mercoledì 11 dicembre 2013

DIARIO DI VIAGGIO #05

Il mio tour di interviste per il libro sul mondo del fumetto autoprodotto si è chiuso quest'estate con una tappa in Finlandia per incontrare Amanda Vähämäki che da Helsinki era passata a salutare i suoi genitori a Tampere. Ho avuto l'onore di andare a casa loro, intervistando Amanda in una bellissima stanza di legno azzurro mentre i suoi figli giocavano in giardino con il papà e i nonni.
Ho dormito in ostello (e che ostello! Il Dream Hostel di Tampere è uno dei migliori in assoluto!!! E non lo dico io, lo dice The Guardian!) e lì ho conosciuto un sacco di gente interessante da ogni parte del mondo: Australia, Belgio, Cina, Croazia, Malesia, Marocco, Russia, Svezia. L'unica lingua che avevamo in comune era l'inglese ed è stato bellissimo. Tuttora sono in contatto con alcuni e l'idea è quella di rivedersi la prossima estate qui in Italia. Sono riuscita a dare spettacolo nonostante il gap linguistico grazie al sostegno dei miei due amici più cari, Hrvoje e Michael, con i quali abbiamo organizzato una cena italiana riuscendo a tirare in ballo mezzo ostello!
Il gran finale è stato in aereo, sul volo di ritorno, quando una donna si è sentita male, credo abbia avuto un attacco di panico, e c'è stata la fatidica scena di una hostess che chiede se c'è un dottore a bordo. Beh ce n'erano tre, ma in quel momento avrei davvero voluto essere già alla fine degli studi per potermi alzare in piedi anch'io!

A fine settembre, su Inutile è stato pubblicato un mio brevissimo articolo "Un po' come andare in prigione" dedicato all'ostello in cui ho dormito (Dream Hostel, Tampere):
http://www.rivistainutile.it/2013/09/27/un-po-come-andare-in-prigione/
Qui sotto la solita traduzione in inglese maccheronico!

The 16 beds dormitory, my bed was the one on the top on the left.
Do you want an adventurous journey that will make you feel like a character in a TV series for very little money? The solution is not to go in the Thai forest to work for an NGO and to be bitten by a monkey while you're using the forest as a loo neither to contract dysentery by eating a popsicle at the side of a street in Mexico while working as drug courier nor to go for nine months in Antarctica in isolation with twelve other people to do analysis of the chemical composition of the soil. I think that the most adventurous trip you can live with the minimum possible expense is to sleep in a hostel in the mixed dorm. No, don't think to find yourself in a high school tour situation, you will feel part of the world, I promise. You will meet people from every continent with your same indomitable spirit and your own lack of money, maybe a little bit crazy, but to choose the 16 beds mixed dorm you have to be a little bit crazy, don't you?

The kitchen, at guests' disposal.
The real difference between a high quality adventure and simply finding yourself face to face with several human cases is to choose one of the hostels of the European top ten compiled by The Guardian. I have been by chance in one of the fantastic ten (Dream Hostel, Tampere, Finland), and there I met this guy who was nicknamed "The Godfather" in the hostel that's classified as the second best in the USA top ten (HI-Santa Monica, Los Angeles, USA). Actually he wore the coppola hat, but the reason why a half Swedish and half Croatian guy had such a nickname was another. 

Finnish girls, the blonde on the left seems familiar to me, I think she is one of the employees, but now she has brown hair.
I'll explain it with his own words.
Godfather: "For how many days have you slept in the same hostel?"
Me: "The time I have been there longer? Maybe five days... "
G:"Well, it's not bad. "
"Have you ever been in prison?"
M: " Mmm... nope..."
G: "You had to think about it?!"
"However, I have never been in prison either... But I have seen many TV shows... And I think that everyone should stay at  least fot two weeks in a hostel once in a lifetime, it allows you to understand deeply the human nature... If you stay long enough is just like being the one sentenced to life that sees other people come and go."
"When a new one arrives, you can immediately understand if 'yes, this guy/this cheak is cool' , 'no, someone will steal his or her computer ' , ' I can help this person' . And depending on the place a person chooses in the dorm, you will understand who is the one who will inherit the trick to unlock the vending machine from you, the one who will take your place when you'll be gone, just like it happened to me when I arrived in L.A. and I was approached by the Brazilian girl who stayed in the hostel for three weeks: she knew as soon as I opened the door of the room that when she would have left the new boss would have been me . "
" Wow, why are you telling me all this?"
"You know why, don't you?"
"Will I become the new Godfather?"
"No, you idiot, someone will steal your computer if you continue to leave it on your bed while you are in the shower!"

Free tea and coffee for everyone, all day, every day. On Thursday free pea soup, while on Friday free popcorn!
Contacts:

Tampere Dream Hostel Oy
Åkerlundinkatu 2
33100 Tampere, Suomi
+358 45 2360 517
info@dreamhostel.fi
Hi-Santa Monica
1436 2nd St
90401 Los Angeles
Santa Monica
USA
Tel. 1 310 393 9913
Fax. 1 310 393 1769
reserve@hilosangeles.org

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