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Upps!ala, I Traveled Again

This article is part of the #20Again series: in these texts, I do not intend to advise anyone to travel, nor I want to convince people to stay at home. Simply and generally, I will tell my experiences and share my thoughts, without the presumption of wanting to influence those of other people. I firmly believe that everyone can decide for themselves, through their own evaluation parameters. In addition, during my travels, I always respected all local restrictions and rules, on which I constantly tried to inquire beforehand.

Okay, I realize that the title already frames my age, for a post that is part of the #20Again series. And I know a true 20-year-old is probably wondering what I'm referring to. It is not important, these are old people's talk.

But I wanted to start like this, in a more light-hearted way, after the more serious tones of the latest articles. I do it following the invitation of Luca, another Italian blogger, whom I thank publicly. In recent weeks we have had the opportunity to talk a lot about the current situation and he urged me and others to change attitude towards some positivity, despite everything.

So, I am not a person who has an optimistic approach towards existence, but not too pessimistic either. Having done scientific studies, I tend to look at the data and analyze it. I keep poetry, rhetorical or metaphorical wit for moments of leisure or inner lyricism, those in which my humanity explodes. In everyday life, instead, I'm usually very rational.

However, while traveling in Denmark and Sweden I wanted to try to look at things with a different perspective, focusing on the single moments of different individuals. And I will talk about those in this article. I will describe behaviors that may be right or wrong in this pandemic situation, but surely they will all be very human. Because yes, we are a species that sweats in the heat, that emanates a bad smell sometimes, that goes around coughing, sneezing and spreading bodily fluids. But we are also everything else...

We are all the drivers of the bus that takes you from Copenhagen to Dragør, a quaint town near the capital city. I look at my smartphone and see that there are a couple of distinct stops. So I ask the driver which is the most central to get off. But this one doesn't speak English very well, I don't even think he's originally from Denmark. Nevertheless, he manages to ask me: "Where are you from?" I answer: "Italy". He smiles at me and says in Italian: "So you speak Italian, right?" I am very surprised: he is not a native Italian speaker, even if he speaks it well, I can hear it from the accent. I ask him how can he speak my language so well and he gives me an even more disorienting answer: "As you speak English, I speak Italian." What a guy! He gives me all the information I need and then I get off after thanking him. I'll never know where he comes from, but who cares? He is a human being, we are all him.

And we are also the elderly couple who, on a fantastic day, take their dog for a walk in Odense. They also push a kind of empty pushchair, which at first I don't understand what it's meant for. I will find out in the afternoon when I go to visit the fabulous Egeskov Castle. There, I see the couple again: their four-legged friend is this time inside the pushchair. The dog is old, he can't walk that much. But these humans don't deny him the simple joy of enjoying a nice day in their company. We are them too, don't you think so?

In Copenhagen we become the two teenage girl friends on the bus, which takes them to the central station, right in front of the Tivoli amusement park. Here the two friends separate, each one addressed to continue their day. Not before saying goodbye with a hug, though. Is it wrong in this period? Yes, it is. But in that embrace there is all the youth that I can no longer caress, despite the slogans. There are memories inside, the times of inconclusive days with friends. Yet very lucid, bright and full. In that instant, I think many would have wanted to be those girls. To each their own choice.

In Helsingor we go back to being what we have always been when we are in a moment of serenity. So this time we become four people: two couples who do not know each other, who cross each other for a few seconds in their existence. In which they exchange the courtesy of taking pictures of each other. I observe them, they pass the camera from hand to hand. With it, dust, germs and all the dirt they bring on their hands are transferred. But above all, they care about passing their memories. Would you like to be them too? Evaluate it as you wish.

I get to Roskilde, near the fabulous cathedral. Again, a group of four youngsters is walking around the park. The girls run forward laughing heartily and one of the two boys left behind, a thin blond, accompanies their escape with a wave of the arm that I normally see done in Rome. All he needed to utter was the "Ahooo" and he would have become adoptable by the Eternal City. So, tell me, how could I not be this guy?

While on a Swedish train bound for Uppsala, I spot a little boy trying to reach this commuter train before it leaves. When he feels confident enough to catch it and close enough to have time to slow down, he changes his pace into a lively hopping. He has a smile on his face, his march is that of one who goes towards life with a beautiful hopeful impulse, even if he does not have a mask on his face. Will he wear it once on the train? I do not know. In Sweden, in August 2020, I saw very few doing that. But of course I want to be that hopping kid, at least until he's in the act of getting on the train.

And after I have filled my eyes with wonder at Sigtuna, on a day so beautiful and hot that I almost wonder if I am really that far north, I finally return to Stockholm. There, on a bench, I see a somewhat plump man who with his bare hands extracts a kind of croquette from a cardboard bag. No, he doesn't wash them. No, he doesn't disinfect them. He grabs the croquette and bites into it. His expression deflagrates, his face gains color. At that moment, I can certify, he is ingesting the best thing in the world. Perhaps greasy, perhaps unhealthy, mixed with the dirt of his hands. But not for him. Because yes, we are also this when we focus on the present, without worrying too much about the consequences.

We become children again in Styrsö, in the small archipelago south of Gothenburg. Children, the real ones, as they should be: who go to school alone, traveling on public ferries from island to island. A sign that the environment is safe for them, as it should be everywhere. Yes, I also feel that I am that group of boys and girls who have little understanding of this story and continue to do their job: to grow up and discover the world.

And finally we are a boy and a girl, who still remember the music of twenty years ago. The one of the real 20, not the #20Again. Together they swim among many unknowns and try to continue living their life, despite everything, despite everyone.

We are, do you want to be too?