art gallery Archives - Wandering North

Algiers-Nice-Athens 2024 Greece

Athenian Odyssey – Day 2 of 3

After my arrival the previous day, I awoke on my second day in Athens in my little self-contained rooftop apartment at the City Circus Hostel. I looked out over the city and gazed at my destination: the Parthenon. I didn’t have time to mess around. One of the things you hear most about Athens is that it’s overrun with tourists. Maybe that’s more true in the summertime than in February when I was there, but I wasn’t going to take any chances. I wanted to be there right when they opened at 8:00 AM.

*A bread circle for breakfast and the Tzistarakis Mosque in Monastiraki*

I walked from my hostel to the site. It only took about 22 minutes and was a very pleasant walk through the quiet streets. Buying tickets for the Acropolis seemed a little bit daunting; there were a lot of options: skip-the-line, audio guide package tickets, timed tickets, etc. I just decided to walk up to the ticket gate and buy my ticket in person. I was the first person there when it opened at 8:00. About 5 minutes behind me was a group of three or four other people. It wasn’t until about an hour later that I really noticed an uptick in the number of visitors, but even then there were not many. The ticket to enter was only about €20, which I thought was very reasonable. I think there would have been a lot of reasons to get a guide to explain more of the history, but as I felt a little bit short on time and tend to be a little bit impatient with guides, I just decided to walk around and look at all the ruins on my own.

It was an extremely pleasant visit. The temperature was perfect, the views of the city were great, and, as I said, I felt like I had the place to myself. As far as Greek and Roman ruins go, I’m not always a fan. Sometimes I think they are amazing (e.g., Jerash in Jordan) and other times, if I have to do too much work to imagine what might have been there in the past (e.g., Carthage in Tunisia), I can find them underwhelming. The Acropolis was in the former category. The buildings that are there are still intact (for the most part) and some still have their original decorative carvings on the outside. It is amazing to think how long they have stood there overlooking the city (going back to the 5th century BCE). As impressive as they were, I’m not one to linger, so I probably spent about two hours there before I decided I’d had enough and headed over to the museum.

The Acropolis Museum is just at the base of the Acropolis, so it was the next logical stop. I know not everyone is a museum person, but even if you’re not, I think this is a museum worth visiting. It’s a beautiful modern building with lots of light and it’s filled with incredible artifacts and sculptures. Sure, not everyone gets excited about clay pots, but it’s hard not to be impressed with massive statues, many of which still feature incredible detail including some of the original paint. You can take pictures in most of the museum except in one area where the most impressive and ancient pieces are housed. You’ll have to use your imagination for those or Google them, but it’s truly astonishing. I took way too many pictures and am trying to maybe use something that I saw there as inspiration for a tattoo.

From the museum, I wandered back through the city, walking the streets and meandering my way over to the Central Market, which is a great place to go for fruits, nuts, and skinned goat heads. As far as markets go, it was OK, but I greatly enjoyed having coffee at Mokka, a cafe right by the market on Athinas St., which has been in business since 1923. They still make traditional Greek coffee where the coffee is made in a little pot, similar to Turkish coffee, but it’s heated in sand. Truly, I couldn’t tell the difference between it and Turkish coffee, but either way, it was delicious. I had that and a baklava and watched a bit of the street life before carrying on.

I wandered around some more and headed in the direction of the Hotel Grande Bretagne, where I visited the Alexander Cigar Bar. It is, I think, the only proper cigar lounge that I found in Athens. Maybe they don’t need one because smoking is so acceptable in public, but it was nice to find a little refuge. The bar was beautiful, everything you want in a cigar lounge, from dark woods and paintings to a fireplace and jazz music. They do sell some cigars there but they don’t require that you buy one. I smoked a cigar that I brought with me and had a Negroni. They even brought a little assortment of snacks to accompany the cocktail. I love any cocktail that comes with snacks. Truly, it was a little haven.

From there, I took the subway from outside the parliament buildings to the stop near the National Museum of Contemporary Art Athens (ΕΜΣΤ), for a bit of modern art. I think it was €10 to get in, and it was definitely worth it. It was one of those places that’s full of “weird” art. Interesting installations and video projections with lots of art inspired by political inequality, torture, and identity. I loved it.

I made my way back to the neighbourhood near my hostel. It was dark at this point; I ate another delicious vegetarian dinner with some magical potatoes and smoked a bit of shisha before calling it a day. It was an excellent day; the only downside, if I had to think of one, is that I didn’t really meet anybody. When I went for my coffees, cigars, and shisha, nobody really seemed that interested in chatting. I didn’t meet any other travelers in those places and the locals were, understandably, just content to be with their friends or themselves. But none of that bothered me; I was happy just to have a relaxing day of proper solo traveling.

If that was the end of my time in Athens, I would have been completely satisfied, but I had a third and final day yet to go. I had to do a little bit of research to come up with some additional things to do, but find them I did, including visiting the truly charming Anafiotika neighbourhood. But I shall save that for the third in my trilogy of Athens posts. Read on here.

*So much graffiti & street art in Athens*

Algiers-Nice-Athens 2024 France

Two Perfect Days in Nice

Algiers to Nice

I left Algiers absurdly early on February the 13th. My destination was Nice, France. I had been to France multiple times, but never to the South. I was curious to see Nice, but my real reason for going there was to make a day trip to Monaco. But fly to Nice I did; a short hop from Algiers to Paris to Nice. I arrived at about 7:00 AM and I would have three days and three nights in the city before moving on.

From the airport I took the tram from the airport into the city centre. Easy. I walked a few blocks to my hotel, the Hotel du France (which was very nice, with great staff, quince wallpaper, and not too expensive), and dropped off my bag. I walked a few blocks to the sea.

Nice Impressions

I’m not a big fan of the ocean. I live about a block from the ocean in Vancouver and I almost never go to it. I like that it’s there and I like being near it, but I have very little desire to look out at it. I know people who are happy to just gaze out at the sea and frankly I don’t understand what the appeal is. I would much rather sit at a sidewalk cafe in interesting city, or, if I had to look out at nature, I’d much rather look at mountains or a valley than the ocean. But as I gazed out at the Mediterranean from the boardwalk in Nice, I think I kind of got it, at least for a moment. It was so stunningly beautiful. The colours of the water and sky and this uninterrupted stretch of beach were just lovely. And the fact that I could look out at it without actually having to step on sand was even better. They have these strips of chairs along the boardwalk where people can gaze out at the beach and the water. And people did. And so did I.

I liked Nice instantly. For the moment I got off the tram it was beautiful. Beautiful buildings, beautiful streets, beautiful lemon trees, and beautiful people. It just had this wonderfully calm and elegant atmosphere. No one was rushing. It surprised me little. I generally prefer chaotic and loud cities, but something about Nice won me over. And I hadn’t even seen the old city centre at this point.

Day One

I walked through the city and eventually made my way over to the old part of Nice, which was even more charming. The buildings were perfect. They were old and colourful with warm tones of yellow and ochre, coral and tangerine, many with small flourishes of design and just the right amount of weathering to give them character. It was so charming.

Because it is France, many people smoke, and while many people smoke cigarettes they don’t look down their nose at people who smoke cigars, so I was in a good place. I had already mapped out a few cigar stores, some of which had seats outside, but I didn’t need particular cigar lounges, as I was welcome to enjoy a cigar on any patio. I found myself a seat on a patio and had a cigar and a coffee and watched people parade past.

Generally speaking, the people in Nice were dressed beautifully. Even out for a casual stroll they were well put together with smart blazers, jaunty scarves, beautiful bags and sunglasses. Subtly stylish and comfortable. Because I had known that I would be going to Monaco on this trip and I had wanted to smoke cigars and visit the casino there, I had dressed nicer on this trip than I usually do, and I was thankful for it when I arrived in Nice. I didn’t feel out of place. I still had my combat boots (for comfort and possible altercations) but my little black dress, blazer, and oversized sunglasses seemed to work well. Did I look like I fit in? Maybe; but that facade was all done away with once I opened my mouth, and I spoke French like a child.

I walked to the Place Massena where the famous Sun Fountain stands. It features a large statue of Apollo flanked by smaller statues of Earth, Saturn, Mars, Venus, and Mercury. It was originally built in 1956, and was somewhat controversial, because Apollo, who, in mythology, leads a chariot with four horses across the sky each day to bring light, was depicted as without his chariot and with his four horses nestled onto his head like kind of a crown. Moreover, he was nude, and not everyone could agree if he should have been or if he was too well endowed. The artist performed a sort of ‘reduction’ on the statue to please the public, which it did not, and it was taken down for many years and put into storage until finally being fully re-erected, no pun intended, in 2011. Problematic history aside it is an impressive piece, framed by salmon-coloured, curved buildings and set on a black and white checkerboard tiled square.

I spent my first day in Nice walking around and looking at buildings and taking pictures, stopping for coffee and cigars. It was very pleasant. I didn’t really have an agenda in Nice. I just wanted to see it and visit Monaco so I felt no need to take anything off a list, which was good. I had a thoroughly awful meal that evening. I made a mistake of eating at a restaurant that I think catered to tourists and I had a pizza which was gross. (As much as I like France, it still is one of the countries with the least options for vegetarians, in my experience.) While I was eating the pizza (and trying and failing to do so elegantly) outside on the patio, a pigeon flew into the window and landed under my table, in trauma. I spent the entire meal checking on it and trying to give it drinks of water hoping that it would regain its consciousness, but it died around the time I asked for the cheque. C’est la vie.

Day Two

The next day, I made my way back into old Nice (just a few minutes’ walk from my hotel) for the morning flower, fruit, and vegetable market. As if the old city needed to be anymore charming. But it was more charming. I walked around; I ate a pear and had a cigar in a coffee. I had my eagle eyes on the socca stand, waiting for it to open up. Socca is a Nice treat. It’s kind of like a very thin, crispy pancake made from olive oil and chickpea flour, sprinkled with salt and pepper and served from various stands around the city. It’s very tasty.

More beautiful buildings. I couldn’t get enough photos.

It was February the 14th. Valentine’s Day and I was in Nice, in France. I saw people out for romantic meals and holding hands, but none of that was for me. I went on a walk up to the Cimetière du Château – because why not hang out in a cemetery on Valentine’s Day?

The walk up the hill was pleasant, and past an aggressive fountain and various tile work pieces displaying Neptune another underwater creatures. At the top is the cemetery and stunning views over the city and the sea.

I wandered around up there for a while before making my way back to the Old Town.

I walked the streets a little bit more, popping into some of the shops. There are delightful vintage stores in Nice. Tiny little boutiques with well curated collections of clothing and accessories. I bought a blazer in a handbag. I’m really not a shopper, but somehow ‘Nice me’ wanted to go shopping. I then went for a very ladylike lunch of an onion tart, a glass of cheap wine, and a cigar.

As I walked around, I noticed that the hours of the restaurants and shops in Nice. I’m from Canada, where things are pretty much open seven days a week and generally long hours. Some things are open 24 hours a day. Why should we be denied the opportunity to buy toothpaste at 2:00 in the morning? But in Nice many of the shops were closed at least two days a week and their hours of operation during the day were chaotic. For example open Wednesday to Saturday from 11:00 AM to 2:00 PM and 3:00 PM to 5:00 PM. What this told me was that people there have some sort of quality of life. There wasn’t the need to be working every minute of the day or to be catering to customers 24/7. You want to eat in my restaurant? You fit my schedule; not the other way around. It was kind of refreshing.

I popped into the Palais Lascaris; built in 1648 as the home for the Lascaris Vintimille family until the French Revolution, it is now a museum. It was pleasant to walk through the ornate rooms and there was a particularly good collection of antique musical instruments.

I had really wanted to visit the Musée d’Art Moderne et d’Art Contemporain, but it was closed for some sort of renovation. So I went to the Chagall museum.

I’m not a big fan of Chagall, so this museum wasn’t high on my list, even though most lists of what to do in Nice will include this is one of the top attractions. It was fine. I have a better understanding of Chagall’s work now, but it’s still not my cup of tea. However, if you like his paintings this would be a ‘must see’.

That evening, I took myself out for a quasi-romantic dinner-for-one on the patio of an Afghan restaurant in the old city of Nice. Of course I had a cigar. It was exquisite.

Nice had thoroughly charmed me and turned me into somehow a classier more relaxed version of myself. The next day would be my day trip to the micro-country of Monaco.

Europe Ireland

New Year’s Eve in Dublin

I awoke in Dublin in my hostel bunk. I had had a perfectly lovely evening the night before but this was my one and only full day in the city. It was December 31st, and I would be leaving early the next morning. There was no time to waste.

I walked into the city and retraced some of my steps from the night before, to see the areas in daylight. The weather was not cooperating. It was windy and gray and cold. The grey and cold I was expecting and actually fine with, but the wind made things unpleasant. Fortunately, by the afternoon the sun would come out again for a bit.

I felt immediately at home in Dublin; notwithstanding the excessive alcohol consumption I had observed the night prior, it has a seriousness about it. A studious, literary kind of aura that I’m very comfortable with. It’s entirely possible that I am projecting onto the city that which I already expected from a lifetime of reading novels and poetry by Irish authors, but nevertheless, that’s how it felt and I liked it.

Walking around Dublin there were plaques and statues to great Irish writers and thinkers. I sought out Oscar Wilde’s house and the statue of him. I won’t post a photo of the statue as it is ubiquitous online and I’m not a big fan, but it was very cool to see his house.

I had planned, of course, to go to Trinity College to see the library, however, it was closed for cleaning or renovation, so I had to take it off the list. Right there is a good reason to return to Dublin. But I was able to wander the city. I visited parks and shops and numerous cafes whenever I needed a break from my walking in the cold. Everyone I chatted with was friendly.

I visited Saint Patrick’s cathedral, which was a ticketed church, but well worth it as it is beautiful inside and there is a lot to look at. I enjoyed the decoration and design of the inside of the church, as well as the mummified remains of a cat and rat that were pulled out of the pipe organ in the 1950s.

I wandered aimlessly through the city at some point taking in statues and green spaces and bits of street art.

I visited the pub the Brazen Head, which bills itself as Dublin’s oldest pub, having been open since 1198. It wasn’t the best pub that I’d been to, but since I was right there, how could I skip such superlative drinking experience?

I walked to the Irish Museum of Modern Art, which was excellent. Precisely the sort of modern and occasionally weird art that I enjoy.

I visited two cigar stores downtown. There was a James J Fox, which is related to the James J Fox tobacconist shops in London, which I frequent when I am there. As well as ‘The Decadent Cigar Emporium’. In both cases, I bought a couple of cigars and chatted with the proprietors about the smoking laws in Dublin.

I had read prior to coming to Dublin that smoking had been banned indoors everywhere, but sometimes when you make inquiries you can find that there are certain secret places to smoke. Sadly, both shops confirmed for me that smoking is indeed banned inside and that includes a prohibition on any cigar lounges. The people at James J Fox were able to give me intel on one pub, however, where smoking would be allowed because it is technically outdoors. The James Toner pub. I made a mental note of that for later.

I wandered the alleys and poked around in bookshops and vintage clothing stores, just enjoying whatever i found in my path.

I was having a perfectly lovely day – especially after the sun came out; however, things took a turn when the sun went down. It was December the 31st. What that meant was that once the evening came, everyone’s evening plans went into full New Year’s Eve mode. I didn’t have any New Year’s Eve plans being there alone in the city. I should say, I don’t like New Year’s regardless of where I am. I think it’s a stupid holiday. I don’t like excessive drinking, I don’t like staying up late, and I don’t like big raucous parties, so it’s just not for me. So spending New Years in a foreign city means that I’m a bit of an outsider. I would have been perfectly content to go for a nice dinner and have a drink somewhere but most of the restaurants had put in place expensive tickets for parties or multi course dinners with a prefix menu. And I wasn’t about to go and spend £100 to have a dinner or attend a party that I didn’t want. I also would have been happy to sit outside somewhere and just watch the world go by but, being that it was December in Ireland, it was cold and had started to rain again. I tried to elbow my way into a few pubs just to have a drink, but those places had already become so packed there was a waiting list outside.

Remembering the suggestion of the tobacconists at James J Fox, I walked to the James Toner pub. And this was my salvation. The James Toner pub is a proper pub, but they have a back entrance and there’s a sort of massive mostly enclosed patio area where smoking is allowed. You basically feel like you are indoors except that there is a small part of the ceiling that is replaced with the sky. It still had leather booths and tables and TVs and a full bar. The heaters were blaring and it was comfortable. I sat there and had three cigars and multiple Jameson and ginger ale drinks (a drink that I had only discovered once I went to Dublin and found to be quite tasty). People weren’t particularly social outside of their individual groups. It was New Year’s after all, and people were out with their friends to have a good time; they weren’t really interested in chatting with the weird foreign girl dressed in black smoking cigars in the corner. But that’s okay. I found a spot where I was comfortable, and I was happy to sit there quietly and just watch the crowd.

Once it got to be about 9:00pm, it was time to move on. The place was getting too busy and too loud, and I couldn’t sit there any longer. At this point I just reconciled myself to the fact that I wasn’t going to go to a big party so I may as well just go back to my dorm. I felt a sense of shame going back to the hostel actually. Here I was in a foreign country; was I really not going to stay up until midnight to ring in the new year? No, no I was not. I had a shower and got into my bunk and as soon as I did that I knew that I had made the right decision. I was cozy and comfortable I watched a movie and fell asleep. I got to enjoy a bit of New Year’s revelry but was able to avoid the last few hours of drunken idiots and staying up late just for the sake of staying up.

The next morning, I woke up early. I think everyone in the hostel was asleep. Even the lobby was littered with the bodies of passed-out revellers. I arranged a taxi and headed back to the airport and back to Vancouver. It was a little less than 48 hours that I was in Dublin and, clearly, I need to return to see more of Ireland, but I was completely satisfied with the short visit that I had. Although I’m not sure that I would be eager to go and visit somewhere for New Year’s Eve again, it was a great way to start off 2024.

Europe Iceland

Reykjavik in December

I knew I would go to Iceland eventually, but it was not a place I was excited to go. People seemed so enthusiastic about it, and I never understood why. It is a mostly outdoorsy place, and I am a mostly indoorsy person. It does look beautiful, but I thought, “What, I’m going to go to Iceland to look at a green, treeless expanse? And then what?” But the eventuality came about in December as I decided to go away for four days over Christmas and Iceland was the best option.

Practicalities

A few practicalities: Reykjavik is a surprisingly short flight from Vancouver; about 7 hours direct. Vancouver is so far away from most other countries than anything less than 9 hours seems short. There were no visa requirements places on my Canadian passport. Iceland is an easy place to visit. Credit cards are accepted widely so you don’t really need cash (which is a bit of a shame as their currency – Icelandic króna – is beautiful. While the national language is Icelandic, most people (at least in Reykjavik) speak English as well. The buses are easy to navigate and there is a good tourist infrastructure.

Iceland may be easy to visit, but it is not cheap. While there are some cheaper options farther away from the centre of Reykjavik, I wanted to be central and paid about $150 CDN/night for a prison style bunkbed at the Kex Hostel. (The Kex Hostel is nice and cozy, but it is expensive, and the rooms are basic. I.e. no curtains on the bunks and no clever amenities). Food was also super expensive. Like a drip coffee at a café was about $7 CDN and a terrible pre-made sandwich from a supermarket was about $20 CDN. It’s doable, but I was definitely glad that I brought protein bars with me.

I can’t say that I went to Iceland for Christmas and not mention the weather. Of course it was cold, but not prohibitively cold in Reykjavik when I was there. No colder than -10C. I didn’t need special clothes; I just wore my usual Vancouver winter clothes but with an extra layer. I did arrive without a toque however – like a fool, I brought only a jaunty beret and that was a mistake. I bought a woolly toque on my first day to keep my head from freezing. Oh, and I brought a bunch of those chemical hand warmer things, which was a good thing.

Exploring Reykjavik

I arrived in Reykjavik at 6am after a red-eye flight from Vancouver. On the way, my seat mate nudged me awake to see the northern lights. Subtly green, but they were there. It would, unfortunately, be the only time I saw them on my trip to Iceland, as it was cloudy the whole time.

I went straight to my hostel and dropped off my bag and went off to explore. It was dark. It was dark most of the time I was there because, well, it was at the time of the year when the days are shortest. The sun rose at about 11:20am and set again at 3:30pm; barely peeking above the horizon. This meant that most of my sightseeing was in the dark, which is definitely a different experience. I live in Vancouver, and I wake up at 4am, so going out before the sun is up is a familiar experience, but not for sightseeing, and I had never experienced such few hours of daylight each day. It was weird. It was unsettling. I loved it. It made everything feel special. It was, in fact, one of many of the things that I loved about Iceland.

Good morning, Reykjavik!

I walked the dark streets. There were patches of crunchy snow, which made everything feel brighter. It was December 22^nd, so the buildings were decorated with tasteful strings of Christmas lights. The first thing I noticed (apart from the darkness and cold) was that the buildings are a distinctive style: two-story, colourful buildings with pointy roofs and corrugated metal exterior walls painted bright colours. A pleasing aesthetic like that in Greenland and Newfoundland.

I stopped at the locally popular Braud & Co., which was just opened, and bought a fresh-from-the-oven cinnamon roll; part sweet treat and part handwarmer.

*my favourite of Reykjavik’s street art murals*

more street art

I took in several intriguing street murals and found my way to the intersection of Reykjavik’s two most famous sights: The Hallgrimskirkja and Rainbow Street. The Hallgrimskirkja is a Lutheran church built in 1937 in a striking style design to resemble Iceland’s mountains and glaciers. If you’ve ever googled Reykjavik, you’ve seen it. It is impressive. At night it is imposing and illuminated. By day light it is stark and pristine. There’s nothing exciting about the interior, but the view from the lookout, which I returned to do at daylight, is spectacular.

Rainbow Street (really Skólavörðustígur) is a main commercial and Instagram-famous street that starts, or ends, at the square in front of the Hallgrimskirkja. I walked down the street and popped into the Café Babalú for a coffee and to warm up.

*me on Rainbow Street after the sun was up*

While I loved the magic of Iceland in the winter, the downside is that I needed to patronize frequently cafes for warmth and rest. In the summer, you might take a break from your walking by sitting outdoors on a bench for free, but in the winter, you want to be inside and inside costs money. Those expensive café visits really add up. Nevertheless, Café Babalú was charming and oh so cozy; filled with cute and nostalgic bric-a-brac.

I walked and wandered until the contemporary art museum opened: the Reykjavík Art Museum Hafnarhús. Admission was about $25CDN and worth every penny. It was an excellent and not overly large modern art museum in a curious building that looks like an origami-folded newspaper.

When I exited the museum, the sun had risen and Reykjavik was revealed. I had to retrace my steps to see all the same buildings and murals by day. The real highlight was that I could see the ocean. Reykjavik is right on the coast and many of the streets appear to disappear right into icy blue water. In the distance…an island? A chunk of ice? A glacier? It looked different to anything I had seen.

I walked to the Reykjavík Art Museum Kjarvalsstaðir, which was included with my ticket to the first one. Another good museum, and the walk was stunning.

I continued my walk to the Asmundur Sveinsson Sculpture Museum, also included with my ticket I bought to the first museum. Here’s the thing, I actually did not like any of the sculptures inside this museum (with apologies to Ásmundur Sveinsson), but one of the ones outside were interesting, set against the snow, but the real draw was the building itself, which is just very cool. It was designed by Sveinsson and was his home and studio prior.

By the time I walked back to central back to central Reykjavik, it was dark again and I was feeling pleased. Reykjavik is small and I had seen much of what I wanted to see, but fortunately I had more time to explore, because there was more terrific stuff ahead.

Smoking Cigars in Reykjavik

On that first night, I found a place to smoke a cigar before I bunked down in my hostel.

Smoking in Reykjavik is banned everywhere indoors. I chatted with the proprietor of a cigar store there and they confirmed this. Not even a secret cigar lounge, but smoking is allowed on patios – Hooray! But it was winter and very cold, and most patios were not open. It seems that not a lot of people smoke, so they didn’t have the whole heated patio, cozy blanket set up. Fortunately, I found a café / bookstore / live music venue on Laugavegur street: Hús máls og menningar. It is a cool place inside, but outside, they have a small wooden patio, slightly sheltered and with a heater. I hunkered down there and had a Quai D’Orsay with a negroni. When my cigar smoking hand started to freeze, I switched hands. Totally worth it.

me with a cigar, braving the cold

My first day in Reykjavik was a success, I thought as I snuggled under heavy blankets in my hostel bunkbed. But the best was yet to come. The next day I would leave the comforts of Reykjavik for a day trip into the countryside.

Africa Zimbabwe Zimbabwe-Zambia 2023

Visiting Harare

I arrived in Zimbabwe after a long flight from Vancouver via New York and Nairobi. I landed in Harare. The purpose of my trip to Zimbabwe it was to visit Victoria Falls, but there was no way I was going to skip visiting the capital on my first visit to Zimbabwe.

Arrival in Zimbabwe

I don’t think Zimbabwe way it needs much of an introduction, but just in case: it is in southern Africa, formerly Rhodesia. It became independent in 1980 and then from 1980 to 2017 was under authoritarian rule courtesy of Robert Mugabe. During this time there was massive inflation, human rights violations, and corruption. Things are better now. What Zimbabwe always had however is astonishing natural beauty and wildlife. The former being the reason for my visit.

Two fun facts about Zimbabwe.

It has more official languages than any other country (16), though English is most commonly spoken.
During the period of hyperinflation in around 2008-2009, purchasing power of the currency got so bad that the government had to issue notes as high as 100 trillion. Some of these are still floating around for purchase by tourists and nerds. I was not lucky enough to get a trillion note, but I did find some in the billions and millions.

Visas

As a Canadian, I was able to get a visa at the border. I knew I would be in and out of Zimbabwe a couple of times on my trip, so I tried to get a multi entry visa or at least a double entry visa, but this was denied and I was only given a single entry visa, which cost $75.00 US payable in US cash on the spot. It was effectively a cash grab and there was no formality and no application. (These is a thing called a Kaza Visa, which gives multiple entries to Zambia and Zimbabwe, but it is no longer given to Canadians since Canadians no longer need a visa to visit Zambia.)

Accommodations

I then took a taxi to my accommodation: the Bronte Garden Hotel. Honestly, the Bronte Garden Hotel is a little bit above my general budget, but it looked so charming and I felt that after such a long journey it would be amazing to stay in such lovely surroundings. The Bronte Garden Hotel, at least its main building, was built in 1911 as the house for some sort of industrial colonial bigwig. It was converted into a hotel about 50 years ago. It is a collection of two or three white two-story buildings set amidst lush tropical gardens. There are trees and flowers and pools, statues, and lovely seating areas set under the trees. A bar and a restaurant. It feels quite special.

The thing that put it within my reach price-wise is that while the main house is well outside of my normal budget, they have some more basic rooms in the houses that are much more affordable. These cheaper rooms are less fancy, but you still get access to all the same grounds and amenities, and that’s really the reason that I wanted to stay there. I enjoyed my time at the Bronte Garden Hotel immensely. The two nights that I was there, I spent my evenings in the garden with cigars (actually I also spent my mornings in the garden with cigars) and I had several conversations with other people staying at the hotel, most of whom were there on business from South Africa. It was just a lovely oasis.

me and my breakfast cigar at the Bronte Garden Hotel

Wandering in Harare

But of course, I didn’t come to Harare to sit in a hotel. I was in the city for a day and a half, two nights in total. The first day, I arrived at midday I didn’t do much of note. I essentially walked around the neighbourhood. Lovely wide streets with flowering orange and purple trees, apartment buildings and big houses. It was pleasant but I didn’t see anything too interesting.

An afternoon walk

The next day, my one full day in Harare, I really explored the city. I walked from my hotel to the National Botanic Garden (free), because it opened early. On the way I walked past a golf course and saw small antelope bounding across the greens. The gardens were beautiful, with different plants and landscaping suitable to different climates. It was massive, more than I could see in one visit, but I enjoyed a stroll around the grounds and chatted with a young man who was friendly and taking a detour on his way to school.

National Botanic Garden

From the garden I walked to a café called The Bottom Drawer. It was in a residential neighbourhood, basically operating out of a house. It was absolutely lovely, set in a garden with plants and trees and chickens running loose I sat on a comfy sofa on a covered veranda and had coffee and sandwich while I planned my next moves.

I had walked quite a far way from my hotel and in the opposite direction from where I wanted to go next, so I took a taxi back to my hotel and then walked from there.

a park near the National Gallery

I walked into the centre of town, passing along the way lively street markets and businesses, busy with traffic and commerce. I had wanted to visit the National Gallery and that was my first destination, however it was closed (Mondays). Fortunately, the Artopia Café in the in the gallery was open. A cool cafe with art and free wi-fi and coffee and lots of young people working on laptops. It was a good spot, especially after my long walk. Behind the gallery, accessible from the café was an outdoor sculpture gallery, so I got to see that, which I enjoyed.

Artopia Café and the Sculpture Garden

I could have gone to the Shona sculpture gallery, which is a popular tourist attraction, however my hotel had a lot of Shona sculptures in its gardens and I didn’t feel need to see more. But I did visit another gallery near the National Gallery about a block away, called the First Floor Gallery. It is on a higher floor of a commercial building and has almost no signage, but I found it. It is a small gallery (free) and with interesting contemporary art. Plus, it has access to the roof from which you can get a decent view of the streets below.

First Floor Gallery & and the view from the roof

Walking through central Harare was moderately interesting. It was pretty orderly and it lacked the chaos that I often enjoy in big African cities. I got in trouble only once for attempting to walk up to a statue that was accessible on a small bridge over an intersection. I got halfway there and the police on the street started shouting at me to turn around, so I did. I don’t know what the problem was it was completely accessible, but I didn’t argue.

*intersection with the off-limits statue*

I spent a couple hours just walking around Harare, checking out a market and some of the interesting architecture, and just looking around. Harare was interesting enough for a day, but I definitely didn’t feel the need to stay there for longer than that. For those of you that wonder about these things, it felt totally safe.

street markets

sights in Harare

I returned to the hotel for dinner, and cigars and chitchat in the gardens until it was time for bed. It might seem fast, but it was the perfect amount of time for me to visit Harare and I really enjoyed it. But on my third day I took off again for my second location in Zimbabwe: Victoria Falls (the town and the falls).

Balkans Trip 2023 Europe Montenegro

In Defence of Podgorica

Podgorica is often referred to as ‘Europe’s most boring capital city.’ It is either dismissed or reviled. (For the latter stance, I recommend this blog post, which is too harsh, but it is a fun read.) So why did I voluntarily spend two days there? I shall explain and also justify why Podgorica is actually ok.

A bit about Podgorica and why I was there

Podgorica was at the end of my Balkans trip. I had started in Ljubljana, gone to Lake Bled, Zagreb, Sarajevo, Mostar, and then Podgorica, from where I would fly home to Vancouver. My plan, when I booked the trip, was to use my time in Podgorica as a base from which to visit coastal and medieval Kotor. But then I arrived in Podgorica and the thought of getting on another bus and traveling in a long day trip AND the thought of visiting somewhere else precious and picturesque just did not appeal. All the places I had been were so busy with tourists and many of them were so precious, that I just found if off putting. I just wanted to do something more normal and unexciting. Podgorica fill the bill.

The thing about Podgorica is that it was decimated in World War Two. Here and there you can see slivers of history. There are a few blocks of old cobblestones and the barest of ruins of a castle, a clock tower, and a stone footbridge. Other than that, everything is after the war and it’s not great. There are even far better cities for Soviet modernist architecture. There are no impressive museums, no ornate churches, no notable street art scene, no wonderful parks. Everything it has is fine.

I arrived in Podgorica by bus from Sarajevo. A stunning journey, scenery-wise. I was deposited at the bus station and walked to my hotel: the Hotel Marienplatz. Perhaps not surprisingly at this point, there are no charming or cool accommodations in Podgorica; at least not that I could find. I picked my hotel because it was central, not too expensive, and looked conformable. After ten days of dorms bed, I was ready for a little comfort. The Marienplatz was on a pedestrian street lined with restaurants and bars and, at night, is absolutely throbbing with music. Fine. I can sleep through anything.

I dropped of my stuff at the hotel and hit the streets. I spent a day and a half (two nights) in Podgorica. Here is what I did…

The streets around my hotel

Laziness Along the River

There is a river that runs through the centre of the city. It is fairly shallow and not that wide and has high, steep edges. Various bridges run across and there is a park on either side. From the bridges you can see people swimming and kayaking in the river. If you were so inclined, you could join them. I was not so inclined, so I wandered around the ruins of the castle and took a picture of some small murals at the foot of a bridge and had a drink at the cutest little tiki bar in the park by the river.

This tiki bar is so cute; just a little tiki shack in the park with a handful of seats – a couple of them are swings. I sat and had a drink and chatted with the bartender and a young guy celebrating his early 20s birthday. We talked about our lives and about how Montenegro has a reputation for laziness – a stereotype the Montenegrins seem to have embraced. During the time I was there, the annual ‘Laziest Man’ completion was ongoing; an event in which men compete to see who can lie down the longest. The bartender spoke about how he had always been a bartender and the young man, who was going to school in Germany, said he aspired to move to Brazil because they seem to not work that hard. Fascinating.

Near the river is a hotel, the Hotel Podgorica notable for its modernist design by architect Svetlana Kana Radević. I went and had a cigar on the very excellent patio overlooking the river.

High Five

I walked to Blok Five, which is a group of high-rise apartment buildings, now at least party abandoned. They were designed and built in the 1970s/80s with the goal of creating a perfect community that emphasized community involvement and communal living. The buildings are worth a visit if you like that kind of architecture or if you like creepy feeling abandoned places, or graffiti. I like all three.

Under the Bridge

I visited a lot of cafes, the best of which was the Itaka Library Bar, which is just under a bridge, by the river. On one side f the structure is a small bookstore (all in languages other than English) and on the other side is a café/bar with some indoor seating, but the real pleasure, was sitting outside, under the bridge and next to a small riverside patch of green. I went there twice and loved it. Great spot to smoke cigars.

Cigars in Podgorica

There are a few cigars stores in Podgorica. None were cheap, but all had good selections. There were no dedicated cigar lounges, but smoking was allowed on every patio. I smoked a ton of cigars during my time in there.

Art

There is an art gallery/museum. Local artists and a few historic relics. Really it is shocking that for a capital city – that this tiny museum is the best they came up with – but it was interesting, and it was free, so I am not complaining. As mentioned previously, there are some murals/street art in Podgorica, but nothing amazing or worth specifically seeking out.

A Glimpse of the Past

There is a small (pocket-sized) historical neighbourhood that someone survived the war and there are a few streets with cobblestones and cute houses with grapes growing. On the edge of the neighbourhood is a clock tower that is the oldest surviving thing in Podgorica and it is…honestly, it is not that interesting, but if you are there, you may as well seek it out.

Two Churches

I walked to the (Catholic) Church of the Holy Heart of Jesus, which is interesting in that it is such a severe concrete, brutalist structure. The walk there is not at all pleasant, as it is just along stretches of highway, but if you are into weird, brutalist structures, as I am, it is worth the walk.

I walked to the beautiful Orthodox Temple of Christ’s Resurrection, which was stunning inside and out – and the walk there was lovely, just across the river and past the tiki bar. I bought a trinket at the church shop and chatted with the woman working there. She seemed genuinely thankful and surprised that I was visiting Podgorica.

Podgorica after Dark

In the evenings I stayed on and around the pedestrian street where my hotel was. During the day the streets was quiet and pleasant but at night….wow. It was like an actual party. Every single bar and restaurant was packed. There was live music and karaoke and DJs playing impossibly loud music. The women were so dressed up. Tiny sequined dressed, skin-tight body suits, stiletto heels, cleavage, fully made-up faces and gorgeous. Men were there too. I asked at the hotel if there was something special going on, but they said, no; on the weekends, locals just like to dress up and go out. After a lot of searching, I found a place on a patio and had a cigar and watched the parade.

Is Podgorica worth visiting?

I did all of this in a day and a half. I walked a lot, exploring to seek out other things of note, but there was not much else worth mentioning. The nice thing was that I got to sight-see at a leisurely pace. Normally I am moving around at such a fast pace; this was a relaxing change.

Podgorica was warm and sunny. It was quiet. There was birdsong and coffee, time for luxuriating on patios, and just being present. There was no reason to rush anywhere to see things because there was not that much to see. What there was to see was interesting and attractive enough. I had a great time. Would I recommend visiting Podgorica? No. Not at all (unless you are on a quest to visit every capital city in Europe), but if you are there, or if you have the opportunity for a long layover, there is enough to see to make it worthwhile. It might be ‘the most boring capital city in Europe’ but still has redeeming qualities and was a nice way to end my Balkans trip.

Balkans Trip 2023 Croatia Europe

Two Days in Zagreb

I arrived in Zagreb on the train from Ljubljana. My first time in Croatia. Croatia was never very high on my list of places to visit, but it fit perfectly into my Slovenia to Montenegro itinerary. I know Croatia has a beautiful coastline and maybe someday I will visit it, but on this trip, Zagreb would be my only stop. The landlocked capital. I know a lot of elaborate and colorful Croatian swear words and I knew they liked to smoke (a lot) so I felt prepared.

I checked in to my hostel, a popular spot called, inexplicably, the Swanky Mint Hostel and familiarized myself with my top bunk in the all-girls dorm room. My roommates were a group of girls traveling to celebrate their recent graduation – from high school. Nice girls. As I get older it is weird to be, often by far, the oldest person in the hostel, but despite that everyone is still friendly. Ultimately, we’re all just travelers of a certain style and that seems to transcend the widening age gaps.

Swanky Mint Hostel, complete with a nice patio bar

My hostel was in a very central spot. Perfect for walking. I set off to stop number one: a nearby excellent cigar store, where I replenished my stock, which was already dwindling a bit after Slovenia.

The thing that stuck out to me about Zagreb, culturally, is that everyone seemed to be at all times occupying vast sidewalk cafes, lingering over coffees, brandy, and cigarettes. (Seriously, do people not have jobs?) Smoking was not technically allowed indoors, but that did not seem to be an issue for many places I went, that had ashtrays on the tables inside and out.

My next stop, after an espresso, was to visit the thing I most wanted to see in Zagreb: The Museum of Broken Relationships. A small museum, it contains items donated by people from around the world and each item is accompanied by a story of a relationship that ended. The objects are simple: a toy, a note, a box of pasta, a record, an article of clothing. The stories are mostly sad. Some of the relationships are long ones and some are brief. Some ended in tragedy and others just faded away. Aside from a few lighthearted ones, they are sad and affecting. I don’t think I have ever been in a museum that was so quiet. No one spoke. Everyone just read and observed in silence. I think that museums of war and historical tragedy can sometimes feel difficult to relate to, but everyone can relate to having their heart broken. It was really affecting. (I just bought my ticket at the door, but I think it is advisable to book in advance because it is very small, and it fills up quickly.)

I spent most of the rest of that first day just wandering around, taking in the streets. Unfortunately, there was a lot of construction going on and many churches (including Saint Mark’s) and some of the museums were closed, but the city was lovely to wander.

The city is on two levels, upper and lower, connected by a funicular. I do love a funicular.

Bright yellow, ornate buildings and parks full of flowers. Inviting cafes, public statues. One of the nicest sights was the Stone Gate (Kamenita Vrata), the last remaining gate to what was once the medieval, walled upper city. In the 1700s it was engulfed in a fire, but a painting of the Virgin Mary somehow survived and it has become an important and beautiful shrine, with candles and worshippers. There was a charming altar and candles for worship in an archway.

In a main square, a brass band played rousing, patriotic sounding songs.

That evening I had dinner and a cigar on Tkalčićeva Street, a main pedestrian street lies with restaurants. It was very busy and felt quite touristy but was a good spot to watch people parade up and down.

The next morning, I went to the Dolac outdoor market, where people sold flowers, fruits and vegetables, and honey. I bought an apple and some kind of bread items filled with cheese and vegetables. At this point in my trip, after only a few days I was already getting a bit tired of the mostly-bread diet that seems to be on offer for vegetarians.

I burned off my breakfast with a long walk to the Mirogoj Cemetery. A pleasant walk to a pleasant cemetery. Neither are things I would say are must-do/see, but I enjoyed myself.

I caught a bus back to the city for more aimless wandering before catching the tram to the Museum of Contemporary Art, which was excellent and free.

I went back to the cigar store and found a place to have an underwhelming dinner and an excellent cigar.

I walked thought some of the long tunnels that connected different parts of the city. It is not obvious where they are, but you can find them on maps. It was fun, if a bit eerie, to walk in without any idea where I would pop out on the other end.

That evening, I wandered to a less central neighbourhood. Away from the tourists. I don’t know what it was, but it was a cool area with funky bars and cafes, bookstores, and whatnot. I found a super cute bar and sat on cushions on the sidewalk and had a negroni before headings back to my hostel to swap travel stories.

Late that night I was off to Sarajevo.

I enjoyed my time in Zagreb. I bet there is a lot more cool stuff there to see and do that I could not discover in my short time. I actually think it might be a good city to live in. It had a good mix of beauty and grit (and loose smoking laws). Sadly I did not find use for my Croatian profanities. I’ll have to return to Croatia.

Onward to Sarajevo, which would be my favourite stop on this trip.

Brazil South America

Museums and Murals in São Paulo

I woke up on my second day in São Paulo with a plan. (The first day’s post is here.) The thing that I most wanted to see in São Paulo was Batman Alley (Beco de Batman) and I wanted to get there early. I was staying in the centre, so I got on the subway at Luz station, and I took the train to Santuario Nossa Senhora de Fatima station. From there, it was a fairly short walk to the area I wanted to see. I used maps.me to navigate my way. Once one I was just a block or two away from Batman Alley there were some signs that pointed me in the right direction. It was early and there was almost no one else around.

Batman Alley is a long street (or now really a collection of streets) in one area that is famous for being covered in murals. Apparently in the ‘80s there was a mural painted of Batman which is how the street got its name. Now it covered in murals, like a winding outdoor art gallery and the area seems to be spreading. Murals of all different styles are painted and then painted over. It’s constantly changing. You could go and come back a few months later and the whole landscape of murals will be completely different. There are still paintings of Batman, however.

It was delightful, and going first thing in the morning was the best because there was really no one else around. By the time I left, there were some vendors setting up to sell jewelry and whatnot and a few other tourists had appeared, taking elaborately posed pictures in front of the murals, so I was glad that I went when I did. I love street art, so this was fantastic for me.

From there I meandered over to Coffee Lab, which is known for being one of the best coffee shops in São Paulo. I didn’t have much to compare it to having only been in São Paulo for less than 24 hours, but it did have excellent coffee and a nice atmosphere.

I hopped back on the nearest subway station and went to the Museum of São Paulo. An art museum. An excellent art museum. It wasn’t even really on my list of things that I had to do, but I’m so glad that I decided to go. The museum is in an interesting building, and it has a collection of regular exhibits and special exhibitions. The thing that was amazing about it was that one floor which seemed to be their permanent collection, was that the art wasn’t displayed on the walls. Art was displayed with each painting free standing above a heavy cement base and the paintings just sort of floating in midair. The thing that made it more interesting was that the title of the painting and the artist’s name and any description of the painting were on the back of the canvas; so you would walk around looking at these paintings unsure of who or what they were until you walked around to the backside of it. This is maybe the most creative and interesting way of looking at art, because you are not influenced by knowing what you’re looking at. You are looking at a painting and you have to judge it on its merits and how you really feel about it without being influenced by the fact that you know that it’s a Picasso or Modigliani. I also like that they displayed the art without segregating it into era or type of painting (so there might be a very modern South American painting hung right next to a classical European painting).

It was fascinating. They also had an excellent exhibit of Gauguin’s Tahitian work, which I enjoyed.

The museum is on Paulista Ave, which is supposed to be a very important major street in São Paulo, so I walked down it until I reached the next subway station, which was quite a ways, I was not impressed with the street; it was big and it had a lot of buildings but I thought most of them were quite unattractive and there wasn’t really much on the street that interested me, but I’m still glad that I saw it.

At the next subway station I again got on a train and hopped over to Ibirapuera Park, in the middle of which is the Sao Paulo Museum of Modern Art. The museum is really in the middle of the park and it was quite a walk to find it, but it was pleasant walking through the park, which has a body of water in the middle and everyone was out riding bikes and running, playing ball and having picnics. It was a nice atmosphere.

The museum was fine. I enjoyed the art, but it was relatively small given the effort it took to get there.

On the way out I found myself utterly lost trying to get out of the park I was trying to go back the way I came but I got turned around and every time I tried to exit the park, I found myself faced by a fence. I eventually found a gate out and then realized I was nowhere near a subway station. I got on a bus only to discover that they only take exact change and I only had paper money, which they would not accept and there was no way to pay by a card, so, frustratingly, I had to get off the bus and walk quite a distance to the next subway station. That was a bit annoying.

But I did make my way to the subway eventually and went back to the centre and visited the Metropolitan Cathedral of Our Lady Assumption and Saint Paul; a large cathedral from the 1950s which was which is pleasant to visit. (And even had its own cathedral traffic lights on the surrounding streets.)

Metropolitan Cathedral of Our Lady Assumption and Saint Paul

From there I walked around the central area. It was Sunday and the streets were filled with people. There was a market going on with vendors selling mostly clothes, trinkets, toys, and electronics. It was very lively. People were flying kites and selling food. It all felt a little bit rough around the edges but was lively and it was nice for a wander.

At this point it was late in the afternoon and I had to start thinking about getting back to the hotel because I had a flight heading out of Brazil, but I still made one more visit to the Mercado Municipal Paulistano, where I had been the day before for lunch. I had a quick meal and then went back to my hotel to pack up and take the train to the airport.

Mercado Municipal Paulistano

I really liked São Paulo. I wasn’t supposed to be there; I was supposed to be in Paraguay (you can read about that debacle here), and I don’t know if I would have had a better time in Paraguay, but São Paulo was good. I liked it better than Rio, and it was entirely different from Salvador. It made a nice end my trip to Brazil, despite all the hassles of getting there in the first place. Brazil was a place that I had never really been excited to see but now that I’ve been, I’m glad that I’ve gone, and I would go back to see more of the country. A country that big and diverse deserves more than one visit.

Brazil South America

Way Down Among Brazilians – Rio Day 1

Brazil, Finally

I don’t know why, but I had been resisting going to Brazil. Every year for about the past four years I’ve made myself a Brazil itinerary. Not every itinerary was the same but all of them involved me flying to Rio and visiting Salvador, which were the two places that I most wanted to visit. But I just couldn’t get excited about it; probably because most of the things that I know about Brazil involve beaches and parties and I just couldn’t care less about either of those things. But then again, I do like Bossa Nova music, cigars, and coffee, and Frank Sinatra sang two songs about Brazil, so I knew there must be something to it. The real reason that I finally booked the trip to Brazil, honestly, is that I think I really wanted to fill in a big hole in my South American map. I hadn’t been to South America since I went to Peru in 2014 and it just seemed like it was time.

So I made an itinerary that involved me flying to Rio, spending a couple of days there, flying to Salvador for a couple of days, then flying to Asunción, Paraguay for a couple of days, before returning to Brazil for a day. You can’t see all of Brazil in a week, but I thought I would pick some highlights and decide that if I wanted to go back to see more at a later date.

And so I flew to Rio.

Bom Dia, Rio!

The flight to Rio was long. Flying to Rio from Vancouver is not like flying to Europe or flying to Asia where the flight might be long, but you sort of make up the time when you fly back due to the time zone changes. Flying to South America is just really far and there’s not much of a time zone change, so it took me roughly a day and a half to get there and a day and a half to go back. I was determined to make the most of it.

I landed in Rio without any issue (Canadians don’t need visas) and went to my I accommodations: The OK Hotel. The OK Hotel was…OK. It was in the Centro District, right on the edge of the Lapa area, which is where I wanted to stay; very close to the subway and trolleys, it was walkable so many places that I wanted to see, and it was cheap. Beach people would probably want to stay closer to Copacabana or Ipanema, but I liked this neighbourhood better.

Rio Centro

*buildings and quiet streets in Centro Rio*

I hit the ground running in Rio. I started out by visiting Centro (the historic district). it was a Sunday, which was maybe not the best day to start out, as most things were closed.

The streets were pretty empty and it just seemed kind of dull. However, the architecture was beautiful and I did go to the excellent Museo de Arte do Rio (gallery of modern art) and popped in into some churches. But I wasn’t excited. It just didn’t feel lively.

*excellent pieces* *at the Museo de Arte do Rio*

*more great art* *at the Museo de Arte do Rio*

more sights of Centro

I did visit the excellent Cathedral of Rio, the Metropolitan Cathedral of Saint Sebastian. It was designed by Edgar de Oliveira da Fonseca to resemble a Mayan pyramid and was built in the 1960s/70s. It is excellent. Very unique and modern, but also beautiful inside and out. I loved the stained glass and airy interior.

Catedral Metropolitana de São Sebastião

I hopped on the train and decided to go check out some of Rio’s beach areas.

At the Copa. Copacabana.

Let me be clear: I am not a beach person. I like swimming well enough, but I don’t know how I’m supposed to swim at the beach when I’m traveling by myself. (Just leave my wallet and my phone and all my personal items unguarded on the beach while I swim in the ocean? That doesn’t make sense.) So I tend not to swim when I travel, and the idea of laying in the sun on the beach just sounds like a nightmare. I don’t want to sit in the sun, I get bored sitting around, I don’t care for sand or children, or any of the things that come along with a day at the beach. But in this case, I was in Rio; of course I was going to go to see Copacabana and Ipanema just to get the vibe.

I started in Copacabana. I took the train from Centro. The metro is not super expansive in Rio, but it’s extremely convenient for covering long distances it’s very cheap and easy to navigate.

Metro Scenes and Machines

I walked a few blocks from the subway station to the beach. On the way there was a pretty good food market and I stopped off and had some sort of fried bread cheese thing with hot sauce which was pretty decent, and I continued walking to the beach. This area was quite a bit different from Centro. It was packed. All the shops and restaurants were open and people were out; there was music; it was actually a pretty good scene.

Copacabana street scenes

The wide road that separated the apartment buildings from the beach was great. It was mostly shut down to cars and was filled with pedestrians and rollerbladers and bicyclists. Along the sand was a row of outdoor restaurants and food and beverage vendors, almost every one playing music. That was pretty nice too. The beach itself wasn’t packed, it was winter in Brazil, but there were people out swimming and playing volleyball and hanging out. I took a look. I still had no idea no desire to participate in the beach activities, but it was nice to see them. I walked around that area for a while before hopping back on the subway to go to Ipanema.

Copacabana streets

This Girl in Ipanema

Ipanema was similar to Copacabana. It was busy with appealing accommodations and eateries and the beach was also nice. I guess the more interesting thing about Ipanema was that it had a really great view of the mountains in the favela in the distance which was an interesting site. I walked around there for a little while but was already kind of done with the beach concept so I walked back to the subway.

Ipanena Scenes

Leblon

I got off the subway in Leblon, which is the most affluent neighbourhood in Rio. That’s a pretty nice neighbourhood. I wouldn’t want to stay there; it’s too fancy and a little bit too expensive and it feels a little more generic than other parts of the city that I was in, but it was very nice. My reason for going there was to go and check out a cigar lounge. There is a place called Café Esch, which has inside of it a La Casa Del Habano. You can have coffee, you can have cocktails, you can have a steak dinner if you want too, and you can purchase all the best Cuban cigars in the humidor. The cigars aren’t cheap, but there was a great selection and anytime I can smoke inside I’m delighted. So I bought a couple of cigars, ordered myself a coffee and a couple of cocktails (I had my first Caipirinha – wow is that great and potentially problematic; it is so easy to drink) and sat inside watching football (soccer) with a bunch of cigar smoking men inside. Nobody really talked to me, but it was a really nice place to hang out.

Cigars at Café Esch, Leblon

When twilight dims the sky above

I wanted to make it back to my hotel before it got dark, so I walked back to the subway. In Leblon it felt absolutely fine to walk around at night. But by the time I got back to my hotel, that was not the case.

I’m not generally worried about violence, but Rio did give me pause. Even many of the savviest travelers that I know have had issues with street violence in Rio after dark. So I had decided that I really would limit my nighttime activities. This was fine, because I was already tired from walking around all day so I went back to my hotel and just decided to just read a book, but then I got hungry… and curious, so I went out. I walked around the streets around my hotel. Some of them were empty and didn’t feel particularly safe; the areas that were closer to the train and subway stations at least had people out and about, so they felt a little safer. Most things were closed, but there was a little corner pizza and hamburger spot, nothing fancy, plastic chairs, basically a fast-food joint. I sat there at one of the outdoor tables and I had a pizza. (As an aside, this was the worst pizza I’ve ever had in my entire life. The bread was soft and all it had on it was gross cheese and some sort of sickly sweet tomato sauce and it was served with ketchup and mustard. Really awful.) I sat outside and I had this pizza and a bottle of water and was just kind of watching the activity on the sidewalk. There lot of homeless and drug addicted people walking around. They approached me constantly asking for money and standing and staring at me and getting a little bit too close. I didn’t feel threatened, but it certainly didn’t feel comfortable. At one point, one of the guys picked up a bottle a beer bottle from a table next to me and broke it over the side of a chair and sort of looked at me, holding onto the neck of the bottle. He didn’t really brandish it and I didn’t think he was going to hurt me, but it certainly didn’t make for a pleasant eating experience. A bit later I did give him the rest of my pizza, so I feel like we kind of had a moment.

Anyway, that was my first day in Rio. I had a good day and I was happy to be there, I wasn’t loving it. Some places you vibe with and some you don’t. That’s ok. But I but I was excited to see more of the city the next day, which I did.

Belarus/Dubai trip 2023 Europe United Kingdom

My Perfect London Layover

The Layover

I was flying home to Vancouver from Minsk via Dubai and I had an 11 hour layover in London. I had 8 hour layover in London on the way to Minsk and it was great (it had been Coronation Day). In fact, every long layover I’ve had in London is great, but somehow this managed to top them all. Every time I have a layover in London I try to pick a new area that I want to visit; a place that seems lovely to wander for a few hours (of course sometimes I just make my way over to Saint James Street and hole up in a cigar lounge). This time, it was a Sunday morning and I decided head to East London.

Breakfast in Hoxton

I started by taking the Heathrow Express to Paddington Station and then switching to the Tube where I made my way over to Old Street station in Hoxton with a plan to walk to Shoreditch. I hadn’t been over that part of east London and many many years, not since I lived in London, but I heard that it was kind of the cool neighborhood to check out so I thought I would.

The neighborhood was great. Most things were closed (it was early) but it already felt cool. The buildings were old, the parks were nice, there was there was public art of the mural and sculpture variety, and I was impressed.

quiet morning street art

I was more impressed when I found a restaurant that was open. The Breakfast Club. I would definitely go back. It was exactly what I wanted. Great music, comfy booths, vegan options, and mugfuls of strong, black coffee. I think the people in there thought I was crazy because I kept telling them how excited I was to find them open and with vegan breakfast.

The Breakfast Club

My stomach full of coffee and tofu, I carried on walking towards the Columbia Road flower market. On the way I stopped for an espresso.

more coffee!

Flower Market

I had never even heard of the Columbia Road flower market. I just started Googling things to do on a Sunday morning in London and I discovered it and it’s now one of the loveliest things that I’ve ever found to do on a Sunday morning. It’s just a stretch of street where every Sunday flower merchants come out to sell their flowers.

It sounds like something that might just be made-up for Instagram, but there are legitimately people there buying plants and flowers and then carting them away. Flower merchants are calling out in delightful accents the price and variety of their flowers. It is so charming – even better, many people there have cute dogs with them, and that’s great.

“The flower that smiles to-day, to-morrow dies…“

The thing that made it extra lovely is that while one side of the street is all flower merchants, the other side of the street are delightful shops painted in pretty colours and it reminded me a little bit of Victoria street in Edinburgh (except without the slope). There are antique shops, coffee shops, trinket shops, bakeries, a tea room, and a perfumer… it’s so charming. I browsed in all the shops, bought myself a little bit of perfume, ate a tiny treat, and carried on my way. It was absolutely perfect.

charming shopfronts

Spitalfields

From there I walked down to Spitalfields to the Old Spitalfields Market – like I hadn’t had enough to eat already, but I wanted it as a destination. It was a grand walk. The skies were blue it was warming up. I browsed around the Spitalfields market, a place I don’t know if I’d ever been to before.

I had an excellent coffee, and I really enjoyed the public art that they had there – the cute elephant statues (Our Herd of Hope) and the sculpture of Rabbitwoman and Dogman riding a motorbike with side car whilst drinking coffee (telling the tale of “two opposites coming together to become best friends and soul mates”).

Elephants, rabbit, and dog, oh my!

Walking south I found myself wandering through a blocks’ long thrift market.

Bypassing The Tower

I walked towards the Tower of London, not because I wanted to go to the Tower of London; it just seemed like a destination. The closer I got to the Tower of London, the livelier things got: the crowds of tourists picked up, church bells were ringing, more shops were open.

I got glimpses of the London skyline along the way. It was perfect. I wound my way past the tourists queuing up for the Tower of London and headed for London Bridge.

Borough Market & The Tate

Tower Bridge, the Thames, and the Shard

Crossing London Bridge, I got some lovely views and once on the other side, I was just steps from Borough Market (London’s best food market, dating back hundreds of years).

Approaching Borough Market

I walked through Borough Market, unfortunately at this point, having eaten the tofu and a couple of treats from the Columbia Street flower market, I couldn’t possibly eat any more, but I did get a lovely fresh carrot and ginger juice and another espresso and walked around the market, just ogling all of the treats. (Note to self: I must make a plan to come back when I am hungry.)

Exiting Borough Market, I then found myself near the Tate Modern gallery.

While some of the special exhibits are paid, to walk into the Tate and look at the regular collections is free, so I did that. I walked around, looked at some art (splendid), and then I left. I realized that I really ought to be moving on because I had a lunch date.

Lunch & Leaving London

I have a friend who lives in London, someone that I met in 2009 in the Ecuadorian rainforest and, while we sort of keep in touch, we haven’t really seen each other in years, so we made plans to have lunch. We met near Paddington Station, in Little Venice where we had an excellent lunch at a Lebanese restaurant and swapped travel stories.

Seriously, was this the perfect day? Throw a cigar and a visit to the theatre and I think it might have been. It’s amazing what you can do in a layover. I can’t believe some people just stay at the airport.

I flew back to Vancouver, and this concluded my trip to Minsk, which parenthetically also included two days in London and two days in Dubai. It was just an excellent trip maybe the best that I had in 2023 to date.

I would have a short hiatus from travel of a couple of months to enjoy the summer in Vancouver, and then I would be off to Brazil.

Tag: art gallery