German Homestay

It always nice to find the a home in my homeland. Staying with family in Germany was great not only did i get to see alot more of Germany but i got to see some of my family including cousins, parents, and siblings on this trip. Catching up with them made me feel welcome and reminde me of the good things in germany that i missed. You can see my ‘big’ sister left.


I have also seen more of the black forest - famous for it’s cake, schinken, and cuckoo clocks. In fact left is the worlds largest cuckoo clock, cuckooing, and some lovely waterfalls in the forest right. Other highlights include rivercruises outdoor theater.



There are of course more many more castles and historic towns and scenery i don’t have time or space to mention... but in light of my previous occupation i thought i would mention the ‘atomkeller’ the cellar in which the nazi time scientists tried to harness atomic power. Here is photo of the reactor each of the squares was a cube of uranium oxide and was suspended in a heavy water solution.


World Cup update: On to Argentina v Germany . Or as the English newspapers put it “the german warmachine marches on” meanwhile Australia marches toward another 4:0 this time at the hands of the English cricket team...
I am glad to report that according to some aussies i just met Australia has won the 4th??! Today?

How i am to see the next game i don’t know... i will be on a train.

Berlin, Beer, fussBall

The city of Berlin is a nice mix of history and modern life. It has a huge collection of museums galleries and historical sites and bars and hotels. The museum island is impressive to say the least. If you want to see some of the finest Roman, Greek, Israeli, Babylonian, and Persian buildings in the world, you only need to go to berlin.
Now I sit on the banks of the river, drinking my German beer, and watch the reflected sunlight dance across the ornate carved stone edifice of the building opposite me. I can relax in the warm summer air, a cool breeze keeping the temperature comfortable in the last of the warmly dying daylight. I listen to the music and consider where to go next... Berlin is a beautiful city in the daylight – vast palaces tree lined streets and large parks. But at night it comes alive. Even this a Tuesday night holds it’s share of relaxing lounges, exciting clubs and riparian entertainment aplenty. My only chore is where to go, and when i need to rise.

Australia faught back with a vallient defeat of Serbia and Germany is through to the next round. Germany's next game is against england, that's been an exciting re-mach since 1945.

A Man’s home...

...is his castle, and this one (right) is mine. For a night anyway. There are so many castles and churches and cathedrals each with their own history and stories and scandals. These castles some built just 500 years ago and many restored are impressive to behold. The structures are much more impressively built with artistic as well as cannon and rifle defence in mind as well as the traditional pike and sword. I was amazed to see their selection of hand cannons (a gun that fires 2-4 inch shot) that needed to be ramed against the castle walls because of the recoil. As you travel down the banks of the rine and mosel nearly every major hill top is crowned with a castle or with ruins and every bend in the river harbours a small town of beautiful old buildings. The Köln Dom built in 1248 it is impressive in not only the grand scale and the intense detail covering every available space but also because it is Nestled in the centre of the city right there at the main train station.





The castles certainly rival anything built in the near east at that time. And it’s not like there aren’t roman ruins here too. But the style is very different, uniquely European (german), as you can see in the images of castles and churches above.

C’mon Aussie, C’mon! - World Cup 2008

The Soccer World Cup (Fusball Welt Meistershaft) atmosphere is alive and well you see alot of german flags on cars and people and vuvuzelas (trumpets). The pubs all play the cup and even the big sport stadiums and public spaces are converted to a kind a cinema (and the beer is 2 euro per half litre). So here i am in a stadium of 34,000 supporters (33,996 german: 4 australian) I stood there with my Australian flag, awash in a sea of black red and gold – ready to yell and cheer at every goal... So where were they??!! Australia needs to lift its game if it is to get out of the first round, and if i am to hear the end of it in here in Germany.

It was a good atmosphere in the stadium, and Germany played well. I did like the way that the Germans cheered when the first German was given a yellow card for having a little dive. But they cheered louder at the goals...

Waiting for the Launch that wouldn’t come...

Orlando is america’s gold coast complete with amusement parks.
Hanging out at downtown Disneyland with my man, micky. I just went to the Disney quest park and as it turns out I suck at computer games – There were heaps of retro games and some newish ones like guitar hero, lots of fly and drive and shoot things... all of which i got whooped at by 9 year olds.. and sometimes by 30 something year olds too. More practice may be required i seem to be getting rusty. Except the Pirate challenge, a 3d thing with mock cannons. You pull on your gun repeatedly in a jerking motion to shoot your balls, turns out i’m a pro at this :)

Then there was Aqualand a possibly New Zeeland themed (though it includes at least one "Tassie twister” ride) It has a few things named after a kiwi and what i assume is supposed to look mauri carvings but end up looking like a naruto set. Plus there are annoying announcements saying "g'day mate" and "a corker of a ride" in an American accent... all very strange let me assure you...



Then I went to a magic comedy show and got my car impounded. The show was good and thank god that there was a really lovely couple that offered to drop me off at the towing place which had my car. This turned out to be 8 miles away (however far that is) in a shady looking part of town. I got my car and got back out to my place.

Meanwhile the shuttle has one excuse after another, first electrical problems, then rain, then hydrogen leaks and then issues with foam. End result the shuttle is delayed another month. But at least i got to see it and the Kennedy space centre tour is really good. There is a launch simulator where you strapped in and experience the closest thing to launch conditions without actually being an astronaut.

Full of sound and fury...

Today i visited the ancient castle of Nür, a place where men forged a ring of power long ago. This place has been a battle ground through the ages. Still today mighty clans from germany Italy England and beyond battle for supremacy in this highly contested holy site. You can hear the mighty battle crys, low growls, and awe-inspiring roars reverberating across the valley and up to this high tower. I saw such fierce clans as lambogurgini, porsh , maserati, Audi, Ferrari, Hyundai, Mercedes, Lotus and may more. Here is my fearless i20 preparing to lap the Nürburgring... it took about an hour as i wouldn’t actually take it on the track and i had to squeeze past some loggers on the way but i made it! It’s actually amazing driving all around this region as you drive though hills valleys forests and plains – mind you a few more horses would help, especially on the autobahn.. 0-130 speed leaves something to be desired, but i found if you keep it at over 3,000 rpm it can accelerate nicely. I have rediscovered the skill as well as the joy of driving. In Australia we are spoilt by obvious signage and cornering speed (those little yellow signs you ignore?). In Germany you need to pay attention and you need to use your accelerator and breaks as well as your brain.

A new look and feel

Ok time for a new template with a bit more page width.

I would also like to thank my loyal followers who read my posts with adoration and frequency, uhm both of them.. oh wait one is me so... Thanks Mum!
Also for those who want to know more about how to post there is a help section as well as the PLAN section wich sort of shows my plan... hmmm


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Also i have a german/international phone now 01578-7595712 in germany (+49)

Gobble Gobble: More Turkey

Back in turkey: eating Turkish delight, drinking Turkish coffee and going to mosques. Istanbul has also seen its share of history and victories as is evident by the splendid palaces and Bazaars. The Grand bazaar is a monumental market hall holding over 5,000 stores. Pictured bellow is the largest palace harem and the cisterns under the town square.

History Trivia: The 4th Crusade couldn’t get the funds it needed to pay the Italians for the ships to attack Egypt and so they decided to go and sack the Christian city of Constantinople (istambul) crushing the Byzantine empire.

Germans in the promised land

Post 2 Culture: the complex political social and economic situation of Israel/Palestine

Israel/Jerusalem is a rich tapestry of history woven from the oppression of one type peoples after the next, built on the back of bloody conquest and financed by war it is a testament to the two longest standing achievements of man... war and religion. Everywhere are defensive walls and palaces built on older walls and palaces dating back 8,000 years (2,000 more than the pyramids). Temples built on the ruins of mosques built on sineogouges built on churches built on temples and so on.
It has a lot of promise and, uhm potential and, uhm we share a lot of history and well this is sounding a lot like the start of a dear john letter. I believe that they don’t understand the idea of a tourists and thus don’t like them... and i don’t mean the locals. I found locals in both Iraeli controlled Israel and Palestinian controlled Palestine surprisingly friendly and had little or no concerns over my safety or possessions (not so sure about the bit in-between). I mean the tourist operators... an attitude of “well i suppose I’ll take your money if i have to! But i will charge you twice what you would pay elsewhere and don’t expect a smile” Where ever there is money involved the niceties stop – can you think of any stereotypes that apply here? Also things like internet, online booking, email questions etc all a bit too much for them. If you want something then ring, sure you might only get a Hebrew answering machine but then what did you expect?
Enter the Sabbath. Every Friday in the afternoon everything in Israel shuts down. This is as after sundown Jews are not permitted to operate ‘machinery’ until sundown on Saturday. The interpretation of this varies depending on how jocular the Jews in question are (so more in Jerusalem much less in places like Tel Arvive) but it can generally mean cash registers, cars, buses, fridges, light switches, doorhandles. So 2pm on Friday till Saturday 7pm Jerusalem turns into a ghost town with no public transport (except some taxis) and no shops (except in the Arab areas) few cars and few people on the street. So if, for example - as we did - you want to rent a car, the website will give you the wrong opening hours then everything closes and there is no public transport so your stranded. The airport still rents cars but you have to get there, normally buses and sheruits run but it’s a holiday so they won’t. Once you get to the airport the staff are rude and the costs are more expensive. Speaking of cars, road rules (eg speed limits, u-turns) are enforced by consensus, pushing in and honking, but it works – like many developing countries.
I had some great tasting food but payed for it in not only cash but also by sitting on a toilet (at times holding a bucket) for days. Then as i got better mum got worse so i went on to Petra alone.

Overall ? Israel is an amazing place that has many amazing sites and stories. I had a great time with Mum and Gordon who showed me around the country. It is NOT however tourist friendly. Not that anything bad will happen to you (much, if your sensible) but there is not support structure for tourism, neither the populous nor the government are interested in making things easy for tourists. After all they come anyway right? It is also (probably for similar reasons) not cheap. If you are looking for Cheap and cheerful , don’t come to Israel, you definitely won’t find it here.

P.S. Airport security (like all security in Israel) is no joke. 2+ hours including full baggage search, frisking , interrogation, and x-raying my shoes and camera – but maybe that’s just me. After chatting up the girl doing my bag search (30 min in and I thought it went well, when she asked me into a little private room at the back, but then to my dismay a man entered with latex gloves... but that was just to look though my money, thank god) i think i was picked out because i was a backpacker with a laptop which is unusual in Israel, not that the whole westbank and non-electronic passport stuff helped.

The Land of Abraham and our farthers

I decided to split up my posts to two posts history and culture. This is post one - historical places and the complex history of this old land. Let’s start with its epicentre and move out:

JERUSALEM
On the left is a picture of the pools of Bethesda where Jesus (supposedly) healed a leper, built on that are roman baths, built on that is a byzantine church onto which they built a crusader church. This is carried across the whole of the old city. From the first and second temple period (roman jews) most things have been destroyed during and post the ‘jewish war’. A truly roman Israel lasted till the muslim nation of ottomans, then followed by the Christian nations of the crusadse including Byzantium (all 10 crusades had limited success) until the Muslim era including saluman, then a bit more confusion culminating in the establishment of the Jewish state of Israel - To say nothing of the Persians, Egyptians, Assyrians, English (British mandate era) ,Russians, and even a few French (Napoleon)... you start to get the picture. So through this time a lot more has been lost than saved but there is an incredible amount to see.
The city is divided into jewish muslim arminian ect quaters. It contains things such as the church of the holy sepulchre which is divided (suprise suprise, very strictly, with lines drawn on the ground ) between the various sects (roman catholic, Greek-orthodox, Anglican, Ethiopian...) of Christianity. It represents the, supposed, location of where Jesus was nailed to the cross and his tomb, and is thus the culmination of the 12 stations of the cross. I could continue about the mount of olives, king davids tomb, the mound of the rock, mt. Zion and so forth but i think you get the point.




ACRE
Once we had our car, it was easy to move about the state and a great way to get to all these places. The city of Acre has seen off a lot of invaders not least of all Napoleon bonepart who failed to take the city after a 2 month siege and massive assault. There is a massive complex of tunnels and cavers that saw uses form knights halls and prisons to mental institutions.


HAIFA
Famous for the garden complex that monks put down and tend with meticulous care... if only the cooks where this careful. I got a bad bout of food poisoning and then still had to travel (before the sabath kicked in). So i popped some pills to keep me on my feet, holding in diarria and vomiting – though that might be a socks up moment there on the bus - but I made it back to Jerusalem, lay on the grass for a few hours, and then got back to Palestine.

CEASARIA
King herod the great’s grand dream. Now an archaeological national park. These extensive ruins include a roman hippodrome and bathhouses (50BC) Arabic ruins and byzantine and crusader fortifications finally taken (and leveled) by baibars, in 1250.

PETRA

Ok technically in Jordan however you can see Israel from there so i think it counts. Here the ancient nepatians built a city (or at least their tombs and holy sites) into the walls of rock in huge impressive sculptures. Surviving for thousands of years these artwork hewn into the shear cliff face was a symbol of their power and prominence. The entrance tough the siq (canyon) is impressive and held out against military powers for thousands of years (until the Romans). It did not, however, open up to a large chamber containing the holy grail and a bunch of Nazis - as the movies would have you believe.

MASADA

A massive hill fort featuring heavily in Jewish, nepatian and roman history alike. The ‘masada complex’ a we can never be taken attitude is easy to understand when you stand on the impressive rampats and palace ruins. Of course they were proved wrong by the Romans who with the sesame street motto “can’t go under it, can’t go round it...” built a massive ramp all the way up the walls and took it in 70AD.)

JERICO
This sleepy town is the longest continuously occupied city in the world. Including ruins of a nice Place and a Tower dating back 8,000 years (Long before the pyramids of Egypt). Also, a nice spot for lunch.

BLACK SEA \ Ein Gedai
Ok not so much histororical as hysterical, this tourist resort allows you to float on the dead sea (wich is an amassing feeling, especially for people who don’t float) as well as cover yourself in mud and wash it off with sulphur... uhm you had to be there.