Month: July 2016

Horrid playgrounds of Berlin

/ lusofonetica / 2 Comments

After almost 2 years I’ve been living here, I have to admit I am never bored of exploring Berlin. Its diversity and creative energy is endless, as I roam around the streets, lakes, clubs, and widely defined ‘places’. Today I’d like to focus on a controversial topic of playgrounds in Berlin.

Why? As me and my friend Marta (who is the author of several pictures in this post and my partner in crime when it comes to discovering abandoned, inspiring and often horrid places) made some previous research about playgrounds, we couldn’t find the answer the origin of their specific design, to put it nicely. It’s interesting, since I know that other different secrets of Berlin have been investigated thoroughly (including the secret life of homeless Christmas trees).

Well, sometimes ill-designed amusement parks (such as Spree Park) or city attractions (like the Parks of Walking Sticks I was very tempted to see in Latvia) can be particularly romantic or even become a symbol of the city (e.g. bear sculptures in Friedrichshein are far from being cheerful).

There is a fine thin line between ‘inspiring’ and ‘scary’ though as you can see from some of the pictures we took from Spandau to Marzahn, as well as from Pankow to Tempelhof. Most of the playgrounds were empty, and I am not wondering why: the creatures looked pretty horrid, or at least very sad.

However, I wanted to say that I am not an enemy of this type of playgrounds, much as I enjoy abandoned or post-industrial places. I think that simple, wooden objects and toys can actually boost creativity in children while they explore their world. Maybe there is some underlying psychological theory beyond the specific design of these playgrounds?

To prove my argument, above I’d like to attach fragments of the book I found on the board of MS Polargirl while travelling in arctic Svalbard. You can clearly see that the author plays with the common objects found within the natural habitat (including reindeer’s bones or skulls) to create new faces, funny gnomes or island’s demons. Are Berliner playgrounds the caricature of the city?

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Maltese Mediterranean mood

/ lusofonetica / 1 Comment

Summer on my mind… Lately a friend of mine visited me and while singing karaoke (picking the most horrible choices like Geri Halliwell’s ‘Chico Latino’) our minds traveled to where it’s sunny, stunningly beautiful and the Mediterranean breeze is blowing.

Malta is definitely  one of these places, and I could share the whole series of Baleares, Sardegna and Adriatic tales to cheer up those still working and looking forward to the ‘real’ summer holidays. Since I am not a fan of high season travels, it’s not my case and I’ll share with you my impressions from this little Mediterranean island and country I visited in the springtime.

I spent some time in the Northern Part of Malta, where the widest and longest sandy beach is located, as well as the picturesque town of Mellieha. I strongly recommend visiting the town, since it’s still very authentic and has some stunning views to offer (when the visibility is good, one can spot the islands Comino and Gozo). For more spiritual or religious people, I’d recommend visiting the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Grotto, a very tranquil and soothing place for those searching for peace of mind and… oh well, shadow. Another interesting point worth visiting is the abandoned village of Popeye, since the movie was shot here years ago. Somewhat funny, somewhat scary!

Staying at the Northern tip of Malta allowed me to travel easily to the neighbouring islands of Comino (with its emblematic Blue Lagoon) and Gozo. Unfortunately, Blue Lagoon is already too popular and touristic – even off the high season, so I enjoyed mostly hiking around this small island and taking stunning photos of the blue waters.

However, Gozo will offer you much more: towns and villages with craft food, places to eat out authentic Maltese cuisine and again, excellent views of the Maltese sculptures of its own: rocks.

As opposed to the North, the South of Malta, including the Valetta-Gzira-Sliema three-in-one towns is full of history. Military buildings, museums and churches tell a story of years of battles and resistance of Malta.

I recommend a long walk throughout the Old Town of Valetta, including the port, and beyond: multicultural Gzira and posh Sliema. While Valetta reminds of a living monument, Gzira and Sliema are actually very lively places with the whole bunch of cafés and restaurants.

I didn’t have chance to visit St. Julian’s but its party image was not something I was looking for during this stay. All in all, I have to say that a couple of days on Malta made for a very relaxing, but also inspiring experience. It’s very well communicated, so it’s not too stressful to visit place, and yet not too expensive. I have a lot of thoughts around the sustainable tourism, which should be something to implement in places such as the Blue Lagoon, so please enjoy responsibly!

Auseklis of Latvia 

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Auseklis in Latvian means ‘The morning star’ and symbolizes protection from dark and evil. As somewhat my long weekend getaway coincided with the season change in Latvia: from long winter to springtime awakening, I feel that this could be a could symbols for the changes that were going on not only in nature, but also in my life.

For some reason, even while I visited both Lithuania and Estonia years ago, Latvia was always a pending country in Europe to see. What accelerated my visit were a few spare days in April I could use up for holidays and having two of my friends living there and posting beautiful Instagram pictures of Riga, Baltic coast and Sigulda, even in the gloomy wintertime.

I stayed in the hipster part of Riga (where else I could end up, ha ha) nearby Miera Street, full of original cafes, craft beer bars, theatres and streetart. And Laima – the chocolate factory, which tested really good!

I obviously checked the must-see boxes in the beautiful Riga’s Old Town learning about Latvia’s rich yet turbulent history, including visiting the Jewish Ghetto. I was equally enchanted by the Art Nouveau district, and post-industrial parts of the city, as much as the parks.

I didn’t go out at night beyond the Miera Street – my friends warned me that most likely for clubbing in Riga, I’d need to dress up in high heels. Berlin all-black-everything-I-don’t-give-a-damn style still didn’t get in here.

Instead, I chose an early morning escape to Sigulda, Krimulda and Turaida. 1 hour train ride from Riga you can find yourself in the beautiful Gauja National Park which is a paradise for hiking. Local tourist information offers a lot of advice regarding the most interesting paths. I opted for the 25 km one which was ambitious but extremely pleasant, including visiting the castle in Turaida, Park of Walking Sticks in Sigulda (?!), Sculpture Park of Krisjan Baron (Latvian natural art representative), as well as some bird-watching reserve. And since it was a very early springtime one could witness the sheer awakening of all the species!

On the third day I visited Jurmala, a seaside resort town and hosting of one of the most beautiful beaches. All in all, I was extremely happy to have discovered Latvia, and I would like to thank my friends for the extensive list of tips prior to visiting it.

And today I’m even more happy since one of them is re-visiting me in Berlin!