Tell me about where you live

yyaldrin

in je ogen waait de wind
DnIyWNTXgAE0NUJ.jpg
 

baboon2004

Darned cockwombles.
I went to Barry fairly recently for the first time, with a family member of the same name. Didn't get the gumbo, but on a sunny day it was a good place to be.
 

jorge

Well-known member
I remember in Autumn walking through the park in this great sweeping world of yellow. Caught up in all this glorious yellow. To be able to track the seasons in that park is something I'm super grateful for.

This is something I love about living in the countryside where the changing of the seasons is an important shared happening that can be quite all encompassing. At around this time of year especially the potential for new growth is overwhelming especially if your amongst the undergrowth, the change from death to life is welcome!


Having lived for a while in Vietnam it was quite disconcerting for the days to stay about the same length and the temperature and plants not to change much throughout the year, cherished a nice deep frost when I got back
 

other_life

bioconfused
really wanted us to be done w snow for the year but ofc we're not, there was a blizzard, the air is warm (for here) but there's all this slushy wet shit on the ground and it's bright as hell outside. most of it had melted before this
 

IdleRich

IdleRich
At around this time of year especially the potential for new growth is overwhelming especially if your amongst the undergrowth, the change from death to life is welcome!
This is very true. There is a path we walk from our house into town and recently we discovered a shortcut through some undergrowth, now when we go that way the grass is shooting up and flowers are bursting out from all directions. Reminds me of playing in the meadows growing up in the English countryside as a child.
 
Last edited:

yyaldrin

in je ogen waait de wind
This is something I love about living in the countryside where the changing of the seasons is an important shared happening that can be quite all encompassing. At around this time of year especially the potential for new growth is overwhelming especially if your amongst the undergrowth, the change from death to life is welcome!


Having lived for a while in Vietnam it was quite disconcerting for the days to stay about the same length and the temperature and plants not to change much throughout the year, cherished a nice deep frost when I got back

i never understood how people can have memories without there being seasons? i remember things that happened in spring two years ago. or in that very cold winter some couple of years ago. you have these signifiers: neon-green leafs and seeing the sunrise very early, shadows so long they look goofy. or the contrary, trees naked and people looking funny cos of all the layers of cloths wearing, sometimes only the eyes visible. those and all the other variations of seasons, weather and climate are the stage settings in which my memories are filed. it led me to think, do people living in places with no seasons have a different sense of time? do things seem longer, slower?
 

IdleRich

IdleRich
I used to go out with a girl from Japan and she was always talking about the way the days got so much longer in summer in the UK and how exciting that was. Now I go out with a girl from Russia and she is always moaning that the UK doesn't have any variation between seasons compared to where she is from. It's all relative I guess.
 
Last edited:

yyaldrin

in je ogen waait de wind
i wish i would live in a place like this. no idea where it is, it's a postcard from the past
D4LOFITXkAA8ccK.jpg
 

pattycakes_

Can turn naughty
Have left São Pau for now, but here's a few reflections:

20mil odd people. Huge spread. Concrete almost everywhere. Handful of parks. Properly urban. Some of the best nightlife in the southern hemisphere. Rich in culture, food and people. They're supposed to be cold compared to the rest of Brazil. Wasn't my experience. But maybe as I move around now I'll see what was meant by that. Felt like SP was a crash course in many aspects of life. Things move fast. People party hard. Easy to get lost. I did for a while. The shroom trip pulled me back. Its the first big city I've been to in the last decade or so that didn't feel heavy to me. On the plane there I was sat next to a woman and we ended up talking for almost the whole flight. Among other things she seemed to be bent on making me nervous about all the bad things that could happen. 'don't have your phone in your hand out in the street,' 'wear your backpack on your front' etc etc. And it worked. The first night I stayed downtown and as we drove through the streets all I could see was hookers and drug goblins. When her boyfriend dropped me off at the hotel right in the middle of all that I was nervous to even go from the car to the hotel door. Woke up the next morning and looked out the window down at the street waiting to see if it looked safe enough. 'take an uber everywhere you go' she said. But after 5 mins of looking out, there was a guy with his phone out and a backpack on his back. There was another one. And a school kid doing the same... Shit, mountains out of molehills. I go out. End up walking to avenida Paulista. The commercial centre. SP's Oxford Street. Its full. The roads are all pedestrianised and the roadside on both sides were strewn with people selling handmade shit, food, bands and djs. It was like a festival. I asked someone if it was a special day and they said no, it's just what they do on Sundays. This was my first real impression of the city. Ended up dancing to some house at a little tent and meeting a few people who recommended some good clubs to check. I never went back there on a Sunday but the impression it left was enough for me to know that this place was a bit different to what I'm used to and put wind in my sails. First area I stayed for a longer stretch was vila Mariana. A quiet, leafy pocket in the south east near the biggest park in the city. That was nice and quaint but a little too out of the way so after a month I moved more central to an area called barra Funda. That was more like it. Gritty urbanism, no frills, known to be dangerous. My apt had this great view I posted in the Depths thread which was a lush forest canopy flanked to the left by some huge multistory tower blocks which looked like a forest too. The contrast was fantastic. Kind of thing I'd always dreamed of having as a view from a young age. Right outside the window of the balcony was an overpass which after 6pm and all day on weekends was pedestrianised and people would walk their dogs, skate, hang out and smoke weed etc. In combo with the night temp being so good, it was often busy and it felt like a city that belonged to the people instead of the other way around.

There's quite a lot of uneven surfaces in the city. Some fairly steep hills. In combination with the torrential rains and the trees which line many of the streets, there's a real sense of chaos. It used to be jungle. In many ways it still is. Sometimes huge trees will fall into the middle of the road. Often the tree roots will force their way through the asphalt and start to consume the streets leaved a knarled and crumbling piece of road looking like a half eaten sandwich. Often you need to watch where you're stepping because of this. It all adds to the sense of wildness.

I never had one run in with danger. Even when sourcing substances in dodgy areas I'd been warned about. Never saw a fight or anything close to one. Plenty of places in the UK feel way more menacing to me. Obviously you avoid certain areas. But at times I found myself walking through favelas and all was good. I think the people who end up getting fucked with tend to look like easy targets anyway. Look like you know where you're going. I will just add though, that the homeless population is huge there. Maybe the hardest thing to face on a daily basis. But, they do seem to stick together. Sometimes whole communities of them all hanging out and seemingly helping each other out. Idk, felt different to what I'd seen in other parts of the world.

Musically they have venues all over the city. Their own home grown stuff, samba schools, jazz, a lot of rock. The club scene is pretty damn good, I have to say. Big gay scene which always helps in that regard. Gotta give it to the Brazilians. They know how to party. But the drugs all flow a little too freely and as I mentioned it's easy to go overboard when the potent stuff costs a 5th of what it does in the UK. A lot of people told me about seeing gringos laid to waste, especially during carnival.

Oh yeah, carnival. It's focused over a weekend but the lead-up of preparties is about a month and then the other side is another month of after parties too. SP is not as famous as Rio or Salvador for it but everyone says it's growing and this year was the biggest so far. You have the famous floats and dancers all up at the samba drome which is basically a tiered seating avenue purposely built for the occasion where you pay to go and watch and see all that. But the real action is in the block parties which are dotted all over the place. Some themed, some more chill, lots totally bonkers. They can be a store with a PA set up outside playing tunes, to a float or two parading down a street with 30k people in tow all drunk and high as hell singing along. You have to be careful there though as you can get a bit too carried away and all of a sudden you've been relieved of your possessions. Nothing happened to me though. Never in my life have I been surrounded by so many people all on the same vibe, full of life and love. And the rumours are true. People will come up to you and ask for a kiss no questions asked. Hot brasilian women just like 'c'mere you!' A lot of babies are born in november/December lol. When in Rome.

But, now after having been there almost 6months it felt like it was time to see something new so I hit the coast. Shits like chalk n cheese. SP state isn't so famous internationally for its coastline but wow. Little pockets of heaven to be found all the way up to the next state. People on a different tip as per when you're by water. Lush greens, golden sands and turquoise waters. I'm determined to get a snap of a toucan for luka. There's sloths about too. Going on a big hike tomorrow. Maybe I'll be lucky then..

Moral of the story: don't let sensationalist press put you off checking out places like this.
 
Last edited:

Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
brb, booking a holiday to Sao Paolo to get randomly snogged by hot Brazilian women.

Pattycakes, what took you to Brazil in the first place? You seeing friends there or just travelling around by yourself? It sounds pretty great.
 

pattycakes_

Can turn naughty
After 4 years of living in East Germany and breaking up with a long term gf I felt like I needed some kind of change. 1st I went to Morocco with the intent of staying there for a good while. I lasted about 3 months. In the end the restrictions imposed by the religion felt too much like what I was trying to get away from. I really love Morocco, had some amazing times there, wonderful people, but it just didn't feel free enough. Near the end of the trip I met this free spirited American girl and we spent a few days together in Essaouira. I told her how I was looking for the opposite of Germany. She told me to get my ass to Salvador, Brazil ASAP. So, the following week I was on a plane. Just happened to be a really cheap ticket on one day of the month so I took that as a sign. Was one of those awkward multi stop things, but 40 hours later here I was.

I'll never understand airfares. This one had me fly from Rabat to Madrid, stop over 6 hours, then back to Rabat and then to São Paulo. If I'd flown on the exact same flight for the final leg, it would have been triple the price I paid. 3 flights are cheaper than one apparently. Da fucc is that?

It took me 2 days in SP to forget about going to Salvador. Too much fun to be had! Might actually end up in Salvador if I go far enough up the coast now thougjh. Its where the first African slaves arrived so the culture up there is much more African compared to cosmopolitan SP. Different music, food, dialect. A lot of people told me not to hang out in the city itself but to check out the coast which is all in the state of Bahia. That's all a maybe right now though. Quite a bit to see and do between here and there. Rio is pretty close to where I'm at right now. Let's see what happens.
 
Top