Berlin @ August 2008
" Light in August"

After a week in Lisbon with O. almost no memories.
Pessoa was absent. The town did not change at all: a museum for well educated traveler and huge portion of nostalgia. Lucent nights on hills and silence, Lisbon is like a sleeping draco, tranquil and aware.
V. invited us to a bonny dinner within the labyrinths of old town, then a short postprandial meditation in Bairro alto. We talked about "saudade" as a very Portuguese and unique cultural phenomenon, which is heavy (to explain) and deep embedded into the memories of this culture. Saudade was explained to me in all her dimensions as a "feeling" accompanying live and past and future (more deails: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saudade).
I believe, that the relevant difference between Portuguese way of thinking the world and other latin and non-latin "cultures of looking at the wolrd" is made by the extraordinary ability of the Portuguese "languages" (langage, music, art), to be able to express "it" un-definitely better than the others. Portuguese culture seems to have developed this highly specified skill of expression the "feeling" of saudade.

Afterwards on the beach of Cascais, wild waves and the wind were evocative of old b&w pictures without any relation to a specific place or time, just those days. Having nice days in the house of my friend (N. P.) with kids and his friends.




Turkish Riviera @August 2008

It seemed to be a good place to do nothing. As to pass time of vacation in Russia with Turkish environment or nice displacement.