Earlier this week, I resumed an old habit of mine that I had missed; I went to the library for the first time this year. Where I used to live the local library was in easy walking distance of my place and I took great advantage of that quick access. Sadly that is no longer the case where I currently live, but on my two quick visits to this new library, it also seems to be a worthwhile place to spend some time. I am not sure if I will resume my weekly habit of reading the current issue of Astronomy magazine or maybe an issue of Popular Photography, but I enjoyed knowing that it was there for me if I wanted it. Plus I was able to get some guidebooks on Romania, Russia and Ukraine.
Despite the warning that diarrhea is a guarantee when one visits Ukraine, I think that that country is my first choice for my sojourn this year. Russia certainly has an allure, but sometimes the sheer expanse of the country seems to overwhelm me even though I know that I would probably restrict myself to just Moscow and St. Petersburg. Then there is Romania who cannot decide whether or not to love or hate its Dracula heritage.
I can’t say how much trust I put in what I read in travel guidebooks, because what I see when I get to these places seldom matches what I was told in the books. Oh, the famous attractions might be the same, but my personal experience is usually quite different from the helpful tips and anecdotes found in the books. For example, nothing that I read in a guidebook fully prepared me for the experience of dragging my luggage through the JR station in Kyoto. I knew full well that my hotel was located just a couple of floors above the tracks, but that foreknowledge does not suggest a sweaty journey of weaving through crowds with kilos worth of luggage looking for a sign with my hotel name on it. Once I had been there a day or two, the layout of the building started to make more sense to me, but that initial exposure was quite confusing if not frustrating. For a moment, I began to doubt that I would ever find where I needed to go. Nor could I ever have predicted the quaint and touching limited English exchanges that I had in various JR stations when I needed to book various passages on trains. To this day, I am grateful for the patience of the Japanese staff that I met in the JR stations who were more than willing to help the American man who spoke no Japanese except for a handful of words gained from pop culture. All that I could say was thank you once the transaction had finally been completed.
Perhaps I sound somewhat angry about what happened, but that is not my intent. I learned so much about the Japanese people and myself from these experiences. Until the day I die I will never forget the young attractive Japanese woman in the hotel restaurant in the city of Hakata who literally carried the poster board size menu from the front of the restaurant over to my table so that I could point out what I wanted to order. It might have been slightly embarrassing at the time, but it solved our limited communication problem and I did not walk away hungry.
]]>When the infamous Rob Liefeld made his debut on the comic book scene, I was rapidly moving away from mainstream books and to a degree the industry as a whole. So in what I can only describe as an impulse purchase, I bid and won an auction for a lot of about two dozen X-Force books that showcase his early work for Marvel. Having read just a few of the issues, I can say that I am not impressed with his style. Everything feels rushed, incomplete, too aggressive and not very strong in terms of storytelling. About the only redeeming factor is seeing the first appearance of Cable as a character in the mutant mythology of Marvel.
Travel has been on mind and I have yet to decide on a final destination for this year’s trip. The three frontrunners are Romania, Russia and the Ukraine. Roughly speaking all three countries are in the same part of the world and each of them would give me a different view of Europe than what I have seen in the past. What I mean to say is that I want to see some place that has a long history and is not overly modern. Once again any of those places would meet that requirement. Yes, I know that that might be a slight to Russia and the Ukraine, but I suspect that in many cases it is true. Plus as far as I know none of them use the Euro as currency so my weak American dollar would go farther than the rest of Europe.
In keeping with my tradition of alternating Asia with Europe in my travel destinations, I did a small amount of research on both Romania and the Ukraine this morning as possible places to visit next year. At the moment I can not say which of the two I prefer more, but I want to see a more rural and less known part of Europe than say France or Germany. Personally I think that either of those locales would meet that requirement quite nicely. Plus the Ukraine would be a good alternative to Russia since Russia seems to be giving the cold shoulder to the United States once again. As to how that would affect an American tourist might not be that severe, but at the same time it does cross my mind.
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After a much too long of a break, I was able to read part of an actual book this morning. Before I moved, I had been reading Mark Twain's Following the Equator and thanks to his skilled use of the English language and the small chapters, I was able to pick it up again quite easily. Twain is currently commenting on Australia and he puts the country into a different perspective for me. As to whether or not it is a positive one, I cannot say just yet.
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I clearly understand the message in the French play Cyrano, but I still fail to see the mass appeal that it seems to generate with people. Yes, the message is a positive one of love and loyalty, but at the same time, I care little for any of the principal characters in the play. None of them interest me in any way nor do I care to hear what they have to say. Somehow that antipathy diminishes any greatness that the play might have in the eyes of others.
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