Author Archives: Libby Tucker
Dancing in the streets of San Telmo at the local market a few short blocks from my apartment. Sunday afternoon, decked out in the Argentine national team attire. One of several street markets and events that seem to appear around every corner of Bs As.
One of the first nights out walking the streets, came across a hole-in-the-wall parrilla (grill – referring to a meat grill restaurant/shop that grills the infamous Argentine beef, as well as chorizo). The wine was cheap, and everyone bought bottles to share. Singing was common, old men singing traditional songs, and 2 professional singers. This video is of a local portena singing Shakira.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WEGzIqEEyng
Rain in Buenos Aires! Within a few short hours the whole city was filling up nearly flooding with rain water. It was great, I stepped outside for a second and was literally soaked. I don’t miss the Seattle rain but I did miss the soaking wet warm rain! It’s hard to get the whole idea but here’s a small sample.
Buenos Aires! Launching out again – another test in life, knowing myself, and working and living virtually from another culture, another continent, another history, new rules, new foods, and a whole new set of experiences! A dream come true… on purpose.
It’s strange celebrating Christmas with a tank top, flip flops (ojotas), and a sunburn.
The city is enormous. 9 de Julio,’the widest street in the world’ is here, 13 lanes and always crowded. Unless you run, it’s impossible to cross in one go and even then it’s difficult. Buses (colectivos) are constantly screeching, horns honking, taxis and cars riding side by side on one-lane one-way streets.
It’s a combination of Europe, Central (and some of North) America. Much richer than Central America but still carrying the danger of being robbed if you don’t watch your stuff. For example, don’t leave your cell phone in open view, and watch your pockets on the subway. Otherwise, the architecture, the castellano accent, the doors, the ovens, the attitude of the people – all very European. For me, it’s the best of both worlds. The only thing missing is the beach, though that’s a few hours away, either Mar de Plata in Argentina or Punta del Este in Uruguay.
The city is full of parks. Thanks to my friend Mike, I’ve experienced a new concept – self-guided running tours of the city. Grab a map (or not) and run around the city to see all the tourist attractions. Running / walking / getting lost… all have led me to see the famous cemetary where the body of Eva Peron (Evita) lies – with the family Duarte not Peron, the cathedral, gorgeous churches, famous monuments, parks, political protests, panaderias (empanadas on nearly every corner!), town squares, tall buildings, theaters, tango shows, huge markets, sports arenas… so much to see, every day a new adventure!
Again a challenge to be a vegetarian here so I’ve slowly returned to meet. Bife de chorizo and every part of the cow you could imagine or never wanted to know, can be served on your plate. As a local Argentine / Porteno (from Bs As) said ‘what do you mean all cows aren’t grass fed and roam around all day’, it’s only natural here, not mass production for human troughs.
Dogs, unlike Central America, are well respected here, which makes me quite happy. You’ll often see a person during the week, obviously a career choice, walking up to 20 dogs! But, lots of dogs in the city means constantly dodging dog poop while out running! It’s a challenge to balance dodging poo while looking up and guarding yourself from the rusty water drops from the terraces above – or, remains from the neighbor’s lunch. The other challenge, which I learned the very first day out running, is to play QBert on the uneven sidewalks where you never know when an ankle might roll. An ever entertaining challenge while avoiding the diesel fumes or city dusting as you’re out running.
The city makes you feel at home. The people are friendly and I spent part of the day dancing with bands in the streets and in the market. I could only hope to dance like the locals or the Brazilians or people from Uruguay, but I had complete welcome uninhibited fun regardless.
You can live very inexpensively or the high life here, there’s a little for all. I can get my infamous banana milkshake on the corner for 5 pesos, or about $1.20, or I can jog a mile and pay 4 times that. Prices vary. I live in a neighborhood called San Telmo – a trendy, hipster, artsy neighborhood, maybe not the safest when you see someone crack a bottle of wine over another’s head, but an area well known and with culture nonetheless.
I’ll see what else I can jot down, but that’s what I’ve learned thus far. The city has taken a hold of me, I love that every day I can see something new, have many experiences, keep working yet learning new words and new foods, start the day late (unless there are hammers and chisels pounding near your head from all the construction) and end late, be in the hot sun in December, meet great people, dance / live / learn, and end the day be excited to see more.
Pictures are here -
One of my favorite articles is by Paul Graham, entrepreneur, investor, founder of Y Combinator. I quote it often and I wanted to give it a shout out.
It’s called ‘You Weren’t Meant to Have a Boss’
http://www.paulgraham.com/boss.html
Paul likens an entrepreneur to a lion in the wild. He says:
“I was in Africa last year and saw a lot of animals in the wild that I’d only seen in zoos before. It was remarkable how different they seemed. Particularly lions. Lions in the wild seem about ten times more alive. They’re like different animals. I suspect that working for oneself feels better to humans in much the same way that living in the wild must feel better to a wide-ranging predator like a lion. Life in a zoo is easier, but it isn’t the life they were designed for.”
My interpretation:
It’s much tougher to be out in the world of the unknown. It’s wild. It’s scary. And on any given day it can eat you alive.
But… it engrosses you. You love it, because of one thing – you are free. Or as Paul Graham says “Ten times more alive”!
Humans weren’t designed to be corporate machines, slaving (voluntarily) away to build someone else’s dreams, to feed someone else’s family. You may not know if you’re going to eat the next day or not, but it’s your choice, not someone else’s rationing to you.
Being wild, free, undaunted and passionate amidst daily challenges are characteristics of both the lion and the entrepreneur.
Human beings were meant to experience life by being alive. Ten times more alive.
Kudos to the entrepreneurs!
I love the iPhone and just got the latest 3Gs. Heaven! Almost…
When traveling I paid $60/month just to keep my number with AT&T and rarely used the number. As long as you can get connected with wifi, you should be able to use:
VoIP
Text
What are some of the services that exist? Let’s take a look:
VoIP –
Skype
> Does not offer service for 3G, this is disturbing to me, I hope they have a release announcement soon!
TruPhone
Fring
Text –
TextFree
> Costs $5.99 for full version and sends texts to/from email
Google Voice
> Not an app and not yet listed in Google Apps for iPhone but promising from-web texting
So, in the hopefully near future, the iPhone will be able to be used strictly with wifi connections – no more expensive phone plans and international calling plans!
Random ramblings … and some stuff on Berlin.
Taking bites out of encased stinky cheese, I’m not the only one who liked this spot.
To the right of me are old cigarette butts. The ants are crawling eagerly on my fresh bread rolls and two kinds of new cheeses that I just bought in the supermarket – Knirps wieinkase and St. Mang Romadur. I’m just hoping the nutella (or nudossi) and multivitamin juice jug won’t attract bees.
It took me two hours to find this spot but it’s worth it. Off the Prinzenstrasse Ubahn I am sitting over a canal with my feet dangling over the water, joggers and dogs in the background and old German houses across the canal. It’s so hot and humid that I took off my shirt and am just in a sports bra with my capris rolled as high as I can. I feel completely anonymous and happy and free.
Fresh bread and cheese! Anyone who knows me knows that I am happier right now than a pig in poo.
Freedom. That’s the word that popped into my head today as I stepped out into the streets of Berlin. Ironic yet appropriate is that word as I walk past the old remains of he Berlin wall.
I passed Humboldt University the place where Albert Einstein went to school and I thought – for as brilliant as the Germans are – smart people can do some really dumb things sometimes.
My thoughts seem disconnected but they are revolving. I know I think and therefore write in disjointed sentences or roundabout ways. But I’m not writing a book and don’t have to cross my t’s, I’m just expressing myself.
That’s how I feel today. Free. I am completely alone in Berlin, in a city that is so spread out, that gives off eery vibes from its ghosts of the past but offers a strong quirky underground friendly character. Unlike any city I have ever been in.
Everything is truly socialistic. Museums and Opera cost the same if you are 18 and a bum or if you are 70 and posh, you are accepted as you are. No guestlists, no private parties, come one come all.
The neighborhoods all have bars and cafes. There is not one real place to go for nightlife or for culture. Culture is all around. There is street art, graffiti, legal prostitution, independent coffee shops, stores, bookstores, and so on. Sure they have made checkpoint charlie a huge tourist attraction, but just walking around in Berlin you breathe in the history of the SS, Gestapo, Nazis, as you stumble through the maze of the Holocaust memorial or sit on the steps of the French Cathedral overlooking the square where Berliners drank the ‘Swedish Cocktail’ which halved their population, or Pariser Square where Victoria sits high on Brandenburg Gate glaring victoriously over the French. Right next to that is the hotel where Michael Jackson held his newborn son out the window – some pop culture at a very ironic time in history, just after the death of Michael Jackson.
Today my plan was to go to Einstein Kaffee to go online. But instead I decided to first take some time to enjoy my freedom.
No hostel guests, no being pulled in 20 different directions, no bogey web projects that turn out to be jokes, no dating, no traveling with 5 people, or even 1 other person, and having to please others. I don’t have to please anyone. I am free.
I have learned a lot of things about myself traveling and in general.
I made a long list today and it’s still growing. It’s a great time for me to unwind, reflect on things that have happened, how I reacted. Change happening so quickly is like a bullet – rapidly telling you what you need to / want to change inside yourself.
People say I think too much and to ‘stop thinking’, I say ‘stop just existing’. Traveling has made me realize that we all have a part, there are so so many people on the planet. We need to give balance to the earth, need to be here for a purpose, not just breathe air and use resources. I don’t know what that balance is yet for me, but I think it’s an important realization. Leave your mark on the earth, give back.
I am here in the park, no phone, no camera, a computer that barely runs but is allowing me to type this. Endless frustration with not finding internet, phone, etc but I feel even more free than I ever have in this moment. I had to re-learn how to communicate without a phone and texting at my fingertips. Life is quieter, less complicated, and more interesting as I am forced to look around, forced to figure things out and deal with what is around me and not beeping in my hand. I know I’ll
go back to it soon but I am enjoying the quiet just even for this moment.
Freedom!
I recently got back from a road trip around Eastern Europe for my birthday. It was one of the most memorable experiences of my life. The freedom of driving, stopping at little towns here and there.
Slovenia was a hidden surprise. Places I have always wanted to go like Lake Bled. We rented a row boat and rowed out to the island with the church, had lunch, walked the neverending steps to the top. It was so amazing. Hung out with locals in Ljubljana, slept in parking lots, farm fields, hidden alleys or driveways, or even the middle of town!! The one shower I took that week was in somewhere Croatia. We had been dipping into the lakes, rivers, Adriatic Sea, whatever water was there.
Finally, furry and with slick hair, I busted out the shampoo, razor, and soap. After a dip in the sea, we headed to the showers (the ones where you’re supposed to wash off the salt water) and at 8 am when people were also taking a morning dip or eating breakfast, I had a shower, shampoo, shave and all right on the beach in front of everyone! If you pretend like no one is looking, they really aren’t right?
Leaving the Croatia coast was tough, I said goodbye to the sea a few times. Cliff jumping was unforgettable. We were told to go to the touristy spot and not the ‘dangerous, local, spot’ where there were pathways off the backside of St Peter’s church. But somehow as luck would have it we ended up there. 2 hours to warm up, plus another half hour each standing at the cliff edge looking over 20 meters down, not knowing what would happen if we jumped (we were the only ones lucky enough to be there), we finally did.
I wanted to scare the crap out of myself, and I did. I definitely did. Sweating, shaking, swearing, praying, chanting, throwing things – mix of emotions.
Just as I was warming up, a ship came by playing the song ‘Life is Life’ and then part of the song said ‘jump jump jump jump’. I figured it was a sign. After that passed some fisherman came by to throw nets. It was now or never.
I finally jumped. The birthday jump. I don’t even know how I did it, it just happened. Jessie did it. So could I. ‘FEET FIRST’ I said right before I plunged. Why didn’t I follow my own advice? I know – probably because falling from that high up is so unnatural and my body was scrambling to find ground or something to hold onto. I landed, hard. I had no idea that water could do that much damage. Jessie was ok, so should I be. But, I landed wrong. Bleeding and bruised, not able to sit
for still a couple weeks now comfortably and not being able to turn my neck, but, I did it!
The birthday jump.
Driving was tough but we met up with the others and we road tripped to Sarajevo, playing the game ‘Encore’ and losing track of time. It was all about the word ‘love’!
I left the group in Sarajevo. An interesting city, wish I had more time to go on the history tour, but just walking around and talking to locals in Slovenia, Croatia, and Bosnia gave me a touch of the REAL history, what people really remember and not just from the tours. I also remembered some of the news from ‘91. The streets were crowded and crazy with cars, people, cafes, trams, cars parked on sidewalks, one ways – glad I made it out of there!
I had to pinch myself a couple of times. Here I was, driving in my littled rented Peuguot ‘Pooh’ through Bosnia… BOSNIA!
On the backroads. I had enough gas, but no cell phone. I knew how to change a tire – at least in the States. I didn’t speak slavic. My butt was cushioned with towels and sweatshirts as I was still recovering from the jump, and I stopped about once every hour or two to adjust. Bosnia is beautiful with large mountains and the road curves along the river. River one side, huge tree-covered rocks on the other.
I learned quickly one word, ‘obilaza’… construction. I tried to avoid it but it was construction season. I ended up taking several backroads, hitting some stop and go construction on gravel roads. But when there was no construction, I was cruising through now-flat countryside and windy roads through small cities. I felt like I was driving the backroads to my sister’s house in Wisconsin, only a different language and centuries of different history, different people.
What were they like? They had families too, they played in the yard, worked on the farm, had jobs, went to church, to the pub, to the dentist. What are they like? And here I am, an American in Pooh passing cars, farmers, tractors, not knowing where I am or much about the people or land. Again I had to pinch myself.
I popped in the Slumdog Millionaire sountrack as I cruised with Pooh through the backroads, feeling happy and peaceful, eating my cheese and crackers and my warm water, just doing my thing. In Bosnia!
After I played the soundtrack at least twice, I turned back to the radio. I loved listening to the radio stations that played the local music, it made me feel closer to the culture somehow. Then finally a great hip hop song came on, and I was jamming away.
Then, like the twilight zone or Brigadoon, I crossed a bridge and everything changed. The music station suddenly switched. The signs no longer had any slavic looking words. Everything was in Russian!
Where was I? What happened? These words aren’t on the map? What’s going on??
Finally I pulled over at a gas station. No English – all they spoke was German! Twilight zone. I could understand most of it and was back on track, but it made me really want to go back to German and Russian classes!
Again, pinching myself, here I was in former Yugoslavia, driving, the signs were in Russian, the people spoke German.
Times like these however make me happy to be alive. When does this stuff happen? I loved every second of it. It’s overcoming challenges or doing different things in life that give me energy and peace.
I was a little bummed but also relieved to be back in Hungary, where the roads are really nice and easy to drive on, a little hard to navigate around Budapest but it worked out just fine. It was somewhat surprisingly comforting hear some Hungarian words. Pooh was returned and all was well. Back on foot. Goodbye Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia, thanks for the memories!
I’ll post pictures as soon as I can get them developed – from my disposable cameras!
PROBABLY THE BEST ??
So far I have seen three marketing campaigns.
Antwerp – ‘Belgaufra (belgian wafels). Probably the best since 1950’
Sarajevo – ‘Carlsberg. Probably the best beer in the world’
Berlin – ‘Ben and Jerry’s. Probably the best ice cream in the world’
What’s with the ‘probably’??
I get that it ‘probably’ has something to do with legalities, but to me it sounds funny, either it is or it isn’t. Or, it ‘probably’ is!
One of the benefits, to me – now living back in the US, is Google Voice. US numbers only, I can call from my cell phone or landline and get low international rates:
http://www.google.com/support/voice/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=141925
If I’m international, I can call my Skype using my Skype to Go number, then dial my Google Voice for 2 cents/minute and make international calls also for as low as 2 cents/minute. So calling London might now cost 4 cents/min versus 20-40 cents/min.
I haven’t tried this yet and I’m guessing the VoIP quality is not great, but in theory, it works!
Google Voice also announces the cost of the call before it makes it, sweet!
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