The Foreign Me

Saturday, February 28, 2015

From the sunny sea side to the hail in the city

The old part of Bari is a large contributor to the city's charm, but there were other things that captivated us. One of them was, of course, the sea front.
We missed both the sea water and the Sun! Bari gave us a bit of both. Yes, only a bit. The sky had a few clouds that covered the Sun from time to time and there was no proper beach. But there was water until our eyes could see and , when it came out, the sun was bright and warm! :)

Of course, Andre had to test if the water was actually warm/good to bathe the feet, at least. This was his face of "approval"!

The test

The "thumbs up" :p

The water was too cold! :P Maybe in Summer time we can come back and do the test again! :)

After walking a bit we walked by a fisherman area. It was a great atmosphere to witness! They were all men, of course, and most of them were talking and relaxing like someone who have finished their working day, some were playing cards, others were still opening sea urchins and others still were selling bulks of seafood (mainly already prepared sea urchins, shellfish and octopuses). I didn't see any buyers, but maybe they would come in later.

Preparing sea urchins

Selling octopuses

But the sea... the sea was beautiful with the mini waves, amazing colour of blue and green and many birds (mainly seagulls) all around. Here are some pictures:

But the wind was turning! This should have been our sign:

After lunch, when we wanted to go around the city one last time before we picked our car, the hail came! So hard!! And it didn't stop! Some roads were flooded and with some time to kill, we were caught using any space slightly protected that we were able to use! We even made a documentary video! Unfortunately for the English speakers the video is in Portuguese, but you can still hear the hail!

Bari is a better place to hang around than we expected, but I have to confess that some of its charm went away with the flow of water running through the streets :P

Lo centro storico

To be honest, when I first chose Bari as the flight destination for this getaway, I mostly considered two things, how much the flight would cost and the connections (to countries on the other side of the Adriatic) that the city would offer. However, the more I explored about this area the more excited I got about Puglia alone. It is off the beaten track, especially at this time of the year, but that only adds to its charm! I started to plan where to go and quickly the idea of getting a ferry was dropped. Both the prices and duration of the trip made the decision quite easy. But at this time, it was actually good, because I was already excited about Bari and a few other places in the same region.

But starting with Bari. Apparently it was a no go kind of place until a few years ago because it was not very safe. Now it is much better and the historic centre can be visited even at night. Which is great, because it is beautiful when lit by the street lights alone.

Bari old town streets at night

On the other side of the old town, the sea front :)

Maybe this is the reason this is now a safer area, but it is still scary to find this in the centre of the old town

So Bari it was! After a tricky trip to the airport we (me and Andre) got the flight and arrived to Bari. I already knew there was a bus to the city and after asking around we got two tickets to centre Bari for 1€ each! When the bus came we understood why it was so cheap! The bus seemed about the same age as me and I would not be surprised if it was even older! We felt every bump on the street, the door wouldn't close completely and there were parts that looked like they wanted to get off the bus! Of course we laughed abut it more than we complained! This was already part of the experience! :)

Our bus. I have to say that it is very photogenic!! You can't even notice the dirty windows that well! :p

Not our bus but is good enough to illustrate how the buses are

But so, we had arrived! On the first night (when we arrived it was already night), we walked a bit around the city and had our first taste on great and non-expensive food! So much good food!!

One of the highlights of the city is the historical centre, lo centro storico which gives the name to this post. It is so because it has so much character and charm that it deserved its own post. The streets are narrow (like in most old cities) and create a maze that we didn't bother to study. We just walked around choosing the next street because of its colours, its smells and the music! Yes, music!! There was music everywhere in this part of the city! The doors to almost every house were open and quite often there was loud music coming from inside. A place so lively as... well, Italian!

The typical Italian street corner

There were things that marked this Italian stamp that I tried to portrait here:

- The religious elements. Portugal is quite a religious country, especially in the north, but you can find the catholic symbols mostly inside people's homes. In Italy this happens everywhere. So here are some photos showing the religious symbols that we could find just walking around:

Religion is everywhere - pic 1

Religion is everywhere - pic 2

Religion is everywhere - pic 3

Religion is everywhere - "Peace out, man"

- The washing lines. Even when it rains:

Washing lines - pic. 1

Washing lines - pic 2

Washing lines - pic 3

- The scooters that were parked everywhere. Even inside the shops:

- And me doing stupid faces:

Monday, February 23, 2015

In t minus three days

After many months of silence I'm restoring the life to this blog.

Things have been quite busy with the move to a new country and the search and start of new jobs. So a few dream trips had to be postponed, but now that things are more settled, there will be new posts on this page!

We now have two trips booked and one will be this week already! Using some days off the A&A team will go to Puglia, the heel on Italy's boot, to explore the off the beaten track part of Italy! I am so looking forward!! I am realy excited for it especially because I've been craving for new adventures like this for a while.

The second trip... Well that will be kept a secret for a little while longer; but not that much...

Monday, September 8, 2014

The day we almost "punted"

If the question "What the hell is punted?" populates your mind right now, you are just like me a week ago. Actually, that might be kind of a trick question because punted does not exist. But punting does! And I had no idea of what that was until I started making questions about Cambridge.
Punting is basically the art of moving your canoe down a (shallow) river with a long stick. Something that Cambridge inhabitants have been doing for some time. It's a bit like what they do in Venice but without the gondolas and the funny hats.
For me, one of the most curious aspects of punting is the platform where the punter is. As you can see in the picture below, it is a flat piece of wood almost always completely wet. The interesting aspect of it, for me, is how slippery it must get on those really damp days and how I didn't see anyone fall into the river!!

Punting! You can almost see from this who are the pros and who are the newbies

Oh Sole Mio... oh no, wrong boats, wrong city!

Ready to go...

So, we went to Cambridge and one of the things we really wanted to do was try (highlighting the try) some punting ourselves. On our first (of two days) the weather was good and we even got to witness and mock (just a bit) the amateur punters that would not leave the same place imagining ourselves doing exactly the same thing. But then we decided to do it next morning. We would have more time and maybe it would be less busy!
Next morning... it was, indeed, less busy!... But it was also raining non stop! Looking at the weather forecasts, things didn't look promising. So, a bit sad but not defeated we decided to walk our way through Grantchester, a village nearby. That same walk had been advised by a couple of people so we thought it would be a great alternative to punt our way down the river. Under a small umbrella (the two of us) and with a non water proof clothing (me) we launched ourselves to the path that proved to be really worth it. Even with the rain that allowed us to have the path only for ourselves, an occasional runner, an occasional biker, an occasional dog walker and a lot of cows!