Jas Sun

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

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

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

Activities: So, the next day in Munich I went to Dachau with my roommates. Only a few minutes outside Munich by train Dachau was the first concentration camp opened by Nazi Germany in 1933. When I first arrived at the site I thought I would have been missing out on information without a guide/an audioguide. But as it turns out of the barracks has been converted into a very informative timeline museum. It’s very well done, beginning with the founding and construction of the camp (it was, at first, an abandoned munitions factory) and ending not where you would think, at the liberation of the camp, but it continues on detailing how the site was then used as an internment camp, a refugee camp and finally ending at the conversion of the site into a memorial. ... read more

Activities: Next day we all gathered to get on the bus for the Paddywagon tour. Apparently I’m the only one on the 10 day tour so what’s happened is they’ve put me with the 6 day people and then they’ll do 1 day tours out of Dublin. Or something. The driver/guide only mentioned it briefly and hasn’t talked to me about it since. Anyway, Drogheda was the first stop. It’s where we first got the inkling about how divided the Catholics and Protestants are in this country and in Northern Ireland. Drogheda was the place where Oliver Cromwell murdered 3000 Catholics. At our lunch stop we ate with Emma and Amy (both Auz) and they rounded out the main six of us. From here I’ll just summarize. Walking Tour in Derry – Londonderry/Derry is a city ... read more

So, flight into London was with a budget airline called easyJet. And it was _seriously_ budget. It was 5 hours from Amman to London, there were no drinks/meals, no assigned seats (so it was a free for all) and the seats didn’t recline either. Despite that the flight was still ok for the most part (I was in the aisle and didn’t have to sit next to anyone in the middle) but the pilot wasn’t very polished. It seemed like there were some overly quick drops and turns made. Landed ok and was then given the 3rd degree by the customs official asking me more questions than I’ve ever had to answer before. He was very nice about it and told me that they’d normally like to see proof of insurance and funds, etc but that ... read more

People: Tour ended yesterday so everyone said their goodbyes. It was a great group of people and we all had a great time! Activities: OK, since I was a little short on time last time I couldn’t type out everything I wanted to. So, in between Cairo and Dahab was the Suez Canal. We went under it in the truck. It wasn’t anything special, really. Just a tunnel. But when we got to the other side it was interesting because it was just flat desert and then a giant ship. Flat desert and then another giant ship. Back to Mt. Sinai…it wasn’t an easy climb, that’s for sure. I’d say the climb was probably comparable to the more difficult parts of the Tongariro crossing that I did in New Zealand. It was only 2km, so obviously ... read more