Memories of Japan

Sean and Geri

I love living internationally. We have met so many people over the years and now have the chance to visit with me in new places. Sean and Geri from Japan are now living in Australia, less than an hour away from where we were staying. Since they had just moved here, they came up to the mountain so they could explore a new part of their new homeland. What a great day of reminiscing and catching up on old friends.

Picturesque valley view from the top of Mt. Tamborine

Coffee n a gorgeous shop in the middle of a nursery and then Roeland room us around to some more beautiful sites including a stunning view over the valley from the top of the hill, the location of a well placed restaurant. We roamed up the gallery walk, our first real touristy bit of walking checking out local products. The glassworks were stunning and the gallery offering aboriginal art was fascinating. I'd seen it before and read about it but actually seeing the work and stories behind designs made it much more interesting. The didgeridoos were phenomenal! Again the designs were intricate and told various stories of life in the outback. If only we had more time...and money!

Australia...the land down under

Gold Coast Beach

Gold Coast Skyline

Remember those crazy "foreign" songs we learned as kids...the ones to make us seem more "worldly"? Yeah, we'll, I finally know what a kookaburra looks like and what a gum tree is.

We spent our first afternoon driving up the Gold Coast area, and extremely popular tourist area, particularly surfers. The beaches are gorgeous and extensive and people line the shores in the summer. Fortunately we were there just before the Christmas holiday starts so there was a lull...we won't be so lucky next week when the tourists show up in droves. Julie and I took off for some shopping she needed to do...omg I could totally live here. The number of organic markets is phenomenal! Naturopaths are available everywhere. I was able to easily pick up a few things I was running low on. We wandered through some really cool paper shops as well as some high end art galleries. Gorgeous stuff…for a price!

Kevin, the Kukaburra

The cockatiels were huge!

Roeland and Julie live at the top of a mountain at Mt. Tamborine. Their place is easily a walking place: few minutes to a small shopping area-two different directions, a walk or bike ride away from the main city...yeah, small main city...but with pretty much all the services you need. It's really a beautiful place. Love sitting out in the deck watching the birds that Roeland is befriending with bribery.

Roeland and Julie

We hiked down to the village of Mt Tamborine the following morning. Trails exist everywhere, taking us along the highway and through the rainforest to get to the village (40 min) where we had to try out Hillbilly Coffee before heading on to another hike to Curtis falls. I must admit, the falls suffer from a lack of water at this moment but there are promises of lots of water to come. Every January the rains come, monsoon type rains. There are signs everywhere warning drivers that if it's flooded, don't try it. Cars get carried down creeks and rivers by the fast running water. They even had to go to some pretty drastic measures to protect the house...the basement flooded yearly.

The area here is mostly rain forests and the hiking takes you up and down through the terrain. There were a large number of trees that looked like there were a bunch of roots, because there are. The strangler fig sends out its seeds that settle on an unsuspecting tree. The seedling gets its nutrients from the tree as the roots are sent down to the ground. Eventually, the original tree is strangled and all that’s left is the strangler! The water is unbelievably clear, producing stunning reflected pictures. If my hiking partners hadn't wanted to move on, I could have snapped a hundred shots! 

Land down under

Australia...the land down under....photos coming soon

Remember those crazy songs we learned as kids...the ones to make us seem more "worldly"? Yeah, we'll, I finally know what a kookaburra looks like and what a gum tree is.
We spent our first afternoon driving up the Gold Coast area, and extremely popular tourist area, particularly surfers. The beaches are gorgeous and extensive and people line the shores in the summer. Fortunately we were there just before the Christmas holiday starts so there was a lull...we won't be so lucky next week when the tourists show up in droves. Julie and I took of for some shopping she needed to do...omg I could totally live here. The number of organic markets is phenomenal! Naturopaths are available everywhere. I was able to easily pick up a few things I was running low on. Wandered through some really cool paper shops as well as some high end art galleries.
Roeland and Julie live at the top of a mountain at Mt. Tambourine. Their place is easily a walking place: few minutes to a small shopping area-two different directions, a walk or bike ride away from the main city...yeah, small main city...but with pretty much all the services you need. It's really a beautiful place. Love sitting out in he deck watching the birds that Roeland is befriending with bribery.
We hiked down to the village of Mt Tamborine the following morning. Trails exist everywhere, taking us along the highway and through the rainforest to get to the village (40 min) where we had to try out Hillbilly Coffee before heading on to another hike to Curtis falls. I must admit, the falls suffer from a lack of water at this moment but there are promises of lots of water to come. Every January the rains come, monsoon type rains. There are signs everywhere warning drivers that if it's flooded, don't try it. Cars get carried down creeks and rivers by the fast running water. They even had to go to some pretty drastic measures to protect the house...the basement flooded yearly.
The area here is mostly rain forests and the hiking takes you up and down through the terrain. The water is unbelievably clear, producing stunning reflected pictures. If my hiking partners hadn't wanted to move on, I could have snapped a hundred shots!
Today we headed up to Witches falls.

Shopping in Delhi

Outside market selling hangings

Shopping in New Delhi is a real experience. Oh yes, you have stores that people have lots of souvenirs, great deals, and not so great deals but then there are the street markets. We headed out one evening for Janpath market, a market area that stretches for well over a kilometer (or so I heard), an area that caters to tourists whether they’re from other parts or India or around the world. It really can be a haven for budget shoppers and people looking for handicrafts, garments and various curios and trinkets, however, you really need to be ready to bargain!

Fortunately, we traveled with Lana and Phil in tow, both experienced in the fine art of bargaining. Phil even worked on bringing a lady down on the price of some wall hangings – and he had no intention of buying, just doing it for fun (I bought 2). We wove our way through the shops, looking at every kind of carved animal and Hindu deity known to mankind. There were so many different styles of clothes available, trying them on over whatever you were wearing (or at least attempting to). The quality varied from shelf to shelf and store to store. At first it was impossible to tell but after a bit, and with Lana’s skillful eye, we began to note the subtle and not so subtle differences between the wares.

The shops were a mixture of tiny rooms with everything crammed together on shelves to outdoor markets with the stuff spread out on tables or on the ground. It was reminiscent of Otovalo in Ecuador with extremely canny sellers, though sometimes we could get them down and they’d finally sell. Phil helped me bargain for a vest for Jeff and when we walked away, someone finally ran up to get us to make the sale!!!

The other interesting side of shopping in Delhi were the people that came to you. At every stoplight, someone had something they were selling, ranging from trinkets, to cotton candy, sliced coconut, toilet paper, toys, and on and on. They would just walk from car to car, scurrying back to the mid-line when the light changed.

Driving down the roads (always something about driving it seems) the people always make 6 lanes out of 3, expertly (or not) weaving through traffic. Despite the extreme hectic and unpredictable driving, goods were frequently delivered by hand carts being shoved or drug through the streets. That's high on the list of a job no one would want! 

Couldn't resist ending with with a well-earned nap!

Crystal Glass playing

I know you can get some beautiful sounds from crystal. I've heard people "ring" it by striking it (lightly, of course) or by rubbing their finger around the top of the bowl. I have never heard anyone play crystal the way this man did.

We were wandering the street of Venice one morning when we saw a crowd. Well, if there's a crowd, there must be a reason so we checked it out. I was astonished to hear him playing - wish we had been there for the entire performance!
Didn't know that glass could be so versatile. The glass apparently vibrates and when you add water, it varies the pitch of the sound. He has to keep his fingers wet - I actually watched 5 or 6 times before I saw him dipping his fingers in a cup to keep them wet. I've seen glass struck before but never rubbed like this. 

Venice Bridges

Our bridge - with Mary checking
out the views!

Now, you can’t have a bunch of islands interconnected without bridges, LOTS of bridges. There are literally hundreds of bridges here, from very tiny bridges, to huge bridges spanning the Grand Canal. The infinite variety is amazing – brick is the primary building material but the myriad of ways they put them together gives you a never ending variety of different bridges. Sadly, even though they were all different, I still spent the majority of my time being lost and positive that all the bridges, or at least that the majority, looked alike.

The "modern" Constitution Bridge

The major bridges over the Grand Canal were a bit easier to identify. The Rialto bridge had stores (the spendy ones, of course) that lined the span across the water. They did keep the stores in the center, allowing for space for gawkers to photograph the never ending scenes on the water. The Constitution Bridge was spectacular with its steel construction of great red tubes holding up the concrete and glass walkway.  Acadamia Bridge was a large, wooden bridge that connected some of the college and other institutions on the island.

With laundry, of course

Metal worked bridge

The smaller, nameless bridges were harder to identify. They connected the hundreds of little islands, the meandering streets, the homes and businesses that abound on this tiny community. Some of them were really not very high at all – the drivers of the boats had to duck WAY down to get under!

We found one area where a group of 5 bridges came together. There was one major "post" in the center with the various bridges fanning out to take you across the main canal or one of the smaller side ones. Reminded us of the many bridges over roads in Japan.

 

Windows on Venice

View from our window

Venice is actually built on a large group of lots of small islands, islands that originally started as farm land for Italians escaping various conquerors routing through the country. Eventually they stayed, building their homes and towns. The result we see is an interconnected, random web of streets and alleyways with innumerable bridges, large and small, over the meandering canals.  We wandered round and round, getting lost, finding ourselves, even making a full loop, unexpectedly being deposited on our doorstep. The best part is that there are no cars to dodge, no bikes racing down the paths, only a few little scooters for the smallest kids. A very addicting lifestyle!

The Turkish influence

Wow – the views of Venice are many and varied! There’s no telling what you’re going to be viewing on the next corner, though I will say there were lots of canals, brickworks, fascinating windows and colorful clothing just hanging around. I’m going to start with views of windows here. Venice was an extremely successful trading hub at one time. The hundreds of different settlers and merchants brought with them their origins, their concept of what buildings look like. Since many were very wealthy, large palaces sprung up all over the islands. What is left is an amazing array of buildings across the town. 

An upper floor apartment - with a nice view

2nd story window - reflecting the
walkway below

Many of the buildings, particularly those that are found along the Grand Canal (the major, widest canal through Venice) were the old palaces. Anyone with money would build their rather large home prominently on the main canal. I don't know that many of them have a single family residing in them any more. Many of the ones we saw have been put to multiple uses with restaurants or other shops on the ground floor, and apartments places above. Some of the grandest palaces have been turned into hotels, catering to the tourists - the main source of income for the islands. Check out the reflections on the right - there were quite a few windows that picked up unexpected views of the surrounding area.