Hey my dears, I have been away from the blog for the longest time (again), my life has taken me on a rollercoaster once again! A very intense final week in Hong Kong, enjoying time there and taking exams, then a super long flight back to Italy, a trip to Milan and here I am back home...! Since Singapore 10 days went by literally in the blink of an eye, but I guess I can't complain, also as I have been running on home and enjoying all the Italian things I had missed! 2016 has been a full year, the fullest I can remember probably, and with all the highs and lows, I really can't complain about how it went by, even if it kept me away from the blog as never before. I'll be back soon with the wrap-up of this year in music, another daunting task!!
Here I am, back to my beloved blog after one week of absence! Well, half of this absence has been justified by the breaking down of the modem at home, which left me with no comfortable Wi-Fi access, but I have also been relatively busy, partly planning for this weekend's getaway! I am finally taking my ass out of Hong Kong for the first time since I came here, and it was about time, right before going back home for xmas! My life is of course still relatively messy (and interesting), but filled with indecision, as usual. I hope I'll figure out things over the change of year, as if that could bring fresh air into one person's life...!
I am back from my latest trip, back in Milan for a few days and how does my beloved home country welcome me? Well, with a tropical thunderstorm of course. Thanks, my dear. I have by now accepted the fact that this summer is going to suck as much as 2014 did, so I guess I better find a place where to move next month so that I can enjoy some sunlight...! Anyway, I am sharing with you another beautiful song off Lemolo's debut (full) album, the 2012 'Kaleidoscope'. A great duo they are, I love their music more and more! Something good is happening in this summer time hopefully, at least under the musical discovery point of view!
'Soviet kitsch' is doubtlessly my favourite album by Regina Spektor and today, while walking through the streets of Vilnius in the late afternoon, tired after exploring the town and searching for a sunny spot where to lay and rest, I turned on my iPod for the first time since I had got out in the morning and, don't know why, I decided to listen to Regina and to this album. Sitting on a bench in the sun, distractedly looking at people passing by, I paid particular attention to the lyrics of the songs (a thing I don't often do) and realised once more how beautiful this album is indeed. This song is one of my favourites off it and the one I deem most representative of the album and its spirit. In a few words, it's a masterpiece. It is.
Not being in love (yet) with PJ's new album, I found this song ringing in my mind for a short while yesterday (or was it today?) and I think it really works well with the environment I am surrounded by: in the end it's PJ Harvey, and what is more British than her? Rain, wind and cold. Yep, that's exactly what I'm talking about, what I've found here in Riga. Besides a potentially quite nice city, if only I got the chance to see it with a hint of a blue sky in the background. Maybe next time, if there's gonna be a next time. Let's just roll with the music for now!
Here is your blogger / traveller reporting from somewhere in Latvia, north of Riga, which is my next destination. I am (supposedly) towards the end of my bus transfer from Tallinn and after plenty of conifers, rivers and grey clouds I stopped looking outside! The weather has turned bad and it's not expected to improve before I leave Riga in a couple of days, so hurray for me and for my rainy visiting! More news on my adventures soon, in the meanwhile enjoy the beginning of Euro 2016!
Tere, my dear readers! I am writing to you from Tallinn, the first stop of the latest of the countless trips I've been taking in this 2016! The city (a big town) is cute and nice, but it just takes you 3 hours to see it all, the old town centre at least (and I guess there's not much else to explore). If I were to sum up this one day visit in one word, I think I'd use chillywind. I didn't expect to feel so cold (and sometimes warm at the same time), to the point that I decided to behave like a local and went on into a sauna to heat back up my bones! Coming back to the central square I found a kind of folk music festival, with people singing and dancing to local, traditional music. It's been nice and entertaining, and it helps me introduce my latest discovery, which is actually a song most of you (and me) knew already, personally I just didn't know its title nor its composer, but I can safely state that it's one of the most famous celtic ballads (?) around, at least in Europe. Give it a try if the title/composer aren't familiar to you and you might as well find yourself saying "Aaah, yeah, that one!".
I started watching again Game of Thrones from the beginning, I've been meaning to for a couple years as I kinda lost the thread of the whole thing, and after a few episodes I am have already understood a bunch of things I didn't really get (or remember from) the first time. Plus, I booked my next trip, which is going to happen soon. Well, given the shitty rain and the seemingly not-coming-so-soon summer, what else can I do?! Yeah, yeah you're right, I could drive, I could think about all the feelings that I hide, I could sit in silence waiting for a sign. Good advice, yo!
Here I am, back again after another long absence. This time around my being away from the blog has been the sum of a pretty nice holiday in Phuket added up to not having a working internet connection back at home, which has prevented me from coming back to you a couple days before. But let's talk about Phuket, the trip has been fine, great beaches, super hot weather, not even a single drop of rain... I can't not fall in love with it every time, especially after I get away from it! The sunset colours in particular have been amazing this time too, and they will be in my heart forever, so what other song could I post if not this one?!
A song or two per day is not dead, nor am I. The last ten days have been hectic, among the fullest and busiest of my life, and I'm sorry I didn't find the time or the energy to sit down and write even a single post for the blog, but so it was and so it should be. Yesterday I got back from Japan and this has probably the fullest travelling experience I've ever done, being with myself and my backpack (not backpacking though!), pushing my limits and trying to get the fullest experience, and I am not disappointed. I cannot even tell you it's been the best 10 days of my life, or this and that are beautiful... the only thing I can feel is that this trip has been so busy that it will take me some time to process it all, if ever. Even the things I've done and seen in Tokyo at the beginning of this journey look so far in the past... I really needed something like that to compensate for the idle months I've been spending at home lately! But after all the sea called me home, wherever it is!
Do you tend to jump into situations head first or feet first? That's the question Junip are asking today and, well... personally I wouldn't know what to answer. I tend to be a very rational human being from time to time, but when it comes down to taking decisions, I mostly base my choices on guts rather than logical judgement. The few times I've tried to take important decisions rationally, I couldn't come to a straight answer and in the end I always relied on my feelings. Does this make me a head-first kind of person? Might as well be... and where I am now would just confirm that! Cheers from Abu Dhabi airport, where I am in transit!
I keep being accused by friends and parents that I am always travelling around the world and... well, I can't say they are wrong. Probably I don't travel as much as I would like or could, we all know that seeing people on Facebook makes it look like everybody is always going around and doing cool things and this enhances my willingness to do the same, but all in all I can't complain, as especially in the last couple of years I've had my fair share of miles travelled, for one reason or another. Not being able to always find any friends to keep my pace, I also resorted to travelling alone, a thing I did last December for the first time since I was studying in Canada in 2012, and I will do it again. Tomorrow I am leaving again, this time for a trip that has been in my heart and brain for years, so I am really excited!! Maybe I won't get the time to post daily on the blog, but I'll do my best to keep you updated!
At the end of this slightly tiring but very rewarding day of exploring Algarve, I found myself with a song off Tori's 'Americal doll posse' on my mind, so I went on to listen to the whole album. And I got the right inspiration for today's post. I'm not a huge fan of ADP, but I think I like it better than most Tori fans do. Ok, I agree, it's trashy pop. Mostly. And I'm not a big fan of that too (even if the song I mentioned falls under that category). What I think is that there are quite a few songs that, were they to be taken out of (this album's) context, they wouldn't feel bad in any of Tori's good albums. This is one of them and it has always been a favourite of mine, so I am sharing it with you now hoping that it will become a favourite of yours too!
My dear readers, I am writing this post from my hotel room in Portimao, as today we have finally reached Algarve, one of the dream destinations on my to-go-to list! We just got here for sunset and as soon as I put my baggage in the room, I rushed out to the beach to take pictures of the sunset light... how beautiful! Can't wait to get more beautiful pics, hopefully featuring the sun (which is expected to be shy in the next days, let's hope we'll get some blue skies...) this time around! I'll keep you updated, in the meanwhile enjoy your weekend with this awesome song by Adam!
Day 1, Night 2 in Lisbon. This morning didn't start in the best way: after a very nice breakfast with fresh pastries and tea, we got out and immediately got soaked under a hideous rain, which lasted until lunchtime. It's not been the best weather to enjoy the city (at all), but Lisbon is always beautiful. After a hefty lunch, some blue stripes has appeared in the sky and the rain stopped. We enjoyed a walk back to the apartment to leave my tired mother and then got out again for some more exploring. Before getting back we stopped back at a Fnac store and of course I brought home a few CDs! 'Some nights' was one of them and even if I haven't been listening to Fun. for more than 2 years, I always liked the album and I took advantage of a good deal! And remember: when things look dark (or grey), somehow, some time it gets better!
I'm wishing you a great night from one of my favourite cities, which I have the pleasure to be in once again! I'm talking about Lisbon, the capital of Portugal. This time it is only a stop, part of a more comprehensive trip (which I've been wanting to undertake for quite a while), but I really do love it and I'm so very pleased to get the chance to spend some time in it again! I am also very happy to share with you what has been one of my absolute favourite songs in this beginning of 2016, once again a great tune by Junip. I hope you'll enjoy the combo!
Oh my goodness guys, my computer went back on last night (thanks goodness itself) and so I officially have a new playlist. And still more than one week worth of posting to make from my former playlist. How can time pass by so fast?! I guess that staying at home for most of the day lately has given me a lot of free time for listening to music and I have indeed been approaching many new artists and albums lately (many of which are not even considered among my already-planned posting yet!), and I'm quite excited about it, as it's been quite a long time since I approached so much (good) new music all at once! For tonite I'm gonna leave you with a song that you've been hearing around for sure; when I think about it, I personally go back to a taxi ride in Abu Dhabi when we got this one and another song that I added to my library in that circumstance. It really feels great to travel and it feels even better to go back to the memories created while going around the world!
PS: Don't forget to check out the beautiful original version of this song by Chaka Khan!!
Today I did something I've been wanting to do for years, and that is booking the flight tickets for my first trip to Japan! Trying not to jinx it and keeping my fingers crossed, if everything's going and I'm actually gonna go, it really sounds like 2016 is the year when I'm doing a lot of things I've been waiting to do for years, the time of my life when I finally get some important things done! Goodness knows if it's also gonna be the year I figure out what I wanna do with my life...! I'm overly excited about Japan now, even if it's still gonna take a while before I get there, and even if some of my other adventures are not going so great, I'm still keeping a positive attitude! Can't wait to be flying away!
Right after relieving my soreness with some eye drops, here I am, once again in front of the computer ready to perform my last couple of tasks of this long, long day. A long long day that started with our "usual" Abu Dhabi routine: walking to the beach, relaxing, eating out at night... then we packed our luggage and after sleeping some 1.5 hours we got up and left for the airport, our flight leaving at 6.25 local time (3.25 in Italy). After a Doha stopover, I slept another 1.5 hours on the plane and got here, enjoyed at best the little part of my day that was left, tried to rest a little bit more, had dinner and after looking for a few things (why do I always leave stuff around?) that I mostly found, I am posting this. I am posting one of the favourite songs of my teenage years, off what has probably been the album that has had the biggest impact on my teenage years in music, this being Dido's 'Life for rent', the first album I ever bought (as a xmas gift for my father, even if I ended up listening to it waaaaay more than he ever did). I cannot think of a better moment to post this lovely song than now: I literally still have sand in my shoes, I am back to wintery Italy after a glimpse of summer, I am dead tired and I am here in need to understand what to do with my life, a thought I could easily avoid on holiday.
"Two weeks away it feels like the world should've changed but I'm home now and things still look the same. I think I'll leave it till tomorrow to unpack, try to forget for one more night that I'm back in my flat on the road where the cars never stop going through the night, to real life where I can't watch sunset. I don't have time. I don't have time."
PS: I already unpacked, first thing when at home! Aha!
