Coffee Letter #020: Hypothetically

Living somewhere else scenarios.

I’m trying my damn best to ignore the burning world. So the time I don’t spend reading or watching the news, I spend creating scenarios in my head — and I don’t mean my usual maladaptive daydreams, but dreams of living in another country where being an alien would absolve me more or less of thinking about politics (a very privileged view, I know). Unfortunately my partner doesn’t even want to entertain hypotheticals about other countries. Too bad, he’s my proofreader so he’ll have to read about them.

There aren’t that many places I’m willing to uproot my life for, but if money, politics and the whole bureaucracy of it all weren’t an issue, then here’s where I imagine myself living:

Paris, France. I’m sure anyone who knows me would’ve guessed this on their first try. This city was on my list of dream cities before I even visited it — which is why I was terrified I romanticised it too much and once there it will burst my bubble, but that did not happen. Actually, I fell even more in love with it. Once you have a Parisian croissant there’s no going back.

Plus, it’s actually doable, right? I can understand the language (even though my brain shuts down when I try to reply in French), I can live on just pastries, and there’s so much art and so many books that I’d never get bored. I would try so many dishes and maybe learn to cook — Julia Child style —, I’d spend my days eating cheese and baguettes in parks or near the Seine, walk around and find the secrets of each arrondissement, and visit Musée d'Orsay every other week or so — sketching or simply watching people watching art (which is one of my favourite activities to do in museums).

NYC, USA. Ignoring the country’s current administration, naturally — this is a hypothetical after all. New York City is the only other city that I feel I’m romanticising as much as Paris. Never been there. I know it’s dirty and the apartments are tiny and there are rats (plus the crime rate). But guess what? I don’t care. Don’t try to reason with me. It’s part of the city’s personality, no?

I love walkable cities. Just imagine having a NY bagel every morning for breakfast and going on endless walks in the park. Plus the books and the art - the MET, the MoMA. I’d be there every single day and still not get enough — maybe in this scenario I’m working at the museum.

Plus there’s Broadway, Chinatown, and all that pizza!! Autumn in New York? Is there anything better than that?

There has to be a reason why I always get so excited when I read a book that takes place in the city. I probably was a New Yorker in a previous life.

Dublin, Ireland. Another city I’ve never actually been to but everyone who has agrees I would enjoy the weather — and that’s because I love gloomy weather. Ireland has too many great writers and actors not to be on my list.

I don’t know much about the art in Dublin, but I’m sure I’ll find some hidden gems. Plus I would spend my days browsing bookshops and reading in cafes. I would recreate maps around the city from famous books, and hope to hear Hozier sing live in a pub randomly.

Might even go back to school, if that means Trinity College.

Venice, Italy. Venice is to this day one of my favourite cities, one I return to often. There’s always something happening in Venice — the Art Biennale, the Architecture Biennale, the Venice Film Festival — there’d be no time to be bored (I rarely get bored anyways, I’m not sure why I focus so much on this aspect)!

A city without cars is my dream — and being able to get from one point of the island to the other in less than two hours is amazing. If I move there I actually have a chance to find that gelato place I discovered by mistake with mum years ago (we got lost) and I’ll finally visit Peggy Guggenheim’s Collection — being there 24/7 means a higher chance to see Brâncuși’s Bird in Space if they ever put it on display!

I know Venice is crowded and full of tourists, but if you’ve been there a bunch of times, you’ll know where the locals gather. Even so, if the tourists get on my nerves, I’ll just move to Chioggia, only 25 km away and nicknamed Little Venice.

Chania, Crete, Greece. We went there last year and I fell in love (as I often do). This week I talked with some friends about Crete and it really really made me miss it.

Here’s the thing about me: the family lore says we have Greek blood — now genetically speaking I know the chance of still having actual Greek blood is really really low, but my grandpa drilled it into my head that we have Greek blood so science be damned, we have Greek blood. Must be why I love Greek islands.

Until we went to Crete I was sure Zakynthos was my favourite Greek island because of the turtles, but the thing about Chania is that it’s not as touristy as the cities I’ve seen in Zakynthos. It’s more livable as a local too, it has more to offer. The sea is just the cherry on top.

Yesterday I woke up craving a Greek frappé. It’s a sign!

~ read(ing)

I’m reading too many books at the same time. I even told a friend the other day that I got to that level of too many books at a time that it feels the books themselves are pressuring me to finish them already. Here I am though, I haven’t finished any books this week. Here’s what I’m actively reading at the moment:

The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O’Farrell. This book is so good! It’s Renaissance Italy, and we are following Lucrezia de' Medici and her marriage to Duke of Ferrara (not Lucrezia Borgia although she married a Duke of Ferrara named Alfonso too, but 50 years earlier or so — why is everyone in history having the same name? Like their lives weren’t complicated enough…)

The writing is delicious, the imagery O’Farrell creates and the anxiety she inserts in her story are out of this world. I’m on the edge of my seat at every page even though I know how it ends! It’s haunting me, I’m loving it — I have 50% left.

Fourth Wing (The Empyrean #1) by Rebecca Yarros. A reread. Because the third book is out but I need a refresher. The first time I listened to the audiobook I missed a lot of details, so I’m taking my time with this reread. That’s what she said but she’s also reading 100 pages per day of this book so…

If you’ve been living under a rock and don’t know about Fourth Wing, it’s a romantasy about a military college where people train to become dragon riders! Enemies to lovers, yadda yadda yadda.

Tress of the Emerald Sea by Brandon Sanderson. I’m also in the middle of this cosy fantasy about a girl in love on a quest to save the boy she loves. I’m always in for a reverse fairy tale of some sorts. It’s a whimsical, it has short chapters, and a funny way of narrating it. It reads like a fun adventure game, especially because there are pirates!

~ watch

Meet Joe Black (1998), d. Martin Brest. Death is taking a vacation to woo the daughter of the man he was supposed to take. Obviously this was enough to make me want to see this film but I’m not exactly sure I can recommend it without warning you that it’s way too long for what it actually is (three bloody hours long). There’s so much potential and it’s one of the films I hope get a remake, because I really enjoyed this softer version of Death, just enjoying life and peanut butter.

~ and other things I did last week

Food: The mango sticky rice from Thai Food. That’s all I’m gonna say — I cannot wait to watch the new episode from The White Lotus tonight and convince my friend Ana to order that mango sticky rice AGAIN! And this time we should get a portion each!

Other things consumed last week:

• Sure, “Paradise Lost” Is Radical, but Did You Know It Was Sexy? (The New Yorker). I am reading Paradise Lost this year, guys. It was on my list for a while…

• Zadie Smith on Reading While You Write (LitHub). A short essay on writing and reading.

• Miserable? Hardly! A celebration of ‘cat ladies’ through history – from Mary Pickford to Taylor Swift (The Guardian). I’m sharing this article with you while my cat sleeps on my lap.

• How to Start and Keep a Journal (The New York Times). This here for me. Just another reminder that I said I’m starting journaling again and I have not. Yet.

• I chose to be childfree. I didn’t think I was choosing isolation, too (The Guardian). Just another scary thought.

Spring is almost here. Hopefully that will come with some extra energy, because my March calendar is already full.

There are already Spring fairs in town full of handmade goodies (plenty of nice mărțișoare out there). I went to RoCreator this weekend and got some very nice smelling candles from MOON Candles and Iz Fain, plus some goodies from Cu Drag. Gruni was also at the fair — I love their things.

Proud to say I did not buy any mugs this time around.

Thank you for reading!

PS: I’m starting my Twin Peaks rewatch today!