La pluie à Paris

June 2nd
02:00

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Off into the world again

In a little more than seven hours, I’ll be on a plane to Budapest! From there I’ll be taking the night train into Belgrade and beginning my two-and-a-half-week trip through the Western Balkans, my last personal adventure before returning to Canada.

Nothing is set in stone, but I have a vague idea of what I’m doing after Belgrade:

- Bus to Pristina (Kosovo) and two days between Pristina/Prizren, whichever is more interesting.

- Perhaps a day trip from Pristina/Prizren to Skopje in Macedonia?

- Three or more days in Albania: brief stop in Tirana, at least a day each in Berat and Gjirokaster

- Perhaps a stop in the Kotor Bay of Montenegro on my way up to Bosnia?

- Three days in Sarajevo (Bosnia and Herzegovina) and one day in Mostar

- Maybe a day or two on the Dalmatian Coast in Croatia (Split/Zadar)?

- Stop for the day in Zagreb

- Night train (?) from Zagreb to Vienna

Essentially, nothing is booked solid except my first night in Budapest tomorrow and my flight out of Vienna on June 18. Between those two dates… well, as you can see, I have lots of ideas, but I have no idea what the trip will actually look like yet.

My internet access will be sporadic at best until I get back to Paris on June 18 (and I’ll probably just collapse after that from all the sleep-depriving night travel) so not much will be heard from me until then.

Ta! See you all on the other side!

June 1st
20:50

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Berlin Wall (Part II)

The East Side Gallery.

On the West side of the wall, where West Berliners rarely faced the threat of being shot for getting too close to the border, the wall became a popular place for graffiti artists. As time went on, it became used as a canvas for proper street art and the West side of the Berlin Wall became famous for its graffiti.

On the East side of the wall, this was not permitted by the border guards. Trying to write graffiti on the wall, let alone draw on it, would literally be risking your life. It was explicitly forbidden, and the East side of the wall was painted white.

In 1990, after the wall had come down, artists from Berlin and all over the world took on the West Berliner tradition of drawing on the wall to create the East Side Gallery - a 1.3km-long open-air gallery of street art on the East side of the wall where such a thing would have once been a death wish.

What you see in the above photos are restored parts of the East Side Gallery - since, of course, after more than twenty years, the original art had begun to degrade from weather and vandalism. For comparison, this is how the famous kiss painting looked in 2005 - compared to the restored version above. Most of the restorations were done by the original artists of each piece, although there is some legal controversy surrounding several artists who do not want their pieces to be restored or repainted.

(Photos taken by me, 17 May 2012.)

20:06

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"« Votre attention s’il vous plaît : à la cause d’un accident grâve d’un voyageur, le trafic est ralenti sur toute la ligne 6. Merci pour votre compréhension. »"

— Announcements I wish I hadn’t heard on the Paris Metro

15:56

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British Museum in London, UK.

Photo taken by me, 4 November 2011.

14:53

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Today is my last day at work, my last day with the kids…

I am really going to miss them. :(

I got each of them a book as a little parting gift, hopefully they like them. (I worry that kids in general don’t seem so keen on getting books as gifts anymore…)

For M, a very simple abridged version of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes in English. I got C a bilingual version of The Cat in the Hat. I hope they can read them, and that the English isn’t too hard…

Sigh, I have to leave in ten minutes. I just can’t believe this is my last time with the kids. I’m really sad.

13:01

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