Valencia I

I have not even left Spain, and i miss it here already....

for whatever reason, this morning,

i thought of the time in 2003 coming back from Hong Kong on the plane in NY, and saw all these American parents who had gone to Chinese orphanages to adopt little girls.. When i was coming back from Asia. There they were, 5-6 couples. Landed and waiting patiently, with bundled or 3-4 yos in line to fill out the paper work as they got off the plane... and standing in a different customs line than the others. I am not sure what feeling seeing this occured in me, in seeing this touching thing. The only people i have ever seen unrushed at customs. That was such a clear memory....I had the feeling that i was alive, as i walked past them and that here was something in life. that i will unlikely see again... or wondering if I will,,

and so it is with Spain ,, a place that existed in my mind before stepping foot here... So many things about Spanish life, having now been here. having lived through them,

not really anticipating it, exceeded my expectations of the place. There are not many places I can say that about!!.... Particularly, if forced to choose anything architecture, the sun, the food and the music. Which are so particular and immutable from this place.

.... It feels like I could live that life forever, but then a part of me needs to move forward, forward means going to new york.... headache central. but a necessary place. for work and for other things.... the center in north america of the chess, jazz, tennis and finance world in many respects.

I am so tremendously grateful to the Spanish people. For whatever reason, I think they understood me. They saw that i was very artistic, and respected that, and i in them. Almost all Spanish people are artistic in this way.

-here, I walked on the beach, and in the small streets.
-learned to hang laundry from the 7th story without losing any of my clothes...
-learned to feed myself, and prepare food.
-rode the trains, and saw the countryside, where hill after hill of oranges or vineyards for the wines.
-should have gone to the bullfight,, the bullring is maybe less 3 minutes walk from my house..
-Heard about Mestizo Funk from Barcelona, and saw true 'Flamenco' being performed for the
first time, and became an afficianado.

So to Spain I am eternally grateful. And will be back'

A

traveller, ohne fixed place. raison d'etre, existentialism

feeling that having seen many parts of the world, there are things which are nearly impossible to explain, and i suppose that is because they are based on experience, and it is hard to say one thing without supporting it with all those other things that have happened earlier on..

which often revolve around existentialism often not and also the grave discrepancies in the world, which you see day in day-out from watching people.... for instance, when you are there, how do you explain to a person from the third or developing world, how people live in the first world, or vice-versa. It is almost as if you are telling them that reality as they know it does not exist.

or the ideals of one person or another...

i guess ideals is what is all about...

how do you tell a person who has eaten only indian food all their life, how swedish food must taste? or the preoccupation with one person for survival and another for affection perhaps through fashion, how do you do that?

To see americans travelling is another case in point.
how do you explain the viewpoint of the rest of the world in a day, when they have only known u.s. media, and again, vice versa.

I find myself retracing my steps mentally, and trying to find a raison d'etre, of what feels like a vast store of enthusiasm, a capacity for obsession and energy for life. open to suggestions to find a better way if not a truer way of life.

my favourite trips were those around early 20 still. to places like Bonneville Utah, and Winnedmucca, Nevada, and across Canada by bus. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winnemucca,_Nevada , in the same breath i try to imagine the muslim way of life in Malaysia, where in the flea markets there were store after store of portraits of Bin laden. crazy huh, and yet when you are there it is not so crazy... and the devotion of those people is equally the same as you would find in the vatican. around and around we go...

Berlin - I , II, and III

Berlin III

The day before I left Berlin, I went to Potsdamerplatz to visit the Musik Instrument Museum. Potzdamerplatz represents the latest and greatest in Berlin, and Berliners have many reasons to be proud of it. There is so much amazing architecture in Berlin. Mostly modern.

The headquarters of Sony, Deutsche Bahn and Mercedes-Benz, as well as an Berlin Philharmonic are all there. When you take the highspeed train from the center of town above ground, you can see, Potsdamerplatz because it look like a circus tent. It is only once you get very close that you notice, everything under the tent is made of glass, steel or is electronic. Although it is open air, 2 semi circular buildings are inside the tent, a fountain, an Imax and several movie theaters all the mass enterntainment stuff that people need.. I went with some friends on an earlier visit to see Das Parfum, the movie adapted from the novel by Susskind.

Across the street is another amazing building, without the steel and glass, but rather fans of gold, it is warmer, and mainly assymetrical. The insignia of the Berlin Philharmonic is inward spiral of a rotating pentagram, a highlight of the golden section, and the whole building has been done with the golden section in mind.

http://www.greatbuildings.com/buildings/Berlin_Philharmonic_Hall.html

That is the amazing thing about this building, it is not large by any standard, but has a depth of quality that is hard to match. Everything is in proportion with one another. Add one thing or take one thing away, and the building ceases to be the same. Kind of like the cross between a lean-to, a boquet or a bonsai tree. Quite amazing, and very warm for a building made in the 50/60s

The pictures of the musik instrument museum inside the building:

http://new.photos.yahoo.com/alwintong/album/576460762319364318#page1

those cembalo (piano looking instruments) are crazy indeed hm. I couldn’t stop taking pictures of them.



Berlin II

If I had to pick a spot to live in Berlin – it would definitely be Kruezberg, the Turkish center of Berlin (and likely for Germany). It is a lovely place, with the traditional architecture that a person would find anywhere in Berlin, and a very nice 2nd lived in feel to the place. There are many families and students who live there.

On each Tuesday and Friday, there is a giant Bazaar there, along the Spree river which is the largest turkish Bazaar outside of turkey. It is a straight line, which goes on for about probably 250 m. When you walk through it, the feeling you get must be the same as the feeling that newlyweds and football players get from running through a line as it is a narrow place.

I walked the whole length of it, and saw many stores repeat themselves, so I think it is a matter of where along the stretch you would want to buy things. Mainly 1 million cheeses, meats, fruits. The odd knick knack, and sometimes a belt or a box stall.
My favorite are the vendors who sell grapevine leaves. It is amazing that they are edible, when you see them soaking in the water flattened out.

The best part of Kreuzberg is the bakery, and there you have a bread which is circular like a bagel, but thin as a pretzel, about the size of a tea saucer. Thin and round, it is dipped in roasted sesame seeds and then baked. It is both sweet and salty inside.
The best, and it is unavailable in any other part of Berlin oddly, so I used to make express trips to kruezberg for them.



Berlin I

Germany is a complex picture, but I’ll write about the parts that I have encountered and know best.

My part of town in Berlin, was on a Hussemann Strasse, which is a part of the neighbourhood Prenzlauer Berg. The neighbourhoods in Berlin are all situated like numbers around a clock around Mitte (meaning middle), and PB sits northeast at about 1 to about 2:30 on this imaginary clock.

It is part of former east germany, so that when the walls fell in 1989, they were essentially tenements befitting of any eastern bloc country. Those tenements were quickly gobbled up, and have been converted into lofts and restaurants.

The part that I know really well in Germany is between my apt, and a place called Kollwitzplatz which is about 100 m down the road. It is a park named after the artist Kathe Kollwitz. In that park, what is amazing to see is kids learning to ride bikes and obsessed with soccer from about age 2 onwards. They do both, so well.

German education is quite remarkable, and these kids from an early age are brought many experiences, and allowed personal space. Because of responsibility and this negotiation, it is very common to see, for instance, kids age 6-10 riding bikes on the street with their parents on the roads, at st. corners etc. no problems.,,,, I told my german penpal, that in N.america, parents are likely to put their kids on a leash at that age.

The same holds true for animals, dogs for eg, are basically never on a leash,

Each day, I would buy a croissant and coffee and read at the park.

Meeting Ghandi and Praha

Sep 2nd.

i took the train from Munich to Prague last week and stayed there for 4 days.

Looking back, it feels already like many months ago...

Pictures so far are posted here.... http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/alwintong/slideshow?.dir=/40a6re2&.src=ph
warning,, all jumbled, unedited. sorry for the many duplicates.

The train ride was relaxed, but I have brought too much stuff already {3 backpacks - front, back, side and then 2 tennis rackets.)... so walking with that much stuff is rather like a goose who has layed too many eggs... there is stuff everywhere.

From Munich to Prague, it appeared that 2 other people (older Brazilians) with myself were travelling from M to P. And we managed to miss the connecting trains, so had to be re-routed through various stops. Half way into the Czech republic, in a small town called Plzen, i ran into about 6 backpackers. It seems that eighty percent of backpackers are always from the same countries: England, Australia, Canada, Japan, Brazil, Germans, sometimes French.

Except for 1 Belgian, this group fit that description pretty well....

It is always amazing to me, how well-travelled and through-only speaking English, many people from the commonwealth get around... I admire the Mormons and a small minority of travellers in this sense, they will always study the language of the country they are in. That seems to me the best way to be...

These guys hadn't showered for 1 week, from camping in Hungary.... I am kind of immune to smell, so I approached them. Their "leader" was an half-indian Aussie, who had the hair and look of Ghandi, and south-african accent of Ghandi, had been travelling for one and half years. The rest, some 6 months, some 3 months, and some 2 weeks for this festival in Hungary alone...

Everyones story was soo different. The Belgian has never really worked before, and was on a weekend trip. The 2 Brazillian dudes, were living in Japan working in a camera factory, and had been saving up for 1 1/2 years for this. An English girl from some small town south of London, and her friend, with the thickest east London accent, and billingual in a equally thick Normandy accent...

'Gandhi' who i sense was the most travelled of all, had been up and down up and down many times over. Saving at desk job in Melbourne, then Picking fruit, Bartending etc..

Not because of the ups-and-downs, but because of the wisdom that is naturally accrued over many events, by many cycles,, a stoicism... Gandhi, truly was like Gandhi..

We ended up heading to the central area of Prague upon arrival. Where surprising, many places were closed for the night. There are surprising few places open at night in Prague after about 9pm. I think this is a throwback to how things must of been under communist rule..

There are also, surprisingly very many chinese people in Prague! many. more than you would imagine. More than a place like Victoria BC. They are mostly from mainland.... We found the chinese restaurant that was open late and that was were I heard of those stories about each of them.

We ended up checking in to the Czech Inn, :) - which is likely the swankiest hostel I think I have yet been.

The Czech Republic has been traditionally cheap but is undergoing a large shift, from Communist state to Western Europe tourist destination, and many of excesses of tourism can be readily seen, especially in the 'old town' which is the tourist quarter... Prague is an extreme of either old communism, a rising eastern european nation, and tourist mecca... (in fact there is a dance club called Mecca there!). A bit schizophrenic in this manner.

I stayed for four days, and became local quite quickly. finding the cheapest internet, and food, short cuts around the metro quite fast, learning the local dishes, and speaking a bit more Czech than the average tourist, (There are tons of Polish people in Mississauga, where i grew up, and Czech is very close to Polish).

,,,, The country reminds me of Malaysia... it is an economic tiger leaving behind a past, nearly the whole country is learning english at a quick pace, 2-3 years for most. Everyone is thinking business. A knowledge of english represents prosperity, and is required for most but not all high paying jobs in Cz.

Like in Malaysia, I tried to stay away from the monolinguals, and tried to speak czech if it was easy, and tried to hang out in non-tourist places. Ghandiman, introduced me to many of the workers at the hostel, we exchanged stories with the Czech workers ,,, that is the best. when you really learn stuff.

,,,, I think Prague is a bit too touristy now, it is very difficult to see Prague before Starbucks has arrived, and they have already..... I think some of the other smaller towns would have been nicer, but regret not having time to see them.. You see from travelling that people are the same everywhere.

Bye for now' -- next -- news from Berlin.

best, Dobrou noc - Alwin

Grüsse von München

Dear people, safe and sound. i arrived Josef Strauss Airport in München on Freitag Morgen, and have been here in Munich ever since.

- heard Juan Tonamara (sp?) in polish, while walking across the street, and i think this had just made a tumultous 7 hour flight worthwhile...

- I am staying right now at a hostel near the Haupbahnhof (main station) on the west side of downtown Munich.

- my knowledge of the german language has undergone a threefold explosion since being here, from about 8 words to now about 24 words! -- it is amazing how fast that can happen,, -- i arrived, being able to say "i am pregnant" (Ich bin schwanger) - and now can say I would like to be pregnant, and also, where is the pregnant?, and excuse i am pregnant in my room.. etc..

,, so yeah,,,

- for those that know Munich, my first day i went down to Marienplatz and the Odeonplatz, English Garten, needless to say i had not seen it before... and it is quite amazing. I will post those pictures up when they come online here. -- today i went further east, walking down to the Estbahnhof, (sp?) and spent time in the much less touristy - (or to me?) areas on the edge of downtown, (pariserplatz and orleanplatz), where the day in and day out activities of life are.

-Oktoberfest clothing are on sale right now.!


-My favourite things about Germany so far, definitely are:

1. German bookstores - they are filled, nearly each one i have seen - with volumes of classic texts and with travel guides. I think the english equivalent would be walking into a bookstore and seeing big sections of the penguin and dover catalogs in front of you.

In differentiating from first and third world places, I have this pet theory that for first world countries, men tend to work harder or as hard as women, and that in third world countries, it can be the opposite.... also that in third world countries, books and paper are prohibitively expensive. In my trip to SE asia, i remember a simple novel in thailand a book costing 300/400 baht (8/10$), and paper pads costing a lot! In contrast, in Singapore (an expensive place), they were cheap if not cheaper..

... well in Germany, books are very cheap, given the cost of other things ( i bought a book for the same price as 2 coffees today!) - and i think this is part of the key to their tremendously well educated public.

I went also today, to the Science Museum - and expecting to see many tourists, what did i find - mostly Germans at their own museum! Their tourist shop included things such as books on Minkowski Geometry, and Proofs of Relativity, etc biographies of greats in many fields including Music.Science.Philosophy - all in german! at the tourist shop!

I think that is one large secret to the high level of education here, and enjoy it tremendously.


2. die DeutschBundesBahn ( DB) - love it.. it is the postal system of a country like england,canada,uk made for humans.

- trying to stay away from the monolingual travelers..

- trying to save cash - will be taking the DB to Prague tomorrow morning.

until then'

bis bald, more later'

A