Monday, April 28, 2008

Aldous Huxley

To travel is to discover that everyone is wrong about other countries.

Tuesday, April 1, 2008

April Fool´s Day

I have great faith in fools - self-confidence, my friends call it.
Edgar Allan Poe

Saturday, March 15, 2008

Let it go


Today, I had to go to a place where I didn't really want to go. It was a trip through memory lane. A necessary voyage beneath clothes and photos and gadgets and souvenirs of the one I lost.
If you haven't done it once, I tell you, you're bound to do it someday.
It's one hell of a trip. Difficult, winding, complicated, confused.
You start by seeing, then touching, smelling, hearing and finally thinking.
The hardest one is obviously the last one, cause it brings back all the others at the same time gathered with the thoughts triggered by the senses.
And all of a suden, you're not where you are anymore. You're somewhere else. With someone else.
And for a split second, you are living a different life. But reality strikes. And all you can do is remember. And think. And cry.
I miss so many things and so many people. I know they'll never come back. Either because they're just too far away or too far gone.
I guess I like to travel a lot, but I really don't enjoy much when other people go. Once again, I come to the conclusion that we're here to learn to let go. So there you go.

Monday, March 10, 2008

When I'm sixty-four

Beatles
When I get older losing my hair
many years from now
will you still be sending me a valentine
birthday greeting, bottle of wine
If I'd been out till quarter to three
would you lock the door
Will you still need me
Will you still feed me
When I'm sixty-four

You'll be older too
And if you say the word
I could stay with you

I could be handy mending a fuse
when your light have gone
You can knit a sweater by the fireside
Sunday mornings, go for a ride
Doing the garden, digging the weeds
Who could ask for more
Will you still need me
Will you still feed me
When I'm sixty-four

Every summer we can rent a cottage on the
Isle of Wight, if it's not too dear
We shall scrimp and save
Grandchildren on your knee
Vera, Chuck, and Dave

Send me a postcard, drop me a line
stating point of view
indicate precisely what you mean to say
yours sincerely wasting away
Give me your answer fill in a form
mine forever more
Will you still need me
Will you still feed me
When I'm sixty-four

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Fool On The Hill

Beatles
Day after day, alone on the hill,
The man with the foolish grin is keeping perfectly still.
But nobody wants to know him,
They can see that he's just a fool.
And he never gives an answer.

But the fool on the hill,
Sees the sun going down.
And the eyes in his head,
See the world spinning around.

Well on his way, his head in a cloud,
The man of a thousand voices, talking perfectly loud.
But nobody ever hears him,
Or the sound he appears to make.
And he never seems to notice.

But the fool on the hill,
Sees the sun going down.
And the eyes in his head,
See the world spinning around.

And nobody seems to like him,
They can tell what he wants to do.
And he never shows his feelings,

But the fool on the hill,
Sees the sun going down.
And the eyes in his head,
See the world spinning around.

Wednesday, January 9, 2008

Travelling Gringa Strikes Again


Back in the game. Never home. From one hot spot to the other! She is alive!

Friday, November 30, 2007

George Gordon Byron, aka Lord Byron

I only go out to get me a fresh appetite for being alone.

Thursday, November 22, 2007

Statement


I am officially stuck in Brazil for over a year. I must leave!

Tuesday, November 13, 2007

Gilbert Keith Chesterton

The whole object of travel is not to set foot on foreign land; it is at last to set foot on one's own country as a foreign land.

Wednesday, November 7, 2007

Jean Paul Sartre

Being and Nothingness, 1943
I am condemned to exist forever beyond my essence, beyond the causes and motives of my act. I am condemned to be free. This means that no limits to my freedom can be found except freedom itself or, if you prefer, that we are not free to cease being free.

Thursday, October 25, 2007

I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For

U2
I have climbed the highest mountains
I have run through the fields
Only to be with you
Only to be with you

I have run I have crawled
I have scaled
these city walls
these city walls
Only to be with you
But I still haven't found
What I'm looking for
But I still haven't found
What I'm looking for

I have kissed honey lips
Felt the healing in her fingertips
It burned like fire
This burning desire

I have spoke with the tongue of angels
I have held the hand of the devil
It was warm in the night
I was cold as a stone
But I still haven't found
What I'm looking for
But I still haven't found
What I'm looking for

I believe in the Kingdom Come
Then all the colours will
bleed into one
bleed into one
But yes I'm still running

You broke the bonds and you loosed the chains
You carried the cross
And my shame
And my shame
You know I believe it
But I still haven't found
What I'm looking for
But I still haven't found
What I'm looking for

Wednesday, October 17, 2007

Edgar Allan Poe

Those who dream by day are cognizant of many things which escape those who dream only by night.

Tuesday, October 2, 2007

Valentin Louis Georges Eugène Marcel Proust

In Search of Lost Time - The Prisioner, 1923
The only real voyage consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes; in seeing the universe through the eyes of another, one hundred others - in seeing the hundred universes that each of them sees, that each one of them is.

Thursday, September 27, 2007

Antoine de Saint Exupéry

Southern Mail, 1929
Immobility enjoys each second stronger like a heart attack, and then life restarts.

Friday, September 14, 2007

Quotation of the day

Coming back is an ilusion. We´re always moving forward. Keep walking. Johnny Walker.
Cheers!

Thursday, September 13, 2007

Leaving. On a jetplane!


To go. It´s the most important thing. No matter how. On foot, by car, by bus, train, boat or plane. Rockets I didn´t test yet. But if there´s anyone with experience in the area, please, fell welcome to share it.While travelling, there´s nothing like walking. To really know a place, to  make your feet touch each and every centimetre of the unknown. But there are distances that feet can´t reach. Either because they´re too tired, or because the time is too short. It doesn´t really matter.So, nothing better then hit the road driving. Taking control of everything. Of your time of departure, of arrival, stopping as many times as you want. Listening to whatever kind of music you choose, as high volumed as desired with no one to complain. And you can sing and yell or just keep as quiet as possible. There´s nothing like driving.But sometimes you don´t have an available car. So, between the bus and the train, I pick the train. But in Brazil, that´s not an option. So, let´s talk about the bus. You just sit there while the guy in front of you reclines his seat into your lap and the child sitting behind is kickboxing the back of your seat. When the bus makes a quick stop, after a 40 hour trip and a four hour mechanical problem in the middle of the cold night, there comes the jackfruit salesman. With a half opened jackfruit.If you´ve never heard of a jackfruit, just know that it has a terrible smell that in that occasion, just spread all over the place. Horrible.But sometimes, there are no other solutions. And there are people, like a friend of mine, that enters, sits and sleeps immediately. Even if a meteor would fall by her side, she´d only wake up on the destination. How lucky!Well, if there´s the train, there´s nothing to think about. On the train you may walk around and strech your legs, eat, go to the toilet and sometimes you don´t even have to pay it. You can also just admire the landscape through the window and perhaps, talk to the person sitting beside you, if he or she is interesting.By the way, in the Netherlands, there´s a paper on the trains where it´s possible to post adds and look after people you´ve meet in a trip sometime before. If I still recall what it said, it was somewhat like this: "I´m from The Hague and she´s from Breda. We had such a pleasant trip, talked about everything, especially about (something very specific that would let her recognise him), but I arrived and we couldn´t exchange phone numbers. I wish I could see her again." After that, that was some information about how to leave a message to the guy on the newspapers main offices. Could you picture this in a bus in Brazil?
Well, moving on, going to the boat. It´s wonderful, but very limited. But with the sun shining and the wind... Facing the waves is one of the few adrenaline situations that I like. What about a ship? Well, like a friend would say, c'est la classe! And a cruise, oulálá!Counting pros and cons, if it is for me to get out of where I am, I´ll go. But my only problem is my biggest addiction: airplanes.
People can say whatever they want, that planes crash every once in a while, that accidents with planes are more fatal then with other transports, there can be the child bumping against my seat or the drunk guy´s stincky feet in yopur face. There´s nothing like flying. I can´t help being on the ground for too long. I need to be in the air. See everything from up above, go further and faster. Nothing can go wrong. "If the cabin air system should fail, oxygen masks will be released from the panel just above your seat". Is there anything more comforting then knowing that your seat can float? It´s the risk you gotta take to discover new things. I have to get a plane urgently!

Wednesday, September 12, 2007

Begining...


Pra que fazer um blog? Para dizer o quê? Acho que todos nos sentimos estrangeiros, pelo menos uma vez na vida. Eu me sinto estrangeira sempre e em todos os lugares. E você?


Why make a blog? To say what? I guess we all felt like foreigners at least once in our lives. Me, I always feel like i don´t belong anywhere, like a foreigner all the time. How about you?

Pourquoi faire un blog? Pour quoi dire? Je crois que tous nous nous sommes sentis étrangers, au moins une fois dans la vie. Moi, je me sens une étrangère toujours et partout. Et toi?

Perchè fare un blog? Per dire cosa? Credo che tutti già ci siamo sentiti stragneri almeno una volta nella vita. Io mi sento stragnera tutto il tempo e dappertutto. E te?