We just finished an incredible two weeks in Greece – eating, beaching, swimming, dancing and overall indulging in such ridiculous languid pleasures that I feel guilty writing about it all here.  The sun, the sea, the music, the company, the scenery, the food.  Death by pure pleasure.

In addition to the beautiful Greek breakfasts that we had in Santorini, we gorged ourselves in seafood galore.  Sardines, calamari, octopus and fresh fish.  We spent most meals at local fish tavernas along the sea or along the caldera and we made it a point to stay completely away from the tourist restaurants.

Sampling restaurant/taverna food for two weeks straight was a fantastic learning experience in “eating out”.  My best friend Mari and her boy, AKA “The Greeks”, taught us to use the Greek salad index.  Whenever we looked over a menu deciding to eat at a place, they advised that we always check the price of a Greek salad.  Local, down-to-earth, family-run places usually price a Greek salad at about 5 Euro.  A place that prices a Greek salad at 10 Euros or more is catering to tourists.  Stay away!

Using this index, we found some incredible gems.  The kinds of places where the restauranteur, his wife, his kids, and the grandmas would all take part in serving us our meal.  Usually, these places offer cold, sliced fruit and raki complementary after the meal.  By 9pm, they are  always packed full of people, the noise of screaming kids and clattering plates abuzz in the air.  Magical.

It’s hard to believe that only three days ago, we were sitting in our swimsuits, having walked straight out of the sea and sat down to eat fresh fish on the outdoor terrace of a local fish taverna.  These have been some of the best meals of my life.  Dinner with good friends, over incredible food, watching the sun set in blaze of glory like this:

Just gorgeous.

We’re in Santorini for the next few days and every time I come here, it always takes my breath away.  It’s an island on the rim of an ancient volcano, with towns sitting precariously on the edge, looking as if they’re about to fall into the dark, eerie waters of its eye.  It was nothing like I expected when I came last year with friends and the second time around, it still gives me shivers.  This is the darkest beauty I’ve seen.

Black sand beaches, bottomless waters, dry rough hills and a scorching sun.  It is wild and raw and unforgiving.  Violent winds on one face of the island and a calm, mirror-like caldera of water on the other.  An island of contrasts.  So shocking in its wonder and so soft in its beauty.  It’s the kind of place that makes me feel so alive.  I am so awed.

This is why we travel.  To feel mystery, to be reminded that we haven’t seen everything there is to see, that we don’t know everything there is to know.  We like to be shaken.  We like to be swept off our feet.  Like the draw of unrequited love, travel teases us, shows us a world that could be and opens up possibilities so different from our daily lives.

Been away for a week now.  We’re in Greece!  I’ll send a more detailed update soon!

I think that despite my wishful thinking, summer in London has officially come and gone.  The last week has been markedly cooler and wetter than June and July.  We purchased an umbrella and the shorts and dresses have been hanging in the closet untouched for weeks.  The only reason I’m not moping about it too much is that we’re headed south in a few days for two weeks of extreme heat, warmth and sunshine.

But how to spend these last few days without going mad?  Well, the dryer is on full blast (just enough to heat the house), we’ve got tea in the kettle and cookies on the table.  And we’ve got movies!  Lots of them.  Actually, they’re not really movies.  We’ve been obsessed with documentaries lately and YouTube is a treasure trove of excellent, full length documentaries.  We’ve been learning about Stephen Hawking’s universe, about Columbia’s drug king Pablo Escobar, about the production of cocaine in Peru, about Indian orphans and the Gaza conflicts.  It has all been extremely educational, mind blowing entertainment and I’d like to share our favourites with you.

Unfortunately, the links I’ll post below will only work for UK IP addresses but you can use an online guide like this one to learn how to use a proxy server in the UK so you can access these shows from anywhere.

Rainy Saturday Documentaries

Dancing with the Devil – a film based on a true story about drugs, violence and redemption in the favellas for Rio

My Father, Pablo Escobar – a fascinating story about Columbia’s drug king as narrated by his son and his widow.  Incredible.

Dispatches – excellent investigative journalism on world topics like The Slumdog Children of Mumbai, The Children of Gaza and Pakistan’s Taliban Generation.

Master of the Universe – a series on Stephan Hawking’s life and research about the birth and death of the universe, the meaning of life and why we are here.

Iran Undercover – Shocking insider coverage of Iran’s medieval customs that authorities want to keep secret.

And finally, a selection of Cannes Film Festival movies from the independent films website, Mubi (formerly The Auteurs), all free to access.

Happy Rainy Saturday, wherever you are in the world.

We had some dear friends over for dinner last night and honestly, one of my favourite things about small, intimate dinners is the quirky conversation that is bound to come up about none-sense things.  It’s amusing to listen to it all flow from architecture in Canary Wharf, to suicide in one of the large towers, to suicide in the tubes, to Jamie Oliver, to cleaning bathrooms, to lime water that could be pinot grigio, to sex shops, to movies, to salary negotiations.  It’s like communal A.D.D. between four grown adults.

We were talking about a documentary on YouTube about suicide in the London Underground and quickly the conversation diverged to lunatic thoughts.  You know the ones.  Imagined scenarios in your head so real and so possible, they scare you.  Like when you’re standing there waiting for the train to arrive, it’s barreling down the tunnel at 30-40 miles per hour, it’s loud, it’s windy, the platform is packed with people.  How easy would it be to step a few feet over and into that rushing train?!  Danger is so close.  There are no barriers, no gates, no guards to stop you.  I used to imagine jumping in front of the train in the mornings, with a rush of fear so strong, I’d shiver all the way through the ride to work.  It’s nice to imagine vividly an alternate universe where recklessness knows no bounds.  The imagination is a powerful thing.

Our friend Andy’s lunatic thought was a little less sinister.  You’re in the office talking to a colleague face to face and you’re distracted by the lone, curly hair sticking out of the tip of his nose.  It must have been there for months, maybe years and how he hasn’t seen it every morning in the mirror and tried to remove it is beyond you but wow, how you’d love to just reach out and pluck that thing off his face.  You’re talking, smiling, nodding, completely distracted by the desire to save this man from any more embarrassment.  Maybe if you just pretended it was a fly and you quickly reached over to just get a piece of it.  He’d be startled but you’d laugh it off, ha ha ha, oh there was a fly on your nose!  It’s teasing you, that one grey grangly strand of hair, asking you to save it from the spotlight of this man’s nose.  Are you going to listen?!  What would happen if you did?  Would you get fired? Would he yell?  Would you care?  Would it be funny?  Of course it would be funny!

Or what about kissing that total stranger for no reason at all but to selfishly bemuse yourself over his reaction.  You’re walking down the street, he’s distracted, you’re bored.  Let’s spice things up a little, create an interesting human experiment.  He’d probably push you away before you even got the chance to get close enough.  Maybe he’d fall over from shock.  Would it be funny?  Definitely.  Would that classify as harassment?  In the USA, likely.

Or what about jumping from the gallery section of the Royal Albert Hall onto the arena below.  Would you break your bones?  Would it hurt?  How mad would the orchestra be over your disruption?  You’d probably get arrested.  What would jail be like?  How long could they really keep you there?  It’s not a crime, really, is it?  Silly yes.  Criminal, not really.

And wow, how cool would it be to go Jackie Chan on that really annoying colleague of yours?  A punch here, a karate chop there.  A black eye and a bleeding nose.  Ooooh, blooood. Too many action movies.  Fight Club. James Bond. You can punch like the best of them. Would your hand hurt?  It’s been said that punching someone is just as painful as being punched.  What would it sound like to hit someone on the nose?  He’d probably fight back.  Then what would you do?  Run?  Punch him again?  You’d for sure go to jail then.  It’s silly AND criminal.  Bad. Ass.

Decades ago in Calgary, we used to attend a baptist Sunday school where they taught us that thinking is the same as doing.  I was as nervous then as I am now about this teaching.  If it were true, my seat in hell would have been saved for me years ago.  I completely disagree with that preaching now.  Of course thinking isn’t the same as doing!  They’re two different words!  Duh!  And besides, that’s the whole point of being able to have lunatic thoughts.  Sometimes, we just need some fantastical escapism. =)

This past weekend I wrote about the ridiculous extravagance of this city (and just last night I found this article on a flat selling for £140 million) but I have to admit that there are many ways to enjoy London on a small budget.  We’ve spent the whole summer discovering affordable, beautiful, London.  And I’m going to share what we’ve found in a multiple-part series of posts.  Today:

Museums

Perhaps one of the things I love most about London is that it holds some of the world’s most precious collections of art.  And despite her staunch and wealth, Her Majesty the Queen has been generous enough to ensure that museums are free to visit!  FREE!  Here are my favourites:

The British Museum (nearest tube: Tottenham Court Road)

I’m not particularly interested in all of the Greek vases they have in this place (and some of my own Greek friends that this museum houses more Ancient Greek artifacts than do the museums in Athens) but what I love about the British Museum is the architecture of the place.  It’s one of the most beautifully designed buildings I’ve seen.  We come to browse for a little while and then go upstairs to have a coffee under the filtered light passing through the atrium sun roof.

The National Gallery (nearest tube: Leicester Square)

A wonderful place to spend a weekday afternoon away from the crowds.  I discovered my favourite Van Gogh painting here, The Two Crabs, on loan to the museum by a private collector.  And surprisingly, this painting, called Whistlejacket by George Stubbs is magnificent in person.  It hangs in a grande room and feels as large as a house.

The Tate Modern (nearest tube: Waterloo)

Weird, large, contemporary, hip and located on the south bank of the River Thames.  It’s a converted factory and is one of my favourite modern art museums in the world.  Always, there is something shocking in there that will give you pause.

The Victoria and Albert Museum (nearest tube: South Kensington)

I love this museum for one reason and one reason only: the jewel room.  There are colourful shiny things in all shapes, forms and sizes.  Tiaras made of diamonds, the greenest biggest emeralds you’ll ever see, necklaces so heavy with pretty coloured stones that you’d be sure to drown in the sea if you fell overboard.  The National Art Library is in there too (see picture above).

The National Portrait Gallery (nearest tube: Leicester Square)

The kind of paintings so real, you will think they are photographs.  I am always amazed whenever I come out of here.  Go.  Often, I can be found nose-to-nose with a painting trying to figure out where photography and paint converge on the canvas.

The Natural History Museum (nearest tube: South Kensington)

Life-sized whales, dinosaurs and mammals.  This place, like other natural history museums, will make you feel like a little kid again.  Impressive scale and excellent exhibits.

This is just a short list of my all-time favourites but if you want ful details on all museums in the city, you can go to the Visit London website to find out more.

Next in this series:  London on a budget – Great Walks.

]]> http://www.agirlintheworld.com/2010/08/london-on-a-budget-museums.html/feed 0 http://www.agirlintheworld.com/2010/08/a-little-bit-of-venice-in-london.html http://www.agirlintheworld.com/2010/08/a-little-bit-of-venice-in-london.html#comments Sun, 08 Aug 2010 19:29:01 +0000 Denise http://www.agirlintheworld.com/?p=1430

Sometimes, there are moments of such beauty in this city that you are caught completely off guard.  It has so much to offer.  Layers upon layers of surprise and delight.  This taken on a walk through the Little Venice canals in Maida Vale / Saint John’s Wood.

A well traveled friend stopping by London a few weeks ago described this city as obnoxiously expensive.  And that it is.  I remember when I first transferred here back in 2007 how hard it was for me to adjust to the prices.  A box of cereal converted to $5.  A litre of milk $3.50.  A McDonald’s big mac meal $7!  A movie ticket the equivalent of $24!!!  It was (is) madness!  Friends at work told me that if I had any hope in enjoying my time here, I’d have to STOP converting things in my head and just think in pounds.  That’s easy to do if you’re earning in pounds but if the monthly paycheque is coming in dollars, a $24 movie ticket is a hard thing to swallow.

A few weeks ago, the mayor launched a London bike scheme – a network of publicly available bicycles strategically placed throughout the centre of the city similar to programs in Paris and Barcelona.  Great idea, right?!  I thought so too, until we saw the prices! It’d make more sense to purchase your own bike at these rates!

On the other hand, obnoxiously expensive can also be ridiculously entertaining.  Last week, we visited The Wonder Room at Selfridges and as I licked the display cases of jewels upon jewels of sparkling beauty, a very nice sales lady offered to let me try on a £14,000 ruby encrusted, rose gold, Boucheron seahorse cocktail ring.  Be still my heart!  Why of course I’d love to try that on!  In fact, I’m happy to adopt the entire animal line and house them on all ten of my fingers.  Obnoxiously beautiful.  And right next to it: a £365,000 5-karat diamond ring.  I thought they’d made a mistake by adding a few too many zeroes.  Apparently not.  As lovely as a stone like that would be, I’m not quite sure I could wrap my head around the fact that I’d be wearing the equivalent of the expense of a small mansion on my finger.  Apparently, a client was coming in later in the day to purchase it.  Heh.  I didn’t want it anyway.  Too gaudy for my delicate little fingers

And then there are the ridiculous cars and the £7000 car wash that they need.  And not to mention the crazy hotels and eating venues and shopping streets.  This place looks, feels, sounds and smells like the most liquid and gratuitous market in the world.  There isn’t a hint of the recession here.  And that’s scary!

It’s been a fun few weeks perusing the swank neighbourhoods and shops in this city.  And sometimes it just makes me laugh.  A year ago, I was trying to decide which hole in the ground to pee over in Africa: the one with the spider on the wall or the one with the turd on the floor.  A friend once told me that I should push to experience a wide breadth of what the world has to offer and wide that experience has been thus far!

Perspective.

I’ve consumed more alcohol in the last month in this city than I have over the last year. The drinking culture here is intense. Not only have I been to more bars and pubs in the last few weeks than at any other time, but I’ve never been more busy. It seems there is an endless list of people to see and meet.  I feel like the most popular kid in school.  It is exhausting.

London is a town of many acquaintances.  It is a hotbed of friends-of-friends, long-lost cousins, workmates, visiting workmates, friends of your new significant other, gym mates, dance class mates, relatives passing through.  There’s always someone stopping over during a work trip, stopping over between flights, stopping over just because.  And sooner or later, the rule of six degrees of separation proves itself scarily and regularly true with the people that you know.  Someone knows someone who knows your cousin and you should meet with them tomorrow night!

This is all wonderful and social and exciting but wow, it’s a lot of beer/wine to be consuming on a weekly basis.  Here, people hardly go for dinners out.  They’re expensive, they’re time intensive, they require advance planning.  Restaurants are packed early and close early (kitchens usually close at around 10 or 11!).  You need time commitments, a booking, a planned transport route to get everyone to the same place at the same time without risk of losing your table.  Too much work.  Instead, we meet for drinks.  Drinks after work, drinks after dinner, drinks before the movie, drinks after the movie, drinks at multiple locations on the same street.  Drinks from 6pm onwards and into the eve.  And before you know it, it’s 9pm, kitchens are closing, you’re tipsy as a bat and there’s nowhere left to go but another pub.  Your dinner’s worth of calories have you staring down the bottom of a bottle and there’s still another 3 hours left in the evening before the tube (subway) shuts down.

So, you drink.  You toast.  You order rounds and accept rounds.  Of beers, of ciders, of shandies and Pimm’s.  If you’re brave, you’ll try for the pub house wine and if you’re smart, you’ll try to get a side of peanuts to help neutralize the effects of litres of alcohol on an empty stomach.

Rinse and repeat.  From Monday through Saturday if you so choose.  And realistically, drinks every night of the week isn’t an impossible task.  Actually, it’s much harder to avoid than you think.  And before you know it, your diet consists of breakfast, lunch and booze.  The diet of champions!

If you’ve ever been at a Starbucks long enough to eavesdrop on two women chatting over coffee, you’ll realize quickly (especially if you’re a man) just how crazy the world of girl talk can be.  Scratch that.  It’s not crazy, it’s … ridiculous.  We women are ridiculous.  Even though I participate in said girl talk regularly, I’m still amazed at how we’re able to perpetuate hours of conversation on insignificant details regarding our interactions with the opposite sex.  Hours and hours on what he said, what he didn’t say, what he did and how and why and when and where.  Imagine how much more productive we’d be and how we could increase our creative output if we just STOPPED doing that and spent time on other things?!?!  We’d have cured cancer, AIDS, world hunger by now!!!

This is an excerpt from a chat I had with a girl friend earlier today….

K: denise!

me: hey miss!

K: thanks for coming out last night to somerset house. hope u guys had fun

me: it was a cool experience!! and it was so nice to see you!!

K:
btw that boy i was telling u about on monday night
he sent me an email yesterday saying he had fun.. but that was it and like an idiot i responded with an email that i thought was casual but fun. i ran it past two guy friends here at work and they said nope.. u seem too keen!

me: LOL
oh goodness!

K: and of course i haven’t heard from him yet
ugh!

me: these MEN and their stupid games!

K: dating life sucks!!!

me: LOL.
don’t stress!
i have friends who get texts from girls they are IN LOVE WITH and they look at the text, talk to each other and are like “Ok, i won’t reply to her today. Maybe tomorrow or the next”
and i am like ARE YOU GUYS RETARDED?!?!?!?!

K: hahaha are u serious?

me: YES
SO STUPID

K: UGH
so this was our email exchange
from him:

Hi K,

Good fun last night!

Rxx

and then my novel to him:

Definitely – can’t remember the last time I had so much fun on a Monday night!

Heading out to see a movie at Somerset in a bit. What’s going on at your end this evening…practicing ballet in your large bathroom? Now that I’ve had the pleasure of getting acquainted with your singing skills..I’m quite tempted to see your pirouette!

K

me: that’s not bad
it’s totally flirty

K: yes … the boys said the opening line was TOO intense and the “what’s going on with you this evening” says that i want to see him that evening.. which is SO NOT the case

me: oh goodness i don’t get men. so they said that it was too eager?!

Kinnari: yep!

me: let me see what the Boy thinks.

K: i bet he’ll say the same!

me: He says it’s fine. BUT NOW I AM MAD AT HIM FOR BEING A PART OF THE MALE SPECIES! because now i am irritated at men in general because they’re so dumb

K: he says it’s fine?? come on, tell me exactly what he said!

me: he said that it was friendly and that it’s the guy’s loss if he doesn’t reply

K: how cute. He’s a sweetie

me: BUT you know what, He never replied to my text messages either.

K: No??? why not?

me: it was only thanks to C that i didn’t drop him completely
she was like “oh, he seems shy. give him a chance”
and i was like “i don’t want a guy that i have to chase!”

K: hahahhahaha

me: so then i emailed him one last time and he asked me out
FINALLY!
SO NOW I AM ANNOYED!

K: LOL
you are funny

me: anyway, i am asking him for his feedback again and he said the same: “It’s the guy’s loss if he doesn’t reply”. BORING!!! Why can’t he indulge and analyze the email for two hours like we do?!?!?! LOL

K: hahhahaha. Seriously! Can u believe how much time we WASTE on this shit?

me: LOL!

K: i thought for at least 20 minutes on what to write in that email

me: LOLLL

K: just to his “had fun last night”
JESUS
and now another hour stressing about how i sent the wrong msg
lol
absolute idiot

me: I’m dying here!
SO FUNNY!
i can’t stop laughing.
dumb men.

K: hahaha
no
men are not dumb
we are. we are the ones that are wasting our time analyzing every word and gesture endlessly
oh he held my hand this way instead of this

me: LOL

K: (literally, yesterday at the bar, i was telling the girls how we were holding hands)

me: so true!

K: men spend their time on wiser things

me: what do they spend their time on?

K: the usual ones on beer and sports

me: lol

K: the smart ones on reading about the world, talking about news.. life etc.

me: you’re so right

K: when do you find a group of guys talking about some girl one of them met?

me: true true! We need to spend our energies on other things! THAT is wisdom miss!

K: yep absolutely. you need to write a blog post about this!

me: Yes.

K: tell all the women to stop!

me: I will. Ok, let’s touch base later about plans for tonight. Thanks for making my day. Such a laugh!

K: Cross your fingers for me. Hope he emails

me: it’s his loss if he doesn’t! and THAT would be stupid of him

K: i actually agree with that
see what 30 does for u?:)
makes u pretty secure

me: haha
YES!!!!
love it!!!!