NOT THAT FAR FROM THE ANTIPODES

The nearest place I have been from my native city's antipodes (which happens to be in the South Pacific sea) is Wellington, North Island, New Zealand.
Tomorrow I will travel to Melbourne, Australia, via Abu Dhabi, with Ethiad Airways - my first experience with this young UAE airline.
I assume that for the next two weeks this blog of mine will be production-closed. Almost for sure no new posts, while I will keep myself busy with Aussies'talks and kangaroos landscapes.
Enjoy your rest during my head's down experience.

BRUSSELS

I am now in Brussels. Having worked for the European Parliament for twenty years till my retirement, I keep my appartment and have resident status. Travelling between Brussels and Lisbon looks to me more as a shuttle than a standard flight.
I know Brussels since 1970. That year I transited here in-between a flight from Lisbon and a train to Cologne, where I had to pick my new car, later to be sent to Angola. It was a Summer Sunday and, near to the Grand Place, I watched on a TV café the second half of the Football World Cup (in Mexico); Brazil won superbly, to my enjoyment (almost every portuguese is a Brazil fan, if the opponent is not Portugal!).
Later I was a regular of the Grand Place every time I came to Brussels. I keep the memory of the its traffic changes: in 1981 the Grand Place was (still, in today's understanding) a big parking place; later the cars could come in and tour it, but no more parking; and later no more cars, just people.
Moving to Brussels, I had for some months a small apartment very near to the Grand Place, so I was quite acquainted with the new "just people" environment. Then, one Winter Sunday I woke up very early, went to the Grand Place and saw it as never more: there was no one but me in the profound beauty of that grey and half-foggy morning. Guess very few have seen it such a way! Later the Grand-Place was approved as a World Heritage site...

LISBOA, NOVA LISBOA, NEW LISBON

Lisboa (Lisbon) is naturally always in my heart: I was born there, lived there till I was 24 and later worked there for two short periods of one and a half years each. Now my residence is not far from it and can go there every time I wish; just half an hour by train, less by car if not in the rush time.

I have made some poems about my city, let me fill here one of the them, which happens to be the most recent:

MINHA CIDADE LISBOA

Minha cidade
de verdade,
em ti nascido,
no resto do mundo sofrido.

Minha cidade
de vaidade,
esteja onde esteja
sou quem te almeja.

Minha cidade
na eternidade:
onde quer que estarei
te recordarei.

23 de Fevereiro de 2007

Lisboa has "expanded" through the creation of other cities with related names. I have been in two of those. In the 60's and 70's I visited several times Nova Lisboa, in Angola ( now called Huambo, after independence), a thriving regional capital. In the 90's, while making a driving tour of the State, I came acquainted with New Lisbon, an humble small town in Wisconsin, USA, just 1491 inhabitants at that time, just look the proof, surely not much more now.

North America seems to have in total some 13 or 14 towns with the names of Lisbon and/or New Lisbon: I will try later some research on this. Brasil, or Brazil, may have some also, will search.

( translation of my poem in other languages is welcomed!)

FROM USA TO CANADA BY FERRY

Yes, it's true, it's possible. And I did it!

My flight from Europe arrived at Portland, Oregon, where I rented a car for a week-long tour of the two most north-western USA States, Oregon and Washington, plus British Columbia, in Canada.

After having visited the Olympic National Park (another World Heritage site, to be posted later), in the northern part of Washington, I took a ferry from Port Angeles (which means the Spanish have been there and named the place accordingly) to Victoria, the capital of British Columbia. The transfer takes about one and a half hours, through the Stait of Juan de Fuca (once again the Spanish have been there, no doubt).

On the ferry you have plenty of time for snacks and drinks, but if you are a landscapes lover like me you will for sure keep yourself outdoors (may be not if you do it in December...) to see the USA islands to the interior of the Strait and - especially - to enjoy the magnificent views of the Olympic National Park, which become superb once you are in the middle if the crossing. The attached picture was taken from the shore in the Victoria side, wiht the Olympic still in the distance.

For the return back to USA I took three days later the more classic land highway from Vancouver to Seattle.

A POEM IN THE SKY

In January 2007 I visited Mauritius for a week, including the island of Rodrigues ( another Portuguese name, the sailor who found it, caught by geography... ). The two islands are separated by more than 500 kilometers, so you have to take the plane, unless you dispose of plenty of time in the archipelago and take a ship, or try to swim.
The outbound flight took off in the morning, with plenty of sunshine and a clear atmosphere.
That was enough for me to write a poem during the flight, which is not at all uncommun for me.
The idea of the loneniness of the plane and those inside, in the middle of the empty skies and above the liquid calm of the sea, put my mind in motion - and this was the outcome:


A ETERNIDADE

No oceano vasto até ao horizonte
uma vaga vaga vagamente
na cálida serenidade da manhã.
Hoje é a véspera do tempo todo,
o ontem por ninguém descoberto,
a odisseia dos dias que não contam.
As nuvens vêm da origem das coisas,
ou talvez mesmo de mais longe,
como esta certeza que há em mim.
Numa diáfana hora como esta aqui
a eternidade terá nascido.


aviao Maurícia-Rodrigues, 18 de Janeiro de 2007

Joao Silva Maia


The plane landed safety at destination, for me to enjoy the quietness of Rodrigues during two days. Probably eternity was born somewhere around.
Of course the poem is in Portuguese; if some one is keen and knowledgable to translate it into English, or other language, please do and contact me by e-mail. It will be added to this blog.

Update on July, 22, 2009: This poem has just been published in "DAR VOZ Á POESIA - IV COLECTÂNEA", 2009, by Câmara Muncipal de Ovar, page 136.

BEAUTIFUL LITTLE GIRL, BANGLADESH

I have been very recently in Bangladesh for the first time. My catholic Christmas and Western New Year happened to be there, in Dhaka, the capital. It was not at all a tourist visit. I was on an electoral observation mission for the European Union ( will write about these experiences of mine at some later date ), otherwise of course I would not choose such a period. Bangladesh is a Muslim country, although with a christian minority, so there is no reason, or argument, to postpone elections because of Christmas.
I was assigned to the district of Satkhira, on the south-west of the country, bordering with India.
At some point we made a stop and I was able to take a picture of a beautiful young girl, wonderfully dressed in local style, which I join here for your appreciation. Unfortunately I did not record the exact place of the shot, so I can not now be more precise than the area of the district.
I hope you will enjoy the picture, in its quietness and happiness, as much as I did then and do now.

EL JADIDA, MOROCCO

I am back from Morocco and fully succeded my aims for this travel; additionally I visited Rabat, Casablanca and Meknés in more detail than my first trip there. Later a post for every one of the cities will appear. Today I am just adding a picture of the El Jadida "Cité Portuguaise" (Marzagão, as called by my ancesters), where some thing funny happened.

A team of the portuguese state-controlled television was there for a film on the "7 Portuguese Wonders world-wide"; it's a game, or contest, on the same model of the " 7 World Wonders" privately organised two or three years ago. We crossed them and entered into conversation - the outcome is that they wanted me for a short interview on my motivations to visit the place. We were told that films of the kind are being prepared about the 27 out-of-Portugal locations and will be shown in several distint days to allow the TV audience to vote for the 7 nominations.

MY FIRST FLIGHT

May begins today and I have a tought for my first flight: not fully sure, but it was on some day of May 1964, sandwiched between sea journeys, Lisbon to Canary Islands and back. This first flight took me from Tenerife to Las Palmas, a short cross above the sea from one island to another. At the age of 23, once the plane took off I got then a feeling that I was turning a real adult, a young man of my time able to use all the technologies now available to mankind.
To use, or to abuse? Indeed, if I have a glimpse back from today to May 1964, I feel that not only I used planes a lot, but that I abused using them. From remote and almost hidden airstrips in Angola (Cela, for instance) to the major and most recent airports (the new Hong-Kong one, for instance, replacing the old "in town" one, which I also used), from far-away tarmacks (like Bora-Bora) to brand-new heavily used terminals (like Heathrow nº. 5) I am unable to have a count of how many I have been in - including Aden, where in the 60's I saw a lot of russian MIG's hidden in-between buildings, while the plane I was in was rolling in the landing strip.
A very sad event of the memories of my first flight comes to my mind: the landing airport in Las Palmas was some years later the scene of one of the most deadful aviation accidents, when two huge planes collided, with more than 500 fatal casualties, if I keep the figures right.