Thursday, December 18, 2014
Couleur
I love gardens - but let's be real, who doesn't like gardens? Rewind to a month ago, when lights were changing colours and the seasons were transitioning into autumn hues: Edinburgh Royal Botanic Garden! I was most excited to visit here from out of all the other attractions, but mainly because I enjoy gardens and parks so much. The sun was also out despite it being cold, so we caught some great photos before it turned dark (it was also Guy Fawkes night so we took a wrong bus to a nearby town). The greenhouse in the gardens was enormous, with about 10 different zones of flora and fauna - it was especially nice to walk through the tropics and look at some really pretty plants.
It just so happens that I went to Kew Gardens in Richmond yesterday as well, and it reminded me of the happy times last month too. Gardens just bring me a lot of comfort, and it's possibly one of my ideal destination for a long pensive walk, or a cute date. Christmas is next week, so is my birthday - every year I'm reminded how lazy I've been (especially with blogging) because my creativity just goes down whenever I open up to type. Nonetheless, if you're out here I thank you, and I hope you have a lovely Christmas and New Year's :)
Tuesday, November 18, 2014
Edinburgh
It's good to be back - to the blog, and to travelling! It's been a while, my friends.... I can only hope my future absences are not as short-lived as the ones before. I can't stop saying how good it is to be back on the road, even though it was on a train because driving is not a great forte of mine but to be able to leave a city (however much attached you are to it) to explore new places is something I will always look forward to.
This is Edinburgh. I think it will now become a special place for me, not unlike other places that have charmed and beguiled me but this city is one of fondness, warmth and joy despite the weather. Warm hands and warm hearts outbid early sunsets in quiet and trembling nights, over the measured exhaling of breaths. The light was terrific on the first day, and the streets were aglow in misty sunlight as I trawled the streets for food. The great thing about new cities is getting to wander amidst new architectures, and Edinburgh littered with many gardens and hilly façades was something that made me happy in a small and significant way. There is a stillness to this city, but also thrives on the wonderful transition into autumn, where its rustic palette comes to life and tingles you with secret joys.
It is always hard to describe places close to my heart, mainly because I do not want to ruin the intimacy of experiencing it and yet if I don't try I fear I will forget it all. So I will try and this is something for me as much as it is for you. For me, it was the lights and it was the air and it was the grasping mix of drizzle and rain that made it worthwhile: running for a number 7 bus across the bridge from Old to New Town, walking through Princes Street Gardens trailing up to the Castle and down onto a vantage point overlooking the North Sea and taking all the wrong buses to see Bonfire Night fireworks in an adjacent town which only left an ice cream shop open.
This is part one, and hopefully in the next post I can regale my joy of the wonderful Botanic Gardens and its tropical greenhouses which was one of the best places on the trip. Let me know if you'd like to see this (otherwise I get lazy and have zero incentive) and I'll put up some photos next :)
Friday, September 12, 2014
n'oubliez pas moi
I wandered into this city before you did, back when you still kept strawberry brunette memories and fingers that will now seem lifetime ago to you now - but not then, back then when you still had a choice: kiss her and keep her versus love her and leave her and all I knew then and now, is to create trouble in my head.
On your mind I wonder: so many countless times it has made me lose sleep, or waking up like I had never slept. In the winter she must've been beautifully blessed with an alabaster sheen, glowing with a madness I sometimes secretly wish I had if I wasn't so practical. You may ask, why is it so important for me? My answer is an impossible one, my pretend sophistication stops me from answering honestly and for that you may find me tiresome but only if you knew that this is important because I need it, I need every possible destruction to feel creation - polarity matters, opposite matters, it matters,
you
and I
matter.
Everyone needed me in the way I didn't need them, or at least not in the right way. Even in New York, my possibilities seemed constrained and dull. Quite honestly, I was feeling a safe amount of comfort more than anything and this was ironically, terribly desperate of me and tragically even more dangerous than I had once imagined. I was using adjectives to compensate for non-existence, to fill these gaps that I couldn't, not at least until you had found me with my fingers clenched and tried to tell me it is okay to lose my words, because I could not find words anymore, because the way history destroy a person destroys everything that once could be but never more.
Joy is equal parts humiliation, hurt, and my hunger for love (towards you) that justifies all else (and this I hope you understand)
Sunday, September 7, 2014
East-West
I went right after Christmas, and spent New Year there as well.
The light in these photos is a snapshot of what winter in Istanbul is like, the white marble reflected bluish glows from its past, preceding the moving and breathing life that remains very much alive today. For a secular country Turkey claims to be, Istanbul certainly had no few mosques; the Blue Mosque stands across Hagia Sophia (a church? a mosque?) and as touristy as it is, was a sight to behold. Wafting through the breezy streets were chestnuts, Turkish tea and a iridescent glow from the Bosphorus, the stalls, and shops selling copper pots and pans.
Istanbul is now a favourite city of mine, a city that thrives on too many sweet treats and trendy areas. Although it doesn't showcase itself as a comfortable European town, Istanbul certainly makes up for it with eclectic mix of food (I love Mediterranean food too much: hummus anyone?) and the fighting spirit of hope, with its young and renewed population.
Monday, August 25, 2014
Late Summer Dining in London
This probably isn't well-known but I actually make more video content on my YouTube channel than my blog (often I find that writing is harder because I'm a perfectionist and it takes me very long to find words to describe the scenario) but it's different when it comes to video and one of my favourite things, food!
This is a video I uploaded on Sunday for anyone in London, or coming to London soon (or anytime, really) I have a video for y'all - food recommendations! Who doesn't like that? I share my favourite Greek restaurant, a cool French patisserie and a lounging venue for weekends :)
If you have any suggestions/places to go in London, please let me know and I'd love to hear! Remember: I love eating!
Sunday, August 17, 2014
Fiction
It's been a while, hasn't it? I keep saying I'll post something soon in my mind but actually editing/posting is another story we won't begin to mention. At least I had the heart to share some of these Firenze shots while I was in Italy last month. I stayed in Pisa, so we took a train into Firenze Santa Maria Novella station and Florence was one the cities I had anticipated to visit for so very long because of its architecture and Renaissance art. It was slightly rainy, but that didn't dampen my mood (ha ha) since I spent the time wandering in the Uffizi Gallery and roaming around Ponte Vecchio and afterwards to Piazza Michelangelo after a long hike up!
I feel like it's important for me, at least, to try to describe my travels as I had felt when I was there. Most glaringly were the colours of the buildings: burnt umber and sienna, littered by occasional gold. Unlike most Italian cities, Florence's architectural history with its art is something one finds hard to imagine, surviving so many centuries for so many years later. Yet, I would be paying a disservice trying to give an accurate description of what cities mean to me, because it may not mean the same to you and it wasn't idyllic as we would like to imagine (as we are so mistaken in much of our idealisations)-- I've long abandoned my 17-year-old Italian daydreams and summer dresses, because at 22, I am overly cynical but sensible enough to understand the histories that were not mine under an arrogance pretense of admiration.
By this point, we had got sick of having Italian food but there didn't seem much of a choice so a quick lunch consisted of spaghetti and water in a ubiquitous tourist trap with free wi-fi. I spent only six hours in Florence, and that's barely enough because I missed out the Boboli Gardens and other museums I originally planned to go to. Well, that can only mean I'll have to pay another visit in the near future.
Thursday, June 26, 2014
Dies Irae
Clearly I'm a lazy person when it comes to recollecting my experiences. I went away to Brighton two weeks ago and here are some snaps that may or may not interest a future flock of potential tourists, though I suspect it may be the latter.
All I did was eat, walked around and sleep. Brighton is a good place for a quick day trip so anyone looking to get away to a pseudo-beach (pebble beaches aren't beaches imo) you could opt for Brighton. And also fish and chips, if you're into that. I wasn't, so I went for a French Bistro in the town which was equally good. And I doubt anyone is remotely interested, but I'm curating a video of this trip and will be up soon, at least that's semi-productive?
And since I'm clearly addicted to traveling, if anyone is kind enough to recommend new destinations I'd be eternally grateful!
Tuesday, May 13, 2014
Tales of the Silent City
Could it be? It has been almost a year since my last post due to various boring reasons that you won't be interested in... But amidst studying Nietzsche (day two of this crazy German man) one finds a quiet reprieve in editing and reminiscing over happier and brighter times. I took a trip about two months back with a friend to Malta, and it was very relaxing to say the least. The city is bathed (most of the time we were there anyway) with sun and light as though we were in a distant past, draped in ancient limestone aged over the years...
My favorite part of the trip was when we visited the old harbor cities, it was like a ghost town but it proved to be a pleasant hideaway from a city like London, just taking an afternoon off roaming around and dare I say, enjoy life a little bit. That said, London is curiously having some thunder today and alas it is back to reality for me but in the meantime I hope this proves to be a sufficient comeback until I wade my way through huge stacks of philosophy texts....
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