Hiroshima

I had a reasonable sleep, although my room was so hot, and the window provided little relief. So, I got up early to get an early train to Hiroshima to try to get as much time during the daylight hours as possible. I was on the train about 7:30 or so, and the train took about three hours. I got off at Hiroshima and I am not sure what I was expecting, but it was not all of the massive billboards and noise and etc. just like Tokyo. I guess I hadn't really considered the size or long history of this city. So, using my very, very poor map, went searching for stuff. I thought I'd start at the Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art and then work my way across the map, but, lo and behold, I got lost. I was following the river, and what I thought was the road (at least in Kyoto I picked up a map that had street names. This time, I had a map with no street names. Annoying.) but it turns out, it wasn't. Plus, only the main roads were on the map, which was especially annoying because I had thought that I was on a main road, but they all looked main. But, I had a smile on my face because the traffic lights make interesting noises. Let's face it, everything in Japan makes interesting noises, but the 'wait' and 'go' sounds on the traffic lights for the sight impaired are kind of like unusual bird calls. I'm not totally sure, but I think they are different depending on which direction you are crossing the road. Anyhow, after totally not figuring out where I wanted to be, I just wandered. Eventually, in the distance, I saw Hiroshima Castle. I thought I'd head there later, but would go for a wander first. I checked out the Museum of Art, (not contemporary art) but there was something on which didn't grab me - I can't recall what it was.
So, I kept wandering and made it to the A-Bomb Dome - which is pretty much the only structure remaining in Hiroshima after the bombing. Pretty amazing and moving stuff. There were structural tests being carried out on the dome, so scaffolding was around it, but this didn't take away from its intensity for me. From here, I headed past many of the memorials set up around the town and headed to the Peace Memorial Museum. I was just ahead of a bus group, and so enjoyed wandering through the museum relatively alone - it was, as you can imagine, very moving, with lots of documents and personal stories from the day of the bombing and the time afterwards. Horrible. I couldn't get through all of the personal accounts, and headed out into the rain. I headed back towards the castle, getting more and more grumpy (how unusual) and decided to get directions to the station to go home. But, when I asked for directions at the gift shop, the salesperson sold me an umbrella, very funky see-through number, and I investigated Hiroshima Castle for a while.
Eventually, I really had enough, so meandered my way back to the station, and back to Tokyo, back to bed for my last night before returning home.

Koyoto

I had hoped that a long sleep would allow me to wake refreshed and feeling great about the world. It didn't. I had a bath, then grabbed everything I needed and headed to the front desk. I thought if I can just get into the Internet, do a bit of research, get the info Deb from work had given to me (and i had left at home, and Mum had searched for and found and emailed to me) then I'll be ok. Ha! I'd gotten a map for getting to an Internet cafe the day before from the concierge, a lovely girl. I now asked the two men behind the desk where I could find tourist information. Blank stares. I asked about 10 times, trying different ways, they tried desperately to help me, eventually we all gave up. I screamed inside a little. Then, spent half an hour traipsing up and down the street where the Internet cafe allegedly was but not finding it. I asked several different people in convenience stores and coffee shops - no luck. I had a coffee. I screamed inside, had a minor panic and thought about the fact that I don't even know where in Tokyo I am, or what station serves Tokyo... is there a Tokyo station? I then remembered that I had my train maps in my bag. I grabbed them out, had a look and discovered that yes, there is a Tokyo station, but that Ueno was probably better for me as it has a tourist information booth. I got a station person to help me figure out my fare (it was wrong, but rather than getting in trouble for not having the right fare, you just see the fare adjustment person who issues you with the correct ticket and you pay the additional if you need to) and made it to Ueno. And then set about finding the tourist information. Which ended up being crazy difficult, because the tourist information is in the other Ueno station. There are two. How I was supposed to know this, I don't know. A Starbucks employee helped me out.

I found it, eventually, and it opened at 10. It was 9:30. I screamed a lot inside, then grabbed a sandwich and coffee from the shop next to the tourist information booth and sat and waited. When they opened, I went over and asked for directions to an Internet cafe. They spoke perfect English, (and no, I'm not one of these people who think everyone should speak my language etc. etc., but I was terribly relieved to get good, clear directions which I fully understood. If you were unsure previously, you should know that I have a terrible sense of direction... more of that shortly...) and gave me very, very clear directions on how to get to the Internet cafe. It was upstairs above a shop, and had very kooky beds which you can lie in whilst playing Internet games and the like. Essentially, you are booked into a booth where you stay as long as you require then pay on the way out. Apparently, a lot of people do online gaming and stuff overnight. I only wanted minimal time there, and so tried to keep it just under twenty minutes, but still ended up paying for 30. Whatever. As I hadn't figured out the exchange rate (and did not manage to get my head around this the whole trip), I may never know how much it actually cost. The Internet there drove me nuts, because whilst I managed the multiple language keyboard in Finland, in Japan, the keyboard was fine, but I kept getting error messages in Japanese and had no way of figuring out what to do. Being grumpy Margaret, I just copied down the information I wanted and left. Possibly overcharged. Whatever. By this stage, I was just so over it...

All I knew was that I wanted to escape. I didn't want to think, I didn't want to talk, I just wanted to sit. If my hotel had been any more comfortable, I may well have just escaped there. Luckily for me and my travelling experience, it was too hot and pokey and not welcoming for just hanging out. So, I went back to the very helpful tourist information people. One thing Deb had suggested was a daytrip starting at Kyoto looking at the Temples, then stopping in Hiroshima. When I spoke to the tourist info folks, they said that there is not enough time in one day to do both. Perhaps in summer it is ok, but the days were kind of short (nothing compared to Helsinki, but still short). So, Kyoto it was.

I grabbed a ticket for who knows how many yen and jumped on the Shinkansen, the fast train, to Kyoto. Absolutely beautiful - the scenery was amazing, and it is a very fast train! It was probably about two hours, and when I arrived there, I went straight to the information booth to get ideas on where to go. In Tokyo I'd been given a couple of absolutely useless maps, and the lovely rotary man at the info booth gave me a slightly better one and the advice to make sure I saw the famous bamboo forest -so famous I've never heard of it. Actually, I think that may say more about my knowledge than anything else... I jumped on a local train to the area which had a lot of temples, and possibly a palace. Kyoto is particularly famous for the temples. I looked at the map and planned a route (unusual for me, I know) and then set off. And got lost. Quite spectactularly lost, actually. I just kept wandering, and seemed to be heading into farm land, but didn't really want to just turn around. The light seemed already to be dimming as the place I was wandering was in a valley, so eventually I asked a little old local lady to show me where we were on the map. And, in any indication of how bad the map was, she couldn't. But we walked a bit, I stopped to take photos whilst she continued to walk, and then she figured it out and pointed it out. Surely enough, I found my way back to the main road, just in time to find that the temple I wanted to see was closed. But about five minutes. Nice one. So, I then wandered up to the bamboo forest. The sun had gone behind the mountain top by this stage, but it wasn't too dark yet. Who should I bump into? The lady who gave me directions. We laughed and waved and I said "konnichiwa" and she was very excited at my one word of Japanese. And so was I. I then decided to meander my way back to the train. Kyoto was definately a delightful place to wander through, and there were temples and little shrines and the like everywhere, which was gorgeous. But, my mood really wasn't much better, so back to Tokyo.

By the time I got back to Tokyo it was well and truly dark, although not really all that late. I had planned to go to Hirshima the next day and was not sure how late i would be home, so I decided to check out the night lights. According to Deb's notes, Hibiya???? was a good place with all of the massive billboards and screens and the like, so I decided to check it out. It was impressive and bright and fantastic, but grumpy Margaret didn't want to stay long, so just shot off a couple of snaps, wandered for a couple of minutes, and headed back to the hotel and sleep. I can't remember where else I ate - I think I grabbed a bento box at the station which I ate on the train, and perhaps just had some stuff from the 7Eleven when I got home... Cannot recall. Kept thinking I should go to a restaurant, but didn't really feel like interacting.

Konnichiwa

So, after a long and annoying flight, I arrived in Tokyo. I was grumpy, tired, confused and not in the mood to deal with yet another country. That was my downfall, I think. I was overtired, and I was ready to be at home, and I was not wanting to deal with language and transport I wasn't familiar with and money which I couldn't get my head around. But, I came up with a mantra for the last few days - fake it til you make it. I didn't want to just sit in my hotel room and read and sleep and watch TV, I wanted to attempt to appreciate where I was. So, I started faking it. And I think I really started to let go of my angst and truly enjoy myself about 2 hours before I headed to the airport to return to Australia... but have been left with the strong will to return to Japan and do it properly!

When you get off the plane at Tokyo Airport (Narita), you need to catch a tram to the main terminal. It is weird, and the first place you start to see that the cartoons are really based on reality. There are little musical noises that accompany everything and reassuring female voices giving messages in Japanese and English. The tram/bus thing is on a track, but it doesn't have a driver, so the carriage fills up and then it trots along to the terminal. From there, I grabbed my bags and found tourist information to figure out how to get to the hotel I had booked. I love the way the tourist information works here - they have either colour brochures or colour computer printouts of maps and the draw arrows for where you need to walk and circle where you need to go.

The train into Tokyo took quite a while - perhaps an hour or so, (although I just looked at Wikipedia and it says two hours) and this is when I started to nod off. It was not the more luxury airport train I caught, but the standard rail train thingy, although I have a feeling I paid for the more expensive one. Annoying. The scenery was quite varied on the way in - lots of small towns sparsely spread out in the mountains, then getting more suburban to finally the city. Throughout my time in Japan, I loved seeing all of the standard suburban buildings then suddenly a random temple!

Once at Nippori station, I made the change to the Odakyu line, with the confusing help of several of the transport worked. Annoyingly, at Nippori there are kind of two stations, Nippori and Nishi-Nappori, and I found it extremely difficult on several occasions to negotiate my way between the two. Note - I did see the men in the uniforms with the white gloves that is typical on YouTube, but I have not experienced them pushing large crowds onto the train. In fact, almost everywhere in Japan was very quiet. It must have been the time of the year and the lack of tourists, or perhaps just the areas I went to, but Japan seemed empty. I liked it.

I eventually made it to Akasaka and followed the directions to my hotel. I was a bit concerned, because it gave distances in time travelled (walk for 5 minutes) rather than distance, but before I needed to ask anyone, I found my hotel. Sure enough, I couldn't check in, but thank goodness, I could leave my massive bag. I asked the concierge where I could go to fill in a few hours - she seemed very confused. Eventually, I suggested perhaps there was a park nearby (the sun was shining, and after lots of very cold weather, I was looking forward to any outdoors warmth). She gave me a little coloured map and showed me where there was a local park which was directly next door to a massive shopping mall. I thanked her and wandered around to the park. It was very nice - one section had a beautiful Japanese garden with little water falls and bamboo sculptures, I sat there listening to some podcasts and watching the water for quite some time. There was also some modern art - I think there was a gallery also in the park, but I was too tired to cope with investigating that. I sat outside and watched a lot of people with their very small dogs and felt a bit homesick for my own small dog. My favourite moment, which my nephews loved hearing about, was when I saw a woman crouching by her dog and I thought she must just be getting a bag up for its business. Then, she pulled out a tissue and a little spray bottle, sprayed the tissue and wiped the dog's rear end - yuk! I wished I had been closer to get a photo. I soon found out why there were so many well groomed dogs in the area - inside the shopping centre there was an exclusive dog shop with grooming facilities. I nearly bought some crazy dog treats and toys but was unsure of the exchange rate and didn't want to spend $75 on a dog chew or something equally ridiculous. I spent quite a bit of time just sitting on the bench listening to podcasts (in Japan i got through almost an entire year of Radiotherapy and Einstein-a-go-go) and watching people. A lot of people walk through the gardens, and a lot of people sit and eat their lunch and read books. And why wouldn't you? It was lovely. I was in a t-shirt, with the sun on my face and arms. I eventually decided to check out the shopping mall, which seemed like a very exclusive place - lots of open space, shiny floors and felt like everything would be expensive. Upstairs was the Suntory Museum of Art, so I decided to go in. This was where I discovered more of the wonderful quirkiness of Japan - there were free lockers for your bags and jackets, and free umbrella lockers. I'm not sure if I can explain these. Like a wine rack (for very small bottles) on its side so the the umbrella could be placed in an individual hole, which would lock around it so that your umbrella was safe. Funny! The exhibit which was on at this time was Export Lacquer: Reflection of the West in Black and Gold Makie, which was the history of Makie work, which I had never heard of. It was beautiful, but I was not really in the mood to study this master craft work in detail. Quite frankly, I was falling asleep. I decided to see if the hotel would mind if I just sat on the couches in the foyer, and luckily for me, they were happy to let me up to my room early. I went to my overheated room, had a quick shower and jumped into bed. For about 14 hours. Can't say it was the most satisfying sleep, but at least there was lots of it!

Ah, Finnlandia

It's April.  I guess I have had little time to finish the last five days of my travel blog, although thinking about it immediately prior to getting the old laptop set up, I think there have been a couple of psychological factors.  Firstly, the longer I leave something, the more difficult I find it to return to it.  I just need to look at the large stack of half-read books by my bed to get that.  Secondly, I didn't really enjoy my last few days. But, I'll write more on that when I get to Japan. And why would I really want to document stuff I didn't really enjoy (especially when it is likely to sound quite good.  Ah, the human mind!)? But the biggest thing is that when I've written it down, it is really over.  Having said that, I just had a bit of a look through all of my receipts and stuff to get a few maps to remember place names and stuff, and I'll get to do some reliving come tax time!

So, I'm at Beach Rd, sitting on the couch, I have the wireless keyboard on my lap, Bop with his Elizabethan collar on (having had a small fatty lump removed from his elbow, plus two dew claws removed from his back legs) laying alongside me, and I am going to attempt to finish this blog.  Although, given how long it takes, it may need to be finished tomorrow... I'll have it done by the end of Easter, I swear!

So, last entry was the Estonia entry  -what a beautiful trip!  Of course, it had left me with chilblains or frostbite or something all over my legs, so I was not the most comfortable of people - if I had my lovely thermal underwear on, I was ok, but just the baggy jeans tended to rub against the sore skin and made me miserable. My legs had patches of sandpaper roughness for absolutely weeks - it was not very pleasant.

I just went back and quickly read my other entries from Finland - I am hoping to not be too repetitive.  Just had to check that I hadn't complained about the room yet.  The room was fine.  If I ever get around the adding photos to this post, I will put the photo on.  Small room, clean, basic.  Own sink and tea making facilities.  Little cupboard.  Single bed.  Oh so hot.  Had I realised how hot it was going to be in the hotel room in Tokyo, I would have ditched my lovely thermal pyjamas then and there. I have a real issue with accommodation in centrally heated locations that don't allow you to turn off the heat in your room or have  a decent window to open - having said that, I didn't actually ask if I could turn off the heat.  I opened the window, and tried to keep it open during the day, but the latch was broken and it would slam shut.  Sometimes in the middle of the night - good sleeping!

My last day in Finland - I had a pretty decent sleep and got up about 9 or so for breakfast.  Then, packed up all of my stuff into my trusty massive backpack and the lovely little bag I bought at a craft shop (the tourist info makes much of the craft shops, which I thought would be a bit, well, crafty, but actually they were very cool  - often a series of artists who shared shop space.  I bought a few gifts for others and for myself.  Very nice.) and headed into town.  I was meeting Anna at a specific time (and almost three months later, I cannot actually remember what time it was).  I dumped my bag into a locker at the station and wandered over to Kiasma to meet Anna.  Locker security - in London and Edinburgh, they have a guy who takes your bag, pops it through an ex-ray machine, and it is very safe and secure.  In Finland and Japan, it's the old school coin operated locker system.  Interesting.  Well, probably not, actually.

Anna and I had a coffee, the headed in to look at the exhibits.  As I think I mentioned when I went to the exhibit with Dukes in London, I'm not really great at going to stuff with people. I tend to wander off a bit, and I don't expect them to wait for me if I like something, or to be offended with me if I walk off.  It was easy with Anna, possibly partly because I had seen half of the stuff  and didn't mind racing through some stuff.  Also because she was marvellously critical of a lot of it - not rude, just "I don't get it".  I found one of the museum booklets for an exhibit called Full House which was "The Kouri collection of American Minimalist Adventures" and recalled "Untitled (Public Opinion)" by Felix Gonzalez-Torres which was essentially a large pile of licorice candies (wrapped) piled into the corner or a room.  The sign said you should take one, so we did, and were very happy about it - art that really gives back!

After the Kiasma, Anna and I headed to a Nepalese restaurant near the Theatre building next to the station.  Beautiful meal, then we said our goodbyes and I jumped on a train to the airport.  Fairly uneventful wait for the plane... I think it may have been delayed, but I can't quite remember... no. actually, it wasn't.  I'd been vaguely hoping for a delay, as I was checked in to a hotel in Tokyo which I couldn't go in until 4 and knew I would be tired and wanting a shower.  I was due to arrive in Tokyo about 10am, wasn't wanting to carrying my huge backpack around for hours.  Anyhow, uneventful flight.  I couldn't sleep, so I watched some crappy movies (and some good ones... but lots of crappy ones) and that takes me to arriving in Tokyo.

Estonia! Who'd have thought?

After my night on the town in Helsinki, it was quite hard to get myself out of bed to head off for my day in Estonia, but I managed. I grabbed a quick bite at the Hostel (salad on the breakfast buffet… I could never get used to that!) I grabbed a tram in to the station, and successfully found the next bus to the ferry. Once there, I exchanged my receipt for tickets and waited four almost an hour to board. I finished my book (The Book Thief) and had a little cry in a quiet part of the boarding hall – such a wonderful book! Annoying, though, because it meant I had to carry the book with me all day – dumb. The ferry was very warm, and so I (in the bathroom, obviously) removed my thermals – big mistake. Well, the mistake was not popping to the loo at the ferry arrival lounge to put them back on – the queue for the loo when we were arriving was far too long, so no luck there. By the end of today, I had chilblains (or frostbite – essentially, it was like I had been sunburnt through my jeans) thanks to the lack of warmth. Stupid. Ferry ride was quite boring – not much to see, once Finland was gone and until Estonia turned up.

In the arrivals hall, I met my guide. I’ve forgotten her name, unfortunately, but I think it was Girta, or something close to this. I was the only member of the tour group, so I was very lucky to have such personalized service! We met the driver of the car, a nice Estonian man who kept making a joke from Police Academy (“Move it!”) and was, I think, slightly offended when I didn’t laugh on the thirtieth time the joke was made.

The tour commenced with about an hour in the car getting a feel for the wider town (city?) of Tallinn and some of the sights. Estonia separated from the Soviet Union in 1988, and had been under Soviet rule for fifty years or so prior to this, and a lot of the tour covered what life was like during this time. We drove past many old wooden buildings, some of which were restored, which had fallen to ruin during the Soviet time, apparently because all property was shared, and people were moved in and out of houses with very little notice. There was very little rent paid, and the consequence was that there was very little incentive to maintain properties properly. Once Estonia broke free, property was returned to the original owners, but few people could afford (and still can not) to restore their properties, so they stand in ruin. Some have been demolished, most are covered in graffiti and are falling apart. Those that have been restored are gorgeous – beautiful Gothic sort of designs, lots of detail in the woodwork. We stopped at Kadriorg, which houses the Estonian Museum of Contemporary Art (or possibly just art in general…) designed by the same person who designed Kiasma in Helsinki. We walked though a minute amount of snow down to the Palace and saw the gorgeous gardens with all of the plants covered for the cold (I can really understand why most people travel in summer, I really missed a lot of things by being out of season). This park is gradually being restored, as Peter the Great (Peter I of Russia) did not complete his plans before he died. The guide was very impressed and continually pointed out the fact that you could see through the park to the sea. I wasn’t so impressed by this.

We then headed to the outdoor music stadium that is sort of like the Myer Music Bowl, but a lot larger (I think). Apparently, a choir of 30,000 can stand on the stage and sing. I have such a terrible sense of space and size, so I cannot tell if this is the case at all… looking at it, it seemed possible, but then 30,000 are so many… In the winter, the amphitheatre grounds are opened up for people to sled down – and there were heaps of kids sledding along, looked like fun!

We then drove through a lot of the new buildings to the old convent that is a very basic ruin. Tall, pointy, triangular stone walls left and not much else. But, this can be seen clearly from all over town. From here, a quick drive through the main part of Tallinn (with a lot of very impressively ugly buildings from the Soviet time). We got dropped off at the gates of old Tallinn and commenced the walking tour. I think we walked for about an hour and a half before lunch. There were many beautiful old buildings, and we went through the ornately decorated Orthodox Church. The old town is made up of two sections – the upper and lower town. I cannot recall who she said lived there during Soviet rule – prior to this, it was divided into different areas for different people, but apparently very few Estonians. Now, foreign groups – mostly embassies and the like, in particular own most of the upper town.

Wages in Estonia are still very low, and cost of living is relatively high. After Soviet rule, there was a strange system put in place to distribute housing to those who had not previously owned property, or those who needed housing. Essentially, for every year each family member had lived in the (mostly) apartments, they were granted a certain amount of square footage. I’m not sure of what happened if you did not have enough to cover the whole apartment, but it basically meant that there was no cost to own your own property. However, the deal was not totally fair as some people had newer, better places than others. Most people live in new Tallinn, as it is very very expensive to live in Old Tallinn and it is generally all tourism now – cafes, souvenir shops, craft and art shops and the like.

I needed a loo stop, and luckily one of the shops was open – I had to pay to use the toilet, but it was so cool – deep under ground, I had to walk through a system of cave/cellar type things to go through to the bathroom. I regret not getting a couple of snaps here – and not putting those damned thermals on. We then continued through the upper town to the lookout which was very spectacular, however really shows how much the harsh revolting architecture of the Soviet rule jars with the beauty of the old town. We walked through a street called Bloody Alley which was called this because it was so narrow that two men on horses or two women with the large dresses of the time could not pass, and regularly duels were fought over who should pass first - eventually, the men had an agreement that they would both compliment the beauty of the other’s wife, proclaiming her to be far more beautiful than their own (whilst neither believed it) and they could pass – and for women, the younger allowed the older to pass. Less blood on the alley then.

There are two paths/streets down to the lower town – the long leg and the short leg (and that is their names in Estonian… too cute!). We took the short leg, I believe, and wandered through the beautiful houses and shops to end up at the St Petersburg Hotel where we had lunch.  Most of the year the tour groups have their lunch in a restaurant which serves traditional Estonian fare, however it is closed for renovations.  For once, being out of season has worked to my advantage - the hotel is beautiful, and I imagine usually probably out of my price range.  However, it was worked into the cost of the tour (which, even though it included ferry, guide and lunch, was maybe a bit pricey, but I personally think it was so, so, so very much worth it).  The normal restaurant is owned by the same group who own the St Petersburg Hotel, and so they keep the meals happening in the hotel during renovations to maintain the partnership.  The staff were in traditional Russian outfits - I want to say Cossack, but I am not familiar with exactly what that means.  The restaurant was very, very ornately decorated, with traditional Russian paintings and sculptures on the walls and every surface, beautiful crockery and cutlery, some just for show, very wow.  It was a little odd having a candlelit dinner with the tour guide - I had originally thought she was in her late 60s (but a very sprightly and fit late 60s) but she mentioned that she could retire at 54, so she was clearly a lot younger - life under the soviets was hard.  The conversation covered a lot, including the fact that the young people in Estonia really do not comprehend what their own families went through - so many people sent to Siberia and never seen again, and the food shortages and oppression and all of that.  It's amazing to think - I know I couldn't really have any concept, or real understanding, of what she had lived through.  She told of an English professor at her university (she attended university and during Soviet rule was a translator in a factory - she spoke Estonian, Russian, Finnish, English, and a little German and Italian) who was married to an Estonian poet and whilst they could see the Soviet forces gathering (many Estonians fled to Finland and Sweden around this time) he stayed hoping it would get better, and when the occupation occurred, he could not leave, and so I believe he died without ever seeing his beloved England again.  Another topic of conversation was language, as  apparently Finnish and Estonian are very similar, although the differences are quite pointed (the word for husband in one is prisoner in the other...).

Lunch was delicious - a beautiful pea soup followed by a chicken schnitzel (well, sort of, not quite, but close) with mashed potato and salad and an absolutely gorgeous cheesecake dessert, only their cheesecake is nothing like ours - far richer and more, actually I don't know how describe it.  Amazing, served with beautiful fruit.

After lunch, the guide showed me a few last things, and then left me to wander the old town on my own, having given me a very clear path to the pick up point for the driver who was to taken me to the ferry at eight.  I had wondered earlier in the day if I should offer a tip, as in many countries it is expected, but wasn't sure, and as it happened, it would have been most awkward as she disappeared.  On my own, I wandered past many of the places that she had recommended, including an old building which now hosts eight female artists creating beautiful clothes, leather goods and all sorts of stuff.  I probably wandered for about an hour, it was getting quite dark but was still only about 4:30 or so (lunch was very late in the afternoon).  I visited some shops, but bought little because I couldn't get my head around the exchange rate between the Estonian EEK (Kroner - but how cool is the EEK!) and the Euro, so wasn't sure what I was paying.  I was absolutely freezing, and decided that enough was enough, and headed to the hotel where I was to be picked up from.

This hotel has a four story shopping centre around it, and whilst I was not in the mood to shop, I did need a new book, and the guide had mentioned to me that there was a good bookshop there.  So, I found it, browsed the surprisingly large English language section for a while before eventually settling on Everything is Illuminated by Jonathon Saffran-Foer, which is now one of my favourite books ever.  In the hotel foyer, with about an hour and a half until pick-up time, I bought an hour of Internet time and a beer and did a bit of the blog, and then sat and read until the driver arrived.  He dropped me off at the ferry and I made him laugh by, instead of saying goodbye saying "Move it, move it!" Ferry ride was very uneventful and very empty, and it was about 11:30 by the time I got back to the accommodation.  In the shared area on my floor were two very ugly men watching TV and smoking until all hours, which was a bit annoying.  What a long day!

Long nights in Finland

Sibelius. That's the name of the composer. So, I am well and truly back in Melbourne now, and have not been inspired to finish the blog. But, after three days over over 40 degree heat, and several more prior to that in the 30s, it is now a balmy 25 (I can't believe it! They said 37! This is just lovely!) and I again feel like doing something more than stting in front of an air conditioner reading. Not a lot more, mind you, but something. I've just spent a fair whack of time searching for an English translation of "Missa Kuljimme Kerran" which is the Finnish play I went to see in Helsinki. The title means "Where we once walked" and it is the story of Helsinki between the two world wars. It was written by Finnish author Kjell Westo who writes in Swedish (Finnish and Swedish are both the official language of Finland, and all of the signs in Finland are in both, which I found most confusing as I expected the second language to be English and kept trying to read it...). It's been translated into a few languages, but not yet into English.

I left the previous post having been to Suomenlinna and returned, and then in an Internet cafe in Japan unable to email (with error messages in Japanese, I left that issue behind). Once I returned to Helsinki from Suomenlinna, I caught the tram to the Kiasma, which is the Helsinki Contemporary Art Museum. I had a little time to check it out before heading back to the hostel to meet Anna, and was concerned about whether it would be open on Sunday to see before I flew out. It was, but I took the time to quickly race through about half of the gallery. It is a beautiful gallery, a very unusual shape - like a crescent, with sort of four floors of exhibition space (architect Steven Holl, but now I have in mind Steve Holt from Arrested Development...) I say sort of, because there are sort of half floors as well as full floors, and exhibits are displayed all over - in nooks and crannies and in large spaces, and one even in a cleaner's cupboard. The current exhibition is called Pilvin pijrretty, which in English is Drawn in the clouds. It is an exhibition of Asian Contemporary Art, and there was some beautiful work. My personal favourite were the large photos by Li Wei of people in very, very unusual positions, apparently created through use of wires which are later removed from the photos. My favourite was called "Love at the High Place 1" which has a petite Asian woman seemingly spinning a man around her head by one foot... that really does not describe it well. Anyhow, I bought the catalogue because I loved these photos so much. If you would like to see more, here's his website - http://www.liweiart.com/english/works_photo.htm .

I went back to my accommodation and got changed, then hung out on the Internet and waited for Anna. Once she arrived, we headed to the first bar for a couple of beers- and I had the smart idea of putting the names of the bars into my phone. The first, Om'pu, was almost like a cafe - lots of tables and booths in rows and filled with a lot of very cool looking 20- and 30-somethings. Great for a general catch up and stuff. We then tried another, but there were no seats, so we moved on to a different one - Cafe Mascot. This was at the bottom of a large apartment building, and was a very large open space with couches and tables. Most places in Finland are either smoke free, or have a separate room for smoking, and it is usually very effective - and you can't take drinks into these rooms, so people move through quickly. A lot of people seem to smoke in Finland - more than I have seen in most places so far. And often you see them looking very cold by the door of a venue! This place was also very busy, but Anna and I joined a couple of women probably in their 40s, I'd say. I found them interesting, because it seemed like they were probably a couple who had had a fight, and I couldn't figure out why they would be out together - one simply read newspaper after newspaper, and the other stared into space. And I think eavesdropped on our conversation! Anna's boyfriend came and joined us, and we had several more drinks and chats before heading to an underground reggae venue. It was in what seemed to be a courtyarded residential building, and if you did not know where it was, you would be hard-pressed to find it! It was quite busy inside, and so once we'd checked our jackets, we managed to score a seat and amused ourselves watching the people. By now, I was quite tipsy, which was not helped by the two shots Anna bought on top of our beers... the first was like a Fisherman's Friend lolly - very, very like salty Dutch licorice. Apparently, very good for colds and making you better. By this stage, I still had an annoying cough, but was feeling a lot healthier. The other was a more typical Finnish shot, but I cannot recall much about the taste. Except that I liked it! The funniest moment was spotting a guy with low slung pants at the bar - so low slung, that his entire bottom was hanging out. He was a little drunk, so did not notice for a while, which was actually not so pleasant for those of us watching! Eventually, I had to leave, because I am up early in the morning, heading to Estonia, but by the time I had gone to the loo, I met them again at the coat check and we walked home together.

Architecture in Helsinki

I couldn't resist. And was very disappointed to discover that I do not have any Architecture in Helsinki on my iPod for wandering around. Dull. So, I did get up early on Friday and raced into town for some touristy shopping - I wanted to do the 10:30 tour, and then go over to Soumenlinna and given I will be out all day Sat and Sunday the shops are shut, I had to race. I did most of the shopping at the biggest department store in town, Stockmanns, and probably paid for the luxury, but I just wanted it over! I hate shopping. I then proceeded to get lost trying to leave - hint - don't follow someone who looks like they know where they are going - they are probably going to get their car from the underground carpark, and it's really hard to get out of there. Incidentally, that hint is usful in so many situations! I got back to the hostel and dropped off the goodies, and then rushed to get back for the tour. Missed the 10:30, which is guided by a real person, but got the 11:00, which is an audio tour, so you sit in a coach and listen on headphones. Warm, not so great for photos, but I realised that everything really is so close, so Sunday whilst I'm filling in time before going to the airport, (I think I have to check out about 10, and don't need to be at the airport until 3) I will check out some galleries, which thank goodness are open on Sundays, and wander taking more photos. I recommend, for anyone travelling to Helsinki, getting the Helsinki card, which is for tourists, you can get 1, 2 or 3 days, I splashed out on all three, and have more than made up the cost as it gets you in to all galleries, I got the tour for free, discount on the trip to Estonia, and free public transport. Nice. I'd also recommend this tour as you get to see a lot of the sights of Helsinki, and you get the history and some knowledge of the place and culture, then can go see them for proper. A good kick start - but if that was all you did, that would be very depressing. My favourite parts: strange choices of music in the background, and the line "Most Finnish men will say there is nothing better than a good sausage." I think many Finnish men would be surprised to hear this... The tour stopped at the Rock Church, not a cool, hip way to worship, but a church built into a huge rock with a massive copper dome, and also at the sculpture to the famous Finnish composer who wrote Finlandia... Can't recall his name. Annoying.





From there, I wandered over and (after a 40 minute wait) got the ferry to Suomenlinna, which is a series of four islands which were built into a fortress several hundred years ago. I did watch the video that explained all of this, but it was after I walked around in the extreme cold, and I think my ear canals were frozen solid... 18th Century, according to my book. It was very impressive - and to think that about 1000 people live on these islands in some beautiful old buildings. I walked around for quite some time, very happy for my many layers of thermals, but still very, very cold, looking at the old buildings, caves, cannons, and all kinds of things. I know I missed a lot, but I just had to get inside! I had lunch in the old brewery, starting with a hot chocolate with rum, then cooked herring and mashed potatoes (prior to this, they sent a gift from the kitchen - pickled herring with a mushroom side - beautiful!) and a beer, and by the time I rose to catch the ferry back, I was feeling a little lightheaded!

In Japan now, will have to finish the blog back in Aus, cannot email and do not know why. Hooroo (sayonara!)

Day one in Helsinki (continued)

So, typing this in a fancy hotel foyer in Estonia, keyboard only marginally better than the one at the hostel. So, this may have better spelling, but may not.
It just seems so long ago, my first day in Helsinki! It's Saturday, and I arrived Weds, but I am counting Thurs as the first day, so it's really not that long ago. After booking my trip and figuring out where a few things were, I wandered around looking for lunch. I found a nice cafe, here they are very into the whole grab a tray and cafeteria type thing. So, I got a wrap with some kind of ham and coleslaw filling and a coffee and sat at the window watching it, trying to harshly judge everyone who walked past. It was fun. Teenagers here, on the whole, not so cool, but I reckon that's because they have 18 layers on.

I then walked up to the Helsinki National History Museum, which is a short walk from where I had lunch but took me ages because I was taking so many photos - it was fantastic! I past the Parliament House, which is very cool and columned, and then took a whole heap of photos around the Museum before I went in. It is divided into different eras, going through Stone Age right up to relatively recently. I started reading everything, but there was a lot there, and my interest in the small details waned as I went along - but I reckon I got a good overview, and saw a lot of very cool history type stuff.

I had a quick coffee here, and then headed on. I really didn't want to spend any more time at the hostel than I had to, because it is pretty depressing - not just the very basic simplicity, but also the flouro lights and the fact that the shared area between rooms on each floor is the smoking area, and so there is the faint smell of smoke in my room, and it's all lino and stuff. Not lovely. Looking at This Week in Helsinki (the monthly tourist magazine) I had decided that rather than entertaining myself with a movie, I would go to the Opera, Tosca was playing, but I was less excited when I realised it was not going to be sung in Finnish... At the information place, I got some info on other performances, there was the Helsinki (or Finnish) Symphony Orchestra, a musical type thing with local celebrities singing traditional Finnish songs and a play based on a book about the 20th Century history of Helsinki. I went for the latter for 2 reasons: #1 it was a play, and #2, it was quite close to my residence. So, after the museum, I went for a long walk around a lake - it was getting quite dark at this point, so many of my photos did not work well - and I freaked out some ducks with my flash. The lake is quite frozen, but the ducks and swans still swim in it - that's crazy! Haven't they heard of migrating? So, it was getting quite dark at about 3:30 or 4. The 24 hour darkness thing I was looking forward to is not really that exciting - it's actually not that much darker than London, but at least I have been very lucky during the days, because whilst it has been very cold, it is clear and sunny. Most of today there was snow swirling about in the air, but not enough to even hit the ground.

I wandered up to the theatre, it was almost 5 at this point, and chatted to the coat check woman. Further note - they are very, very good at checking coats and stuff here. Ultra organised, and most places don't charge. Love it. There was a series of historical photos about Helsinki and Finland, and a talk was about to happen about it, but given that it would have not been in English, I decided to grab some food before the play started at 7. I went to another Italian place (not sure what I was thinking - but it was much better!) and had Reindeer Tortolini - I was worried I might not get to try reindeer, and certainly wasn't expecting it in that form, and it was delicious! It was a pasta bake kind of thing, and it was lovely. Then, experience the supermarket where I bought various toiletries (including a toothbrush - yay for the toothbrush! - and chocolate and vanilla scented shampoo and conditioner. I've used them several times since - I don't think they smell so much of chocolate and vanilla. Disappointing.) and then headed back up to the theatre. I bought a ticket and a program (all Finnish - no help!) and waiting for 40 mins until the doors opened. It was a very large theatre, and I got a ticket in the balcony, first row, which was awesome - excellent view, and there were only about 20 people in the balcony, so it was spread out. Comfy seats - can you tell I don't want to write too much about the performance because I didn't follow the story - well, I followed the general story of oppression and violence and guns, bit of Russian nasties and Hitler nasties, and relationship break ups, although sometimes when I'd thought it was a mother and son, I realised it was actually a husband and wife. The actors were great - I got a great sense of their status and interrelationships from their performances, and I even had a little cry, though why I may never know! At interval, I was so embarrassed to show that I didn't speak Finnish that I didn't get a drink or anything... I mean, why on earth would you go to see something you couldn't understand! I must be insane...

I walked home from there, didn't get lost, and came across a beautiful church which is just around the corner from the hostel. As I took a couple of photos, a local man (not drunk - although at that time of night, there are a lot of very drunk men about in this area) asked if I was taking a photo of the church or the owl - and when I looked confused, he explained that there is an owl living in the church tower, quite famously, apparently!

I got home (I shall call it that) and headed to bed after a brief while on the Internet. Then, sleep. Wow, this was a long and adventure packed day - or perhaps I am just rambling!

Day one in Helsinki (almost=

I have 8 minutes before my time runs out, so I may not Finnish this - sorry, couldn´t resist. And now my clumsy fingers have turned this keyboard into Finnish lettering - perhaps as a payback for that terrible joke - and I am struggling to find the right punctuation. Thank goodness I didn´t make it Russian! It seriously does all three. Perhaps I should take a photo. Too embarassing right now, there are people here! I will definately not finish this now.

So, good intentions went out the window in the morning - I had intended to be breakfasted by 7:30 so I could do my wash and head out. I turned over and ended up sleeping until 9, then some kiwi was using the machine so I had to wait, and then the dryer was dodgy, so I had to dry everything forever. I didn't leave the hotel until almost 1. But that was fine. I went down to the station and booked a tour for Saturday - just popping over to Estonia for the day, that's all! Love it - when in London, I'd hoped to pop to Paris for a day, but it was far too expensive and I would have only had about 2 hours. This is nowhere near as expensive, I leave Helsinki at 10:30am and get back at 11pm - what a day! (I hope!). And if youäd wondered about my typing speed, well, thereäs my time!

Traveller's hint - don't come to Helsinki and expect good pizza

I eventually made it here - didn't get on the plane until about 12:30, then got stuck on the runway for ages - I kept drifting off. Perhaps 40 mins? Got the bus, then tram to the hostel - very simple accommodation, but I came too late to do a wash, breakfast is served from 7, so I plan to get up nice and early, eat, then do laundry and hopefully I will have clean clothes by daylight! I had a quick shower here - thank goodness they provided soap, because I seem to have left my lovely toilet bag at Scott's! Darn it, still, most of the stuff in it can be left behind. When I'd showered, I went and grabbed a bite to eat - I didn't want to go far, so had a choice of Indian, Italian, Chinese or Subway - and I think I may be in a slightly dodgy part of town, because there are a lot of signs around saying "sex". I'm avoiding those. I grabbed a pizza at the Italian place - should have gone Subway, I reckon! I was going to get a plain pasta, something simple, but everything had "blue cheese" - which I think is a mistake. Oh, I am so tired I am about to fall asleep typing - bodes well for sleeping tonight! Anyhow, the pizza was pretty yuk, and very large, so I left a fair bit. Tomorrow, I will find some pickled fish! I passed a convenience store, so I'm going to go back and buy a toothbrush and some toothpaste - will get me through until tomorrow!

So bored. Oh, so bored.

So, I still have about 40 minutes before I can even board. Heathrow sucks. It sucks because it doesn't tell you which gate you will be leaving from. So, I can't go to my gate and wait there. I have to check the board closer to the time. But, the board is too far away. Ok, now I am whinging. I keep hoping something will change, but it still says gates open at 11:40, plans leaves 12:20. It is so very foggy outside, I don't know how anything is taking off, but apparently it is. I've read some of my book, but am too tired to concentrate. I've started watching the last episode of MadMen which is on my iPod. So, I thought I'd splurge on another 20 minutes Internet time. But this connection is annoying me so much - there are a lot of flashing ads around the screen, so my typing stops showing up. I am a pretty fast typist, but not hugely accurate, and so within my typing speed, I have lots of going back and fixing things, which is taking forever. So annoying. I feel like watching Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind right now. I am so tired that I am tearing up over not so sad things in my book (The Book Thief - not sure if I mentioned that before.). I slept poorly last night - in fact, I've slept poorly for the last 3 or 4 nights. I think last night it was the worry that I'd sleep through my alarm - well, both of my alarms. Heathrow is good for lots of food/coffee places. I've spent almost my last penny on coffee and water (which I expect I'll regret if I'm ever allowed to get on a plane...) but still have some coins to show my nephews. Argh! Tired, bored, grumpy, god knows how I would cope if I ever had any real problems with travel! Wish someone had a foot massage stand. Looking forward to a sauna! I'm going to go stare at Youtube for a bit. Oh, and one other whinge - I really regret not bringing my laptop. I'm sure if I had brought it, I would have whinged about carrying it about, but (as Som pointed out when we discussed this last year) there is free wifi everywhere, and so I could have been doing stuff - possibly even working! God forbid, I've been thinking a lot about work the last few days... and not sleeping... connection? I hope it's cooler in Aus when I get home. A pilot from BA just sat down on the computer opposite me. Those uniforms really are very cool! Random thoughts - I almost bought a magazine, not that there were any that grabbed me, but I could have picked up Nuts (which I would have bought solely for the title). What type of mag is nuts? It's a lads mag - you know, Ralph, FHM, etc? Although, I am making that assumption from the lady on the front wearing only two small black rectangles over her breastular area - right that last sentence has told me it is time to stop communicating in public. (PS I just did a spell check and it accepted breastular.)

Peasoup

I am at Heathrow Airport waiting for my plane to board - currently two hours overtime. I feel like shouting "Why me?" but it's really not that bad. At least I' m not running late.

I left the Williams household about 6 last night (thanks so much for everything!) and headed to The Oval to Dukes and Shannon and crew. We interviewed a housemate (I feel like I was an integral part of the process) then proceeded to learn about the UK whilst still having lots of fun! That's right, kids, board game mania! We played, along with the two current housemates, The Great British Train Game! I have only 3 minutes on this computer, so I'll save the full explanation for when I see people in person (if you care), but needless to say the instructions were crazy-complicated, I won, but that may be something to do with the fact that (and it may also be partly the red wine's fault) I kept missing rules... Fair and square, surely?

I got up at 5:50 this morning, saw (but didn't look at) the wreckage of a nasty car crash on the way to the Tube, called my father to wish him happy birthday (even though it's tomorrow... dumb) and am now going to go sit and wait. Hooroo from England!

About to leave the land of Eng for the land of Fin

I had a fabulous time with Liz - once she'd had a chance to clean herself up from her long trip from India and got a wash on, we went shopping for the most amazing roast I have ever eaten.  Liz, you are a gem!  Beautiful roast pork with potatoes, carrots, broccoli, sweet potato mash, parsnip and very yum gravy.  i don't think I've missed anything... oh , it was delish!  We ate quite early, about 5, and sat up chatting until about 10.  By then, Liz was about to collapse, so I went and hit my sack - but was wide awake (I think it was the very full stomach) so finished reading Russell Brand's My Booky Wook - autobiography of a comedian who has been extremely self destructive with drugs, alcohol and women.  Easy and quite interesting read.  I'm half-watching celebrity big brother (I'm a wee bit tragic), and I've just seen my first Easter advertisement for 2009 - Jan 14, I guess that's not bad!  

In the morning, we rose quite late, about 10, and had a few cups of tea and lots of talking whilst Liz got ready for work.  It's been so fabulous seeing her, she's so lovely.  Overall, I have to say I am been very much enjoying this whole trip and catching up with so many wonderful, wonderful people. 

So, speaking of which, Liz dropped me at Oxford Station, which is near where she works.  It was the absolutely most delightful drive through the countryside from her place, and I had just enough time to grab a ticket and get on before the train left. A very scenic trip back to London, then several tubes/trains/buses to Chingford for one last play with Dylan and goodbye to Claire and Kev.  Then, in to Soho to meet Heather and Scott for a lovely Italian meal. Heather and Scott had not met previously, and extremely weirdly enough, they were one or two years apart at the same school!  Ha!  They got along very well, as I thought they would.  Nice people are just nice people.  And back to Clapham Junction.  I sat up watching telly with Scott and Marcus until they, saying goodbye as I won't see them tomorrow, went to bed. I stayed up a while longer.  When I went to bed, I couldn't sleep.  I was very awake, but feeling jumpy and edgy for some reason.  For a lot of Tuesday morning as I did some last final sightseeing and shopping, I felt a little feverish and hot, so I hope my cold is not coming back worse... fingers crossed!

Tuesday morning, I got up and pottered around, then headed out.  Went to Mornington Crescent for some photos, then went to London Bridge, walked through to Tower Bridge and around the Tower of London, then in to Piccadilly for a bit of book shopping and got a few silly souvenir type things.  Then, feeling a bit off and not great, I headed back to Clapham Junction to have  bit to eat, and have spent about the last hour sitting on the couch.  Dukes is expecting to be home about 7, I'm going there tonight to crash before heading to the airport in the morning.  It's 3:44, so I've got a little bit of time, going to check out accommodation in Japan and see if I can't arrange tickets for the Sumo wrestling whilst I'm there - awesome!   Not sure if it will match up with the fun we used to have at North Melbourne town Hall hotel, but I guess we'll see!

Lost in Covent Garden.

I've had a couple of very relaxed and nice days - have basically been reducing the amount and severity of the coughing and catching up with folk, which is nice. Friday, I went to see Slumdog Millionaire which Scott and Marcus had seen in Canada and highly recommended, and I agree, it is great. Took me a long time to find the cinema, although on my wandering, I found a Katmandu and got some thermal legs (finally!) and walked every street of the area. Finally, I thought "It is not meant to be!" and went to walk away - and walked slap bang into the cinema - with 10 minutes to go! Got some sweet and savoury popcorn - not as good as I remember - and enjoyed the film. Left with a huge grin on my face, and had some old guy (there were about 20 people in the cinema, all old men) shouting loudly at another old guy "I told them there was no heating, and they said they'd do something about it, but it had been on for hours, which was clearly a lie because it was colder in there than out here!" (and imagine that with some kind of amusing accent. I just thought "He's right! I was cold in there!" and went on my merry way. I wandered for a while, then jumped on the train and headed back to Clapham Junction. Anna and Tino came over for dinner, and Scott made some absolute delights - asparagus with proscutio, followed by a delicious chicken dish with some challenging mash (I thought it was great, but there had been some issues. tasted fab, though!) and dessert was strawberries with lemon, mint and um, sugar I think. Very, very nice. Also a couple of glasses of wine and a lot of good conversation and less good photos!

Sat took a long time to get going - At about half past 3, I headed to The Goat to meet Danni, who lived with Tracey and myself in North Street many years ago. She brought a friend, and we drank many pints, caught up, had a ball, then I headed back to Marcus and Scott's and we went out for Japanese, yum. Back home, more Celebrity Big Brother (I am getting a little addicted) and Family Guy, and then bed again.

Sunday morning, and I have come up to meet Liz. I say I have come up - I actually have no read idea where I am. Train to Banbury, actually stop before, and then she picked me up and drove me to her place, which is gorgeous. She only just got back from India this morning, so I'm taking the opportunity to write this whilst she has a shower and puts a wash on. We're going to have roast tonight, and I'm going to head back to London in the morning tomorrow. Brackley, that's where I am!

and that's it!

I think I'm getting Black Lung, Pop.

So, I've developed a bit of a cough and a blocked nose.  I'm sure I've mentioned this, I know I've been whining a lot about it.  I generally don't feel too bad, but I am a bit over the slight wheeze and the cough.  So, I had a little sleep in again, which was nice, then pottered around for a bit, and then headed in to town.  My intention was to spend much of the day shopping, checking out bookshops and DVD places and the like - the exchange rate is quite good at the moment, so I thought if there were some good DVDs, I'd be prepare to lug them about.  However, when my train approached Battersea Park, and the sun was shining, I just thought how nice it would be to get some photos of the Battersea Power Station.  So, I jumped out and wandered around looking for how close I could get for a photo.  Not so close, as it happens - there was a sign for the Thames Walk which appeared to go past it, but I couldn't find the path.  How unusual for me to get lost and have no sense of direction. So, I wandered around and found the path heading the opposite direction, which actually turned out to be where I wanted to go to head towards town, which was nice.

I snapped off a lot of photos on my stroll along the river, went past Vauxall and realised I was quite close to the Tate Britain and decided to pop in and see the contemporary exhibition.  Most of the contemporary area was shut, but I did wander throughout the Turner area, not the current Turner prize stuff which I was not overly impressed with last time I was here, but the Turner collection.  Most of the Turner work is overseas on some other exhibit somewhere, but there were some pretty impressive drawings from a variety of artists, and I was very happy to see Tracey Emin's work.  I grabbed a quick sandwich there, and then kept on walking.  I walked down to Westminster, taking snaps on the way.  The camera is saying the batteries are dying, but I don't believe it.  I'm not sure, but I'll hang on to some batteries for future outings.  Also, I have finally filled my first memory chip - will I every be able to fill all four?

From there, I wandered up to Trafalgar Square, wandered around, went to the National Portrait Gallery and grabbed the Annie Liebowitz book I had been eying off last time I was here. Then, I wandered around Soho looking for the place where Dukes and I had had a drink the other night, because there was a large book shop which I wanted to check out.  Couldn't find it, jumped on a train back to Clapham Junction and that's about it.  A lot, a lot, a lot of walking, very nice weather, although the smog was particularly bad.  I took some photos of the sky in the hope that it'll show up... I don't think so.  Never mind.

Back from sightseeing

How ridiculous to have posted again so quickly since lunchtime! But, I only got back to the Williams household a short while ago, and neither Marcus nor Scott are home yet, so I'm taking the chance to do a quick update.

I started the day by heading to Buckingham Palace. In true Margaret style, I got a bit lost on the way to the station, which is hilarious given you just need to walk about 10 metres down the road, turn left and walk a bit longer, but I can get even that wrong! Basically, I got distracted and wasn't looking. Hey, watching the news, it's on Gaza, all a bit sad, but one of the hosts, the main host, is sitting behind a desk, but the other guy was standing, but standing with a walking frame. Huh? Surely if he requires a walking frame, he would be more comfortable also sitting - or am I being disability-ist?

Anyhow, eventually made it near Buckingham Palace, wandered on down, took a few photos. It really is pretty impressive. It was quite cold, but possibly not as cold as yesterday, probably not as cold as Scotland. From there, wandered through Green Park to the Tube and headed to the Tate Modern. Far less crowded than it had been last time I attempted it, much better. Anna had let me borrow her member card, so I went to a couple of exhibitions - started with Rothko, which was good, but not really my favourite kind of art, personally. Then, Cildo Meireles, a South American conceptual artist. I loved it, this is more my thing. A room questioning the concept of measurement and numbers with a maze made of 7000 carpenter's rulers with false numbering hanging from the ceiling and a whole heap of clocks on the wall. Another large exhibit about the Catholic church in Brazil with 600,000 pennies on the ground, 200 bones hanging from the ceiling joined by a column of communion wafers. And the grand finale - well worth the queue, only 4 people allowed in at any one time, a foyer where you remove your shoes and have the option of gum boots (I didn't, just rolled my trousers up). Then you enter a small room, and the ground is about ankle deep with talcum power. It is very poorly lit, and you wander around a corner to a single candle in the power. It was awesome, the tactile feeling of the talcum powder was great, and anything you could see was cast in a strange mist from the powder, very cool.

Just outside the exhibit, there was a doco on the artist which I watched through, showing the way the pieces were created, and how they were transferred to the current space. Then I headed home. Uneventful.

Life in a Northern Town

Most of this trip I have been enjoying getting lost and making speedy trips to places - I am going to interrupt myself to say that I am watching This Morning of UK TV and there is a thing about a terribly treated dog who was found a year ago and is now much healthier, but the RSPCA (or whatever it is) person is on talking about how they took care of him, and she is wearing green overalls and grey crocs with grey socks.  Which I find funny.

Anyhow, speedy trips - Monday was another.  I caught a bus from Edinburgh to Moffat to visit Rachel and Simon.  I haven't seen Rachel since 2000, and probably Simon since even before that, so it was great to catch up.  The bus trip was lovely - frost everywhere, and rolling through the beautiful countryside. Quick change at Crawford, and  a little trouble spotting Rachel, but found her!  Back to their place and saw little Hollie again - not so little now!  She's 14 I think, which is so trippy, I cannot believe it is the same little girl I used to run around with!  She was great, although she had a friend from London up and spent most of the time with her, so I barely saw her - and fair enough, you wouldn't want to hang out with the oldies!  Had a bit of a catch up with Simon whilst Rachel did a fry up (yay and yum!) for our lunch.  We then spent several hours nattering and showing each other photos before I had to jump back onto another bus back.  Fleeting, but a lovely visit.  Bus back to Lockerbie, and hadn't considered that it would be full of annoying loud and, well mostly annoying and loud children.  Screaming in Scottish accents!  Then, train from Lockerbie back to Edinburgh, which was quite uneventful. 

Went back to David's, and we decided to go catch a flick.  Got tix for Che Part One (extremely good, I highly recommend.) and grabbed some dinner at a pub across the road.  In the pub there were two forms of entertainment - the large screen showing the Hopman Cup and the drunk Scottish woman snogging the Frenchman, and his poor mate trying to find something to do with himself.  The pub was very quiet, but everyone was amused by this event- the woman next to us said she'd been there for an hour, and it had been going to whole time!  The friend did a 'cheers' with his drink with me, and then David, who said it in French.  The friend got very excited and said "So you speak French?" and was ready to come and join us when David said "No".  Ah, clearly you had to be there, it was very fun.  After the film, we'd missed a bus due to my inability to run fast or far enough to catch one (I blame the cold I have.), so we grabbed a cab, and the driver was lovely - he told us of his uncle who moved to Melbourne and became a director for David Jones, although he has now passed away, and his wife lives on Chapel St.

After the movie, back to David's and we said goodbye, as I was unlikely to be ready to leave by the time David had to go to work in the morning.  It was ace to see David and hang out and see Edinburgh again.  And Tuesday - well, you've heard most of it - got up, dropped my luggage at the train station, spent many hours in an Internet cafe updating my blog, and then headed onto the train.  As I walked to the train, I got a bit sad as the first flakes of snow dropped from the sky - if I had to put up with the cold, at least I could have had some snow!  Train ride was uneventful, I finished my book, was bored with my podcasts and then got very excited to realise that I had several episodes of Madmen on my iPod, so watched that.  Scott met me at Kings Cross, was ace to see him, we came back to his and Marcus's. They have a blow up double bed for me - yes, it is an airbed, but full size and height - nuts!  Very comfy, too!  We went for dinner at a lovely place around the corner, and then when we got back, I managed to spill a full hot cup of tea all over myself.  Quite a skill.  I've spent the morning having a cup of tea and typing this, and am now about to head out for a bit more London sightseeing!

Trains, buses and tubes. Not in that order.

Wow, I've been writing a lot today. For anyone who is reading this, hope you're enjoying it, and if there are parts you are finding boring, I apologise. I want to put as much detail in as possible, as this is my travel diary. Still in Internet Cafe in Edinburgh. Got 45 minutes left, but want to head to the station sooner than that. Someone has coming in smelling very strongly of pot. Hope they find a further away computer. Luckily, all the other ones in my row are broken, so have a fair bit of privacy. Oh, and I've just changed the comment settings - previously, you could only comment if you were registered. Now, anyone can comment, but I am moderating it. Though, if you read my last post, you may wonder at my ability to stay moderate... But do comment - I love the comments!

My fingers are about to freeze off. Right, so, Sunday morning, my train was leaving for Edinburgh at 9:10 from Kings Cross, so up early, quick shower and coffee (thanks again, Dukes!) and I headed to the tube. Very interesting to see who is travelling at that time... I spend my trip playing "Working. Partying" I game I invented, where I looked at everyone who came in and decided which they were. OK, not a great game, but it entertained me. Oh, and especially for Jay and Georgie if you are reading this, there are a magnificent number of denim suits in this town. I saw one which was acid wash and wanted to take a photo, but thought I might get beaten up. He was tough as.

At Kings Cross, I giggled to myself at the number of people standing and staring at a board until I realised that they hadn't put platform numbers on the trains. So, I grabbed an accidentally far too large coffee and stood watching the board. About 5 minutes before I was due to leave, they put a platform number up, the wrong one, just for fun, and we all jumped on. Quite empty train, nice. Although, just when I got seated, they moved the entire carriage. Annoying, but fine. Due to rail works, I had to get on a bus at Darlington, then a train at Newcastle. The bus was average, but both rail trips were lovely. I arrived at Edinburgh at about 2, David met me, lovely to see him. We jumped on a bus back to his flat - it is great! It's on Gorgy Road in Gorgy, and it's just great! His housemate, Rachel, is sick, and decided to stay at her sister's place, so David sacrificed his bed (which is the most comfortable bed IN THE WHOLE WORLD. Sorry, just went a bit Danny Katz) and slept on hers in his sleeping bag. I had a quick shower, did a quick wash, and whilst we waited for the wash to finish, David made me a great cup of tea and we checked some Internet stuff. If you would like to see some strange things, go to Youtube and put in Stephen Fry vs Jay Z, or Eddie Izzard Lego. We then headed to a pub for dinner - I can't remember what it is called, will need to check, and then for another quick drink at a very cute place nearby. They had the darts on. So, despite the fact that I was feeling a bit average and coughing, I was very excited. And it was the final. The guy who won has a tattoo on his dart throwing arm naming it "Power", and unless I am very much mistaken, his other arm is called "Glory". Which led to an extremely inappropriate conversation for David and myself that I shall mention no more. Then, we headed back to his flat, watched some telly, including some "Never mind the buzzcocks", a music quiz show I loved when I lived over here, and turned in for the night.

I would greatly like to write about the yesterday and today, but my fingers are completely numb, so I am going to head to the train.

Everyone's a little bit racist... sometimes

I'm in an Internet Cafe in Edinburgh - I've paid for 2 hours Internet access, but when I put the code in, I only have one hour and 58 minutes, so I think someone is stealing my time. I may write a strongly worded letter to the authorities.

I feel I should be out seeing the sights. But, it is about 2degrees outside, and I have a bit of a cold. Serves me right from telling Rachel when she mentioned she had a cold that I'd be fine - I didn't have a cold for all of 2008, and I've been around heaps of sick people and I'm fine. Got off the phone, three minutes later started coughing. I'm not really sick... I have a bit of sinus pain, I feel a bit exhausted and I have an occasional cough. I went to Boots (the big pharmacy chain here) to look for cold and flu stuff, but couldn't see anything I wanted to take, may go back and just grab some paracetamol on my way out of the country. In about 2 hours. So, not sight seeing, too cold, not interested. Sorry, Edinburgh, you are wonderful and I will return, perhaps with more layers or in summer. Walking around, I'm been loving the stony gorgeousness. Got some photos, but nothing all that exciting, and moronically forgot to take photos of Rachel and co or David, so really, no point having the camera right now. But, this is tedious. Let me talk fun.

Last I wrote, I think I mentioned drinking bubbles watching Celebrity Big Brother with Claire. The next morning, Saturday (I hate this keyboard. It's dirty, ugly, and doesn't type the right buttons and stuff. It's not me.) I packed up my stuff and left Chingford. Thanks Claire, Kev and Dylan for the bed - it was fabulous! I'll be going back before I leave - possibly not to stay, perhaps just for a day visit. I was to meet Dukes at the National Portrait Gallery at 12:30 to go to the Annie Liebowitz exhibition, and in the meantime went past Kings Cross to dump my big pack into Left Luggage - such a good idea! So, we met, Dukes had booked us in to the gorgeous restaurant at the top of the gallery for 2, so we headed in to the exhibit. It was fabulous - I love a bit of photography, and I really like her work. I'd read a few things about this exhibition in Melbourne, got all excited, then looked at the location and went "Boo. London. What's the point?" and hadn't really considered the fact that I was going to London - moron! Thank goodness for the plethora of advertising in the tube stations which included this exhibition! After spending time viewing the work with a tonne of other people (everywhere is so crawded here. Crowded. Stupid keyboard. Or has my accent changed that much?) we headed upstairs for a delightful lunch. Thanks, Dukes! Fabulous food, beautiful views, great company, was ace. Exiting, we went via a few other rooms and saw some spectacular busts, including Tennyson and Charles Darwin.

We then wandered around the place - as I had been staring at Nelson's column through the window, we headed to Trafalgar Square. And suddenly my knowledge of London is feeling challenged - I am fairly certain that it is Trafalgar Square I was staring at, surely I'm right. Anyhow, there had been some anti-Israeli protests going on - on the TV it looks huge, and judging from the rubbish and posters on the ground everywhere, it probably was. (Having said that, I went past another in Edinburgh yesterday and it looked big, but was only about 3 people deep, bit deceptive...) It wasn't so big when we were there, but the TV vans were leaving, and the light was failing, so I think most had gone home. I seem to have caught up with more news here than I usually do in Aus, so I know a little on what is going on. Hamas shooting rockets into Israel for 8 years, Israel taking opportunity of the end of the Bush era to make an attack into Gaza, so much more politically than I have knowledge of, but seeing lots of images of dead people. Awful. Incidentally, I read a small thing in the paper the other day where George W said he would like to see his brother Jed in the White House next election... surely, surely not!

We left Trafalgar Square and headed to Covent Garden where we sat in the courtyard of the Punch and Judy pub and had a few lagers. Thinking back, this may have not been the best idea for the whole cold thing... it was cold, but was nice, and I loved the added touch of the security guards watching from the level above and being the voice from above whenever anyone tried to take a drink out, or have a cigarette. I took a photo of the roof, and Dukes said the security guy thought I was taking it of him and posed - wish I'd gotten that! Dukes had been trying to reach Shannon, his lady friend, to see if she'd join us. She does a lot of children's performance based stuff, and runs a drama class on Saturday mornings, so was a bit knackered. Suddenly, Dukes suggested a show, and so we finished our drinks and headed down to the Theatre places to check out possibilities of tickets for Avenue Q. Scott had recommended this when I'd caught up with him in Aus, and Dukes and Shannon had been about 2 years ago and were keen to see it again. And yes, tickets were available, we got three up in the gods, awesome. Show didn't start until 8:30, so Dukes and I went looking for a bar.

He took me to a place called the Crowbar (or was is Crobar? Now I am unsure) which is a very cool little bar which plays rock and metal and stuff, served Coopers (surprise!) and we hung out for a few more drinks there. It was now getting close to showtime, I was feeling a little bit tipsy, and we left with a couple of travellers. I felt so naughty wandering through the streets drinking beer... but and geez, could have used a glove! Met Shannon at the venue, she's awesome, and went in. When they had gone last time, they were right down near the front as there used to be restricted seating at the front, but no longer. This time, we were in the third row of the upper balcony, but the angle and height did not take away from the enjoyment of the show. I must admit, I spent more time watching the puppeteers rather than the puppets themselves (for those who have not heard of Avenue Q, it is a group of Muppet style puppets, but it is an adult show. Including a sex scene that rivals Team America in its humour. It includes wonderful songs like "Everyone's a little Bit Racist" and "It sucks to be me". It is very funny, and has a few non-puppet characters, including a representation of Gary Coleman which never ceased to make me laugh - I'm surprised that he hasn't complained and/or sued. It's really not flattering.). Was awesome. Loved it.

On the way to the bar, we came past a car with a big camera attached to it. It was CCTV montioring for traffic - perhaps something to do with the congestion charge? I got a photo, and then Dukes went to put his hat or scarf over the camera - and the man jumped out, ready to get a little angry. We all giggled and left.

After this, we had a quick drink at the bar across the road before it shut (crazy 11pm closing) and grabbed a cab back to Dukes and Shannon's place in The Oval (the suburb. Not an actual sports ground.) Shannon made a yummy pasta and seafood delight, we ate chips, drank the last couple of beers in the fridge, watched the end of Wayne's World 2 and I decided it was time to go to bed when I realised I was sitting on the couch, drinking white wine with ice in it, and cheering the professional darts competition - despite having no understanding of what was going on. And it was 2am. Great night!

They are in the process of vetting new housemates, which meant I had a bed to sleep in, so comfortable, and I hit the sack and slept like a log.

This place is full of the French

Everywhere I turn, everyone is French. That's all on that topic. Probably not worth a heading.

So, New Years Eve - Claire was rotten with her cold, so when Dylan went to bed at about 6, so did she. Kev went to his brother's place, I was invited, but decided to stay at Claire's and watched a movie. Was in bed by 11. New Year's in London! Actually, it seems everyone I have talked to did very little for the New Year, so I don't feel quite so bad!
I'm not sure what I last wrote, so I may have missed a day, but I'm going to do a speedy catch up of the last couple of days and leave it there. May fill in details at a later point. May not. Who knows?
New Years Day, thought it would be quiet around, perhaps people nursing hangovers and the like, so I headed in to the London Eye. Got off at Westminster and was marching across the river when I realised the street was blocked off. I thought it might have been from the fireworks the night before, but there was a parade! I went, tried to look, too crowded, got a few weird photos (there were people in olden time costumes and cheerleaders. Who knows what was going on?), snapped Big Ben and the like, and headed to the Eye. It was packed. I paid a bit extra for a fast track ticket, (got served by an annoying smarmy think-I'm-so-funny person that I had trouble humouring) which allowed me to not queue for 40 minutes for a ticket and then an hour in the cold to get on, well worth it, I reckon, and went on the eye. Fantastic. really amazing views, got some fab photos, loved it.
After that, I went into the Dali exhibition which was nearby, and it was amazing. Absolutely tonnes of drawings and sculptures, so much that I left some behind because I was starting to feel very surreal myself! Met Heather, we wandered a little, then went to Tottenham Court Road, to a place called The George where we shared a few lagers and had a fabulous catch up. Was really nice - and probably just as well that it takes a while to get back out to Chingford so I was relatively sober before getting to bed!
2nd - Had a lazy morning getting up, playing with Dylan and the like. Then headed to The Globe theatre, which was fabulous - had a tour, wish there was a play to see, although couldn't really stand the cold for that long. After this, I headed to the Tate Modern, but it was awfully crowded, so I am going to try again next week sometime. I then went in to Oxford Street to look at the sales - wanted to look for a couple of DVDs, ended up buying 5 seasons of Shameless for a stupidly cheap price, having spent about an hour posting stuff home in the morning, seems silly to be buying anything, literally couldn't resist! Thought I'd take a relaxing stroll down Oxford Street - stupid thought, there's no such thing as relaxing during the post xmas sales! Headed home, Claire and I watched the launch of Celebrity Big Brother. Apparently they are celebrities - I knew LaToya Jackson, Coolio, Mini -me and Ulrika Johnson. The rest - several even Claire struggled with! Celebrity? Pfft.
Right, I've booked my tickets for Edinburgh for tomorrow, am going to meet Dukes at the Portrait Gallery for lunch and to check out the Annie Liebowitz exhibit. Nice.

Boxing Day Part 2

Som emailed this to me a few days ago, and now it is up. If you want it to make sense, you could read Boxing Day Part 1, but I don't think the plot lines are that complex...

Once Som and I parted, I continued my delightful stroll in the warm but not too humid morning. Actually, I know that's not really the end of the sentence, but I need to talk about weather for a second here. Everyone in this town (!) is wearing jackets, jumpers, scarves and lots and lots of fur. (Real or fake, it is definitely chic right now) But, it is honestly not that cold. This season, I am mostly wearing (insert Fast Show joke here) slacks and a t-shirt. I have my thermal sleeves underneath, but they are often removed. Perhaps my thermometer is out due to the extreme December cold before I left, I can only hope it is the same in London, unlikely, I think I will need to buy that jacket. Dammit.

Anyhow, back to my stroll. I wandered along the parky Battery Path to St John's Cathedral, one of the only freestanding parts of land in HK, had a squiz in, and headed up to the Peak. I had to wait for about half an hour, perhaps a bit longer for the cable car (this time one that runs along a rail track and is more like a tram than the hanging ones from yesterday), but enjoyed gloating in others' misfortune when I came back and the queue was halfway up the hill - at least double as long, perhaps even more! The Peak was great - pretty darn impressive views of HK, and I watched an eagle soaring through the skies - and shortly after, saw two chasing each other. Nice.

After faffing here for a while, having a coffee and a bit to eat, I meandered back down and decided to go to the gallery. Took me a while to figure out where I was going, but I adopted the "If I look like I know where I'm going, I'll get there soon" attitude. Which worked this time, but not later. Actually, it didn't work this time. I wandered up through an impressive archway into a shopping centre, and it was lined with clocks. Doesn't sound impressive, but add to that a plethora of xmas decorations and almost as many people taking photos, and it is a lot more impressive! Eventually, I wandered through the performing arts centre and stumbled across the gallery. My cultural high horse was mounted when I noted it was very quiet - given how busy the clock arch thing was, why aren't people looking at art? Having said this, I found most of the art not to my liking... I'm not really into old stuff. I looked at a lot of the ceramics and the calligraphy, and it was good, but didn't grab me. What did grab me was the contemporary arts stuff... There was an exhibit called "Looking for Antonio Mak". Mak is the most famous Hong Kongese sculptor (according to Lonely Planet) and he passed away in 1994, and a lot of his artwork was quickly bought and then disappeared into personal collections. This is his first ever major gallery exhibition. I loved his work, but am not going to attempt to describe it here, as I cannot express the way I feel about it. Boo. I should be able to, but I won't. So there. The exhibition also contained work by other artists responding to Mak's work, some of which was very impressive, other stuff, well, I know what I like... My favourite thing was one of the artists had set up a studio in the foyer outside the exhibition and was carving work in response to his. I was too shy to talk to her. There was also a mini-documentary conceptual piece, in which people and companies who had Mak's work were asked to take a photo of it wherever it was on a certain day - that included photos of doors behind which his work was stored, plus a variety of homes, workplaces, bars and outdoor areas. Very cool.

When I left the gallery, I was accosted by a monk.

I will explain, but I like that sentence. Perhaps Facebook status? Ava told me, when we were walking in the Temple Night Market and a similar thing happened, that they are not allowed to do this, and monks who approach in this way are probably fake. He was so friendly, he gave me a card and a bracelet and I put my name (first name only) in a book, and then he asked for money. He wasn't too impressed when I said I had none and gave him $6HK (that's just over a buck Aus). He let me leave. I think my name may be cursed. Do monks do that? Fake ones might.

I then decided to grab a coffee and sit for a while, then to head home. My afore-mentioned attitude did not work, as I walked overground for ages before finding the MTR station, went down into it and then realised I was at the wrong line and had to walk even further the other way to get the right one. Eventually, I made it, got home in time to say goodbye as Som and Carrie went upstairs for dinner with her sister, and I wrote this diatribe. Is this a diatribe? Must we quibble? I am going to sit on a couch for a bit. Merry Boxing Day!