In December 2000 I flew from Melbourne to San Francisco, where I saw my father . He’s a mathematician: algebra, geometry, calculus–he does all that. It was good to see my father, but San Francisco is not a city that excites me terribly, and I didn’t spend much time there.
From San Francisco I went to New York . (Everyone knows what New York looks like.) I took these two photos– and –near the Rockefeller Center. I stood in the middle of a crowd, marvelled at the beautifully-lit flag, and waited for the wind to flap it just so. It’s difficult, I discovered, to perform this act for more than a few minutes at a time without feeling very foolish.
London. I didn’t take many pictures in London. Or do very much in London, but that’s okay–I’ll go back soon. (I’m carrying around a £1 coin in my wallet to spend when I go back.) These columns hold up the British Museum; this was taken in Trafalgar Square. Pigeons don’t fly there now–the new mayor of London has had them banished…
I spent Christmas in London. I do recommend the hostel I stayed at–the Astor Museum Inn, just opposite the British Museum.
On December 28th I took a train to Paris. I suppose I sort of wasted Paris by not going there with a lover. Great charms were in the offing: my first-time visit has dulled them.
Notre-Dame is quite wonderful. The gargoyles , surprisingly, were added in the 19th Century.
On New Year’s Eve I took a train to Madrid . Madrid is not worth very many pictures; Barcelona is, but when I was choosing pictures to scan, I skipped over Barcelona for some reason–sorry.
From Barcelona I went to Bilbao, mostly to see Frank Gehry’s gleaming Guggenheim . There’s some good (or at least interesting) art inside too.
This is Centraal Station, Amsterdam . One of the few photos I took there.
When I was seven I spent ten months in Cambridge. I went to school in Coton, which is just outside Cambridge. This is my school, looking down from the top end of the soccer field. My scanning software guessed that the image was a black and white photo–England is a sullen, gloomy, place, but I still like it.
I took a lot of photos in Prague . There’s some story about this dog –it’s called Red Riding Hood and lives on wolf street, or it’s called “wolf” and lives on Red Riding Hood street–something like that, I can’t remember exactly. Prague has a pretty good river , a concrete slide , a groovy Russian-designed subway system , and another Frank Gehry building .
Next, Edinburgh. Now Edinburgh is painfully pretty city . Also, the castle has very clean toilets . (I’m planning to move to Edinburgh.)
I took a bus from Singapore to Kuala Lumpur; the bus stopped for a while here . This is my aunt , and this is my cousin .
And that’s it for my trip.
All the photos I scanned can be found here.