laurarosten

On the ferry We began our glorious hunt by taking the usual route: a ferry from Uskudar iskelesi to Kabatas station in 'new' Istanbul and a bus down the scenic route by Bosphorus, up to Tophane station where Istanbul Modern is situated in. We were in the hunt for modern and contemporary art, but the first thing we saw were about fifty to hundred police officers in riot gear. We were confused, none of this apparent police control fitted our journey's themes of purification and inner peace. At first, we deducted that we must be somewhere close to a football stadium. After all, we had read and heard rumours that Turkish football fanatics can get extremely feisty. Late... read more

In between driving like hell for thousands of kilometers, my faithful unlicensed co-driver and I stopped to wander about Urho Kekkonen National Park in Sodankylä, North of Finland. We arrived there around midday, and set off with pristine equipment and sufficient accessories - two pairs of dry shoes, two backpacks that were not about to fall apart anytime soon, first aid kit that could easily sort out a decent-size village that had faced a series of weird accidents all taking place simultaneously, enough astonishingly mild ready-made pasta to suppress our appetites for days, flashlights, towels, sleeping bags, repair kits, pinhole cameras, you name it. We had confidence in our earthly belongings but little fa... read more

We survived. 32 reindeers and a thousand-ish miles later I return to tell the tale. On 6th of August my flat mate and I essentially moved into my Nissan Sunny '92 for two weeks. She analysed maps, I drove like hell. Our intended first stop was Seitseminen National Park at Ruovesi, but since we spent hours stuffing our faces with coffee and cake at Tampere we arrived quite late. The information desk was already closed and it was getting dark. The map hero, also known as my flat mate, informed us that there is a deserted road nearby. We decided to camp on that off-road spot, since Finnish Every Man's Right allows people to stick up ... read more

Jonah Raskin's American Scream: Allen Ginsberg's Howl And The Making Of The Beat Generation was the book I opted for. The obvious, touristy thing would have been to purchase a copy of Howl – we were in City Lights Books after all. Luckily there was a vacant rocking chair upstairs where my friend rocked away while I scanned through every single available item before picking up the before mentioned title. The cashier was too cool for school. He had an assymetrical London haircut and what Britons call NHS spectacles. At the time of writing this he probably is a cashier no more. He looked like the type who lands a design job sooner or later. Bless him. One of the very few customer service people in San Francisco I liked. No over-enthusias... read more

Type a few words to that empty field in your preferred search engine and behold! All sorts of information appear on your computer or smartphone’s screen. You’d think inquisitive people never left the house unlike in the days of yore. And yet, there are over hundred low-cost airlines estimated to operate in all continents, departing and arriving from forty nine thousand airports in the world. There are planes in the air constantly. Forty-four thousand have arrived to their destinations within the last forty-eight hours, my computer tells me. Evidence suggests most people want to see at least some of the ninety-five countries in the world. No matter how much background research you do by furiously ‘googling’, no matter how many times you glance through your Lonely Planet guides, no matter how many pieces of advice you ... read more

The prisoners depicted in Louis Theroux’s documentary film were engaged in activities that did not require much physical motion; reading books, casual conversations with other inmates and listening to MP3 players. As my Geordie friend pointed out “the prisoners look like they are on a bus journey that seemingly never ends.” This comparison came to mind when I travelled from London to Newcastle by Megabus. I felt like a convict at a death row. Although the coach was physically moving forward it was not that easy to distinguish if we were going round in circles, always stopping at Scotch Corner. There is possibly a regulation about the commercial services that are allowed to operate at Northern England coach stops. Anything apart from Costa Coffee Shop, WHSmiths’s and Mark’s & Spencer’s have to be out of the ... read more