Lost In Europe

I'm on my way!

2008-10-07T07:00:00.002-04:00

In less than 3 days, I'll be in an airplane on my way to Canada. It's unfortunate that I haven't had much time to fully update my blog about all my European and Japanese adventures before leaving the Old World, but rest assured it will be done. I have loads of stories still to tell, and they will be told!

See you all very soon, in person, face to face, ALRIGHT!

EMMET: The Day I Encountered Evil!

2008-09-24T02:13:00.002-04:00

It was time to venture into the unknown. This was apparent as soon as I got on the train on a Sunday morning, headed to Germany.

Everyone looked different (women looked better than Belgians ;) ) AND many spoke German. In a matter of hours, I would be in a country where neither French or English was the main language, and possibly not many people not understand either. Excellent, it was time to REALLY explore Europe - armed with my trusty « Europe phrasebook » from LonelyPlanet, which I started reading once I was in the train.

2 hours later, I find myself in Köln (Cologne), where at 10am football hooligans are already getting drunk in the train station’s pub, everything has fat sausages, and nobody speaks English - not even the occasional asian storeclerk... This resulted in missing my next train (I only had 5 minutes in between, and by misreading the timetable I ended up on the wrong track - doesn’t matter, as my InterRail pass is valid on any train, so I didn’t lose anything, especially since I didn’t need any reservation).

This gave me the chance to venture out of the train station and find the Köln Cathedral, an imposing black gothic church parked right outside the station - very tourist-friendly! Once again, as in the St Peter’s Basilica, inside the cathedral I managed to display my North-American lack of manners by forgetting to take my hat off - I was promptly told off in German by somebody near the door. There was a mass in progress, and this time I didn’t take pictures...

Back outside, I explored a few shops and ate a pastry with WAY too much chocolate (long live Germany!) and caught my next train - on to Berlin!

Four hours of beautiful German scenery later, I find myself in the heart of the capital, inside the biggest train station I have ever seen, with 7 levels and looots trains and people. A real hub. I managed, in very broken German, to book my ticket for my trip to Warsaw, and then had to find my way to the St Cristopher’s Inn where I would be staying and meeting up a friend from Denmark.

The bus driver

Outside the station, I found the bus stop taking me to the hostel. After a short wait, the bus showed up, and opened its door. I let everybody else in first, since I had to ask the bus driver how much a ticket would cost.

There was a problem.

My trusty phrasebook did not at all tell me how to ask the cost of something in German! Sure, they included « do you have a boyfriend? » for Italian, « do you want to go out tonight? » in French, very important questions I’m sure, but nothing relating to cost in German. Wonderful.

So I asked the driver, in English, how much a ticket would cost. What happened after this question shocked me!

The bus driver, total German aryan type with short balding hair, blue eyes, chiseled face and spite in his eyes, looked at me, rolled his eyes, sighed loudly for about 10 seconds, crossed his arms and started tapping his foot.

My jaw dropped. I asked again, please, how much does a ticket costs, and he looks at me, rolls his eyes and shakes his head.

For one minute. Nevermind all the other passengers who surely want to get somewhere. The driver waits!

Finally, reluctantly, as if he had a looong talk with someone about whether he should help this poor tourist out or not, he tells me the cost of one ticket and I pay it.

WHAT THE HELL!!!!! And I thought London drivers were bad. Yes, they are, they’re sadists who relish the opportunities of running down people, or waiting for people who are running to catch the bus only to close the door and leave when they get in front of the door. But this was an entirely different class of EVIL!

Thankfully, the rest of the Germans I encountered did not fit this description!

To be continued...

A weekend of webdev, and learning how to focus

2008-08-26T07:56:00.003-04:00

Since it was a long weekend and I didn't have much to do (it happens when no income is coming in ;) ), I decided to go ahead and FINALLY, after 2 years sitting on it, to update my website.

Role-playing games (real ones, with pencils, papers, dice, and face-to-face interactions - not computer RPGs!) have been a passion of mine ever since I found my first "Les terres de Légende" book back in 1988 in a public library. I have over the years tried a few systems, designed my own worlds, my own languages, and spent countless hours with friends, pizza and drinks imagining stories of glory and corruption involving anything from dragons to centaurs to spaceships and robots.

Although I haven't played in nearly 2 years, the prospect of my imminent return to Canada (following - YES - another trip to Japan) the RPG bug is running through my system again. I'm getting the buzz and the excitement, reading fantasy stories and tweaking rules!

Not only that, but I really think this time I will start writing everything. All the stories, as best as I can remember them, from my great campaigns - "La quête des douze temples" "La jihad centaure" "La chute d'Asliq" and "La possession de Thranjkal" (final titles? Probably not). Who knows, I might even end up being able to publish them; at the very least, entertain some people!

In fact, as I look back in the past 2 decades of my life, one of my great failings has always been to start too many projects at once, and very rarely finishing any of them. I have invented languages and stories, I have composed music, developped websites, written programs, almost continuously since my childhood, but rarely anything has come out completed. So many unfinished projects.

This has changed. My plans to travel to Europe got me VERY focused in 2006, and I accomplished it. I moved to London, I travelled around Europe, I even went to Japan. During my time off, I've also been busy with another project (which I won't talk about here yet), and not only did I focus 100% on it, I COMPLETED it and released it - and it's bringing in a bit (just a bit) of money, allowing me to survive longer in Europe.

If anything, I think my trip has taught me how to focus and complete projects, how to prioritize and how to manage my time better. Though I've spent the last 3 months in a kind of limbo following my trip, I'm now coming out of it with more determination and focus than ever! ALRIGHT!!!!!!

PS: next entry will be another EMMET report :)
PPS: expect me back in Canada in early October!
PPPS: check out my ex-boss's online store, Marrakesh Souk, that boasts excellent merchandise from Morocco and around the world! I got a tie from there and had to learn (finally lol) how to tie a tie!

EMMET: Trains and Comics

2008-08-22T06:51:00.005-04:00

May 9th, 2008: Bruxelles. Warmest day of my trip, and I spent the whole day walking around Lille with my backpack. I’m exausted. And confused.

The confusion was short-lived thankfully. Basically, as this was my first time travelling accross EU country borders, I wasn’t aware at all that there was no passport check or customs of any kind (unlike the UK and France which are much tighter on immigration than other EU countries). I stepped off the train in Bruxelles and was instantly in the train station, and I was looking around confused, looking for the passport control.

There was none.

NICE! This is what travelling should be like. No check-in charges, no passport check, no checked luggages, no terrorist-based fear-mongering and restrictions. I’m loving trains!

Unlike the Bruxelles underground trains!

Nevermind the fact that not every sign is in a language I can understand, and it’s not always the same. Pick from: English, French, Dutch. Ok. Often they at least had French of English. Nevermind that, though. It’s worse:

Going down the stairs, with no barriers or ticket control (I bought a ticket anyway), there is no actual sign telling where to go to get which train. Do I go left or right? Ok I got my bearings a bit and knew I had to go North, and I took a chance and went down right.

Or should I have gone down the MIDDLE stairs? It didn’t matter much, it turns out. Going down the middle, one can go either direction as the train or tram doors open on both sides. Going down the left or the right can be a gamble though, and thankfully I gambled right.

That’s not where the confusion ended though, as the train or tram (yup, tramways and subway trains were using the same tracks and the same platform) number wasn’t always too apparent to the untrained eye, and again I let 2 trains go by and gambled on the third one, which happens to have been the correct one.

The “next train” displays were pretty useless too, as the numbers didn’t match the trains that were coming.

Londoners complain A LOT about the London Underground system, now though I can seriously say: it may be expensive, it may be dirty and smelly, but damn it’s well organized. Tokyo’s is even better. Paris? Bit hard to decode and figure out where to go, especially as the maps not only show you the trains but also the whole city. Makes it difficult to follow a path and figure out which train you should take (as the signs only tell you the final station, and not whether it’s going North or South or so on). Bruxelles? Not impressed. I actually walked for the rest of my time there, as it was cheaper and it is a small city, with my hostel near enough to the station, that it didn’t matter much.

How was Bruxelles itself? It wasn’t my favourite place, though I’m thinking (as with most cities I visited) that I should have planned out my trip a bit more and researched the cities before going, as well as spend more time in each city. Only 2 days in each city definitely was not enough time spent to really enjoy them fully. This was fast-tourism, and though it does fill you like a BigMac, it also leaves some bad taste in the mouth later on...

Not to say I didn’t enjoy myself! Bruxelles is a really nice city. It’s a bit cheaper than London or Paris, for which I was grateful. The architecture is quite nice (see my gallery for pictures of the Grand’ Place, the palaces, etc), the food is great, and so is the beer.

Lille & Bruxelles gallery

Funny thing about the beer: I found out why Belgian beer is THE BEST (yes, it is. Leffe, the Artois family of beers, Blanc.. Yummy!) It insults Belgians when I tell them, it makes everyone else laugh: BELGIAN CHICKS ARE NOT PRETTY! Beer goggles, anyone?

The other great thing too was the chocolate. OH YEAH. Just like Swiss chocolate, Belgian chocolate is quite unique and tasty, and in the case of the one found in Bruxelles: FRESH. DELICIOUS. ALRIGHT! It’s again too bad the weather was so hot and that I still had 2 weeks on my trip, as the chocolate would not have survived that long in my backpack and thus I couldn’t bring any for any of my friends. But I ate it, and that’s what matters to my stomach ;)

The city wasn’t that lively however, outside the Grand’ Place - even at night. In fact, it seemed a bit shady at times, especially in front of Beurs (la Place de la Bourse) where all the Moroccans and other foreigners gather to hit on women. I spent about an hour observing them as I was fascinated: at first, I thought no one gathered there knew each other, that they were all small groups. But as I kept observing, as I kept seeing guys go from one group to another, and spreading information about various girls they approached, and seeing different guys approach the same groups of girls, and seeing guys call out to each other speaking their own language and pointing out girls to approach...

WHAT THE HELL. That’s what I thought. It seemed all too organized and greasy.. No wonder there were very few women gathered there (makes me wonder why the guys still bother, but that’s a topic for an entirely different blog).

And then there was Tintin. Many many many many french language comic books originated from Belgium, and so Bruxelles has a very big comic book tourism industry. Tintin is everywhere. There’s about 30 monuments spread around the city that represent different comic book characters, things or events. I unfortunately didn’t have the time to go on the “comic book tour” to see them all, but I did visit some Tintin shop and got some souvenirs, and saw some very nice drawings.

Nice city overall, though I was glad in the end to leave it and head towards Berlin. I’ll talk of Berlin in the next entry or two, as it was the city I enjoyed the most in my whole trip!

EMMET: Sweaty Europe

2008-08-18T05:45:00.003-04:00

I slept well, though, that night in Paris - in the correct room, in the correct apartment of course! (Un?)fortunately, the next night I would have to spend in a hostel, because J was only available that one night. Too bad. Couldn’t find anyone else in time on couchsurfing, so I had to shell out around €40. Not too bad, I’ve been to that hostel before (on my first trip), and I knew what to expect.

This may have been the beginning of May, however the weather was extremely hot in Europe at that point: sunny, dry and over 25 degrees. Nice change from London, where it had been raining (and was still raining as far as I remember while I was gone). I made a good choice on the dates for my trip. I spent most of that day relaxing, since I knew I still had 17 days ahead of me and needed to not expend too much energy.

The next day came my first day of learning. I had never travelled by train around Europe, and it was time to learn how to use my Interrail Global Pass. I arrived on time at the train station, and learned I had to get my pass approved (first time using it), which I did right on time. Thankfully the day before I had paid 3€ to reserve a seat, and right on time I was up and running on the TGV - that’s right, the Train Grande Vitesse, fastest in Europe, and on my way to Lille!

I loved Lille. It reminds me of Bath, but it’s French instead of British. The people there were very friendly, open, and talkative. And the best part is - the “chti” accent, close to the Belgian accent.. Is pretty close to the French Canadian accent! ALRIGHT! No miscommunication troubles, in fact many people assumed I was from the area until they saw my big bag.

Yes, I had my backpacker backpack on my back for 8 hours. I only spent 8 hours on Lille, on my way to Bruxelles, and unfortunately the storage lockers at the train station were out of order. Too bad. Lille was also the only place in Europe where I could rent a Segway for €20 for the whole day.. But that was impossible wiht my whole backpack :( SEGWAY!

Instead, I walked all around town (thankfully it’s a small city) with my backpack, under the burning sun, building muscles and endurance - though in the end I think I ended up making myself sick. I spent about 2 hours relaxing by a water stream, watching duck-like birds fish and snoozing. I really loved Lille, but alas I had to get back to speed and head to Bruxelles that same day, and finally get some real rest with a real hotel room!

Twitter?

2008-08-17T12:08:00.001-04:00

I don't know if anything will come out of it, but I just registered on Twitter. Appparently it's "micro-blogging", in other words small updates about me as I go about my daily life, instead of waiting for me to write long posts on here. Not that I'm doing much lately, except trying to eke out an existence on a low budget - a challenge in itself! But you neverk now, it could be cool. And it's got an RSS feed! ALRIGHT!

Here I am on twitter, sporting my goatee and glasses, along with my new-ish UNI QLO t-shirt. Yeah!

And don't worry, I'll get down and dirty and write the rest of the EMMET reports shortly!

EMMET: Western Europe, Part I

2008-08-01T15:47:00.004-04:00

Here we are, finally. Good thing I kept short notes during my travels, otherwise this report would be really hard to write. Actually, I waited so long I’m expecting it to be difficult, which might explain why I’ve been procrastinating. No more!

My first stop was in Paris. Heh, what can I say about Paris that I haven’t said already??

Plenty.

Maybe not that much, as I only had 2 days, and the first day I spent it with my luggage in a locker at the train station, trying to stay out of the sun, and waiting to hear from my contact -- because for about half the trip, I used couchsurfing to save on lodging costs. I am really loving this idea of couchsurfing now, as it completely is aligned with my own ideals of travelling: NOT being a tourist, and experiencing the real local life, even if only for a night or two. That’s harder, when you’re staying at a hostel, even harder when staying at a nice hotel. It’s too safe. There’s too many layers in between you and the locals. You’re an alien.

Not so when you’re crashing at a local’s place. You get to eat food they cook, you get to see areas of town you’d never think of going (south of Paris, in this case, which I had never visited before), and you get to break into an appartment, thinking it was the right one to get into..

Break into an appartment?

Well, not really. The guy, let’s call him J, whose place I was crashing on my first night, left me in the middlde of our evening to go on a date with a nice-looking girl. Good for him! Needing my sleep though, I decided to go back home, and he left me with the code to enter the apartment as well as instructions that his roommate would be there to open the door for me once I was inside.

I get out of the metro and walk towards his apartment building, and punch in the code at the door. Door won’t open. I try a few more times, door still won’t open. Shit. My passport and all my shit is inside the bedroom, what is going on? I calm down, I knew it couldn’t be that bad. I decide to interrupt J’s date and call him to ask him if the code was correct. It was. Eventually he tells me “you just have to push really hard on the door”, and I did. ALRIGHT! The door opened!

THEN the problems started. I knocked on one door, and a woman answered, not knowing who J was. I was sure this was the right apartment, too! I knock on the next door, and a vietnames guy with a beer-belly answers, barely speaking French. SHIT. Where the hell am I?? Eventually I HAVE to call J again (he musta hated me haha), and we end up figuring out I was one apartment away from HIS apartment building.. WOOPS. Very bad security there: only have to push the door real hard to get ino, don’t even need the access code. Thankfully the woman was very helpful and didn’t call the police... Whew!

It was the beginning of a wonderful trip!

EMMET: one month later!

2008-06-21T09:31:00.004-04:00

I can't believe it's been a month already since I returned to London after my EMMET trip. Wow.

I think the main reason it took me this long was not so much laziness, but rather a kind of depression. I've been planning, thinking about, looking forward to, etc, this EMMET trip for so long. Since January 2005, in fact, when I first saw a poster at the good ol' University of Ottawa saying "live and work abroad".

Reality is, of course, never quite the same as the dream. Yet, I did it! I moved to London, worked and travelled. I visited Paris, Rome, Marseille, Stonehenge, Bath, Bristol, and even Tokyo and Kyoto! I've worked at 3 different jobs, all very different from each other. In 20 months, I worked 12, and I'm still surviving (barely) in one of the most expensive cities in the world. I've met so many amazing and shitty people, from all over the world. I've seen things I never even thought I'd appreciate, and things I never imagined I would see.

And it's all coming to an end soon. EMMET was the first real sign of this, after quitting my job at EAT. Understandable then, that I spent a few weeks moping and not doing much, once the trip was over. Reality is catching up and I must soon put an end to this life in Europe and go back to Canada (and on to new adventures!). Although now, it's my new challenge: how long can I survive in London, how much money can I earn in alternative non-illegal ways so I can stay here longer and enjoy this place even more? Perhaps find a way to finance another, smaller, trip to places I missed on EMMET, such as Spain, Greece, Britain (I've barely visited! Scotland? Ireland? I hear the Isle of Wight is great, too). And this new challenge is breathing new life into me, and so I'm coming out of my shell, now. AT LAST!

Yes, folks, the EMMET report is about to be posted.

In the next entry ;)

Livin' like a hermit

2008-06-08T13:55:00.002-04:00

Sorry for the delay in posting about my EMMET experiences. I've been living like a hermit the past 2 weeks, barely going out, resting, both physically and mentally. It really was an exausting experience!

I've started coming out of my shell now lol, so expect the reports to appear very shortly!

EMMET almost over

2008-05-20T17:16:00.003-04:00

I can't believe it, I already have 4 days left! FOUR! This trip is almost over. I'm gonna have a lot to write about of course, I'm sure you're all waiting in anticipation. Let's just say that I'm glad I'm back in western civilization, after spending a week in Eastern Europe. It's not quite Eurotrip (when they went to Bratislava), in fact it's very beautiful and the people are really hospitable. And yet, there's still something off, that just doesn't wanna make me live there, and appreciate the UK/France/Canada that much better!

Stay tuned for the full report once I'm back, and recovered from 17 days of walking and breaking my back.

EMMET after 5 days

2008-05-12T13:28:00.003-04:00

It's going WELL. Seriously. If you ever had any doubts about travelling by train, get those doubts outta your head. You save so much time and headache, especially with an interrail pass, which gives me a whole lot of flexibility with my travels.

No luggage checkin. No airport checkin. No major huge security checks. no waiting for your luggage to come out of the luggage area and onto the conveyer belts. No going to the outskirts of a city to find the airports. In fact, considering all these factors, even with the slower train speeds it's FASTER to travel by train than by airplane, around europe.

There'll be more to report later, a LOT more. I highly recommend this kind of experience to anyone. EVERYONE. DO IT!

Some more handy travel tips

2008-05-04T19:27:00.003-04:00

Be aware of these. Short but very interesting reads:

How to survive hotel fires
Reports on scam artists in Barcelona

And of course you can reread my Rome reports about the scam artist I encountered there...

2 more days till my trip!

Tentative EMMET itinerary

2008-04-18T05:21:00.004-04:00

I haven't been sitting idly. Just this morning I finally bought my Eurostar tickets - going to Paris on May 7, returning to London on May 24. That's 17 days!

Now it's time to plan out the actual itinerary. Thankfully, RailEurope offers a few flexible unlimited travel train passes in most European countries, so that should save me a lot of trouble and money. So far though, my travel itinerary would look something like:

Paris - Lille - Belgium - Hamburg - Berlin - Warsaw - Prague - Salzburg - Switzerland - Lyons - Paris

I'm skipping out on Greece and Spain for now, they're a bit too far out of the way and I do have limited funds and time. However if I do have time I'll slip them in, somehow...

EMMET

2008-04-08T19:40:00.006-04:00

Today I felt weird and different. It's not because it's spring, in fact it's getting colder in London.

But I felt different. Something snapped, in my mind, and I got this burning sense that I've become too sedentary, too domesticated. And I need out.

OUT!

So here it comes. I'm announcing the Early May Mega EuroTrip. EMMET. This is a huge decision, that's been a long time coming (too long), and I'm announcing it publicly so I can be accountable for it. So that there's no turning back. I know you guys will be pestering me for details of my trip, and sorely disappointed if I don't get up and do it, so I will.

With all the money that's left to me, with extra money I can raise through selling various things I have but are kinda useless, and supplemented with the kind support of Visa Desjardins, I'll make it.

Europe will never be the same again!

Beard and Sunburn [updated]

2008-03-29T16:44:00.004-04:00

here I am, only one day in marseille and I've already got a sunburn. Its so nice to spend a full, cloudless sunny day with 17 degrees weather. That's Celsius!! Nice to get away from the rain! LOL. I can see why Alex loved Barcelona so much. I could get used to this...

More coming later when I have a full keyboard to type instead of the iPod touch keyboard.

Beard? Wait for the pictures ;)

Here they are those pictures I promised! It was a really nice weekend, very relaxing - especially cuz I was away from the cold London rain. Now finally I think the spring is starting in London, temperatures are inching above 10 degrees.

What'd I like most about Marseille? FISH! And the sea. The fish was sooo fresh and so delicious.. I ate bouillabaisse. Food that can rival Tokyo's Ninja restaurant... Seriously!

Living by the sea also seems like quite a different lifestyle. Fishermen must be really hardworking, getting up early and fishing and then coming back to the port for the fish market at 8am. Real cool thing too, a lot of local restaurants get their fish there and serve it that day, so their menus depend a lot on the catches of the day. Also makes the local restaurants' food taste extremely good as it's really fresh fish.

Another place I'll miss.... And another great souvenir from my trip!

Paypal has the worst testing/development environment ever!

2008-03-18T08:10:00.002-04:00

Seriously. I've been trying for a second day now to develop a plugin for Wordpress, that allows me to charge for content. The plugin itself is easy enough to write, integration with Paypal is easy enough (it's been done before many times, I just need something different than what's available).

However... The Paypal Sandbox, which allows a developper to test transactions without using real accounts and real money, is slow as hell. Not only that, half the time it doesn't work properly! Paypal staff isn't very helpful either, they never experience slowdowns (of course not, they're right there in the Paypal corporate network LOL).

Frustrating experience overall!

Switch!?

2008-03-13T10:20:00.002-04:00

49%

Up to 49% now, since I got an iPod Touch while I was in Japan.

However, a few things that are on my mind right now: my Flickr Pro account is expiring soon, which means only the last 200 pictures will be viewable and I won't be able to create any new sets to help sort through all my pictures. On the other hand, on impulse I recently subscribed to Apple's .Mac service, and of course I can host pictures on there, as well as blogs and websites and so on and so on. It'd save me an extra 25$ if I didn't renew Flickr Pro and instead pointed everyone to my new galleries, wouldn't it?

Maybe I should switch my blog too? What do you all think?

It's a small world! Tokyo and Japan, part 2

2008-03-10T15:20:00.002-04:00

If, in 10 years, someone were to ask me what I remember the most about Japan, I would probably immediately respond "PAIN!". Pain? From hitting my head everywhere. Lamps hanging from the ceiling over the dinner tables; bars to hold in the trains and buses; doorframes and hooks attached to doors. On and on and on I just kept hitting my head. Made me bow way more than required by Japanese courtesy.

And I still have nightmares where I wake up abrutply trying to avoid hitting my head somewhere.

Go to Harajuku. It'S an awesome area, right at the edge of a big part with the famous Meiji Shrine (unfortunately I didn't get a chance to go, as they were closed to prepare for festivities). You'll get a real feast for the eyes. This is where the weird and wild come to display themselves, and to shop for things to make them even wilder.

I tried to find the various types of Gyaru (girls who dress up in various styles), but it seems the whole thing is slowly dying off. I heard of stories of Ganguro Girls, but couldn't find any. I did find plenty of Hime Gals, but they were too shy to take pictures. Oh well. Akihabara also had plenty of Goth-lolis, probably appealing to the Otaku who frequent the area.

Kyoto was very different, though. Not only did I take the super-fast Shinkansen bullet train to get there, I also got a very good view of Mount Fuji on the way to Kyoto. The city is very different from Tokyo. Whereas Tokyo is a big sprawling metropolis comprised of winding streets and multiple city centers, Kyoto is more grid-like, like say New York or Toronto, and build between mountains. Makes it much easier to find my way around!

It is also much more traditional, and I found a lot of girls wearing kimono for various occasions, as well as old style shopping streets leading to temples in the mountains.

It seemed like a very peaceful city, and I wouldn't mind living there to get away from the bustle of Tokyo.

It's in Kyoto also that the saying "it's a small world" really came true for me. The trip to Kyoto was unplanned. It wasn't announced anywhere on the Internet, much less to anyone outside my girlfriend's family. And yet, on the 2nd day in Kyoto, on the last English Guided Tour of the Old Imperial Palace of the week, I ran accross a girl I worked with at the London Eye!!! Incredible chance meeting if you ask me. We were both amazed at how such a thing could happen... I was in a state of shock for a few hours LOL. It really is a small world, no doubt about it.

Now the incredible thing though.. It makes it a bit harder to write this blog entry. I've been away from Japan for nearly 10 days now, and I'm already starting to forget the details, and the excitement of the trip, already starting to settle back to life in London. I'm still really nostalgic though, and a bit in a lethargic state, because I want to go back there so much! I met so many nice and interesting people, saw so many cool things and tasted such delicious food...

This makes me want to travel more. This world is so amazing, filled with many wonders and people, I can't bear the thought of a life without travel, without new experiences like this.

Moe, Moe, Kyu!!!! Tokyo, part I

2008-03-05T15:30:00.001-05:00

Whew that jetlag was horrible.

My first recommendation to anyone wanting to travel to Japan: learn Hiragana and Katakana. You don't really need to learn Japanese, but if you can at least read menus and maps (most of which DON'T use Romaaji ie western alphabet), then you can get by much better than I would have, if I wasn't accompanied by my Japanese girlfriend.

Before I proceed to actually talking about Japan, let's get this big chunk out of the way: Japan rocks. I love Japan. Seriously, I'm in love. I want to go there. I want to die there. I want my body cremated and my ashes spread accross the land so I can somehow become part of the next generation or hot women. I just ******* love Japan.

And I thought Roma was a culture shock. It was only a culture shock with the fact that I was unprepared mentally for a trip, too tired, and I actually didn't like Italy that much anyway. Was just a spur of the moment "because I can" thing, without any actual real desire to go there.

Japan was different. Burning desire. Wild expectations of cute cosplaying girls and robots everywhere, and wild weird TV shows. On most count I was quite satisfied LOL. Only thing is is took me about a week to find the robots. I thought they were everywhere! Obviously we've been lied to!!!!

It is however a great place. My first impressions didn't disappoint. It's clean, the people are friendly (though sometimes shy or even afraid or racist), and most things just run smoothly. Heck, train operators apologize for even a 5 second delay! Here in London we're lucky if we even get a broken-English half-mumbled apology for a 5 minutes delay.

Nobody spits on the streets. There's no gum stains littering the pavements. Nearly nobody talks on phones in trains, though it's very easy to find literal lineups of people reading/sending emails on their phones, all silently. People are generally quiet and considerate (except for those I dubbed the Kleenex Guys - they hand out free packs of tissues with advertisement, and most of them would hesitate or recoil or downright tell me to go to the shop with someone speaking Japanese. Kleenex girls however were very nice and eager to talk to me ;) ), and quite obediant.

For example, even when there's no traffic they just wait at a red light before crossing the road. People just leave laptops, cellphones and other valuables unattended on their coffee shop tables when they go to the toilet, with no fear of getting robbed. Amazingly at night, people aren't afraid of making eye contact with others, and women don't speed up away from me if I walk near them in a dark desolate alley. Complete contrast to Western civilization!

Though the Japanese generally make assumptions about me cuz I'm white - heck, I never managed to just simply order a green tea ("ryokucha kudasai") at Starbucks, even though my Japanese in that case was perfect. They'd just see I'm white and assume I wanted a Chai Latte, forcing me to order in ENGLISH to get what I wanted. Despite this, the ensuing giggling shy Japanese baristas made it all worth it anyway haha.

But let's talk about baristas and waitresses... Ever heard of Maid cafés? They're just AWESOME. They're popping up all over Asia (as Western feminists would never allow them LOL), they're basically cafés where the waitresses are all young girls dressed as maids. They call their clients Master, kneel at the table to pour the tea, and have all these little cutish rituals and habits. Like manga maids or whatever (since of course the idea popped out of the growing Otaku culture of ultra-geeks who spend all their lives in fantasy worlds of video games and manga). I must have been a rare sight however, as I was the only foreigner there, and I was actually enjoying the cool funny experience rather than drooling at the 17 year old (at least that's what they CLAIMED) maid-dressed girls. And yes that explains the picture with the bunny ears, it's part of the experience to have your picture taken with a maid. Apparently I was blushing, but hey all the dozen or so maids gathered around to see the event happen! Highly recommended, leave your shame at the door when you enter, and don't expect good-tasting food, go for the fun of the experience LOL.

Thankfully that same day I ended up at the Ninja restaurant, another themed restaurant that's loads of fun - just be wealthy before you enter the premises. First, finding the door is not the usual thing, as it's a big black wall at the end of a shopping center with a small black door. Enter the small vestibule and be greeted by a shriill "IRASSHAI MASSE!" (welcome!), then led through a maze by a Ninja waitress that pops out of a concealed door before finally getting to the eating area. That enough was worth it and makes the whole eating experience even more fun. As you sit down, ninjas come with the menus - on scrolls - and help you make your selection (in our case, the 10-course "Surprise Dinner").

Course after course was simply the most delicious food I have ever eaten in my life. I'm not kidding or even exaggerating. From shuriken biscuits to stone-baked ham chowder soup that's cooked right in front of you, to the frog cheesecake that makes you cry when you start taking bites because you don't want to destroy the work of art, it's really one of the most amazing experiences you can find in Tokyo. And Tokyo is full of those experiences!

Continued later in the next entry...

Tokyo, here I come!

2008-02-14T16:06:00.001-05:00

Leaving London in 16 hours.. Tokyo here I COME! HYAAAAAAA

I'll report later when I've arrived. Pics, crazy adventure stories, and various shenanigans coming!

Piace molto Roma! (Part IV?)

2008-02-04T09:43:00.000-05:00

Apart from these culture shocks, my trip was quite enjoyable. Romans are quite friendly once you get around the language and culture barrier, and Rome isn't that bad. I wouldn't live there though, I prefer a modern city with less pollution. Lots of smog in Rome, and actually when I was on the phone with my parents they could hear me panting - something that never happens to me in London when I'm talking and walking.

I got a chance to taste real authentic Roman pizza and Italian café, both of which are absolutely delicious and surely ruined westernized restaurants for me ;)

The trip also taught me a lot that I'll remember for my next trips: be prepared for the language barrier and learn it before going! And always keep your wits about you, and use the public transport to avoid so much leg and feet pain.

Next stop: TOKYO!!!!! HYAAAAAAAA

Culture Shock, part III

2008-02-04T09:30:00.000-05:00

Now I've heard of many things like this happening around the world, I've seen TV shows reporting cons and scams that happen to poor hapless people. And having a passing interest in the field of psychology and influence, I was able to recognize the signs of it happening to me.

Here's the typical scenario: you are walking down the road with your buddies or your girlfriend and someone stops you to ask you to take a picture of them. While you're distracted with the camera, someone sneaks by and steals your bag or your wallet. Or maybe someone dressed as a police officer needs to "search" you for some reason and walks away with your wallet.

Or in my case, someone asks me for directions (of course). He stopped his car near the pavement while I was walking from the San Pietro to Trastevere, an area with lots of restaurants and cafés, and asks me where San Pietro is (in Italian). Seeing as I can't understand him, he switches to English.

Of course, as it so happens, he was going in the wrong direction. No problem, he thanks me for the info. But he doesn't just leaves. He starts talking with me, and I tell him I'm from Québec (not gonna tell the whole truth to strangers duh!), and he says he's got family there (figures). He decides to be very grateful for my help, and asks me what size of clothing I wear (medium) and what size my wife (I didn't tell him I'm not married). By pure pure pure chance, he happens to be Sylvio, who works at Giorgio Armani, and by the purest and most unlikely of circumstances, he happens to have 2 jackets on the backseat of his car - jackets of the perfect size for me and my "wife" (funny I didn't actually tell him the size my girlfriend wears).

He makes me promise not to resell them, and that he'll give them to me to thank me for directing him the right way to San Pietro. He shows them quickly then shoves them in a black bag and hands the plastic bag over to me. However, all this time he was still holding my hand from shaking hands and always pulling me closer when I was trying to break contact (yes, very common influence tactic here to keep someone talking to you, as most people are too polite to break rapport by being abrupt or forceful and break the handshake like that).

Questions were racing in my mind, especially as I looked at the backseat of his car to see what (or who? nobody) was there. Why is he pulling me in like that? Why is he offering me some expensive Giorgio Armani clothing just like that? Why doesn't he know where San Pietro is, considering all the roadsigns pointing to it and he's Italian and me a tourist? How come he just happens to have something my size? How comes he happens to have family in Québec, just like me? This was definitely too good to be true to be offering me some expensive designers jackets like that, especially making me promise I wouldn't resell them.

Were they real or fake?

And then of course, he finally presented me with the catch.

"Ah, can you help me with a favor?" He pulls out his Visa credit card which has a corner cut off (yes, but not on the magnetic swipe, is it still valid or not?) "I have no money on me and I need some gas for my car, can you help me out wiht a bit of money?"

Chaching, con artist identified! I tried my best not to laugh at his face, and with the straightest face I could muster I tell him "no sorry, I've just spent all my money at the Vatican Museum".

Wooo he was visibly annoyed at this point, and aske me in an angry tone how can I have no money, he gives me a superbly expensive gift and I can't even spare a few euros for his gas? Nope sorry mister!

He quickly takes his "gift" back and as I repeat to him which direction is San Pietro, he mumbles something and quickly goes back on the road, probably angry that his "mark" wasn't as easy as he thought!

So tourists, beware Romans bearing gifts! Always trust your guts ;)

Culture Shock, part II

2008-02-04T09:17:00.000-05:00

By the end of the 2nd day, I was starting to be more familiar with the city. Where before I only saw streets lined with windows, I now saw streets with stores, shops, cafés and restaurants. Did I mention the caffè was absolutely delicious????

I also started becoming accustomed to the Roman lifestyle. It's a bit like the Spanish, who have a siesta in the afternoon. Shops open around 9 or 10 am, and people work (assuming they arrive on time - bus drivers are very, let's say, nonchalant, and will have a good conversation before leaving; they also don't care if you have a valid ticket or not, took a while to break my London habit of showing my ticket to the driver). They work until about 12-13h, where it's time for a well-deserved lunch break until 3 or 4pm. Apparently many people go back home to eat, while many others go to nearby cafés or restaurants to have a nice meal and of course some coffee.

Damn that coffee was good. Especially when wandering far from the touristic district (which I did on my 4th day, I just went to the suburbs to taste real coffee and to speak a little Italian).

Back to that language business, I went to work on my phrasebook and started learning Italian on turbo-mode. I was really motivated after I bought a €4 bottle of Coca-cola, when I ordered in English, while at a similar booth truck I bought one for €2 when ordering in broken Italian.

People seemed to be much more receptive and amenable when I tried speaking in Italian, too, and would often then switch to English or French after noticing my poor attempt at "un po parla l'italiano". Most of the times though if I didn't know how to say something, I would just speak French with an Italian accent. Didn't really work but was fun to try LOL.

As an aside here: réjouissez-vous les Québecois!! Votre manière de parler le Français se rapproche beaucoup de l'Italien!! Ex: kossé-ça? = "cos'è" en Italien. Ou bien "ste soir" se dit "sto sera" en Italien. Pas mal non?

By the third day, despite exhaustion and leg pain from all the walking, I started enjoying the lifestyle, got used to shops being closed in the afternoons, and had my first conversation in (broken) Italian - about the weather (yes, it was REALLY hot in Rome, ie 15 degrees during the day with a high strong sun. I got a sunburn on my nose).

Funny thing started happening, too. Now I definitely don't look or dress like an Italian. And yet, just like in London, people keep asking me for directions!!! It happened 6 times in the spasn of 3 days. From people in the metro asking me which one to take to go to Barberini, to old ladies asking me where Piazza de Spagna is (dov'è la Piazza di Spagna?), to tourists asking me where Piazza de Fiune is (I had no clue, yet I was able to direct them properly after looking at my map), I got it all! Even funnier than people asking me for directions was the fact that I knew exactly how and where to direct them! After just a few days in Rome I had a pretty good sense of directions and the place of things.

However, the first person to ask me for directions was even funnier - he was, after all, a con artist desperate for my money.

Culture Shock, part I

2008-02-04T07:46:00.000-05:00

It's not before the 3rd day that I started enjoying Rome.

This really was the first time that I found myself in a different country. It almost felt like I was back in the 80s lol, that's how different things were. Low security, low tech, and a different language.

Security checks at the airport, on arrival, were very quick and sloppy almost. Not like in the UK where everyone gets asked a lot of questions, forms have to be filled out, etc. Not only that, but for the first time I didn't step out of the airplane into a tunnel and then into the airport. Nope. From the airplane to the runway and then a little door in the airport. Maybe it's different at the other 2 airports in Rome, but flying with EasyJet to the smaller airport, that's how it was.

Then, the airport itself: once out of the baggage reclaim (which I didn't need, thanks to travelling light with only one carry-on bag, I got out quickly into this small area containing: one police kiosk, one café, one bus/train tickets booth and one coach airport shuttle booth (where no one was present because the price was 10x the train ticket price).

That's it LOL. Keep in mind this airport was squeezed in between a small village and what seemed from the air like a huge pavement with rusted cars waiting to be destroyed.

And then, the people. For the first time in my life, I found myself in a place where I cannot speak the local language. And despite Rome being a major city, not many people do speak English or French. Perhaps they do and pretend not to because they don't like tourists, who knows. Thankfully I had my LonelyPlanet Europe Phrasebook. Unfortunately I hadn't started reading it yet, so my knowledge of Italian was limited to "capisce", "molto" and other words learned through music.

Big mistake. Italians will speak to you loudly in Italian whether you understand or not.

So there I was, in a foreign country that seemed backwards in technology (was nice though, not one huge LCD display bearing big advertisements anywhere in Rome; no Starbucks; no Pizza Hut; McDonald's and BK are just as crap as everywhere else, except much less busy), and I didn't know the local language.

I managed regardless to reach my Hostel, where one of the staff can speak English. Good hostel, highly recommended too. And then I started to tour Rome - as usual, by foot.

Tasting the coffee of course, it was absolutely delicious. Such good coffee, I will never be able to go to Starbucks ever again (not that I went regularly as I already knew their coffee was crap). Pizza? MMMMMMMM. The food is sooo delicious, regardless of how many shards of coal or burnt wood I find in the bread. Yikes. I really am far away from Civilization, I thought.

You know you've been in the UK too long when...

2008-01-23T14:15:00.000-05:00

... your friend sends you a picture of him with 2 Canadian girls and the first think you think of is "wow, they have really great TEETH!!!!"

2 more days left to the madness of work, then FREEDOM. This week, our shop is without manager or anyone with authority, thus placing me in charge. Let's say I'm like Ensign Crusher suddenly getting command of the Enterprise.

Not as hard as it could have been, and have had some good help from my fellow teammates, thankfully. Good experience I suppose for the long-run, but very exhausting and annoying considering it's my last week of work!

But hey, 2 more days left!

TWO!!!!