Tokyo -- What a fantastic place

So I've been in Tokyo for 5 days now and been so busy working and seeing the town, I havent had time to blog.

Ok, so I'm going to divide up my posts a bit -- one will focus on what I've done thus far and one that will focus strictly on observations -- and there are lots of them!

Tokyo is way cool -- since this is my first time anywhere in Asia, obviously its all new and exciting to me. In case you're wondering how I ended up here, its because I'm involved on a project for Credit Suisse that is for a business user (trader) who is based on Tokyo. When I found out there was potential for a Tokyo trip, that may me push even harder to close the deal and kick things off. Fast forward to now.

I arrived Saturday at Noon after a 12 hour red-eye flight from London (though I was on British Airways, business class, so the flight could have been twice as long and I wouldn't have minded) -- I slept 3 or 4 hours which was nice, and still watched 3+ movies (The Bucket List, Charlie Wilson's War, Fool's Gold, and some of Ocean's 11). I was told they might interogate me at the airport asking why I'm here etc, but it was pretty smooth sailing -- the customs guy spoke really slow, nodded a lot, and didnt even make me open my bags for a look through (they were doing this with almost everyone since the airport was surprisingly dead at that time).

Tokyo airport is in a town called Narita, which is 80km East of Tokyo and about an hour by train. I was told to grab a Limo Bus (which sounds cool but is just a regular coach bus) directly to my hotel, but it wasn't leaving for 1.5 hours, so we decided to train it into Tokyo then taxi. Pretty painless overall, but the train was 'normal' (albiet lots of leg room) and I was holping for some super cool/futuristic bullet train that whisks me to the city in 15 minutes at 400km/hr and runs every 5 mins. Instead it was regular speed, and ran every 30 mins... how normal. But clearly my expectations were a little too high :)

Once in the city it was errily quiet... turns out where I arrived and where my hotel is (the Okura Tokyo) is in a 'financial wasteland' area that is devoid of shops/restaurants and although convienient to walk to work, is kinda crap. I was travelling with Lance, a kiwi from work who will be the lead developer on the project, so we ventured for a walk around to find 'real Tokyo'.

Tokyo is incredably green with lots of parks everywhere. We wandered around exploring, saw the Tokyo Tower, and hit an area that had some shopping stores. Found a 6 floor electronics store that I just had to go into... wow are they serious about electronics here. They had a floor dedicated to digital cameras and you could shop either by brand or by... wait for it.... colour! Yes, they had a wall of cameras all of the same colour and as you moved along the colours changed like a rainbow... black, dark grey, silver, gold-ish colour, blue, pink, red, and purple. It was pretty neat, though the cheapest camera was around 22,000 yen, which is about 110 quid, or 220 dollars... I think i was again expecting too much -- some sort of unreleased-in-the-west-camera for like 40 bucks. Clearly unrealistic :)

Saturday night we ventured to nearby Roppongi, a nice night life area that is popular with the ex pats, though we still felt like minorities you saw other white guys and cultures. We had great sushi and sat at the sushi bar. Afterwards we stumpled on the 'New Zealand Travel Cafe', which is basically a kiwi bar, so we had to go in and have a couple of Lance's favourite beers, Maltieths.

Sunday we got up early and hit Ueno Park, a huge park to the north, for which we ventured to figure out the subway. Near the park were stalls selling food and merchandise... this was the most 'real tokyo' I had seen thus far. For 100 yen (50p, $1) I got fresh pineapple on a stick and it was damn good. We then hit the Tokyo zoo which is in the park, with a surprising bargain entrance cost of 600 yen. ($6! Isn't the Metro Toronto zoo like $10 just for parking your car, then another $25 or $30 to get in?). The zoo was great, although the animal pens were a little small for my liking. I need to post some pictures when I get back. They had a Giant Panda but it wasn't outside when we were there so I was gutted. Did see Giraffe's, Hippos, Rhino's, Snow Owls, Polar Bears, Penguins, Monkeys, Hawks, a Tiger, a couple Lions, an Armidillo, a Red Panda and a Zebra. Also saw this neat half Giraffe / half Zebra thing called a Okapis which is apparently super rare and really only found in the Congo. Very cool.

We ended up having some chinese for lunch since all the sushi restaurants close between 2pm and 5pm... a Japenese ciesta (sp?) if you will.

Monday was busy with work but also very fun as the office tower I'm in (The Izumi Garden Tower) is really neat since its got an all glass exterior and some of the elevators are glass on the side of the building. I'm working on the 27th floor so it has nice views. Monday night was dinner with the client -- we went for Yakatori, which is Japenese BBQ of pork/beef/chicken cooked on skewers right in front of you -- very tasty. Apparently Tokyo has 80,000 restaurants which is insane.. mainly because each restaurant is typically very small. Oh, had some nice Saki after dinner too which was smooth.

Tuesday after work we went for Japenese steak in Roppongi with the clients at one of the restaurants again where they cook in front of you and let you sit at a bar style thing, although we were a group of 5 so we had a table. Tasty dinner again. We then hit a traditional Japenese bar for a few drinks which was pretty neat, although since it was in Roppongi they had standard issue top-40 music on so it lacked some authenticity that way.

Wednesday Lance had dinner with a friend who is a flight stewardess, so James (an interaction designer with Infusion also here for the project) and I went for true Sushi at a restaurant Steve Harris (another Infusion UK colleauge who loves Japan (he's British)) recommended. It was in Ginza, which is a shopping district kinda like Regent Street in London -- high end stuff like Louis Vutton, Armani, etc. Many of the stores were closed (it was 10pm) and had their own gaurd standing by the doors since the goods are so expensive. Sidewalks were super huge!

Thursday (tonight) was another late one at the office but we grabbed sushi in the hotel which was just as tasty as the night before, except 2x as expensive since its hotel food. Short commute though and we again sat at the sushi bar. Maguro (tuna) is definately my fav sushi.

More observations to come in another post. Japan is crazy efficient, to say the least. And the people are massively friendly.

Syd.

Tokyo Bound

So I'm pretty excited -- After 5 years at Infusion I've finally managed to get to Tokyo for a project. Its somewhere I've always wanted to travel, but somewhere I've never bothered to put high on my list on my own since I figured eventually I'd get there for free with work :) I'm in town for all of next week for a project for the head of the Exotics trading desk who is based in Tokyo (his name is Kobiyashi :)). The project sounds fun, but whats even better is that I'm arriving Saturday and not leaving until the following Sunday which will give me some nice weekend time to check out some sites and get a feel for the city.

Mmmmmm sushi.

Syd.

Les Playas y Montagnas de Espana

This past weekend we headed to North Spain to check out new country terrain (beaches and mountains) in the Basque region of Spain near France (on the coast), and it didn't disappoint! Since we came in late Friday night, we stayed in Bilbao, a neighbouring city that we flew into. Bilbao is famous for an architectural masterpiece designed by Frank Gehry - the Bilbao Guggenheim museum. Unfortunately we didn't stick around long enough on Saturday to visit the museum, but upon viewing it from the bus as we drove across the river we have no doubt that its fantastic!

In San Sebastian we stayed in a hotel on a city street, so it was not optimal for sleeping late, but it was within walking distance of a great beach, and 30 minute walk along the promenade to the old medieval section of the town where there were bars galore. The town is famous for having a international film festival, on par with Toronto and Cannes (though not as popular), for the last 50 years. The promenade and massive modern theatre certainly gave us a flavour of how it would be in early September when the city is awash with theatregoers.
I was thankful for knowing a touch of Spanish before going on this trip, as very limited English was spoken by shopkeepers or bar staff - much to Syd's frustration he had to leave the talking up to me. Syd said that he was impressed with how well I did at getting the things we needed - including a refund on tickets for a bus that we bought from the wrong company by mistake. ;o)

We rented bikes for 24 hours to cruise around the town and go out at night so that we could avoid cabs and the long walk. I love city bikes with the upright seats. Mine even had a basket, and I was right chuffed to put my purse and any purchases in the basket while we drove around. We especially enjoyed the somewhat grueling uphill climb up Mount Imuelda to where we had the best views of the city and bays. There was a cheesy run-down amusement park at the top as well as a tower, but the views made it worth it. Of course, the ride down the mountain was the best part, it was hard to not speed like a demon down the steep street! ;o)

Later that day on Sunday after we returned the bikes we climbed to the top of Mount Urgull, which we thought just had a statue of Jesus at the top, but were pleasantly surprised to see that Jesus sat atop a castle that used to defend the city back in the 1600s to the 1800s. There was a great exhibit up there describing the history of San Sebastian as a main iron-weapon making and commerce town. In 1863, San Sebastian was named capital of the Gipuzkoa province. The role of the city changed, the walls were demolished, the focus was more on commerce, the city became a popular tourist destination and spa resort, the economy boomed and it became one of the most cosmopolitan cities in Europe. We quite enjoyed learning about that evolution.

Also deserving mention was the cuisine. Being the culinary capital of Spain, the people really appreciate and identify with their food. In fact, the city has more bars and restaurants per head of population than anywhere else on the planet! Don't say tapas, say 'pintxos' in San Sebastian, as that is all that you will find when you walk in every bar there. What makes the pintxos unique is that they are served on top of the bar, in every bar, like wares for people to select and eat, and then people all eat standing up while they drink their cervezas/vino and smoke. It's quite weird...its like fast food with a twist! Syd learned quite quickly to say 'no pescado' so that they would show him some tapas without fish in them (a very limited selection to say the least). The limited spanish/basque language knowledge coupled with the copious amounts of tuna/squid/octopus/crab and some other unidentifiable pintxos left us feeling quite wary as to what we would order day in and day out. Needless to say, we ate chorizo and prosciutto on baguettes for most of the weekend - not very adventurous we know! ;o)
On Monday we checked out of our hotel and had a fabulous lunch (okay, fabulous starters and dessert and sangrias - the battered pork chops for the main left much to be desired) in a great cafe overlooking La Concha Bay.

To make the most of our last day we decided to rent surfboards and long wet suits and try out the beginner surfing beach. As it was my first time ever on a surfboard I treated it mostly like a boogey board, but Syd had fun getting into a standing position a couple of times. It was a fun hour and a half, and Syd said the sexy beachy hair made me 'au naturale' for the bus and plane ride home!

Booze on the Tube - The end of an Era

On Saturday May 31 we decided to 'make a statement' with 10,000 other revellers and enjoy one last evening of drinking on the tube. A number of parties (called Last Orders of the Underground, Circle Line Party, Booze Tube Party and the like) were organized through facebook and other social networking sites to get people pumped up to oppose a new June 1 ban implemented by the new mayor, Boris Johnson, to ban alcohol drinking on the tube. It was predominantly organised to take place on the back carriages of the Circle Line, starting at 9 pm at Liverpool Street.
There was a fancy-dress element to the event, so Syd sported a 'stache' while I sported a sash, and we grabbed the circle line going 'clockwise' or eastbound around 9 pm from Baker Street. The back carriage was already well on its way to a good party. Everyone was drinking their own form of poison, and the mood was generally convivial and respectful. Groups were singing Hey Jude - which I got a video of in the bottom of this post - and others were just drinking and dancing along to their portable ipods/speakers. The group did start to get rowdier around 9:30 and were hitting the roof of the train with excitement and singing.

We decided to get off the tube to try and find our friends, but when we tried to go back to Liverpool street to meet them we learned that Liverpool street station had been closed due to overcrowding...duh! We happened to meet up with our friends Alan and Suzy at monument tube and got back on the circle line, this time going anti-clockwise (or westbound) since the clockwise direction had been suspended due to damaged trains.

This train ride was now taking place at 10:30, and the tube riders had consumed much alcohol by this time. Surprisingly, it still didn't feel as crowded as it does on normal commuter mornings! They were chanting rants like "Boris is a Wanker, Boris is a Wanker" and ripping all of the maps off of the tube walls/ceilings.
I managed to get a map 'given' to me, but I still can't believe how they defaced the train to bare walls. When we barely went 3 stops, our train stopped and they made everyone get out as they were terminating the service. The crowd mostly just stuck around and partied on the platform though.
We thought this may be the end, but then a poor unsuspecting Hammersmith and City Line train came through and everyone (including us) piled into that one. Well, the violent group really did it this time. We made it past one more stop, and then the train was suspended between two stations, in the middle of a tunnel, with the last 2 cars being in complete darkness. Nobody was alarmed though, they just continued to party until the train finally started moving again. We got annoyed with people deciding to smoke in the train, and eventually moved out of that carriage and awaited the train to get moving again. Needless to say, when the train pulled into the next station, there were angry transit workers getting everyone out of the train, and there were police at the top of the stairs ushering everyone out the station.
Thankfully, we decided to take the overground home from there to West Hampstead as many underground lines had been suspended due to the stress of the circle line party. It was a truly London experience, and I'm glad I went, but I'm also glad we never made it to Liverpool station because crowds of hundreds of people partying in the station concourse didn't seem appealing!

You can watch a fun music video of the event on this link and those of other budding wanna be directors on YouTube.

A walk among old city walls and ghost trails

We spent Sunday and Monday in the 2000 year old city of York. I LOVED this city. It has retained its old world charm as indicated by its intact city walls around the ‘ring road’ and old abbey in the centre of the city.
Yorkminster Abbey is the second largest gothic abbey in Northern Europe, and man, was it impressive! We had to pay to go through, but at least we had a look at the great east window, which at 76ft tall, is the largest stain glass window in the world. We did pay to go into the crypts though, which is essentially a museum about the abbey. We learned that the abbey was built on top of an ancient roman military building, then a saxon cathedral. It was neat to walk among the roman rubble and see how they recreated the past.

It is also a great walking city with pubs and tea shops everywhere you look. We had some fun just wandering the streets. Interesting the city was originally the creator of Terry's chocolates & sweets (as in the chocolate orange) and Rowntree (as in Smarties). Sadly both of these companies have since been bought and moved elsewhere, but the chocolate tradition was rampant in the city. We loved how most of the streets were cobblestone, and the houses were designed in the Tudorian style as below with black and white designs and jettying over the streets.
During that particular weekend we were there it was an annual international sword dancing festival and we also found sword dancers from every country doing their own take on the dance, some more complex than others. The group below in wooden shoes were from Belgium. When I was on a city walking tour I was so distracted by the dancers that I rarely listened to the tour guide!
The best part of our walking tour was the ability to walk along the city walls and get great shots of the city and abbey as well as gaze inside the towers at each corner and picture how soldiers would have defended the city from siege. I especially liked this unique sign upon the wall.
We stayed that night in an ‘inn’ – translation – rooms above a pub called the Exhibition Inn. Our rooms were so cute and cosy and the whole place had such a homey feel to it. The pub itself was also fabulous. It had a huge beer garden out back, as well as a conservatory-style restaurant out back where we had a fab English breakfast as part of our b&b package. I’m pumped that we finally stayed in an authentic inn as Syd and I have been meaning to do that for some time now.
York is also infamous for being the most haunted city in the world, with a total of 504 recorded hauntings according to the Ghost Research Foundation International. Which isn't surprising really, given York's history of conflict and many tragic events. One can even seek to stay in a haunted inn - thankfully ours wasn't one of them!
Multiple ghost tours were available to learn more about this, and we chose the one closest to our inn. It was led by an older fella who has been a guide for over 25 years. He told some pretty interesting stories, including one about a girl in the 60’s who was in Yorkshire Abbey with her dad when she saw the ghost of her brother who was off to war at the time. Only the guide of that tour at the time saw her recoil in fright and recognition of seein a ghost before she fainted. She only admitted to the guide that the ghost she saw was her brother and if her father knew it meant that they would be getting some dire news soon. As it turned out, they received a letter from the army notifying them of the death not 2 days later. Creepy. There were also other creepy stories of children being abused as child labour about 100 years ago in an old industrial site, which is now a residential area where numerous sightings of children ghosts have been seen. All of us enjoyed the ghost tour, even Syd, who is generally skeptical of the macabre.

On Monday we learned all about the history of York through the ages at the York Castle museum at the base of Clifford’s tower. The most unique aspect of this museum was the recreated 16th century york streets – complete with a sweets shop, a candle-making studio, a fire station and police station and toy stores! It was coupled with smells and newspapers and was so neat! A quick glance of what a carriage looked like in the 'street' in the depths of the museum is below.
Unfortunately we had to head home for a long ride back to London, but I could have stayed there so much longer. I’m glad that we made the effort to go up to York as it was totally worth it and I recommend it to everyone.

Punting on the backs of academia

On our way up north to York on May 24th we decided to spend the day in Cambridge. The old university buildings were so amazing! King’s College was especially impressive.
We made it our goal to find a riverside tavern (on the river Cam of course!) and then try a go a punting a small boat down the river. Seems that everyone else had the same idea because the river was packed – helped that it was a beautiful spring day.
We ate near Darwin college at Granta riverside tavern, which conveniently also had a punt hire next door. We enjoyed a pitcher of Pims and watched some silly girls screaming on the river while they nearly toppled their self-guided punting boat a number of times. Little did we know that we would soon be sharing the same water with them shortly and make it a specific aim to avoid them at all costs! In any case, Syd did a great job of punting down the river.
He was so serious and focussed as he says it is a lot harder than it looks! We didn’t blame him when he left the punt in the river twice – the second time around we were laughing lots but able to catch a shot of it (on Aunt Lori’s camera so not available here).
The 3 of us just sat back and enjoyed the views. We punted along ‘the backs’, which is what the section of the river is that glides along the backs of all of the university buildings/grounds. This has been a common pastime for locals & students for a number of years, but now it’s mostly just a tourist attraction – and tourists there were many. The universities were just as picturesque from the ‘backs’ as they were from the ‘fronts’. Queens College had the oldest building along the river – 600 years old! That puts the University of Waterloo’s 50ish buildings to shame – ha ha.
Following that fab experience we had a stroll up Cambridge’s high street and market and before heading out we had a nice afternoon tea in a Moroccan themed shop called the “copper pot’.

The Torturous Tower

On Sunday we went to the Tower of London, a must-see for any visitor to London. Founded nearly a millennium ago and expanded upon over the centuries since, the Tower of London has protected, housed, imprisoned and been for many the last sight they saw on Earth.
When we arrived, Barb and Lori immediately wanted to hit the gift shops, but I steered them towards the castle instead. We joined a 'yeoman warder' tour where he described the stories of what befell those in the tower. It has been the seat of British government and the living quarters of monarchs ... the site of renown political intrigue, and the repository of the Crown Jewels ... It has housed lions, bears, and (to this day) flightless ravens ... not to mention notorious traitors and framed members of court, lords and ministers, clergymen and knights.
We loved that our knowledge of the Tudor reign came to light here, especially with the story of Sir Thomas Moore being held in the tower and then later beheaded for refusing to accept Henry VIII as the head of the church. Anne Boleyn was also beheaded here too, but had a more private affair than Sir Thomas' public one on tower hill!

What we learned later while talking to a Yeoman is that they all actually live there in homes surrounding the tower, though still within the tower gates. They all had to serve 22 years in the UK military before being considered for the post. Could you imagine them going to the doctor, and the doctor asking where they live, to which they reply literally, 'the tower of london' - how strange!

Later, we went inside the White Tower, where royals used to live, but now is basically a large museum.
We also found within it the weapon of 'mass destruction' itself.

Of course we also visited the crown jewels and viewed a sceptre of the cross with the largest diamond in the world - 530 carats! Below is the imperial crown set with sapphires and rubies.

Lastly we had a tour of the chapel where thousands of headless bones were found buried beneath - essentially because whenever someone was beheaded, the heads would be placed on stakes on London Bridge and were never reunited with their bodies again!

In the gift shop on the way out, we especially liked this 'manly' suit of armour that Henry the 8th used to wear!

Bygone Baths

On our first weekend with Mum and Aunt Lori we decided to take them out of London to experience the city of Bath, once the Roman epicentre of commerce and bathing. Bath has natural hot springs - the only site in Britain. To the Romans, those famous lovers of baths, these well-situated hot springs were a magnificent attraction. Combining Celtic and Roman gods, they dedicated their impressive bath complex to Sulis Minerva, throwing offerings and curses into the steaming waters for the deity's attention. Bath, called Aquae Sulis, grew as a town, and excavated burials have demonstrated that the cosmopolitan settlement was home to travellers and merchants from distant parts of the Roman Empire.

Bath's glamorous heyday came in the Georgian period. The town became England's most fashionable resort, where Society came to take the waters in the Pump Room, to dance and flirt at the Assembly Rooms, to gamble, gossip and promenade. The town was rebuilt, and became an architectural showpiece.
At the centre of the town is beautiful gothic church - Bath Abbey . It was founded in the 7th century, and then rebuilt in the 12th and 16th centuries. It is set near the river, and the tour buses of course! It made a great backdrop for beautiful pictures.
Now, Bath is a World Heritage Site, famous for both archaeology and architecture, and a new, somewhat-delayed thermal spa opened in 2006. We visited the Roman Baths museum, where the great bath, and adjacent baths made up the entire complex, and we got to walk around the Roman ruins and learn about life during the antiquities.
Syd and I just love delving into the history and spent a good amount of time listening to every single audio message. Bill Bryson, a best-selling author of humorous travel books, had audio commentary about the baths as I walked through, and I loved his insight the best!
Following that we had lunch in a great cafe called Clarke's (which Barb remembers the name of because of the shoe store), and then walked around the famous Pulteney Bridge over the river Avon...

and even managed to find a community garden!

You can take the ladies out of Lowbanks...

Okay, I love my mother-in-law, and aunt-in-law (Lori), but I have to 'take the piss' out of them and share some true tourist stories.

They got to London without any problems, took the train and a cab to my house, albeit getting a bit dizzy in the London taxi on the winding streets on the opposite side of the road. We went out for our first pub experience that night - for fish and chips of course, again no worries since Syd and I were with them.

However, the next day some episodes happened that made us laugh to tears at dinner that evening! Syd and I went to work the next day and left them to their own devices. After a long 'lie-in' they got going around 1 pm and went to Green Park tube. When they got there they popped into a posh cafe to use the toilet, and decided it best to buy a coffee while they were there. Barb walked up to the counter and asked for a coffee. She started making it and then said to Barb - 'Americano?' and she said 'No- Canadian!'. The girl started to laugh and then Barb realised she wasn't asking about her nationality and said "oops. I thought you asked if I was American" to which she humourously replied, 'it's okay, i'm not predjudice!"

They were amazed at the underground system and couldn't believe how high the escalators were, such that they stopped dead at the bottom of the escalator blocking traffic and exclaimed really loud (in the American way): "How far underground ARE we?".

Later that day they tried to buy tea in Covent Garden tea shop and it cost pounds and pence. Being a banker after 30 some odd years, Aunt Lori didn't understand what all of the coins looked like or meant yet so she just dug around in her pockets and held out a handful of coins for the cashier to pick out of her hand!

Lastly, we went to a pub while waiting for Syd and try our first ales. We are drinking them out on the street and they see a big red phone booth. They are like, "ooh, ooh, lets get a picture in the booth!" so the proceed with their pint glasses into the booth. I took a while to line up the picture to which they exclaimed, "hurry up, we look like tourists!". I told them that they didn't need my help for that!

Good laughs - thanks Mum!

Rides, ponies, and camping without fires

Last weekend was the first long weekend in Spring in the UK, so what better way to spend it than going to an amusement park? Our friends Rob and Laura were heading there for a friend's birthday so we decided to tag along. It doesn't take much to get me to a theme park though! We went to a park about 30 minutes out of the city to a Madame Tussaud's park called Thorpe Park. The weather ended up being warm, sunny and fabulous! As I'm a roller coaster fiend, I was quite excited to try out new rides. The most unique one was new this year, and called Stealth. It essentially goes from 0 to 60 km/hr in the first few seconds and shoots you right up a nearly 90 degree hill and then right back down at the same angle! Syd and I were at the very front. It was crazy. The picture below gives you a taste.We also had our first camping weekend in the UK where we stayed in the Southeast part of Hampshire, England in a National Park called New Forest. It is grazed by the ponies, cattle and pigs of the local 'commoners' - allowing livestock to graze is called 'commoning'. The New Forest is a beautiful area, but it is not "natural" in the sense of untouched by man. The Forest has been moulded by the fads of monarchs since William the Conqueror, and the changing priorities of the Crown over the last 900 years: deer; timber for naval shipbuilding; commercial timber production; and recreation.
When we first turned into the New Forest Park, we saw a whole group of white-tailed deer. We stopped to grab a picture, which was just as well because they decided to cross the road! Not 10 minutes down the road we also saw a number of wild ponies out in the field. We soon realised that the ponies were indigenous to the area as when we got to the campsite they were grazing around the campground as well!
The first campground we went to had 320 tent pitches, but no toilets. Which I took to mean, no flush toilets. However, when we asked what that meant, it meant there were no toilets period, and all campers were expected to bring their own chemical toilets...what??? Needless to say we were directed to another campground where there were toilets on site.
When they say campground, they mean big field where you just squat your tent wherever. Everyone is one big happy family in UK camping land. Another weird thing about UK camping is that you can't have campfires, at all. That makes the camping experience seem so different to me, as I didn't come home with campfire smell embedded in my clothes! Instead, we bought one-time use portable barbecues to cook dinners and breakfasts with. They came in handy let me tell you, plus Syd had lots of fun cooking with them!
We managed to find a spot facing a hilly mound so we weren't looking at other campers. We also camped next to a big thorny yellow bush that we soon called 'prickolellows' because they leave their sting if you touch them! They are everywhere in new forest, and look quite pretty from afar - but watch out! They made good shelter from the wind and the eyes of other campers though!
In New Forest there was a quaint little town called Burley where we rented bicycles on Sunday afternoon and rode around some trails such as an old railroad. We tried some local 'scrumpy' cider right of of kegs as well. The apples are pressed during October and November using true cider fruit from traditional cider orchards. After fermentation the cider is blended into freshly emptied whisky barrels to enhance the flavour. I am quite the lover of many of ciders though this was not my favourite cider in the world, but hey to each his own. At 7.4% alcohol per 2 pint jug we were happy to buy and share on our bike ride anyways!
Burley is famous for a 'witchy past'. In the 1950s a white witch resided there by the name of Sybil Leek. She was a healer and astrologer who drew her energy from the neighbouring woods of new forest. She started a coven of healing witches. She soon became notorious and attracted a number of people to Burley who came to see her and learn her healing ways. By the 1960s, the townspeople were so annoyed with all of the 'strangers' in their village, that they kicked Sybil out. She moved to the US where she was well received and went on a tv show to help explain psychic phenomena. The sad irony of the story is that they kicked her out because she brought too much tourism, but more people have visited the village since, just because of the IDEA of her! We ended our Sunday with some pints in the Burley Inn where we waited for the rain to subside while playing a wicked card game called Guillotine.

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Observations:
The Brits have a different concept of personal space than Canadians do when it comes to camping. Not even a minute after we had our tents set up, other campers walked right through the middle of our site, just inches beside one tent, to get to the toilets on the other side of the field. This happened within the next 20 minutes 5 more times and really began to annoy us such that we moved our car next to our tent so that people would stop using it as a path. They ended up just going around the other side of our tent so we just gave up and ignored it, as I guess we were supposed to do. Very strange!

I learned a new word this weekend - Gobby. Laura and I were on a walk and we encountered two owners whose dogs were meeting for the first time. One german shepherd (aka alsatian) was kind of growly and the owner said 'don't be gobby'. I asked Rob later what gobby meant and he said 'mouthy'. Which now makes sense as they use 'gob' to describe mouths quite a lot - as in: 'look at that wide-open gob' and 'I'm gob-smacked' meaning speechless. aha! I'm figuring this stuff out!