Archive for the 'Postcards' Category
Greek-style
The last few days we spent on Rodos largely involved being at the beach and being horrified by the parade of flesh that passed before our salty eyes. But we did also have time to meet some fully-clothed people, aka family members, for dinner one balmy Grecian eve. As one would expect, we went to […]
The Aunt, the Blood, the Shrimp and his Tailor
On Sunday morning we went for a visit to our ‘Aunt’ Irene. A feisty character from a Kazantzakis novel if ever there was one, Irene is the same age as my grandmother and, only half-jokingly, claims that she married her husband purely so that she could have […]
I’m in Paradise.
And no, I’m not talking about the rather un-Eden-like suburb in Adelaide. I’m talking about Symi.
I’m not going to bandy about superlatives because the fact is that I haven’t been to enough places to say that this is the greatest Mediterranean island or any similarly hyperbolic statement. I’m sure the travel nazis out […]
We’re in Greece. And finally I can fill these emails with stereotypes, ethnic jokes and misanthropic anecdotes with complete impunity. Why? Because, according to the birth certificate and an unfortunate resemblance to my father, half my blood originates within the borders of modern Greece. You wouldn’t know it though … with my clean shaven looks […]
Recommended listening while reading this email (I’m going all “new media” here, put me in the Pompidou!):
Anouar Brahem – ‘Le Pas du Chat Noir’
The Louvre
I’m almost at the point where I need to go without seeing art for a few months just to clear my mind, but that can happen in Greece and back home […]
The following pithy anecdote will be assisted by a preface for those of you not closely associated with the dynamics of my family. There is a running joke that my father, John, with whom I am travelling, is in fact a closeted gay man. You see, he fits the stereotype a little too well: he […]
I should have mentioned in my previous email the joy of travelling by train from Cesky Krumlov to Dorfen. After my encounter with the siren of Kaplice, we had another very quick stop in the city of Linz. Now, you should know by this point that i´m doing the entire trip without a Lonely Planet […]
St Petersburg, Petrograd, Leningrad, St Petersburg. Whatever it may have been called, it’s been here since 1703 (they had the city birthday last Thursday) when Peter the Great decided he wanted a great big cultural city that would act as a link to the West, via the Baltic, while also providing a fortified defense to […]
In this email: Buskers. Drunk men playing cards in childrens’ playground in the middle of the afternoon. The best toilet in Helsinki. And so much more.
Buskers in Helsinki rock my sweet little world. I never thought putting a banjo player together with a trumpet playing and getting them to play Lullaby in Birdland could actually […]
Right, a few more observations and jolly anecdotes that i forgot to share las time round. It’s gone all drizzly and overcast here, it’s too early for anything to be open apart from the Swedish resource centre (i’m speaking swedish to fit in) and so, yeah, i’m back at the keyboard.
I popped into the Contemporary […]