Category Archives: Travels

My travel notes

Episode 4 (1st part): Road #1

  When I woke up in the morning of our fourth day’s journey, the world seemed rather more hospitable a place than in the eve: there was a bright sun to cheer us up and news were good: Benito was … Continue reading

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Episode 3: The beautiful Nothing

  On asking the employee in the Reykjavik tourist office what there is between Mývatn and Egilsstadir, i.e. the upper leftt quarter of the island, he had quickly replied: Nothing; and then added: but it’s a beautiful Nothing. And it was a … Continue reading

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65 º nordur. Episode 2: Akureyri

Located on the shoreline at the bottom of Eyjafördur in the north of Iceland, Akureyri is a lovely, small and rather quiet town; although with 17,000 inhabitants is the second largest in the country, after Reikjavik, ten times bigger. After the … Continue reading

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65º nordur. Episode 1: the blizzard

65º nordur. Tour around Iceland This is, somehow, a story about circles. It takes place at 65º north, right below the arctic circle. It gives an account of a trip around the Icelandic ring road, route nr 1. And it … Continue reading

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Ukrainian endurance

It’s Kiev. The tunnels under the main crossings, and the subway passages, are stuffed with peasants and babushkas trying to sell their measly produce to a crowd of hurried and indifferent passers-by who scarcely take any notice of them or … Continue reading

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Do widzenia, Warsaw. (Do widzenia, Poland.)

. A farewell to Warsaw (and somehow to Poland as well). Goodby Warsaw, I’m leaving you today. Goodby, goodby, goodby. Goodby all you people. There’s nothing you can say to make me change my mind. Goodby. (“Adapted” from Pink Floyd) … Continue reading

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The white silence

. We got out the smoky pub into the chill quiet night. A gentle, fairy-tale snowfall welcomed us, and the fresh cold air meant a blessing for my lunges. The old town was silent under the faint, modest lights of … Continue reading

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The Ukrainian bus adventure

. The Ukrainian bus was a heap of scrap, as old and filthy as I hadn’t seen the like since the impoverished Spain of my early childhood, and it had no heating at all. It took us eight hours to … Continue reading

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