wherever you go, there they are

No matter what you do or where you go, the Hare Krisna will be there too. As in today, I went to the Municipal House in Prague, which is one of the finest examples of Art Nouveau architecture in Eastern Europe. There on the corner was a gaggle of robed men with shaved heads. A few had drums. Then the chanting began and they slowly paraded down the street, handing out a small piece of paper with the chant.

Incidentally, despite the amount of walking I have done (pedominter reads 14531 steps, 10.17 km, the blisters are better.

it will be an 11 hr train ride to Brussels

Um, I know this is the Czech Republic but I thought the communist rule was over. I found the main train station today and it reminded me what I thought it would be like to be in Siberia (except the sun is shining). It was dark and trapped in the 70's. Cold. Eastern Bloc Gangster types dozing off in little packs. Italian teenagers with slick hair and slicker sunglasses hang like greasy globs near the entrance. Little rotund old women with babushkas and walkers make their way through the prolific Coca- Cola signs.

The train to Brussels will make 15 stops and take 11 hours. There must be a better way. I heard the buses in Prague are faster than the trains. Really. I did hear that. And now I'm thinking it may be true.

Another sunny day in Prague.

If only I could find a decent Internet connection with the ability to download my photos without draining my batteries, I could show you the lovely lovely things I have seen. I am amassing quite a collection of doorknob photos. Every street has at least on building where the handle is either a lion, a swan, or some elaborately ornate structure. I'm not sure if the laughter seemingly whenever I stoop to photograph one is for me or just the many many tourists milling about.

I know for certain, when I walked into Hotel Europa, an Art Nouveau wonderland, the woman behind the desk clearly said, "oh it's just a stupid tourist gawking at the building again." Only she said it Czech.

Praha

With warm and sunny weather I headed out to explore the city of Prague. I can not believe sometimes how people are so blase about the architecture that surrounds them. Down the street from my hostel is a STUNNING building covered in Art Nouveau decoration. Huge stained glass doors that stand 16 feet high front the masterpiece. While I am outside agasp in disbelief, streams of people breeze past me, seemingly unaware.

I walked and walked and walked. I ate a spicy chicken panini with a draft beer out in the old town square and walked some more. I walked to Charles Bridge which is swarming with tourists like bees to honey on skin. I wandered alone the kiosks offering up the usual tourist kitzch and listened to the french jazz band and watched them drink wine out of the bottle. I smiled at them when they saw me watching and took their photos, with their lips stained red from the wine, faces red from a mixture of the sun and the booze.

I ducked inside a small door at the foot of the bridge and ascended the stairs, all the way to the top, I found myself out on a parapet looking over the city of Prague from all directions and then over the bridge itself. A city this beautiful, and you cant help but take beautiful photos. I only need to find a decent connection to get them on line.

I have ě blisters on the underside of each foot. This isn't going to be good if they get worse. The raw wool at the Pasu Sheep farm in Alberta, the weekend before I left is looking really good. I wish I had some.

One thing is for certain, is despite how beautiful and lovely and exhilarating it is, it is somewhat bittersweet to experience it alone. No one to say, ¨wow, look at that!". Well, there are the other tourists but they just look at you all crazy like.

xox
Jill

sunlight on row

in a row, originally uploaded by smoooch.

on my way

I said I wouldn't do it. I said I wouldn't sit an Internet terminals with unfamiliar keyboards that mangle the punctuation and letters I intend. But I can't quite contain my thrill at being abroad and all the things I have done since I landed 2 days ago. All the things I have seen so far!

London was great. I zipped around the city seeing all that I could. My host took me to the Flower Market near his home. If only I could photograph the sounds of the thick cockney accents shouting out "too-lips, get yer toolips for a tenner" "I got boonches of toolips for a tenner, a fiver if yer pretty" "Hey, you missy, get yer toolips." If only..

After that I went to the Portobello Market, Covenant Garden and there, I met a girl who gave me vague directions to the Banksy I eventually found and posted. Then I jumped on another bus and headed for Camden Town and further to Hamstead Heath, a part of town that Michael said he used to go to watch football. Not sure where he used to go, but I did see a lot of Indian take-away.

This morning I got up bright and early and caught my flight to Prague. First impressions were that it reminded me of Alberta. Farmers fields, brown trees, a bit of green AND A MAGPIE. I found my hostel easily enough and the city reminds me of Madrid. Big huge walking boulevards, youth hanging around in packs of trouble makers and lots of lots of people. Busy. I found my hostel, dropped the bag and logged in.

Just to say it¨s warm, sunny, beautiful weather. Nicer than Vancouver. I'm tired and my feet hurt a bit already but I¨m on my way to a beautiful and adventure filled tour around Europe.

Gotcha

Gotcha, originally uploaded by smoooch.

Whoa, I never thought I'd see an original Banksy while I was in London. Lucky me, I guess.

It's a good one. I like the bank machine claw capturing the future generation. I hope you like it as much as I do. It was a bit of an adventure today in London to find it. More about that later.

xoxo Jill

more heaven

Of course, the only reason I am going to Paris is to ride the metro to this stop. One of the many still standing examples of Art Nouveau, by architect Hector Guimard.

heaven

art nouveau.victor horta.tassel house.brussels.staircase 2nd view, originally uploaded by moosoid9.

I'm almost on my way to Europe with the sole purpose of photographing Art Nouveau.

Of course, the trip won't be complete until I see this for myself, the Hotel Tassel in Brussels.

I'm a better looking cartoon than I am in real life

It's the only place you can say, "I want 10 lbs off my face and 15 years off my skin. Please give me apple cheekbones and red lips" and get all those things without going under general anesthetic.

lost in translation

You know you're in a foreign country when..

You take the invitation of the bus driver to seek the shelter the door of the undercarriage luggage compartment is providing from the sweltering sun. While sitting there, politely, the bus driver who obliquely is named Akmed sits beside you. Being a nice Canadian girl you offer him some of your chewing gum. Akmed looks at the package of Dentyne Cinnamon gum, all red with a big lettered "Fire". Akmed nods his head and looks at you. He says something you don't understand. It's hot. You're distracted by the heat. You nod and then Akmed gets a weird look in his eye and simultaneously tries to close the compartment door while pushing you back and the word in broken English pierces through your ear canal and you realize Akmed thinks he's been offered the chewable version of Viagra.

Thanks Sonia for the laugh this afternoon. I hope I find myself is similarly non threatening but insanely funny episodes in broad daylight with lots of people nearby.

there's hope yet for plastic footwear

They may be Croc's saving grace. If I see these all over town hangin' off door displays in dimestores, I won't cringe. The come in black too and I'm going to scour the shoes stores in hopes of finding a pair before I go to Europe. A certain Jane reminded me how scuzzy hostel showers can be. Good to have a pair of of 'I can get these wet' shoes for fashionable trip to the loo.

Patrol

IMGP4263, originally uploaded by smoooch.

quit clogging up our you know whats (landfills and toilets!)

I have been hesitant to talk about something here because really, who wants to think about what happens to all those tampons and pads after we girls are done with them. But seriously, have you ever thought about how may you'll use in a year? In a lifetime? Or what that costs? Multiply that by how many menstruating women. That's disgusting right? Sorry, but I think we should talk about it.

According to Menstruation.com, "discarded tampons and disposable pads contribute hugely to landfill waste. In the US alone, there are over 85 million women of menstruating age, and according to the National Women’s Health Network, they contribute approximately twelve billion pads and 7 million tampons to landfill each year."

But even more so than that is the entire aisle in a pharmacy or grocery store with the dizzying array of versions of the same product from 4 major manufacturers. Tampax, O.B, Kotex and Playtex. All of those tampons all contain Rayon (among other things). Take a look the next time you're out shopping and look at the "ingredients" and see for yourself. Interestingly, I looked at the O.B, Tampax, Kotex and Playtex websites and none of them gave any listing of ingredients in the products but a few did give damage control links about Toxic Shock Syndrome, bleach, rayon and other nastiness. Nice, thanks for that. Oh yeah, thanks for pushing your free sample on me too.

The only tampon brand proudly listing what their tampons are made of was Natracare. You know, the ones that can only be found by visiting a natural health food store. Not a big grocery or drugstore chain. Why is that? Why do you have to go out of your way to find a tampon that isn't processed to nines, filled with crap and comes packaged with a plastic 'applicator' in a little plastic bag inside a cardboard box! I clearly don't understand why women do not more readily have this choice.

Speaking of the non-natural easy to find tampon, I found a few other tidbits of info that you might like to hear:

-"bacteria called staphylococcus aureus, responsible for toxic shock syndrome, breeds easily on synthetic fibers such as rayon and viscose found in all commercial tampons."
-"commercial tampons may expose you to chlorine, and other bleaching agents. Chlorine can cause the production of dioxins, furans and organochlorines. Health risks from exposure to organochlorines include: immune system inhibition, birth defects and the production of cancers."
-"Studies also suggest linkage to endometriosis, breast cancer and other female reproductive disorders."
-"99% of all Toxic Shock Syndrome cases are found in women wearing rayon-blend tampons."
From here.

Goody Gumdrops. I can't believe I let my lifetime of stuffing carcinogenic packed synthetic fibers up my twat go on as long as it did. Behold the Diva Cup. No more money flushed away, no more treks to the inconvenient health food store, no more weird feelings about what exactly is in that thing thoughts. More importantly, no more waste, landfill, and excessive packaging. I highly recommend if you are a consumer of Playtex, Kotex, OB, Tampex, or any other major 'feminine product' company that you consider a healthy, biodegradable, or no waste alternative.

So there.

yummy good

This is one scrumtious yummy photo slideshow.

breaking up with your cell phone company

I've often heard the rant of Michael against Telus for holding him hostage via his telephone number. Michael works in a business where being able to reach him is paramount. Alot of people need to reach him- at the telephone number he has had for years. That has kept him chained to Telus. Until now.

Enters fellow Brit, Sir Richard Branson and his Virgin mega company. (See fancy-schmancy website with all the details .) While this is definitly a ploy (celebrated with a stunt) to get you to bring your number to Virgin, he did push to have the legislation passed allowing most Canadians to take their telephone numbers and roam free.

The Canadian Radio, Television & Telecommunications Commision lists all cities that will have number portability as of March 14. Take a look at the list.

Nice marketing, doncha think?

Reminds me of the recent marketing scheme from my own carrier, Fido who sent me some form of advertising on a peice of paper long as the length of my arm. Glossy. Not a word of it stating that it was printed on recyclable materials. I wrote a long letter back to Fido about renewable resources, the eco-footprint on the planet and environmentalism and poliely asked them to not send me such items of advertsing through the mail again, and would they mind emailing me to inform me of the company ethics regarding those issues. I put it back in it's original envelope, changed the address and sent it back. I have yet to hear from them.

Next time, it might be a Dear Fido, it's over. Virgin is moving in.

dance of 1000 hands

My friend Christine always send me really cool emails that include unbelievable links that I would never ever find all by myself. Today she sent me this very amazing dance video:

"There is an awesome dance, called the Thousand-Hand Guanyin, which is
making the rounds across the net. Considering the tight coordination
required, their accomplishment is nothing short of amazing, even if
they were not all deaf. Yes, you read correctly. All 21 of the
dancers are complete deaf-mutes. Relying only on signals from
trainers at the four corners of the stage, these extraordinary
dancers deliver a visual spectacle that is at once intricate and
stirring. Its first major international debut was in Athens last year
at the closing ceremonies for the 2004 Paralympics. But it had long
been in the repertoire of the Chinese Disabled People's Performing
Art Troupe and had traveled to more than 40 countries. Its lead
dancer is 29 year old Tai Lihua, who has a BA from the Hubei Fine
Arts Institute. The video was recorded in Beijing during the Spring
Festival this year."

I'd like to personally thank my sister, Catherine, for helping me with my long overdue taxes.

I think I owe you a lunch. Or two.

11 days and counting

getting ready for the walkabout, originally uploaded by smoooch.

1- Borrowed backpack. Thanks Sis.
1- Pair well worn hikers, recently waterproofed, for those long hikes through the boulevards of Paris and the streets of Brussels looking for that Art Nowveau wonderland.
1- Cozy fleece, Cashmere/wool sweater- for cold Bohemian nights.
2- Merino wool long sleeved shirts to further protect me from the elements.
1- Pair of fingerless wool gloves for warm hands and photographic agility. Thanks Catherine, they're perfect.
1- Camera case for keeping the captured sights safe. One large memeory card- not shown
1- Awesome feather travel pillow with match storage bag for a little bit of luxury on 2nd class train trip.
1- Quick drying towel with keen storage bag for those impromtu train station showers and bathroom baths.
1- Fold down travel kit to keep all my solid soapy products. No liquids on the plane!
1- well tested in the recent Vancouver Monsoon raincoat in bright, don't kill me blue.

a forest of B vitamin

a forest, originally uploaded by smoooch.

a step back in time

Photo by Fred Herzog

An amazing photography show is currently running at the Vancouver Art Gallery. Fred Herzog, a local shutterbug who currently still lives in Vancouver, incredibly documented the street life of the city in the 1950-1960. Vibrant, colorful, stark exposures of the hustle, bustle and prosperity of areas now burdened by the desperation of the downtown east side are like looking like a real life comic book if you have ever walked along East Hastings. Other shots show the blank canvas of under developed areas now gentrified and teeming with hip shops, cafes, and grocery stores.

It's all really something to see. If you're in town, don't miss it. It's running until May 13 and Tuesday nights are by donation.

More info on Fred Herzog.
This one has a nice gallery of shots.