Still the sky in Amalfi is so high that the birds coming from the north seem to also fly high, between blue and blue. The birds are looking down the peninsula, and may easily go beyond the highest cliffs around here.
I am on a ferry going back to Salerno city,which maybe takes about 20 or 30 minutes. Turning back to the Amalfi, I find that some old, local people at the coast are sitting on the bank and looking at us idly, and some tourists coming from the ferry 10 minutes ago are walking with their carry-on-luggage, maybe, looking for their hotels.
The girl at the window of the five-story old white apartment, is no longer at the window. She may takes lemon gelatos with friends.
Some teenagers are gathering at the wharf, and some of them are fooling with each other and finally one dives into the sea. The coast line of the Amalfi is actually busy, and when I was there, I always found some people were walking, talking, eating sea foods, or drinking an espresso. On the other, the scenery I find from the ferry is perfectly silent. Only the breeze I feel here is the one I can hear.
Here is Amalfi, at the early of July.
The main street of Amalfi is not long, but slightly an uphill road. Along with the street, there are several souvenir shops that make lots of small bottles of limoncello laying on big baskets. Some, which deals with some groceries, also have some large yellow lemons on the shelves inside the store. Under early July sun shining, the reflected sun-light from the bottles is giving the passengers, mostly tourists, irresistible summer spectrum.
Walking through an allay, I just look up the slope and more over, look up the windows of four- or five- story old and white buildings standing crowdedly with each other. A girl with light brown hair comes from one of the windows. She seems to look down the shining sea. The dry wind coming from the far away cliff blows her brown hair lightly.
Maybe, she may think about taking a ferry leaving this la penisola sorrentia (sorrento peninsula) to go to the capital, or just think about hefty homework of her junior high or high school during this summer vacation.
Here is Amalfi, its summer colors are yellow lemon and sea blue. Of course, the sky is high, enough.
In Brussels, I had taken the tram 92 going through Uccle for many times, and some time I enjoyed looking at, and some time, without thinking any, just looked at the scenery from the window of the tram 92. I think that, to say generally, the scenery was not so special. On the other hand, whenever I realized the "afterglows" of myself at a particular place I used to be, like at the cafe I used to take a cappuccino, I got the feelings as if I regret for not taking the photo, that kind of an ordinal scenery photo.
Whenever the tram turned the corner of St Job square, I tried to remember the last time when I went to the Italian restaurant near there and what kinds of dishes I enjoyed at the time.
After passing the square, the tram 92 started going up a little bit steep hill until reaching Fort Jaco.
Here was Brussels, now I realized how few photos of this beloved city I actually have.
When I saw la Seine, I was driving over the highway near le Harvre. There were several big gray plants and ports along with the river, actually I had totally no idea about what these plants did make actually, and a few big tankers were running against the flow. The color of la Saine at this point was somehow grey and slight-brown. I did not remember whether the day before I came here was an rainy day or not.
I came to the museum standing near the bank of the mouth of the river. After seeing several impressionists there, I took a coffee in the cafe of the museum. The cafe was at the corner of the second floor, and had big windows facing the river.
While sitting and sipping the hot coffee, I was watching a big ferry coming from la Saine. That big ferry apparently did not come from Paris, but I just came to have an idea that what if I have a middle sized fishing boat, I might be able to go to the Paris along with this river. What if I was just teenager and took on that middle sized fishing boat, I might take a night to go to Paris, and in the very early morning, I might see a riverbank of Paris and a girl, Parisienne, standing there with a beautiful hat. The breeze was, of course, nice.
Here was le Harvre, where I smelt the tide.
At the time, I had a reservation for dinner at a restaurant in Honfleur, which I found in an article of a well-sold travel magazine. My reservation was at 19:00, but I just came there around 18:00, and found that still the chefs and waiters there looked too busy for their preparation to welcome its guests. So, I decided to enjoy my evening-walking around its old, narrow, but familiar or better to say "bon vieux" paths and alleys near there.
In alleys, there were always familiar smells of old town. People in here were mainly tourists who looked at windows of restaurant, shops and stores, which were selling classic antiques, paintings of modern impressionists, or ice creams made from regional milk. Sometimes, there were residents who just sit behind the window and just stared at a passerby quietly.
When coming back to my restaurant around 18:50, I found the chefs of the other restaurant nearby, sitting on the small stone stairs and smoking vacantly. They seemed to be parts of the old town nicely, without questions and reasons, at the time, at least for me.
Here was Honfleur, Normandie.
Along with the Pegnitz river, I found a Starbucks. At 20:30, since the summer-like-afterglow in June was still remaining and a glass of pilsner made me a little bit thirsty, at the moment, I had no choice but went into the familiar coffee shop. A starbucks lady carefully poured an iced coffee in a tall size cup with several blocks of ices. I took it and went outside to look for the riverside table.
In front of my table, there were several Asian boys and girls putting their musical instruments, mainly stringed instruments, like violins or violas or cellos, beside them. They were chatting and laughing and web-surfing, maybe twitting with their smartphones or ipads, maybe in Korean. In the early summer evening, this seemed to be the moment and place for them to be relaxed after finishing daily hard practices in a conservatoire.
Here was Nurnberg.
I was on the riverside, Pegnitz river actually, and feeling a nice breeze of this early June. I took a glass of pilsner at the riverside restaurant, which I heard once was a home for the elderly.
Taking a sip of pilsner and tasting its nice slight bitter, I was just looking at the surface of the river, and then up the sky. At 20:00, the sun was still there, but people were in the twilight orange-brown and blue.
The waiter served me roasted nurnbergerwursts with full of sauerkrauts. The flavor of the wursts was carried by a breeze, and I washed down bites of them and sauerkraut with sips of pilsner.
Here was Nürnberg.
I remembered that it was near the Starbucks located at the corner of Mitoropoleos street, Athens. I saw three young guys in their twenty sitting on the road side, and selling small, cheap toys for children as a souvenir of not Athens or Greece, but something else, not special.
The cheap toy was actually a small rubber ball. It was an egg-size and seemed to be so soft that once the ball hit the flat ground, it was bashed in flatten like a fried egg shape. Then after a while, the rubber ball was gradually becoming a original ball shape again. And these small balls were decorated as a small tomato with vivid primary red color, or a pig with an comical, impressive nose.
Whenever these guys found tourists with their children or even infants, they started to hit their sample balls on the flat square board again and again until tourists passed by or happened to show some interests.
At the time, the old lady was passing by these youths on the street. The lady did not look like a tourist, so the guys did not start hitting a small ball on the board. They were just chatting, and boring. The old lady was slowly approaching them, and suddenly handed a 2 euro coin to one of these. She showed totally no interest in a small toy, and indicated by a simple body gesture that the guys could share the coin. The old lady went away. The guys looked at each other in a little bit perplexity, and began to put the toys back, then went away slowly.
Here was on Mitropoleos street, Athens
After walking around Athens, I took an hour and half trip of a middle sized ferry that would go to Aegina island from Athens. Maybe or maybe not, it is the second nearest island from its capital city among quasi-star dust like Greece islands, and of course, like many, once had its ancient polis, which is now symbolized by its well known temple of Aphaia. Actually, I did not go to see this temple, or other famous spots in the island, or even did not enjoy its beautiful beach near the harbor.
I kept walking through alleys, back-alleys of Aegina town, just looking small, family owned shops or stores, some of which would sell its specialties, including green pistachios. In front of a small house, the old lady put a long brown desk and placed dozens of small packs of pistachios on it. Whenever people, who looked like tourists, passed by, she said "please" several times with a faint voice.
When walking around Athens, I was surprised how modern the capital city has been with its still quasi-brand new subways, or well-constructed main road to the famous Acropolis. The modern heritages of the Olympic game of 7 years ago might be still shining. In here, at the middle of small ally of Aegina town, I smelled the flavor of roasted pistachios and maybe atmosphere of old Athens, which may be at least before the Olympic.
Here was Aegina town, Greece.
At Athens international airport, I saw a group of high school students near one of departing gates, maybe, coming from U.K. Two male teachers in their middle-age accompanied them, and managed and led this total of about 30 boys-and-girls all together.
These students were literally so different.
An obliging girl with dark brown hair was giving a shoulder-massage to the boy with short curly blond, who were sitting before her and closed his eyes with fully relaxing. Then, they switched their roles.
A little bit fat boy was carrying a ukulele and found an empty seat in the middle of boys-group.
There was one class-mate-couple, and the girl leaned on the boy who was the only student having a thin mustache.
Two fashionable, bad-guy-like boys were having sandwiches at the cafe, and besides them, a teacher in short pants talked with them with laughing each other.
A little bit fat girl accidentally kicked her friend's baggage while walking through the students, and said "wow" comically, two times, instead of saying "sorry". The girl, whose baggage was kicked, also kicked this fat girl's butt in reprisal. The boy who sitting beside her laughed for a while.
Seeing these, I just wondered if we, my colleagues and I in our office, are also so different and have so various characters like these students.
Maybe not. In our company, we all may seem to be same, because we are all in business suit, because we are doing same business, which we chose for living.
Here was Athens international airport. For a while, I remembered many of my high school class mates. We were so different at the time.
In the morning, I was at the top of the hill of the ancient city, Mdina, and overlooking the faraway port-town, Sliema, where then I would try to reach by walking. It was a nice winter day. Sometimes, a little bit chilly and strong winds carried a bunch of white and gray clouds in the water-blue sky.
The day before this quasi-sunny day was a heavy rainy day. So, walking down a far long slope from Mdina or in English I can say "Imdina" to the port, I found some large puddles covering the entire roads. Sometimes, I walked through the center of the puddle with my old new-balance shoes. Sometimes, I had to climb up the road-side stone fence in order to avoid the muddy water. From the fence, I saw two or three small white butterflies already waking up (still in winter) and looking for some flowers.
Old and yellow buses passed me several times with lazy speeds. A small truck putting a small lamb in its back carrying-platform also passed me. At the time, the lamb bleated or baaed with a small but clear voice. And this lamb bleating made me feel the extent of this small island. At the end, it was about 20 km walking.Finally, here was Sliema, port town of Malta.
It was a rainy day in Valletta, and the rain itself made the entire Malta island a little bit chilly. I was walking around the historical grand master's palace without an umbrella, and finally rushing and looking for any buildings with the eaves to hide myself.
Unfortunately, there was no eaves around here, but I found the familiar logo, which I used to see in London or even at Grafton Street in Dublin. It was M&S, in short, Marks and Spencer, a famous franchise retail store in U.K. Of course, without hesitation, I went into the store, because the rain was gradually quickening, and also I found the store-map that showed that the cafe was on the ground floor.
At the cafe, I said, hi, to the staff, and ask if this cafe had a hot tea, especially earl grey tea, the best drink to warm my body on such a chilly rainy day. The staff, a young boy, said to me, yes of course, but said that I had to pay for it in advance at the checkout counter.
O.K. it was easy.
Then, I took the ticket and brought it to the boy, and he immediately gave me a hot earl grey.
I knew that all our conversations were in English, and I was in M&S and took a nice, hot earl grey. It was that moment when I felt that this country had a certain history rooted in U.K.
Here was Valletta, Malta.
Waking around the Venezia, I found lots of shops, restaurants, and hotels. Especially, each ancient building definitely had a shop, like sun-glass shops where visitors looked for Gucci, D&G, Giorgio Armani in here. I also went into United Colors of Benetton, looking for a reasonable T shirt, in order to change my shirt 'cause I was in a sweat because of long walking under sun-shinning.
While putting on a shirt, I realized that I had not seen any "real" residents yet. Usually, when waking in a town, soon I encounter town-residents, like kids playing football in a small empty lot or housewives carrying supermarket plastic bags with full of foods. In here, in case I encountered them, it seemed to be a rare occasion. All people I saw seemed to be visitors, tourists, staffs of shops, restaurants, and hotels. At the supermarket, visitors bought dozens of beers and chips for night party.
So, current Venezia is not same as ancient Venezia, where notorious merchants were busy around Pont di Rialto.
Here was Venezia, still I could see the same colors of roofs and sea as what people saw in hundreds years ago.
Looking up the Venetian sky from a small alley, I just found the blue and white sky-line over my head. And a moment, the sea gulls were mewing and flying across the line. On the ground, a few people were walking and wandering and going nowhere. Actually, visitors faced a certain difficulty to find a right alley to go. I heard once that if a visitor wanted to get out of here, a dead end of the alley, the best way was to follow a local venetian who knew well where to go.
I was just standing still at the middle of a small bridge over a small canal. Sometimes, some gondolas went through the canal, and I looked down at them while thinking nothing. At the time, I was with my wife and son there, and all three were waiting for the restaurant near the bridge opening in the evening. Actually, the restaurant literally opened at the time, but when looking inside, I could not find any people there. So, we were waiting for people of the restaurant, in shorts, chefs, waiters, maybe an owner, and a bartender coming back soon.
It was about 10 min before the opening hour of the restaurant, 18:00, I remember. Some visitors came and looked inside like us, and then gave up to wait for a while and went away. Finally, restaurant staffs came back on time and we went inside the restaurant. The bartender firstly asked us if we made a reservation. Immediately, I said "No" . He nodded with smile and offered us a table for 3, but said we had to finish our dinner by 19:30, because the reservations were full after the time. No problem, of course. Quite speedy, we had a nice bongole and squid ink spaghetti, which were better than what we've ever had somewhere.Here was Venezia.
The first time when I visited Amsterdam was November 2005, more than 5 years ago. And since then, I had countless visits. But, whenever I was here, it was in winter or almost winter.
Always, the sea gulls were flying high and low, and cutting through the chilly winds over the canals. Sometimes, the sky was so blue and brought the frozen air from the broad empty blue to the ground, and of course, on the surface of the canals. Many times, the sky was with full of thick clouds, and was so gray. But the canals in winter were deeply dark, so the sky gray looked like quasi-bright white line on them.
Still I remember what I saw on the occasion of my first visit in here. I certainly remembered the man in his late 30's or mid-40's from Luxembourg whom I met in a business conference. This is not because we had a difficult business between us, or he was so brilliant and impressive on the conference. This is because after the day of the conference, I happened to met him again in a hotel restaurant in the morning, and took the same table for breakfast. When I saw him, quite naturally I said to him, hey, good morning, and he replied with smile.
Our conversation was mostly about our common business, but at a certain point, I happened to ask him when he came here last time. He said, that was in 1980's. That's quite long time ago, I said with a surprise. He told that he was in his late teen or 20's, and he drove his old VW with then-his girl friend, now-his wife, and came all the way to Amsterdam. That was the first time and he thought at the time that it was the last time to came here, because he had no reason to come again.
Then in winter 2005, he had a reason, a business.
Here was Amsterdam, without reasons, I was/am/will be here, maybe in winter.
I saw a few bats flying under cover of night in Nice. The night breeze was basically warm in April here, sometimes I felt a little bit cold flow of the air, which certainly contained the smell of the sea, a part of the Mediterranean Sea.
But with this flow, the breeze was nice, so nice.
I heard the sounds of waves, cars on the roads, and rustling leaves of palms. Moreover, the breeze brought me whispering of several juveniles on a beach. They were just in front of the shoreline, and talking, laughing, throwing a stone into white waves, and even running with each other like 100m sprint. Here was Nice, I just kept walking on the Promenade des Anglais.
The sky was blue like water color, and always high. The light clouds gathered like a wide thin layer of a haze, just try to cover the blue, but still fail to climb up. The breeze was not enough for me to be nice, but I understood that it was part of a good summer day here.
It was in the summer 2008. I was on the top of the hill and looking down at Schloss Schönbrunn, where I was on the heavy, white snow day, 8 years ago. Same place, but for me, it's different. Totally, different.
Different? I understood what I felt different did not come from the summer blue sky and strong sun shinning, or winter white snow and chilly north wind of 8 years ago.
To say honestly, I felt that the difference came from Schloss Schönbrunn, which maybe had been there for more than two or three hundred years, I guess. Schloss Schönbrunn in my memory on the winter day was, actually, bigger and brighter than what I saw on the summer day.
I remembered that the ceders with full snow on its each branch and twig in the garden were so tall that I thought they were a quasi-snow wall for the solemn place in here. On a summer day, I looked up the blue sky between the branches of the ceders, and the birds in there sang a song like chatting. Here was Wien, Austria.
Still the sky in Amalfi is so high that the birds coming from the north seem to also fly high, between blue and blue. The birds are looking down the peninsula, and may easily go beyond the highest cliffs around here. 
