douglas Adams wrote that there no culture in the universe has ever invent a phrase like “beautiful as an airport”. Well, sorry Douglas, but I like airports. Of course they are ugly, but they are also full of possibilities. For example, if you have print your boarding pass at home in order to avoid the check in line, there is a possibility they won’t let you in, unless you go down to the terminal to check in and then come back to check for a third time (instead of two - the traditional method - or one - the on-line promise).

It can hardly be a coincidence that no language on Earth has ever produced the phrase, 'as pretty as an airport.', Douglas Adams 

Manifesto

FQPFSU83TB93 This is the welcome message of “the traveling blog”, which I regret to say is not going to be a very good blog about traveling. There are probably thousands of bloggers out there who write about traveling, post notes and photos of their trips, provide colorful descriptions and useful tips on how they got there and why they preferred this hotel over that and they are doing a great job. There might also be those other people who post about traveling but from a personal - subjective point of view. I like all of them and I will try to incorporate ideas and ways of posting from all these posters. All great creators steal ideas from others, and they do so because they understand and appreciate them.

But I’m not aiming as high as achieving great creator status. I ‘m not trying to create the best traveling blog ever and I won’t be meticulous about my posts, which will probably be spasmodic, varying in quality and quantity. I can’t even promise there will be a next post (a cliche - there will probably be another post). But as long as I travel around, I will try to post here something of value. I will share with you whatever I thing is valuable because whenever I find something worth noticing I want to share it with others. It also works the other way around: knowing that I have a little traveling blog waiting for my posts, I will always be aware of things and situations worth noticing. Will I be a good father to my creation? Will I give it meaning and a purpose in its artificial life?

Now I will describe the kind of things I will post here. I thing it would be nice to post photos and short descriptions of the places I wander. Sometimes I will describe the preparations, the means of transportation and all that is the core bone of traveling. Some texts might be bigger than others and some might be really extensive. As this functions also as a log, I will keep most of my posts in their initial condition, but I might remove or modify some big or extensive posts if I thing they are not as good as initially intended. Commends are welcome, even offensive ones. Discussions are encouraged (although I don’t expect much traffic). I will write in English, which is not my native language (so grammar and syntax mistakes are part of the decoration), but is the language I mostly use while traveling.

I happen to live in a famous tourist attraction and I can watch the behavior of the tourists arriving here every day. They usually behave like they are in a “traveling mode” which is different from their every-day-life mode. Every person defines his or her traveling mode in a different way, but when a person travels and wanders, the thoughts and habits adopt rarely interfere to everyday "normal" way of life. It happens to me too, but I don't like it. I don't like it when vacations are used to "refill my batteries" or "to do crazy staff".

I believe that life itself is a trip, and it should be lived that way. So, when I say “traveling” I like to think of it in a broader sense.

Traveling is moving from a place in space to another place in space, but also in time. Proceeding with ones life is, in that sense, traveling in time and space. But time and space are perceived in ways that vary from person to person. In other words, time and space are subjective. A trip might change you, but you also change the trip as you mature. But what does this mean in practice? It means that I will post my 4 hours car ride to a nearby village, so that it looks as important as my planed one week visit to Lisbon, Portugal, if I feel like it.