Softcore Geography

Photos: Porto, Budapest, Berlin

Recently had a realization. While I typically do my best to find things about each place I visit that I love, and also that I hate (I am a very democratic person), there are always those cities that I fall for. For varying reasons I have a very intimate relationship with the Caribbean Sea. For a very specific reason I will struggle through a life-long love affair with the hills of Northern Thailand. For obvious reasons the mountains and the ocean in Northern California make me want to fall to my knees and profess unwavering lust to that drive over Mount Tam into Bolinas Beach (please take me back, I promise it was me and not you that made me go). And for some reason there are certain cities in Europe that make me feel something that others cease to evoke.

A couple weeks ago I spent a weekend in Porto, Portugal. It was brilliant. The wine was cheap and sunsets were, I swear to God, electric, and painted tiles flaked off tightly packed, skinny homes like chipped nail polish. And it felt alive so I fell in love. 

I do not like conformity. I do not like feeling pressured to act, or be, or even SEEM any certain way. I am not an unperturbed person. There are cities in the world that ask something of you. I have no problem laboring for my love, but if it is order over chaos, silence over noise, I will never do it. I like my places like I like my people. I like cities that function in a mild state of disarray. I like to see the guts of a place spilling out. I want to get my hands dirty. I want to know that I am free because I can see it, feel it. And then I can love it. 

xx