Monday, June 14, 2010

A Different Kind of Wallpaper

It's been raining for days in here but over the weekend I made the best out of it. One of the places I went to was up the mountains towards one of the many volcanoes in Costa Rica called Volcan Irazu.


While on the road me and my friend wanted to stop for a cup of coffee and fount this very peculiar family owned restaurant. The walls and ceiling were covered with business cards, messages of napkins, photos, currency from foreign countries, ID cards and anything and everything that you can pin on a surface.


View of one of the restaurant dining room

I thought about the hundreds of tourists that have visited this place and left their mark on it. The owners said it all started with a large group of tourists that stopped by for lunch once during the high season and were so amazed by the great view that they left all these messages for them so they all decided that the best place to display them ware on the wall. Eventually every person who came started leaving their own things and pinning them up becoming what it is today.


Another view of the dining room

Who would leave a T-shirt behind in this chilly weather?

Close up of some of the messages, airline ticket stubs and business cards left by tourists

19 comments:

  1. How fun and quirky. That hike must have been amazing. I love reading about your trip- sounds like a life changing trip.

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  2. wow- way too messy for my liking- all I can think about is the dust and clutter.

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  3. How fun! It is a little weird but it's kind of fun!

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  4. This is so amazing! What a wonderful visual history of their place they've created. I love it!

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  5. That's so interesting! This place sounds like it has a lot of character. Did you leave your card or a note on the wall?

    Valerie

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  6. wow, that is really something!

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  7. Love it...this is the kind of place to look for on a vacation...what message did you leave?

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  8. Wow what great photos and how interesting. I love Costa Rica ... I went in 2007 and fell in love with everything. La Fortuna was such an amazing place to visit ... the beaches, the people and the coffee ... INCREDIBLE. xo

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  9. Something like I've never seen & it's really charming. Great fun to see, thank you. Continue to have a tremendous adventure. ~ deb

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  10. Wow- this is so cool!

    :) Marcie

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  11. Oh how awesome! It sort of reminds me of a place I went in Barbados but this is on a much larger scale and much more interesting.

    oh and the ReadyMade post is up now. I had a little problem with it yesterday but it's all solved now :)

    xoxo

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  12. wow, this is so amazing! what a creative way to make your visitors feel part of the restaurant! i can't help but wonder how they manage cleaning this place though!

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  13. we have a very similar place in Hungary- I love this one too :)
    xoxo

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  14. I absolutely adore this. It's little things like the notes on a wall that make you want to keep coming back to a place like this and reading a new section of wall...

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  15. Very very cool. I can't function like that but it sure is interesting to see!

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  16. I love this! a vintage low-fi version of blog comments :)

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  17. what a wild place! love this! thanks for sharing.
    xo
    b

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