David's Journal

Up until a few days ago, the weather was excellent. Warm, summery, clouds painting the sky in beautiful, interesting ways. Not unlike in the picture below.

But now it's gone completely schizophrenic. I went for a walk today, left the apartment with the sun shining and then got caught in a hail storm half way through.

Yesterday was Norway's constitution day, a national celebration where many people dress in their traditional regional costume and head downtown for a big parade. Norwegian flags are everywhere and the spirit is really patriotic. It's a cool day. This one was the coldest in fifty years, four degrees and it snowed down to three hundred metres. A little more extreme that a New Zealand spring but no less unpredictable.

To be honest I didn't actually make it in for the parade, I was too busy sipping champagne and having a delicious breakfast in true Norwegian tradition. So thank you David (a Norwegian who visited us in NZ) for an excellent party. Then I met up with Tobias (another Norwegian who visited us in NZ) and we had a look around the city where there were huge crowds milling about in drinking establishments. Having decided it was really too cold to keep wandering round we headed back for a BBQ, which is another traditional seventeenth of may activity I believe. So thank you Tobias for another excellent party.

I've been out and about doing other things in the past few weeks also. They have just finished building an opera house here, a cool design incorporating angles, glass and white marble into an impressive structure that can be treated like a giant park. My pictures don't do it justice but you can see how the angles are slight enough that people can walk all over it.





I haven't actually gone to the opera there, or ever come to think of it, but I am assured that it's very nice inside also.

The next big adventure was my first outdoor rock climbing experience. I've been indoor climbing before but as I found out it is entirely different. Here you can see me attacking the first climb.



These pictures illustrate the bit that I found the hardest to get used to, which is trusting the friction between the almost vertical rock face and the rubber on the sole of the climbing show to support your whole weight as you push yourself up. Till I got that I was just tiring my arms and hands out trying to do everything with them. In the end though I was able to get up places that I seriously thought would be impossible for me, which is a good feeling.



Meanwhile, on Endor's forest moon...



It was a great day, gorgeous weather, amazing scenery and for days afterward I felt like I'd been beaten mercilessly with sticks. But in a good way.

I've been here now for a month, with two to go and it feels like the time is really flying by. I've finally figured out the bus ticket system, to my dismay as it turns out - I was saving heaps by using it wrong. Still, walking has its perks, like the picture below I took taking the long way home one day.

It's been a week now since I arrived in Oslo, Norway, and high time for an update. I landed last Saturday on a beautiful spring day after the obligatory thirty six hours of travel. The travel itself was fairly uneventful except for LAX of all places where I had a brain freeze for the security check. Normally I'm totally organised going into the security screening - I've got liquids in bags, water bottle empty, and everything remotely metal unceremoniously shoved into my backpack. Perhaps it was the warm, laid back atmosphere of California or the lack of sleep but this time I did none of it, calmly waltzing up and chucking my backpack on the conveyor. When they pulled my bag away for a security check I was slightly nervous about big brother America, mostly because I'd just been listening to Thom Yorke. But it all ended well, except for my half full pump bottle which totally got tasered. They obviously believed my apologetic, bewildered tourist story though and let me through. Most interestingly they missed my bladed Tandberg multitool which caused me grief going through Frankfurt.

So arriving in Oslo after the long journey was great, it was warm, sunny, and my Kiwi friends Pete and Kane were there to meet me at the airport. They also took me shopping which was a huge help to get started. As I was lying on the couch chilling later on, I took this pic of the view out my window:

And this is the couch:



The next day Pete took me for a drive to get me acquainted with my surroundings which was really helpful. We also went to the beach (pretty good effort for the northern hemisphere I have to say):



There's not many people because despite how nice it looks it's still a bit chilly, especially the water. I didn't swim but thats only cause I didn't have a towel.

So then it was Monday, and my first day of work. It was fairly uneventful, just getting setup, meeting people and so on. Then off to a party with some guys who were over from the U.S./Hong Kong/Japan. The theme was being some weird snack from your point of origin and we had some good ones. I was pretty sure the guys from Hong Kong had it sewn up with some typically weird tasting stuff, but then Andreas, one of the Norwegians (an R&D manager at work) came in with an entire vacuum sealed dried sheep leg. A knife was found, pieces were hacked off, and I have to say that he totally won. It wasn't bad, but it was definitely the most visceral treat on offer.

As I was walking home that night, about eleven thirty, dark and still as anything, a young wild deer crossed my path. It was a small buck with little antlers, obviously very lost. In case you're now imagining I live in some kind of Hans Christian Andersen forest in a log cabin, connected to civilisation by dirt paths, let me explain where I live. The nearest forest is miles away, and on the other side of a large highway, which it must have gotten under somehow, as I have to do every day on the way to work. It's not unheard of, but pretty rare and was a cool experience. I tried to take a photo on my work cellphone camera, but night vision isn't it's strong point.



Tuesday night was soccer, as I've joined up with the Tandberg Leisure Football team. Don't be fooled, there's nothing leisurely about it, it's serious stuff. Particularly as it's played on gravel. That's right, gravel. It seems to be the social soccer pitch covering of choice over here, and it's every bit as dusty and abrasive as it sounds. It's not as gravelly as, say, a country road, it's more like a fine grit. Still, falling over on it isn't advised as my knee can testify. Fun game though, probably more so once I can understand the Norwegian for...well, anything.

So after the game I'm wandering through Oslo to the bus with blood dripping down my leg, still in my soccer gear, hoping desperately that I can find an open Apotek. During thing time two different people approached me asking for directions. This is my fourth day being in the country, and I'm sure I didn't look that decisive so I can only conclude that people think soccer players generally know where things are. I let the side down unfortunately. My gory bleeding injury also served as a conversation starter with a random Swedish guy at the bus stop who wanted to join the team. For the record the Apotek had just closed and and I had to make do with scrubbing the grit out as hard as I could and slapping on some disinfectant cream I brought with me. I'll spare you from a photo for this one.

The best news of the week for me probably comes on Saturday, on which I ventured into town in search of a guitar. I'm lucky enough to be working in a team with some musos, and one of them pointed me to the right area of town. The first shop I went to was Norway's version of the rock shop, there were some nice guitars, but pricey for what they were and the one I liked had a weird action. So the guy there pointed me down the road and I went to this great instrument shop. It was crowded, cluttered, and smelled like wood. In addition to guitars they had mandolins, lutes, harps and all sorts of weird and wonderful instruments. There were many guitars there of differing qualities but one stood out straight away. It was a cutaway classical guitar, the exact sort I was looking for. I picked it up and it was beautiful to play, great action, great tone. I found out it was a handmade spanish guitar, solid top cedar, the same as my Maton CW80 back home which gives it a really sweet characteristic which will keep opening up the more I play it. Long story short, it is now mine. It's a beautiful instrument, solid but delicate, tonally gorgeous and just such a sweet thing to play. Lest my other guitars get jealous let me say I love you all, there's room in my heart for everyone. The pic doesn't really do it justice but here you go:



Another cool weekend find was a long walk that took me out onto the peninsula where I live. There is miles of track along the coast with great views of the Oslo fjord. A few fishermen were out braving the wet weather (oh yeah, after a few gorgeous days the weather packed in a bit).



So that was my week, it was a good one.

My last post was made in Prague, which had won my heart well and truly by the time I left. Highlights include Anoushka Shankar on Sitar with the symphony orchestra, a string quartet playing classical music in a church with amazing acoustics, getting caught in a freak hail storm while exploring a wooded area near Prague Castle and a beautiful sunset viewed from the battlements of an old fort. Its my favourite city so far.

From there I took the train to Vienna where I stayed in the party hostel quite by accident. Turned out to be a good thing - in addition to really cheap beer I got to meet a lot of people and experience the social side of backpacking. Vienna is nice, museums and castles and churches everywhere. One castle has huge sprawling grounds which I took some time exploring.

Right down from the hostel is a basketball/soccer court in a cage so when I was doing my washing I borrowed a basketball and took my soccer ball down for some mucking around. There were a couple of young guys there mucking around too, I just shot some hoops for a while. So another guy came with his baby son and the four of us ended up playing a game of soccer in which me and the dad fairly decisively win against the young flashy punks.

After all this me and the guy who was on my team (Zoran) started chatting - hes Serbian and a very nice guy, we talked about where I'm going. He invited me back to his place later for coffee. So I went and met his whole family (wife, kids, father, mother and sister) and drank wine and ate delicious Serbian food. He called his uncle and hooked me up with a place to stay once I got to Dubrovnik. I love soccer.

Then it was time for another train ride, this one starting at six am to Zagreb, the capital of Croatia. A tip for travellers: Do not go to the bathroom when you're crossing a border between countries. I was in the bathroom when a very annoyed border guard started banging on the door and shouting stuff in Croatian. I tried to tell him to hold on in a voice that I hoped suggested that I wasn't flushing kilos of drugs down the toilet. I was just on my way out when he managed to unlock the door and burst in. I tried my best to look unsuspicious but he still asked me a lot of questions about who I was and exactly what I was doing in Croatia.

I didn't spend a lot of time in Zagreb and the weather wasn't good, but I did go for a good walk around some of the historic spots. They fire a cannon here every day at noon from a tower which I walked up at dusk, the view was beautiful. Another highlight was the fact that the road to my hostel went directly past a large chocolate factory, so going out in the morning and coming home at night was punctuated by delicious chocolately smells.

If you're going to travel down south in Croatia, do yourself a favour and take the bus. I thought about flying but thankfully didn't because the (eleven hour) bus ride was spectacular. The mountain and coastal scenery just blew me away. I had a fantastic seat admittedly, at the very front at the top level of an enclosed two decker bus.

And now I am in Dubrovnik. Today I hiked up the hill behind the town and was rewarded with spectacular views and an old abandoned fort to explore. It was very cool. For those who don't know Dubrovnik is a largeish town at the far south of Croatia on the Adriatic sea. It is famed for its old city, which is completely enclosed by beautiful city walls that you can walk around. The sea is a beautiful deep blue colour.

I'm staying with Zoran's uncle, who with his family runs a kind of boarding house so basically I'm just a tenant for a while. My room has amazing views which is great but also means I hike down hundreds of steps to the city and all the way back up every day. I'm sure its very good for me.

Because of the beautiful water and rocky coast I bought myself some cheap snorkelling gear. Today I climbed down a cliff where there used to be stairs and broke it in. The water is surprisingly cold but I saw some cool fish and some fairly large schools and the gear worked fine. I'll check out at least one nearby island as well before I leave.

Here I sit in an internet cafe in Prague, the city of...uh, well I haven't been here long so lets just say inexplicable road layout and nice bagels. I left Munich this morning on my first intercountry train ride. Imagine my excitement when a border guard with a gun started wandering through checking our passports. You know how you know everything is fine but there is still a slight hint of danger, like what if you were mistaken for some international terrorist who has a similar name to you and it ends in a gun fight on top of the train as a tunnel looms closer and closer. This sort of thing happens often in my mind, if not actual real life. So after this train ride, which was actually four train rides through the gently rolling green and yellow hills I get to Prague Central Station.

Now at this stage I was a little nervous, because despite my (admittedly not very committed) efforts to organise a place to sleep from Munich I hadn't managed it. And also I decided to give myself the challenge of finding a place relatively at the last minute. I tried to call some places from the train station but the phones defied my ability to use them. Just lots of...beeping and weird noises even though I was following instructions. So I decided to just go to one of the places in my lonely planet book.

I'm pretty good with subways by now, having navigated systems in four continents so I wasn't too phased...until a guy flashed a badge at me and said something I didn't quite catch. I waved him away, thinking that he was selling badges or something but no, he was actually a ticket inspector wanting to check my ticket. Luckily it was all in order and soon after I arrived in downtown Prague. Which adheres to no logical layout system known to man. This is both fun and frustrating, but for me trying to find my way around so I wouldn't have to sleep under a bridge - mostly frustating.

My pack after four months of acquiring stuff weighs in at around 20kg. So at about 7pm I'm wandering around like a sad donkey desperately searching through the labyrinthine streets for the hostel that allegedly exists in the area. Eventually, after much checking of maps I found it, and they even had spare beds which made me very happy. I've met one of my dorm mates so far, an Aussie girl called Jen who recently walked through Spain. So the story has a happy ending, and a lemon pepper chicken bagel at an internet cafe. Mmm.

Now that I have your attention, I'm in Munich, land of sausages, bread and naked sunbathing. I've been here for a couple of days so far and its nice. Just not an hour ago I partook of an authentic Bavarian feast - at least I think it was, the menu was all in German. I ordered what I took to be sausages and a large beer. When it came it was more sausagey that I could have dared to hope. Seven different types on a bed of sauerkraut with potatoes. Tell you what, the Germans sure know how to make sausages. The beer was very nice as well, I'll have to try some more though, just to be sure.

My day started with a visit to the Deutches Museum, a museum of science, engineering, technology and sore feet. It is the largest and most comprehensive museum of any kind I have ever been to. I wandered pretty much aimlessly for about five hours and hardly came across a bit I had seen before. Much of it is pretty interesting - if you happen to be a huge nerd - so I had a good time. Then I went and cooled my feet in the chilly waters of the Isar river, at which there was at least once case of naked sunbathing by an aging but swarthy european man. Apparently they account for 95% of all the naked sunbathing. Ah well, lucky I didn't come just for that.

If anyone can shed light upon the possible meaning of the title, please feel free. You can add comments you know. We encountered the phrase at Alishan (Ali mountain) written on a sign stating what we would get fined for. I tried my best not to reconstract or extent any and tunnels while I was there, and we didn’t get fined so I can only assume that I was successful.

Alishan is a beautiful place, as you drive higher and higher you are treated to majestic views of hills covered with betelnut and other tropical looking trees. Grant did well driving, particularly as his girlfriend Rebecca was in the passenger seat saying “Overtake, overtake” the moment we were stuck behind anyone. This demonstrates the Taiwanese mindset about driving, as we noticed from the cars that overtook us with little to no regard for their personal safety. Any stretch of road that is currently unoccupied by solid matter is fair game to drive on, regardless of the fact that it very well might soon be. The Taiwanese road code (I imagine there is one) does not have the terms “blind corner”, “safe overtaking distance”, “passing lane”, or “rugby field”. Although, I guess it’s fair enough they wouldn’t have that last one.

As is typical of the weather here at the moment, the first half of the day was beautiful and sunny and then it started to rain. Hard. So we got wet, which was kind of fun too. Then we took the train down through the rainy misty forest. It was a good day.

It started out as most days do: I woke up, dragged myself out of bed and turned on the computer to check my emails. That reminds me - send me more emails. Since the temperature and humidity here (and its just spring) are bordering on the ridiculous, I switched the air conditioner on and enjoyed a lovely morning afternoon email checking (no new emails).

Now when the air conditioner is on, it also sucks humidity out of the air, converting it to liquid and depositing it down a hose that inexplicably ends in the corridor outside the room. So a bucket is required to put the hose into to catch the water. This bucket fills up every couple of days and requires human intervention in the form of emptying it.

This job fell to me today which initially seemed harmless enough. I took the bucket, relieved it of its contents then went to place it back in its position only to find that it had been obscuring a SPIDER THE SIZE OF MY HEAD. I categorically deny that at this point I screamed like a little girl. No that came later when I carefully replaced the bucket and it ran with blistering speed from behind the bucket and into the best possible position for jumping onto my neck and paralysing me with a quick bite before wrapping me in silk and hanging me in its subterranean lair. Fortunately it camped itself in this position and waited there, possibly it considered me unworthy prey and wanted to wait until Grant came home and there was two of us to provide more of a challenge.

When Grant came home we took some ropes and set about trying to simultaneously lasso its forelegs. After a titanic struggle and much crashing and banging we finally managed to subdue it and put it in a large plastic container with holes in the lid. The next day Grant took it to school to scare small children with it and then released it into the wild to resume controlling Taiwan’s stray dog population. I kind of miss it.

Japan is great. Simply wonderful, the food is spectacular, particularly the devilish things they do to custard and various forms of pastry and sponge. Its inhumane that I will not be able to eat them when I go home.

What I really want to tell you about is a trip down south to a little place called Ibusuki. Now I want you to pronounce it in your mind properly. Think russian, as in Ibuski, and then think of someone saying it in a smooth deep sexy voice that sounds like seven kinds of caramel dripped over smooth vanilla icecream before being dipped in dark chocolate.

Ibusuki is where you can go, lose your clothes (all of them) in favour of a yukata (kind of a japanese robe thing), then proceed down to the beach to be professionally buried up to your neck in naturally heated hot sand. This lasts about ten minutes - some of the most divine minutes of my life. I'm getting chills just thinking about it.

Then you proceed to the onsen, where you throw your yukata down a big chute and proceed starkers into showers and a hot pool full of (if you're a guy) naked japanese men. Its a rather freeing experience to say the least.

Apologies to those with overactive visual minds, if you are bothered by residual images please think of a natural woodland scene with deer and rabbits gamboling and the afternoon sun shining through the naked, er, native woods. Sorry.

A word of advice - when travelling on an overnight bus, do not under any circumstances be allocated a seat in front of the man who snores loudly. Nothing short of an elephant tranquilliser would have been sufficient to ease me into some semblance of sleep given the decibel level of his nasal rasping. As there were no elephant tranquillisers immediately on hand, it was a very tired and grumpy David that arrived in Kagoshima at some ridiculous hour of the morning. Thankfully Sarah, who I am staying with and who teaches English at the local school soon arrived to take me to someplace I could sleep without seismic disturbance.

Speaking of which, in Taiwan recently I felt my first ever earthquake, it didn’t shake things off the walls but felt huge and powerful nonetheless. But don’t worry mum, I am trying to stay out of natural disaster’s way as much as possible. On an unrelated note, the live volcano I can see out of the lounge window is very beautiful, though it only smokes a little.

Kokubu, the town in which I am staying is lovely, the sky has been brilliant blue and the surrounding hills and mountains green and fresh. When you walk to town grey and white herons fly out of your way, protesting with strangled squawks. The traffic is sedate and calm, a huge contrast to Taiwan, where the main rule is that the rules must be as confusing as possible to foreigners.

I have just been to an English class at Sarah’s school, and the kids wrote questions for me to answer for them. Most of them were the same; name, age, favourite food and so on, but here are my favourites:

“How many girlfriends do you have?”

“Do you have a girlfriend?” (about ten times)

“Do you know karate?”

“What is your special ability?” (this one came up three times - I can only conclude that I look like a super hero)

“What is your dream?”

“I envy your face!!!! You are so cool.”

“I like playing the guitar and the piano How about you?”


Ah Japan is good for the ego.