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October 25th 2012
China, land of tasty food and many people. This is probably going to be one of those updates where pictures are better than words. I’ve seen and done quite a lot of things in the last four weeks here but here are the highlights: National Holiday & Mid-Autumn Festival: Not something I did per say, more of an event that took place for the first half of the tour. Our guide likened it to Christmas for Chinese people. It’s a week of holidays in which people go home and visit family as well as going to see the tourist attractions around the country. It made everything much busier and more crowded. Tiananmen Square/Forbidden City: Both places were quite full of other tourists, mostly Chinese, but a few western tour groups also. Both were also very large ... read more
July 9th 2012
First thing we did when we got into Peru was hit the beach. We spent a day and a half lazing around and enjoying the warm weather. The only major issue was the giant spider I found in my tent at 4:30am on the final day. It was at least 5cm long, hairy and nightmare inducing. Luckily for me my fellow Canadian, Amy, was awake and able to rescue me. And no, I didn’t cry when I saw it but if I’d had to deal with it by myself I might’ve. After the spider incident and at a more reasonable hour in the morning the truck stopped at the Lord of Sipan Museum. There were no cameras allowed, and they even used a metal detector to see if you were sneaking them in. So, no pictures. ... read more
July 2nd 2012
So after the Galapagos trip I was back in Quito for five days. In that time I hiked up Cotopaxi, (4100m) and went to visit the Otavalo markets. Hiking at altitude was pretty tough but Carol and I finished it in under average time without any injury or altitude sickness. The markets were...a tad disappointing to be honest. It's true the animal market was interesting to see but most of the other things for sale I could tell were made elsewhere and just shipped up here to be sold. The only other thing of interest that happened to me was that I was sitting outside reading a book and got sunburned on my shoulders so badly that I blistered. Jumping ahead to when I joined the rest of the group I'd be touring with. Surprisingly, there's ... read more
June 12th 2012
Well it took nearly 48 hours but I made it! Leaving Ishinomaki by bus to Tokyo, then by train to Narita, plane to LA, 9 hour layover, plane to Lima, 3 hour layover, plane to Quito and then a taxi ride to the hostel! What I got up to: I lay pretty low in the following days, only venturing forth in broad daylight for food and a bathing suit (since mine is probably still in Ireland somewhere). Most of the reason for that is because I....don't really like this city. To be frank, I feel uncomfortable not speaking the language and being a solo female tourist walking by myself here. In the day, it's ok, I know the chances of someone trying something are lower. But as two of the women on our cruise discovered, it's ... read more
June 3rd 2012
So, my last update about Japan. The two major projects that I had a hand in before leaving were finishing off the hanko shop and the second house. They’re pretty similar but I’ll start off with the hanko shop. When I last left off we’d removed all the walls and floors from two rooms and a hallway. Our next job was to put in temporary replacements. First were the floors and the plywood to cover them. Not too much to say about it, just measure and cut and then sigh when you discover the hole wasn’t square and you have to shave off two millimetres from one side. Next were the walls. Now, I’ve never put up drywall back in Canada but I imagine that it’s probably the same. Step 1) Buy large boards of sheetrock. ... read more
May 17th 2012
Another update about my time in Japan. I've been doing a lot of '-structing', both 'con-' and 'de-'. That is to say that I've been breaking and building things of late. More breaking than building though. Destruction is much more fun! >:) So that apartment we cleaned back in the Japan - Part 1 entry was actually the second floor. The first floor was very heavily damaged by the tsunami and we'd been asked to get rid of all the remaining floorboards, insulation and walls, leaving only the major support beams. It was a job for 3-5 people for almost a week. I worked on it each day and had a crowbar glued to my hand almost the entire time. It was a lot of fun and really satisfying when that beam you've been bashing and ... read more
April 11th 2012
Japan! So, after something like 25 hours flying I finally made it to Japan. Unlike the last time I came there was literally no line at immigration and it took all of three minutes to get through. Armed with the knowledge of which trains to take and how to get to my hostel I set off from the airport. Boring story short, I made it there fine, got some sleep, next day waited for the bus that would take me to Ishinomaki and played the 'in-transit-sleep-deprivation' game again on the way. So the name of the organization I'm volunteering with is called It's Not Just Mud (or INJM for short). Here is the Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/ItsNotJustMud and the website: http://itsnotjustmud.com/. The website has all the information about what they're doing/what they're about in a nicer format ... read more
March 27th 2012
The Group: Strangely, our group consisted of mainly Canadians! There was Julie (Halifax) who works for the CBC, Patty (Calgary) who jokes that she's the oldest letter carrier for Canada Post, Laurrie and Russell (Northern BC) who've both been teachers for many years and myself! Patrick and Margaret are from Chicago and they both work in an animal shelter that Margaret owns. Birgut is originally from Germany but now works for a hotel in NY. Marilyn is from Holland and has just graduated from medical school. Lisle (an accountant) and Annette (retired) are a daughter and mother from South Africa. And finally, Ismail was a guide in training on our trip under Mohammed's tutelage. Food: I don’t know what’s up with Moroccan food but it totally agrees with me. I’ve had a few drinks I normally ... read more
March 5th 2012
Activities: I've been here for two weeks now and some of those days were just me basically being a vegetable so I'll try to summarize. City Impressions: Prague is a pretty cool city. There's reliable and relatively inexpenside public transit, lots of pretty buildings, nice views, and it's not too big. I usually have about a week in a big city (Toronto, Tokyo, London) before I get too annoyed with the number of people and want to leave. It's been two weeks now and I havn't hit that point yet. Although I've seen pretty much everything I've wanted to see in the city I wouldn't mind coming back in the summer. The Hostel: I was very impressed with the hostel at check in and two weeks later I still think it’s one of the best I've ... read more
February 22nd 2012
Activities: The train ride from Munich to Verona was nice, from what I saw. I was falling asleep for the majority of it but I do remember that we went from a snowing Munich to a blanketed forest/mountain region before the snow stopped and it got sunny. The geography has changed. There are mountains, no snow, but I can see some blanketed mountains in the distance (The Alps?). Onwards from Verona to Venice! Now, I'd been given joining instructions by the tour company which I was trying to follow to the letter. At Mestre Station I found out the bus route I needed had been discontinued. I now needed a new bus and was given fuzzy instructions about leaving the station and going to some other place to catch it. So, I left the station via ... read more
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