Seeing things a little darker

"Ah, there they are..."
- Mike Moussa, as I put on my Oakley Spikes on a sunny afternoon on the Thames

I realise now that a beach update was probably wasn't overly fulfilling last weekend, especially because I wasn't even on the beach, nor did I have plans to go to the beach directly from there, (though I DID make it to Sorrento whose beaches were more like jetis and I found one this afternoon in Bari) but I can turn this one around. When you want to go sun on the beach, what do you need? Probably a towel, a hat, a swimming suit, an umbrella if it's really hot out...and of course, this week's cultural topic of the week:

BIG SUNGLASSES

Today is my last day in Italy, which is fitting, since no one cares more about their looks than the Italians. You can probably outfit ourself in a brand new Armani or Versace outfit and you might compete with everyone looking their coolest in their Dolce & Gabbana bandanas and swimtrunks, but then one thing they'll always have you beat on in the glasses. After all, la bella figura needs to be accessorised...


I often get flack for having 'bigger than normal' sunglasses and I'd like to think I know sunglasses pretty well. I have probably over 20 pairs (all but one are really cheap) and as such am fairly critical of people who wear sunglasses that either don't fit their faces, are too little or too big or just don't suit what they're being worn with... I go through stints of purchasing sunglasses and believe you me, it can be an expensive, yet stylish habit.

I like big sunglasses because, when push comes to shove and we're all telling the truth, I have big head and a fairly wide face. If I didn't have big sunglasses I would look like one of those idiots who wears sunglasses that SHOULD fit his face but don't, and that's one of my big fears. Big sunglasses have purpose too, not only do they block the sun, but they block MORE of the sun. Coverage is important in not burning your retinas and becoming temporarily or permanently blind.

I have one pair of blue sunglasses that are pretty small, not too small, but when I've worn them I've been accused of being 'matrix'. I used to have a pair of glasses that one of my bosses told me made me look like Rock Hudson (whether that's a good thing or not, I don't know...). I've been accused of 'Elvis-ing' before also, while I had big ones on and I was trying to grow out my sideburns. I once had a red tinted pair for snowboarding when it was too warm for goggles that turned out to be womens' biking glasses. But I didn't really care. Any women who wore those would have had to have pretty bad taste.


The thing I love most about sunglasses is that the just turn down the world one notch. It can be bright as hell and you just pop on whatever tint sunglasses you think might fit. Yellow makes the world brighter, blue slows it down. Brown or black turn it down a little and redish/purple let you know when you or your friends are burning 30 minutes before it's too late. I don't personally like polarised glasses, but they're all the rage if you're fishing or walking along a hot ashfalt road. Mirrored sunglasses are cool to an extent, but if you really need to check out how you look more often than you can just by walking by a car and taking a quick glance, you should just get a real mirror, put it in your pocket and take it out every five minutes...just like the Italians do.

On the fly

It didn't take much, but I realised the other day that I've had quite the exciting past week. Granted, I suppose I've had a pretty exciting past few months, but that's not the issue here. In just under two weeks, I've been in 6 countries, including (of course) the two smallest sovereign nations in the world, Monaco and The Vatican City and including the country of Andorra, which many people have not even ever heard of. Pretty cool, I reckon. But overall, this tour of homelessness that I've been running around on seems to have one central theme, which is this week's travel topic:

BEACH TIME

Note: Unfortunately, due to technical difficulties, this post will not include photos, though being on the beach is definitely enhanced by having a nice view, so that I could actually show you, the audience, how nice the beaches just actually are. But here's a recap of the big beach stays that I've had over the duration of my time in Europe to this point.

La Rochelle, France
This is a historical port town, boasting three main beaches, but mostly surrounded by large rocks and constructed walls. The main point of the town is the two towers that lead to the main port, where not so expensive boats are housed. This is not to say, of course, that I wouldn't want any of these boats, because I would, and we contemplated pirating many-a-vessel while we were eating canned tuna and bread near the main area of the port. The beaches in La Rochelle are small, artificial and fairly difficult to get to by foot, but since we were walking everywhere at the time in an attempt to be cool and economical, we found no problem in it.

Biarritz, France
Say Biarritz and most french people will say something along the lines of 'Oh, vous faites du surf?' and we say, 'Yeah, maybe a little'. People come from all over France and the world (including European Surf Championships which are held there every year in late summer) to hang out on the long, rugged beaches. The sand is soft, the beaches picturesque and often given the extra bonus of a few massive rocks to give you something to look at while basking in the sun. The only unfortunate part about the beach is that it doesn't actually run all the way down from the south beaches to the main casino beach in the centre of town. The other unfortunate part (which also plagues the rest of Atlantic Europe)...COLD WATER.

Random Beaches between Biarritz and San Sebastian. Nice.

San Sebastian, Spain
Probably the most picturesque city on the nothern coast of Spain (that we saw), with three huge and constantly packed beaches. Hot Spanish women, and a big hill that you can climb up to and see the whole town, with a big statue of the virgin mary that seems to float in the night as they light it up.


Bilbao, Spain.
Contrary to popular belief, there are no beaches here. Sorry, folks. They DO have a Gugenheim Museum which we didn't see though.

Finisterre, Spain
Most people don't go here, so, as you might expect, the beaches are not busy. Nearly private beaches with beautiful weather and good friends. Good times.

Porto, Portugal
There are not actually beaches IN TOWN, but take a bus for 20 minutes and you've got 6km of sweetness. We did nearly a week soaking up the sun here in Madalena Sur, but if you don't make it out of town, make sure to try some Port, right from the source.

Lisbon, Portugal
Once again, though it would seem so on the map and contrary to popular belief, there are no beaches here. Nice city, but not as appealing to me as everyone would make you believe. As you go further south, the Atlantic, though cold, gets just a little more tolerable...enough so that you can probably swim for 3-4 minutes before it was just too damn cold.

Lagos, Portugal
Beautiful. Excellent. Can't say enough good things about this town. The campground is a skip away from the town, the town is confusing, and all you hear are English and Australians. But, that's the price you pay to go out and party all night, booze cruise on Saturdays and recover the next day on a beach surrounded by really really really cool grottos.

Tangier, Morocco
Weird. This was my first ever time in an Arab country and the differences compared to Spain and Portugal were vast. Coming from Spain it is uncommon to not see topless women making sure they get evenly dispursed tan across everywhere and doing everything in their power not to have nasty tan lines. In Morocco, however, you would be hardpressed to even SEE a woman on the beach, let alone in anything revealing. Soft sand though.

Tarifa, Spain
The windsurfing and kitesurfing capital of Spain. Tons of people stay here for weeks, I was there just for a day, but you better believe I liked it. With over 10km of beach just 100m from the centre of town, pretty cool place to make a stop in for.

Barcelona, Spain
I didn't, as you would call it 'hit' the beach in Barcelona, since my main goal was to not have my camera or wallet stolen, but I DID walk along it and unfortunately for the people of Barcelona, it was a stinky one. But it looked nice and the sun was hot. The water was a little rough, but most people looked as though they were having a pretty good time splashing around.

Cote D'Azur, France
I don't want to sound too cliche and say something stupid like 'Nice is nice', but I can understand why someone would. Though the beach is made completely of rocks, pebbles, I suppose, it's where most people head right away and it's where you'd better bet that I did the same. Tons of families, tons of couples and just as many singles. I made it to do some beach time in all of Monaco, Nice, Cannes and the lesser stopped in town of Antibes, all of which were sand, save for Nice. But we're not really sure if the sand was brought in, or if it's actually supposed to be like that naturally. And there's no way to know...

Rome, Italy
Yes, there are beaches here, but no, I did not go, nor will I. Crazy bus system here in this city.

Headed from here to check out some more beaches in beautiful Croatia, so we'll see if they can stand up to their reputation. Fingers crossed. But, even if they're not, one thing's for sure. They will all be warmer than the Atlantic.

Framing It Up

"You can take pictures of landscapes to show your mom everywhere you´ve been..."

Have you ever used a computer that was not your own and even though you are a pretty good typer normally the keyboard just makes you look stupid? Like maybe the backspace key is only half the size it should be, maybe the keys don´t rebound as much as normal or maybe half the keys stick, because it´s just an overall crappy keyboard...well, that´s what´s happening right now so maybe excuse any typos that might come up. Well, aside from the fact that every European country´s keyboard is slightly different (or in France´s case - VERY different) from the English/American (yes, Canadians fit in this category), this week´s topic is:

PHOTOGRAPHY

So over the past week I´ve been hopping around a great deal, and the distance I covered in Portugal over about two weeks was covered in one long over night bus from Sevilla, Spain to Barcelona and two just two days later into the mountain state/nation/principality - country of Andorra. If you´ve never heard of Andorra, don´t worry too much. It´s a country of about 450 sq km and is only home to 76 000 people. If you want more information you´d best ask wikipedia or something because this post is about taking pictures, not about small principalities that are renouned for skiing, hiking and shopping and sub-European prices because of many tax and duty exemptions they are allowed because of their small status in the EU.
Andorra

So anyway, in a big tourist city, like Barcelona (for a recent example), you see tourist snapping pictures of this and that (that is, if they didn´t get it robbed walking around), some with really nice cameras, some with little ones, some with big ones, some with disposable (which is something I just don´t get seeing as how for the price of a disposable camera and developing and then having to buy another one next week, you could have just bought yourself a loosable digital one...and that´s not disrespecting film either, because with film cameras you can still take much better pictures than you could with some crappy little disposable thing), and then the thing is that you know some are taking really nice ones and some are just taking photos of things they think you should take photos of.
I often get made fun of for "going Japanese" and taking pictures of everything I see (which is also funny because for those of you who had no idea, I´m half...I know, it probably comes as a surprise). But anyway, even in the midst of flashing the flash (inadvertant use of the word flash twice in one sentence) of my own camera (which was graciously given to me before my big trip), I realised that photographs, though many people take pictures of the same things at the same with the same thing in mind, will never be duplicated (sort of like no two snowflakes being the same). But snow was the last thing on my mind as I walked through the streets of Barcelona.

Morocco

So many people with their little cameras (and sometimes I´m guilty of this as well) try to get all artsy with their photos and take shots of close-up flowers or bugs or whatever and blur the background and are really proud of it. Unfortunately, until this trip, most of my travel pictures were all of landscapes, which were nice (not that I´m an expert photographer, but I consider blowing up many photos I take), but once I realised that just like any good party, it´s who you´re with when you´re on the road as much as it is where you were (though a good venue is always good as well), so I´ve tried to get that "human aspect" in it these days too. (That´s one thing that make action shots so fun.) A professional photographer reaffirmed those thoughts for me a couple days ago, just after he almost had his 10000€ worth of equipment stolen while he was eating lunch at a cafe in Barcelona. But, he said, the most important part is a healthy balance.
Spanish Mediterranean Beach

Anyway, seeing everyone snap at this and that always makes me wonder what their pictures end up looking like on the big screen and it´s always a pleasure to have the opportunity to see how other people have seen the world. It´s funny how you can stand right next to someone while they take a picture and though you can capture the scene, it will envoke different memories in everyone when they flip back through downd the road. Do you ever read a book, or rather a page from a book and when you get to the end realise that you were not paying attention at all, and then have to reread the entire page? Well, people take pictures so that when they go on through their lives and forget something, they won´t have to redo the entire trip over again just to see something for a second, third, etc, time...because that could become expensive.
Central Northern Spain

Anyway, this photographer guy wanted to make it clear that, in fact, `Photography is art, too.´ So there you go. By the way, everyone always talks about how beautiful the city is and so on, so going into Barcelona I was kind of skeptical, pessimistic, almost. And let me tell you. It really IS beautiful. Unfortunately for those who have not been there, my pictures did not accurately capture its entire beauty.

Shake it like a Polaroid Picture

"Where are you from?"
"How long you been here?"
"Where are you coming from?"
"How long are you staying for?"
"How long are you traveling for all together?"
"Oh, by the way, my name is Kai."

So this morning as I woke up in Morocco at 530am to make the ferry crossing, only to miss the bus that would have taken me out of the quaint Spanish coastal town of Tarifa, I realised that I have now been on the road for more than 12 weeks. Impressive, no? So as I was sitting on the beach contemplating actually making out to finding the internet cafe, my mind was overacting, while at the same time drawing a blank. Then it came to me. Traveling alone helps you meet many people, but you find yourself telling the same story day in, day out. So, this week´s topic is:

HIGHLIGHTS

It seems strange to do a highlights issue having only done just over half of the trip and having so much more to see, but since I've already cleared out a bunch of space on my memory card on my camera, added photos to Facebook, and already made three cds of photos, I guess it´s fitting to do so on my "non day-to-day" website. So where to start?


France. The highlights of this month began the first time we set up the tent. Wild camping is...well, wild. After testing out our legs in a short three day trek in the Val de Loire. The goal of the entire Europe trip for Dale and me was to do something
that most people just don´t do, while at the same time hitting all the spots normal people would as well. The first time we got the tent up was a really amazing feeling.

"Normal people have normal stories." - Luth Roose

France 2. Actually making friends for the first time. Sure, the company of one person can be rewarding and enjoyable, but at the same time, can leave you without new topics to discuss. The first time the Swedish bunch came out and said "hey, we´re going to the bar, you wanna come?" we couldn´t help but cry out with glee..."yeah, I do." BBQing is also sweet, but that topic´s been covered.

"When Chuck Norris jumps into a pool he does not get wet. The pool gets Chuck Norris." - Markus, though he did not make it up, made us laugh for minutes

Spain. Obviously, the Camino is uncontended when it comes to the official highlight of the trip. In fact, that´s hands down probably the coolest thing I´ve done thus far. I think about the camino all the time and am forever grateful that I had the time and opportunity to do it.I walked up a mountain the other day in Morocco and the views were unbelievable, but there´s just something about walking for 30some days in a row that blows day hikes out of the water. Obviously the people we´d met and the things we saw won´t soon be forgotten and the running of the bulls was also pretty cool to be a part of. Tons of parties along the way, including an unforgettable performance by Los Ronaldos, a Spanish high energy blues rock group in Leon and learning random german words with no way to actually use them in a sentence, ie. Ha-schneidemachine.

"Chicks don´t HAVE to be hot to love them...but it helps." - Dale Vaughn

Portugal. I was in Portugal for nearly two weeks all together, mostly spent on the beach just outside Porto. Though booze cruises and pub crawls in Lagos, port tasting and riverfront dinners in Porto and being offered fake hash right in front of cops in the streets of Lisbon are all cool, the best part for me going into to Portugal was the fact that crossing over the Spanish border, there was a sign that said "Portugal". Walking from France into Spain there wasn´t so much as a Bienvenido. All that happened was that the signs changed language and having not practised in about 5 and 2 years, Dale and I, respectively were confused beyond all belief.

"What, do you think you're tough or something?" - everyone who saw our packs

Morocco. Walking up a mountain by myself. But also going on public transit, which actually applies to almost every country I have been to. I always scope out the crowd as we get onto the bus, or the train and usually you can spot at least one of two backpacks which don´t cry "local". A fun game to play is the "who´s not a local" game as you walk down the street. It´s more fun with two people. But when a bus ride is more than about an hour, you can usually assume that at least most people around you are not making a daily commute (save for maybe the bus driver), which means they are probably on vacation, or WERE on vacation, at the least. But the biggest difference between their vacation any my vacation has one overlying factor, which is that when I looked around on the ferry this morning, almost everyone was wearing clearn clothes...something that only takes place in my dreams. Today, actually, I´m doing pretty well, sporting "clean" (washed) socks, brand new underwear, and a shirt that I´ve probably only worn for two-half days. My shorts? Are relatively clean, though relative is, well, (compared to the last three weeks on the camino I went without washing them) relative. But who´s counting?

"Girls like guys who look like they USED to have muscles, right?" - Consensus between Dale and Kai

But highlights aren´t always main events. Some highlights can come from meeting other people from your own country, say from Ontario, who really have it out for Alberta and you get to duke it out politcal ideological difference that that neither of you can really control at this point in time. It´s times like your last night in a country when you find yourself arguing the importance of teamplay in North American sports, defending baseball and American and/or Canadian football, against the overbearing international presence of futból, and even though you love playing both of those sports, couldn´t care less about what other people think of them.

So with all of that being said, and much more to be found out, I guess I´ll have to let this one go for a while. Thanks to eveyrone who still reads this thing. Though I do it for myself as a way to keep my mind active, it really means a lot to me that people actually care about what I have to say.