Where is the snow?

Its been a busy month since I last wrote on the blog. I have a job at Whistler, working in a restaurant at the top of the mountain, moved into a new flat and am trying to settle into life in a ski resort. There is no snow at the moment, and none forcast until January. This is bad news for the company I am working for and the workers, no snow no work. The town is suffering at the moment and the company is thinking about closing the mountains until snow appears. This is unheard of in Whistler. The worst thing about this all is that there probably isn't going to be a white christmas, which is why so many of us came up here in the first place. Not to worry, a work collegue suggested we hike up to Glacier Point (very long hike) and have a picnic and bon fire on xmas day. Not sure I'll take him up on the offer given that it will be very cold and I will be exhausted at the end of the climb I won't be able to enjoy the view.

The view from my new workplace is incredible. At orientation the company told us that Whistler was the number one dream destination in the world for holiday makers and I can now understand why. Even though there is no snow, the views of the mountains are stunning and you feel like you are on top of the world. Of course its not the Himalayas, but its good enough for me.

I've been trying to understand Canadian culture, reading up on what makes the country tick and all of that, but I'm still none the wiser. All I've come up with is that they are obessesed with identity (Don't ever mistaken a canadian for an American) and they like beer. Its much like Australia! They do seem to be a little more critical of things and are more interested in local news than world news. Its hard to get any information over here except from the web.

I am older than everyone by an average of about 5 years so no one understands when I talk about John Hughes films, its quite strange. Still its good for my ego because no one thinks I am the age I am so thats good.

Well theres not much more to tell, when I start learning to snowboard I will have more adventures to tell, hopefully no horror stories.

Quiet Riot

Life in Vancouver is moving along slowly, I've been here 2 weeks and it feels like 6 months. Thats how easy life is here. The hostel I am staying in is in Gastown which is in the old part of the city. The advantage of travelling in the winter means that there are not many travellers so I have a room to myself with a big bay window. In Gastown there is a ridiculous clock powered by, you guessed it, Gas and it makes these awful sounds, like a distorted pan flute, every 15 minutes. I hear the clock every 15 minutes from my room, which can be a little annoying at times, after the novelty has worn off.

Vancouver is beautiful. The city has alot of urban parks and walking tracks which I have been making the most of. Stanley Park, the largest urban park in the world, is like a wilderness in the middle of the city, a great place to get lost in. I spent a whole day wandering around the park, watching squirrels and birds and people. The mountains tower over the city in an ominous way, I can't wait till the snow starts to appear on these peaks. The city is fairly accessible by foot and I've done pretty much everything by walking. Its started raining though so this will be limited over the coming months.

Canadians are interesting people. There was a riot at GM Place (about 10 minutes walk from my hostel) because Guns N Roses were a no show 2 days ago. Apparantly there is atleast one riot a year here in Vancouver, but its usually after an ice hockey game. Fighting seems to be part of the culture (although they never hit girls!!), theres always an arguement going on everywhere you go. Sometimes there are fists, sometimes just alot of swearing and yelling. Don't ask me why this is, I think probably its to do with the macho nature of bars in this country. The thing is that people are soooo friendly and they think Australian's are cool (??) and when they have an argument its usually over within 5 minutes and they seem to be on good terms again. Bizarre.

Vancouver is also a place where alot of films are being shot or have been shot. The X Files was filmed here for many years, and currently they are filming X Men 2 (I'm on the lookout for Ian McKellen and Hugh Jackman) and lots of other TV shows. Everywhere you turn there is a film crew. I"m going to sigh up at an extra's agency, see if I can get my mug on the big screen.

I spent 2 days up in Whistler, a big snow resort 3 hours north of Vancouver. I went up to be interviewed for a possible job and to check it out. Its very beautiful up there and the snow capped peaks were just about to make themselves clear to us. I find out on Tuesday whether I am going to spent the next 4 months working the snow fields and learning to ski. If I don't I think I'm going to head east, towards the freezing part of the country and Toronto or Montreal. My heads in the clouds at the moment. I'm enjoying Canadian hospitality and life alot.

Yosemite and Moving On

Last week I spent four days hiking through the incredible landscape of Yosemite National Park. The autumn colours were out in bloom and the weather was beautiful, so I took the opportunity to climb mountains and enjoy the nature and fresh air. The only think was that there was no water for the waterfalls, as Yosemite is famous for these. Still it didn't matter because you could imagine where the water would be coming from, and I did see a small bit of water after I climbed to the top of Nevada Falls (which took me about 4 hours). I got to see coyotes and deer in their natural environment and alot of beautiful birds. I even got to hear a squirrel sing, I didn't know they could! I had a Northern Exposure moment, a deer was wondering down the main street of the village, minding its own business whilst everyone else had to move out of its way. Yosemite Valley is surrounded by sheer cliffs which in the summer turn into waterfalls, so everywhere you look there are granite mountains towering down on you. Photos and words cannot do it justice, its a beautiful part of the world.

Rhonda, Jerry and I also visited Alcatraz Prison which is on an island in San Francisco Bay. Its a fascinating site and very eeiry. Alcatraz was horrendous prison, its cold and windy and the prisoners could even here people partying in the city when the wind was blowing in the right direction. The interior of the prison was incredibly small as you could imagine and the solitary confinement cells were claustaphobic. The prison held some of America's most famous criminals before it closed down in the 60's including Al Capone. After the prison closed down it was occupied by the North American Indians who claimed it as their land for nearly 3 years. The occupaation is known as the begining of the political movement for American Indians in this country. It put a different light on the prison which is famous for its harshness.

I have also been in America at the time of the World Series Finals baseball which fortunely or unfortunately San Francisco was in. So I have watched quite a few games and got to know some of the players. Its an interesting sport and the many years I played softball as a kid came in handy because it basically has the same rules. Interestingly its the world series finals and it only includes teams from America or Canada, I think that says alot about the way this country sees itself in the world.

America is a huge country with a huge population, its not really surprising that so many strange and awful things happen here. There is atleast one serial killer a year and since I've been here there have been shooting sprees killing a few people every other day. Everyone goes on about defending democracy, yet only 40% of the population vote during elections. They talk about how important defending freedom is yet if you borrow a book from a library about terrorism or fundamentalism you can be arrested for being one (the government now has the right to access personal library borrowing records). If that was the case in Australia half of the library borrowers at Stanton would have been suspected terrorists. This country is full of hypocracies, but its a great country to visit. I am told that Canada is completely different again, here they call it America Light! So it will be interesting to note the differences.

So tomorrow its off to Vancouver and the start of my new life. I will send you all my address and phone number when I finally find a place to live. I'll be staying in a hostel probably for the first few weeks until I get a job.

Stay safe and well.

The Streets of San Francisco

Well its taken a while to get here but I am finally in North America, and I must say it is a pleasant surprise. My final days in London were fairly uneventful, I didn't do alot except hang out with friends and watch Indian films (my favourite pastime). I did manage to see the latest devatating Ken Loach film, which pretty much leaves you winded. Its called Sweet Sixteen and I highly recommend it if it comes to Australia. My love of Bollywood films made for an interesting security check at Heathrow airport. As you could imagine going into the US means going through some very stingent security checks (including taking off my smelly shoes) and when it came to searching my bag I go some funny looks from the officers as they kept pulling out bollywood partifalia. Stardust magazine, a less sophisticated version of Who magazine with all the goss related to all my favourite stars, including SRK, a soundtrack to the latest blockbuster Laagan and a book about Pakistan. The officer then asked my if I watch these films, and when I said yes, we launched into a very funny converstation about what films are hot at the moment and who is the best actor. My favourite is Aamir Khan and I was told he is yesterday's hero. Strange that I am always a few years behind! However they let me through no dramas and continued to look at me strangely.

I was nervous about coming to America but in hindsight there was no need to be. My friends RHonda and Jerry live in Redwood City, about an hour out of San Francisco, in the heart of suburbia, but close to the forests. I love the city itself, its everything you imagine it to be, hills and cable cars. The Golden Gate bridge is very golden when you get to see it as it is constantly shrouded in fog, and the island prison of Alcatraz sits in the harbour, like a ghost. We are going to the prison on Saturday and we are looking forward to it.

We went to the beach side town of Santa Cruz last weekend, where the 80's film the Lost Boys was shot (Rhonda and I were huge fans of this film about vampires). The boardwalk hosts a wide range of fun fair rides and activities and the tackiness was not lost on us. We rode the Ghost Train, which was very tame and lots of fun. Then it was someones silly idea (mine I think) to ride the oldest wooden rollar coaster in the world. It looked kind of tame, I thought I could handle it. How wrong was I! I think it was the scariest 5 minutes of my life and if I could have gotten off I would have. I screamed so hard I almost lost my voice and I couldn't even enjoy the coastal view. Still the adenline rush was huge and although I won't ever do it again, I'm glad I didn't pike at the last minute. Santa Cruz also plays host to the Mystery Spot, some strange phenomon where gravity is reversed. We tried to find it but the mystery spot was so mysterious it took us a long time to get there and then it was closed. Not to worry, it was a nice drive.

On Sunday Rhonda and I went to the Mall for some shopping. Not very exciting but a very American thing to do. This country is a living stereotype but thats kind of cool, especially when you think of all those Seinfield episodes and John Hughes movies watched. I feel like I am reliving the 80's again. Not to mention the fact that its wartime over here and there are open displays of patriotism gone mad. How many flags do you think you need to show you are American, I think a minimum of 3 would surfice, 3 on one house that is. Its also coming up to Halloween and there are alot of stuff you can buy for that, I would love to be a children's librarian here, so much fun to be had.

Rhonda tells me that Australian's are considered as exotic over here and that Kylie is seen as the most exotic name there is. This country is very strange indeed.

Next week I am off to Yosemite for 3 days of hiking and nature, before heading off to Canada. The news of the bombing in Bali came as a huge shock, as it was for everyone, but war isn't the answer. The state of the world has certainly changed and I can only hope for peace.

Gai Paris

I arrived in Paris to a glorious autumn day, the sky was a deep blue and on the mount of Sacre Coeur (church) I had a clear view of the city of Paris. This was a stunning introduction to this very romantic city. What can you say about Paris that hasn't already been said? The best way to visit the city, I think, is to become a real tourist which is exactly what I did. I did everything you could possibly do within 4 days. I saw so much art that I now understand why art is so important.

My hostel was at the bottom of the hill of Montmarte, for those of you who have seen the film Amelie, this is where it was filmed. Montmarte is the place where alot of artists, writers and poets lived over the course of 2 centuries, so apart from it being very touristy, there is a real feel of bohemia here. I spent hours wandering the cobblestone streets admiring apartment blocks and steep hills. I did go to see the Moulin Rouge, which still exists for tourists, but it is in a horrible area of Montmarte and has lost the romance of its glory days. I did look for the cafe in Amelie and I think I found it, however there are alot of similar cafes so anyone of them could have been the one. I am sure if I looked hard enough there would have been an Amelie walking tour of sites, but I wasn't really interested.

The list of art I saw in Paris is pretty much the whos who of art in the worlds history. The Louvre, with its famous, but disappointing Mona Lisa, is a stunning building but didn't hold much interest to me. I thought I should go and see this famous painting but it was small and behind glass so you get not only the glare of the lights, but have to wade through the throng of tourists standing in front of the painting. Strangly one thing I have noticed all over my European and Russian sojurn has been the curious thing of having your photo taken in front of a famous painting. Very odd.

I won't bore you with all the art galleries we went to except the ones which really blew my mind. Namely the Musee d'Orsey, the Pompidou Centre and the Rodin Museum. The Musee d'Orsey had the most amazing collection of impressionist and post-impressionist paintings I have ever seen, from Monet to Van Gough, Picasso and Matisse to Pissarro. I was stunned to say the least. They even housed some original Toulse-Latrec's which were outstanding. The Museum is housed in a renovated railway shed and the view over the city from the roof is beautiful.

The Pompidou Centre is an interesting building and its collection is very impressive. It traces the history of modern art and gives you a good impression of the development of different ideas of art. I loved the Kandinsky's, Picasso's and finally got to see a Jackson Pollack. That was very exciting. Whilst alot of the intallation modern art was totally incomprehensible ('I know what I like and I know what I don't like!') it was good to see a museum taking modern art seriously for a change. Its a stange place with the underground car park even turned into some kind of installation art piece. Also alot of the space is designated as a public library, which I thought was very good.

The Rodin museum is incredible. Rodin was a prolific sculpture and his most famous sculpture, The Thinker stands in the garden, across from the Gates of Hell, which just blows your mind. I felt a bit disturbed by some of his pieces but overall just amazed at the facial expressions he managed to carve out of stone. The garden is littered with his sculptures as well, its like everywhere you turn there is another amazing piece. Rodin is everywhere in Paris, even in the Louvre there are some of his pieces, so I feel that he had real influence over the city somehow.

I did all the other touristy things, climbed up the Arc d'Triumph and watched as the cars tried to negotiate the Champs d'Eylesse and the other roads which lead up to the Arc. I saw the Eifel Tower during the day and at night. It was more impressive at night and I choose not to go up to the top, one look at the lift and I knew my legs would go to jelly the minute I stepped into it. I saw Notre Dame Cathedral which is more impressive than any of its pictures/paintings/photographs. I had some Sobet to die for and alot of very nice bread and pastries.

Perhaps the highlight of my Paris trip however was the Paris Garnier Opera, which I was somehow lucky enough to scam a very cheap ticket for its performance of Guilious Ceaser. The Opera House's roof was painted by Marc Chagall and its one of the most beautiful places I have ever been in. The performance itself was interesting, the lead character, Julius Ceaser, was sung by a woman from the orchestra pit, whilst a man was acting the part on stage. It threw me for a while whilst I tried to work out where the voice was coming from, but in the end it worked. I was happy because there was a very good death scene (whats a good opera without a good death scene?) and fabulous sets including some giant mummy sarcaphcous'. Interestingly I think they were trying to make a statement about the possible war with Iraq because at the end when Ceaser had beaten the Egyptians in a battle, he erected all these all wells in the background of the stage. I think it was some comment that war over oil is not right. I don't know but it was a little bit too obvious to be anything else.

Now I am back in London trying to sort out stuff for Canada and visiting some old friends. Its strange to be in London because I've done all the touristy things and I don't feel like resident anymore. Still its a great city and its been great to catch up with some people I haven't seen for a very long time. I have downloaded all of my photos, arranged them into folders but its just a matter of uploading them onto the web now, which will be done asap.

Eurovision and Laderhosen

It has been a while since I have put an entry on the blog but I have been travelling quite a lot and really enjoying the hospitality of friends. I left Copenhagen and spent a few days in Munich, which turned out to be a very nice surprise. I walked the city, through the parks and the biggest beer garden in the world, had a peak at some grand buildings and a few beers in the old beer halls. I tried practising my very limited german "ein beire bitter" "one beer please" too some success.

I then caught a train to Schäwbish Gmünd, a beautiful old town not far from Stuttgard where, just out of it live my friends Marco and Monika. Schäwbish Gmünd has two very old and gothic churches and a very nice outdoor cafe culture. During my week long stay with Marco and Moni we visited a few of the old towns around the area which included an old medieval town with a fortified wall surrounding it. We even managed to see a Marc Chagall exhibition somewhere in regional Germany, I found this very strange but in a way very european. We went on long walks up mountains to see castles and views, and I even got to ride a bike around their neighbouring village. The ride was hard and I had to walk up many of the hills, but with cake and coffee waiting at the end, it was worth it. Germany is a very beautiful place.

Monika and Marco live in a very small village called Brainkoven and its very rural. Across from their house is a cow pen where the cows eat and moo all day and all night. Its stange to be woken by the odd mooing sounds that cows make, but the fresh country air is always a welcome relief.

One thing I noticed about Germany was that when you turn on the radio, they are playing eurovision songs, including the winner of the 2000 contest from Denmark (if you can remember the travelling wilburys- Fly on the wings of love, fly baby fly). Marco, like any good music lover, has the eurovision CD from 2001, which was played many times. We even managed to make up our own actions to the Swedish entry which really should have won the competition. I videoed it but unfortunately the memory card fillled up before we finished. We have now made a plan to go to a Eurovision final either in 2004 or maybe 2005. Any other takers?

The other noticable thing about my stay in Germany was a noticiable obseesions with cake and chocolate. This fed into my sugar dependencies and I managed to scoff down many cakes and kinder surprises. Now I am in Switzerland and they are equally obssessive, which I find very dangerous. I was lucky enought to stay in Germany long enough to meet up with Spanish Michael and Chris on their way home. We all went out to a traditional Swabian restaurant that night where we had snitzel and sausage, not to mention a bit of beer and wine, and some very special icecream. Upstairs at this restaurant they have square dancing classes, but when Michael went up to look, they immediately stopped. I think it was a secret society of square dancers.

I have now spent a few days in switzerland with Anne. On Saturday we visited Lausaune, the home of the Olympics, and more importantly there are vineyards just out of the town. We walked the hills through the vineyards trying to find some wine to taste but to no avail. However the scenery was stunning, overlooking Lake Geneva, with hills of vineyards, I managed to find a few castles in which I would like to live. We found a Cavern in which to sample some of the local wine, which we did and I bought some rose, which I couldnt resist. I try not to buy into the sterotype about Switzerland, all cheese and chocolate, but I do find it funny that the restaurnats do actually serve fondu and you can buy chocolate just about everywhere. I did buy some, including some Asterix chocolate, unfortunately not Asterix in Switerland choccy.

I like it here but tomorrow I am off to Paris. Its been fantastic to catch up with old friends, who would have thought that we would all end up here at some stage or the other. After a few days in Paris, I am going back to London for a few weeks and then its off to San Francisco to see Rhonda and the inevitable reality of work and a new country to settle into. As winter approaches I am grateful for the exteneded summer that I have had in Europe.

Wonderful Wonderful Copenhagen

Copenhagen was a welcome change. I spent the weekend with Delia and John who have been recently cycled through many parts of the world. There isn't alot to do in Copenhagen but its a great place to hang out with friends. I took many tacky tourist shots of the Little Mermaid sculpture, we climbed the ROundtower for a fabulous view of the city and we visited the hippy village of Christiania, a place set up in the 60's when there was a housing shortage. I loved riding a bicycle around the city, there are fantastic bike tracks and most people ride bikes. Its a nice change from other cities, including Sydney.

We visited Helsingnor, the place where Hamlet is set and whilst we were being spooked by the ghost of Hamlet's father, we were enjoying the gothic castle and the view across the water to Sweden. We caught the ferry across the water and stepped foot onto my 3rd country in 2 days, Sweden. What a lovely contrast that was, more medieval castles and pastries. Lucky for us there was a medieval festival going on around the base of a medieval tower. So there was dancing and music and juggling and archery and you could even buy patterns to make your very own medieval outfit. It was really nice and very fitting.

The towns are lovely, with cobblestone streets and painted houses. I nearly continued my chance meeting of leaders of the world as I read the next day the the EU Foreign ministers met at Helsingnor over the weekend. We didn't run into any, although I doubt that I would have recognised them.

As soon as I get back to London I will try and post some photos on the blog. So please be patient.

I am now in Munich and am enjoying the beer halls and gardens. Today I visited the world's first Easter Bunny museum (had to be done) where I was surprised to see even a National Socialist Easter Bunny. Bunnies for all! There was even a chamber pot museaum which had some very funny painted porcelain toilet seats.

Tomorrow its off to Marco and Monika's. I'm lacking inspiration at the moment so apologies for these blogs being a rant.

Reflections on Russia

I am now in Munich after a very long train journey from St Petersberg to Moscow and a weekend in wonderful wonderful Copenhagen. Russia is a country full of surprises, its hard to get used to it but when you finally do its time to go. St Petersberg was under construction when we where there which meant everything, including buildings and roads where either being dug up or under scaffolding. In 2003 its the city's 300th birthday so the Mayor (an engineer) has decided to fix up the city. HOwever he has decided to do it all at once, and I can tell you health and safety is not an issue. Scary.

After storming the Winter Palace I was amazed at the extreme amount of wealth of the royal family and spent atleast an hour with my mouth open looking at the ceiling. The Romanov's had it coming to them really. The Russians seem to be embracing their past and have reconstructed the throne room and have many of the treasures of the former royal family on display. Strangely this is the most visited part of the museum so when you go up to the third floor to see the Matisse and Picasso's is virtually empty, which suited me.

We had a few adventures along the way. We visited the port of Kronstandt, which played a pivitol role in the revoluution only to find that there really isn't anything there. We thought we would catch the ferry back to St Petersberg and got on the first one we saw, assuming it would take us there. We were wrong, we ended up somewhere I don't know where, and if it weren't for a very kind woman who walked us too the train station and helped us by tickets, I don't really know where we might have ended up. The train journey in itself was really intersting, comuters from a long days work.

We also visited Vyborg,on the border with Finland and got to go on a boat ride to the border, we got to point at Finland which was very exciting. In Vyborg we experinced yet another health and safety problem. You can climb to the top of the roundtower which gives you fabolous views of Russia and Finland, but if you manage to survive the climb up the rickity staircase you will find the actual lookout is seperated by about 30 cm to a very loose barricade. My legs went the moment I stepped out and I practically ran down the stairs. Russian people like to push you see and health and safety don't seem to be an issue to them strangely. SO whilst you are up there you are also being pushed and shoved for the best view. NOt my idea of fun. Only in Russia.

I coined two phrases to explain the state of Russia 'Because they can' and 'Only in RUssia'.