Travels

It's a well known fact that I love to travel. Sadly, this year I didn't travel nearly enough. My only time spent abroad was 3 days in a haunted house in London. And I got rained on. Luckily I have many traveling friends who not only go to far away places, but also share their adventures with me.

Have a look at the travellogs of Nafis Nia. She's a good friend, filmmaker and journalist. To read/see/listen to her reports from the trip she was on to develop the state of journalism in Afghanistan check out her articles at the "Trouw" newspaper and her personal blog (both in Dutch).

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Another beautiful adventure is the journey of my friend Allen "mr. Fish" of Caspian Hat Dance fame. He recently sent me an e-mail from Rumania. With his kind permission I'll copy a part of it:

"i'm slowly heading back to cluj to rest and regroup because i am COLD and out of money. the adventures have been amazing and we recorded a lot, plus i've recorded a lot alone, but nothing for Caspian, i think. i've eaten chickenliver (disgusting), pure pig fat (disgusting), different types of sausages and soups and ham (lekker). some people think i'm neat. other people threaten me and yell at me. i can kind of speak romanian. i was bitten by a dog. it sounded like this: "woof, munch". i'm not pregnant. last night i slept in a single room with a family whose mom works in a store 13 hours a day, 7 days a week, and hasn't had one day's rest for the last 4 years. life can never be bad again (for me) if i just think about her. i also slept at a homemade palinka plant, powered by a stream. it was the most beautiful place, too, in the mountains, and the (free) palinka literally flowed like water from a tap -- you guys would have loved it. i mean, because you like nature.

some (assimilated) gypsies wanted me to translate 'amari szi amari' into ... romanian of course! but i couldn't. old men give me grapes. children sing for me. some people are truly wonderful. others are serious motherfuckers. one 12-year old (assimilated gypsy) boy i met calls me every couple of days to ask me if i've eaten anything. when i say, "yes", he says, "what did you eat?" sometimes i wonder if i need to ask him for permission if i stay out late. i would love to play in cluj with you guys after budapest. also maybe we could go to one of the villages i've been to, like negresti oas in the north.

i'm gonna try and sleep in a synagogue tonight. hopefully the guy who invited me isn't gonna expect me to be all jewish all over the place. much love, see you soon"