-From my Scottish Diaries-

20th to 23rd August 2010

Introduction:

The sound of the bagpipes is still ringing in my ears, a relentless march of vigourous repetitive tones hypnotizes me and forces me to put pen to paper. Scotland has made me a prisoner of its wonders. It has dressed me up with a fabric of sensations, with a tartan made of the most representative scottish odors: the penetrating mustiness of antique 1600 houses , the fresh spray smell of its mystic celtic parks, the warm smell of a refuge in pubs mixed with the thick aroma of midday Haggis…

The smell of battles, defeats and conquests. The sad smell of a soldier drinking the last drop of whisky; the unfair smell of the blood from the ones sentenced to public hanging; the helpless smell of tears from a dog eternally waiting for the owner that will never be back…

Friday 20th de August- “Toast with ghosts”

6:00 a.m.: I wake up very early, get dressed and make my rucksack to go out to Barcelona Nord Bus Station. There I will take a bus to Girona’s airport. The day is ok, not too hot, not too cold. Streets are empty. I walk through “Rosselló“ St. until “Serdenya“, then “Provença“ and I turn onto “Sicilia“ St. After a short while I stop walking and take a picture of “Michael Collins” pub.

7:30 a.m.: I am seated on the bus to the airport. The journey takes aproximately 1 hour 10 minutes. It is the first time that I visit this airport. It is small and seems friendly. There are not many people and the check-in controls are carried out very quickly.

9:30 a.m.: I have already been through security controls and I am upstairs waiting for the boarding gate to be announced. It is hot upstairs. To the left side of the hall, there’s a terrace with a bar. Many people are seated and drinking there. I prefer to stay under the air conditioning system. I start to sniff the different sactuaries of imported perfums, (although I never buy them).

My intuition rarely fails: preventing me against the fact that they aren´t going to serve us any food on the plane (the one thing that became true) I go to eat something. I buy a slice of pizza and a bottle of water. I keep walking for a while and at about 11:35 I board the Irish Airlines RYANAIR.

People:

I see lots of people, too many people. Listening people irritates me, particularly spanish people. They gesticulate  and gossip too much, they are experts in creating instant bursts of hysteria.

When I listen to English-speakers I take a break. They are calm, quiet, don´t gesticulare nor complain (at least not in a bad manner showing the despotism or  grandiloquence).

Once more I feel myself trapped between two very different worlds.

There is no bridge that communicates the embarkment floor with the plane (to my surprise!, I suppose this is to avoid expenses…). They make us go down the stairs and walk for a long time under the burning sun until we reach the airplane.

Finally, the plane takes off at 12:30 midday. I see that punctuality is not respected but they do not delay so much neither. This fact leaves me quite satisfied because I am a puntuality maniac.

I love to observe hostesses and stewards. I look at them all the time. I have always thought of them as special persons. I do not know how to explain it, they seem like wax dolls with a cord inside. Women seem perfect, ethereal… Men are usually gays and very charismatic.

What I still can´t understand is why do they have such an off-centre accent and why do they speak in a sort of English I am sure not even them understand. It is as if they dragged words very quickly and don´t want to make a clear pronunciation.

You end up getting used to it. You understand them after many trips, they always say the same anyway! it’s pretty mechanical! but I still don’t understand why do they get infected by what I will call:  the virus of lazy pronunciation, or chronic vague diction.

Business are business:

I can’t believe the things that are sold in this plane. I felt like in a weekend market. The staff sell some sort of cigarrettes with less nicotine (a very weird invention called Smokeless Cigarettes). They also sell a lottery voucher for charity purposes as well as food, drinks, toys and perfumes. Perhaps the funniest thing is that they put a funny tone of clarinets announcing the landing at the end of the trip. An off- voice also says something funny. People end up laughing and clapping. Undoubtedly, although you travel trapped like a canned sardine and there are more lugagge restrictions, you land with a smile on your face!.

Landing:

I arrive at Edinburgh at about 2 p.m. The airport is small and easy to understand. The first thing I do -following some friend’s recommendation- is to buy an IRNBRU (popular soft drink in Scotland) plus a packet of sweets because I need change for the buses. In Scotland and Ireland you need to have the exact change (1.20 p in this case). I go out to wait for my bus number 35. My first impressions are related to the spontaneity of people. After waiting for a long time (I don´t remember how long, but it seemed an eternity to me), a woman-driver comes in the bus 35. Many people get off using the front and back doors. When I approach to get on, this girl tells me -in her difficult but funny accent- that she had to wait for instructions. She needed to know if she should stay or leave. I ask her if she knew which was the nearest stop to “Lauriston Place“ (where I had to get off), and she replies that I don’t have to worry since I could ask the next driver to drop me at the right place. She finally tells me that she has to go to the garage. Another bus would come at 14:50.

Excessive punctuality is not very important in Scotland. The bus arrives later than expected. The trip becomes eternal for me. I am a little nervous because I have made a reservation at a student residence and not in one of the typical places for backpackers. During the journey I ask different people how many stops are left until Lauriston Place. I had already asked this to the bus driver and he had told me he was going to tell me when we were near but I was scared about he forgetting it. All the ladies I talked to were incredibly kind, it is not only the way they do it, it is also the concern they show.

As I arrive to the place, I start to ask pedestrians where was “Chalmers St.”. I find a nice couple of men carrying musical instruments and they reply laughing, we even ask to other pedestrians and we end up in a group of 5 people trying to guess where was the street. When I mention the blood donor centre they play jokes because we are standing just in front. I say goodbye and keep walking. I feel insecure, anxious and tired. I stop a girl and ask her. I do this because I like watching reactions. This girl reacted in a very kind manner. The girl crosses the street with me, takes my booking and read it. We finally find the address.

5:00 p.m.: I arrive at my hostel. I don’t know whether there is a reception. It is a building with different floors. There are 4 individual flats (bed, desk, and bathroom)on each floor. There is also a shared kitchen for each group of flats (kitchen that I didn’t even look at because I wanted to be served in bars and restaurants!).

I am outside of the building and do not know which is the entrance, I fortunately see a guy that is about to enter so I ask him to let me in. After the check-in, they give me the room 28/07/D.

First thing I do is to unpack my things and have a shower. I do it quickly because I want to go to the “Sacred Heart” church in Tollcross area (the neighbourhood that is next to the hostel). The building is also next to the beautiful park called “The Meadows”.

When I am ready I go out to know the place and find the church. When I think I have found the address… I see a beautiful, gothic abandoned church… I start asking again. After a while a lady tells me the right direction. I arrive there at 10 to 6 pm. The mass was just starting… It is the first time I hear a mass in English. I had waited this chance for ages. I didn’t have time in London, in Ireland I didn’t have the right time, so this was the chance. This church was very special to me. The celebration itself is different because people kneel down many more times (not as in Spain where people don’t even kneel down nowadays). There was a moment when I felt that God was there. A peace impossible to describe, a very special energy… I had never felt this in all my life. I felt a deep contact. I went out of the church feeling very relaxed and I started to read the papers, stamps and leaflets that were on a table. The priest came out too and he greeted me smiling: “Hi” (as if he  knew me of a lifetime). He stayed there talking to some people. To the right side there was a man… I think he was tied to a chair. The priest greeted him too and started talking.

I went out of the church to continue knowing the place and eat something.

6:35 p.m.: I go to the “Favorit” bar to eat an hamburger and drink half pint of “Kronenbourg” (french sider). I’ll explore the city afterwards with the intention of finding some of the companies that organize city walking tours. I want to go on a ghost tour.

Instead of taking the short way, I take the long one. I walk through South Bridges to arrive at the Royal Mile. After some days I draw the following conclusion: Edinburgh centre is like a town with 4 streets.

Another surprising thing was how people look at you and smile, they make visual contact all the time. What I do not understand is the traffic: when the light becomes red, people cross, it is as if they had a secret understanding between car drivers and pedestrians. It seems the upside world!.

I suddenly stop myself. I’m at a crossroads and a very cheeky man stops his car, (I remember his white hair and his sparkling blue eyes). He takes his head out of the window, with his hands still on the wheel and whistles to me!. Such a long time since someone whistled to me in that way… in front of everybody… I blushed and crossed the street as he left smiling…

When I arrive at High st, (Royall Mile) I turned to the left. Mercat tours were announced there. They offered me 2 tours, one lasted an hour and a half, the other lasted 2 hours (this one included a drink at the end). I doubted… but since I had nothing to do I chose the 2 hours tour.

From 8 to 10 p.m. I went on the “Ghost Tour“. The woman that was going to be our guide was dressed in a black cape. From the beggining it all smelled like a big show of effects. I really wanted to learn history Anyway, I decided to stay!.

The tour guide approached each of us and asked where were we from and if we believed in ghosts, I answered: “I believe in everything…“ and she replied: .“that is a very good answer!“.

The tour starts at “Mercat Cross”, a place used as a meeting point for traders and where public royal announcements were made as well as public hangings. The longest public hanging lasted around 8 hours and it is said that the ghost of that person appears there at midnight…

After an introduction we went just round that place.  To one side there is the “St. Giles” cathedral. The lines on the pavement used for parking today, used to be a cemetery!.

(The tour guide plays jokes all the time, she says that she likes some girl shoes, some girl dress and that she likes my hair. Being on the spotlight is not strange to me but I would like to enjoy anonymity sometimes. There is always someone who is going to ask me something  about my hair, my origin, the clothes I am wearing… I even remember some ladies that asked me how did I do to eat and not spoil my lips makeup! ).

We finally go to the most important part of the tour: the “South bridge Edinburgh Vaults”, which are located in tunnels built under the XVIII south bridge. They were used for many purposes for 30 years: taverns, refuge for cobblers, workers, homeless people, families and place to hide illicit material including the dead bodies collected by 2 serial killers Burke and Hare (2 irish immigrants) that robbed and sold the bodies for medical experiments. The bodies were required by Dr. Robert Knox, a respected lecturer in anatomy at Edinburgh Medical College.

There weren’t enough corpses to be used as material for dissections and Edinburgh College was very respected. These body snatchers (also called “resurrectionists”) offered 17 bodies as material for experiments.

Our tour guide was a real actress and I can say she told stories in a very theatrical way but I didn’t get particularly scared although it was dark and she tried to scare us all the time. It was like ´too made up´, too much preface and you never got to hear substantial stories.

From the few stories I can remember, the famous ghosts are: a man who killed a prostitute and doesn’t like if someone enters to the place where he left her body; a cobbler, this one seems to be a friendly ghost, a child called Jack, he seems to be playful and teases people when they walk towards him; and a pregnant woman who cries…

The tour guide told us that many people went back home with unexplained scratches or bruises over the body. She said that she had been pushed by a supernatural power in another tour. Then added that these kind of things don’t happen all the time. For example: in our tour nothing happend (apparently…)

She encouraged us to take Pictures all the time. She said that people found strange things on them afterwards.

(there were some round light spots on my pictures, these are called ORB, evidence that there is an energy there…)

At the end of the tour, the ones that had paid more got a place in a sinister table adorned with candles. Gloom… There was a mirror behind us. We were served a glass of red wine and the tour guide told us some more stories and passed us (*)William Burke’s mask.

The tour wasn’t the thing I expected but I did it because I wanted to know the vaults and wanted to have a first contact with the city…

That day I was knackered. Thanks to the sider and the wine I felt dizzy… At about 10 p.m. I went back to the hostal.

(*) William Burke was sentenced to public death and his body was disected for the public eye too. William Hare was liberated and it is not know how nor where did he end up his days…

Saturday 21st August: “Heroes, just for one day“

7:00 a.m.: I get up very early and have a shower. When I am drying myself in front of the mirror in the bathroom, I see a scratch on my left forearm. I can’t believe it. In a second I remember what the tour guide said while my rational side tries to remember where could I hurt my forearm like that. I can’t remember any accidental injury. I keep on drying myself and think… I see another scratch on my back, this one would inexplicably dissapear the following day. Then I see a small rash above my right nipple (hey… I didn’t know that ghosts also liked to have fun! -J).

I get dressed and go out to “The Meadows”, a park that is next to my hostel. There is a long path called “Coronation Walk”. I keep walking there for a long while, I breath the fresh air, see the landscape and take some photos. The weather is perfect. You can rarely see a bike rider or someone walking the dog or jogging. I love being alone surrounded by nature… I intend to get to know the surrounding areas and wait until I can go for beakfast.

I walk from here to “Greyfriars “cemetery, a place that is dedicated to the loyal dog “Bobby”. The story says that the “Greyfriars Bobby” was the faithful companion of a policeman named John Gray who lived around 1856. John and the dog became inseparable friends until 1858, when John died of tuberculosis and was buried in Greyfriars. His dog “Bobby” became famous because he remained at the grave of his master every night until his own death in 1872. Mr. James Brown, old caretaker of the cemetery, told how “Bobby” stayed on the burial mound, the morning after the funeral. The dogs were not allowed to enter into the cemetery, therefore, Mr. Brown chased the dog to get it out, but the next morning, the dog returned. A second time, “Bobby” banished, and he was found in the usual place on the floor shivering cold and damp of the tomb of Gray.

The caretaker felt pity for the dog and allowed him to stay. Even on the most horrible days, “Bobby“ didn´t leave his place, he usually barked to those who tried to persuade him to go with them. Bobby didn’t have a license and he was in danger.

Fortunately, the city major, Sir William Chambers was a dog lover. He was a powerful council chief and decided to pay for Bobby’s license. Bobby got a new collar, the one that is displayed and a brass plate.

“Bobby” was a Skye Terrier. These dogs come from  Skye island and are known by their loyalty and fellowship. I take more pictures and go to some bar.

9:00 a.m.: I decide to go to “Monster Mash”. I have a classic english-scottish breakfast: fried bacon, baked beans, mushrooms, fried egg, sausage, toasts, butter and the delicious “Black Pudding”. I drink coffee with milk.

10:00 a.m.: when I finish breakfast I go to the “National Museum of Scotland” but I don’t stay there because I want to go on a  FREE WALKING TOUR. I think I’ll return the next day.

11.15 a.m.: the tour starts at High St. I decide to join the English tour. We are a big group of people and from the very first moment I realise that the tour guide is not a serious person. I have that sensation again… I think that he is going to mock us… We waste 3 hours and a half.

The tour begins at Mercat Cross (the place where royal annoucements were made and public executions took place), then we go to the City Chambers (where the council is), the Writer’s museum (dedicated to famous scottish writers: Robert Louis Stevenson, Robbie Burns and Sir Walter Scott) and Bobby’s cemetery. The tour finishes near Edinburgh castle.

The tour was a mockery to me. The guide didn’t have nor the minimum ethics sense plus he seemed a silly chatterbox.

He started asking to some of us where were we from, thing that I do not consider important due to we were there to learn history and historical facts and not to feed him with gossip about our lifes. When it was my turn, I replied: “I am a mistery”. People laughed, so he started naming countries to satisfy his curiosity. He named Germany and then he continued. He chased me like for 2 hours. He interrupted what he was saying to the group just to ask me questions about this. When I finally decide to tell him where was I from, he changes his attitude towards me. He suddenly named a girlfriend as if I was the one trying to hook him up when he started everything. He was really ugly!. Besides he compared my hair colour with irnbru’s colour (I was the centre of attention again…).

I wanted the tour to end. I had done it just to learn how to move in the city on my own.

The city and its people:

Edinburgh is a small city and its people are very relaxed. They are always willing to help and always smiling. You can see  nice couples in the streets: men are dressed in kilts accompanied by women. Adult and young couples go hand in hand and seem taken out of a romantic old postcard.

The sound of the bagpipes is everywhere, in corners, in shops, bars …

There is a vast majority of redheads. Many people are disguised and delivering flyers for the Festival on the Royal Mile.

3:30 p.m.: I go back to the hostel and get dressed to go to the “Edinburgh Dungeon”, which is just round the corner of  “Waverly” station on Market st. The “dungeon” is an entertainment complex that offers ghoulish fun in different cities of Europe. You can visit the “London Dungeon”, the “Berlin Dungeon” etc…

They are based on sinister representative characters of  the country and some actors play a role. Here I have to meet an Irish friend who lives in Glasgow, Scotland.

5:25 p.m.: my friend’s train was very efficient, it even arrived before than expected!.

We met up and went to Princess St.

I couldn´t avoid going shopping so I asked Andy to go with me to a shop where “Kilts” were sold. I went to the kilts straight away and Andy stayed there talking to the shop assistants, according to what he told me later on, they were from Nepal. I entered, took a kilt and asked if I could try it on. One of the shop assistants (tall, exotic olive skin and white turban) took the kilt, bent himself and started to dress me up with it. I asked him if he had a mirror so he took me to the back of the store. After I satisfied my whim, we  went to the pubs zone. We saw the “Burke and Hare” pub at Grassmarket zone. Luckily enough I realized that was a strip bar so I said we better kept searching. All the pubs were crowded. It was almost impossible to find a place to sit.

I finally proposed to go to “Frankenstein”, which is a pub built on an old church. As the name says, it is inspired by the monster. There is a show at some point where you can see a cylinder coming out of one wall. Frankenstein lies there and then he wakes up and looks at both sides. It is very funny and people start taking pictures. The music there is also very good. You can hear a scaring music at toilets: there’s a leaky tap, some shoutings and a voice that whispers: “get out, get out…”. It is a true wonderful place.

We drink some bottles of Miller and talk. Unfortunately Andy has to go back home in Glasgow early. I was very tired since I had been walking all day from early morning. I felt like my face was burning. The weather was good but the sun was fierce. I felt a slight sunstroke and the beer got me dizzy. That night I went back to the hostel early.

I said good bye to Andy at Teviot Place…

… And I think of Argentina and the USA, Ireland and Scotland, of the thousands of pubs, of Michael Collins portrait, beers, and talks; faces and poems … in all the places I knew and in all the places he knew. I think of the stupid things we like to say. The silly things we like to laugh about … I think about the distance, I realise the distance is nothing when you take friendship inside. And in my head ring a few lines from a song by David Bowie: “We could be heroes, just for one day“. That’s the miracle…

Sunday 22nd August – “Uncalculated meeting”

9:30 a.m.: I have breakfast, a “Pancake Stack” in a bar called “Mums“. This time I drink tea. One of the guys at this bar is very nice and funny. I still can’t believe the joy of Scottish people, what an example to follow!

Time goes by slowly… I have the same sensation that in London. This feeling relaxes me, it makes me feel that I have more time to do more things…

Later on I go to the ”National Museum of Scotland”. This museum is a beutiful complex of 7 floors that you can’t miss. Floor 0, 1st and 2nd are about “The Kingdom of Scots“ (900-1707), the 3rd floor has special exhibitions, the 4th and 5th floors are about “Industry and Empire“, the 6th floor is called “Scotland: a changing nation“, and the 7th floor is a terrace with views to the city.

In The Kingdom of Scots you can see wonderful objects such as a “Clarsach” (gaelic word to name the musical instrument known as “Harp”). This harp is from XV and it is one of the 3 gaelic survivors from the medieval era. You can also see heavy big guns and stones, the development of scottish dresses, and you can learn some interesting facts, e.g.: the “Brooches” were used to distinguish the social classes.

From 0 to 3rd floor you remain speechless looking at very old objects.

Amongst many other curious things, on the “Industry and Empire” floor there are two statues: one from “Queen Victoria” (who loved Scotland) and another from “Prince Albert”, her husband.

I took a picture of me and the queen,  I call it “Victoria versus Victoria”, (the Light that is over the scepter was naturally produced by the camera flash).

On the 6th floor, “Scotland: a chaging nation”, there are contemporary objects and scottish personages. You can see from scottish soldiers honoured during first world war, a poster making jokes of Margaret Tatcher (worldwide hated and used for playing jokes) until the ballet shoes worn by scottish ballerina Moira Shearer, actress in “The red shoes“ (one of my favourite films made in 1948).

You can also see the story and replica of Dolly, the sheep, test a Formula 1 or examine theories and myths about chess.

Besides, there are many interactive zones where you can try an armor on or some old costumes. The entrance is free, there are free audio guides and even free guided tours.

It is really amazing and I wish to have stayed there for a whole week to enjoy it step by step. Staff at the museum are more than nice. I asked a man for the toilets and he walked with me and left me at the toilet’s door (he seemed to escorted me!), plus he talked to me, laughed and so on. (when you are used to a country where people treat you so bad you appreciate the differences a lot!).

After this visit, I went to the “Writer’s Museum”, which is dedicated to three famous scottish writers: Robert Burns (1759-1796), Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832) and Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894).

This museum is located at Lady Stair’s mansion, that was built in 1622 for an Edinburgh trader. This house had many owners until it was donated to Edinburgh city in 1907.

Stairs steps are uneven and doorways are low. Unfortunately, you can not take pictures inside, so I took some outside.

Amongst the writer’s personal objects that called my attention was what Stevenson called “Book of original nosense”, the one which he used to write anything he wanted at any place he was. There is also his baby’s lock hair, his pipes, riding boots and the hat that wore when he lived in Samoa. Many XVIII pictures can be seen, including the house that inspired him “The treasure island“.

I wrote down a quote I liked:

“When I suffer in mind, stories are my refuge, I take them like opium, and consider one who writes them a sort of doctor of the mind…”

This morning I had walked near a tavern called “Deacon Brodie“, name of the man that inspired “The strange case of Dr.Jeckyll and Mr Hyde”. William Brodie was a respected business man, mason member, friend of rich and bohemian Edinburgh people. He also repaired locks and many security mechanisms. He had two lifes: thanks to the contacts he made during the day, he robbed houses during the night. This dichotomy betwen a respectable face and another criminal, inspired the memorable work of Stevenson.

From Sir Walter Scott you can see a chess set, the rocking horse he used as a boy, and his dining table from 39 Castle Street, the printing press on which Scott’s Waverly novels were printed. He had to give his table as a part of payment to his lawyer, John Gibson, (economic crisis 1820).

From Robert Burns you can see the swordstick used while working as an Excise Officer and his writing desk from his house in Dumfries. There is also the original London Herald newspaper announcing his death on 27th July 1796.

The museum has a table full of brochures upstairs. There is one interesting one called “Scottish PEN“ which is a worldwide association of writers pledged to protect freedom of expression. They support writers in prison and minorities.

http://www.scottishpen.org/

Afterwards I went to eat my first Haggis near Edinburgh Castle. Against all my prejudices, I have to say that is delicious, especially if the day is cold. I enjoyed it a lot!.

I also did some shopping in between. As an strange remark (for the collection) a guy shouted at me: “You are really scottish“. I was walking, doing some window shop… and I still do not understand why did he say that.

Later on I went back to the hostel, I ordered my stuff and thought about going to eat something and then for a beer to a club called “Espionage”, on Victoria St. This is a very strange club with 5 floors and different types of music. It is like a labyrith full of stairs. Some people love it, some people hate it.

I don’t know why I wanted to enter here. I know that the name called my attention and I had read at some tourist guide books that this was a recommended place. I entered to the place where my instinct took me. I arrived at a darked room with some soft lights where there were people seated. I supposed they were listening to some actor from the Fringe Festival. I went to the bar and asked a half pint of Guinness… I asked the barman whether the show was free and if I could seat there, -“sure”, he replied. I noticed that most of the people were seated at the back of the room. First rows were empty. I took a quick look and I saw many couples…

I decided to have a seat somewhere in the first rows. The comedian was in front of the audience holding a microphone. He welcomes me: to break the ice, he asks me if I had a half of Guinnes in my hand; then he asks my name and the typical “where are you from?”.

-“My name’s Victoria and I’m from Argentina”, said I.

(I don’t remember the exact order of the events nor the exact words, but things follow more or less this way: )

-“Yes, we have the same enemy”, added I.

The guy replied: -“That is because you assume that we are all Scottish but we are actually all English, so you may leave now“. Of course he was joking. Everybody laughed. With a very funny intonation, he added:

-“You have made a full pocker there Victoria”,

There was a complete silence, he stared at me, I broke the silence and said:

-“Anyway…” and he added:

-”Yes, that is, anyway! “.

There was tension in the air and also laughs.

From here until the end of the show he didn’t stop mentioning me (good or bad luck? I was the centre of attention again).

I was very tired and needed to relax… I noticed that this guy dominated the stage very well, he had a very good voice and intelligent lines but I had no idea who he was…

From the moment I arrived, there was a nosense kind of joking. Very english by the way. You end up laughing because situations are stupid and repetitive, you end up hysterical, so everybody explodes laughing.

When the guy was about to end his show, he said:

-“and now I will need someone to help me here and of course, this is going to be Victoria!“, “Victoria, please, come here”.

I went there with him, in front of the audience. He had a box of milk, took out the cap and gave it to me. He started to drink the milk. I looked at his neck, how he seemed to enjoy every drop, he exaggerated movements, The air got tense again. After a while he stopped drinking and asked me the cap back, I gave it to him, he approched himself to the microphone and said:

-“It’s ok, now you may seat Victoria”. People bursted in laughs. That was the end of his show and he said to me that I could relax, that everything was ok and that there was nothing against me. Then he announced his partner, the following comedian. This guy named me in the middle of his act but didn’t make me participate. When the show was over I went to see a street performer on the Royal Mile.

When I went back to Barcelona I checked the names of these comedians at the Espionage venues calendar, ”Max Dickins” (the guy that made me watch him drinking milk & “Sam Gore”, his mate. The show was called “Uncalculated risk” .

I wish to have stayed there drinking more beer but I was tired and went back to hostel early.

I thought this chapter could have been titled “I Shell the blood o fan Englishman” reference I take from a song by the argentinian band „Sumo“, and here are the lyrics, my homage because I can’t stop listening to that  song in my head:

Crua Chan

By the left, quick march, Crua chan!

It was seven hundred and forty-five,

the highland spirit had revived,

Mac Dougall and Mac Donald there,

the clans had come from everywhere, singing:

Fee fi fo fum,

I smell the blood of an Englishman,

fee fi fo fum,

come on London, here we come.

We went all the way down south,

we were frothening at the mouth,

coming down to Derby town,

we’d beaten everyone around, singing:

Fee fi fo fumé

We ended at Culloden moor,

feeling bad and feeling poor,

the redcoats had chased us there,

there we died and there we stayed, singing:

Fee fi fo fum, I smell the blood of a Scotsman,

fee fi fo fum, United Kingdom here we come.

We the bonnie prince has gone back home,

he’s never gonna come back.

We’ll do to you at Wembley,

we’ll do it to you in pubs,

with the Scottish louts larking about.

Here come your rats, cruachan lad.

Ø      The song is about the failed rebellion against the British Crown in 1745-46
Crua chan: battle cry of the Scottish clans of the Highlands.

Monday 23rd August – “Scottish heroes in Edinburgh and Argentina“

My last day in Edinburgh!. It rained all day… The past days were quite sunny and windy. I have breakfast, coffe with milk and some delicious pastries in a bar at Grassmarket zone. When I finish I go to the “Museum of Childhood”, the one which is strange and it is dedicated to children toys and objects from 1600 onwards. A doll dressed like a nun called my attention!.

Then I went to “Holyrood Palace”, I took a quick look at the “Scottish Parliament”, which was curiously designed by a catalan architect called Enric Miralles (who died before his work was finished).

I went back to the other side and visited the “Museum of Edinburgh”. This one has roman objects, pottery, glassware, silverware from around 1700. The collar and the bowl of Bobby. Many objects belonging to Field Marshall Douglas Haig (1861 – 1928), who led british forces at the first world war.

Something strange happened to me here… I was walking, looking at these objects when I suddenly saw a big  portrait of Douglas Haig, I felt he was looking at me, was he alive?… when I went down the stairs ready to leave the place I saw another portrait of him.  I had this strong feeling again. A pretty intimidating feeling. My first reaction was to take pictures of both portraits. To my surprise, those pics are not in my camera, they simple didn’t appear, and they are the only ones together with a couple of objects I pictured. They are all missing in my camera. I think that Mr. Haig protects this museum very well… When I went back to Barcelona I searched information about him and I found out that there is a football club with his name in Bs. As., Argentina!.

Then I visited a church (“Kirk” in scottish), which is the stragest church I have ever seen. There is some lines of King George IV outside.

To the other side, there is a museum called “People’s story”, the one which reflects scottish people’s lifes and jobs through the decades. You can see how was a kitchen during the war period, the different jobs that people had. I didn’t know what picture to take so I took one of a punk from the 70s and some interesting posters.

When I finished here, I went to Frankenstein to eat a delicious Haggis that included whisky sauce this time. I went back to Lauriston Place and entered to Sacred Church again. I went to pick up my bag from the hostel and made a quick visit to the “Edinburgh College of Art” which was round my hostel.

I went through the city centre until I reached Waverly station to take the airlink 100 bus to the airport.

I felt pity… I didn’t want to leave this city… but I went back home full of the festive atmosphere and the kind spirit of its people.

… I am waiting to board the plane, Ealing some Cheese Oatcakes while I remember faces, colours, landscapes, flavors…

I say goodbye to all the scottish warriors to the sound of an strident bagpipe that dies at sunset…

August 2009:

Berlin (Germany)-Prague (Czech Republic)-Vienna (Austria)-Innsbruck, the tyrolean alps (Austria)-Munich (Germany)-Paris (France)-Barcelona (Spain)

First, I have to make a brief introduction about what is an “Interrail” due to the fact not many people know about it, (not even me!). I discovered what is was by pure chance… The “Interrail” is a train ticket that allows you to travel within many places in Europe. You can purchase different tickets and travel within different cities, towns, countries, etc… at your own choice.

After searching lots of information I chose the ticket for 5 days in 10, thing that allowed me to travel as much as I wanted every day of those 5 days within a period of 10 days. Nevertheless, there was just a single day in which I could travel twice. These kind of trips are very tiring!.They are aimed at young people with little money. The idea is to know many places in short periods up to a whole month.

You need to have lots of energy to walk a lot, sleep a little (and very bad!), have a great sense of orientation, know how to read maps and indications, take quick decisions, and think, think a lot!. You have to think all the trip away: destinations, schedules, what train to take, what to visit. Language is useful to know, otherwise, know how to read the answers we are given.

I don´t want this to sound redundant but these kind of trips are not for people who want to arrive to a place and have everything served: a good bed, good meals and automatic tour guides . It´s a tailor-made trip, a trip that allows you to be free and discover what you want.

In the beginning, I was going to travel alone but due to those rare things in life,  I found a friend again; someone I didn´t see for more than a year, so. In a couple of days I convinced him to travel with me.

Barcelona summer is too heavy, heat is really unbearable and after so many years you get bored… what was better than go to discover new territories with the secret hope of finding out colder and nicer climates…? This was the great chance!: I had much time, some savings and wanted to know Germany and Austria overall. These were my goals, what I visited in the middle was to find closer places to link the whole trip. The last place, Paris, was a close link to go back to Barcelona.

I made rough plans with the links, train´s timetable, where to sleep (if I was going to sleep or not), etc… Finally, I followed the plan quite well, but you can never have 100% planned. It is good to have a plan, but the rest comes along during the trip.

So, let´s go to the chronicle of an unforgettable adventure!

GUTEN ABEND BERLIN!

Germany-Berlin

Wednesday, 12th August:

15:30- We meet up at “Sagrada Familia” metro stop (blue line) to go to “Sants station”, from there we will take the train to “El Prat”, Barcelona´s airport.

16:30- We arrive to Barcelona´s airport.

17:40-We take the plane to Mallorca.

18:15-Take off to Berlin with a stop in Mallorca city. The first plane is called “Niki” and has a fly as a logo. This makes us laugh a lot (does this happen because we bought cheap tickets?, a fly rides us? or is that “poorness attracts flies”…? does this airline exist or is it just a virtual representaion, ha ha ha) -J

19:50- We finally take the “Air Berlin” plane at Mallorca´s airport. It is good to higlight the impeccable Air Berlin service. They served drinks and a sandwich. From this time I feel that Germany must be as perfect as I imagine.

22:40-We land in “Tegel” Berlin´s airport. My first impression has to do with the fact that we didn´t go through any immigration control, what else could we ask…?, there is nothing more stressful than being at a control point, so we entered as if we were at home. This airport is small, nothing impressive!

Public toilets have two compartments only, this would be repetitive at every public bathroon in Germany. If there is a 20 women´s queue, you have to wait a long time…

I hadn´t booked any hostel for the night we arrived. Seeing  the airport was so small, we didn´t want to sleep there. The information point was closed but at least we found some free maps there. After reading the indications on how to arrive to the booked hostel for the following 2 nights (“City Hostel Berlin”), we decided to take a bus to “Zoologischer garten” train station. We thought about spending the night there and take the metro (U-Bahn) afterwards or go walking to the hostel. When we arrived to the station we were absolutely lost: in a new territory, with all the indications in German, the reservation and information centres closed. We had a small panic attack… Entered in a bar to drink something and went to the Mc Donalds that was in front and open all night. I consider important to say that knowing a little of German helped me a lot. Hardly anyone speaks in English to you!.

After eating there and observing another repetitive thing: public bathrooms are paid and this goes from 50 cents up to one euro! Or things like train stations have shower services from 4 to 8 euros and locker services from 2 to 5 euros… we decided to spend the night there. We went to the upper floor and tried to sleep seated as owls…

I do not know how we did it but we were awake around 6 the following morning.

Thursday 13 August:

We wanted to use the time to make the following reservation to Prague. Had to wait until 7 in the morning, when the reservation centre at Zoologischer garten opens. When it did, we made the reservation for 16^th August. This cost 4 euros to each of us. Later on, when we had become Interrail experts, we realised this reservations had not been necessary; there are destinations and shcedules where the reservation is compulsory but this was not the case… Lack of experience teaches a lot!

We set out to walk to the hostel  which was at Berlin´s heart, “Mitte” zone. In this nice walk we passed near a marvelous park called “Tiergarten”. It is said that people go nude there. Another repetitive fact was people riding bikes. Everybody in Germany and Austria rides a bike. You also see elegant men in smart suits riding bikes. What I didn´t get use to was to respect bike lanes. I wasn´t knocked down just by pure chance!.

When we were close to the hostel, we passed the Holocaust memorial, which is a big space full of gray cement blocks forming a labyrinth. The Stasi museum is on a small street that we found on our way. I was taking pictures of everything around and tried to remember where were those things that I would want to see in detail later on. When we finally arrived to the hostel, left our things in a space that they have reserved for it and went to the city centre, close to the famous Branderburg Tor to begin one of those free walking tours with a tour guide.

After queuing, groups were divided by languages, we were with the Spanish group and the tour began at the “Academy of the arts” where Hitler asked the architect Albert Speer the design of a new Germany. Speer was named as “the first architect of the Reich” or “the architect of the devil”.

This tour was about the oriental side of Germany. We weren´t very convinced about doing it, due to the fact we believe everyone tells you history from the most convenient point of view. On the other hand, you usually find out that everything you hear is everywhere in history books that you have already read… The anecdote was that the Berlin guide had a Jewish name and the guide we later had in Munich was a black guy.

The “Branderburg Tor” is a symbol of Germany inspired by the acropolis of Athens. Over the highest part you can see a quadriga with Godess Victoria mounted on a chariot drawn by four horses in direction to the city. This godess has the symbols of Germany: the eagle and the iron cross, symbols that have been taken and put again through the years because of their nazi connotations.

The highlight here is that in 1806 Napoleon took it out to show it as a war trophy in France, later on, after Paris was taken by Germans, the quadriga was recoverd and restored by them and the square where is nowadays is called “Paris square”.

When Berlin wall was built in 1961, Brandenburg Tor remained in no man´s land, without access from the east nor from the west. Only frontier soldiers and special guests from RDA could access to this monument.

From this square you can see the Reichstag or German parliament. This is a beautiful building… it is said that the dome was built transparent for people to go and see how governors work, that is in a clean way for them.

Afterwards we were taken to the Holocaust memorial that we had already seen in the morning.

From there we departured to the place where Hitler bunker is said to be buried. It is a square surrounded by buildings with families, and acoording to what the tour guide said, not even those people know where the bunker was. Afterwards, we went to the rest of Berlin wall, the air force building, the Checkpoint Charlie and Gendarmermarkt square.

The general nazi air force quarter is an amazing survivor of the rain of allied bombs that left Berlin in ruins in the second world war.

With its colosal scale, this is one of the best nazi architecture examples in the world. It is said that the building wasn´t bombed because of the big quantity of documents saved there. They wanted to protect this.

There is nothing much to comment about Berlin wall, behind it there is the “Topographie des terrors” where SS and GESTAPO quarters are based, probably the most feared place in Berlin in times of Nazi terror. German Secret police worked there, carrying on interrogations and executions in the basements, while in the next door building the SS planned the Holocaust. The remmants of these two buildings have been transformed into an elaborated exhibition: “Topographie of terror”.

We were just about to go to this exhibition in the following days, but we finally decided to go to Stasi musem.

We visited Check point Charlie and Gendarmermarkt afterwards, too. We were so tired at this point… We had to go back to do the check in at the hostel. Went back at 3 pm, did the check in, had a shower and slept until 7 in the afternoon.

When we woke up we took the metro to go to Kreuzberg zone. We were told where to find a street full of bars. This neighborhood is very pretty, vibrant, quite cheap and with a special energy. There we ate a great turkish menu. From there to a coffee bar where we tasted delicious cakes and coffess from another world!. We couldn´t believe how delicious the food was and like three times cheaper and with more quality than Barcelona.

Had breakfast in the hostel, coffee with milk, juice, tea, cereals, delicious bread that sometimes was hot and baked, we made sandwiches with tomatoes, cucumbers, ham, salami and cheese. There was honey and marmalade too. Good quality is a hilghlight because I have been to hostels where cheapest and lowest quality bread and cereals were served.

After the coffee bar we went out and asked to some guys in the street about some punk bars… they sent us to Oranienstrasse. The guy told me that in this street and Adalbertstrasse “everything happened”, “you don´t know very well what is going on, but something is always going on!”, this was the way it really was.

We arrived and went into a heavy-punk bar where I took some pictures, there are lots of book shops and all kind of cultural places in this zone.

We arrived to Berlin on 13^th August 2009, coincidentally, on a 13^th August 1961 Berlin wall was built, the wall that would divide Germany in two sad halves…

 Friday 14^th  August:

After having breakfast we went to the “Checkpoint Charlie museum”. This was the most famous crossing from Berlin Wall between 1945 and 1990. It is on Friedrichstraße, and opened a path between the american and soviet control point, where Mitte and Kreuzberg zones are joint nowadays. The use of it was allowed only to soldiers and allies embassys, foreigners, employees of the permanent delegation of the RFA and the RDA officials.

The word Charlie comes from the OTAN phonetic alphabet and is its thirs letter. Checkpoint Alpha was the highway crossing in Helmstedt, Checkpoint Bravo the one from Dreilinden crossing.

As a consequence of the attempt by the leadership of the SED of restricting the rights they had as allies in Berlin, in October 1961 Soviet and U.S. tanks positioned themselves faced with heavy ammunition.

Checpoint Charlie was scenary of amazing escapes from East Berlin.

The control point was destroyed on June 22^nd 1990, nothing remaind except the Checkpoint Charlie museum until 13thAugust 2000 when an identical reconstruction of the first booth control was opened. The only difference is in the sandbags that are filled with cement nowadays.

Today, Checkpoint Charlie is one of the most important Berlin tourist attractions. You can also see the museum dedicated to the wall´s history, the last flag of the Kremlin and many fragments of German separation.

This is a very emotional museum. From the moment you enter until you go out, you are living the pain of all the people who intended to escape the wall. There were escapes in home-made airplanes, hot air ballons, people that hid themselves in suitcases, canoes, cars… You can´t stop getting shocked about the wit that all the despair woke up…

Very sad the fact that many babies were adopted by other families and their identities were also changed.

You can see lots of documents such as falses passports, you can read stories about how people pretended different accents in languages that they completely ignored. They could be identified because of the fabric they wore. Some women even made false uniforms trying to make them as perfect as possible.

To forget all this tragedy and in need of lunch, we went to “Nikolaikirche” zone at about 3 pm. This is a beautiful zone full of bier gartens where bars are more expensive. We had a typical German dish: potatoes soup with small sausages as the starter, grilled sausages with potates and sauerkraut as the main course.

The sauerkraut is the famous “chucrut” (from the french word choucroute and this from the German Sauerkraut: Sauer, sour, Kraut:cabbage, that is salted cabbage in brine. It can be made by fermenting cabbage leaves in water with salt (brine).

Due to its conservation capacity during long periods, it has been used in Germany, Holland, Poland to be eaten in winter periods in which it is necessary to preserve vegetables to balance the diet.

It is often accompanied by pork meat. Jewish recipe usually use the chucrut to cook the duck and goose.

Captain Cook used to take sauerkraut barrels in his ships for the crew, this way they were able to prevent scurvy.

From there to the famous Alexander Platz. This is a beautiful square where Berlin people spend afternoons and nights. We found a very interesting  historical exhibition about repression in the Nazi era.

Young people who looked like rebels or non-conformist was arrested at Alexander Pltaz and interrogated per hours. This way many counterculture movements were born. They made punk rock concerts in churches or performed in the subway.

Having tasted just a snack of the Berlin underground scene, I wanted to go to the famous Rigaerstrasse, place full of squatter houses and bars were beer cost cents.

After asking many people how to arrive there, we took the right metro to that zone. I started to take pictures all the way until we were close to a bar full of graffities and I watched an ad that said: “No camera-No problems”, ha ha, I had taken millions at that point in time but just in case, I saved my camera.

We were so tired that we didn´t know where to go, we ended up at a bar run by Brazilians. This wasn´t a squatter´s bar nor a counterculture place. My God… the change between the German perfection and the typical Latin disorden was hard. They delayed a lot to bring us what we had ordered, they made their excuses saying that the first dish it has burnt the starter so they had to prepare it again. After this disastrous experience I had the idea of taking another metro, this time to “Prenzlauerg”, an alternative zone, it´s a place that has a street that was a key point in the history of communism. It also has a squatter´s area called Tacheles.

It was late at night and we were lost… we the giant map in our hads. We were on a corner trying to guess what direction to take, we didn´t know which was the lively area of this neighborhood. A German guy passed toward us. He stopped and asked us if we needed help in a very kind way. He said this in German and I recognised the verb “Helfen” (help), so I answered inmmediately. I continued talking in English and I asked him if he wanted to be out tour guide that night… He accepted so the three of us ended up having beer in a bar. This guy grew up in East Berlin, so he also spoke Russian, an obligatory language to learn at school at that time in that zone…

This night was fantastic. We went back to the hostel very late at night…

Saturday 15^th August:

We left the hostel at about 10 in the morning, went to the central train station (Hauptbanhof) to ask how much were the lockers service. You had to queue and go through lots of controls so we decided we would leave our bags together in a locker from the other station (zoologischer garten) that was only 5 euros pero 24 hs (2.50 each one), we would walk Berlin a bit more, visit more sites, we would sleep at the central station with our sleeping bags and the following morning, we would departure to Prague.

We walked Unter den Linden (main avenue in the Heart of Berlin), we saw a beautiful street market and went to the Stasi museum. Unfortunately, this museum was in German version only, so we just saw the context. Such a pity because it is free and it seemed a very serious museum. Basically, it had all the tools that the nazi secret police used (tools to hear conversations, stamps, false stamps, etc…).

When we went out, the only thing persecuting me was hunger!. Luckily enough we found a supermarket where we bought some food to prepare a delicious picnic with kartoffelsalat (potatoes salad), crisps, chocolate, beer, delicious bread that cost just cents, delicious yoghurts and a marvelous and fresh fruit salad.

I can´t forget to mention that Berlin is full of wasps!. Every time we ate, they flew toward us… maybe it is because of the humidity in the city, the word Berlin means “swamp” and the floors have to be constantly drained to avoid this.

I almost forget to say that sneaking in the subway it is wicked easy!. The first days we paid the tickets, and the last, too, just in case, but in the middle we got on without paying!. I am not proud of this but what a nice feeling to do things outside the law from time to time! And more in a place that has been so historically controlled.

At 5 pm a new destination is awaiting: to go to Sachsenhausen, a concentration cap that is an hour away from Berlin city. We had to take the train (S-Bahn) in Oranienburg direction. When we got on I realised we were in the wrong direction so we got off at a town that said “Humboldthain” and waited the next train to Oranienburg. Here you could feel another kind of air… you felt nature, outskirts, green areas… away from stress and pollution…

Once we arrived to Oranienburg, we had to take a bus to the concentration camp. Entrance is free (it would be shameful if you had to pay…). We had to walk for a long while until we found an impressive door that said “Arbeit macht frei”. That was the welcome to a place full of horror, a place where not even ghosts are able to be around…

What can you see? Cells, ovens, a horrible place where medical testings were made on dead bodies, a shooting area. A museum with lots of pictures and anecdotes, prisoner´s uniforms, personal belongings…

When we walked down the stairs of  the big barracks you could feel a gelid kind of cold air that I had never felt in my life. Considering it was summer and you could die from the heat outside. We were sweating most of the time. I felt scared many times. Doors are grey, heavy, intransigents…

Amongst many other curiosities, prisoners had to make false money (pounds and dollars) at this concentration camp.

After visiting the gloomy installations, we saw the surrounding area… it is full of Jewish graves with the typical stones on them. There are also candles forming the star of David and many memorials…

Later on, once outside, I sat down on a bench and started to caress a beautiful cat that was loitering the place. It is also very impressive to see the beautiful roofed houses nearby. I ask myself how did German people not notice what was going on there…

We realise that the return bus wasn´t running at that time, so we had to go back walking.

I had to ask to strangers once more! –in German- we finally walked for 20 minutes and arrived to the town´s station, we took the train and went to Postdamer Platz (another typical Berlin sight) and had a coffee at Balzac Coffee. Went to pick up the bags to Zoologischer garten and from there to Hauptbanhof (main train station) to sleep with our sleeping bags. Next morning we would travel to Prague…

As an aditional comment, I have to say that people in Germany are very kind. They look at you quite much. I felt they looked at me many times and they also approach you to ask for things. They are very special… I also had this feeling that they believed I was having them on when I spoke in English, because when they saw me they started speaking in German very naturally and they got surprised when I answered in English… they relaxed when I mixed some German words/expressions in the middle of the talk…

HEAVENLY HOT PRAGUE

CZECH REPUBLIC-PRAGUE

Saturday 16^th August-First Interrail trip:

It´s early in the morning, we are on our way to Prague, we are so tired that we spend almost all the trip sleeping. I  only remember that when I opened my eyes I saw the train in Dresden. One more hour to arrive… These trains are so comfortable, incredibly clean and functionals. Some have tables, so you can eat sitting in front or you can play cards or write… We want to arrive and find a hostel…

Once in Prague train station, we had to ask if someone could book a hostel for us, they wanted to charge us a lot, moreover, everybody spoke in Czech and all the indications were in that language too. I do not know how we were able to take the metro and reach the city centre. We started walking… asked for a hostel in many places, no one gave us precise information… I asked a guy who was an Irish bar promoter in the streets. This guy sent us to a cheap hostel in the city centre… but what a hostel… a horrible experience…

The receptionist was nasty, the place was dirty, unsafe, our roommates were nasty too and we had that sensation tickling all the time: “I want to get out of here”. I had a shower around 2 and we went out for a walk. In the end, we would spend just one night there, so we had to resist. The heat in this town is even worse than in Barcelona. Berlin was hot too, but not that heavy. Prague was fire licking the skin and entrails…

We took the tram number 9 after asking in the street. We wanted to visit the “Charles bridge” (or bridge of the saints). We went down to a restaurant in front of the river and tasted a czeche menu quite heavy for the weather. Beer was very good. Afterwards, we walked the city all around (churches, the famous clock based on astrology figures, the theatre, etc…). Went into a shopping centre and bought a fruit salad, water, coke, we were dehydrated!. Around 5 or 6 in the afternoon, we took the tram number 22 to the “Castle of Prague”. This is a beautiful place to visit and quiter than the city centre. Prague is well known because of its architecture, but I found that is a little overloaded and everything seems dirty (black). It is like an overloaded scenary, grotesque at some point…

The castle is beautiful and surrounded by trees so you breath peace. The centre is full of tourists and people look at you with a strange expression o their faces… it seems like distrustful expressions so you feel unsafe, as if you were going to be robbed any time. Very different from the safe atmosphere of Berlin.

Czech food is also rare… sometimes is too fatty and with strange flavour combinations…

When the castle visit was over, we took the tram to go back to the hostel. For my displeasure, an inspector asked for my ticket. First he asked it to my friend, (he didn´t understand him and he said “no” thinking the man was trying to sell something), when the man asked me, I also said “no”, but he insisted until he said “ticket”, I showed him the ticket and he took him, I was scared he wasn´t going to return it to me, the ticket was expensive because I took it to use it for 24 hrs in all means of public transport. Finally, he gave me the ticket back, but at that point I was furious with all Czech people…

Before going back to the hostel, we went to the train station to ask for the trains schedule to Vienna, next day.

Until that time, we had travelled 4 hours from Berlin to Prague, so we would make 4 hours more from Prague to Vienna.

Fortunately, we went back to the hostel… I think we slept with one eye open…

I remember to have heard a crash and I was scared… could it be a bullet? A shot…? there was a double crystal window in our room, but it was so hot that I had left it open…

VIENNA, A MUSICAL AND BOHEMIAN PARADISE

AUSTRIA-VIENNA

Monday 17th August-Second Interrail trip:

I have no idea if the crash around the hostel in Prague was a shot… what is good is that I´m writing this, that is to say: we slept with one eye open, but luckily, we woke up with two!

9:30-We have already had breakfast in the hostel. Go down the stairs to buy something at a bakery´s (some of that strange czech food…), went up because the hostel offered free coffee (yes, one of these coffess that it seems to be made with a stocking), but at least we could trick our stomachs.

We have to take the train to Vienna at 12:30. Last night we made the booking for  Vienna. We did it using the Internet service at the hostel in Prague.

We can´t wait to arrive to Vienna, I feel that is a place that will give me the same sense of security as Germany. I even miss to hear the messages in German at the loudspeakers in the train station. In Prague I feel lost and threatened…

We start the trip to Vienna and arrive at 5 in the afternoon. When we go out of the station we take the metro to a hostel that was highly recommended on the Internet (Meininger). We arrive and do the check in without any problems, I have a shower and go out to walk the city. Instead of taking the direction to the centre, we take exactly the opposite,  when I feel that we are lost, and we are with the big map in out hands, a man approch us to ask if we need help (he had the same kind of nice attitud as the German guy in Berlin). We start talking and he even walks with us for a while. Once we make the indications clear, we walk to the centre, it is getting dark… We visit some squares, “Karlplatz” is probably one of the most famous ones. Almost by pure chance we go into a beautiful church called “Karlskirche”. There is a young orquestra playing and singing classical music. We have never heard something so perfect. If  the angels in the sky or paradise sound in some sort of way, I am sure it is in that way. It is a pristine sound, heavenly, perfect… and also for free!.We stay for a while and then continue the stroll. Pass near the Vienna Opera, go to the centre, discover places, find beauty everywhere.

Vienna is an imperial city, is full of amazing statues and perfect squares. You breath a very relaxed atmosphere. The sensation is “These people know how to live”. You see many cafès and people having ice-creams or eating the famous currywurst (sausages with curry sauce) at the squares or in the streets. You can also see horse drawn carriages riding tourists through the streets. You feel as if you were part of an imperial court in the past decade. Shops have expensive glassware and antiques. There are the typical traditional costumes for women and men in all the shopwindows. Prices are very high but food is not so much.

There is a street in the centre where the floor is decorated with stars (like in Hollywood) but with famous musicians names on it.

When it is very dark, we go to a market in the street that sells currywurst and taste the typical Austrian beer “Ottakringer”. To end the night as if we belonged to the Hausburg dinasty, that is to say: like kings! we have one of those expensive ice creams served in glass that I had never seen anywhere else. They are served in big glasses, you see ice cream, fruits and long silver spoons. After sightseeing around shops that sold small objects 5000 euros or more, this is the only illusion that we can afford.

Go back to the hostel walking…

Tuesday 18th August:

We go down to have breakfast. The hostel is really perfect: very clean, comfortable, very well located… Go to the city centre to enjoy Vienna by day. Start with “Museums Quartier” that is a zone with many museums. From there we walk to “Hofburg”, which is the imperial palace and the biggest castle in Vienna, it is located in the old town. It was residence for the Austrian nobility including Habsburg family and emperors of the Austro Hungarian empire. Our goal is to visit a museum called “Haus der musik”. We reach it after asking to many people, Vienna streets are  not very easy to locate. We love this museum, it has three or four floors dedicated to the biggest musicians of classical music: Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Strauss, Mahler, Alban Berg, Schönberg and Weber.

In the downstairs floor you can see old tabs and an introduction to the Vienna Philarmonic Orchestra. As a contrast, there is an interactive space in which is explained how the biggest musicians threw dices to get inspiration. They explain how the movement of the dices establishes a connection with the music bars. You can throw big rubber dices in that space and what you throw is reflected on a big screen that starts writing the music that you are creating. This game can be played by 2 persons, so one of them writes one part and the other writes another, at the end, you have created an orchestral score in two voices, isn´t it great?, I enjoyed this museum very much!.

In the following floor you can see lots of interactive screens with headphones. Each one explains the different aspects of the sound: amplitude, frequency, etc… It tries to approch ourselves to understand the phenomenon of sound from what we hear when we are in the womb.

Once you have seen many of these screens, you can go up to the floor where you meet the biggest musician in the world. Before entering, you can take free audio guides in the language you want. This stage was very funny, you notice the masterpieces plus the most intimate details of each musician. For example: it is said that “Haydn” was poorer than a rat, and once he became famous, he sold his musical works to different publishers, so, he sold the same work to more than one publisher (assuming none of them would notice it), “Beethoven” was a neurotic neighbor, he moved house like 68 times. “Mozart” left his wife in the bankrupt and full of debts. She was forgiven some of them because she had 2 children. I think Haydn got married with a prenuptial agreement (I didn´t know they existed at this time too). As a curiousity, you can see a stuffed bird he brought from one of his trips once he was famous.

If I remember correctly, “Schubert” was the one so poor that he didn´t even have a piano! He composed everything inside his head.

We already know that Mozart was too funny. It is said that he squandered the money and he even lent some money to his “friends”, he never saw that money back of course.

When you are approaching the end of this fantastic musem, you can lead the Vienna Philarmonic Orchestra.

You only have to take an interactive baton, place yourself in front of a big screen where the orchestra is waiting for you, select the language, the piece of your choice and start leading, lots of fun!

We went out laughing, from there we went to a supermarket, bought some things for a picnic. Afterwards we took the metro to the Danubio river. Here is very easy to sneak into the metro too, so we paid for it only when we considered it necessary.

The famous “Danubio”… at that time, boats for tourists didn´t work, so we watched the landscape and took pictures. There are some ships with discoteques inside and you breath a total relax as in all Austria…

We even found a beautiful square with hammocks strung between trees. You could hear that someone was playing the violin somewhere near…

At about 20:15 we went into a bar and tasted the traditional “Eisskaffe”, which is a coffee with ice cream and a wafer. This is fabulous.

When we decided to go back to the hostel walking, we saw a heavy bar “Graffitti”, it was very original, so we went inside for a beer… before going to sleep.

Wednesday 19^th August:

This day we must leave the hostel. We go to the train station we arrived to (Subahnhof), after enquiring about the schedule to Innsbruck, we realise that trains departure from Westbahnhof, so we leave the station and take a train to Meidling, from there we take the metro u6 to Westbahnhof. We leave our bags in a locker, once we have arrived. We have all day long to walk because we will travel the following day so we will spend that night at the train station.

At about 12 at midday we arrive to “Schonbrun” (the Sisi palace). We had to walk through giant gardens until reaching the interior of the palace, once there, we couldn´t believe the expensive the entrance fees were, so we decided to visit the surroundings of the palace. After a while we went to a bar to eat something. Later on we sat on a bench at the gardens of the palace to drink a beer. When we were very tired we took the metro until Langer, I wanted to go to a cyber cafè, when I finally find one I realise the keyboard is in German so I can´t write properly. Go to a bar to have a coffee (typical excuse when you need to go to the bathroom, ha ha). There I have a nice surprise when a dog approaches my seat, jumpes and seats next to me. I start caressing it and he looks at me as if he was smiling. His owner turned up and starts talking to me in German, I answer I have no problems about the dog next to me. Afterwards another dog enters (a white one) and starts playing with the first one. It is a real show!. In places like Germany, Austria and France people have pets and pay taxes for them, this way they get the right to take them almost anywhere like bars, shopping centres, etc…

When it gets dark, we go back to Westbahnhof by metro. Enter in a very elegant bar with delicatessen and taste some delicious Austrian cakes. Then we walk around.It is full of lighting shops. It is such a curious thing that Vienna shops stay open until so late at night, at least in the summer. When at this point, all my body aches, I feel fire through all my body and my throat aches too, I think this is caused by weather changes.

I had spent quite a lot of time trying to book a hostel for Munich because we wouldn´t spend a night in Innsbruck. From the time I unseccessfully tried at that cyber cafè with the German keyboard where I only lost my money, I tried to book using the Internet on my friend´s mobile. When it was too late and walked towards the train station I saw a branch from Wombats, so I entered and asked for brochures, they guy at the reception offered me to book by phone but he couldn´t. The plan would be to arrive in Munich and book on the same day. We weren´t going to lose much because this hostel is near the train station where we would arrive.

At a certain time we entered in a McDonalds and afterwards in a very nice bar ran by a lady with lots of personality who was surrounded by 4 or 5 drunk men, they were very nice too. Ther we had a capuccino to stay awake and went out at about 2 in the morning. The atmosphere was very relaxed and with very good music…

Went to the station and tried to sleep on the floor. Every time we got to sleep, someone around make some noise so we suddenly woke up… When the sun was close on the following morning, we took the train to Innsbruck, how fun!

… LANDS OF MONKS AND BIER GARTENS!

AUSTRIA-INNSBRUCK/ GERMANY MUNICH

Thursday 20th de August: Third Interrail trip:

6:14-We travel to Innsbruck. We have already passed Salzburg at 9 (the town where Mozart was born). I haven´t seen the landscapes…. too much fatigue…

There´s a father with his 3 daughters… (as usual I am surrounded by children, nuns or priests in my trips!).

We arrive to Innsbruck at 10:44. We get off with our heavy bags… it was so hot… We visited the town that is full of churches and lovely shops. We would have liked to stay longer but we had planned to arrive in Munich on the same day, so, after sightseeing for a while and drink lots of drinks went back to the station to ask for the next train to Munich.

We made a picnic in the same station and at about 2 in the afternoon we took the train. The arrival in Munich was in the afternoon, went to the hostel that was near the station and had no problems. Went up, took a shower and relaxed a bit. We went to a traditional “Bier Garten” by night. The place is famous and is called “Augustiner”. It is like going into a big “patio” from a house. These places are full of trees and plants. It is full of rustic tables and people enjoying giant glasses of beer.

We tasted the local beer there, a very traditional Bavarian bread and a traditional meal.

When we finnished eating we couldn´t get up, we felt so heavy!!. The girls were dressed with their typical Bavaria costumes (bayern girls), fact that it made the evening more picturesque.

GERMANY-MUNICH                  

Friday 21st August:

11:00 a.m.-Went down to the hostel´s reception to meet up whith the guy that would be our tour guide (a nice and handsome black guy), (one of those free tours, that wasn´t so for free because at the end you have to pay whatever you want as a tip). The tour would last for about 3 hours and we also considered about taking it or not, we escaped earlier from the one we took in Berlin because we were sick of listening so many stupid things together, nevertheless we thought this would be a good way to know the city. That would help!.

The visit startet at “Frauenkirche”, a church in the city centre, “The Glockenspiel”, which is a beautiful clock that at a certain time (I don´t remember if it is at 11 or 12 midday) starts to show some dancing figures.

“Marienplatz”, then the “Viktualienmarkt”, which is a food market that includes bier gartens all around. It is a very picturesque and traditional place.

“The Hofbräuhaus”, the oldest brewery in Munich, used by the Nazis. In 1920 Hitler proclaimed the foundation of Nacional Socialism here. It also hosted the first and most violent attacks against Jews. If Berlin was the capital where National Socialism was conducted, Munich was the capital of the movement as an idiology.

Later on we visited “Karlplatz”, “Odeonplatz” and then we were free to explore the city on our own. We wanted to visit the most traditional breweries so we chose “Paulaner” that is right in the centre. Undoubtedly, one of the finest beers. Then, we arrived to the “Englisch Garten”, which is a giant bier garten in the centre of the city. It is the biggest park in Europe and bigger that the New York central park. You can see much more than bier gartens, in the summer, you can see University students, people playing football, riding horses, playing cricket or surfing, because the park is surrounded by a river. Ther is also a place for nudism, FKK -in German: Frei Körper Kulture: Free Body Culture.

From there we followed the way to the University, maybe this wouldn´t have been so important if Scholl brothers hadn´t taken part in the history of it.

They were the founders of an anti nazi group called “The white rose”. They printed and handed over anti nazi propaganda. There is a movie about this part of the history that is called “Sophie Scholl”.

I remembered the scenes where the girl ran through those big stairs at the university… when I entered and saw the same stairs I was very touched. There are memorials inside and outside the place. Both, brother and sister were executed because they were found guilty against the German nation.

When you leave the place, you do it with a wrinkled heart … 

Later on we went to a lovely coffee “Lotter Leben”, set in the 50s, with outstanding service. That night we went to bed early … we were very tired …

Munich symbols are the lion and the monk (as the monks were the first to brew beer), the symbol of Germany is the bear. They say there is rivalry between these two cities. Moreover, Germany is known by Munich stereotypes: the Oktoberfest (beer festival in October), the traditional Bavaria costumes, etc. .. . etc … In Munich you can breathe an atmosphere of joy, relaxation, smiling faces and remember large groups of people sitting in the beer gardens chatting and enjoying their huge jugs of beer. Undoubtedly, this is a city to enjoy and socialize. Far away  from the hectic pace of life in big capitals.

OH LA LA PARIS!

GERMANY-MUNICH/FRANCE-PARIS

Saturday 22nd August-Fourth Interrail trip:

We went to have breakfast at the hostel in Munich, picked up our bags and left them at the reception. Went to the train station to ask for our next destination. In the original plan I had jotted down Belgium and then France. It was a lot of hours travelling between Munich and Belgium (up to that moment every trip had taken us 4 hours), so I thought about going to Switzerland (Zurich or any other place close to France), this would be a better link. We asked for the schedule and went back to the hostel to surf the web. The idea was to spend the night in Switzerland and go to France the next day. It was very difficult to find hostels plus they were very expensive. A direct trip to France would be better because this was our last destination. Went back to the station to ask for the new schedule and on the same day we travelled to Paris.

On our way we should commute to another train at Sttutgart (a German city). This trip was the most atypical of all and judging by what we saw, we were scared thinking about what would be waiting for us in Paris!

What did we see…? we were sitting one in front of the other with a table in the middle. A man walked the corridor from time to time. He was a drunk man and he said no sense ina loud voice. We laughed a lot looking at him. There were two German women, they were the ticket collectors. There was also a French guy ticket collector doing the same, all of them spoke half French half German. We had never seen so many of them together, what did they have to control so much?

We had travelled with one or a maximum of two ticket collectors. The drunk man approached them and said no sense, he also threatened to smoking in the train, thing that is forbidden, he said to one of the German women (in English):

“Oh… cmon, don´t be so German, don´t be so strict”, and he tried to approach her physically. There was a French captain dressed as in the age of Napoleon. The French guy tried to speak to the drunk man in a calm way. Beyond our seats you could find the bar of the train, that is to say: we were seated at an strategic position to see the “wildlife” around…

There were families and black people in the train also.

We arrived to “Gare de l´est” station (East Paris) in the afternoon and the first thing that struck us was that Paris was full of black people. You didn´t know if you were in France or Africa… it was amazing!

We were very tired so we started searching a cheap hotel by the surroundings. As sort of general rule, railway stations and the surrounding areas aren´t pretty and this wasn´t an exception.

I booked a hostel from Munich, but it was for the following two nights. We weren´t going to sleep at Paris train station under those conditions… we felt unsafe.

My first impression was to see dirtiness everywhere, even more than in Barcelona, and it is a fairly dirty city. The second was that Latin environment (disorder, queues, unexpected situations, etc. …), much more than in Barcelona …!

Sunday 23rd August:

We found sort of a crap hotel after midnight, 2 stars, near the train station. It is unbelievable that Paris is so expensive, they wanted to charge us a lot for crap hotels, I do not know how did I do but I asked for the cheapest rate, discounts and negotiated the breakfast to be included in the price!, 30 euros for each one but at least we didn´t have to share the room with strange and unkind personages such as the ones we had seen in the other hostels. This was a “hotel”.

We had breakfast at the hotel the next morning and then took the subway to the hostel I had reserved. To my amezement, it was located in one of the most bohemians and typical Paris neighbourhoods: “Montmartre” (I was amazed because I didn´t know where we were going to be at the moment I made the reservation on the net, I didn´t kow Paris). You could see the typical stairs surrounded by trees, ivy and old lanterns all around. This is a neighbourhood of painters, writers and any person who searches inspiration. Besides, the zone is very quiet. We reached “Square Coulaincourt”, did the check in and went to the nearest tourist attraction: Montmartre cemetery.

Some celebrities are buried there but they are not the “most famous”, they sleep in another cemetery that we later visited too. At the end of the day we visited many graves, as my friend said, if asked how he had spent his time in Paris he would reply “deadly!” ha ha ha.

The graves of this cemetary are more than beautiful and very old too. I couldn´t stop saying I wanted to take a picture here or there everytime some scene seemed “gothic” to me. To feel deep mourning, we walked under beautiful trees and the inevitable screeching crows disturbing in the air… When we were very tired, we went to a bar, later on we went down in the Eiffel Tower´s direction. Bought some goods to eat in our way and started a picnic at a park called “Meceau”.

This was a true intense day… after relaxing a while on the grass, we followed the famous route to the “Arch of Triumph”, from there to the “Eiffel Tower” and then through “Sena” river, you can see the tower from this location. The curious hint was that before arriving you can see the bridge where Lady Di died, there is a memorial hounoring her. It is a very quiet place to walk…

Alexandre III bridge has admirable sculptures, when the sun goes down at sunset they look even more beautiful, the gold colour joins the orange of the sun and generates very special lights effects, they are perfect to take pictures.

As night approached we reached the impressive and fantastic “Notre Dame” cathedral and ended up the evening dining in the vibrant “Latin Quarter”.

Monday 24^th August

Went down to have breakfast and started sightseeing very early. Since 9 in the morning until 13:30 aproximately, we visited “Per Lachaise” cemetery. This is the place that holds famous graves from famous people like Jim Morrison, Oscar Wilde, Edith Piaf, Honore de Balzac, Colette, amongst many others…

This cemetery is huge and you have to take the subway to arrive there, it is quite far away from the city centre. The sculptures are marvelous, quite similar to Montmartre but much bigger. What caught our attention were the graves from the people that weren´t famous, sometimes they were more beautiful and better that the ones from the famous people. On the other hand, these ones were fenced or protected, I guess people damage them. Jim Morrison´s grave is more than simple, there is a picture of him on it and people had threw cigarrette butts, a rose and a letter… Oscar Wilde´s grave is awesome, people have written lots of lines showing their love on it (there are also kisses with rouge). In this cemetery there are memorials for dead Jewish people at concentration camps. To find the graves is not an easy task. You have to follow a brochure-map and try to guess the division where each one is located.

When this visit was over, next one was the famous “Moulin Rouge”, I later realised it was quite close to our hostel. The zone is full of sex shops, this makes the neighbourhood itself not so nice to visit.

Paris seems a cabaret. I loved the black iron poles that have a white ball on the top. They are in the streets. They remind me the canes that are used in the cabarets. There is no denying that the city is pretty and bohemian. I also noticed they love the pink colour. Many hotels, restaurants and public places are painted in pink.

On our way back to the hostel we went up some endless stairs in our neighbourhood until we reached the “Sacré Coeur” (sacred heart) church, which seems more a palace than a church. In the surrounding areas is full of bars, restaurants and souvenir shops, that is the heart of Montmartre. We went into a bar where there was a pianist playing live. The bar was very pretty, the decoration, the atmosphere… but the tables were too small and became claustrophobic. Before this, we tried a crêperie but we left it (prices scared us!) besides, when I looked at the sofa I was seated on, I saw it was broken and seemed very old, I did not give time to the mites to make me company … Paris is beautiful, but better not look beyond the packaging …

Tuesday 25th August-Fifth Interrail trip:

Everything is closed on Tuesdays. We had one more trip on our Interrail ticket and didn´t know where to travel. It was clear enough we had to go and return on the same day because we didn´t have much time. That night we still had the Coulaincourt hostel.

We went to “Gare du Nord” train station, which is like the main station, after queueing for a long time we asked where could we go (go and return on the same day). If we did it to Switzerland (whether it was Zurich or Geneva) it was quite expensive (32 euros per booking) so we chose to ask about some closer place to France. They encouraged us to go to “Chantilly Gouvieux”, they said there were lots of castles, museums, etc… besides, the train delayed less than half an hour. We decided to take it thinking that we would spend the whole day there but the surprise was big… when we arrived and went to the tourism office they said that everything was closed because it was Tuesday (I thought that happened only in central Paris).

Started strolling through the village. The place is beautiful, elegant, has an amazing horseriding place and beautiful fields all around. The architecture of the houses is a dream… We found another cemetery and visited it… then, went to a restaurant and ate much better than in central Paris, better prices included!. I ordered a pizza with typical French cheese, it also had thin slices of potatoes.

We didn´t delay much… at around 4 in the afternoon, we took the train to return to Paris. Once there, walked to the famouse “Lafayette galleries”.

Went back to the hostel quite early because we were knackered…

Wednesday 26th August

This was the last day at the hostel. We went down to have breakfast and wished not to have seen what we saw in our bread baskets. I said it before and I repeat it: you´d better look the outside of Paris. We saw happy ants walking over the bread!. After this incident, we picked up our bags, left them at the hostel´s reception and head off to the “Louvre Museum”.

We spent more than 4 hourse visiting this museum and we would have needed many more!. It is an amazing museum. It is a palace filled with belongings of people from royalty, curious things are displayed: from the “dressing case of Napoleon” to famous works like the Mona Lisa and Venus de Milo. The part of the sculptures is one of the most exquisite of this museum.

We were really knackered. Went out of the museum and head off to a bar, from there we took the metro to the hostel, bought some things to eat, picked up the bags again, took the metro and then the train to the airport. This trains cost 8.50 euros (and we complain because you pay around 3 to go by train or bus from Barcelona airport to the city centre!).

We spent the night at the airport, I used the sleeping bag… but at the place we were, there were people making reforms with drills and heavy machines (in full midnight), so we had to move because the noise was unbereable.

Thursday 27th August:

7:40-Our flight from Paris to Barcelona takes off- What a relief to leave Paris behind… it was like being in Spain but doubly disordered and dirty, beautiful outside but you´d better don´t look inside…! No one gives you precise information at train stations, they make you go like to a 3 different points of information to end up confused. The airport works with the same disorder. It is impossible to sneak yourself in the subway, they don´t have air condition so it is a nightmare in the summer. When I compare this with the precision we saw in Germany and the cleanness… I can´t believe…

Yet as I always say, is fine to visit different places and compare, begin to rule out places for future visits and plan where you would gleefully go back!
… I think Berlin is a history book, Prague is an overloaded scene, Vienna is a choir of angels, a bell flower Innsbruck is, Munich is a smiling rogue and happy monk, Paris is a careless cabaret, a vintage rouge …

“Donostia: an immaculate sea pearl”

Thursday 25^th December 2008

I´m certainly tired. I haven´t slept all the hours I should. This christmas has been different: far away from home, with a new job and sort of an unexpected celebration.

The fact is that I hadn´t seen this friend for a bit more than a year. She suddenly contacted me to spend Christmas with her. I found myself drinking “mate” at Helen´s flat at 8 in the morning. The table with leftovers of pudding, “turrones” and “cava”…. Barcelona was quite… One sip, two sips, yawnings, chats, ome memories from London… all very well mixed up… “(1)Fosca” jumped over my legs once and once again, (how funny is to say that not only the “mate” but also that sweet black cat was hers…)

Returned home around midday, had lunch and tried to sleep before going on my first trip to “Donostia”, the Basque name for the city of “San Sebastián”: one of the most known cities in the Basque Country at Guipuzcoa zone.

Hey!… someone interrupted my relax all of a sudden. A serious man´s voice called me on the phone to say that “he wasn´t going-to- be- there”. I was confused, he was confused. I was quite sleepy but realised I was picking up a phone call from Dublin. He started speaking in Spanish, I answered in English. He continued in English then. He said I had to call a man at a hostel in front of his and ask him to open the place for me. I remember he muttered something like: “You have a Spanish mobile number”. Oh…! it was David!, the Irish host of the hostel I was going to stay in!. “No problem” –adaptable as I am- I said! (although I thought the phone call was unusual and strange, I realised it was going to be amongst one of my exceptional and funny stories to tell. I didn´t ask many things, almost nothing in fact because: I really needed to sleep!).

At 23:25 I find myself on the bus to Donostia. I´m sharing this new experience with a guy I almost don´t know, an acquaintance with whom I use to play tennis on Sundays.

This trip is quite mad. It is some kind of unplanned- accidental trip. I just wanted to break the routine, do something different towards the end of the year!.

What surprises my decision would bring…? let´s find out!

Friday 26^th December 2008

The trip was great. After travelling like for 8 hours, we arrived even before than expected. We were there… killing time at a bar, 6:30 in the morning. Took the 28 bus to our hostel and finally rang David´s door bell. I made a phone call to the man that was supposed to open us the door. I later realised I had written the wrong phone number and that´s why we didn´t have an answer. In the meantime I sent a message to my misterious host in Dublin telling him that I hadn´t contact this another man. In a couple of minutes we decided to go directly to the other hostel and finally we met this man.

No, we weren´t homeless! Everything went perfect! This man took us to the place, showed us the rooms and facilities and we were really pleased! The place was so marvelous! Perfectly clean, cozy, with free access to Internet, a beautiful kitchen fully equipped, and the best of all: we were completely alone! There was something marvelous in the air, you felt “at home” from the very first moment, you lost the sense that you were paying for a service, David Quinn Alai Berri it´s like being in a family, it really excedeed our expectations!

David called me back again from Dublin early in the morning when he saw my message, luckily enough I could tell him everything was right… but felt pity to wake him up!

We had a quick breakfast. The morning was cold and rainy. We walked to the old town of the city and started to take the first pictures under the rain, went to the tourist information centre and took the tourist bus behind the Victoria Eugenia theatre afterwards.

Donostia is a small city, if you have time, you really can visit it walking. We had the impression that there was no need to take the tourist bus but it was raining like hell, we were bored, didn´t know anything so we had to start discovering the place somehow!

The bus takes you around places like the “Plaza de la Constitución”, the main square in the centre of the town, the “Alameda”, The “Londres hotel” that is very old, the “Santa Clara island” -were sick people were isolated to avoid contagions-. The famous and central “Playa de la Concha”, a spectacular beach, the “Monte Igeldo” and lots of famous natural landscapes.

The trip was short and the weather was bad but we didn´t know what to do!.

So, this was a quick city tour just to know where we were standing!.

As for the city´s architecture and buildings, Donostia has a strong French aristocratic influence. The city itself is very elegant and clean, in perfect conditions and sober style. The buildings are very stylish and distinguished. Green areas are a big part of the place. The trees are perfectly cut, the plants and flowers are vigorous and colourful. There´s a wide range of greens that makes natural artistic contrasts. Every landscape seems a shot from a postcard. On the other hand, talking about colours, I saw those strange colours in people´s eyes, very similar to the ones I saw in Galicia. I am convinced about the fact that the cold- rainy weather in the north of Spain influences skin and eyes colours. It´s difficult to define, but I would say that many people have grey eyes, others… very light brown with some touch of green, but in general terms my impression is that they have “a different sort of light eyes”, I could talk about the strange enchantment of “Northern indefinite pigment eyes” or “Northern mountainous eyes”.

People are extremely nice, quite and friendly. You can hear them speaking in Euskera at shops and streets. They dress themselves very elegantly. Women wear exclusive furs. Clothes in general are expensive and high quality, very stylish too. I think the Basque Country has a strong identity of good quality in many senses: not only food, wines and landscapes but people, clothes, services…

We stopped many people on the streets to ask for directions and general indications.

There was a man that changed his way and came with us to the street we were looking for, then he said goodbye to us with very good manners, I have to say I felt as if I were some kind of vip visitor there! There were three old men -at different times and situations- that told me very nice things (the typical “guapa” amongst others), they also shook my hand and kissed my cheeks really hard and enthusiastically! The attitude of the people is more than amazing. They are not in a hurry and they like you to stop them and keep talking to you for a while.

Regarding the language, some people speak Euskera because they learnt it at their homes with family or later on their own but I was sad to hear that many of them didn´t learn it because it was not allowed in the Franco period. What is really encouraging is to know that children can learn it at school nowadays. We tried to learn some words of course!, we said “Agur” (good bye) and “Eskerrik Asko” (thanks) when we went to shops and learnt some random words like “Bai” (yes) o, “Kalea” (street) and “Kaixo” (hello).

In the afternoon we went for some typical “pintxos”, some sort of fresh “tapas” and I personally drank the “txacoli” that is a delicious typical white wine. We continued walking along the beach and found the acuarium and naval museum although we didn´t enter. At the end of the right side of “Playa de La Concha” there is a marvelous Txillida sculpture. Txillida is a famous artist at Donostia , there is a museum dedicated to his art but it is in a town nearby , regrettably, we didn´t have time to go there!

Saturday 27^th December 2008

We shared room with a man from Navarra and an American guy, once again we were amazed towards the friendliness of people and the nice feeling at the hostel. After sleeping like 12 hours (we really needed), went out of the hostel around midday. We started walking and visited the “Buen Pastor Cathedral”. I loved to see ads and brochures written in Euskera. We continued walking and saw the beautiful “María Cristina park” on our way. “Anoeta” football stadium that is located near the Amara bus station was the next visit. Then, we went for lunch to a typical place where I tasted the “Kalimotxo” (wine with coke).

Our next goal was to visit “El peine de los vientos”, another famous sculpture by Txillida that is situated to the left extreme of the “Playa de La concha” but we visited the “Palacio de Miramar” before.

The two palaces we visited have gardens. You can not enter to the palaces, just walk around the lovely and perfect grass and flowers breathing fresh air and cudling your back with the beach sights below.

Later on, we walked again to the old town that is full of typical shops where you can buy souvenirs.

After walking all day we didn´t want to go out at night so we enjoyed going back to the hostel.

Sunday 28^th December 2008

We welcomed a young couple from Australia at the hostel, after a nice chat in the kitchen, the morning found us visiting the “Palacio de Aiete” in a very residential zone. This was the place where General Franco used to spend his summers since 1940…

Right now I remember an ad I saw hung up on the streets at the old town, it said… “España Torturadora” (Torturing Spain), and it was like a shout in my ear and a tear in my heart. Whatever is said, Donostia breaths a strong- own and lively identity everywhere. It is an immaculate- bright sea pearl anyone should visit at some point in life.

(This was my departure day so I left a short paper note and 2 “bombones” at the main hall of the hostel for the misterious owner I never met…)

(1)Fosca= Dark (in Catalan language)

Donostia

-From my Irish diaries-

THE HURT REMAINS OPENED…

Tuesday 19^th August- Barcelona- Dublin- Belfast

11:05- I am in the plane that will take me from Barcelona to Dublin. The air company is called “Aerlingus” and has one of the symbols that represents Ireland: the “Shamrock”, a kind of green clover with three leaves that symbolizes the holy trinity: Father, Mother and Holy Spirit. Although the “Shamrock” is not the official emblem, place reserved for the harp (the musical instrument), it is a very well known symbol, used in many brands and popular communication.

It is said that before the Christian era, the “Shamrock” was a sacred plant for the Druids. It is also connected to Saint Patrick, the patron of Ireland, who according to the legend used it to show the holy trinity and to expel the serpents from Ireland.

In addition, number “three” was a sacred number in Celtic mithology. It was associated to Past, Present and Future; Behind, Before and Here. Sky, Earth and Underworld…

The plane takes off at 11:20. I´m fine, calm and observing everything around. I get to read the heading of an article that a woman sitting two rows in front of me, is reading: “Wettest August in 22 years and more to come”.

Towards 2 p.m. I am at Dublin airport. People seem working- class people. I see humble- concentrated expressions. The airport is strange, the construction in itself is strange. You breath  an air of fatigue. I see normal people, normal lives, normal clothes and normal chats. At first sight, people in Dublin don´t seem to have nor the arrogance nor the ruthles enchantment of London citizens. These are my first impressions…

I´m waiting for my friends. I start walking, I take some pictures…

About 4 p.m. we finally meet up, afterwards, the tour guide find us, we greet each other and go outside the airport to wait for a bus that will take us to a place where we´ll pick up another bus to start our trip to Belfast.

We are nine persons: the tour guide, the driver, a couple, my couple of friends, two friends and me.

This is the first time in my life that I listen the Basque language (all of them speak Basque unless the driver, my couple of friends and me). I also notice the ads written in Gaelic at the airport, this makes me feel a beautiful sparkle, the way to new knowledge that will delight me, (all the ads at the airport are written in English with its correspondance in Gaelic).

We introduce each other during the trip. The guide tells us that our driver was in prison because he was at the IRA (Irish Revolutionary Army).

From the beginning, the trip appears to be and invitation to listen to those hundreds of people that fought against injustice and still nowadays remain without being listened or recognised.

Near 6 pm we arrive to West Belfast.

Before arriving we observe that the city is surrounded by hills including Cavehill hill that is believed to have inspired Jonathan Swift´s novel “Gulliver´s travels”, he imagined that this hill had the shape of a sleepy giant protecting the city.

Amongst other facts, our tour guide remind us that Belfast is the city where Titanic ship was built.

When we arrive we lodge in a building with some floors and rooms. The zone is called “Spingfield” and we are just in front of the protestant district “Shankill Road”, which closes its doors by night.

We leave our things and go to have dinner to an Italian restaurant called “Goodfella´s”. The atmosphere is good, we continue the introductions trying to get to know each other to break the ice. I start talking to John, our driver. There´s a certain sadness in him that makes me instictively want to keep in touch.

My first chats are around Irish writers and Gaelic language, (language that sounds as difficult as Belfast accent to me).

When we finish dinner, we go to a pub of ex republican prisioners, the “Felons Club”. I feel strange. There are big guys with hard expressions at the door. I don´t know what am I doing there but it´s quite exciting. The guide points out that some big one lad is the bodyguard of Gerry Adams (Sinn Féin´s president and Belfast leader at British Parliament). From that night I know that there are many stories to listen, many lives to put in paper, many conflicts that will lay down between brackets of silence and many three dots…

John invites me a beer at “Felons”, I don´t have more options than choosing one “Smithwick´s” because I insist that the best beers are in Belgium, Austria and Germany and I don´t want to drink the typical Irish Guinness.

Wednesday 20^th August- Belfast

We wake up at 9 in the morning to have breakfast all together. Afterwards we go for a walk to the centre of the city to start our political tour. The meeting point is “Kelly´s Cellars” pub where there´s a label reminding that “Irishmen Society met there” 1791- 1798, the one that was a republican organisation that defended Irland´s independence from Great Britain. Some years later and as a reply, the Orange order is born as an auxiliary military force to spy and control the Irishmen Socity´s activities.

We start walking by the centre of the town until we arrive to a zone full of murals. Basically, we are going to visit  the two zones of conflicts, “Shankill road” (protestant), and “Falls Road” (Catholic), which are paralel streets and are separated by a mural of peace. The guide tells us all the political issues around each mural.

We continue walking until we reach the Republican Irish Museum, which was opened in 2007 honouring the memory of the republican Eileen Hickey who believed that it was very important to educate the youth people in the understanding of the struggle for republican freedom in Ireland.

Many of the objects that are exposed were done by republican prisoners including objects from the 1798 rebelion.

We have a quick look and go to a room where we´ll watch a documentary about the conflicts. I jot down and take pictures to try to leave a summarised rough of the situation later on.

I think one of the phrases that defines the concept of the struggle is one that is exposed in the museum, is from the republican Robert Emmet, who says in a quote titled: “Who fears to speak of  ´98?”: “ (…) We war not against property, we war against not religious sect, we war not against past opinions or prejudices, we war against English dominion (…)”.

With this line I decide to open the book of the dark and bloody struggle suffered by Ireland. Hence  it  must be understood that the division between catholics and protestans is not the only thing that led to the division of the country.

The first settlers appeared in Ireland in 800 BC, Vikings arrived afterwards. Normands arrived later and later on English, who set 700 years of dominion over Ireland since 1169. English started a “plantation” process, they brought English and Scottish protestants which led to a religious conflict.

Making apart many historical details, we have to place ourselves in a very important revolution called “Ester Rising 1916”, which lasted six days from 24^th April until 30^th. Groups of the Irish volunteers and the Irish Citizen Army took different places in Dublin and proclaimed the “Republic of Ireland independet from Great Britain”.

There were more than 1600 hurt people and the responsibles –15 leaders- were executed. In 1919 “Sinn Féin” (the main republican party in Ireland) set the Republic, the one that was refused by British Government, hence IRA (Irish Repulican Army) was formed.

From then onwards, Ireland went into a civil war (1919- 1921). People who took part in it are usually called “The old IRA”, to make a difference from the later organisasions that took the same name.

In 1921 Ireland is divided (those who want to be part of the UK and those who don´t), as a consequence,  some people support this and others are against. Northern Ireland and Southern Ireland concepts are born.

It is vital to point out that protestant and catholic identities are political kinds of identities more than religious ones. Protestants (54 % of the population) are usually unionists), they want Ireland to be part of the UK, Catholics (44 %, most of them nationalist, want a united island).

In 1922 Michael Collins is executed (director of IRA intelligence service, person who negociated the English- Irish treat), as a consequence, Ireland suffers a civil war from 1921 until 1923.

The 14^th of August 1969  starts the “Bogside Battle” at Derry city (called Londonderry by British government and Derry by Catholics), the struggle is between catholics and local police.

In 1972 “Bloody Sunday” occurs in Derry. Fourteen people are killed by a British regiment.

As a scary fact, it can be mentioned the “Dirty Protest”. These were facts suffered by prisoners in Nothern Ireland during the 70s, in favour of better conditions for political prisoners of the IRA.

In 1972, after a hunger strike of 40 members of the IRA, British government gives these prisoners a special status: they don´t have to wear uniform or work in the prison. Everything changes in 1976 when this stops and the prisoners are not going to have these privileges anymore.

Prisoners in “H blocks”, isolation cells near  Belfast, reply to this dressing themselves with simple blankets because they refuse to dress themselves with the uniforms (thanks to what they received hard beats). They also decide to decorate the walls with their own excrements because it is more hygienic than leave it on the floor, where they slept. This was over when the police cleaned the cells by force, breaking the windows  and attacking the prisoners.

That is just one of the atrocities commited on those years, one of the hardest to beleive…

Let´s go forward in time until 1996 when IRA stops fire. In 1998 appears the “Good Friday agreement” between British and Irish government, in which Gaelic language is recognised in Northern Ireland, British troops go away and the democratic future of Northern Ireland will be determined by its population amongst many other things.

Watching that documentary has been a strong emotional shock. You leave the place in silence; when you have to sign the guestbook, you don´t know what to write. All you can think of is respect, silence and a secret crispation of pain.

As an anecdote I can tell that we visited the Sinn Féin shop and when we went out of it it started to rain. I took an umbrella with total innocence and when the guide turned back he asked me to save it. He almost falls in a faint. I had bought that umbrella in London and it´s decorated with the British flag. I swear it was not my intention. I just come from a place where this hatred load and division, colours, flags and symbols are not an object of analysis to be acused of belonging to one side or another. Days went by and you understood these struggle, so you adapted or camouflaged yourself according to the landscapes.

During the walk we visited a place called “The Garden of Remembrance”, there you could see more names, phrases, etc.. of people who died in all these struggles. All Belfast appears to me like a big cementery…

There were beautiful little children playing  in the streets (most of them red heads)… They have dark and conflictive glances, sometimes you feel as if they were going to tell you something or do something to you. I feel I have to be alert to every movement, every glance and situation. You breath a tense air…

In the afternoon it was curious to visit a cultural centre where Gaelic language is taught. We picked up a brochure from there which cointained translations between English and Gaelic. Our guide taught us some basic expressions later on.

I keep in mind one of the images I saw at the museum, it said: “Wanted for murder and torture of Irish prisoners”, the picture that goes with it, it´s from Margaret Tatcher…

In the evening we visit more pubs. The “Jonh Hewit” where I taste the Erdinger (German beer), this pub is known because it is usually visited by journalists, bohemians, writers, etc… afterwards we go to Kelly´s Cellars where the Irishmen society met, and later on to the Madman where we see groups of people dancing Irish dances.

This night I am dressed in my Scottish dress and someone starts talking to me at the pub. His first question is if I´m Scottish, then followed the same old song, I told him he had to guess where was I from, after passing me all around the world map, I finished saying where I am from. (I think I have become the longest riddle to find out, he he)

Thursday 21^st August- Belfast- Derry

In the morning we go for a visit to the protestant district of Shankill Road in Belfast. The murals and the decoration are full of references to the British crown.

In the afternoon we start the trip to Derry, we go to the Antrim coast until we arrive to the “Giant´s causeway” considered the eigth wonder of the world and  world heritage. There we take pictures and walk quite a lot. We enjoyed a marvelous day. I play jokes and say that I have brought the good weather to Ireland because everytime we speak with some other tourist that is visiting Ireland, he or she tells us about the bad weather conditions , awfully rainy!

Afterwards we see the Carrick-a-rede Rope Bridge hanging to more than 25 metres over the sea. We are watching it with binoculars but there are many tourists going down and crossing it. We sit down to have a picninc. John points out that you can see Scotland from there!.

When we arrive to Derry we go to a hostal that we don´t like very much but there aren´t more options!, go for a short walk in this beautiful walled city and see more murals. I think the one that caught my attention was one that points out the Irish origins of Che Guevara, in fact, later on at the Sinnn Féinn shop in Dublin I bought a T-shirt that said “In my son´s veins flew the blood of Irish rebels”, quote that is said to belong to Ernesto Che Guevara´s father and it´s in reference to his second surname “Lynch”, (in the T- shirt, the image of Che Guevara is next to one of Bobby Sands, who was a republican of the IRA that died after a hunger strike of 66 days in prison).

In the evening we go to have dinner and later to pubs. We enter to the “Sandinos” that is full of murals and images of Che and has a pretty latin american- revolutionary style. Afterwards we visit the “Peadar O´ Donnell´s” where we spend one of the most beautiful nights. In that pub the atmosphere is great and people are very open. There are musicians playing Irish music with some of the typical Irish instruments such as the Pennywhistle or the Bodhram.

John meets up another republican friend that invites us beers and later on Whiskey and Bailey.

It was a very special night… Very funny… We took pictures and chatted all night long!

Friday 22^nd August- Derry Sligo

In the morning we visit the museum dedicated to Bloody Sunday in Derry. There you can see lots of belongings from killed people, newspaper articles, documentaries and fourteen commemorative crosses. Outside there is the famous mural that says “You are now entering Free Derry”.

Every mural is like a slap, a tear shout, maybe the expression through art is the best way to exorcise so much pain…

In the afternoon we visit the Glenveagh national park. John tells us that the English took off all the oaks from that place and there are protected species of animals in secret places nowadays.

We also watch the landscape with ruins of houses that remain from the “Great Famine” period. This went through fifty years and the consequences came after 1851. The basic food in Ireland was the potato which became infected by a particular fungus that caused the death to people who ate it. A big portion of the population emigrated to Great Britain, USA, Canada, Argentina and Australia.

(As a curious detail, we see zones- towns that have a specific name in Gaelic, there are zones where the only spoken language is Gaelic).

Our next visit is to the Teelin cliffs (the highest in Europe) in Donegal county. We stop there to have a picnic. The day is beautiful…

We passed Killybegs bay very quickly, this is a place where you can see ships and boats. The place is very picturesque.

We arrive to Sligo and go to a beautiful hostal, so beautiful that you want to stay there forever. The typical place in the outskirts with a warm living room and a chimmey. Comfortable and spacious rooms, showers, etc… Later on we go to a beach to play “Hurling”, a traditional sport in Ireland in which you play with a stick and a ball. Every team needs fifteen players. We just tried to play considering the only one good player was John, of course!!!

In the evening we go to have dinner. We split the team, one goes for some pizzas, John, my student, his wife and me go to a restaurant. Sligo is a colourful pretty city.

The traditional pub crawl find us. I couldn´t go to the first one (Shoot the crows), I went to a place where a guy played traditional Irish music and some rock. There was a moment when I was drinking at the bar when a girl comes towards me and asks for a beer and a vodka with lemon. The gilr tells me that she will go back in a minute, so I have to inform this to the barman, I tell her not to be worried as I will. When she comes back she asks me what am I drinking, “a beer” -I say-, and she says “I will pay you another because you took care of my drinks”. I couldn´t believe it, I thanked her of course… People in Ireland are so special, so warm and open…

Saturday 23^rd August- Sligo- Galway

Ready to go to Galway. On our way we pass the National Park in Connemara and the guide shows us the place where Prince Charls goes on holidays.

It is raining and little by little we remain in silence. We are tired, more than once with stomach ache, dizzy, so I try to fight those states, I look at the landscapes and I write this short poem:

“Green lands by the road

no sunsets but smells like a hidden God,

The leaves are dressed in rain

That falls like devil´s nails…”

We arrive to a beautiful place where the “Kylemore Abbey” is. Regrettably, it is raining hard and we can not go up to watch it. We are just there and go to eat something at the restaurant.

More intense emotions await for us in the afternoon when we visit Irish writer W.B. Yeats´grave at Drumcliff church. John remembers a poem:

“Had I the heavens’ embroidered cloths,
Enwrought with golden and silver light,
The blue and the dim and the dark cloths
Of night and light and the half-light,
I would spread the cloths under your feet:
But I, being poor, have only my dreams;
I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams”

It´s raining when we get to Galway. We lodge in a hostal that will be the same we´ll take at Dublin. It is funny to hear tango when we go up to the reception aerea.

We go out for a walk in the city centre despite of the rain… We walk through lovely streets and do some shopping. Galway is a very distinguished city. Before we arrive to Galway we pass Westport which seems a lovely town, we regret not to have had time to go for a visit.

Pub crawl in the evening. This time to “King´s head” where I tried the “Killkenny” Irish beer. We get lost with John amongst the crown and we end up talking to a stranger outside the pub, he was from Northern Ireland, very kind and open.

Afterwards some girls approach us begging. He gives them some coins but they were pounds (that is the currency in Northern Ireland), then I take some Euro coins and give it to them.

(Money issues are an important topic in this country. We had to take British pounds and when we were in Sligo we could use Euros.  I had changed some Euros in Belfast so they gave me Irish pounds, the ones that are not valid in Uk. It´s incredible to see until what point all these conflicts get…)

Afterwards we go to another pub and we stay there . It was like a disco- pub. We have a great time but I prefer traditional pubs with traditional music.

Galway is a city that attracts many tourists, is a very beautiful place, but the atmosphere is very different from what we had seen before.

Sunday 24^th August- Galway- Dublin

We go from Galway to Dublin. Much before we stop to see the cliffs of Moher. These are very tall and John tells us that every year someone falls accidentally or commiting suicide. Irish landscapes are imposing, green, tall, strong, wide…

When we go down we see a boat that remembers “Saint Brendan” an Irish monk known as “the sailor”. It is said that Saint Brendan went after the mythical paradise with other monks, the number goes from 18 to 150. After a long trip they reached the “     Terra Repromissionis” or promised land, a beautiful land full of leafy vegetation. The narration offers a wide range about the geographical position of this land and the scenary of Saint Brendan´s legend.

On our way back, we go on our trip to Dublin. We pass Limerick and see the famous “Shannon” river, so recurrent in Frank McCourt´s book “Angela´s Ashes”.

We arrive to Dublin at about 6 pm. We lodge in the same kind of hostal that in Galway, but this looks much better. We are located in the famous zone called “The temple bar”.

We say good bye to John who has to go back to Belfast. We really hope to see him in Barcelona soon, I am as tired as sad to say good bye to this fantastic person…

We go out to some pubs (Kelly´s Bar, Foggy Dew, The Mezz)in the evening, later on we go to sleep and prepare ourselves to live our last day in Ireland.

Monday 25^th August- Dublin

We go to have breakfast in the morning and from there to the city centre for a walk. We see the famous Post Office, scenary of the easter rising in Dublin 1916.

We see statues and arrive to the famous “Trinity College”, beautiful place, full of green fields.

A quick visit for the Sinn Féin shop and go for lunch.

In the afternoon we are expected to pay a ticket to enter to the most famous prison in Dublin, the “Kilmainham Gaol” (to pay a ticket to enter to a prison it sounds weird to me… I would say we would have to pay to go out, don´t you think, ? he he).

The gaol was built in 1716 and closed its doors in 1924. All the leaders of Irish rebellions were captured and executed here. The tour starts at the chapel where a guide tells us that a prisoner got married before being executed and later on his wife was captured and executed too.

At the beginning, there were no separation for sex or age at this prison. Men, women as well as children were kept all together. The lack of ventilation made them sick so they quickly died. At those times, Ireland was so poor that many people wished to go to prison to receive a meal. The youngest prisoner was five years old. People were jailed because of potato or bread robberies and all kind of minor crimes.

We also visited a room where prisoners were interviewed by a journalist who wrote their last words, printed them and sold them to the public on the execution day.

As a curious detail, the acoustic of this place is fantastic, actually, it has been used to hold concerts and make several movies (ex.: “In the name of the father”)

The last visit is to a patio where there are two crosses, one in each extreme representing the first and last persons executed at this prison.

We go back to the hostal and afterwards we go for a coffee with Muffins and other delicious things from Dublin.

In the evening it´s time to go to the famous Temple Bar, afterwards to The Porter House that offers a wide range of beers from all over the world. I tried a delicious Russian beer “Bajithka”.

Later on we go for some pizzas and we say good bye to our guide and mates, because I will have to be at the airport at dawn.

Tuesday 26^th August- Airport, return to Barcelona

I go out to Dublin airport at dawn. I feel so many emotions removing inside of me… Every time I return from a trip, I return with a new soul inside, with someone that is with me. When on the road I remember when we said good bye to John and his words shine in a place I always reserve for special spirits: “When we were at prison, we weren´t unhappy”. “I have lived from the darkest emotions to the highest ones, I could have been born in London and have another kind of life, but if I had to go back in time, I would live everything again”.

N.B.: Many thanks to our guide who showed us so many things with so much passion and energy! 

Belfast

Madonna the dominatrix, the leader, the force, the mistress of an endless sexual reign without age.

Anyway, I must confess the first time I heard the new album I didn´t give not a penny for it. In later attempts my ear opened to the hip hop rythm that she introduced in this work. The music is surprising. Totally different from other albums. One thing that always surprises me about her is the ability she has to change the sound of every album. I suppose that this also has to be with the collaborators she chooses.

Let´s say “Hard Candy” is a good album in general although I prefer “Confessions on a dance floor” because I find it much more coherent and sound balanced.

A weak point is that Madonna´s voice is low. Sometimes yo have to make an effort to hear her.

The good things are the new digital arrangements used. They seemed to have been taken from mobile phones technology. It´s according to these modern times. Well used and placed.

The lyrics are not especially good but I find that she talks about feelings she wasn´t able to speak about in the past. She is a married woman now. She has a husband and children. She´s a world away from the sensual single lion she was: always trying to seduce every beast on earth. Now she seems worried about her man. The song “She is not me” seems revealing. Is she talking about some of her husband´s affairs…?. I love this song because she sings it absolutely convinced, she shouts “She doesn´t have my name”. (We know it Madge. No one has or will have your name).

In my opinion, Madge is going through the highest period in her life. Everyone around the world pays tribute to her many years on stage. In the past, it would have sounded flamboyant to hear all those voices singing “Hey Madonna”, adoring her as in the beginning of “Dance2Night“, song which I definetely love.

Easter 2008

Day 1- Mon, 17th March

I did it again: I was in London. This time on a cold after midday. I arrived from Luton airport to Victoria Station at around 3 p.m. There, I took a bus to my hotel in Paddington zone. After leaving my luggage in my room I ran to go for a quick visit to “Tate Britain”, an amazing museum of modern art.

… I suppose I am not the only one that has the sensation of living in a prison made of slow hours, slow time clutching your steps from the morning until five o´clock when suddenly, everybody is released and starts to rush to their homes or pubs. At that time or so London´s main attractions close and that´s why I had to rush, too. Days seem to be so slow as short. This is only one of the strange sensations you feel in this enigmatical cold city.

The Tate Britain museum holds historic, modern and contemporary art and the general entrance is free. This time one of the supported paid exhibitions was called “The Camden Town Group” which I really regret to have missed. It announced to show the works of a circle of innovative young painters in the bustling modern metropolis which was home for them to be named as “The Camden Group” in the London of 1910s.

After my quick visit I went to Oxford Circus zone to taste te famous “fish & chips”.

Around 8 p.m. I went back home to sleep. I was really tired…

Day 2- Tu, 18th March

I got up very early in the morning. At 7:30 I was at the hotel dinning room to taste the traditional “English Breakfast”: fried egg, ham, beans in sauce, coffee or tea, toasts, butter, marmalade, orange juice & cereals. I can´t believe my liver survived five days eating such a heavy mix of caloric food.

This day was very important because I had planned to visit the “London Tower” inside.

I took all the necessary underground combinations and arrived there near 10 pm. We were a large group of people waiting for a “Beefeater” to guide us. “Beefeater” is the popular name to call the “yeoman warders” (guardias alabarderos), the guards that custody this imposing fortress. You are entertained by captivating tales: passion, treachery, torture and pain in big amounts of black humour. You smile all the time as these guards have that natural vein to act and entertain, the histrionical strange blood in English race.

The warders guided the group making an introduction to all the things we could see. After some time they said good bye and we could go to visit each place on our own without following any specific order.

THE TOWER

The fortress is divided in 43 places, so you can spend half of the day visiting it!. You can see different towers, museums or go to the shops or for a coffee. Streets and places closed to the public also counts in this list. It is very difficult to remember exactly all the places that you have entered to, but these are more or less the ones I can remember:

Bloody Tower

Chapel Royal of St. Peter ad Vincula

Cradle Tower

Lanthorn Tower

Martin Tower

Salt Tower

Traitor´s gate

Wakefield tower

Waterloo Block (Crown Jewels)

Torture at the tower

Medieval Palace

East Wall Walk

Scaffold site

Beauchamp tower

White Tower

In the Beauchamp Tower you can see the graffities left by famous prisoners five hundred years ago. They were carved between 1532 and 1672.

You can read short simple lines like “In god is my hope” up to deep thoughts as this one that caught my attention:

“Better is to be in the house of mourning than in the house of banqueting. The house of the wise is in the mourning house. It is much better to have something chastening than to have overmuch liberty. There is a time for all things, a time to be born, and a time to die, and the day of death is better than the day of birth. There is an end of all things and the end of a thing is better than the beginning. Be wise and patient in trouble for wisdom defendeth as well as money. Use well the time of prosperity and remember the time of misfortune”

(William Rame- 2 April 1559)

In the infamous Bloody Tower you can solve the mistery of who murdered the Little Princes. Treachery stories are contained here! And you also can count your vote in a multimedia game!

In the Wakefield Tower you can feel chills looking at the instruments of torture. There are no words to describe pain.

The Crown Jewels House, is where you can see the astonishing collection of Coronations.

It is the place that any woman dreams of visiting! You are dazzled by diamonds, pearls, sapphires, emeralds and rubies from the 17th century up to these days. The crowns of all Britain´s queens and kings are here!.

This place is highly custodied. You can not take pictures here. It suffered only one attempt of robbery in history.

The White Tower is an extraordinary place to see the impressive collection of weaponry and is the house for the Roayl Armouries.

After delighting yourself with medieval weapons, costums, paintings, rooms you also can interact with games based in medieval weapons: take the weigh of spades, hammers, archs… Use them, shoot them. Get explanations, similarities, differences.

This was one of the places I liked most!

The Medieval Palace is a place to discover how was life at that times. You can see live performances with actors playing the lives of Henry III, Edward I and their court.

They even come to you and talk to you! It is a very funny moment.

The ravens: they are everywhere! They even can fly near, just above your head! These horrible black creatures are believed to be there to custody the jewels. The legend says that Charles II believed that if they left the Tower, the fortress and the kingdom would fall.

The first three days it didn´t rain and the sun was there from time to time, anyway, the days were cold and I was tired. It was a non stop walking, I didn´t want to rest, so I left the Tower and at 4 in the afternoon I rushed to visit the Charles Dickens Museum in Russell Square zone.

CHARLES DICKENS MUSEUM

There was nobody inside… after a while a woman with a baby entered the place. Everything was silence… you approached to the intimacy of the different places of a house that was home to this great writer once. Sofas, pianos, mirrors, papers and paper baskets. An amazing library is in the basement of the house. The first publications, pictures, drawing and thoughts ornamenting the walls…

I looked everything with a sense of respect and pain. I took some pictures of the lines that touched my heart:

“No words can explain the secret agony of my soul as I sunk into this companionship; compared these every day associates with those of my happier childhood; and felt my early hopes of growing up to be a learned and distinguished man, crushed in my breast.”

-Charles Dickens as a boy in the blacking factory-

“I mention the circumstance because it illustrates, to me, my early interest in observing people. When I went to the Marshalsea of a night, I was always delighted to hear from my mother what she knew about the histories of the different debtors in the prison”

-Dickens later recounting a real occurrence at the prison, which he had used in David Copperffield, to his friend John Forster-

Amongst all the things that you can observe in the museum, there is a room devoted to the women that took part in the writer´s life. There is one bed of a girl that died too young and who inspired him many fragments in his novels. It is said that he suffered very much because of this girl, who was his friend and he wanted very much. There is also a door with a beautiful knocker and the explanation says: “Door knocker from Dickens´ Childhood Home in Bayham Street, Camden Town”.

I left the place feeling that strange peace that only writers can transmit. Inside the silence, outside the hectic pace of life, the underground, the wind hitting your face…

At 6 p.m. the vanity knocked my door. I instantly forgot the deep world I had been in and went to visit the famous shop “Harrods”.

… Imagine entering to a paradise of elegance, an oasis of luxury ornamented by goods you will never purchase until you win the lottery! It´s a pleasure for the eyes and a pity to your pockets. The most exclusive- expensive brands, designs and goods are here!

Day 3- Wed, 19th March

I tasted my traditional English breakfast at early morning. I wanted to do the free London walking tours, so I took a bus to Trafalgar square expecting to find a guide and a group of people. I didn´t but discovered the “National Portrait Gallery” by pure chance.

This time supported a paid exhibition of Vanity Fair magazine. I saw a picture of Madonna for Evita movie and immediately knew I wanted to enter there. Anyway, I didn´t see this one, I saw the free general exhibitions.

The gallery is divided more or less in the following sections:

The Tudors

17th century

18th century

Late 18th century and early 19th century,

The Victorians

Early 20th century,

Britain since 1990

… special exhibitions and displays.

What it really blew up my mind was an exibition called “BRILLIANT WOMEN”.It was about a group of women and some men that was named as “THE BLUESTOCKING CIRCLE” in the 19th century. It started like an informal way of sociability amongst writers, artist & thinkers who met in their London homes. It was based on a shared love of learning. The name comes from the blue woollen stocking normally worn by working men.

Elizabeth Montagu -Shakespeare´s critic- was the leading hostess of this circle. She was named as the “Queen of the blues” by writer Samuel Johnson.

Amongst other personalities this circle nurtured a busy intellectual life by women like early feminist Mary Wollstonecraft, the artist Angelica Kauffman or the historian Catherine Macaulay.

In the other rooms you could see contemporary works. Amongst many curiosities, there were photographs taken by Bryan Adams, yes, the singer! In fact, he photographed interesting women and has a book called “American Women 2005″.

Other room held the fantastic pictures of famous photographers like Mario Testino, Mario Sorrenti, Paolo Roversi, Elaine Constantine and Corine Day.

Definetely, National Portrait Gallery it´s a pleasure for the eyes, it´s a temple of beauty, colour and perfection in all the possible forms.

Later in the afternoon I went for a quick visit to Big Ben, the famous clock, this zone is full of tourists, as most of London zones, of course. Westminster bridge, where I walked for a long time and took pictures of the river Thames and London eye, (… It wasn´t strange when a man called me “Bella Ragazza”, this happens everytime I dress myself with my Juventus jacket -the jacket of Italian football team-, there´s always some Italian who thinks I am Italian and tells me something. It is very funny and never fails!).

Wetminster abbey and Houses of Parliament are near too. I didn´t enter to the abbey which wasn´t for free, but to St Margaret´s church instead.

I suddenly went to another very different zone: Notting Hill in the west end zone.

This area is a fantastic place full of trees & nature. The houses are beautiful and elegant. To make a contrast with this view, you find many retro & second hand shops in the main street and prices are lower than in other parts.

“West end” is the zone that is full of theatres.

My last visit this day was to Baker Street, famous for being the stop for Madam Tussaud and Sherlock Holmes Museums.

Day 4- Thu, 20th March

This was a very special day. I had to go to The Cure concert in Wembley Arena stadium in the afternoon.

In the morning I visited Picadilly Circus zone, Covent Garden (where I finally saw the market stalls!) and St. Paul´s church.

At midday I went to Leceister Square and entered to the “Little Italy” restaurant. Pizza & tea, that´s what I orderd for lunch!

The day was rainy and colder than the previous ones…

At about 6 pm I was at Wembley Park underground station.

The concert started near 8 and lasted until 11: 15 more or less.

Went back to the hotel passing midnight. Terribly tired, thirsty and hungry!

Day 5- Fri, 21st March

I couldn´t leave London without going to my place, my home, my strange palace, Camden Town. I walked and walked. I bought some things, I had a quick lunch, I entered to a cyber, I took pictures.

Amongst the curious anecdotes I remember, a woman approached to me near Camden Market. She said “Do you speak English?”, “yes, of course” I said. She said to need 1.80 to go to Victoria station. She was a homeless. “A long story” she said, “drugs… a man… I lost everything”, her mum was in Scotland dying of cancer. I observed her, she had many hurts and scars on her face. She apologised about asking me money. I felt pity. I said: “I don´t have change, let´s go for a coffee or something, I change and give you the money”. She shook her hand and said “Emma”, “Victoria”, I replied, and she stood quite for a second and added “and you have my same hair colour, and you are very pretty”. We went to a shop, I told her to pick up some soft drink. Changed 10 pounds and gave her 2. I told her many times “I hope this is not for beer or drugs…”. She promised it wasn´t.

“London is not what people think”, she said…

It is true: London has two faces, the elegant, powerful and rich- the poor, miserable and torturing. It´s a place of hard contrasts.

In the afternoon I went to St. Paul´s Cathedral which was closed. Finished my day drinking beer at Covent Garden. I was sad… very sad…

Those pints of “Stella Artois” made me sleep like a baby!

A phone call from my friend E. from de USA woke me up. I needed to hear that voice.

The hotel was in complete silence, it was late, very late at night… outside it was raining and cold. I suddenly miss that comfortable warm bed… and think in that group of punkies I had taken a photo in Camden that same day in the afternoon. One of them came to me and said: “Ginger, ginger, don´t you have some money for beer?”.

He laughed, I laughed and said I didn´t. He took me by surprise…

Day 6- Sat, 22nd March

My last day. In the morning I went to visit Victoria & Albert Museum, Science museum and Royal Albert Hall. All in South Kensington zone.

V & A museum it´s more than marvelous. It is very big so it is impossible to visit entirely. It holds art from all the epoques and parts of the planet. The science museum it´s extremely interesting. You can approach to all the transport and enginneer works that British people held through history: steam machines, trains, boats, planes…

As a curiosity, Royal Alert Hall is where fans could see Robert & Siouxsie in 1983 for Nocturne album concert. It´s a royal place in honour of Queen´s Victoria´s husband: prince Albert.

This last day I was so excited as sad… but I can guess I will never stop visiting this city. I know there is something between me and that place. This second time I couldn´t believe people were so nice to me again. Women left their supermarket bags to indicate me directions, there was a girl who entered to a hotel to ask for the street I asked her. I am not used to feel that in the city I live, and I live in a city full of tourists, where it is supposed people are used to be kind to foreigners.

The mistery is not solved, but alive and calling.

-Passing midday I was at Luton airport again, it started to snow… the wind was freezing, the door of the plane was open and the snow was blowing inside the plane, the flight attendants laughed and tried to put it away until the door was closed-

My memories were freezed for a moment. I took my last mental picture of England. I wrote another temporary good bye in the air. The ink of my heart rained over the sky when I looked through the foggy window of the plane…

“TOTALLY CURED in LONDON”

-The Cure in London, England-

Place: Wembley Arena Stadium

Date: Thursday 20^th March 2008

Start time: 8 pm

End: at about a quarter past eleven

Total time: more than 3 hours!

… The day was grey, cold, windy and rainy. I arrived to Wemblay Park Station at about six. It was one of those days you would have prefered to stay at home watching tv and eating chocolates! But I had the ticket and I had to go! The Cure started on time and lasted more than three hours as in Barcelona show. The concert was BRILLIANT. The interaction with the audience was different. I think they feel at home, so they feel less pressure maybe. Robert didn´t speak much to the audience and songs as “The Blood”, that they always perform in Spain, it wasn´t played. I liked to hear “Strange Day”, which sounded pretty different and weird at the beginning. The setlist was similar in general. No big surprises…The sound was much better than in Bcn and they also displayed a big screen with pictures and drawings for each song. The audience wasn´t particularly gothic neither. I waited another kind of “scene”. I arrived to the conclusion that we are living in a society where ideals are dead. Anyway, I had a great time! There were tall english guys and girls in front of me. I was at the middle of the rink more or less, so it was difficult to see the band. I raised my hand to take pictures. Everybody did the same! Times have changed… concerts are now some kind of digitilized events… I rushed to catch the train and do all the underground combinations to arrive to my hotel. Wembley seems to be at “the end of the world”… but it was fantastic to have been there, it is a great stadium! C´mon, yes, the guys are very hard working and they try to keep the same style and magic with the audience… I think the audience and society in general has broken the spell, and that is the pity any old school sensitive fan feels in the concerts.

Anyway, I am pleased, it was another dream that came true. I was at the perfect place at the right time and had a great chance to see this band at home. Let´s try to fool ourselves saying the surrounding circumstances weren´t important enough… The Cure spell will live in our memories forever, when you dressed all in black and killed to have a red lipstick in your hands…

Approximate setlist:
1. Plainsong
2. Prayers For Rain
3. A Strange Day
4. Alt.End
5. A Night Like This
6. The End Of The World
7. Lovesong
8. To Wish Impossible Things
9. Pictures Of You
10. Lullaby
11. From The Edge Of The Deep Green Sea
12. Hot Hot Hot!!!
13. Please Project
14. The Walk
15. Push
16. Friday I’m In Love
17. Inbetween Days
18. Just Like Heaven
19. Primary
20. A Boy I Never Knew
21. Shake Dog Shake
22. Never Enough
23. Wrong Number
24. One Hundred Years
25. Disintegration

Wembley Arena London, England

Encore 1:
1. At Night
2. M
3. Play For Today
4. A Forest

Encore 2:
1.The Lovecats
2. Let’s Go To Bed
3. Freak Show
4. Close To Me
5. Why Can’t I Be You?

Encore 3:
1. Three Imaginary Boys
2. Fire In Cairo
3. Boys Don’t Cry
4. Jumping Someone Else’s Train
5. Grinding Halt
6. 10:15 Saturday Night
7. Killing An Arab

Concert lasted 3 hours and 18 minutes.

“TOTALLY CURED”: The Cure in Barcelona

Place: Palau Sant Jordi stadium- Barcelona city, Spain

Date: Monday 10^th March 2008

Start time: 9:36 p.m.

End: at about a quarter to one

Total time: more than 3 hours! 

Number of songs: 40 approximately!

… I arrived to “El Palau” at about 7 p.m. I didn´t know what to expect: it was Monday, it was another normal  working day forced to be interrupted. Change your schedule, invent an excuse to tell your boss, travel from where you are to the end of the world, take the most difficult way to arrive thanks that main way to the stadium was cut by an inopportune funfair and go back home walking, sleep in  Catalonia Square until next morning or wait long hours for nit buses because transport is cut during the week. Do this after have been standing around like 5 hours among a sticky crowd. That is what I did. “The sacrifice of penance in the holy hour” sings my head now, although the song that has these lyrics wasn´t played. The point is that I am here to say that IT WAS REALLY WORTH IT. 

I could reach the first places on the rink. I was in the third row more or less, so I could see the band very close. The sensations were so real… as if you could talk to them. They were in front of you and you had that feeling of: “maybe he looked at me, maybe he identified me among the crowd”.At about 8:20, played an English band called “65 days of static”. I didn´t like it. It was another clean- perfect- long hair children´s gang pretending to say “I am a rebel, I play rock”. Is there someone interested in people with made up lives & style? (not certainly me, that´s for sure!).  

Luckily, The Cure came on stage only five minutes later than programmed. Punctual and hard-working as usual, they played for a bit more than 3 hours. It was unbelievable! Robert Smith showed an incredible energy. He didn´t talk very much, but among the little he said were things like “that´s why I love Spain…”. He wanted to express what he felt for the crowd. He felt the energy, feedback, happiness and complicity around.Anyway, the crowd was too perfect for my taste. I find European audiences hell boring. On one hand, every time I go to a concert I appreciate not ending hurt, bleeding, robbed and things like that, but at the same time I remember those fabulous times of my first concerts in Argentina where you felt  PEOPLE ALIVE, because they shouted like mad, moved like mad, and expressed feelings brutally…! There are so many ways of showing love! 

The audience in Barcelona was a bit dissapointing because you didn´t see the typical goths marching to the funeral. I know it´s funny, but it is an important part of the ritual you expect to see when you go to these kind of shows set by people which gained legions playing  in dirty pubs the first years… Cult, The Cure was born as a cult.  

With reference to what was listened, I would say the setlist was varied. It had songs from many important albums and also included 3 or 4 exclusive ones from the next unrealeased work. It is remarkable to say that guitar player Porl Thompson is an excellent musician. It is a big pleasure to see him on stage. Now that Roger is not on keyboards, Porl has the double task of trying to play those parts with his guitar at the same time than playing solos and arrangements. He has to work really hard and he does it amazingly well.The sound of the instruments was excellent. Robert sang very well but his voice was a bit low. The stage was simple. The screen behind them showed some images. I missed a big poster with the words “The Cure” and I have to say the name of the tour sounds ridiculous “The 4 tour” ? Is it due they are four people in the band now? (hey… they better pay someone to look for more ingenious ideas!) -:)

Finally, I can´t believe I went out of home at about 6 in the afternoon and came back at 3 in the morning!

So… if for Benicàssim show in 2005  I titled my review saying that I had… “been cured”, now I have to say I was TOTALLY CURED. 

Hope to write about London show soon! 

Approximate setlist:
 
1. Plainsong
2. Prayers For Rain
3. Alt.End
4. The Blood
5. The End Of The World
6. Lovesong
7. To Wish Impossible Things
8. Catch
9. From The Edge Of The Deep Green Sea
10. Kyoto Song
11. Please Project
12. The Walk
13. Push
14. Friday I’m In Love
15. In between Days
16. Just Like Heaven.
17. Primary
18. A Boy I Never Knew
19. Pictures Of You
20. Lullaby
21. Never Enough
22. Wrong Number
23. One Hundred Years
24. Disintegration
 
Encore 1:
1. At Night
2. M
3. Play For Today
4. A Forest
 
Encore 2:
1. The Lovecats
2. Let’s Go To Bed
3. Freak Show
4. Close To Me
5. Why Can’t I Be You?
 
Encore 3:
1. Boys Don’t Cry
2. Jumping Someone Else’s Train
3. Grinding Halt
4. 10.15 Saturday Night
5. Killing An Arab

Hope to write down reviews, so be ready to  read about Barcelona & London shows on 10th and 20th March.

I will also wait for your comments here about your experiences in any of the concerts everywhere.

What else can I add…? We are desperately waiting for a cure…

Keep in touch my beloved herd of black sheep,

-Victorian News Red Sheperdess-

… I see myself walking there and having the feeling of falling in love at first time. That sensation of: “this place is for me”. An immediate connection. Now I have a clue about why I can´t help being stuck to it…

 Dylan Thomas, the Welsh poet (1914-1953) lived in Camden Town during the 1930s. It is said that his stay in Camden was not a particularly happy one.

Charles Dickens (1812-70) stayed in Bayham Street in 1823. A small plaque marks the site of his home.  South Camden later featured in the novel OLIVER TWIST. Nearby, Hampstead formed the backdrop for the PICKWICK PAPERS.

George Orwell (1903-50, real name Eric Blair) lived in Camden during the 1930s. Orwell, a former Burmese imperial policeman, is best remembered for his futuristic novel 1984 and the political parable ANIMAL FARM.

Arthur Rimbaud (1854-91) stayed in Royal College Street Camden Town with his friend Paul Verlaine during 1873. Rimbaud is best remembered for his poem LES ILLUMINATIONS. Later that year, Verlaine shot Rimbaud with a revolver.

Mary Shelley (ne. Wollstonecraft 1797-1851), the original author of the gothic horror story FRANKENSTEIN (1818) and the wife of the poet Percy B. Shelley, was born in Camden.

:::Do you want to post more curiosities? perhaps some pieces of their writings? you´re welcome to honour this post!:::