From Russia with extra love on top

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Dear People that read this, (I know for a fact that Mickey Gee, you said you would!)

So since my last report I have had Christmas in Wortel, Belgium with the very rad and lovely Van Bavel family. Following that I went departed for Germany, stopping first at Köln, Where we checked out the Cathedral and The Chocolate museum (which I wasn't so keen on but, it turned out to be pretty alright).
I'm currently travelling with a duffel bag that I sling over my shoulder, that probably wasn't the best idea and it really sucks dragging it around everywhere, I should probably have brought some sort of backpack or back with wheels or pretty much anything that doesn't put all the pressure on one shoulder.

Our next stop along the way was Nuremberg, which I knew nothing about when I went there but it is a really nice city. The castle at the top is pretty impressive and we also went to and checked out the Nazi party rally grounds. That was probably the place that explained the significance of the city the best, because it explained the rise of Hitler, the reasons for choosing Nuremberg as a hub and had a bit on the Nuremberg trials. If you ever go to Nuremberg and are interested in history stuff, or WWII, or anything like that then it's worth checking out. Even though I was crazy stuffed and tired it was worth it. That night we also went to see Avatar 3D, which was freakin awesome, I really enjoyed it despite the cliched storyline.

After that we headed to Munich, where we saw the Residence and walked through the Hofbräuhaus but didn't get a chance to stop for a beer, (which is one of my biggest regrets of this trip) and we saw the clock tower go at 12.
The following will now be abreviated: Stayed at Claudia's great Aunts, went to Claudia's great Aunt's Daughters place, went to Bad Reichenhall, went to Salzburg for New Years, went to Frankfurt for a night before I departed for Sakhalin.

TRIP TO SAKHALIN
This was the most hectic travel I have possibly done. I got the plane from Frankfurt to KL, which was a 11.5hr flight, I then had a 18hr wait in the KL airport, which went surprisingly quickly. This was followed by a 6hr flight to Incheon, Seoul, where I pretty much got into the airport, went to the toilet and got on another plane, that took an hour. Not because of the toilet, because of security, I know what you were thinking :P
I then took the plane to Hakodate, I can't remember how long that flight was, maybe 1.5hrs or so. After arriving in the airport I almost instantly regretted being lazy and not getting a band card with a chip because I had major troubles withdrawing money from their high tech atm machines. Which was stupidly what I was relying on, and Hakodate airport is not very significant because they don't even have money changers so I couldn't change any of the cash that I did have. Anyway I got a cab, to the train station, and tried to use my visa debit card, which didn't work so I had to run to the bank and change money to pay him. Then I tried an atm at the train station, which accepted my card and I got out some money with no dramas. If only that machine was at the airport.
I then got a train to Sapporo, which took about 4hrs, because it had to stop for a delay because the train hit something, I just hope it wasn't a person but I didn't understand what the announcer was saying.
I managed to follow the instructions I'd gotten from the website of the hostel quite easily and arrived at the Time Peace Apartments, which is a youth hostel, which was really awesome and I got a second wind of energy, had a shower and headed out to Yakitori with the people there who were all very rad people.
Japan was really rad and I would love to go back for a proper visit some day. I also happened to lose my glasses in Japan and a box of hagelslag (Belgium chocolate sprinkles) broke in my bad. Despite that I wasn't going to let it get my spirits down and I headed off to the airport.

The flight from Sapporo to Sakhalin was delayed several times and overall was delayed 5hrs for a 1hr flight. That got my spirits down a bit but I talked to a lovely American couple and a Dutch family and a Russian guy who now lives in Canada and that lifted my spirits. In fact when I was down I prayed and almost instantly these people popped up so thank God for that, literally.

SAKHALIN
I'm currently staying with the Harrisons, who have a home in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk (South Sakhalin), and the first few days were mostly just settling in. There are a few Russians living here also and there seems to always be people coming and going and sleeping over and popping in for dinner. The Russians that live here are all from the orphanages but are too told to live there and they are getting on their feet in life. It's a really great place and the Harrisons are incredible people, with great visions for the future to help the people of Sakhalin.
Sakhalin is a pretty interesting place, it's usually between -5 and -15 here. The island has significant oil production capacity and most of the foreigners here are linked to the oil companies. There are two American villages, where the Dutch people also live and I haven't been there but I'm told it's like another world.
Sakhalin itself is filled with a mainly concrete buildings, most apartments look the same, concrete 5 stories, with no elevators and concrete stairwells. In the centre of town is Lenin square with a huge statue of him and currently still has a Christmas tree and ice sculptures.

That is all I will leave you with at the moment, because this has been a mammoth blog because I'm catching up on a month. So I'll go into the details of Russia at a later day. But for now, stay safe and stay away from the Russian tap water.

Peace out
VK

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Photos

Kwok in Brussels
Met up with James Bannon in Brussels and went for a drink

Nuremberg
On of the churches near the castle.

Victor Photo
Me with what I think is the Austrian Alps in the background

Salzburg NYE
Dinner, Claudia and the Christmas tree

Mucking around in Sapporo
Outside the youth hostel being idiots.

Sapporo Classic
Apparently you can only get this been on Hokkaido, it's a great beer.

Japanese Toilet
It's actually scary and intimidating going on one of these, there's a panel that if you press the right button you get a swift squirt in the bum. Australia needs the tap on the top because if we're flushing with drinking water we might as well wash our hands with it first.

Russian room
This is where we bunk and sometime hang out

Russia
This is a water pumping stations or something like that

Russian birthday
This was at Peter and Tracy Harrions birthday

Yakitori in Sapporo
The crew from the hostel, all very cool people.