Telling Inside Stories
Amsterdam
Post
I drop the water-soaked package on the table that had recently fallen into the puddle. A postman looks at me confused and I guess just tries to understand what has just happened. (my package looks bad and it’s from ‘hotel DROOG’ by the way) He asks: do you know what ‘DROOG’ means in Dutch?
Me: I don’t.
Postman: It means DRY.
Amsterdam always feels super intelligent to me. When I feel I need to learn something, I go there. You can have a conversation with a person on a street, or in a store. It doesn’t really matter. You will be wondering, if they are all writers there.
Boston
It seems that every single thing has knowledge there. Streets and houses have knowledge. People have knowledge. Animals have knowledge. I suspect all objects have some kind of knowledge there.
Budapest
I always feel like I've traveled back in time when I enter the thermal baths. It's just too beautiful for those who live with a shower. 02.28
The apartment we stayed had very high ceiling. So high, that I was tempted to reach it. I bought a bag of wooden pick-up sticks. I glued them together into one long piece and I attached a feather on top of it. This took all evening. Also because we were tasting local wine. 02.29
The best thing about Budapest was not food. Until we found a lebanese place. And we simply just could not leave… 02.28
Cape Town
maybe every person in this country realy is designer or an artist.
I loved design stores and markets and hiking the most.
Graskop
I also liked the hotel we stayed in the mountains, because it had original artpieces on the walls and objects. On the desk there was a magazine where all those artpieces were priced. I hope that beautiful place still exist.
Copenhagen
Once quite a loud bird came live in the yard. He would not sing when the space was filled with other sounds. Only when everything becomes silent. After listening to it for a while, I decided to record it. Made a mixtape out of it. Winter music.
The light here is special. In summer it’s bright and it makes things look sharp and the colours become so alive. And in winter there is such a difference… everything looks dim and you tend to focus on the shape of things and their shadows.
You can experience the city in various ways. For the last ten years I have just been cycling. I knew the city so well on my bike. The speed and panoramics became so familiar. But the moment I started to walk with pram, all of a sudden everything changed. Not only did I start to notice different things. The time and distances between places are different now.
Göteborg
Theater
During the concert at the theater, a woman stands up to say she did not hear enough accordion and would like to hear more flute as well. Musicians are impressed. Later on, the main violinist asks the same women if she can hear his part well enough.
Malaga
Museum
Me: I am looking for Bruce Nauman, but I can't find him... Where is it? B: I’m sorry, but you will need to travel into the future then!Me: How far into the future?B: Not Monday...Me: So, is it Tuesday then? B: Yes, next Tuesday is fine!
(Conversation in a museum while looking for Bruce Nauman)
Tennis
I have my favorite place here. I discovered it by walking on a beach one day. It looks and feels like to be on a film set. Strangely enough, everything feels like it belongs to a place. It is also a very worn down location with an old restaurant. You can sit near the table, drink your coffee and suddenly a wave comes and splashes on you (!) Sometimes I just go there to play tennis in an old tennis court surrounded by 100 m high palms. It’s true.
Marrakesh
Windows
I tried to open a window and then I realised how windows open here…
Lunch
We went to a restaurant inside a patio. It looked like a little secret garden. This is how I found out where all the travelers dine. I liked it too. And the women working there were so cool. We wanted to buy same dresses as waitresses had. But we were told it was sold out.
Milano
Buying silk
You certainly need a man in a toxido to cut a piece of fabric for you. This is a part of the Milano experience.
Scents
They are crazy about perfumes there. Everything smells. Hotel rooms, train stations, everything… Food tastes like a parfum too.
New York
Elevator
I think I have never experienced waiting in a line for an elevator, I say it to my friend. And I ask a man standing behind if he ever experienced something similar in any other hotel… ‘This is something very New York’, another couple standing in front, answers and makes everyone laugh in agreement.
Subways
On subways you have to check tickets at a certain speed. You need to do it fast, at the right moment and in a certain manner. It is completely the opposite to Copenhagen. In Copenhagen, those machines are much more patient.
Tokyo
Strange Walk
A woman and a man walked through the park. Suddenly, a man jumps on his fours and starts walking next to a woman like a dog. He rolls on his back from side to side happily and laughs. Then he stands up and they continue to walk like nothing happened.
Istambul
On the way from the airport to the hotel I have lost my beautiful velvet belt which is an art piece. I just renovated it and I feel so sad about this lost. I already asked in the reception and taxi driver, but they did not find it either. I am so sad about it. I will never be able to re-create an exact one also because it was a present given to my mother. This is not a good start… 03.02
Spiller ‘Groove jet’ is playing on the radio in the street. I haven’t hear this song for ages! It realy matches the surroundings. I think this is every traveler’s song. 03.03
My room is under the ground. I got it after I asked to change the little room I got, because it seemed so small and had a window opening into a hallway (?) I do not have any windows now, but it is completely new and everything is painted in gold. I call it cave. 03.03
Today in a small supermaket a person said ‘big boss’ to me while trying to pass by. This made me laugh. Also because I am a boss and also because that coat I’m wearing is way too big for me. 03.03
I think, I have blended in quite well in this city 🖤. I actually blend in quite easily in new environments. This is my talent
Buying some fruit in the local store. The boy asks me:
Where are you from?
i am Lithuanian.
You look like from Paradise
Venice
That funny feeling when the night falls, my phone’s battery is running low, and a chance of getting lost in a maze becomes more and more real…
The guide: “When M. Polo was away from his Venetian home, his half sisters told his wife that her husband was dead and he would not come back. And so his wife became so upset, that she set fire to her clothes and jumped from this window into the canal…”
(Suddenly something jumps in the water)
The guide: Don’t worry, it's just a fish!
A voice: I Don’t think so...
Vilnius
Taxis
I use it a lot here. My best side reason is a possibility to talk with people and hear their stories. Lately, when I say to drivers that I call taxis that often, they ask me: ‘So how are other drivers doing?’
Sound of Walking
Whenever I walk with someone, they always pick up the sound of my shoes, but I would say, that this is the sound of the place that they are hearing. I even think that the sound of walking in different cities varies. I tried it with my favorite pair of shoes when going with them through the streets of Vilnius and in Copenhagen and I'm convinced now, that it creates different sounds every time again.
Noted by Goda Go