Further up the Creek

We left Serbia and moved further upstream to Hungary. We docked at Kalosca and then took a bus to the city of Pecs, about 1 hour inland by bus.

This absolutely fascinating spot is the cultural capital of Europe for 2010. There are a lot of ruins that date back to Roman times. This whole region has seen many invasions and wars over the years. In the 1500's the Turks from the Ottoman Empire invaded and the area was converted from Christian to Muslim. The churches were changed to Mosques.

Then the Hapsburg Empire took over and it was converted back. That lasted until late into the 19th century. After WWII the Russians moved in until 1989 and the fall of the Soviet Union.

Since 2004 Hungary has been part of the EU but it does not officially use the Euro. Euros can be used in many stores. The US dollar is not widely accepted here.

Budapest is the capital and is one of the world's most beautiful cities, by day or night. The Hungarian revolution began in Hero's square in 1956 and ended tragically.

In spite of the massive destruction over the years the city has been largely rebuilt. However ther are still bombed out building left over from WWII that are too badly damaged to be repaired and there is not enough money to fix them.

As with all things we seem to be forever moving on nad we churned out way upstream to Croatia and Austria. We never did see any red sludge along the way.

Cruising Through the Balkans

Bucharest is an interesting old city. It has a long history and experienced a pretty bad time under the Communists. In the city is the worlds second largest building, just marginally behind the Pentagon. It was built by Ceausescu, the dictator as a palace and a memorial to his magnificence.

We toured the city by bus and then did the art gallery that had many items of historical significance as well as art. We got quite a view of Romanian history and it was a surprise to learn that Dracula (the dreaded vampire of myth and movie) is deeply revered here. It just shows us the power of Hollywood to destroy culture and truth in the interest of a buck.

We ate all of our meals at the Athenee Palace Hilton – our hotel. It was really very nice. In the afternoon we boarded our buses and headed to Oltenita and our boat. We were greeted with champagne and then taken to our room. Our bilge based quarters are definitely upscale. One must say this trip is definitely five star.

This post is getting there on the late side and we are behind on our e-mail because of the odd way the internet service works. Gwen & I are among the very very few who are going the whole way. As a result not all rules work in our favour. Then on top of everything the moment we signed up for the internet the ship satellite system crashed.

On Sunday we went to Varna, a Bulgaria city on the Black Sea. It is a big beautiful city but on the way we went through a lot of the countryside of Eastern Bulgaria. It is definitely showing some economic strain. The locals blame it on the Communists but the party still has the strong support of about 40% of the population. This is agricultural land and should be prosperous because the land is very good. But then farmers throughout the world are having some problems.

The next day we travelled inland to Veliko Tarnovo and Arbanassi. These are ancient towns that reek with medieval history. Arbanassi is just a small village of about 200 people but those were very influential in the early days. Maybe even so today! On the other hand Veliko Tarnovo is larger and at one time was the capital. The two are only 20 minutes apart by bus.

We continued upstream but we held up at the locks. The smallest and slowest was in Bulgaria where an uncompleted ocean ship came through. It didn't have an engine so it was under tow. The second lock was at the Serbian Bulgarian border and we got through that quite quickly.

Unfortunately it was night when we reached the Iron Gate and we missed a spectacular part of the river.

The next morning we docked at Belgrade and did a city tour in the morning. We went to the old fort. This dates back to Roman times but probably could not be considered dependable. It was destroyed 44 times but rebuilt 45. Now it is a park area and tourist zone.

Later we visited St. Sava Eastern Orthodox Cathedral that was started in 1995 and is still a work in progress.

Thursday evening we had a very interesting lecture (really) on Serbian modern history follow by a string quartet. It worked well.

Getting Ready to Go

The Aussies call it a “Walkabouts” but given our age “Limpabouts” seems more accurate. By any name we are getting ready to go again, this time on a river cruise throughout Europe. We leave next Friday (Oct 8th) and fly to London and on to Bucharest.

Somewhere around here is a map of our route. We start at the bottom at the Black Sea and work our way up to the North Sea. It almost sounds like climbing the corporate ladder.

We will stay in a Bucharest hotel for the first night and then board the boat the next day. You will see a little side trip to Istanbul. We are not taking that because we have already spent many happy days and nights there. There are other places in Turkey that we would like to explore someday. The north and the east have great appeal.

We will get there via London. We fly out on October 8th and then switch to a flight to Romania. We arrive in Bucharest on Saturday and then tour the city. On Sunday we board the boat.

For the moment we are checking our packing and our weight. It shouldn't be too much of a problem because after backpacking we learned to travel “light”.

Finishing up in Southern China

It was a rainy Saturday morning and when it dried up a bit we went out onto the streets. It is really wonderful to walk the sidewalks of China. I must admit that as we walked along I could not help thinking that Guangzhou looked very much like Manhattan. There were beautiful boulevards with small parks running along. There were lots of little stores with open fronts for the people to browse. Just meters away from all of this tranquility and pleasantness was an expressway with traffic flowing heavily. But it didn’t matter because it seemed isolated and distant. Around the overpasses and underpasses are tiny parkettes with flowers and palm trees. People stroll along poking their way through the stores and boutiques experiencing the delights.

There were many restaurants with the menus posted outside and it reminded me of the restaurant district on 46th Street in Manhattan.

There was no times square.

However the square in Zengzheng could hold about 10 Times Squares. When we were asked to go there we accepted out of politeness. When we got there we were blown away by the size and the activity and the incredible design. We were told that it is bigger than Tiananmen Square but I didn’t believe it until I got into the real heart of the area.

China has been a total fascination. Although we came with open minds there were endless surprises and delights. For example, when you cross a busy street walk slowly so the cars have chance to steer around you. That is not recommended for Canada.

There are many aspects to China. One of the most interesting is the Hutong. To the untrained western eye it looks like a slum but it is not. It is a traditional way of life for many Chinese and they are proud to life there. There are absolutely fresh, delicious vegetables and meat sold off the streets. Does one have to worry about refrigeration? No! It is all so fresh there is absolutely no problem. And it is absolutely incredible to eat.

We have been in the Hutongs many times. There is a beautiful tailor shop in one in Zengcheng. There was also a small restaurant about a two minute walk from the gate of the middle school. Most Canadians would shy away from it but it had the best food we have had in Canton. The owner was once a chef in a major restaurant but he quit to do his own thing. He does it very well. It was the local Chinese who tipped us off to the quality of the place.

I think the food of China will alter the way we eat at home. Canadian food is great but it can become even greater with a little influence from over here.

I am looking forward to coming home but I will truly miss China. This country is very beautiful, as are the people.

Tea is as much a ritual here as serving fine wine is with us. The cups are washed with tea. There are many fine teas here and they improve with age. Some are kept as long as 25 years. Pu’er tea is considered one of the finest. Good tea is compressed into discs, called tea plates, and sold that way. A well aged vintage plate can cost several hundred dollars. The connoisseurs will buy a disc of quality tea when it is young at a low price and store it for years before drinking it. I have two to bring home. To reach their maximum goodness they should sit for two more years.

In the meantime we are getting ready to return. We have finalized our trip to Hong Kong and now we are going to enjoy the last few days of this beautiful area.

Will we come back? I hope so!

A Wedding in China

There is a park that runs along the river in southern China, not far from the city of Guangzhou. It is the home of great clumps of bamboo and a lot of very old olive trees. The walkways are stone blocks, possibly laid as a make work project, and made a fabulous walking path. A wide spot in the river is almost like a serene lake. Sadly it is the wrong season for the lotus flower so all we saw were the stems.

The olive trees are hundreds of years old but the olives do not taste like those in the Mediterranean. They are saltier and more bitter.

Our lunch reminded us that a meal is China is quite different than one in Canada. Their place settings consist of 2 small bowls, a small plate, a small cup with no handle, one ceramic spoon and a pair of chopsticks. Food is served in bowls and in a restaurant there will be a huge lazy susan in the centre of the table.

The whole meal begins with the ritual of washing the dishes and implements. First the small cup is filled with tea and then the chopsticks and the ceramic spoon are dipped into the tea and swished around. The tea is poured into the smallest bowl and the rim of the cup is dipped in to be washed. When that is done then the tea is poured into a slop bowl that is removed from the table. Then tea is served again but this time it is for drinking.

Large bowls of food are then brought and placed on the lazy susan. The food is then put into and eaten from the smallest bowl. The large bowl is for soup if there is any served.

As different foods are added they mix in the bowl and the blend of flavours is absolutely delicious. Often a small bowl of rice will be brought to each person and that will be scooped out a bit at a time into the small bowl and mixed with the other food.

After lunch we went to the mountain where the waterfalls were. It was rainy and cloudy and we could see very little. However I did get a few low quality shots. Maybe they can be improved a bit in the computer. That is rather unfortunate because the Fairy Falls is a beautiful bridal veil falls that drops the whole height of the mountain.

When we got back John G. Stu, Posie, Gwen & I piled into a van and went to a wedding in a nearby village. We were privileged to be able to see and participate in the day to day life of China. A tourist does not get this opportunity.

The whole community greeted us warmly and we were mobbed by curious children. It was the bride’s family dinner and it took place on an outdoor basketball court. Almost the whole village turned out. They cooked huge amounts of food and brought it to us. There were choices that we declined but it was an amazing experience.

The bride and groom were not there. The evening meal is spent with the groom’s family. They were there for the lunch. It was hoped that we could attend then but we were far out of town.

When we left we were given two boxes of wedding cake which turned out to be an assortment of cupcakes, cookies and the like.

Although it was only 7:00 PM when we returned to our dorm we were exhausted.

Back in the Classroom Again

It is hard to imagine that after 12 years of blissful retirement that we could wind up in the classroom again. Yet it happened.

We are holed up at the Middle School in Zhengcheng China, which is a high school. Our tenure is a mere three weeks and we have only 15 forty minute classes scheduled for the entire three weeks. One cannot say that the load is excessive. But on top of that there is a lot of demand from other schools so we are ferried out of here and put in different classrooms to “do our thing.”
Our real purpose here is to expose the students to real English speaking people. I spent the day working on words like “thought”, “real” and “leak” because those sounds are very difficult for the Chinese.

I tried something a little different from the books. As I would start a sound I would show them to position their tongues to make the sound and it worked. Within seconds they were getting the sounds and were speaking those words as if they were native Canadians. I must admit I didn’t expect it to work that well and that fast.

We live in the teacher’s residence and the Chinese are doing everything to make us comfortable. Sometimes things don’t work out exactly right. Our bathroom is dubbed the Bathroom Bayou. The toilet is a flush and run. The shower stall is the entire bathroom and the shower water is heated by a propane burner on the wall, fuelled by a rather large tank camped beside the toilet. The heating unit appears to vent into the room so w e shower with the door wide open and the fan on full.

Shaving is exciting! There is no hot water at the sink so I have to turn on the shower and fill a small plastic bucket and then shave. I am actually used to it now.
There are so many upsides to this place that the bath doesn’t even rate above a most minor inconvenience. The students are amazing. They stand up and applaud when you walk into the classroom, they pay close attention for the whole period, participate eagerly in the lesson and then stand up and say “Thank you” when the lesson is over. I must admit that I am not used to that.

Every night we have been taken out and wined and dined like Royalty. Tonight we had a Cantonese feast and last night it was Shenzhen food (my favourite).
Truthfully we have been wined, dined and feted so much that we are all ready for a break. We have pretty much all agreed that our ideal supper tomorrow will be a bowl of noodles and a beer.
For the last 24 days Gwen & I have been eating with chopsticks. Most days we are reasonably good at it but then there are days we couldn’t pick up anything. My golf game is something like that. Some days are pretty god but most just don’t work.

We all walk many kilometres each day and in China if you are not going up a flight of stairs then you are coming down. Surprisingly, my knees are starting to adapt but I won’t go anywhere without my little folding cane.

We are having a ball in China. The people are fabulous. The food is outstanding. The students are amazing and the places we have visited on this trip are mind blowing.

We have seen the Ice Festival of Harbin. We have walked on the Great Wall and strolled through the Forbidden City. We have stood in awe at the sight of the Terra Cotta Warriors.

But don’t give up. There is a lot more to come. We are just at the half way mark of this trip.

Take care.

Pickwick et al

Warriors of Heaven

Xi’an was one of the ancient capitals of early China. It was the eastern terminus of the Silk Road and many travellers went back and forth as far as the Black Sea long before the time of Marco Polo.

Today it is a bustling city of about 8.5 million people boasting over 75 colleges and universities. As we started our tour by driving through the city it was easy to see the importance of the early history here. New buildings are styled to look like those in the traditional fashion. The ancient structure are well maintained and repaired as needed.

We were on our way to see one of the great treasurers of China and indeed the whole world. On the edge of this city is the army of Terra Cotta Warriors.

The discovery was made in 1974 by a farmer digging a well. He crashed through the remnants of an ancient roof deep underground and there they were. Thousands of warriors were lined up in battle array ready to defend the Emperor Qin Shi Huang. They are deployed facing east because that is where the expected attack would come from.

Interestingly enough, the Silk Road and the way to the rest of the world lies to the west. There was no fear of anything from that direction. On the eastern side lay the other principalities of China and it causes one to wonder just what the Emperor did. This army was to defend him in the afterlife so he must have been terrified about what would happen to him there. We were told that each face is the face of an actual guard.

They were built over two thousand years ago and are now enclosed by three building covering the location. They serve as a viewing area for the public and the archaeologists work in this area as well as.

When we entered the first building and it was mind boggling. They stand there in their ranks. Each was armed in the beginning but the years have caused almost total deterioration of the weapons. Gone are the crossbows, swords, pikes and chariots. But you can see the General and the officers each ready for action.

Many of the figures are broken and archaeologists have been working for years to restore them. Since they were discovered they have become a major tourist attraction as well as a very important cultural find. The buildings were filled with people and there were tour buses all over the place.

The Chinese are deeply interested in preserving and restoring their past and a lot of money is spent on this. Clearly the investment is paying off.