Vacation and being spontaneous
Vacation – who doesn’t like being on vacation? It is one of those times where you can do everything you wanted or nothing at all. I like traveling by train, by car, by plane (don’t like ships or boats for a long trip, because of nausea). Living in Munich, Germany opens a huge opportunity to travel around the Europe to beautiful Switzerland, Austria, Italy and France. This year we (my husband and me) made a trip by car to Italy and had awesome time exploring the nature and the cities. We visited Parma, Torre del Lago Puccini, Viareggio, Lucca, Bologna, Venice, Padua and made a short stop in Austria, in Innsbruck. 10 days of sun and seaside, breathtaking views, architecture, sightseeing and food.
Tuscan Riviera with its long sand beach. We had a pine forest nearby and a great Gelateria across the street. Made a hop-stop at the Villa Puccini that is now a museum. There were ongoing preparations for the Puccini Festival that usually starts at the beginning of Juli. We also walked around Viareggio and its touristic shopping seaside street. Ate a lot (!) of ice cream, almost everywhere, almost twice a day. On our way to Bologna we visited the city of Lucca. Historic city center is an interesting place to visit – with its cobblestone streets and beautiful architecture. Bologna was not a very satisfying experience because of a enormous traffic and summer heat. The city is very beautiful, but we didn’t have enough time and energy to enjoy it. Then we arrived to Venice. A night in Venice – how romantic is it? We walked around the narrow streets, admiring the architecture, trying to find less crowded places. Perfect. But it was sometimes a nightmare. Especially when it came to sightseeings – overcrowded is not enough as a word to describe some of the places we visited. Venice was extremely overcrowded. A bit more tourists and boats would sink, people would fall from the S. Marco Square in to the sea. ;) But we managed to find less crowded places and enjoy Venice as much as possible. We lived in a hotel near Rialto Bridge – this location was a highlight in the evening, watching the bridge and the opposite side of the Canale Grande light up by the sunset. We also found a hidden insider tip to see Venice from a rooftop of a shopping mall near Rialto Bridge. An amazing view of the city almost on your palm. We also wanted to visit this years’ Biennale and Peggy Guggenheim Collection but it sadly didn’t happen – not enough time planned. After Venice we stayed for several days in Padua. What an amazing city. We walked around historical center and visited a military museum. We tried to visit several museums on campus of University of Padua and failed – some of them were not publicly accessible, some were closed or only available as a group tour. But the we discovered a market and the Palazzo della Ragione with an art exhibition by Gaetano Pesce and his ‘Il tempo multidisciplinare’ (multidisciplinary time). All these different kind of chairs and buildings, models and statues were amazing and out of this world. And of course the Palazzo itself was overwhelming – these wall frescoes. All in all a colourful, awesome trip around beautiful Italian cities. Definitely recommended. You can find some impressions from the trip below.
Our ‘City hopping’ is most of the time a trip with a basic route (for example here it was Munich – Tuscany – Venice – Munich in max. 14 days) with spontaneous planning on the go. We just book the first hotel from home and everything else happens depending on weather, interests and location. If we like the place we can extend our stay there or we can just depart earlier if we don’t like the location. The beauty of this – you are open to whatever opportunities you get on the way, without being stressed out by the plan. Most of our lives are planned through out and there is no space for surprises or spontaneous events. So this is how we embrace the spontaneity. The museums we found and planned to visit, were the ones that were not available – in Venice it was Peggy Guggenheim Collection (they were closed on Tuesday) and several Padua museums (mentioned earlier). On the other hand we stumbled over several sightseeings that we didn’t know existed. Being more spontaneous is the key. This is what makes us happy. This is what makes me happy. Having space for unforeseen or just a surprise. This is what gives a creative the energy to create. Out of the thoughts, out of the box, out of the comfort zone. While practicing, I always give myself a ‘thought- and self-judgment-free’ space and just do my thing. Thinking about objects I saw earlier or the feelings I had when being in a different environment. Expressing oneself and being spontaneous.
Working under NDA
A secret. A project that you cannot share with anyone except a group of selected people that you work with on this particular project. How does it make you feel? Me – it makes me feel proud. Today, working in an innovative and new media environment means high amount of competition and secrecy about the products, services and projects that one is working on. That also means everyone involved needs to have radio silence. Sometimes this means not being able to talk about a project for months or years depending on the development and production time. Sometimes there are projects where you will never be able to say you worked on this project. Sadly, but to get the experience and work on something big, this is the price one need to pay. NDA – the Non-Disclosure Agreement or Confidential Agreement helps keeping the confidential information to a selected group of people until alternate instructions follow – product launch, end of the necessity or similar. I have worked on several confidential projects that are not yet announced or were terminated due to different causes. Sadly, one never know if the project will be finished and made public or not. The most interesting part is always the process of creation. And always keep in mind that confidential information is always strictly confidential as long as arranged. Even if a friend, a recruiter or an interviewer asks or even insists. ;)
