Web pirouette: Flashpacking to Peru and beyond

So many stories, so little time to tell you about them. Here we go:

• A slightly serious and somewhat distressing write-up about how us Aussies are almost eco-terrorists because when we travel, we travel so far ... at Jaunted.
  
• Daydreaming of heading to Machu Picchu, which has been on my list for much longer than it's been cool, and now I can stay nearby in style at Cusco's boutique hotel ... at HotelChatter.
• And if I do stay at such a place rather than the rundown hostel I'm more accustomed to, that makes me a flashpacker ... at Vagabondish.
• Looking back on a stay in Hungary: I realised I'm still hopelessly in love with the Heviz thermal baths (and especially their water lilies) ... at Europe A La Carte.
• Beyond travel writing: my second novel is slowly taking shape and hopefully the buddy system will help me keep it on track ... at Becoming A Fiction Writer.
  

PS: Don't you love this message I found on a wall in Melbourne? Katrina and I decided it should be our motto for life.

From Merredin to Melbourne

After a long at-home hiatus I've finally been getting on trains lately and later today will hit the airport, too. Last weekend was an overnighter to the Western Australian wheatbelt town of Merredin: just because it's there (and so was my other half, for work). It was fantastic to get into the open space of the Aussie bush again and I was treated to a very ... well, edible meal, at the Merredin Palace Chinese Restaurant (pictured). Their menu boldly proclaimed it served "the ultimate in Chinese cuisine" but I think a few Chinese I know might be slightly offended by this claim. Nonetheless, I've got more to say about Merredin in a future post.

And while their names might be similar, my next trip to Melbourne couldn't be more different to my Merredin excursion. I'll have a week to catch up with old friends, revisit my favourite spots and see what else has changed in Melbourne in the eight or so years since I've been there. Tea, chocolate and the Melbourne Travel Writers Festival are all likely to appear high on the list of stuff I talk about post-Melbourne.

And sealing my less-than-love for Lonely Planet: An official store

About 15 years ago, I adored Lonely Planet books. You could almost say I worshipped them. I still remember the first one I bought: it was for New Zealand, and I bought it with some money my grandmother gave me for Christmas or a birthday, and I know it was in 1993. (Curiously, I've still never made it to New Zealand, but that's another story).

Then I travelled half the world on Lonely Planets - I certainly devoured them in Japan and south-east Asia, and was glued to my Trans-Siberian Lonely Planet across Russia and then to Eastern Europe down through the Baltics. Somewhere around there my enthusiasm started to wane, around about the time that all that luxury accommodation started getting listed. And when the Wheelers and co sold to the BBC, I figured that Lonely Planet wasn't my style anymore.

And now there is going to be a Lonely Planet store. Due to open as part of Sydney's international terminal redevelopment sometime in 2009, it all sounds sweet'n'lovely, with tonnes of guide books, phrase books, and "high-quality travel accessories and gift items". Woo-hoo. A decade ago I would have been excited about this but it just seems another nail in the coffin to me - my backpacking, budget-end, down-to-earth travel co has turned into Disneyland.

Dreaming of a Berlin break

Last week I caught up with a former student of mine who had decided that instead of migrating to Australia, she would return home and start up life again there. Now, Australia's a nice place, but since her home is Berlin, I could totally understand this. Being one of my very favourite cities, I reluctantly let her go ... because at least if she's living there, I have one more place to stay when I next get to Berlin.

A Berlin city break is something I just have to daydream about for now. I know the city is still changing, and last time I was there I saw the new Postdamer Platz area and still more building and renovating going on; and I visited the Jewish Museum for the first time, still one of the most memorable museums I've ever been to. I also got to show my mother the massive Brandenburg Gate - she'd seen my photos from reunification night in 1990 and remembered how enthusiastic I was. But there's still a bunch of places in Berlin that I have never got to see.

All this reminds me of life in Europe and all those chances to go on cheap short breaks that I really, really miss. When I lived in south-west Germany there were so many great places within easy weekend reach - here in Perth, it's a four or five hour flight to anywhere, and a much higher cost. Oh well, at least we have some statistically wonderful average number of sunshine hours here.


Full disclosure ... this post is sponsored by directline holidays.

Web pirouette: Comfort zones, crocodiles and cruises

Oh dear. After Germany's loss to Spain in Euro 2008, I just couldn't come near this blog for a few days. I don't want to talk about it. But the good news is I was still writing all over the place. Here are some highlights:

• Stepping outside your comfort zone is an absolutely key part of travelling for me - I was pretty pleased that Mike at Vagabondish suggested I write this article
• Just to expand the myth that Australia is full of creepy animals, all of the time (and thus keep out a few tourists so we don't get overcrowded) I wrote up this story about a crocodile in a pub at Jaunted
• Since I'm into learning languages, this odd hotel package where you could learn French in Germany caught my interest for HotelChatter
• I started writing up the ins and outs of Perth for The Bloggers Guide
• And I also started contributing to the Europe a la Carte Blog with this post about Cruising the Neckar
• And finally (phew ... and this is just the highlights) I signed up for NaBloPoMo - National Blog Posting Month - for my Becoming A Fiction Writer blog, which means I aim to post there every day throughout July. Check up on me to see if I make it.

Euro 2008 - Go Deutschland!

Did I not say, just a couple of weeks ago, that Germany would get to the Euro 2008 grand final? Well, technically speaking, I didn't, but that was the message behind my patriotic post. And look - Germany is in tomorrow night's Euro 2008 grand final!

Before I get distracted, let me explain this photograph. It's the closest Germany + soccer related picture I have in my own little archive, and it was taken during World Cup '06 when the Australia Socceroos were training at a soccer field in Öhringen, near where I was living. It was the middle of summer, but since German weather doesn't quite match up to Australia's, it was cold and overcast, and rain threatened the whole afternoon. But anyway, there it is, a German soccer field.

These fields are obviously good enough for training up champion players, so my fingers and toes will be crossed for the Germans to beat Spain. Nothing against Spain, but I just don't have quite enough loyalties to Spain to overcome my familial ties to Germany. That, and my husband would kill me if I didn't support Germany.

Busy working and writing: Need more chocolate

Realising that I haven't posted here for a while - sorry - I jumped into my list of bookmarks in the Not A Ballerina folder, and found a few odd things that I recently decided I should write about here. I'm not sure what goes through my brain at times, but by looking at a collection of links like that, a psychologist could probably tell you.

The scary part is how often chocolate makes the list. For example, I bookmarked an article from The West titled Chocolate stops you being grumpy. Apparently Cambridge Uni researchers discovered a magical substance called tryptophan exists in chocolate - and chicken soup - that makes us feel good.

So perhaps if I ate more chocolate, I'd be blogging here even more often. But in fact I actually have been busy blogging (not eating chocolate) and preparing a couple of new projects. If you're feeling rejected by the lack of Ballerina posts, you can take a sneak preview at my new project Same Sky Magazine (but beware, it's just the beginning), or click over to The Bloggers Guide where I've been starting to spread the word on my hometown of Perth.

Web pirouette: Infinity pools, airships and weird people

Today's the day: I'm going to make a concrete start on my second novel. I didn't do that sooner because I've been writing a tonne of other stuff, including:

• discovering the Miho Museum in Shiga prefecture, Japan, and cursing the guidebook and acquaintances who never told me about it when I lived relatively nearby
• wishing I was wealthy enough to try out the new Zeppelin that will fly over London soon
• dreaming of visiting a new Mexican resort which promises the largest infinity pool in the Caribbean (it's only through writing at HotelChatter that I even heard of infinity pools but now I'm obsessed)
• reminding myself why it's important to figure out boring stuff like travel insurance before you travel
• reviewing the next victim in my travel book series: son-of-Paul, Louis Theroux toured the US meeting a bunch of weird people

How Australia's becoming that little bit more European

When my (German) husband persuaded me that moving back to Australia was the right thing to do, he used a lot of arguments about the good weather, the friendly people,job opportunities and my family and friends being here. My counter-arguments (which obviously weren't quite as good) included not being able to travel around so much or so cheaply, missing out on culture and a lot of fascinating "old stuff", and missing his family and our friends in Europe.

He won, clearly, but recently I've been really excited to see Perth turning a little bit more European - in odd ways. I'm a firm believer of good (and bad) things coming in threes, so I wasn't surprised when in the space of just one weekend, I observed all of these three items being available in the shops:

• Fruit tea. Not black tea that's flavoured with fruit (that's NOT fruit tea, as I have fervently mentioned to many waitresses who try to serve me that here in Perth). REAL fruit tea, of the kind that is abundant in Slovakia (where I first became addicted to it) and all over Europe. Now in my local Woolworth's they are finally selling 30-bag packs of Lipton's range of fruit teas. Delicious. I'm still waiting for the ultimate - cherry tea - which I loved to buy at the supermarket in Dlhe Diely, Bratislava ... are you listening, Woolies?
• European pillows. You know, those funny over-sized square pillows? We have a bunch of pillowcases to fit them, from Germany's Ikea. Personally, I don't like to sleep using one, but my husband does, and this season they are suddenly all over the place. I bought some new pillowcases for our new European pillows at Spotlight and at the checkout the woman said to me, "You know these are European pillowcases, don't you?" - I guess some customers had been bringing them back in disgust since they didn't fit their Aussie pillows. Unfortunately I was obnoxious enough to answer, "Yes, it's OK, my husband is European."
• Rotkohl. This dish made of red cabbage, imported directly from Germany, appeared on the shelves of our tiny independent supermarket. In fact, there are now four or five imported products from Germany on their shelves, some without translation as to how they should be used. I'm guessing we're one of the few customers who buy them, but I love that they exist.
  

European Championships brings back all the soccer memories

The European Championships (that's soccer, or football as most people want me to call it) are on now - that'll be absolutely obvious if you're living in Europe, but might not quite be headline news in other parts of the world.

Here in Perth we're pretty frustrated that the games are broadcast in the wee hours of the morning, and don't think our bosses would understand if we skipped work to sleep in. What I'm surprised about is how interested I am - naturally my German other half is a big fan and that's an influence, but I'm also reminded of all my great soccer experiences at the last two World Cups.

The top picture is a bunch of South Koreans in Seoul watching the semi-final of the 2002 World Cup; I was there. Not at the game itself, but out in the centre of Seoul with half of its inhabitants. That was the beginning of my growing fondness for soccer.

When I lived in Germany during World Cup 2006, the fondness grew into a fever and I started watching all the games outdoors at "live viewing" (is that the strange English phrase the Germans coined to describe it - I can't quite remember). Unfortunately I watched the Italy - Australia game with some Italian friends and was the loser in a deal involving a T-shirt swap, so I had to walk around for the rest of the evening wearing this Italian jersey. I was so ashamed.

Now I'm anxious to see how Germany fares in the European Championships. My loyalties aren't really divided at all; I've got a Swiss student in my class at the moment but he admits openly enough that they've got no chance. My Czech students have left. That leaves me with pretty much no other reason to support any team other than Germany, so go for it, boys!

Same sky: Multicultural business English

(Kassi, Patrick, Andrés, Andrés, Frank, me, Angelica, Luis, William and Jang)

It's been a while since I mentioned my classes of English learners, but I've got to tell you, walking in to teach them is often better than traveling! (Plus, I get paid for it, rather than the other way round).

Right now I'm teaching the Business English class which means we often get into interesting cultural differences conversations - although the basic principles of business themselves sure don't vary much - everybody just wants to make money! Of course, I'm trying to brainwash them into being less materialistic ...

This photo's from a recent BBQ at a lovely park in Perth - I never knew about it but my students showed me. (Yeah, I only grew up here). At the time we had a heavy Colombian influence in the class (4 of them in picture, and 3 in the class named Andrés) but we were also learning the business ways of Taiwan (very entrepreneurial), the Czech Republic, South Korea and Brazil. As I always say: I hope they're learning even half as much from me as I am from them.

Web pirouette: Jet lag, pool paving and Hello Kitty

I may not have been blogging profusely at any of my sites but it's all been for a good cause, because this morning I watched a final version of my novel roll off my printer. Despite my literary preoccupation I've still put out some interesting posts this week - at least, I think they're interesting, you can decide for yourself:

• 6 Real Tips to Beat Jet Lag: in which I don't proclaim to be the master of beating jet lag (I am definitely not), but at least divulge what works for me without any weird magical cure-alls
• Cool Paving Impresses: in which I am almost flabbergasted that such a thing exists - the paving around the pool at the Dubai Raffles is somehow cooled so you never get burnt feet on a hot day. Wonder if they could do that for beach sand, too.
• Hello Japan: in which I'm not at all surprised to learn that Hello Kitty is now an official tourism ambassador in Japan, although she's not going to advertise in Australia any time soon - she's target the Chinese market.
• Fast Food Chains Bombard Cusco: in which I lament, long and loud, that nasty global fast food franchises are about to take over the Peruvian town which is the tourist's gateway to Machu Picchu.
• Tony Horwitz's Long, Strange Voyage: in which my book review series continues ... I've got a nice pile of new books on the corner of my desk to get through for this, it's such a pleasure!
  

7 travel blogs I read regularly: A quirky collection

Since I belatedly came to understand about RSS (and if you're even slower than me, this is the easy way to keep in touch with what your favourite blogs are publishing without having to go and check them - new entries come to you), I've been better able to follow a bunch of interesting blogs related to travel. When I looked at them today, I realised it's quite an eclectic mix, and thought you might be interested to see a few of my favourite regular reads:

• Nerd's Eye View: Pam's blog is a great example of a travel blog that continues even when you're not travelling. I'm not so sure about the recent ukulele post but there's lots of good stuff. Plus when Pam's "about" page says "I speak passable yet twangy German, love to eat dessert, and am trying to decide if I should dye my gray hair", then I figure we are actually long lost soulmates.
• A Wayward Journey: I'm all for getting children involved with travelling early - I was lucky that my parents did it with me - and this is an extreme but pretty inspiring example: this family of four is just about to set off on a cycling trip from Alaska to Argentina. They've already done big expeditions before so it sounds like they'll make it - and I'm looking forward to following the journey. In a similar vein, I've just started reading Pilgrims' Progress which is an eight-child family about to travel overland from Singapore to London.
  
• Then my love of Japan kicks in - I guess after living there for two years I'm naturally drawn to blogs exploring similar experiences. My favourite, not just for the stories but because it also looks gorgeous, is The Loulogue, tales from a Dutch girl teaching in Japan. And although updates are fairly few and far between, the posts from Gaijin Smash, written by a guy who's ended up marrying a Japanese woman and staying far longer than expected are really insightful.
• And finally, there are a few blogs belonging to my various blogging colleagues (those who write for the same sites) that I follow out of sheer curiosity: Nomadic Matt's Travel Blog and Nora's Life Happens - the latter is especially interesting lately, after Nora got involved providing aid to Burma from the Thai border ... and then her boyfriend got Dengue fever - I'm sending healthy thoughts!
  

Why Brits have no idea where they're going ...

Scary stuff. I know that I'm lucky enough to have travelled to lots of different countries and that I'm insanely interested in different countries, their location, their culture, their people ... and other people have, well, other interests. But the stats I just read from a Laterooms.com survey are really scary. It was a survey of British people about their geographical knowledge of Europe, and some of the most frightening results include the following:

• 45% couldn't identify Switzerland on a map
• 19% didn't realise Britain is part of the European Union
• 11% didn't have a clue that Iceland was part of Europe (most thought it was in North America)
• 62% don't even bother to check a map after they book a holiday to somewhere in Europe
• And the winner of the worst known destination is Lithuania, because 81% of people failed to find it on a map.

I have a little bit of sympathy for the Lithuania error: I remember when I was on my way there I kept reciting "Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania" so I could remember how they fitted in from north to south. But almost half couldn't even figure out where Switzerland was ... and a fifth don't know they're in the EU? Call me a travel snob or a geography know-it-all or whatever, but I think it's pretty shocking.

For the record, I definitely don't want to pick on the Brits, because I've seen similarly scary surveys of other nationalities, but really ... they do live in Europe so it wouldn't hurt to have a quick glance at a map now and again.