The Expo Tower...probably the only other 'sight' in Sokcho...
October 16, 2004
I wondered into town in search of supplies (fuel, noodles, chocolate, energy drinks etc.) and found that, despite scratching beneath the surface, Sokcho was still a pit. Got the necessary, packed up and moved out shortly before twelve. My notorious appetite insisted that I bolster myself for later exertions before catching the bus, so I stopped in at, literally, the first restaurant next to the hotel. It turned out to be a milestone in my Korean adventures. Whilst many helpful people had ensured I caught the correct bus and directed me to various sights, I had yet to have a conversation with a Korean. I think it must be incredibly difficult for Koreans to speak English – for a start some phoneme differentiations in our language, don’t even exist in theirs (‘f’ and ‘p’ for starters…my Korean name being Pin ;-) hmmm…). Then of course there’s the matter of an entirely different alphabet. This notwithstanding, many Koreans are more than competent speakers – and keen to practise their skills given the slightest opportunity. I put my lack of chat thus far down to the usual Big City syndrome in Seoul and my own reticence. Anyway, I digress…
I sat down opposite an elderly gentleman, who observed me offloading the 20kg pack and immediately piped up with, ‘Are you true Alpinist?’ I was so chuffed that he had obviously recognised me for what I am (er, no laughing at the back) that I responded ‘Yes!’ and immediately launched into my plans for hiking around Seoraksan Park. He was genuinely interested in my thoughts on Korea and how it compared to ‘Scoterland’ and ‘Engerland’. Between recommending what to eat (he wouldn’t let me have what he was eating, as he thought it would be too fiery for my delicate European palate…I never learn, eh?) and haranguing the proprietress to hurry up on my behalf, we talked about his children (both studying in the States) and his love for the local countryside. He seemed genuinely interested in what I had to say and really made me feel at home for the first time in Korea. Thus far, I had quite happily taken in all the new experiences and kind of adapted to the ‘outsider’ experience. Those who know me well, will agree that above most things, I love to talk. Having spent most of the preceding five days saying very little, this moment was eagerly accepted – and I was truly sorry to see him leave. I now felt that I had begun my transition from tourist to traveller…
I sat down opposite an elderly gentleman, who observed me offloading the 20kg pack and immediately piped up with, ‘Are you true Alpinist?’ I was so chuffed that he had obviously recognised me for what I am (er, no laughing at the back) that I responded ‘Yes!’ and immediately launched into my plans for hiking around Seoraksan Park. He was genuinely interested in my thoughts on Korea and how it compared to ‘Scoterland’ and ‘Engerland’. Between recommending what to eat (he wouldn’t let me have what he was eating, as he thought it would be too fiery for my delicate European palate…I never learn, eh?) and haranguing the proprietress to hurry up on my behalf, we talked about his children (both studying in the States) and his love for the local countryside. He seemed genuinely interested in what I had to say and really made me feel at home for the first time in Korea. Thus far, I had quite happily taken in all the new experiences and kind of adapted to the ‘outsider’ experience. Those who know me well, will agree that above most things, I love to talk. Having spent most of the preceding five days saying very little, this moment was eagerly accepted – and I was truly sorry to see him leave. I now felt that I had begun my transition from tourist to traveller…
For all intents and purposes, Sokcho was nothing more than a staging post for my foray into the mountains of Soraksan. I stayed in some sort of honeymoon hotel (red lighting in the boudoir, castle accoutrements adorning the building’s exterior etc.) and enjoyed a relaxing evening watching Tarantino’s Four Rooms and White Men Can’t Jump on videos supplied free by the hotel. As you can see from the photos, getting up at 6.15 was well and truly worth it! The sky was utterly devoid of cloud and there was not a breath of wind as the sun exploded onto the horizon. I love my colours - particularly those derived from clouds – but there was something compelling about this pure, unadulterated sunbirth that took my breath away. Along the beach, locals and Korean tourists paid their respects to the lifegiving sun. Some knelt silently, head bowed to the sand; others shouted greetings and waved…all very pagan, but in a society that is still mainly agricultural or weather-dependent (for fishing etc.), not altogether surprising. Whatever the backdrop, I felt I had witnessed something truly special and felt energised for the day ahead.
Sokcho - The Perfect Dawn
Arriving in Sokcho, you could be forgiven for assuming that nuclear apocalypse was no longer a future threat from nearby North Korea, but had in fact just happened. However, as we all know, you should never judge a book by its cover. In the harsh light of day, there is no denying that this sprawling fishing port is anything other than a total dump. Even by night, it leaves a lot to be desired…however, weather allowing and (obviously!) looking in the right direction (i.e. away from the city), dawn here is as beautiful and breath-taking sight as I’ve ever seen it.
October 15, 2004
Sight-seeing in Seoul
As promised, a more detailed account of what I got up to in Seoul. Before you read this (for those of you that are reading this regularly), I added some final thoughts to the last paragraph of yesterday's post...just some stuff that I'd wanted to put down but had to rush off and catch my bus...
Apologies for the lack of photos recently too - they are all sat in the camera or on the hard-drive of the laptop...I just haven't found a wireless internet cafe yet...so much for Korea being a wireless wonderland (Andy!).
Anyway...first stop on Tuesday's sightseeing tour of Seoul was Gyeongbokgung. This was the principal palace of the early Joseon dynasty until 1592 when it was destroyed by invading Japanese. It was rebuilt with most of its former splendour in the latter half of the 19th century. You'll get an idea of the place when the photos go up. Particularly beautiful is the island pavilion of Hyangwonjeong - set in the middle of a lily-covered lake. In past times you can imagine it as a beautiful tranquil spot in which to meditate or sit with a picnic. Unfortunately, screaming hordes of Korean and Japanese school kids mean it is the last place for R&R these days.
Within the palace grounds is the impressive building of the national folk museum. Inside are four halls of exhibits and models of rustic and court life through the ages. Appeasement of and prayer to the gods has been a particularly important feature of a mainly agricultural society over the last 1500 years. Many rituals and artefacts demonstrate the importance of good harvests or plentiful catches from the sea in villages that were mainly self-sufficient. Not entirely surprising is the amazing array of fine crafts and useful technologies that have evolved. When you think of the Koreans' proficiency in microchip technology in the 21st century, you can understand the incredible intricacy of the Joseon dynasty's gold and jade jewellery. The design of early Korean houses is also remarkably forward thinking - the ondol (their version of the hypocaust, using the flue gases and smoke from the cooking range to heat the stone blocks in the underfloor cavity) is every bit as inventive as those found in early European civilisations. Interestingly, most restaurants still serve food on a raised platform with ondol heating underneath. Shoes are removed when entering the restaurant and diners eat cross-legged on the floor at low tables.
Apologies for the lack of photos recently too - they are all sat in the camera or on the hard-drive of the laptop...I just haven't found a wireless internet cafe yet...so much for Korea being a wireless wonderland (Andy!).
Anyway...first stop on Tuesday's sightseeing tour of Seoul was Gyeongbokgung. This was the principal palace of the early Joseon dynasty until 1592 when it was destroyed by invading Japanese. It was rebuilt with most of its former splendour in the latter half of the 19th century. You'll get an idea of the place when the photos go up. Particularly beautiful is the island pavilion of Hyangwonjeong - set in the middle of a lily-covered lake. In past times you can imagine it as a beautiful tranquil spot in which to meditate or sit with a picnic. Unfortunately, screaming hordes of Korean and Japanese school kids mean it is the last place for R&R these days.
Within the palace grounds is the impressive building of the national folk museum. Inside are four halls of exhibits and models of rustic and court life through the ages. Appeasement of and prayer to the gods has been a particularly important feature of a mainly agricultural society over the last 1500 years. Many rituals and artefacts demonstrate the importance of good harvests or plentiful catches from the sea in villages that were mainly self-sufficient. Not entirely surprising is the amazing array of fine crafts and useful technologies that have evolved. When you think of the Koreans' proficiency in microchip technology in the 21st century, you can understand the incredible intricacy of the Joseon dynasty's gold and jade jewellery. The design of early Korean houses is also remarkably forward thinking - the ondol (their version of the hypocaust, using the flue gases and smoke from the cooking range to heat the stone blocks in the underfloor cavity) is every bit as inventive as those found in early European civilisations. Interestingly, most restaurants still serve food on a raised platform with ondol heating underneath. Shoes are removed when entering the restaurant and diners eat cross-legged on the floor at low tables.
En route to the southern part of the city, I passed through the famous Insadong area. The main street, Insadong-gil is strewn with art galleries, traditional teashops and small restaurants. Probably better explored at the weekends when the road is closed to traffic, it was still fascinating wending my way through back alleys, trying local street- snacks and generally immersing myself in the local arts culture. At the southern end lies Tapgol park - a calm oasis amid the hustle and bustle of city life. Tall trees bring shade and the musical sound of running water smothers the sounds of passing traffic - the high wall even goes some way to keeping out the fumes. The edges of the park are dotted with small, cheap restaurants and the sight of men huddled around games of jangii. This puzzle game - similar to draughts and chess and chinese checkers, I think...sort of ;-) - is a great way of killing time for the retired men in the locality. Occasionally, an office worker on lunch-break, will chance his arm against these wily old pros...usually to his cost. Literally hundreds of games are conducted cross-legged on sheets of newspaper, while onlookers offer advice or derision...while I didn't have a clue what was going on, it was still difficult to tear myself away from this engrossing street scene.
Next stop, Namdaemun market. Strewth! Narrow alleyways, multi-storey malls, grubby back-streets all rammed to the gills with stalls, shops, cafes, bars and snack-carts, selling every good imaginable. The clamour of traders advertising their wares is deafening; the smells over-powering and often enticing; and, for those who like to shop, the sight is mouth-watering. If you know me, I'm not a shopper. The fake Louis Vuitton (sp?) and Gucci could have been appalling or top-drawer - I'd have no idea. The mountains of highly-polished, patent-leather shoes (a local must have judging by their popularity) were blatantly too small for the likes of me and the countless high-tech goods stalls were of no interest to me at this stage of my journey. (Sorry, Andy - if I'd had the money and you'd given me a shopping list, I'm sure we'd have had a field day!) I contented myself by munching on a wide range of different snacks...although I still haven't found any bosintang! It's very difficult to spot foreign words on a menu when they don't even use the same alphabet!!
Last stop of the day was Namsan. A little like Montreal, the centre of the city is dominated by a forested, green hump. Atop sits the needle spire of Seoul Tower and spinning oh, so slowly around it's midpoint is the Revolving Restaurant, where I spent two hours consuming mediocre food (I was trying to keep the cost down), drinking refreshing beer and being totally astounded by the amazing views over the city and humbled by the beauty of the setting sun. A cable car, a short walk (downhill, thank god!) and a tube ride found a tired and somewhat-dishevelled me back at the Seoul Backpackers Motel...where a certain rucksack containing toiletries and clean clothes was gratefully recovered.
October 14, 2004
Seoul Long (Pun for my brother!)
Got my bag back...rifled, but intact and nothing missing. Nuff said.
My enforced two days in Seoul has been very interesting. As I said to a friend the other day, I cannot believe it is possible to travel only 10000miles from home and find an environment that is so, so alien. As I was eating my barbeque pork meal on Tuesday evening, I kept expecting to wake up from a weird dream or for the director to shout 'CUT' and for all these strange looking, alien-tongued people to walk away. I've only got a few minutes in the bus terminal internet cafe before heading off to Seoraksan National Park, but I just wanted to put down some general impressions of the place...a more detailed account of what I've done and where I've been will follow when I get to Sokcho - maybe this afternoon...
Firstly, referring back to my previous post about the size of the city. 'sprawling metropolis' is a gross understatement...sitting in the revolving restaurant at the top of the Seoul tower last night, I was completely gobsmacked by the size of the place. Nestled between and around an endless succession of bonsai mountains (someone else may have coined this term before - if so, I've never seen it. By it, I mean that these mountains give the impression of the scale of the Alps etc. (thickly forested, craggy and an endless sea of them receding behind each other into the distant horizon), yet only being max 1200m high), Seoul maximises ground space with countless tower blocks. The sheer concentration of humanity is staggering...little wonder that those that can, head to the hills at the weekends.
The subways during rush hour are every bit as rammed as the London Underground. Everyone seems to bear the squeeze with a stoicism that many Londoners would admire. Seoul's subway seems a lot friendlier than London's - a constant babble of chat and laughter...not to mention the inimitable muzak and Flatscreen TV adverts. A lot of the conviviality could be an illusion caused by the fact that (read it and weep, Londoners) mobile phones work underground.
Eating has been, er, interesting. All I can say is that I'm glad I'm partial to the odd Jalfrezi or Madras...when the nice Korean lady asks if you want your tempo hot, you'd better mean it...it helped me shift this cold/flu thing I've got anyway ;-) It's often difficult to eat alone in Seoul - a lot of the Korean traditional dishes are for sharing...either go for another option...or eat for two. Guess which I did...;-) Drinking is not a bad past-time here...Cass Fresh is the local brew...very refreshing and three bottles definitely has an effect. Anybody had green tea before? If you had a little sugar it tastes like - get this - shredded wheat! Strange, but pleasing.
Final impression...the denizens of Seoul are friendly and eager to help...particularly towards stupid looking foreign tourists. I've been saying a lot of hamsa gamnida to all the folk who've helped me out, believe me. The other thing that is undeniable about the Koreans is that the work ethic is well and truly engrained. Rush hour seems to last from 6.30am until 10.30 and then from 17.00 to 20.00...I'd hate to see what it'd be like if everyone went to work at the same time! I suspect there are two reasons why they work so hard...firstly, the tradition of hard work and mutual respect features strongly in their history. Secondly, there is no social security system here. Everyone works there asses off to ensure they have enough to retire and that their children are well-placed to look after them in old age. Those who manage this can look forward to a comfortable retirement living with their children - or in a retirement apartment if they've done particularly well for themselves. Those who don't manage it end their days trying to eke out a living by collecting cardboard or bottles for recycling, running street stalls selling fried nibbles for a pittance or living on the street and begging. In between these two extremes are the families that run street-level eating shacks, which double as living room and bedroom once the punters have gone home. In this respect, Seoul is like many other capital cities in developed countries...sparkling technology, skyscrapers and limousines on the outside, but scratch beneath the surface and the underworld of poverty and hardship is never far away. The difficult thing to understand, coming from my culture, is the lack of empathy / sympathy that successful well-to-do citizens seem to have for their less fortunate compatriots. A lot of this may be to do with the dominant religion of Confucianism, which teaches that status is everything. There is not a conscious process of ignoring lower status people, so much as a total obliviousness to their existence in the first place. Perhaps a small part of it is also to do with the fact that so many Koreans are self-made successes...is it hard to imagine that those who have achieved their success through hard work and initiative may look down on those who have failed? I'll be interested to see what the coutryside has in store...
My enforced two days in Seoul has been very interesting. As I said to a friend the other day, I cannot believe it is possible to travel only 10000miles from home and find an environment that is so, so alien. As I was eating my barbeque pork meal on Tuesday evening, I kept expecting to wake up from a weird dream or for the director to shout 'CUT' and for all these strange looking, alien-tongued people to walk away. I've only got a few minutes in the bus terminal internet cafe before heading off to Seoraksan National Park, but I just wanted to put down some general impressions of the place...a more detailed account of what I've done and where I've been will follow when I get to Sokcho - maybe this afternoon...
Firstly, referring back to my previous post about the size of the city. 'sprawling metropolis' is a gross understatement...sitting in the revolving restaurant at the top of the Seoul tower last night, I was completely gobsmacked by the size of the place. Nestled between and around an endless succession of bonsai mountains (someone else may have coined this term before - if so, I've never seen it. By it, I mean that these mountains give the impression of the scale of the Alps etc. (thickly forested, craggy and an endless sea of them receding behind each other into the distant horizon), yet only being max 1200m high), Seoul maximises ground space with countless tower blocks. The sheer concentration of humanity is staggering...little wonder that those that can, head to the hills at the weekends.
The subways during rush hour are every bit as rammed as the London Underground. Everyone seems to bear the squeeze with a stoicism that many Londoners would admire. Seoul's subway seems a lot friendlier than London's - a constant babble of chat and laughter...not to mention the inimitable muzak and Flatscreen TV adverts. A lot of the conviviality could be an illusion caused by the fact that (read it and weep, Londoners) mobile phones work underground.
Eating has been, er, interesting. All I can say is that I'm glad I'm partial to the odd Jalfrezi or Madras...when the nice Korean lady asks if you want your tempo hot, you'd better mean it...it helped me shift this cold/flu thing I've got anyway ;-) It's often difficult to eat alone in Seoul - a lot of the Korean traditional dishes are for sharing...either go for another option...or eat for two. Guess which I did...;-) Drinking is not a bad past-time here...Cass Fresh is the local brew...very refreshing and three bottles definitely has an effect. Anybody had green tea before? If you had a little sugar it tastes like - get this - shredded wheat! Strange, but pleasing.
Final impression...the denizens of Seoul are friendly and eager to help...particularly towards stupid looking foreign tourists. I've been saying a lot of hamsa gamnida to all the folk who've helped me out, believe me. The other thing that is undeniable about the Koreans is that the work ethic is well and truly engrained. Rush hour seems to last from 6.30am until 10.30 and then from 17.00 to 20.00...I'd hate to see what it'd be like if everyone went to work at the same time! I suspect there are two reasons why they work so hard...firstly, the tradition of hard work and mutual respect features strongly in their history. Secondly, there is no social security system here. Everyone works there asses off to ensure they have enough to retire and that their children are well-placed to look after them in old age. Those who manage this can look forward to a comfortable retirement living with their children - or in a retirement apartment if they've done particularly well for themselves. Those who don't manage it end their days trying to eke out a living by collecting cardboard or bottles for recycling, running street stalls selling fried nibbles for a pittance or living on the street and begging. In between these two extremes are the families that run street-level eating shacks, which double as living room and bedroom once the punters have gone home. In this respect, Seoul is like many other capital cities in developed countries...sparkling technology, skyscrapers and limousines on the outside, but scratch beneath the surface and the underworld of poverty and hardship is never far away. The difficult thing to understand, coming from my culture, is the lack of empathy / sympathy that successful well-to-do citizens seem to have for their less fortunate compatriots. A lot of this may be to do with the dominant religion of Confucianism, which teaches that status is everything. There is not a conscious process of ignoring lower status people, so much as a total obliviousness to their existence in the first place. Perhaps a small part of it is also to do with the fact that so many Koreans are self-made successes...is it hard to imagine that those who have achieved their success through hard work and initiative may look down on those who have failed? I'll be interested to see what the coutryside has in store...
October 12, 2004
Seoul
Well, I've just been for a little tour round the locality (yes, okay...I got lost again...I suppose it's no use to try and pretend I was doing it on purpose...but I was, honest! I find one gets a much finer appreciation of the local culture if one steps off the beaten track...blah...blah...blah ;-)
Yes, anyway. I have lost all my former good faith in Air Canada as it turns out they are incapable of putting a bag marked Seoul on the plane to Seoul...I am now feeling a mixture of irritation and smugness...the latter engendered by the fact that a spare pair of shreddies and a toothbrush reside in my carry-on luggage (take note little brother). Still, prone as I am to making the most of the situation, I know I would far rather be hoying myself up a mountain trail than sucking in the sights and smells (and believe me, there are some!) of downtown Seoul. It's a very busy, noisy, smelly little place...when I say little, I'm referring to the alleyways and low roofed shacks that line them as opposed to the city - which is an enormous sprawling metropolis. (In fact the place has got so big, they had to steal some land back from the sea just to put a new airport in!) For all the hustle and bustle, it has a certain, subliminal appeal (it's probably all those flashing neon lights - bit like the fruit machines when I was a kid) - and having eaten my first authentic meal on Asian soil, I definitely want more! A large selection of pickled vegetables, leaves (to wrap stuff in), rice, soup and raw marinaded meat is brought to the table. The big hole in the middle of the table is filled with a brazier of hot charcoal and the weird metal tube above the table suddenly becomes an extractor fan. You then proceed to barbeque your pork belly, stack it up on a leaf with too many of the aforementioned pickles and cram it all into your mouth with as little mess as possible - I picked this one up from a well-dressed middle-aged woman across the way from me. Wash it down with Korean lager and hey, presto! - you're ready to go to sleep for the first time in 36 hours.
Tomorrow shall see if those flappy-headed, beady-eyed fools have managed to retrieve my bag...if not, I may well go and try some bosintang - google it...;-)
Yes, anyway. I have lost all my former good faith in Air Canada as it turns out they are incapable of putting a bag marked Seoul on the plane to Seoul...I am now feeling a mixture of irritation and smugness...the latter engendered by the fact that a spare pair of shreddies and a toothbrush reside in my carry-on luggage (take note little brother). Still, prone as I am to making the most of the situation, I know I would far rather be hoying myself up a mountain trail than sucking in the sights and smells (and believe me, there are some!) of downtown Seoul. It's a very busy, noisy, smelly little place...when I say little, I'm referring to the alleyways and low roofed shacks that line them as opposed to the city - which is an enormous sprawling metropolis. (In fact the place has got so big, they had to steal some land back from the sea just to put a new airport in!) For all the hustle and bustle, it has a certain, subliminal appeal (it's probably all those flashing neon lights - bit like the fruit machines when I was a kid) - and having eaten my first authentic meal on Asian soil, I definitely want more! A large selection of pickled vegetables, leaves (to wrap stuff in), rice, soup and raw marinaded meat is brought to the table. The big hole in the middle of the table is filled with a brazier of hot charcoal and the weird metal tube above the table suddenly becomes an extractor fan. You then proceed to barbeque your pork belly, stack it up on a leaf with too many of the aforementioned pickles and cram it all into your mouth with as little mess as possible - I picked this one up from a well-dressed middle-aged woman across the way from me. Wash it down with Korean lager and hey, presto! - you're ready to go to sleep for the first time in 36 hours.
Tomorrow shall see if those flappy-headed, beady-eyed fools have managed to retrieve my bag...if not, I may well go and try some bosintang - google it...;-)
October 11, 2004
Toronto...
I never cease to be amazed by the ability of my fellow man (and woman) to be so immediately accepting and welcoming towards total strangers. My (slightly shortened) weekend in Toronto was punctuated by a series of first-time meetings, swiftly followed by comfortable acceptance and generous hospitality. A great deal of my good fortune is down to the fact the Ollie was the medium through which I met all these people...his own generous, free-spirited outlook on life tends to attract the kind of folk you want to spend time with. To Fred, Jacqui and Richie (the Hellers), Dana, Christine, Carolyn, Tyler, Patricia and Laura - thank you for making me feel welcome, for your hospitality and for an hilarious and thoroughly enjoyable weekend...and please stay in touch.
Those who read this blog the right way (i.e. from bottom to top), our roadside snapshot may give you an idea as to why our weekend was a little shorter than planned...without wishing to beat Lauren over the head with this again (but it is fun...), who in their right mind would hire a car from 'Rent-a-Wreck'?!!! Surely that is just asking for trouble? Anyway, after a last breakfast at L'avenue (I was determined that the 4-egg omelette would not defeat me!), we departed for Toronto in plenty of time to beat the holiday traffic (for Thanksgiving weekend Friday traffic on the Montreal-Toronto highway, imagine M4 westbound on a May Bank Holiday apparently). Less than 10 miles down the road and the car found 40mph too taxing and eventually gave out all together...woohoo!! To be frank, I wasn't all that bothered (at first)...particularly when I found out the name of the hire company...that kept me laughing for a good ten minutes...and there was still plenty of food to keep me quiet (See picture). However, as it became apparent that we were no more than an inconvenience to the hire company and that we weren't going to be sorted out particularly quickly, visions of a boozy night in Toronto with a certain roommate began to dissipate rapidly. Eventually, we were furnished with a new car - after an amusing encounter with a French-Canadian tow-truck driver who happily regaled us with tales of the good old days. Apparently, before the City council interfered with the licensing of tow-trucks, it was quite common for rival towers to torch each others' trucks as competition was quite fierce. At this point, he seemed relatively sane...until he told us that, during this period of 'strong commercial rivalry', he had slept in his truck for 3months '...because at least that way, if they did torch my truck, the police would be forced to investigate it properly...on account of my being dead...'. We were very glad when the car-hire people paid him in cash without any fuss...
The upshot of being late and having to stay in town until the traffic had calmed down meant that I got to sample the must-have culinary speciality of Montreal: a Schwartz's smoked meat sandwich. Schwartz's Hebrew delicatessen is, apparently, the oldest deli in Canada. The sandwich was certainly very good...and good fuel for our (now late-night) road trip. 5hrs in the dark and a couple of anonymous roadside service stations don't leave much to report...although driving in Canada is certainly an experience...and I did learn that poor motorway driving is a worldwide phenomenon - and not restricted purely to Blighty. We arrived in suburban Toronto at 3.15am and fell into bed.
Early rise on Saturday to help Lauren's parents pack up a truck for storage, as they are currently in the process of moving from the 'burbs down onto Toronto's lakeshore (Lake Ontario). I got my requisite picture of the CN tower from the window of the removal van...and think I did a remarkably good job. We met with friends of Ollie's (Dana and Christine) for lunch at Dimmi in Yorkville (THE upmarket part of downtown Toronto). Five bottles of Pinot Grigio later, we had agreed to go for dinner at the house of mutual friends...who happened to be out of town...Dana wants to come across as the big manly jock, but his inner Jamie Oliver is just busting to get out and shout 'Pukkah malarkey!' at every one. While his signature dish (Beer Can Chicken) doesn't look pretty (or even right, for that matter) it tastes amazing. This was only fitting considering the minor palace we were dining in in the owners' absence. Poor Carolyn (housesitter and friend) must have been terrified as several bottles of red wine and three 220lb+ men got involved with each other. To her credit (and my surprise) no stains were incurred and no further cats were lost. The rest of the evening is a bit of a haze...but the hot-tub, vodka and slightly upset neighbours with sprinkler systems came into the mix...
Spent a very pleasant, lazy afternoon on Thanksgiving Sunday hanging out with Ollie's friend Laura in Rosedale (read very nice part of Toronto). Tea and muffins followed by a stroll in the (still!) gloriously sunny park to work up an appetite for South-African style Canadian Thanksgiving Dinner. (Lauren's parents hail originally from Cape Town.) Dinner was enormous and fantastic - pumpkin pie a surprising addition to my list of highly edible foods - and it was with a heavy heart that I took my leave from Toronto. Canada's been great - an unexpected bonus on my travels...it's been about the people rather than the places, but I guess that's my philosophy anyway. I feel like I've made some new friends and I hope I get the chance to come out and visit them again before Ollie finishes his PhD. I've ditched my winter clothes and my clubbing trainers...I've gained a few pounds...but now it's time to get my hike on! Yeah, I'm going to be an emaciated, beanpole traveller with a straggly beard before you can say 'Seoraksan National Park'.
Take care everyone, stay in touch - your e-mails keep me smiling. Next stop South Korea...and only 312 days to go...
Those who read this blog the right way (i.e. from bottom to top), our roadside snapshot may give you an idea as to why our weekend was a little shorter than planned...without wishing to beat Lauren over the head with this again (but it is fun...), who in their right mind would hire a car from 'Rent-a-Wreck'?!!! Surely that is just asking for trouble? Anyway, after a last breakfast at L'avenue (I was determined that the 4-egg omelette would not defeat me!), we departed for Toronto in plenty of time to beat the holiday traffic (for Thanksgiving weekend Friday traffic on the Montreal-Toronto highway, imagine M4 westbound on a May Bank Holiday apparently). Less than 10 miles down the road and the car found 40mph too taxing and eventually gave out all together...woohoo!! To be frank, I wasn't all that bothered (at first)...particularly when I found out the name of the hire company...that kept me laughing for a good ten minutes...and there was still plenty of food to keep me quiet (See picture). However, as it became apparent that we were no more than an inconvenience to the hire company and that we weren't going to be sorted out particularly quickly, visions of a boozy night in Toronto with a certain roommate began to dissipate rapidly. Eventually, we were furnished with a new car - after an amusing encounter with a French-Canadian tow-truck driver who happily regaled us with tales of the good old days. Apparently, before the City council interfered with the licensing of tow-trucks, it was quite common for rival towers to torch each others' trucks as competition was quite fierce. At this point, he seemed relatively sane...until he told us that, during this period of 'strong commercial rivalry', he had slept in his truck for 3months '...because at least that way, if they did torch my truck, the police would be forced to investigate it properly...on account of my being dead...'. We were very glad when the car-hire people paid him in cash without any fuss...
The upshot of being late and having to stay in town until the traffic had calmed down meant that I got to sample the must-have culinary speciality of Montreal: a Schwartz's smoked meat sandwich. Schwartz's Hebrew delicatessen is, apparently, the oldest deli in Canada. The sandwich was certainly very good...and good fuel for our (now late-night) road trip. 5hrs in the dark and a couple of anonymous roadside service stations don't leave much to report...although driving in Canada is certainly an experience...and I did learn that poor motorway driving is a worldwide phenomenon - and not restricted purely to Blighty. We arrived in suburban Toronto at 3.15am and fell into bed.
Early rise on Saturday to help Lauren's parents pack up a truck for storage, as they are currently in the process of moving from the 'burbs down onto Toronto's lakeshore (Lake Ontario). I got my requisite picture of the CN tower from the window of the removal van...and think I did a remarkably good job. We met with friends of Ollie's (Dana and Christine) for lunch at Dimmi in Yorkville (THE upmarket part of downtown Toronto). Five bottles of Pinot Grigio later, we had agreed to go for dinner at the house of mutual friends...who happened to be out of town...Dana wants to come across as the big manly jock, but his inner Jamie Oliver is just busting to get out and shout 'Pukkah malarkey!' at every one. While his signature dish (Beer Can Chicken) doesn't look pretty (or even right, for that matter) it tastes amazing. This was only fitting considering the minor palace we were dining in in the owners' absence. Poor Carolyn (housesitter and friend) must have been terrified as several bottles of red wine and three 220lb+ men got involved with each other. To her credit (and my surprise) no stains were incurred and no further cats were lost. The rest of the evening is a bit of a haze...but the hot-tub, vodka and slightly upset neighbours with sprinkler systems came into the mix...
Spent a very pleasant, lazy afternoon on Thanksgiving Sunday hanging out with Ollie's friend Laura in Rosedale (read very nice part of Toronto). Tea and muffins followed by a stroll in the (still!) gloriously sunny park to work up an appetite for South-African style Canadian Thanksgiving Dinner. (Lauren's parents hail originally from Cape Town.) Dinner was enormous and fantastic - pumpkin pie a surprising addition to my list of highly edible foods - and it was with a heavy heart that I took my leave from Toronto. Canada's been great - an unexpected bonus on my travels...it's been about the people rather than the places, but I guess that's my philosophy anyway. I feel like I've made some new friends and I hope I get the chance to come out and visit them again before Ollie finishes his PhD. I've ditched my winter clothes and my clubbing trainers...I've gained a few pounds...but now it's time to get my hike on! Yeah, I'm going to be an emaciated, beanpole traveller with a straggly beard before you can say 'Seoraksan National Park'.
Take care everyone, stay in touch - your e-mails keep me smiling. Next stop South Korea...and only 312 days to go...
Montreal...
Well, my first week away from home...was very much like being at home - with some unfamiliar and spectacular new scenery. This was due mainly to the fantastic hospitality afforded me by Ollie Lyttleton and his friends. Ollie's a big lad (6'7") so having his bed to sleep in was a real luxury anyway...the fact that he turfed himself out of his entire apartment for the week to make me comfortable was above and beyond the call of duty...so thank you very much! I should also take the opportunity to thank my surrogate girlfriend for the week - Lauren. Fortunately for her, she and Ollie are an item, but she babysat me with patience all week when Ollie was ill or busy and made me feel as welcome in her apartment as Ollie had in is...so thank you too!
My overwhelming impression of Canada is that it is a very friendly place. Cynicism is not as rife as it is in Blighty and yet the Canucks demonstrate a very dry sense of humour when their patience is tested. Montreal and Toronto are about as different as two cities could get - and yet both seem to be quintessentially Canadian. Montreal - 'The Village City' - has a distinctly laid-back, cosmopolitan atmosphere. French is the main language, but no rancour is displayed at the use of English....something French frogs could learn from methinks! Eating is an important part of the city's culture. It's cheap to eat out over here and there is a lot of choice. Having been defeated by breakfast on my first morning, I can testify that the portions are far from meagre. With The Mountain, Montreal is always going to seem like a green city - sitting, as it does, slap in the middle of the island and making a more scenic and interesting version of London's Hyde Park. Everywhere, with the onset of autumn, trees were firing shades of red and golden brown in the non-stop sunshine. Apart from a brief cold snap on Tuesday, the weather was glorious...hard to believe that in less than two months -40C won't be a surprise.
I must fess up to having seen little of Montreal's celebrated tourist spots - I didn't even make it down to the Old Port. Having arrived late Monday afternoon (and after the weekend I'd had in the UK!) I was pretty knackered. Breakfast at L'avenue (wow!) was a fantastic way to kick off my first full day in Canada. One four-egg omelette (chicken, bacon and cheese) with fried potatoes, toast, coffee and a pint of banana & orange smoothie = one sadly-defeated Englishman. Owing to my tiredness and Ollie's coming down with a virus we conserved energy for the evening rugby training session (the space age version of Risk and flirting with Lauren's stunning roommate - Hi Chase! ;0) - kept me occupied for much of the afternoon and evening!). The McGill University rugby squad were a very friendly and welcoming bunch of lads...a great sense of camaraderie and team-spirit abounds and I'm sure they will go a long way in the post-season after their no-nonsense dismissal of Concordia on Wednesday evening...must say it was very weird watching rugby played on an American Foootball pitch...and sitting in a University stadium that could hold 30,000!
Old habits die hard and an opportunity to get ratted with the lads after the game was seized with both paws. Two pieces of advice: Firstly, if you're going to play 'Quarters' (for the uninitiated, a game that involves bouncing a 25c piece into beer cups), remember to use your teeth to stop yourself from swallowing the damn thing! Secondly, don't get wasted in unfamiliar cities and try to walk home without a map...okay, I knew the address and could have taken a cab...but you know when you just have to prove something to yourself? It only took me an hour-and-a-half to get home - a walk which took me 15mins the next day armed with a Rough Guide...
Thursday evening was Sight-Seeing time...after stumbling out of bed (minging!!!) at 3.30pm and missing breakfast at L'avenue by 5 mins, I was forced to settle for a half-cow hamburger with side-portion of a few kilos of fries (don't worry, mum - healthy Montreal-style with the skins still on ;-)
I found Ollie and Paddy nursing similar-sized hangovers over at Lauren's and was a little aghast at Ollie's suggestion of climbing Le Mont Royal as a post-prandial constitutional. True to (hungover) form, I bitched and moaned (and sweated - see photo) all the way up...but the views and the sunset were spectacular and definitely the thing I would have most wanted to see in Montreal.
Friday was to be the day of our legendary road trip to Toronto, so I'll post up some more pics and grab a bit of breakfast...back in a bit...
My overwhelming impression of Canada is that it is a very friendly place. Cynicism is not as rife as it is in Blighty and yet the Canucks demonstrate a very dry sense of humour when their patience is tested. Montreal and Toronto are about as different as two cities could get - and yet both seem to be quintessentially Canadian. Montreal - 'The Village City' - has a distinctly laid-back, cosmopolitan atmosphere. French is the main language, but no rancour is displayed at the use of English....something French frogs could learn from methinks! Eating is an important part of the city's culture. It's cheap to eat out over here and there is a lot of choice. Having been defeated by breakfast on my first morning, I can testify that the portions are far from meagre. With The Mountain, Montreal is always going to seem like a green city - sitting, as it does, slap in the middle of the island and making a more scenic and interesting version of London's Hyde Park. Everywhere, with the onset of autumn, trees were firing shades of red and golden brown in the non-stop sunshine. Apart from a brief cold snap on Tuesday, the weather was glorious...hard to believe that in less than two months -40C won't be a surprise.
I must fess up to having seen little of Montreal's celebrated tourist spots - I didn't even make it down to the Old Port. Having arrived late Monday afternoon (and after the weekend I'd had in the UK!) I was pretty knackered. Breakfast at L'avenue (wow!) was a fantastic way to kick off my first full day in Canada. One four-egg omelette (chicken, bacon and cheese) with fried potatoes, toast, coffee and a pint of banana & orange smoothie = one sadly-defeated Englishman. Owing to my tiredness and Ollie's coming down with a virus we conserved energy for the evening rugby training session (the space age version of Risk and flirting with Lauren's stunning roommate - Hi Chase! ;0) - kept me occupied for much of the afternoon and evening!). The McGill University rugby squad were a very friendly and welcoming bunch of lads...a great sense of camaraderie and team-spirit abounds and I'm sure they will go a long way in the post-season after their no-nonsense dismissal of Concordia on Wednesday evening...must say it was very weird watching rugby played on an American Foootball pitch...and sitting in a University stadium that could hold 30,000!
Old habits die hard and an opportunity to get ratted with the lads after the game was seized with both paws. Two pieces of advice: Firstly, if you're going to play 'Quarters' (for the uninitiated, a game that involves bouncing a 25c piece into beer cups), remember to use your teeth to stop yourself from swallowing the damn thing! Secondly, don't get wasted in unfamiliar cities and try to walk home without a map...okay, I knew the address and could have taken a cab...but you know when you just have to prove something to yourself? It only took me an hour-and-a-half to get home - a walk which took me 15mins the next day armed with a Rough Guide...
Thursday evening was Sight-Seeing time...after stumbling out of bed (minging!!!) at 3.30pm and missing breakfast at L'avenue by 5 mins, I was forced to settle for a half-cow hamburger with side-portion of a few kilos of fries (don't worry, mum - healthy Montreal-style with the skins still on ;-)
I found Ollie and Paddy nursing similar-sized hangovers over at Lauren's and was a little aghast at Ollie's suggestion of climbing Le Mont Royal as a post-prandial constitutional. True to (hungover) form, I bitched and moaned (and sweated - see photo) all the way up...but the views and the sunset were spectacular and definitely the thing I would have most wanted to see in Montreal.
Friday was to be the day of our legendary road trip to Toronto, so I'll post up some more pics and grab a bit of breakfast...back in a bit...
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