Month: July 2017

I recently spent 10 days in New York before I made my move north to Canada. I’ve been kinda putting off writing my take on it, as it’s a petty sensational city, and hard to sum up. Easily one of the top 3 cities in the world. It’s America’s biggest and bestest, anything and everything happens there, so the movies would have you believe.
It was a pretty fun past time, to walk the streets and Parks trying to identify the back drops from movies I know, or TV shows. Of which I was able to identify a bundle, like the pigeon lady bridge from Home Alone 2, Superman’s ‘Daily Planet’, the diner from Seinfeld, the old library from Ghost Busters oh and the part on the movie Limitless where the girl takes a pill and runs down into the ice skating rink to escape a guy whose chasing her…

It’s weird kinda, as you constantly see New York being the location of all the crazy stuff that goes down in movies, it’s just funny being there and nothing that grandiose went down. No aliens, no invasion from different dimensions, no giant gorillas or lizards, just everyday was stinking hot.
I arrived pretty darn tired after my long sleepless night and flight from London, and to top that off my luggage didn’t join me in New York and when it did it was minus my running shoes… 😭😡
Missing luggage did however make it easier for me to get myself over to Penstation, where I met my buddy Sam, very easily and quickly by New York standards.
I used to live with Sam in Christchurch, so it was nice to be staying with him and his lovely wife Sarah, in a city they now call home. They’ve been in New York I think for a year now, so they knew a thing or two about how to navigate this massive sleepless city.
I was rudely awoken from my cheap beer dream, as the price of a nice cool amber drop octupled from Eastern Europe prices. No longer would I find beer cheaper than coffee or water, a sad reality to be broken from, I know. It’s not like it was any better mind you, most of the time it was much worse. It was frustrating and heartbreaking all in one.
Still though, I was in New York.
On the Sunday in some borrowed clothes, we took a ferry over to the Statue of Liberty, which is not as big as it is in the movies. But the viewing deck in the head was a pretty awesome place to be. What an icon that is, and to be up close and personal with it was very unique. We then pushed on to Ellis Island, where we got to take in 100 years of immigration. Everyone who immigrated to the US, well everyone who wasn’t rich, went through Ellis Island. Some really tough stories to read. One particularly horrific one that stood out to me was of a complete family that immigrated over from Eastern Europe, only to loose grandma, as she had the beginnings of blindness, and thus was considered a burden. So in the wisdom of bureaucracy, she was torn from her family and sent back to a country now devoid of any family. They never saw granny again.

On a lighter note, I had heard about a historical bar where George Washington drank and bid farewell to his generals after the War of Independence. That was a cool place!
I went up Trump tower, that was kinda cool, the decor I thought needed upgrading but it was fun seeing all the fuss outside on the streets and having to go past sniffer dogs, heavily armed policemen and metal detectors to get inside.
There was always plenty of things going on in New York, very often the subway would be crowded to the levels I witnessed in Tokyo. Though in New York they didn’t have nice men in smart suits pushing you inside the subway carriage, you were on your own for that. But thats not really my cup of tea so I’d wait for the next one.
I ate a lot of ice cream in New York, mainly because there were a number of cool places doing cool things with ice cream. The first place made it with liquid nitrogen, so it was extra thick, cold and creamy. They also offered frozen cheese balls, that when you ate them, thick steam was the outcome, hence they were called dragon balls. Another cool ice cream place offered cookie dough like ice cream, that surprisingly, was a bit much. I like cookie dough, but I usually only have perhaps a tea spoon of it whilst making cookies, not a massive scoop of it in a bowl.
Time square is an experience! I went through it twice, each time near midnight and each time it was packed. There were plenty of random street acts all vying for your tourist dollars. I think the funniest ones I saw was a pudgy iron man, and a Mexican Micky mouse. Was fun just to people watch, as there’s a lot of interesting peoples in New York.
I went to a number of museums in New York, the best by far was the smallest, but it was right up my alley. It was the private collection of JP Morgan, the elder, who establish the business for his son. His library was super impressive. He had so many first editions, the most impressive being a Gutenberg Bible… so very cool! But his collection of ancient Assyrian artefacts were the things that gave me more enjoyment, as they were 4 and a half thousand years of awesomeness!
I don’t think I saw any famous folks around. I’m not usually the type to be overly fussed either way.
I mentioned already that it was super hot, it made exploring tiring. But most places had air con, so I tended to try and spend more time indoors rather than out. It was far to hot for me to try out my new running shoes in a meaningful manner, I’d often get 5 kms and start over heating. But I did manage to run around Central Park one night after the humidity had finally caused it to rain. So I got to run along the very famous parts of the park. Something I’d been looking forward to for quite some time.
I had a great time in New York, plenty of photos, memories and good times. I think it would be a place I’d be keen to return to in the fall, as it would be a hang of a lot more manageable than the heat of the summer.
I note to those thinking about visiting New York, double your budget. New York is really nice, but it’s an expensive place.
So I’m now in Canada, back in a place I used to live. A place where I spent half of my 20’s. So many memories, not much has changed mind you, well, except the people and me of course.

 

I’m sitting in one of the many cafe/dinner type places in the 2nd terminal of Heathrow airport. I arrived late last night or rather, very early this morning. I figured there wasn’t too much point getting a bed for only half a night and I wanted to maximise my time at my previous stop. It has been my night of the long wait. Essentially I just faffed about for a good 6 hours when I otherwise would have been sleeping. There were plenty people doing that in many cramped spaces, I found a couch to laze about on, but sleep eluded me. I’m hoping to sleep on my flight from Frankfurt to New York. I should do, I’m fairly tired.
It’s always a shame to be leaving this part of the world. I’ve spent a good amount of my younger years here, I have some really great friends here that it’s always a great time of catching up on the new and reminiscing about the old.
I started this hole episode at the start of the month. I flew into Glasgow to be met by a drastic drop in temperatures and a good buddy who took me out for a very Scottish meal, a curry. It was strange to be able to understand people, I kept expecting people to start speaking a different language, sure the next day when I walked down Buchanan street it sure sounded foreign. But the Glaswegian accent is a thing of perplexing amusement. It takes time to understand the words coming out of their mouths, but once you do, you don’t forget. So I just walked with a constant smile on my face, enjoying how they turn a phrase, and how it all sounds.
I wasn’t long in Glasgow, I took in a few favourite sites around the city centre then pushed onto Edinburgh. I was able to tick off one of my ‘failed to do it last time I was here’ activities, climbing up Arthur’s Seat. It was more of a jog/ fast paced walk, and absolute murder. It’s a rather high hill that overlooks the city of Edinburgh, I’ve been running on too much flat ground which has made me soft. I love Edinburgh, it’s a beautiful city, one that I would most happily live in. I think out of all the places I’ve been, it’s my most Livable. It was made even nicer by being able to catch up with another good friend, who the last time I saw her, she was minus a husband, two kiddlies and a mortgage, but still as lovely as ever.
My time was fairly uneventful. No crazy stories, near mishaps, well no actually. I went rock climbing on Scotlands Northern Coast and sailing in a very rough and windy Lochgarron. I took in the rugged beauty of Dunnottar castle, increased my love of whiskey by going on a distillery tour. I relaxed a bunch, enjoyed many a beer with some good mates, ran, ate some great food, drank some great coffee and just enjoyed being back in a place I love with people who made it even more enjoyable.
I remember when I first hit up a supermarket, I was so stoked to see many of my old favourite snacks, the attendant nearby checked in to see if I was alright. I was pretty darn alright, and I may have had to run extra hard that week because of it.
It’s been a whirlwind tour primarily concerned with catching up with folk rather than seeing things. A lot of the things I had already seen, sure the last time was 7 years ago, but not much changes in the way of a castle, but plenty of things can change with a buddy who you haven’t seen in that time.
My last destination was quite morbidly fortuitous, where I originally went knowing that, because he was a teacher, he’d be at school during the days. That was until he took a cricket ball to the face, though mostly his teeth and because of it, he wasn’t able to go to school. So it all worked out rather nicely. Kinda, it hurt when he laughed, so he was sadly in pain a lot. Again it was nice to meet the additions to his family, I was already fast friends with his wife from previous trips, but it was nice to become friends or perhaps just that random fella who played tennis and jumped on the trampoline with his two littlies.
I’m yawning pretty hard at the moment, the coffee I had isn’t having the desired effect, that being get me to my plane on time. I may fall asleep in this chair.
I’d best get up and moving, before I get to comfortable. It’s the end of the 2nd stage of my trip. I’m technically onto the return side of my ticket, which isn’t a good feeling. I don’t know how I will manage to settle back in in the NZ life when the time comes, but I guess it has to be done. However, I still have a good 2 months left. Which sounds good, but it’s less than 8 weeks, so I guess I’ll have to make the most of it. I’m looking forward to some warmer temperatures, and some more familiar faces in Canada and the U.S.

 

 

 

I sadly had to hang up my paddle the other day, and lifted the canoe out of the lake up to its place next to a tree. I hadn’t realised how much I missed canoeing until I got two weeks of it. It gives me more encouragement to undertake a very auspicious challenge of building my own canoe. That would be cool, ay… I woke early on my last day with every intention of going for a run. I was all set, even doing the warmup stretches on the road, but then I thought, “why run, when I can do that anywhere, but I won’t be able to canoe again for a while”. So I went down to the dock and set out. It was beauty! No wind, no other boats, no other people hardly, just me, the birds and the fishes. I was 2 hours. It was a nice way to say farewell to the Czech Republic.

So I had two days in Dresden, a southern city in Saxony Germany, which was part of East Germany until the wall came down in 89 and Germany was united again a few weeks later. It was a place that got absolutely levelled in WW2, perhaps unnecessarily so, towards the end of the war. The scars of this event remain on the buildings, and on the people’s psyche. The buildings are easier to spot, as they had to rebuild 70% of the city so you can clearly see the difference between the old and new stones. The other scars are graffitied onto walls about not forgetting the atrocity, or wanting justice for the war crime as they see it.
Still though, Dresden is a really nice city, one thing I really liked was a long wall of a building with a mural painted depicting all of the Saxon kings in a long parade. Very unique!
I pushed onto Berlin, and to my amused surprise I missed my bus. By mere meters. I gave myself an 40 mins to get there, and the schedule said I’d have 15 mins to spare. I can attest, public transport in Germany being like clockwork is a grand generalisation. But I got to Berlin nonetheless, and thankfully found a nice lady who lent me her internet so I could locate where exactly I was staying. As once again I had been walking the streets in the general area for a good 15 mins.
I like Germany, it’s a shame I had used up most of my time and Euros before I got there. Berlin is a place I had been before actually, I was 19, it was the week before Christmas and cold. It was great then, and great again now. I got to see a bunch of the things I didn’t get to see last time. One thing primarily was the SS museum, or rather its called the Topography of Terror. It is a free museum that tells the brutal truths of the Nazi party, it’s SS, how they managed to gain control of Germany and what they did as a result. I think the most curious thing was, in the first rounds of votes in 1933, they only got 33% of the vote, but in the subsequent votes in the following years that figure was changed to 94% and then 96% (of those that voted mind you.)
It was a very interesting museum. I followed that up by taking in one of the oldest pubs in Berlin, if not the oldest. Apparently Napoleon himself, drank there, so yes, very happy to check that out.
I was able to catch up again with Susi, the German girl I had met in Corinth, later that night for beer and pizza. That was nice, as I got to see my first familiar face in ages. Which I’ll get to later…
The down side to my time in Berlin this time around was it rained all through the next day, which caused flooding and a general state of emergency in a number of places in Berlin. I had planned on checking out a couple of things that day, but they required me to walk a bundle. And in simply walking for my daily coffee I had got completely drenched. So after I went for a miserable run in the rain, I took a lazy day, but still got drenched as I went out that night looking for a craft beer bar.
So yes, It was pointed out to me, whilst sharing a blablacar from Prague to Dresden, that I had been alone these past 3 months. I thought “haha really!?” But apart from the obvious literal aloneness it was rather in all the places I had visited, I knew no one, and thus I was alone by their reckoning. Which is quite true. I knew no one in Japan, Greece, Macedonia and so on and so forth. Everywhere I went I was met by unfamiliar places and faces. Not a single person I recognised. Which I thought was pretty cool.

Sure, travelling solo has its quiet moments, and times of loneliness or rather times when I would have liked to have had people to hang out with, or share random amusing things with. But, the benefits has been I have been able to have a trip I wanted. I wasn’t accountable to anyone, responsible for anyone else, held up or have to negotiate where, when and what I did. I set my on path, and enjoyed nearly every moment of it.

I’ve been thinking about these things recently as I’m transitioning out of the unknown part of my trip to the known. I’m literally doing that now, sitting in my seat 31A, on a rather cloudy Ryan Air flight to Glasgow. Where a good friend from my days in Scotland is waiting to pick me up from the airport. Its hard to be gutted to be moving on, because of all the familiar faces I will get to see in the next 2 and a half months. Some I haven’t seen in 14 years, others it’s only been 6 months. Everywhere I will go from here on there will be someone I know. Quite the transition.

But, that being said, I met a lot of wonderful and cool people over the past 3 months. The helpful ladies when I first touched down in Tokyo, or the fellas in the Japanese baths, or even my hosts where I stayed. I made some really great friends in Greece, Macedonia and Serbia. Some, I got to catch up with again further along in my travels, which was I guess my only familiar faces. Every Workaway I did I met cool people, I met people on buses, trains and at cafes. I met people whilst out for a run, standing in line, on the tram and at the pub. Or sometimes people just randomly arrived on my door step. So yes, there have been moments of aloneness these past 3 months, but also times full of people. And to be fair, I doubt I would have met half of them if I wasn’t travelling solo.