The old lady and the young girl

This article is inspired by the conversation of three friends sitting at a terrace of a small and cosy bar of Le Marais in Paris and enjoying a glass of white wine. The French capital was their meeting point, since the three of them were spread around Europe:

Putting Lugano aside (where I spent 6 months of my life), Paris and Berlin are the cities I’ve visited most. But it is not a simple coincidence: one can never get tired of either of them, both are incredibly startling cities that cannot disappoint.

If these cities were people, Paris would be an old lady whereas Berlin, a young girl. The French capital is melancholic and old but keeps its beauty intact. In fact, it is the kind of city that gets better as time goes by. It is the perfect haunt for couples, since everybody –even the ones who haven’t seen Casablanca— bears in mind the phrase: “We will always have Paris”. For this reason, walking by the Seine or having a trip on a bateau-mouche is one of the most romantic and calm situations one can have. Even if the river crosses the city centre, it is easy to let one’s mind wander and forget the stress and strain of big capitals. Moreover, Paris is a huge city so it is impossible to know every spot travelling there just once. There is always a new bar, shop or alley worth visiting. And getting lost through Saint Germain or Le Marais is priceless. These two neighbourhoods are like two little villages alien to the rest of the city. Furthermore, Parisian babies must be born with a fashion magazine under their arms, since people in Paris are the most stylish ones I’ve ever seen.

On the other hand, Berlin is the complete opposite. It is a quite new city that it is being rebuilt since the end of the Second World War. It is the perfect place for young people and there are all kinds of attractions for them. There is party assured every day of the week and all kinds of musical events to discover new talents. Because this is what the city of Berlin tries to do: discover new things and create a city identity formed by the perfect mix. Walking around its streets one can find all kinds of people and styles: an old woman with purple hair and ripped stockings, a punk guy with his baby wearing Baby Dior or the most posh girls trying to be like Paris Hilton. And the most astonishing thing is that nobody will turn to see them better because this is how Berliners are. In Berlin everybody can express himself without being ashamed of it.

So, considering all of their differences, one has to bear in mind that going to Paris or going to Berlin are two kinds of totally different trips. It is important to know when is the right time to travel to one or the other.

The power of Zibelemärit

When one lives in Switzerland for 6 months it is almost compulsory to rent a car and go on a road trip around the country. Driving from Lugano to Gèneve –which is the longest distance-- shouldn’t take more than 5 hours. Furthermore, Swiss highways have really picturesque views, which makes the trip by car even lighter.
We had just 5 days to enjoy our road trip around the country, but we knew this wasn’t going to be the only one. That’s why we decided to visit half of the cities we were interested in. Since Switzerland is a country made up of different cultures and languages, the experience of changing language almost every time we changed city was amazing. In 5 days we had to switch from Italian, to German and to French, although almost everybody was able to talk to us in any of those languages. Our relationship with the natives also seemed to change during the car trips: warm with the Italian speakers, cordial with the French speakers and a bit colder with the German speakers.
Nevertheless, one random morning we woke up in Bern (German speaking part) and everything was different. It turned out that it was an insignificant day for us but a very important day for them. It was the fourth Monday of November, which meant: “Zibelemärit” (Onion Market). Everybody was in the streets of the city centre. There were no lessons at school nor University and workers finished their work day earlier than usual. It was crazy! People wore necklaces made of sweets or small coloured onions (for the ones who wanted to spend a bit more money). Children threw confetti and hit total strangers with toy hammers. There were also big tents where they sold food and drinks (we even found one which provided Sangría). It seemed that their cold character had stayed at home. And it was great.
For one day one could see that they are not always strict and straightforward people. Sometimes (even if it’s just once a year) they act almost like Latin people enjoying the party and letting themselves not think. Now, I would like to ask Switzerland to establish a Zibelemärit once per month.

“South of the Border, West of the Sun”

I didn’t know much about Japan, just what Manga Series are willing to let us know about their country and inhabitants. This is why the news of going to the Land of the Rising Sun excited me so much. I was going to spend 15 days travelling around the centre of Japan, a country with a totally different culture and traditions.

During those days I tried to learn as much as possible about their character and I found out that Japanese people are extremely polite. So much so, that sometimes it makes you feel uncomfortable. It didn’t feel right to me to leave a shop and have a row at each side of the front door made by the shop assistants bending their backs 90 degrees.
This politeness goes hand in hand with their inability to say ‘no’ as an answer. We didn’t find anybody during the whole trip who spoke English –not even anyone who understood it-- nevertheless, when we asked if someone could talk to us in English their answer was ‘yes’. After that categorical answer, the conversation couldn’t continue. This made it pretty difficult to solve our problems and sometimes we got exasperated, but, much to our surprise, we ended up developing a quite detailed sign language.
However, these extreme good manners that sometimes seem strange to us, show that –in many aspects-- they are a more civilized country than we are. For instance, they are an incredibly trusting population. At the shops it was costumary to see that there was no shop assistant because he had to excuse himself for a while. And nobody stole anything! Every time this happened I wondered: if this was Spain, how many people would have stolen at least one little thing?
Moreover, if they make a mistake they don’t try to blame someone else (in fact, they feel so guilty that sometimes a tiny little mistake has a fatal end). It is not strange to hear that a train that didn’t arrive on time ended up with the driver commiting hara-kiri.

In short, every community has its own character. We may like some things more and others less, but people who like to travel around the world should try to catch the good things of every different culture.




“These people who live smiling, who quickly forget sorrow and misfortune, who are sober like any other, who take childish delight in tree blooms and landscape ornament, who know how to find in life thousands of tiny little things which they love and which make their existence carefree and peaceful, are at the same time those who easily depart this world by a voluntary act under the impulse of the most frivolous pretext.”

Wenceslau de Moraes