London Natasha Lewis-Smith Katie Dash
David Harvey: What’s the one thing you’d recommend someone visiting London do that’s out of the ordinary?
Natasha Lewis-Smith: Go to Brick Lane in East London, which is a predominantly Indian/Pakistani area, and its got amazing, amazing restaurants.
DH: One restaurant you like the most?
NL: I dunno, they’re all really, really cheap. There’s a bar ‘mdash; the Big Chill Bar ‘mdash; which is amazing, next door to a really cheap Indian Restaurant where they give you free wine if you’re a girl, to come in and eat. It’s a really cool mixture of traditional and foreign cultures and young modern British people all mixed together so there’s a really cool fusion going on. There’s a club nearby, 93 Feet East, I love that place, so good! So many different cultures come together at one big grimy nightclub that’s really sweaty and it’s loud and goes on until six in the morning.
DH: How would you recommend getting around in London?’ ‘
NL: Public transport, you just need to go on the tube and the bus and you can get everywhere and the busses ride until seven in the morning. So, go around on the tube during the day and the night bus at night and buy an oyster card. But it’s okay because the American economy is fucked and so is the British economy so it’s really cheap for American people to come at the moment.
DH: Best time to go to the best tourist site?
Katie Dash: Take a trip to the Thames, the [London Eye] is the main tourist spot ‘mdash; you can see parliament right across the road and in the distance if you’re high enough you can see St. Paul’s Cathedral, and walking along the Thames at that point is just pretty cool. If you go by Embankment then Chelsea area, you can see the park and it’s beautiful, especially at night as well. Catch one of the tourist buses and you can see the tourist sites and you can pick what you want to do as well, at night it’s probably better to do more eclectic stuff. I would also tell people to go to Leicester Square at night, if you’re a tourist…
NL: Don’t go to Leicester Square’hellip;
KD: But if we’re talking about typical tourist things to do then you have to do it. I would say go to some art galleries as well ‘mdash; Tate Modern is awesome.
NL: They found this massive old warehouse and it’s right on the River Thames on the south bank [near] the London Eye and that’s where it’s all at, they basically gutted the whole warehouse and it’s [a modern art gallery and it’s free to get in and in the main hall they always have a really big exhibition or installation and one year they had this huge sun and it looked like a giant sunset in the middle of the hall and it was fantastic- I went about 12 times.
KD: They have fantastic installations there. And also I would recommend the white cube galleries, you get really random people ‘mdash; Damian Hirst, Tracy Emin ‘mdash; that are part of the White Cube crew. I would [recommend] the National Gallery as well if you want to see the classic paintings, and also maybe the Royal Academy.
NL: Versace always has crazy shit [at the Royal Academy] like half a cow in a glass case and everyone stands around and says, hmm.
DH: Cheapest thing you’d recommend?
NL: Going to the pub it doesn’t have to be expensive. In areas outside Leicester Square, in places like Camden market, you can get cheap, cheap pints.
KD: If you’re a student, just crash some student union and take advantage of their pound a pint night on Thursdays. Best time to go when it comes to
cheap drinks.
NL: But all the galleries and all the museums are free so in terms of cultural stuff to do during the day it’s second to none in terms of cities, like you go to New York and its like 10 dollars here, 10 dollars there. London, walk up ‘mdash; free. Spend your whole afternoon at galleries. And also as well, the London theatre scene and music scene is amazing and you can get really cheap tickets if you go on standby ‘mdash; if you go on standby you turn up at the theatre half an hour before the play and if someone’s on standby you can get cheap tickets they do good deals for students. They do a thing at the Globe ‘mdash; 10 pound student tickets, which are amazing. I go like, too much.
DH: Can you recommend anything about Scotland?
KD: Yeah. Go to Scotland. Go to Edinburgh, but if you’re looking for a club scene in Scotland go to Glasgow. They have this club there called The Arches, it’s like Fabric (in London).
NL: Fabric in London is a really good club. Cargo in London is sooo good. Oh my god.
KD: Isn’t Fabric Closed?
NL: Yeah, so sad.
KD: You can get to Scotland easily from London’s King’s Cross as well. If you book in advance you can book a ticket for like, 28 pounds with return. It might be worthwhile as well to get a young person’s rail card, it costs 20 pounds and then you get student fares and like 40 percent off all journeys. It’s pretty good especially for traveling around the rest of U.K. as well. It’s one of the things I would say you should really do.
NL: The most magnificent organization ever made was www.megabus.com. Its coaches, I think they’re out of use and they maybe didn’t deposit their safety checks or something cuz they’re horrible, but you can get really cheap fares, you can get from London to Glasgow on the megabus overnight for 12 pounds and it takes all night and its horrible, but it’s the best thing ever. I’ve done it about four times. The mega bus and the national express. Coaches are generally cheaper, and they’re not as nice, but you meet some really cool people.
DH: What was that club in Scotland? What makes it so great?
KD: The Archers. They’ve got good music, really great drum and base line. I’ve only been once there but everyone recommends it. It’s on the main street. They basically have this pedestrianized area in Glasgow. They’ve got better shopping as well than in Edinborough but a lot of people don’t go to Glasgow cuz its quite rough and grim, but its quite a beautiful city.
KD: For me coming from London, going to Edinburgh, it’s pretty it’s clean, it’s ethnic, they try to give it this image of being pristine. Go to Edinburgh it’s pretty, at night it gets really grimy as well but Glasgow is rough and really authentic.
KD: I’d recommend if you go to Edinburgh take a trip to Glasgow and get a more cultural side of Scotland.
KD: Edinburgh castle is awesome. It’s fucking expensive. … You can get to the cafe where JK Rowling wrote the first Harry Potter. That’s in Edinburgh. There’s this private school, Edinburgh University, where she got the inspiration for Harry Potter and it’s actually amazing, some of their schools there, they just look like castles its amazing. It might be worthwhile taking a trip to St. Andrews as well. It’s full of Americans to be honest. But, people feel at home. There’s nothing there except nice building pretty much. They’ve got good pubs. They’ve got a really nice beach. But going to the beach in Scotland is not really an option?
KD: Winding roads, super tiny roads, animals, when I move up my stuff up it’s such a good drive, I would tell someone to drive from London to Edinburgh but it’s kind of long and everyone drives crazy, but I would recommend driving at least from Lake District, from there to Scotland and then to Edinburgh because you skim Glasgow but the way. From Glasgow to Edinburgh is just these windy roads and it’s just amazing the views, it’s like no other, it’s nothing like I’ve ever seen.
NL: Best thing hands down that you’ll ever do in London is go to Knotting Hill Carnival, without a shadow of a doubt, the last weekend in August, basically. It’s a free street party.
KD: They have a carnival from all the countries in the Caribbean, you dress up and they have good music, good food, people. Pretty much the whole day you just drink outside and it’s just a massive street party in west London and you just sit around talk to random people, it’s just a good day, and they actually have it two days ‘- Sunday they have family day.
NL: It’s been more family orientated. You have children’s entertainment. Monday is the straight up serious party.
KD: Anarchy basically.
NL: And of things to eat: jerk chicken, rice and peas.
KD: If you can’t handle spice, don’t eat jerk chicken.
NL: In South London the Mirch Masala in Tooting, for cheap curry, is the best place in the world. But it’s my favorite place, it’s really, really, really cheap and it’s all the kinda local community always goes there and everyone in there is Indian families or of Indian decent so the food’s good, it’s legit ‘mdash; that’s what people say? It’s hella legit ‘hellip; it’s really good.
KD: It might be best to go end of august, that’s the only time you’re pretty much guaranteed decent weather in UK.
NL: A horrible cloudy day here is the best you’ll get in England.
KD: That’s the other thing I recommend: always carry an umbrella. Don’t listen to the weather people; they always lie.
NL: Brighton is half an hour on the train from London ‘mdash; it’s by the coast and it’s like a proper British seaside town with a stony beach, the beach in Brighton is amazing. It’s got a huge gay community down there; gay people are good fun so there’s always good clubs.
KD: They’ve got a really good club scene; they have about three universities down there…
NL: Brighton Art School and Sussex Art University, and Brighton University.
KD: It’s a very fashionable area.
NL: Fat Boy Slim lives down there and he plays every year on the beach.
NL: In September there’s a festival called Bestival, which is organized by a British hip hop guy called Rob da Bank, and it’s a festival on Isle of White, an island off the coast of England, an hours boat’s ride from Portsmouth ‘mdash; and it’s the best festival in the U.K. I’d say it rivals Glastonbury because they have different areas, different tents, and they have Jestival, which is a stand-up comedy tent. They have a young writers tent, they have Restival, which is this big tent with sofas and shisha pipes with cups of tea where you go listen to music and the music runs from about four in the afternoon to about six in the morning and I went this year and there was torrential rain and dangerous mudslides but it was the best festival I went to all year.
NL: And then Glastonbury is obviously the big one, Pyramid stage at Glastonbury is where you always hear the good music.
NL: Custard Factory in Birmingham ‘mdash; that’s like the nearest big city ‘mdash; has all the big European drum and base names play there. Blue Mango, an Indian restaurant in Birmingham has the best dosa you’ll ever eat in your life.
NL: Ahh Dash, I miss England.
KD: Thing is, as soon as we step off the plane we’re going to be like ‘Fuck this, I’m going back to California.’
Australia Jeevi Mather
Jeevi Mather: They’re preppy and pretentious and think that they’re the shit ‘mdash; they’re not that bad they have really good beaches ‘mdash; Bondi Beach, is like really, it’s like one of the most renowned beaches in Australia.
Melbourne is the ‘city’ city of Australia. We have all the restaurants, bars, sports, and it’s just generally multi-cultural, Sydney is more of a beach-oriented town, where as we’re
the city.
There’s a place called Federation Square, it’s basically the center of the city and it’s kind of like a little market and it’s got a museum and a theatre and all these outdoor vendors and stuff and its right across from the oldest train station in Melbourne, so that’s a cool area and its pretty much the center of everything.
Melbourne city is basically all shopping. Shopping and restaurants. But if you want to go out, if you could spend a few days there, you should definitely go up to Great Ocean Road. There are all these beach towns and that’s pretty much where everyone hangs out in the summer. There’s the four main ones ‘mdash; Anglesea, Lorne, Fairchild and Apollo Bay. Apollo Bay has the 12 Apostles, I think it was one of the wonders of the world, but it’s gone from being 12 to being about four.
[In Melbourne] there’s china Town, there’s Lygon Street, which is all Italian restaurants so you can basically just go in sectors and basically just get really, really good restaurants. Melbourne is full of restaurants.
In Lygon Street, I think its called Little Italy maybe, it’s a really funky old Italian restaurant. Joy’s Tavern has the best Greek food you’ll ever find, better than anything I’ve had in Australia, and actually better than anything I’ve had here as well. It’s like this really crappy old place with rundown halls and looks like things growing everywhere, but with the best food you’ll ever have. I usually get souvlaki and lamb. I haven’t been there in seven months, it’s so sad.
Melbourne is really big on sports, we have Australian rules football.
The Deck, [a sports bar], is about a five-minute walk from the MCG ‘mdash; the main stadium in Australia. It’s pretty renowned because a lot of the football duff go there and the sporters so it’s got a bit of a rep for being the place to be for sports.
There’s pubs everywhere in Australia. All we do is drink in eat, seriously it’s kind of sad actually. I guess maybe Sydney would be better at least them people are at the beach; in Melbourne all we do is eat and drink, and watch sports, that’s about it.’ ‘ There’s a lot of fires in Melbourne at the moment, apparently half the city has been burnt, well not half the city, but a lot. So maybe people should give it a while until we rebuild a little and go back to having trees.
Melbourne has gotten pretty expensive, it always used to be a fair, prices have gone up a lot. I mean, it’s not Sydney yet, but it is getting there in terms of paying for food and stuff. It’s hard to find good cheap stuff anymore.
Bologna, Italy David Kovo Gabriele Liotta
David Harvey: If somebody was traveling to Bologna, what is the place you would recommend the most?
David Kovo: OK, the problem with my city ‘mdash; it’s not a real problem ‘mdash; but my city is not a touristic destination, like Florence or Venice or Rome, but there’s a very famous and big university so you really appreciate the city if you stay there for awhile. Because it’s a relatively small city with a lot of students there is maybe not a lot to see if you think about history and monuments. For all the American students I met here that were studying in bologna for six months or one year they were happy about the experience, but yeah, my city, I think it’s a really good experience particularly for this because everything is really concentrated in the center, and the university is located in the center, so you can buy, for 10 bucks, a bike, and you can get anywhere. You have the bus and the university, and all the houses of your friends around, and also you experience living, we don’t have the dorms so you live in real apartments in the city. I don’t know. I like it more. You become more independent.
DH: What is your favorite tourist site in Italy?
DK: OK, for my city it’s less than a hundred miles, I really like Florence, and we go pretty often there, but if I have to think of someone who has never come to Italy then also Venice, Rome.
DH: What is the one thing in Florence that you really like?
DK: It’s tough because if you think about Rome you know there is the coliseum, and it’s really famous. It’s there and it’s the monument everybody goes and sees ‘mdash; the coliseum. But I can’t suggest you go to Rome to see the coliseum, you go to Rome to see Rome. Florence is the same. It is not that big; you can spend even two, three days. But OK, if you have to see one place, there is the Uffizi museum, the most famous museum. It’s in the center. But you know, you don’t go to an Italian city to see something in particular, you just go to there to enjoy all of the city.
Gabriele Liotta: I think it is just about, you know, wandering around. Everything is medieval or renaissance. It’s about enjoying life there and going around eating traditional Italian food. I guess it is like probably only Venice [that has] something you go to, the main square, Piazza San Marco.
DH: What is your favorite place to travel outside of Italy?
DK: Morocco. I really like Morocco, I was there this summer before coming [to California] and would really suggest it because you arrive and you can easily rent a car, even if somebody can tell you its dangerous to drive there because they drive like crazy, but yeah, the car is the only way of getting everywhere. You can also hitchhike or take busses. You can also take busses, public transportation, but they are not really efficient. If you take a car you can go to cities, to seasides, you can see all the imperial towns like Fez, Meknes, Rabat and Marrakesh, you go to the desert, it’s like a whole experience you see, it’s a small country but you see many different things. The highlight: Marrakesh. It’s a shame to visit morocco and not see Marrakesh.
GL: I like traveling in the Balkan States, there is a lot of culture and traditions. If you travel by train and you have to pass the borders between the states. Traveling by train in the Balkans, you really meet really random people and the landscape is beautiful. Stopping every time and checking passports, there are really scary policemen, but I really liked it.
DH: What about food? Where in Bologna, what is the best place to get a meal ‘mdash; the number one restaurant?
DK: I can’t tell you the name of a restaurant but I can tell you the name of a street. There is this street called Via del Pratello, and it’s really common to go there among students because there are a lot of restaurants there, one next to each other. All of them are great, but if you live there, if you spend some time, after a while you get some place that you like the most. They are small places so you start knowing the owner, you know, it’s like a family, when you come back they know you. … The best place for me, it’s called Fantoni, and it’s one of them. Via del Pratello, it is a typical experience in Bologna.
DH: What about abroad?
DK: I’ve been in Paris for six months and my favorite place was called 404, like the number, and its more North African cuisine, … very romantic … the food of course, it is the first thing I look for in a restaurant. … coos-coos, and all kinds of meat, also it’s a typical meat with raisins and prunes, and so it’s kind of sweet, um, they have really good mojitos and also the tea. The tea is typical there at the end of the dinner.
GL: I was thinking, I guess, about Greece. I like a lot Greek food, so I mean there is no place in particular, I traveled a lot in Greece around the islands, if you go to the traditional restaurants and traditional food, I love it. … I guess Rhodes, the island, I liked it; it is perfect for a tourist. It is changing. A lot of English people go. Athens is nice, but it is really crowded and really polluted, after the Olympics it changed a lot, but if you think about that the same city has been there for thousands of years.
DK: I am thi
nking about what a foreign person can do in Bologna. Everybody goes out Friday and Saturday in my city, but also Wednesday is a typical day and there are a lot of nights, nights only for international students, not only for international students, but for them it is free. There is a place called Corto Maltese; I have friends from UCSD that were in Bologna for one year and they were always going there. There is also a disco that is really, really in the center. It is called Kinky, and it is really, really close to the central square and so it is good for tourists because you don’t have to take a car and go far.