Mediterranean trips, Paolo Conte and tragic consequences

We’re still alive. After a wonderful week I spent around the crazy ramblas of Barcelona, the artistic works of Salvador Dalì in Figueres, the typical small streets of Lisbon, featuring the concert of the legendary Paolo Conte in the old city of Belèm, and the breathtaking views from the hills of Oporto.

I have to admit I am in love with Barcelona: it’s a sensation that just cannot be explained with words. Then, Lisbon and Oporto are something that really leaves you something too, two cities that definitely deserve to be visited. Maybe you would not realize it immediately, but they’re quite wonderful too.

And well, now I am back in Groningen. Now I’m approaching my final working week, and from Friday 27 May I will officially be a luxury unemployed guy for the entire summer. I need to understand a bunch of things before to get back to regular life: from next June I will work on my Dutch and my new album, that is something I really care about. And then I want to discover the real me, I want to understand what I am aiming for, since I am going to slowly approach my thirties; I have a lot of questions searching for an answer I will try to find out during the next three months, and a real necessity to stay away from the vices of the capitalist world centered on horrible keywords such as “productivity”, “profit”, “competition”, “human resource” and some more stupid stuff like that. I definitely need to stay out of all this.

And then where I am going to go? Well, I am not thinking about it really. And sincerely I feel like it’s unimportant. I would like to be anywhere, to be honest: I’d like to live contemporaneously in Amsterdam, Berlin, Bruxelles, Barcelona, Hamburg, Maastricht, Palermo, Lisbon. But I don’t think it’s a feasible idea, so I will be forced to choose only one city in the end. On the other hand, you know, I am totally unable to settle in a specific place, I have always been a free spirit continuously searching for positive emotions.

That’s all for now. And I am obviously gonna say you a big goodbye with a song of the great Paolo Conte; thanks to him, and because of my gigantic desire – now finally made true – to attend one of his concerts before it would have been way too late, I indeed discovered Portugal, something I wouldn’t have probably ever made otherwise. This specific song is named Le chic et le charme, and I must admit I had never listened to it before the 5 May 2011 concert of his in Lisbon. A song that really left me some sort of feeling due to some weird reason (maybe its strange title, its minimalistic French lyrics, or the kazoo intro, who knows!), and a song I consequently decided to share with you people. Greetings!