Hola

Yesterday I was lucky enough to meet Mum and James at the airport in Madrid.

We had a wonderful day exploring some of the country side just south of Madrid, and we have spent the night in Toledo, a small World Heritage City.

The weather is beautiful (for Winter that is). Bright blue skies, no clouds, chilly in the morning and warm in the afternoon. (Like June in Melbourne)

We will be in Seville for Christmas day, and Lisbon for New Years. I hope we can squeeze a visit to Jibralta in there too.

It is really wonderful to be spending this time with family.

Christmas is a time for family and fun.

Presents should be given, not only recieved.

If there are any disagreements in your family, now is that time to let them pass, there is nothing more important in life than family.

Wishing you wonderful Christmas, filled with laughter and great times..

and a very happy New Year.

Love to you all, and all the best for 2012 xxx

Africa

Would you come to Africa with me, to work? For a month, 6 months, a year. Would you do it? What’s holding you back?

Think about the world; history and human development, evolution and revolution. When did it all turn to shit? Who made that decision that hurt the first person? Human rights have always existed. It’s not only since 1948, when the United Nations agreed on the 30 articles of rights that all humans on the basis of being human are entitled to. It was just in 1948 that we finally wrote them down. Did they really think that those ‘sacred’ rights would ensure the safety and wellbeing of everyone, forever? That’s 7 billion people we are now talking about. The idea of the human rights is that they are to be developed. As the world changes and grows, the rights were set up in such a way to ensure they develop, they are not static.

It would be so much easier to strip everything away. Take everything out of the picture and start from scratch than to fix the current situation. My idea of Utopia and your idea are very different places I would imagine. We may have different ideas and values, but on the whole, I’d like to think we look at the world in the same way.

I look at the issues of immigration in Australia and the poverty in Africa as something that can be changed, not something to be ignored. They are both stringed to the same problem. I don’t completely understand globalisation, I don’t know what it means now and in the future. I know that after the Second World War Australia had a population of 7million, and it is now over 25million. It has almost quadrupled in 60 years, compared to the 60,000 years that aboriginals have lived there before that. I also know that Aboriginals account for only 2% of the population, but account for something like 25% in the prison system. That’s not right, that’s not just a part of life.

If we looked at the world, don’t think about it as “what are all the problems in the world” but instead think of it as one step back, what do all people need, require, to live? If we think of just the basics; food, water, shelter, warmth- good health, access to medication. That’s just to ensure we don’t die. Although I did hear about some people who can live like plants and not eat food or even drink water. They get their energy from the sunlight. Anyway, that’s not the point. After the basics it is important that everyone is educated, literacy and numeracy is incredibly important. And opportunities for employment with appropriate wage and development. So food, water, shelter, warmth, education and employment. On top of that we it is vital that no one is discriminated against on the basis of race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, background or ideals.

So, we have created an environment that provides everyone with food, water, shelter, education and employment, an environment free from discrimination. If everyone had the opportunity to experience life with these basic rights, these are rights that everyone is entitled to as described by the UN.

Have you heard that 20% of the world have 80% of the wealth, therefore the other 80% of the world have 20% of the wealth. Most of you reading this, in fact, all of you reading this I would imagine fall under or very close to the 20% of the world that has 80% of the wealth. I am unaware of the exact figures, and I don’t expect you to do anything different really.

What would be good is if those of you who read this are aware that something like 40% of household groceries goes to landfill every year. 40%. We are buying so much food and products that we don’t even use.

I met a girl at a hostel in Berlin. She told me about a few of her experiences in Northern Africa. She met some girls staying at the same hostel, and they went out around the town while they were there. As they were walking along, she was carrying a half drunk bottle of flavoured mineral water. She told me that a young kid came up to her and asked her for the drink. So she gave it to them. This girl had never witnessed the kind of poverty that she saw in Marrakesh. The next day, the same group from the hostel went out. They went to a local supermarket and bought rolls and salad, ingredients for a picnic in the park. As they were walking to the local park, the girls sensed that they were being watched, they had quite a lot of food with them, maybe not by western standards, but a lot for where they were. One of the other girls said, ‘don’t you dare give away this food’ to the girl I had met in response to her sharing her drink the day before. When they got to the park they spread themselves out, took their shoes off, lay their bags and cameras around. They were there to have a nice afternoon relaxing in the sunshine. A little while later, about 10 or so young boys came out of nowhere and raided their feast. She spoke of it as though it was all over before it began. One of them too her half eaten sandwich and they snatched up fruit and drinks too. one of the girls at the picnic fought with one of the kids for a bag of pomegranates that they had, in the scurry, one piece fell out, and the boy picked it up and took it back to the group. No money, no cameras, bags or shoes were taken, just food.

How does that make you feel?

Would you come to Africa with me?

positive decision making

I am beginning to get some pretty strong ideas about what’s right and wrong. I have strong ideas about humanity, human rights and international development, human rights, human rights, human rights, what is happening and what should be, immigration, people, human rights, human rights. (more about that later).

It would be poetic if I were to say I am beginning to think about food and preservatives, and what we eat. But I have always thought about it. Where food comes from, what goes into it. I often think about what Trent’s dad said, about preserving people in the morgue after they die, how we need fewer preservatives now because we eat so much, what we are eating is preserving us. That scares me.

I think it would be great to eat foods that are low in preservatives. But I don’t really know where to start. For one thing, I don’t know the entire German food vocabulary. I know a few fruits and vegitables, although I did get the word for fruit and the word for autumn mixed up a few weeks ago.  Herbst [autumn] and örbst [fruit]. Obviously fruits and vegetables have only natural preservatives and no additives, but I hope you get my point.

This would also include eating food with low food miles. For example consider a bag of chips; having a factory in New South Wales where all the washed potatoes are sent to, to chop into chips, but there is another factory in Western Australia that cleans the potatoes, and another in QLD that makes the packaging, but everything is sent to Victoria to be assembled and distributed, then sent back all around Australia to be sold. I think that is such a waste of time and energy. It might provide more jobs for people, but that’s the only advantage. I am all for high employment rates, but I am not going to buy those chips. That’s like 5000km food miles. Coke is the same. More water is used to clean the aluminium packaging than goes into the coke, fresh drinking water.

That really concerns me too. When I have somewhere permanent to live, I hope that I have the ability (time etc) to shop at a farmers market. The food is fresher, I have a better idea of where it has come from, and I can help the local community.

I know I am only one person and just me changing my eating habits won’t make an impact on the rest of the world, it won’t lessen the impact on the ozone layer or anything, but I think it’s important. And now, maybe you reading this might look into alternatives to Coles and Safeway, Aldi and Kaufland, Tesco and Carefour, wherever you are.

I think if the decisions we make are based on and reflect impacting the largest number of people in a positive manner, the world would be such a different place. Maybe a better place.

Photograph: Ulrike 

Aufwedersehen, Goodbye, and technology – bloody Facebook

In one week, how many times do you think you would say goodbye? Maybe at the end of each day, when you finish work and you are headed home, 5, plus after you have ordered your coffee, at your favourite coffee shop, that’s hopefully 2 more per day – once to the person who served you and once to the barista who made your coffee, so now we are on 15, if you eat breakfast with someone at home, before you head to work, or if you buy your train ticket at the counter every morning, that’s another 7 maybe, so now we are on 22. If you meet up with friends for a lunch, or you go on a date, that’s another 4 or 5 maybe, 27-28. For arguments sake let say 35, as I forgot to count phone conversations; that’s 35 times a week you say goodbye to people. That seems like a lot hey! Imagine if you were saying goodbye to people you may never see again. I don’t mean friends or family like in the above scenario. The people I am talking about are the people you meet while travelling. I do not mean to imply that I am saying goodbye to people I will never see again 35 times a week. Especially in the past 3 months. But, the type of goodbye I am talking about, and have said on many occasions is different. You meet someone in a hostel, maybe they are in the same room, sleeping the bunk above you, or you meet them at the local bar, on a pub crawl. Or you are walking down the street, trying to find the hostel, carrying your bloody heavy bag stupid rucksack, tired out of your mind, and you are going crazy, you just can’t seem to find the freaking street number with the hostel ahhhh, and then you see someone in the exact same position as you. You have a great night out with them, a few drinks; you meet more people. Then walk around the town at 3am, whatever. Instant friends. The next day or a few days later they leave, on to the next destination, or you leave, off on the next adventure.

Goodbye.

It is so final.

I have formed a love hate relationship with Facebook. See, even Microsoft Word corrects me when I write it with a lower case f. Facebook has changed my trip. Changed my trip from what I do not know. Before I left Australia, I went to my cousin Alex’s 18^th. The following morning I helped Uncle Steve make breakfast, well kept him company while he cooked. We stood out to the side of the Shed in Wheatsheaf and it started to rain as hungover, possibly still drunk 17 and 18 year olds got up for a feed. We talked about what I would be doing, where I wanted to go, the little plans I had made and he told me a bit about the trip he made when he was my age, maybe he was a bit younger than me. I hope it doesn’t make him feel old to read this, I don’t see him as old, but I doubt there would have been email when he was travelling, and certainly not Facebook, or mySpace or Twitter, he wouldn’t have been carrying around a netbook like I am. I have no idea how to use mySpace or Twitter (thankfully). Facebook, however has provided an arena, a platform maybe that makes all the goodbyes that much easier. Sometimes I don’t even get the chance to say goodbye, we have exchanged email addresses/ Facebook accounts – and 3 days later I see a bunch of photos online- was I really that drunk, haha shit! What a great night! When I was in Bruge Laula wrote her email address and mobile number on the back of a beer mat. I still have it.

He [Uncle Steve] told me he missed the ferry from Santorini to Israel, which left once a week, 2 or 3 times. Mmmh being “stuck” in Santorini, I would like to do that. He told me that I would meet people and travel somewhere with them, and in doing so a sort of cloud is created over Europe. Basically like a cyclone, people are picked up, and dropped off continuously as you move around. It’s true. Maybe not 10 or 15 like I had pictured. But as I am travelling alone, I am like the eye of the storm, and as I have met people and travelled a bit with them, and then moved on, and picked up other people, or tagged along with their travel for a bit, and the people I have met have picked up other people and the storm, breaks and reforms and continues all over the world.

There should be absolutely no fear in travelling. There is no need for fear. Common sense is the only prerequisite; you don’t even need money really. In the past week I have seriously spent one euro. (And that was for the washing machine here). I have also not made any money though.

In some ways Facebook is stopping me from saying goodbye, well see ya later really. When I start travelling again, this blog might be my only regular form of contact.

It’s funny, before I left James said- What you really need to do, is get rid of your phone, no internet, nothing. Just write a letter every 6 months or so, make a phone call maybe, go live” I couldn’t see myself doing that, I can now. I lost my phone almost 4 months ago, and I love not having a phone, except for the alarm, I bought one of those “cute” cheap alarm clocks in Innsbruck, it’s a piece of shit and drives me insane really. It doesn’t keep time; I think it loses half an hour every 12 hours, and ticks, which is easily the worst sound in the world. But other than that I don’t miss my phone. It’s funny; I think James is bringing his iPhone. I give him 2 months before he swaps it for a week’s accommodation or even a cold beer on a hot day.

I wonder what the differences are between my travels and Uncle Steve’s? He must have travelled in the mid-80s. Before the Berlin wall came down. I tell you something; that has made a huge difference. Seems obvious I know. I would love to go back and see Europe 20 years ago, 50 years ago, even pre-World War One. The changes between 50 years ago and now would be so much more severe than now and 500 years ago I think. In many ways it feels like Europe is geared to the traveller, but maybe that’s just what I see as the traveller.

Ulrike travelled around Australia in 2008-2009; she has told me about hostels and travel in Melbourne. I would not have a clue where any hostels are in Melbourne, never having the need to stay in one. But it feels different here; summer is a million times busier than winter, that’s for sure. Maybe that is the same in Australia, I am just not aware of it.

I would like to say that I left my ‘creature comforts’ in the boxes pilled in the spare room at mums place in Melbourne. I only bought a hair dryer about a month ago, it’s about the size of my hand, maybe a bit bigger, and it folds into itself, for easy travelling. But looking around my mess of a room here at the castle, I have make-up, which I have worn maybe twice in 2 months, Dresden and Warsaw. I have a hair straightener, - it’s about 5 straightens away from completely dying. Hair spray which has no lid, so can’t take it to Spain on the plane. I don’t know what my point is, does this mean that when I settle somewhere, get an apartment, and a job, that I will maintain the lack of make-up, my curly/ wavy needs a haircut hair, will I buy a phone? Obviously Uncle Steve’s travels would look different in this sense. About 6 weeks ago I booked a flight for James and me, from Barcelona to Rome, I had to nominate the amount of kilos we would be checking in, 15 or 20kgs. He said, “Chom, I have a penis, I am not bringing that much shit.”

Anyway, back to saying goodbye. I will be leaving the castle in 10 days. I made it. I did it. It is no secret that when I got here I was a little overwhelmed, exhausted to say the least, and frightened. (More about that later). There was about 3 days, maybe 2 weeks in that I thought, f this, I am not staying here, I don’t have to, there is nothing here, the people are lovely, but I am in the middle of nowhere, and 10 weeks is a long freaking time. It was like looking up at a big mountain, thinking- I could walk up and over it or chicken out and walk around it. And then I thought about everyone here, how friendly they are and I thought even if this is the worst 10 weeks of my life, how lucky am I? And I stayed, and I made it. It is like family here. Ulrike and I were talking about the set up here, whether it is a community or what it is; I think she was writing an email to another work-awayer to explain the place. I said, for me I think it is more of a household. We all live in the castle, in rooms either next door to each other or a few doors down. We take it in turns to cook and clean the bathrooms, we use the same washing machine, not that that is the deciding factor, but we hang out, we share the cleidungs-pferd, walk to the kitchen together in the dark, make each other tea, watch movies together, dance and make sport in the treffpunkt together. We share good days and bad, together. I think household, home rings true to me. It has become family; there is no mum, no dad, just friends. Saying goodbye in 10 days is going to fucking suck. Maybe I should just slip out the back door to avoid the tears.

This is going to be the worst case of goodbye yet.

New foods, new music, new books- check it out

This is for those of you who know how to download music, I don’t. Who like to read, who like to cook, and experiment with new foods.

Everyone we meet teaches us something, and I really hope I can share something of myself with you too. Nanna Ev used to say we learn something new every day. I miss her.

Was it January or February this year that Emile told me that Mick Jagger was in The Rolling Stones? Sorry I didn’t know that. It’s only in the past 2 months that I have heard their music and been able to identify it as them. I have found a new love in music. I can safely say I like every genre, not so much the heavy metal screaming head banging angry gahhhh though. For those of you that can download music, or know how to use you tube, maybe someone can help Grandma? Here is some of the music I have been listening to recently, shared with me by people I have met (in no particular order).

§  Hilltop Hoods – in particular their Restrung album

§  All of it really – please listen to their song Walk On -The calling.

§  Clueso – German band- the lead singer is a wee bit cute

§  Adele – I know its crying in the bathroom after a breakup music- but I like it

§  Philipp Poisel – ich und du I like the lyrics.

§  Paul and Frick Kalkbrenner – Sky and sand

§  Tim Bendzko- die Welt retten – he is a bit cute too

§  Tiesto

§  Above and Beyond

§  Music played on the Titanic – not the soundtrack (Irish music)

§  The dirty dancing sound track – I saw the movie for the first time about 2 weeks ago.

§  American Slang

There is more, but that’s enough for now I think. Don’t want to overwhelm you. I would like to thank Meike, Trent, Ulrike and Nele for introducing me to most of this music. 

Do you like a good book? Do you have a favourite?

I think everyone should read Human Rights Overboard. Maybe not all at once. If you are after a light read, this is not for you, but you should be aware of the immigration system in Australia.  Read Gypsy Boy, (Amy, Sarah, this is the book I was talking about in Nice). I left that when I was in Bern, it is about a young boy growing up in England, moving around a lot, and questioning his place in the world, his family and his sexuality. I think it was written as an auto-biography. I always type “auto-biography” with a capital a. Why? That’s not a book, just a question. I just finished reading The Secret Scripture set in Ireland, which I didn’t know until I started reading it, Kim- you might like it, only due to its Irish heritage I mean. I have to say it was a struggle to read, until the last few chapters. What else have I read? Mum sent me a package about 2 months ago with some much needed and craved vegemite, and some books. Between her and grandma, I was sent 4 books, 3 of which are about mental health issues (kind of) and one about a girl growing up in Africa. Fitting, but as I was feeling incredibly isolated at the castle, not for any other reason than its remote location and after having moved so far in such a short period of time, books on mental health and the female condition were not what I wanted to read. But I am very thankful none the less. I have found 20 chickens for a saddle hard to get into, so I will be leaving that here for Eddi, his mum is a development worker in Africa, and he started reading it, but gave it back before he left. For anyone who has not read The Book Thief I cannot recommend another book more highly. The book exchange that I have found at most hostels has been a god send. If you like reading, and have read a book that you think someone else might like, lend it to them, and encourage them to pass it on to someone else, by the same token, if you are leant a book, and you didn’t enjoy it, or get around to reading it, give it back to the person who leant it to you. You can’t take anything with you when you die; sharing books with friends is a privilege. NEVER throw a book away; no matter how great or shit you thought it was. There are second hand bookshops everywhere, op shops and libraries that will gladly take them. I am afraid The Kindle is ruining the joy of reading, turning the page, being impatient and skipping to the end to read the last paragraph. I am now reading The Ginger Tree.

Do you like to cook? Try new foods? Experiment in the kitchen?

Living at the castle, cooking with German ingredients, which are on the whole the same as in Melbourne, but there are a few foods I hadn’t tried before. Also cooking for people with different tastes and inventing new dishes has been lots of fun.

I went up to Chiltern, in central Victoria about a year ago to visit Dad and Sue. When I was there dad made dinner; boiled potatoes with stewed apples, and some other things. When he told me about it I was kind of like umm yuk, but I’ll try it of course. It was great. Funnily enough I turned up at a hostel (The Black Sheep) in Cologne in Germany, it was a Thursday. The lady who checked me in asked me if I would like to have dinner with everyone that night. It was free, and the idea was we would cook a local dish together. What a great evening. There was probably about 7 or 8 of us I think, mostly travelling alone. We peeled onions, potatoes, apples, and made Himmel and Erde [sky and earth] a traditional dish apparently from that region. It was basically the same as when dad had made it.  About 6 weeks later I arrived at my first work-away spot in a small town between Berlin and Hamburg. About a week in I was going to cook brussel sprouts with Meike, we sat at the table outside in the sunshine chopping the ends off, and preparing the sprouts. I was one to hate brussel sprouts, but cooked like this I actually like them. Basically what you do is boil some potatoes (peeled or not peeled – es ist egal), and place them in the bottom of an oven proof dish, then sprinkle a thin layer of grated cheese over the top, at the same time once the brussel sprouts are prepared- the outer leaf is removed and the base chopped off, wash them and chop the bigger ones in half, so they are all basically the same size. Now this is the important part, if you boil them for too long they will be sour and taste like shit, so boil them until they are just soft, in the meantime peel and chop some apples into cubes, do you know how to stew apples? The best thing is a medium heat; all the apples in the pot, with not too much water, Ulrike told me yesterday that apples are pretty much all air, that’s why my stomach rumbles after I eat one. So, now you have the boiled potatoes in the tray, with some cheese on top, then once the apples are soft and semi mashed, so you have some big bits and some runny bits, drain the sprouts, add a tiny bit of salt, and stir into the apples, so it’s all combined, but lumpy, of course. Now spread the apple-sprout mix over the potatoes, a bit more cheese on top, and bake until the cheese is melted and a little brown. YUM. For a carnivores delight- add some cooked chicken or bacon between the potatoes and apple sprouts. If you do make this, let me know, it’s so yummy- I think.