Kyoto - not just Tokyo for the dyslexic

The third and final city that we visited in Japan was the charming former capital of Japan; Kyoto. There are many things about this city I like, it's gridded street layout, the way it's nestled into mountains on all sides so that every long straight street you look down terminates in a wall of green, the way the traffic crossings near the station play little melodies as you cross - but as I've decided to limit highlights to three, I've selected these:

1. Temples
Kyoto is full of Budhist temples and Shinto shrines, many are in the city centre, but they are also liberally scattered around the hillside fringe of the city, set in beautiful gardens. One day Dave and I hired bikes and made it to about a dozen temples at five or six different sites. The ones in this hills have great views over the city.

2. Shopping
Kyoto is also packed full of shopping, souviniers and fashion are equally represented. In the center of the city there are long straight covered streets like Shinkyogoku-dori that are very popular. But some of the best shopping for travel trinkets can be done on the streets leading up to the temples. Coming from a christian background it seems a very strage combination of retail and religion, but it works quite well.

3. Trees
For those of you that have read this blog often (yes, all two of you) you would have probably noticed I generally don't wax poetical about nature very often. But it must be said that the bright reds of the Maple trees in Autumn in Japan is breath taking. I feel that this is possibly not really of the category of 'nature' as Japanese gardens tend to be quite well manicured and groomed. Still, the gardens in the temple grounds were beautiful and very soothing... if it wasn't for the crushing hords of fellow tourists.

Andorable

The other day my family (including my brother and his friend, who have dropped by to visit for a few days) took a couple of cars up to Andora for a day trip.

Andora is a small independent principality snuggled in the Pyrenees between France and Spain. It is very remarkable for a couple of reasons.

1. There was snow

Which was of great amusement to us all. There was a good covering on the slopes, and there was lots of snowball throwing action. My brother also decided that 3 degrees celsius was the perfect temperature to walk around bare chested. He was lucky that no one tried to capture him and claim him as the Andoran Yeti.

2. Cheep cheep liquor

Andora is a tax haven, and they don't have any duty on their alcohol. This means that it is basically a giant airport duty free lounge for their neighbours in Spain and France. The streets in the two or three main towns were brim full of electronics boutiques, perfumeries, jewellers, tobacconists and supermarkets selling alcohol, chocolate, confectionary and cheese.

The alcohol wasn't just cheep, it was astonishingly cheep; 10 Euro (~ 20 AUD) for a liter of Absolute flavored vodka, and around 8 Euro for a liter of your standard bourbons.

The down side of this is that the French will try and charge you duty on whatever you take out of the country, and will do thorough searches on random vehicles as your re-enter their country. They also have search posts about an hour down the mountains, just in case you think you got away.

So while all of this was of great amusement, the windy roads up the mountains to get there left me with the worst car sickness I ever had. Perhaps I should have partaken in the affordable booze for medicinal purposes...

So French...

The thing about the French (and possibly every other culture more or less) is that everone loves the good cultural experiences, like red wine, 35 hour working weeks, brilliant baked goods, a wonderful modern art tradition, Amelie, etc. But you never really get a feel for a country until you experience the shittier side of their outlook on life.

Point in case: Strikes.

The whole of France is having a 3 day train strike. So instead of visiting Luxemburg as intended, and then returning to see the folks in the South of France, I have to take a long, complicated, over crowded (and expensive) train ride down to Toulouse.

Still, Luxemburg should be there for a while yet, and there's always next time.

As for the city I am currently in; Brussels is dirty, ugly and smelly. It has a couple of nice buildings, the undersized and overhyped peeing boy statue, and the best flea market I have ever visited. It was in a good sized market square and had everything, from clothes to trinkets to furniture. Brussels also has lots of chocolate shops, good waffles and amazing fries. They also have lots of great beer. You can get a Chimay at the supermarket for about AUD 1.50m and last night we went to a bar with over 2500 beers, the list was about 5cm thick. I don't think my backpack is going to come home too much heavier, but I certainly will at this rate. So it's all balanced out into quite a good time here.

So yes, on to France tomorrow, and a quite week of lounging around, eating less deep fried and chocolate things and spending some time with the family before they head off to Canada for the Christmas season and I begin to make my way home via a week in Japan. The end of the adventure is in sight.

London Town

London has been turning on all her charm for Claire and I - and by charm, I mean rain - but that has not stopped us having a lovely weekend. Having both visited here before, and therefore being free of the imperative of sightseeing, we have taken a more leisurely itinerary.

We spent a morning at Camden markets, an afternoon trawling the second-hand book dealers along Charing Cross Road, and managed a visit to Brick Lane for curry, Harrods for tea (actually, chocolate milkshakes, but they were divine) and a late-night jaunt to my favourite bagel shop, which I was very happy to find has not changed a jot in the last five years (including the prices...).

Apart from all of the pleasantness above, we were also treated to a special wake up at our hostel this morning from London's finest. Someone had apparently reported a 'woman in distress' in the hostel and the police decided to door knock each room at seven in the morning in an attempt to find said woman. It was almost like being in The Bill (but without the explosions and workplace sexual tension).

Tonight Claire is heading off to Oxford, and I'm catching an overnight ferry to The Netherlands for the start of my Benelux week (Benelux being Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg). There'll be plenty of sightseeing, plus a special nerd excursion on Tuesday. So expect a week of postings on chocolate, hot chips, beer and... psycholinguistics!

Poland

So, I'm having so much fun being back in Poland that I really don't have anything particularly interesting to say on the subject (although it could be said that I never have anything particularly interesting to say about anywhere I've visited).

I've just been spending a lot of time here in Krakow wandering around visiting shops I use to visot (Orsay, Empik, etc) and eating Polish food, and chatting with my Polish relatives. This is not going to bad, largely because of their high tolerance of my complete lack of grammar, and very small vocab.

Today I'm off on a train to my old hometown of Warsaw. I'm sure five years will have seen a lot of changes there, but I'll have to wait another 6 hours til I see.

Paris

I hqve left Claire in the charge of the parents and have headed to Paris for a few nights - alone!

I have already purchased a beret and today I`ve got my best party dress on because I`m visiting the Louvre.

I have to go eat a croissant now - life doesn`t get much better than this...

The Supermarket

One of the perverse fascinations I have on holidays is to spend a lot of time in supermarkets. At home, I hate them and generally try and avoid them as much as possible. When I'm in another country however, I love spending time in the supermarket, wandering along every aisle.

I think it has something to do with the fact it's exactly the same principle in every country - rows of food, pay at the end - but the goods available are such a reflection of the country. Whether it's the aisle of olive oil in Italy, the twenty varieties of pierogi in the freezer section in a Poland or the vodka aisle in Mongolia, I always find it disproportionately interesting.

Products that you take for granted at home surprise you by being labelled in another language, or not appearing at all - while things you thought you never needed are for sale.

Anyway, while on a cheese-buying rampage the other day, I came across this square block of brie, and was so amused by the name that I had to take a photo and share it.



If only I always found supermarkets this entertaining...

Big Spender

Yesterday I dropped seven grand on a pair of boots.

Lucky it was in Russia, where the exchange rate with the Aussie Dollar is about 20 to 1 - but it's still probably more than the accumulated total that I've spent on shoes in the last 5 years.

They're really awesome. Thanks to sister-Claire, Meggi-poo and Hizza for partaking in the adventure.