Author: Caroline Bach
Limbo
Still in Malmö but not really. Today I’m detached, floating in my own reality that suddenly feels very empty. This place feels like it’s in between worlds, lost between realities, quiet.
The weather is amazing and people are enjoying at barbecues and in the parks. I’m happy for them while packing my bags.
Malmö
You know you’re in Malmö when you drink non alcoholic Dubai beer with your Kurdish-Polish and Indian-Iranian girls.
Today I went with my family to our traditional Easter church visit where we met a big part of the Polish community of the city, later on I met these two lovely girls and then I did some shopping with an Albanian friend and took a short drive around town with a Croatian-Bosnian friend. It’s only now that I realize how incredibly international this city is and how much I am enjoying the mix of backgrounds that my friends have. You learn so much about culture from it and it just comes as a natural part of the friendship!
It’s nice to be back for some days, the weather is incredible and people are happy and out on the streets so I’ve been bumping into random friends all day which has been a lot of fun.
Tonight we go out dancing and I’m looking forward to meet more darlings!
Happy Easter everybody! :)
Music for Airports
Blocking out the world with in ear headphones and looking at airport people. The time between check-in and boarding has always been where I observe the world and think about my current location. It’s like a vacuum where neither time or place exists.
I have been thinking about the past when I wanted spring to last forever and dreamt about never ending Sundays in my Barcelona bed.
As my last days have been filled with thinking I have found myself in a new conclusion. The summer sun and the colours of autumn are just as needed as my Mondays with the overambitious to-do lists and the Saturdays I dance away. Spring and Sundays might bring a lot of beauty, but why choose only that?
As always, my iPod shuffles. The soundtrack of this moment is Brian Eno’s 1/1 from the album Ambient 1:Music for airports. So yes, even if you don’t believe in the magic of coincidences, they can still be enjoyed. ;)
Boarding time. Get ready for me Malmö – there will be a lot of hugging, fika, dancing and talking!
India and its Women
The amount of dignity that the Indian women were expressing when I saw them in India was both inspiring, impressive and touching. No matter how dirty and dusty the surroundings would be, they always managed to keep their faces and colourful clothes impeccably clean. No matter how much misery there would be around, they would always express calmness. Carrying their children on their backs while working as hard as the men, marked by tattoos, jewellery and colours binding them to their husbands, villages and status.
For me, being a foreigner invading their natural setting, I was thrilled by how these shy and quiet women wouldn’t treat me as an intruder and close me out with common prejudice. On the contrary, when approached with a smile, their eyes sparkled of curiosity and kindness and their willingness to communicate and exchange experiences with a woman from another world was touching. I sat down on the ground with women in many different cities, talking about their daily life and their dreams, sharing laughs and random memories. The importance of them giving their time to me and the gratefulness for having access to their worlds was immense. My male travel friends looked at me with envy as they were completely closed out from the colourful and giggly reality of Indian women. For me it was a lot easier – I was granted access just by being a woman and giving them a sincere smile.
Black Tears and Obsession
There are people that you need to meet just a few times to realise that there is something about their ways that intrigue you. The beauty of those encounters is not to be denied, on the contrary, I believe they are to be enjoyed and explored as interesting people is a very scarce resource these days. But as reality at times can be a bit cruel, the intentions and interests of two people starting to interact often differ and your own interest might grow beyond that of friendship while the other person does not seek that kind of attention from you. Reality can decide that your possibilities for getting to know somebody better are limited by a somehow tangible reason such as distance – or the direct slap in the face such as the other person simply not gaining the same amount of stimulation from interacting with you.
Curiosity is a vicious little feeling when it gets abruptly interrupted. If somebody got your attention and you never got to further explore this person it can be very difficult to let go. Instead, you give your object of interest its own little room in your head and let it sit there and grow on you.
What often happens in that room is a process of glorification, you focus on the details that caught your interest in the first place while wondering about the rest. Curiosity tries to force you to fill in the blanks, and when you get blocked by reality, you panic and act irrational. You persuade yourself that this one is somebody you must fight for and that you just have to know what might have been.
It’s easy to forget the two most important details in this very classic situation – you don’t even actually know this person, and we are all people with our own preferences, thoughts and an ability to act, so if your object of obsession doesn’t respond to your attempts, you might just need to respect that.
Bebo y Cigala – Lágrimas Negras
Lágrimas Negras (2003)
“Aunque tú me has echado en el abandono
aunque tú has matado mis ilusiones,
en vez de maldecirte con justo encono
en mis sueños te colmo de bendiciones.Sufro la inmensa pena de tu extravío
siento el dolor profundo de tu partida
y lloro sin que tú sepas que el llanto mío
tiene lágrimas negras como mi vida.”
Who wins today?
April and Caipirinhas
Sun, people, caipirinhas, live music, world food and a market with everything from earrings to bread, all ecological. I even had some acai, the real thing! Did I mention that I love Barcelona?
Come on over to ‘La Feria por la Tierra’ at Passeig de Lluis Companys, you know where, right below the Arco de Triomfo and a bit into parque de la Ciutadella. It’s on tomorrow as well, see you around! :)
Gibran ft. McCrae
“Keep me away from the wisdom which does not cry, the philosophy which does not laugh and the greatness which does not bow before children.”
“Love one another, but make not a bond of love. Let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls.
Sing and dance together and be joyous, but let each one of you be alone.
Give your hearts, but not into each other’s keeping.
And stand together but not too near together:
For the pillars of the temple stand apart,
And the oak tree and the cypress grow not in each other’s shadow.”Khalil Gibran
I’ve had a very nice day with friends, good food, wine and Gibran. Thus, today’s treat from me to you is an oldie by Gwen McCrae and these two masterpieces by the brilliant Lebanese poet. Khalil Gibran – The Madman (1918) + Khalil Gibran – The Prophet (1923)
Gwen McCrae – 90% of me is you
Gwen McCrae (1974)
+ 