Bye, Nonno

Lorenzo Di Paolo, January 4th 1922 – April 25th 2012.  I think this photo must have been  taken sometime in the late 40′s or early 50′s. To me, he looks like a movie star!

My Nonno died on April 25th.  He was 90, and well-loved, and old-age wasn’t being particularly kind to him, so I’m not sure why it feels like he’s just temporarily away and will be back at some point.  Very strange feeling.

He had such a great sense of humour!  He was very witty and made plays on words all the time.  He liked to tell stories of his experiences in construction in Montreal in the 60′s.  He was a part of building everything from shopping malls and bridges to churches and homes.  Things that probably frustrated him at the time they happened, such as when he lived in Venezuela to work, in the 50′s, and was separated from his family, he was later able to talk about with humour.  He was also good at experiencing his emotions (not everyone allows themselves to do this, in my opinion), both happy and hard ones.

When my brother and I were little, whenever we visited him (in New York), each night that we were there, we would say, “Buona sausage, Nonno” rather than “buonanotte” and he would laugh each time.  I think we really believed we were amusing him, but now I think he must have had some pretty spiffy acting skills.  He loved music and reading and crosswords, but began going blind about 15 years ago.  Still, even without sight, he always made me feel like a creatura bella, which is what he sometimes called me.

Nonno and me, at his 90th birthday party, in January.

Buona sausage, Nonno.

Lovely Torino!

Going to Italy has been a dream of mine for a long time, so I was pretty excited to have the opportunity.  I started out in Torino, where I stayed with my friend Francesca.  I first met Francesca because one of my cousins couch-surfed with her in Torino years ago, and Francesca later came to Montreal twice while she was visiting Toronto.  I knew she was pretty cool, but I had no idea how wonderful she truly is until I stayed with her in Torino for 5 days.  Torino is a lovely place, and I feeI lucky to have visited, but I feel intensely lucky to have had the chance to get to know Francesca better.  While putting this blogpost together, I realized that I took fewer photos in Torino than in most other places.  I think it’s because Francesca and I were chatting so much. 

It was a pretty plane, and a new friend (who is a friend of a friend) gave me a staff standby ticket for about 9 Euros (to cover the fees). So generous!  I was lucky to meet him, a bit because of the ticket, but much more so because he was fun and kind and nice to spend time with.

I flew from Barcelona to Milan (and then took a bus to Torino), and could see the Alps for a lot of the trip. It was spectacular.

Alps!

Alps!

Alps! Last one. I loved the view so much.

This is Salo. Salo is a wonderful cat - so affectionate and kind and ... sort of human, which doesn't make her more wonderful than cat-like cats, but does give her an interesting mix of qualities. She's a darling. I am in love with her and wanted to change my facebook page to reflect my relationship with Salo, but alas, she said no.

And this is Ordigno! He is the most cat-like cat you'll ever meet, and he's wonderful! So playful and curious and nonchalant all at the same time. If I were a cat, I'd be head over heels in love with him.

Torino was so beautiful. Old and warm and stately, too. It's easy to imagine why it was chosen as Italy's first capitol city back in 1861.

I liked seeing the mountains from different points of the city.

This is the Mole Antonelliana. It was designed by an architect named Alessandro Antonelli, and was originally commissioned to be a synagogue. The architect went WAY over budget and wasn't nearly finished when the Jewish community of Torino sensibly withdrew from the project. The population of Torino apparently loved the building, and the city took over its management. It housed a museum for a while, and then I think sat vacant for a while, and now houses the Museum of Cinema!

The Museum of Cinema was awesome! They had a neat room explaining how photography morphed into film, lots about the history of photography and film, and neat exhibits about current films and culture and special effects.

A portable dark room! Imagine lugging this thing around?!

There were cameras and mirrors EVERYWHERE! It was so fun.

They had all sorts of neat special effects rooms, where you could place yourself into scenes. If I look odd and terrified here, it's because I was being tailed by those planes. Or, are those my allies? Oops. I'm not sure.

Now I'm driving a spaceship. Excuse me, I'm off to explore other planets and take a pleasure fly through the galaxies.

• 

  This is one of THE capes. (This one is for the 1978 Superman).

• 
• What would have been the worship space of the synagogue now contains an elevator to take you allllll the way up the steeple of the Mole Antonelliana, a slanted balcony that spirals its way up the walls and is covered in movie posters and exhibits, and on the floor…

is this! A place to sit down and watch whatever movie they're showing. And off to the sides are rooms with different exhibits. There was one about dracula, one about cartoons, one about army movies, etc. It was very fun!

The "vault." Architecturally, it was considered not structurally sound, and had to be reinforced. The artist who won the competition to decorate the inside said they embalmed it, still palpitating, with their reinforcements. Kind of à la Frank Lloyd Wright. Who cares if it's structurally sound?! What pedestrian worries.

Look at this neat wooden Marco Ferreri. It's always fun to learn a little about someone who made a film that shocked me. I saw La Grande Bouffe a few years ago, and I was disgusted, entertained, made hungry, and filled with empathy. Whew. Effective movie, I'd say.

A unique movie-screening room. ew. Nose-plugs not included.

I turned into Roger Rabbit, drank some gummybear juice, and went berserk. The museum said I don't have to pay for a new door, since it matches their decor.

As you can see, I had a lot of fun at the Cinema Museum!  What was really truly amazing, though, was the elevator ride I took up to the top of the Mole Antonelliana.  What a lovely 360 degree view of Torino.  You had to buy a separate ticket (well worth it) to go up to the top.  I was waiting in line at the elevator, and I handed what I thought was my ticket to the man was who collecting them.  He seemed to imply that he wouldn’t take it, and I was very confused.  He finally made me understand that I was handing him my streetcar ticket (and it was used, on top of being the entirely wrong ticket).   Oops.  I gave him the correct one, which was in my pocket, and he and his co-worker laughed A LOT. 

It was so breathtaking.

The buildings in Torino are stunning from the ground, but the aerial view of them was so neat to see! They look grander from above, and warmer from the ground, I thought.

Look at the mountains!

Look at the shadow cast by the Mole Antonelliana!

Looking up at the structure, one can see some of the reinforcements. I certainly wouldn't want to be up there without them! Aye yai yai!

Doesn't this photo look like I've sprouted wings and am flying over the city?

Torino has street cars, which got SO crowded it was hard to verify the tickets. I was very impressed with Francesca's ability to make her way through a moving, packed-like-sardines streetcar to verify our tickets.

Francesca took me to a hammam!  It was a beautiful space, and so fun!

This picture is from their website: hammamtorino.it. This is the main room, where one exfoliates with olive oil soap and a rough glove. Fra suggested I get an exfoliation treatment from someone who worked there, since it was my first time. A nice lady who was wearing only tightie whities exfoliated my entire body. My skin felt so smooth and new and soft afterward. It was quite an experience!

This is also from their website. This is the "hot room." Trust me, the other room is also very hot, but is called the tepid room. It was hard to stay in the hot room for too long, but it did feel soooo nice for a little while.

This is Fra under some pretty lights:

:)

We ran into a lightshow:

It was actually a light and sound show, and I took a little video, but alas, wordpress won't let me post it unless I pay them. Not that I'm complaining (just explaning) - free blog space, yay!

Francesca also brought me to the market.  Apparently it’s the largest outdoor market in Italy, but Fra and her friends laughed derisively every time someone said that, and they said that claim is made by so many places.  It was a very big market, though.

Oh, for the love of the beautiful onion...

I hadn't noticed this at the time, but...check out the label on the long sausages. Is that a squirrel? Heh...interesting choice for a meat product's label. It would make so much sense to eat squirrels, though, considering their abundance. Not that I'm suggesting it.

Pretty turnips!

This makes my mouth water so much.

Cabbages!

Fra took me to a vegetarian restaurant…

It was neat, and they had whisk lights! I want whisk lights one day! They can't be too hard to make! I want my light and air whisked and frothy!

I ate risotto with radicchio and swiss chard and pumpkin. YUMMY.

Torino is full of lovely things…

I love this picture. It's just a random Torino scene Sunlight, columns, guy painting wall.

Check out that vaulted brick ceiling. Wow.

This is the Palazzo Madama. It is a museum of fine arts, textile arts, medieval stone work, etc. I did not go in. *sigh* I love museums, and Francesca said it was one of the options, but I was having too much fun hanging out, eating chocolate, and meeting neat people. Next time!

Look at the drama of this star-adorned creature!

Francesca in the sunlight.

:)

This is a detail on a wall ...er... if I remember correctly, it's the wall of the religious museum where the shroud of Turin is located, but I can't remember for sure. I just liked the detail!

Sun and movement.

Walls like this make my heart beat faster.

Towers like this make me swoon.

Balconies like this make me...on second thought, I better stop this train of descriptions...er...reword: I really like balconies like this.

Flag flying from pretty balcony.

I loved that these kids were hanging out on this statue!

This is Palazzo Carignano. Construction began in 1679, and it was built for the house of Savoy. The rulers of this family controlled all of the Italian peninsula for a while, before Italy was unified.

Fra and I stopped by her favourite wine store. The owner describes the wines' personalities as one might describe one's friends. It was really fun.

In Torino I was vegetarian, not vegan. Torino is famous for chocolate. *groan* It was so good.

On that note, I should mention the yummiest meal I had in Torino.  It was at the home of one of Francesca’s friends, Simone.  He and his girlfriend, Serena, made a vegetarian feast.  The meal started with bruschetta and home-made bread with hummous.  YUM!  Then there was cheese and mushroom tortellini with sage-infused butter.  Oh my.  Then there was this orange salad with oranges from Sicily.  Then apple cake made by another guest who is from Germany.  Wow!  It was so wonderful.  That’s what the wine we had bought was for, and I wish I had written down the names…all I can remember was a very yummy-tasting Nero d’Avola.

Heh heh heh.  As an odd aside, at one point I excused myself to go to the bathroom.  I went into the bathroom and … looked for the toilet.  I looked and I looked.  I examined the bidet to make sure it wasn’t a surprise toilet.  It wasn’t.  I looked under the sink to see if there was some strange pull-out toilet.  There wasn’t.  Baffled, I walked back to the dining room and said, “Ummm…I, uh…ummm…can’t find the toilet.”  Everyone kind of laughed and talked all at once, and directed me to a room about 4 meters away from the room with the bidet.  The toilet has its own room, which isn’t too unusual, and happens in Montreal, too, sometimes.  That it was basically on the other end of the hallway…that was interesting!

We took a walk along the River Po.

It was calm and pretty.

We met this lovely willow tree.

And examined the wavy sand patterns in the water.

I loved these old seats in the street car.

Look at the swervy roads and street car wires!

Happy sunny soul shadows.

Embarassingly, despite appreciating this cool structure, I forget what it is. There is a statue of Caesar right beside it, though.

 Francesca also brought me to a purely vegan restaurant.  The food was very yummy, the place was welcoming and warm, and I bought some vegan mortadella (one of my favourite cold cuts from childhood).  And they had a …

squat toilet!

There is also an open-air market selling clothes, antiques, shoes, and general stuff. Now that I'm writing this, I'm wondering if THIS is the market with the reputation of being the biggest. I should have written this stuff down (or posted right away!).

I must admit that my OCD got the better of me, and I wasn't tempted by the clothes and shoes, which is too bad, because there was some cool stuff (I also wasn't tempted because I had to carry it in my backpack, too!).

These little streets were beautiful, but I found one had to be very cautious and aware of cars - they were NOT going to stop.

This is a church...and inside...

were pictures people had sent in, new and old, about near-death experiences. I think the point was gratitude for having survived. It was so interesting and sweet and kind and ...a little bit creepy, all at the same time.

This was part of the ceiling of this church. This isn't even the most ...gilded thing in there. I forget what the most gilded object was, but I remember commenting in it, and saying, "why?!" and Simone laughing and saying, "Because we're Italians - we're kitsch!" It was pretty funny.

Then we went across the street from the church to Al Bicerin, Torino's oldest cafe still in existence. Apaprently the King used to come here.

The inside was charming.

And the hot cocoa was T H I S thick. Oh yeahhhhh. I wanted to take a swim in it.

This is what we look like when in a chocolate-bliss state.

And this is what Simone and Serena look like when in a chocolate-bliss state!

Francesca and her friend and business partner, Gemma, and I went out for tea. This is their website: http://www.francescagentile.com/2010/02/shahab-in-motion/ They do all sorts of neat stuff!

I ate this tiramisu. Although it was really yummy, I don't think my taste buds like quite so much cream anymore...and yet, boy, was it yummy. My taste buds were like, "oh, do stop! no, no, go on! no, stop...wait, go on." Very confusing.

The three of us at the tea place, being silly!

Torino's metro system is completely automated - no drivers! The metro pulls up and aligns perfectly with this structure's doors, then both sets of doors opens. I found it very inexpensive - I believe a ride was 1 euro. I guess it's being automated keeps some costs down, but it also deters suicide from happening on the metro.

Just in case that felt too heavy, please look at this adorable car. Sorry it's fuzzy!

And now look at Ordigno yawning!

I love this photo.

Ordigno is a darling!

As is Salo! I'm allergic to cats, which is so sad, but the last morning I was there, I left my door open and Salo came in and cuddled with me.

And Francesca is a darling, too!

I was sad to leave! But, I hopped on a train to Venice, which was amazing and is what I'll blog about next!

Bye bye beautiful Torino!

From Caledonia to Catalonia…

Barcelona was pretty magical.  Strangely, unlike in other places I’ve been so far, in Barcelona I didn’t make myself eat my cultural vegetables.  I didn’t do so much that I had planned to and wanted to.  I allowed myself to do whatever I wanted at any given moment.  So, even if I was right beside someplace I had wanted to see, I didn’t force myself if I didn’t want to in that exact moment.  It was really relaxing, but now I actually regret it!  Lesson learned.    I need to eat my cultural vegetables.

I stayed with my friend Sean, who moved to Barcelona about 2 years ago.  Sean’s neighbourhood is AMAZING.  I’m pretty sure it is part of el Gotic, the “Gothic” neighbourhood.  He met me at the airport and hoisted my bag onto his back as if it were a teensy daypack!  Then we walked from the metro to his home, and I fell in love with this right away:

Gaudi's Casa Batllo. I never went inside. But I did love the outside!

My first glimpse of Sean's street!

The view from Sean's living room! His apartment is up a never-ending, narrow flight of stairs. He's on the 5th floor, and I loved the climatic effect of climbing down into the bustling street or climbing up into Sean's little haven.

The window pigeons I made friends with. I love them. Don't hang your laundry out there, though.

The Barcelona harbourfront. I love the statues of sailors in the water. I did NOT love that a seagull pooped on my head just a few minutes after I took this photo, though.

There are green parrots who live in the trees along the Mediterranean. Isn't this little one adorable? After the seagull incident, I obsessively made sure not to walk below them. I couldn't get a photo that truly showed their bright green feathers, but they were practically fluorescent.

Look at all of them! They made very cute chirping sounds. High-pitched and peppy.

This is me being really happy that I'm beside the Mediterranean. :p It was very windy.

This is Barceloneta, a little neighbourhood near the beach that is all small streets, hanging laundry, motorcycles and scooters, and palm trees.

Barcelona is full of wonderful old and new architecture, and it all fits together beautifully.

I just LOVE gargoyles and grotesques. I find them cute, not scary.

Another of my pigeon-friends.

This interesting cat statue is in el Raval, Sean's old neighbourhood.

This is a building in el Raval that is known to have lots of squatters. Lots of cool, anti-transphobia squatters, apparently!

Look at this pretty courtyard! It was right next to a library, and seemed to be some sort of official building, and had a sign saying something about the ceramic tiles coming from Germany, but there wasn't much other information, if I remember correctly.

In Spain I did something that might surprise many of my friends and family.  I ate meat.  Sean said that if I were ever going to, Barcelona would be the place to do it.  I tried paella that had all sorts of meats and seafoods in it, and seafood fideuà, which was basically a paella dish made with noodles rather than rice.  I had sausage and calamari and fish and all sorts of other things.  Sometimes I felt reluctant about it, and sometimes I was very eager to try the meaty things.  When I was eager, Sean said watching me eat meat was like watching a porn movie.  Oh dear.  Perhaps I was too eager.  I ate meat and fish a few times after leaving Spain, but otherwise stayed vegetarian, rather than vegan.  My body doesn’t like it when I eat meat and dairy.  It doesn’t seem to mind seafood, though.  It all tasted wonderful (except for blood sausage, which I did not like at all), but I feel so much better when I’m vegan, both physically and mentally, so this experiment will stay just that – an experiment.  I’m happier when I’m vegan.  My favourite thing that I ate in Spain, though, was vegan anyway:

Pimientos del Padron. One out of many peppers is hot, and I did get one hot one when I ate them again at lunch one day. I had these and fried artichokes. A perfect lunch. Yum!

A messy picture of our tapas table. Shrimp came later. Oh my.

A wall in the restaurant where those peppers are from. I've never seen soda look so pretty.

I loved this pretty bas-relief statue in el Raval. Isn't it sumptuous? Don't you want to eat those grapes and wear a drapey toga-ish thing?! Or maybe I'm just too prone to suggestion.

A pretty bridge connecting buildings, from the side...

And from below! I love the drama and surrealism of gothic architecture like this.

I couldn't get enough of all the hanging laundry. Sean mimicked me one day; "Oh Sean! Look at the laundry! Let's go smell that flower! Let's smell that person's hanging underwear! How exciting! How wonderful!" I swear, I did NOT smell any hanging laundry. I enjoyed it with my eyes only.

A door to Santa Maria del Mar cathedral.

The inside of Santa Maria del Mar. I found it reallu impressive.

A floor detail that I liked inside Santa Maria del Mar. I wish I knew what it meant! Any cathedral-readers out there?

Looking up, on a little street off La Rambla.

Mimosa flowers!

I love this photo. I have one with less of the peoples' legs cut off, but I love this one more. It feels video-gamey to me. Like you'll walk through that arch and meet up with someone or something you have to battle or save or buy currency from. :S I'm actually a 15-year old boy.

Inside mercat de la Boqueria.

Fruits and veggies inside La Boqueria. I bought persimmons and figs, and oh my, were they delicious.

The beautiful Santa Caterina market, where I bought local mushrooms. VERY exciting for me.

In Spanish, the word "supermarket" is "supermercat." This image came to mind (and giggling to my lips) everytime I passed a supermercat. Yep. I'm that immature.

I was driven up to a beautiful overlook of Barcelona by a new friend, and if you turned and looked away from the view, you saw this lovely church presiding over ... an amusement park. Interesting.

We took a very scary ride that allowed us to see the view about 20 yards higher than the overlook. We were in a teensy basket, swaying in the wind. It was terrifying and wonderful at the same time!

In the basket! Notice my deathgrip on the railing and the nervous expressioon my face. We were REALLY high up. I don't understand how they make money with this thing - it was not expensive (3 Euros each), we were alone in the basket, and I can't imagine more than 2 others fitting in there safely! Good for them for keeping it going anyway.

The outside of the church on the mountain.

The inside of the church was really pretty. Also, they had a room for perpetual adoration. This idea fascinates the OCD side of me.

This beautiful little detail was behind the church, nestled under a sheltering tree.

The Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya.

Looking back at Barcelona from the Museum's steps. That mountain in the background is where the other overlook (with the amusement park and pretty church) was located.

And this was inside the Museum. It was a large oval room with an organ in it. It was just lovely. I walked all around it and marvelled at its little intricacies.

I visited Sagrada Familia.  I don’t really know how to describe it.  I wandered around and sat and listened to the audio guide for about 6 hours.  It was like being in a magical forest, but it did feel religious, too.  Saying that Gaudi was influenced by nature feels insufficient.  It felt more like he created a type of nature (he’d hate this and think it is disrespectful, …but …) just as he believed God created nature as we know it.  Being in a Gaudi building feels like stepping into a different world.  Pictures can’t do the experience justice.  I can’t wait to go back in many years and see what Sagrada Familia is like then (projected finishing date: sometime in the late 2020s).  Originially it was someone else’s project when construction began in 1882.  Gaudi joined the project the following year and took charge of the architectural style.  I hope there’s some way that Gaudi is watching from afar, because his baby is growing so beautifully.

My first close-up view. "Interesting" quickly became "overwhelming" (in a wonderful way).

:o) I wish I could express my awe through pictures and emoticons (well, perhaps not emoticons).

Some of the grotesques and gargoyles are lizards and snakes. I think I read that Gaudi thought of them as running down the walls, away from the glory that is God's power, represented in the details of the building.

It's odd to see all the construction equipment!

New and old?

The attention to every little single detail is astounding. This should be the prime example of a "labour of love." And yet, as I write that,I can't help but think of the Italian Chapel on Orkney, and how it strikes me as just as much a labour of love. Resources and access to them are always part of the process, of course!This is the back!

I have to admit that these newer steeple thingies reminded me of slot machine cherries.

Could I call this Cartoon Gothic?

Bougainevilleas and Gaudi flowers.

Cubist crucifix.

There are a zillion other exterior details I want to post pictures of…the door with all the words on it, the magic number square, the giant clamshell full of holy water, the floor inlays in the entryway…but, instead, let’s go inside. 

Awestruck Ali is speechless, teary-eyed Ali.

Accessible grandeur. It felt airy and big and grand, but comfortable and homey. I was overwhelmed and would have laid down on a bench (inside there are some stone bences along the walls) and taken a nap, if I had thought I wouldn't be escorted out for doing so.

Oh my. No words.

Austere and warm.

Cartoonish AND elegant.

Ceiling. Or a forest canopy?

This looks like a pretty spaceship to me. Like one that would belong to an alien race's prince or princess.

Look at that staircase!! No one was allowed up it, but it leads to tons of balcony space, where Gaudi apparently imagined thousands of choir members would sing. That thought is so beautiful. I can barely imagine how lovely it will be. I feel so excited about it!

Not all the windows have stained glass yet, but they're so pretty, just as they are.

Look at the ceiling!

Close-up.

I kind of thought the grape vines surrounding the crucifix were odd. They're the little dangly things.

Okay…I took a zillion pictures at Sagrada Familia.  And I could post them all here in an attempt to try to show how beautiful I found it, and I’m sure the attempt would fail.  One last one!

It's neat to visit a place that feels perfect and complete, and to know that the next time you go, it will have grown up more, and be very different. Kind of like kids, I guess. They can seem perfect and whole but are going to change soooo much.

Sean took me to Sitges, a little beach town not far from Barcelona.  It was beautiful and we ate and drank and wandered around.

If it looks perfect, that's because it kind of was. What a nice day.

Any day that includes a piggyback ride is a fun day.

I visited Park Guell, which is a park that Gaudi designed.  I want to go back with friends and have a picnic.  It was pretty wonderful.

Rooftop to the entry-gate building.

Gaudi is playful!

See? Playful! What is this...a laughing horse? I don't know. A dog? A magical being of some sort?

Look at the crowds...the funny thing was, everyone just stayed at the front of the park! So, I got to explore the paths and more private areas pretty much alone. There were more green parrots!

Underneath the undulating mosaic bench (next photo) was this area, full of cartoonish doric columns and concave spaces to hold the happiness that is created and floats up after people look at the mosaics. That's my take on it anyway.

The bench looks like it will give you a ride somewhere, but alas, it stays quite still.

Even the pigeons seemed to like the bench!

Part of the park that was mostly empty!

You can see Sagrada Familia from Park Guell! Can you spot it between the trees?

And there were cactus pears on the cacti! Yum!

I really really want to have a picnic there.

There were parts of the park that were built, but felt more organic, such as this.

Gaudi eventually moved into a small room in Sagrada Familia, to better oversee its construction. But he lived in a house (designed by another architect, Francesc Berenguer) in Park Guell for about 20 years, and this is its steeple! This house is now the Gaudi House Museum.

The house!

In the house were some of the objects Gaudi used in his daily life. I found his little cup, saucer, and spoon really touching, which I guess means, on some level, they're like some sort of secular relic to me. Odd.

Even Gaudi's bathroom was pretty. See?

I love how one little photo in a hallway can show the busy-ness of Gaudi.

A door from Casa Mila, now in the Gaudi House Museum. I LOVE it.

Check out this crazy cabinet. It, and the chair and sofa on the right were a collaboration between Gaudi and the painter Aleix Clapes. I LOVE the chestnut tree pattern.

I met someone from Toronto who was also travelling alone, and she and I took pictures of each other with all the pretty mosaics. This is in Gaudi's garden, where he apparently walked around for inspiration from nature.

This is me and the famous salamander creature. He whispered to me as I sat there. He said that he used to come alive in the middle of the night and go visit Gaudi's bedroom window to have good conversation and a cup of wine. Since Gaudi moved to Sagrada Familia and then died, he cavorts with the other mosaic animals and the green parrots and the pigeons. Did I mention that Sean said he thinks I don't have an inner child, I AM a child, and he isn't sure if I have an inner adult? Seems appropriate.

Sean and I went to a champagne bar that the person I met in Park Guell had told me about. One would think a champagne bar was classy, right? Well...as it turned out, a champagne bar is VERY different in Barcelona (or at least this one was). We ate greasy sandwiches and drank pink champagne that tasted like cream soda and cost 50 (euro) cents. In no time, we were...quite merry. There are no seats - you just stand at the bar, or lean against the wall. Very fun and interesting!

Too greasy (but yummy) sandwich, and pink champagne.

The last night I was in Barcelona, we ate Pintxos, which is Sean's favourite food there, I think. They're beautiful little pieces of fish or meat or cheese on slices of bread. They were very yummy, and fun to eat. You go up to the bar, choose what you want, and then they charge you later based on the number of toothpicks on your plate. Neat, eh?

Wow.  I can’t believe how many photos I posted here.  If anyone made it to the end, wow!  Thanks!    Next is Torino.  yay!

Bye Bye Barcelona!

 

 

 

If even the best-laid plans can go awry…

Well, then mine barely have a chance!

I was planning on staying in Europe until I go to Taiwan, but, as it turns out, I’ll be back in Montreal for (I think) about a month, starting December 12th.  I have to have a LEEP!  Why am I writing about this on my wee blog?  I guess because I feel that people often feel shame and stigma in relation to such things, which doesn’t make sense to me (even if I also feel things like that in certain situations – it makes emotional sense that we feel those things in the cultural climate we live in, but what I mean is: I don`t think it should be that way!) .  So, even if it’s oversharing, it feels like a teensy part of the solution to shame.

If you’re squeamish… … stop reading now!

I have “quickly-growing cells” on my cervix, it seems.  I love preventative medicine!  These are not even pre-cancerous cells, they are just suspicious.  A LEEP removes those cells by basically burning them off.  yuck!  Not that scary, just very necessary.  The doctors take a few months to get back to you, so I looked into getting it done in the UK and it was VERY expensive, so back I come!

Negatives: A whole month cut out of my trip!  No Greece or Czech Republic or Berlin!  And, uncertainty about planning for Taiwan (until I have the initial appointment and can ask about the follow-up).

Positives: Getting to see family and friends in North America!  I miss you guys!  Getting to be in Montreal.  It’s a beautiful world and I want to visit all of it, but Montreal is home.  Yay for modern medicine!  And…getting to see family and friends, again. 

Sheep, stones, the sea, and very kind people

Please excuse this romantic and incredibly innaccurate comparison, but I felt a bit like W. Somerset Maugham’s character, Larry Darrell, as I headed north on the train towards Thurso, to take the ferry to the Orkney Islands.  I don’t know if that thought was caused by the seeking of the unfamiliar, or the open-heartedness I was feeling, but either way, it’s still innaccurate!    I’m hoping to NOT work in a coal mine on this trip.  :S

I was told that the ferry ride would be very choppy, and it was, but it was not as bad as I was expecting (and I met yet another Ali on the ferry!).  The Orkney Islands were so beautiful.  Old stones, so many adorable sheep, Shetland ponies, the North Sea.  I want to go back and camp some day, for a few months!  My couch-host in Edinburgh, other Ali, told me about “the right to roam.”  Basically, one can camp, respectfully of course, ANYWHERE in Scotland, even on others’ land.  Isn’t that so beautiful?!

The sheep were so cute.  I took many sheep photos.  I swear, there’s more to Orkney than sheep!

The ferry arrived in Stromness after dark. I took a bus to Kirkwall, where one of my wonderful couch-hosts picked me up to bring me to their home in Toab, about 15 minutes away, in the country. Kirkwall might be the main town on Orkney, but it's still a very small town, so just a few minutes outside of it is farm-land.

This is what greeted me in the light, the next morning! Can you see the north sea peeking around the left corner?

This bay reaches almost to the north sea. Vikings used to meet on the strip of land between this bay and the North Sea, to negotiate!

If you went outside at night, you could hear cows mooing in the distance on one side of the house and the North Sea's crashing waves on the other side, and above, the stars were maginificent. My couch-host Malcolm encouraged me to walk outside barefoot at night, which I did twice (but not very far - I was afraid of the Nuckalevees, a terrible beastie of Orkney mythology, at which Malcolm bravely scoffed). Moo! The cows didn't seem afraid either. Fancy that.

Here's that strip of land...see how little it is? Maybe just 25 metres across. I loved those cliffs on the right. On the left, in that little bay, hundreds of birds were wading in the water.

I loved this view so much and took so many photos of it, but I won't post them all, don't worry. Imagine walking through farmland and catching glimpses of the sea and the bay, and then coming over a small rise and seeing this? It captured my heart.

The beach that day.

I went into Kirkwall and walked around the outside of the Earl's Palace. Oddly, they close it in winter. I guess they don't get enough visitors to keep it open.

Imagine entering these doors, a few hundred years ago?! Wow. I was trying to imagine that, and all the different expectations one would be required to fulfil when visiting such a place. Time machine, anyone?

I love looking up at castle towers.

Cute little boat outside the Kirkwall Museum. The Museum had a lot of information on the ancient history of the Orkneys, and was very interesting.

Bone pins found at Skara Brae, a 5000-year old village. I later got to visit Skara Brae...see below.

Saint Magnus's cathedral in Kirkwall.

The inside was breathtakingly grand.

And it was full of interesting tombstones what were stuck on the walls, like this one.

This is what it says. Please excuse the fuzziness.

I like all the layers and depth and angles of Saint Magnus.

That day, I rode a bus (they come VERY dependably, but also not at all often!) back towards Toab, and because of the time of day it was, the county bus service doubled as the school bus.  There are no bus stops in Orkney.  You stick your hand out at the driver if you want them to stop and let you on, and you tell them where you want to get off along their route.  Neat, eh?

Malcolm and Rachel brought me to the Standing Stones of Stenness and also to the Ring of Brodgar.  It was amazing and magical.  Part of me was expecting to have some sort of supernatural experience (à la Diana Gabaldon’s Clare Fraser), but, thankfully, I stayed whole and present.

Look at this seal! It was just laying there like that, and I asked Malcolm and Rachel how it could float so well. They said that it was laying on a rock. Oh...that definitely makes sense. Later, we saw an animal running away from us at the Standing Stones of Stenness, and I said, "Oh my god! Did you see that wild animal? What was that?!" They said it was a rabbit. Oh. A Bunny? I truly should have known that (although, in my defense, it was a weird-looking bunny). I was really showing off my ridiculous city-ness that day, it seems. :S

The Standing Stones of Stenness!

It was a dramatic sky, which felt very appropriate.

If I look a little afraid here, it might be because a were-sheep snarled at me.

We look cute and innocent, but watch out, we'll eat you in two bites! argh!

Isn't this just eerie? It would be so cool to go out in that little boat.

These were my wonderful couch-hosts in Toab, Rachel, Malcolm, and baby Gilly, who was incredibly delightful and SO fun to play with. Isn't he so cute?! Here they are at the Ring of Brodgar.

Malcolm and Rachel suggested that I lay down in the heather, which I happily did. Then they suggested I pay attention to my 5 senses (my kind of people!), which was amazing. These suggestions made a lot of sense, considering that one of their lines of work is getting people to experience nature (http://www.allfivesenses.com). Another part of their work is about teaching eco-friendly skills (www.touchwoodproject.org.uk), AND Rachel is a web designer, too (http://www.gillywood.co.uk)! They were a joy to spend time with, so I can only imagine they'd be a joy to work with. The heather smelled like a combination of moss and flowers, but different than either, really. And, it was SO soft and comfortable, I wondered whether I was going to fall asleep right there. Very fun. I smelled the stones, too, and they smelled like rocks in the DC area, but different than rocks in Quebec. Strange, eh?

The sun began to set, and I walked around and visited each stone.

Things got a bit intense...

and then they got very intense, and glowy.

Zounds!

Look at what grows on the stones!

Bye Ring of Brodgar!

Views like this are part of why I have to go back to Orkney. My eyes are hungry for such sights.

On Orkney, things are really interesting on so many levels.  It is a rural, kind of isolated farming community, yet very politically liberal (that seems unusual to me, but I’d love to be corrected, if that’s the case).  There is also a negligible crime rate.  Hitchhiking is normal and safe…so I tried it for the first time ever.  I was going to the Italian Chapel, a chapel built by Italian POWs in WWII.  Here’s how small Orkney is: when I got back to Malcolm and Rachel’s that evening, I said hi to them from the person who picked me up (on my way there AND back, as he happened to pass me again!), since they knew each other.  He was a birdwatcher, as was his friend in the car with him, and that day they were looking for unusual migratory birds.  Anyway, the Italian Chapel was wonderful.  It was easy to feel connected to the love that went into building it.  It was built using Nissen huts and matierals that were being thrown away.  The chandeliers were carved out of large tin cans!  When the POWs were released, the artist and main organizer of the building of the chapel actually stayed behind a bit to finish it.  And, he was welcomed back to Orkney as an honoured guest years later.  It really is a beautiful little chapel, full of love.  I’m not religious, and I found it to be a bit prayer-inducing.

Sheep: "We will keep you company while you wait for a car to pick you up." Me: "Wow, thanks sheepies! Can I pet you?" Sheep: "Keep your furless paws off us! Baaa!"

The chapel! See the Nissen hut shape?

Here it is!

This is midway into the chapel. All the tilework and brickwork on the walls is ... skilfully-applied paint!

The altar and part of the painted ceiling.

Facing the door to leave. Bye bye little lovely chapel!

Just outside the chapel. A monument depicting Saint George and the dragon is in front of the chapel.

This sheep is running away from me after I reached my hand out and made clucking sounds, from 20 feet away. Big chicken. On 2nd thought, they're probably pretty smart to be afraid of humans, unfortunately.

These are the Churchill Barriers, which is what the Italian POWs were building on Orkney. They were deemed necessary after a German U-boat sunk a British warship in 1939.

The hitchhikee (sounds backward...I should be the hitchhikee and he the hitchhiker, like employee and employer, but who would expect English to be consistent?) dropped me off about a mile away from where I was staying (which was already out of his way - so nice!), and I'm glad he did, because I met these Shetland ponies! Aren't they the best?! I loved them.

They crowded around to have their noses scratched, and stayed even though I didn't have any snacks for them! Notice I'm reaching DOWN. They were truly tiny! I was later told that they used to work in the coal mines! Poor little lovies.

Then they began a cute and odd mutual grooming activity!

See!

"Bahhhh! Look at me walk down the sheep-walk! Look at me, as I do my little turn on the sheep walk! I'm too sexy for my wool, too sexy for my wool, too sexy!" They're actually delightfully cumbersome and clumsy-looking creatures. I love them.

This is me, about to jump into the North Sea. Like a fool!

Rolling around in the waves.

I didn't go too far in (I rolled around in the knee deep water, bascially) because the sea was THIS thick with pretty red seaweed.

Lighthouse at Birsay

Birsay

I just LOVE the landscape of Orkney.

I loved it so much!!

In fact, I didn’t want to leave.  So, just a few days before I was supposed to, I contacted another couch-surfing host and instead of leaving, I moved in with Bryn in Kirkwall for 3 more days.

Look how pretty Kirkwall is!

It was neat to get both the country and town experiences.  Bryn was also great!  I have been so very lucky with my couch-hosts!  He was kind and welcoming and I felt the need to remind him that I was a couch-surfer, not an esteemed guest.  He even brought me to Skara Brae, which is a bit hard to reach by bus, even though he didn’t want to see it for a 5th time in 6 months.  I said I didn’t mind walking distances (a few miles from where the bus drops you off, I think), and he insisted he didn’t mind!  He waited in the cafe and read in his car.  Isn’t that sweet?   Skara Brae is a 5000-year-old village (well, the remains of a 5000-year-old village, anyway).  I LOVED it.  It might have been my favourite site on Orkney.  I want there to be a hotel that reenacts the life back then (archaeologists found all sorts of tools, but no weapons, interestingly!).  I said that to a friend, who asked me if I’d also want to have rancid food and bedbugs and outdoor plumbing.  Hm.  Ok, so it doesn’t have to be exactly historically accurate.  They actually had a plumbing system, though.  You can see the holes in the homes and you can also see the area (not far enough away, in my opinion) where they drain to.

This is the inside of a mock Skara Brae home, so one can see what it would have been like. Almost all the homes were exactly alike, regarding size and also set-up of furniture, which was made of stone. There's that shelf across from the entry door, the hearth in the middle, you can see a bed (which was very small! I would have had to sleep curled up, and I'm short. Apparently the people were just slightly taller than me. I guess they didn't stretch out to sleep!), and you can see the corner of a square hole in the ground on the right side of the shelf, where they would have kept captured crabs to eat. On the right side were two more beds, and in one corner is the hole that was used as a bathroom that drained to the area I mentioned above.

This is the view standing in the back and looking at the door.

Skara Brae was built into mounds of rubbish known as midden (a gross thought, but I bet their rubbish was cleaner than ours, and if we used ours as building materials, we wouldn't have landfill issues!), so it gives the impression of being underground, as the door didn't lead directly oustide, but instead to a covered stone hallway that would have connected ALL the houses in the community to each other and led outside, too. Walking through this dark hallway must have been spooky at times. I know I was feeling a bit eerie, and I was just in the model replica home and hallway!!

The sea is just beyond where those people are standing. Apparently, it was about 50 yards further away when Skara Brae began, and during the 600 years that it was inhabited, the sea crept closer.

Isn't it all a bit Hobbit-like?

All the other people got scared away by the wind and rain, and I asked the guide, oh... about a zillion questions. She was great - she obviously loved her job and took me down into the site (not part of the regular tour!) and showed me some grafitti that was from when people lived there, and she took this picture. She was very cool.

Bryn also brought me to Barnhouse Village, which is a site similar to Skara Brae, and from approximately the same time period.  In the 1980′s, someone discovered it, and they unearthed what was basically a footprint of a village, and then built up the walls to show what it would have looked like if a bit more of it had survived.

I like the "footprint" of this village. It's a neat idea to build up a bit from it, to illustrate its shape.

This is handsome Bryn, at Barnhouse Village.

Bryn took this picture of me hiding at Barnhouse Village.

Look at this crazy clock in a Kirkwall bar! That's my kind of time-piece.

This is Maeshowe, a 5000-year-old chambered tomb! No pictures were allowed to be taken inside. I happened to be in the same visit as a choral group from Russia. They sang a song inside it, which was completely magical! I took an audio recording, which I wish I could upload here, but I don't seem to be able to. Also, 1000 years ago, Vikings broke into the tomb and graffittied it! They drew some pictures, such as of a dragon, and wrote silly things in runes, such as comments about their girlfriends and rune-writing talents. Ridiculous, but so interesting!

Orkney skies!

More Orkney skies!

Kirkwall Habour Cuteness

This is in Saint Margaret's Hope, where I was catching a ferry back to the mainland.

The ride was dramatic in weather and...

...also in scenery. Apparently the ferry sometimes passes a WHIRLPOOL!!! I didn't see anything like that (I and one other person were the only people outside - it was pretty cold and windy and rainy).

Bye beautiful Orkney.

I then did some accidental hitchhiking when a nice lady offered me a ride.  She also offered me some candy…just kidding.  She was very nice, and I had missed my bus and was walking until the next town (just a mile or two) to call a cab to take me to the train station 15 miles away.  I was very grateful for the lift.

I took the train to Stirling!  Why?  Because I wanted to see the castle.    And, I got lucky AGAIN with my couch-hosts.  Iain and Frazer are two guys in their mid-20s who have huge hearts and a welcoming attitude.  Iain had the day off and offered to show me around.

Stirling was very picturesque!

Apparently being hanged was only for the regular people - royalty were beheaded at this beheading stone. Iain was a very good sport - he posed for several goofy reenacting photos at my request. Though, he did refuse at one point to run around a courtyard pretending to be a lion. Sheesh. Dignity really is overrated.

It turns out that Stirling Castle was destroyed by the Scottish military (ie, they redid it to use as modern barracks), and then it was renovated with the goal of making it look historic. Here I am pretending at the royal table.

Detail of a tapestry. I think this one actually had historical significance, unlike a lot of furniture in the castle.

Then I went back to Edinburgh for two days, and then flew to Barcelona.

If anyone has actually read all this – wow!  Thanks!    This is…er…long.  Next: Barcelona!

Lovely Edinburgh

It’s funny to love a city whose name I cannot quite pronouce!  Although, maybe it’s appropriate, because I don’t really have words to express how much I love Edinburgh, and perhaps not being able to say “Edinburra” the way a Scottish person would is part of my general inability to express myself about this city.  It was magical – you could feel its hauntedness and ancient energy everywhere, I found.  It’s easy to imagine why so many authors have been inspired by it. From the closes to Calton Hill to the little enchanting corners to Leith, it was just lovely.  I want to go live there someday, at least for a while!

Talk about being inspired! This is in the ground outside of the writer's museum.

The closes are a series of little pedestrian alleyways that connect the Royal Mile (a street that stretches between the castle and the Palace of Holyroodhouse) to streets on either side.  I was completely enchanted by the closes and walked up and down them for hours, several times.  Here are some close pictures:

They're spooky and fun to walk through at night! Some of them are short, some are long and have stairs.

They're every few metres for almost the whole Royal Mile!

eek!

Here's a pretty one, and not at all scary.

In Edinburgh I couch-surfed for the first time, and couldn’t have had a better first experience!  My host, also called Ali, had 5 roommates, and the 6 of them were all  wonderful people.  They were engaged with the world and had interesting jobs (Ali studies mushrooms for the botanical gardens, and one roommate is training to be an acrobat, and others are bike mechanics and one is taking a therapy course! yay!).

Sophie, other Ali, Em, and Gavin, about to eat Samhain dinner, aka Hallowe'en dinner (see more about Samhain below).

Ali walked up Arthur’s Seat with me, and showed me little mushrooms along the way.

Ali telling me about mushrooms. Together, we were a mob of Alis!

The other Ali took this picture of me on top of Arthur's Seat.

Look how pretty Edinburgh is:  !!

View from Calton Hill - so pretty! That's the Firth of Forth.

Calton Hill, where fairies are reputed to live. I did meet a leprechaun-like creature. He was a creepy old man who chatted away and wouldn't let go of my hand. I had to extricate myself, which I did very politely. I'm sure he was a leprechaun - important to stay on his good side.

This is me on the odd, half-built parthenon on Calton Hill.

Nice perches are everywhere. Caw caw!

The views in Edinburgh are spectacular, no matter where you look!

Even when you just look up.

The beautiful Saint Giles Cathedral on the Royal Mile.

I love Holyrood Abbey. It is in ruins, and covered with moss, and so lovely. I want to throw a garden party in it, with little tea sandwiches and petit fours, and tea and champagne, but I feel sure the royalty (who still stay at the Palace of Holyroodhouse when in town) would object.

I went to visit the Calton Hill Cemetery, and returned again on Hallowe'en, for added spookiness. This is David Hume's grave.

Interestingly, it seems that many families had little walled-off parts of the cemetery, such as this one. It is a bit odd, but when I think of it as a house for the bodies of a family after death, it's sort of sweet.

I tagged along with Ali and some of her roommates to a Samhain festival, which tells the story of the changing of the season, and is sort of the origins of our Hallowe'en. It was in front of Saint Giles Cathedral, and was energizing and beautiful, and also sad.

My face had green paint on it, and a red beastie (summer, which was being "killed" by winter) came and touched my face and I turned beastie-ish, too!

I went to the Orkney Islands, but then returned to Edinburgh and stayed with Ross and Kristen for two nights. It was so fun! And, Ross said to me, "There's no shame in the half-pint." I love that. Here are Kristen and Ross looking very lovely!

This is Ashley, sitting on top of me! Mister, the other furry friend of Kristen and Ross's, was too shy for such shenanigans.

Byebye Edinburgh!

I love you, Edinburgh!

Instincts and Explorations

When I was in Glasgow, I visited the most beautiful museums, both in the city and in the surrounding suburbs and country-ish settings.  All the museums there are free, which is great, and the stereotype that Glaswegians are a friendly bunch seemed very true.  So, I was confused by the feelings I was having of always having to look over my shoulder, and I was more careful in Glasgow about not walking in unlit alleyways alone at night than I have ever been before (one sees cool stuff in dark alleyways).  Then, at one museum, they had a temporary exhibition about violence and war, and it claimed that Glasgow was one of the most violent cities in the Western world.  Later, I read more about it, and there’s a lot of gang activity (I saw gang graffiti inside the closet of one of my hostels and thought it was silly kids being silly…oops.  Oddly, it was in the most tranquil and pretty suburb.), and there’s also a very high death-by-stabbing rate.  I’m sure it’s safe enough, but I need to learn to trust my instincts!  Despite all that, Glasgow was friendly and lovely and so interesting!  And the art and architecture available to see for free were phenomenal!  Here are some photos of things I really liked.

My first hostel was across the street from the lovely Queen's Park. There were birds and dogs everywhere! I frolicked a bit, then got self-conscious when I realized there were also other humans around.

I don't know what this pretty little bird is, but I liked it.

I visited two rose gardens. I smelled every type of rose. I was in heaven.

This rock says, "The rose of all the world is not for me. I want, for my heart, only the little while rose of Scotland that smells sharp and sweet and breaks the heart." Hugh MacDiarmid 1892 - 1978

I then tried to walk to the Burrell Collection, a Museum in country-like suburbs.  I got lost and it took me 2 and a half hours to get there and then I got lost on the way back, too.  Aye yai yai.  Sir Burrell was an art collector (amongst other things, I’m sure) and his collection has over 9000 pieces, from all over the world.  I was reminded of Charles Foster Kane a little bit!  Sir Burrell gave his collection to the city of Glasgow before his 1958 death, but with such specific conditions about how it could be displayed (in the country only, but accessible, I think) that a suitable home wasn’t found/created for it until 1983.

The museum building itself is wonderful, and was constructed with Sir Burrell’s request that natural light be allowed in, if I remember correctly.  It is more than worth the visit to the suburbs.  It was worth getting lost for hours!

Beautiful old stained glass with people walking in Pollock Park in the distance.

The Wynn Cupboard, made in 1545 for John Wynn, with emblems of his family on it. Purchased in 1921 by Randolph William Hearst, and then in 1939 by Sir Burrell. A neat history.

Detail on a 16th century oak overmantel

A granite head of the Egyptian Goddess Sekhmet, in all her cat-like beauty. The sign was confusing, but I think it's from the late 1300's.

These adorable beasties are on the grounds of Pollock Park, near the Burrell Collection.

And the Gallery of Modern Art was pretty awesome, too!!

The Peephole, by the late woodworking genius Tim Stead. He also designed all the furniture inside the Gandolfi restaurant. The Peephole lets you peer down to the main floor of the GOMA, and felt like a comfy and beautiful cave. I sat in it and spied for awhile.

Peephole detail

A lamp tower, complimenting the columns at the GOMA. I want to make one for my home one day!

A crazy print I like by someone named Alasdair Gray, for nis novel Lanark: A Life in Four Books (1981).

And then there was the magical Kelvingrove Museum.  So amazing!

Silly me joining the expressive hanging heads!

Le Liseur, 1901, by Rousseau. So calm and pretty.

A 1902 haircomb made by one Henry Wilson, in London.

Autumn, by George Henry in 1888. He was one of the "Glasgow Boys." The exhibit on them blew my mind. I loved how the signs had info about the process each artist went through for each painting. Museums in Scotland seem to include that sort of thing, as well as "learning rooms," where one can read more and sometimes try intereactive exhibits to learn more.

The Druids - Bringing in the Mistletoe, 1890, by George Henry and EA Hornel, another Glasgow Boy.

This is me, being serene and overcome at the same time, drinking tea in the Willow Tea Room, designed my Charles Rennie Mackintosh. His lovely fireplace with little mirrors is behind me.

A dark alleyway I loved and felt drawn to and visited 3 times at different times of day to take pictures there. Bye bye, pretty and intriguing Glasgow!