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New York

September 12, 2024 richardpieper Leave a comment

I cannot state clearly enough how much I did not want to come to New York. This has never been something that I wanted to see or go to, but figured as part of this global exploration that I would have to go some day.

Well this was my day (two as it happened) an we only came because it was part of the ship’s itinerary.

I don’t know whether it is possible to be racist against an entire city, but if it is, then I am. I have never been here before and my only knowledge of New York has come from the television and movies. And from these depictions alone I have developed a deep hatred of the city, its people and all it stands for (at least by portrayal). The ‘we are the best’ attitude (in my opinion) is arrogant, misplaced and unwarranted and this rubs me up the wrong way and has done for decades now.

But I have friends who have been and loved the place and speak highly of it. So here we are, in New York City with me trying to take it how I see it and remove the preconceived chip off my shoulder.

Before even arriving we had a win. The original plan was to arrive and land in New Jersey cruise ship port, this would have left us 35 kilometers from NYC and would necessitate a (minimum) 45 minute commute each way. Instead we came right up the Hudson River and ported at Pier 88, a mere 15 minute walk (through Hells Kitchen) to Times Square and the heart of the city.

Arriving by water our entry saw us floating past the Statue of Liberty (at 4:30 in the morning) and Ellis Island (the original US immigration entry point and now museum).

Despite my innate hatred of the place, I must admit to having a level of excitement at the thought of coming in this way and seeing the ‘Chick with a Stick’.

On July 4, 1884 France presented the United States with the Statue of Liberty. It stands 15-storeys tall (without its pedestal). It was shipped across the Atlantic Ocean in crates, and rebuilt in the U.S. as France’s gift to the American people. A couple of days later, on our exit from New York, we would again pass the Statue of Liberty. But this time it would be 4pm and would allow for much better photographs than our grainy nighttime efforts.

Our captain had checked with the port authorities and discovered that the river (Hudson) would be relatively quiet, so he asked for and was granted permission to do some 360’s in front of the statue. On arrival we stopped, put the thrusters on and the ship slowly rotated 3-4 times allowing everyone ample opportunity to get as many photos as they wanted.

Well almost everyone. I had hoped to get a selfie with the statue in the background. As Jill’s phone camera has a better zoom function she went first while I held the table and our seats in the lounge. And for the next 45 minutes I kept holding the table until the ship straightened up and sailed out of the Hudson River, and then Jill returned. I raced out to try and get my selfie but by this stage you could not even tell there was an island there, let alone a statue.

The night time entry and afternoon departure also allowed for some pretty nice photos of the city as we came in and out.

Our ship ported at Pier 88 which was as central a location as we could have hoped for. Our tourist run started with the walk to Times Square. This is one of those things that is highly publicised as a must see, but in reality is just a tourist hellhole. The square itself is much smaller than you imagined and the official writeups have been forced to include most of the surrounding business district (including the theatre district) making it (according to wiki) a bowtie-shaped plaza five blocks long between 42nd and 47th Streets.

It is lit up 24 hours a day and according to the tourist blurb the brash advertisements add to the ambience. It is the site of the annual New Year’s Eve ball drop (which began in 1907) but from my perspective it was an incredibly overrated and underwhelming mess of lights, electronic billboards, touts and rip off merchants.

Our arrival in Times Square was done mainly as it was the launching point for the HOHO bus that we had organised. New York City is large, there is much to see, and our time was limited, so the HOHO was our choice for getting around. It was not cheap, but logistically it was the best option. There are at least 3 and up to 5 companies offering almost identical HOHO experiences, we chose the Big Bus.

It operates 2 routes, the Downtown (red loop) takes in M&M’s World, Bryant Park, Empire State Building / KoreaTown, Flatiron District, Soho, Chinatown / Little Italy, Brooklyn Bridge, Wall Street / Charging Bull, Statue of Liberty / Battery Park, World Trade Center, Chelsea / Pier 57, Hudson Yards, and the Circle Line Sightseeing (the ferry to the statue of liberty).

Bryant Park is Midtown Manhattan’s town square, with seasonal gardens, eateries, bars. Apart from being insanely busy at all times it looked really nice.

The Empire State Building is the next stop and has consistently been rated as number one on the list of Top Attractions in the World.

There is an observatory deck on levels 86 ($44) and 102 ($79) both of which attract an additional $5 booking fee.

The Flatiron District is named after the famous triangular Flatiron building.

This was (of course) covered in scaffolding when we came past.

Soho was next which is the obscenely expensive shopping district (we stayed on the bus).

Chinatown and little Italy were next and this was our lunch stop (on the second loop around). Grotty streets full of African immigrants selling stolen and knock off gear from sheets on the ground (very reminiscent of Europe).

Brooklyn Bridge was next, closely followed by the financial district and the famous Wall Street Bull (great photos to be had here).

Statue of Liberty / Battery Park we skipped and hopped off at the World Trade Center and the 911 memorial. Being a Tuesday the museum was closed but the area is nice and was well worth the visit. The memorial has been done in a simple and understated manner and was very good.

The last stops were the Chelsea / Pier 57, Hudson Yards (old rail yards and residential development), and the Circle Line Sightseeing (ferry to the Statue of Liberty). We skipped these but did take note of the extensive pier redevelopment that was taking place along the Hudson River. The river was dotted with Piers (we were parked in Pier 88) many of which were long past their use by date. Being a big city with limited green space, the authorities have been redeveloping old piers to add recreational areas to the city.

The Uptown (blue loop) crosses path with the red loop at Bryant Park and takes in Hope Sculpture, Midtown East, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Central Park Zoo, Columbus Circle and Carnegie Hall (covered in scaffolding). Our main purpose of the uptown loop was that we had booked tickets to the American Museum of Natural History.

Central Park is an 840 acre park in the middle of Manhattan that extends about 4km long (between 59th and 110th streets) and 800 meters wide (between Fifth and Eighth avenues).

It is divided for convenience into four “quadrants” (from south to north). The southern end is dominated by the zoo, the second section is named the great lawn, for pretty obvious reasons. The third section is around mid way with the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Natural History Museum on each side of the park then the Reservoir (a 106 acre pond).

According to wiki the park was fully landscaped when built in the 1850s and 1860s. It has eight lakes and ponds that were created artificially by damming natural seeps and flows. There are several wooded sections, lawns, meadows, and minor grassy areas. There are 21 children’s playgrounds and almost 10 km) of drives. It is also one of the most filmed locations in the world.

Day one over, we got changed and headed back out for night one. It has been written up everywhere that you cant go to New York without seeing a show on Broadway. This to me was one of those arrogant things where they think that everything here is the best. But we were here overnight, so why not. On recommendation from my mate Jimmy we bought tickets to the Book of Mormon.

It is a musical comedy from the creators of South Park. The story follows two Mormon missionaries as they attempt to preach to the inhabitants of a remote village in Uganda.

Needless to say the locals are more interested in dealing with HIV/AIDS, famine, female genital mutilation, child molestation, and oppression by the local warlord.

The show itself was hilarious, poking fun at (almost all) organised religion in a highly inappropriate manner. There were times when I has tears running down my cheeks from laughter. The experience on Broadway itself was not as pleasant. Our night started with being inundated with passive cannabis smoke, smelling uncollected rubbish and urine, while watching two homeless men fighting (full on punches and stick style weapons) 10 meters from the theatre door. Thankfully there was no guns but all of this unfolded directly in front of us.

Right next door to our pier (88) at Pier 86 is the Intrepid Museum, this is a WWII aircraft carrier (the Intrepid) that is stacked with a bunch of military stuff, right in the heart of the city. The Intrepid was launched in 1943 and survived five kamikaze attacks, and one torpedo strike during WWII. The ship later served in the Cold War, the Vietnam War and as a NASA recovery vessel.

The flight deck of the carrier has dozens of military aircraft including fighter jets, a supersonic spy plane, the Concorde and many helicopters, while its halls host much more. Some of the things you can see are the Enterprise (first space shuttle), Growler (the only nuclear-weapons-carrying submarine open to the public). For my mate Mike who is a plane and military nut I have included the link to the full aircraft guide of what is there and the various specifications of each of the planes ( https://live-intrepid-museum.pantheonsite.io/media/aircraft-guide.pdf ). Being right next door, and a taller ship, we got a fantastic view of the aircraft on deck and many people made the trek inside.

The next morning it was up and on the road again. There were a few domestic things that we needed to sort and then it was off exploring again. Thankfully the HOHO bus saved our legs (we had done over 20,000 steps the day before even with the bus).

Given the tight timeline of the day before we hopped back on the red loop (Downtown) for another run (there was just too much to see on a single day). We were not up and out quite as early as the day before so we got hit with considerably worse traffic. But we did get to do all of the New York City iconic sights.

A bit like the pier redevelopment, New York is now home to the High Line. The High Line operated between 1934 and 1980 as a freight railway where it carried meat to the Meatpacking District, agricultural goods to the factories and warehouses and mail to the Post Office. After falling into disrepair it was salvaged by residents and in 2009 sections of the elevated freight rail line above the streets of Manhattan were taken over and turned into a public park.

It was saved from demolition by neighborhood residents and the City of New York. It now serves as a hybrid public space where visitors can experience nature, art, and design.

Our trip out of town was as described earlier, with the 360 degree turns in front of the statue of liberty. I had dreaded the trip to New York, but actually quite enjoyed it (for the most part). Decades of movie and TV watching has made the place weirdly familiar. It was not as horrible as I had dreaded, neither was it as big or as tall as I expected, the sights I had imagined as huge were actually just normal.

So do I still hate New York City? Probably not.
Did it live up to the hype? Definitely not.
Is it as big as I expected? No
Are the skyscrapers overwhelming? No
Was I disappointed? A little.
Will I come back? Probably not.

But my overwhelming memories of New York will be the smell. The entire place reeks of weed, piss and garbage.

Iceland

Reykjavik

August 30, 2024 richardpieper Leave a comment

Having been to Iceland, and specifically Reykjavik, in June last year we had already hit most of the big ticket items that were on offer. The obvious was the Hallgrimskirka (big church), Harpa (concert house), Laugavegur (rainbow street) and the Sun Voyager (sculpture) and of course the Blue Lagoon. Our first foray saw us wandering all around town and taking in all of the pretty buildings and the tourist sights.

Having done that we were at a loss as to what was left to see on our two day stopover in Reykjavik. A bit of research revealed the existence of the Reykjavík City Card which offers free entry to a selection of the lesser museums and galleries, all swimming pools in Reykjavík, and free unlimited travel by bus within the Reykjavik Capital Area. The card also gives discounts on various tours, shopping and services.

The card did not include the expensive attractions (averaging $100 entry each) but for about $100 we got access to all (16) of the lesser attractions, free bus transportation and a way to see a bunch of stuff that we would not usually go to on a limited timeframe.

Being us, we titled it the ‘piss weak world‘ card. In hindsight this was an overly harsh description for what was a really good two days of exploring.

DISCLAIMER: I will state up front that modern art, contemporary art and performance art museums are absolutely not my thing. And without wanting to demean their existence, I am certain that I will, and will rank them highly in the piss weak category.

Our first entry was to the (Hafnarhús) Reykjavík Art Museum.

The blurb says that the permanent collection is of works by Erró, one of Europe’s most notable pop artists while the temporary shows tend toward the progressive and experimental, emphasising works from established contemporary artists.

Bearing in mind the disclaimer above, this was dog shit and 30 minutes of my life that I will never get back. Here are a few photos of pretty buildings as we left the art museum and headed to the next place on the list of piss weak worlds.

The next stop was at the Settlement exhibition which was immediately better.

Interesting displays of the evolution of culture and how Reykjavík grew from a farm
to a city.

This one was a really good place to visit.

The Listasafn gallery was next and might have been ok but it lost me when I walked into a gallery and found a bunch (about a dozen) of millennials laying or sitting on the floor in frozen poses.

I am sure that there is some deep contemporary art meaning to this, but to me it just screamed trust fund kids with nothing better to do.

Pass on this one.

The National Museum (Thjodminjasafn) is the oldest museum established in Iceland. It offered a variety of exhibitions illustrating the story of Iceland’s past, from
the Viking age to modern times. Excellent.

The next was the House of collections which was excellent again. This one aimed to bridge the gap between visual arts and science.

After this we were off to the Reykjavík Maritime Museum. Built in the old fish processing factory it was an odd sort of mix between museum and old school fish and chip shop.

We looked at the flyer for the Reykjavík Zoo to find that their cover image had cows on it. Having seen cows before, I figured that this zoo was more like a small Chinese dog (a Shih Tzu) so we skipped it.

That evening we made our way to one of the local swimming pools (Sundhöllin), with our dinner buddies Mark and Curtis.

Sundhöllin is a series of pools and saunas of varying temperatures that are very popular with the locals and offer an insight of the local lifestyle.

People of all ages were hopping from the 2 degree ambient temperature into the hot pool (39 degrees) and then plunging into the 12 degree pool or doing laps in the 20 degree pool. Others were heading straight from the really hot saunas, into the plunge pool and back.

I did the hot / cold / hot plunge and had a tingling sensation all over my body for the next few minutes. From here I settled in the hot pool for the next 20 minutes until it was time to get out into the 2 degree night air and race inside for hot shower and getting changed.

The next morning it was up early and off on the local bus into the outer suburbs of Reykjavík to visit the Árbær Open Air Museum. Now this truly was excellent. This is a historical village displaying tiny houses, as they existed over various periods of Icelandic development. The oldest versions had the turf roofs and stables inside with ingenious cooking and heating systems. As time progressed, so to did the build type and quality. Apart from the fact that it was a 3 degree summer’s day with a howling gale force wind, it was a truly excellent place.

Long story short, our piss weak world park pass was great value and I cannot recommend it highly enough. Yes there was some stuff that was not to my tastes, but there was plenty more that was. And the best bit was the free bus pass for the duration of the ticket. This gave us the opportunity to explore the city and see things well off the beaten path.

Our dinner buddies (Mark and Curtis) were super eager to see the volcanoes that Iceland had to offer. There had been recent volcano activity and while we went on our day one piss weak world tour they took a $500 (each) helicopter ride over the lava fields. The ride was nice but did not deliver on the sought after lava flows. That night we all headed to the pool for the hot swim and on our return to the ship were told by our favourite staff member (Fabio) that the Blue Lagoon trips for the next day had to be cancelled due to the eruption.

Eyes widened and the next morning they were up early again and had negotiated yet another $500 (each) helicopter ride. This time they hit pay dirt and were kind enough to share these images with us.

And as good as the stills are, the video was far better and you can zoom in and watch spouting geysers of flowing lava. As you can imaging, I pouted because I missed it.

Well I thought that Iceland would be a once in a lifetime experience and as it happens we have now been here twice in the last 15 months.

I must admit that we enjoyed both trips and while the place is seriously expensive and damages the budget, it really is worth making the effort to come and experience it.

Denmark

Copenhagen

August 25, 2024 richardpieper Leave a comment

Copenhagen is the capital of Denmark, with a population of around 1.4 million (3.8 in the greater Copenhagen area). It sits on the islands of Zealand and Amager. It regularly gets voted in the top 5 most livable cities and the Danes always rank highly on the world’s happiest people.

Copenhagen’s 1,000 year history is reflected in the buildings, museums, sights and attractions that you come across. But in addition to this is the modern infrastructure, innovation and daring architecture that keep it high on the happiness scale.

Copenhagen started as a Viking fishing village back in the 10th century and became the capital of Denmark in the early 15th century.

Denmark has the world’s oldest monarchy. The current reigning Queen
Margrethe II, counts legendary Viking King Gorm the Old (900-958 AD) as one of her ancestors. Royalty is present everywhere in Copenhagen mostly manifesting in the many palaces and regal buildings built by kings and queens throughout the centuries.

Jill could not have put our hotel any closer to the railway station if she had tried.

A funky little joint, directly opposite the station, would make our early morning departure quick and painless.

In the other direction was the historic Tivoli Gardens.

Tivoli Gardens is an amusement park in the middle of town. It first opened its doors on 15 August 1843.

It is the second oldest amusement park in the world (the oldest is Dyrehavsbakken – also in Denmark).

Built in 1914 it has one of the world’s oldest wooden roller coasters that is still operating today.

The area around is known as the Strøget, which is one of Europe’s longest pedestrian streets, running from City Hall Square to Kongens Nytorv (The King’s New Square). It is the city’s main shopping area.

Nyhavn is one of Copenhagen’s most iconic sights, with a row of colourful houses that are now restaurants and bars.

Originally it was a commercial port where ships from all over the world would dock, and was packed with sailors visiting its pubs, alehouses and ladies of pleasure.

The Danish fairy-tale writer Hans Christian Andersen was most famous for his fairy tales even though he wrote novels, poems, plays and travel articles.

He used to live on Nyhavn in number 20, where he wrote the fairy-tales ‘The Tinderbox’, ‘Little Claus and Big Claus’, and ‘The Princess and the Pea’. He then lived for twenty years in number 67 and for two more years in number 18.

As you pop out near the major canal you find yourself at the the first ever museum in Denmark. Now the Thorvaldsen Museum (displaying the works of Bertel Thorvaldsen) when it opened in 1848 its halls displayed mostly sculptures.

Charlottenborg Palace is a large mansion that was originally built as a residence but has served as the base of the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts since 1754.

Christiansborg Palace is a former palace and now government building in central Copenhagen. now houses the Danish Parliament, Prime Ministers office, the Supreme Court, and the Ministry of State. The Great Hall is the most imposing room in the palace and is where you will find Queen Margrethe II’s tapestries.

The equestrian statue of Christian V on horseback was raised in 1688 to celebrate the king who laid out the area.

Frederik’s Church, commonly known as the Marble Church sits due west of the Amalienborg Palace and forms the focal point of the Frederiksstaden district.

It is an Evangelical Lutheran church, the foundation stone was laid on October 31, 1749 but it stood as a ruin for nearly 150 years until it was finally finished until 1894.

St. Alexander Nevsky Russian Orthodox Church is the only Russian Orthodox church in Copenhagen. It was built by the between 1881 and 1883, prompted by Princess Dagmar of Denmark’s marriage to Alexander Alexandrovich.

They later ascended to the Russian throne as Tsar Alexander III of Russia and Tsaritsa Maria Feodorovna.

Around the corner you find yourself at the Design museum. Originally the first public hospital in Denmark the museum now offers displays of decorative art, crafts, and industrial designs from the late Middle Ages up to the present.

The National Museum of Denmark showcases everything from Viking treasure, the 3,000 year old Sun Chariot, the Egtved girl’s grave through to Egyptian mummies and renaissance art.

No trip to Copenhagen is complete without going to see the Little Mermaid. But to get there you have to take a fair hike through Kastellet. This one time Citadel is now a public park but still houses one of the best preserved fortresses in Northern Europe. It is shaped like a pentagon with bastions at its corners. There are a number of buildings located within the grounds including the Citadel Church as well as a windmill and various military buildings.

The Little Mermaid is a bronze statue depicting a mermaid becoming human. It is based on the fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen.

It is a small and unimposing statue and has been a Copenhagen icon since its unveiling in 1913.

Rosenborg Castle sits in the centre of Copenhagen and was originally built as a country summerhouse in 1606-1607. It sits in the middle of the King’s Garden and is home to the Danish Crown Jewels, Crown Regalia, and gems. The park was created by King Christian IV in the early 1600s for parties and frivolities. Today the park is open to the public.

Amalienborg Palace Frederik VIII’s Palace was built during 1750-60 for Baron Joachim Brockdorff. Today the palace is The Royal Family’s private residence.

An hour outside of town you will find Kronborg Castle, ‘home’ to Shakespeare’s Hamlet.

The first castle on this spot was built in the 1420s. Ships passing into the Baltic Sea paid tolls at Kronborg Castle and Helsingør was once one of the most important towns in Europe.

The modern castle has the same dimensions as when they enlarged the castle (upwards), the old one was not torn down. They just built on top of it.

Deep under the castle you’ll meet Holger the Dane (Holger Danske), an imposing stone statue. Holger the Dane is a legendary figure in Danish culture and according to legend, if Denmark is ever in trouble, he’ll waken from his rock throne under Helsingør and defend her.

Our trip to Copenhagen was too short. There is so much history and so much to see and do, you really need much more time than we had available. The problem with this is that Copenhagen is brutally expensive. Accommodation, food and drink will seriously damage the wallet. It is lovely to see but I am not entirely sure that either of us would put this (or most of Scandinavia to be honest) on our must return list. They were all nice and interesting enough, but it may just be a been there done that tick for far northern Europe.

Norway

August 24, 2024 richardpieper Leave a comment

Norway is the country that has been terrifying me for a very long time now. Everything that we have heard, from everyone we have met, has told us that Norway is the most expensive country in the world.

When in Iceland we paid 17 euros for a beer (about $28 AUD), their comment was that at least they were cheaper than Norway.

For those that remember our foray into Switzerland, on the first night we bought a (very ordinary) kebab and a soft drink each with a final bill of over $61 . The next night we ended up eating salad (bought from the supermarket) on our bed because we could not afford to eat out at the restaurants. The three most expensive countries worldwide are Norway, Switzerland, Iceland. These countries stand out for their high cost of living, groceries, accommodation, dining out, and purchasing power.

Despite my fears, it wasn’t that bad. In fact both Switzerland and Iceland were worse and their claims of being cheaper than Norway were false. Don’t get me wrong, this place is still seriously expensive, but not as terrifying as I had been led to believe. Although, we met others shortly afterwards that claimed that once you got out of the capital that the prices skyrocketed.

Norway is a Scandinavian nation with a population of 5.5 million and has has an extensive coastline facing the North Atlantic Ocean and the Barents Sea. The unified kingdom of Norway was established in 872 (merging smaller ‘petty kingdoms’) and has existed continuously ever since. Norway was neutral during WWI, and in the WWII until it was invaded by Nazi Germany in 1940 who held control until the end of the war.

Oslo

At the end of the Oslo fjord lies Oslo,it is a green and modern city with a population of around 700,000. Oslo’s history goes back 1000 years. In 1624, all of old Oslo burnt to the ground. King Christian IV decided that the city should not be rebuilt at the same location and instead be built to the north of the Fortress. It became the capital city of Norway after the constitution was drafted in 1814.

During Viking times, there was a large settlement in Oslo, but there are very few traces of Vikings in the area. About a 90 minute drive away at the Vestfold County is where the viking relics and evidence of occupation can be found.

Vikings

The Viking legacy is strong in Norway, the Viking Age began in 793 with an attack on the Lindisfarne monastery in England (which is the first known Viking raid). The slaying of King Harald Hardrada at the Battle of Stamford Bridge in 1066 is thought to be the event that marks the end of their glory days.

The Vikings are mostly known for their relentless pillaging but many of them lived peacefully as traders and farmers with many expeditions main aims being barter deals. Those who stayed home supported their families through farming . But it was mostly raids looting, colonisation, and trade that brought the Vikings to so many destinations.

Longships sailed across the Baltic Sea, down Russian rivers to the Black and Caspian Seas, across to Byzantium (Istanbul) and to Baghdad (Iraq). Vikings were the first Europeans to reach Greenland and North America. In fact, the Viking explorer Leiv Eiriksson arrived on the shores of North America around 500 years before Christopher Columbus.

Vikings are known to have settled many cities (including Dublin and the region of Normandy in France). Dublin was held as a significant viking settlement for more than three centuries. Between 879 and 920, Vikings colonised Iceland, which became the springboard for the colonisation of Greenland. Remains of a viking settlement in Newfoundland have been carbon dated to 1000.

Our adventure

After the drama of getting here (see the Sweden post), our accommodation was a short (800m) walk from the central railway station and a similar distance from the docks that we would end up sailing out of. Being so centrally located, and a little delayed we were on a tight timeline to get out and explore. Thankfully Oslo CBD and tourist attractions are compact and easily navigable.

The first thing we wanted to see was the Museum of the Viking Age. But the website immediately notified us that it was closed and will not reopen until 2027.

With the Museum out we aimed for the Cathedral (Oslo Domkirke) right in the heart of town. Along the way we came across funky little square (Christiania Torv) with some of Oslo’s oldest buildings found around it, including first town hall from 1641 (today a restaurant). The square is known for its fountain, with a sculpture of a hand pointing to the ground. This is allegedly where the Danish-Norwegian king (Christian IV) pointed to this spot and said: “The new town will lie here!”. Continuing past the square we got to the the Cathedral which is the seat of the Bishop of Oslo. It was first consecrated in 1697, but needed to be restored back to its original baroque interior after WWII.

From here we were in full swing and headed along the Karl Johans gate. This is a popular avenue that stretches from the Oslo Central Station to the Royal Palace. Along the way we stopped at the Eidsvoll plass which is the park that sits in front of the Norwegian Parliament building.

As you keep walking through the park and along the Karl Johans gate you come across some truly lovely old buildings. Including the National Theatre, one of Norway’s largest avenues for performing arts.

The photos below are just a collection of really cool old buildings as you yellow building below has been a restaurant since the 18th century and the next has been a hotel for about the same period, some funky old banks and university buildings and the national theatre.

As the walk continues you find yourself at Slottsparken (the Royal Gardens) and then Slottsplassen (‘The Palace Square’) and of course the Palace itself.

Directly in front of the palace you find the statue of Charles John of Norway and Sweden.

It was sculpted and erected in 1875.

Coming back along the other side of the park and you wander past the Oslo City Hall (Radhuset).

The building has two towers (63 and 66 meters tall) with the eastern tower hosting a carillon set of 49 bells.

Behind the city hall is the Oslo Fjord waterfront. This area holds the National Museum and the Nobel Peace centre.

This museum marks the start of the Oslo city harbour promenade.

Here you can walk along the Oslo harbour for almost 10 kilometres, with no interruptions.

Shipyards, container facilities and heavy traffic have given way to pedestrian walkways, parks and benches. And of course an upscale pier full of restaurants and shops (that we couldn’t afford) and at the very end of the walk is the Astrup Fearnley Museum which is the museum for contemporary art.

One of the more interesting things that we discovered on this amble along the waterfront was the spotting of floating saunas. apparently, urban sauna culture has taken Oslo by storm. In the city centre several options have appeared for combining a trip to the sauna with a following dip into the fjord. There were a bunch of saunas anchored to the docks that accommodate up to 7 people. There is an additional option where you can rent a sauna and take it for a cruise into the harbour and out to see the Fjord.

While we were there we saw this one lone little sauna (about the size of a 1970’s caravan) bobbing up and down on the bay while the bigger boats and ferries beeped their horn and all but ran it over.

Having almost looped the city we found ourselves back near the main railway station (on the water) staring at the Oslo Opera House.

And just next door to this is the Munch Museum. This is home to the collection of work by Norwegian artist Edvard Munch and includes the three versions of his iconic painting, The Scream.

Akershus Fortress is known to be the most haunted castle in Norway and attracts more than three million visitors every year. It was built around 1290 by King Haakon V as a defensive stronghold for Oslo. It was once used as a prison for Norway’s most infamous criminals and during WWII, Nazis occupied the castle and conducted executions there. Today the fortress area is a popular venue for major events, including concerts, public holiday celebrations and ceremonies.

Trolls

Once upon a time (according to folklore) trolls roamed freely in the Norwegian mountains and forests. But the trolls only went out at night, in the dark because if they were caught in the sunlight the first rays of the sunlight would turn them into stone. Because of this you can still see their faces and bodies carved into the mountain sides, cliffs and stones all around the country. These rock formations and mountains with troll-like-shapes have mesmerised people all over Norway for thousands of years. Now, most of the trolls can be seen at the tourist shops.

Oslo hosts The Viking Planet the world’s first digital Viking museum that uses VR technology, holograms, interactive screens and 270-degree film to explore the life of the Vikings. The venue allows you to learn and experience the everyday life of the Vikings, join a voyage, climb aboard a Viking ship in a storm and take a picture of yourself as a Viking.

About 15 kilometers around the Fjord you can find the Henie Onstad Art centre and sculpture park, Our time did not allow us to get here but it does look amazing.

Poncy statues

For a nation with such a strong and bold viking history, Oslo sure had the poonciest set of statues we have ever seen. We had expected to find butch and manly men and strong shieldmaiden type women immortalised in the statues around town. What we found could not have been more opposite.

The Polar Exploration (Fram) Museum is literally built around the two ships that define Norwegian polar exploration: the Fram and the Gjøa. Housed in two tall buildings designed to accommodate the ships, it comprises numerous exhibitions and offers an opportunity to board and explore the Fram.

Leaving Norway we hopped on the ferry (once again more like a cruise ship) to take us the 600 kilometers from Oslo to Copenhagen in Denmark. The ship leaves Oslo at about 3pm, travels overnight with a quick stop in Frederikshavn (Denmark) and delivers you at docks in Copenhagen at 10am the next morning.

Finland

August 18, 2024 richardpieper Leave a comment

The area that is now Finland was settled around 8,500 BC during the Stone Age towards the end of the last glacial period. The artefacts the first settlers left behind present characteristics that are shared with those found in Estonia, Russia, and Norway.

Finland covers an area of 338,145 square kilometres (130,559 sq mi)[4] and has a population of 5.6 million.

In 1906, Finland became the first European state to grant universal suffrage, and the first in the world to give all adult citizens the right to run for public office.

The nation remained a largely agricultural country until the 1950s. After World War II, it industrialised quickly and established an advanced economy. It became a member of the EU in 1995, the Eurozone in 1999, and NATO in 2023.

Finland in the summer months – the sun doesn’t set at all in the northernmost parts of the country, hence the nickname “The Land of the Midnight Sun.” In the winter, the opposite happens, and the sun disappears for months. This time is called “kaamos”.

And – if you’re lucky – the Autumn and Spring may bring the colourful Northern Lights (photo from visitfinland.com).

And according to the WHO (World Health Organisation) Finland has the best air quality in the world.

Getting here

Our trip to Finland from Estonia was on the ferry. I must be honest and say that the idea of a ferry was not all that appealing. But on arrival I was met by more of a cruise ship than a ferry. The modern European ferries make the Australian ferry options look absolutely prehistoric. Our trip was on the Tallink Megastar.

The Megastar is the newest ship in the Tallink fleet and has been operating since 2017. The 212 metre vessel can hold 2800 passengers and reach speeds of 27 knots.

It has restaurants, bars, the largest mall on the Baltic Sea and a 2,800 square meter Superstore (think Myers) that is a fully stocked.

Add to this a huge duty free shop where you can get spirits, wines, beer, cigarettes, sweets, cosmetics and perfumes.

The garage area has a capacity of 150 vehicles.

The ride only took 2 hours and there was quite literally not a wave to be seen. The Baltic Sea (at least when we were there) was a millpond. Long story short, my fears of the ferry were unfounded and in reality this is the best and most relaxing way possible to get around up here.

Helsinki

Helsinki is the capital of Finland with a population a bit over 600 thousand. I will state right now that the beer and the local food was absolutely the lowlight of our time here in Finland. Both the price and the taste left us both unimpressed. We did find a Syrian restaurant that saved us, but the local fare on offer was not great.

Our introduction to Helsinki was when we left the port and walked about a kilometer away to get our Bolt car without the harassment of the local cab drivers. Here is where we found the Bad Boy. It is a pink 8.5 metre sculpture made of concrete that weighs in at about seven and a half tons. And it is of a boy pissing. The water flow in the sculpture is heated so the boy can urinate all year round, even in winter.

It was was originally ordered as part of a public art festival in Sweden, where it urinated into a river in a park.

It then moved to Market Square in Helsinki where it urinated into the ocean in front of the Presidential Palace.

It most recently moved to in front of an electronics store, where it acquired a set of headphones.

There is a HOHO bus in Helsinki, but it is €34 each, and the town centre and loop really isn’t that big and is easily walkable. The Mannerheimintie is the central avenue that runs through the heart of the capital. Unlike the old towns of the Baltics, Helsinki is a very modern city.

But we were here and it was time to explore. Our wander towards town saw us looking at some interesting looking buildings, nice parks on a cool and pleasant day in the heart of town. Once we got to the circular Swedish Theatre we were in the heart of it.

Modern blocks, full of rows of shops and shopping malls to rival any modern city on the planet. There was the odd glimpse towards something vaguely historical, but for the most part it was just a modern city. The central railway station signalled the start of a bit more character. The railway tracks were built in the 1860s an the granite clad station in 1919. The building is known for its clock tower and the Lyhdynkantajat (“The Lantern Bearers”).

Just down the road from the train station you come across Rautatientori square and the the Finnish National Theatre. founded in 1872, is the oldest Finnish-language professional theatre in the country.

Across the road you find the Ateneum, which is the major Art museum in Helsinki. It is one of the three museums that forms the Finnish National Gallery.

The National Museum was closed for renovation at the time we were here. But when it is open it looks like this and it traces the Finnish history from the Stone Age to the present.

Helsinki Cathedral was one of the must do major attractions and once again, it was under construction.

The usually stunning building was covered in scaffolding.

While the main building was under renovation, they did leave one side free for photographs. Added to this the Cathedral sits on Senate Square, which is impressive enough in its own right. The square is in the oldest part of central Helsinki and is ringed by the Cathedral, the Government Palace, the main building of the University of Helsinki and the oldest building of central Helsinki (Sederholm House dating from 1757).

Having had enough for day one and walking plenty we made our way back towards our accommodation, stopping for some very poor local beers and bites on the way. The next morning a great breakfast primed us for another day of walking to explore the rest of the city. But first we headed down to the location of the open air flea market. This was clearly just a weekend thing, and after standing and scratching out heads for a while it was back to the Mannerheimintie.

Also on Mannerheimintie you will find the Parliament house which was designed and built after WWI.

The Sibelius Monument is a park sculpture dedicated to the Finnish composer Jean Sibelius (1865–1957). It controversially looks like organ pipes, despite the composer not making music for the organ.

Kiasmais is a very funky location and is the home of the contemporary art museum.

At the end of the Mannerheimintie you run into the waterfront and the usual tourist fare that goes with that. A bunch of local ferries come and go, and there is a huge number of (summertime) pop up stalls to feed them and extract some money for trinkets. Add to this a Ferris wheel and a swimming pool and the place is complete.

Up the hill from the waterfront you will find the highly impressive Uspenski Cathedral. This is the largest Orthodox church in western Europe and is visited by half a million people annually. The cathedral’s size is emphasized by its location on the highest hill of the Katajanokka district. The central cupola of the cathedral is 33 meters high. The cathedral was designed by a Russian architect and was consecrated in 1868.

Suomenlinna sea fortress is a Unesco World Heritage Site located on the coast of Helsinki. It is accessible by ferry and is also a suburb of Helsinki with around 800 residents. The fortress was shaped by three historic eras when it helped to defend first Sweden, then Russia and ultimately Finland. There are six kilometres of walls, 100 cannons, exciting tunnels, and beautiful parks.

In the past, all of Finland’s houses were built of wood and usually painted red, with a few blue and yellow thrown in.

Some of these have been preserved and sit just as they did decades or centuries ago. Visiting these picturesque places is like entering a living time capsule. Within Helsinki the districts of Käpylä (about 8km north) and Vallila (about 5km northeast) will give you an opportunity to explore some of these.

Olavinlinna Castle (also known as St. Olaf’s Castle) is one of Finland’s best known tourist sites. It was founded in 1475 and is built on an island in the Kyrönsalmi strait.

At around 400km from Helsinki we didn’t get here but it did look pretty cool. Our time in Helsinki was mixed. The town initially did not impress, but it did grow on us the more we explored. The local food and drink options were both expensive and poor, but other options (non-Finnish) were readily available and were typically better priced.

While it was perfectly nice, I don’t see either of us rushing back to Finland anytime soon. The weather was nice, the people friendly but this ticks one of those been there-done that type boxes rather than the oh my god we have to go back.

Mongolia

July 29, 2024 richardpieper Leave a comment

We made it to Inner Mongolia the first time around, but the logistics of getting to Mongolia proper were just too hard to manage back then.

Mongolia is a basically an oval shaped country (2,400 km E-W and 780 N-S) wedged between China and Russia. Three quarters of the place is open pasture (The Steppe) which supports the huge herds of grazing animals for which the country is known. Mongolia is considered the world’s least densely populated nation, with 3.3 million people spread over 1.5 million square kilometres.

While many countries are denying or denouncing their imperial past, Mongolia is bucking this trend vehemently. They have proudly and brazenly embraced it. So much so that everything is about the great Mongol empire and their most famous of leaders.

Genghis Khan (1162-1227) known locally as Chinggis Khan, was a warrior-ruler and one of the most famous conquerors of history. He first consolidated the disparate tribes into a unified Mongolia and then expanded the empire through to the Adriatic Sea.

The empire lasted almost 400 years after his death. Mongolians see him as a symbol of their country’s strength and resilience.

The Mongolian nation was officially proclaimed in 1924, with the capital set around the main monastery of the Bogd Gegeen (spiritual leader) and was renamed Ulaanbaatar (“Red Hero”). While technically ‘independent’, for the first 70 years it was actually a one-party state closely tied to Russia (the Soviet Union). It received all technical, economic, and military assistance from Russia and generally followed Russian guidance in all matters political and economic, while building a socialist society.

After the collapse of the USSR, Mongolia ended the monopoly and embraced free multiparty elections, coalition governments, a new constitution, and installed greater cultural and religious freedoms.

Our entry saw us flying in to the Chinggis Khan International Airport (virtually everything here is/was named after Chinggis). This saw the first actual panic occur in the time since we have been away (600 days ago). Having no local currency Jill hit the ATM (as usual) but mid-transaction she was hit by the blue screen of death as the machine shut down and rebooted itself (with our card inside). Needless to say, some internal panic ensued over the next few minutes. But our card eventually spat out and we used a different machine, got our money and started the usual SIM card and taxi negotiations.

The airport is about 50 km out of town and provides you with an excellent opportunity to get a true sense of what you are getting yourself into. Flying in there is a single bitumen road (three lanes wide in each direction) and everything else is a dirt road or a paddock. Driving on the bitumen road, you pass gers (the local Yurt version), herds of cows, horses, goats and some truly stunning scenery.

The cab ride in was astounding with some of the most amazing landscapes, sculptures and wildlife. Our first glimpse of a steppe eagle in full flight was just stunning. These huge muscular birds are quite the sight and can be easily spotted just glancing out the windows.

After a while the dirt roads on the sides give way to the city, enter the appearance of some amazing (and sometimes a bizarre) statues along the roads. The first thing that catches your eye is the abundance of Prius vehicles. Quite literally every second vehicle on the road is a Prius.

Ulaanbaatar is home to half of Mongolia’s three million population and is the coldest capital city in the world with heavy snow and cold lasting for three months.

As we were here in early summer, we missed all of this cold weather, and enjoyed some cool evenings and pleasant days in the mid-20’s. The cold is due to:

its high elevation (1350m),
relatively high latitude,
being hundreds of kilometres from any coast,
the effects of the Siberian high.

These factors combine to deliver winter temperatures of -40 degrees Celsius. With a temp range from -40 in winter to plus 35 in summer, Mongolia has an extreme and inhospitable climate where only the hardiest survive. Forty percent of the population still live as nomadic herders.

Ulaanbaatar (or just UB for us well travelled types) is surrounded by 4 sacred mountains (Bayanzurkh, Bogd Khan, Songinokhairkhan and Chilgeltei). South of UB, Bogd Khan Mountain is proclaimed as sacred and was declared a protected area in 1783, which made it the oldest national park in the world.

Our accommodation was at a boutique hotel, quite literally in the middle of everything. We were directly opposite the national museum, a block from the Chinggis Khan museum, right next door to the Parliament building and Sukhbaatar Square. This meant that our step count would not be high, but we were sure to see everything (around town at least). Bit worried about the gas mask in the cupboard though.

Almost immediately opposite our hotel was the National Museum, which would also be our first port of call. It was a great collection of all things Mongolian with a particular emphasis on the national dress over the years. Given that the Chinggis Khan museum was only a block away, that bit was a bit light on. But I was interested to find out that Mongolia had its own astronaut (Jügderdemidiin Gürragchaa) who went into space in 1981 as part of the Russian space program.

Being a Tuesday, the Chinggis Khan museum was shut so it was off to Sukhbaatar Square.

In the early 1800s, when UB was still in its infancy, a large square was constructed as the city’s center with the name “Great Freedom” (Ikh Choloo). After the People’s Revolution of 1921, the area was called “Indrin Square” and in 1946 was renamed “Damdin Sukhbaatar Square” to honor the Mongolian independence hero. It was renamed to Genghis Khan Square in 2013 and changed back in 2016.

The square houses statues of Genghis Khan, Sükhbaatar, and Sanjaasürengiin Zorig (who helped lead the democratic revolution of 1990).

At the top (north) of the square is the Mongolian Parliament Building and the square is surrounded by some great soviet era old buildings that include, the stock exchange, the cultural centre (Соёлын Төв Өргөө), state opera and ballet and the usual big (local) banks.

National Parliament of Mongolia is the home of all government related stuff. The front of the palace has statues of Genghis Khan, Ögedei Khan, and Kublai Khan.

The statue of Genghis Khan is guarded by two of his generals Muqali and Bo’orchu on horseback.

At the southern end of the Sukhbaatar Square you find the bizarrely out of place Blue Sky Tower (Хөх тэнгэр цамхаг). This is an ultra-modern 25 story, 105 meter, steel and glass skyscraper that houses luxury apartments, a 200-room hotel, restaurants, and office and conference space. To say it stands out is an understatement.

The second day it was off to the Chinggis Khan Museum. As you can imagine, this one had much more about the development of the empire and the tools of war, as opposed to the traditional costumes from the day before. Until recently there was no photos allowed but now for about $20 you can purchase an authorising lanyard and take some happy snaps.

Next stop for us was down to the State department store. Back in the soviet days this was the only (official) place to get your items. It was written up as an attraction in its own right. For us it was a six storey shopping hell. It was basically a Westfield, with all of the usual stores, selling pretty much what every shopping mall sells. The fur section was a little bit special and I did spend some time looking at a fur stoal made from a white arctic fox with head intact.

Our next day was meant to be off to the Palace (officially the Winter Palace of the Bogd Khan) but it was about a 2.5 km walk and the weather (rain) set in fairly nastily. Add to this the bride not feeling 100% in the preceding days, we decided to hide and boycott until the next day. Built between 1893 and 1903, the palace is where Mongolia’s eighth Living Buddha, and last king, Jebtzun Damba Hutagt VIII (often called the Bogd Khan), lived for 20 years.

To say that the palace has seen better days in underselling the situation. Extreme temperature fluctuations (-40 to +35) has seriously taken its toll on the older buildings. Despite this the Palace houses some important items (such as the Mongolian Declaration of Independence from China in 1911) as well as some gifts received from foreign dignitaries. Some of these include: a pair of golden boots from a Russian tsar, a robe made from 80 foxes and a ger lined with the skins of 150 leopards. The Bogd Khan had a thing for unusual wildlife and there is an impressive display of stuffed animals in the palace. At one point the Bogd purchased an elephant from Russia for 22,000 roubles.

Hidden in behind the Blue Sky tower you can find the Choijin Lama Temple Museum. This is a complex of five temples with elaborate paintings, colorful masks, and ornate statues. The monastery was built between 1904 and 1908 for the Choijin Lama, a brother of the Bogd Khaan who became Mongolia’s first leader after independence.

Most of the top things to do in UB are actually outside the city. So the next day it was in a car and out of town on a day trip in and around the natural beauty that is Mongolia. A hundred Aussie bucks bought us a car and driver for the day with an itinerary to boot.

The most famous of thing to see is the Genghis Khan Statue Complex, about 54 kilometers outside UB. At its heart stands a 40 meter tall statue of guess who, perched atop a 10 meter pedestal.

The complex stands on the bank of the Tuul River and was built to commemorate the 800th anniversary of Genghis Khan’s birth. It is the world’s largest equestrian statue. The base consists of 36 supporting columns, representing 36 great Khans (Mongol kings) with the entrance gate to the complex being decorated with statues of the nine generals (noyons) of Genghis Khan.

To say that you can see this thing from afar is a tad obvious. Construction took three years, cost $4 million and used 250 tons of stainless steel. It opened in 2008, and the interior houses an art gallery, museum, a dress up shop, and the obvious souvenir and coffee shops, etc.

Most importantly, it houses the world’s largest boot (maybe). I say maybe because google doesn’t list it as such. This one is 9 meters tall and the one listed on the internet (in the USA) is only 16 foot (about half the size) tall.

There is probably some weird rule as to why this doesn’t count, but I don’t know.

Apparently, the current version of the complex is just phase one. Over time it is planned to place a whole town of the yurts to make up a thematic town, revealing all sides of Mongolian life. The complex was built here (Tsonjin Boldog) because according to legend, Genghis Khan found a whip in this area. In Mongolia, people believe that man finding a whip is a sign of fortune, good destiny, and occasion. The statue faces east, the direction of Genghis Khan’s birthplace.

After the statue it was off to the Terelj National Park. This is one of the most accessible national parks in the country, being about 70 km northeast of UB. It is known for its picturesque alpine scenery, interesting rock formations, and outdoor activities.

In short, we spent hours driving through some of the most amazing scenery that you can come across. We stopped at some obvious spots (like turtle rock) for photo opportunities, but in reality almost every second presented photo opportunities (the single lane road just wasn’t designed for stopping).

A small portion of the National Park has been developed for tourists, with hotels and tourist ger camps set up. These obviously come with the associated restaurants and souvenir shops. In addition there is a bunch of locals set up to take bus loads of (predominately) Koreans on horseback rides, hiking, rock climbing, swimming, rafting, and bird-watching trips.

Our next stop was to be the Zaisan Memorial which was built on a hill to just south of town to commemorate those Mongol and Soviet soldiers killed in World War II. Sadly the mountain it stands on was shut to shore up some landslide activity – so we missed out.

While we missed out on climbing the mountain, at the point we got turned around, we had a perfect view of the big buddha.

Built in 2006 the Buddha statue looks through the entire UB city and protects the city from any danger.

Speaking of missing out, Eastern Mongolia has the Ikh Burkhant complex which has a 90 meter high stone Buddha built into the hillside. It was built between 1859-1864.

Naadam Festival

Sadly we missed this one by a couple of weeks (we were at Brads birthday when it was on), but this is the main festival of the nation. It is the most important holiday and biggest event on the Mongolian Calendar. The Naadam Festival includes the “Three manly games”. These are sports competitions of Wrestling, Horse racing and Archery. Despite the name, women participate in the archery and horse-racing games, but not in Mongolian wrestling.

The main festival is held in the capital UB, however smaller versions are replicated though the provinces and villages (soums). It begins with an elaborate Opening Ceremony featuring dancers, athletes, horse riders, and musicians.

Mongolian Wrestling (bökh), has no time or weight limits, and bouts end when one of the opponents hits the ground. Bökh wrestlers’ costume consists of 2 parts: upper part is called zodog and the lower part is called shuudag. The zodog & shuudag are usually bright red or blue. Wrestlers complete their looks with Mongol hat & Mongol boots.

Mongolian horse racing as featured in Naadam is a cross-country event, with races 15-30 km long. The riders are children (girls and boys), with the oldest being 10 years old and the youngest only 4. The racing routes are straight requiring less navigation and more speed and endurance.

Traditionally, children rode without saddles but modern consideration for the jockeys’ safety has introduced regulations requiring saddles, stirrups, helmets, vests, knee and elbow pads. In addition to this each rider must be covered by accident insurance.

Mongolian Archery involves 360 targets that are put up for the archery competition. In this competition, both men and women participate; men fire 40 arrows from 75 meters away while women fire 20 arrows from 60 meters away. The winners of the contest are granted the titles of “National marksman” and “National markswoman”.

Mongolian traditional homes – “the Ger or Yurt” are important part of Mongolian national identity. But, in rapidly growing UB’s life, you can see the ger districts on the fringes.

Mongolian Statues

Almost everywhere you look as you wander about town you end up running into some pretty interesting statues. Some are of the famous Khans etc, but many others are just there. they can be found at almost every intersection. Some you have to hunt for while others jump out at you. My favourite was the Predator riding an Alien motorcycle, or the whole caravan of camels in the middle of a roundabout.

Taxis

While wandering the city we did learn the trick of the local cab system though. Basically, every car is potentially a taxi, just wander along with your arm dangling out a bit and somebody will stop. I suggest you are more organised than I was, as my pronunciation left much to be desired. Maybe take a screenshot of where you want to go and just show the driver, knowing the distance in advance makes the price calculation and end of trip communication much easier. The fee is 2000 tugrik (about a 90c) per kilometer and I just rounded up the parts of a kilometer based on the google map distance.

The Black Market

Our last full day saw us venture to Naran Tuul or the Black Market (using the above taxi method). As sketchy as a Black Market sounds, nowadays it is all pretty legit. There are warnings of pickpockets and bag snatchers and scammers trying to elicit an entrance fee to the free market, but none of these eventuated for us.

What really strikes you about UB’s Black Market is how much and what there is for sale. This is a market aimed at the locals and seeing what is on sale makes you realise how different Mongolia is to the rest of the world. The size of the material section was huge. Rows after rows of material and sewing gear. Clearly many of the clothes remain home made.

For me most of the interest lay in the boots. Mongolian boots are truly a thing of beauty, not just the pointy toed traditional types (gutuls), or the warm felt Ugg boot type things, but just the normal everyday boot. They are magnificently made, of the softest leather, and are really nicely styled.

This is the big drawback of this sort of travel, our souvenirs and trinkets must be small and light. Otherwise the likelihood of me leaving with some fantastic boots was high.

Mongolian Cashmere

Mongolian cashmere is widely considered to be the best in the world. The harsh climate makes it an ideal environment for cashmere goats to grow thick undercoats.

Cashmere is a type of wool obtained from the soft undercoat of the cashmere goat. The wool is harvested during the spring molting season when the goats naturally shed their undercoat. Mongolia is the largest producer of cashmere, accounting for more than 50% of the global production., with India, China, Iran, Afghanistan, and Kazakhstan producing the majority of the rest.

And here you can find it almost everywhere you look. Like everything else in Mongolia, it is mot cheap, but the quality is exceptional.

Mongolian Food

Food in Mongolia is certainly a melting pot. Today, you can get just about anything you want and the quality is pretty good. If you look at the surrounding nations and those that at one time made up the empire, it is pretty normal to think that the variety would be wide.

There are plenty of local restaurants offering (some) traditional dishes that are worth the effort in tracking down. And some other traditional dishes that maybe only for the more adventurous (more about that below). Veggies in summer were tough to find and I assume that this is worse in winter. Many of the local dishes are high in meat content (but there’s nothing wrong with that).

Chinese is everywhere, as is burgers and pizza, Turkish, Italian, Indian, Korean and Japanese. Then the surprising ones come into play Mexican was the one that threw me most. But we had Uzbek, saw Azerbaijani, Kyrgyz, Irish pubs, Vietnamese, Spanish tapas and a surprising number of vegan and vegetarian restaurants (we didn’t go there).

Local Dishes

Khuushuur or Huushuur – A local version of a deep fried meat pie that more resembles a pasty or an empanada. The filling is just meat and onion.

It was the first thing that we ate on night one as a beer snack (they looked small and bite sized) but they came out the size of your hand and we ended up not needing dinner.

Buuz is the Mongolian version of the steamed dumpling commonly found throughout the region. It is basically a local version of the Chinese baozi or the Nepalese Momo.

Bansh is like the buuz but smaller and boiled in a soupy kind of broth rather than steamed. The filling usually comes from either a cow, goat, sheep, horse, or camel.

Tsuivan is a local stir fry made with home made fresh noodles with vegetables and a meat of some kind. Not the most thrilling meal about, but hearty and filling.

Chanasan makh is next and it is basically just boiled meat. Not really too much to say about this one, it is what it claims to be.

Khorkhog is a goat stew that uses the entire goat and is cooked on open fire with hot rocks. The quirk here is the belief that holding the hot stones after cooking helps to relieve tiredness and improve blood circulation.

Boodog involves using the actual skin and fur of the animal as the cooking vessel. The animal is butchered with skin remaining intact and is sealed up having been filled with the meat, vegetables, and hot rocks to cook from the inside out.

Guriltai Shul is one of the most popular noodle soups in Mongolia. It is considered to be the classic dinner staple – basically just boiled mutton with handmade wheat-flour noodles.

Vitals soup is popular for being very nutritious. It is part of Mongolia’s culture that no part of an animal is wasted and so Vitals Soup is offal. Made with the lungs, hearts, intestines, liver, stomach and kidneys of an animal.

Needless to say that neither Jill nor I rushed to order the Vitals soup. Budaatai huurga is a nice simple (inoffensive) local fried rice version with mutton.

Last and definitely least is Airag, or Kumis this is considered to be the country’s national beverage. It is fermented mare’s milk. We had it in inner Mongolia a decade ago and it was terrible. The memory was strong enough for us to both avoid it at all costs.

Mongolian Beer

This was a tough one. Having once had such a mighty empire, the beer was highly variable. Some of the best beers that we have had were in Kyrgyzstan who had adopted the best of Czech brewing practices to deliver some really tasty beers, and you could find some really tasty ones here. But at the same time the empire stretched east, which brought into play the lighter Chinese style brews. These were much more gassy and less flavoursome.

Possibly the hardest part of the beers was working out what you were actually drinking. Niislel (Нийслэл), Sengur (Сэнгүр), Borgio (Боргио), Golden Gobi (Алтан Говь), Jalam Khar (Жалам Xар) and finally the only one I could get my tongue around, the Chinggis Pilsner.

Japan

July 21, 2024 richardpieper Leave a comment

Japan has long been on my list, and has been recommended to me by virtually everyone who has ever been here.

The issue that has kept us away for so long was the perception that it was prohibitively expensive. The Japanese pricing just did not fit with our cheap and cheerful travelling style.

Japan is made up of over 6,800 islands but with four main ones being Hokkaido, Honshu (the “mainland”), Shikoku, and Kyushu. Tokyo is the capital and largest city, followed by Yokohama, Osaka, Nagoya, Sapporo, Fukuoka, Kobe, and Kyoto. About 75% of its area is mountainous.

The most fascinating thing about Japan is the obscure blend of ancient traditions and cutting-edge modernity. Rich and often ancient cultural heritage combines with groundbreaking technology all set in a land of amazing landscapes and wildlife.

The decision to come happened on two fronts, the first was convenience, our journey to Mongolia was easiest with a transit through Japan and secondly, the exchange rate with the AUD was the highest it had been in over two decades.

Our arrival saw us entering Tokyo, Japan’s bustling capital in mid evening, only to be jumped upon by a TV film crew, who wanted to interview us for a local travel TV show. It was a fluff show about where have you travelled to, why did you come to Japan and what did you want to see. The answer to the first question blew them away and we spent the next 30 minutes answering questions about our travels so far. Jill’s hat (with all of the pins on it) drew amazement and the thought that two people would just pack up and disappear seemed totally impossible to the Japanese mindset.

We have no idea if we were selected to be on TV (as we had left by the time it would have aired) but it was to be on Monday evening at 6:30 pm on Channel 7 TV Tokyo.

After this, we very quickly learned that our language skills were heavily lacking. Some serious bumbling about in the train station and we were on our way headed for the hotel. Some weather prompted a train change and some more confusion, but for the most part, getting about was fairly manageable. We finally landed in the hotel after 11pm having left metro Manila 14 hours earlier.

The next morning it was up for a quick breakfast and out exploring. The first thing that strikes you about Japan is how clean everything is. The footpaths are at least 4 meters wide and can be up to 10 meters wide in the busy areas. There is not a rubbish bin in sight but there is zero trash, anywhere. It was even a struggle to find a leaf laying on the ground. And there is no obvious person sweeping up or cleaning anything, people are just tidy and don’t make mess..

Not only is it clean, it is quiet. Having spent the last 2 months in the Philippines and Indonesia, this place is absolutely silent. No honking, beeping, screaming, yelling.

It was lovely.

It was so quiet that there were even decibel meters on the outside of constructions sites to make sure that things stayed at a reasonable level.

Our walk around was on a 30+ degree day with high humidity. Our first stop was to the Nihombashi Bridge that has been linking the city for centuries. The first wooden bridge was completed in 1603 and the current one dates from 1911. In reality the bridge is dwarfed by everything around it, but it is nice.

Next we aimed for the Imperial Palace, but to get there we went via the Tokyo Central railway station. Within no time of getting to the train station we immediately felt that we were in the world’s most populous city with over 37 million people inhabitants. And the majority of them were here.

To say that this place is a maze is an understatement. There is quite literally an entire underground city here. There are kilometers of underground tunnels and passageways that link the high speed rail (shinkansen) to the subway and you can even walk to the nearest five stations completely underground (the furthest a distance of over 2 km), but is faster by train. There are more than 4,000 trains arriving and departing daily.

Having been lost underground for what seemed like an eternity, we popped out relatively close to the Tokyo Imperial Palace and Gardens Area. Here we learned an important lesson. In the most populace city in the world, if you want to do something, you must book, days in advance, and you must queue up for your allotted time slot.

We did not do this, so were content enough to view the palace and gardens from the outside and did not venture in. But suffice to say that the surrounds were also pretty amazing.

Being a cool 33+ degrees with high humidity we chose to walk. From the palace we walked through parks and gardens, stopping at the various shrines and temples that we came across on the way.

From here our exploration took us into the Ginza District which is considered to be one of the most expensive, elegant, and luxurious city districts in the world. It is a popular upscale shopping area (something that we typically try to avoid). Our aim was to go to an interactive digital art museum that offers galleries of immersive and surreal installations (but guess what, you had to book, days in advance). So we wandered around lost for a while, found a place with an (happy hour) amazing lunch which set us back $26 for four beers and a feed. We did however make the booking for 4 days later.

The next morning it was up and on our way to see the lively hub of Shibuya. This is arguably the youth heart and soul of the city. For us it is the home of the scramble crossing, the busiest pedestrian crossings in the world, with sometimes over a thousand people crossing the multi-cornered intersection at a time. The view from the Shibuya Sky observation deck offers an epic view.

When we were there, extensive roadworks had stifled the flow of both traffic and pedestrians. But the tourist trade and normal business activity still meant that the place was manic, god knows what it would be like in full flight.

Japanese Street Fashion – To say that Shibuya is eclectic would be an understatement. The streets of Shibuya are the birthplace to many of Japan’s fashion and entertainment trends.

Just down the road we headed into Shinjuku to see the Godzilla, towering over the Toho Cinema. It is probably the most famous statue in all of Tokyo but on closer inspection, it is just a head and claw.

The area is busy and lively and I was offered sex at 11am by some random dude who wanted to take me to the nearby brothel. I just had to follow him down the alley.

Next it was on a train to the old part of town (Yanaka) where the old town ambience and atmosphere (shitamachi) reminds people of Tokyo from past decades. It was a funky little neighbourhood without the lights and bling of those we had visited before. The main attraction was the Yanaka Cemetery where many of the tombs are elaborately decorated and nicely landscaped. Paths are well-kept and wide, making it a good place for a tranquil stroll (even in extreme temperatures).

From here we hopped on the local bus and made our way to the Asakusa neighbourhood. Our main reason for going there was to see the Samurai and Ninja Museum, but guess what, you had to book. Thankfully the wait was not too long so we went exploring first.

The first thing that we stumbled across was the Asahi Beer Tower and Asahi Super Dry Hall with its characteristic Flamme d’Or. This was completed in 1989 and is the headquarters of Asahi Breweries.

With some time to kill we kicked back in the backstreets, checking out some funky little shops and restaurants, and even a Kabuki theatre.

Asakusa’s main attraction is Sensoji, a very popular Buddhist temple, built in the 7th century. Having snuck in around the back (it is free to enter we just came the back way) through the side streets we came out from what is usually the main entrance Nakamise. This is a shopping street that has been providing temple visitors with traditional snacks and souvenirs for centuries.

Having seen the masses of people, the temple and bought out our souvenir trinkets we headed back to the Samurai and Ninja Museum which turned out to be a great way to kill an hour or so. Some interesting history, and lots of swords and armour. You can even throw ninja stars against walls and dress up for photos if you want (we passed on the dressing up). The coolest bit was that there was some seriously good artwork on the walls.

Space being a premium here in Japan, even the parking structures were a bit different to what we were used to. I had heard of the stacking system, but had not seen it in action before.

Jill being a raw fish fanatic had been humouring me in the preceding days giving me actual cooked meals, but the time had come for her to get her sashimi fill. We found a restaurant around the corner that allowed here to load up on raw fish and all was right (for her) in the world.

Japan is highly regulated (socially) and it is easy to inadvertently do the wrong thing. But a little bit of preemptive reading and the sort of things that will cause offence are actually pretty sensible and easy to avoid, if you only bother to look. Things not to do in Japan:

be late
be loud
talk on the phone on the train
tip at restaurants
stand on the right side of the escalator
wear shoes on tatami (woven straw) mats

These are actually really really easy to avoid, and for the most part, make life a little more pleasant. Virtually everyone that we came across followed these rules easily. Except the Americans and the French. Whether these two groups are just above such petty conventions or are just too arrogant to care, I do not know. But the only voices that could be heard splitting the silences were always one or other of these two accents, consistently.

The next day was the closest thing to a fail as we have had in years. Don’t get me wrong, we had a lovely day, but apart a fleeting glance (of Mount Fuji) from a train window we did not achieve our goals. We had seen photos like the ones below and thought what a great way to spend a day, so we hopped on the fast train (it is 140km away) to see it.

Japan’s Shinkansen, or bullet trains were our transport. They are world class with some reaching speeds exceeding 321 kilometers (200 miles) per hour. The newest versions have reached speeds of up to 603 km/h (374 mph) in testing.

While in transit, Jill did snap this photo (and a few like it) out of the train window.

So we did see the mountain, just not in the way that we had planned.

Getting off the train we hopped on a slower train that (we thought) would take us closer to the mountain and more specifically Lake Kawaguchi.

Lake Kawaguchi is located at the northern foot of sacred Mt. Fuji, Japan’s highest mountain. This is one of the Five Lakes of Fuji and you can enjoy magnificent Mt. Fuji views from the lakeside. But we got on the train to Odawara and then another to Hakone (still 60kms away from the mountain). To be fair there are about six locations in Hakone where you can enjoy good views of mount Fuji (but we did not go to any of them).

Instead, we got on the Hakone Tozan Cable Car thinking that it would give us the views that we sought. This is one of Japan’s few mountain railways where passengers can enjoy scenery and be wowed as the train climbs steep slopes. In order to climb the mountain, the train zigzags up the slopes using switchbacks where the conductor and driver switch positions. The cable car connects Gora and Sounzan and meets up with the ropeway to Owakudani (which was of course shut due to the winds). So we got near the top of the mountain with the views (on the opposite side) and could go no further.

So a long story short, we left our hotel at 7 am and got back late in the afternoon, in that time we had traveled on fast trains, slow trains, cable cars and saw some amazing sights of rural Japan. But what we actually came to see we got in fleeting glimpses as we went passed it on a super fast train.

As we waited to head home, I did manage to get a few videos of the superfast trains going past.

To say that these are fast and impressive is obvious. These ones even slowed down as they were passing the station.

We did have a great day, and we did see some amazing sights, we just did not really achieve what we had set out to do.

Sumo is a thing that we missed out on while we were here. It is a Japanese style of wrestling and Japan’s national sport with grand sumo tournaments (each lasting 15 days) held six times a year (the odd months).

While we were in Tokyo, there was a tournament on 350 km away in Nagoya. When there is no tournament you are able to head to one of the Sumo Stables to watch the early morning practice sessions. But these are suspended when a tournament is on (so we missed out).

As big as Sumo wrestlers are (many over 200 kg and the heaviest ever maxing out at 288kgs), doctors reckon that they don’t suffer from heart attacks, strokes, or display other symptoms of obesity. Sumo wrestlers consume up to 7,000 calories a day. The secret is in the name, as wrestlers the regular intense exercise prevents the build-up of visceral fat, which causes metabolic and heart disease.

Manga is the Japanese term that refers to both comics and cartooning. The origin is believed to date back to the 12th and 13th century.

After WWII the manga were distributed widely to the population as a distraction from the harsh realities that Japanese people had to face after the war.

They are characterised a distinctive art and narrative style. Genres include action, romance, fantasy, science fiction, and more.

Anime is a Japanese style of film and television animation.

The style is distinctively Japanese and immediately recognisable.

Kabuki is a form of Japanese theatre that mixes dramatic performance with traditional dance.

It is known for its outlandish performances, glamorous costumes, and the elaborate makeup.

Not wanting to miss out, our reservation for the interactive digital art museum finally came up on our last evening in Japan.

The creators describe itself as an international art collective existing at the intersection of art, science, technology, and the natural world.

The group consists of a variety of artists, programmers, engineers, animators, mathematicians and architects; the collective aims to explore the relationship between the self and the world, through new forms of perception.

In reality it was a really high tech maze in darkened rooms with images and lights projected on the walls.

This is actually an over simplification, the lights sensed the presence of a person and bent around you, the exhibitions flew from room to room and around corners.

And colours changed, kids drawings were brought to life and flew across the walls, it was all pretty surreal.

To be honest we have seen almost nothing of Japan. Everything that we did see, we enjoyed but it is a seriously weird place. It is like nowhere we have ever been. Both relaxing and infuriating at the same time. I got totally sick of being lost in underground bunkers, railway stations and shopping malls. We were constantly staring at the GPS trying to work out where we were in an underground land of no reference points.

The exchange rate doubling made it actually really affordable for us, so if things remain favourable, I could envisage us coming back at some point. The food was magnificent.

New Zealand

April 24, 2024 richardpieper Leave a comment

New Zealand is somewhere that both Jill and I had been to several times (although separately). My first foray was in my early teens and in a former life I used to come here twice a year for work.

But all of this was before the website and the thought of capturing our experiences.

Needless to say that in our multiple visits (each) we had seen quite a bit of New Zealand and had (for the most part) enjoyed our forays thoroughly. Some of the highlights included:

Te Papa, New Zealand’s national museum, and venue hall renowned for being bicultural. THe five main displays represented include Art, History, Pacific, Māori, and the Natural Environment.

No trip to NZ is complete without visiting the stinking mess that is Rotorua. The geothermal pools are interesting enough as are the cultural displays, you just have to abide the rotten egg gas that takes over the town.

And of course there was the stunning Mt Cook, the location of my first real (and most embarrassing) snow experience.

Waitomo is known for its underwater streams, lakes and caves covered by stalagmites and stalactites. But the star of the show is the lightshow provided by millions of glowworms (found exclusively in NZ) the only light in the cave.

And my personal favourite was Lake Taupo. This is the largest freshwater lake in Australasia (about the size of Singapore) and is the crater of one of the largest volcanic eruptions earth has seen in the last 5000 years.

In addition to the main sights of New Zealand the place is just generally stunning.

Bay of Islands

The Bay of Islands is an area in the Northeast of New Zealand that is famous for its natural beauty and as one of the most popular fishing, sailing and tourist destinations in the country. The Bay of Islands has 144 individual islands but our visit saw us tendering in from the cruise ship near the small town of Paihia. Paihia is a tiny town of under 2000 people but (as with most of NZ) is very pretty and a very civilised place to visit.

I guess the thing that threw us the most was the cost of things. On Early glances, the cost of living in New Zealand is considerably higher than that which we enjoy in Australia (even taking into account the exchange rate). Now it may have been that we were in a small tourist town, but the prices in the shops were considerably higher than we would pay for the same items back home.

The township itself was small but lovely. A launching point for further exploration of the Bay and the surrounding Islands it centres around the dock and a small one block of shops and restaurants. On the day we arrived the local market was set up, with all of the expected tourist trinkets on offer.

The main claim to fame of Paihia is that it is just down the road from the historic Treaty House at the Waitangi Treaty Grounds.

This is the location that marks the beginning of New Zealand as a nation. On 6 February 1840 the British Crown and about 540 Māori rangatira (chiefs) signed the Treaty of Waitangi. The Treaty is an agreement, in both Māori and English, where they agree to jointly found a nation state so that both parties would live together peacefully and develop New Zealand together in partnership.

Just west of Paihia is Haruru falls and a short boat ride away you will find the quaint township Russell which was the first seaport and permanent European settlement in New Zealand. While on a boat you can also get to the aptly named ‘hole in the rock’ at the tip of Cape Brett.

Being New Zealand and in a place named Bay of Islands, needless to say there is a ton of water based activity on offer. This includes cruising, sea kayak tours, scuba diving, fast jet boats, yachts, catamarans, fishing trips, and even tall ship sailing.

Bay of Plenty

The next morning we had moved on and found ourselves in the Bay of Plenty staring at Mount Maunganui and the town of Tauranga. Tauranga is a small beach town of about 130,000 with beaches, hot saltwater pools and an extinct volcano ringed by winding walking paths.

The bay is a large bight stretching 260 km and containing numerous islands. According to local Māori traditions, the Bay of Plenty was the landing point of several migration canoes that brought Māori settlers to New Zealand.

We hopped off the boat and circumnavigated the town taking in all there was to see (with the exception of walking to the top of Mount Maunganui). Tauranga is a narrow neck of land with the Mountain dominating one end. It is full of tourist accommodation and the associated cafes and restaurants that go with them.

The town is stunningly clean and very enjoyable and the natural beauty abounds. It was a bit too cool to venture near the water (although many were donning wetsuits and going in). It was a lovely little spot that reminded me a bit of the CQ town of Yeppoon (only colder).

The natural beauty of New Zealand can be found around every corner. The place is literally stunning. There is very little that can be found in New Zealand that is not postcard worthy. This was lost on me on my first ever trip (in my teens) but has not been lost on any of the subsequent trips.

Malta

March 28, 2024 richardpieper Leave a comment

Malta is an island country in the Mediterranean Sea consisting of 3 islands (Gozo, Comino and Malta). It lies 80 km south of Sicily, 284 km east of Tunisia, and 333 km north of Libya.

Malta has been inhabited since around 5900 BC and its prime location in the centre of the Mediterranean and deep harbour has made it a vital area of strategic importance, particularly as a naval base. As such, every man and his dog has had a crack at owning and ruling the islands. The list includes the Phoenicians and Carthaginians, Greeks, Romans, Arabs, Normans, Aragonese, Knights of St. John, French, and British. In 1964 it finally got independence from the UK and became a republic in 1974.

Ok lets get this in perspective right up front, the place is tiny. It has an area of around 320 square kilometers and a population of a bit over half a million. The main island is 27 km long and 14.5 km wide. For perspective the entire nation is a quarter the size of Hobart with double the population.

Getting Around

Getting around Malta is pretty easy, cheap and efficient. The taxis are metered and there are fixed-price options available if you are coming from the airport. Uber and Bolt are competing fiercely to get control over the ride share options and the bus system is extensive, regular, cheap and and efficient.

Our option was the HOHO. The Hop On Hop Off bus. We have used these in some locations and they have been magnificent and have inquired in other places and they have been highway robbery. Here in Malta they are magnificent.

The Malta HOHO has a northern and a southern route and there is so much to see that a full day on each is more than warranted. There is also a package that you can do that on day 3 you can include a harbour cruise. We didn’t take the package but did end up doing a harbour cruise because the forts are really best seen from the water.

Yes, you could do it cheaper by local bus, but 20 euros for a full lap of the island, stopping at all the main sights, with an audio guide in about 12 languages is pretty tough to beat. By comparison, the one in Paris is more than double this price and travels a shorter distance and the one in Sydney starts at $50 for a single day.

Day One

After getting in, settling in and finding a (magnificent) feed (our flight had been delayed several hours) after we had missed breakfast and lunch, our first day was pretty much over.

But we did manage to have a lovely walk along the waterfront of Sliema (the Jutty Outy bit above Valetta).

Which has some pretty amazing views over the old city.

So we ate, did our research and crashed for the day ahead.

Almost right outside our hotel we came across the Sea Water Distilling Plant. As Malta is an island, access to potable water has always been a problem. This plant was constructed in Sliema in 1881 to provide drinking water for Tigné Barracks.

Today, the building houses a printing press.

Day two saw us getting up early and hopping on the HOHO for the northern route. It took us past the harbour and marina, delivering views of Manaoel Island (one of the many fortifications) on the way until we got to the gates of Valetta. This was the identical route that we would take the next day but tomorrow we got off in Valletta.

Instead we stayed on and made our way through some very funky suburbs and on to the San Anton Palace and Gardens. From 1802 until 1964, San Anton Palace was the official residence of the British Governor and is now the residence of the Maltese President. From here it was on to see the Mosta Dome which is the third largest unsupported dome in the world. It has an outside diameter of 56.2 metres, an inside diameter of 39.6 metres and an internal height of 54.7metres. It became famous during WWII when a bomb pierced the dome, landed and slid across the church floor without exploding! The church was crowded when the bomb hit and all were spared.

The next was the aviation museum and then a few stops were arts and crafts stops (glass factory, craft village etc.) But then the main attraction of the Northern Route, the town of Mdina. The city was founded as Maleth around the 8th century BC by Phoenician settlers. The history of Mdina traces back more than 4000 years. According to tradition it was here that in 60 A.D. that the Apostle St. Paul is said to have lived after being shipwrecked on the Islands.

The city was the capital of Malta throughout the Middle Ages, until the arrival of the 1530.

Directly outside the gates of Mdina is the town of Rabat, although it was once thought to be within the confines of the city. It is home to some impressive catacombs and archaeological remains not to mention some pretty incredible religious bling.

From here there are a few beach and ruin stops and we hopped off for lunch in Bugibba which is a lively seaside town with bars, restaurants, and hotels. Nothing particularly historic here but a lovely little spot. The next stop was the National Aquarium then another beachside town and it follows up with a scenic drive through a series of very pretty seaside bays on the way back.

Day three saw us hopping on the HOHO for the southern route. The first stop was of course, the nation’s capital (Valetta), which is less than a square kilometre in size. It occupies the peninsula between Marsamxett Harbour (west) and the Grand Harbour (east) in a suburb known as Floriana. .

It is essentially just an old town CBD, perched on an isthmus. But there is so much in there. UNESCO has described Valetta as ‘one of the most concentrated historic areas in the world‘

When you hop off the bus you find yourself at the Independence monument opposite the Saint Publius Parish Church. The first stone was laid down in 1733 and construction was complete in 1768, when the relic of Saint Publius was brought to the church.

from here a very scenic walk begins towards and through the area that is Valetta. The first thing to signal your arrival is the Triton Fountain.

Triton Fountain consists of three bronze Tritons holding up a large basin. It was built out of concrete and was clad in travertine slabs.

The City Gate was originally built by the Knights of Malta but was destroyed in WWII. It was replaced in the ’60s with a lavish version but people didn’t like it. So there is now a minimalistic bridge.

On either side of the gate is a pole symbolising swords, saluting everyone entering the city.

Through the gate on the right you will see the Parliament House of Malta. It was built between 2011 and 2015 on the site of the old railway station .

A bit further down and you run into the Opera House. The theatre received a direct hit from aerial bombing in 1942 during WWII.

Down one more block and you are at the National Museum of Archaeology.

One more block and you hit the Saint-John’s Cathedral Museum.

And now you find yourself in St Georges Square which is the central square that is surrounded by a whole heap of stuff. All of this up until this point and all you have had to do was walk in a straight line for 700 meters.

Not least of those to be found in the square is the Grandmaster’s Palace which was Parliament House until the opening of the new one.

St Pauls Cathedral (Anglican) is the huge spire next to the dome that dominate the skyline of Valetta. Built in the 18th century it occupies prime location in Independence Square.

The dome is the Basilica of Our Lady of Mount Carmel (Roman Catholic). It was originally built in the 16th century but was destroyed in WWII.

Keep walking in a straight line and you hit the end of the isthmus and find yourself at St Elmo Fort. This area also includes a war memorial. A bit further along (coming back to the right) you find another war memorial with the Siege Bell. Then you end up hitting the Upper and Lower Barakka Gardens, these are in essence both more war memorials with plaques and statues celebrating those who paid great service to Malta over the centuries.

The Upper Barrakka Gardens are located on the top of the Valletta bastions, they offer stunning views of the Three Cities. They were built in the 16th century by the Knights of St John as a private gardens for the Grand Master and the Knights of St John.

Across the Grand Harbour from Valetta sits the Three Cities. Each of the cities have two names that are used interchangeably, the original Maltese name and the newer name given to them by the Knights of Malta.

Birgu – Vittoriosa

Isla – Senglea

Bormla – Conspicua

The first two occupy peninsulas jutting into the Grand Harbour while the third sits behind them (but also has a port area). There is another peninsula that doesn’t seem to make the grade in the cities debate (Kalkara) but it has two major defensive forts in place (Fort Ricasoli and Fort Rinella). In total there have been nine separate forts established just to defend the Grand Harbour.

Birgu (Vittoriosa) is the oldest and was built up by the Knights of Malta as their headquarters when they arrived on Malta in 1530. Senglea (Isla) gives more of a local experience with few formal sights, while Bormla (Conspicua) is set back behind these peninsulas. Also jutting into the harbour is the peninsula of Kalkara, which can be seen from across the marina.

Back on the bus and there was a stop at the Marsaxlokk fishing village which would have been an awesome stop for lunch but we had spent too long exploring Valetta and were pushed for time now.

Next (major) stop was to the Blue Grotto which are a series of sea caverns on the south east coast of Malta. Set against a cliffy terrain near a local fishing harbour the blue grotto and neighboring caves offers spectacular views of rugged coastlines, sea caves opposite a small uninhabited islet (Filfla) which is a bird sanctuary.

Malta has often been called the ‘Fortress Island’ due to the great mass of military architecture that can be seen everywhere. This is a legacy of the islands’ history which saw them being fought over, time and again, due to their strategic location and deep, safe harbours.

So the best way to see these forts built to defend from attacks from the sea, is by boat. Which is exactly what we did. The fortifications that can be seen today come from two distinct periods: those of the Knights and those of the British era. Hopping on at Sliema (our home for the week) we took a 2 hour ride around the harbour takin in most of the 9 forts that were built to defend the harbours.

First on the list was Fort Manoel which sits on its own island between Valetta and Sliema and commands Marsamxett Harbour. The fort is built in the shape of a square, with a pentagonal bastion on each corner, giving it the shape of a star fort. It was built in the 18th century by the Order of Saint John and was named after their Grandmaster of that time. It sits between

The next in line is Valetta itself with Fort St Elmo guarding the approaches to both Grand and Marsamxett Harbours. We had seen it from the ground the previous day and now we got to see just how imposing it would have been to try and attack this place from the water. It was the scene of a heroic defence during the Great Siege of 1565.

Fort Ricasoli is over 300 years old, being built by the Knights Hospitaller between 1670 and 1698. It is the largest fort in Europe . It was built to protect the Grand Harbour.

But today most of the fort is leased to the Malta Film Commission. As such it has been used extensively as a location for various films and serials.

In recent years, it has been used for the films Gladiator (2000) and Troy (2004) standing in for Rome and Troy respectively. The fort was also used in the filming of Assassin’s Creed (2016). In addition the TV miniseries Julius Caesar (2002) and Helen of Troy (2003) were partially filmed at the fort and in the first season Game of Thrones it was used as the Red Keep.

Fort St. Angelo is located at the centre of the Grand Harbour. It was originally built in the medieval period as a castle called the Castrum Maris.

It was rebuilt by the Order of Saint John as a fort and named Fort Saint Angelo between the 1530s and the 1560s.

Many believe it to be the jewel in the crown of The Maltese Islands’ military heritage.

The Ħal Saflieni Hypogeum is an underground complex of halls and burial chambers dating to around 4000 B.C. It was in use between 4000 BC and 1500 BC and covers an area of around 500 square metres. This one we didn’t get to as time just evaporated on us here in Malta with so much to see and do. Next time I guess.

Maltese food

I am sure that there is a bunch of traditional Maltese dishes that are floating around out there just waiting to be absorbed, but suffice to say that you are on an island close to Italy, Greece, Turkey and northern Africa. There is so much good food to be had here that you literally can not go wrong. We had plates and platters and pizza’s, soups and rolls. We had rabbit, pork, seafood and we had sweets and savouries.

And it was all fantastic, and reasonably priced.

When we were coming here we had little knowledge of what to expect and therefore our expectations were low. But this place has absolutely blown us away. An abundance of things to see and do, coupled with our ignorance of what we would find meant that we have seriously undercooked how much time we needed. We were here for 5 days, thinking that we could just kick back and relax (given that it was so small) but found ourselves at a full sprint almost the whole time and still missed out on seeing things.

I guess that is the beauty of travel, we will just have to come again and spend more time next time around.

Tunisia

March 20, 2024 richardpieper Leave a comment

Tunisia is the northernmost country in Africa with a population of a little over 12 million. It is bordered by Algeria (west), Libya (southeast) and the Mediterranean Sea to the north and east. It also shares maritime borders with Italy and Malta.

Like most of the nations around the Mediterranean it has a long and potted history about who controlled the area that is now Tunisia. And this recorded history starts with the Berbers before the 12th century BC. In 146 BC the Romans defeated the city of Carthage and had control of the place for the next 800 odd years. In the 7th century AD, Arab Muslims had their turn and conquered Tunisia, moving in in huge numbers over the next few hundred years. In 1546, the Ottoman Empire took control for the next 300 years, until 1881, when the French conquered Tunisia. In 1956, Tunisia finally gained independence as the Tunisian Republic.

Tunisia has odd currency laws and will confiscate cash if you get them wrong.

Most countries allow you in and out of the country with the equivalent of USD $10,000 and more so long as you declare it.

But not here.

Here you are allowed to bring in 10,000 dinar (about $3300 USD) and
must declare amounts over 5000 dinar.
It is a criminal offence to export Tunisian dinar
so make sure you change everything back before you leave
any unchanged dinar will be confiscated
Anything over the 5000 dinar (equivalent) will be confiscated
about USD $1500 or 1300 euros

We found this out the hard way when I got my bag deconstructed by the agent (on the way out of the country) looking for cash. In essence, if I had any Dinar left over or more than about USD 1500 or 1300 euros in cash on me, they were within their rights to confiscate it from me. There are grounds to get it back if you get a receipt and return to the country within 3 months. However, nobody who had tried this (based on online commentary) could locate where the money could be collected from due to Bureaucratic runaround.

Tunis

Tunis is the largest and capital city of Tunisia with about 2.7 million residents in the greater Tunis area.

And is a great place to kick back and chill.

The biggest surprise for me was the cab drivers. As any regular traveller knows, cab drivers in almost every nation are as sketchy as hell and are always trying to rip you off. Yes, there are some exceptions, but for the most part, we have stopped using taxis (even in Australia) in favour of ride-share apps.

But that was not the case here. The cabs all used meters, without being asked, were reasonably priced and did not try and tout and prey upon unsuspecting tourists. A refreshing and pleasant change.

The Tunis Medina is (apparently) the best preserved in all of North Africa. It is the historical and cultural heart of the city, with buildings dating from the 18th and 19th centuries. It is home to the souks, the markets, workshops and ateliers. Allegedly there is a pecking order to such things and therefore they are arranged hierarchically around the Great Mosque.

The souk is nowhere near the bedlam that was Marrakesh, but there is still plenty going on. And the available artisan work is of the highest quality. It is cleaner, quieter, has less touts and is generally much more manageable for the shy tourists.

The Jamaa ez-Zitouna mosque, or ‘olive mosque’, is the oldest in the city. It was founded at the end of the 7th century or in the early 8th century, but its current architectural form dates from a reconstruction in the 9th century. The mosque is said to be one of the most important in all of Islam and covers 5,000 square metres, with nine entrances. The building includes many antique columns reused after the destruction of Carthage. Due to the nearness of the souk in the Medina, you only really get to see some columns and arches.

Being non-Muslims, we typically just admire the outside of mosques and rarely enter. In many cases, we are not allowed in anyway, but even when we are we tend not to. Some of the rooftops around the Medina offer amazing panorama views over the Medina, and some even stay open for after dark shots.

The Sea Gate (also known as the Bab el Bhar and the Porte de France) is the entrance to the Medina from the new part of town.

New Tunis

East of the Medina, is the modern part of the city called “Ville Nouvelle”. This area is often referred to by media and travel guides as “the Tunisian Champs-Élysées. It is a grand avenue lined with colonial-era buildings.

While Tunisia has had its share of security issues over the decades, at no point did we feel unsafe or uneasy. There was an off-putting security presence in the new town area that seemed extremely over the top for what was going on. Armoured vehicles, heavily armed military and blockades were everywhere and there was nothing going on.

A more timid day I had never seen, clear blue skies and almost nobody on the streets, but the grand avenue had a visibly present and unnecessarily confrontational security presence.

Doors

For some strange reason I found myself taking photos of the doors (especially in the Media) of Tunis. They were truly stunning. Some huge and ornate, while others simple but there was something about the doors in this place that just grabbed me.

Carthage was a city I had heard mentioned in documentaries and the like, but never really knew where it was or much about is. As it turns out it is here on hte outskirts of Tunis and was one of the most important trading hubs of the Ancient Mediterranean and one of the richest cities of the classical world.

It has a history dating back to the 12th century BC. and between 650 BC to 146 BC, it was the most powerful trading and commercial city in the Mediterranean.

It had a sophisticated 200-dock circular harbor and the funds earned prompted investment in a sprawling metropolis of temples, markets, and estates.

And all of this is just a 20-minute drive outside modern day Tunis. It was quite the sight until 146 BC when the Romans came an lay siege to the place for 3 years.

Today there are 7 main sites that are left to see in Carthage and one ticket ($6 each) will get you into all the sites. The place is about 15-20 km out of town (a $7-8 cab ride) and our (flash) hotel was charging exorbitant rates for their tour (over $150 a head). So we hopped a cab and headed to the ruins.

But be warned the 7 places are a fair distance between each other. We made the mistake of thinking it was like the Roman Forum and was within an easy strolling distance. We got dropped off at the archaeological site and found ourselves stranded.

So we hiked about 1.5km to the Cathedral remains (Saint Cyprien) that were both shut and quite unimpressive. And then another 1.7km walk up to the roman houses and villas. The lady at the gate at the villas entry was busy talking on her phone. So Jill stood in front of her and waited, and waited and put her money on the counter and waited. After quite literally 12 minutes of this, she picked up her money, turned around and walked away. With some choice words.

Unsurprisingly, as soon as she took her money and turned away the girl got off the phone and was ready to serve Jill. Some more choice words and we continued to walk away from her, with some more choice words. About 500m further on we found ourselves at the Roman Amphitheatre where we paid our entry and entered with no issues whatsoever. And across the road was some more ruins.

Another 1.5km walk and we found ourselves atop Byrsa hill at the Saint Louis Cathedral and the acropolis of Byrsa. This is the site of the Carthage Museum and an impressive number of pieces of Roman Columns and the odd statue.

About 2km down the hill was the last of the sights (given that we boycotted the Roman Villas due to the attitude of the girl on the counter) the aqueducts. Built in the 2nd century BC by the emperor Hadrian, they brought water more than 100kms from Zaghouan to Carthage.

Ramadan

For some reason, Jill has taken to booking us into Muslim countries during Ramadan. Last year it was the Maldives and this year it was Morocco and Tunisia and later in Istanbul. This is a forced alcohol detox as the nations typically do not serve alcohol anyway and during the holy month there is no chance.

The other thing it means is that almost every restaurant is closed and by the time the sun goes down, you tend to be a bit peckish. Thankfully we found a little joint that served brilliant local dishes for a song. Our (flash) hotel was offering a set (abridged) menu for 100 dinar ($50) a head, so we hit the streets hunting for better. And did we find it.

A little hole-in-the-wall joint, with a huge upstairs terrace, great food and entertainment for 45 dinars ($22.50) a head. Dinner was salad (more dips really) and bread, traditional soup, and the main (that came cooked and served in a weird shaped pot) was a hearty stew type thing. We went looking the next night for something different but ended up at the same joint and had a seafood main and some form of crispy egg crepe in place of the soup.

We had planned a trip to Dougga, which is lauded as “the best-preserved Roman small town in North Africa”. But I guess this will sit high on the list of things to do next time we come.

The Amphitheatre of El Jem is an amphitheatre in original town of Thysdrus although now known as El Djem. It was built for the usual roman spectator sports (gladiators etc) around 238 AD and is one of the best preserved stone in the world. It was one of the biggest amphitheatres in the world with an estimated capacity of around 35,000.

And sadly, this is one of the many things that we did not get to. So this (along with a bunch of other reasons) rates as a pretty good reason to come back.

Tunisia was great and there was so much more for us to see and do. It was a great pity that the currency issue as you leave puts a bad taste in your mouth. Other than this we really enjoyed our time here and will be back.

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