Brunch, Magic Coffee, Chocolate, and Pasta Perfection

Melbourne’s reputation for excellent brunches was confirmed at The Hardware Société. I enjoyed a beef brisket with pearl onions and a soft-boiled egg, as well as an ahi tuna dish served with soft-boiled eggs and hummus.

I had heard of Melbourne’s reputation of having a really strong coffee culture, and I was eager to try the local specialty known as a “Magic”. This Melbourne invention consists of a double ristretto (a short, concentrated espresso shot) topped with steamed milk in a smaller cup than a standard latte. The result is a strong, creamy coffee with a rich flavour profile. While the coffee didn’t impress me as much as I expected, I really enjoyed the latte art.

The city’s culinary scene extends beyond coffee. I noticed a trend of adorning dishes with edible flowers, which adds visual appeal and subtle flavours.

I also visited Koko Black, a local chocolatier. While their actual chocolate tasted mediocre, their chocolate with embedded Tasmanian honeycomb stood out. The sweet, crunchy honeycomb added a nice crunchy texture and flavour to the chocolate.

One of the culinary highlights was dinner at Tipo 00, where we tried their pasta tasting menu. The freshly made pasta was cooked to perfect al dente, offering just the right amount of resistance to the bite. Their squid ink pasta was particularly memorable. This striking black pasta had a subtle briny flavour, with a silky texture that paired nicely with seafood. We took some leftovers home and they still had that al dente texture even after going through the microwave. Although I tried some wine pairings, they paled in comparison to the exceptional wines we had experienced at Oakridge Winery. We also attempted to dine at Serai, a Filipino fusion restaurant, but our poor planning meant we were still too full from our earlier meals to fully appreciate the experience.

On a lighter note, we spotted an ice cream shop called “Bing Chillin,” which I thought funny because it’s essentially a reference how John Cena says “ice cream” in Chinese. No idea if it even sells ice cream or whether it’s good.

Oakridge Winery

The culinary highlight was an indulgent four-course meal with wine pairings at Oakridge Winery in the nearby Yarra Valley. In my excitement, I committed a traveller’s cardinal sin – I forgot to take pictures of most of it.

The menu featured dishes that were a symphony of tastes and textures. We savoured duck with celeriac, chard, and blood orange. Another standout was the Smith & Jackson sirloin (local from the Yarra Valley), accompanied by spinach, charred leek, and horseradish. I particularly enjoyed the interplay of the beef’s richness with the sharp horseradish and slightly bitter charred leek. Even the potatoes served alongside were perfectly crisp, adding a satisfying textural element. For dessert, a chocolate torte arrived paired with artichoke ice cream (I was skeptical about the artichoke, but found surprisingly delightful). In addition, we indulged in a silky smooth buttermilk panna cotta served with sorbet.

Being at a winery, it seemed only fitting to opt for the wine pairing. The 2017 Oakridge Blanc de Blancs was a particular standout. This sparkling wine offered crisp multi-dimensional notes of citrus. Too bad this wine isn’t available where we live. For one of the wines, the waitress could point out in the distance where the grapes came from because those grapes came specifically from this plantation as opposed to the other Oakridge plantations in the area.

We spent nearly three hours at our window-side table, savouring each course while gazing out over the winery. The view of neat rows of vines stretching into the distance added to the overall sensory experience. Our waitress guided us through each course, explaining the intricate details of every dish. Even though her explanations have escaped me, I still appreciated the experience.

After our leisurely meal, we had hoped to take a stroll around the winery to walk off some of our indulgence. However, the weather had other plans. Despite it being only 12°C, the cold felt more biting than we expected.

Queen Victoria Market

This sprawling complex houses vendors selling everything from touristy trinkets to fresh produce. While some areas featured items of questionable quality, the stalls offering movie poster prints and art prints of landmarks of different countries interested me the most.

The market’s expansive food section was particularly impressive, reminiscent of markets I’ve visited in other cities like Vancouver’s Granville Island Market or Toronto’s St. Lawrence Market.

Laneways and Arcades

Melbourne’s laneways are a defining feature of the city’s urban landscape. These narrow streets and alleys, once neglected, have been transformed into vibrant pedestrian thoroughfares lined with cafes, boutiques, and street art. I explored Degraves Street, one of the most famous laneways, and was captivated by its European-style atmosphere and array of eateries.

Nearby, The Block Arcade offered a glimpse into Melbourne’s Victorian-era architecture. This elegant shopping gallery, built in the 1890s, features mosaic-tiled floors, a glass canopy, and wrought iron fixtures. Inside, I discovered the oldest tea rooms in Australia and, surprisingly, a Dr. Seuss art store selling high-end paintings inspired by the beloved children’s author’s works.

Flinders Street Station

Flinders Street Station, with its distinctive yellow façade and green copper dome, serves as a major landmark and transport hub. Built in 1910, it’s Australia’s oldest train station.

It reminded me a bit of Toronto’s Union Station in the sense that they’re both iconic transportation hubs of their respective cities.

Motorsport and Automotive Experiences

As a mild Formula 1 enthusiast, I visited the Melbourne Grand Prix Circuit at Albert Park. I tried to drive around the track, but found some sections blocked off.

The lake at Albert Park offered a view of Melbourne’s skyline. To my surprise, I spotted black swans gliding across the water – a first for me, but probably an unsurprising Australian sight.

Dutton Garage is a great place to go for car enthusiasts. This rare car dealership and showroom houses an impressive collection of vintage and exotic automobiles. I was particularly drawn to the classic Porsche 911s, with their iconic sloping rear deck, round headlights, and rear-mounted air-cooled engines. The showroom also featured sleek Ferraris and a few McLarens too.

I also had the opportunity to visit a BYD dealership. While not available in North America due to market dynamics and potential import restrictions, I got to get a glimpse of these Chinese-made electric cars, that to me had Tesla-like qualities, but at a lower price point, thanks in part to Chinese government subsidies. A cool fact I learned about BYD’s innovative battery technology that they can make batteries that don’t ignite when punctured, potentially allowing the batteries to be integrated into the car’s frame to reduce weight.

Shopping and Urban Exploration

As far as Melbourne’s shopping scene goes, I discovered R.M. Williams, a store specializing in Goodyear welted shoes made of different types of leather (even kangaroo), known for their durability and ability to be resoled (and also very expensive).

We attempted to take the City Circle Tram, a free service that loops around the central business district. We had hoped to learn about the city from the onboard commentary, but unfortunately found it difficult to hear over the noise of the tram and decided to explore on our own instead.

Our exploration also included a leisurely walk along the Yarra River, which winds through Melbourne. On the Sandridge Bridge, it features the “Travellers” exhibit, which is a series glass panels that offer information about the indigenous peoples of Australia and information about the demographics of immigrants (where they’re from, how many there were, why, etc.), reflecting the diverse cultural heritage of the nation. A common theme was that in the 21st century, across the westernized world, we’re being less and less likely to take on immigrants from weaker economic backgrounds.

Check here to see more of Melbourne, and the Oakridge Winery

The easiest flight path to the Netherlands from North America often lands in Amsterdam. So naturally, this is where we landed to. Having already been to Amsterdam before, we didn’t stay very long and mainly spent our time at the Rijksmuseum. Ideally, we would have liked to visit the Van Gogh Museum, but the tickets were sold out when we tried to go.

The Rijksmuseum itself doesn’t have too many works from Van Gogh, but we did manage to see one of his many self portraits. Van Gogh is famous for his exceptional artistic talent, unique style characterized by bold colors and expressive brushwork, and the profound emotional depth he infused into his artworks. His tragic life story, including struggles with mental health, further adds to the fascination and enduring legacy of one of history’s most celebrated artists.

We also got to see some paintings from Rembrandt, who had the biggest presence of all the other artists in the museum, with an entire hall full of his paintings. Rembrandt is famous for his extraordinary mastery of light and shadow, and ability to capture the depth of human emotion in his paintings. His unrivaled skill in portraiture and storytelling through art has solidified him as one of the greatest painters in history. Rembrandt’s artistic legacy continues to inspire and influence artists and art enthusiasts worldwide.

Also featured there is the Cuypers Library, a historical space filled with over 35,000 books and periodicals related to the arts and history. Designed by the architect Pierre Cuypers, the library’s grand and ornate interior features intricate woodwork and stained glass windows. It serves as a significant resource for researchers, art historians, and anyone interested in exploring the museum’s extensive collection and Dutch cultural heritage.

Naturally, since Amsterdam is a coastal city, we found a nice spot for a seafood feast with shrimp, squid, salmon, crayfish, prawns, etc. We avoided stuff like raw oysters after our experience in Portugal.

What I noticed this time as opposed to the other times, was the abundance of flowers in the streets. It’s really cool that the rose bushes can climb up vertically against buildings. This kind of beautification is really lacking in most major North American cities.

A peculiar thing I noticed were these parking spots reserved for Polestar cars only. Not just any electric cars, but specifically from Polestar – a brand that most people haven’t even heard of.

Overall, we had a short but eventful time in Amsterdam, revolving around our visit to the Rijksmuseum, enjoying the food there, and walking around its charming streets.

See more of Amsterdam here

The build itself starts with the rear suspensions. There’s actually a spring built in that makes the suspension work. The four arms are constrained to only allow up/down motion, while the central axle is attached to a ball and socket joint so that the rotational power can still be transferred from the engine. When the car is built, you can push the car down and it’ll bounce back up to its neutral position.

The set also includes a Lego reconstruction of the differential. The differential allows each wheel to spin at different rates. The video shows this in action with each wheel spinning opposite directions. It even supports the transmission of power from the engine itself! It’s really quite impressive!

I wasn’t as impressed with the engine as much though. There are six cylinders, so I expected each piston to compress each 1/6 of a rotation, but Lego has trouble with this kind of resolution so it doesn’t do that. Instead, as the drive shaft is rotated, two pistons can compress simultaneously.

From there, the build continues with the construction of the front of the car. The car is two-wheel drive, just like the real F1 cars (done to save weight)

Because the F1 car is so low to the ground, the steering column must be horizontal. The lack of 4WD reduces the space required for the front of the car means there’s less competition for space for the steering column.

The rest of the build completes the outer shell of the car – the aerodynamic stuff. There’s a lot of sticker placement and some of the stickers are so small that having a small pair of tweezers would have been helpful to place them.

Here’s the finished product!

The fortified city was almost demolished in the 19th century but after much protest by the locals, it was restored and now it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

We happened to visit Carcassonne at the same time as the Carcassonne Game Festival – a Carcassonne board game themed festival. I had played the board game before, but I had no idea that it was connected to the actual medival city itself. People got to play the board game Carcassone inside the walled city of Carcassonne. How cool! There were other events like axe-throwing, archery, and bowling (using the little meeples as the pins)! If I was a kid, I would have definitely enjoyed it a lot.

There are paths to walk along the defensive walls of the city. Luckily by today the weather had cooled down compared to the previous days and it was actually comfortable walking outside.

As usual, the castle is built on top of a hill – it’s the best defensible position. But because of that, visitors have access to views down into the town.

The castle itself isn’t just a fortification, there’s also a city inside of it too. Mostly it’s souvenir stores and restaurants. From a local store owner, I learned that the animals in French don’t sound the same as in English – it makes a “quah quah” noise – the guy made what I thought to be a super strange noise at first as I walked by his store presumably to attract customers, and after giving him a super confused look, he explained what it was.

The storeowner was actually selling earthenware for cooking cassoulet, a local dish. The dish is said to have originated in the town of Castelnaudary, and is particularly popular in the neighbouring towns of Toulouse and Carcassonne. We got to try it at a place called Méli et Zéli. It’s a slow cooked stew with beans, sausages, and goose/duck confit. It’s super rich and heavy. The duck flavour is very apparent. I want to learn how to make this.

Next, we headed to the Châteaux de Lastours. They are the ruins of four castles sitting on top of a hill. We reached the base of the mountain, but we weren’t prepared to hike the whole thing, so instead we looked for a car road up to some sort of view point.

The road I could see go to the top was a single lane road and it wasn’t apparent whether or not it was a one-way, but after seeing another car go up, I decided to follow. I just hoped that there weren’t any cars coming the other way because it was either drive off a cliff or into the trees.

We found a wider part of the road and pulled over to get a good look. If we had more time, we would have hiked up there – it looked fun. I ended up going back town the same way, again hoping I didn’t encounter another car. Eventually I did, but luckily the speeds were slow, the road was bit wider at that point, and I was able to swerve enough just in time.

Check here to see more photos of Carcassonne

I’m not a real F1 fan and I don’t have the patience to watch the cars go around the track 50 times, but I do like the idea of cars doing that. I’ve seen bits and pieces of the Monaco race – how they navigate the tight Monaco streets, especially the famous Monaco hairpin. All the souvenir soups all over town sell postcards that outline the Grand Prix track, and since it’s all on public roads, I got to do my own lap around Monaco. They even left the red and white racing lines on the road!

Monaco has a reputation of being a place for rich people, and we felt it. Every mall had all the luxury brands, hundreds of yachts were parked on the harbour, students in private school clothes walked in the street, and plenty of people drove fancy cars.

We wandered around town and eventually made it to the Monte Carlo casino. It looks really fancy outside with Rolls Royce cars parked outside, and it looks fancy on the inside too, but only people who actually gamble can go into the gaming rooms. The AC was a nice temporary escape from the heat outside though.

I saw two parts of Monaco: the rich posh part, and the traditional part. The traditional part is a small old town known as the Rock of Monaco. It’s also the location of the prince’s palace. I think the tradition is that if the flag is up, it means the prince is home. As we walked around the old town, there’d be motorcades going through, so I assume there were some local big shots going in and out.

We walked through a garden nearby the palace and saw an assortment of locale vegetation: tall/short, succulents/lush greens, flowers/trees with the bright blue ocean as the backdrop.

The toughest part about today was not only that the weather was super hot, but also the mosquito bites from the day before had swelled up and was itching me constantly. It almost felt like every 5 minutes I’d have to apply the anti-itch cream. Once we got back in the car and I started driving, I could at least distract myself from it while concentrating on the road. Later in the afternoon, we reached the small town of Èze.

It’s a picturesque town extending from the base of the hill to the top, with a view of the ocean. It was super tough finding any parking and I didn’t find any publicly accessible car roads leading up to the top – I mean that makes sense since the place was built before cars were invented. The only parking was at the local Fragonard perfumerie, but even then we couldn’t park there too long since they were about to close and we didn’t want them closing the gate on our car. We didn’t have time to visit both the hilltop and the perfumerie, so we opted to get a factory tour since that’s what we were there for. I figured we didn’t miss out on the hilltop – the view of the hill was probably better than being in it.

The factory tour itself was interesting. They showed us the giant vats for perfume distillation, how there are professional “noses”, the top top tier of perfumers, the different levels of perfume (it goes parfum, eau de parfum, eau de toilette, and eau de cologne in order of most concentrated to least concentrated). An interesting thing I noticed was that the perfumerie had two Chinese salespeople, whom I assume were placed there to interact with the many Chinese tourists that come through, but since at the time we went, China was having it’s Zero-COVID policy so the only Chinese tourists had to come from elsewhere.

See more photos of Monaco and Èze

At the time we went, Iceland was one of the few countries in the world that allowed vaccinated foreign visitors. All that was needed was proof of vaccination – not even a pre-entry COVID test. The fact that most people were vaccinated meant that most people were not wearing masks in the city, but this was before even the Delta variant – it seems like so long ago now.

I had been itching to go travel somewhere since the pandemic began, and this was a very welcome nudge towards normalcy. Flying with Icelandair was the same as before: the seat and leg room is pretty comfortable, but there’s no food included with the airfare. The only difference is the extra bureacracy related to COVID, which increased how long it took each person to get through immigration, resulting in long lines after the plane. It didn’t help that we arrived so early in the morning that the food places weren’t even open yet and we had to wait in line while hungry. Eventually, we picked up the rental car and drove into Reykjavik for breakfast. We took the day easy by just exploring Reykjavik on foot, and took a nap in the afternoon when the jet lag caught up to us.

That night, we had probably the most memorable meal we’ve ever had at Tapas Barinn. The great thing about tapas is that as tourists, we get to try a little bit of everything as opposed to ordering entrées.

I even got to try some Flóki single malt whiskey. The smokiness from the whiskey actually comes from the barley smoked using sheep dung, a traditional cooking method. I also got to try some more brennivin like my last trip to Iceland – it’s essentially a grain alcohol (40%) and flavoured with caraway seeds, which gives it a sweeter flavour than something like vodka.

I had visited Iceland a couple years ago, but it was in the winter where there was only 4 hours of light per day, and even then the sky looked like dusk.

This time, travelling there in the summer, I didn’t see the night sky the entire time I was there. I could more clearly see and appreciate the nature around me, like the endless fields of moss growing on the rocks, and sheep freely roaming the fields.

It is thought that the Icelandic sheep were introduced to Iceland by the Viking settlers. Farmers allow them to freely roam around in the summer months, and as winter comes, they round them all back up again.

Like my previous trip to Iceland, we travelled along the Ring Road to see the waterfalls, and the volcanic beaches.

This is what the view at Seljalandsfoss looks like in the summer versus the view I saw in the winter. I had no idea Iceland could be so green. In the summer, people can even walk behind the waterfall, between the rock and the falls itself, but in the winter, the trail is closed because of ice.

Skógafoss looks about the same between summer and winter, except the vegetation is greener in summer.

A kitty even came out to hang out with us! As we were walking, the cat just walked up to us and stopped, expecting pets as a payment to pass through. After that, off it went.

Unlike travelling to Iceland in the winter, there were no restrictions (4WD) to drive up to Dyrhólaey in the summer. As we drove up, I could see why. The road was a set of steep switchbacks on gravel roads that were only a little more than two cars width – and there were no guardrails.

From the top, one can see the endless mountains, or watch the waves crash against the beaches of volanic sand.

The next day, we took a Superjeep tour to see ice caves on an active volcano known as Katla. The reason why it’s called Superjeep is because it can deflate its tires (for icy roads), and inflate them back up again depending on the terrain, but otherwise it looks like your typical Ford Excursion but with big tires.

The ice caves were located a ways in from the glacier. In summer, a lot of the ice had melted, revealing the volanic sand and rock underneath.

Only just now as I was writing this, did I realize we were travelling on a literal volcano, but I suppose it’s safe.

As we headed up the volcano, the lush, green vegetation quickly disappeared, revealing a rocky landscape with a mix of ice and black volcanic rock. Grey clouds covered the sky and it began to rain.

Eventually, the tour guide parked the truck, and we began our volcano hike. He brought his ice pick with him and used it several times to cut steps in the ice.

Despite the summer season, the temperature still felt like a mild winter. But it still meant the ice caves would not be as fully developed as in the winter season, and this could clearly be seen when comparing the ice caves from this trip versus the previous one. In fact, the winter ice cave was really more of a tunnel, while the picture of the summer ice cave was taken from the end of the cave with the camera pointing out.

The ice on top of the volcanic rock looked so alien that several movies used this place as a location for another planet. Rogue One was filmed in the area for the opening scene where young Jyn Erso hides from the stormtroopers. The movie doesn’t show the whole cave, but the similiarity is clear. If the movie had shown the whole cave, one would see why people call it the “Yoda Cave”.

It was nice staying in the cave for a bit as a brief respite from the rain. We made the mistake of wearing jeans for a multi-hour hike in the rain, and our wet clothes just made us even colder. We also got the chance to chat a bit with others on the tour. We met an orthodonist who practised in Greece by the name of Thanos (I wonder if he was aware of the MCU), and another who claimed to be a “voodoo priestess”, whatever that means.

The next morning, the plan was whale and puffin watching. It turned out to be an incredibly bad idea because I apparently get seasick, and didn’t get to see a lot. Even those who did see whales could really only see a small fin barely capturable on camera. Only a small percentage of people get to see the whale flying out of the water and crashing back down. Good thing the puffin watching was on a separate tour so I got to recover from the seasickness, but we decided not to go and instead gave the tickets away to another group that we overheard looking for tickets to the same tour.

Instead, we went to go get some Icelandic hotdogs for lunch. The key things that set it apart are the condiments, and the sausage. In addition to ketchup, and sweet mustard, they also add “remoulade”, similar to mayo with added herbs. The sausage uses lamb, as opposed to chicken/pork/beef.

Next, we headed to the Reykjanes Peninsula and the Blue Lagoon. We reached the tip of the peninsula and stood on the cliff watching the waves crash against the shore. If there was such a thing as the end of the earth, this was it. Despite strong gusts of wind, thousands of birds nested on the side of the cliff. From far away they look like white specks, but one can see them clearly with a good set of binoculars.

Next, we went for a relaxing soak at the Blue Lagoon, a man-made spa fed by water used by a nearby geothermal plant.

The water forms a milky blue colour from the high silica mud, and is supposedly good for the skin. They even sell super overpriced skincare products at the gift shop.

The area is beautiful with all the steam slowly rising from the hot springs with the light cool breeze. It would have felt like a whipping biting wind if not for the hot spring. You just submerge yourself until you feel not too hot and not too cold, and then relax with their cleansing silica face masks and a drink.

After leaving Blue Lagoon, we’d learned there was an active eruption happening at the nearby Fagradalsfjall volcano, and was happening slow enough such that it was OK to go see it.

A short walk from the parking lot led us to the lava flow. The trail continued upstream of the lava flow to the mouth of the volcano.

There were warnings for people to not walk too close to the lava flow because of risks of toxic fumes, but many did it anyway (as did we). Many curious hikers threw rocks on it just to find out that the lava flow had already hardened, even though there were still visible fumes coming out.

The hike turned out to be really long, and we weren’t really prepared to do a multi-hour hike at 20:00 in the cold, wind, and rain. As we reluctantly turned around, we saw people pointing the other and when we looked, we managed to catch a glimpse of the volcano spewing lava from afar. It makes sense now why people call it the “land of ice and fire”

It was surprising to see how watery the lava looked. I expected molten rock to be more viscous. The lava just spewed out in a splash. I felt super lucky to have seen such a sight.

As we walked back, I noticed these hexagonal patterns in the ground. Maybe this is how basalt columns form? From what I’ve read, under certain conditions, the cooling magma can cool in a way that forms these hexagonal shapes.

By the time we reached the parking lot, we were wet and cold (seemed to be a recurring theme by this point). Luckily there was a food truck at the parking lot selling hot soup.

The next morning before heading out to the Golden Circle, we started the day off with a nice brunch at Sandholt.

The unexpected star of the breakfast was the bread. As an amateur baker myself, this is the bread I aspire to make – it’s soft, light and airy with a crisp crust.

Next step along the Golden Circle was Geysir. The geothermal heat creates pressure underground causing the water to explode upward every few minutes. The entire area is filled with geothermal pools, some of which are so hot they’re bubbling from the heat and pressure.

It’s cool just to just stand in anticipation of the eruption. From looking at it, there’s no indication that it’s going to explode at all, and then it just does. At one point, the wind carried the water toward us and got us all wet, but luckily by the time the water hits the ground, it’s cooled down.

From the Geysir, we drove to Gullfoss. Unlike other waterfalls, this one has a unique feature where the water does a zig zag before hitting the bottom.

There were attempts in the past to build a hydroelectric plant here, but those efforts have not succeeded, and since then, the waterfall is now under government protection.

The last destination of the Golden Circle was Kerið crater. It’s believed that the crater formed through volcanic activity. Once the magma chamber emptied, it collapsed, forming the crater. The accumulation of water is not formed by rainfall, but is actually ground water.

On our last day before we left, we got the chance to try more Icelandic dishes. This time we had some lamb soup, dried fish, fermented shark, and some Einstök white ale, a local craft brew.

It’s not often that I would rave about soup, but I liked it so much I’ve been trying to recreate the flavour at home. It’s savoury soup with vegetables, lamb, and herbs/spices. I can’t say I was a huge fan of the dried fish and fermented shark though. The dried fish is served with butter and its flavour reminds me of super tough beef jerky with a light fish flavour, while the fermented shark has a texture of a ham with a soury tang. Perhaps it’s an acquired taste. The beer was great though.

That’s pretty much it for Iceland. We got the chance to try all sorts of local delicacies, and see a piece of nature we wouldn’t normally see in our part of the world. At the airport duty free, I even got to pick up some Brennivin, and a bottle of the Flóki sheep dung whiskey!

See more pictures of my trip to Iceland here

We flew into Israel from Tel Aviv and boarded a train to Jerusalem. I totally expected the Middle East to be pretty warm in February, but nope, it was snowing tiny little flakes in Jerusalem. If it weren’t for the Europe trip before this, I would have actually not brought any winter clothes, so I definitely lucked out there.

The Way of the Cross

The crucifixion of Jesus Christ is probably what Jerusalem is most well known for. The Way of the Cross (aka Via Dolorosa) in Jerusalem is what is believed to be the actual path that Jesus walked during his crucifixion – regardless of whether you’re religious or not, it’s still pretty cool to see. This was a key event in the establishment of Christianity. The crucifixion of Jesus is considered to be historically true even by non-religious scholars.

The Way of the Cross begins with Jesus’ encouter with Pontius Pilate, the man who orders Jesus’ crucifixion. The Church of the Flagellation is built on the spot where Jesus was flogged by Roman soldiers before he carries the cross.

It’s said he falls three times during his walk.

Along the way, Jesus encounters several people (although some of these encounters are disputed):

• Mary – his mother
• Simon of Cyrene – he helps Jesus carry the cross
• Veronica – she wipes the sweat off of Jesus’ face, and so Jesus’ image was then supernaturally imprinted on the piece of cloth, now known as the Veil of Veronica
• the pious women – Jesus stops and gives a sermon

Eventually he makes his way to the location where he is nailed to the cross. The Church of the Holy Sepulchre is built on the spot where it is believed he was nailed to the cross, and his subsequent death.

This is supposedly the spot where Jesus dies on the cross (below)

He is then taken down from the cross and anointed on the stone slab below. Anointing is a ceremonial ritual where a person’s body is smeared in aromatic oil to introduce a divine influence on the body.

Finally he is laid to rest in his tomb.

Of course his body isn’t physically in there, because supposedly after his ressurection, he ascended to heaven.

The entire Way of the Cross and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre was extremely crowded and people lined up everywhere to pray in all the spiritual locations, like Jesus’ tomb, the home of the Virgin Mary, the Stone of Anointing, etc. People even touched all the surfaces that Jesus was said to have touched and I could see them in deep prayer.

Western / Wailing Wall

In Judaism, the Western Wall is one of its holiest sites. The actual holiest site lines behind the wall, the Temple Mount, but due to restrictions, Jews are not allowed to pray there, and thus the wall became the place where Jews went to pray.

Some Jews go on a pilgrimage to the Western Wall, some spend hours praying there. If you look closely in the video below, there’s a fellow running in circles and singing while people around him are rubbing their beards against the wall.

The Temple Mount

The Temple Mount is a flat plaza built on top of four retaining walls (the Western Wall among them). Although Jews are not allowed to enter for prayer (e.g. praying, singing, or other religious displays), people are allowed to enter the area as tourists.

The Dome of the Rock is one of the Islamic structures built on the Temple Mount. Unfortunately, non Muslims are not allowed to enter. Inside the dome is the Foundation Stone, and has religious significance to both Jews and Muslims.

Yad Vashem

This is Israel’s official memorial to the victims of the Holocaust. The entire memorial consists of a museum dedicated to the history of Jewish persecution throughout Nazi Germany and the places it conquered.

The eternal flame honours the victims of the holocaust. In front of it is a stone crypt containing the ashes of the victims.

The Hall of Names pictured above contains the the names of millions of Holocaust victims. The shelves around the room contain the names, while the cone above display photographs of the victims. The people standing in the photo are all Israeli soldiers – Jerusalem had a huge police presence with a lot of them openly carrying assault rifles (I felt very safe). Even some men in public that I saw had buzz cuts – presumably they are/were in the military. A few days before we arrived, there was a terrorist attack where a driver rammed a car into Israeli soldiers.

This train car is an example of the cattle cars that Nazi Germany used to perpretrate the Holocaust.

The Garden Tomb

Some sects of Christianity don’t believe that the Church of the Holy Sepulchre contains the real tomb of Jesus Christ. They assert that the real tomb is actually elsewhere, which they dubbed the Garden Tomb

Outside Jerusalem’s old town

Because Israel has so many Jewish people, McDonald’s started a special chain that serves only Kosher food. Even though it’s kosher, it tastes the exact same as regular McDonald’s which is pretty amazing for what it is.

Oskar Schindler is famous for saving 1200 Jews during the holocaust. He is now buried in Jerusalem. Putting stones and pebbles on the grave is an ancient Jewish tradition to honour the deceased.

There are also a lot of stray cats everywhere! I didn’t see any dogs though, just lots and lots of stray cats everywhere. People must take care of them though because they all look pretty well groomed.

Photo album: here

The Hague (Den Haag)

The first stop is The Hague in the Netherlands. It’s the home of the International Court of Justice (pictured above). This is the international court that resolves international disputes that the UN is involved in. It was involved in well known cases such as the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda to judge the perpetrators of the Rwandan genocide, and the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia to judge the perpetrators of crimes committed during the internal struggles in Yugoslavia that eventually led to its dissolution.

For lunch, we searched around for something to eat and we could try some herring since that’s a popular dish in the Netherlands. We found a street food stall near us not far from where we were and proceeded to go inside and order. One problem though… the entire menu was in Dutch and there was no English to be found anywhere. We stood there looking confused for a moment, before I piped up and simply asked the staff (knowing that the Netherlands has a very high degree of English literacy) what we should order. He simply replied, “herring sandwich!”. It’s raw herring preserved in a brine in a sandwich along with condiments such as raw onions and pickles. It’s got a nice fishy freshness to it (like sashimi), but a saltier and more sour flavour because of the brine. This is going to be one of those foods that I’ll crave once I leave and can’t get anywhere else.

Another cool place to visit in The Hague is the Madurodam – it’s a park built purely on minatures. Imagine famous landmarks in the Netherlands, like the canals of Amsterdam, old town city squares, and palaces, but in miniature form! As a fan of Lego, I can definitely appreciate looking at miniatures!

Rotterdam

Next, we drove to Rotterdam in the Netherlands and stopped by the Market Hall for more food (I’m always down to eat). This time, we had yet another Dutch speciality: the stroopwafel. It’s hard to say no to two thin crispy wafers with gooey caramel in between.

And because I really enjoy eating protein, I couldn’t resist trying some cured meat. I think this is more of a Spanish thing as opposed to Dutch thing though. I found the flavour way too salty for my tastes (and I use a lot of salt when cooking), but I’m not sure what it’s supposed to taste like.

The market hall also has a nice selection of spices – kind of apt considering their colonial past trading spice and other goods in the Dutch East Indies.

And of course cheese! It’s so nice to see all the wheels of cheese, in all these different colours and sizes.

Baarle-Hertog / Baarle-Nassau

After leaving Rotterdam, we headed towards Belgium – well kind of. The cool thing about Baarle-Hertog / Baarle-Nassau is that a border between Belgium and the Netherlands cuts right through the town in seemingly random spots. You could just be walking down the street along the main avenue of the town and randomly end up in the Netherlands, then in Belgium, and then back again.

On our way out of the town, we noticed lane lines that we hadn’t seen before in North America. At first, we didn’t know why the lines were painted like that, but upon closer analysis, the road is simply a road shared by both cars and bicycles and the red section shows where the bikes should be, and the grey area is the section where cars should be when passing a bicycle. By allocating a space for the car to pass, the cars don’t get too close to the cyclists, thus reducing the risk of an accident. How cool!

Antwerp

Soon, we were fully in Belgium in the city of Antwerp and took a stroll in the old town square. The buildings here look pretty Belgian because of the way the roof inclines – it’s as if there are little steps as opposed to a smooth incline (so-called stepped gables).

This concludes our successful first day of the trip! On day two, we will travel to Oosterscheldekering, Ypres, and Dunkirk.

Photos

• The Hague
• Rotterdam
• Baarle-Hertog
• Antwerp

The image above is the Lotus Temple – the Bahá’í House of Worship. Within the lotus flower, structure has almost no rooms – it’s mainly a giant atrium filled with pews. It’s unique construction has won it many architectural awards and is one of the most visited buildings in the world.

The India Gate is like the Indian version of the Arc de Triomphe. It’s a memorial to the 70000 soldiers of the british Indian Army who died various wars (The Great War among them). Like the Arc de Triomphe, an eternal flame for the Unknown Soldier burns.

As someone who really enjoys eating meat, this place is like heaven. Imagine eating barbecued skewers seasoned with Indian spices. It works like a buffet, but with two parts, the “appetizer” which is the skewers, and the “main course”, which is the standard Indian food, i.e. curries, naan bread, etc. But the appetizer is so good that I would just only eat that. But of course while in India, one must try everything!

The food in India is so different from what I normally eat, it’s pretty much impossible for me to tell what anything is. At best, I can tell what’s chicken, lamb, chickpeas, paneer, etc., but I have no idea what spices are in what dish. But it doesn’t matter, because everything tastes good. Despite what a lot of people think, not all Indians eat with their hands.

People don’t really follow driving rules here. This is us driving in the oncoming lane. Everybody honks, nobody follows lane lines, and when there’s heavy traffic everybody bunches up bumper to bumper with only a few inches between each car. Cars peek left and right to find space to try to get ahead, but the problem is when everybody does it, it slows everyone down. Big trucks have signs saying “horn please” to encourage people to honk as they pass because of their blind spots.

Occasionally, traffic can slow to a halt just because of some cows blocking the street. Or traffic can be slow because some local townspeople decided to pour their own concrete on the road to build a speed bump – because the city didn’t do it. Roads are bumpy pretty much everywhere. Freeways are slowly being built, but a lot of driving is still done on these patchy roads. Oh, and people pee on the side of the road on a regular basis.

Buildings on the other hand range from giant mansions to literally five sheets of metal stacked together to form walls. The wealth gap is huge. Poorer neighbourhoods have ditches full of trash, while richer neighbourhoods have guards standing watch in the night. But despite having a big house, the power company is notoriously unreliable. Intermittent power outages happen on an almost daily basis, so those who can afford it have backup power in their homes. Some homes also have a water pump as a water supply for their home. It’s such a reversal from what people in the western hemisphere are used to.

Check out my pictures of Delhi and Meerut!

It’s reminiscent of other developing Asian nations. People are riding around in motorbikes, pedestrians cross the street by weaving through vehicles, and there’s so much traffic that it kicks up a ton of dust. Cars here often don’t have AC and more often than not have hand cranked windows. The official language is Nepali, but many people speak Hindi or at least know some words. It’s timezone is also quite interesting… Its offset is 5:45 from UTC meaning it’s got a timezone that shifts in 15 minutes instead of a whole hour. And I thought India’s 30 minute shift was annoying.

Durbar Square once held the palaces over the kings that ruled over the city. In the surrounding area, there are also some courtyards and temples. The architecture of the temples is reminiscent of temples in China, which makes sense since Buddhism is quite prevalent in both countries.

In the center of the square, masses of street vendors sell trinkets to visitors. The trinkets are mainly Buddhist prayer bowls, and other religious paraphernalia.

The most shocking thing to me in Nepal, is that as a part of their Hindu and Buddhist traditions, people worship “kumari“, young prepubescent girls that represent the manifestation of divine female energy.

The worship of the goddess in a young girl represents the worship of divine consciousness spread all over the creation. As the supreme goddess is thought to have manifested this entire cosmos out of her womb, she exists equally in animate as well as inanimate objects

Wikipedia

Within Durbar Square, in an almost non-descript brick building, the kumari appears from time to time within the windows that look into the courtyard of the building, but no photography is allowed. I had randomly stumbled upon this building only because there were so many people around it.

The Boudhanath is one of the largest Buddhist stupas Nepal, and it’s architecture is unlike anything in the city, so it’s quite prominent. The prayer flags have five colours, which represent different “elements”: earth, water, fire, air, and space. The elements are also represented as a part of the structure with the base as earth, the dome as water, the square platform as fire, the spire as air, and the umbrella as space.

The Pashupatinath Temple is situated on the banks of the Bagmati River, and is a Hindu religious place. Where the fires burning in the picture is the actual place where cremations happen. Within the area are a collection of different temples, but I wasn’t allowed to visit them because I’m not a Hindu. I never thought I’d ever be discriminated for my religion (or lack thereof)!

See more pictures of my trip to Kathmandu here