Warning: This post contains pictures of a monster tearing to pieces a dead carcass. This is a long needed departure from nerdy search engines, weekend trips to the coastal towns and the German beer-vacations. This is a picture from a far more adventurous undertaking. Back in 2005 my friend Jon and I went to the little island of Rinca to see some of the most ferocious animals on the planet - the Rinca Dragons.
Bremen, Germany, doesn’t stand out as a top destination, or even an alternative to consider in where to go for a vacation. The city is, however, a major destination for Ryanair in Europe. And that, in combination with probably not being particularly high on anyone’s list, makes it both a cheap and available place to kick back if you’re living in Europe. What to do there is another question - it’s the kind of place that makes your friends go “Bremen? Why? What’s to do in Bremen?”. Even my uncle the Germanophile, and source of knowledge of all things German, had only one thing to say: “It’s a typical German city”. So leaving the “Bremen?” and “Why?” for another article - what is there to do in Bremen?
While our visit to the Blue Mountains two weeks ago was eerie enough on its own, it appears to be more dimensions to the creepiness. Although not mentioned in the blog post, my girlfriend mentioned in the comment section that we got food poisoning. And we certainly did, we actually ended up having to go the hospital in middle of the night after we got home. Well, apparently we were not the only ones:
Ten die as gastro hits nursing home
(Sydney Morning Herald).
It turns out a gastroenteritis outbreak hit the same weekend, leaving a significantly higher than normal number of elderly passing away in a Blue Mountains nursing home. And giving the title of my original write-up (The Blue Mountains: How to survive the mountain towns) a morbid twist..
Now the opposition is blaming the nursing home and accuse the government of covering up the incident, because they sent out the press release late on a friday (seriously, such is Australian politics). What’s interesting is that if we caught it outside the nursing home (we never visited any nursing homes, except for the general home for the elderly that is the mountain towns themselves), that probably means the source was not there - and could help shed light on both the original source and possibly help clear the nursing home. This is also a really good demonstration of the value of a tool like the disease map project mentioned last week.
However, after seeing it in the media we informed the NSW Food Authority that we also got it, so if it’s useful for them to know, it gets to the right people.
This sunday The Rocks Aroma Festival played out in Sydney’s old historic quarter. For anyone not familiar with Sydney, this is not as niche as it may sound. Rather it is the local code name for the annual Coffee and Chocolate fest, a seven hour hedonistic splurgaton of chocolate fountains, chocolate covered strawberries, rocky roads, honey-dipped popcorn, creamy pavlovas, hot chocolate shots, roasted nuts, chocolate cakes, cupcakes and, my favourite, the honey energy drink - to mention some of the treats (that we actually tried..).
Going to the Blue Mountains is regarded as a nice treat if you are in Sydney, Australia. The nature promises a retreat from the stress of city life: just one-and-a-half-hour train ride from Sydney Central Station, a row of little mountain towns offer themselves as entry points into the pathways and lookout points in the world heritage site that is the Blue Mountains. (more…)
As anyone that has a glass of red wine to an Indian meal knows, spicy food and red wine are not particularly compatible. Not only does the subtlety of the wine disappear, but the interaction with the spices often makes any taste experience that actually takes place less than satisfactory. Which is why a chilled Kingfisher is typically a better choice for gulping down a rogan josh. Or even better, to enjoy with a proper Thali - a nice mixed tapas-style tasting plate selected to the chef’s whim of the day.
However, for those among us with a strong preference for wine over beer, for example as a result of prolonged living in Australia, where the gap in quality between the two is wide and deep, this may be less than satisfying. Or perhaps because the TexMex or Indian restaurant only have wine and not beer available - how unlikely that may ever be.
