Yet another travel blog (as if I checked)...
Here, trips - and tripping- are not just an organized leap into another world. We organize, yes, but - I'll actually speak for myself now, only those aspects of the voyage that will make me feel more free, as I go appropriate the most intriguing elements of this new world.
I can't, unfortunately, escape geeky snapshots in goofy loose shorts, a messy hat conspicuously hiding sweaty hair (I once even braved last minute Tinkerbell sunglasses from the super market in the corner, in order to face the unforgiving desert sun - but not spending a fortune!) and a camera in hand, curiously annoying locals trying to get by just another day at work. I can escape, though, relying exclusively on written and oral guides to help me get around, without exchanging a word with those above mentioned locals (and by "exchanging" I don't just mean information concerning the nearest burger palace or public loo); cruising the subway instead of walking real life neighborhoods off the tourist neon maps (taking the bus doesn't really cut it either); expecting to have good money before I check the local cuisine - there's always another customized version of a good old hot dog in a canteen in... some corner. If you see that's what the other (hopefully) knowing passersby do (and you're a safe distance, let's say, from burning corpses in the river Ganges, or other gastronomically disreputable hot-spots in India), just dig in.
And you should definitely drop in for a $ 6 manicure down a basement in New York's Lower East Side, carefully done by a group of Asian youths giggling all the way through their incessant and (deadly cute) incomprehensible gossip, or get a stylish updo by an alternative coiffeuse in Berlin, as she comments on the current problems of political squats (you lucky big guys, you can always roam the hoods I wouldn't easily venture on my own...).
That's what makes me trip, anyway...
Soundtrack: Walk on the Wild Side by Lou Reed
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUntj4z3v0w&feature=related
Here, trips - and tripping- are not just an organized leap into another world. We organize, yes, but - I'll actually speak for myself now, only those aspects of the voyage that will make me feel more free, as I go appropriate the most intriguing elements of this new world.
I can't, unfortunately, escape geeky snapshots in goofy loose shorts, a messy hat conspicuously hiding sweaty hair (I once even braved last minute Tinkerbell sunglasses from the super market in the corner, in order to face the unforgiving desert sun - but not spending a fortune!) and a camera in hand, curiously annoying locals trying to get by just another day at work. I can escape, though, relying exclusively on written and oral guides to help me get around, without exchanging a word with those above mentioned locals (and by "exchanging" I don't just mean information concerning the nearest burger palace or public loo); cruising the subway instead of walking real life neighborhoods off the tourist neon maps (taking the bus doesn't really cut it either); expecting to have good money before I check the local cuisine - there's always another customized version of a good old hot dog in a canteen in... some corner. If you see that's what the other (hopefully) knowing passersby do (and you're a safe distance, let's say, from burning corpses in the river Ganges, or other gastronomically disreputable hot-spots in India), just dig in.
And you should definitely drop in for a $ 6 manicure down a basement in New York's Lower East Side, carefully done by a group of Asian youths giggling all the way through their incessant and (deadly cute) incomprehensible gossip, or get a stylish updo by an alternative coiffeuse in Berlin, as she comments on the current problems of political squats (you lucky big guys, you can always roam the hoods I wouldn't easily venture on my own...).
That's what makes me trip, anyway...
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| Eyes over Berlin |
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUntj4z3v0w&feature=related
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