TRAVEL DIARY

A weblog regularly updated by Jodi Rose.

Wednesday, December 14, 2005

3:37 PM
Posted by jodi rose

Slowly some of the mysteries of this town unravel for me.
When I asked Gabriel in the lavazza cafe about the video/dvd rental shop, he told me it closed a while ago - 'business is not so good,' he says due to the shop in esztergom being cheaper with a better range, and people doing their own personal swaps. aha. 'So what dvd's do you have?' I asked, and today he lent me Team America World Police, Scarface and Reservoir Dogs - realise it's good for me to watch something other than trashy romantic comedies now and then ;)

The self-discpline is coming along reasonably well - switched into obsessive workaholic focus getting the glasgow proposal up to scratch - there are times when having a tendency towards obsessive personality can be very useful for an artist - although sometimes not so great for a human being human. Have started walking 40minutes a day again, that helps clear the demons and cobwebs, and managed to coax my creaky aching limbs into some gentle yoga stretches, both of which help immensely with mental clarity, focus and being comfortable in your skin and at peace with the world.

My favourite walk is along the raised paths that run by the river - just worked out today they also serve as protection for the town against flooding - the flood markers at 9 ft are just below them - and today found an old lace-metal cross marking someone's demise. trying to imagine, did they just keel over here of a heart attack, drown in a flood, or were they attatacked by bandits or theives? A few minutes later passed a woman and child, smiled and they ignored me, then three men with a young boy - smiled again, figure it's best to be friendly and not look scared or threatening in uncertain situations - the men all said hello, one of them indicated he would quite like to join me - I laughed and waved and kept walking. Then a dog adopted me and wouldn't go home, as I was heading towards the town, so backtracked and retraced my steps. Then greeted a teenage boy who had been very intrigued by my talking into a microphone under the bridge last week, smiled, said hi - he said something which I didn't understand so ignored, then he whistled and made the universal gesture for 'do you want to f&*#'? again I laughed and waved him away - thinking, it's not far back to the town, if he follows me I can run. reminded me of paris, have never been propositioned on the street so often in my life as the week I spent there. although it happened in adelaide too, where threesanna told me when she lived in the redlight district in amsterdam and men hassled her, she would just laugh and say 'I'm off-duty now' but that taking it lightly and not getting pissed off was a better response than telling them to take a hike, so employed that approach.

Not sure if it's my sheer animal magnetism ;) or these men just haven't seen a woman walking on her own for a while, but whatever the cause, still have factor. Reading some very interesting comments about gender politics and expectations of sexual attractiveness for women on the excellent she sells sanctuary go to 'like a natural woman'. Maybe it's just that I have more flesh to admire than is normal here, where women tend towards being extremely thin - thoughtprovoking reference to the 'profound terror of the female body' in
sins of the flesh.

I still haven't located the french bakery, but that's probably for the best, although I guess will have to try some other places to walk now, so maybe our paths will cross eventually. Did stumble across the old gypsy houses yesterday on the road back into town from the river path. Most of them have been demolished and brand new brick houses built, but three remain almost standing - one has erupted onto the footpath, spilling earth and wood from the walls and revealing dark cavernous rooms, the backyards are filled with piles of wood, metal, rubbish and kitchen utensils. There was one place where only the side beams of the doorway remain, opening onto a winding path into the woods.

Official duties continue today with an exhibition opening to attend at the town gallery, editing and printing the diary for my logbook, and finishing that article for the local newspaper on my impressions of the town and what aspects of life and culture are particularly intriguing.

Then it's entertainment time - sadly finished the third series of 'coupling' last night, although watching the cast interviews afterwards, realised that one of the boys here is rather like (the brilliant) richard coyle as jeff - scarily, very funny, endearingly entertaining and... oddly attractive. And if you've never seen coupling, to start with you're missing out, but also you will have no idea just how disturbing that last comment is. Another riddle in the ever changing enigma that is sturovo.