#Sell my car South Island

[xtruss]

Sicily Sold Homes For One Euro. This Is What Happened Next.

For more than a decade, Sicily has been trying to revive its villages by selling Vacant Houses. Writer Lisa Abend heads to the largest Island in the Mediterranean to see how life has changed.

— By Lisa Abend | April 30, 2024

Mussomeli is roughly 60 miles from Palermo. Photo by Julia Nimke

Like any small town that isn’t yours, Sambuca di Sicilia, located about an hour’s drive south of the Sicilian capital, Palermo, feels a little intimidating at first. Stroll its perimeter on a late afternoon in winter, when the sun sets the buildings alight, and eyes follow you. Order the town’s signature minni di virgini—breast-shaped cakes filled with cream, chocolate chips, and squash jam—and a hush silences the chatter in the local bakery. It’s not unfriendly, this exaggerated alertness, but it does make you, the visitor, feel a bit self-conscious.

By the time I walk into a small restaurant that first evening seeking dinner, my self-consciousness has reached an uncomfortable peak. The restaurant’s only other guests, a middle-aged couple, fall quiet as I make my way to a table. After the waiter and I stumble through my order, impeded by his poor English and my worse Italian, I pull out a book to hide my awkwardness while I wait for the food. But when the first course arrives—a heap of ocher-tinted pasta topped with crimson shrimp and shards of pistachios—I am so clearly delighted by the dish that the waiter then decides we are friends. He introduces himself by name, Giovanni, and when two women with their children enter the restaurant, he seats them next to me and introduces them as well. “La famiglia,” he says—his own, and that of the chef, who, stepping out from the kitchen to kiss his wife, also comes over to greet me.

Two hours later, I walk out into the night air, aloft on a wave of bonhomie and sturdy Sicilian wine. Oh yes, I think to myself. I could live here.

I’m not the only person to arrive at that revelation. In fact, I had come to Sicily to investigate a program that has attracted thousands with the same notion. A program that allows people, although they may not have the financial wherewithal to go full-bore Tuscan-villa-with-frescoed-ceilings-and-private-vineyard, to nevertheless live a different version of the dream. A program that promises them a house for a single euro.

About the size of New Hampshire, Sicily has 4.8 million residents. Photos by Julia Nimke

Since the 19th century, large numbers of villagers in the poorer parts of Italy have migrated to more prosperous regions and countries. The migration continues; in some places, populations have shrunk so dramatically that there are no longer enough patients to keep the local doctor in business, or enough children to fill the school. Young people who moved away to study or work didn’t want to return, and when their parents died, the family homes stood empty, sometimes for decades. Around 2010, the village of Salemi in western Sicily was one of the first towns to come up with an idea: What if you could fill them again by offering the properties for sale at a ridiculously low price?

I wasn’t in the market for a house, one euro or otherwise. But I wanted to know if the program worked. Though the rumors I’d heard about driving in Sicily gave me pause—highways that suddenly turn into rutted cow paths; drivers whose chosen passing method involves achieving the closest possible proximity to the fender of the car in front of them—I decided to set out in a rental car through villages in various stages of implementing the initiative. Were once-sepulchral towns reinvigorated by newcomers eager to put down roots? Were the new residents integrating into small-town life, or was an influx of new blood bringing unintended side effects? And did a town that drew enough newcomers lose the qualities that had attracted said newcomers in the first place?

From left: The population of Sambuca di Sicilia has declined because of a low birth rate, but the town gained media attention after The Sopranos actress Lorraine Bracco bought a home there; The Valley of the Temples has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1997. Photos by Julia Nimke

The morning after my dinner in Sambuca di Sicilia, I leave my home base to see my first one-euro house. Before that, I stop in the Valley of the Temples. Located in a national park, the valley preserves the remains of a Greek colony founded in the 6th century B.C.E. on land inhabited by the indigenous Sicani. A couple of millennia later, the original temples to Hercules and Hera survive, but so does evidence of Carthaginian rampage and Roman reconstruction. Those peoples would in time be followed by Vandals from northern Europe and Muslims from Africa, to say nothing of the French and Spanish. Standing there, looking at the gold-colored columns of once-grand temples set against the sparkling sea and flowering almond trees, time seemed to bend. Outsiders, I realize, have been making their homes here for a long time.

They’ve also been leaving. When I arrive in Cammarata, a steep jumble of a village whose mountains are dusted with snow, I can feel an absence. In the winter sunshine, it’s beautiful, but it’s also empty. In the 15 minutes I spend standing in front of a very sleepy-looking town hall, where I’ve arranged to meet architect Martina Giracello, not one person passes by.

The members of StreetTo want to rejuvenate Cammarata. Photo by Julia Nimke

Finally, Giracello arrives, her corkscrew curls bobbing, and explains the silence. “People here wanted to live in larger, more modern apartments,” she says. Many moved to neighboring San Giovanni Gemini, about half a mile away, where the gentler topography allows for larger buildings and better conveniences. Now, Giracello tells me, “the one real estate agency in the area doesn’t even handle houses in the historic center.”

Like other young people from the region, Giracello and her boyfriend, Gianluca, moved away for university and to start their professional careers. But as they approached the end of their 20s, they returned to Cammarata, yearning for a quieter life. They also wanted, however, some kind of cultural scene, and neighbors their own age. “We studied other towns with one-euro programs, saw that for a lot of buyers, once they are there, the house is just a vacation home, and they don’t have a relation to the people there,” she tells me. “We wanted to do something different. We wanted to create a community.”

“As We Slowly Make Our Way Up Cammarata’s Steep Streets, The Silence Gives Way To The Sound Of Hammers And Saws. ‘Hear That?’ Giracello Asks. ‘It’s Working.’”

They banded together with other professionals to form a volunteer association called StreetTo, which convinces the owners of abandoned properties to sell, then helps foreigners find their houses and navigate the inspections, paperwork, and renovations that follow. And, in the hopes of forging community, they also organize exhibitions, concerts, and gatherings for townspeople old and new. Driven by their desire to revive the Cammarata they love, StreetTo’s members offer these services free of charge. (“At the moment, it is a project geared toward foreigners, but what we want is to also bring Cammarata’s citizens back, just as Gianluca and I have come back,” Giracello says.)

It’s not pure altruism, though. Their town gets something in the way of revitalization. As we slowly make our way up Cammarata’s steep streets, the silence gives way to the sound of hammers and saws. “Hear that?” Giracello asks. “It’s working.”

Panting from the climb, we reach the first property, where Giracello introduces me to the reality of what one euro buys you: not much. The home, more vertically challenged shed than house, has what real estate ads might call “significant structural issues” and what I might call “a massive hole in the roof.”

For an extravagance like a ceiling, Giracello says, you’ll need to spend a bit more. We press on to another house. Pushing open the heavy wooden door, she mentions its price—just over $10,000. The tall, narrow home is built, like many older Sicilian dwellings, with a single room per floor, its stairwell is carpeted in debris, and the battered sink and laminate countertops make it look like the kitchen was outfitted sometime around World War II. But the floor is adorned with beautiful geometric tiles, and a view of the valley spills through the windows. “We try to find houses in not really good condition,” Giracello says. “Because the purpose of the project is to help the town get better.”

StreetTo has helped negotiate the sale of 18 houses so far, but contract negotiations and renovations are still in progress, and none of the buyers have been able to move into their homes yet. But Giracello is confident it won’t be long before her village swells with new life. She pulls out her phone to show me a video.

“When a German nurse and her husband bought a place, a local couple were so happy to see new people that they held a dinner for them, and invited us,” she says. “Even though the Germans didn’t speak Italian and the Italians didn’t speak German, now they are all friends.” She pauses. “We are all friends.”

Today a church and monastery, Santa Caterina d’Alessandria was home to nuns from 1311 to 2014. Photo by Julia Nimke

My next stop is Mussomeli, located nearly in the center of the island. Unlike many Sicilian towns, which drape themselves seductively across a ridge, Mussomeli is all about the vertical. On the morning I approach, the craggy volcanic outcroppings that rise from the valley below have trapped pools of mist, making the town appear to be floating on clouds. It feels like entering Middle Earth.

The illusion doesn’t last: With a population of nearly 11,000 people, Mussomeli is large enough to support a Carrefour supermarket and even a mini traffic jam. But as I push on to the town’s core, the fantasy returns. Mussomeli’s heart holds ancient churches, tiny squares where kids play ball, and views from its tangled streets of that mystical valley and a hilltop with the ruins of a 14th-century castle.

Streets so tangled, in fact, that I get lost, and ask for directions in a dark, tiny bakery selling nothing but focaccia. I pay for an oily square, and ask the elderly man behind the counter what he thinks about the foreigners moving to town. “There aren’t so many here now,” he says. “But in summer they buy a lot of focaccia.”

Seems a fair trade. Mussomeli doesn’t cater to tourism, but between its services and charm, more than 200 inexpensive homes have been bought by foreigners in the past few years. Australian Danny McCubbin owns one of them. Ready for a quieter life after 17 years of working in London for the chef Jamie Oliver, McCubbin was recruited by producers late in 2019 for a television show that planned to follow people on their one-euro adventures in Mussomeli. The pandemic intervened and the show was never finished, but McCubbin had found his purpose. By the end of 2020, he had decided to move permanently to Mussomeli and turn his home into a community kitchen to help people with inadequate access to food.

From left: The Good Kitchen rescues surplus food from supermarkets to provide for people in need; Australian Danny McCubbin moved to Mussomeli in 2020. Photos by Julia Nimke

After I make several wrong turns, I find McCubbin, clearing dishes from a long, communal table. He’d just served lunch to local residents and Ukrainian children welcomed by the town after fleeing the war. These days, the Good Kitchen also supplies weekly meals for the elderly and has taught some of Mussomeli’s youth to cook. A clutch of older men use the space as an afternoon hangout, and there’s also a free Sunday afternoon lunch. (The only requirement for those with means is that they bring something to share.) Not long ago, Mussomeli’s mayor told McCubbin that he had planted a seed, and that more in Mussomeli were now thinking about social projects. “My whole way of living is so simple and joyful now,” McCubbin says. “I don’t know where else I could have done this.”

Rubia Andrade Daniels has also adjusted her expectations. One of the earliest buyers in Mussomeli, she fell in love with a vibe that reminds her of the Brazil where she was born and spent her childhood, but that also seems open to the kind of diversity she’s found in California, where she has lived for the past 30 years. “For the first few days, I couldn’t figure out why people here were being so nice to me,” she says with a laugh. “Then I realized they’re like that to everyone.”

Andrade Daniels, who works for a renewable energy company, loved the town so much she purchased three one-euro houses on her first visit in 2019. Four years later, her enthusiasm remains undimmed, but her timetable has shifted: The kitchen in the house where she plans on living part time once she retires wasn’t finished until August 2023, and progress on the other two—an art gallery and a wellness center—has been pushed to an undetermined future, in part due to the pandemic and the delays in its wake. “You can’t have American expectations,” she says. “Here, things take the time they take.”

I Think About That Pace each day when I return to my base in Sambuca di Sicilia. There, too, there’s been such demand for the listed houses that one euro is no longer the final sale cost but rather the opening bid in an auction that could see prices rise into the thousands. Even then, the campaign was so popular that the municipality launched a second round in 2021, with an increase in the starting price—to two euros.

Margherita Licata, who has been summering in Sambuca since childhood and eventually settled here full time about 20 years ago, says that “99 percent” of Sambucans welcome the newcomers. The other 1 percent? “They worry they have been invaded by Americans,” says Licata, who works for a real estate agency in town. “If Sambuca one day has a thousand outsiders living here, of course it will change our lives. But it will maybe mean the young [people] can find a job and not go somewhere else. If we want that change, we must accept other changes too.”

Of course, it’s possible that Sambuca could become transfigured by take-out coffee joints and big-box stores and other supposed comforts that the town’s new residents like. Already, some Americans have complained about the local teenagers who cruise the streets on their motorbikes at night. And imported class divisions are also emerging: Among the more free-spirited DIYers who have purchased homes, rumors circulate that some of the wealthier buyers want to build an exclusive, members-only swimming pool.

From left: Margherita Licata has lived in Sambuca for roughly 20 years; Pasticceria Enrico Pendola is one of few bakeries in the small town. Photos by Julia Nimke

But for now, there’s little evidence of a non-Sicilian presence in Sambuca, and it remains difficult to find anyone who speaks English. What I did find was an archaeology museum where, after I inquired if it was open, a woman rushed out, turned on the lights, and marched me at breakneck speed through the antiquities on display while barking descriptions of them at me in Italian. I also found a market that popped up alongside the traffic circle where the fishmonger told me how to cook the sardines I bought from the back of his van, as well as a café whose arancini made me finally understand why anyone would want to eat fried balls of rice, and where the elderly man who glared at me as I drank my breakfast cappuccino turned out not to be annoyed with the foreigner invading his morning sanctuary, but just waiting for the opportunity to ask me if I knew his cousins in New Jersey.

I’d arrived in Sicily wondering if the one-euro initiative would ruin the towns that adopted it, replacing their traditional culture with more consumerist ones and destroying their lifestyle and easy sociability. And when that turned out not to be the case, I also wondered if it wasn’t simply a matter of time: Perhaps the pandemic had slowed an already slower way of doing business, and the reckoning would still surely come.

But as I sat again in that same restaurant from the first night, it seemed to me that Sicily would be just fine. Maybe the slower pace was not a flaw that would eventually be overcome, but instead a feature that would ensure Sicily remains alluringly and unequivocally itself. After all, I thought, as I remembered the

Valley of the Temples, different peoples have been arriving on these shores for millennia. They may leave an imprint; they may shape the culture. But it’s clear that a distinctively Sicilian spirit still dominates.

From left: Mussomeli is one of the most popular towns in Sicily for one-euro home programs; Sambuca di Sicilia was a prominent trading hub centuries ago. Photos by Julia Nimke

And so, just before my departure from the island, I went to visit Margherita Licata again, but this time for reasons slightly more personal. Because I had seen enough one-euro homes to know that my powers of imagination were no match for their state of decrepitude, we skipped right to a “premium” home. As soon as she pushed open the doors to the arched courtyard, I was entranced. The rooms were rundown and furnished with old-fashioned chandeliers and faded wallpaper. But they were also large and bright, with intact walls and floors covered with gorgeous patterned tiles. Downstairs, there was an attached space that would make a perfect rental apartment. Upstairs, two rooftop terraces offered views of the town center in one direction, and a lake in the other.

“Fifty thousand euros,” Licata told me with a wink. “But that’s just what the owner’s asking.”

The money in my bank account had not magically grown during my time in Sicily. But my imagination must have. Because in that moment, it all seemed possible.

— Lisa Abend is a Journalist based in Madrid and the Author of The Sorcerer’s Apprentices: A Season in the Kitchen at Ferran Adrià's elBulli. She is also a Contributing Writer at AFAR and Correspondent for Time magazine.

[lindsaywesker]

Good morning!  I hope you slept well and feel rested?  Currently sitting at my desk, in my study, attired only in my blue towelling robe, enjoying my first cuppa of the day. 

Welcome to Too Much Information Tuesday.

It is illegal to be drunk in a UK pub.

We forget 80% of what we learn every day.

HP Printer black ink is more expensive than human blood.

Strawberries actually contain more vitamin C than oranges.

60% of the alcohol in America is drunk by 10% of the people.

American plumbers refer to the day after Thanksgiving as Brown Friday.

In 2021, the investor community on Reddit adopted 3,500 gorillas in a week.

By 2050, 3.3% of the world’s population will be millionaires (in US dollars.)

In general, the more time you spend with someone, the more you will like them.

Rats emit ultrasonic squeaks of happiness when they get to hang out with another rat.

A cyberchondriac is someone who scours the internet looking for details of their illnesses.

The presence of CCTV cameras increases the fear of crime but doesn’t reduce crime rates.

Not one but two cross-country skiers suffered from a frozen penis during a recent world cup race.

If you keep going North, you will eventually go South, but if you keep going East, you will never go West.

Coffee drunk from a white mug tastes more intense and less sweet than coffee drunk from a clear mug.

Stomach rumblings are caused by air moving through your digestive tract and doesn’t always mean you are hungry.

AI can guess your age, location, gender and income with up to 85% accuracy by analysing your social media posts.

A sophomaniac is a person who’s under the delusion that they are extremely intelligent.  Too many of them about!

Memorizing the lyrics to songs can help strengthen your brain and reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s.  Do more karaoke!

King Harold didn't die at the battle of Hastings from an arrow in the eye, he was hacked apart by four Norman knights.

Listening to loud music interferes with your vision.  This is why we usually turn the car radio down when looking for somewhere to park.

Negaholics are people who become addicted to self-doubt and negativity.  They find the bad in most things and are hardly ever satisfied.

The directors of ‘Despicable Me’ actually wrote a language for the gibberish the minions speak throughout the film.  Each word has a meaning!

The company that made the modelling clay for Wallace & Gromit has gone out of business.  There is currently only enough clay for one more film.

The first BBC radio presenter with a Northern accent was hired in the second world war to make it harder for the Germans to produce fake news bulletins.

The peanut is not a nut, it is actually a legume.  A legume refers to any plant from the Fabaceae family that would include its leaves, stems and pods.

It’s a myth that you only use 10% of your brain.  Most of your brain is active almost all of the time.  The problem is: some people don’t have much in there!

An American on the national average salary would have to work for 21,000 years before they became a billionaire, assuming that they spent none of their money.

A Crook County, Wyoming, judge has dismissed property destruction charges against a pair of ranchers accused of bleaching penis shapes and other markings on their neighbour’s cows.

In 2011, a 25-year-old Spanish man sued his parents for refusing to give him money unless he tried to find a job.  The court denied his claim and ordered him to leave his parents’ house and find a job.

The Sound of Music was so popular in South Korea when it was first released that one cinema owner decided to shorten the film by cutting all the musical pieces from it so they could show it more often.

In 1962, Brendon Grimshaw purchased Moyenne Island in the Seychelles for £8000.  He planted 16,000 trees on the island, brought and bred giant tortoises, and introduced a variety of bird life.  He was the sole inhabitant of the island until his death in 2012.  Instead of selling it, he declared the island a national park.

‘Malleus Maleficarum’, a 15th century witch-hunting manual, described how witches kept ‘live’ wriggling penises as pets.  The witches were said to have kept the penises in nests in trees and to have fed them oats.  Written by Catholic clergyman Heinrich Kramer, ‘Malleus Maleficarum’ is of course today regarded as misogynistic nonsense.  However, centuries ago, such books would have resulted in the gruesome murders of women accused of being witches.

Okay, that’s enough information for one day.  Have a tremendous and tumultuous Tuesday!  I love you all.

[aonoexpat]

10-01-2024

Happy new year everybody! And as the previous submissions highlighted (thankss friends ❤️), yes, it's been a while, and I do apologise for the radio silence. My mental health has been a bit of a rollercoaster the past month and a half, and I've had to prioritise other things. But I'm not about to let the daunting task of summarising 6 weeks in 1 post discourage me! Let's go.

The talks of politics and philosophy at home have continued, occasionally with extra participants. They sent me down a pretty depressing and nihilistic spiral for a little while, but I feel like I've really managed to climb my way out of that again. I was finally brought to a bit of an epiphany that's made me able to at least pick myself up by my bootstraps, and though I'm currently not very comfortable in any hard political or philosophical positions, I seem to have a bit more grip on a general framework again. And that helped me stop moping around and start enjoying my time here more again. Though I'm still quite fragile mentally and quickly overwhelmed, sometimes to extremes that I haven't experienced in years, all in all I feel like this has been an incredibly humbling experience that has helped me grow tremendously. Who knew the last leg of my journey would be one of this kind? I spent four months exploring the South island, and now I've spent the next two exploring my own mind. Though I think that's a journey that will never truly be over, which is both exciting and terrifying.

I have been extremely lucky to be able to live this last bit of my journey rent-free, thanks to my wonderful housemates (and their adorable little dog):

Which meant that I could get away with only working part time. I still thoroughly enjoy my job and my coworkers (we love singing along at the top of our lungs to broadway songs as we clean up after close), but it's great to have a lot of free time around work to meet up with old friends and eat sushi or go to the beach...

...Play board games...

...Celebrate Sinterklaas...

...Organise all my marked road maps, give myself manicures and haircuts, and, with deep deep pain in my heart: sell Elrond 💔 I will say I was extremely lucky to be able to sell him for DOUBLE what I paid for him back in May 😱 I definitely did improve upon him, with the brand new solar panel, newly constructed bed and shiny new rear brakes. Still, I hadn't expected to get my asking price for him, but I got lucky having two interested buyers who wanted to compete. I can barely believe it, but this means I have almost fully earned back my entire South island trip, car costs and fuel costs combined! And now I don't have to worry about the scenario in which I wouldn't manage to sell him, and would have to leave him with friends. All that was definitely the silver lining I forced myself to focus on as I gave him one last deep clean, both to be able to present him properly to his new owners, and as a sort of closure ritual for myself. I cleaned out all the dead sandflies, dusted all the surfaces, vacuumed the floor mats, and gave the kitchen a thorough wash. Saying goodbye is never easy, and I definitely had to fight back some tears when his new owners came to pick him up and take him away. But they are absolute sweethearts (they already sent me a photo from their adventure with him), so I can rest assured that he is in good hands! Farewell my darling, you were the best first car I could have wished for, and you will not be forgotten ❤️

Aside from all that, I was also very glad to have the chance to go on two more spectacular hikes in this area!

Patuna Chasm

This GORGEous ~3-hour hike definitely justified my bringing my Teva active sandals with me from home, as almost three quarters of the walk was through knee-deep river water. It was a cold and windy morning as we got driven to the start of the track in a 4WD car by the owners of the land, and were told to be back at the drop-off point in three hours to be brought back to our own car. If we were to miss that car, we'd have to wait a full hour for the next ride. So with our route map in hand, we set off on the first leg of the hike, which took us up the hills and back down to the chasm. The views were stunning, with spectacular rock formations and the grass on the hill faces waving in the wind like a green ocean:

Down at the river, we got our clothes and bags ready to get wet, and stepped into the water. As we followed the river, first upstream towards some serene waterfalls (where I may have given myself a brain freeze and mild hypothermia by deciding to stand under them):

And then downstream to start making our way back to the car, it started to slowly rain, but that didn't stop us. We saw eels:

We clambered up muddy hills and over huge boulders, down ladders, through deep and shallow sections of the river, explored caves:

And when we finally got back to the section of the track that would take us to our starting point, two of my friends were kind enough to carry mine and our fourth friend's backpack, so we could go down the alternate route: the last stretch of the river, which required us to swim through neck-deep water. I couldn't feel my feet or forearms by the end, but the adrenaline drowned that out as we sprinted up the riverbank to make it back to the 4WD car, only to catch it right as it was about to leave without us! It was absolutely exhausting, but so much good old childish adventurous fun, and one of the most spectacular hikes I've done in the country! (Photo credits to Liv :) )

Escarpment Track

This was the last hike my friend and I did together, which was a sad fact I tried not to think about too much as we walked. The track took us about 10km along the East coast, and it was quite the climb. The view was stunning though, the path itself was very well laid out, with stairs and ropes to hold onto, and benches along the way, which we happily used to take a lunch break about halfway through.

We were very happy to have some cloud coverage that day so we weren't constantly exposed to the sun. My favourite parts were the two rope bridges that were bouncing wildly in the wind. Standing on them felt a little like flying!

And for most of the track we were flanked by immense amounts of fennel, which gave the whole walk a wonderful background aroma:

I was so amazed by the thought that this hike was literally 15 minutes from my friend's home. That type of easy access to incredible nature is definitely something I'm going to miss when I go home. But that made me all the more grateful I got to do this while I still could! (Photo credits to Liv :) )

Soon enough my birthday rolled around, which was an incredibly emotional day for me. I had to say goodbye to my dear friends, one of whom I won't see again before I leave the country. I gifted her a little hand made photo album of our adventures together, which had taken me a lot longer to make than I had anticipated, but luckily I had managed to finish it the night before:

She told me this wasn't a 'goodbye', but a 'see you next time', and though I'd happily believe that, the next time will be at least a long time from now. She has meant the world to me during this trip, has helped and supported me more than I could thank her for, so I had to bite back tears as I watched her walk away. After that I had drinks at work, where my super kind coworkers surprised me with vegan chocolate and doughnuts, making me struggle not to cry for the second time that day. In the evening I had a video call with home, during which I remotely participated in their game of Memory, and still WON 💪😤

After my birthday my housemates and I went straight into Christmas mode, running around decorating the house and cooking all sorts of dishes! It was very odd to have Christmas without the associated weather/season, and without getting to see my family. My housemate introduced me to Tim Minchin's song White Wine in the Sun, which makes me cry like a baby every time I listen to it. So I took a photo of myself and my housemates, drinking non-alcoholic sparkling white grape juice in the sun, and sent it home along with a link to the song to make my parents cry as well 😈 We spent our days here enjoying all the wonderful food and the company of the neighbour and his family, and I even got to sing some songs which I hadn't done in a long while. I also got to give Christmas presents to my housemates, which I worked quite hard on: matching cowl scarves for the two of them and the dog 😊

Of course next on the calendar was New Year's Eve. In honour of my family traditions, I got some non-alcoholic sparkling rose and cocktail fruit from the supermarket, and a couple of minutes before midnight a musician friend and I combined them into portable cups, so we could cheers to 2024 at the waterfront as the fireworks lit up the sky!

I had a wonderful night of music, dancing, playing on the beach, walking in the woods, and eventually sheltering from the rain, and didn't fall asleep until 6 in the morning. My sleeping rhythm still hasn't recovered! The next morning I woke up from my alarm at 11:55, and quickly got up so I could listen to the last minutes of the Top2000 and wish all my Dutch people a happy new year at noon. It felt so odd to do this in the sun in the middle of the day, but in a way that felt more real than the midnight before!

The next days I spent some time looking back at my highlights and achievements from 2023, and I created my own makeshift "Spotify wrapped" by analysing some statistics from my offline music player app. It turns out that (besides Asha, which is the music I play to fall asleep nearly every night) Ghost was my top artist of the year 🎧 Oh and I caught a big spider in my room!

For Sinterklaas, my parents had gifted me a metaphorical voucher to spend where I wanted to, so I got myself a ticket to a tour at Wēta Workshop, the SFX and other movie magic studio behind the Lord of the Rings trilogy, the Avatar movies, and many more. I dragged one of my housemates and a mutual friend along, and I'm really happy we got to go! We were shown around the different stages in the SFX process, we got to hold some movie prop swords, and got to see the original weapons and armour used on-screen in a plethora of different movies. Unfortunately for copyright reasons we weren't allowed to take photos inside the studios and work stations, but I snapped some photos outside!

And while I'd much prefer not to face it... By now I have had to start focusing on my upcoming homebound trip. Slowly plans for when I get back home are trickling in, which feels very surreal. I can't believe it's actually only two weeks until I go home, a fact that I like to hide from as much as I can. It's not that I don't want to go home, I've been looking forward to seeing my family again, eating all my familiar foods, seeing my neighbourhood and getting to hug my friends again for so long now. And I am genuinely excited for that. Part of the reason I enjoy traveling is that it reminds me of what I love about home, and allows me to miss it, and return to it more grateful than before. But it also feels like returning to 'normal life'. I'm afraid of going from a time of adventure to a time of stagnation, even though I know that's not a fair or reasonable thought. I suppose something I was afraid of is happening, which is that I feel at home here now, and happy, and have found the right people, and am enjoying the summer, and so going home (to winter 🥶) actually doesn't sound very attractive at all at times, at least not the way it did when I was living in Elrond. Back then I was struggling a lot more, I felt alone and lost, and so the thought of going home felt like such a relief. Now that I've grown accustomed to the luxury of living in a house again, and being surrounded by a social network I feel safe and appreciated in... the contrast is a lot smaller. And it almost feels like I'm going to feel homesick towards here when I go home. Like this upcoming flight is my departure, not my return.

This thought was solidified even more when my housemate asked if I'd be willing to wear a sweater that I'm not going to take with me as much as I can for the last two days or so, so that it will smell like me and I can leave it for the dog 😭💔 I really struggle not to cry at that thought, and I'm wondering if maybe (i.e. am pretty sure actually that) I'm even procrastinating with booking the trip between here and Tāmakimakaurau out of pure denial. I don't want to leave. I don't want to say goodbye, and never come back. Much more than I ever felt with Australia, I want to return here. I don't care when, maybe that will be when I'm old and retired and have no family left in Europe to miss, or when the most important people to me come with me, or if I find out I have been irrevocably changed and flee back here in a year or two. But I want to come back.

I have procured a second suitcase, and am slowly working on getting all my possessions sorted. I've sold my busking amp and microphones to a good musician friend after we'd used it for a last busking hurrah at the harbourside veggie markets last Sunday. It was a fantastic end to this busking season for me, as we connected with the crowd, the weather was wonderful, and I got to sing all the songs that were important to me. I can't bring my guitar with me, so I'll bring it to my friends' house for safekeeping, and maybe they can get it back to me some day. And the big pink bear who was riding shotgun with me in Elrond? It would break my heart to leave him behind, so I stuffed him into one of those vacuum seal bags:

And I'm going to break my back trying to fit him into the new suitcase! He means too much to me, even if I only paid $10 for him.

My to do list is shrinking slowly but steadily, and I really have to plan well to fit everything that's left into the little time I still have here. I am going to make the most of it, spend time with the people here that have meant the most to me, immortalise the memories and when the time comes, I will get on that plane with a fond smile ❤️

[architectuul]

The Nuclear City

The market, though small, was as lively as any I saw in Cuba. We walked from stall to stall, past vendors selling tropical fruit and sacks of rice. Behind one table a woman sat on the curb, a sack between her thighs, tapping a sieve like an old-timey pan-handler as she separated insects from grains of rice. I bought a portion of fresh, sticky mango slices… realising too late that there was nowhere to wash my hands clean after.

Ciudad Nuclear, Cuba as seen from the 14th floor rooftop of an unfinished apartment block.

The sun was beating down hard so the four of us ducked into the welcome shelter of a bar. We were the only customers; it was dark inside, cool, with flies buzzing lazily around the slow-moving ceiling fan. We ordered a round of beers – Cuban Bucaneros – and I held the cold can up to my baked skull, my temples, then rolled it between my hands allowing the frosty condensation to de-gunk my fruit-sticky fingers. I looked out at the market: an island of humanity, while all around it rose the empty shells of unfinished residential blocks. This handful of stalls was now the social heart of a city once built for thousands, and these people the last stubborn lives to remain amongst the ruins of Ciudad Nuclear.

Thousands of apartments built for construction workers and Soviet nuclear engineers now sit abandoned.

Back in 2014 I shared an article about my visit to an unfinished nuclear power plant in Cuba. It was no more than a concrete shell by the time I saw it, with a dome that made it look almost like a temple, left abandoned on the Caribbean coast.

The site had been built with Soviet money and know-how, and was to be accompanied by a brand new city for power plant workers. The Chernobyl reactors in Ukraine had the workers’ city at Pripyat; the Lithuanian reactor at Visaginas, likewise, had a model socialist city raised up almost overnight in its shadow; and here at Juragua in Cuba, the Soviets helped build ‘Ciudad Nuclear’: in English, simply, ‘Nuclear City.’

The USSR began working on the Cuban nuclear power plant in 1976, and Ciudad Nuclear was opened on 13th October 1982, to house the influx of Soviet scientists and engineers. Located six miles from the plant it was to feature 4,200 homes but the Cuban plant was never finished. Construction ground to a halt in 1989, as the funding dried up and the Soviet Union teetered on the brink of collapse. The intended workers’ city was left in limbo as a result: half finished, only part inhabited, an unsustainable cluster of concrete dwellings on a remote stretch of the Cuban shoreline.

Ciudad Nuclear, Cuba: view from the balcony of a spacious residential complex that never got finished.

A handful of residents still live in Ciudad Nuclear surrounded on all sides by empty blocks, and with the unfinished power plant just visible on the horizon.

I made the journey down to Juragua with friends. We hired a car in Havana, and drove for several hours to reach the site on the south side of the island. We slept in a casa nearby, a sweet little place down by the water’s edge, but on the day of our intended visit to the plant we found the place crawling with security guards. Later we’d come back, and we’d find another way inside the unfinished Juragua NPP – but first we spent an afternoon in Ciudad Nuclear.

A Cuban turkey vulture circles over the quiet streets of Ciudad Nuclear.

Ciudad Nuclear is a peculiar place. I want to call it a ‘ghost town,’ but that wouldn’t be entirely accurate. The handful of citizens who remain here are, for the most part, commuters. Some drive 20 miles to work in Cienfuegos, a larger town with a busy port and industrial sector. Not a lot of Cubans have their own transport though, which means that Ciudad Nuclear – an unfinished, out-of-the-way conurbation with little going on in terms of entertainment or employment – is doomed to a slow depopulation.

Leaving the market, we turned a corner and quickly found ourselves alone. Down the length of Ciudad Nuclear’s main street, only two parked cars and a couple of distant pedestrians were visible. Rounding a corner to the next street we met a small family and a donkey, but the rows of apartment blocks behind them looked desolate and bare.

Empty spaces inside a tower block planned for luxury apartments.

Poetry by José Martí appears on a wall in what might have been intended as a cafeteria.

Save for the occasional sheet flapping in the wind on some third-floor washing line, most of the buildings here seemed to be uninhabited; many looked like they had never been finished, their faded pastel exteriors wrapped around empty cement boxes. Inside one large ground floor space (a shop or a café?) I found a wall decorated with a verse by José Martí, Cuba’s most beloved revolutionary poet:

Cuba no anda de pedigueña Por el mundo, anda de hermana Al salvarse, salva América No le fallará, porque ella No le falla a América.

Poetry always loses a little in translation, but in English it means something like this:

Cuba does not go around the world as a beggar but as a sister By saving herself, she saves the Americas She will not fail, because she will not fail the Americas.

Looking east from Ciudad Nuclear, where a narrow strait connects the Caribbean to the inland Bay of Cienfuegos.

Some of the buildings around Ciudad Nuclear stood near to collapse. I looked inside a few, though there wasn’t much to see. The risk-reward ratio didn’t seem weighted in my favour, so for the most part when I saw ‘Derrumbe’ – ‘Collapse’ – written across a building, I kept away.

Heading back towards the centre we passed a naked tower block, the tallest we’d seen so far. Across its side were painted the words, ‘¡¡Socialismo o Muerte!!’ though it felt like an oddly subversive slogan, given the context. Socialism or Death. This place seemed to have a little bit of both.

Socialism or Death in Ciudad Nuclear.

Gazing up at that graffitied ruin, I decided I wanted to climb it – to see how Ciudad Nuclear looked from the top. The stairs inside were intact, but there was little else to see inside the 14-floor skeleton; nothing but concrete all the way up. Reaching the top, I walked out of the stairwell onto an open-plan level that fell abruptly away at the edge; no windows, no handrail, just a sudden drop to the street.

Something flapped noisily nearby and I turned, in time to see a large dark bird take flight from its concrete perch on the fourteenth floor balcony. Later I’d be told it was a vulture.

Above the top end of the stairwell, a square hole opened to the rooftop and the sky. It took a bit of a scramble to get up there – balancing on a concrete bannister, catching hold of the ledge above and pulling myself up to the building’s summit – but it was worth the work.

Nature is already reclaiming the rooftops of Ciudad Nuclear, Cuba.

Looking out across the Bay of Cienfuegos from a Ciudad Nuclear rooftop.

Stood up there in the sweltering sun, I traced the shoreline curving into the distance: the beach a ribbon of gold between the water and the forest. Below me the empty streets and unfinished buildings of Ciudad Nuclear fanned out in grid formation, a model city that never quite made it off the drafting table. Meanwhile along the coast, an abandoned 16-floor reactor building rose from the forest like some ancient temple ruin: a concrete mausoleum for the Cuban-Soviet nuclear programme.

Designed to provide 4,200 homes, this is how the city looks today.

The building that started it all: six miles from the city sits the concrete shell of the Juragua Nuclear Power Plant.

-

Text and photo by Darmon Richter [adapted with permission from an article at [EX UTOPIA] 

[richaldis]

Been asked to repeat this for @msclaritea.

William Hurst (1787 - 1844), unlike Wanda's relatives who were agricultural labourers and very poor, was a solidly middle class son of a major inkeeper (William Hurst and his wife Mary nee Thompson)and property owner, who could trace his family history in the area back to at least to the 1600's. Working for a number of firms in his lifetime he built or designed many properties almost all in Yorkshire and none in the south. In fact none south of Rotherham. In the 1841 census he was living in one of the best streets in Doncaster and employed a groom and three servants. He owned a number of houses which were willed to his wife after his death. While he did create a design for the remodelling of Firbeck Hall (cult HQ in the area according to the swamp) it was only a design and was not what was finally built, suggesting that he did not do the work there - it does not appear in his RIBA entry. The firm he worked for has no connection with Robert Causwell who did remodel the hall in 1935.

As for Wanda's ancestors living near the Isle of Wight. They lived around 20 miles (and a boat trip) from the island. 20 miles is an area which covers the coastline from Littlehampton to Chichester and includes the major centres of population in Hampshire at the time (1800), Winchester and Petersfield. Literally hundereds of thousands of people lived in this arc of land including at least one branch of my family.

Wanda’s parents were Fredrick Howard VENTHAM and Gladys Frances HOLTHAM. Frederick was born in 1910 in Lewes, Sussex.

Fredrick’s parents were Fredrick William VENTHAM (1875-1952) and Mabel WATERS (1876-1971) Fredrick was born in Awbridge, Hampshire (a tiny parish near Mottisfont) was a coachman for most of his life and after he moved to Lewes and then Brighton he started hiring out cars.

Fredrick William’s parents were William VENTHAM (1849-1928) and Sarah Jane HURST (1851-1932) William was born in Awbridge and was an agricultural labourer all his life.

Sarah Jane’s parents were William HURST (1812-1898) and Ann JONES again they were born in the Mossisfont/Michelmersh area. William was an agricultural labourer all his life

William’s parents were Isaac HURST(1770-1851) and Mary MASON(1770-1851). Both from the Mottisfont/Michelmersh area Like their descendants they worked the land. They were extremely poor for a while Isaac rented some land and a tiny house but his children went into service very young (one of his daughters was 10 and working for another labourer) and after he died his widow relied on parish relief. The Ventham’s living in the area were slightly more prosperous as a few of them paid hearth tax.

There are no connections with Doncaster or Yorkshire and like most of their contemporaries they were working class agricultural workers. The only time they were mentioned in documents other than baptism, marriage & burial records were when they claimed poor relief or were fined for selling cider without permission. It was only in the 20th century that they moved into the lower middle classes. There is no mystery about them, most were barely literate and they went through the usual (for the 18th and 19th century) pain of losing many children to infectious diseases which are all too treatable now.

[ladybugmeat]

4.

OLD KENT ROAD:

MONOPOLY'S DUD SQUARE

Old Kent Road : Monopoly's dud square. The cheapest and only property south of the river. At Bricklayer’s Arms, I alight with the crowd and pause in the shadow of the orbital. Here, pavement breeds new pavement. Slabs of grey-green asphalt spill out like wet turbot skins - complete with chewing-gum tubercles. Like a noose, the elevated motorway pushes people out. Tesco bags blow against the perimeter. A sour blue-raspberry condom licks my heel.

10:27

I plan my zigzagged passage across the pedestrian islands. If you are to inhabit the city, you learn to perfect your dance with death. I make it to Island B before the black Honda turns left. I fast-walk to Island C. I pull down my hood and reply to a text. By an inch, I miss the side view mirror of an articulated lorry. I breathe out: Ellipsis. Michel de Certeau would read these maneuvers as a prosody poem. Under the traffic’s imposing rhyme scheme, I intercept and interrupt. ‘Asyndeton cuts out: it undoes continuity and undercuts its plausibility.’ My walk is constituted of  footstepped stutters - Deletions. I dart between cars - Slash. I mount the pavement- Hyphen. I write a text of ‘enlarged singularities and separate islands.’ My rhetoric is hinged on spatial elements, street furniture, and their references. I weave between bollards and cat’s eyes. I scamper between the lights of the cars - two streams, red and gold.

10:29

A pair of Nike Jordans straggle from a power line. I interpret this as a hanging - a gibbeting. Walking is forbidden here. I use the adverb ‘here’ because how else does one condense this terrain? This junction of stifled oxygen. This junction of cars that hurl as if launched from the barrel of a gun. Between traffic, I hear the electricity hum through the power lines and across the white sky. Whilst there isn’t the soil to grow a weed, red roses repeatedly appear at the railings. A photograph of a young boy. A note: ‘Jimmy, we miss you. I should have held your hand.’

10:31

My feet sidle at the entrance. Somewhere in the depths of the corridor, a man sits like a large toad. His craned shoulders are framed by a ravine of dismembered circuit boards, computer carcasses, and hard drives. The narrow inlet is thick with the warm olfactory of plastic and solder. He looks up from his work and calls out to me.

‘If you want to take my picture, you can leave.’ His eyes hang through thick rimmed glasses.

I push my phone down into the side of my leg and come clean.

‘I did want to take a photo but you wouldn’t need to be in it …’

He sighs, puts the laptop down, and begins to inch through the clutter.

‘What is it about this place that you people like? I’m not a celebrity.’ He smiles and kicks a small satellite dish from the doorway. It spins and cracks on the last step.

I collect the pieces and hand them to him.

‘I have two Ebay accounts. One sells hardware, the other sells the stuff I can’t fix.’ He drops the shards of fibre-glass into a cardboard box and steps out into the rain.

[elsie--young]

Best Activities in San Francisco: A Personal Guide!

When I first arrived in San Francisco, I felt the excitement bubbling inside me. This city, known for its steep streets and iconic landmarks, offers a unique blend of culture, history, and adventure. But with so much to do, where should you start? Here's my guide to the best activities in San Francisco that will make your visit truly memorable.

Problem: Feeling Overwhelmed by Choices

San Francisco has something for everyone—historical sites, natural wonders, and vibrant neighborhoods. The challenge is deciding where to go and what to see. I remember feeling overwhelmed by the sheer number of options. Do I spend the day exploring museums or walking through the city’s famous parks? Should I prioritize iconic landmarks or hidden gems?

Agitation: Missing Out on the Must-Do Activities

Nobody wants to leave a city feeling like they missed out on the best experiences. When I was planning my trip, I wanted to ensure that I didn't miss any of the city's highlights. There's nothing worse than getting home and realizing you missed the must-see spots. I needed to plan carefully to make the most of my time in San Francisco.

Solution: My Top Picks for the Best Activities in San Francisco

Based on my experience, here are the best activities in San Francisco that you simply can't miss:

1. Walk Across the Golden Gate Bridge

Walking across the Golden Gate Bridge was at the top of my list. This iconic bridge, completed in 1937, stretches 1.7 miles and offers stunning views of the city and bay. I suggest starting from the visitor center on the south end, where you can pick up some interesting historical tidbits before setting out. Walking the bridge is free, and if you have a couple of hours, consider walking both ways to fully appreciate the views.

2. Explore Alcatraz Island

A visit to Alcatraz Island is a must for any first-timer. The ferry ride to the island costs about $41 for adults and includes an audio tour of the infamous former prison. I spent about three hours here, wandering through the cell blocks and learning about the island's history. The views of the city from the island are also spectacular. Be sure to book your tickets in advance, as they often sell out, especially during peak tourist seasons.

3. Visit Fisherman’s Wharf and Pier 39

Fisherman’s Wharf is one of those places that just feels like San Francisco. I loved the energy here—street performers, bustling shops, and the smell of fresh seafood in the air. Pier 39, in particular, is famous for its sea lions, who laze about on the docks. I recommend grabbing a bowl of clam chowder from one of the vendors and finding a spot to watch the sea lions play. It’s a great place to spend a few hours, and you only need to pay for food or souvenirs.

4. Ride a Cable Car

San Francisco’s cable cars are not just a means of transportation; they are an experience. I took the Powell-Hyde line, which costs $8 per ride. The cable car offers a fun, open-air ride up and down the city’s steep streets. You’ll pass by landmarks like Lombard Street, known as the “crookedest street in the world,” and get fantastic views of the bay. It’s a bit touristy, but sometimes you just have to embrace it.

5. Visit Golden Gate Park

Golden Gate Park is larger than New York’s Central Park and has so much to offer. I rented a bike for $15 an hour and spent the afternoon exploring. The park is home to several attractions, including the California Academy of Sciences and the Japanese Tea Garden. I particularly enjoyed the Conservatory of Flowers, which showcases a variety of rare and exotic plants. The park is free to enter, though some attractions charge a small fee.

Conclusion: Make the Most of Your San Francisco Visit

San Francisco is a city that rewards the curious traveler. Whether you’re walking across the Golden Gate Bridge or taking a ride on a cable car, there are countless experiences to enjoy. By following this guide, you’ll hit the best activities in San Francisco and leave with memories that will last a lifetime. I promise you won’t regret any minute spent in this incredible city!

[the-book-in-the-mirror]

Mary Plays Pokemon Gaia - Part IV: ecofascists on the snow, third gym and mega evolutions (reposted from Twitter)

I am finally back after *checks notes* almost six months. Sorry, life is still sorting itself out. The prospect of organizing all those screenshots on Photoshop so I could "cheat" tumblr's picture limit wasn't exciting for a while either, but I have sorted most of that already. But enough of that!

[Previous Post]

[Original Twitter thread]

After I beat Chatot Girl, the next step is an ice path to the next town where the villain team is doing their thing. The big rock on the 2nd screenshot is likely where you evolve Glaceon.

I regret to inform you the villains in this game are ecofascists

After fighting a few grunts and finding an Itemfinder (bless!) you finally get to fight a team admin, after they say something about catching Regice...

...and it's not too hard of a fight but other than the lv. 24 Noctowl and lv. 26 Amaura she also has a lv. 24 Froslass (forgot to screenshot - yah I'm still getting the hang of this) so I had to use a few super potions.

Again, this game isn't as difficult as, say, Vega Minus but it can be a little tough at times. Next town is a snowy place with some shop that sells neat stuff like lava cookies and fresh water, some plot hints and holy shit a Choice Scarf this early in the game??

There's a fire gym to do now but before that I take a look at the path to Mt. Ignis (where's the temple you're supposed to visit) and I get a Sneasel. Oh and Swellow evolved back in the cave which is a very needed improvement

Soooo I thought I'd need to go through the gym first but it's locked. Anyway, one last detour before I move the plot: this town is where you get the cable car that goes back to the starting town. After you go down, a worker has a Stealth Rock TM for you

South of the starting town there's that area full of totems where [on the beginning of the game] you talk to the old lady who asks for her book back. There are two grass areas you need rock smash to access and they have a bunch of psychic-type mons - Natu, Elgyem, Chimecho etc.

I even managed to find a Sigilyph, whose dex entry was clearly updated for this game specifically. Not sure there are other cases of Pokemon Gaia exclusive entries, but unless it's very blatant like this I probably won't be able to catch them lol.

(for clarification: this was a bit vague when I originally posted it, but after exploring the rock smash areas, I went to the temple to the north of the region to progress the plot.)

I really like how this stuff looks. and yeah, cult-ish group is trying to imitate the old civilization so I wonder how they compare in their goals

This fire gym curiously has ice puzzles. Also the leader's most levelled mon is a lv. 28 Camerupt but the biggest hassle is this Magmar with Thunderpunch. Almost blew Prinplup away

And another neat thing about this game is how occasionally you're offered an option to skip manual backtracking. The map is neatly-designed enough that backtracking isn't that big of a deal but this is still nice.

Alright here are some updates from last night that I forgot to post cause it was a bit. whew

So, when you get to the island you must go through a tower to get the Mega Ring - the final opponent has a mega evolution, though not a particularly tough one

So it's a difficult match but not too unreasonable. My problem is what comes right after.

Once you leave the tower you're locked in a plot sequence where the cultists want to grab Regirock and you have to fight two grunts + one admin in sequence. I wasn't a fan.

Both grunts have Noctowl and Diggersby that aren't too much of a hassle but can still leave a bit of a mark, but the admin had stuff like... mons all lv. 30-32, including a Tyrantrum, Aerodactyl and a Diggersby with Swords Dance + Quick Attack. Really.

Frankly I thought this was a bit overdone. Like you can access the pokemart to replenish items and the pokemon center before the match, but it took a while to crack the right strategy for this.

The good part is that you're rewarded with a kanto mon w/ a mega stone.

According to the pokemon list from the wikia, the Kanto starter varies according to the starter you picked - in my case, Charmeleon for Piplup starter. It also comes with its species' hidden ability. Guess I'll scrap my plan to grab a Chandelure for a while

Anyway after that I decided to grind a bit for a few levels (honestly, this kinda contradicts what people were saying about this game being closer to a offiial pokemon experience) and explored some Surf bits (at least the map is still easy to navigate).

Oh and the Marowak above? comes right off the bat with Thick Club. and Thunderpunch. Could be pretty damn useful but I'm determined to keep pushing with Drilbur and eventually Excadrill.

YES BABY LET'S GO LET'S BEAT THE SHIT OUT OF THIS GAME

[allovertheworldblog]

Getting to know Japan

It turns out I didn’t too much about Japan - The Land of The Rising Sun.

I did know about their self imposed 200-year long international isolation until the arrival of US Commodore Perry in 1853.

I knew about their World War II involvement and preceding militarism, the atrocities perpetrated by their armies, their taking over of Korea, their invasions of China and their push to gobble up the British Empire in the east.

I knew of their economic post-World War boom, reaching unprecedented heights and their subsequent economic stagnation from the 1990’s onwards.

The pictures I had of Japan though were too coloured by TV and movies. The weather I imagined for Japan was informed by World War II movies set in the South Seas, images of cloudless, scorching days.

It turns out that Japan has twice held the Winter Olympics. I think I knew about though, somewhere in the back of my mind. 

I knew the general geographic position of Japan, off the coast of mainland Asia. I knew there were some islands involved that made up Japan.

Some of them, Honshu and Hokkaido were known to me, but not the others. 

Imagining how something is and living it are two different things.

My travels in Japan have reinforced this idea for me.

During my two months in Japan I got to see something of the country.

I went from north to south, from the northernmost of the big four islands that make up Japan, Hokkaido, to the southernmost of the big islands, Kyushu.

I got down to the island of Yakushima which is to the south of Kyushu, but unfortunately didn’t make it to Okinawa.

After my time in Japan I was made aware of their national predilections, I won’t say ‘manias’, because that’s too strong and is a touch unkind for a friendly people.

Some of the predilections of Japan are the following:

-Automation in general, but vending machines in particular.

Vending machines are absolutely everywhere. You can’t turn a corner in a city or town without passing one.

They can even be found of hillsides.

They sell soft drinks and cans of coffee (cold, ever so rarely hot) which itself is another predilection of the Japanese.

For whatever reason the sale of goods is restricted to canned drinks. Only twice did I see chocolate bars sold in these machines along with drinks.

Automation is popular, so you can pay for your meal in some restaurants from a machine, you can buy admission tickets and bus and train tickets from machines.

-'Getting there faster’. Hence the 'Bullet Train’ and super fast ferries. Not wasting time travelling or getting value for your travelling time and detailed planning also come under this category.

-Stamps. Not the philatelic kind.

I guess it goes back to the days when orders and official documents would be 'sealed’ with someone's personal seal to prove their authenticity.

If you go to a bank, the teller puts their stamp on the receipt, sometimes this happens in stores too.

In stationery stores you can chose from racks and racks of stamps.

-Bicycles. This really took me by surprise. I never knew about it. Bicycles are everywhere in Japan and everybody uses them.

You see schoolkids on them, mothers with kids in seats on the back, businessmen, old ladies, everybody uses a bike in Japan, it seems.

-Small cars and vans. Of course they’re Japanese cars and vans. And there are so many to chose from, Toyota, Mazda, Nissan, Dihatsu, Honda, Mitsubishi, Subaru, Isuzu. 

-Bowing. This speaks for itself.

-Convenience Stores. There are about 5 chains that are almost as ubiquitous as vending machines. Family Mart, Lawson, 7-Eleven, Sunkus, Ministop and many more.

It’s common for staff to welcome you to the store by shouting out and then to shout out a 'thank you for calling’ goodbye.

Even if they’re at the other end of the shop they’ll shout out some greeting when they hear the buzzer or bell that goes off when a customer has entered or left the shop.

This gets annoying after a while and you can be nearly deafened if you get too close to them.

-All things Disney. From a theme park in Tokyo to clothing and fashion accessories to a mobile phone network.

It’s baffling how popular the mouse is in Japan.

-Smoking rooms. These are to be found in many places from fast food restaurants to trains.

-Gloves. On men and women. Bus drivers and taxi drivers invariably wear white gloves.

Bus drivers also invariably wear hats as well.

Taxi drivers sometimes wear dickie bows and black suits.

So you can get the impression that a whole concert orchestra is moonlighting as taxi drivers. 

-Face masks. 

[fleurcareil]

Central Manitoba

Looking at a map, you'll notice that central Manitoba is dominated by several big big lakes such as Lake Manitoba and Lake Winnipeg so I looked forward to seeing both... until now, I was not really aware that the "prairie" provinces of Saskatchewan and Manitoba have such massive lakes; people always talk about the agricultural fields and how dry it is, and never about all that water! 😂

On the east shore of Lake Manitoba, I visited the tiny village of Steep Rock whose hall of fame is not surprisingly based on its shoreline cliffs... I was so surprised at the rock formations and the colour of the water, that for a moment I thought I was in the south of France or on a Greek island looking at the Mediterranean! 😁 Sunny & calm but not too hot, it was the perfect place to just sit on a rock, relax from the long drive and warm up from the cold night before. That is, until I started seeing snakes again 😮, 3 in total, even one hissing at me as I hadn't seen it hidden in a rock crevasse!

The region between the two lakes is called the Interlake, which I'm guessing not many people traverse from west to east (they rather go from the populated areas in the south up north) so most of the 2h+ drive was on unpaved roads... no point in getting the car washed while I'm still travelling but it will definitely need a deep-clean before I sell it as the sand is everywhere...

Nature wise, the Interlake was quite interesting as it seems as if it's an early succession forest, when plants return to inhabit an area after e.g. a fire or logging. Oftentimes the first arrivals are deciduous trees (which were here all very small & similar height) after which coniferous seedlings start to overtake, until at some point you have a mixed forest with tall coniferous (boreal in this case) trees interspersed with large deciduous ones. The landscape already had some big trees in it, which seemed to be remnants from a previous time... made for a visually attractive mix! Add to that marshes & bogs and I had plenty to look at (apart from at the road where there was almost no one, I think I counted 4 cars). 😃

My end destination for the day was Hecla provincial park, which is an island in the southern part of Lake Winnipeg, accessed via a causeway. It was first colonized by immigrant Icelanders in 1875, so this is memorized by stone ships (a traditional Viking burial custom) at the entrance to the park.

At Gull Harbour where I was staying for two nights, the Icelandic flag appears below the Canadian one (that's the law!) next to a cute lighthouse... pickerel for dinner & the howling wind created a true island feeling, and I was glad to have a very comfy room instead of camping! 😊

In the morning, I started off with a hike through extensive marshlands, but I aborted after a tiny loop as I had too much on my mind... I suddenly was stressing out trying to figure out what my next month would look like and had started to look for flights to France, so I sat for most of the day at a picknick table 😅, booking accommodations for the remaining 2 weeks of travel, contacting friends for the 2 weeks I was spending in the GTA and locking in my flight. As much as I like to explore, sometimes I just need to get things out of the way in order to enjoy again!

I did walk through the historic village which had a few old boats etc, but the church's cemetery was the most interesting, as the tombstones (including recent ones) read Icelandic names such as Helgason, Sigurgeirson, and Tomasson. Icelandic flags and names were present at most homes, so the heritage seems still strongly alive.

In the morning, feeling guilty of not having explored much of the park, I went up the observation tower at the north point of the island. The vast expanse of water shows how the lake is really an inland sea and explains why Icelanders would see this as a good replacement home (minus the volcanoes)!

To understand more about the history, I dropped by the New Iceland Heritage museum in Gimli, which was the de facto capital of the self-governing colony (with its own constitution!) until they eventually did fold into Manitoba. It's almost unbelievable that the Canadian government simply said; "yeah you can start a new country here", anything to help control the indigenous people... 🤔 An impressive Viking statue stands guard over the harbour but for the rest there was not much to see so off I went to Winnipeg.

I hadn't really planned to return to the city, but as it was on the shortest route back to Ontario, I hopped on the opportunity to visit the Winnipeg Art Gallery after all, which I didn't manage to do during the busy wedding weekend. The sole exhibit I came for is the three-storey high Quamajuq glass vault which showcases over 5,000 Inuit stone carvings. I must say I was a bit disappointed as the digital catalogue did not give any background to the art or artists (apart from name, provenance & date), so then it's hard to emotionally connect with the pieces... on top of that, the glass did not make it easy to appreciate the stonework details so not convinced this is the best way to share the beauty of Inuit art with the general public. What I did take away from the displays of muskoxen, narwhals and polar bears, is that someday perhaps I should also plan a visit to the far north, as there's still more wildlife to see! 😄

I still had 2.5 hours to drive to Kenora so didn't linger too long... was excited to cross back into "my" Ontario again!

Wildlife: 3 gartner snakes (Steep Rock), 2 bald eagles (Interlake), 3 deer, 1 bald eagle & 1 partridge (Hecla)

SUPs: none

Hikes: none

Distance driven since last map: 1,279 km

[the-firebird69]

Watch "The Kinks - Victoria" on YouTube

And it is the Isle of Victoria it was Queen Victoria one of the daughters of Queen Elizabeth II and she ran it and very well for a hundred years almost he's very old and they said how are you doing this she kept doing it she came back a few times and she's not around she passed away it was quite a while ago about 300 years ago is during the revolution when the warlock took over the island. It's not why we're bringing it up but they're a murderous slot and that's what the kinks are singing about but really they saw it looked like an angel and they thought they'd name it that and it had fallen and that's what it is it just fell off from an impact and it is in one two pieces which is very weird it never breaks but it was from an impact and the song by The cars is by Hera and Zeus son our grandson and it is regarding him helping her reassemble it and bringing her home to be attached to him and his ship is massive together it's the second largest no but it's massive it's probably the third largest. This is a song about the queen but they do reference the object to the water and you can hear it and there are other songs and they are listed there some of them in the top 100 list

Gu Oya

Oh yeah I hear it all over the world now now I understand something they're selling Queen Victoria stuff and this is going to be awesome these things are huge okay there's no stopping what's going on now I can't believe it oh yes I can the ships are too big but they're not yours and they're not your people but they're ours they do know we're doing yes

Thor Freya

And if you look where Arcadia is it's a specific spot and that's where the hatches and that's before the big huge bulb which is mostly what Greenland is and it's where it broke off but it's just the land it's actually intact it's my husband's ship kind of goes beneath the Midwest and go figure and mine is kind of going beneath the West but the bulb has a hatch and that is where Arcadia is and it's solid Stone blocking the hatch way when I think it would be opposite but no and it's because it was repaired yes and the new exteriorated hardened rapidly. And that's where the Arcadians are from and you had a fight with them in New Hampshire and they're not robots they're my children. The Tortuga area is where our children are from too and they're tortugans and has to do with Jen AKA Katya equus and her history and it's similar and parallel actually the same place in time as Dave and Carol in Spain we were part of that but we've physically weren't there but these people are here. It's kind of a strange looking part of the ship and my ship is configured in the same orientation and South America ship is gigantic but it is about 500 miles shy of hours is all stretches all the way to the pole even though they're stretches all the way down it's just not as big for some reason and they're aware of that it's an optical illusion. And the location of the Tortugan area is on the Baja peninsula. The angel is gigantic and could be what the Yucatan is

Hera and yes my ship is slightly bigger and he says longer and I say no it's bigger this is mine is larger volume wise and it's a constant argument

Haha

Zues honestly it's just filler and stuff I guess not

Olympus

[keywestlou]

FLORIDA GROWING AS A RIGHT WING INTERNATIONAL MELTING POT

FLORIDA GROWING AS A RIGHT WING INTERNATIONAL MELTING POT - https://keywestlou.com/florida-growing-as-a-right-wing-international-melting-pot/The world is changing. Florida is changing. Every few generations, authoritarianism/fascism seeks to control. The moment has arrived again. Democracy is at peril. Florida appears at the forefront. The State's role as an international right wing melting pot is on the increase. The most recent evidence is former Brazil President Bolonaros who has recently taken up residence in Orlando. He is the South American personification of Donald Trump. The recent January 6 type insurrection in Brazil proof. Florida has become a magnet for extreme right wing types. Trump and DeSantis are truly similar. Birds of a feather as I am prone to describe them. DeSantis seems to have captured the minds and hearts of Floridians. Listen and you shall hear in frequent days how he tells us so. He recognizes Florida is different from the rest of the country and he takes credit for it. I agree he is responsible. He has been successful in selling a bill of goods to the people of Florida. The question is will Floridians continue to buy it. How long will the many senior go along? How long will retirees put up with what in their hearts they must know is wrong? I worry. The new Republican House's first victory was monday. Passed its first bill. To reverse much of the $80 billion in extra funding set aside for the IRS in the 2020 Inflation Reduction Act. One purpose of the Act was help the IRS close down tax cheats and refresh its outdated technology. It is anticipated the Act makes it possible for the government to hire significant additional staff to do so. The tax cheats identified as "millionaires, billionaires, and corporations" cheating the system. Many paying no taxes at all. It was assured investigations would be made of certain returns beginning at $400,000 and more. No one less would be scrutinized any more than at present. The intent of the law again to go after wealthy tax cheats. The new Republican House sells the Act differently. From a lying base. It claims 87,000 new agents would pursue the working class and many would be armed. If true, it would scare me also. That is what the Republicans have been selling, sold monday with the passage of their bill, and hope will arouse American voters against the IRS. My fear is the people will buy this bullshit. Yesterday was day 2 of the new Republican House regime. They passed another bill. One which could have immediate ill affects. The House voted to create a special Congressional panel focused on the "weaponization of the federal government." The Republicans are looking for it. They will not find it. Nevertheless, they have created a bad situation. They are seeking to harness and limit the power of important federal agencies. Agencies that protect the American people daily. Scary. Making it even more fearful is that Jim Jordan is Chair of the new committee. Some of the matters to be investigated include handling of school board protests, COVID maneuvers, censorship of conservatives on social media, and the FBI political system. An underlying current is that the committee intends to go after anyone it thinks has been going after Trump. Breaking news this morning. All commercial flights across the U.S. have been suspended. A computer breakdown. The Notice to Air Missions system. It stopped working. It is anticipated the system could be corrected this morning. Weather killing California. A roadway collapsed leaving a 100 foot by 30 feet hole. Two cars sunk. Mud slides wiping homes and highways out. Californians are learning that the unexpected is to be expected. Yesterday, the Monterey Peninsula Country Club unexpectedly got hit. The course is on the Pacific. A foursome was playing the 14th hole. Suddenly, they had to run like hell. A monster wave swept over the hole. Today an interesting one in Key West history. The year 1829. Four men owned the island of Key West. John Simonton, Pardon Greene, John Whitehead, and John Fleming. Note their last names. Today the names of some of Key West's most prominent streets. The four men entered into an agreement this day in 1829 dividing the island of Key West into separate parcels for each. Dan Reardon is back in town! My friend form Skaneateles, N.Y. We are having dinner together tonight. Syracuse/Virginia Tech this evening at 7 at the Dome. I have no prediction as to who will win. I finish with a bit of wisdom. Confucius say: "Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall." Enjoy your day!

[brookston]

Holidays 12.15

Holidays

Bill of Rights Day

Birdland Day

Cat Herders’ Day

Coonskin Cap Day

Homecoming Day (Alderney, Channel Islands)

Koninkrijksdag (Kingdom Day; Netherlands) [Unless a Sunday, then 16th]

Men’s Society of Piu Festival of Mirth, Peace, Honesty, Joyousness and Love (14th Century London)

National Regifting Day

National Wear Your Pearls Day

Navidades begins (Puerto Rico; until Three Kings Day)

North Wind’s Prayer (Elder Scrolls)

Remembrance Day of Journalists Killed in the Line of Duty (Russia)

Second Amendment Day (South Carolina)

Sleep Comfort Day

Trivial Pursuit Day

Yuletide Lad #4 arrives (Pvorusleikir or Spoon-Licker; Iceland)

Zamenhof Day (Esperanto)

Food & Drink Celebrations

International Tea Day [also 5.21]

National Cupcake Day

National Gingerbread Latte Day

National Lemon Cupcake Day

Feast Days

Alcyone (Greek Kingfisher Goddess)

Consualia (Ancient Roman festival to Consus, god of the harvest and stored grain)

Drina Martyrs (Christian; Saint)

Drostan (Aberdeen Breviary; Christian; Saint)

Eusebius, Bishop of Vercelli (Christian; Saint)

John Horden and Robert McDonald (Episcopal Church; USA)

Joseph "Le Petomane" Pujol Day (Church of the SubGenius; Saint)

Lagrange (Positivist; Saint)

Maria Crocifissa di Rosa (Christian; Saint)

Mesmin (Christian; Saint)

Nino (Christian; Saint)

Othmar the Grouch (Muppetism)

Stupid Inventions Day (Pastafarian)

Stupid Toy Day (Pastafarian)

Valerian of Abbenza (Christian; Saint)

Virginia Centurione Bracelli (Christian; Saint)

Lucky & Unlucky Days

Fortunate Day (Pagan) [48 of 53]

Perilous Day (13th Century England) [30 of 32]

Prime Number Day: 349 [70 of 72]

Tomobiki (友引 Japan) [Good luck all day, except at noon.]

Unglückstage (Unlucky Day; Pennsylvania Dutch) [30 of 30]

Unlucky Day (Grafton’s Manual of 1565) [59 of 60]

Premieres

Beatles ’65, by The Beatles (Album; 1964)

Charlotte’s Web (Film; 2006)

The Chronic, by Dr. Dre (Album; 1992)

Dude, Where’s My Car? (Film; 2000)

The Emperor’s New Groove (Animated Disney Film; 2000)

Ferdinand (Animated Film; 2017)

Folsom Prison Blues, by Johnny Cash (Song; 1955)

Gone With the Wind (Film; 1939)

Jumanji (Film; 1995)

Mothership Connection, by Parliament (Album; 1975)

Never Say Never Again (UK Film; 1983) [James Bond non-series]

Revolutionary Road (Film; 2008)

Sabrina (Film; 1995)

Schindler’s List (Film; 1993)

Stormy Weather, recorded by Lena Horne (Song; 1941)

Superman (Film; 1978)

The Who Sell Out, by The Who (Album; 1967)

Wonka (Film; 2023)

Young Frankenstein (Film; 1974)

Today’s Name Days

Carlo, Christiane, Nina (Austria)

Marin, Valerijan, Viktorija (Croatia)

Radana (Czech Republic)

Nikatius (Denmark)

Kalli, Kelli, Killu, Kulla (Estonia)

Heimo, Nooa (Finland)

Ninon (France)

Christiane, Nina, Paola (Germany)

Anthea, Eleftherios, Elevtherios, Lefteris, Sossana, Sylvia (Greece)

Valér (Hungary)

Cristiana, Nino, Valeriano (Italy)

Jana, Johanna (Latvia)

Gaudenė, Gaudenis, Kristijona (Lithuania)

Hilda, Hilde (Norway)

Celina, Fortunata, Iga, Ignacja, Ignacy, Krystiana, Nina, Walerian, Waleriana, Wolimir, Żegota (Poland)

Antia, Elefterie, Suzana (Romania)

Ivica (Slovakia)

Valeriano (Spain)

Gottfrid (Sweden)

Adlai, Adler, Carney, Mirella, Mireya, Tanner (USA)

Today is Also…

Day of Year: Day 349 of 2022; 16 days remaining in the year

ISO: Day 4 of week 50 of 2022

Celtic Tree Calendar: Ruis (Elder) [Day 20 of 28]

Chinese: Month 11 (Dōngyuè), Day 22 (Ren-Yin)

Chinese Year of the: Tiger (until January 22, 2023)

Hebrew: 21 Kislev 5783

Islamic: 21 Jumada I 1444

J Cal: 19 Zima; Fiveday [19 of 30]

Julian: 2 December 2022

Moon: 56%: Waning Gibbous

Positivist: 13 Bichat (12th Month) [Lagrange]

Runic Half Month: Jara (Year) [Day 6 of 15]

Season: Autumn (Day 84 of 90)

Zodiac: Sagittarius (Day 23 of 30)

[brookstonalmanac]

Holidays 12.15

Holidays

Bill of Rights Day

Birdland Day

Cat Herders’ Day

Coonskin Cap Day

Homecoming Day (Alderney, Channel Islands)

Koninkrijksdag (Kingdom Day; Netherlands) [Unless a Sunday, then 16th]

Men’s Society of Piu Festival of Mirth, Peace, Honesty, Joyousness and Love (14th Century London)

National Regifting Day

National Wear Your Pearls Day

Navidades begins (Puerto Rico; until Three Kings Day)

North Wind’s Prayer (Elder Scrolls)

Remembrance Day of Journalists Killed in the Line of Duty (Russia)

Second Amendment Day (South Carolina)

Sleep Comfort Day

Trivial Pursuit Day

Yuletide Lad #4 arrives (Pvorusleikir or Spoon-Licker; Iceland)

Zamenhof Day (Esperanto)

Food & Drink Celebrations

International Tea Day [also 5.21]

National Cupcake Day

National Gingerbread Latte Day

National Lemon Cupcake Day

Feast Days

Alcyone (Greek Kingfisher Goddess)

Consualia (Ancient Roman festival to Consus, god of the harvest and stored grain)

Drina Martyrs (Christian; Saint)

Drostan (Aberdeen Breviary; Christian; Saint)

Eusebius, Bishop of Vercelli (Christian; Saint)

John Horden and Robert McDonald (Episcopal Church; USA)

Joseph "Le Petomane" Pujol Day (Church of the SubGenius; Saint)

Lagrange (Positivist; Saint)

Maria Crocifissa di Rosa (Christian; Saint)

Mesmin (Christian; Saint)

Nino (Christian; Saint)

Othmar the Grouch (Muppetism)

Stupid Inventions Day (Pastafarian)

Stupid Toy Day (Pastafarian)

Valerian of Abbenza (Christian; Saint)

Virginia Centurione Bracelli (Christian; Saint)

Lucky & Unlucky Days

Fortunate Day (Pagan) [48 of 53]

Perilous Day (13th Century England) [30 of 32]

Prime Number Day: 349 [70 of 72]

Tomobiki (友引 Japan) [Good luck all day, except at noon.]

Unglückstage (Unlucky Day; Pennsylvania Dutch) [30 of 30]

Unlucky Day (Grafton’s Manual of 1565) [59 of 60]

Premieres

Beatles ’65, by The Beatles (Album; 1964)

Charlotte’s Web (Film; 2006)

The Chronic, by Dr. Dre (Album; 1992)

Dude, Where’s My Car? (Film; 2000)

The Emperor’s New Groove (Animated Disney Film; 2000)

Ferdinand (Animated Film; 2017)

Folsom Prison Blues, by Johnny Cash (Song; 1955)

Gone With the Wind (Film; 1939)

Jumanji (Film; 1995)

Mothership Connection, by Parliament (Album; 1975)

Never Say Never Again (UK Film; 1983) [James Bond non-series]

Revolutionary Road (Film; 2008)

Sabrina (Film; 1995)

Schindler’s List (Film; 1993)

Stormy Weather, recorded by Lena Horne (Song; 1941)

Superman (Film; 1978)

The Who Sell Out, by The Who (Album; 1967)

Wonka (Film; 2023)

Young Frankenstein (Film; 1974)

Today’s Name Days

Carlo, Christiane, Nina (Austria)

Marin, Valerijan, Viktorija (Croatia)

Radana (Czech Republic)

Nikatius (Denmark)

Kalli, Kelli, Killu, Kulla (Estonia)

Heimo, Nooa (Finland)

Ninon (France)

Christiane, Nina, Paola (Germany)

Anthea, Eleftherios, Elevtherios, Lefteris, Sossana, Sylvia (Greece)

Valér (Hungary)

Cristiana, Nino, Valeriano (Italy)

Jana, Johanna (Latvia)

Gaudenė, Gaudenis, Kristijona (Lithuania)

Hilda, Hilde (Norway)

Celina, Fortunata, Iga, Ignacja, Ignacy, Krystiana, Nina, Walerian, Waleriana, Wolimir, Żegota (Poland)

Antia, Elefterie, Suzana (Romania)

Ivica (Slovakia)

Valeriano (Spain)

Gottfrid (Sweden)

Adlai, Adler, Carney, Mirella, Mireya, Tanner (USA)

Today is Also…

Day of Year: Day 349 of 2022; 16 days remaining in the year

ISO: Day 4 of week 50 of 2022

Celtic Tree Calendar: Ruis (Elder) [Day 20 of 28]

Chinese: Month 11 (Dōngyuè), Day 22 (Ren-Yin)

Chinese Year of the: Tiger (until January 22, 2023)

Hebrew: 21 Kislev 5783

Islamic: 21 Jumada I 1444

J Cal: 19 Zima; Fiveday [19 of 30]

Julian: 2 December 2022

Moon: 56%: Waning Gibbous

Positivist: 13 Bichat (12th Month) [Lagrange]

Runic Half Month: Jara (Year) [Day 6 of 15]

Season: Autumn (Day 84 of 90)

Zodiac: Sagittarius (Day 23 of 30)

[rockyseo-blog]

[elysianslove]

heyyy thanks for making my request with the honeymoon, as a french girl i loved that you mentioned paris! can you do some other boys if you don't mind?

i’ve been trying to find this ask !!! anyways yes yes i’d love to <3 let me know if you want other boys too <3 part 1 is here (includes oikawa, akaashi, atsumu, suna, osamu and iwaizumi)! 

i think bokuto would take you to singapore, more specifically maybe, sentosa island, and that’s because it can be romantic, but it’s also really fun and immersive. there’s universal studios, for example, and there’s also a bunch of cable car that you can ride, and the tourist attraction ‘gardens by the bay.’ i think he’d take you there because there are a whole lot of different activities to do and sights to take you, but there’s also opportunity with lazy days at the hotel, or a simple day at the mall, or touring around the city to sightsee. it’s a little bit of everything, and bokuto would appreciate being able to experience all these fun places with you, but also to just revel in the fact that he just married you. he takes way, way too many photos. of everything. there is a photo of you sneezing into a tissue somewhere and he kept it because “we gotta have all these memories saved for our kids and grandkids!!!” 

oh kuroo would definitely take you to saint lucia, carribbean. it’s perfectly romantic, fun, exciting and just the right amount of private. it’s not just a beach with a pretty view, there’s so much to do there as well. there’s festivals, mountain climbing, zip lining, and they all seem like things kuroo would rope you into doing with him. he’d also really love lazy days on the beach with you, where he can slam dunk your head under the salty water as many times as he likes. he also seems like the type to love romantic strolls on the beach late at night where he will most likely try to push you into the water at some point. he just appreciates how at the forefront, surface level view of it, you’re just enjoying the ocean and some pretty sunrises from your hotel room, but then there’s a lot of hidden gems, and he gets to do it all with the person he chose to marry! that’s just double the fun. he takes two types of photos: really, really sexy photos like borderline lewd and obscene get an onlyfans for this not an instagram, or really, really, really embarrassing pictures that you’d sell a kidney for him to delete. he doesn’t. 

hinata would take you to buenos aires, argentina, and i promise i’m not saying this because of his trip to brazil. i just genuinely believe the vibe of argentina would really match with hinata. there’s the liveliness of the place, the romantic aura, the sights, the music, the dancing, the endless places to visit. he’d take you to a really romantic dinner and then have you dancing till you feel like you’ll drop dead throughout the entire night. he probably also has ways of discovering hidden places that only the locals really know about and he’ll take you there. he also definitely tries to make you go skinny dipping with him in the hotel pool like it’s not public??? it’s not just night life with him though, it’s an all day kind of thing. hinata is very energetic, and to have married him, you have to have known that. prepare yourself, because you’re gonna have to keep up with him. the photo taking is left up to you mostly, but he does take a lot of really secret photos of you that you never really find out about for him to stare at in the middle of the night. he’s hopelessly in love with you, trust. 

ushijima would take you to copenhagen, denmark. just search it up and tell me that’s not the perfect honeymoon destination for ushijima. visiting the markets, visiting museums, sightseeing along the harbor, riding down the canal. it’s very serene, very lowkey, very subtle, something he’d love to share with his lover, the person he’d decided to marry. there’s also a lot of hiking tours beyond the city that he’d convince you to come on with him just because he wants to take a picture with you and the sunset. with him, on your honeymoon, you really feel so in love. like even nights at the hotel are lovely. gives you the okay to order as much room service as you’d like, and takes a lot of baths with you with the whole ordeal of putting in rose petals and lighting candles and sipping wine or sipping just juice if you don’t drink. he’ll tell you he disapproves of the photos you take of the two of you in the bath but he can’t resist smiling when he sees you smile as well. he actually takes wonderful photos of you, and of the two of you. you’re the carrier of the embarrassing ones. 

sakusa would probably take you to fiji, south pacific. i think he’d want something private, like visiting a resort where you mostly keep to yourselves. he’s not opposed to leaving the resort, obviously, and he more than likely would love to explore with you, take you to different restaurants, take you diving, attempt to surf with you. but he’d prefer fiji over other places because it’s known for it’s seclusion, and he values privacy, especially with you, and especially with something like a honeymoon. it’s a very personal experience, you know? plus, he’ll take seeing you in a swimsuit everyday as a definite win. he loves going nighttime swimming with you as well, a lot more than morning or afternoon swimming. it’s somehow a thousand times more romantic and fun, no matter how cold the two of you get. sakusa just enjoys being with you, honestly, and nothing else matters. again, with him, it’s mostly you taking the pictures, but he snaps the occasional candid photo of you, and steals some of the two of you from your phone because he needed to change his lockscreen anyways.