Foggy Photo Walk… #netherlands #photography #travel

Yesterday was such a wonderful day.  It has been cold here, but we spent the whole day walking to one of our favourite areas and taking photos of the surrounds.  The weather was so foggy, it seemed nearly impossible to take a bad photo!

I spent a lot of time yesterday experimenting with various raindrop photos.  I am by no means a photographer, but I am happy with how some of these turned out.

The fog lent a mysterious air to our photos and made everything look dreamy and antiquated.

As it got darker, and the temperature fell, the fog intensified.

Before it got dark we got some really great shots, almost in sepia tone with a reddish hue.  My only regret is that my lens is dirty and you can see some definite dirt in some of the shots.  Maybe that just makes the shots look older? Haha.

I really enjoy these long meandering photo walks and it’s so nice to be able to do these walks in the winter.  I hope you enjoyed some of my photos!

Magical Wanderings in Wonderland…

Yesterday we went to Elswout which is within (long) walking distance from where we are staying, in Holland.  Back in the day this used to be a summer property for the rich.  Now it is parkland which mystical pathways that lead you around into what appears to be Middle Earth.  Moss and bridges and trees.  So beautiful.

 

Spring! Spring Spring!

Turkey!

Rather than a long-winded explanation to explain my absence from blogging, I think it’s easier if I just continue on like it didn’t happen hah! All I can say is that I hope to be more consistent, and make a more concerted effort.  Basically to sum it up quickly (even though I just said I wasn’t going to), it was a mix of laziness, apathy and self-consciousness.  Anyway….So here we are, now, travelling again, in Turkey!

A Spring Day in #Holland…

A nice walk yesterday through a big, wooded park and a coffee break!

Hannie Schaft and the Bleomendaal #Dutch Honorary Cemetery…

Yesterday we went for a long walk back to the Dunes to find the Dutch Honorary Cemetery and visit the grave of Hannie Schaft and the other WWII resistance fighters who lost their lives to the Nazis.

Hannie Schaft has sort of become the representative figure for these resistance fighters and her life story is very interesting.  There is a memorial statue to her in Haarlem and apparently you can visit her house, too.

Walking through the remote and empty dunes it is hard not to imagine what it would have felt like to be marched through the hills unceremoniously to your untimely death.  Apart from birds and wind the dunes are silent and cold.

I can’t imagine being that brave at 24 years old or now, and it brought up a lot of questions about what we could or would do to save another.  I am glad we got a chance to visit so I could learn more about this history…

A Spring Birthday in #Holland…

May 9th was M’s birthday.  We had a lovely day in Amsterdam and Haarlem…

First I will show you the view from our rented room…Spring has sprung in Haarlem since we were last here and everything is so fresh, green and beautiful!

We are staying near a huge cemetery with a lovely pond and many cherry trees…I didn’t think I would be seeing cherry blossoms again this year!

There was a fair in the big square in the centre of the city…this ride looks terrifying…

We arrived back in the breathtaking city of Amsterdam and we walked and walked…

This is some kind of hop on hop off mobile bar complete with keg…you have to cycle to your next destination…

We walked to Westerpark after stopping at a bakery…

…and had some delicious birthday desserts!

Spring is everywhere…

There was some kind of festival in the park and there were soooo many people and food stalls…

…we decided to head to dinner…

…walking through the Jordaan…

Authentic Italian pizza…they bring the buffalo mozzarella in from Italy twice a week…

Rose *AND* lemonade together? My dream…

…more post dinner walking…

…the most crooked bar I’ve ever seen..

It was a beautiful day!

A Saturday in #Tokyo: Part 1

Yesterday was a busy day…

I started off in Shibuya where I had a private lesson and then I wandered around a bit while I waited for M to meet me.  Shibuya is great.  I love it.  But it gets super crowded on the weekends.  It started to rain after a while, so the crowds weren’t as bad as normal.  Shopping in this area is super, but the only shopping I did was at the 100 yen store!

There are so many amazing sweets at the convenience stores here.  Yes those are take-away macarons!

Daft Punk truck…

This guy is awesome…

Then we walked from Shibuya to Yoyogi Koen for the Earth Day Festival…

This thing was huge…there was no way to cover it all in the bit of time we had and I believe it is every month or so in the Spring and Summer.  It was great…

They freaking love MJ here.  Last weekend we saw a whole store just dedicated to MJ memorabilia and now the Earth Day Festival had a whole tent with MJ impersonators (which we missed) and an MJ choir!

This is a shit photo, but I just wanted to show where we ate lunch. Loving Hut is an international chain of vegetarian restaurants overseen by the religious/spiritual dogma of some weird lady.  I dunno about all that, but their food is great, usually! We had veggie meat skewers and Vegan Ramen! At this point it started to rain harder so we figured we had better leave if we still wanted to get to the Wisteria Festival which was another train ride away.  I should rephrase that to “if *I* still wanted to get to the Wisteria Festival….M was just humouring me and coming along for company.  He was such a trooper in the freezing cold rain when I’m sure he would have done many other things than gone to see some flowers half way across the city.  

The flowers were at a very old shrine first commemorated in the 1600’s.  Some of the trees are said to be around 300 years old.  Despite the rain, the scene was beautiful…

Rainy Sky Tree Tower…this was not yet built when we lived here before.  It’s kind of an eyesore but looks better at night…

A lovely Saturday despite the rain!

Last Week in Europe… #cultureshock #travel #Japan #Europe #Backpacking

Haarlem feels so comfortable and so familiar after three weeks and a bit, that it feels strange to be having to leave in less than six days.  We had always thought it would be amazing to buy an apartment in Amsterdam one day, but now I have to say that Haarlem is much better for us.  We travelled into Amsterdam yesterday for probably the last time before we leave.  It’s so beautiful, especially at night.  There is nothing more I love than to walk around the canals and peer into the perfect “gezellig” homes, with their lovely lighting, exposed wooden beams and little narrow staircases.  

My mind is turning eastwardly these days, thinking about our flight and arrival in Tokyo and wondering what it will be like.  Will it be familiar, like an old home? Or will there be some major culture shock.  I am predicting a bit of culture shock as it’s just so completely different from here.  Here, I can get by with my zero-level Dutch, speaking in English as everyone is near fluent.  In Tokyo I have to rely on my shitty speaking and reading abilities.  I’ve already been studying as a refresher and as a move to improve my Japanese abilities, but it’s not the easiest language to pick up quickly! That being said, I love the language, so it’s a pleasure for me to study it. 

I’m happy we have a room reserved in Tokyo and a place to get our bearings.  It’s within walking distance to my favourite neighbourhood: Shimokitazawa and I’m so looking forward to walking around the crazy bustling jungle. 

I look forward to sharing my photos and experiences here, with all my blogging friends as well as my friends and family from back home. 

During my last week here so far I’ve been soaking it all in in attempt to take a million snapshot memories with my eyes.  No matter how hard I stare at things and for how long, I can’t help but wonder if the feeling I have here will be hard to grasp at once I leave.  And yet, I don’t want to.  I look forward to moving on to new sights and experiences and “here” is not going anywhere.  I can come back to Europe any time (should funds allow) and where I am headed is pretty amazing too:

   Source: flickr.com via VIPsAccess on Pinterest

And did I mention I am so looking forward to Cherry Blossom Season??

Source: Uploaded by user via Myriam on Pinterest

But for now, in these last days here I want to walk around and soak things in, eat olliebollen and pannekoken and bread and cheese and feed the ducks and bask in the sun on a bench alongside the canal and breathe it all in until it becomes part of me.  I’m pretty sure it now is.

Bloemendaal An Zee…

The other day we walked from our place in Haarlem to Bloemendaal An Zee, (aka-the beach).  We had heard that there is a huge national park next to the ocean that is covered in dunes.  It was very windy and cold but one of the rare non-rainy days lately, so we were glad to get to check it out.  The dunes were covered in grass and scrub and reminded me a lot of Saskatchewan, actually.