Refrattari alla felicità

Smettetela di essere refrattari alla felicità...

Il mondo è piccolo

A volte mi chiedo: perchè un traduttore da inglese a danese vive in Cina? E soprattutto perchè il suo numero è out of service? 

It is all around us

Surreal Skype conversation between me and a translator. First I contacted him, then immediately after saying hello I realized I didn’t need his help anymore.

• Me: Hi Michael
• Me: oh sorry nothing :P
• Translator: Ouch! Where's the Love? :(
• Me: where is the love?
• Translator: It's everywhere you're not looking, it's around us, but....what the hell good is that!? :P
• Me: yeah love is definitely where we are not looking
• Translator: That's why we have to wait until it finds us....and then...duck! :(
• Me: (u) broken heart
• Translator: Boo hoo hoo! Don't be sad Sara! I'm just being cynical. It's all pretend....until someone gets hurt of course. Ciao bella! (wave)
• Me: (y)(wave)
  

Un pò di foto dei miei ultimi viaggi...

con Francesca a Kos

KOS

Riga

Vilnius

Helsinki

Helsinki

Varsavia

Helsinki

Colazione in camera a Vilnius!

Io e Erika sul traghetto da Tallin a Helsinki!

Varsavia

Varsavia

A Varsavia mangiando il leggerissimo cibo locale :p

Helsinki: Erasmus girls!!

Io e Paula a Porvoo (Finlandia)

Lituania, centro geografico dell'Europa!

Varsavia con Erika

Oslo, firmando la petizione per la liberazione di Aung San Suu Kyi

Tallin-Helsinki!

Parigi

B.S.E. (Best senteces ever)

"Come di dice cappuccino in inglese?"

Sentito all'aeroporto di Kos mentre io e la Francesca aspettavamo di imbarcarci. Io direi che è una perla.

B.S.E. (Best sentences ever)

"I understand that u can book this train ticket (which is acutally a bus) at Warsaw railway station."


Sara chatting with Erika trying to book the Baltic tour

The Norwegian experience

I am back from a short trip to Oslo (courtesy of Claudio!). It was a very interesting and exciting experience as all my trips are. Among the things I like about travelling and seeing new places, is discovering cultural differences (on major as well as silly aspects) and also the peculiarities each city or country offers to travelers. Oslo is a Scandinavian capital city, so from my Italian perspective particularly captivating. Here are a few interesting facts my friend Sarah and I came up with.

First let me tell you how fascinating is to have daylight until almost midnight. You finish your dinner, go out of the restaurant, and it’ still daylight. This is amazing and something we cannot take advantage of in Italy.

Second, Oslo city centre is rather small, so, without realizing it, wherever you are going, just remember you will always end up at the city hall!

Then let me go into depth about our experience as far as going out in Oslo is concerned. On our first evening in the city, we found an English-style pub on the main street, we tried to go in but a security guy stopped us mumbling something incomprehensible in Norwegian. Then he looked at or faces and said: “It’s ok!”. So we happily entered the pub but we started to wonder why he said that it was ok after looking at us for a couple of seconds. Later on we saw a sign on the door with a notice in Norwegian, which we then understood it meant that you had to be at least 25 to enter the place. Great! He looked at us and he decided without any doubt that we were older than that! Thanks for the reminder that I’m getting old! What a rude security guy! He could at least ask us for our IDs!

Anyway we approached the counter and tried to order a beer. But everyone was standing in front of the counter drinking, and it was hard to get the barman’s attention and order. We tried for twenty minutes, after being pushed by 1.80 meter tall women and men who of course stole our turn. When we finally made it to order our beer, the cash desk suddenly got broken, so we had to start all over at another counter, trying again to make our way through rude Norwegians pushing us with the elbow. Then we finally managed to get our 0.33 cl beer for something like 8.50€!! Ok, as my Lonely Planet guide states, Oslo is apparently the world’s most expensive city. Thanks, we appreciated that!

One more thing about Norwegian going out customs; especially on weekdays, we could see almost only men both in the street and in pubs and bars, and drunken men to be more precise. The questions are: Where are women? Aren’t they going out in the evening? Do they maybe go to other places? Do they stay home? Aren’t Norwegian women supposed to be among the most emancipated?

Another striking issue is that apparently in Norway there is a very high natality rate, as we could see children pushchairs everywhere. We considered it must be connected with the generous welfare state of Scandinavian countries, and with the long dark nights in winter.

Whenever you feel lost in Oslo, whenever you are looking for a bus ticket, a stamp, a hot-dog, chewing gums or a point of reference, you can go to a 7-11. “What on earth is that?” – You might wonder – Well, you don’t have to know. Just go to 7-11, it’s across the street! (The guy in the tourist info office took for granted everyone in the world knows what 7-11 is!)

Having of course failed to find a 7-11 on our second day in Oslo, we found bus ticket vending machines with instructions only in Norwegian. In that moment I thought: Thank you German language for having at least something in common with this language! Needless to say, a single ticket costs 3 Euros. Moreover the machine issues it already stamped and valid for an hour. What if I wanted to buy it and use it the day after? Whatever.

Let me come to a very amusing aspect: would you ever expect Norwegians to be slow? Ok, you could expect if from Spaniards, Italians or Greeks, but…Norwegians! Apparently they are slow at many things: talking, answering questions, serving you at a café or restaurant; once we waited more than 40 minutes for a cheeseburger!

If you walk past the railway station, you reach the area of Grønland, where tall super blond women and men are suddenly replaced b y people coming from every possible country, and a lot of women with headscarf. It is really remarkable as you have the impression that you are in another city or country. There you find a lot of ethnic shops, such as supermarkets with products from Asia and Africa, Asian restaurants, and funnily enough a Lebanese hair-dresser …I couldn’t help but wonder: do they make particular hair-cuts in Lebanon?

I would like to conclude with mentioning our favorite place in Oslo, United Bakeries. A very pleasant café which makes excellent coffee (even espresso!) and delicious pastries. It has very peculiar furniture and decorations and a lot seats.

Oh...one more thing….Norway has excellent hand cream!!!