Wandering and Wondering

Khmer culture

2009-02-06T02:18:00.000-08:00

We began our tour of Cambodia a little over a week ago. Today we are in the capital Phnom Penh, and this morning I was asked by a tuk-tuk driver if I would like a ride to the “killing fields”. The Killing Fields of Choeung Ek is an area where approximately 17,000 people were executed by the Khmer Rouge between 1975 and 1978 under Pol Pot’s brutal regime. For many Khmers (which is what Cambodians call themselves) including our tour guide, the Khmer Rouge years are the source of many painful memories and it has taken a long time for the country to rebuild itself. It was only in 2007 that a tribunal commenced to bring genocide charges against the Khmer Rouge leaders, and there are still many who haven’t been brought to justice.

I didn’t take up the tuk-tuk driver’s offer as we had our own mini-bus transportation already organized. Before visiting the killing fields we visited the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum. The museum building was originally a school until 1975 when it was converted to a prison and used for detention, interrogation and torture by the Khmer Rouge. Every person who passed through the prison was photographed, and the photographs remain today as a brutal reminder.

The killing fields contained numerous mass graves, the biggest of which held 2000 bodies. Most of the bodies have since been exhumed and are now on display in a large monument, but there are still many bones scattered around the fields, and every time it rains more get revealed. Our guide pointed some out to us on the very path we were walking along.

Even though the Khmer Rouge regime ended almost 30 years ago, Cambodians have only really been living in peace since the year 2000. It makes you realize why much of the country’s infrastructure isn’t in the best condition – rebuilding a nation takes a long time. Tourism is helping to bring a lot of money into the country, but many of the tourist facilities are foreign owned, so a lot of the money doesn’t stay here. Even the Killing Fields of Choeung Ek are privately owned by a Japanese company after the government privatized them in 2005.

Despite the country’s recent problems, the Khmer people have a rich heritage. The golden age of the Khmer civilization was between the 9th and 13th centuries, when the centre of power was located at Angkor. The temples that were built here during this time still remain standing today. Our base for visiting the temples was the touristy town of Siem Reap. As part of our full day tour we were up at dawn to see the sun rise over Angkor Wat, after which we visited several other temples including the Angkor Thom complex and Banteay Srei. My favourite temple complex, however, was Ta Prohm, which has become overgrown by the jungle. This is where some of the scenes from the Tomb Raider movie were filmed.

Apart from the temples, the other highlight of Cambodia has been its friendly people. In Siem Reap we visited an orphanage to spend some time with the children. After playing some games with them and letting them take photos with our cameras, they performed a traditional dance for us. One little girl attached herself to me from the moment we arrived.

We also had a chance to meet with some local families while staying at Kampong Cham. We went on a cycle tour to an island that involved crossing a bamboo bridge. On the island we visited the home of a local family and they shared some home-grown food with us. Later in the evening we had dinner with our tour leader’s family, and they provided a delicious spread of traditional food. And for dessert? Tarantula! With Em hiding outside the front door, I had the experience of holding a live tarantula in my hand. Some of the other members of the group even tried eating tarantula, but I decided to pass on that.

Another interesting experience was our home-stay, where we got to experience sleeping in a hut on stilts with the locals. We went to sleep listening to the sounds of the farm animals, including a couple of small pigs that were running around below our hut (or was that the sound of our tour leader Sam snoring?), and in the morning we were woken by the sound of the roosters crowing.

Our final destination before reaching Phnom Penh was the beachside town of Sihanoukville. The main beach was far too overcrowded, so we decided to go on a boat tour to some islands just off the coast. On the first island we did a bit of snorkeling, and on the second island we spent a few hours just relaxing on the beach. But it seems you can’t have a day in Cambodia without an adventure of some sort – on our way back to Sihanoukville the propeller on our boat broke and we were stranded in the middle of the sea. We had to wait about 45 minutes before another boat came along and towed us back to shore.

But our adventure wasn’t quite over just yet. Our boat couldn’t be towed all the way to the shore, so we either had to jump from our boat to the other boat (both of which were rocking up and down quite vigorously), or jump from our boat and swim the 150 metres to shore. Most of us chose the second option, but then there was the problem of our bags. I had thousands of dollars worth of camera equipment in my backpack, which I watched with trepidation being passed from one boat to the next. I’m happy to say that everyone arrived safely back at shore along with all their luggage. Except, that is, for one of Elle’s thongs, which she had to swim back to the boat to fetch.

We had the option of going on another boat trip the next day, but surprisingly no one took up the offer. Instead, Emma and I spent the afternoon at Ortres beach, which was a 20 minute tuk-tuk ride from the main beach and a lot more peaceful. Here we tried some wind-surfing which took a while to get the hang of, but was quite fun.

Tomorrow we leave Cambodia for the next part of our adventure – Vietnam!

Bangkok, Dangerous

2009-01-25T08:25:00.000-08:00

Emma and I arrived in Bangkok a couple of days ago for the start of our 5 week "Indochina Unplugged" overland tour. On the plane I watched a movie called "Bangkok, Dangerous". The opening scenes of the movie described Bangkok as a "city full of con-artists and hustlers". Having been to Bangkok once before, I already had the experience of being scammed by a tuk-tuk driver who promised to take me to see some temples for a very cheap fare, but ended up taking me to a tailor shop where they tried to sell me several suits. It is a pretty standard scam, and this time in Bangkok I noticed a sign up at the hotel warning about it. So for my second time visiting Bangkok, I was a little bit more travel wise. But that didn't stop me running into problems.

The first problem started back in Sydney when we were on the plane waiting to depart. There was some sort of problem with the radio system on the plane which delayed our departure by 40 minutes. Our flight to Bangkok was via Hong Kong, where we were scheduled for a stop-over of just over an hour. With our flight delayed by 40 minutes, however, we were only going to have around half an hour after landing to get off the plane, go through a security checkpoint and get to the boarding gate for the next leg of our flight. We voiced our concerns to the flight attendant and they agreed to move us up to the front of the plane just before landing, so that we would be the first to disembark. This meant that we got to sit in business class for the last 20 minutes of the flight, which I must admit was a very nice way to fly.

After landing, we pretty much ran to the security checkpoint and then on to the gate and made it just as boarding was commencing. My luggage, however, wasn't so fortunate, and we arrived in Bangkok to find that my bag was missing, even though Em's bag was there. On reporting this to the lost luggage counter, they told us they had no record of either my bag or Emma's bag in the system. We were left with no choice but to head to our hotel and hope they would find my bag and fly it down on a later flight that night.

Come the next day and my bag still hadn't arrived, so I was thinking I would need to buy a whole new set of clothes, toiletries and other travel gear, not to mention all the chargers for my camera, phone and laptop. I finally got a call later that evening saying that they had found my bag in Hong Kong and would fly it down that night.

So I know had my bag, but my troubles in Bangkok didn't stop there. The next day we visited the Grand Palace, and after wandering around the amazing palace buildings and temples for about half an hour I realised that my mobile phone was missing from my pocket. Em tried calling my number on her phone, but couldn't get through. So I'm not sure if it fell out of my pocket somewhere or was pick-pocketed. Either way it was gone. To be honest, after going thru losing my entire bag of luggage, I wasn't really all that concerned about the phone - losing my wallet or passport would have been a lot worse. Sure, I'll be without a phone for the rest of the trip, but when I get back home I can buy myself a brand new iPhone with the money from the travel insurance.

Tomorrow we leave Bangkok and head into Cambodia, so hopefully my luck will improve. "Bangkok, Dangerous"? Maybe. "Bangkok, Unlucky"? Yes.

Throwing up on Mt Kilimanjaro

2007-10-06T00:05:00.000-07:00

At the end of my overland adventure, I met up with my friend Jeromy in Nairobi to climb Mt Kilmanjaro, Africa's highest mountain. I didn't really think about how hard it would be until we had our pre-trip briefing in Moshi the night before we were scheduled to start our climb. Our guide mentioned that the temperature could reach as low as minus 20 degrees celcius, and that on the final day we would need to get up at midnight to make the climb to the summit, and I began to realize that this wouldn't be a walk in the park.

Then of course there was the threat of altitude sickness. Unless you've climbed before, it is impossible to know how it will affect you. From the accounts of other people we met, it seems to strike people down randomly with disregard for fitness levels. The best advice is probably to take things day by day, step by step. With that in mind, here is a day by day summary of our climb:

Day 1

After filling up our stomachs as much as possible from the buffet breakfast and hiring some extra cold weather gear such as gloves and balaclavas, Jeromy and I pilled into a mini-bus together with a Canadian couple, David and Annette (who would be our hut-mates for the next 5 nights), for the drive to the Marangu park entrance gate. Amusingly, our mini-bus stalled about 50 metres from the gate so we had to get out and walk (TIA). Not to worry - we would be doing a lot more walking over the next 6 days.

For the very underprepared climber, there were people at the gate trying to sell us everything from hats to walking sticks and even shoes. Personally, I think that if you get to the gate and realize you've forgotton your shoes, you probably aren't ready to climb Kilimanjaro.

We had to wait at the gate for at least an hour or so while all the necessary papers were signed. We finally entered through the gate and into the national park at around 12pm. The first day's walk was only a relatively short 3 hours through tropical rainforest to reach the Mandara hut. At 2700 metres above sea level, it was 700 metres above the park entrance gate.

At the end of the day's walk, we were served afternoon tea consisting of popcorn, biscuits and a nice hot cup of tea:

In the evening, I went exploring around the campsite, and watched dinner being prepared:

Dinner itself was quite tasty. By day 6 the meals would start to become a little repetitive, but the important thing was that there was always plenty of food so you certainly didn't go hungry. Our guide encouraged us to eat as much as possible to stock up on energy for the days ahead.

After dinner we played cards for a couple of hours before heading to bed at 9pm for an early night. I was pleasantly surprised at how nice the huts were for sleeping in (they even had solar powered lights). Then again, when you've been sleeping in a tent for the last 8 weeks, any accomodation where you can stand up inside seems luxurious.

Day 2

Today we began walking at around 8am. While it was a bit tougher than the first day's walk, it was still pretty easy going. We passed quite a few people who were heading down the mountain, and most of them had big smiles on their faces suggesting that they had reached the top. The weather was beautiful, and we got some good glimpses of our target which was still a long way off:

We arrived at Horombo hut at around 3pm in the afternoon. At 3720 metres above sea level, it is situated in a picturesque location above the clouds.

Horombo is the biggest campsite on the whole mountain, and it was buzzing with people the whole time we were there. Dinner time was particularly chaotic, and we were rushed through our meals in half an hour in order to make room for the next group of people:

Day 3

Today was our acclimatisation day, so in the morning we had a fairly relaxing walk a short distance up the mountain before returning back to Horombo. In the afternoon we had nothing much to do, so we got in some extra sleep knowing that we probably wouldn't get much over the next couple of days. In the evening, fog rolled in over the campsite, highlighting just how quickly the weather can change while you're up here:

Looking back, I'm glad we had the extra day at Horombo to give our body extra time to adjust to the altitude. The only disadvantage was the extra waiting around which added to the anxiety about reaching the summit.

Day 4

Most of the walk was pretty easy going. We were travelling across an alpine desert landscape, and the road was quite smooth and not very steep:

The last hour or so, however, was quite tough and I arrived at Kibo Hut with a bit of a headache. When my strongest pain medication didn't seem to have any effect I was a bit worried that I wouldn't be able to make it to the summit. Luckily, Annette gave me some Diamox pills for altitude sickness and they seemed to do the trick.

We slept for a couple of hours in the afternoon before an early dinner and then back to bed again at 7pm. I'm glad I packed an extra blanket, because the temperature inside the hut is freezing.

Day 5 - Summit Day

We were woken up about half an hour before midnight and had a cup of tea and some dry biscuits so as not to upset the stomach. I was actually feeling pretty good when we started walking at just after midnight. The two things I remember the most about the climb are the amount of clothing I had on and the phrase "pole pole". First, the clothing. Everyone we had passed on their way down the day before had told us to wear every piece of clothing we had because of how cold it was. I didn't quite wear every piece I had, but almost:

Feet: 3 pairs of socks, 1 pair of shoes = 4 layers

Legs: thermal underwear, jeans, cargo pants, rain pants = 4 layers

Torso: 2 singlets, thermal top, ice-breaker long sleeve woolen shirt, thin zip-up jumper, long sleeve button up shirt, ice-breaker woolen vest, light jacket = 8 layers (I also took a rain jacket which I wore at the very top)

Head: balaclava, beanie, neck warmer = 3 layers (I also had my beard which I had been growing for 2 weeks)

Hands: gloves = 1 layer

In total, I thus had 21 separate pieces of clothing! I did sweat a little on the way up, but overall I think it was the right amount of clothing.

The second thing I remember about the climb is the Swahili phrase "pole pole" (pronounced "poleh, poleh"), which means "slowly, slowly". Whenever I stopped to catch my breath, my guides would tell me "pole, pole". If you stop for too long you freeze, so it is better to keep moving slowly.

Looking up at the stars or back at the line of torches crawling up the mountain also wasn't advisable because it tended to make me feel a bit dizzy. Instead, I just looked at Jeromy's feet in front of me and tried to match my steps with his.

Listening to some tunes on my MP3 player helped keep my thoughts away from how exhausted I was and how much further there was still to go. This is also one of the reasons why we climb up in the dark - you can't see how steep the slope is and become discouraged, and instead you are forced to concentrate on the ground just in front of you in your torchlight.

At the halfway point we stopped for a short breather and I ate some chocolate. Bad idea. 30 seconds after we started moving again I began feeling a bit nauseous, and suddenly threw up. After throwing up, however, I found a second wind of energy and was actually feeling pretty good.

Jeromy, on the other hand, wasn't so well off. When we reached the section where we needed to scramble up some rocks he started feeling dizzy and couldn't maintain his balance very well. With the support of our guides, however, we eventually reached the major milestone of Gillman's point at around 4.30am. After that, we were told, it was only an "easy" hour and a half or so to the summit. Exhausted as we both were, however, it was still pretty tough going.

At around 6am, the sun started to rise and we could finally see our surroundings. At this point, the sheer beauty of where we were and the realization that we had made it hit me, and it was a pretty amazing feeling. Watching the sun rise over the clouds from the top of Kilimanjaro is something I'll never forget. My exhaustion was temporarily forgotten as I got my camera out to take some photos.

We finally reached Uhuru peak, the highest point in Africa at 5895m above sea level, at the official time of 6.40am. We had a group hug and lots of handshakes to celebrate, and then lined up in the queue to get the obligatory photo in front of the sign. Kudos to Jeromy for making it to the top - I'm not sure if I could have made it in his condition.

Our guide estimated that the temperature at the summit was around minus 15 degrees celcius. With all my layers I felt reasonably warm, but my fingers froze when I took them out of my gloves.

We were only allowed to stay on the summit for around 10 minutes before starting our descent. Given that Jeromy still wasn't feeling that good, it was important to get down as fast as possible.

Since the sun was now up, I started sweating profusely in my 21 layers of clothing. The problem was that I couldn't really take much off, because apart from wearing it there was no easy way of carrying it all down.

Once we were half way down, Jeromy was feeling a lot better and could walk on his own again. Strangely, I threw up again at pretty much exactly the same place as I did coming up. Must be something about the altitude of 5300m that my body doesn't like. At that point, I decided that I'd had enough of the mountain and just wanted to get back to Kibo Hut as soon as possible, so I all but ran down the last section. Mainly I just wanted to remove some layers of clothing. When I finally reached Kibo, even my third layer of pants was soaked with sweat.

After a short break at Kibo hut, we started our descent back to Horombo. Looking back towards the mountain, it only now became apparant how steep the slope was that we had ascended in the dark. In the following photo, the light gray line on the right hand side is the path we followed to reach Gillman's point (may need to view the large version of the photo). We then walked along the top to reach the snow covered peak on the left:

Upon reaching Horombo, it was time for a well deserved sleep.

Day 6

Feeling rather refreshed after one of the best night's sleep I've had in ages, today we descended all the way down from Horombo to the park entrance gate. On the way down, it was now our turn to smile at those people coming up and wish them good luck, with the knowledge of what they are in for.

The morals of the story:

Slow and steady wins the race, or "pole pole" as they say in Swahili.

To borrow a phrase from U2, "sometimes you can't make it on your own", but with a good team behind you anything is possible. We certainly wouldn't have made it anywhere near the top without the help of our guides and porters, who did a fantastic job of keeping us motivated and lightening our load (I hate to admit it, but they even carried my day-pack for the last section on summit day).

Throwing up may not always be a bad thing - it may just give you that second wind of energy you need to reach the summit.

What's next on my crazy list of adventures? Who knows. But I think I need a bit of a break first.

Close Knit

2007-10-03T09:01:00.000-07:00

Nairobi marked the end of an 8 week journey from Cape Town in which I spent almost every minute of my life with the other members in the tour group: having meals together, travelling on the truck together, cooking together, visiting sights together, rafting the Zambezi together, partying together and even throwing up together. As you could expect, we became quite a close knit family, so it was sad when we finally had to say goodbye. Thanks to everyone who made it such an enjoyable trip. Come and visit if you ever find yourself in Sydney.

Close Encounters

2007-10-03T08:58:00.000-07:00

In my last few weeks in Africa we got closer than ever to some of the wildlife. In South Luangwa national park in Zambia we were driven around in a small jeep, so we could get a lot closer to the animals than we could in Etosha where we were forced to stick to the main roads in our truck. Our guide in South Luangwa also knew the national park like the back of his hand, so was able to drive us to places where we were more likely to find animals. It was actually on a night safari that we spotted our first leopard for the trip, enabling us to tick off the last of the "Big 5" animals. The leopard was hunting a herd of springbok, and stalked across the road right in front of our jeep:

Our close encounters weren't just confined to the national park. At our campsite the next day, we returned to find a full grown elephant trimming the branches from some trees only about 20 metres from where our tents were setup:

And elephants weren't the only animals to invade our campsite. Jake and Sarah were woken up at 1am to the sound of a hippo grazing right outside their tent (and I mean right outside - in the morning they discovered one of its footprints on their tent!). Then of course there were the monkeys, who would steal anything from the campsite that wasn't locked away:

After South Luangwa, the next major national park we visited was Ngorongoro crater in Tanzania. The main thing we were hoping to see were some lions, which until then we hadn't really seen up close. We weren't disappointed. First up, we saw a lion and lioness lazing in the sun:

Then, just before lunch, we stumbled upon a pride of 7 lionesses. They walked right past our jeep, and we realized that they were headed towards a herd of zebra, so we drove off and positioned ourselves right in the middle. A couple of lions held back and hid in cover just behind our jeep, while some others flanked the zebras from both sides. Eventually, the zebras cottoned on to what was happening, and starting running frantickly in all directions. A couple of zebras ran within about 10 metres of one of the lions that was hiding behind our jeep. The lion jumped up and gave chase, but the zebras were a bit too fast and made a lucky escape.

If our encounters with animals in South Luangwa and Ngorongoro weren't close enough, we managed to get even closer still in Nairobi when we visited the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust and the Giraffe sanctuary:

It was a great way to end our 8 week animal odyssey. Overall, I can pretty much say that I've seen everything I was hoping for in terms of animals in Africa, so I'll be leaving quite satisfied.

Mountains and Beaches

2007-10-03T08:47:00.000-07:00

After several weeks on the road, it was nice to arrive at Lake Malawi and have nothing much to do except laze around on the beach for a few days:

In between sessions on the beach, we also got in a few hours at the bar and numerous games of foozball (table football) and pool. Helen and Matt managed to give Blair and I a caning in foozball, even playing with their hands behind their backs:

Soon enough, however, we were back on the road and headed towards Nyika Plateau nestled high in the mountains. The road up to the top of the plateau wasn't all that flash, so we didn't arrive until after dark. Our campsite was in a clearing at the edge of a forest, and we were the only ones there so it was a little spooky. Once we had our campfire going, however, it wasn't so bad, and the showers turned out to be the best ones we'd had in the whole of Africa (it is amazing what the regenerative powers are of a nice hot shower). The next morning we went for a walk on the plateau. We were the only people around for miles, so there was a great feeling of openness and freedom:

Back at the campsite, Helen taught us how to cook bread on a stick over the campfire. Basically, you just prepare some dough, wrap it around a stick, and cook over the fire for 5 minutes. Then drizzle with honey and eat. Delicious!

The next morning we had a very long drive day ahead of us. Because we had spent an extra day at Kande Beach, we had extra ground to make up so we were up at 4.30am and on the road at 5am. The road heading down from the plateau was one of the bumpiest and dustiest roads of the whole trip. Whenever the truck slowed down to go over a bump (which was a lot), all the dust from behind just poured into the back of the truck. By the time we reached the bottom of the mountain, our faces were so orange with dust that we looked like Oompaloompas from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory:

We crossed the border from Malawi to Tanzania sometime after lunch, but still had a long way to go. At around 9.30pm (after almost 17 hours on the road), Blair finally called it quits, and we camped in the middle of a pine forest (another somewhat spooky campsite). The next day we still had another 9 hours or so on the road before we finally reached Dar es Salaam, with Zanzibar and the promise of some time to chill out only a short 3 hour ferry ride away the following day. Our first day in Zanzibar was spent in the historic Stone Town, which is made up of lots of old stone buildings and narrow alleyways, reminding me a little of some Italian towns that I've visited:

In the afternoon I went for a wander and managed to get a little lost, but eventually found my way to the "African House" bar where we all met up to enjoy some cocktails while watching the sunset:

The next day we went on a spice tour and were shown where the contents of those little jars on your spice rack come from. Nutmeg, for instance, comes from this exotic looking nut:

We also learned that pepper is regarded as the "King of Spices" and cardamom (a spice which I previously had never heard of, but will most definitely have to start using in my cooking) is known as the "Queen of Spices".

With our educational sightseeing out of the way, we were ready to spend some time relaxing on Zanzibar's beautiful beaches. We headed to the town of Nungwe on the north of the island where I decided to try some snorkelling. At first I didn't really like it, but after I got used to being able to breath with my head underwater it was pretty good. We travelled out to the reef on a traditional dhow sailing boat, which was an interesting experience in itself. On the way back I noticed several dhows parked up on the beach, and it reminded me of a certain famous building in Sydney:

The following day our short visit to Zanzibar was over and we caught the ferry back to the mainland, bound once again for the mountains. This time it was the Usambara Mountains. Our campsite was at a place called Irente View Point, and we arrived just in time to watch the sunset:

The next mountain I'll be visiting will be Kilimanjaro. Given that I've done very little exercise over the past few months, I hope I'll be fit enough to make it to the top!

TIA

2007-09-16T07:16:00.000-07:00

The first leg of my overland adventure from Cape Town to Livingstone was relatively smooth going in African terms. We spent most of our time in Namibia, which seemed to be a relatively prosperous country with good roads and infrastructure. The second leg of our journey from Livingstone to Nairobi, however, has been a bit more of an adventure. To account for this, a new phrase has been added to our daily vocabulary on the truck: "this is Africa", or TIA for short. Whenever we run into a problem or crazy situation, the frustration can be reduced just by accepting that "this is Africa", so you can't expect things to be the same as you are used to in developed countries. Some examples:

- When a distance of 100km takes 5 hours to drive because instead of being flat, the road is a continuous series of bumps, rocks and potholes: TIA.

- When it takes minutes to call up a single web page on the Internet: TIA.

- When a minibus with 7 seats can hold 14 passengers: TIA.

- When everytime we park the truck in a town, we get at least several people trying to sell us all sorts of stuff we don't need or want: TIA.

- When your waiter at a restaurant can't understand English, even though it is a touristy restaurant with the menu in English, and after waiting for your meal for 40 minutes, you realise that he didn't even place your order: TIA.

Not that we complained too much - after all, this is what we came to Africa to experience. Looking back, these are the things you actually remember the most. Probably the funniest TIA moment of the whole trip was when we went to a restaurant for dinner at our campsite in Karatu. The restaurant itself looked really flash, with the waiter even bringing us hot towels to wash our hands before dinner, so we were a bit surprised by how cheap everything was on the menu. The cheese burger that Helen ordered, for instance, was only 3000 Tanzanian shillings, which is about AU$3. When the meals arrived, however, the cheese burger turned out to be just a bun with a big hunk of cheese and no meat. Needless to say, Helen was a bit disappointed. 30 seconds later, however, all the lights in the restaurant went out and we all burst into laughter, realizing that it was just another classic TIA moment.

Feeding starving kids in Africa

2007-09-16T07:15:00.000-07:00

When I was a kid I was told not to waste food, because it could "feed a starving kid in Africa". Ironically, while travelling through Africa we have had the opportunity to donate some of the food that we can't eat to hungry kids in some of the villages we have passed through. Here is Mel dishing out some oranges to some kids in a village in Zambia:

While we haven't seen any really severe poverty on this trip, there have certainly been lots of kids with their hands out begging for money. The amount of begging increases dramatically around touristy areas. Unfortunately, however, the people who are the pushiest in asking for handouts are often those who need them the least (eg after asking for money, you'll see them pull out their mobile phone or pack of cigarettes), and the people who are the neediest often don't ask for anything. My general policy is therefore to only give when nothing is asked for, although it can be hard to stick to this all the time.

One place where we were hounded quite a bit for money was at Kande Beach on Lake Malawi. As soon as you walked outside the gates of the campsite, you would be approached by someone trying to sell you something, whether it be a tour of the local village or a wood carving of some sort. You could usually determine quite easily if they were after your money, because they would introduce themselves with a name such as "Donald Duck" or "Julius Caesar". If you keep on walking away from the campsite, however, the people you meet are more genuine and aren't just after your money. I met Gloria on the beach doing some washing:

I discovered that she works for an orphanage named "We are one". She continued her washing while I was given a tour of the orphanage. I was then taken to the Kande Care School, which was setup 5 years ago as an NGO. The kids were having lunch when I arrived. They were very well behaved, and stacked their dirty plates in a pile when lunch was over:

In giving the tour of the school and orphanage, they didn't once ask for any money, so I was happy to make a donation.

Even after travelling across Africa for 8 weeks, it is hard to fully appreciate the difference in the level of wealth between western tourists and local villagers. Sitting safely in the back of the truck and listening to my MP3 player as we drive through villages and farmland is quite surreal - almost like watching a documentary on TV, with the windows of the truck as the TV screen. It is only when we get the chance to visit the local villages on foot that the difference in the level of wealth becomes more apparent. While we were staying at Kande Beach on Lake Malawi, for instance, I decided to upgrade to a nice bungalow for a few nights, because I was a little bit sick of sleeping in a tent every night:

Most of the locals in the nearby fishing village, however, live in simple mud brick houses and sleep on the floor every night, not just when camping:

The fact that I could just whip out some cash to upgrade to a nicer room whenever I wanted made me appreciate how different my life is to the lives of the local villagers. Still, money isn't the be all and end all in life. Even though they don't have much money, they live a fairly simple life so they don't actually need that much money. And even though I may have had a nicer bungalow to sleep in, we still shared the same beautiful beach:

As a local, you also have the advantage of being able to buy stuff at much lower prices than tourists. National parks in particular are one area where tourists get stung a lot more than locals. The entrance fee to the Arusha National Park, for instance, is US$35 for tourists but only 1500 Tanzanian shillings (which equates to about US$1.20) for locals.

In most of the places that we have visited, the kids for the most part seem fairly happy and carefree. When you don't know any better, you don't have anything to complain about. Whenever we drove or walked past a group of people, it was pretty much always the kids who were the first to say hello ("jambo" in swahili). While on a 3 hour hike through the Usambara mountains, we must have heard "jambo" yelled at us over 1000 times. When driving past a group of kids in the truck, the kids always wave, and sometimes do a little dance:

So although I did see a lot of people in Africa who are struggling to get by, I also saw a lot of people who are actually living quite happily.

Hellos and Goodbyes

2007-08-19T13:05:00.000-07:00

Livingstone marks the end of the first leg of my trip from Cape Town to Nairobi. On the Cape to Livingstone leg we had 16 people in the group, but we say goodbye to 12 and hello to 1 for the next leg from Livingstone to Nairobi. We had a farewell sunset cruise on the Zambezi river to say our goodbyes.

Some memories:

The "bags not" rule. As soon as someone says "bags not" (eg "bags not doing the washing up"), everyone must put their thumb on their forehead. The last to do this gets the job:

The "door knob" rule. If you burp or pass wind, you must say "safety" before someone else says "door knob". Otherwise everyone has the right to punch you until you can touch a door knob.

The dangerous stool that was sometimes used to step on when getting in and out of the bag locker. More often than not you fell off. In Livingstone we decided to say goodbye to the stool:

Putting food colouring in the water tanks of some of the other overland trucks so that they would think their water was tainted.

Fighting over power sockets to charge up cameras, laptops, MP3 players and other electrical devices (sorry everyone if I tended to hog these - but I need a lot of juice for the stuff I carry).

There are so many other great memories, too many to mention know as I'm getting kicked off the Internet since it is closing. For those who are leaving us at Livingstone, farewell and keep in touch. For those joining, welcome to the party.

Dr Livingstone, I presume?

2007-08-19T13:01:00.000-07:00

As I write this I am in the town of Livingstone in Zambia, named after the famous explorer. For the last couple of days I’ve been risking death in the name of thrill seeking. The day before yesterday I did a gorge swing. Similar to bungee jumping, this involves being attached to a cord that is suspended over a rather deep gorge. I then stepped off the edge of the cliff and free-fell for a few seconds before being saved by the cord and swinging out over the gorge:

Not content with the possibility of falling to my death from a great height, my next challenge was white water rafting on the Zambezi river, one of the most challenging rafting locations in the world – if the grade 5 rapids don’t kill you, maybe the crocodiles will. The day started off pretty well, and I managed to stay on the raft for the whole morning as we traversed the first 10 rapids. In the afternoon, however, the raft flipped on a rapid named the “Terminator” and I found myself in the middle of a raging torrent with nothing but my life-jacket (and thank God I had that) to keep me afloat. Needless to say that I survived. A couple of rapids later I was thrown out of the raft again, but this time I managed to keep hold of the raft and was hauled back in. At the end of the day I was extremely glad to reach the end of rapid number 23.

Today I visited one of the 7 wonders of the world: the Victoria Falls.

The walk along the main trail along the top of the gorge opposite the falls was ok, but it was much more fun wading thru the river up-stream from the falls, where I was led to a sheltered pool at the top of the falls. The guide climbed to a point roughly 10 metres above the pool and jumped in. Normally I would think twice about following him in, but after jumping off a cliff a couple of days before and rafting the Zambezi yesterday it didn’t seem all that scary, so I followed him in without a second thought.

Tomorrow we leave Livingstone and travel through Zambia towards Malawi.

Boats and border crossings

2007-08-19T12:57:00.000-07:00

After almost 3 weeks in Namibia, we crossed the border into Botswana to visit the Okavango delta. Getting to our campsite was an interesting journey. After parking the truck, we hopped into a speed boat for an hour and a half. We then piled into another truck which stalled mid-way through the journey and had to be push started (by this time, we were quite expert at pushing trucks, given that our truck had been bogged in sand several times before). The truck finally dropped us off at a place where we boarded some canoes for the short journey across to the island where we would be staying.

The next day we got a chance to relax as we were given a 90 minute canoe ride across the delta. It was one of the most tranquil moments of the trip, with nothing to do but sit back and watch the reeds brush past the canoe. We eventually reached another island where we did a bush walk for a couple of hours in hope of seeing some animals. Given that it was the middle of the day, however, most of the animals were smart enough to be lying asleep somewhere under a bush, so we didn’t see all that much except a few baboons before reboarding our canoes for the ride back to camp.

In the evening we were cooked a traditional meal and were entertained by some traditional dancing. We even got the chance to join in with the dancing:

The next couple of days we had a lot of travelling. After getting the speed boat back to our truck, we crossed the border back into Namibia, before crossing back into Botswana the following day and then into Zambia via a ferry.

The gods must be crazy

2007-08-19T12:36:00.000-07:00

In the classic film “The gods must be crazy”, a westerner drops a coke bottle from an airplane while flying over Africa, and a bushman picks it up and looks at it in wonder, having never seen one before in his life. The bushmen we have visited so far on the trip haven’t been quite so isolated from the modern world as this (is there anywhere in the world where you can't buy coke these days?), but they still manage to live a fairly traditional way of life.

The first tribe we visited was the Himba tribe in Namibia. The village in which they live is situated on privately owned land. The owner lived with the tribe for several years and now allows tourists to come and visit. She does the best she can to try and ensure that their traditional lifestyle is maintained. There were about 10 women living in the village, all married to a single man (who wasn’t present when we visited). Along with the women, there were about 15-20 children, and they definitely were not camera shy, putting their face right up to the camera to allow me to get some great photos:

We even joined them in playing a few games. In the game in the following photo, everyone sits in a circle and one person runs around the outside and drops a rag behind another person, who picks it up and takes over. A simple game, but the kids obviously enjoyed it, and so did we.

The next bushmen we visited were the Ju-Hoansi at Grashoek. We first met the kids from the village as they ran behind the truck while we were driving in:

When we pulled to a stop, a large group had gathered:

Some of the kids had made toy cars from old cans and bits of wire, and they would race them with their friends:

We got out the sporting equipment from the truck and played some football, rugby and cricket with them:

As with the Himba tribe, they were not camera shy, and fought over getting a photo taken:

In the afternoon, we were taken on a bush walk, and shown how to light fire, dig for roots and hunt animals.

In the evening the children gathered around the campfire and we shared some food and drinks, sang a few songs, and let them play with our hair (they were fascinated at how soft it was compared to theirs).

As much as they try to live a traditional lifestyle, they still need a bit of money for various things, and they make this by selling jewellery and conducting tours such as ours. I really hope that they manage to maintain their culture and traditions as much as possible, because they are truly wonderful people.

As well as meeting a couple of bushman tribes, I also had the opportunity to do a tour of a village near our Ngepi campsite. Our guide actually lived in the village, so was well suited to answering all of our questions. He showed us how they make their huts, using tree branches for the frames, thatching for the roof, and a kind of cement made from termite mounds for the walls:

Even beer cans and bottles are sometimes used as building materials:

Their diet consists mainly of fish and a porridge made from millet grain. The grain is skillfully separated from the husks using a basket and then crushed to make flour:

As well as porridge, they also make beer from the millet. Women carry water from the river on their heads:

One of the more interesting facts we learned from the villagers is that elephant dung mixed with water and fed to chickens helps to prevent the chickens from getting sick. Another use for elephant dung that we later learned while in the Okavango delta is that it can be burned to repel mosquitos. Useful stuff considering that we have now entered a malaria risk area.

Animals at last

2007-08-19T12:08:00.000-07:00

One of the main reasons I wanted to come to Africa is to see and photograph the animals. For the first couple of weeks, however, the only animals we saw were the odd Springbok along the side of the road, and lots of jackals around the campsites (one of which stole one of Adam’s shoes from the front of his tent):

We discovered a nature reserve by chance when Blair (our tour leader) decided to try a new road. According to the guy at the gate, there was supposed to be some rhinos in the reserve so we decided to take the top off the truck to try and spot them. Other tour companies may have fancier trucks in many other aspects, but I think this is one of the best aspects about our truck. With the top off, we could sit up top and have the sun on our face and the wind in our hair:

In terms of animals, however, we didn’t really see much. The only rhino we saw was the statue at the exit gate. The next day we came across a big herd of goats and a few baboons, but still none of the “Big 5”:

We did manage to see some pictures of animals when we visited the Twyfelfontein to view the ancient rock carvings, but still none of the real thing:

The next day we arrived at a Cheetah Park with a guarantee of getting pretty close to some real live cheetahs, so everyone was pretty excited. We first visited some tame cheetahs that were reared by the owners of the park, and I got closer than I ever thought I would to a live cheetah:

We then did a drive through the cheetah park where we got to see some wild cheetahs fight over donkey meat thrown to them by the guides:

The next day we came to Etosha - the first major nature reserve on our itinerary. After driving through the gate and travelling a few hundred meters to the first watering hole, we were greeted with an amazing sight, as hundreds of animals all tried to get a drink:

After a couple of days driving through the reserve, we had sighted most of the major types of animals:

Zebras, elephants and giraffe were quite a common sight. Lions were much more elusive. On the first day we saw one at a water hole, but it was much too far away to get a decent photo. This man ignored the warning sign to try and get a bit closer:

On the next day we saw another lion and a cub and watched them for a while as they stalked a herd of wilderbeast. The lion didn’t have any luck catching any wilderbeast, and neither did I have any luck getting a decent photo (still too far away).

When we entered Etosha, we jumped at the sight of any type of animal, but by the time we left we had become rather blaze. We would drive by a herd of zebras without really bothering to look. A few days after Etosha we entered the Chobe nature reserve in Botswana. We were driving slowly along the main road through the middle of the park for about half an hour without spotting a single animal before we started getting a little bored in the back of the truck and asked Blair to speed up a bit. No sooner did we speed up than we saw a big herd of elephants about to cross the road. Blair slammed on the brakes and did a 180 degree turn, allowing me to get the following snap:

Apart from the lion, the other animal that has been a bit elusive is the hippo. We have heard lots of them at night in some of our campsites and while in the Okavango delta, but haven’t yet got a really good view of any. The best sighting we had was while we were on a sunset cruise along the Zambezi river, when one hippo gave a nice yawn to show us its jaws. Again, it was too far away for a decent photo.

All in all, I’m pretty happy with the animals I’ve had the chance to see so far in Africa. Out of the so called “Big 5” (leopard, lion, rhino, elephant, buffalo), the only animal I haven’t yet seen is the leopard. Hopefully one will show itself on the next leg of the journey.

Adventures in the sand

2007-08-01T05:15:00.000-07:00

On my last blog post I left you at Luderitz. We had just visited the abandoned diamond mining town of Kolmannskuppe. When diamonds were first discovered here, you could literally pick them up of the ground. Since then, however, bigger deposits have been discovered elsewhere, so the town has been abandoned and claimed by the desert sand:

After leaving Luderitz, we were due to spend a night at a campsite in the small town of Aus, but the weather was rather misty so we decided to continue on in the truck and try and find a place to do a bush camp. After about an hour or so of driving, we came across a campsite in the middle of nowhere run by a farming family. The temperature was freezing, and the misty rain got everything a little damp, so we all huddled around the campfire until bed time:

The next day we had a lot of driving ahead of us to get to Sesriem, which is on the edge of the Namib/Naukluft National Park. To keep ourselves occupied in the back of the truck, we played a game called Mafia. Everyone was assigned a role by drawing a card from a normal deck of playing cards: two people who drew the Kings played the role of the Mafia, one person who drew the Ace was the angel, one who drew the Jack was the sheriff, one person who drew the Joker was the narrator and the rest of us were all just villagers. Except for the narrator, all the roles were kept secret.

To start the game, everyone closes their eyes and "goes to sleep" (not literally). The narrator then asks the two people who are playing the Mafia to wake up, and they secretly select a person to kill. The Mafia then go back to sleep and the narrator asks the sheriff to silently acuse a person who they think is the Mafia. The narrator will confirm to the sheriff whether or not that person actually is the Mafia, and the sheriff can use this information later on in the game if they wish to make a public accusation (at the risk of then exposing themselves to the Mafia). Finally, the narrator asks the angel to nominate a person who they would like to protect (ie save from being killed by the Mafia).

Everyone then wakes up, and the narrator describes who was killed by the Mafia (unless they were protected by the angel) and that person is then out of the game. Everyone then has the opportunity to accuse someone of being the Mafia. If the majority of people back the accusation, then the accused has a chance to defend themselves (ie try and convince everyone that they are not the Mafia). If they can sway enough people so that there is no longer a majority, then they are saved. Otherwise they are killed and no longer take part in the game.

The game then continues for another round: everyone goes to sleep, the Mafia nominate someone to kill, the shefiff makes an accusation, the angel nominates someone to save, and then everyone wakes up and makes accusations of who is the Mafia. The object of the game for the people playing the Mafia is to kill everyone else in the village. The object of the game for the rest of the people is to discover and kill the Mafia. It is an interesting game of deceit and trying to determine if someone is lying or telling the truth, and we whiled away several hours playing it.

When we eventually stopped for lunch, we were mobbed by a swarm of bees. The bees were in search of water, so within 10 minutes of stopping they were in all of our washing up water, on our sponges, or anything that contained a little bit of moisture:

After a few more hours driving we arrived at our campsite in Sesriem where it was time for a shower to wash off all the dust and sand. The next morning we were up before dawn in order to arrive at Dune 45 at sunrise. This particular sand dune is over 170 metres high. It was hard work hiking to the top, but well worth it for the amazing views:

Getting down was a lot more fun than climbing up:

We then headed further into the national park to a place called Sossusvlei, which is a clay pan enclosed by the highest sand dunes in the world. The clay pan is white in colour which makes a nice contrast against the red dunes. Together with the dead trees in the middle it makes it an amazing area for photography:

In the afternoon we headed back to Sesriem and made a short visit to the nearby canyon. It is nowhere near the size of the Fish River Canyon which we visited a few days before, but is very narrow and we were able to go for a walk along the bottom:

The next morning we had another long day of driving ahead of us in order to reach Swakopmund. For morning tea we stopped at the Solitaire roadhouse, which is famous for their apple pie. According to the owner, they make 30-40 trays, or around 300-400 pieces per day, which is a lot of pie. Just while I was waiting in the queue there was a whole tray polished off:

Shortly after leaving Solitaire we crossed over the Tropic of Capricorn:

It was only about 20 minutes after this that we met Ewan McGregor (see my other blog post below for the full details):

We finally arrived in Swakopmund, the adventure capital of Namibia, and were happy to move into some dorm rooms for a change rather than camping out in tents. After a night out on the town, many people were feeling rather hung-over the next day when we were booked to do some sand-boarding. We drove about 20 minutes out of town to the dunes, and although they weren't as high as those near Sossusvlei, it was still quite tiring climbing to the top, only to sand-board down and have to climb up again:

I have a video of the sand-boarding, but the Internet here in Swakopmund is so slow that I won't even try to upload it at this time (they are still on dial-up-modems here - according to the guy at the Internet cafe they will be upgrading to broadband "in the next few days" - just after we've left probably). I also apologise if I am a bit slow responding to emails or facebook messages. The facebook website doesn't really work.

The adjective that best describes my last week or so is "sandy". The sand gets in everything. After each day of travel the back of the truck is covered in sand and dust. Already two people have had their cameras stop functioning, so I have to be very careful with mine.

This afternoon we are going quad-biking over the sand dunes, so I'll no doubt be covered in more sand again by the end of the day. Ciao.

Movie stars in the desert

2007-08-01T03:28:00.000-07:00

Ewan McGregor is currently filming a documentary for the BBC called the Long Way Down, in which he and his friend Charley Boorman are travelling by motorbike from Scotland all the way down to South Africa. When we left Cape Town, we realized that we could actually be crossing paths, so there was a remote possibility that we could meet. As we were driving through the Namibian desert on our way from Sesriem to Swakopmund, Helen was in the front of the truck and noticed some motorbikes stopped on the side of the road just ahead of us. When we got closer, we realised that they had cameras so we stopped the truck and low and behold it was Ewan McGregor and his team. We all piled out of the truck as quickly as we could, and they were happy to chat and let us take some photos:

The cameraman was busy taking lots of footage, so with a bit of luck we may make an appearance on the documentary. It goes to air on the BBC in October.

After we finished chatting and getting photos, they rode off on their bikes bound for Cape Town, were they are due to arrive in around a week's time.

They were really nice guys to talk to, even giving us some tips for things to see on the road ahead. The chance meeting turned an otherwise relatively boring day of driving into an experience I'll remember for quite some time.

Dusty Namibia

2007-07-27T05:09:00.000-07:00

For the last few days we've been travelling through Namibia. After leaving Cape Town, we stayed for one night at a campsite a few hours drive north. In the morning the truck wouldn't start due to flat batteries, so we tried giving it a push start. Without power for the steering, however, we ended up pushing the truck into an orange tree, and had to get a jump start instead:

It was a pretty cold night, so the next day we stocked up on extra blankets. The drive to the Namibian border was quite picturesque, with lots of wildflowers:

The truck has canvas sides over rollbars, so usually we roll the canvas up to get a better view. The only problem with this is that it gets pretty cold with all the wind:

After getting our bags searched when leaving South Africa at the Namibian border, we stayed the night at a campsite called "Felix Unite". The next day we spent canoing down the Orange River, which is right on the border between South Africa and Namibia, so at one stage we did actually cross back into South Africa.

The following day was an 8 hour drive in the truck to Fish River Canyon. For most of the way it was only a dirt road, so we had to contend with dust as well as cold:

Different people had different ways of keeping entertained on the truck:

The next day we were up before dawn to watch the sunrise at Fish River Canyon:

It was then back in the truck for the drive to the diamond mining town of Luderitz. This morning we visited an abandoned mining town. Tomorrow we head towards the giant red sand dunes of Namibia.

Cape Town

2007-07-21T09:24:00.001-07:00

Well, I've finally arrived in Africa! My first impression of Cape Town wasn't all that good. Upon leaving the airport feeling rather jetlagged after 20 hours of flying and stop-overs, the first thing I was greeted with as the shuttle bus drove towards the city was a sprawling shanty town. The next thing I noticed was all of the razor wire covering most of the fences and buildings to stop intruders. After getting a good sleep, however, the next day I took the cable car up to the top of Table Mountain. Upon reaching the top I was greeted with some of the most amazing views I've ever seen. Looking north, the city was spread out below with fog covering the harbour:

Looking south I could view the 12 Apostles shrouded in mist:

And looking west over the Atlantic ocean was a sea of clouds instead of water:

The next day I headed into an area of the city known as the V&A Waterfront (funnily enough because it is on the waterfront). This is probably the most up-market area of the city, with fancy shopping malls and waterfront restaurants. I was planning on doing a tour to Robben Island, which is where Nelson Mandella spent many years as a political prisoner under the apartheit regime. Unfortunately the tours were all booked out for several days, so I had to miss out. Instead, I wandered around the waterfront and watched all of the street performers and musicians:

After the rather dismal weather during my stay in London, the weather so far in Cape Town had been fantastic, with mostly bright blue skies and lots of sunshine. The next day I decided to do a day tour to visit the Cape Peninsular national park. In the morning, the clouds started to roll in over the mountains:

By the time we reached the Cape Peninsular national park to do some cycling, it started to drizzle. When we finally reached the peninsular, it was pouring down, so we decided to forgoe the hike up to the lighthouse in favour of hot chocolates in the restaurant at the bottom. We then proceeded on to the Cape of Good Hope, and the rain stopped just long enough to get this photo:

Even with the rain, it was still quite an enjoyable day trip. Our tour guide gave a very interesting commentry on the history of the country and how things are beginning to change after the end of apartheit. As we drove along, he would point out towns or parts of towns that were designated as either "white only", "brown only" or "black only". Today, people are free to live where they like, but change doesn't happen overnight, so many of these areas are still inhabbited by 99% of their original populations. It will take many years before whites and blacks are truly living side by side.

After a not so good first impression, I've come to really like Cape Town, and wish I could stay a few more days as there is so much to see and do here. Today I met up with the rest of my tour group, some of whom I'll be spending the next 8 weeks with. Tomorrow we say goodbye to Cape Town and head up the west coast towards Namibia.

Africa Bound

2007-07-15T15:11:00.000-07:00

My flight from London to Cape Town leaves exactly 12 hours from now tomorrow morning, so by the time you read this I could already be in Africa. Apologies for the sudden rush of my last 5 blog entries, all of which I've written today instead of spreading then evenly over the last 10 days since my last entry. But for the next couple of months my blogging and photo uploading is likely to be a lot more sporadic given the nature of where I'm travelling, so you'll have to get used to it. See you in Africa!

Bristol and Cardiff

2007-07-15T14:11:00.000-07:00

Last weekend I caught the train to Bristol, 2.5 hours west of London (although my journey actually took 3.5 hours, but lets not talk about that now - I'll leave my rant about the English train system till the end of my article), to catch up with my old uni friends Ian and Gez and their (almost) 2 year old son Jayden. Here's the little tiger:

The weather was actually nice and sunny for a change, and the local kids made the most of it:

Ian and Gez showed me around town, including a hike up to the Observatory Hill where we got a nice view of the suspension bridge and the farmland beyond:

Of course, the tour wouldn't have been complete without visiting a few of Ian's favourite watering holes along the way. In the evening we went to a local pub near their house and I sampled the English favourite of Gammon and Eggs (basically just a thick hunk of ham and eggs).

The next day I said goodbye to Ian, Gez and Jayden and caught the train for the short journey to Cardiff, the capital city of Wales. Here I visited most of the usual tourist sites, but probably the most interesting was the Senedd building, which is where the National Assembly of Wales meets to debate:

The building itself is only a few years old, and I remember reading about it when it was finished. It incorporates some interesting design features for saving energy, the main one being a giant wooden funnel that draws air out from the building, reducing the need for conventional air-conditioning:

I also visited the Dr Who exhibition, a TV show that used to really scare me when I was a kid:

At the end of the day I headed to the train station for the ride back to London. It was at this point that I discovered my mistake of purchasing one-way train tickets instead of getting a return ticket. The reason I got one-way tickets was because I wasn't returning to London from the same place (ie I was returning from Cardiff instead of Bristol). Logically, two one-way tickets shouldn't cost that much more than a return ticket, so I didn't think it would matter that much. Wrong! A one-way ticket to Bristol costs £49, and a return ticket only costs £1 more! So, basically I ended up paying around £100 for my return trip instead of £50 (the one-way ticket from Bristol to Cardiff was only around £6). Who came up with such a stupid pricing policy? And why are train tickets so expensive anyway? My flight from Milan to London only cost AU$110 (about £40), which is less than the one-way train ticket from London to Bristol. My flight also wasn't late by an hour. I've even seen advertisements for flights from London to New York for only £129, which is only slightly more than what I paid for my return train trip. What makes it more ridiculous is that they should be trying to encourage more people to use trains instead of planes because the carbon emissions are a lot less. So here is my message to the new primeminister Gordon Brown: Fix the train system!

Ok, that's enough ranting for now. Apart from the trains, it was a good couple of days in Bristol and Cardiff.

Parks and Gardens

2007-07-15T13:10:00.001-07:00

One of the great things about London is that there are heaps of parks and gardens everywhere. One of the biggest is Hampstead Heath, where you can forget that you are actually in London and pretend that you are somewhere in the Scottish heathlands:

Then there are the small parks dotted all over the city, such as Victoria Tower Gardens, where office workers go on their lunch breaks:

Not to forget the Royal Parks, such as Hyde Park, St Jame's Park and Greenwich Park, with their perfectly manicured gardens and lakes:

There is plenty of wildlife, including ducks, pigeons and squirrels:

It is great to have somewhere you can go to relax and have fun, away from the crowded tube stations and busy city streets. For instance, you can go for a roll down the hill in Greenwich Park:

Or you can relax and listen to the Hampshire Constabulary Band playing in St Jame's Park:

Then there's card games in the park:

You can even take part in an army training drill and learn how to launch rockets at your enemies:

In concluding this blog entry, I'll leave you with the following poem from a deckchair in Regent's Park:

Sky is blue
Trees are green & brown
Flowers are red, white, blue, yellow, pink & orange
Grass is green
Water is blue
Ground is brown

Shops and Markets

2007-07-15T11:28:00.000-07:00

Last weekend I visited a couple of markets. On Friday I headed out to the famous Camden markets, which is made up of a number of smaller markets all linked together. To be honest I've never really been a big fan of markets (apart from food markets), as they often just have lots of low quality junk at exhorbitant prices. Still, you occasionally find an interesting shop such as the following one that claimed to be the "best shop in the world", with crafts from all over the globe:

The other interesting shops were those selling punk and gothic clothing and accessories (and the interesting clientelle that they attract). Adding to my suspicions that London is being assimilated by The Borg (see my earlier post where I sighted what looked like a Borg spacecraft in downtown London), one of the shops called Cyberdog looked like they were the official clothing supplier for the Borg. I borrowed the following image from their website which shows an example of the cool stuff they sell:

The next day I met up with Ash and Tara for lunch at the Borough food market:

Since I've left Italy, I haven't been doing that much cooking, so I decided to buy some ingredients for a pasta. In Italy the food from the markets is pretty cheap, so I was a little shocked to discover that my 7 tomatoes, 1 onion and a bunch of basil cost a whopping £7! Still, they probably weren't as expensive as the following vegetables from London's most expensive shopping destination, Harrods:

Harrods is where you go to shop if you've got money to burn. The most expensive items I could find on my short visit were the following pair of watches. The one on the left is priced at £20,000, while the one on the right is £48,950 (that's over AU$120,000).

Tomorrow I'll be leaving London bound for Africa where I'll no doubt find lots of stuff at ridiculously cheap prices (provided that I can get the local prices and not the tourist prices) to help provide some relief to my bank account.

Museums, museums and more museums

2007-07-15T10:11:00.000-07:00

For my last week in London I must have spent around 50% of my waking hours walking around museums. Here is the complete list of museums and galleries I've visited since I've been in London:

Tate Modern
Tate Britain
Kensington Palace
Kenwood House
Museum in Docklands
British Museum
Photographer's Gallery
National Portrait Gallery
Victoria and Albert Museum
Science Museum
Star Wars Exhibition
Royal Observatory
National Maritime Museum

The great thing is that most of them are free. Tate Modern is definitely one of my favourites. They are currently showing an exhibition called Global Cities which looks at urbanisation and its impact on the way we live. One of the exhibits showed the population densities of 4 different cities via 3D graphs:

Another one of my favourites was the Surreal Things exhibition at the Victoria and Albert museum. Unfortunately no photography was allowed in this particular exhibition, so I can't show you any of the interesting objects they had on display. Apart from this exhibition, the rest of the museum was a little boring (in part due to a bit of museum overload on my behalf), although the sculpture gallery was worth a visit:

The British Museum is fascinating due to the sheer number of artifacts they have on display. This is testament to the wealth of the British empire, and how much they've prospered by exporting the wealth of other countries onto British soil (a fact which the museum makes up for in a small way by allowing free entry). My favourite exhibit from this museum is a photo of a Buddha statue meditating on a picture of himself displayed on a TV screen:

Even when you are not inside a museum there is always plenty of art to view around London, such as the African Poems on the Picadilly line trains or the deckchair art in Regent's Park:

Capitalism vs Socialism

2007-07-15T09:01:00.000-07:00

On Friday my plan was to have a wander around Canary Wharf and get some photos for the street photography project that I've been working on. On my way to the tube station, however, I chanced across a demonstration in the street by striking postal workers:

After the demonstration was over, I caught the train to Canary Wharf. Canary Wharf is a relatively new area of London which has been massively transformed over the last 20 years from one of the busiest docks in the world to a modern financial centre with skyscapers housing major offices of many of the world's banks. As soon as I stepped off the train, the blue collar workers at the strike were replaced by white collar office workers walking about in suits on their lunch break:

Overall, the symbol of captitalism which Canary Wharf represents made an interesting contrast against the symbol of socialism as represented by the striking postal workers.

Rainy Days

2007-07-05T13:20:00.000-07:00

London weather sucks. There is no denying it. Even though it is supposed to be summer, it has been cold and rainy here almost every day for the last 3 weeks. At least there are lots of good museums and exhibitions where you can escape the weather. Last week I went to the Star Wars exhibition to watch this little kid doing battle with Darth Vader:

This week I've had a cold, so I haven't been doing all that much except for lying in bed and reading some books (I just finished George Orwell's "1982" and "Animal Farm") or watching a bit of Wimbledon on the TV (when it hasn't been rained out).

The place where I've been staying for the last couple of weeks is called Finsbury Residences. It is student accomodation owned by City University which they rent out over the summer months when most of the students are away on vacation. I'd definitely recommend the place to anyone looking for budget accomodation. In my opinion it is much better than a backpacker's hostel (you get your own room for a start) for about the same price. It is in a pretty good location as well. From my window you can view both St Paul's Cathedral and the London Eye (you may need to click on the image to view the large size to be able to actually make them out in this photo):

Today I'm pretty much fully recovered from my cold, so I did manage to make it outside my room to watch some street acrobatics as part of the City of London Festival:

While walking around the streets, I also noticed the following building which looks like a Borg spaceship from Star Trek:

And that's about all there is to report for the last week or so. Unfortunately nothing much interesting happens when you're in bed all day. Tomorrow I plan on heading out to the famous Camden Markets, and then on Sunday I'm off to Bristol to visit old friends Ian and Gez, so I should have a bit more to talk about in my next blog.

The Championships

2007-06-26T14:13:00.000-07:00

My month long stay in London has luckily coincided with the Wimbledon Tennis Championships. Today I decided to take a chance against the weather and queue up to try and get tickets. After getting up at just after 5am, I eventually made it to the end of the queue by around 6.40am. As soon as I arrived I received a "queue card" as proof of my position in the queue. Mine was numbered 889. Since there are two queues, this means that there were approximately 1600 people infront of me in the queue, many of who had camped overnight.

After about an hour they started handing out wristbands to the people in the front of the queue, meaning that they could get tickets for the centre court or show courts 1 and 2. They ran out of wristbands for show court number 2 about 30 people in front of me in the queue, meaning that I would have to settle for a ground pass.

I finally made it inside the gates at a little after 10am, and then had to wait until 10.30am before the rest of the grounds actually opened. At first I was a little disappointed at having missed out on show court tickets by such a narrow margin, but in the end it didn't really matter because I got to see a couple of Australian matches on court 6, so I was pretty happy. By the time the game started at 12pm, all of the seating around the court was packed with lots of Australian supporters, which made for a nice atmosphere. To give you an idea, the court only had 4 rows of seats on one side, and one row of seats on the other side, so it could only accommodate 100-200 people. The advantage was that you were right up close to the action.

The first match was between the Australian player Samantha Stosur and the Puerto Rican player Kristina Brandi. After losing the first set, Sam came back to win 4-6, 6-2, 6-2 in an entertaining match.

The next match was between the Australian veteran Wayne Arthurs and the young rising star Thiemo De Bakker from the Netherlands (who won the junior competition at Wimbledon last year). The first two sets both went to tie-breaks, with Arthurs losing both to find himself two sets down. At this point he looked pretty despondant, and some people started leaving the court to watch other matches.

The third set again went to a tie-breaker, but this time Arthurs managed to win it with a little help from the net cord. After he won the fourth set, the game had well and truly turned around, and a big crowd had gathered to watch the fifth and final set. In addition to the 100-200 seated spectators, there were at least another 100 or so standing, and some even climbed on the back of the stand to get a view. Needless to say it was a great atmosphere. There were three Dutch supporters in orange, but they were well and truly outnumbered by the Australian supporters, who were chanting and singing songs throughout the entire fifth set.

The fifth set was in the balance until Arthurs broke the Dutchman's serve to go ahead 5-4. With the crowd behind him, he went on to serve out the match. The final score was 6-7, 6-7, 7-6, 6-4, 6-4.

With the news of Lleyton Hewitt winning his match, it turned out to be a great day for Aussie fans at Wimbledon. After the Arthurs match was over, I headed to the big-screen on the hill to watch the end of the game between Venus Williams and Alla Kudryavtseva before calling it a night.

So, that's Wimbledon and the French Open crossed off my list of grand-slams. Hopefully I'll be lucky enough to find myself in New York around the time of the US Open sometime in the next few years, and then I'll only have the Australian Open to go to complete my grand-slam!

Kew Gardens

2007-06-22T10:06:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I visited Kew Gardens for a one day Landscape and Nature photography course. It was a very practical course, so there wasn't much talking by our instructors. They gave us a few general tips and tricks and then we just wandered around the gardens taking photographs and asking questions when necessary. We concentrated mainly on macro photography of the various flowers and plants in the gardens, but we also did some landscape and architectural photography. The best part of the course was the fact that we could borrow different lenses from the instructors to try out. The first lense I borrowed was an EF 100mm f/2.8 macro lens, which I used to get the following close-ups (amongst others):

I then borrowed an EF-S 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5 wide-angle lens and used it together with my own EF-S 17-55mm f/2.8 lens for some architectural/landscape photos:

Some other interesting stuff we were shown on the day were the benefits of using a polarising filter to cut out unwanted reflections from your photos, and how you can use an extension tube on an existing lens as an alternative to buying a dedicated macro lens. I also discovered a host of features on my camera such as automatic exposure bracketing and program mode which up until now I hadn't been using (mainly due to the fact that I haven't yet read the instruction manual).

After the course finished, I wandered around the gardens a bit longer and used my EF 70-300mm telephoto lens to get some more close-up photos:

Overall, I learned quite a bit from the day, so it was worth it even if it was a little pricey. Then again, everything in London is pricey - something I haven't quite gotten used to yet.

Card Games in London

2007-06-18T05:35:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I headed to Trafalgar Square to have a look at the Korean Festival. When I arrived, however, I noticed a bunch of people dressed up as playing cards:

Intrigued, I asked what they were doing, and they mentioned that they were doing a promotion for the Secret Garden Party. They were a few people short of a full deck or cards, so they asked if I wanted to join in. Having nothing better to do, I thought why not and donned an "8 of clubs" outfit:

Shortly afterwards we started a game of "Higher or Lower" with the crowd who had gathered to watch. All of the cards lined up with our backs to the contestant, and after shuffling the deck the contestant had to turn around each card in turn and guess whether the next card would be higher or lower. With a little help from the audience he managed to make his way through the entire deck without making a mistake, and was awarded a group hug:

Once the game was over, we started our march through the streets towards Hyde Park where we had been promised free entry to the O2 Wireless Festival. Considering that tickets cost £40 (AU$100), I was pretty happy. On the way to the festival, we played "chase the ace" through the park:

We also stopped to build a house of cards:

When it was finally time to enter the festival, we used the following "secret" entrance:

Once inside, it was time for some refreshments:

Next up, we played a couple of games of snap. The cards shuffled themselves and dealt themselves out on the grass (face down of course):

As each pair of cards rolled over, it was then up to the two teams of contestants to call "snap" when they saw a matching pair of cards, like the following pair of queens:

The team with the most cards at the end celebrated victory:

After another game of "Higher or Lower", it was then time to "throw in the cards" and go and watch the festival:

I headed straight to the main stage in time to watch performances by "The Cribs", the "Editors" and the "Kaiser Chiefs":

A great day overall, all the more so due to the fact that it was totally unplanned on my behalf. Just goes to show you what the rewards are for a bit of curiosity.

Africa Dreaming

2007-06-13T02:23:00.000-07:00

My trip to Africa is now finalized. I'll be starting in Cape Town on the 21st July and then travelling overland for 8 weeks up through Namibia, Botswana, Zambia, Malawi, Tanzania and finishing up in Nairobi on the 15th September:

You can read more details about the trip here:

http://www.dragoman.com/destinations/tripdetails.php?cat=mnc

Toscana

2007-06-11T10:20:00.000-07:00

I've just arrived in London after spending my final couple of weeks in Italy travelling around Tuscany with my parents. Keeping with the Italian spirit, we hired an Alpha Romeo 166 as our means of transportation. Our first stop was a little town called Panzano, midway between Florence and Sienna in the heart of Chianti country. We stayed for 4 nights at a nice little bed and breakfast with a view over the rolling hills full of vineyards. The following photo was taken from a vineyard looking back towards Panzano in the distance:

Using Panzano as a base, we did a couple of day trips around the area. On the first day we visited the hilltop towns of San Gimignano and Volterra. San Gimignano is famous for its many medieval towers, the tallest of which we climbed to get the following view over the rooftops to the fields in the background:

Volterra was also an interesting little town to visit, and is surrounded by some beautiful countryside:

The next day we did a day trip to Sienna. The Duomo in Sienna has some of the nicest artwork that I've seen in all of the churches in Italy:

We were also lucky enough to see a free exhibition in the Children's Art Museum, which is located just underneath the clock tower in Piazza del Campo. The museum was hosting an exhibition of African art featured in children's story books. Made a nice change after all of the renaissance art that I've seen in Florence, and was all the more interesting given that I'll be travelling to Africa in a month or so.

For our final day in Chianti, we went for a drive to some of the smaller towns and villages near Panzano, including Rada in Chianti and Volpaia. At a winery just outside Rada in Chianti I saw the following cat who had just recently given birth to kittens:

On the drive back to Panzano we came upon a herd of goats that was wandering on the roadside. I was about to get out of the car to take some photos but there were a number of guard dogs who started bearing their teeth as a warning. I had stopped the car and had the window down, and one of the dogs jumped up and put his front two paws on the door, so that my face was only a couple of feet away from his teeth. I took that as a sign to quickly put up the window and drive off. It was only later that I realised how dangerous the situation could have become, because the dog could have easily jumped in through the window, and I would have been in quite a bit of trouble. The thing which put me off guard was that initially the dogs looked quite friendly, because they were wagging their tails and weren't growling. I think I'll have to be a bit more careful in Africa.

After "Chianti Classico", the next most famous wine in Italy is probably "Brunello", which is produced in the region around Montepulciano and Montalcino. We found a bed and breakfast about 8km from Montalcino near the small village of San Angello in Colle. Here is the view from my room:

After checking in we spent the afternoon lazing by the pool which was situated in the middle of an olive grove:

The next day we did a trip out to Montepulciano and Cortona, another couple of hill towns. Perhaps it was the rainy weather and the long drive, but I was a little bit disappointed by Cortona, and I think that San Gimignano, Volterra and Montalcino are more worthwhile places to visit. On the drive back, however, the weather started to clear up and a nice rainbow appeared:

We spent the following day exploring Montalcino and the small town of Castelnuovo dell'Abate, which is where the Abbey of Sant'Antimo is located:

At our Bed and Breakfast there was a family of robins nesting in the rafters above the door. When we arrived back after the day's outing, all 6 chicks were in the nest while their mother was out searching for food. When she found some, she would fly back and deliver it straight into the mouths of the waiting chicks:

After another day of rest in Montalcino, we headed down to the southern-most part of Tuscany near Pitigliano where the gentle rolling hills give way to more mountanous scenery. The town of Sorano is perched above a cliff:

The Bed and Breakfast we stayed at in Pitigliano wasn't all that good (especially when compared to the place we stayed at in Montalcino), so we only spent one night there before driving to Piombino on the coast and catching the ferry to the island of Elba. As well as lots of nice beaches, Elba has some quite big mountains. At around 1km above sea level, the tallest is Mt Capanne and has a cable car to the top:

We were hoping for some sunny weather so that we could spend some time lazing on the beach, but the cloudy skies made us decide to head back to the mainland and spend an extra couple of nights in Volterra. Our Bed and Breakfast was just on the outskirts of town, so we could go for a walk along a small farm track through the fields of wheat:

After Volterra we dropped the car back in Florence where I said my goodbyes to my parents who headed down to Rome and then back to Australia. I then had 3 days in Florence to say my final goodbyes to the city I'd called home for 4 months before catching the train up to Milan and then catching my flight to London. At the moment I don't have any fixed plans about how I'm going to spend my next month or so here, but I've been looking into a few photography courses. Other than that, I'll probably just take it easy, catch up with a few friends and enjoy the city.

Firenze è una bella citta (Florence is a beautiful city)

2007-05-22T06:24:00.000-07:00

All good things must come to an end, and the sun is finally setting over my time in Florence. I've been feeling a little melancholic over the last week or two as I've had to say goodbye to all of the people and places I've grown to love over the last 4 months.

The things I'll miss:

Being able to walk pretty much anywhere in the city centre within 20 minutes (or ride anywhere by bike in 5 minutes).

Being able to buy fresh fruit, vegetables, cheeses and meats from the San Ambrogio market, just around the corner from my apartment, and receiving personal greetings from the vendors.

Watching the activity in the street below or in the park just outside my apartment window.

Walking past the beautiful Santa Croce church on my way to university, or getting a glimpse of the Duomo as I walk around town.

Cycling along the Arno river and Cascine park.

Discovering some festival or parade by chance (there always seems to be something interesting going on in this city).

Being able to make day trips to amazing places such as Viareggio Carnivale, Sienna and Chianti.

The hordes of tourists (ok, that is a lie - the tourists are the one thing I won't miss).

The main thing I'll miss, however, are all of the people I've met and friends I've made.

Urbano, who I get all my prosciutto and cheese from at San Ambrogio market:

The friendly Bangladeshis where I buy my fruit and vegetables:

Nicola, who's antique workshop I walk by pretty much everyday, and who always gives me a wave or lets me practice a little Italian:

My neighbour Nita, who greeted me with a smile on the day I arrived, and has always been helpful and friendly to talk to ever since:

The always smiling and laughing Kandace, who helped organize many of the great student activities, such as Viareggio Carnivale:

The two Francesca's, always greeting me with a smile from behind the front desk at the university:

Micaela and Clair, the friendly duo at the Study Abroad Italy office:

The Italian family who were kind enough to invite me for dinner:

Lorenzo, who was always a friendly face around university, and who invited me to watch his band rehearse:

All the guys on the school newsletter team:

The friendly staff and locals at Finnegan's Irish Pub, who made me feel like a regular after only my first visit:

Sarah, the only other Australian I met in Florence, and who when she found out that I was Australian at the Quiz Night at Finnegan's Pub, jumped up and gave me a big hug:

Finally, there are all of the other students who I became friends with over the course of the semester, whether from my classes or whether I met them on field trips or other student activities. You may recall the blog article I wrote when I first arrived in Florence, in which I was a little apprehensive as to whether I would fit in with all of the other students given the age difference. Of course, as it turned out things couldn't have been further from the truth.

There are many other people who I unfortunately don't have photos of: all of the teachers, staff and students at the university, and other locals I've met around Florence. You all know who you are. Thanks for making my stay in Florence such a memorable one. You are all welcome to come and visit me in Sydney.

Ciao, Firenze.

Religion and Football in Italy

2007-05-22T06:06:00.000-07:00

For the final project in my photojournalism class that I've been working on for the last couple of months, I chose to compare and contrast two of the most dominant aspects of Italian culture: religion (Catholicism) and football (or "calcio" as they call it here). With that said, I'll leave the photos to speak for themselves. Let me know what you think.

Photoshop portfolio

2007-05-22T05:41:00.000-07:00

One of the courses which I studied here in Florence was an "Introduction to Photoshop". Here is my final portfolio consisting of the 5 projects that I worked on over the semester, so you can judge for yourself how much you think I've learned. Best viewed in large size.

Project 1: Design a postcard

I couldn't decide whether I loved Syndey or Firenze more, so I decided to include both in my postcard.

Project 2: Create a self portrait

I needed to use the "clone tool" a lot on this one to erase those wrinkles that have started to show on my face.

Project 3: Design a magazine cover page

The main photo in this design is from my trip to Kyrgyzstan in 2005.

Project 4: Design a currency note

Maybe I'll use this design in the future when I become ruler of the combined republic of Italy and Australia (aka Australitalia).

Project 5: Design a CD cover

The photos I used for this final project are the ones that I took at Lorenzo's band practice.

Adapting to a new life in Italy: An interview with Nita Tucker

2007-05-22T05:17:00.000-07:00

Nita Tucker is the founder and editor in chief of the “The Florentine” newspaper. She also happens to be my neighbor in Florence, and I remember her handing me a copy of the latest edition of the newspaper with a welcoming smile on the day that I arrived. Since it was first published 2 years ago, the newspaper has become a vital source of news and information for the English speaking community in Florence, helping both short term visitors and ex-pats to better connect with the Florentine and Italian way of life.

How then did it all start, and how did Nita herself adapt to Florence and Italy after moving here from Santa Fe, New Mexico in the USA? I asked a few questions to find out.

What was your original reason for coming to Florence?

I had always wanted to live in Europe, and also wanted my children to have the experience of living here. When I turned 50 I realized that I still hadn’t made it happen so I decided then and there that I was going.

Tell me about the beginning of “The Florentine”?

When I initially moved over here in September 2004 I planned on continuing with the work I was doing as a management consultant and had no intentions or thoughts at all of becoming a newspaper publisher. While we were living here, however, my husband kept looking for local news in English so I thought it would be a great idea to create an English newspaper. In November 2004 we decided to go ahead with the idea, and by April 2005 we had published our first issue. It is still hard to believe how quickly it all came together.

Initially we had no idea what we were doing, and we just wanted to get something published. It was a case of “ready, fire, aim” instead of “ready, aim, fire”, but we were lucky enough to hit the bulls-eye first time. Not that we can’t get any better, but I think we hit a nice spot.

What are some of the experiences you’ve had since you’ve been involved with “The Florentine”?

I feel like I’m the luckiest person in the world to live the life that I have here, because having the newspaper I have access to everyone and everything. Everyone wants to meet me and show me their art, their wine, their home, their business. So I am very appreciative of the life that the newspaper has given me, even though I don’t make a lot of money from it.

The newspaper is such a unique cross cultural experience. I am dealing with Italian advertisers and staff and English readers, so I am constantly working with people from both cultures. This can be very challenging, but I love it.

When you first moved here, how did you adapt to the new culture and way of life?

For me it was an immediate love affair. It wasn’t very difficult for me to adapt because prior to moving here I’d already had a number of different careers and worked in many different countries, so I was used to change. I had always loved travelling to exotic locations and experiencing different cultures. Since moving here, however, I no longer feel the need to travel as much because living here fulfills my identity as an international citizen. I feel more myself here than I did anywhere before.

What do you like about living here?

What I love about Italy is the pace of life. It isn’t a lazy pace, but you take the time to enjoy things such as having a meal, going to the market and talking to people. What I dislike about Italy is the pace of business. To become a book publisher here, for instance, it took us 6 months, whereas in the USA it takes 5 minutes over the internet. But even though it can sometimes be frustrating doing business, to me the benefits of living here far outweigh the costs.

One thing that has overwhelmed me here is the kindness of people. You may not always find good customer service, but you find kindness that I’ve never experienced before. I had an earache once and I went to the pharmacy to get some eardrops, and the pharmacist told me I had to go and see a doctor. Since I didn’t know any doctors, she closed her pharmacy and personally took me to see her doctor. I’ve never experienced anything like that before.

In the States my life was very compartmentalized. I would talk and act differently when I was at work, at home, at the gym or out with friends. Here my life feels much more integrated and I don’t need to put on different hats. I also feel much more connected to my environment. What I mean by this is that I can walk down to the market where I can touch and feel the food, rather than going to the supermarket where everything is shrink-wrapped or pre-packaged. I can also ride my bike to work rather than having to sit in a car where I feel blocked off from life.

The other thing I love about Italy is that people are not so politically correct, meaning that you don’t need to watch everything that comes out of your mouth. People here don’t get offended very easily. In the States my mouth often got me in trouble, but here I feel free to say what’s on my mind.

What advice do you have to others who may be thinking of moving here?

When you move to another country you give up the right to complain. If you are complaining about stuff while you are here, then you just shouldn’t be here. So I don’t complain about the problems of running a business, because it is the price I pay for living in a culture that I love.

Another secret to living here is that instead of prejudging the way things are done, you need to get a deeper understanding about why things are the way they are. When you have a deeper understanding of something you have a deeper appreciation of it. The reason why book publishing takes such a long time here, for instance, is that some of the laws relating to it are hundreds of years old. I may still disagree with the way it is done, but having the deeper understanding makes it easier to accept.

My final piece of advice is that you need to take every opportunity that is available to you. Be open to other people and ways of doing things. Be curious. Learn as much Italian as you can. Don’t be afraid of making a fool of yourself or of making mistakes. Take the first step and invite others into your life, and they will invite you into their lives.

Footnote: The free, bi-weekly edition of “The Florentine” newspaper can be found at various locations around Florence. It can also be read online at http://www.theflorentine.net/. In addition to the newspaper, Nita has her own personal blog which you can read at http://www.nitatucker.blogspot.com/.

Food

2007-05-16T08:25:00.000-07:00

Ok. I’ve been living in Florence far too long now to not have written something about food. A few people have been asking me recently about good restaurants to eat at in Florence. Until a few weeks ago, however, I couldn’t really give any recommendations because I hadn’t actually been to all that many restaurants. For most of the time while I’ve been living here I’ve been cooking for myself at home.

It is great to be able to walk down to the markets in the morning and pick up some fresh food that I can cook for dinner that night. The market is certainly a much nicer shopping experience than the supermarket. Once I wanted some spinach just as the markets were closing, and a vendor gave me a bunch for free because he had already packed up his cash register. Now that I am a regular at a couple of places, I usually get some sort of discount or something thrown in for free.

For my fruit and vegetables I always go to a stall run by a Bangladeshi family. Given that I am Australian, up until a month or so ago when the World Cup ended we would always talk about the cricket scores.

For my prosciutto and cheese (which I eat pretty much every day) I always go to Urbano’s store inside the market. Urbano and his wife (at least I think it is his wife) are always very friendly to all of the customers, letting them try a piece of cheese or meat. Most of the time I would end up leaving with lots more food than I had originally set out to buy.

Some of the recipes that I’ve been cooking for the last few months are from a great website that I found. Others I’ve learned from restaurants or from experimentation. Here are my favourites:

1. Spinach and Ricotta cannelloni: Cook some spinach until a little tender (not mushy) and mix it with some ricotta cheese (about 200-250 grams), basil, parmesan, salt and pepper. Spread the mixture on fresh lasagna sheets and roll them up. Get a baking tray and put a layer of pasta sauce (ideally home-made from fresh tomatoes) on the bottom. Then place the cannelloni in the tray and cover with pasta sauce. Sprinkle some parmesan cheese on the top and bake in the oven for 15 mins. Full recipe here: http://www.italianfoodforever.com/iff/news.asp?id=588.

2. Chicken and roast tomato pasta: Cut about 6-8 tomatoes in half and place flat side up on a baking tray. Drizzle with olive oil, salt, pepper, a little dried basil and a pinch of sugar. Bake in the oven for around 45-50 mins until they are semi-dried. Fry some diced chicken, onion and garlic in a pan and then sauté some spinach or rocket. Cook your favourite pasta (al dente of course) and mix it together with the tomatoes, chicken and spinach. Full recipe here: http://www.italianfoodforever.com/iff/news.asp?id=716.

3. Pasta Amatriciana: I learned this recipe when I watched them prepare it in front of me at Sabatini restaurant. Fry some onion, garlic and olive oil in a pan (sometimes I also add some mushrooms), then add some fresh basil and diced ham and fry for a bit more. Now add some tomato pasta sauce and simmer for a bit. Cook your pasta and mix it with the sauce. Separate a couple of egg yolks from the whites and mix the yolks with the pasta (no need for any further cooking: the heat of the pasta will cook the eggs). Let the pasta sit for a couple of minutes with the lid on the let the flavors meld.

My version:

Sabatini restaurant version:

4. Pasta with pesto and cream sauce: I tried making a pesto sauce once before back in Australia but failed miserably. Here in Florence I’ve just been buying freshly made pesto sauce from the market. In Australia you can get pesto sauce at the supermarket. When I get back to Sydney I hope I can find a nice Italian market in Leichardt somewhere. Anyway, once you have your pesto sauce (around 150-200ml), fry some onion and garlic and then add some diced ham. Add a dash of white wine. Now add the pesto sauce together with some double thick cream (around 150-200ml) and simmer for a couple of minutes. Serve with your favourite pasta.

5. Mushroom and asparagus risotto: Asparagus is my new favourite vegetable, and goes great in a risotto. Fry some onion, garlic and mushrooms in a deep pan or pot with olive oil. Add a cup of Arborio rice and some more olive oil and fry for a minute or so. Now you need to slowly add the stock, adding a little at a time and waiting until it has been absorbed until adding some more. You should keep the stock at the same temperature as the rice before adding it (ie don’t add cold stock to the rice). Keep adding stock slowly until the rice is cooked (should take about 20 mins), stirring continuously. For one cup of Arborio rice you need about 500-600ml of stock. You can add a dash of white wine as well. When the rice has finished cooking, mix in some parmesan cheese and pepper, cover and set aside. Cut the asparagus in half, discarding the bottom half (it is too stringy to eat). Boil it in some water for 3-4 minutes – it should still be a little firm. Remove from the water and sauté in a pan with some olive oil for a couple of minutes. Mix it together with the rice and serve.

To make the simple tomato pasta sauce mentioned in a couple of the above recipes, simply dice up 6-8 tomatoes and add them to a pot to simmer together with some olive oil, salt, pepper, fresh chopped basil and a dash of red wine. You need to simmer it for about 30 minutes until the liquid has reduced and the sauce thickens.

Ok, back to the question about good restaurants to eat at in Florence. The first one I would recommend is a place called Baldovino, just at the back of Santa Croce church. It is a little touristy at times, but they serve great pizza at a pretty good price, so it is a good place to go for lunch. For dinner I would recommend Golden View Open Bar. It isn’t cheap, but for what you get (great food, a very nice location right on the river near Ponte Vecchio, and a great atmosphere with a live Jazz band) I think it is good value. The photo below is from Jessica’s 21st birthday dinner at Open Bar:

Buon apetito!

Fiorentina vs Chievo

2007-05-16T01:28:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago I went to a football match between Fiorentina (the local team from Florence) and Chievo. Fiorentina has been having a pretty good season this year. Even though they started the season with a hefty points handicap due to their involvement in last years match fixing scandal, they are currently in 5th place on the ladder. For most of the game I was busy taking photos for my photojournalism project on "Religion and Football in Italy", so I didn't actually see all that much of the game itself, but I did manage to get some good photos of emotional fans. For the record, Fiorentina won the game 1-0.

You can view more of my photos from the game on my Flickr site.

The Philosophy of Balance

2007-05-07T01:35:00.000-07:00

For my World Religions class we had to write an essay in which we could pick our favourite elements from each of the various religions that we've studied to effectively create our own personal religion or philosophy of life. I chose to centre my essay around the theme of balance.

Introduction

Balance: A harmonious or satisfying arrangement or proportion of parts or elements. [The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language].

The journey of life is like a balancing act. To stay upright, we need to maintain a balance between work and play, richness and poorness, asceticism and indulgence, and so on. When we are off balance, we stumble through the ups and downs in life without direction. With balance comes clarity, so that we can take the ups and downs in our stride.

The philosophy of balance can be found in many of the world’s religions, particularly the eastern religions. In Buddhism, there is the principle of the “Middle Way”. In Confucianism we have the “Doctrine of the Mean”. In Taoism there is the balance between yin and yang, and from Hinduism we have the concept of balancing your chakras.

This essay discusses the philosophy of balance and provides suggestions on how to apply it in everyday life. Starting with how to balance your lifestyle, it then moves on to suggest how to balance your mind, body and spirit and your behaviors and opinions, followed by a discussion of how to balance yourself with nature. It then concludes with some general tips about obtaining and maintaining balance in your life.

Balance your lifestyle

Balance: A state of equilibrium or equipoise; equal distribution of weight, amount, etc. [Dictionary.com Unabridged].

Prior to obtaining enlightenment and becoming known as Buddha, Siddhartha Gotama had the experience of living both an extremely indulgent lifestyle as a prince inside a palace, followed by an extremely ascetic lifestyle when he lived in the forest and emaciated his body by fasting. It is from these extreme experiences that he came to realize the principle of the “Middle Way”. In his first sermon, “Setting Rolling the Wheel of Truth”, Buddha described this principle as follows:

Monks, these two extremes ought not to be cultivated by one gone-forth from the home-life. What are the two? There is … indulgence … in the objects of sensual desire, which is inferior, low, vulgar, ignoble, and leads to no good; and there is devotion to self-torment, which is painful, ignoble, and leads to no good. The middle way … avoids both these extremes; it gives vision, it gives knowledge, and it leads to peace, to direct acquaintance to nibbana. [Novak, pg 66].

In today’s modern lifestyle, there are many areas where this principle can be applied. As an example, consider the daily activity of eating. On the one extreme there is over-eating, which leads to obesity and other health problems associated with being overweight. On the other extreme there is under-eating, which leads to problems such as anorexia and bulimia. The “middle way” between these two extremes is to eat a “balanced diet”.

Another example is the so called “work-life balance”. On the one extreme, over working yourself leads to stress and damaged relationships with family and friends because you don’t spend enough with them. The other extreme is laziness or spending all of your time partying, which could cause you to end up without an income and means of support.

Balance your mind, body and spirit

Balance: A state of bodily equilibrium: He lost his balance and fell down the stairs. [Dictionary.com Unabridged].

In both Hinduism and Taoism, the idea of balancing your mind, body and spirit is very important. In Hinduism it is believed that the body is made up of seven basic “chakras” or energy centers, each of which correlates to different bodily functions, levels of consciousness, emotional states and so on. In order to stay healthy, we need to ensure that these chakras remain balanced.

Similarly in Taoism, there is the concept of “chi”, which is the vital energy that flows through the body. In traditional Chinese medicine, it is believed that illness is caused by imbalances of yin and yang in the body, which blocks the free movement of “chi”. Thus, to stay healthy you need to maintain the balance between yin and yang in your body.

In western culture, a commonly heard phrase is “healthy mind, healthy body”, which encourages balance between mental and physical health. Having a healthy mind and body, however, is only a part of the story. As suggested by the following Taoist quote, we also need to bring our spiritual selves into balance:

Unless the mind, body and spirit are equally developed and fully integrated, no [wisdom] … can be sustained. [Novak, pg 171].

In sport, for instance, we know that a good athlete must be both physically and mentally fit. Without mental strength, the athlete’s physical movements will be uncoordinated. Without physical strength, the body will be ineffective in carrying out the mental commands. Equally important, however, is spiritual balance, which brings clarity to the mind. The completely balanced athlete appears almost magical in their abilities, while the unbalanced athlete appears clumsy.

Balance your behavior and opinion

Balance: Mental steadiness or emotional stability; habit of calm behavior, judgment, etc. [Dictionary.com Unabridged].

According to Aristotle, moral behavior requires finding the right balance between the extremes of doing or feeling too much or too little [Ziniewicz]. Courage, for instance, is a balance between cowardice (too much fear) and foolhardiness (too little fear). This is often referred to as “Aristotle’s Golden Mean”. Similarly in Confucianism, there is the “Doctrine of the Mean”. Rather than extreme behavior, this doctrine encourages compromise:

The superior man cultivates a friendly atmosphere, without being weak. He stands erect in the middle, without inclining to either side. [The Doctrine of the Mean, Wing-Tsit Chan translation].

In practice, this means that when you find yourself in an argument with someone, you should try to look at the problem from their point of view as well as your own. It doesn’t mean that you should weakly submit to their argument, but neither does it mean that you should try to force your argument upon them. The principle also applies in relation to your emotional reactions to events or situations. Celebration of joyous occasions is fine, but “not to the point of being lewd or indolent” [Novak, pg 124]. Weeping and sorrow are ok on sad occasions, but not to the point of becoming depressed.

Unfortunately in today’s society, taking a stand or going to extremes is often glorified, while “sitting on the fence” or making compromises often have negative connotations attached to them, as if they somehow imply a weakness in character. From our leaders we hear statements such as “you’re either with us or against us”. The problem with this sort of extreme statement is that rather than bringing people closer together, it pushes them further apart. One wonders how many of the conflicts in the world today could have been averted if our leaders better understood the art of compromise.

Balance yourself with nature

In all perfectly beautiful objects there is found the opposition of one part to another and a reciprocal balance - John Ruskin [WordNet].

In Taoism it is believed that the entire universe is a balance of opposites, symbolized by yin and yang (day and night, winter and summer, male and female, life and death, etc):

The Tao is the One. From the One come yin and yang; from these two, creative energy (chi); from energy, ten thousand things, the forms of all creation. All life embodies yin and embraces yang, through their union achieving harmony. [Tao Te Ching, Dreher translation].

In addition to balancing each other, yin and yang also complement each other in cycles [Mason]. Day is replaced by night, which is then replaced again by day. Similarly, seemingly opposite behaviors such as fighting and withdrawing also work together in cycles, meaning that you can produce one from the other. This idea is embodied in the Taoist principle of “wu wei”, which can be translated as “harmonious action” or “creative quietude”. Basically what this means is that instead of trying to act in opposition with events and forces, you should try to act in harmony with them:

[Harmonious action] can be observed in a bamboo stick. Watch it bend with the wind: it overcomes the wind by yielding to it. If it were stiff, it would break because it's so brittle, but because it yields, it overcomes. Thus, weakness produces strength, and strength produces weakness. [Mason]

In life there will always be ups and downs. When something negative happens, instead of agonizing over it or trying to oppose it, you should accept it and try to turn it into a positive. Similarly, when positive things happen in your life you need to be prepared for the fact that good times can’t last forever. Instead of wishing for a life of complete happiness where nothing bad ever happens, these ups and downs should be embraced, because they are what gives life its color and meaning. Without winter, you wouldn’t appreciate summer. Similarly, without sadness you couldn’t appreciate happiness.

Finding your balance

Let the states of equilibrium and harmony exist in perfection, and a happy order will prevail throughout heaven and earth, and all things will be nourished and flourish. [The Doctrine of the Mean, James Legge translation].

So, given the importance of balance in our lives, how do you go about obtaining and maintaining your balance? The first thing you need to do is be able to recognize when you are off balance. To do this, listen to what your body and feelings are telling you. A hangover, for instance, is your body telling you that you’ve drunk too much.

Once you’ve recognized that you are off balance, you then need to take the appropriate steps to correct the imbalance. In the case of a hangover, the obvious correction would be to drink less. In many situations, however, finding the right balance between what may at first seem to be conflicting life goals may not be so easy. Like most things in life, it takes practice and experimentation. The process can be likened to making a recipe. You need to make adjustments as you go along (add a bit more salt, a pinch of nutmeg). Similarly in life, you need to take the time to stop and reflect, to see which parts of your life are out of balance, and take the appropriate steps to put them back in balance. Like when you were learning to ride a bicycle, you may stumble at first, but with practice you will learn how to maintain your balance, and eventually it will become second nature.

The easiest way to lose you balance is to cling to fixed beliefs or notions of how things should be. The only constant in this world is change, so the more things you cling to, the more you will be thrown off balance when they disappear. It is like trying to ride a bike while balancing an enormous weight on your shoulders. It is much easier to maintain your balance if you lighten your load.

Bibliography

Philip Novak, “The World’s Wisdom”. Harper Collins, 1994.
Huston Smith, “The Illustrated World’s Religions”. Harper Collins, 1994.
“The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language”, Fourth Edition. Definition of “balance” retrieved on 28th April 2007 from Dictionary.com website: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/balance.
“Dictionary.com Unabridged”, version 1.1. Definition of “balance” retrieved on 28th April 2007 from Dictionary.com website: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/balance.
“WordNet”, version 3.0. Princeton University. Definition of “balance” retrieved on 28th April 2007 from Dictionary.com website: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/balance.
Confucious, “The Doctrine of the Mean” (Wing-Tsit Chan translation). Quotes retrieved on 30th April 2007 from http://oaks.nvg.org/sa3ra6.html.
Confucious, “The Doctrine of the Mean” (James Legge translation). Quotes retrieved on 30th April 2007 from http://www.ishwar.com/confucianism/doctrine_of_mean/.
Bill Mason, “Taoist Principles”. Retrieved on 30th April 2007 from http://www.taoism.net/articles/mason/principl.htm.
Lao Tzu ,“Tao Te Ching” (Dreher translation). Quotes retrieved on 30th April 2007 from http://www.taoism.net/articles/mason/principl.htm.
Gordon Ziniewicz, “Aristotle: Nicomachean Ethics”. Retrieved on 25th April from http://www.fred.net/tzaka/arismean.html.

May Day

2007-05-02T10:13:00.000-07:00

Warning: This blog entry contains political content.

Yesterday was a national holiday in Italy to celebrate the 1st of May (Il primo di Maggio). I remember when I was in Germany on May Day a few years ago when I went cycling from beer garden to beer garden and eating lots of pretzels. This year the beer gardens and pretzels were missing, but I took my bike for a ride to Cascine Park. This is one of my favorite places in Florence for escaping the tourists and going for a leisurely bike ride. On the weekends there are always lots of people playing football or volleyball, or just relaxing and having picnics:

After riding down the length of the park to Ponte all’Indiano, I headed across to the other side of the river where I heard music coming from Piazza dell’Isolotto. I parked my bike and went to investigate, where I found a crowd of people gathered to listen to a line-up of bands. The first band that was playing was called “Jellyfish”, and amongst other songs they played covers of AC/DC and Coldplay. If you look closely, you can see the clothes that the band are wearing in honour of the “worker” (which is what May Day is all about):

Upon walking around the piazza, I noticed lots of posters documenting the history of May Day in Italy and around the world (you need to view the large version of this to read the text and see the photos properly):

The most interesting poster, however, was the following one, which shows capitalism getting kicked out of its seat by communism:

In Australia a poster such as this would likely create a certain amount of controversy, because capitalism reigns supreme and “communism” is still viewed by many people as a dirty word. In Italy, however, the idea of communism seems to be viewed in a more positive light, which is understandable when you look at the country’s political history. During the time of the fascist dictator Benito Mussolini, the Italian Communist Party was outlawed, so it is only natural that communism rebounded strongly after the fall of fascism. When you look at it from an un-biased viewpoint, communism isn't all that different from other left-wing political ideologies. Sure, it may not work in its extreme form, but neither does any form of extreme politics.

For those readers who are interested, the turbulent history of the post-war political landscape in Italy makes for some quite interesting reading. No wonder Italians are always talking about politics - their politics are so much more interesting than ours!

Ok, this was never meant to be a political blog, so that’s enough of me talking about politics. I hope you enjoyed your May Day, and that my comments don’t upset any anti-communists out there.

The Honeymoon Suite

2007-05-02T08:04:00.000-07:00

Given that I’ve only met one other Australian since being in Florence, it is always nice to have visitors from home. Joseph and Louisa came to visit this weekend while travelling around Europe on their honeymoon. Since they are now the second couple to stay at my place on their honeymoon (Ben and Lucille were the first couple in February), I’ve decided to rename my apartment the “Honeymoon Suite”.

They arrived on Friday afternoon and I took them to climb the bell tower (aka campanile), from which you get a great view of the dome of the Duomo and the rest of the city:

Afterwards it was dinner back at my apartment, where I cooked one of the favorite new recipes that I’ve discovered since living here, cannelloni with spinach and ricotta. It is pretty simple to make: just mix some cooked spinach together with some ricotta and spices, roll it up in fresh lasagna sheets, top with tomato sauce and parmesan cheese and bake in the over for 20-30 minutes.

While Joseph and Louisa were off visiting Pisa and Sienna and seeing the sights of Florence, I spent the majority of the rest of the weekend in my apartment studying. It sounds boring I know, but exams are coming up next week and I’ve also got a couple of assignments that are due. With that in mind, I should keep this blog article short so that I can get back to work…

Amalfi Coast and Pompeii

2007-05-01T04:01:00.000-07:00

On the weekend of the 20th to the 22nd of April I went on a university field trip to the Amalfi Coast and Pompeii. This time we travelled by bus during the day rather than overnight sleeper train, and after leaving Florence at 7.30am on Friday morning, we arrived at our hotel in Maori at about 6pm in the evening after a brief stopover in Naples (where we didn't get to see all that much besides lots of traffic to be honest). The Amalfi Coast is a beautiful stretch of coastline with lots of little towns nestled in the cliffs above the sea:

It is listed by UNESCO as a world heritage site, meaning that no new roads or buildings can be constructed in the region. To reach Maori our bus had to navigate a small winding road along the edge of the cliffs, and even though it was slow going we passed the time by gazing out the windows at the amazing views. After arriving I headed down to the beach where I saw lots of kids playing “calcio":

The next day we caught a boat to Amalfi and then a ferry to the island of Capri where we had free time to explore. I ended up on another small boat to do a tour around the island, from which I could get a closer view of the beautiful coastline:

After the boat tour I hiked up to Capri Town and found a nice restaurant from which we could admire the view over lunch:

Similar to Venice, most of Capri Town is inaccessible by car, so there are lots of little walkways where I got lost for an hour or so just wandering around:

To end the day in Capri I had time for a quick swim at the beach. It would have been nice to stay here forever, but all good things must come to an end, and at around 4pm we took the ferry back to Amalfi. The main attraction in Amalfi is the Cathedral, which we had a little time to explore before catching another boat back to our hotel in Maori.

On Sunday we said goodbye to the Amalfi Coast and made our way to Pompeii, which is an ancient Roman city that was buried in ash after the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 A.D. and was lost for 1600 years before its accidental rediscovery in 1748. I was expecting there to be very little left, but the city has been preserved surprisingly well:

Our tour of the archeological site lasted a couple of hours, after which we had time for lunch. The nearby city of Naples is considered to be the pizza capital of the world, and the most famous type of pizza to originate from this area is the margherita pizza. With the red tomato sauce, white mozzarella cheese and green basil leaves to match the colors of the Italian flag, it is hard to think of a food that is more Italian than this. Once again proving the value of simplicity in Italian cooking, it was the best pizza I’ve ever eaten:

With my stomach content, it was time to get back on the bus for the ride home.

A Chianti Experience

2007-05-01T03:53:00.000-07:00

Ok, I’ve been a bit slack again with my blogging. It was actually on Saturday the 14th of April that I had my “Chianti Experience” in Tuscany, but better late than never in telling you about it. The day trip was organized by the school, and we visited the “Castello di Verrazzano” winery near the town of “Greve in Chianti”, about an hour or so by bus from Florence. The winery is located on the top of a hill with a beautiful view over the vineyards:

Our guide explained to us that they have been making wine here since the year 1170! That’s almost one thousand years of wine making. It blows the mind just thinking about it. After a brief tour around the grounds, we headed down into the wine cellars:

Next on the agenda was what everyone had been waiting for: a chance to sample the wines over lunch. Before starting, however, our guide explained to us the proper way to drink wine. The first thing we learned is how to hold the wine glass. It should be held by the stem or the base, so that your body temperature doesn’t heat up the wine, and also so that you don’t leave grubby fingerprints all over the glass! The next thing you should do is look at the wine by holding the glass up to the light. A good red wine should be rich ruby red in color. The third step is to place the glass on the table and move the base in circles to swirl the wine around in the glass. Swirling allowing you to view the wine and also causes the aroma molecules to be released. Now we are ready to smell the wine, by putting your entire nose into the glass and taking a deep whiff. After taking a little time to contemplate the aroma, we are finally ready for the actual tasting. To do this, you take a mouthful and swish the wine around inside your mouth so that the different types of taste receptors on different parts of the tongue all get a chance to taste it. Even with all this training and all of the wine that I’ve drunk so far in Italy, I’m still very much an amateur wine taster, but there is no doubt that my wine appreciation has improved since being here.

Together with 4 different types of wine (a basic Chianti Classico, a Chianti Classico Riserva, a “Ser Chiaro” white, and a dessert wine), we had a 4 course meal consisting of antipasto, a simple tomato pasta, wild boar meat (from the wild boar which they raise on the grounds of vineyard), cannellini beans, cheese and bread. The Parmigiano cheese was served together with a premium balsamic vinegar: you basically just took a bite of cheese and then a sip of balsamic. It was by far the best balsamic vinegar I’ve ever tasted and I would have liked to have purchased a bottle to bring home, but the price was 40 euros for a 100ml bottle! Oh well, I’ll always have my memories.

Dinner with an Italian Family (Cena con una famiglia Italiana)

2007-04-18T05:45:00.000-07:00

Last night I had the privilege of having dinner in the private home of an Italian family in Florence. The dinner was arranged by the school and together with Kelly, another student, I was invited to the Mascalchi family's apartment. We arrived at around 8.15pm and were introduced to 3 generations of family members: the grandmother, her daughter (the only one who could speak English), and her grand-daughter (who at a guess was around 7 years old). Over the last 10 years the grandmother has hosted countless overseas students and visitors from the USA, Canada, Japan and Sweden. I was the first Australian.

We were invited to sit down at the table for the "primi piatti" (first course), which was a simple but delicious pasta. During the meal, I asked the grandmother "che cosa fai in tuo tempo libero?" ("what do you do in your free time?"), to which she responded with a laugh "non ho tempo libero!" ("I don't have any free time!"). She then went on to explain that all of her time is spent cooking, helping at the family owned market garden and helping look after her grand-daughter. For her generation this has always been the norm.

"Secondi" (second course) consisted of some thin pieces of beef in a delicate crumbed batter. This was served together with fresh salad from the family market garden, bread and pecorino cheese. I knew that pecorni cheese was a specialty cheese of Tuscany, but what I hadn't known was that it is made from sheep's milk. It all made sense when the daughter explained that the Italian word for "sheep" is "pecora". When I mentioned that I haven't seen any sheep in Tuscany, she explained that they are raised in the southern part of Tuscany between Sienna and Rome, and that because most Italians consider the work too physically demanding, the job of raising the sheep was taken over a long time ago by Sardinians (Sardinia is that largish island a couple hundred kilometres or so west of the Italian mainland).

By this time both Kelly and I were feeling rather full, but there is always room for "dolce" (desert). The grandmother brought out a huge chocolate torte (seriously, the plate must have been half a metre in diametre) with a similar texture to brownies. However you call it, it was delicious, with Kelly finding room for a second serving. We started talking about the changing culture surrounding family meal-times. In the grandmother's generation, the family would always return home for a big lunch together. In the daughter's generation, however, very few women stay home to cook during the day, so the main family meal is at dinner time. And even though she didn't like to admit it, the daughter believes that the next generation of Italian families may even end up losing dinner as a family meal time as well, following the trend of many American and Australian families where family members are often too busy to eat together and instead end up eating alone in front of the television. I think it would be very sad if this does end up happening.

At the end of the meal, I asked the grandmother if this was a typical family dinner for them and she said that it was. Personally it was the best meal I've eaten so far in Italy (yes, even better than the 70 euro dinner at Sabatini restaurant). It just goes to show that to make a good meal the main things you need are fresh ingredients, simple recipes, a little time and care, and warm hearted people to share it with.

With my stomach content, on the way back to my apartment I was struck by the realization that after 3 months in Italy I can now partake in a simple conversation in Italian.

Religion in Florence

2007-04-12T06:55:00.000-07:00

In a previous post I mentioned that I was going to try and do my final photojournalism project on the muslim mosque that is just down the street from my apartment. Almost 3 weeks into the last half of the semester, however, and I still haven't been able to get a contact in the mosque to ask permission to do the project, so it doesn't look as though I'll be able to go ahead with it. My project will still have something to do with religion, but I haven't really decided on a specific theme yet. In search of inspiration, I've been attending various religious festivities and ceromonies in and around Florence.

On Sunday the 25th of May, Florentines celebrated Annunciation Day in honour of archangel Gabrial's announcement to the Virgin Mary that she would give birth to Jesus. I headed down to the SS Annunziata church just in time to see a parade coming down the street and about to enter inside. Along with other onlookers, I followed them inside to witness a short ceromony in front of a special tribune that was built to house a famous painting of the Annunciation:

According to the legend, the artist Bartolomeo was feeling inadequate to the task of painting Mary's image and fell asleep on the scaffolding. Upon awakening he found it finished, and Mary's face has subsequently been attributed to angelic intervention. After the ceremony was finished, the parade left the church and continued on to Piazza del Duomo:

The next big religious celebration in Florence after Annunciation Day was Easter. On Good Friday I headed out to the small hill town of Grassina, 30 minutes by bike from Florence, to watch a historical re-enactment of the Passion of the Christ:

At about 9pm people started lining the streets of the town to watch the parade that accompanies the re-enactment. I only got a chance to see the very beginning of the parade before I had to dash off to a hill on the outskirts of town where the actual re-enactment took place. The play started with the annunciation to the Virgin Mary. Following this were various scenes from Jesus' life, such as the sermon on the mound, the trial and conviction by Pontius Pilate, the last supper, and finally the crucifixion itself. It was spoken in Italian, so I couldn't understand all that much, but the imagery was pretty powerful. At the end of the re-enactment, I even got to shake the hand of Jesus himself after he rose from the dead!

On Easter Sunday I attended the Scoppio del Carro, or "explosion of the cart", in front on the Duomo in Florence. It was due to start at 11am, and when I arrived at 10.30am the Piazza del Duomo was packed with people:

I didn't have my telephoto lens with me, so I didn't manage to get any close-up photos of the cart when the fireworks where set off, but the following photo was taken by bootsintheoven:

Even though the fireworks weren't anything as spectacular as those you'd see on Sydney Harbour on New Year's Eve, it was interesting from the perspective of how different it was to any other fireworks show I've seen and the fact that they've been doing this for hundreds of years. After the fireworks ended, I headed inside the Duomo for the Easter Sunday service:

Kind of like the Pope in the Vatican, the head bishop here in Florence is somewhat of a celebrity, waving to the faithful at the end of the sermon:

Not yet having had my fill of Easter ceremonies, on Sunday evening I caught the train to Prato, 30 minutes from Florence, to witness an interesting ceremony known as the Display of the Holy Girdle. The main church in Prato, Santo Stefano Cathedral, claims to own the Holy Girdle that once belonged to the Virgin Mary. On Easter Sunday every year the bishop of Prato retrieves the girdle from its vault and holds it up for the people to see from a specially built pulpit on the outside of the church:

The ceromony ended with a parade through the streets of Prato:

All in all, my easter in Florence was much more religious than any easter I've had back home. I was so busy attending all the festivals and ceremonies that I didn't even get time to eat a single easter egg! Not that easter eggs are any less popular here than they are back home. Indeed, this blog article by bootsintheoven shows a photo of a 250 euro easter egg, so it seems that they do in fact take their easter eggs very seriously here.

Even with the Easter festivities and ceremonies over, it is hard to escape from religion in Florence, and it obviously plays a big part in people's lives here. From most parts of the city you only need to walk a few blocks to get to a magnificant church such as Santa Croce, Santa Maria Novella, SS Annunziata or Santo Spirito. And not to forget Santa Maria del Fiore (aka the Duomo), whose huge dome towers over the whole city. As well as the churches, there are also the many small shrines located on street corners, most of which are dedicated to the Virgin Mary such as this one just around the corner from my apartment:

The other big religion in Italy apart from Christianity is football, or "calcio" as it is called here. On Sunday the 29th of April I'll be going to a match between the local team, Fiorentina, and Chievo in the Seria A league. Fiorentina also have a home ground match this coming Sunday against arch-rivals Sienna, so I may go to a bar near the stadium to witness the action on the big screen. If I can get some good photos, I may end up doing my photojournalism project as a comparison between the religion of soccer and the religion of Christianity.

Happy Easter! (Buona Pasqua!)

2007-04-05T14:09:00.000-07:00

As you can imagine, Easter is a pretty important celebration in Italy and there are a number of different activities happening in and around Florence over the Easter weekend. When I was riding my bike home this evening I stumbled on a parade of people carrying a cross into the SS. Annunziata church. Tomorrow, for Good Friday, I plan on heading out to the small town of Grassina, just outside Florence, to watch a parade and re-enactment of the Passion of the Christ. On Easter Sunday there is a ceremony that is performed in front of the Duomo in Florence called Scoppio del Carro, which means "explosion of the cart". Basically, they parade a cart laden with fireworks through the streets of Florence, and when they reach the Duomo they set it off (I know you'd like it Ben). Sounds like fun.

Italy kicked Sicily into the sea

2007-04-05T13:24:00.000-07:00

Last weekend I went on a field trip to Sicily, hoping for some warm weather which until then hadn’t yet arrived in Florence. As per the Vienna trip we travelled by overnight train and once again I didn’t get much sleep. The most interesting part of the journey was when the train carriages (with us still inside) were loaded onto the ferry for the short trip over the water from mainland Italy to the island of Sicily:

On Friday morning we arrived at the train station in Catania and transferred by bus to the town of Taormina, which is up in the hills with a great view out over the Mediterranean. Francesco, once again our guide for the trip, explained the history of Sicily to us and the important role it played as a trading post in the Greek empire.

After a brief wander around the town, we stopped at a small cake shop to sample some of the local cannoli that Sicily is famous for. They are basically tube shaped shells of fried pastry with a filling of sweetened ricotta cheese. I went out the back to have a sneak peak at how they are made:

Sicily is also famous for its fruit and vegetables, which are exported all around Europe. One of the main reasons for this is the rich volcanic ash that is deposited on the soil from Mount Etna. Unfortunately the weather was too cloudy for us to get a good view of the volcano, but occasionally when the clouds parted we got a glimpse of the snow on its upper reaches.

In the afternoon we visited the beach-side town of Giardini Naxos, where we had some time to go for a swim and laze on the beach. This is one of the few places in the world where you can go skiing on Mt Etna in the morning, and then go swimming at the beach in the afternoon. Not a bad lifestyle. When we were there, however, it wasn’t the best weather for swimming so I only had a quick dip and then spent the rest of the time playing soccer on the beach.

In the evening we headed to our hotel in Siracusa, and after a dinner of seafood (the first I’ve eaten since being in Italy) we checked out one of the local pubs before calling it a night. The next morning we were up early again for a full day visit of Siracusa. The first stop was the archaeological park, which is home to a spectacular Greek Amphitheatre:

We then ventured underground into the catacombs beneath the San Giovanni church:

In the afternoon we had a look around the island of Ortigia, which is the historical heart of the town. The fish markets showed a very interesting array of fresh seafood:

After walking around all day, we finally got a chance to give our feet a rest when we went for a short cruise on the Mediterranean:

On Sunday we visited the world heritage listed town of Noto. After the old town was completely destroyed by an earthquake in 1693, many famous architects and sculptors were invited to help build a new town. Many of the buildings and palaces of the town are decked out with ornate adornments such as the following:

In the afternoon we ended our stay in Sicily with some more time at the beach before boarding the train back to Florence.

As I write this, it seems that Spring has finally arrived in Florence, with some warm weather and the first green leaves starting to appear on the trees. To make the most of it, I plan on making some excursions out into the Tuscan countryside over the next few weeks, so stay tuned for the photos.

Spring Break

2007-03-25T05:30:00.000-07:00

The end of exams last week signaled the start of spring break, where we have a week free of study. Most of the other students left Italy and headed to other parts of Europe such as Greece, France and Spain, but I decided to spend the week relaxing and getting to know Florence better.

The first weekend of Spring Break saw Florence play host to a number of different festivals. On Friday I went to Danza in Fiera, which is a huge dance festival that took place at the Fortezza da Basso conference centre. After getting my ticket and heading in the general direction where everyone else seemed to be going, I found myself in the main exhibition hall where exhibitors had on display anything and everything related to dancing, from clothes and shoes to actual dance floors. After wandering around for a bit I headed downstairs to the “Le Nazioni” stage where they were running the “Esibizione Scuole” – an exhibition of performances by school groups:

Next stop was the “La Ronda” stage where I watched some ballet:

After about half an hour I headed next door to the “Rastriglia” stage where they were hosting the “Musical Day” competition. This was a national competition between dance groups from all across Italy, and the performances were condensed versions of famous musicals lasting around 15 minutes each. In the one and a half hours or so that I was there I got to see performances of Phantom of the Opera, Romeo and Juliet, Fame, Cats, Dracula and Chicago.

The Musical Day competition finally came to an end, and I headed over to the “Cavaniglia” stage to watch the “Maratona Danze Caraibiche”. This was an open event where couples competed against each other in a Latin dance-off. When I arrived the dance floor was full with about 30 couples and as the evening progressed couples were slowly eliminated by the judges until only 3 remained. There was one particular couple who I took by far the most photos of because they clearly stood out from the others. The judges obviously agreed because they ended up winning the entire competition. They must have been extremely fit, because they were on the dance floor for over 2 hours without a break and they never seemed to be lacking in energy.

The next day, Saturday, was St Patrick’s day. During the day I went for a wander around town with my camera to do some people watching. I snapped this picture in Piazza Santa Croce:

In the evening I went to an Irish pub called “Finnigins” where I had met a few people the previous Tuesday for a Pub Trivia night. It is the kind of pub where everyone knows everyone else, and by the end of my second visit I was already on a first name basis with most of the bar staff and a few of the regulars. The photo below, which was taken at the Pub Trivia night, shows me together with Pasquale, Toby and Chris. I also met an Aussie girl named Sarah who grew up in Mandurah. Being the first Australian I’ve met here, we chatted for most of the night.

On Sunday after recovering from a slight hangover I headed to the Taste Fair at Stazione Leopolda, which Sarah had recommended. Food and wine vendors had stalls setup where you could taste their produce. There was lots of cheese, biscuits, wine, olive oil, jam, honey and chocolate. By the end of 2 hours my stomach was beginning to protest so I decided I had better not eat anything more.

During the middle of the week, I decided that it was about time that I went and visited the Academia and Uffizi art galleries. The main thing that had been putting me off visiting them up until now was the long queues to actually get inside, but I figured that the queues are only going to get longer as we move further into Spring. The photo below gives you an idea of how many people there are milling about the streets in the centre of the city. I can’t imagine what it is going to be like in the peak tourist season around June.

I first visited the Academia gallery which houses the world’s most famous marble sculpture: Michelangelo’s David. Even though I had to wait in the queue for half an hour, it was definitely worth the visit. I had previously seen the David when I was in Florence in 2003, but back then I didn’t really appreciate it. Recently, however, I’ve been reading Irving Stone’s biographical novel on Michelangelo titled “The Agony and the Ecstasy”, and this gave me a much greater insight into both the statue and Michelangelo’s life. It took Michelangelo over 2 years to create, and he poured all of his passion and knowledge of the human body into it. The only downside is that now whenever I see other sculptures and paintings, they all look mediocre when compared to the David. Even when I visited the Uffizi gallery the next day, which supposedly houses one of the greatest collections of renaissance art in the world, I wasn’t all that impressed. Maybe I just need to study the history a bit more, but to me many of the paintings in the Uffizi seemed quite unoriginal and uninspiring: almost every second painting was of the same scene (the virgin Mary holding the baby Jesus) and differed very little in style from the others. The thing I admire about Michelangelo is that he strove for originality and perfection in his artwork. I just finished reading the part of his biography where he spent 4 years painting the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, so I’m looking forward to having another look at this the next time I visit Rome.

You could live in Florence for 10 years and still not see all of its galleries and museums, but as fascinating a city as it is, after 2 months I’ve decided that I need a bit of a change and want to see some of the Tuscan countryside and surrounding areas instead of spending all my time in the city centre. To achieve this I’ve bought myself an 18-speed bike, with a guarantee that the shop will buy it back from me at the end of my stay. On Friday I made the first use of it and rode up to the small town of Fiesole in the hills above Florence. It was an exhausting ride but the views back towards Florence and the Arno valley were worth it. In Fiesole itself I visited the archeological area which contains some ancient Roman and Etruscan ruins. The sun was shining and together with the wildflowers growing amongst the ruins and the Tuscan hills in the background it made for a very nice setting.

Today, Sunday, is the last day of Spring Break. After I finish writing this blog post I plan on heading to Piazza Santissima Maria Annunziata for the Annunciation Day festivities. Annunciation Day commemorates Archangel Gabriel’s announcement to the Virgin Mary that she would give birth to the Christ child. Traditionally, Florentines considered this day to be the first day of the year. On that note, I’ll wish everyone a “happy new year”. Ciao.

Photojournalism Mid-Term Portfolio

2007-03-20T09:03:00.000-07:00

The mid-term assessment for my photojournalism class is based on a portfolio of my photos from the assignments we had in the first half of the semester. Here are the photos that I selected:

For the last half of the semester, we need to choose a single project that we will work on for the entire 6 weeks. My current idea is to document the Muslim mosque that is just a few doors down the street from my apartment. The average person walking down the street wouldn't even know that it existed, making it all the more intriguing for me to get inside and photograph it. Getting permission from the mosque could prove difficult, but hopefully I'll be able to find the right contacts through the university who will help me to pull the right strings.

Wines of Tuscany Workshop

2007-03-20T08:41:00.000-07:00

The weekend before last I attended a “Wines of Tuscany” workshop that was run by the Apicius cooking school (a sister school of Florence University of the Arts). Representatives from a number of different wineries around Tuscany along with various other food and wine experts gave a series of talks on subjects ranging from marketing strategies and production techniques to the nutritional benefits of wine. The talks were very informal in nature, with lots of discussion between the presenters and the workshop participants. We also had the opportunity to taste a range of different wines and learn about how various factors such as the production techniques, climate and geography all contribute to their taste. To be honest, my palette hasn’t yet reached the level where I could detect all that much difference between the wines, but it was still an interesting workshop. Some tidbits of information that I learned throughout the day are summarized under the headings below.

The changing drinking habits of Italians:

Wine was traditionally stored in large vats and served in carafes. These days, however, wine is stored and served by the bottle and the preference is for quality rather than quantity.
Italians traditionally drank their wine together with food, and the wine was produced with this is mind. Chianti wines, for instance, are generally a little sour in taste, but this is the perfect match for a sweet red meat. More recently, wine is quite often drunk on its own (you can see the evidence of this in the large number of wine bars that have opened up around Italy), and this requires the production of different styles of wine.
One of the reasons for the changing drinking habits is the changing lifestyles of Italians. Wine was often served together with the traditional midday meal, but these days the main meal is more often than not in the evening.

Wine production:

There are no set rules for how to make a good wine. Instead, it is very experimental in nature and requires lots of measurements and adjustments throughout the entire production process. This is where the small wine producers have the advantage over the large producers (where much of the process is automated and less capable of tuning).
There are many different variables that determine how a wine will turn out. When growing the grapes you need to consider the climate, altitude, soil type, moisture level, etc. When fermenting the wine an important factor to consider is the amount of skin from the grapes that is present, since this will determine how strong tasting the wine is (the more skin, the stronger the taste). Finally, during the aging process when the wine is stored in barrels, you need to consider the ambient temperature at which the barrels are stored and the thickness of the barrels (which determines the amount of oxygen which reaches the wine).

Nutritional benefits of red wine:

As well as lowering the risk of heart disease, studies have shown that drinking moderate amounts of red wine can reduce the risk of lung cancer and diabetes and improve your eyesight and cognitive abilities.
The “French Paradox”, which refers to the low incidence of heart disease in France despite their high level of fat consumption, has been attributed to their high level of red wine consumption: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_paradox
Apparently, a Danish study has found that wine drinkers are smarter, richer and healthier than non-drinkers and beer drinkers: http://www.c2ckru.com/html/drink_smart.html

The full set of photos from the day can be found here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/global-wandering/tags/winesoftuscanyworkshop/

Exams (L'esame)

2007-03-11T08:04:00.000-07:00

This week we have our mid-term exams, so I'll find out how much I've learnt over the past couple of months. Given that I shouldn't really care about my final grades, I've been stressing out more than I should. Old habits die hard.

I'm expecting the Photoshop exam to be quite simple, and for photojournalism we need to put together a portfolio of our best photos which I've pretty much already done. The World Religions exam should also be relatively easy - I just need to remember a lot of dates and terms such as "samsara" (which in Hinduism means the endless cycle of death and rebirth).

The Italian language exam will be the difficult one. I went to see an advisor after my last test, but she didn't really tell me anything that I didn't already know - basically I just need to spend more time studying and memorizing the conjugations of the key verbs.

For our latin dance class, the mid term exam will consist of doing a small dance routine. The routine itself is pretty easy to remember - the difficult part being to make it look smooth and natural, rather than tensing up all my muscles.

The internet connection in my apartment has been down all week, so I'm actually writing this blog entry from a bar that has free wireless. Given that I had to pay 4 euros for a can of Sprite, however, I wouldn't really classify it as "free". Next time I may just see what the reception is like from sitting on the steps of the church just outside...

Smashing Pumpkins: Grunge is Back

2007-03-05T10:39:00.000-08:00

When the Smashing Pumpkins split up in 2000, I was disappointed that I hadn't had the chance to see them play live. Five years later I was extremely privileged to be able to see Billy Corgan (the lead singer) play an intimate acoustic show to an audience of only 400 people in Sydney, which I would rate in my top 3 music gigs of all time (the other two probably being the U2 Vertigo show in Sydney, and the Foo Fighters "Skin and Bones" acoustic show at the Sydney Opera House).

You can thus imagine my surprise when I saw the Smashing Pumpkins on the front cover of a music magazine while browsing through a music store in Vienna over the weekend. I wasn't sure if I was reading correctly, but yes, the Pumpkins are going to be touring various locations around Europe this summer. I may try and get tickets to the concert in Venice. Anyone going to be in the region who wants to join me? [Sorry Keong, I know you're going to be jealous. Hopefully they'll make it to Oz soon].

Weekend in Vienna

2007-03-05T09:13:00.000-08:00

I just arrived back in Florence this morning after spending the weekend in Vienna for a school fieldtrip. Our group of about 15 students departed on Friday night on the sleeper train, but the compartments were rather cramped so I didn’t actually get much sleep.

After arriving we dumped our bags at the hotel and grabbed a quick bit to eat at the breakfast buffet before heading off to visit downtown Vienna. We got the subway train to Karlsplatz station and started walking along Kärntner Straβe, which is one of the main pedestrian malls. Compared to Florence, Vienna is a much more modern looking city, with wide streets and footpaths, but it still has lots of nice old churches and palaces as well.

Our guide for the weekend was Francesco, but “shepherd” is probably a better term to use than “guide”. His favorite phrase over the two days was “come on”, as he guided us around the city like a flock of sheep, talking about the history of Vienna and pointing out some of the cafes and restaurants he used to frequent when he was living here as a student.

The first stop on our tour was St. Stephen’s Cathedral (aka “Stephensdom”), which is a huge gothic church that was built in 1147. Providing a nice contrast between old and new, there is a very modern looking building directly opposite the cathedral. If you look closely, you can actually see the reflected image of the church in its glass windows.

Our next stop was the Hofburg Imperial Palace, which has housed a number of important people in Austrian History over the years, and is currently the official residence of the President of Austria. We visited both the Imperial Apartments and the Silver Collection, which houses a ridiculously large amount of silverware, crockery, cutlery and glasses. The imperial family obviously used to have a lot of dinner parties.

By this time we were starting to get hungry, so it was off to a restaurant that Francesco used to eat at quite a bit during his student years. Austrian food is very similar to German, and very different from Italian. I ended up having the wiener sausage.

After lunch we had free time, so I wondered around the shops for a bit and visited a couple of churches before heading back to the hotel. In the evening we headed to a restaurant in an outer suburb of Vienna called “Grinzling” for a traditional Austrian meal, consisting of plenty of veal, pork, sauerkraut, schnitzels and apple strudel. Since I’ve been in Italy, I’ve only eaten Italian food, so it was good to try something different for a change.

After dinner we headed back into the centre of town for coffee. It seems like everyone else in Vienna wanted to do the same thing, because after running in the rain between two cafes which were already full of people we ended up at Starbucks.

On Sunday we were up early again for our visit to Schoenbrunn Palace. The inside of the palace was pretty similar to many other palaces I’ve seen in England, France and Italy, so it wasn’t overly exciting, but it was interesting to think about how these people used to live. Outside the palace there is an expansive garden. In the spring-time I can imagine that it would look pretty spectacular, but in winter when all of the trees have lost their leaves it is a little bit eerie. At the end of our tour I walked up the hill towards the so called “Gloriette” to get a nice view back towards the palace and the rest of Vienna.

In the afternoon we had more free time, so I headed to the Museums Quartier to see some modern art. The first gallery I visited was the Kunsthalle Wien. This was housing a special exhibition called “Elastic Taboos”, highlighting the rapid cultural changes that Korea is currently undergoing as it sheds many of the taboos of the past. The second gallery I visited was the MUMOK. In terms of strangeness, it doesn’t quite out do the ZKM museum which I visited in Karlsruhe, Germany a few years ago, but it comes close. Let’s just say that the Germans and Austrians have very open minds about a lot of stuff.

At that point, my visit to Vienna came to an end. We boarded the overnight train back to Florence, and this time I did manage to get some sleep before arriving at the bright and early hour of 6.30am. Given that I was wide awake by the time I got back to my apartment, I made productive use of my early awakening by heading to the San Ambrogio market to get some photos for my photojournalism project. More on that soon, but for now, Ciao.

School Newsletter (il giornale di scuola)

2007-03-01T09:34:00.000-08:00

The second edition of the school newsletter is now out. You can read it here:
http://www.apicius.it/newsletter/newsletter2.htm

I contributed 3 articles to this edition: "Carnevale in Viareggio", "Movie Night: L’Ultimo Bacio" and "Monday Night Sports". I also contributed the photo for the "Ristorante Sabatini" restaurant review.

In case you missed it in my previous post, I also contributed a couple of articles to the first edition of the newsletter:
http://www.apicius.it/newsletter/n1.htm

Visit to a Jewish Synagogue

2007-02-28T02:23:00.000-08:00

Today we visited the Jewish Synagogue in Florence for my World Religions class. The synagogue is located relatively close to where I live and is characterized by a large green dome that is easily visible from many parts of the city. The design is very interesting due to a mix of both Moorish/Islamic and Catholic architectural styles.

From 1570 to 1865 there was a Jewish ghetto in Florence where the Piazza della Republica is currently located. When the ghetto was closed down, the Jewish community began building the synagogue and it was officially opened in 1882.

When the Nazis occupied Italy during the second world war, many Jewish families were dressed to look like Catholics and were hidden in private Italian houses. The synagogue itself sustained a lot of damage, but the precious Torah scrolls (on which are written the word of God as it was handed down to Moses on Mt Sinai) were kept safe by hiding them in the countryside.

Many of the scrolls were lost, however, during the great flood of 1966. Even though the synagogue is located quite a long way away from the river, the water level rose to 2 metres above the floor and a faint line is still visible on the walls.

Today there are around 1000 members of the Jewish community who attend the synagogue, and there is a restoration program underway to restore it to its former glory.

Learning Photography

2007-02-26T05:48:00.000-08:00

I’ve been reviewing some of my most popular photos on Flickr in terms of the number of times they have been viewed by other people and the number of comments that have been left. It is interesting that one of my most popular photos isn’t very good in terms of the raw image quality (the main reason for this being that it was taken with my camera phone), but simply captures an interesting moment when I was at the train station on the way home from Viareggio:

As was highlighted in the Born into Brothels movie which I recently watched, it just goes to show that you don’t necessarily need to have an expensive camera to shoot great photos (although in certain situations it can certainly help!).

For another popular photo I was lucky enough to press the shutter button on my camera at just the right moment (albeit after several attempts):

The more I learn about photography, the more I realize the huge amount of stuff that I don’t know. It certainly requires a lot of patience. For every single photo you need to wait for the right moment, look for the best angle to shoot from, choose the appropriate camera settings, frame the shot and finally click the shutter button. Then when I get home I need to go through all of the photos, work out why some worked and some didn’t, select the best ones, do some editing if necessary and finally print and/or upload.

A lot of the time I’m still shooting in either full or semi-automatic mode (eg aperture priority or shutter priority). There is still a lot that I need to learn about all of the different manual settings on my camera and the effect they have on the final photo before I’m ready to shoot in full manual mode all of the time.

As my photojournalism lecturer said, the best way to learn photography is to shoot lots of photos and look at lots of photos. No problems for me there: I’m soon going to need another hard drive for my laptop to store all of my photos.

PS: Happy birthday to both Dad and Ben if you are reading this!

Photojournalism Ethics

2007-02-25T14:01:00.000-08:00

Today I was out shooting some photos for this week’s photojournalism assignment. We were given a magazine article from which the picture had been removed, and we had to capture an appropriate photo to go with the story. The article, titled Se son fritte siamo fritti from L’espresso magazine, talks about a possible link between eating french fries and cancer. Basically, I needed some photos of people eating at McDonald’s.

For my previous assignments, pretty much everyone in my photos was aware that they were having their picture taken. This assignment, however, required some stealth photography. I generally feel uncomfortable doing this sort of photography, and I had my concerns over the ethics of such an assignment. In recent years photojournalists have had a lot of negative publicity (the worst being when the paparazzi were blamed for Princess Diana’s death) and I don’t want to add to this negative image.

With mixed thoughts in my head, I set out with my trio of cameras (SLR, camera phone and the inbuilt webcam on my laptop). I first visited the McDonalds inside the train station, which has a staircase leading to a raised eating area above the service counters. From the middle of the staircase I had a great view over the top of the service counters, so I got my camera phone out and started taking a few snaps. A staff member must have seen me, because I was kindly asked to move on.

I next visited a McDonalds outside on the street. I found a position on the opposite side of the street from the restaurant where I could sit and watch with my telephoto lens. I got a few good snaps of people leaving the restaurant, as well as a guy who was sitting outside eating, before I decided to venture inside. Putting my SLR away, which would attract far too much attention, I took out my laptop and started taking a few photos with the webcam while pretending to be working on something else. I obviously didn’t disguise myself very well, however, because a staff member cottoned onto what I was doing and made me delete all of the photos I had taken. Luckily I still had the ones I’d taken with my camera phone and SLR.

As I’m writing this blog article back at home, I’m still debating the ethics in my mind. Should I have asked the permission of every single person before taking their photo? If this rule was followed by every photographer, then the majority of the great photos that I saw in a recent World Press Photo exhibit wouldn’t exist.

As a compromise, I’ve decided that I’m not going to upload any of the photos from this assignment to my Flickr website. After all, I wouldn’t want a picture of myself eating McDonalds plastered all over the web. In the future, provided that I don’t have any more assignments like this one, I’ve also decided that the goal of my photography will be to try and highlight the positive aspects of people and places rather than negative aspects. I think this will be particularly important when I visit Africa in the second half of this year, because Africa is too often depicted in the media in a negative sense. Don’t get me wrong: I still think that atrocities such as wars, famine and natural disasters need to be photographed, just not by me. In the end, ethics is about what helps you get to sleep at night, and I personally sleep much better with a positive image in my mind.

For more information on ethics in photography, check out the following websites:

Good summary of the basic ethics for photographers: http://commfaculty.fullerton.edu/lester/writings/photoethics.html
Interesting discussion on ethics in photojournalism: http://photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=00AZHT
Article about privacy and photography: http://photography.about.com/library/weekly/aa060399.htm

Hooray for the weekend!

2007-02-23T14:23:00.000-08:00

For my first couple of weeks in Florence I was diligently keeping my blog up to date with a new post every couple of days, so you may be wondering why this is the first post I’ve made for almost two weeks (although if you’ve been checking my Flickr website you’ll see that I’ve been uploading lots of photos). It certainly hasn’t been for lack of stuff to write about. On the contrary, I’ve been so busy that I simply haven’t had the time to write.

I know what you’re thinking: “You only have 12.5 contact hours per week for university, so you should have plenty of free time. Don’t you spend most of your time just lazing around in bars drinking coffee or strolling around admiring the beautiful buildings and artwork?” This is exactly what I was thinking it would be like before I left, but the reality is a little different. It had been 9 years since I was last at university, and I had forgotten how much time and effort is involved (reading, assignments, studying for tests, etc). Together with all of the extra-curricular activities and field trips that I am involved in, this means that I have very little free time. In fact, I haven’t had a “free” day where I’ve had nothing planned for quite a while, which is why I’m looking forward to this weekend.

To give you an idea of what I’ve been up to over the last couple of weeks, here is a day by day summary (with links to some photos on my Flickr website if you are interested in more details):

Sunday 4th February: In the afternoon I went for a walk around Piazza Michelangelo which has great views of Florence. In the evening we had our university welcome party at a disco called "Space Electronic". Some people stayed up to watch the Super Bowl afterwards, but having no interest in American Football I left fairly early.

Monday: Italian class at midday, followed by an interview with Nicola Cocchi for a photojournalism assignment (see the earlier blog entry that I posted on this). In the evening we headed out to some sports fields to play soccer for a couple of hours in the freezing cold. I hate to admit it, but many of the girls I play with/against put me to shame. Fabrizio, the guy who organizes the Monday night sports, is an ex-professional soccer player.

Tuesday: Dance class, World Religions class and Photoshop class. Tuesday is my busiest day in terms of classes. For Photoshop class we got to create a composition using images of Angelina Jolie. In the evening I went to a Connecting Cultures workshop where we learned about some of the false impressions and stereotypes that people have about Italy (such as the stereotype that all Italians love soccer, as mentioned in one of my previous posts).

Wednesday: Italian class in the morning. Study in the afternoon.

Thursday: Photojournalism class in the morning. Initial meeting for the university newsletter in the evening. Over the course of the semester we’ll be publishing a total of 4 newsletters and a magazine.

Friday: Visit to the Vasarian Corridor in the morning. Oltrano walking tour in the afternoon. Cleaning the house in preparation for Ben and Lucille’s visit.

Saturday: Ben and Lucille arrived and after catching up on what they’ve been doing on the rest of their honeymoon and what has been happening back in Australia we visited the Duomo and climbed the Cupolla. In the evening I cooked a roast tomato and spinach pasta.

Sunday: Visited Sienna with Ben and Lucille. Took lots of photos of Piazza del Campo for a photojournalism assignment.

Monday: Italian class. Cooked some Cannelloni for Ben and Lucille.

Tuesday: Dance class, World Religions class and Photoshop class. In Photoshop class we began creating a postcard.

Wednesday: Italian class at midday. In the evening we watched a screening of the Italian film L’Ultimo Bacio to celebrate Valentine’s Day.

Thursday: Photojournalism class in the morning, newsletter meeting in the evening. The first issue of the newsletter is now out, and contains two articles that I wrote: one about the Vasarian corridor, and one about Nicola Cocchi. You can now officially call me a (photo)journalist. You can read the newsletter here.

Friday: Invited my neighbor Nita over for dinner.

Saturday: Visited the Museo Nazionale Alinari della Fotografia (a photography musem) with Nita. They had an exhibition by photographer Walker Evans on the Great Depression in America.

Sunday: Field trip to Viareggio Carnivale. We got up early in the morning and took the 1.5 hour train ride from Florence to Viareggio. The museum that we had planned on visiting was closed, so we got our Carnivale tickets and watched them setting up some of the floats. By lunchtime the place was packed with people, and I had to wait in line for around 30 minutes to get my “fish and chips” (if you could call it that) for lunch. Despite this, it was a very fun and jovial atmosphere with kids and adults alike running around and spraying everyone with foam and confetti (myself and my camera included). The actual parade started at around 3pm, and the floats were enormous. For a similar type of parade in Australia you would expect barriers to hold people back. At Viareggio, however, everyone was dancing in the streets right alongside the floats. Once the parade finished we headed back to the train station for the ride home and there was absolute chaos as hundreds of people packed the platform. Half of our group got on the wrong train which was about the leave for Rome, but luckily they realised in time and we all made it home safely. For more details, check out my photos or the detailed report by bootsintheoven.

Monday: For this week’s photojournalism assignment we had to follow someone around for a day and create a mini documentary of their life. I chose my neighbor Nita. In the morning I followed her as she took out the trash, went to the Laundromat, did her grocery shopping and had a cappuccino. I then had to duck off to Italian class before meeting up with her again in the afternoon at the office of The Florentine newspaper where she is editor in chief. On Monday evening it was off to soccer again.

Tuesday: Dance class, World Religions class, Photoshop class.

Wednesday: Italian class at midday. In the evening I went to a famous (and expensive) restaurant in Florence called Sabatini with a couple of guys who are studying at Apicius (a cooking/culinary school). We were on an assignment to write a restaurant review for the university newsletter, and I was the official photographer.

Thursday: We had our photojournalism class in the morning as usual. In the evening we watched movie called Born into Brothels, which is about a group of kids in Calcutta, India, who were born into a brothel. A photographer from New York gives them each a camera and teaches them photography. Highly recommended viewing, especially if you are interested in photography.

Friday (today): This morning we had a catch-up Photoshop class because our teacher will be away next week. The new project we have started working on is to create a self portrait. We were shown some of the tips and tricks for touching up photos. Stay tuned for the final result.

So, as you can see, I’ve been keeping myself quite busy. Not that I’m complaining: it’s all in the name of fun!

Nicola Cocchi

2007-02-10T09:45:00.000-08:00

Piazza Ciompi and surrounding streets in the Santa Croce district of Florence are home to an array of interesting antique shops and stalls. Many Florentines visit the area to hunt out bargains, especially on the last Sunday of every month when the area is closed off to traffic and vendors set up stalls along the streets.

Apart from the sale of antiques, restoration is also an important business. Meet Nicola Cocchi, who operates an antique restoration workshop on Borgo Allegri.

One of the many tasks which Nicola undertakes as part of his work is the creation of ornamental statuettes. The plaster figure is first created from a silicone mould.

23.75 carat gold leaf (ie 99% pure gold) is then applied in small pieces until the entire figure is coated.

Nicola has been doing this kind of work for over 15 years, and has a real passion for his job. “Io amo veramente il mio lavoro”. (I really love my job).

Oltrano walking tour and L'Ippogrifo Stampe D'Arte

2007-02-09T10:15:00.000-08:00

Today I went on a walking tour to Oltrano, "the other side of the river", with a small group from university.

We visited a traditional printing laboratory called L'Ippogrifo Stampe D'Arte, which still uses the same technique that was originally developed in Florence over 500 years ago.

The store is owned and operated by artist Gianni Raffaelli and his wife. After some brief introductions, Gianni was kind enough to explain the printing process to us.

Originally, this printing technique was mainly used for the printing of technical documents:

These days it is only used for art:

To create the prints, a copper plate is first coated with a protective wax and the artwork is drawn into the wax.

The plate is then immersed in acid, which eats away at the exposed copper and forms etchings.

The next step involves coating the copper etching with ink.

Finally, the copper etching is placed underneath a sheet of paper and passed through a press.

At the end, we have a fabulous original print!

All in all it was a great afternoon out in Florence. Many thanks to Gianni Raffaelli and his wife for their time.

From the left: Michael, Kelly, Candice, Martina (our leader) and Ishmael.

From the left: Michael, Kelly, Darren (photographer), Martina (our leader) and Ishmael.

Vasarian Corridor

2007-02-09T09:05:00.000-08:00

The Vasarian Corridor is a secret passageway high above the streets of Florence that runs one kilometre from the Uffizi Gallery, over the Ponte Vecchio, to the Palazzo Pitti.

The corridor houses a large number of prestigious paintings and self portraits from the 16th to the 20th century.

Normally the corridor isn't open to the general public, as evidenced by these two guards at the Palazzo Pitti entrance.

Study Abroad Italy students were given an exclusive opportunity to see inside the corridor, something that many locals have never experienced.

Highs and Lows (Alto e Basso)

2007-02-07T10:21:00.000-08:00

My first week in Florence was a bit surreal. One minute I would be chatting online to friends and listening to music as though I hadn’t left home, and the next minute I would walk out my front door onto the streets of Florence and wonder how I got here.

In the last week or so some of the initial excitement has started to wear off. Although most days I’m still on a high there have been a few days where a little frustration and loneliness have gotten the better of me. When I first met my neighbor Nita and asked her how she found living in Florence, she mentioned that when she is feeling a bit down it can feel worse than it really is, because friends and family are far away (although now that she has been living here 3 years, she has obviously made a lot of new friends).

Last weekend, for instance, I had a bit of a cold and was struggling with my Italian, wondering if I should drop back to an easier level. Being all alone in my apartment, I was also feeling a bit lonely. The “odd one out” feeling didn’t help either (only Australian at the university, only person in my age group, only guy in the dance class).

My gloomy outlook quickly turned around, however, as soon as Monday came around and I was back at university with a bit of human contact. It was good to talk to other students and find out that they are also struggling with their Italian, so I realized that I wasn’t alone.The other great cure for loneliness while travelling is the Internet. Nita is letting me share her wireless internet connection, meaning that I can be online almost permanently at both home and university (where they also have wireless). The only problem with Nita’s internet connection is that it has frequent drop-outs. At one stage last week it was down for a couple of days. Like most people these days, I’ve become so dependent on the internet that when the connection is down it is almost like losing a body part.

Conversations in Italian (Conversazione in Italiano)

2007-02-07T07:22:00.000-08:00

These are some of the [very] small conversations I’ve been having over the last few days as I try out my Italian. As well as helping to improve my Italian skills, talking with the locals also helps improve my understanding of the culture. Disclaimer: My interpretation and translation of the conversations are subject to error.

Highlighting my ignorance about the time of year when basil is grown, I had the following conversation with a signora at the Sant’ Ambrogio fresh produce market:

Darren: [Pointing to a green looking herb that looks similar to basil]. “E questa basillico?” (Is this basil?).
Signora: [With a laugh]. “No, non e questa basillico! E troppo freddo per basillico.” (No, this isn’t basil! It is too cold for basil.)

The following conversation I had with an Italian student at a “Connecting Cultures” workshop run by the university highlighted my false impression that all Italians love soccer:

Darren: “Gioci calico?” (Do you play soccer?).
Italian student: “No, non mi piace calcio" (No, I don’t like soccer).

Not expecting anyone, I was surprised the other day when the doorbell rang in my apartment:

Darren: [Answering the intercom]. “Buongiorno” (Good morning).
Postman: “Buongiorno. Puoi aprire la porta, per favore? Sono il postino.” (Good morning. Can you please open the door? I am the postman.)
Darren: [Buzzing him in]. “Si, certo”. (Yes, certainly).

All of the mailboxes are located inside the security door for the block of apartments, so whenever the mailman has some mail to deliver, he needs someone to let him in. I’m not sure what happens to the mail when nobody is home.

Football suspended in Italy

2007-02-03T01:54:00.000-08:00

A friend Chris alterted me to the breaking news that football has been suspended in Italy after a police officer was killed during a riot at a match in Sicily. More info in this article.

Kingsley's Crossing

2007-02-01T07:49:00.000-08:00

I attended my first photojournalism class today. Feels like it should be an interesting course. At the very least, it will force me to become less shy about going up and chatting to random people that I meet, which I haven't been so good at in the past. Amongst other things, the lecturer showed us a very moving piece of photojournalism entitled "Kingsley's Crossing" by French photojournalist Olivier Jobard:

Click on the above image to view the photos.

The Flashpacker Phenomenon

2007-02-01T05:24:00.000-08:00

My old uni friend Guy (aka "Gusto") just alerted me to the new term "flashpacker", which I hadn't heard about before. The Flashpacker Diaries website describes flashpackers as follows:

"They are individuals who are perhaps a little older than the post-Uni, pre-life 21 year old backpacker, who have a larger budget but less time. Flashpacking is for those people who prefer a little quality and have the means to pay for it."

I took the Flashpacker Quiz, and got all C's apart from question 4 (although I would like to buy 20 acres of protected equatorial rainforest, I don't have quite that much money to throw around). Even though I generally dislike stereotypes, I guess that makes me an official "flashpacker".

There is also an article in the Sydney Morning Herald.

Photo Cafe

2007-02-01T04:44:00.000-08:00

Found this really cool photo screensaver called PhotoCafe which can download photos from the web, including flickr, and display them along with photos from your local machine.

My University (La Mia Universita)

2007-01-30T08:51:00.000-08:00

I attended university orientation last week which was a little boring. To be fair, it was obviously aimed more towards younger students who have never left home before, not someone like me who has travelled the world. I had to laugh when they warned about the culture shock of “not being able to buy peanut butter at the supermarket”. Try travelling through the remote parts of western China and you’ll know the true meaning of the phrase “culture shock”!

I hadn’t studied up on my Italian at all before I arrived, and it showed when I only got 14 out of 30 questions correct on my multi-choice placement test, many of my answers being guesses. However, they still let me enroll in the intermediate class, and the instructor told me that if I find it too difficult in the first week I can drop back to the easier class. Since I don’t really have anything riding on my final grade, I would rather do the more difficult class than be stuck in a simple beginner’s class.

My first day in class didn’t turn out to be too bad. The class size is very small (only 7 other students), and I think most of us are at about the same level of understanding. Our first assignment was to write a couple of sentences describe what we did on the weekend:

Sabatto sono visitato il Palazzo Vecchio guardare l’art e l’architettura.
[On Saturday I visited the Palazzo Vecchio to look at the art and architecture].

Domenica sono camminato lung oil fiume Arno prendere alcuni I fotografi.
[On Sunday I walked along the river Arno to take some photographs].

I haven't really tried to speak much Italian yet, except for asking directions once or twice (“dove la stazione”) and ordering coffee (“un cappuccino per favore”, not all that difficult).

Apart from Italian language, the other units I’m studying are World Religions, Latin Dance, Introduction to Photojournalism and Introduction to Photoshop. I originally wanted to do an art history class, but the only timeslots available clash with my Latin Dance course. If any free spots open up by the end of the week I may be able to swap my Photoshop class for an art history class, so we’ll wait and see.

I had my first Latin Dance and World Religions classes today. As I kind of expected, I’m the only guy doing the Latin Dance class, along with 9 other girls, which isn’t so bad I guess. The World Religions class was also pretty interesting, so I’m glad I picked it. We’ll be covering Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism, Hindu and Islam.

My Neighbourhood (La Mia Quartiere)

2007-01-30T08:44:00.000-08:00

My apartment is located in the “Sante Croce” area of central Florence, so called because it contains the beautiful Sante Croce church:

My street, Borgo Allegri, contains lots of shops that sell and restore old furniture. The area would be an antique furniture lover’s dream. My apartment actually has a lot of old furniture in it as well.

I spent my Australia Day going for a wander around my neighbourhood, including a visit to the Palazzo Vecchio museum. There are so many museums here, I’ll be able to go to a different one every week. I’m trying not to look like too much of a tourist but it is unavoidable with my large SLR camera draped around my neck coupled with my occasional stopping to check out my map. Hopefully I’ll blend in better with the locals as time passes.

On Sunday morning I was woken up fairly early with the sound of lots of commotion on the street. I looked out the window to discover that the street had been converted to a big marketplace, with vendors selling everything from clothes to porcelain to wooden sculptures that looked like they originated from somewhere in Africa. I ended up buying a scarf and beanie because the weather was so cold, and then going for a walk down to the Arno river to escape the crowds.

My Apartment (Il Mio Appartamento)

2007-01-30T08:40:00.000-08:00

Having only seen a few small photos and a brief description of my apartment on the Internet before I arrived, I was somewhat apprehensive to find out what it was like in reality. As it turns out, I couldn’t be happier with it. It is a good size, is nicely furnished, and has beautiful wooden floors and ceiling. It is also in a perfect location only a few minutes’ walk to university.

My landlord is a very friendly signora whose name is “Martelli Ferrari”. I’ve always wanted a Ferrari, and now it seems that I have one! She was there to greet me when I arrived and show me around the apartment, pointing out all the little idiosyncrasies such as the fact that you need to press the flush button on the toilet 3 times before it will work. It is a very old apartment, so a few minor issues are nothing to worry about. Testament to how old it is, is the fact that the power outlets require a special adapter to adapt them to the European standard (and I then need another adapter to adapt to the Australian standard). It also has no ceiling lights in the main living area and bedroom – just free standing floor lamps.

My neighbor Nita is also very friendly. Originally from California, she has been living in Florence for around 3 years, and is the editor of an English newsletter called “The Florentine”. When I told her that I am studying photojournalism, she asked if I would be interested in publishing any photographs and/or articles in the newsletter. I jumped at the opportunity, so in the not too distant future I may have my first published article (providing that my writing is good enough)! I may also end up doing some writing for a small newsletter that is published by students at the university.

Visited Countries

2007-01-29T04:40:00.000-08:00

Found this site on the web that allows you to generate a map of all of the countries in the world that you've visited, so I generated one for myself:

It may take me a while, but eventually I aim to have most of the map in red.

Arrival in Florence

2007-01-28T07:47:00.000-08:00

Woohoo! After my initial idea to take a year off to study and travel over 12 months ago, I’ve just arrived in Florence, Italy, for the first part of my adventure. I had been umming and aahing about my decision for a few months, and it wasn’t until my friend Anna (another avid traveler) came to visit in Easter last year that I finally committed myself to making it happen.

I aimed to start writing this blog over a month ago, but trip planning along with Christmas and New Year’s celebrations all managed to get in the way. Even though I managed to squeeze in a bit of time for lazing around watching the cricket and tennis, it has seemed almost like a full time job over the last month just to get everything organized.

My last weekend in Sydney was particularly hectic, making sure I had everything packed up and stored away. After a final farewell dinner in The Rocks, I was up until 1.30am packing my car for the big road trip back to Perth. I finally hit the road at around midday on Monday the 18th December with my car fully loaded. There were a couple of boxes I had to leave behind at my flatmate’s place because there was absolutely no room left in the car.

It felt good to be on the road again. Must be my restless soul, but travelling is when I feel my happiest. Leaving the traffic of Sydney behind, I made my way to Dubbo where I met up with a good friend Geoff (aka “Horny”) who I used to play hockey with. Showing some country style hospitality, Geoff took me out to dinner (refusing to let me pay) and then let me stay the night at his place.

The next day I was up early for the long 9 hour drive to Broken Hill. The effects of 5 years of drought in New South Wales were glaringly obvious as I passed dry and dusty farmland. A few farmers had attempted to grow crops, but the results were saddening to witness. Broken Hill, on the other hand, was obviously doing well as part of the current mining boom. There were a lot of interesting attractions to visit in and around the town, my favourites being the Sculpture Symposium and Pro Hart’s art gallery.

The next stop after Broken Hill was the little country town of Melrose in the Flinders Ranges, which my parents had recommended. After spending the night in the caravan park, I got up early to hike to the summit of Mount Remarkable, which ended up being a 4 hour round trip.

The next few days were fairly uneventful – just lots of driving across the wide open landscape of the Nullabor Plain. The coastal cliffs near Eucla were an interesting diversion from the flatness of the plain. On the last leg of my journey I stopped off at Doodlakine to visit the school where I attended year 1. Unfortunately the school was closed down a couple of years ago. I also stopped off at Brett (my Dad’s cousin) and Kris’ place in Kellerberrin, and they provided great hospitality as always.

I finally arrived in Perth on Christmas Eve. The next few weeks were spent catching up with family and friends and lazing around watching the cricket and tennis (gotta love summer in oz). I also did a lot of shopping, mainly stocking up on new gadgets – two new camera lenses (an EF-S 17-55mm f/2.8 to use as a general walkabout lens, and an EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6 telephoto for wildlife photography in Africa), a new mobile phone and a new camera/laptop backpack to carry it all. I tested out the 17-55 lens in Wellington National Park while visiting my brother in Bunbury, and I tested out the 70-300 with some macro shots of animals and insects around the house.

My 4 weeks in Perth flew by quickly, and I spent my last few days packing. After my last couple of overseas trips where I was up until 2 or 3am in the morning getting packed, you would have thought that this time I would leave plenty of time, but true to form it wasn’t until 2am on the night before by 9am flight that I finished. My check-in luggage weighed in at a hefty 27kg – 7kg over the advertised limit for economy class. Add another 9kg or so for my carry-on luggage and I was a bit concerned that I may need to pay a hefty excess baggage fee, but in the end it didn’t turn out to be a problem.

On my way to Florence I stopped off in Singapore for a few days to catch up with Ash, Tara and Omar. Shortly after I arrived we hit the town for dinner and a few drinks (the tastiest being the lychee martinis at Harry’s Bar, mmm) before turning in for a relatively early night. The next morning I had a mild hangover, but we decided to go out to a Dim Sum restaurant for brunch. I then spent a few hours at the Botanic Garden’s with Omar and Omar’s/Ash’s mum. As per the usual after any sort of outdoor activity in Singapore’s heat and humidity, I arrived home nice and sweaty. The next day I headed out to Singapore Zoo to test out my new telephoto lens.

After a final dinner of chicken rice at a hawker centre, I said my goodbyes to Ash and Tara before heading to the airport for my midnight flight. Coincidentally, Ash and Tara are moving to London in March (everyone is moving to London these days), so I’ll be able to catch up with them again at the end of my stay in Italy on my way to Africa.

The flight from Singapore to Florence via Frankfurt wasn’t the best of flights. No personal video screen and a lack of any decent movies on the shared monitors meant that I spent most of the 14 hour flight in complete boredom. At one stage I lost my glasses when they fell behind my seat. Searching for something in the dark and crowded cabin of a plane would be difficult enough normally, but without glasses it was even worse. I asked the cabin stewardess if she could broadcast a message over the plane’s PA system, and luckily enough the guy in the seat behind me found them before they were trampled on.

While transferring at Frankfurt airport I shared the departure lounge with a big group of students who were obviously headed to the same university in Florence as I was. Being almost 30 myself, while the majority of the other students were probably still in their late teens made me wonder how well I would fit in at the university. Am I too old for this? What was I thinking quitting a well paying job and leaving the country where all of my friends and family are based to go to a city and country where I don’t know anyone?

Most of my fears evaporated, however, when I arrived in Florence. It is such a beautiful city. I was picked up at the airport in my own private limousine, and we drove through the small winding streets, past the famous Duomo, and on to my apartment in the Sante Croche district. And so begins my slice of “la dolce vita”.