Euro Trip 2008/09 Pt VI – Krakow (Poland)

Posted on January 31, 2009 by tokyofox

The overnight journey from Bratislava to Krakow was my first time to experience a sleeper train where I was on the top of three beds in our shared cabin. With no idea what was outside it really felt like a roller-coaster at times (in terms of that feeling you get in your stomach) as the train bumped about while speeding along.

There were also lengthy stops at other stations where I was often wondering if it was our destination. Thankfully the conductor woke us up 30 minutes before our arrival in what was a very cold and snowy Polish city.

We eventually checked into Good Bye Lenin hostel for a couple of nights and again I headed off on my own as Hugo just wanted to laze around. Wieliczka salt mines were my destination after a short 30 minute bus journey out of the city. I had to rely on an old local woman to point me in the right direction of the mines as I got off a stop too late and very grateful I was too as she didn’t speak a word of English but must have guessed where I was going.

The mines were 150 metres below ground so I had to walk down about 400 steps to get to see the worlds deepest Chapel where even the chandeliers are made of rock salt albeit grey in colour rather than white. It was more interesting than I thought it would be and the guide was informative with his stories but at the end of the day its still difficult to get over the fact that its all just a load of salt and therefore hard to take too serious. Luckily a lift could take us back up to the surface.

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Once back in Krakow I looked around Wawel Hill which had a really beautiful castle and cathedral and in the evening our excellent hostel had a cooking Polish food together type event which was a nice way of meeting a few other guests staying there.

  

A 90 minute bus trip the following morning took us to Auschwitz which was probably my main reason for wanting to visit Krakow. Overall, it was a thoroughly interesting  place to visit and the concentration camps and their rather gruesome stories in the barracks were a fascinating insight into such a horrific piece of history. After such a day we certainly needed a few drinks so went out on a pub crawl with people from the hostel which for some reason only included two places.

  

The good thing about Krakow is that its small, compact and easy to walk around which I did for my swansong on my final morning taking in Kazimierz Jewish quarter and the Old Town which was nice but difficult given the -10 degrees celsius temperature.

 
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Euro Trip 2008/09 Pt V – Vienna (Austria)

Posted on January 26, 2009 by tokyofox

Having ‘done’ Bratislava quicker than I imagined I decided to take a day return to Vienna as it was only an hour away for just nine euro’s return on the train. Hugo was being a miserable git and decided to stay put in Slovakia as he wanted to just sit around reading a newspaper or something. A waste of time in my opinion but I guess the beauty of travelling is that you just do whatever you wanna do.

Consequently, I went alone and got off to an awful start but I wasn’t the only one! When the platform for our train was announced 10 minutes before its departure a small cluster of people went to platform 1 where a train was waiting. One guy opened the door and got on and about eight more of us followed suit but as soon as we stepped onto the train we were shocked as it started moving very slowly ending up at the depot five minutes away where we then had to run back along the track resulting in all of us missing our intended 11am train and so we then had to wait nearly an hour for the next one!

Didn’t bother with any tram or train tickets once in Vienna as I headed first for Schönbrunn Palace on the outskirts which featured in the 1987 James Bond film ‘The Living Daylights‘. My initial bad impressions (due to the seemingly ever-present scaffolding on such places) were thankfully soon to be found wide of the mark when I went round the back and saw the beautiful sunny sight of the Gloriette structure in the distance from the Palace which would provide great views across the city as well as of the Palace.

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After that I went to Stephansplatz in the city to see the humungous Stephansdom and walked on over through the picturesque Hofberg Imperial Palace area avoiding purchase of most things which seemed so expensive now I was back in Western Europe. After about four hours looking round Vienna it was time to head back to Bratislava which I did but not before I’d made another (slight) mistake as I got on a train which took me to a station on the other side of Bratislava. Without a map I just got on a bus which many locals were getting on and hoped for all hell that it was heading back over the river to the part of the city I recognised. Luckily it did just that and I had a few hours left before Hugo and I would take the overnight train out of Slovakia.

    

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Euro Trip 2008/09 Pt IV – Bratislava (Slovakia)

Posted on January 19, 2009 by tokyofox

Having packed our bags the nights before (easy for light traveller Hugo who only brought what he was wearing and a few changes of underwear!) we had to get up at 5.30am to get to the bus station in time for our jourmey out of Hungary and into Slovakia an hour later. It was the coldest bus ever and I slept for a short while before waking up wondering which country we were in. Still Hungary!

As we later drove straight through some run-down place with broken windows posing as passport control. I thought there might be some short procedure with a passport check but that was definitely not the case. We just hopped on a random tram where luckily some stranger pointed us in the right direction where we eventually checked into Hostel Vegas which was run by a young Slovak guy who had lived in Brixton and had certainly picked the English sarcasm and sense of humour.

We headed straight out for Bratislava Castle which was, as often seems to be the case with tourist attractions, a little under-reconstruction and nothing too special to be honest but the city itself was a lovely little place to just wander around. We later walked on up to some tall statue on a hill overlooking the whole of Bratislava which gave the typical panoramic view of the city and beyond.

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On a much lighter note the snow on the parked cars seemingly gave the excuse for some people to draw phallic symbols on the windscreen or bonnet and there were a fair number of these throughout the city. Needless to say that we joined in with this “craze”.

Our room-mate was from Indonesia and spoke German and only a tiny bit of English so I ended up speaking by far the most German since I lived and worked in Hamburg in 2003. This guy came out with us for dinner at the Slovak pub where I had bryndza sheeps cheese as part of a pasta dish with pork which was very nice.

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Euro Trip 2008/09 Pt III – Budapest (Hungary)

Posted on January 14, 2009 by tokyofox

Having touched down in Budapest on the 30th I took the cheaper option of taking a local bus and then the metro to my hostel in Pest where I met up with Hugo a few hours later for the first time in nearly four years.

The following morning was bitterly cold as we walked over chain bridge to the Buda side and on upto Castle Hill where Buda Castle is located offering fairly impressive views of the city. I say ‘fairly’ as it was a bit grey and the weather was freezing cold. It was almost unbearable to take out my map or camera at times but I was faring way better than Hugo who, despite his muscular build, was being a right girls blouse moaning about the cold. What did he expect coming to Eastern Europe in the Winter?!!

   

We battled the weather via a few hot drink stops and after seeing the wonderful Roman-esque architcture of Fisherman’s Bastion we headed back over to Pest taking in St. Stephens Basilica and the state Opera House on route to the House of Terror which was closed as it was New Years Eve. We were the further disappointed that we couldn’t get into two thermal baths as they were closing early. Hugo had had enough of the cold so went back to the hostel while I took a short hike up to the Citadell for a panoramic view of the city at sunset which was far more impressive than the earlier overcast views.

 

With low expectations for the arrival of the new year at midnight we just got some alcohol from the supermarket and sat in the hostel playing chess. Very rock and roll but believe it or not it attracted some attention and after talking to some American twins and a Canadian guy the five of us headed out to a nearby bar which emptied out completely at 11.30pm leaving just our group. We followed suit at 11.55pm ending up in the neighbouring bar for the start of 2009 before we were then asked to leave as we had inadvertently gate-crashed a private party!

Didn’t do too much on New Years Day other than book our bus to Bratislava for the following day, sample Goulash soup and relax at Gellert thermal baths which were better in appearance than in temperature in my opinion. Having experienced onsen in Japan a few times I guess I was expecting it to be hotter than the 40 degrees which it was. Still, it was way better than being outside in the ridiculous minus temperatures!

 
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Euro Trip 2008/09 Pt II – Leicestershire (UK)

Posted on January 7, 2009 by tokyofox

The Eurostar took me from Paris to London St Pancras and from there I took another train back to my hometown arriving in the early hours of the morning at my parents house. No such reverse-culture shocks this year as it was the third time to be back in 12 months! It was good to be back and as I get older I appreciate it more and more though, overall, it wasn’t on a par with last December’s festivities.

Maybe the credit crunch played a part in this but I think it was because my friends and I are getting older and with that other old school friends coming out of the woodwork on Christmas eve is becoming even rarer. On top of that I was back last year for the first time in years and so being reaquainted with what was once so familiar didn’t have as much of an impact this year.

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I went out for a few beers on Christmas eve afternoon and many more at night which didn’t live up to last years outing. Christmas day was always gonna be more quiet as it was just my parents and me with sister Lorna and husband Stuart coming back for just one night on the 27th in anticipation of my dad’s birthday on the 29th. Boxing day was still quite good with a heavy afternoons drinking and party at my mates house following the Fernie Hunt meet in the local village which was attended by about 2000 people.

  

I did get to see my team Leicester City in action on the 27th against Hereford United in what was my first ever third tier league match. Nothing too special but at least we won and stay top of the league and on course for an automatic return to the Championship.

     
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Euro Trip 2008/09 Pt I – Paris (France)

Posted on December 27, 2008 by tokyofox

Back when I was nine I did a school project on Paris which whetted my appetite for going to the French capital. 22 years later and I finally went there as a short pit-stop on my way back to the UK from Japan. Surprising to many that I’d never been but when such a city was always in close proximity I never felt in a rush to go there.

After a 12.5 hour flight I arrived in Gay Paree and once I’d located my £13 a night hostel I dumped my bags in and headed out on the Metro. Lined with trees lit-up in silver the Champs Elysees really was a beautiful site with the Arc de Triomphe in the background. I didn’t hang around there for too long though as I knew I’d be returning the following day as I wanted to see that and the Eiffel Tower by night and by day. The latter was next and like the Arc before, it was like I’d seen it before but I guess that’s what can happen when you’ve constantly seen such icons on TV and in print.

Photo stops at Sacre-Coeur and Moulin Rouge rounded off a very very long day and I was in bed by 11pm before being rudely woken up by my Japanese room-mate who didn’t seem to understand the notion of courtesy towards his fellow travellers as he went about his business with such noise that suggested he was in his own home.

      

Breakfast was followed by The Louvre which was like a crystal maze at times and difficult to navigate for me. You could spend hours there and barely scratch the surface. I spent two hours in total so you can imagine how quick I was! The smaller-than-expected Mona Lisa and the Egyptian stuff was enough for me. I was more impressed by the outside courtyards.

 

Notre Dame was next up and then I walked up and down the Eiffel Tower (at under 25 price too!) which really did offer impressive views which is quite refreshing given the number of towers I’ve been up over the years.

Returning to the Arc de Triomphe my Paris adventure finished with a stroll in the drizzle down the Champs Elysees to Place de la Concorde. Many people said Paris couldn’t be done in 24 hours but I was more than happy with what I got done in that time.

 
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Christmas Lessons 2008 – Kids

Posted on December 20, 2008 by tokyofox

That’s work over for another year and its gotta be said that I am already tired of Christmas. I know its fairly common for people to say such a thing due to the commercialisation of the whole thing and the fact that its hard to escape the songs and decorations in the shops and department stores.

My problem is to do with having it on the brain a lot in the last month in terms of preparing and planning lessons for both kids and adults of whom a fair few really couldn’t give two hoots about such festivities. You may wonder therefore why we bother to do it at all but its kind of part of the curriculum and besides it is initially a nice break from the usual books.

 

Sensibly I kept last years self-made Christmas flashcards and my Santa costume and added a few more gimmicks such as the pooping reindeer (a chocolate ball drops out of its ar*e when you push down on its back – childish yes, but good fun!) and balloons to be blown up and put between the legs for a jumping ‘hunt the flashcard’ race.

No sweets could be given out due to some problem with allergies a while back so this time they got a cr*p package including a pencil, eraser and tissues which was rather embarassing to give them but I guess Christmas is all about disappointments!!

That was further apparent when it hit home to some students that these lessons weren’t that special after all and were indeed just a review of the usual b*llocks but with a very vague unsubtle Christmas twist on it. By that I mean changing games like ‘What time is it Mr Wolf (teaching the time, obviously) and the ‘Is there an (object) in the bag?’ guessing game to ‘What time is it Santa?’ and ‘Is there an (object) in the stocking?’ respectively. Ouch!

   
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Christmas Lessons 2008 – Adults

Posted on December 19, 2008 by tokyofox

Having recently had an article published in our company rag about using songs in adult classes as well as kids ones I thought I’d better practice what I preach. Consequently I chose three Christmas classics for my seasonal lessons as I’m a bit fed up of talking about Christmas festivities in England to a load of people who don’t really celebrate Christmas in any way.

I chose John Lennon & Yoko Ono’s ‘Happy Xmas (War Is Over)’for the obvious reason that it’s known by almost everyone (not all though as one lady had never heard of it!) and is simple and repetitive. For this the students just had to finsh off the last word in each line based on them rhyming with others.

‘Do they know its Christmas time?’ by Band Aid is hardly known and I used this with the Upper-Intermediate levels by way of cutting the lyrics up into strips which the students had to listen out for and put together on the table to form the whole song. A new thing for me and something different to the usual gap-fill exercise and it got a bit of movement in the classroom.

The third song I used was ‘Merry Xmas Everybody’ by Slade which isn’t known by anyone in Japan! Noddy Holder’s brummie accent is very difficult for Japanese ears so I used the much slower acoustic version which Noel Gallagher of Oasis recorded a while back for ‘The Royle Family’ Christmas special.

The students who were given this song to listen to had to keep their ears peeled for a range of target language which we have been working on over the last eight months or so and is far too dull to go into on these pages. Overall, these songs seemed to capture the imagination of the students (on the surface anyway!) and with some of the afternoon classes bringing in cakes (both bought and homemade) it was a nice end to a year that has flown by.

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Christmas Party 2008

Posted on December 15, 2008 by tokyofox

My company’s annual Christmas party took place in Shinjuku on Saturday but this year it was a bit different as the whole of our district in Nishi-Tokyo had one big party comprising about 180 students and 30 teachers. All in stark contrast to previous years’ much smaller intimate affairs.

The location was very nice and games were kept to a minimum with just a game of Bingo on the menu which seemed like it went on for ages. At least it got the students attention unlike the teacher introductions on stage that were heard by very few due to a cr*p sound system and a distinct lack of interest which was maybe because everyone else was busy mingling.

Thankfully I declined to take part in that ‘tumble-weed’ moment as I wanted to concentrate my energy on getting through as much alcohol as possible!! The same could not be said of the food which came and went in no time. I hardly got a look in there as no sooner had the food arrived it had gone as the food-obsessed Japanese lapped it up like flies around sh*t! All in all it was a fairly enjoyable evening and it flew by very quickly but the party continued elsewhere till first train in the morning.

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Menace Tooth Society!

Posted on December 9, 2008 by tokyofox

Over the last fortnight I have found myself a couple of times lying on my back with my jaws open feeling a little prick in my mouth!! The reason for this is of course that I visited a dental surgeon in Tokyo for the first time having suffered a week of intense pain in my teeth a few weeks ago. This was a little scary but not for the usual obvious reasons.

I actually don’t mind going to the dentists but maybe thats because I have had very little work done over the years. My main worry was the language barrier and as I expected I didn’t understand a word he said……….and that was with him speaking in fluent English!!

No real problems was thankfully his verdict for the moment but it seems that I will have to have one of my top wisdom teeth pulled out sometime in the future as its easier to pull this one out rather the bottom one which are growing at discomforting angles and grinding against each other in a way which can cause me pain when I’m eating. That description sounds a lot worse than it really is so don’t worry! The pain has more-or-less gone now and I have changed to a soft toothbrush as ten years of brushing with a cheap hard one caused horrible tooth decay!!

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