2004 tagged posts

In Asia, Thailand 2004 On  24/11/2004  One comment

Bangkok was the arrival and departure place in Thailand. An impressing city, full of paradoxes and surprises. Usually when I travel I don’t like big cities, but Bangkok seduced me. Many things in Thailand reminded me Brazil. The mixture of rich and poor, modern and antic, high technology and obsolete, nice people, heat, informality, chaotic transit… Bangkok is like São Paulo, although more beautiful, for its temples and palaces.

We spent almost two days visiting temples. They are impressive: golden Buddha, palaces, gold, ornaments. The city is a mixture of Buddhist temples and modern architecture. The high buildings catch the eye as much as the temples.

The transport here it is already an adventure. The tuk-tuk taxi are everywhere, they are like a 3 wheel motorcycle with cabin for passengers, a cheap way to move around town. Another interesting taxi is the river taxi, a ferryboat that connects the two margins of Chao Phraya. There are about 20 stops of this boat taxi...

In Spain, Islands in the Mediterranean On  02/09/2004  One comment

I took advantage of my mother’s visit to Spain to go to Mallorca. We went for only four days. We arrive on the afternoon and we stayed sunbathing on the terrace of the hotel. Later we had a delicious torte with tea and went for a walk on the old town.

The city of Palm is beautiful, it has a very interesting old town and wide avenues with coconut tree. We realized that they were accustomed with tourists because we were always well treated in restaurants and hotels. They are hospitable, different from other parts of Spain where they seem to be bothered by the presence of tourists.

On our last day on the island we try to take a boat tour but it was not possible. He was final of the high season and in those days they had changed the schedules of the boats. We always arrived one minutes later that the boat had left. Great part was error of the workshop of tourist information that in said the wrong schedule to them...

In Scandinavia - Baltic 2004, Europe On  25/08/2004  No comments

Oslo was our last one stop. We arrive on the afternoon and went to a house that rents rooms for tourist. The place scared a little, it was very far from downtown, it seemed countryside, there was only green around. It was not the idea of urban tourism we had planned. It looked like a place for weekend houses. But in the end of the day we saw that it was not, many people lived there the year around. When we got off on the train station, many people got off with us. We imagined how it would be to live in this place in the winter, everything very quiet, without life and, in addition, snow all around. The second day we moved to a hotel downtown.

We visit the port, a pretty place for, in the end of the afternoon, seeing the sunset and boats. We also went for a walk on the Vigeland Park: wonderful. A park with approximately 200 sculptures by the famous Norwegian artist, Gustav Vigeland...

In Scandinavia - Baltic 2004, Europe On  23/08/2004  No comments

We arrived in Stockholm on a Sunday, a calm day. Sundays are the same everywhere… In our way to the hotel we waked downtown where there were many cafes with outside table. Everybody were by the sun.

Later we went to visit the old town “Gamla Stan.” We passed by the port where it leaves many tour boats. It was a beautiful sunny day. We walked a lot around the island. It is crowed with bars, restaurants and tourists on the streets. We would sometimes seat down to see the people passing by. It caught our attention the number of mothers with baby stroller. We even joked that it must be fashionable to have babies nowadays. Next day we walked around downtown and later got the ISEA cruise to Tallinn.

We came back to Stockholm a week later, it was already cold. It was the end of August but on evenings the temperatures went down. The rainy day added some “coldness” to the atmosphere. We went for dinner in a restaurant in Gamla Stan: good food and wine...

In Scandinavia - Baltic 2004, Europe On  22/08/2004  One comment

We arrive in Helsinki in a rainy gray day. We walked a little by the center of the city, stop in a cafe to eat something and I went to the lectures of ISEA2004. My mother stayed waking around the center and photographing. By the end of the afternoon there was the inauguration of a art exhibition in the Kiasma (Museum of Contemporary Art). There we met my friends Spanish who were showing artwork. I showed to my mother some of the electronic art. The following days had been a mixture of going to lectures and walking to see the city. Always when there was sunlight I skipped the conferences to photograph and to walk by the tourist attractions of the city.

The city is organized and at the same time cold. It always gives the impression that is lacking something. According to my mother it is because it lacks an old town as in other European cities. In Helsinki everything was spacious that did not give the feeling of a cozy place.

What caught our attention in town is the huge number of haird...

In Scandinavia - Baltic 2004, Europe On  19/08/2004  One comment

When we arrived in Tallinn it was raining and cold. We went for a coffee and walk a little in the old town. I was impressed by the amount of tourists despite of the rain. We walked on the narrow streets with groups of English, German and Spanish people. They were all with their rain jackets and photo camera. Places with many tourists, specially groups, make me claustrophobic. It was as if we were in Disneyland visiting organized old towns, there was even a trolley to take visitors for a drive around downtown.

I spent a great part of my days on lectures. My mother was walking around town and going to souvenir shops. We found out that the city was not so touristy as we thought, there were only times that groups would invade downtown. In my understanding, it could be the time when cruise ships stopped there for a few hours. The old town could be very beautiful and pleasant, specially on the evenings and hours with little tourism.

In one of the days in town we went to a party on a square ...

In Scandinavia - Baltic 2004, Europe On  17/08/2004  One comment

We got the ISEA cruise in Stockholm that departure at noon. I spend the day in lectures and my mother in the pool and Jacuzzi. I took advantage of the coffee break to teach my mother how to photograph with the digital camera. After all, she would also photograph during the trip. Her first photos were from me seated in the ferry café.

By the end of the day we stopped to do a tour on the small island, Mariehamn. The island had been under the domain of Sweden and Finland, nowadays it seems to be an independent region, part of Finland. It is a place of summer houses, it looked very calm and serene. It was the end of the season, there was not many tourists. We try to imagine how it would be to live there in the winter (cold, snow and very few people); but for a Brazilian mind it was difficult to imagine that. We came back to the ferry for dinner, performances and parties of the night. We arrive in Tallinn next morning.

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