#IronRoute – The Video

I’m just back from my #IronRoute project – travelling from Istanbul to Berlin by train in order to zig-zag across the former Iron Curtain. I wanted to find out more about the countries that used to live on either side of the border – about how they used to be and how they are today.

Now I’m back and while I filter through the thousands of photographs, notes, interviews and video clips I made along the way (and rather belatedly turn my thoughts to Christmas shopping) I thought I’d leave you with this video as an introduction to the trip.

Let me know what you think…

I travelled thanks to InterRail but had complete freedom when designing this project.

The Iron Route – From Istanbul to Berlin by Video first appeared on Inside the Travel Lab. Head over there for more juicy fresh travel goodness. Or, you know, something you might like to read...

Winter Festivals

Whenever I feel the cold breath of winter on my neck as autumn runs out of time, my tastebuds turn to octopus, the signature dish at the Hachinohe Enburi winter festival.

I remember it so vividly not because of the smile of the former beauty queen who handed it to me, nor the tangy texture and secret seasoning that plunged into mayonnaise simply to satisfy my stomach. No, what I remember the most is that the octopus was warm, at times even hot, while I was very, very cold.

The small town of Hachinohe in Japan’s Aomori Prefecture celebrates the end of winter every year with a four day winter festival. Children and musicians practise for weeks so that when February arrives, they can swish their headdresses around and usher in good fortune for the harvest ahead.

It’s a festival that’s been running for 800 years through icy winds, gales, earthquakes and war and so they’re not going to let a little snow stop them. Nor a blue-skinned gaijin. Thankfully.

Hot Octopus, Cold Winters

I sit cross-legged on a tatami mat inside their historic town hall. One wall opens up to the garden, where snow decorates stone lanterns and greedily engulfs the lawn.

The wind laughs at my predicament, while the cold makes itself at home in my bones. I break open a crystal packet to warm up my hands and accept more octopus gladly.

Then the performance begins, melting something inside me.

Rainbow coloured ribbons meant to resemble a horse’s tail flick, flounce and flourish against the whiteness of the snow. Children enact the rice-planting ritual while flag bearers look on.

Yet what captures my attention the most is something I usually pay very little attention to: shoes.

From children to elders, dancers to musicians, all are decked out in the traditional footwear of Aomori. Straw-woven shoes with straw gaiters to match. My feet turn numb just from looking at them.

Yet everyone else radiates with smiles of warmth – literally.

So now, every time the seasons turn cold, I think of hot octopus – and the mystery of comfort that seems to be straw shoes.

Straw Shoes. Toasty Warm. Apparently.

I hope you enjoy the winter festival of Hachinohe’s Enburi through the photos below. Disclosure – I shivered and ate octopus as a guest of the Japanese Tourist Board.

The Enburi...

How do you keep warm in the cold? And does it involve straw shoes and hot octopus?

Hot Octopus & Straw Shoes: A Winter Festival in Japan first appeared on Inside the Travel Lab. Head over there for more juicy fresh travel goodness. Or, you know, something you might like to read...

A Beautiful Moment

Apparently, it’s bad form to write about sunsets. And even to take photos of them. And even to start sentences with “and” – but right now I’m a little tired of playing by the “rules.”

On my last night in Jordan, I watched the sun dare me to take photos. I watched it burn and blaze and cast its flaming brilliance across the stone columns of the Citadel in Amman. I stood on the dry earth that has seen mankind live and work here for more than 7000 years, while flocks of birds swooped above and the lights of a city flickered among the distinct harmonies of the call to prayer.

History

I took in the crumbling dust of Stone Age remains, striking Roman columns, and key references to the world’s three biggest monotheistic faiths. I heard languages from around the world and watched people interact with politeness and respect.

People

This trip to Jordan has reminded me why I love to travel, why I love seeing something new and something different and yet how beautiful it is to remember that we are all connected and that we have more in common than we have differences that set us apart.

It’s difficult to write about things like this. For one, it sounds incredibly naive, as though I’m a teenager ridden with misplaced passion and angst. For another, as a journalist, writer, blogger, whatever others want to call me, it opens the door to bullying and ridicule.

The first point is easier to deal with. I know full well that there is evil in the world. I’ve been spat on, urinated on and assaulted while I’ve tried to save someone’s life. I’ve looked serial killers and psychopaths in the eye and I’ve dealt with the fallout of hatred, whatever the cause, whatever the label: religious hatred, racial hatred, misogyny and so on. I don’t see a distinction. Hatred and violence is still hatred and violence.

Luckily, those experiences dwarf the more recent ones and keep them in perspective. I know that a number of people confuse journalism with hurting people and being negative for the sake of it. No matter what they say, I won’t subscribe to that view.

It’s tiresome and I try to ignore it, but sometimes it takes up more space in my mind than it deserves.

Like now, when I’m standing on the Citadel in Jordan.

Reality

I’ve travelled here as a guest of Visit Jordan, a situation that makes me more critical than I would be if I’d come here alone. I value my words and I value my reputation and I always want to remain objective. Not everything here has been perfect, not everything deserves a trickle, never mind a gush, of praise.

But perhaps I’m in danger of letting the scrutiny – and occasional bullying – of the outside world interfere with that objectivity. In my efforts to provide a balanced view, I’m almost shying away from the truth.

The truth is, that among the questions, the debate, and the more detailed articles that will follow, travel still brings plenty of moments of simple, pure appreciation and joy.

And it would be a shame if I, or anyone else, lost that in the honourable journey of remaining objective.

The Citadel of Amman in Jordan is a standard tourist attraction.

At sunset, it looks beautiful. Exceptionally beautiful.

I hope you enjoy the moment. I certainly did.

Have you ever had a beautiful moment while travelling?

A Beautiful Moment – And Breaking The Rules first appeared on Inside the Travel Lab. Head over there for more juicy fresh travel goodness. Or, you know, something you might like to read...

Life’s been high on adventure lately, if low on sleep. Usually, I manage to find something beautiful, something that moves me wherever I go. But last night, in Petra, that didn’t happen.

Petra By Night

Lit only by candles and a shower of stars overhead, Petra’s passageway to the Treasury hides its main attraction beneath a reverential darkness. The curves and ripples of raspberry-rust rock that mesmerize by day disappear at night, lost in the inky silence.

Footsteps move across the stone and cats cry beyond in the shadows.

We are, after all, approaching a tomb. Or a temple. The Treasury was built not to store money – but to commemorate the dead or to worship the gods. Petra, as you might expect from a city that’s thousands of years old, has plenty of mysteries.

As we grow nearer, a voice sings to the solemn crowd, an invisible man among an expanse of candles shrouded in brown paper bags.

Petra by night wasn’t beautiful and it didn’t move me. Amid the half-light in Jordan, it overwhelmed me.

Petra By Night

I’ll write more about Petra and Jordan soon. In the meantime, I hope you enjoy these photos as I grab a few moments of sleep…

Disclosure: I am visiting Jordan as a guest of the Jordan Tourist Board. All views, as ever, are mine.

UPDATE: I have gathered my posts about Jordan and a list of travel resources for Jordan on a page over here. For a romantic interpretation of Petra at Night, read A Perfect Place to Propose by Keith Jenkins of Velvet Escape, while Melvin from Traveldudes headed straight to the bar.

The Power of a Path Into Darkness first appeared on Inside the Travel Lab. Head over there for more juicy fresh travel goodness. Or, you know, something you might like to read...

The Okavango Delta – On Video, In Africa

In the world’s largest delta, transport takes place on water. While a few motorised boats cruise along the main waterway, to travel through the reeds you still need a traditional mokoro.

When I look back over my last year, no make that decade of travel, the dip of the pole in the delta and the whispers of the reeds on my face still make me shiver – and then relax.

I hope you enjoy this video as much as I enjoyed the experience. It’s a quiet one – but I think that’s how it should be for an unusual journey like this.

I’m still honing my skills (ahem) with video – to find out more about the Okavango, read the posts below:

The Safari Symphony – The Okavango Delta

Arranging a safari in Botswana’s Okavango Delta

Elephants in the Okavango Delta

The Okavango Delta – On Video first appeared on Inside the Travel Lab. Head over there for more juicy fresh travel goodness. Or, you know, something you might like to read...

Valencia’s Arts & Sciences Complex

Valencia. By the hand of fortune, the destiny of throwing rotten tomatoes and the hot rubber of Formula One, Valencia has enticed me here four times now and counting. Yet, however diverse my reasons for stopping by,  there’s always one place I make time to see: the City of Arts & Sciences, the Ciudad de las Artes y Las Ciencias.

It’s like seeing an old friend, if that friend were the architectural equivalent of George Clooney carrying a bottle of champagne and preparing to accept an Oscar. Its spine snakes through the Spanish heat, while the blue and glass curves shimmer in the water.

By night, it’s even more spectacular. Silhouetted figures stride across the horizon, poised, it seems, to become villains in a James Bond extravaganza.

Yet to my shame (and for all my familiarity with the place,) I realised that I’ve never posted photos of the Arts & Sciences complex here on Inside the Travel Lab. Which is a pity.

Not only because of the buildings, but also because of their name.

Exploring the art and science of unusual journeys. The city of arts and sciences.

It says it all, we’re meant to be.

Now if only that applied to George Clooney…

Photos of Valencia’s Arts & Sciences Complex

On this occasion, I visited Valencia as a guest of the Valencia Tourist Board.

Valencia By Night first appeared on Inside the Travel Lab. Head over there for more juicy fresh travel goodness. Or, you know, something you might like to read...