the thousand and one smiles or walking upside down

"L’homme ne peut découvrir de nouveaux océans tant qu’il n’a pas le courage de perdre de vue la côte."
 André Gide

I know well there is no perfect place on earth. I know it even better - for no place will probably be perfect for me. While some are scared to leave their hometown, and move elsewhere, I am scared to be stuck in one place for longer than..I wish to stay.

Move in.. while thinking of moving out. Whenever the wind starts to blow again.

At the same time, I wish to find that place, the one I will not want to leave.

I think it should be south, warm, by the ocean. Now I bumped into one of these places,  but unlike all the ones I knew already, it functions. It's not perfect, sure it's not, let's not get started about their refugee policies, or the very ugly colonisation history the country (as we know it now) has built itself on.

It is on the other side of the planet and people walk upside down, which is weird, but when I was a child and wanted to put myself to sleep, I did not count sheeps, because it wouldn't work: I was picturing myself walking around the globe until the moment I walked upside down and fell asleep. The planet was approximately the size of Little Prince's asteroid B-612, obviously.

I flew in on a friday evening, just on time to see a resplendent Darling Harbour by sunset from the sky.

Just on time to be handed a glass of red wine by my ex-sevillana Italian partner in crime, who seems to have received the same pair of wandering shoes as me from the Fates upon birth. The deal included beautiful curls, too. (Except mine came with 3 years delay..never told about my sister calling me a lamp bulb? but that's another story..)

I had arrived just on time to swap my winter outfit for a light summer dress.

The next day, I woke up with the sun, to the sound of an (unknown) (Australian?) bird chirping samba (?!) "tututu tutututu.." oh..jetlag!

From then on, I was to see more smiles in 3 weeks than in the past 3 years. 

Big smiles, cheeky smiles, sexy smiles, stunning smiles, unsettling smiles, funny smiles, that made me beam, or as we say in Czech "smile like the moon above a pile of manure" (- don't ask why).

It is a serious upgrade when people are nice to you and smile, wherever you go and whatever you do. Unlike certain European countries where civility and good manners are a requested norm, the general Aussie attitude feels more genuine than just courteous. You can now imagine how bad I felt, when I remembered all these nice Australian tourists who called us mates in Prague back then.. and we..  from atop our bar stool would tell them with contempt "Who are you? I am not your mate. Move." (No, being just nice and smiling at strangers was not our definition of being cool - but maybe, maybe, they were drunk and obnoxious? can't tell  - yet what I do remember,  is that their wish to be friends with everyone annoyed us and made us laugh.)

There's no point in telling all I did (and didn't do) down under, this is no travel log. I am just trying to transmit a tiny bit of my impressions or better said, why I felt so happy there. 

Tell the fantastic time I had!

Soaking in great energy from the people, from the everlasting natural elements. Sun, rocks, sand, ocean. Getting surprised and amazed by the ever-present and bizarre local wildlife. 

Bringing back old memories when meeting friends I hadn't seen for 15 years, discovering they remained true to the essence of what brought us together in the beginning of our sweet twenties. Well, as to the memories, we realised we didn't remember much more than one long blurred party, but still..It was about time to get the old forgotten stories right!

Learning ...always... things like "it does actually feel fantastic to do yoga". (=all my friends were right, for ages! yet.. I have to be interesting, and find out by myself, in Canberra!)

Witnessing so much beauty. Unexpected landscapes, breathtaking beaches, fine artworks I'd have loved to steal (they were actually huge canvases, but they would be still easier to take away than the rest..), spectacular skies, oh these skies that made me thank out loud so many times for their splendour, and for my eyes to be able to see. 

Catching up with old friends that I've been following across the world as an apostle would Jesus (that's my vision- they just call me a stalker), and diving back with them and their friends into Triana and its flamenco feel for a brief moment. (Now when you think Triana at the antipodes...it's far-fetched I reckon, but it works in Melbourne!)

Meeting new, inspiring, fun and lovely people..  

Wait a second, I can already foresee the thoughts of some.. "Bullshit, it can't all be that positive and great" "that's just a way to make everything sound awesome" "there must be a flaw to all this".

Well that's right, my journey was not perfect. I did experience some true distress and disgust, followed by sadness, because there's absolutely nothing to be done about it.

Now I know it will sound stupid but...

There's only one fact I completely forgot to consider:  that because it's warm, I am not the only one who likes the place... big brown fat cockroaches don't mind walking upside down either! 

But maybe these cockroaches are smiling, who knows.. I didn't check!