street art Archives - Wandering North

Algiers-Nice-Athens 2024 Greece

Athenian Odyssey – Day 3 of 3

My third day in Athens after my excellent visit to the Acropolis, was kind of a freebie. I had already done all the things that were most important to me in visiting the city, so I decided to improvise day three. I had breakfast at my hostel and then I went out walking. I visited a flea market. I’m not sure if it was the Monastiraki flea market or someplace else, but it was fun to look around. I like free markets in foreign cities; they feel like impromptu, free museums.

Morning Stuff

I stopped and had a coffee on the edge of the flea market. I decided to try a ‘frappé’; this is a Greek coffee made with instant coffee whisked together with cold water and sugar to make sort of a frothy cold coffee drink. I’m glad I tried it, but I don’t need to have it again. I don’t like cold coffee or sugar in my coffee so it wasn’t really for me and I knew that going in. It looked pretty though.

The Plaka

I decided to wander over to the Plaka. I understand that it is a famous area in Athens for tourists and so I went to look around. It has pretty streets and historical sites, but I thought it was a bit dull. I think it would be a lovely place to have a meal as there seem to be many restaurants at beautiful patios but of that I didn’t find it very interesting; lots of souvenir shops and not a lot of character, I thought, although it did have some lovely ruins.

Anafiotika

If I ever unironically use the phrase “hidden gem” to describe something, you’re welcome to throw an ouzo in my face, Anafiotika comes close. Anafiotika Is a little neighbourhood above the Plaka that wasn’t on my radar having read through guidebooks and travel blogs, but I can’t exactly say that it’s hidden because they have a sign up there warning tourists to be respectful of the neighbours. It is absolutely stunning, and one of the best things that I did in Athens. I had to use Google maps to figure out how to get to Anafiotika, but once I found the street that led to the stairs that led to a graffiti covered passageway, I was in the Anafiotika.

What makes it so special? It doesn’t look like you’re in Athens at all. It looks like you’re on one of the Greek islands. I have a feeling that it might get busier later in the day, but I was there early in the morning, and I didn’t see anybody else as I was walking around. The streets – if you can call them streets, they’re basically just pedestrian walkways – are lined with bright, white houses in the Cycladic architecture style, often painted with blue trim. Vines of colourful bougainvillea and large green tropical looking leaves peek over the top of walls and around corners. It is unbelievably picturesque, and yet, the pictures don’t do it justice. It just felt so peaceful; like I had been transported to one of the Greek islands as I crept around in silence, trying not to disturb anyone. There aren’t any coffee shops or restaurants or souvenir shops there; it’s just a residential neighbourhood that happens to be beautiful. It is lovely, and you absolutely should visit it if you were there, I only hope that it doesn’t become overrun with people doing professional Instagram shots because that would be a shame and would really ruin it for everyone else.

I descended without seeing another person.

From there I wandered back down to the Plaka and I stopped and had lunch, before walking away from the Plaka. On my walk I passed buskers, visited a few more churches, and made a point of seeking out the Passageway of the Merchants (aka Stoa Emporon). It is very interesting art installation that exists in old alleyway (or ‘stoa’) of now abandoned shops, and hung and hung from the ceiling are old signs for Athenian businesses, clustered together on the roof. If you didn’t know it was an art exhibit you would just think it was a very confusing passageway, It’s pretty cool and worth checking out.

*Passageway of the Merchants (aka Stoa Emporon)*

Exarcheia

I sat down and had a coffee and tried to decide what to do next period I looked on my map and was reading about different areas when I found Exarcheia. Exarcheia is a neighbourhood in Athens known for artists and anarchists, protesters and punk rock. It sounded great.

It was for many years a neighbourhood where many immigrants from the islands lived, but when the university opened several departments there, it became home to intellectuals, artists, and other people on the fringes. It was the location of the Athens Polytechnic uprising against the military government in 1973 in which at least 40 people were killed by the military and was one of the events that led to the fall of the junta the following year. In 2008 the killing of a 15 boy, Alexandros Grigoropoulos, by the police in Exarcheia again sparked massive protests.

*protest graffiti and Alexandros Grigoropoulos*

Today it is maybe the best place in Athens to go take in street art and graffiti. I’m making the distinction there because it does have some beautiful murals as well as graffiti with tags and statements of protest and opposition to the government, the police, capitalism, and tourism.

But it’s not all protest and, it’s also an excellent place to take in cool small local shops, cafes, galleries, and cinema. I was there during the day, so I mostly just wandered around and stopped and had a coffee. I had read that the neighbourhood was dangerous, but it certainly didn’t feel that way, I mean look at this street.

Visiting Exarcheia really gave me the sense that there’s so much more to Athens than I would be able to visit in my three days. There are lots of cool hidden pockets that I wouldn’t have a chance to see, but I would be happy to go back.

Concluding Athens

I finished off my day back in the neighbourhood of Psyrri, near my hostel. I had an obscenely early flight, so I just had a dinner and cigar cap off my time in Athens. Is had been an excellent and culturally diverse trip to Algiers, Nice, Monaco, and Athens. Three new-to-me countries and four great experiences.

In just a few weeks I would head to Nicaragua.

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*

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.

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.

Belarus Belarus/Dubai trip 2023 Europe

Minsk’s Murals

One of the things that I love about any city is discovering street art. I like art, of course, but I like street art not just for the content of the art but for where it is found. I love a large piece on the side of a building, or a neighbourhood taken over by colorful murals. I even like collections of unrestrained graffiti. It’s a great way to see a city; to go off in search of murals in rougher or burgeoning neighbourhoods and to see places I might not have otherwise seen. And it’s free.

Minsk was not a place to see street art. For a long time, it was not a part of the landscape; either because there was a lack of street at culture or because the government didn’t allow it. Probably both. There is an excellent NY Times article about street art in Minsk; street art as political protest and the government’s aggressive tactics to shut it down and erase it. As I discussed in a previous post about Belarus, the government is … strict, so I didn’t discuss it much with anyone and I am not in a position to explain the history of street art as political protest, but it seems to be an issue.

That it is why it was such a big deal when in 2014 the areas around Oktyabrskaya Street (now officially Kastryčnickaja Street) became a veritable outdoor gallery after the Brazilian embassy in Minsky organized a street art festival (Vulica Brazil).

With art by artists from mostly Brazil and Belarus, this formerly industrial zone, is not covered with enormous, colorful murals. There is not one uniform style or theme, which makes it even better for discovery. And it is no longer just an industrial area; not there are cafes, restaurants, and bars. It is a properly, cool neighbourhood.

It is a short walk just off the main sights in central Minsk and is a great way to spend an afternoon or a couple of hours. None of the art seems political; it is fanciful and whimsical or paying homage to artists, writers, and thinkers. It’s an area that I did not even see listed in the guidebooks for Minsk and is something I found specifically by googling “street art” in Minsk. Definitely a cultural highlight in the city.

I saw these Murals on my first day in Minsk as part of an overall, self-directed walking exploration of the city

I know. It’s a short post, but I have So Many Pictures from Minsk that I had to break them up.

Around the World 2022 Asia Singapore

Singapore day 2: Mostly Museums

Singapore. Day two. I probably didn’t need to set my alarm for 5am, but I did. I wanted to make the most of the day. Leaving my hostel, I set out to get a coffee and a bite to eat. Singapore is not an early morning place; at least not where I was staying. Almost nothing was open except for Starbucks, and I wasn’t going to visit an American chain restaurant. I tried to go to a couple of hotel restaurants but was told they were only for guests. I am pretty sure this was not true.

Now is maybe the time to mention that I did not meet a friendly person in Singapore. The people were, at best, cold and polite; and, at worst, rude. I have hardly ever thought that. Vienna, I think, and Hong Kong. Mostly I think people are great. But not here. Not in my brief experience. Anyway, I got a coffee and a juice and went on with my day.

This was a day of walking and museums. I took the metro to the vicinity of Little India and walked from there.

The metro in Singapore is not expansive but suited my needs well enough. Now is the time to mention that the metro in Singapore is also not friendly. I have never seen so many signs admonishing people for possible behavioral transgressions. There were signs that said no eating, no drinking, no talking, no pets, no durian, no bags on your lap, no sitting if someone else needs the seat, no holding the door, no standing near the door…it was a bit much. I just stood still and tried not to make eye contact.

Little India was a nice place for a wander. It was not as picture perfect as downtown and has candy-colored temples, busy markets, and side streets with street art murals.

*Tan Teng Niah – A Chinese-style Colonial structure*

I popped into the hawker centre there – the Tekka Centre – and had a meal from Pakistan (Delhi Lahori). Excellent and cheap.

I wandered around some more, aimlessly, taking pictures of all the lovely buildings, street art, and scenes. It was hot though and starting to get to me.

I walked quite a way in the punishing heat and humidity to the Raffles Hotel. (There’s that name again – as noted in my first Singapore post, he founded the modern colonial Singapore.) The area around the hotel was not great. A big mall. Big buildings. Busy, wide streets. But the hotel is beautiful. A low rise, gleaming white colonial era building with palm treed courtyards and Sikh men in white suits and turbans at the door. It is definitely of another era.

*Raffles Hotel and my one and only Singapore Sling*

I was there, like so many tourists, to visit the Raffles bar to have a Singapore Sling, as this is the bar where it was invented. And what a bar! Dark wood panelling and wicker fans. Well-dressed bartenders. Jazz playing. You could imagine Humphrey Bogart or Ernest Hemingway there. Unfortunately, smoking was not allowed. I had the cocktail, which was excellent. This was the most expensive thing I did in Singapore. It was $37 cdn dollars for the standard version. Worth it for the experience, but one was enough.

I didn’t find Singapore that expensive for the things wanted to do. Meals were normal to inexpensive and most of the stuff I wanted to see was free – walking the streets and looking at art and architecture. Price-wise, Singapore was fine – but stick to one Sling.

From the bar I went to the National Museum of Singapore. It was excellent. I knew almost nothing about Singapore’s history and this was a great overview.

From there I planned to go to the Singapore Art Museum, but it was closed so instead I visited the National Gallery Singapore. Definitely worth a visit, but also had I skipped it my life wouldn’t be dramatically different.

Paintings at the National Gallery

After that I went to a fun mini museum: the MINT Museum of Toys. It’s a small space, several storeys high with just displays of toys. I really enjoyed it. So many things I remember seeing (or in the case of a couple of things: having) and an interesting look at things like horror toys or Beatles toys, or all the diverse modern Barbies. It was cool.

The rest of the day was sort of vague. I wandered, drank coffee, smoked cigars, ate Thai food. I am really glad I got to visit Singapore. Two days was fun, but I’m content not to return.

I had a flight home very early in the morning, via Tokyo, back to Vancouver. Heading back to where I started out when I flew to from Vancouver to Saudi Arabia. All around the world, visiting Saudi Arabia, Bangladesh, and Singapore. A great trip.

Albania Europe Iraqi Kurdistan/Albania trip 2022

Museum Hopping in Tirana, Albania

Back from my long day trip to North Macedonia, I had about a day and a half left in Tirana.

I think that two days in Tirana is ok, but a bit tight if you want to go to museums and galleries, which I did. What this meant was that on my second day in Tirana, I didn’t have time to lose. My alarm went off early. (Yes, I set an alarm on vacation. I don’t travel half way around the world to sleep.)

I left the Tirana Backpackers Hostel and set off. First thing had to be first however, and I went to get the requisite covid PCR from a place that looked more like a cosmetic surgery office or a Kiehl’s store, with a gaggle of young looking, beautiful women in short dresses and white lab coats. I would get the results later. Negative.

I started off at a cafe. Fuelled by espresso I made a bunch of stops. I’m not going to recount all the museums I went to in detail and some of the ones I didn’t go to I missed because they were closed. Tirana has lots; I picked from what was available.

National Museum: interesting to get some insight into Albanian history. In poor repair and scruffy, but worth visiting. Educational and I felt like they needed the money.

Bunk Art 2: There are two Bunk Art museums. One in Tirana’s centre and one not. Bunk Art 2 is the further out one. I look an easy bus ride, which was fun in its own right. Bunk Art 2 is excellent. A great history lesson about the long reign of Enver Hoxha and his brutality and paranoia, the latter of which led him to build underground bunker tunnels all over the country – 173,371 to be precise, built obsessively and to Albania’s financial detriment. (Let that sink in: 173,371 underground bunkers in a country slightly smaller than the US state of Maryland.) Bunk Art 2 is a museum built into one of these huge bunkers, very far underground. It is super interesting and also an experience, given that it is a bit claustrophobic and creates atmosphere with music and sounds throughout its rooms and tunnels, but stops short of being too theatrical. Definitely worth a visit.

Bunk Art 1: Honestly, Bunk Art 1 was a bit anticlimactic after Bunk Art 2. It is more of the same, but smaller. You can’t beat the location though and if you buy a ticket for Bunk Art 2 No.1 is included.

*cold war bunker and a pretty pink building*

The House of Leaves: You think I would have been tired at this point by learning about Hoxha’s dictatorship and his tools of surveillance and torture, but I wasn’t. The House of Leaves is a former centre for surveillance and investigation turned museum. Really creepy and interesting. Lots of information and artifacts about secret bugs and cameras, prison and brutality. There is a list posted of favourite torture methods of the regime. I’m still thinking about that.

To cleanse myself of the historical horrors, I walked in the sunshine over to an outdoor food market area and sniffed my way around various treats.

I went for a long walk to nowhere in particular and went for dinner and a cigar at this small outdoor area of international restaurants and cafes.

I had planned to finish the day at Perla Tattoo & Bar for some live music but it was having some guy’s birthday party that night (as best as I understood). It was just as well. I was exhausted. I went back to the hostel and hung out in the chilly courtyard.

The Next Day

I was flying out the next afternoon, which gave me the morning. I decided to take a leisurely approach. I had breakfast at the at the café at the Opera house building on the square. I had this very tasty Albanian breakfast dish. A kind of a savory porridge made from a grain and topped with white cheese and crunchy bread.

I had a cigar and walked next door to the bookstore, where there is a good selection of English books. I bought a couple of novellas by celebrated Albanian author Ismail Kadare.

I visited Et`hem Bey Mosque (the mosque on the square), which is uncharacteristically painted with scenes of fruit, trees, and scenery.

*buskers (and a dancer!) outside the mosque.*

I then went walking in search of street art murals. Tirana has a lot, but they are scattered around. I found some information online and planned a walking route that would take me to some of them and down some different streets. I stopped for coffee.

It was a pleasant way to spend the first half of the day.

I left Tirana feeling like I had done it justice in the time I had. Had my itinerary played out as I planned, I would have spent another 24 hours there, but due to a change of an Albania Air flight, I was instead flying to Belgrade, Serbia.

Europe Ukraine

Kyiv, Ukraine

I liked Kyiv instantly. I don’t know if it is because I already have a fondness for former Soviet cities or because my maternal grandparents were from the Ukraine or if it is just because it is awesome. Probably a mix of those things. It had everything I wanted for my first international trip during COVID. It felt like Europe, but distinctly Eastern Europe with imposing architecture, a good bustle, ornate churches, nightlife, and a bit of a sense of order. Normally I prefer chaos, but in a time of such caution about travel, a bit of order seemed prudent.

As a Canadian I didn’t need a visa to enter the country, so I breezed in. My COVID test was checked, but only briefly. Soon I was in a taxi, with a new passport stamp, on my way to my hostel in Podil.

Podil is the oldest part of Kyiv and was a great place to stay. I could walk basically everywhere I wanted to go – to all the main churches and squares. And it is a great area of restaurants, cafes, and a bustling nightlife. It was also the location of a proper cigar lounge – a bonus for me.

I was staying at the Dream Hostel Kyiv. It was great. Easy to find and close to all sorts of things. It has a cafe and court yard, good wifi, hot water, a kitchen, laundry, and a proper hang out area, where people were actually hanging out. It would seem that even during COVID, hostels are still a thing, as they were before. When I originally booked this trip a year before, I was going to stay in a dorm, but I figure with the COVID hoopla (and I was only half vaccinated at this point) a private room would be better. It was. I still shared a bathroom, but that seemed ok. Technically masks were required inside, but they were generally not worn. I stayed there at both legs of the Kyiv part of my visit.

The hostel was on a long, historic and hilly street called Andriivs’kyi descent, the bottom of which is in Podil and the top connected with the centre of town, as marked by the stunning Saint Andrews Church, which was the first of many stunning churches that I visited.

Seriously, I went to so many churches, I am sure I have some sort of Orthodox Christian brownies points, notwithstanding a lifetime of dedicated sinning.

I won’t break it down day by day, as I was in Kyiv for about 4 days and I spent most of it wandering; not entirely aimlessly, but from church to park to monument to art gallery to market, making significant detours along the way, as interesting things popped up.

Kyiv is a serious cafe town and I drank an obscene amount of espressos whenever I wanted a break or some wifi.

I delighted in the architecture. Seldom was it quaint or charming, but it was often impressive, overwhelming, and ornate.

It really is a great city for walking. Relatively easy to navigate, with surprising hidden bits. I was looking, for example, for some gallery that I never found, but in what looked like a courtyard car park I found a charming bookstore/cafe. I stumbled upon street art and gardens.

*bird statues in a park I found by accident*

Make no mistake. This is a big city and I did a lot of walking, but it was always worthwhile, even when I did not find what I was looking for, I found things I didn’t know I wanted.

The public transportation was excellent. There is a vast subway system with stations that tout themselves as ornate. I qualify that statement not because they are not attractive (they are) but because once you have been to Moscow, all other subway stations have to be considered in their shadow.

Because Podil is at the bottom of a long hill, there is a handy little funicular to whisk one from the sea to the centre. The walk is also fine but I do love a funicular. I should mention that, like all things, transportation was very cheap in Kyiv. A ride on the subway or funicular was 8 hryvnia or about 35c Canadian.

One of the things I loved about about Kyiv is the smoking culture. This is a place where people smoke. You aren’t supposed to smoke inside, but outside it was totally fine and no one even gave me so much as a disapproving glance for lighting up a cigar over breakfast, for example, provided I was on a patio. It was great.

I really felt like I fit in, which is odd, as usually I’m in places where I stand out more as being from somewhere else. But in Kyiv, as a pale-faced, spiked leather jacket wearing woman with dyed black hair, I looked like a local. This was to the point where people were asking me for directions, which I took as a badge of pride. Hopefully I didn’t set too many people off in the wrong direction.

Most of my evenings were spent wandering around Podil, which each night seemed like a party, with buskers, streets teeming with people, and on many nights, a literal dance party just in the middle of the street.

And on one night it was an actual festival of sorts complete with a stage with live music and some traditional dancing.

At the beginning of my trip I spend just a day and a half in Kyiv before taking a day trip to Chernobyl and then a night train the following day to Lviv. Fresh posts for those places.

Just a note on spelling. It used to be Kiev, which is the Anglicized version of the Russian spelling, but after Ukraine became independent it switched to the Ukrainian spellings (or, for foreigners, the Anglicized versions of the Ukrainian spellings), so it is now Kyiv and not Kiev. People didn’t seem too bothered about it in Kyiv where Russian was the most prevalent language, but in Lviv, people very much wanted things to be spelled in the Ukrainian way. And rightly so.

Tag: street art