Arriving in Pakistan – A Lesson in Prejudgment

Apr 4th, 2010 by srp | No Comments »

The first three things to know about Pakistan according to the Google news feed are as follows: 1) The country could possibly be striking an oil deal with Iran; 2) there’s more death in the fight over SWAT and; 3) the leaders refuse to enter into a peace dialogue with India.  None of these things are very positive to say the least.  And they certainly do not coincide with my (admittedly surprising) first impressions of this country.

In fact, as first impressions go, this one made me laugh.  As I exited the airport last Friday, I was confronted with the usual unorganized throngs of people looking for loved ones, clients, or those rare unattended few in search of a cab, creating quite the cacophony of shouts of both searching and finding.  As I scanned the crowd somewhat impatiently for my driver, I noticed a few men lingering at the fringe leering at me with unreadable yet unsettling expressions.  I self conciosuly started wishing I had put my scarf, currently draped across my shoulders, over my hair.  I reached the end of the long queue and finally spotted my contact from my organization, smiled and waved (maybe with a little too much enthusiasm), and we headed up the long sidewalk to the parking lot.  Once we reached the front gates, there it was – enormous, colorful, and packed with people - McDonalds.  Humongous, complete with a children’s playplace, picnic tables filled with happy families, and Ronald McDonald himself. sitting on his usual park bench.  Well, they don’t mention this on the evening news.  As I gaped at the joyful families, the morning prayers begin blaring from the nearby mosque , soon joined by similar calls around the city, creating an eerily beautiful concert of sorts.  As I absorbed the scene, with its unexpected juxtaposition of buildings and cultures, I couldn’t help but think that the more I travel, the less I know what to expect.  And that, my friends, is a wonderful thing.

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Spain 15: That’s all folks

Mar 28th, 2010 by Weldon | No Comments »

It’s taken me far long than I’m proud of (3 months), but I’m fairly satisfied that I’ve covered off my favourite aspects of our three week adventure through Spain. Of course I missed things like the buskers in Madrid, the giant churros that you dip in ridiculously thick hot chocolate, the old baroque music we heard in a little tavern in Seville, the outside Ronda, and the amazing bull rings. Just to mention a few things.

You can see all of my pictures from the trip in the slide show below, or check out the set on Flickr. I hope you can enjoy the pictures and stories at least half as much as I enjoyed living them!

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Spain 14: Reinventing Gothic

Mar 28th, 2010 by Weldon | No Comments »

I’m typically not much of an architecture guy, but in both Valencia and Barcelona, there were a couple of buildings with which I fell in love. The common theme was that the buildings seemed to re-imagine gothic architecture in graceful modern forms.

First up was the Ciutat de les Artes. It’s a series of buildings at the end of what used to be the river Turia. In the ’80 the Turia was diverted to prevent flooding, and the riverbed became a massive park running through the whole city. The 8 buildings they put up at the end of the park make you wonder what other cities would do if they suddenly discovered a massive stretch of public land in the middle of the town. I didn’t find the rest of Valencia that impressive, but these buildings alone make the city a reasonable tourist destination. We spent a whole day wandering through them and then exploring Oceanografic, the largest aquarium in Europe which is at the end of the Ciutat de les Artes.

The picture above is the back side of the Science Museum. Meant to evoke a whale skeleton, it was the building that most invoked gothic style to me, just a long series of flying buttresses propping up a large lofty ceiling. Below on the left, you see the same building at night from the other direction with El Puente de l’Assut de l’Or (bridge and tallest structure int he city) and L’Àgora (covered plaza for things like tennis tournaments). To the right is the Hemispheric, which houses a wicked wrap around IMAX screen with headsets that cater to almost any language preference.

Further up the coast in Barcelona the great architecture continued at the Sagrada Familia, the second place site that claimed to be the most visited destination in Spain. This cathedral, which is very much still a building site, is the final masterpiece of the blindingly brilliant Catalan architect Antoni Gaudi. Gaudi died while construction was slowing and the building was only a fraction complete. Then shortly after his death all the plans and models were destroyed in the Spanish Civil War. Construction is now back on pace, and thanks in no small part to healthy tourist revenues, the building is back on track to be finished sometime in the next half century or so. You can see in the pictures below (which are both rather poor, apologies) that the style is imagining gothic cathedral styles in natural forms. So the pillars become trees, and the vaulted ceilings are a bed of flowers. It’s an impressive place, and I hope to be able to go back and see it when it’s finished. In the meantime it’s well worth the long queue and high price to wander around. Make sure to get the audio guide and take the lift to the top of the spires.

So in the end, many thanks to Spain and your beautiful public architecture. I know I missed some of the great ones, like the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, but glad for the splendors I was able to enjoy.

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A Reintroduction of Sarah

Mar 26th, 2010 by srp | No Comments »

 

 

Dear Explorers,

I wanted to reintroduce myself to the Q4A community.  After a long hiatus – ironically due to an excess in traveling (and perhaps a lack of discipline…ahem) – I am coming back as a monthly contributor to Q4A.  I work for an international public health organization that takes me from one adventure to the next.  In the past year alone, I’ve been lucky enough to visit 10 different countries and participate in some fascinating quests.  For example, I’ve hiked in the Jurassic era jungles of Papa New Guinea, escaped a brush with “land pirates” (as I like to call them) in Southern Sudan, dared the rapids of Victoria Falls, and frolicked with lemurs in Madagascar.  Along the way, I’ve picked up quite a treasure chest of stories, as well as a fair amount of lessons learned, which I look forward to sharing with you all.  

In addition to recounting tales, I look forward to bringing you along with me on my future adventures.  In fact, as I write to you, I am awaiting my plane that will ultimately take me to the vibrant and chaotic city of Karachi, Pakistan.  So, without further ado, let the quest for adventure (re)begin.

Cheers,

Sarah

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Spain 13: Olives

Mar 21st, 2010 by Weldon | No Comments »

There are more than 220 million olive trees in Spain, giving it the largest surface area of olive production of any country. And those olives, and the all of their byproducts, are delicious.

Nearly every great landscape view in Andelucia was filled with rolling hills of olive trees. We drove through them on our way south from Madrid to Seville, and promptly started ordering a plate of olives with every meal. We drove by olive oil factories, learned how to order just about any type of olive product in Spanish, and after a little while it felt like my blood was turning into olive oil.

The climax of the olive experience came when we reached the small town of Ubeda, in Jaen province of Andelucia. Our first evening in town I wandered past the church in the middle of town and was rewarded with the view above. We headed back in the morning to see great views of the olive covered hills rolling off into the distance where they met the mountains, like you see below.

After a solid hour enjoying the views, I knew we had to chase down a closer encounter with olives, and started asking around to see if we could find an olive oil factory, or tour of any nature. One lady seemed to have an idea – a little place called La Laguna that wasn’t on any of our maps and received no mention in Lonely Planet. It look a good leap of faith, and a bit of hunting, but we eventually found it. As you can see on google maps, it’s not more than a compound out in a in a sea of olive trees. But that compound is fantastic, including a cheap hotel, bar, restaurant, and the Museo de la Cultura del Olivo. It’s build on an old olive processing site, so has giant vats for olive oil in the basement, as well as 24 types of olive trees from all over the Mediterranean and 3 different type of historic olive presses above ground. There are some signs in broken English, but if you love olives anywhere nearly as much as I do, they will be more than enough to keep you captivated for a long while as you explore the many uses and falvours of olives.

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