izzy's playlists!
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NEW BLOG: STRANGERLESS
Hi! I’ve decided to start another blog, which is a bit different than this one, but also perhaps a bit more organized :) I might be posting here as well in the future, but let’s see what happens time wise.
So please, check out the new blog which is about meeting strangers and getting to know the world and its cultures through PEOPLE (something I love).
Hope you enjoy!
www.strangerless.com
LIZZZZZZBON! RHYTHMS 'N' VIBES AT SANTOS POPULARES
The rhythms and sounds of Santos (a week long, originally religious celebration, now converted into something of a huge village gathering with lots of live music, street kitchen and cheerful people) were compelling (oh man I wish I'd had my Zoom recorder with me so I could give you a sound bite!), far more so than the overflowing perfume of smoke, sardines and sangria that scented all my clothes throughout the whole week...
These are some visual moments from Santos: streets filled with smoke and colors, a samba event at 'Artcasa' and NICE Groove, a huge Batucada playing rhythms from all Lusophonic countries. An incredible group with an incredible groove (far more than just nice!) that shook the whole neighborhood of Bica with their superhuman energy. And the best part is, anyone is free to join!
Check it out: https://nicegroovebatucadalusofona.wordpress.com/
Lisbon...rooftops and jacarandas, city shots and nearby sands.
A WORLD SHAPED BY LANGUAGES
While shooting a documentary on associations in Europe which promote the Lusophone (Portuguese speaking) cultures in the World (an info flash: the Lusophone cultures include Brazil, Portugal, Angola, Mozambique, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Sao Tome and Principe, Macau and East Timor), I fell in love with Portuguese and the fact that you can speak one language on four continents (just like French, no comments on colonialism here, I am purely speaking about the present linguistic reality, although even that is not as straight forward as one could think. When living in Mozambique, I did not learn much of Portuguese, as everyone around spoke Bitonga...).
The meaning of language in shaping cultures and influencing intercultural exchange and power structures is huge from my point of view (which is probably why many years ago I ended up studying Linguistics and Intercultural Communication). As a Finn, when you leave your country borders, you also leave your linguistic surroundings behind. There's no other country where Finnish is officially spoken and there's no other culture that us Finns would be tied to through our native language. The sunny side of this? You always have a secret language and a big motivation to learn new ones if you wish to travel and discover cultures through speaking natives.
The beauty in linguistic bonds is in the exchange of cultural heritage, which runs through music, dance, food, attitude. This observation refers to African and South American influences in Europe, not vice versa, as I find it difficult to analyze the positive influence of European cultures elsewhere. (I say this, because I am quite convinced that the difficult situation most countries are in now is due to Europeans. This is one big reason why the hostile attitude towards refugees makes me sad: Europeans have gone and implemented their ideas into other cultures and now people are doing the same to us [because they are forced to] and we deny their right to it. Is that called fair?). Yet, it is an incredible richness if we let other cultures broaden our world!
The Austrian philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein, was my favorite dude throughout many years because he argued that language is reality. I agree with this in part, as I believe there is no such thing as understanding a culture without understanding the language. This clearly explains why I find it so fascinating that people in "different cultures" speak "the same language". (Of course, non-verbal communication also exists and can make you understand the present, but language serves as a key to the past and present.) Every language shapes your way of thinking and constructing the world. People say that traveling widens your horizons. I say: learning languages expands your universe and magnifies your potential as a human being!
PEOPLE, CULTURAL EXCHANGE ROCKS! DON'T SEE IT AS A THREAT.
SOME MORE URBAN HITCHHIKING IN HELSINKI!
URBAN HITCHHIKING IN HELSINKI – CREATING A NEW PHENOMENON!
The previous blog posts were written with quite some delay and were a series of recollections from my hitchhiking trip to Helsinki from Madrid. I left my bicycle at Iguassu Falls and took the plain from there to Europe, in order to spend the summer here. The focus in the posts is on cities, as I wanted to depict a bit of the change in urban surroundings when coming from Spain towards the Northern hemisphere. Now I'm happily in Helsinki and already in action with some of the things I've noticed while away.
A project me and a friend of mine are working on is Urban Hitchhiking. When hitchhiking, you simply meet so many wonderful and interesting people, that it's a shame this activity has traditionally been restricted to the roads. So we've started trying out and promoting the idea of hitchhiking in the city! The point is not to get into cars or other vehicles, but into the company of fellow walkers. It's turned out to be an incredibly fun and easy way to meet strangers and above all, to make people laugh! I wish everyone would try this out in their own cities, in order to get new, spontaneous experiences in well-known surroundings.
But why am I so fascinated about this idea? Because when hitchhiking, it's always easy to meet people on the road, yet once you reach the cities, the challenges kick in. People are often in a hurry, walking to meetings and shops and whatnot, and they rarely even look at each others in the eyes. That's why the idea of UH. Imagine hitchhiking within a foreign city with a sign that reads: “May I walk with you for a while?” Just think how many locals and other travelers you can meet like this! And the best part is that they choose to pick you up without you invading their space...
PLEASE PEOPLE, TRY IT OUT AND TELL ME ABOUT YOUR EXPERIENCES!!!
(Here some photos of Helsinki's first Urban Hitchhikers)
11TH STRETCH: STOCKHOLM – TURKU...HOME!
The ferry to Finland from Stockholm is always an exotic adventure. I've been on it many times, but each time I'm in awe about the particular species that chooses to go on a day cruise without even leaving the boat in the foreign city. This time, the ferry already felt like home and I was trying to take everything that I could get out of it. Played bingo and went to the karaoke (a must on this boat). Gladly, this was a day cruise so not too many drunk people around (which is usually the case on the night cruises).
And finally, after a 12-hour-trip at sea: ON FINNISH GROUND! Not in Helsinki, though, but in Turku. And finally, the first encounter with an old friend (Samuliiiii!) who picked me up from the harbor and drove us for a pizza and then to his little home, which is a beautiful, small, wooden house without running water that already his grandparents used to use as their summer cottage. The place is in the middle of the woods and so calming that I finally had a little time to rest my soul before the last stretch.
Next morning (against my father's offers to pick me up from Turku), I placed myself the very last time next to the roadside with a sign reading: “Helsinki”. With wonderful luck, I was picked up by a father of two, who was on his way to Helsinki and passed by my parent's house on the way. He dropped me off at the very entrance to the house and I entered the yard with the barking off the dogs and the scent of summer flowers. Home. So good to be in my parent's arms after such a long time.
10TH STRETCH: COPENHAGEN – STOCKHOLM
In the morning, I made my way to the CPH airport to start hitchhiking from there (how weird does that sound?!). The airport lays right next to a bridge that goes from Denmark to Sweden and is basically the best place around for catching a ride to Malmö. I was picked up after a short wait by a Macedonian truck driver, who offered me Ajvar (a Macedonian, red pepper -based spread), bread and coffee. He also gave a hint that he had not seen his wife in two months, but my very discreet “not interested” was well accepted and we drove on as if nothing had been said in the first place. After that I was given a ride by a Serbian truck driver and finally by Danish couple on their way for a cruise to Helsinki and St. Petersburg. While in their car I really noticed I was in the North: they barely said two words to each other during the whole five hour drive!
In Stockholm, my friend Lauri had hooked me up with a friend of his who hosted me for a night. It's strange, but although Stockholm is so close to Helsinki, it's the only place were I really no no-one. So, upon my arrival, me and Öjvind met up and went for a walk in the old town and then to some other places with scenic views over the city. The evening was spent very peacefully at home with pancakes and sparkling conversations. I must say, I love meeting friend's of my best friends, as it's almost a guarantee for good time!
9TH STRETCH: BERLIN – COPENHAGEN
Going out from a big city is always difficult when hitchhiking. Also in Berlin, I waited for an hour before two, heavily tattooed Lebanese guys picked me up (shame I don't have a photo of them!). After that I was given a ride by an elderly Turkish man, who kept repeating that if I were his daughter, he'd put a chain around my neck and lock me up so I couldn't go on such adventures :)! Then a Kazakhstan truck driver, the German Polizei, a woman with many piercings and a rescue pilot who took me and a fellow, Australian hitchhiker (I had just met at a gas station) to see his hometown Schleswig (a cute little village that looked like the set of a cheesy Hollywood movie!). After that three people who were going for a choir performance in Denmark, a blond, blue eyed Danish father of two sweet boys, another pierced woman and finally my easiest hitch ever: still sitting inside the previous car at a parking lot, I opened the door just enough to ask the hipster sitting in the car next to us, if he was going to Copenhagen. His answer: YES!
In Copenhagen I met up with my dear friend Simo to get the keys and address to his apartment, as he was occupied the whole evening. Well, I got the address but we forgot about the keys. After a short while of walking, I realized I'm walking towards a house where I won't get in and at the same moment saw Simo cycling with full speed towards me. We'd both noticed the mistake. So I started walking again but this time my trip was stopped by meeting a lovely Englishman (a carpenter, father of FIVE boys) living in CPH. We got into talking on the street, went to sit down at a nearby bridge (which he said is his Friday ritual, as the place reminds him of London) and then went for a coffee. We chatted non-stop for three hours about life and dreams and in the end parted by the words: “was lovely meeting you, have a good life!”. Such a wonderful meeting, such a wonderful person. (Btw. I'd been to CPH once before and that time all men had mustaches. Now all of them had a beard.)
8TH STRETCH: OSNABRÜCK – BERLIN
This stretch was done by bus, as my dear friend Karolina bought me a bus ticket to Berlin! After two weeks of intense traveling, I was actually quite happy to be able to sit still for seven hours in a row, and occasionally fall asleep, which was something I hadn't done in ages and which was something I really needed to do, as I actually had some fever.
Once I arrived in Berlin, Karolina was there waiting for me (with a bean salad and her lovely smile). We went to her place (which is maybe the funkiest place in whole Berlin), had some green juice and left for a park nearby. The day ended with us opening the grill season at the terrace and with some goodbyes, as I was planning on heading towards Copenhagen the next day. Gladly enough, I didn't, as the next day was immensely fruitful in sharing ideas between two like-minded people who started created something together, which will hopefully convert itself into a book one day...I'm more than excited about this project and reminded once more about the power of inspirational people and inspirational symbiosis with such people!
Another person I was lucky to meet in Berlin was my friend Mikael, who was there to pick up his bicycles and who has done a lot of long-distance cycling himself. He was my big mental help as I was preparing for my South American tour!!
7TH STRETCH: AMSTERDAM – OSNABRÜCK
A thing that happened to me during this trip is that I've become more and more trusting in the fact that people WILL pick me up and I WILL get to my destination. This has lead me to set off later and later each time and consequently also arrive later and later...From Amsterdam I set off for Germany around 2pm, not exactly knowing where I was going. I only had the plan to head towards Osnabrück and see how far I'd come. However, I did not come far.
I made it to Osnabrück before nightfall, but it was quite tight, as one of the cars took me from the main highway to a completely wrong direction. I also got a ride from a police car that checked my criminal record, from a Sri Lankan family, from a Syrian truck driver, from a Turkish sales agent and much more. In Osnabrück I was greeted by my friend and ex-flatmate, Anya, with whom I lived in Poland 13 years ago. We hadn't seen since and in the meanwhile she had given birth to a cute little boy. I stayed the night at their place, we had some good talks (it really seemed that not a day had passed since we last met!), did a puzzle and basically had a nice, homey evening. In the meanwhile (as I was thinking about either going to Hamburg or to Berlin the next day, depending on the rides), my soul sister from Berlin bought me a bus ticket to Berlin, in order to prevent me from skipping her home city! So, the next morning I found myself sitting in a bus towards BERLIN!
(The pics of the red car: only in Germany!)
A LITTLE BIT OF ITALY IN AMSTERDAM!
Amsterdam struck me with all the bicycles, colors and “consumer awareness”. The amount of cyclists after being on a long bicycle tour was wonderful to see! And the colors of houses and clothes was definitely a welcome change for the eye after the black of Paris and the gray of Luxembourg. Was also struck me, though, was the amount of “ecological” shops and second hand shops. I guess it's a better option for supermarket consumerism, but it's still consumerism, isn't it?
Anyway, I strolled around Amsterdam for a while, dead tired, before finding a nice Italian rosticceria to sit down in. After a while, the thoughtful owners noticed my deep state of tiredness and started preparing one coffee after another for me (aaaah!). We got into talking and after some hours of vigorous chatting, the guys invited me to stay at their place (which was a stroke of luck, as I had nowhere to sleep in AMS). So, after closing time we took some salads and prosecco with us and went for a picnic to a nearby park near some “cascades” (maybe 20cms of height).
These dudes (in the pictures) were absolutely amazingly LOVELY!! The next morning we rode by bicycles (for once I could sit on a bike without pedaling!) to their “Pane e Olio”, prepared everything for opening the place and I received a tasteful breakfast before heading off to my next destination (against the many pleads by my hosts)...Osnabrück!
6TH STRETCH: LUXEMBOURG – BRUSSELS – AMSTERDAM
So I left from Luxembourg around 6pm and arrived in Brussels around 9pm. A wonderful family of three took me to Mechelin and insisted on paying my train from there to Brussels “we took you with us so we need to see you arrive well!” That night I slept at Atte's place again (and in the meanwhile plotted our next hitchhiking trip with together) and the following morning made my way by train to Waaden and from there on foot to Mechelin (again), which is where the highway towards Amsterdam lies.
My first ride from Brussels towards Amsterdam was a funny Belgian man with a Cuban wife, who took me to a gas station just before Antwerpen. From there, I was taken onboard by two other Belgian men (of which one looked like Hercule Poirot) who were on their way to Northern Holland to buy a bag-pipe (thank GOD they didn't have it yet! It's the only instrument that I hate from the bottom of my heart!). These guys left me at some crossroads from where I was taken a bit further by a businessman who had hitchhiked himself and finally to Amsterdam by an Argentinian woman with a white skirt, white jacket, pearls in her ears and two chihuahuas on the back seat (not exactly the typical person to give a ride to a hitchhiker)!
5TH STRETCH: LUXEMBOURG – TORINO – LUXEMBOURG
Upon my 2nd arrival in Luxembourg, I discovered I'd replace the cameraman of the previously mentioned documentary already the following day (which I was actually quite happy about!). So I did and we shot until 1am before getting some sleep and setting off for the eight-hour-long drive to Torino with the director. There, we met up with the coordinator of the project and some other wonderful people, and I couchsurfed at a hang drummer's place who was an inspiring character full of mind-blowing ideas about the world and his life.
After three intense days of eating well, sleeping very little, shooting various events and having many nice conversations, me and the director set off at 6am for Geneva where he took a train to Vienna and I continued the now 12-hour-drive back to Luxembourg (drinking three double espressos and stopping to sleep at various gas stations on the way). Arriving in Luxembourg at 5pm, I left the rental car there, chatted a while with my new Luxembourgian friend and made my way towards Brussels AGAIN...
4TH STRETCH: LUXEMBOURG – BRUSSELS
I made my way to Brussels in three different cars, getting to know some lovely Belgians on the way. The last one dropped me directly in the center of Brussels, while showing me the King's Palace, the European Neighborhood and some other important sights along the way. After stepping out of the car I made my way to the Place Grande (the Big Square), where I met up with my dear friend Atte. We strolled around town for a while before he left for his Flemish class and I ended up at an afternoon salsa & bachata class (and party). Earlier that afternoon, when sitting outside a cafeteria, me and Atte got talking with a man with a dog and the man asked us, whether we'd like a dog for one month. I immediately replied 'no' as I wasn't staying in Brussels for more than a night, but Atte said he'd think about it. Later that night he came to get me from the salsa party and told me we were on our way to fetch Kesta-the-dog. The next thing I knew I was strutting along the streets of Brussels with a leash the following day (after a DELICIOUS breakfast of croissants with peanut butter, avocado and egg [prepared by Atte], please try!), as Atte was at desperately trying to find out whether the dog was allowed in the butchery where he was designing a sound project.
Eventually, I took the dog back to Atte's place and headed to the suburbs to start hitch-hiking again. This time, the first ride was from a lovely family of four, mixing three languages (English, Flemish and French) in their day-to-day conversations.
3RD STRETCH: PARIS – LUXEMBOURG
I have found the city of my nightmares: Luxembourg. Why? Because no matter how pretty and clean it was and how polite and friendly the people in this city were, I was struck with the numbness this city left within my soul. It's not often that I experience culture shock, yet strolling around the empty streets of Luxembourg on the 1st of May, I was gasping for air as I felt my chest tighten with anxiety. Where was the life of this city? As it was a bank holiday, most people had left the city, which apparently is what most people do whenever they get the chance to do so. When talking to some locals (Luxembourg and Portuguese born), the things they stated Luxembourg was good for was: 1) earning money, 2) calmness and 3) getting away fast (Paris, Brussels and Amsterdam all lie very close, so in a couple of hours, you can reach more lively surroundings). All of these sum up to me as a place I'll probably never live in. However, I must say that the countryside and the woods of this small country are very, very charming!
So, in the car from Paris to Luxembourg, the cameraman of the documentary project said he wouldn't be able to go for the shooting in Torino. The next thing I heard from the front seat was: “Sissi, do you drive?” and before I knew it, I was well on my way to become as a substitute cameraman for the following week's shoot in Italy. As I had already planned a visit to Brussels (a city I'd also never been to) to see a close friend of mine (with whom I hitch-hiked to the Arctic Sea and back in May 2015), I decided to hitch-hike to Belgium the following day (after a night in hotel "Mon Plaisir"...very sketchy!), spend the night there and head back to Luxembourg the next afternoon.
2ND STRETCH: BISCARROSSE – PARIS
From Biscarrosse I headed to Paris, where I fell in love with the city once again. My first time in this city was in 2003 when me and two friends of mine hitch-hiked from Poland to Strasbourg, from where me and one of the friends continued on to Paris for one and a half nights (the half because we stayed up cruising around the city with some locals until sunrise, which was when we had to head back to Strasbourg in order to make it back to Poland before nightfall.). The second time was in 2007, visiting a wonderful friend before catching a train to Bayonne for the Camino de Santiago. Anyway, the city is just full of inspiration for all senses, flooded with creativity to bathe in...Wherever you look you see a tiny piece of art – whether gazing at people, building walls, shops, monuments or those small cafes and restaurants the city is so well known for. Unfortunately, whenever I'm in Paris, I never have enough time to explore everything the place has to offer – but then again, I think even a lifetime was not enough for this.
This time, I had no idea where I was going to stay and for how long. I had vague plans on couchsurfing, but better yet, a friend of mine contacted me to tell me she was also in town, and so I ended up staying at her couchsurfing host's home (a lovely French guy who has traveled all over the place couchsurfing and hitch-hiking). I stayed there a night before meeting up with another friend who was shooting a documentary film in town. After two Parisian days and nights, I decided to bum a ride from the documentary guys who were on their way to Luxembourg for another shoot. Little did I know that Luxembourg would turn out to be further from Finland than Paris was...
1ST STRETCH: MADRID - BISCARROSSE
My mid-term break from cycling has kicked off with three weeks of hitch-hiking and visiting friends in Europe! After a very eventful trip to Finland from Spain, I'm finally sitting on my parent's couch in Finland, and have the possibility to share some moments and photos of the loooong and wonderful trip to the North.
I landed in Madrid on the 27th May 2016 and after a night out dancing with my lovely couchsurfing host (a graphic designer with superb salsa and bachata skills) from Madrid and my lovely couchsurfing host from Olavarría, Argentina (who landed in Spain exactly on the same day as I did to start his first and long trip around Europe and India), I made my way to the outskirts of Madrid to start hitch-hiking the following day. As unexpected things ALWAYS happen, I for sure did not expect to find a fellow hitch-hiker at a gas station in the middle of a semi-abandoned road. But I did! There he was: Jules, a French guy on his way home to Biscarrosse (a scenic beach town in South West France) after traveling in Costa Rica for three months. And so the trip began with him, as we hitch-hiked to his family home, where his mother, father and brother greeted us with a warm meal and lots of smiles. I was very happy and relieved to be spending the first night with such sweet people, in a warm bed (as I thought I'd be heading for the European summer, I landed in Spain in flip-flops and a t-shirt...Hence the red poncho style Air Iberia blanket in one of the pictures...). This was a very welcome end for a day that started off not knowing whether I'd even make it out of Madrid.