We spent the day up at Waskesiu with our good friends the Kents yesterday.  The weather was perfect – hot and sunny – perfect lake weather. 

Waskesiu has become quite the vacation hot spot in this area.  A few years ago there was little development.  Now new and very expensive cabins are going up where there used to be tiny little cabins and shack tents.  In fact there is a “historical” display of these old structures by the administrative centre.  It is indicative of my age, I guess, that this is history I remember – like yesterday.

Anyway, pictures are worth more than words so here are a couple of shots from our day.  There are more over at Flikr.

Наконец-то у меня дошли руки продолжить описание поездки в Польшу.

Ратуша. Внизу - единственный приличный ресторан

Ближайшим к месту командировки городом был небольшой (по российским меркам) город Jawor. 25 тыс. населения, средневековая рыночная площадь и весьма потертый облик. Типичный райцентр, коим он и является. До 1945 года этот город (равно как и вся западная часть нынешней Польши) принадлежал Германии и назывался Jauer. В 45-м всех немцев отсюда выселили нафиг, и переселили этнических поляков из “Крэсов всходних”, которые тогда же отошли к Советскому Союзу.

В скобочках напомню, что “Крэсы всходни” – это те районы, которые свежеобразованная незалежная Польша захапала в 1919 году, и к которым относятся Вильня, Западная Белоруссия и Западная Украина. Что характерно, в Литве и Беларуси (Брест, Гродно и окрестности) поляков до сих пор осталось заметное количество, а в Западной Украине (Львов) их нет совсем – это к вопросу о толерантности и терпимости к иноземцам…

В последние годы город (по меньшей мере исторический центр) стали понемногу восстанавливать, хотя последствия 65 лет обитания здесь поляков ликвидировать не так-то просто.

В центре Явора. Дома, похоже, не ремонтировались с 1945 года...

На главной площади, помимо ратхауза (ратуши)  стоит типично средневековая застройка, с крытой торговой галереей внизу.

А вот так это смотрится изнутри.

Сейчас в этой аркаде имеется пяток магазинчиков с довольно мрачным ассортиментом а-ля ларьки 90-х годов. Там еще тусовалась какая-то странного вида личность, которая увидев камеру в моих руках, мгновенно исчезла в подворотне. Может, наркодилер, может мелкий крышеватель.

О том, что город не всегда был польским, свидетельствуют мемориальные доски.

В этом доме жила писательница с чиста-польским именем Henriette Arndt

В городе частенько встречаются совершенно потрясающие образцы архитектуры. Например, вот такая дверь.

Что в этом доме было раньше, не знаю, сейчас там обменный пункт.

Одна из церквей (закрытая) и местное место отдых, типа-сквер с лавочками и бабульками на них. Асфальтированием дорожек тут не утруждаются.

А вот эта церковь (протестантская Kościół Pokoju  или  Friedenskirche в необычном фахверковом стиле занесена в список мирового наследия ЮНЕСКО.

Костел внутри (фото с Википедии)

Замок давних князей Пясов, построен в 13 веке.

Этот дом тоже не вызывает никаких ассоциаций с Польшей – чисто немецкий, начало 20 века, только (как и везде в Восточной Европе) увешан спутниковыми тарелками.

На улицах народ откровенно шарахается от фотокамер, поэтому попытки поснимать местных жителей удавались случайно.

Монашка-модница

Силезские "цветочки жизни". Растут преимущественно в диком виде.

With the summer 2007 now firmly behind us, the time is near when vacationers throughout the world will start to look forward to their next vacation. For the lucky ones, Christmas will be an opportunity to travel to holiday destination and whilst hotels may usually be the first option in people’s mind when thinking about a place to live when traveling, wise travelers have known about holiday apartments for a while now. This is particularly true if you are vacationing with your family and looking to get the best holiday deals.

Holiday apartments offer an ideal alternative to hotel accommodation on a whole range of different levels, be it size, price and other considerations. And whilst hotels usually boast room and other personalized services to their customers, vacation suites and apartments are now competing with that as well.

Private owners often use the holiday rental market to monetize a second or third home, and have traditionally used the services of a letting agency to find customers, take payment and sometimes even take over full management of the said properties.

In the past 15 years, large houses in European cities such London have been converted into apartments (flats) for the purpose of being rented to tourists and travelers on short term basis. These types of properties directly compete with hotels in that they provide a reception for check-ins and check-outs and varying degrees of concierge services.

Hotels, having realized the potential loss of revenue generated by the rental of holiday apartments have now begun to offer furnished hotel suites, which combine the amenities of a home with the services of a hotel. This option is perhaps the most costly of all three types of vacation apartment’s rentals.

If you are looking for more space in which to stretch your tired legs after a day’s walking through the streets of London or other cities throughout the world, apartments are an ideal alternative to hotels.

In addition to space, though, the savings are what make holiday apartments so worthy of your consideration for your next travel or vacation trip.

My head hurts. Why shall it be? Mmmm, let’s think… Oh, yeah, it might be that a guy just punched me in the ear! LOL. I know it is not funny, it’s just that… So strange. Ok, i’ll grant that i was “giving soft”, that is, it was stupid of me to be at that place at that time, my mistake. What happened was: i went over to find a decent first meal to break my 3 days fast — what? didn’t i tell you about fasting? So, let’s begin from the beginning.

It has been 56 days since my last post. Why, you ask? Well, i was chastising myself. Since i changed my theme and my tag scheme, this blog was in a total mess, and that meant you couldn’t find the good (at least i love them) primeval posts. I had been promising myself to fix everything and re-tag all of the posts and insert “more tags” that would prevent the posts from being immense in the blogs main page — that is, the “read more” thing — i promised myself to do that, but there are a lot of posts and i procrastinated. So, i forbid myself to post anything before i fixed it. And that’s it. It took me 56 days, not counting the months before…

Anyway, i had kept the habit of marking important occasions with those self absorbed, onanistic metaposts, but that too i let slip: this is the 304th post, i forgot to make a big fuss of getting to 300. That’s more than 2 and a half years. And that is also so many words (i had the total count somewhere but don’t feel like looking) so many words that if you print them you get a bulky (and heavy) ~300 pages tome, complete with the blog’s logo made of silvertape! {Promise to post a picture of that someday!}

And since it’s been so long that you do not hear from me, i’ll pretend anyone is actually interested and i’ll bore you with present the latest news from my life!

I have been living in Curitiba now for exactly 1 year and 5 days. It would certainly be much cooler to give the news when it was really 1 year, round, but it seems the habit of old news is all-pervasive. I am now living with a friend in an apartment which has a view i simply love. I love so much, indeed, that i have been spending too much time at home.

The room mate has ups and downs, he has taken to the pesky habit of perpetuating some stupid slogans like that i never agree with anything, and he knows how to be a pain in the ass, but he does have the merit of having one eye open for new and good ideas, and that, mostly, makes the relationship pleasant.

He has He-Man for a nickname, so we call our home Greyskull Inn. The inn part is because in the last 2 months we have received many visitors, all loved friends. It has been a great, great pleasure to have those people around. First Clarice and João and his girlfriend came to Purungo (which was weak, by the way, but at least it is one more nametag to my collection). Then Shimabukuro came along and tried to turn us into cooks, he didn’t seem to understand that we are too lazy to make our own food — but yes, we do admit he fed us very well. I even did learn the garlic-on-rice trick! And finally came Cuducos, but he did not stay for enough time.

But anyway, He-Man abused his charms and got invited to give a presentation at NDesign2009 in Recife, the day before yesterday he went and i am home alone, i’ll be home alone for 7 more days.

I’m taking that time to finish a lot of things, besides the blog, first and foremost being my stuff. I have decided to have less of it, less stuff, and better stuff, better organized, so that, in essence, i can put it all on a backpack and hike around. No big plans, really, i just feel… i don’t know, heavy. I had this idea that an L-shaped table was the rage, and that other idea that a Wallita Juicer would be revolutionary, but those didn’t work out. I’m just not that kind of guy. I can collect stuff, mind you, if i don’t pay attention i have a full house very quickly, but i just don’t feel good for having the stuff, i don’t get fond of the stuff. So, no, neither the table nor the juicer made me as happy as i believed.

That’s why i have this plan of “dematerializing”, i want to try a modified version of the 100 things challenge, i think i’ll go for 256 things (which is a much nerdier number, right?). And so i am amidst yet another big bedroom re-organization. I have set a expiration date for doing that, and i have only 13 days left, which means i’ve got to put more effort in it.

Another thing that i plan on taking better care on those next few days is my account on eRepublik, an online multiplayer RISK-like (WAR-like if you are from Brazil) game where i go by the name of “Valéria Baraco”, and where people take things waaay too seriously and it is great because we can discuss politics in a very unusual place, with very unusual constraints and opportunities, and so i hope maybe i can put forward some ideas that are far from orthodox but that i believe could be very synergistic if we could undress politics of it’s prejudices and ideologies…

By now it should have become terribly clear that i keep being helplessly idle, “you might say unemployed”. But i had a little epiphany the other day! I saw an Alan Resnais film, called “Mon Oncle d’Amerique”, and in it there was the most marvellous passage:

If you want to go to the moon, you must learn about gravity. When that happens, we don’t become suddenly free from gravity, as if by magic. But we start to use it for different things.

And there you have it. This is exactly what i want to do with my life. My career plan, if you will: i do different things. Just wait till i show you what that might be!

Well, i do indeed have a plan, though, and it is so silly i might even put it to practice. I am thinking of becoming a programmer. I have indeed went so far as creating a little astrology app to teach myself how to compile a C program and use GTK+. Well, ok, “app” might be a little exaggeration, but it at least does pop up a window with tabs, one showing the positions of my planets, the other the houses in all the possible house-systems, and the final one with a nice placeholder space for a — who knows, i might even learn cairo — chart drawing. To tell the truth it is a hack at best, but since i wrote the whole program, without ctrl-C ctrl-V (not that i have anything against it, it’s just that i wanted to make sure i was learning something), i feel really good about having it compile successfully!

Actually, i do have lots of plans, all at the same time. It has been always this way. But the programming thing is really very fun.

Anyways, since seeing this film, i remembered a lot of things. One of them was that i live on my own, and that this gives me some freedom to do certain things, and one that i had always wanted to try but had been dissuaded by “concerned parties” around was to fast. I wanted to know how it was to feel hunger. It has always been an interesting idea to me. And then, well, i did it.

I admit, i cheated. I do not want to have malnutrition, so i actually had myself a fast where i supplied calories through a small spoon of honey each day and random nutrients through fairly immoderate amounts of juice. I even gave myself milk, but in retrospect i now feel the milk was to much like food, next time i do that i want to be stricter.

And that was the reason i had gone outside. Basically, i was about to finish my 72 hours of fasting, and i wanted to break my fast with something decent to eat. So i went out, had some coffee, walked all of Batel, and ended up figuring out that no, i didn’t really want to eat any of those things. Neither seemed too prudent to ditch into a stomach that had been kind-of at rest for so much time. So i settled up for coming back home and making myself a pretty plain bowl of whole rice. (With the plastic bag, by the way, no Shima it is not odd, it is easy!).

Problem was: i had had a dream. I had had a dream about a certain person. Someone i did not want to be thinking about. At least, someone i think i had been thinking about too much, which (being said someone not particularly clear about caring for that) seemed to me as a recipe for disappointment, so i wanted to i-ching about Y. Let’s call this “someone” Y. Ok, as i decided to go back home and dine on rice, i went all the way searching for a quiet place to i-ching. Which i didn’t find. And home does not seem like a place to “trying novel perspectives”, so to say, so i decided to sit besides my door and do the i-chinging. Which turned out not to be too good an idea, as two guys appeared and tried to mug my Palm.

As it happens, i was not of the opinion that this was acceptable, so i held the Palm strongly as one of them tried to force it out of my hand and the other one attacked me. I used my elbow in the guy behind me and kicked at the one in front. It was quick. I received a fairly accurate but not strong punch in the ear (did they watch Fight Club?), and i think it was all.

For a month and a half now, i’ve been practising a thing called krav-maga, it is a kind of martial-arts/self defence system, i even right now have a slight bruise on my right knuckle from punching a sand bag, and one of it’s teachings is about aggressivety, which is not wanting to hurt others, but instead is not accepting the role of being a victim. They say you must change from receiver of the aggression to emitter ASAP, immediately if possible. It is difficult to know, in hindsight, if i did that. I actually think i put up a poor fight. But it was good enough that they saw that i was not gonna be as easy a picking as they at first thought, and, when i managed to move out to a position not in between them, they simply left and i was standing, alert and relaxed. So, yes, my head hurts a bit. But it was kind of good to be able to defend myself.

And so, pretty much, this is it. I am still the same puny little guy with dreamy eyes and a difficult vocabulary and no sense of business that i was back in kindergarten, but… What can i do? I kind of like myself. I know everybody else and their cats think i am headed to misery and misfortune for not wanting to get a job, i know everybody thinks i am just a spoiled kid, but… I read my blog posts from years ago and i have the same excitement of “cool” as when reading guys like Nietzsche or Bey. I don’t want to be any of those things that people tell me i should, like “successful” or “secure” or “respected” or… I don’t even want to be the guy who will save the world. I don’t know. I just…

In 76 days i will turn 30 years old. In 19 days i will have an exact transit of Saturn on Saturn. I don’t know if my “Saturn Return” was a stabilization period or a big breakage.

I do feel lonely. I do feel like people expect things from me, even if i can never really understand what exactly they think i owe them. I do feel like the world is a burden, like the little day-to-day chores are too much of a toll. I feel it becomes more and more difficult to get interested in people. I don’t understand this world that “keeps pretending it is upstanding”.

How many more days do i need before i “make it”? Before i “get there”? Before i become a decent citizen? A deserving member of our great society? I don’t know. I am not really sure any amount of days would be enough. Because i am not trying.

I am not trying to be that man.

I am something else. That different thing will keep not being ready, not being right, not being complete. But, in that imperfection, i already am. I am this different thing. Now.

So maybe i’ll go even farther away. Maybe i’ll spend my birthday in Argentina. Maybe i want to see the desert. Who knows? If we meet, let’s have great talks about random unbelievable subjects, let’s share small amusing confidences, let’s be wonderful together. Even if we don’t, you have my deepest wishes that everything turns out fine, that you can yourself by yourself conquer the great happiness of the great persons.

And if i die of internal haemorrhaging tomorrow, you all saw that i closed with a hopeful message

Just got in tonight and was kept high due to an American 757 ahead of me on final. Got to snap this pic as on high left downwind. Notice the field in the near part of the photo. This was taken at FL150. Field elev is approx 6500′.  Perfect eve for a ride. Wind calm, no buildups.

People in America usually thought and associated California with snobs and over the top rich men loaded with money. But this is actually not so.

There’s a good reason for this.  Orange Country is an amazingly beautiful and diverse area, with Mediterranean-like weather year-round.  Residents surf the waves on Christmas, something that people from northern states like Idaho or Wisconsin could only dream about.  Many consider Orange County to be one of the most perfect places on earth because of the juxtaposition of temperate weather, beautiful scenery, high job growth, and of course its ideal proximity to Los Angeles and San Diego.

Of course when all of these factors combine together into one area, you’ll quickly find that another, not-so-perfect aspect comes into play: soaring housing prices and cost of living.   As a place to vacation however, this only affects the average tourist in terms of the cost of accommodation and eating out as this may be higher than in an area where property owners/restaurateurs have less overheads to pay.  The main problem isn’t so much that holidaymakers are faced with higher prices, but rather that Orange County isn’t a vibrant cosmopolitan city with many different cultures woven into its backdrop.  Many tourist attractions, and even stores, are generic with little local color.  This doesn’t apply everywhere however, the world famous surfer’s paradise of Huntington Beach can be found in this area, as can the unique Crystal Cathedral!   For kids there’s Disneyland, Ripley’s Believe It or Not, and even a toy museum to keep them amused.

You may not be able to relive the highlife from the TV show – unless you are part of that scene, but you will have a great holiday because the natural beauty of Orange County can’t fail to charm you.

Read more. Go to Tripzs.com

Costa Rica – Monteverde

Crossing the border from Panama to San Jose, the capital of Costa Rica, we both caught a flu because the bus was so cold. I can’t complain actually if I think about all those chicken buses we have caught around in the bloody heat. We stayed just one day in San Jose, in fact, passing by to go to Monteverde, where we could experience the cloud forest and some adventures that just a jungle can provide.

In Monteverde we spent two nights and we went straight to radical things like: ziplines and walking on suspension bridges. I was speechless by the number (18) of ziplines, the sizes and heights. The highest one was at 170 meters and the longest has a bit more than a kilometer.

The last one you do with your partner or buddy, in my case, Aaron, and we just had so much fun crossing the whole cloud forest like 2 birds in the paradise.

Costa Rica – La Fortuna

Leaving a radical spot in Costa Rica to another one, we went straight to see in La Fortuna the famous Volcano Arenal. We walked in the forest and at sunset watched from afar lava flowing down the mountain. We also had the chance to go to a hot springs, actually, a water park but with natural thermal springs, with infra-structure where you can have a drink in the pool. Aaron can’t complain of sometimes being a regular tourist!

Well done with Costa Rica.

For further touristic information go to: http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/Senhor-e-Senhora-Smith/

Video by Aaron Smith/ Production Vivi Araujo

Photos by Aaron & Vivi Smith

Matt (my little bro) pronounces Maryland like Disneyland – it’s super cute

Well, we finally made it! It was a very very l-o-n-g trip and I am glad to be in once location finally. Since we gave away everything we own except for what fit in the car we only had crap clothes to unpack. Then, we went to Target to buy the essentials…plates, toaster, blender, etc.

We are supposed to get furniture from Ben’s family in NJ so I am currently writing this on the living room floor and going through TV with-drawls.

We also made a MASSIVE trip to Costco for food and a small trip to TJs for the rest.

Here are the pics from Pittsburgh. It was cool, but we really didn’t get to see much.

Marathon Training: Today I attempted a long run and got a nose bleed! I was aiming for 11 miles and around mile 9 I wiped my nose on my sleeve (because I am a lady) and there was blood all over my sleeve. I have never gotten a bloody nose in my life. What gives????? Who votes all the stress of the wedding and move have gone to my brain and I’m dying?

I ate a lot a lot of cherries today and had to take a pic of this one. It’s the cutest cherry you will ever see, note it.

In other news we went to our new city’s International Festival today and there was no healthy options. I went with a combo of veggie friend rice and veggie lo mein. The pic is on Ben’s camera because the battery of my camera fell out. Just picture greasy Chinese take-out in a big Styrofoam container.

On a recent sunny summer afternoon I hopped off the Chicago ‘L’ and found myself in front of what appeared to be the station exit under a big bold sign labeled “Out”. But I hesitated. As clearly as it was marked, I didn’t see so much an exit but a human death trap: a giant carnivorous plant with rusty iron teeth. Add the deafening rumbling of the train above and the high-pitched squeal of the aging turnstile and it was a less-than-inviting gateway into urban America.

This man took his chances.

Call me melodramatic, but this was my instinctual response to encountering the exit , my emotional response. I had consciously realized it was an exit of course, but it was my survival instincts – all processed in a fraction of a second after digesting my environment – that held me back. And in this case it was my hesitation that declared the victor in the clashing of my logical and instinctual halves.

So I waited and held my breath and let someone else brave the path before me.  I finally stepped out, free at last, but not without a chilling reminder of another important design guideline. Functional clarity (what something does), and emotional design, (the feelings a design evokes, usually based on aesthetics) should both be taken into account when designing, systems, gadgets, environments — everything. Simple enough, right? And no, I’m sure next time I won’t hesitate before leaving the station.

Day 1

Parthenon

After a quick breakfast at 4am, we took a flight to Athens. Since we didn’t arrange for airport pickup by the hotel, we had to take local public transport to get to our hotel. The bus we took to one of the main squares (Syntagma square) was where my dad got pickpocketed while carrying some luggage off the bus. Right when we got off, we were faced with buildings that look a little run-down, the blaring sound of car horns, stray dogs running around, as well as people getting out of their cars & arguing in the middle of the streets. Our first impression of this city was already pretty negative as we took the metro to our hotel, which (we found out later) was not in a very good area.

View from the Acropolis

Instead of spending a lot of money on the official hop on/hop off sightseeing bus, we used our 3-day bus passes and got onto bus 400 (that takes you to all the tourist locations). Our first stop was to the Acropolis. Despite not liking Athens very much, I do have to admit that this was quite an impressive sight and the feeling that you get from seeing it live is very different from just looking at pictures of it. It’s just unfortunate that I always seem to have the bad luck of seeing a place when it’s under construction. There was also a really good view of Athens at the top, and we went pretty late in the day so we even saw soldiers marching up to take down the flag that was located near the Parthenon.

Soldiers retrieving the flag

The bus 400 comes every half an hour, but after waiting more than an hour for the bus, we ended up catching a taxi back to the hotel instead. The Acropolis wasn’t very far from our hotel, but it took the taxi driver a really long time to find it – he even started calling someone midway through the journey but couldn’t get through to them. I don’t think getting lost was intentional, though, since he charged a flat rate for the service. At the end of the taxi ride, I think it would have been faster if I had just walked back to the hotel. It was unfortunate that we didn’t think to pick up a map of Athens before we left the hotel that morning. We found out later on that buses can choose not to stop at certain bus stops without notice if there is a lot of traffic or if it is not convenient for the driver.

Day 2

Panathenaic Stadion

After waking up late again and grabbing a quick breakfast, we met with a travel agent who helped us organize a trip to Santorini. It probably would have been cheaper to do it ourselves, but that would have required a lot more work and we aren’t too familiar with how things work in Greece so we figured it would be safer and more convenient to have someone more knowledgeable plan it out for us.

Despite the unbearable heat, we headed out and took bus 400 to the Panathenaic Stadion. From there, the Acropolis can also be seen and it’s quite an impressive sight as it is situated on top of a hill.

Temple of Olympian Zeus

After taking a few pictures, we also visited the Temple of Olympian Zeus. We didn’t realize that the ticket we bought for the Acropolis works for the Olympic Temple of Zeus as well, so we paid again, but it wasn’t very expensive and kids got in for free. While walking among all those historic sights, I can’t help but notice how grand they are (and must have been) and was able to momentarily forget the clutter and mess found in the rest of Athens.

Olympic Stadium

We also went to Plaka – this historic neighbourhood – where we had lunch while sitting outside (a very European thing to do). Europe must be known for very temperamental weather because, like Manchester, the sky changed from blue skies to grey clouds and a heavy thunderstorm within the time it took for us to finish half our meal. Luckily, once we were done eating, everything cleared up again so we were able to head to The Mall – this really big shopping centre near the Olympic stadium. At the mall, we took the time to relax while out of the sweltering heat outside and managed to do a bit of shopping before grabbing dinner at the food court and returning to our hotel room.

Day 3

Athens' coastline

After breakfast, we finalized the plans for Santorini and then the travel agent took us to the tram that will bring us to Athens’ coastline. On the way, he pointed out the corpse they have on display at the metro station as well as some of the other artifacts that look as if they should belong in a museum (lots of the metro stations are decorated and have different statues/artifacts that display the history of Greece).

Coastline

From Syntagma square, we took tram 5 to see Athens’ coastline. The weather wasn’t that great to start with, and the beaches aren’t that pretty either – it definitely can’t compare to the ones found in Australia. My parents say that we’re too spoiled by the nice beaches in Australia that other beaches around the world will only pale in comparison to the high standards we have in our minds lol.. perhaps the beaches in Mexico/Hawaii will impress me more. We also did a bit of shopping in the small town and had a late lunch at a nice café =) When it started raining, we decided to call it a day and headed back to the hotel. I also don’t know why this keeps happening to me but the guy opposite me kept on flashing me on the tram (most probably unknowingly) because of his really baggy shorts and his propensity to keep his legs wide open.

On the beach

Overall, I wasn’t too impressed with Athens. Not only did the buildings look a little dilapidated, the people weren’t too friendly either and there are way too many stray dogs wandering around the city. I don’t think I could ever live in a city like that not just because I don’t know the Greek language, but also because their way of life reminds me of Malaysia and I don’t think I can go back to that now that I’ve lived in Australia, Canada and the UK (sort of). I don’t really feel a need to go back to that city either – if I visit Greece again, I’ll probably do an island-hopping thing instead.

I love it here! I am in Alexandria and am just loving it here! The words have escaped my brain and I can not exactly communicate everything I feel, see but hopefully at some point I will be able to describe the place with accuracy. All I know is that there is something special going on around here!

One thing is for sure and that is people do not sleep around here! I go to sleep around 4 am and wake up around noon and I see people awake in the streets at all hours of the night walking in the streets, washing cars, sitting in cafes that are in front of every other building.

I will be sure to recollect these memories to share at some point.

Oh yeah and the pyramids are huge and hott. I never felt heat like that before but amazingly it was tolerable…even dressed in my favorite black. The people in Cairo around the pyramids were so nice and welcoming. We took a horse carriage ride around the pyramids and then all around the area and small streets around the town. We loved it.

I have over 600 pictures so far!

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Hello my sweet friends. Hope this finds you all well.. I want to Thank all of you for the Love and Support you have given me and for the time you all take to watch all my videos, rate them and for leaving me your kind, generous comments and messages.. Ty for your friendship and for making a DIFFERENCE!!.. WE ARE ONE!! Much Love, Peace, Love & Light.. Huggies Kassandra

(I’ve never done this before, never had the chance, but I’m writting this during my latest trip from my hotel room. Normally my rule is to try and cut myself off from technology for a bit while I wander, makes things more interesting both while I’m gone and when I get back. Iuse internet cafe and the like to stay in touch with family and friends. But in this case I had the opportunity to rent a laptop for the evening from my hotel along with internet access, so I’m taking the opportunity to bend my rule some and get some typing done while things are fresh in my mind. I doubt I’ll be getting another similar chance for awhile, so regular updates are still a ways off for when I’m home and unhurried, but this is a chance I’d be a fool to pass up and considering I’m *at* the place I’m writing about this time, I’d say my memories are fresh. All that said, here it is, a writeup on Tokyo, Japan.)

This is the future. This city, right here, is the future of the world if things continue the way they are going and populations world wide continue to rise at such an increased rate. Tokyo. A city of over 35 millionpeople producing a GPD of over a trillion dollars. To sum that all up nicely, this relatively little city (Size wise Tokyo isn’t terribly big, go figure!)not only has more people living in it than all of Canada, a country… let’s do some quick guess math here; You could fit roughly 16078 (holy shit) cities of Tokyo into. Not only that, but probably makes more money too! It’s insane!

So with that said you’ll be unsurprised to hear Tokyo is a very crowded city. Everywhere you go there are crowds, people, noise and disturbances. This city is alive in a way no other city I’ve ever been to is, the city *thrives*, hums, and moves in such a way that after having spent a fair while here, I begin to suspect the city itself is alive. Some giant, massive beast beneath the earth slowly awakening and bursting to life. I’ve gotten this impression before: London reminded me of some grand slumbering beast. But unlike London, Tokyo is awake! There’s no other way to describe it. To see these giant throngs of people moving to and fro beneath the glare of mammoth neon lights and to hear that constant thrum of life; it’s the blood-flow, the eyes and deep, earth-shaking breaths of the beast. Tokyo is alive and awake!

It is also very, very confusing. Not the subway mind you, although the Tokyo metro is indeed one of the more troublesome I’ve met. No, it’s just the way a city presents itself to you is usually very clear. A specific vibe that this particular city likes to show off and be remembered by. Tokyo however has no single ‘vibe’, it’s instead a mishmash of various styles and times, places and beliefs that defies any simple description. There are two reasons for this really, one and most simple is just because Tokyo is so damned big. Another reason, the second, is because Tokyo has been destroyed and rebuilt twice in relatively recent times, once by a massive earthquake, and the other time by the bombs of World War 2. This has resulted in not much of the history and past of Tokyo to have remained over time and for the city and its inhabitants to have had to re-imagine and rebuild time after time. Add to that the influx of foreign influences and you’ve got a city with an identity crisis.

The result is a city where at one train station you’ll find yourself emerging into the glare of titan TV screens and huge crowds flowing between these glass towers, the noise deafening and the pace frantic. And yet at another train stop not even too far away you’ll find yourself emerging into the simple sunlit daylight, a few passerby walking along the sidewalk and a pleasant breeze in the air causing a rustling among the trees of a nearby garden. While this can be disorienting, it can also make for an extremely memorable and fun experience. No matter what you’re looking for, what kind of city or what kind of experience, there’s likely somewhere in Tokyo where your wishes will be fulfilled.

Me, I like the quieter districts. Or if not quiet, the more traditional. While I have plenty of interest in electronics, I didn’t come here to go shopping, and I’ve no interest really in ‘anime’, or Japanese cartoons, comics and the like. All of which are extremely popular here as well in other parts of the world I’m assured, although it’s not to my particular tastes. No, I came to Japan because I wanted to visit a culture different from my own, alien, and to explore their history and traditions. To immerse myself in something different than the European cultures I’m so familiar with. For example I’ve seen many of the most grand cathedral and church in the world, more Notre Dame than I can count, and yet till just recently I’d never before explored a shrine or temple.

But now I have, in Tokyo is where you’ll find among other more modest holy buildings, the Senso-ji Temple, a Buddhist temple in the heart of Tokyo which unlike the cathedral and church mentioned above, is in truth a series of buildings and shrines built and designed as one grand whole to appeal to every facet and personal belief of this religion. Or so it seems to me, an admitted outsider. The original buildings, as with most things in Tokyo, were destroyed a fair time ago but the recreation remains true to the original and it’s the people and their beliefs and traditions which matter here, and those remain untouched with the passing of time, war and cataclysm which has destroyed so much before. Which is not to say those buildings are unimpressive, they are anything but. Massive painted gateway holding up high these carefully crafted and intricately carves roof. The massive pagoda, a strange inconceivable tower reaching upwards into the sky, painted brightly and shimmering with golden trim and hand-painted patterns.  And amidst these huge, towering structures a range of smaller, equally skillfully crafted shrines and gardens each representing some other facet of the faith. All this to the smells of sweet incense that blows through the air and the sights and sounds of hundreds of followers of this belief following their rituals, bowing and praying… it can be overwhelming. Completely different, and yet in certain ways so alike, the giant stone Cathedrals of the western world!

Senso-ji however represents only one of many temples within this city and far from all the various faiths you’ll find here, Shinto for example is another great belief you’ll find common. But I write this not to debate faiths or compare religions, as fun as that is, but to describe the great city of Tokyo. Religion is only one of the many facets of the traditional ways within this city. Exploring some of the more historic districts would prove another. Near the Nippori train station remain a collection of buildings which have survived the passage of time, and to walk amidst them, to hear the locals chatter and to wander the nearby market streets and taste the foods being sold there is a joy unto itself and another experience unique to this part of the world. Small, tight streets crowded with the sights and smells of vendors selling their wares, people and bicycles crowding together to walk between the stalls. I’m not one to enjoy crowds, but things like that… it’s enjoyable to be a part of something even if I am painfully obviously just a passing traveller.

Tokyo is not unkind to travellers however. I’ve been to places that hated visitors and Tokyo is not among them thankfully. The people are people, and no matter where you go on this great globe of ours you’ll find the same types of people. But for the most part Tokyo citizens are a friendly lot, much moreso than you’d expect perhaps for a city this size. It’s surprising in a nice way to be approached by a man and asked if you have any questions, clearly he’s not a guide, but you ask your questions and that leads to idle chatter and you soon discover he simply wished to practice his english and you’d looked like you could use a few helpful words. Something I had happen to me twice. No, Tokyo’s greatest bane towards travellers is not the locals but the city itself and among other things weather. The city I say because exploring a city of this size is always a task not taken lightly, and the weather I mention because as a Canadian I find it ridiculously hot and muggy at times. Not too bad mind you, not like some places, and in Tokyo at least a drink is never far away in the form of the legion of vending machine that dot every street and corner of the city. Well maintained and stocked machines dispensing cool relief to sweaty tourists like myself and local alike. The things are incredible, one of my two favorite things about Tokyo. The other?

The gardens. The Japanese have a love of gardens and gardening in a sort of way you’ll not encounter anywhere else in the world, and Tokyo boasts a couple spectacular gardens and parks you’ll never forget. Crammed among the skyscrapers and condo you’ll find these gardens, usually walled and *always* with a history behind them. The Imperial Palace (Guests only allowed in twice a year and I’ve no intention of waiting around long enough to be in Tokyo during one of em!) is surrounded by gardens as well as any other royal structure, some open to the public others not. Many temples and shrines will have a small garden to walk around in. And then there are the few others which stand alone. My favorite of which is the amazing Korakuen Garden, located in the middle of a busy city with a theme park and coliseum nearby, you’d never guess that it would be such a calming and beautiful place to walk, so much so the honking of horns and screams of people riding the nearby roller coaster are simply forgotten. This particular park I enjoy because not only does it have a history (Signs marked ‘the __ shogun enjoyed sitting on this rock’ or ‘this monument was dedicated to __ shogun’s favorite eagle’ among others.) but the part itself is designed as a landscape in miniature, every crevice and stream representing part of a greater whole, and it all forms together into this spectacularly calming experience where one step is crossing miles and every tree a forest. A much needed oasis of tranquility and relaxation in Tokyo.

And now, once again, I find myself wondering what to type about next. The city is just so big, so vast and diverse that to focus on any one facet is to ignore a million others. I spend a paragraph talking about gardens and in so doing ignore the cities monuments to the future. The skyscrapers, built like giant glass cathedral which ascend toward the sky and leave your mind in wonder. The exhibition halls, the huge glass domes and the wonderful electronics you’ll find everywhere. And having typed that, I am once again reminded that Tokyo is a city of the future. I enjoy the remnants of the past, but it is the future the city sets its eyes upon. Not only does Tokyo seem to embrace other cultures and ideas, it takes those ideas and engulfs them, making them a part of itself and then setting itself to surpass the source from which those ideas came from. Paris has a giant tower? So does Tokyo, and it’s actually bigger in size… but here is also where I, personally, find flaw in Tokyo’s thinking as a city and I’ll use this tower as an example. The Eiffel tower is not simply a big metal radio tower, but it in many ways it is a symbol. It wasn’t just built to be the tallest, but it was designed to be a metallic work of art, you see this when you look closely at how it was built. The tower is a sort of french ideal, a wonder, that’s why not even in World War 2 could the axis bring themselves to destroy it. Building a bigger tower is impressive, yes, but it hasn’t the same effect nor the impact. Tokyo does it bigger, does it better likely, and yet somehow it’s still just not right. It’s the same with much of the ‘new’ Tokyo, and you’ll forgive me I hope if this seems harsh, but it’s shallow. That’s why I so enjoy delving into Tokyo’s past rather than face the future, glorious although it may be.

But that’s simply me, my personal opinion on the city and its peoples and ideals. As mentioned many a time, Tokyo is too big to really classify. Impossible to give a proper title to. And at the rate the world is advancing it’s only a matter of time till we find that Tokyo is the trendsetter and we, these other cities, copying it and creating our own little shallow copies of its glories. Whether or not this is a good or a bad thing I cannot say, but it is the future and not as far away as some might think. Tokyo is like a murky mirror into what every city could be given the time and people, a glimpse into the future. It is an Alpha-world-city, one of few in the world.

It is a city of the future.

(I’ll add links to pictures like I normally do when I’m home again, which could be awhile but who knows? Not me!)