The Way - El camino de Santiago

"Life is to big to walk it alone"

I just finished watching this movie , The Way with and by Martin Sheen, and I simply could not go to sleep and forget about it. Well I surely won't forget about it, cause officially it started occupying a place in my favorite movie list.
The story in short words so that I don't ruin the pleasure of seing the movie, El Camino de Santiago presents the story of a father, who seeks to discover his son, or rediscover himself during the pilgrimage to St James Cathedral in north west Spain. A journey where besides meeting people and places, he opens his horizons and pleasure towards life after the lost of his only son.
The story in fact is anyone's story who would decide to do such a thing in life, for whichever reason the person might have, personal or religious.
El camino de Santiago is a thousand years old pilgrimage route to the Cathedral of St James in Galicia Spain, where as the old legend sais, lay the remains of St James, carried by boat from Jerusalem, burried underneath the city called Santiago de Compostela. The route has several key locations, where pilgrims are received in hostels by local people, treated with dinner and given a warm bed to rest over night, in order to continue their journey early the next morning. The modern pilgrimages are done by bycicle or horse ride, but most of the pilgrims still practice the good old walk. During the way, at every stop, pilgrims are stamped on the "passport" the name of the place where they rested, so that by the end of the journey the ones who complete the way, will receive the certificate "The compostela" for accomplishing their journey, with the reason for which the pilgrimage was done.
But coming back to the movie, I strongly recommend the soundtrack, the movie itself and some good lines on the way.
The way you chose in life, of you think you chose, is not at all, cause as said "You don't choose a life, dad. You live one." The desire of having things, material or not, is not that relevant anymore when you lose something bigger than all of those things together, and then..."Most people don't have the luxury of just leaving it all behind."...and carry on. And as Coldplay would say in one of their songs "Just because I'm losing, doesn't mean I'm lost, doesn't mean I'll stop...Just because I'm hurting, doesn't mean I'm hurt, doesn't mean I didn't get what I deserved, no better and no worse".

4 seasons

"Through streinght I found love, in time I found myself in happiness with you..."

During the short cold winter days she loves listening old childhood carols, dreaming the evening out of today's life, going back in the happy and careless past that used to make her smile so much. She can remember everything in detail, every look, smell, every father's word, every mother's whisper, every single day... She's missing that a lot. Trying with every small thing to bring those feelings back, sometimes she succeeds, sometimes it's all in vain, they are gone and keep being like that...gone. And all because of him, because he left early, too early so that a child can understand and deal with it normally. Surprisingly she dealed with it, quite well, but the scars are still in there, hitting so hard from time to time, bringing back al those moments...happy moments. She would be a lie not to appreciate al she's being given everyday, but is that enough, is that what she really needs?
Rains are cold and wet, uncomfortable and so impersonal, but they keep us going. Autumn comes around sometimes and that is when the feelings start growing stronger and stronger, senses come to life, like from a hibernation era; that is when she starts caring more. Everyone or anyone sees autumn as a depresive season, she doesn't, she knows she's coming to life, ready to face the cold with a full warm heart.
Summer days are on, the hot sunshines burn her skin everytime she goes out uncovered. She doesn't really like summer, except when swimming in the deep blue seas with all those tiny creatures. She believes she was a fish in a past life, so she can get lost in the waves for hours, thinking of nothing, numb, just with the embrace and sound of the cool water. During summer the shop is closed, feelings are completely asleep, nothing can disturb or awake them. Maybe short dreams or thunder memories pass by, but they are not that much minded, it's like the sun and summer trends erase all the life in there, leaving the body with only material and carnation pleasures, nothing spiritual.
Spring passes by so fast, she cannot even feel it. It's like a race car that never stops at the light. Senses are easily swept away, the chillness takes over, heart starts beating at normal speed, the memories fade away and all the muscles relax. It's time to rest, enough of feelings over the long cold winter. Body and soul are heading towards sun, towards the summer letargy, for a well deserved state of...high.

She...is me...

Singapore part2 ~ wildlife ~

Such a difference, such contrast, in such a small place. Cause let's face it, Singapore is not that big city-country to visit in weeks and still not see everything. And if first day of the trip was dedicated to the modern side, second day left us breathless and...wet :))) Breathless because of the amazing nature and wild life from the 2 places we visited, wet because it rained like hell but in the same time it was so hot that we sweated like crazy under the plastic rain coats :)
The Botanic garden of Singapore was more than expected. We entered the place, free of charge (there is no fee at entry) and we did not get out for 4 hours, imagine. 4 full hours of walk in the green fresh nature, with waterfalls, with trees, flowers, from palm trees valley to ginger garden, from evolution garden (as in dinosaurs era rain forests) to orchid garden where we paid 5 SGD to enter (5 singapore dolars), with an expensive lunch in the middle of the tropical nature which was totally worth it even doe we paid 100 SGD, the place is a must see if visiting Singapore. We filled our lungs with so much fresh healty air and we took so many pictures that we left the poor cameras one without memory, one without battery, so we decided to keep it down :)) Rain eventually stopped, so we got rid of the plastic rain coates, rested our feet and continued our journey to the another wildlife place, Singapore Zoo. And man what a Zoo. We were imagining we might see all the creatures of the world there, but not running free between the people :)) Monkeys in the trees all around, no cages, parrots singing over our heads, well the white tigers and elephants were separated not left to run around between the people but still, no cages, so much space and so much freedom for the animals, hippos with a huge aquarium and a real stone cave just for themselves...what can I say...lucky to be an animal in the Singapore Zoo. The place is closing at 1800 and we did not have the time to see the entire place, so I missed the zebras and giraffes, but hopefully I'll get to see them in Africa soon :D
So after one full day of nature and animal life, we finished out trip cyclic, back in Chinatown for some more souvenirs and some chinese noodles, after that rushing to the airport to catch our Emirates flight back to Dubai desert, with a huge regret of having to leave such an amazing place so soon...

Singapore part1 ~ fashionable ~

To Singapore or not to Singapore, we kept wondering for 4 days and then we decided...NO. As you might heard or not, when working for an airline you get crazy discounts on airfares, but you get in the flight if it's not fully booked of course, as in they won't take a company staff and leave out a valued customer, right? So with several options in sight, me and my girl friend here decided to choose another destination to have our small vacation but guess what, everything was full. So in the last morning before the days off we decided... we are going to Singapore.
Tickets check, bagpack and camera check, list with attractions check, money and passport check (no need of visa for europeans in case you are wondering), enthusiasm fully check--> online check-in and pam pam, after 7 hours of flight...welcome to Singapore :D
Now this place is something. Starting with the public transportation that is so smartly positioned to cover the whole city, the cool metro that links you to almost everything (which we learned by heart in 2 days ;)) ) tall modern glassy buildings, large boulevards with several lanes and guess what... green everywhere, flowers, trees, palm trees, probably the greenest city in the world.
First stop...Chinatown.
Metro drops you right there, the only thing is to start getting lost on the small colorfull streets crowded with chinese objects that will steel your eyes. Small fashioned houses, food shops everywhere, delicious smells, souveniiirss, how could you not love it. In the same area we found one place that we wanted to see and was on the "to do list", Sri Mariamman temple, a typical hindu temple with all Indian Gods painted and sculped on it, a place that brought back so many Indian memories...ufff.
After about 2-3 hours of mixed cultures and delicious chinese foods, destination... the famous Orchard road, the heart of Singapore, the fashion boulevard itself. You could barely see the shops and hotels because of the amount of vegetation spreading all over the place, which we did not complaint of course, but gosh, so much green in that city! Fency malls, hotels, what to say, la creme de la creme on Orchard, but more a delight to walk than to shop because of the seights, at least for us :)) Short stopover at Hard Rock Caffe for a beer and a coffe to wake up and continue our way and off we were to Marina Bay, one of Singapore's atractions because of the lovely view from around and their very own dancing fountain, which besides the dance and light show, singapore people decided to project images on the water....unique....
Last stop of the day, Little India, a central area in Singapore where of course everything looks smells and sounds like in India. Man again so many memories, with fresh veggies on the side of the road, cheap prices, Indian music, flowers, small streets and the place where we stopped over night, at Prince of Wales hostel, on Dunlop str, a friendly and cousy place to spend the night and plan the second day of the trip :)
Now getting into Singaporese culture...majority of the people are descending from malay, chinese and indian culture, speaking some weird languages called malay or chinese or tamil which have a very cute and curly alphabet :D, eating a hell lot of noodles, with chopsticks of course (an instrument that I could not figure out yet), looking extremly pretty and very fashionable. I could not stop myself from staring at the lovely chinese or malay girls, all dressed up in trend, with the latest wear in fashion, fun or fancy combinations, decent make up and quite short skirts or pants. Ok forget the ladies, what about the wemen, all walking female were looking hot and trendy, can you imagine that (with some small exceptions of course), no matter the age or shape or size :D And not only looking trendy, but updated with the latest technology, everyone was having at least 1 piece of iPhone in hand, buttoning, chating, playing, drawing, working, wathing movies or videos, in the metro, in the station, on the street, while walking, all the freakin' time. You could not even see their cute faces very well because they were all stuck in a small screen, doing something on the phone. What can I say, passionate people :)

Coming up next Singapore part2 ~ wildlife ~

Woman's day...an ordinary day

The first time in my life when I did not celebrate Woman's day, and people around did not even notice this celebration. Does this mean it's not a celebration anymore or I'm just in a wrong part of the globe to celebrate such a thing...a person...the woman...
Maybe because it is a place where MEN rule, or just do not have such consideration for the opposite sex, or maybe don't know, or don't care, or God knows what, but the weird thing was that not even colleagues from work, of different nationalities, or customers on the phone, from different places of the world did not react anyhow when talking to them. Not the wemen, not the men, they were just to busy booking their flights, or changing their tickets, or asking why were they charged that much, or others as such.
Well known (or at least that is what I thought) as the international day of woman, the 8th day of the month of March is celebrated around the world with consideration and respect for women, from a political, social and economic point of view. Of course perceptions have changed during time, and no more need for political or economical consideration, since so many women in the world are more independent or powerful than men, but it became instead mother's day, women's in general day to be more loved and apreciated than in any other day of the year.
And still, nothing special happened, no e-mails, no messages, no flowers, no whishes, no smiles, no nothing. It's like the whole world stopped carying in the same time, and decided not give a damn on these kind of things anymore. Is that true, is that possible? World, where have you gone?
Where are the days when we used to create beautiful messages for the entire feminine phone agenda and send them 5 by 5, to be sure they will be sent to all. Where are the times when street campaigns happen and cute young guys use to go to girls in the city center and give flowers, bringing a sunlight in their busy thoughts and a smile. I guess some of these things have been replaced with facebook messages and virtual flowers posted on "walls", which is not bad, but still...
And to finish the story, I would actually be a big fat cow to lie, but I did receive a rose today, me and other girls, from one of our colleagues who remembered to wish us early in the morning on our way to work, and who by the end of the day gifted us a rose on the way back home. So thoughtfull, and made such a big difference, and filled our faces with smiles and our little hearts with cheers. And as my colleague said: "I don't feel that bad anymore"...

Lost & replaced

In case you remember the story with my lost & found iPhone, well the history is repreated unfortunately, so here I am without my Iphone once again, this time stupid way lost, looked for, called and closed, and since then not found, even replaced :))
The feeling that time? Sadness and nakedness, after an iPhone to turn to a tinny Samsung GT-E 1087T, whatever model this might be (maybe from 1087 as it sais :)) ), with a small screen where I can barely see the numbers and a funny old age sound, for more than 5 days... I even found myself in the metro ready to open google and search an address, but surprise, when I look in my hand, the tiny black phone was sitting there quiet, almost skared to see me in the eyes and say...I cannot do this :( After such events, the senses were satisfied properly with a new HTC Rhyme, of which I am a proud owner nowadays. All the features, all applications, but free, with Android, instead of creating profile and adding my bank account no so that Apple can charge me if I decide I wanna play full angry birds :)))
The feeling at this time? Well I must say I am not that happy as when I initially discovered the iPhone, but not dissapointed either. I am just bored I think, nothing new discovered in the new phone, nothing old missed that much, maybe just traumatised how can you lose an iPhone twice...duh...
Dear reader keep your smart phone in a lesh, it might go running away one day...and you'll be left dumb O.o