First weeks in India

I began my India experience on December 1st, flying into Delhi from Amman, Jordan. Out of all the places I have traveled to so far, I experienced the most pre-arrival anticipation/trepidation for India. I knew it would be a challenging place, in many ways. I can’t say that anything has really surprised me so far. But not being surprised doesn’t mean you’re not blown away by what you see. I must admit I didn’t get off to a great start: I found Delhi difficult, but that wasn’t helped by the fact that I got sick my third day there. Apparently, it is very common for the majority of travelers to get sick within a week or two or arrival. And I think almost half of the travelers I spoke to in Delhi were also suffering from “Delhi Belly”. I made use of my antibiotics that I got from the travel clinic back home before I left, which helped immensely. I was only sick for a couple of days. I was thankful to have a television in my hotel room which had BBC World News and a few other English shows to help pass the time between sprints to the toilet. I didn’t see a whole lot in Delhi - save for the Red Fort, which I visited mere hours before the “troubles” (with my digestion, that is) began. But walking around the Paharganj area, where I was staying, is an experience in and of itself. The things you hear or think about India are true: the traffic, the throngs of people, the noise, the garbage, the air pollution, the cows walking down the middle of the street - it’s all here. It was a bit jarring at first, but I’m now getting used to it. Speaking of jarring, the one thing I have a hard time getting used to is the horn honking. It’s an essential part of driving here, evidently, and the horns (on all vehicles: cars, trucks, motorcycles, auto-rickshaws) are about five times as loud - no joke - as what we have in North America. I still jump out of my skin about once a day.

After my four and half days in Delhi, I caught a daytime train north to Haridwar and from there a forty minute bus trip to Rishikesh. Rishikesh was the ideal balm to soothe my Delhi-hardened soul. It is the self-styled “Yoga Capital of the World” after all. It came to prominence in the late 1960s when a band known as The Beatles visited here and spent time at the Mararishi Mahesh Yogi’s ashram (I visited the remains of that now-abandoned ashram). I spent my two weeks (!) in Rishikesh in the Lakshman Jhula area, which is right by the Ganges River. I didn’t stay in an ashram, but did yoga here and there. I spent a lot of time at the Ganga Beach Café reading and hanging out with some very cool people. That’s one thing about India so far:  while I have met some wonderful fellow travelers previously on my trip, I’m encountering an even larger proportion of them here. I made some very good friends in Rishikesh, and hope our paths will cross again. You know who you are.

Some other Rishikesh highlights: Swimming in the frigid Ganga (Ganges) on my last day - the upstream, seemingly cleaner part. And the bullfight on the walking bridge over the river. Two bulls (many street cows in Rishikesh) charged each other on the walking bridge one day, and literally locked horns. While stuck together - and blocking a usually steady flow of people - locals were whacking them on the butt with sticks and rods to get them moving (I was viewing this in a safe location off the bridge). When they finally got free, one of the bulls turned and charged towards the crowd on that side of the bridge. I have never seen people move so fast in my life. No one was hurt. It was hilarious.

Rishikesh is in northern India, and it IS December, so the weather at night can get quite frigid. Now, not Canada frigid, but with no insulation and no heating, your room can get pretty cold when it drops to 6 degrees (Celsius) at night. Several layers of blankets helps this, as well as the trusty toque I bought earlier in my trip. The days, however, were great - low 20s. Sorry, people back in Canada.

After Rishikesh, I headed northwest to Amritsar, in the Punjab. The main attraction is the Golden Temple - the holiest site for Sikhs. I spent three nights in the Sri Guru Ram Das Niwas, which is the free - and very clean and comfortable - accommodation (they take donations) just adjacent to the Golden Temple. The people in India have been very nice, but the people I met in Amritsar were extra-special in that regard. Maybe it has something do with (as I learned) the welcoming nature of the Sikh religion, in which no matter your faith, creed or race, they welcome all to their holiest site, provide shelter and food (there is also a free kitchen in the Temple, feeding tens of thousands of people daily). You stick out as a foreigner here, and people will come up to you and say hello, shake your hand and start asking you questions, genuinely interested in you. Some even take your photo. You feel like a rock star.

The Golden Temple is just that - gilded, according to my Lonely Planet guide, with 750kg of pure gold. The reflection of the rising sun off of it in the morning is stunning. When entering the compound of the Golden Temple, you must be barefoot and have your head covered. Again, as a light-skinned foreigner, it was amusing all the double-takes I would get. Amritsar was a special place. Definitely include it in your India itinerary.

Amritsar is very close (about one hour by taxi) to the India-Pakistan border. But in a seeming gesture of goodwill - as well as rivalry and nationalism - they hold a border-closing ceremony each night. This is essentially a Changing of the Guard on steroids: Indian and Pakistani border guards - facing each other across the soon-to-be-shut border gate - try and outdo each other with energetic and flamboyant Monty Pythonesque high steps. All this with stands of screaming, flag-waving Indians chanting “Hindustan! Hindustan!” (which is Hindi for “India”). Similar scene on the Pakistani side. This nationalistic pep rally was one of the most entertaining, if bizarre, things I have seen on my trip. I think Canada and the US should adopt this for the Windsor-Detroit border crossing.

After three nights in Amritsar, I took a 14 hour train ride to Agra, home of the Taj Mahal. Which is where I am now on December 24th, and where I will be spending Christmas. Merry Christmas from India!

Istanbul

I'm a terrible blogger - I admit it. I'm so behind, it's not even funny. I'm in Israel at the moment, and have been for over a week, and I haven't even blogged about my two weeks in Turkey, let alone my two nights in Tiranna, Albania - all amazing experiences worth blogging about. There is some sort of  blogging equation or law emerging here - the more bloggable travel experiences one has, the less time (or inclination?) one has to actually write the blog. Andrew's Law of Travel Blogging - you read it here first.

Or maybe I'm just lazy.

Let's talk Turkey (I know, I know...): My two weeks in Turkey were split between sensory-overloading Istanbul, and the peaceful and stunning Cappodocia in the central part of the country. Istanbul did not start out smoothly as I arrived in the middle of a torrential downpour. It was during this downpour that I realized I had left the rain cover for my backpack back in Montenegro (two countries previous). I don't care if I get wet, but it would be crappy if my pack and it's contents got soaked. And I got lost on the way to the hostel (getting lost was easy to do, for me, in Istanbul). But this was when I first encountered the kindness of Turkish people. Despite not speaking English, several people helped me find my hostel - the last person walking me right up to the door. I encountered this friendliness over and over during my time in Turkey.

Plenty of amazing things to see in Istanbul: The Blue Mosque, the Aya Sofya, Topkapi Palace, to name but a few, with the Aya Sofya being my favourite. The Grand Bazaar was interesting and, not surprisingly, jammed with people - mostly tourists it seemed. It was here that I realized I had many more friends in Istanbul than I knew, as I kept hearing vendors call out to me, "My friend, my friend" and then try and get me to "just take a look" at some of their wares. I preferred the Spice Bazaar with it's awesome array of colours and smells. I couldn't resist buying dried strawberries and Turkish Delight.

It's not too often one can say that they took a day trip to another continent, but I did just that. Istanbul straddles both Europe and Asia, divided by the Bosphorus River. It was pretty easy to hop a ferry over to the Asia side - on the ride across, looking south, I saw countless number of oil tankers in the distance. It's a pretty major tanker route between the Black Sea and the Mediterranean.

There's way more I could add, but in the interest of getting this entry posted before 2011, I'm gonna end things there. I've only got a few photos to share with you at the moment - I'll hopefully add more later. I have some issues with dust on the inside of my camera lens, so I'd like to photoshop the dust spots out before adding those photos. And hopefully I'll get my camera fixed at some point...

Near the Grand Bazaar

The Galata Tower - near where I stayed

The Aya Sofya

Aya Sofya

Kotor, Montenegro

And now, to recount my brief but enjoyable visit to a country many of you have never heard of before: Montenegro. Montenegro is a former Yugoslav republic and the last to gain independence - only as recently as 2006. So, I guess it's the youngest country I've ever visited. Or that anyone could visit, for that matter. I spent two nights in the picturesque (to grossly understate it) town of Kotor. It is located on a fjord-like inlet of the Adriatic Sea. Kotor's Old Town - where my hostel was located - has awesome medieval walls that surround the city and go up the mountainside. The highlight of my stay here was my hike up the wall/mountain, and the amazing views that went along with it. I was fortunate have excellent weather for this. Enough talk - check out my photos:

The old town and harbour, from part-way up the wall.

No, I'm not describing a fish I caught.

Croatia

I'm going to recount my two weeks in Croatia out of order, starting with the most last stop: Dubrovnik. The walled Old Town was fantastic. The weather was beautiful as I walked along the wall, much of which overlooks the Adriatic Sea. Spent the late afternoon and evening drinking beer and watching the sunset over the sea with a couple of Finnish girls at a bar at the base of the city walls. I only spent one really solid day in Dubrovnik (two nights), but it was awesome. One of the benefits of not visiting in high season was the excellent accommodation I was able to secure. No hostel for me this time, but a villa, for only about $25/night. Woke up Friday morning and opened the doors of my balcony to a fantastic view of the city and harbour.

View from my balcony in Dubrovnik

Excellent day to walk along the walls of the Old Town.

View of the Old Town from the city walls.

Sunset and beer.

Prior to Dubrovnik, I was in Split. I stayed in a great hostel right within the walls of the Old Town, which was originally the palace of the Roman emperor Diocletian. I met up with a former colleague (I used to work for a living, remember?), Theresa, who happened to be over on a two-week trip. It was cool that our timing worked out. After Split, I went to the island of Hvar, where I spent three days with a couple of Aussie girls I had met at the Split hostel. Hvar was beautiful, the weather in the low 20s and the water warm enough for swimming! Not bad for October.

I guess I'm overdue to show a photo of me with my backpack. Walking up from the harbour on Hvar. About two minutes before I wiped out on some cobblestones. Sliced open my finger. But it's healing.

Chillin' on Hvar. And it's October!

Going back further, a couple of weeks...my first stop in Croatia was the capital of Zagreb. I spent a couple of nights there followed by a visit to Plitvice Lakes National Park, roughly halfway between Zagreb and Split. Plitvice Lakes is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and is renowned (well, to some) for its series of waterfalls that interconnect the dozen of so lakes. Though the weather didn't exactly co-operate - rainy and a little cool - it was impressive nonetheless. And, because it wasn't high season, it wasn't crowded either.

At Plitvice Lakes. Wearing a toque. Not knowing I'd be swimming in the ocean in four days.

There you have it. A quick catch-up on my two weeks in Croatia.

Dresden, Krakow, Budapest

Okay - so I’ve fallen extremely behind in my blogging. Since I left Prague just over two weeks ago (Sept 27), I’ve been to five cities. In the interest of quickly catching up, I’m going to have to summarize my visit to each. If I try and get too detailed, I won’t be caught up ‘til Christmas. Here goes:

Dresden, Germany

My friend's travel plan was to head to Dresden on her way back to Frankfurt where she would catch her flight home. I was planning on going on to Poland after Prague, but decided to check Dresden out. Kari is an expert at setting up the ride-sharing thing, so it was a stress-free - and cheap - ride back to Germany.

Dresden was nice, but very rainy. We had encountered rain and overcast skies since Prague, and it continued here. The city was nice despite that. It has largely been rebuilt since it was infamously fire-bombed by the Allies during World War II. We visited the impressive re-built Frauenkirche cathedral, which had been completely destroyed. Dresden also has some funky pubs and live music spots. In particular, we found a great place for live music called the Blue Note. Jazz, blues, and a little bit of alt-country as well. I neglected to try currywurst when I was in Berlin, but was sure to try it here. Currywurst is essentially wieners cut into smaller pieces and seasoned with curry sauce. I know, it doesn't sound like much - but I like it.

Mmm...currywurst.

Drinking with the locals (that being the guy in the middle - Marcus)

After Kari left, I stayed one more night to sort out my travel plans to Krakow. That extra night consisted of hanging out at the hostel with a few other travelers (mostly Aussies, of course), having a few drinks, and making them endure my serenading them with the hostel's free-to-use guitar. (Actually, I think everyone had fun - thanks to Daniel and Saffron for being a great audience). The next day, yet more ride-sharing, this time to...

Krakow, Poland

I used the ride-sharing service to get to Krakow,  catching a ride with a Ukrainian guy on his way back to Kiev for a few days. This ride-sharing experience wasn't as, umm, comfortable as the first two, but it WAS interesting. I had to meet the guy, Maxim, on the outskirts of Dresden, just off the Autobahn. He didn’t live in Dresden, but was passing through. Getting to the appointed spot was an adventure in itself (got off at the wrong tram spot, ended walking the wrong way, could find no one who spoke English, etc.) Thankfully, Maxim had told me that the gas station we were meeting at was near the Ikea (Swedish for “everywhere”) - That was helpful when encountering people who could not speak English when asking for directions: I would just say “Ikea?” and gesture as if to say “Do you know where the hell it is?" I ended up finding the station, meeting up with a Ukrainian girl who was also sharing the ride. Maxim ended up being late and then pulling up in a good sized car. Excellent, I thought. But wait, there is no room in his back seat - it’s taken up with spare tires wrapped in plastic. Surely he’ll put those in his trunk I thought to myself as he got out of his car. Maxim then opens his trunk. His far - very far - from empty trunk. How the hell are we gonna get a single piece of luggage in that trunk, let alone two pieces AND make room for another passenger in the back seat? I pictured myself staying in Dresden yet another night. "Is there going to be room?" I ask. "Don't worry, eet weel be fine" he replies, as he somehow starts defying laws of physics and spatiality in re-arranging the car. I look over at Oksana, my Ukrainian fellow-passenger. She rolls her eyes and says "Ees teepical Ukrainian answer". Well, it all worked out. A bit cramped, but not so bad. It was only five-hour drive (!). See below:

My home for a five hour drive - and yes, safety advocates, I was able to use the seatbelt.

See, I fit. Had to hold onto that red suitcase around corners, though.

I only spent two days and nights in Krakow. I spent one day walking around the main square, the Wawel Castel and the Kazimierz (Jewish Quarter). And I had the best borscht and dumplings ever at a restaurant just off the main square. Again, the weather was not cooperating. Very cold, even for Krakow at this time of year, I was told. In fact, I ended up buying a toque (although no one over here calls it that). My second day was a day trip to the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp, an hour or so bus ride outside Krakow. The size of Birkenau cannot be comprehended - its larger than I could imagine. The tour guide who led us through the two camps was excellent: knowledgeable, and striking the appropriate tone in giving such a tour, which can't be easy. It's very somber walking around such a place where there was so much appalling suffering and death. I don't know what else to say, so I'll leave it at that.

That same night, I took my first overnight train. With my condolences to Slovakia, which I blew threw in the dark and didn't see, I arrived the next morning at 8:00am in...


Budapest, Hungary

I had plans in Budapest to meet up with two American friends, Kate and Melissa, who I had met in Berlin. We realized our schedules would have us in Budapest around the same time. As well, they sold me on the hostel they were booked into (The Mandala Hostel), as it apparently had yoga classes AND a guitar. Sounds like my kinda place. Except...it did not have yoga classes as advertised. They were down the street and extra. And the guitar...well...it had five rusted strings. The sixth string no longer existed. Sigh. I still played it a little, though - any old port in a storm, you know.

Not to continue complaining about the weather, but the first couple of days in Budapest were rainy and grey and cold. That made it about ten straight days of such weather. It started to dawn on me that we were into fall, and that sun and warmth were not as probable as they had been a month earlier. So, the first couple of days consisted of me fighting a bad cold, complaining about the weather, and being kinda grumpy. Thanks to Kate and Melissa for putting up with me. Happily, on day three, the sun came out - and revealed Budapest in all its glory. People rave about Prague, but I think Budapest compares favourably. Very similar to Prague - amazing architecture - but not as touristy. And Budapest has a more laid-back feel. Highlights included walking around the Heroes Square at night and attending the opera at the stunning Budapest Opera House. My first opera in fact - Norma, by Bellini. I enjoyed it, though I had to read the program at intermission to figure out what was going on - the subtitles displayed on a screen above the stage were in Hungarian only. A synopsis: A tale of forbidden love, resulting in the lovers throwing themselves into a fire at the end. Typical. Only cost around $20. A friend of mine went last minute and got her ticket, in the same box as me, for $3. See - planning ahead doesn't pay. (So, my first soccer game ever is in Liverpool, first opera is in Budapest - not bad places to have those firsts.)

Budapest Opera House

Heroes Square - Budapest

Okay, so it looks like I lied on two counts in the early part of this post - I said I'd stick to summarizing, but it appears I'm incapable of that. Also, I said I'd tell you about my visit to five cities - I've only done three. After Budapest, I went south to the small city of Pecs, Hungary. I was there a couple of days, then was off to Zagreb, Croatia. Perhaps I'll talk more about those brief visits in my next post.

Ride-sharing to Prague

I left Berlin two weeks ago (playing blog catch-up again) after twelve excellent days. I was very lucky to be able to spend that much time there, and might have stayed longer if it hadn't been for a fellow traveler going to Prague that day. Kari, from the Washington, D.C. area, was on a two week trip so, unlike myself, time was of the essence for her and she needed to make the most of it. We met at the hostel in Berlin where we were both staying (I have to put a plug in here for the Riverside Lodge hostel in Berlin. Small and comfortable, located in a great area and the owner Enrico is an excellent guy who takes great care of his guests). I had been planning on going to Prague after Berlin so Kari and I decided to hit the road together. Kari introduced me to mitfahrgelegenheit, which is a free ride-sharing service (as well as fun to say...once you can). People traveling between cities post their info on the website, you contact them, pay them a pre-set free, and voila: the driver gets money for gas and you get cheaper-than-a-train-or-bus travel. Since Kari had done this before, and spoke a little German (not to mention she had a phone, and I didn't) she made the arrangements - securing us a 20 euro (each) ride to Prague (which is a bargain).

Prague. Everything people say about this city is true. Visually stunning. The "poor-man's Paris". There were only two negatives about our three-night stay: First, the crap hostel we stayed at the first night. After the Riverside Lodge, the A&O Hostel in Prague left a lot to be desired. Like character, a good location, and a single staff member who knew how to smile. Well, it was clean - I'll give it that.  We toughed it out the first night, before moving on to the comparatively Hilton-like St. Christopher's hostel. As close to a hotel as a hostel gets. Second, I encountered the first really crappy weather of my trip - very rainy and cool. But Prague still shone through. Highlights included:

• the two excellent (though wet) walking tours we did on Saturday and Sunday. 
• eating dinner on the Friday night - before the rain set in - on a terrace just beneath the open windows of a building where a Mozart performance was taking place.
• a very fun pub-crawl on the Saturday night. Well, until I had that blue shooter - which was the size of two shots, actually - which I think had Absinthe in it. I was holding it together until then. Then, my evening was over. 

Grey and rainy, but Prague still looks good.

Berlin

I've been in Berlin for over a week and a half. I'm starting to see a definite trend in that I tend to stay in one place for long periods of time. Who wants to move around every three days? That's fine for a ten-week trip - but not a ten-month one (or however long it turns out to be). Also, Berlin makes it easy to want to stay for an extended period of time.

I'm staying in the Kreuzeberg area, in an excellent little hostel (only 12 beds) about five U-Bahn (i.e. subway) stops from central Berlin. It's cool, in a grungey-kind of way. Lots of graffitti everywhere, but without the "hood" type of feeling you'd get if you witnessed similar sorts of graffitti in North America. Kreuzeberg is in what was West Berlin, but was an area that drew a lot of  artists and counterculture types in those days - and still does somewhat today.

I went on a couple of excellent walking tours during my first week: the first was overall "main sites" tour, while the second one focused on points of interest for us World War II history nerds. I split my visit to the German History Museum into two different days: the amount of content in that thing was unreal. I also visited the DDR museum, which shows what life was like in East Berlin. Some of the clothing styles were hilarious - they were always a little behind the west, thus explaining their embracing of polyester in the early 1980s (!). As well, saw an interesting - if mentally and emotionally exhausting - exhibit on the Gestapo and SS at the Topography of Terror - the former site of both their headquarters.

I really like the people here - they are very friendly. Most speak English, and aren't hesitant to speak it. Of course, I've made it a personal policy to always start a conversation with my standard "Sprechen sie Englisch?" (Do you speak English?), and ninety percent of the time they do. The other ten percent works out as well - I muddle through, usually by pointing or with sign language. (My other go-to German phrase is "Ich spreche kein Deutsch" - I don't speak German).

The past two days were spent touring around on a bike. There are loads of bicycle rental places here, and a huge urban biking culture. My first week here was mostly rainy and cool, but the last two days were gorgeous. My bicycle rental for the two days was free, due to the fact that I was asked to appear in a video which will appear on the bicycle rental place's website some time in the future. It only took an hour on a Sunday afternoon and was fun. It was basically myself and Nina, a girl who works at the hostel, pretending to go in and rent some bikes. No speaking. I'm interested to see how it turns out - I'll post the link when it becomes available.

A Weekend in Provence

Popped down to Provence - southern France - for the weekend (a little outside Aix-en-Provence, to be more specific) with my friend Michel and his six-year old son. I know that one does not normally use the term "popping down" when describing a distance of 700-some kilometres, but when taking the TGV (high-speed train), it IS actually appropriate. We left on Friday evening, arriving in Aix at around 10pm after only a three-hour train journey.

We spent the weekend with friends of Michel's: Étienne and Stéphanie - wonderful people who were very forgiving of my struggling, though improving, french. They have two kids: a five year-old boy and a three year-old girl. We all went to the beach Saturday afternoon. Unfortunately we couldn't go into the water due to an unusually (at least, I think it's unusual) large amount of jellyfish. The kids didn't seem to mind, as the jellyfish kept them occupied - they sifted dozens of them out of the water (and then buried them in sand, of course). And I added the word for jellyfish to my French vocabulary: "les méduses". Regardless, it was great to be at the beach - it was a gorgeous day in the high-twenties/low-thirties.

Sunday, Michel, myself and the two little guys went to a different beach in the town of Cassis, a little east of Marseille. No jellyfish at that beach that day. The weather was amazing again and the water was an excellent temperature for swimming and snorkeling. We followed that up with a drive up to a cliff which overlooked the town and the beach - a vista which I have to say is the best of my trip, so far. We had lunch in the old port of the town of La Ciotat a little further down the coast. And then back to Paris in the evening. An excellent weekend, and a reminder of how much more awesome-ness there is to France than just Paris.

The beach at Cassis

Overlooking Cassis

Paris

Again, I've been deficient in the blogging department. Basically, I arrived in Paris a week and a half ago, staying with my brother-in-law's brother, Michel, just outside Paris, in the suburb of Montreuil. Unfortunately, I got sick with a pretty bad stomach ailment the day after I arrived, and was sick for the next five days. I just ended up staying in, and eating very little. I started to feel better the beginning of this week, and am finally back to eating normally again and have regained my strength.

This past Monday, I applied for my travel visa for India. I didn't apply for it while back in Canada due to the fact that, though a tourist visa has six-month duration, the clock starts to tick right on the day it is issued - so I knew I would be applying for it while overseas. To apply for it however, you have to hand in your passport - therefore making it impossible for me to leave France until I get it back. It takes 7-10 business days to process, so I should get it back middle of next week. Until then, I'm afraid I'm "stuck" in Paris. Poor me. To top it all off, I'm heading to the south of France this weekend with Michel and his six-year old son, staying with their friends.

Aside from that, I've just been spending my week walking around Paris, hanging in some cafes, browsing in bookshops - and speaking terrible french (I'm hopeful it will improve). Haven't really done much of any museum or sightseeing stuff. I've been here a few times before, and don't have a huge desire to do so. I might check out a couple of things next week. Summer holidays have just ended here, and maybe the tourist crowds will have lessened somewhat.

Galway-Brighton-London-Paris

Yes, it's been ten days since my last blog entry. Hope I haven't lost any of my audience out there. Blog catch-up time. Here goes:

After Dublin, I took a bus to Galway on Ireland's west coast. I spent a few days there, which included a bus tour to the Cliffs of Moher. The cliffs were spectacular. I didn't love the whole bus tour thing. It was okay - we did spend a good amount of time at the cliffs - but for our stops along the way there were elements of the whole "stop-the-bus-get-out-and-rush-over-and-snap-a-few-quick-photos-and-get-back-on-the-bus" thing. It's not my favourite way to travel, to say the least. But the thing is, I had no other way to visit these out-of-the-way places. Next time I'm in Ireland, I think I'd rent a car. The countryside is beautiful, and there seems to be countless neat little spots to visit.

Someone needs a haircut. And hey, those cliffs are nice.

My visit to Ireland has definitely been the most "touristy" part of my trip, which is owing to the fact that I visited during the busiest time of tourist season and that I visited the tourist hubs of Dublin and Galway. I didn't really get as much of a chance to connect with locals like I have in England. Those I did meet were awesome though - warm, talkative, welcoming people (especially Declan - the owner of the hostel I stayed at in Galway - we had some interesting chats). I definitely need to return to Ireland some day - my brief visit was but a taste.

After Galway, I flew from Shannon Airport back to London and then went straight to Brighton, where I spent a few days. I was only supposed to be there a day or two, but some plans changed so I ended up staying there three nights. It was nice to wander around and to get a feel for the place - more so than I was able to in the day trip I took there earlier in the summer. It's a cool place - great shops, artsy feel, and the sea, of course.

I returned to London this past Friday, staying in southeast London with my friends Vicky and Nick. We went to central London on Saturday - guitar and book shopping on/near Charing Cross Road. Sunday, Nick and I went to Blackheath, where there was a little farmer's market (where I had the best - and I mean THE best - chicken burger of my entire life. I wish the whole world could get a taste of that chicken burger - there'd be world peace. Okay, enough about the chicken burger).

And now, I'm in Paris - possibly my favourite city in the world. I took the Eurostar (train) from London. I haven't really given much thought to being here - at least not until I got here. And now I'm getting pretty excited. I'm staying with my brother-in-law's brother in Montreuil, just a 10-15 minute train ride from central Paris. I've been here three (!) times before, so I feel no need to rush around and catch all the must-see sites - I've been to most of them already. But I'm looking forward to hanging out in cafes, wandering around, exploring - you know, stressful stuff (ha!).

Dublin

I caught a RyanAir flight from Liverpool to Dublin on Sunday night. My stay in Dublin was hampered by lack of sleep - some of it my fault, some of it not. The hostel I had booked into was located, unfortunately, right in the heart of Temple Bar - a major pub and nightlife district - and more specifically was right beside a rather large pub that played "traditional" music (the quotes are for the occasional version of Sweet Home Alabama, etc.) accompanied by the enthusiastic patrons. Not much sleep was had those first two nights. I then switched hostels for the third and fourth nights. The first night in the new hostel, however, was the night I went out on a raging Dublin pub crawl. The next day was pretty much a write-off, as a result. My own fault, I know (and the pub crawl WAS fun).

So, my Dublin activities, aside from the pub crawl, consisted of a tour of the Guinness Storehouse - which was worthwhile - and a three-hour walking tour. Roughly one and a half days of activity spread over three and a half days (!). Dublin was very expensive, by the way - more expensive than anywhere in England I've been to, including London - so if you come here be prepared to spend.

Liverpool Football

Just returned from my first ever professional football (soccer) match: seeing Liverpool FC play at Anfield (the part of Liverpool where their stadium is located). In fact, this is the first professional soccer game - or soccer game of any note - I've ever seen live. That would be like having never seen a live hockey game, and then starting out seeing an NHL game at the Montreal Forum or Chicago Stadium. My Liverpool friends are HUGE Liverpool fans, and were quite excited to take me to my first game. They schooled me as best they could on the various chants and songs sung at the match. (In particular, Liverpool fans are famous for singing the song You'll Never Walk Alone at the beginning of each home match. Then there are songs for various players usually sung to the tune of a well-know song - think "Yellow Submarine" or "Ring of Fire"). As well, they also bought Zac (the Aussie) and I each a Liverpool shirt - how excellent was that? - which we proudly wore at the game.

The match was a UEFA Europa League qualifier against a team from Macedonia, FK Rabotnicki. Liverpool dominated the match, outclassing their opponents 2-0. I've never enjoyed soccer (I don't use that word over here, by the way - it's "football") as much as I did this night - much better in person than on TV. We sat in The Kop, the legendary grandstand located behind one of the goals from where the chants usually begin. The main contrast between watching professional European football and North American sporting events is that  there are fewer bells and whistles (i.e. distractions) over here - well, at Anfield, anyway: no huge HD videoscreen, nor multiple scoreboards, no ads on the pitch, and no music playing: it's all about the game. I know part of this is likely due to soccer/football's lack of stoppages, but it made the experience better...purer. Also, though they allow you to buy beer on the concourse, they don't allow any to be drunk in the stands. They are pretty strict on any unruly behaviour, as well. So, time to retire any outdated notions you have about English football fans being a bunch of violent hooligans. Then again, I wonder what would have happened if the home side had lost? (kidding)

I've never been a fan of any soccer/football team, until now. My time here, and certainly going to the match, have now officially made me a Liverpool FC fan. My Scouser friends are so proud.

The view from The Kop.

Post-match, sporting my Liverpool shirt.

Liverpool

I'm currently in Liverpool and have been since late Friday night. Me and my Aussie friend Zac caught a bus from London in the afternoon (and I had just come in by train from Cambridge - an hour away). The bus to Liverpool was waaaay cheaper than the train. But it was way late. We have been staying in Liverpool with our friends Lisa and Cat, who we met the previous weekend in Cardiff. They've been excellent hosts. They live a little bit outside Liverpool in a suburb called Maghull (pronounced kinda like "muggle"). Lisa, Cat and Lisa's fiance Martin picked us up and gave us a late night tour of Liverpool, then fed us and gave us beer. An excellent welcome.

Next evening we went on a pilgrimage (for this Beatles fan, anyway) to The Cavern Club on Mathew Street in Liverpool. For those of you who don't know, this is the club where the Beatles started out and played an astonishing 292 times in the early 1960s (a fact duly noted in the club). The Cavern closed between the early seventies and 1984, and had to partly be excavated to be re-opened - it's a couple flights underground- so it isn't exactly the way it looked back in the day, but pretty close. It's extremely warm down there - Thankfully there is no smoking. I can only imagine what it was like back when the Beatles played. They had a Beatles cover band playing.

During the day on Saturday, our friends took us out to Crosby Beach, north of Liverpool. There is an excellent art installation there by Antony Gormley entitled "Another Place": about a hundred life-sized iron men are spread out along the beach for 4 kilometres. It's pretty cool to see the tide recede, and gradually uncover the heads and shoulders of these figures.

The iron men on Crosby Beach

Sunday we went down to the docklands to the refurbished Albert Dock. It houses several shops and a couple of museums. We visited the Maritime Museum and went on The Wheel - a ferris wheel similar to the London Eye (which I passed on) - from which you could get great vistas of Liverpool and The Mersey. Monday, we returned to the Albert Dock and went to The Beatles Story - a Beatles museum. Loved it. I have to go back: They have a Beatles-themed Starbucks adjacent to it that I still have to go to (it was closing as we left). I need to say it again: Beatles-themed Starbucks. Wicked.

Yes, I'm wearing an audio guide. They're helpful.

Picking up the pace

Spent the weekend in Cardiff, Wales. Visited Cardiff Castle and the harbour. A nice city. Cool thing is the bilingual signs: English and Welsh. Met some people at the hostel who spoke Welsh - apparently one of the oldest European languages, spoken by, I was told, 20% of the Welsh. The hostel I stayed in (Riverhouse Backpackers) was the Cadillac of hostels. Met some cool people at the hostel, including an Australian guy (shocking, I know, meeting an Aussie traveler), Zac, who I have traveled to Oxford with on Monday. We're staying here two nights. Zac is then off back to London, while I'm off to Cambridge. No, I'm not on some university-town theme right now. I'm actually heading to Cambridge primarily to catch a gig by a guy I met in Bath. He's an excellent singer-songwriter. I missed his Bath show (it was the day I left), but it looks like I'll track him down for his Cambridge gig. After Cambridge: I honestly don't know. Perhaps Liverpool. Zac, the Aussie, and I met some Liverpudlians at the Cardiff hostel - he may be headed there as well. I've heard good things about Liverpool. And there IS a Beatles museum...

St Ives

I traveled from St Ives in Cornwall to Cardiff, Wales on Friday. I enjoyed the relaxing five days I spent in St Ives, owing mostly to the great hostel I stayed in. As I mentioned in a previous post, it's a hostel with a guest house feel - which makes sense as it was once run as one. Two English university students have just recently begun running it as a hostel for the summer break. Damelza, as it is called (which comes from the name of the house), is a six (!) bed hostel right in the heart of St Ives. While one of the two guys running it was away this week, the other, Mitch, was an excellent host and he along with his visiting friend Ed made me feel at home. If you find yourself going to St Ives, book this place - but do so far in advance (you can find it on hostelworld.com) - with only six beds, it's bound to book up quick!

The weather cleared up my last couple of days in Cornwall. You already saw photos of my visit to St Michael's Mount. Here are some photos of St Ives and area, including a seaside hike I did on Thursday.

St Ives, Cornwall

Crowded, narrow streets, but it IS tourist season

Atlantic Ocean sunset

St Michael's Mount

Got a late start on the day today, but managed to fit in an afternoon visit to St Michael's Mount. While St. Ives is located on Cornwall's north coast, St Michael's Mount is located on the south coast, just near Penzance (as in "Pirates of..."). Though Penzance is only about eight or ten miles from St Ives, it took me two trains to get to there. (St Ives is on a spur off the main rail line, so everything is at least two trains away.) From Penzance, it's a local bus ride of a couple of miles to Marazion and then a boat ride out to the island. If it was low tide, I could have walked out to the island on a causeway. But it wasn't, so I couldn't.
St Michael's Mount has been at times a fortress, a port, and a monastery. Some parts of the castle date from the 12th century. Yes, I cribbed this from the brochure.

I won't go into too many details - although based on my other blog posts, you know I'm tempted to - other than to say I was very impressed with this place. And to think I almost didn't go.

Maybe the best part of the visit though were the beautiful vistas, owing to the amazing, clear weather today - a break from the overcast and grey weather of the past few days. I'll letter the photos (hopefully) speak for themselves.

Tate St Ives

Today I took in the Tate St Ives, which is affiliated with the Tate Modern in London. St Ives was - and to a lesser extent continues to be - a Mecca for artists. The Tate St Ives has a small yet impressive collection of modern art including works by Jackson Pollack and Picasso. Good descriptions provided for each work, which made it easier for the modern-art-deficient like myself to appreciate what the artist was doing. Best thing about this Tate is the seaside location. The architectural design of the museum takes advantage of this:



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Location:Fore St,St Ives,United Kingdom

A Bed in Bath, and Beyond

Come on, you love the title of this post - admit it. I can't take credit - my friend Steve used it in the subject line of an email he sent me the other day. The city of Bath is about an hour or so train ride west of London. I stayed from Tuesday until Sunday. The city is famous for - and obviously named for - its Roman baths. In addition to visiting the baths and accompanying museum, I visited Stonehenge - a quick one-hour tour bus ride away. No, these activities did not take five days to do. Spent a good amount of time just chilling out and taking a break from sightseeing.

I liked Stonehenge, and the drive out there too, which took us through Salisbury Plain. There are a lot of British military bases on Salisbury Plain, and as a result you see the unusual road sign "Tank Crossing". And you think hitting a deer would damage to your vehicle. As for Stonehenge, I think I had lowered my expectations a little, expecting it to be overly touristy. It was very cool though. Had the Spinal Tap song "Stonehenge" running through my head part of the time, though.

Bath was my first experience of staying in a hostel on this trip: it was fine, though it was a bit of an adjustment at first. It is a great way to meet people, of course. One evening, a guy staying at the hostel, Alen - a Slovenian who was just starting a business exporting Land Rovers to Sri Lanka - took me out for a spin in the countryside outside of Bath in a newly acquired refurbished Land Rover. Thank god he had a GPS. He wanted to take it off-roading in a farmer's field, but I was able to convince him that that might not be the best idea. Alen also owns a dive shop in Sri Lanka, where he lives half the year. He successfully combines the look of a dive shop-owner/surfer with the wearing of a sarong (which are commonly worn by men in Sri Lanka). He's invited me to visit him in Slovenia. And Sri Lanka too, I think. We'll see.

Sunday I was off to Cornwall, specifically the seaside town of St. Ives. I booked a place for three nights - it's a hostel, but in truth it has more of a guest house feel - only two rooms: one four-bed and one two-bed. A really great place that just opened a few weeks back. I like it - and St. Ives - so much, I've decided to stay 'til Friday.

TubeMap app for iPhone

Anyone with an iPhone who is going to be in London: a must-have app is TubeMap. It's free, and gives you not only a map of the London Underground lines, but can also plot the quickest route from one Tube station to another. It works offline (so no wifi nor 3G needed) and has been invaluable to me. As an added bonus, when you're consulting it, it looks like you're just reading a text or something on your iPhone, and not obviously a tourist who doesn't know where the hell they are going. You're welcome.

Off to Bath

Well, plans can change quick. The road trip was disappointingly called off at the eleventh hour - so an alternate plan had to be hatched. I've ended up staying in London for one more night, but today - finally - I leave London. I'm off to Bath - a short train ride to the west - on my own. I'll be staying in a hostel for the first time this trip. After staying in a flat in London for the better part of three (!) weeks, the hostel experience will be more indicative of what most of this trip will be like, I'm sure. Let the real traveling begin.

On my unexpected extra day in London, I managed to get my iPhone unlocked (for a small-ish fee) and now use a pay-and-go SIM card in it...complete with 3G data. I am very pleased. After those of you who are not into the cult of iPhone - nor are gadgety - have stopped rolling your eyes, let me explain that having the GPS map function when traveling will be like gold. Also, you'll be able to enjoy more realtime Facebook status updates (assuming you're a Facebook friend). Lucky you!

Last Week in London

Today is prepare-to-leave London day - laundry, packing, and such. Tomorrow, I'm off on a road trip for most of the week with a car-owning friend. We're planning on touring around southwest England. I've loved London, but I do look forward to hitting some more laid-back spots, too. This past week included a day trip down to Brighton. It was great to chill-out by the sea, and inhale salty sea air as opposed to central London car exhaust. Oh - I learned a valuable should-have-known-better travel lesson: always, always make sure to check the validity date on your train ticket when buying in advance. That was a 10 pound ($15) lesson. Well, 10 pounds and a portion of my dignity in trying to plead my case and convince them I wasn't trying to pull a fast one. Also, in trying to plead your case, don't use the truthful - yet dubious-to-most - excuse that you have lost track of dates. That doesn't go over well nor seem particularly believable to a lot of people.

Visited Greenwich this past week (located in Southeast London) and in particular the Royal Observatory, which includes the Prime Meridian (Zero Longitude on the map) - this will be appreciated by the one or two geographers out there who read this. Standing on the Prime Meridian wasn't the transcendent experience I had hoped for. Perhaps a visit to the equator will be better.

If you want the best place in the world to buy cool t-shirts, hit Camden Market. I had been there in the evening, but went back for a day visit. Sadly, my need to pack light precluded my from buying any of the excellent t-shirts available. My favourite was the one of Jesus dressed as a Jedi Knight, holding a light sabre which took the shape of a crucifix. You had to see it.

St. Paul's, the Beatles, Canada Day and more

Monday I went to St.Paul's Cathedral. Very impressive. Climbed the 500-plus steps to the Golden Gallery near the top of the dome, which is outside and provides a stunning view of London. Walked along Fleet Street and happened upon the Twinings tea headquarters. Went in and had a free cup of tea. Bonus.

Went on another walking tour - this time a Beatles tour which I mentioned previously. Among the many Fab Four-related things we saw was where they filmed the opening scenes of A Hard Day's Night, where John and Yoko once lived, and - the best part - the famous crosswalk at Abbey Road Studios which is featured on the cover of that album. Got some cheesy tourist pics of me crossing it. Unlike Paul, I did not go barefoot. That afternoon, I hit the British Museum (again) for a couple of hours. I then went to a Spanish pub off near Tottenham Court Road tube station to watch the Spain-Portugal football match. Was an excellent, if late, night. Suffered dearly for it the next day. Thus, Wednesday was a maintenance day - or should I say a recuperation day.

Thursday I went down to Trafalgar Square for the fairly substantial Canada Day celebrations. Canada House is right on the square, where they had a stage set up and featured performers such as Hawksley Workman and Sarah Harmer.They also had road hockey tournament, with some teams taking it fairly seriously. My former company had a team in the tournament - they did pretty well, losing in the final. I went there with an English friend who had commented she had never been around so many Canadians in her life. Lucky her.

Okay, the weekend...quickly now: Friday, chilled out in Hyde Park. Saturday, met friends down in Borough Market and hit a couple of pubs. Sunday - today - friend took me to Highgate Cemetery where some notables are buried, among them Karl Marx and Douglas Adams (of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy fame). Okay, you're caught up.

Surprise in Camden Town, and Dorset for the weekend

Time to play blog catch-up. My friend Nick had an excellent surprise for me last Thursday. We met up in Camden Town for sushi and he springs two tickets to see The Avett Brothers, who were playing that night at the Camden Palace. He hadn't realized I had seen them in Toronto (see a previous blog post) three weeks previous - but that was fine with me...I was excited to see them again. They didn't disappoint - an excellent show, and at an excellent venue. It's not actually called the Camden Palace - that was its former name - it's now called Koko, which doesn't do justice to the place. Hopefully the first of many concerts I'll see on my trip.

On the weekend, Nick was nice enough to invite me to visit his family in friends in Dorset - a two-hour train ride away. We stayed with his parents who live near a place called Hamworthy on Friday, and then with his friends Tim and Nicki on Saturday night in Christchurch. During the day we visited the ruins of the Christchurch Priory (which dates from the 1000's) and had a barbeque on the beach that evening, with the Isle of Wight just across from us.

Caught a bit of the football match on Sunday when I was back in London. Poor England.

Jack The Ripper and Football at the Pub Part 2

A friend of mine who has her own blog gave me some advice on blogging which can basically be boiled down to this: blog briefly and blog often. If this is the case, then my first foray into blogging has been a failure on both counts. Days between posts, and not so concise, my blogs. Oh well...let me try and summarize a few things from the past days:

On Monday evening, I went on a "Jack The Ripper" walking tour through parts of The City and East London. There is a company that puts on several different types of these walking tours (there is a Beatles one I have my eye on as well). The Ripper walk was well done...the guide was a JTR author and expert. I'm sure any eerie aspects of the walking tour were dulled somewhat by the fact that it was the longest evening of the year...hard to be creeped out by stories of these gruesome murders when it's light out. Interesting fact: Jack The Ripper, for all of his notoriety, only murdered five people. Also, the City of London police force was separate from the Metropolitan police force until 1964 (!). Jack The Ripper took advantage of this division by murdering across the two jurisdictions.

Tuesday night saw me take the Tube and an overland commuter train to an area called Forest Hill to visit my friend Nick for dinner and to play some music. Nick's quite the musician, and has taken to playing pedal steel guitar. We met in BC last summer, and first jammed together then.

Wednesday afternoon was set aside for going to a Knightsbridge pub to watch England play Slovenia in World Cup play, with England needing a win to advance. Mercifully for all of England, they came through. That evening, also mercifully for all of England (or at least those in close proximity to me), I did laundry. The routine things in "regular" life take on an added level of joy when traveling!

Imperial War Museum

Tuesday was the day I set aside for my (first of hopefully multiple) visits to the Imperial War Museum. I actually got out of bed at a decent time for once (jetlag defeated!) and arrived just a little after the 10am opening time. Walking from the Lambeth North tube station to the museum ended up being one of those serendipitous experiences one hopes to experience when traveling. An elderly gentleman walking beside me asked me if I was on my way to the museum. When I replied that I was, he stopped, turned around and pointed to a building just across from the tube station and said "That building, one afternoon in 1945, was hit by one of the first V2 rockets fired by the Germans." He went on to point out other buildings in the area hit during various bombing raids. The man - Bill - was a young boy during the war, lived in the area, and experienced the Blitz first hand. We spent about three-quarters of an hour talking about his experiences before I even entered the museum. What an amazing person to meet and speak to. Turns out he also has some family in Canada as well.

The museum visit itself was excellent, although I confined my visit to the World War II section only (I intend to go back to visit the rest, of course). As some of you may know, I'm a bit of a history nerd, and like to take my time and like take in and read as much as I can. They have a V2 rocket on display on the main floor, as well as aircraft and tanks. One of the highlights was a section called the Blitz Experience in which you sit in a replicable bomb shelter while hearing the bombing outside, after which you walk through a replicable of a bombed-out London street. Brilliant.

Football Friday Night and the British Museum

Spent my first full day sleeping in half the morning. It's jet-lag, still. Not laziness. Besides - it's not like I have limited time. An unambitious afternoon of wandering around Kensington, finding a great little cafe with much coveted wifi access (I've been back a few times). The evening was spent exactly how I wanted: in a London pub - the Churchill Arms in Notting Hill - watching the World Cup football match (note I did not say "soccer game" - when in Rome...). The football match did not go exactly how Londoners wanted: England drawing nil-nil against Algeria. A one-one draw, from my point-of-view, would have been better: I was looking forward to the cheering and inadvertent beer showers that would inevitably follow an England goal. I was out with two former work colleagues (they're all "former" now, aren't they?). The pub was packed (or "heaving" as my Scottish friend had put it) - standing room only. After the game, we went to another, less crowded pub for - what else? - fish and chips. Football, pubs, fish and chips: A good start to my first weekend in London.


Saturday afternoon saw me do a quick two hours in the British Museum. Free admission - how great is that? I knew going in that one trip wasn't enough...I'll be heading back there this week. The Roman artifacts were particularly impressive. Trying to do the whole thing in one go, even two, would be daunting. I think you have to pick your spots.

Getting over jetlag

I've arrived. Actually, I've been here over 24 hours now. But it's taken me some time to access the internet. Plus, I wouldn't dare write anything while suffering from jetlag, as I had been yesterday. I'm not sure if it was jetlag so much as lack of sleep, having clocked in MAYBE two and a half hours of sleep on the flight over. Some people are good sleepers on airplanes - I guess I am not one of them. But, I've learned from a couple of previous trans-Atlantic experiences to stay up, no matter how tired you are and how much you want to nap. Because it won't just be a nap, it'll be a full night's worth. THEN you'll be jetlagged.

Landed mid-morning, and easily made my way to my friend's Kensington flat where I am staying. The location is perfect - as prime as any. Dropped my stuff off and wandered off to nearby Kensington High Street for coffee. My afternoon consisted of walking around Kensington Gardens. It was a gorgeous day - in the mid-20s and sunny. People were out strolling, sunning themselves, or kicking a soccer ball around. I basically wandered around...and around...and around. The point was to keep walking. Whenever I stopped, there was the very real risk of falling asleep. I did - eventually - make my way to the Princess Diana Memorial Fountain. It was erected (dug?) in 2004 and is, essentially, a round, flowing, wading pool. You're allowed to wade in it. Which I did. Which was good for the feet, and for keep conscious. (I contemplated sticking my head in, but thought better of it).

The jetlag/lack of sleep contributed to the very odd feeling that, here I was, walking in London, and it not feeling real. I think modern air travel has that weird effect: plunking you out of one spot, and in a relatively short amount of time plunking you back down in a distant locale. It's almost as though it's unnatural, as though your physical self may have arrived, but your consciousness, your sense of being here, hasn't quite caught up. As I said to my friend in New York when I last visited: My body has traveled by plane, but my soul is on horseback. It'll take a few days to catch up. That'll be one tired horse.