Perth: A city which installs its art gallery on the beach

If you've read anything I've written about Perth, you will probably have noticed I'm a big fan of Perth beaches. That's usually because they're quiet, unspoiled and simply beautiful. But sometimes it's because they're bustling and full of fun - like every March when Sculpture by the Sea comes to Cottesloe Beach.

Cottesloe Beach: A normal beach with a few additions

 Sculpture by the Sea is an annual contest where both local and international artists are invited to create some kind of sculpture that can be exhibited quite literally on the beach (plus a few spots on the grass above the beach, like this shiny three-headed sculpture on the left). This of course leads to a few logistic and material difficulties because the sculptures need to be able to survive the great outdoors (especially some harsh sun and strong sea breezes) for a couple of weeks. (Unfortunately this year they also needed to survive vandals as one popular sculpture was broken and stolen, despite the security - but they found it and arrested someone, thankfully).

I think it's a fantastic way to persuade people who might not normally be interested in art that it can be fun and enjoyable to look at. I also love that it's just there, sitting on the beach, and I especially love that the local regular swimmers just walk around the sculptures to get to the water's edge and take their daily swim. Although I guess they are not too impressed with all the crowds interrupting their normal activities!

Regular swimmers work around the sculptures

This year I went to Sculpture by the Sea with my little boy and it is therefore no surprise that the big yellow dump truck below - you can't see it too well, but the back is "melting" into the sand - was a favourite.

But my memorable moment for this year's Sculpture by the Sea comes from my blogging friend Glennys from The Ponder Room who recently pondered, after seeing some visiting Congolese musicians explore Sculpture by the Sea:

What would they think of our strange little isolated city where it appears we dump our artworks on the sand?

Indeed! Other cities build expensive gallery buildings! Of course, we have them too, but I do rather love the idea of being a city that feels like art belongs on the beach.

Beginning world traveller Laura plans her European trip

Remember Laura, the beginner-traveller I interviewed back in November? She's preparing to do some long-term travel and although last time we chatted, she was planning to head to Thailand first, her plans have changed and she sounds so excited about it that I just had to interview her again to find out all about it.

Laura, first of all, what made you change your mind to head to Europe first, instead of Asia?
The thing that made us change our mind was the fact it was our first official "travellers' trip" away. We decided to stick to a few more familiar places. I was constantly thinking about the culture shock we may have, as we aren't experienced. We do still plan to travel to Thailand, as we do think it will be truly amazing.
(I've been thinking about Laura's change of plans and realised I did the same thing, and did a "safe" first backpacking trip within Australia before I went off to see the world. A post on that is coming up soon!)

Laura's going to Berlin - one of my favourite cities!

You're planning to visit Germany, Slovakia, Belgium, the Netherlands, the Czech Republic, Austria, Slovenia, Italy and France. What made you choose these places?
We chose these places mainly because we wanted to go to Bruges, Berlin, Prague, Rome and Florence.  However, we decided to choose some places that we didn't know much about, so we wouldn't have any expectations of the place, and can discover it on our own. We'll be travelling by bus from country to country - it was the cheapest option! Plus I thought if we travel by bus, then we will be able to see a lot more of the places we go - even if only through transit.

Prague's St Vitus Cathedral

Can you name the one tourist attraction or city that you're most excited about seeing, and why?
There isn't really one attraction in particular, however,  I can't wait to taste some chocolate from Belgium, ride on a gondola in Lake Garda and eat some spaghetti in Italy.
(See, I knew I liked Laura for a good reason. She's a traveller who's all about the experience, not the "tick of the attraction" style of travel! Oh and she likes chocolate, too.)

How long are you planning to travel in Europe for, and what will come after that?

Due to work commitments, I was unable to take a long break, so unfortunately, I will only be travelling for roughly three weeks - which means we only get a couple of nights in each place! After Europe I think we would like to travel to South America, and we have been looking into doing an Inca Trail in Peru.  There are so many places we want to go that we can't fully decide right now.

Devin Castle ruins and the Danube River, Slovakia

Thanks Laura! I'm very keen to continue following Laura's travels. While many of her British mates are going on repeated holidays to Majorca, Laura is keen to get out there and see the world and of course, I love that. Heading off for some long-term travel is a massive step, so although her plans have now been scaled back from her original Asian odyssey dream, I'm betting this taste of Europe - especially the places she doesn't know too much about, which I'm guessing are countries like Slovakia and Slovenia - will double her thirst for seeing new places and she'll find a way to get on the road again very shortly after. And if she makes it to the Inca Trail any time soon - I'll be extremely jealous!

What are your tips for beginner travellers?

My favourite Slovak word and other Bratislava musings

As I've travelled the world I've had a lot of fun discovering my favourite words in other languages. But I have to say that of many favourite words, one that's very high on my list is a Slovak word. It means ice cream, which of course is a very good thing to start with, and it is a crazy, fun sounding word (that takes a bit of practice to pronounce):

ZMRZLINA

Isn't Slovak and its lack of vowels crazy? I learnt Slovak for six months while I was living in Bratislava, and it should be noted that although a large group of my colleagues and I began the classes - they were offered free to all teachers at the school - only two of us ended up making it through the first six months. I even got a certificate. I admitted defeat after that although my brave colleague continued. But in the process, I did manage to figure out the basics of pronouncing words like this; even though it doesn't exactly roll off the tongue the pronunciation in Slovak is at least logical once you know it, unlike the poor people who have to learn English (thought, bough, tough, anyone?!).

Eating zmrzlina with my best Slovak friend

So back to zmrzlina. I love this word, and took as many opportunities as possible to use it while in Slovakia - mostly by heading into the central Old Town of Bratislava and lining up at one of my favourite zmrlzina shops. Ice cream was ridiculously cheap and crazily delicious when I lived in Bratislava (I sincerely hope it still is), though with the rather chilly winters it was definitely a summer-only option. (For winter, there was the amazing menu of hot chocolates at Cokolada, my favourite chocolate cafe.)

I have numerous good memories of buying ice creams with various Slovak and ex-pat friends and strolling the cobblestoned streets of Bratislava while eating it. A simple thing, but it's very often these kinds of moments that stick out most prominently in my memories of travels.

What about you? Do you have a simple memory that helps you look back very fondly on one of your trips? Or, indeed, a favourite, difficult-to-pronounce word? I'll be happy to read about either (or both!) in the comments below.

(Bratislava ice cream pic from kawanet. Look closely and you can see the price list showing "zmrzlina". I didn't make it up!)

My version of budget travel (aka I'm a cheapskate traveller!)

Inspired by a piece on BootsnAll about travelling cheaply (or as cheap as possible) in five expensive countries, I have been thinking about what I'd like to call "cheapskate travel" - my version of budget travel. First up, you should know that I was raised by a bank manager father and a real estate agent mother, so a focus on watching our pennies was always there, and I am indebted to them for setting me up with a few financial skills and ethics that mean I've never got myself stupidly in debt or lived beyond my means (thanks, Mum and Dad!). And you should know that my instinct is to never spend money (except sometimes on chocolate), and I've in fact had to learn that there are times when it's okay to spend and enjoy it.

Anyway, back to the BootsnAll article: Japan was the first of the expensive countries they mentioned, and rightly so, because a lot of tourist basics there are very pricey. In my experience, though, the priciest way to visit Japan is to continue to live the same lifestyle you live at home. Blend in for a bit more of a Japanese experience and the price drops immediately. I never found food expensive in Japan - unless I tried to eat western-style breakfasts of toast and cereal. I think it only took me a week of living there to switch to rice for breakfast and I never looked back.

A Japanese train I saw while on a budget trip to Kyushu

Travelling around Japan can also take a fair chunk of cash but by either buying a JR rail pass (I couldn't when I lived there - they're only valid for "real" tourists - but definitely will when we make a trip back there) or using special passes like the Seishun 18 (this article reminded me of it - I used them several times) it's possible to reduce costs dramatically. And with accommodation, picking small traditional ryokans (Japanese inns) over western-style chain hotels also leaves you with more yen for spending on sushi and sake.

Switzerland also rated a (well-deserved) mention as an expensive country to travel to. My sister-in-law lives there with her husband and three children, and I'm often shocked by some of the exorbitant prices they explain. They're fortunate to live very close to the German border and they literally go over the border once a week to do their big supermarket shop in Germany, thereby saving a small fortune. My best advice for living the budget life in Switzerland? - make sure you marry someone whose sister lives there, so you've always got somewhere to stay! I've been lucky enough to be able to visit Switzerland numerous times and never had to pay for a hotel room!

View over Basel - my favourite Swiss city

The remaining three pricey places on the list were Singapore, Iceland and Norway. Definitely not cheap places to hang around (although Iceland has got a lot cheaper - thanks to a small case of near financial ruin, poor Icelanders!) but I didn't really find Singapore extreme on costs. Norway is a place I haven't visited since my childhood but I do hear from friends that it's pretty expensive.

But anyway, whenever you travel to Western countries it's unlikely to be cheap, so what this post all boils down to is this - Amanda's cheapskate travel rules:

• Do what the locals do. This is one of the simplest ways to reduce your expenditure and it pretty much doesn't matter where you are - an expensive or a cheap country or somewhere in between. Eat where they eat (the food's probably better, too), stay where they'd stay, take the transport they'd take. I would definitely argue that this strategy doesn't just save money but will give you a more authentic and fun travel experience.
• In case you've already got married or can't find a partner with a sibling in Switzerland, then my more general rule of thumb here is to consider travelling to places where you know people. I don't mean this in a "sponge off them" sense, but the idea of having locals who can show you around and tell you the tricks of the trade, so to speak, is a great way to keep your budget down. Along these lines, my trips in Russia where I stayed with homestay hosts were similar - I didn't know them ahead of time, but once I was there they gave me great tips on places to eat, how to get around, and so on, the kind of money and time-saving information you mightn't get in a posh hotel.
• There are also times when looking at stuff like coupons for cheap travel and discount codes for hotel bookings will do the trick - in other words, sometimes a little bit of research can go a long way. This applies both to the usual idea of comparing flight prices and accommodation costs, but also to things like checking if museums you want to visit have a day each week or month when they're free to enter (quite a few do), finding "happy hours" for great pubs and special deal nights at restaurants. If you really are on a tight budget, it is worth putting some research time in to be able to make the most of your trip.

Of course, there are dozens of other ways to save money while you're travelling but these are definitely my favourite - what are your favourite ways to be a budget traveller?

How I use technology when I'm travelling

When I was travelling and living abroad full-time, I was basically a technology-free girl. This was pre-smart phones and tablets and although I had a laptop, it was way too heavy to lug in my backpack and usually stayed sitting on a desk wherever my home base was at the time.

Not me, though I wish I had that computer :-)

But these days - well, that's entirely another story. Let me start with my beloved smart phone (aka my "brain extension"). I was a bit of a late convert to iPhone ownership but I quickly discovered it has multiple fantastic uses for all kinds of things I wouldn't have imagined. However, I didn't travel with it "properly" (I didn't get a local SIM card last year in Europe, and I couldn't get coverage outside the cities in Tasmania) until my recent trip to Melbourne. And it really was a pleasure (and nobody is paying me to say this. Sadly. Maybe I could get some free iStuff?).

A simple example: we took the tram out to visit a friend of mine who lives about ten kilometres east of the city. I've stayed at her house before, but a few years back so I didn't have a really good idea of exactly where it was. I knew which tram to take and on we hopped, and then I used the Google Maps feature of the iPhone to track where I was and then I would know when to get off the tram. So much easier than searching for street signs. Apparently the Melbourne transport people have a good app too, but I wasn't organised enough to download it ahead of time - and turned out I really didn't need to, anyway.

I used its basic features - the internet, email and camera - constantly during my trip, in much the same way as I would at home - a quick snap to send home to email over to my other half to prove our little boy was doing well; a quick Google search to check the opening hours of the museum we wanted to visit. I even used it to sneak in a few minutes here and there of work (see, I'm becoming partially location-independent now!) when my son was busily occupied doing something else.

My second big technology love is my iPad. I still consider it a luxury technology - it doesn't replace either a mobile phone or a laptop - but I adore it. My iPad was particularly useful when we travelled around Tasmania, for two reasons: we were on the move a lot, and didn't want to lug a laptop everywhere, and because we were mostly in rural areas, I needed something that used Telstra as it's basically the only provider that works outside of Tasmanian cities. It was great to keep up-to-date with a small amount of work and for late night reading and emailing (although with my husband along on that trip, we nearly needed two!).

Tasmanian wilderness ... not much mobile connectivity out here!

And now and again, I travel with my laptop, as I did during my week in Melbourne. With remote broadband WiFi it was fantastic, because we could video Skype back home to my husband (my little boy loved that) and to his grandmother too, and I could get work done while he napped or after he was in bed at night. Being based in one spot for the week meant it was more practical to bring a laptop along and it was great, and not even expensive. I spent my spare time that week not only working, but dreaming of other holidays - starting to look up information on Hong Kong, using it to compare cheap car hire since I was contemplating doing a day trip out of Melbourne (I ran out of time though!), keeping more up-to-date on Facebook than I usually can at home (when I usually spend at least part of the evening with my husband!) and even doing some fiction writing.

There is a little (old-fashioned) part of me that yearns for the old days of travel, where all the information you need wasn't at your fingertips while you're at your destination - when finding out if the Victoria Markets were open required chatting to a Melbourne local instead of doing on a search on your phone - but all in all, it'd be hard to go back to technology-free travel.

How much technology do you use when you travel? Could you live without it, now that you've got it?

Image of girl with laptop from Ed Yourdon (Flickr/CC)

Guest post: The journey or the destination

It's the return of my favourite guest blogger today - Rachel from Because I Said So. Last time she talked about toothache in Japan, but this time round Rachel's getting a bit more philosophical and tackles the big travelling debate: is it really about the journey or the destination?

When I travel it is most definitely about the destination. The journey most times, I wish I could blink and it be over, especially when travelling by plane. The hours seem to drag when you are excited about beginning your new adventure and to be honest they don’t seem to pass any faster on the way home ...

I have had a couple of enjoyable journeys – train rides meandering through Vietnam enjoying the spectacular scenery; The Indian Pacific train across Australia – a highlight of which, strangely, was the Nullarbor (miles and miles of flat desert plains); road trips through the beautifully serene South West of Western Australia, super fast trains through the countryside of France – probably all the more enjoyable because of the speed.

Flinders Ranges, South Australia - heading towards beautiful nothingness

I have also had some horrendously unforgettable journeys – an 18 hour, 500km cramped bus ride in Vietnam whilst pregnant with my first child; a stagnant traffic jam with the CD player stuck on repeat after a weekend trip to Yamanashi near Mount Fuji in Japan; and an extremely bumpy and long tuk-tuk ride to visit the Killing Fields in Cambodia also whilst pregnant with my first child, a place that we were coerced into visiting by our charming tuk-tuk driver; to name a few.

One of my worst journey stories nearly put me off flying for life, which would have been tragic! A family of four sitting next to us before take-off were looking very agitated. They were holding hands across the aisle and praying for a safe trip. Just as the plane was starting to taxi onto the runway, the father jumped up and started shouting that they wanted to get off the plane! I’d never worried about planes crashing before this moment and every flight since I feel this slight unease – but I have travelled by plane many times since this happened so it didn’t put me off. Thankfully, I’ve always gotten through the journey and the pleasure of reaching my destination and exploring some place new far outweighs the time and means of getting there, for me anyway.

Plane headed for Vladivostok (my personal worst flight - Amanda)

My Dad on the other hand is very much about the journey. He travels regularly – three big trips this year alone! For him the destination is secondary – he is all about the mode of transport and the ensuing journey. He travels mostly by ship with plane rides used mostly as a means of getting to a point where he can join the ship.

He has visited many places, or ports as he would refer to them; Beijing, Kobe, Phuket, Singapore, Panama, Alaska, and so on – most of these were last year! I’m pretty confident in saying that he wouldn’t be able to tell much about any of those places. He could, however tell you with pinpoint accuracy the date and time they arrived and departed; the make, model, year and place of origin of any and all modes of transport used in each location; and which night they got to dine with the Captain of the cruise ship (apparently this honour is bestowed on the frequent sailors and my Dad always gets an invite!).

Cruise ships docked in Singapore

Everyone is different and their motivations for travelling different. Getting out there and experiencing it is the main thing.

Which type of traveller are you – the journey or the destination?

Curious festivals in Japan are just more reasons to love it

Thanks to a good tip from my mother I watched a great documentary episode on Japan recently, on a BBC program called Feasts, hosted by food writer Stefan Gates. What I loved about it is although it focused on a couple of rather quirky festivals in specific parts of Japan, the host managed to extrapolate a lot of accurate ideas about how the Japanese think, live and work from his experiences. As you know, I love the Japanese and am fascinated by their unique outlook on life. If you get a chance to see this show I really highly recommend it. But if not, I'm going to tell you a few of the best bits (spoiler alert!).

Sumo wrestlers (not baby ones!) at Osaka Castle Park

One of the festivals Stefan Gates visited was a Baby Sumo Festival in a small town (apparently they're held across Japan!). I certainly wondered what this would involve, and was glad there was no actual wrestling, but it is still rather odd. Babies - hundreds of them - gather once a year and are then placed on cushions facing another baby with the judge between them (and mothers behind them - most of these babies can't even sit up properly yet). The winner is the one who cries first. And it's an honour to win. Such an honour (and good luck - they believe crying babies will be healthy babies) that some of the mothers were secretly pinching their babies to make them cry! An odd experience, yes, but a typical example of a festival in Japan that gives a spot of sunshine into people's busy lives there, a focus for a day that's completely different. I often got the feeling when I was living in Japan that people found it quite hard to relax, there was such a focus on working hard and achieving all the "right" things, and perhaps a festival like this is a good excuse for people to feel they have permission to relax and do something out of their routine.

Drummers during Hanami - cherry blossom celebrations

And the other main festival I saw on this show backs up this idea very well. It was the Naked Man Festival (Hadaka Matsuri) and the presenter was introduced to Kosaki-san, a man who annually took part in this event. Basically, it involves thousands of nearly naked men flocking to a small area in front of a temple and then one "chosen" man must make his way through the crowd (while completely naked) to the safety of the temple. It's remarkably dangerous because everyone wants to touch his shaven head for good luck, and they've nearly all had copious amounts of sake before the event begins. Apparently there are regular injuries and have been deaths - I remember hearing the same about a local festival where I lived in Japan, and being shocked that people would continue to take part. But they do, and this program especially showed how these hard-working men had this one day of the year to completely break out of their shell and go crazy. I wonder if it's the moments like these that keep these men sane.

I know from my own experiences in Japan that life is not easy for many Japanese. There are huge societal expectations placed on them, and they themselves are raised with high expectations for themselves, plus there are so many societal norms that tell them how it is okay to behave. In particular, the students I taught who had lived overseas for a year or more (often for study abroad programs) found it really hard to fit back into Japanese society when they returned. I guess their reverse culture shock is significantly worse than ours. But at the same time as wondering if it is just too difficult to be a Japanese person, I can also see that these things make Japan what it is, such a wonderful place to visit and a country full of incredibly welcoming people. Good with the bad, I guess. Anyone have any experiences to add?

(Okayama Naked Man Festival by kate nev via Creative Commons- glad it's blurry so I don't need to warn you of naked people - oh dear, this post is going to get some strange google results in ...)

Thinking of Hong Kong, aka Kong Kong

It is a VERY long time since my one and only trip to Hong Kong - in fact, it's over a quarter of a century ago! Not only have I changed a lot since then, but I suspect plenty about Hong Kong has changed too, not least that it has lapsed from being a British colony to become a "Special Administrative Region" of China. The "east meets west" angle of Hong Kong has long fascinated me and it appeals to me as a part of Asia where it's easy and safe to travel with a small child. 

On Ocean Park's escalator, aged 9

But the real reason I am considering a near-future trip to Hong Kong is much more random - when I was chatting with my son about all the different places in the world we could visit, he latched immediately onto the fun sound of the words "Hong Kong " and sang "Kong Kong, Kong Kong" for the rest of the day. With so many places I'd like to go, picking where to go next is tricky, so I'm more than happy to take his inspiration.

Shortly after deciding that Hong Kong might be a great place for a trip in the next year or two (my husband was easily convinced because he can go shopping for new camera equipment there!), I was lucky enough to have a Facebook discussion with several friends who've either been recently or are planning to go. Given that this time I'll be travelling with a small child rather than being the child, I was pleased to gather a few child-friendly Hong Kong tips, which included:

• Hong Kong Disneyland was great for small kids - over twelves, perhaps not so great. Although since I thoroughly enjoyed both the original Disneyland and Tokyo Disneyland while in my twenties, this advice may not actually apply.
• Ocean Park great for slightly older kids (so by the time we go, I'll see how interested our little boy is in fishy stuff). From a sentimental viewpoint, though, I'd love to return to the place where I celebrated my ninth birthday.
  
  

  

  Dolphins in Ocean Park, Hong Kong

• Evenings out in Kowloon are fun for kids and they love the light show - I'm pretty impressed to discover that the "Symphony of Light" sound and light show runs every night and includes projections on over 40 buildings (although I wonder what nearby residents think?).
  
  

  

  Symphony of Light, Hong Kong

• Ngong Ping 360, reached by glass-bottomed cable cars, was also a success - at the top of the cable car you find the Giant Buddha and the Po Lin Monastery, amongst other attractions.

Giant Buddha, Hong Kong

This list, of course, really just skims the surface of the main tourist attractions of Hong Kong. But it's a good start and certainly enough for me to imagine being able to entertain a toddler there. The local food is another strong attraction for me, and the pure curiosity of seeing how this city has turned out with its unique history. There are so many possibilities that I have barely considered - a quick search on Hong Kong museums, for example, turns up some really interesting sounding places like the Dr Sun Yat-sen Museum (I loved studying Chinese history in high school) and the Hong Kong Science Museum which looks fun for kids too. However I'm not sure I'll make it to the Cantonese Opera Appreciation Class I read is offered at the Hong Kong Heritage Museum.

So, while I'm daydreaming about a Hong Kong holiday, I'd love some more tips - with or without kids, what did you most enjoy about Hong Kong? All comments gratefully received below.

Photo credits: Ocean Park by xiquinhosilva, Light Show by wZa HK, Giant Buddha by Paolo Paraiso.

Ten years too late to be location independent

When I left Perth to live abroad and travel in 2001, the internet was definitely around, but not always easily accessible. I couldn't afford to have home internet access in Japan (I did manage in Slovakia and Germany though) and mobile devices like the iPhone just weren't there. I'm guessing that's why I feel like I was just about a decade too early to hop on the coolest traveller's bandwagon there is at the moment - being location independent.

This very trendy phrase - to be location independent - is all about being able to do your work from anywhere in the world. So yes, you might imagine someone doing freelance work over the internet from a balmy Pacific island and there are certainly a few people doing just that! For example, one of my blogging friends, Nora from The Professional Hobo is currently "working" in the Caribbean, combining some crewing on sailing boats with several months housesitting on Grenada, all the while keeping up her blog and writing work which generates enough income to sustain this dream lifestyle - yes, she's location independent. And she's just one of many, many bloggers (and other freelancers) I know about who are taking up this location independent lifestyle.

My temporary "location independent" office in Germany

I was lucky, of course, to be able to move around to three different countries and combine working as an English teacher with some freelance writing and blogging work. Now that I'm back in Perth, although I run a small consulting and training business, a lot of my work is online and I am free to arrange my time and work as I want, and that gives me some similar advantages to the location independent bloggers and freelancers I'm feeling a bit jealous of - such as on my recent trip to Melbourne, when I could keep up with my regular work at night on my laptop while my son slept.

But that's the key here - my son! While there are people who wander the world with their kids, and I love following their blogs, we've decided to "stay put" while our little boy's growing up. I'm happy with this decision, and of course there'll still be plenty of trips, but there's just a little part of me that wishes for a time travel machine that would have put my decade of travel a little further forward into the internet age so I could have become a true "location independent". I think I would have been good at that! Though if it had been up to me, I would have coined a cornier phrase to describe it.

I'm opening this up to your daydreams now: if you could be location independent, what kind of remote job would you do, and where would you do it? Would you rush off to find cruise holidays (they have WiFi on those cruise ships these days, right?) and sail the world while writing computer programming code at night? Brush up some graphic design skills and spend your mornings in Parisian cafes sketching up new logos and sightseeing in the afternoon? Become a travel photographer, wandering the world and supplying some stock photo agency with a stream of incredible pictures from places nobody else goes to? There are numerous possibilities and I'm sure you can dream up some more for me. Let me know your location independent fantasy in the comments below.

Because travel sure beats being at school, kids

Going to school is important, right? But could travelling be even better? A friend of mine (coincidentally, the one who inspired me to get involved with Kiva) recently wrote an update on Facebook:

And then she made sure I knew about, assuming (100% correctly) that I would be a kindred spirit here! Not because I (as yet) have any gripes with the education system but because I think travel is the greatest thing of all!


I instantly thought of my six months in Europe as a child. These six months stretched over the European summer which, being opposite to Australia's, meant I missed probably close to three quarters of the school year that year. We took some distance education learning materials with us (provided by the state education department) but without internet (long before internet, in fact!) and because we were always moving around with no fixed address, it was really just something to keep us a bit busy on long campervan drives rather than something we were really meant to learn from. And our teachers at the time also said what I still believe now: they'll learn much more from this trip than they would in school.

Learning about life in Greece - me as a nine-year-old (and not in school!)

Now it's easy enough for me to totally agree with this now when my son hasn't even reached kindergarten, but I am seriously all for giving him travel opportunities even if they come at the expense of a few weeks (or perhaps even months) at school, especially when he's younger. When I think back to my six months in Europe, I know I learned so many things that remain with me to this day, including academic ones - the geography of Europe (I could draw and label a full map of Western Europe as a nine year old and I am pretty sure even many Australian adults can't do that), the currencies, converting them, the flags, the cities, the cultural icons, there's a huge amount of stuff that lodged in my brain in a way it couldn't be just from sitting in the classroom. And of course there's plenty of tangential learning going on too, learning about cultural differences, how to be independent, how to read maps and get around, so many life skills. I even got to practice badminton skills when we stopped in caravan parks and got out our rackets and shuttlecock!

Now, I'm not going to say school is not important, because obviously it is, and I wouldn't suggest taking a kid out of high school the year of important exams or anything like that. But to take a child to a foreign country for a while - that's priceless education. Agree or disagree? 

Everyone's talking about visiting Slovenia

Recently, I keep coming across mentions from people the world over who are considering visiting Slovenia. That's not bad considering that a decade ago barely anyone knew what or where Slovenia was, and a bit over two decades it was tricky to visit anyway, tucked behind the Iron Curtain.

Entering Slovenia

I visited Slovenia during a camping road trip through south-central Europe and the Balkans and I immediately loved it. With amazing mountain scenery greeting me, it didn't take me long to be convinced that this was a country I was going to love. With its close relationship with neighbouring Italy, it fared better during the Cold War years than other Balkan states and other neighbours like Slovakia, so it was quite a breath of fresh air to see a more modernised country and one that was obviously wealthier than the others around it. Many buildings and roads had been recently renovated and repaired and there was something of an entrepreneurial spirit in the air.


Most of my time in Slovenia was spent in the capital, the beautifully-named Ljubljana. I know it sounds like a real cliché to say it's a charming city, but it truly is! Perhaps I was just blessed with sunny blue skies and a good summer mood, but I really felt at home there. There are several interesting bridges crossing the river right in the centre of town - including the Dragon Bridge (Zmajski Most) which you can see on the left (with me in full-on travel mode clothing!) and the Triple Bridge (Tromostovje) which, as you might guess, is kind of three bridges all in a row together. A general wander around the Old Town area of Ljubljana is definitely a pleasant way to while away a few hours - I stumbled across a great farmers market too (so if you're wondering what's in that paper bag I'm clutching, I'm pretty sure that it was a big bunch of grapes!).

Old Town Ljubljana

Ljubljana also struck me as somewhat quirky and it's in fact home to "Metelkova City", a very sedate and law-abiding version of Copenhagen's Christiania (well, that's how I describe it anyway). Part of Metelkova is a quite unique hostel, the Celica Hostel which used to be a prison, and now each of the cells has been turned into a hostel room, each decorated really differently by various designers and artists. It's such a popular spot, not just to stay but to look at, that they actually offer tours around it once a day. I can't remember any other accommodation I've seen that actually has tourists traipsing around it when they don't even intend to stay there!

Celica Hostel in Metelkova

Finally, I spent some time doing some simple hikes in scenic areas not too far from the capital - day trips I suppose, though Slovenia is small enough that practically anything could be a day trip! I know it's very well-known for skiing so I can imagine that a winter holiday in Slovenia would be lovely too, but for me it's a summer time country with rolling green hills, friendly people and interesting nooks and crannies all over the place.

Hiking half an hour outside Ljubljana

How I survived air travel with a toddler

On my last trip to Germany I survived air travel with a baby, and then the baby got bigger. I realised that our next trips were going to be a bit trickier. Somewhat ambitiously (in retrospect) I booked flights from Perth to Tasmania via Melbourne (there's no direct route) for a time when our little boy was about 18 months old. We managed the Tasmanian trip with two parents without too much stress, although I cursed my "cleverness" in using frequent flyer points "most effectively" to get all the way to Tasmania when we could have just stopped in Melbourne (that flight change and extra hour was a bit stressful!).

When I realised that once our son turned 2, we'd have to pay for him on domestic flights, I realised I needed (yes needed - I'm a travel blogger, after all!) to squeeze in another trip before then. Unfortunately, my husband was too busy with work and study to come with us, so I bravely (or stupidly) booked flights from Perth to Melbourne for a week-long holiday alone with my son.

As per my tips for air travel with a baby, I thought I'd list my top bits of advice (gleaned from many wise parents and my own experience) to help you if you're planning your first plane trip with a toddler. It's certainly a lot harder than taking a sleeping baby!

1. Pack A LOT of entertainment. Only you will know exactly what oddities will keep your toddler amused for the longest time possible, but if it helps my bag included a sketch book and box of crayons, several of his favourite books, numerous snacks, especially sultanas and crackers, several Matchbox cars, an elephant (new, a nice surprise), some little animals in a box to take out and put in again, his favourite cuddly sheep, a rubbish bin (his particular interest ...), an iPad with some toddler games loaded on, my iPhone with photos of him and his friends and family to look at, and ... so on. The amazing thing on this latest trip was that I didn't get even close to using all of these - yippee!
   

   

   On the plane: complete with bin and elephant!

2. Time your flights to coincide with naps or sleeping times. But be prepared for this to backfire. Our flight to Melbourne left in the early afternoon so I didn't put him down for his lunchtime nap, but apparently the ten minutes he slept in the car on the way to the airport was enough and he stayed awake the whole trip. Fortunately in a well-behaved way, I must admit.
3. Check in online as early as possible to get an optimal seat, when you can. On my way to Melbourne I was able to choose a seat at the front of a section, with the wall and bassinet in front of us (even though he was obviously far too big for a bassinet) - not only that, but the flight wasn't very full and we ended up having a free seat next to us, which was ideal. On the flight home the plane was fully booked and we were surrounded by giant men from a sports team of some sort - which I feared, as I sat down, was my worst nightmare - and no spare seat, so he spent the entire trip on my lap - but it was nowhere near as bad as I'd imagined.
4. Use the opportunities between meals to take a walk. On short haul flights there is a lot of flight attendant action with drinks and meals coming out, and just watching them kept my little boy quite well-entertained for a while. In between, I used the temporarily empty aisles for a walk and some action. I don't really enjoy sitting still for that long - I can barely imagine how awful it is for a nearly two-year-old boy who is usually constantly running around.
5. Try not to arrive at the airport too early (but of course, don't cut it so fine that you get stressed!). I'm notoriously early to airports but I tried to get there at a more suitable time with my little boy so we didn't have to spend too much time running around departure lounges (while trying to hold all my carry-on luggage).
   

   

   Snacking at the airport

6. Break your rules. My son doesn't usually get foods like ice cream but when they offered him one on the aeroplane, I grabbed it for him and eating it kept him happy for the remaining half hour until we landed.
7. Use the "these people will never see me again" strategy to survive the trickier moments. I took the small bottle of wine offered to go with my dinner on the return flight (incidentally, eating your meal from a tray table that doesn't quite go down because you've got your toddler on your lap, with said toddler wriggling in your lap and trying to eat it too, is rather challenging). My boy was happily drinking a cup of milk so I thought I'd enjoy my wine - of course, suddenly he really, really wanted my cup and let the whole plane know about it! Without anywhere else to rest the cup I ended up sculling a large glass of wine in a matter of seconds. I don't want to know what the passengers around me thought. And after the wine, I didn't really care! (Joking. It was just one glass. Please don't write and tell me I'm an irresponsible travelling mother!).

Anyway, our time in Melbourne was fantastic and now I'm wondering how long it'll be before I can stretch him into flying for more than three hours (for example, the five or six hours to New Zealand perhaps? The eight hours to Hong Kong?). So far, so good, and although I'm not exactly rushing off to book my flights to New Zealand I am at least believing that I don't need to stay home for the next five years!

Weekend Wanderings: Perth bloggers

On Sunday, I'll be hosting a Nuffnang-sponsored meet-up in Kings Park (home to these gorgeous flowers!) for a bunch of Perth bloggers who I (mostly) have met through my blogging courses or freelance writing work - plus a couple who I've known online for a while but have never had the chance to meet in person.

Perth might be the world's isolated city, but the beauty of the internet means that bloggers can be read by people the world over, and there are plenty of Perth bloggers who've gained worldwide success. I love that equalising effect of the internet.

Happily for me, a number of the bloggers attending my meet-up are travel bloggers, or bloggers who write about their hometown (equally interesting for travellers!). Equally happily, there are other bloggers with interests in all kinds of diverse topics, because who wants to read about travel ALL the time? (Most of the time is enough for me!)

I've invited my Perth bloggers to link up their blogs as part of this weekend's Weekend Wanderings. If you're curious about what kind of blogs are coming out of Perth (and south-west Western Australia, to be accurate!), then take a click through and see what you can find! Likewise, if you're a Perth blogger who I don't know (or who couldn't make it to our meet-up) and would like to add your blog to the list, please feel free!

Melbourne with a toddler: Fitzroy Gardens, Melbourne Museum and Melbourne Zoo

My little boy (who's now almost two) and I enjoyed a week in Melbourne recently, and not only was I pleasantly surprised at what an agreeable travel companion he was (although many have since suggested it is probably in his genes to love travelling!), I was also happy that we found so many very child-friendly attractions in Melbourne. I've visited Melbourne frequently but usually for conferences, work, shopping and eating, none of which (well, except the last) are particularly interesting for a nearly two-year-old boy. 

It started out well when one of my lovely Melbourne friends suggested we meet in Fitzroy Gardens, a huge park very close (just a block away!) to where we were staying. A huge park and home to Captain Cook's Cottage, Fitzroy Gardens also has a Fairies Tree and a model Tudor village, but we had so much fun exploring the rest of the park that we didn't even make it to them (that, and following the signs didn't lead us to them - or were we too busy chatting?!).

Fitzroy Gardens has a few less flowers now

Fitzroy Gardens is also home to some gorgeous ponds, lakes and fountain areas, but I find I have no photos of these, and other parents of toddlers will know why - I spent any moments close to these water areas trying to make sure my little boy didn't decide to go swimming in them (especially with all those ducks - almost close enough to touch!).

Fitzroy Gardens has lots of big sticks. Yippee!

The following day the two of us went alone to the Melbourne Museum, a short tram ride away. I was a little too excited perhaps at seeing Phar Lap (and excitedly told a friend the following day, being rather disappointed when I realised that she grew up in England and didn't have a clue who Phar Lap was. Obviously that means most of my readers won't either so I will refer you to the Wikipedia entry on Phar Lap to find out about this famous Australian horse). Fortunately my little boy was pleased about it, yelling "horse, horse!" a little too loudly and posing for photos next to it.

The main galleries at the Melbourne Museum are fantastic, and I managed to have a quick look through most of them, before it was obvious that we needed to head to the Children's Gallery. This is a great (and large) section of the museum, with indoor and outdoor areas, full of interesting activities for kids and especially good for toddlers, something that's rare to find. The most depressing part for me was standing on the scales to find out how many wombats are equivalent to my weight; the fun part was playing outside with hula hoops and quoits.

Confession: I took this photo while the needle was still rising ...

Our final toddler outing was to the Melbourne Zoo (as a bonus, our membership of the Perth Zoo got us in here for free). Zoos are really the ideal place for toddlers and this was a great one, for us adults too - not too big to get around, lots of varied enclosures, and a really fantastic section called the Trail of the Elephants which wandered through elephants, orang-utans and more in an area designed to look like a southeast Asian village, including markets, huts and all kinds of cultural markers as well as the animals themselves. It was fantastic and my little boy and his friend adored it all.

Trail of the Elephants in the Melbourne Zoo

Although I was a little concerned about how travelling alone with a toddler would go, it turned out fabulously and now I'm on a campaign to find cheap holidays so we can do it again and again! The only problem is my little boy still asks to go to his "Melbourne house" and he doesn't quite understand that we can't just pop over there for the day. But I figure if we travel more and more he'll figure all that out too, right?!