Split

It was probably since the Burning Man in 2013 that I didn’t had a proper holiday. Dude, seriously… Two jobs later and a lot of relocations after it was about time. The three years break made the destination almost a dramatic decision to take: I had no will to leave the sort of my summer holiday up to any chance. The budget was also a factor. Me and my (soon to be ex-) girlfriend B. had a couple of Ryanair sessions to narrow down the best candidates. When the compass stopped spinning, the arrow pointed inevitably down south. It’s a special compass.

Even with an affordable flight, the overall trip could have been easily expensive: sunny destination on the seaside during the high season… anywhere we looked there were only few airbnb options still available and for $$$. The only way no ending up completely ripped off was to know when and where we would have slept, have then a good look into our options and book everything in advance.
I went through all the possible activities and sightseeings of the whole damn Country and selected the most promising stuff along a reasonable journey. This insane (and honestly, also control-freak) task alone led spending my evenings of the three or four weeks prior the departure planning any sort of detail, leaving pretty much nothing left to decide but the ice cream flavour.

The first useful thing that I learned was that in Croatia the local bus services where substantially cheaper that Flixbus. On the other side their timetables were scattered here and there on the web, sometimes with different, contrasting information. The bus company websites were not very clear either. I would have had to double-check each of our departure times once there.

I was in a hurry to reach anything worth calling a beach, as my birthday was just one day away and I wanted to treat myself properly. I booked one night in Split just to split (uh uh uh) the trip from Zadar airport to the island of Kvar, otherwise we would have reached it completely exhausted. We would have visited Zadar on the way back.

The moment the bus started moving we spotted Santa Claus in shorts and flip-flops walking past the platforms. I just had time to take a blurry picture before the bus gained speed.

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Split turned out to be a sweet surprise, although the arrival had been pretty much rough… a ‘friend’ of the lady renting us the room picked us up and drove straight out of town, big time away from the location we were supposed to stay that night. We were about to cross the gate of a bungalow camping area when I demanded to stop the car and drive us back. She obeyed.
On our way back to the city center I called the lady and promised that I’d have wrote fire until I had her account removed from any hostel website on the face of the Planet. Thirty minutes later she called back and gave us the address of a central hostel, in which we could have slept for the same fare.
This is how we discovered that Split has two old towns! The historical (and very touristic) city center and the most genuine one, made of small stone houses stacked up to the top of steep hill, curvy alleys and many many cats.

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Our hostel had a wide view over town and the suburbs. The owner of the hostel hanged his paintings all over the place and promised that we would have been treated good anywhere in town if we just have mentioned his name. I obliged his cocky statement by blinking an eye, but finally I didn’t proofed his claim. We both thanked him and hit the sac bit big time.

The morning after I woke up with singing birds and the Sun filtering through the window shutter. My girl was still asleep, so I sneaked out of the room and out of the hostel, and walked all the way down from the hill. The sun was already strong, but the streets were tight enough to cast some refreshing shadows. I could also smell the smell of lunches being prepared… tomato sauces, spices and a multitude of other stuff being baked.
A portal introduced to a nice pedestrian square called Trg Republike (Republic Square). Quite touristic, nevertheless a cute place to walk by.
Through the opposite portal I reached a fish market. There was already nothing left, and it was too early for that sort of food anyway. The only thing left was a strong smell and a bunch of hungry seagulls, calling from the top of cover of the market.

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I would have liked keep wandering around, but B. was probably awake, wondering where I ended up this time. I climbed the stairs of the hostel and found her on the big rooftop terrace. I emptied the shopping bad on a bench and we set up the breakfast table.

This time we left the hostel together and reached the center of the turistic old town. We had no idea what to expect, I only knew we had to look for the Diocletian’s Palace and the cathedral. Once there the top of the bell tower promised an interesting view of the town.

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The stairs leading to the top were worthy of an Esher drawing. I was amazed by them, but this attraction worked in a totally different way for B., which start feeling vertigo and decided to go back downstairs. I waked down with her and then started walking again upstairs alone. Quite immediately I made an eye contact with a guy stuck with his back glued on the wall…

« s’all right, sir? »

« mh… I think I can’t go up… is it beautiful? »

« well… yeah, I must say it actually is » and I gave him a indulgent smile. « but if you are really afraid of heights, the way down isn’t actually any better ».

Like on a silent agreement, we stopped talking and looked above.

« why don’t you leave me your e-mail address? I can send you a couple of pictures from the top. what do you say? »

« here… »

He wrote me his address and went back to the entrance.
(by the way, the address was not right, ’cause the email got bounced. I’m sorry!!!)

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It was actually a pity that they couldn’t enjoy the visit of the tower. As I was gaining more elevation a number of nice pictures popped up here and there. Once reached the top though, The view wasn’t actually as exciting as the ones from the stairs, but still worth it.

I turned back, looked down and realised how right I was when I talked to the men…

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B. was chilling in the square in front of the cathedral, Trg Peristil, a place back in time, full of columns and as cosy as a living room. We didn’t really want to face the hot sun, so started walking around, protected by the shadow of the buildings. The light bounced against the top of the white brick-walls, but rarely managed to reach the ground.

It didn’t take that long to walk through the alleys of the whole historic center though, so we build up courage and dipped in the sunlight, heading to the port. Ended up on the closest beach to town that didn’t looked totally crap, got a seafood dinner and called it a day. Tonight we are in Kvar.

 
WORD OF THE DAY [croatian]: bok (Hi)

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Morning Pages 001

Il Morning Pages è la pratica di scrivere al mattino appena svegli. Non importa cosa, basta che lo si faccia. L’abitudine ad essere produttivi.

Di solito, ancora nel letto, controllo le e-mail, facebook, instagram… meccanicamente, invece di qualsiasi altra cosa più utile. Passino le e-mail, ma il resto?
È da un po’ di tempo che ripenso alle abitudini di qualche anno fa, in particolare di quand’ero in Brasile. Ero più spensierato (certo, ero nel mezzo dei miei vent’anni) ma anche uno di quei telefoni da quattro soldi con lo schermo stile calcolatrice digitale e la batteria che durava una settimana. La loro funzione era quella di comunicare.
Adesso invece ho uno smartphone con molte più funzioni, che usiamo per tutto tranne proprio quella più importante. Con instagram non comunico, ‘informo’ i miei follower… qualche cosiddetto amico, più gente che non conosco e non conoscerò mai. So che Pinco quest’inverno è andato a surfare in thailandia e che Ciccia ha fatto un figlio. Me lo dicono le immagini che postano, ma in realtà non comunichiamo più da anni. Like e cuoricini hanno preso il posto delle parole, non scriviamo più, non manteniamo più un contatto che non sia una lista.

Sto tergiversando, magari suono come un vecchio rincoglionito. Non importa. Quello che però mi viene in mente e vedo di continuo è l’umanità del ‘primo mondo’ che gira con uno schermo piantato davanti la faccia, che rischia di farsi investire col rosso, che muore per una selfie.
Quando leggo un libro in metropolitana sento una complicità silenziosa con chiunque ne stia leggendo un altro. C’è differenza tra guardare uno schermo o leggere un libro? Si. Un giorno il libro sarà stato letto per intero, uno smartphone invece è un compito che non si completerà mai. Ci sarà sempre una nuova notifica, un aggiornamento, qualcosa che ci richieda attenzione lampeggiando.
Sono molto più ansioso da quando uso uno smartphone e sto pensando seriamente di disfarmene, poi però penso che resto senza una fotocamera, un blocco per gli appunti digitale, una mappa interattiva… cose pratiche che uso tutti i giorni, ma alla fine ne vale la pena? Prima dello smartphone giravo con un blocchetto per gli appunti A6, le mappe erano alle fermate del tram, o chiedevo alla gente per strada e le foto le scattavo con la macchina fotografica (facendone peraltro decisamente di migliori).
Avere tutto miniaturizzato e a portata di mano sembra un grosso vantaggio, ma è anche vero che l’esperienza è diventata frammentata: sto scattando una foto ed ecco che un messaggio mi appare in alto sullo schermo, rispondo, mi viene in mente una cosa che volevo scrivere, apro l’app per gli appunti, mhh… magari prendo un cappuccino, cerco un bar sulla mappa… sarà buono? Leggo le recensioni… stavo scattando una foto prima? boh, e chi se lo ricorda.

Nell’epoca pre-smartphone ero più presente e attento al mondo circostante. Il compromesso era dover pianificare di più. Uscivo di casa sapendo cosa fare. Quando avevo finito tornavo indietro, o chiamavo qualcuno o ancora decidevo di perdermi per la città, scoprire posti nuovi, parlare con la gente. Oggi invece prendo lo smartphone e cerco un evento, un incontro, un gruppo o gioco a candy crush. Mi tengo costantemente occupato perché sono diventato dipendente agli stimoli.
Un articolo ho letto tempo fa spiegava come avere la testa sgombra favorisca idee nuove e soluzioni a problemi in corso, ma quando ce li abbiamo questi momenti ormai? Ci serve davvero lo yoga e la meditazione per ritagliarceli? Se è così, allora anche essere rilassati diventa un compito, limitato a una o due ore a settimana. Ci siamo arrendendo ad una vita frenetica ed nevrotica. Secondo me per essere felici è fondamentale trovare il tempo di annoiarsi, una delle sensazioni più rivelatorie su cosa ci piaccia e cosa no.
Possiamo cominciare smettendo di portare lo smartphone anche al cesso. La scioccante scoperta di quanto possa essere difficile anche solo una cosa del genere. Realizzatene il motivo, infine godetevi la vostra meritata cagata mattutina fissando il muro.

CANZONE DEL GIORNO: Djavan – Maça do rosto

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feel today

I smoked [cigarettes] in those days because, like everyone else in the world who smokes, I wanted to die at least as much as I wanted to live.

— Gregory D. Roberts (Shantaram, 2004)

There is a poster in the living room. The lady subletting me the flat has put it on the wall, together with a portrait of Osho, a dreamcatcher and a multitude of abstract so-called artistic paintings.

I just cooked a couple of eggs in an iron pan, which gets rusty after every time I used it. Teflon would be better, but teflon wouldn’t fit the environment, not the huge plant on top of my bed (which makes me sick every night), not the spiritual quotes written on Post-its and sticked on the walls. Not Osho.

Forget it. I sit on the big table to eat my breakfast and I stare at the poster. A text on top of a faded picture of the desert asks

           How do you
           feel today?

Osho likes that. Only the present counts, he says, the past exists just in ones mind, but my hangover would not agree with him.

           How do you
           feel today?

Wine, beers, tequila and god knows what else. I feel like shit, thank you poster.
And what kind of question is that? It’s so naive, so passive-aggressive. I wouldn’t loose my time staring at a damn poster if I were busy having fun.

I eat my eggs. They taste good.
Hopefully they are heavy enough to help me recover faster.

           How do you
           feel today?

Today just started, how would I know it, poster? Why don’t you ask me the real question? ’cause yours is missing a line

           How do you
           want to
           feel today?

I taste again the breakfast on my lips, catch a deep breath of the fresh air coming out of the open window.

Poster, I want to feel great today.

 
SENTENCE OF THE DAY (de): ins Fettnäpfchen treten (to make a fool of oneself, gaffe)

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Victims

Rosie […] could never acknowledge darkness or confusion in life. Rosie was always about the light and the good and the positive. That way she never had to admit cruelty or malice within herself; she could always be the victim.

Christos Tsiolkas (The Slap, 2008)

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Moving to: Vancouver

Are you relocating to Vancouver, BC and need to know about the cost of life? That was exactly my situation a month ago!
Salary expectations are way easier to be figured out when you know the amount of the basic expenses.

Finally I didn’t made the move, but hey, here’s my personal notes about living in town.
Basically a cut n paste from the web plus information of friends of friends.

 

SALARIES

Student: c$ 1,200—1,500
“c$ 1.800—$2k buys a modest living for a healthy single (no car, possible flat-share vs. longer commutes)”

Single professional: c$ 2k—3k
“to have c$3k /m net means above c$ 5ok /y. A small amount of Vancouverites makes that.”

Family with 2 children: c$ 5k—7k (c$ 60k—84k)
The average household income in Vancouver (2013) is c$ 81,066.

wages:
c$ 22.98 /h average wage (according to the Ministry of Labour)
c$ 10.45 /h minimum wage (British Columbia, 15 Sept 2015)

 

TAXES

(1) Income Tax (federal):

15% on the first c$ 45,282 of taxable income
+ 20.5% on the next c$ 45,281 of taxable income (c$ 45,282 up to c$ 90,563),
+ 26% on the next c$ 49,825 of taxable income (c$ 90,563 up to c$ 140,388),
+ 29% on the next $ 59,612 of taxable income (c$ 140,388 up to c$ 200k),
+ 33% of taxable income over c$ 200 k.

The “+” means that no matter how much money you earn, you only pay 15% tax on your first $45,281 of income.

(2) Provincial Sales Tax (PST) – 7%

(3) Goods and Services Tax (GST, federal) – 5%

Here’s a simple and a complex online tax calculator.

 

HEALTHCARE

A single person pays about c$ 65 a month for full medical coverage (c$ 130 a month for a family, FYI). BC Medical does not cover dental, optical or prescriptions. Provincial health coverage is mandatory, but expats have to wait 3 months before they can benefit from it.
Expats should ensure that they have comprehensive health cover in order to have access to private healthcare facilities.

 

ACCOMMODATION

“Many people are investing their in real estate and commercial property just to make good returns. They have their primary residence elsewhere, but buy properties in Vancouver.”

“Many Vancouverites pay over 50% of their wages towards their rent”. Most accommodation is listed as unfurnished. Even so, it often includes appliances (such as a refrigerator and stove), with newer rentals possibly even including a washer, dryer, microwave and dishwasher.

A large comfy room in a flat-share would costs c$ 700 or more.

For a 1-bedroom apartment in a good part of the city with fairly modern renovation, building etc. expect to pay c$ 1,000 /m at least. Average rent in the city center is c$ 1,550 (1,250—1,800); outside of centre is c$ 1,150 (900—1,400).

An average 2-bedrooms apt. 10-15 min drive to downtown costs ca. c$ 1,200—1,600 +utilities. A nice, well-located one would cost c$ 2,000 /m (“in the heart of Vancouver it costs double before long”). detached home within Vancouver City limits costs c$ 2,800—4k.

Outside the core, rents might not be significantly cheaper unless you go outside Vancouver or decide to rent a basement suite in a residential neighbourhood.

Vancouver neighborhoods

 

Rental periods tend to be for a year, although six-month leases are sometimes negotiable.
Security deposits of either one or two months’ rent are required and unfurnished apartments usually come with basic appliances such as a stove and oven.

Utilities are generally excluded but it might be possible to negotiate these costs into the rental price.
Hydro (which means electricity): c$ 50—200 per month, depends on whether you heat your home with electricity or gas or if heat is included in the apartment rental. Often apartments will include heat and hot water in the rent. In that case, your hydro bill will be around c$ 25—90 a month.
If you use gas for ducted heat or cooking you’ll pay anywhere from c$ 30—100 a month. Might be included in rent.

Landlord might require to have a Tenant Insurance (around c$ 25 /m).

 

AREAS

The city of Vancouver is divided into four general areas: Central, West Side, Eastside and South Vancouver. “There are many neighbourhoods in Vancouver to discover and explore. Expats should not rush the process but spend time doing some research and finding the right community to suit their needs, family situation and lifestyle.”

 

EXPENSES

“Prices for everything are high and people love to complain about it.”

Wind and Mobilicity are new players in the cell phone industry in Canada and their  service area is not as large as the big 3 (Telus, Rogers, Bell). Other carriers: Fido (another Rogers’ brand), Solo (another Bell brand), Koodo (another Telus brand). Mobile tariff is approx. c$ 50, c$ 80 a month for landline Internet.

 

LIFESTYLE

“The lifestyle in Vancouver is what really gets you – expect to do lots of casual drinking, because everyone who lives there seems to be invested in a strange faux urbane lifestyle that consists mostly of drinking a lot of beer every night of the week and ignoring all the people around you while sticking obsessively to your group of friends (if you can make any).

If you want to engage in any kind of outdoor hobby be prepared to shell out for the transit (most of the hiking, mountain biking, skiing is in North Vancouver) and the lift ticket/admission. I didn’t have a bad financial life in Vancouver, but for the record I’ve been much happier and much less messed up by pretentious people and borderline alcoholism since I left.”

Snap! I read a lot of critiques about the town! They can be summarised in this comment I read somewhere:

“Other than the mountain and ocean view there’s nothing special about the city”.

A couple of websites states that the nightlife is decidedly low-key,

“…party-goers might find a little dull”.

Several replies by locals defend the town, including a bunch of “if you don’t like the place move over!”, which in my experience confirms the rumors of the place.

“All in all though, most expats report that living in Vancouver is a treat.”.

Who’s right?

 

WEATHER

It rains a lot.

Summer and part of Fall is lovely. It can be hot but not muggy.
Nov—March is dark and gray

Winter is milder than the rest of Canada, but it gets depressing with month after month of rain and dark clouds with temp of 0 to -5C.
Daytime temperatures usually stay above freezing (5—11 C). It rarely snows in the city.

 

SO WHAT?


$ 1,300 accommodation
$ 150 utilities
$ 25 Tenant Insurance
$ 65 healthcare
$ 250 groceries ( up to $800 for a family of 4, FYI)
$ 91 transportation
$ 10 bank account (Canadian banks charge a monthly fee)
$ 50 cellphone
$ 250 fun +hidden expenses
------
$ 2,191

This would be the minimum amount for survival. In other words, earning this amount net would most likely leave no money left on your account at the end of the month.
So on top of this amount it should be added things like savings expectations and and personal consideration on the job, in terms of professional requirements, responsibilities and so forth.

 

QUOTE OF THE DAY (South Park, the Movie): “the Canadian Government has apologized for Bryan Adams on several occasions” — Canadian Film Minister

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Tallinn

– Tallinn? Ah, meglio di Riga! E dopo, dove vai? Helsinki!? Naa… Helsinki fa schifo! Tallinn è molto meglio!

Questo, in grosse righe, il sunto delle mie conversazioni nel proposito. Non che io avessi chiesto l’hit-parade delle città baltiche… che ovviamente vede al Tallinn al primo posto, seguita a distanza da Riga, poi Monaco (non ho la minima idea del perché il gestore dell’ostello, spagnolo emigrato in Estonia, abbia tirato in mezzo il principato) ed infine Helsinki.

– troppo moderna… e pure costosa! Visiti amici? Ahhhhhh, ok ok, allora va bene. Ma se viaggiavi da solo, si… meglio Monaco.

Ok.

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Sinceramente Tallinn è la città che meno mi ha entusiasmato. Non che non abbia i suoi lati da scoprire, ma mi è sembrata un po’ troppo desolata. Sarà il freddo.
Il centro storico è davvero piccolo, fatto di stradine curve che mi fanno perdere l’orientamento un numero imbarazzante di volte. La cosa che noto di più è l’acqua delle grondaie, congelata in ghiaccio purissimo. Sembra un diamante.

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Annoiato del centro storico, attraverso le mura e mi perdo nella periferia ad ovest, ma mi sa che ho toppato: la città è ad est (come per Riga, il centro storico è un’attrazione che non ha nulla a che vedere con la città vera).
Le case sono quasi tutte in legno verniciato. Al numero 82 c’è un piccolo ristorante chiamato Kohvik Kohalik e i camerieri sono carinissimi. Una in particolare mi indica tutti posti da visitare in città.

Li saluto, esco e mi perdo ancora (eh si, lo faccio apposta). Stavolta finisco davvero nel bel mezzo del nulla: case popolari, poi un ippodromo ed infine un negozio di vestiti di seconda mano.

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Un trolley bus + Uber (il miglior mezzo di trasporto in città per qualità/prezzo) mi portano al Seaplane Harbour, dove si può entrare in un sommergibile del 1936 lungo 60 metri! Il biglietto è un po’ caro (12€), ma quando mi ricapita?

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La cosa che più mi ha interessato, da patito dell’arredo, sono proprio i gli interni della sala dei bottoni… Imbottiture chesterfield di seta color porpora, nel bel mezzo di tutti quei quadranti e manopole. Quanta tecnologia, seppur datata, con il solo scopo di ammazzare altra gente. Sarà che sono un ingenuo.
Nella stanza del capitano c’è l’unico lavandino che ho visto a bordo.

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Torno all’ostello a piedi e proprio mentre una macchina mi passa accanto scivolo sul marciapiede ghiacciato. Il guidatore se la ride. Ah, bastardo! Lo so che al posto del mio sedere c’è stato il tuo non sai più quante volte!

Il giorno dopo (direi anche parecchie birre dopo) ho giusto il tempo di passare per il quartiere di Rotermanni prima di prendere il traghetto per Helsinki.
Rotermanni è un complesso di capannoni industriali in mattoni convertirti ad uffici, negozi di abbigliamento e bar (Lasso Bar sembra carino, ma bisognerebbe passarci di sera per saperlo).

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Da lì si può raggiungere a piedi il Lounge 24. Secondo Kristiina ha la vista migliore della città, ma non ho più tempo! Sono in ritardo come una ventenne che ha dimenticato di prendere la pillola e corro ad imbarcarmi.

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PAROLA DEL GIORNO (pt-br): pirulito (lecca-lecca)

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