Circus LA

Saturday, September 19, 2009

landslide

Today LC and I woke up nice and sprightly with a big day ahead of us- a trip from Positano in the south of Italy all the way up to Interlaken, Switzerland. Once again blinded by our optimism we stepped out of the hostel to wait for the bus that would get us to Sorrento to catch the train to Naples and make the 1pm connection to Interlaken. WRONG. There had been a massive landslide over night and the entire Positano-Sorrento road was closed. There was no way to get through. The only thing we could do was go in the opposite direction to Amalfi (3 Euro's) and try to get a connection from there. An hour later, despite it only being 16km, we got to Amalfi and found out there was a bus we could catch direct to Naples leaving in 20 mins. LC and I went into the little cafe that sold tickets (another 6 Euro) and got a couple of coffees to wait for the bus. 20 mins later LC and i watched in horror as a bus that had been sitting at the very back of the bus depot pulled out and left the station. The bus had a tiny hand written sign denoting that it was going to Naples. We were screwed. And angry at the extreme lack of public information about buses, none of them were marked clearly and no one knew where they were going until they were gone. We asked about the next bus- another 3 hours but were told we could go to Salerno (further away from Naples) and get a connection from there. An hour later we arrived at Salerno, found the train station and jumped on the train to naples (another 3 Euro). When we got to Naples we had missed our connection to Interlaken by quite some time. We couldnt find an internet connection, couldnt get on to the hostel we were meant to be arriving at, couldnt book another one and couldnt check our facebook :(. So we just decided to just get the next train to Bologna so that we were at least a little bit further north. When we got there we had no where to stay, but we booked our train to interlaken and knew we would be there the next day. LC and i decided to do a bit of late night sight seeing around old bologna town. We headed down the main street, hacked into some wireless, and had a drink at the Sherlock Holmes bar. MMM Campari and soda. Then we headed off to the university- oldest in Europe and hung out with some bologna university students. We had some 3 am pizza, and strolled around. A few times some people wondering past would talk to us because we looked so strange walking around at 3:30 am with giant backpacks. A gay couple walked up to us and asked us where were from, when we said australia one of them was like "I lived in Sydney, I LOVE Bondi, sooo many big boys"!!! they invited us to come dance with them but we had our packs. Eventually we wandered back to the free internet to spend the rest of the night. Some guy wandered up to us an offered us drugs. We declined. Then in the morning we jumped on the 7 am train to Interlaken.

Thursday, September 17, 2009

Positano Amalfi Coast

This is the cat from Naples. Its name was Simon. Very cute, it was nice having a cat around.

LC and I left Napoli for Positano via Sorrento. When we woke up in was pouring with rain- perfect for our beach holiday! We spent an hour on a train to sorrento sitting on our backpacks because there were no seats. It was fun and felt like an authentic backpacking experience. We had pizza and coffee in Sorento and then jumped on the bus for Positano.

It was THE MOST TERRIFYING EXPERIENCE OF MY LIFE. i was fairly sure i was going to die every second of the way. The roads along the amalfi coast are the same width as one lane but are meant to have two way traffic. The cliffs are sheer and high (and have the most amazing view) but the crazy bus driver got soooooo close to the edge. and the roads were so windy we had to beep at every corner because we couldnt see if there was any oncoming traffic. and oh god, i was so sick. But then when we got to Postiano there was a rainbow and it was sooooo pretty. Just like to poastcards.

The next day was absolutely perfect. hot, sunny, blue ocean, delicious gelati.

Dream Boat.

thong tan=terrible

Today we were supposed to go to capri but a storm rolled in in the middle of the night and we didnt fancy a boat ride on the storm waves. Instead we decided to catch the bus to Amalfi- 16k's further along the cliff.

Amalfi was very pretty. the storm made it dramatic and turneresque. we drank cups of tea and read our books.

the source

The giant jacks that the jetty thing was made out of. I loved playing jacks when i was a kid.

Monday, September 14, 2009

Napoli, street city

Walk: Via Capitelli, Via Croche, Via S Biagio dei Librai, Via Duomo, Via del Tribunali, Via Pietro a Maiella, Via Port'Alba, Piazza Dante, via Toledo.

Naples has a very vibrant and active street art scene. The walls, trains, roads, statues are all covered in a layer of spayed on semiotics.

Graffiti - the term comes from both the Greek term "Graphein" meaning 'to write' and the word 'graffiti' is plural of the Italian word "Graffito" meaning 'scratch' and its history can be dated back to prehistoric cave man wall drawings, it can be seen as a human 'need' for communication - "Graffiti represents man's desire to communicate"

Dick Hebdige calls it "symbolic forms of resistance" (subculture and the meaning of style)

"'You're mad,' cried one, 'it is not art, it is never art.'

'No,' said the other, 'I think it's valid'

"graffiti is a kick in the face to the gallery/museum system, where the artist is pimped like a whore for the capitalist system, made into another commodity for people to buy...graffiti art is free for all to come and view, no-one can own it, it belongs to all of us"

future of Graffiti: "it'll probably be like Blade Runner. It'll be really raw, and there will be neon pieces with holographic characters...Reas: I'll plant a chip in people's heads, and all they'll ever see is a Reas tag...Camp: I'll be the first nigga to do shit on the moon..."