We were at the border crossing between Albania and Montenegro. The Albanians told the bus driver that they would have to make him take out all the suitcases for them to inspect before we could go through.
They were after a bribe. They got it.
When someone on the bus expressed surprise, Jake shrugged and simply said, “It’s the Albanians…”
We saw this pretty couple on our walk through the capital city of Montenegro. It was a dull place, with it’s only redeeming features being this sculpture…
… and this old bridge. When Montenegro was part of communist Yugoslavia, they ripped down all of the interesting old buildings, just as they did in Albania.
It’s a city with many communist-era buildings like this. It’s not really worth the effort to go.
However, on our way out of town, we stopped for 30 minutes at Lake Skadar. It was very pretty.
As we continued driving, we saw our first glimpses of the Adriatic Sea. Italy is just beyond the horizon.
One lucky bugger was paragliding. Remember when I signed up to do that in Borneo and it didn’t happen?
Finally, we arrived at the very fashionable town of Budva. As soon as we checked in, Blogless Sandy and I hot-footed it down to Budva Old Town. It was fabulous.
The old city walls still surround the town. It has been here for around 2,500 years and the sense of history is palpable.
The streets are labyrinthine, curving in around each other. It covers quite a small area, but it certainly fits a lot in.
We entered by a side gate.
This place. Is filled with restaurants, cafes, souvenir shops and bars. It reminded me of Venice, in that it’s impossible to take a bad photo here.
The whole place is designed for photography.
We walked around, taking everything in.
Then we realised we’d walked the length of the town. Here was a side gate, leading out to the sea.
I dipped my hand into the Adriatic Sea.
Our next quest was to find the citadel and walk on top of the city walls. When we were on the beach, we could see people up there.
Look at how this tree is growing from a crack in the cobblestones.
Up on top of the walls.
The afternoon was simply perfect, even though my expression might not make you think so!
All of the roofs have the same terracotta tiles, which ties everything in together. Beyond the terracotta, the modern world.
We decided to treat ourselves and have dinner in this beautiful space, instead of walking back into town to look for something a bit cheaper. Aft all, when are we likely to be back here again?
(Well, we’re here in Budva for another night; but you know what I mean.)
We had dinner here, and it was very nice. I didn’t realise until I was going through my photos, but I took this shot almost as soon as we arrived in the old city, because I liked the writing on the guy’s top. We ended up eating dinner at the empty table in the foreground of the photo.
As we left Old Town to walk up the hill to our hotel, I looked back.
Albania has always been occupied by larger powers as it occupies a strategic position in Europe. From the Greeks to the Romans to the Ottomans to the Nazis to the Communists… it’s been like a revolving door of oppression.
After WWII, Albania was like North Korea. Until 1991, they were in a communist dictatorship.
They were totally isolated from most of the world outside the communist bloc.
The communists destroyed everything that remained of the Byzantine and Ottoman buildings. There are only Italian Fascist and Communist remaining, which, when combined with the modern buildings now being built is interesting. Still, when you hear of the old Byzantine markets being destroyed in the 1950’s because Khrushchev made a visit… it’s a shame.
This duo of squat blue blocks is called the twin towers. They were built after 9/11. Make of that what you will.
I was walking with the local guide and I asked about the wars Albania has gone through. Then, we saw this guy walking ahead of us. “Oh. Do you think he would have been a soldier?” I asked.
”Probably,” he replied.
A Catholic Cathedral dedicated to St Paul was our first stop. Mother Teresa is also venerated in this country, as after she left for Calcutta, her mother and sister moved here.
It wasn’t a smart move, as soon after they relocated, the communists banned all religion from Albania. Mother Teresa was never allowed to see her family. They suspected that she was religious, so the government refused her many applications.
She was an absolute cow to her patients in India, denying them pain killers because “It was God’s will that the poor should suffer”, but I did feel for her being unable to see her family ever again because of a regime change.
Albania was officially atheist during 1967 to 1991. Over 2,000 churches and mosques were destroyed. Anyone caught practicing religion would be jailed.
Nowadays, it’s very easy going. For example, the country is 70 % Muslim but only 7 % practice. Our local guide is orthodox Christian, and is married to a Muslim. They celebrate Christmas, Ramadan, Easter…. It’s all good.
This is one of the few Muslim countries where it’s ok for people to enjoy a raki (like grappa: but stronger) with their coffee without it being an issue. Honestly, isn’t that how it should be?
Albanian is considered one of the oldest languages in the world. It has no relatives anywhere. It’s thought that it is derived from the tribes of the Ilan people, who were cut off from everyone else, back in the day.
Written Albanian was forbidden to be used by the Ottomans for over 500 years. It’s quite amazing that it survived.
North and South Albanian dialects are very different. Sometimes they need translators to understand each other.The southern dialect is the official one.
There are bunkers all around the city, because during the Cold War the government was paranoid. They were sure that the great powers of the USA or Russia would invade, so they started a program ensuring there’d be enough bunkers for the whole population.
There are also tunnels between the government buildings, for the same reason. Nowadays, they are museums. This is the ceiling of the bunker we saw.
A few fun facts about Albania:
1 coffee shop for every 108 people.
Albanian is part of NATO, but is regarded as one of the poorest nations in Europe.
500 euros / month is the minimum wage.
750 euros / month is average.
It’s an agricultural economy.
Tourism is number 3, and is rapidly growing.
1 in 4 civilians were spies during the Cold War. You know, like the Stasi in East Germany. Grim times…
Housing here is expensive. 1,200 euros per square metre.
150 years wages to pay for a 100 square metre apartment.
Florence is the most expensive city in Europe. Tirana is close to that.
Healthcare and education is free. That’s something, I guess…
Look at this!! The local guide and I were talking about North Korea, when we rounded a corner and there was a propaganda mosaic. “ This is SO North Korea!” I said.
He chuckled. “Communist propaganda,” he said.
Unlike Macedonia, the Albanians only had ONE statue in the main square. He is their National hero. Gjergj Kastrioti (also known as Skanderbeg; c. 1405 – 17 January 1468.
He was taken by the Ottomans after they killed his family. He rose to be a general under them, even gaining the nickname of Alexander The Great because he was so good at Generalling.
Later he escaped from the Ottomans and came back home. He joined the factions and started a resistance movement that fought against the Ottoman Empire for 25 years. A mouse fighting against a pride of lions.
But look at how the Albanians have honoured him. Not just with a statue…
This apartment block overlooks the square where his statue is, and it depicts his face. That’s pretty cool.
We were there on a Sunday, so I don’t know if the vibe would be different during the week, but the city was buzzing. People were out enjoying the sun, eating out and generally having a good time. It was a pleasure to be there.
The inner part of town was alive.
I guess Pokémon is international.
On the way to our evening stop, we saw Rozafa Castle. It was originally built by the Ilyric tribe 2,000 years ago, and then subsequent invaders kept it going. The legend is that the castle was bing built by 3 brothers. Unfortunately, the walls kept crumbling. They sought help from a holy man, who said that one of their wives needed to be sacrificed and buried under the walls for them to stay strong.
The oldest two princess told their wives to stay away from the castle, but the youngest one forgot to mention anything to his wife about this disturbing prophecy.
The next day, his wife and toddler son rolled up to the building site to bring her husband’s lunch. Big mistake.
When a mob surrounded her, baying for blood, she accepted her fate, but asked only these things:
That she be left with one eye, to look upon her baby boy.
To be left with one breast, to be able to feed him.
To be left with one arm, to cuddle her son.
To be left with one foot, to rock his cradle with.
It’s one of the first legends to describe sacrifice for the common good. Though to this day, it’s reported that the inside of the walls run with breast milk…
We went out to the pedestrian precinct for dinner, and we had a lovely meal. It was bustling, and alive with music, local families, tourists, stray dogs, and food thieves.
YES! We were sitting with a couple from Sydney and an old woman came up, started ranting at them and then swooped in and stole one of Carol’s cabbage rolls off her plate and ran off.
The waiter said she is a local woman who lives with her family but is insane.
We also had a couple of child beggars coming up to our tables, asking for money. That was sad.
There is a downside to staying in a hotel close to a mosque, in a room that doesn’t have a plug low enough to plug a kettle in. It was 4 AM, when the mosque started up again.We started laughing and gave up trying to sleep.
The internet at the hotel wasn’t cooperating yesterday, so I was frantically downloading the photos for yesterday’s post while most people were off the internet. Meanwhile, Sandy REALLY wanted a coffee.
What could she do?
There’s always a way around everything!
This country is officially called North Macedonia, but everyone drops the first word. The reason ‘North’ is there at all is that Greece has a region called Macedonia, where Alexander the Great came from. So when Yugoslavia fell, they objected strenuously against Macedonia being used. In order to get into the United Nations, a compromise had to be found.
Though a few years ago, just to rile the Greeks, Macedonia put up a statue of Alexander the Great.
Classic trolling.
The plan for today was a free morning, grabbing lunch before jumping on the bus for a few hours drive to Ohrid. Sandy was googling and planning while I was blogging, so our morning was productive.
Here is the Alexander the Great statue, with Blogless Sandy helpfully standing at the bottom to give it scale.
Skopje is a city that likes a sculpture. Our bus driver is from here. As we were driving in yesterday, Jake said, “Our driver doesn’t have a statue of himself in the city… yet. Just give it two or three years and he will have!”
There was also a replica of the Arc de Triomphe, like in Pyongyang.
Here we are posing on the Bridge of Civilisation, which has lots of ancient Greek guys on it.
My jeans are rolled up to try and stop them getting wet. I gambled that the rain wouldn’t come, and although it was spitting, the rain held off. As I’m wearing merino again on this trip, that made me happy. Smelling like a wet sheep isn’t great.
We’ve noticed many stray dogs here. They appear to be well fed, which is surprising, given that this country is heavily Muslim. I remember in Zanzibar that dogs were never to be seen.
It was nice to see this kennel.
The Art Bridge is way famous. It’s lined with artistic Macedonian guys from all branches of the creative arts.
Unfortunately, some of the plaques have come off. I don’t know who this man is, but even as a statue his gaze sees right through you.
This one was cool. Swishing his arms around like that.
Action shot.
Zoom in on his little pointy shoes!
Meanwhile, the artistic women were chucked up on top of a building…
Mother Teresa was born here. There’s a Mother Teresa House here, but I’m not terribly interested in a woman who denied medicines and pain killers to sick people because it was god’s will that they should suffer. These quotes are all you’re going to get, I’m afraid.
The ancient fort was built in the 6th century. From the outside it gives Tower of London vibes, with the old stone walls within a bustling modern city. I didn’t go inside. By all accounts it hasn’t been well looked after, so it’s not worth seeing. I’m sure when they get sick of making statues – or they run out of room – they’ll get around to some restoration work here.
On the way back to the hotel, we bumped into Jake leading many of the group down to see the sights.
We were glad that we chose to see the city while it was uncrowded. I’m finishing this up while lying on my bed. I’ll have a short Power Nap before we check out and move onto the next town.
It was my turn for the window seat. It was a shame that I was so sleepy after our early morning call to prayer.
We drove over the mountains and they were wreathed in cloud. We stopped halfway for a toilet stop, and when we headed off again, practically the whole bus fell into deep sleep. I know I did. I was dreaming, and a couple of times I surfaced, realising that my mouth was wide open, which is a sure sign that you’ve been sleeping sitting up.
When Jake woke us all up, the sun was shining and we were 10 minutes away from the ancient city of Ohrid.
This place is a popular tourist destination for the area, with plenty of people from Serbia, Albania and Turkey wandering around. It was a Saturday, and I imagine in high season it must get packed.
This statue is a celebration of the activity they do here on the 19th January. Epiphany- the baptism of Jesus.
A bishop drops a wooden cross in the freezing water. Over a thousand young people jump in after it. The one who gets it will be lucky forever.
We began our walk into the old city at the waterfront, then moved up the hill, heading for the amphitheatre.
Along the way was the church of St Sofia. This one has a fantastic story.
St Sofia was originally built in the 11th century, but before this, there are ruins showing that 3 Christian churches were also on this site.
Underneath those ruins, there are the ruins of pagan temples. This has always been considered a holy place.
It’s famous for its fresco paintings. These originate from the 11th and 14th centuries.
The Ottoman Empire changed the church into a mosque. Rather than demolish the church, they covered the frescos with white plaster, because mosques always have plain white walls.
It remained that way until after WWII.
An international team saved 60% of the frescos. Can you imagine how carefully they must have worked, chipping away at that plaster??
I really wanted to see those frescoes.
We were heading off, so I raced down to the door and snapped this. It was a tantalising sight, but I couldn’t linger. It was off up the hill again.
There are many pearl shops here. Our guide explained that these are hand made. They take a granule of mother-of-pearl, then coat it in many layers of a compound they make from fish gills. Each layer takes 45 minutes to day before they can add another one.
There are over 100 churches in the Old Town alone. This why this town is known as the Jerusalem of the Balkans. This is one of the smaller ones, built in the late 19th century and consecrated to Saint Barbara.
Wood fires…
… and an Hellenic amphitheatre. This pre-dates the Romans.It was built in the 3rd century BC by the Greeks.
When the Romans came, they kept it and used it for gladiatorial games.
When the Slavs arrived, they used it for public executions.
It was deliberately covered by the traumatised population and was forgotten about for centuries, until it was rediscovered in the 1970’s.
The original stones are below. The seats are new.
Church of Saint Jovan the Theologian at Kaneo. This, according to the local guide, is the biggest tourist attraction in the city. To be honest, I’m not sure why.
I would have thought that the thousand year old frescoes in St Sofia would draw the crowds. The views of the lake outside the church are very pretty, though.
On the way back down, we passed this stray dog. The strays here are beautifully mannered and are cared for by the community. When stray dogs are collected, instead of being euthanised, they are sterilised. That’s what the tag on its ear signifies.
When we got down to the harbour, I had great news. Instead of taking us straight back to the hotel 4 kms away, we were staying in town for 90 minutes for dinner and exploring. I couldn’t see the frescoes after all! Blogless Sandy and I didn’t waste a minute.
Imagine being hidden for so long?
I took a video, but it wouldn’t upload no matter how many times I tried,,, and I tried a lot of times.
I guess you’ll simply have to go there yourself,
Then it was dinner on the waterfront, with a beer for Blogless Sandy and a pink gin and tonic for me, because that’s how we roll.
in a place like this, dinner by the water is practically mandatory, isn’t it?
This morning was a replay of yesterday. We headed off for a walking tour of the old town of Sofia, going back over much of what Todor and I covered yesterday.
The good thing was that we had 3 hours afterwards to see whatever we wanted, before we had to get on the bus and leave Bulgaria forever.
Before we separated, the group went through the Alexander Nevsky church (again.) It turned into being one of the funniest churches I’ve been in.
Look at the face of this guy.
Now look at Jake, our guide. He comes from Croatia, but he must have a great-grandfather who had a secret second family in Bulgaria.
He laughed when I said this. “ Who knows? It’s very possible,” he said.
A painting of a Tasmanian. That’s an Australian joke.
Look at the strained expression on this poor little lion.
He’s holding up a lot of marble.
“Who farted??”
See? This church was hilarious.
As we wandered through the parks, there were lots of interesting sculptures.
As I’m sure you’ve gathered by now, I’m partial to a sculpture or two.
Here is a better view of St Sofia than the one I took yesterday. She is the patron saint of wisdom, which is why she has the owl perched on her arm.
Blogless Sandy wanted to go back through the Roman ruins, while I wanted to go back to St Sofia church and have a good look at the interior, without a funeral getting in the way. I also wanted a photo of the decapitated president.
Look at what I saw! What a great name for socks. 🙂
Seeing as the church was the furthest away, we walked there first. As you can see, it doesn’t look terribly impressive from the outside. the wreaths are from the equivalent of our Anzac Day from a couple of days ago.
Blogless Sandy visited it yesterday, but didn’t realise there was the crypt beneath it. So she prowled through the ancient graves, while I wandered around and drank in the beauty.
“ You went all the way to Sofia, and all you brought me was this lousy cross?”
Todor pointed this sculpture out yesterday.
The “decapitated” Bulgarian leader sculpture is a bronze monument in Sofia’s Kristal Park dedicated to Stefan Stambolov, a 19th-century Prime Minister known as the “Bulgarian Bismarck”. Unveiled in 1995, the sculpture features a severed head with a split, commemorating his 1895 assassination where he received 24 fatal knife wounds.
I liked this view of the Russian church.
We wandered through the Roman ruins, both underground and outside.
Blogless Sandy contemplating her own mortality.
Putting my foot over an ancient Roman mosaic floor was a bit of a thrill.
Ancient water pipes for indoor plumbing in the 3D century. Amazing.
Remember the tiny church built on a hill with a dug out floor? This is the back of it.
I liked this view of the mountains. Both modern and ancient people had the same view.
On the road again! Snow-capped mountains on one side …
… and a Smokey power plant on the other.
After a one and a half hour border crossing … no, I’m not joking … we were in Macedonia.
A charming thing we soon noticed was that there were poppies along the sides of the roads.
“When my mother was young and kids were sick, the adults used to grind up a few poppy seeds to get them to sleep,” said Jake. He also mentioned that Albanian has poppy fields for the heroin trade.
After we checked into our hotel in Skopje, we gathered in the foyer and walked 5 minutes to the old town, where we found dinner. Macedonia has its own currency and we were warned that it might be difficult to find a place that would take euros. But we’re only in the country for a couple of days. I didn’t want to risk being left with money I couldn’t use. So we decided to risk it. After all, if all else failed, I had protein bars that taste of chocolate flavoured plaster board to fall back on.
The first place we asked, they were happy to take euros as payment. I mean, they’d be stupid if they didn’t. They’d be actively turning away business.
Again, dinner was lovely and pretty cheap. Nothing like the shock of Icelandic prices, thank god!
We walked back to the hotel with the wailing call to prayer from the local mosque ringing in our ears.
We went to bed and we’re just drifting off to sleep when this hit.
After 30 hours of travel time – we made it! Blogless Sandy and I are in Europe.
Fortunate Frogdancer struck again. We arrived here mid-morning, with the official tour starting tomorrow, which meant that today was a free day. Todor, a Bulgarian friend I made on the Greenland tour last year, offered to show me around. Speaking of Greenland, the cruise ship that has had the hantavirus outbreak is the same one that I went to Antarctica in 2022 and Greenland only last year. I guess I got lucky with the timing of those trips! Who knew?
Blogless Sandy headed off with Brian and Quinh, who were on our Taiwanese trip in March, while Todor and I jumped in his car and went looking for a parking space near the sights.
As we were walking along, he pointed out this building. It was originally like a Master Craftsman building, where if you are given the nod as being a skilled worker, you had to work on the building in some capacity to showcase your talents. Nowadays, it’s a bank.
We walked to the door and entered, only to be told by a doorman that we couldn’t come in. There was a bit of back and forth in Bulgarian, then Todor pulled out his phone and made a call. The doorman instantly changed his tune when he saw who came down the stairs to greet us.
We were shown some lovely period details.
The colours! The ceilings that were so high you could have fitted another whole floor in!
They seem to be fond of the gold leaf in this country.
Look at this stunning wisteria! The trunk was huge, so it must’ve been there for ages.
”You’ve chosen the right time to come to Sofia,” said Todor. I was pleased. It’s the first thing I google when I’m considering a place to travel to.
Sofia has lots of parks and trees, as well as plenty of paved squares for people to gather together. Like Melbourne, it has its fair share of graffiti. Blogless Sandy said that Brian said that if they cleaned the place up a bit and gave everything a fresh lick of paint, it would be a stunning city.
It has a lot of buildings that were put up in the late 1800’s, with that simple, classical design.
Not that this is an example of simplicity.
The first church we went into was the Russian church, with the fabulous name of The Church of St Nicholas The Miraclemaker. It’s a Russian Orthodox Church.
It had art everywhere, covering the walls and ceilings. The lighting was dim, but maybe that was the fault of the day being a bit overcast.
It’s a bit hard to miss this cathedral… the Alexander Nevsky cathedral. He was a Russian saint who defended the Eastern Orthodox Church from the Catholics in the 13th century. Bulgaria was part of the Ottoman Empire until very late in the game, with the city of Sofia being designated as the official border between the two brands of Christianity.
Consequently, Bulgaria has very few Catholic churches.
I’m sure Nevsky would appreciate this church being given his name. It’s a landmark – you can see the gold domes from our hotel room.
But for me, the pick of the churches was the one that the actual city of Sofia was been named for.
The church of St Sofia was built in the 4th century and is still in use today. There was a funeral going on when we were there, which is why I don’t have many photos of the interior. I want to come back tomorrow to really have a good look around. That brickwork is stunning.
It’s had a tempestuous history, starting off as Christian, then becoming a mosque in the 16th century before reverting back to the Christians in the 19th century.
However, the crypts underneath the church are interesting, with the work coming from the 3rd and 4th centuries.
The graves are all empty now.
Still pretty.
I took this video to show you how it felt being underground in the place where who knows how many people have been laid to rest, hearing the funeral being performed above my head. It was quite eerie and beautiful.
I was wearing the same ring back in 2015 when I touched Jane Austen’s writing desk.
A statue of Mercury.
A puppet in a shop window.
St Sofia in the middle of town.
Like in Rome, Sofia still has a flourishing water system from thousands of years ago. These fountains continuously provide hot mineral water, with people leaving big plastic bottles there so people can take some home.
Naturally, I took the chance to fill in my water bottle.
This is the very elegant bathing building for the hot springs, where you can almost see all of the Regency ladies moving in and out, taking the waters for their health.
The Banya Bashi mosque.
Luckily for me, they had a selection of head scarves out the front.
The acoustics were pretty good. I coughed, and the sound wasn’t lost. It must sound amazing in here when they’re preaching.
I’m really starting to struggle with jet lag, so the rest of this post will be brief.
A while ago, Sofia discovered the remains of the Roman ancient city when they were building a subway. The station exists side by side with the ruins, with archeological discoveries continuing to be made.
I love the way Sofia has accommodated the past into the present.
This little old church was built at a time when there was a law stating that a church wasn’t allowed to have a roof taller than a warrior on a horse. So rather than have churches where everyone had to crouch to fit in, they simply built them on high ground and then dug the ground out from under them, rather like digging for a basement.
There’s always a way around anything, isn’t there?
And to finish – a few murals.
Phew! Finished. I’m getting really sleepy, but we agreed to go out for dinner with Brian and Quinh at 6pm. That’s only 20 minutes away, but with Melbourne time being 12:40 am, we’re going to struggle.
A couple of days ago, I was aimlessly scrolling on Twitter when I saw a tweet that Suzie Toot (one of my favourite drag queens from RuPaul’s Drag Race) posted, showing snaps of Aussie birds. OMG, is she in Australia?? Is she performing?????
Google was my friend, showing that she is currently touring with ANOTHER of my favourites, Lydia B Kollins. Lydia’s partner, Kori King, is also on the line-up. More about her later.
They were doing one show in Melbourne the very next day. Fortunate Frogdancer strikes again!
I rang Evan29 to see if he wanted to come with me. He and I both watch Drag Race and share what we think of each show. He had a gig on, but said, “Hey, you need a Little Adventure for April.” I’d forgotten, but he was absolutely right.
When I mentioned that I loved Suzie and Lydia, but Kori wasn’t memorable for me, he laughed and said, “Oh wow. Maybe she can turn you around…”
Well… ok.
She did. Evan29 laughed so much when I told him.
For those not in the know, Suzie Toot is the redhead, Lydia is the brunette and Kori is the tall one. I only took snippets of videos, because hey. I bought a ticket, so I want to be in the moment.
Do you see where I’m standing? So lucky. I severely underestimated how long the queue to get in was going to be, so when I finally made it in, the mosh pit was a no-go for a tiny person like me. BUT there were 2 steps leading up to the bar area. Positioned myself on the top step, right in the middle, so I could see over everyone’s heads. Perfect.
The show was a romp. There were lip-synchs with classic and more modern songs, mixed in with audience participation, (the girl who played Michelle Visage was a hoot), and a Q and A.
It wasn’t only the cast who were doing death drops – a couple of the audience members did them too.
The crowd went wild.
Lydia’s work is so very theatrical, which of course, as a drama teacher, I appreciate. She’s probably the most interesting of the three, in that she pushes the boundaries more. She’s not afraid to mix up her look and experiment with how she presents. This was a bit hit and miss in her first season on DR, but she’s clearly one who learns as she goes along. Her second season on DR was amazing.
I was so busy watching Suzie Toot that I hardly have any footage of her, haha. Suzie’s strengths lie in her musical theatre background. Her look is carefully curated, with a definite 20’s/30’s style which is so bloody cute. She is an excellent dancer and has a charming presence on stage that instantly has the audience in the palm of her hand.
Kori was the surprise for me. I can’t remember why she wasn’t so much on the radar for me while watching her season on DR. I think possibly her look was more polished during this show.
In this show, she worked the crowd brilliantly, even leaving the stage and moving through the people on the lower floor. Her costumes were all beautifully made, and her make-up was impeccable. Her dancing? On point. She’s not afraid to launch into a death drop. I have no idea how she shakes her bum as she does. It’s incredible. I tried to take a video, but someone in front of me had their phone right in the way AS THEY FILMED THEWHOLE SHOW. So rude.
So yes. All three of these queens put their A games forward. It was a fun night.
Lydia and Kori are a couple. They met a couple of years ago on the set of RuPaul’s Drag Race, when they were both competing in season 17 of the American show. It was so lovely to see that it was a real relationship, not just for the cameras, as Kori referred to Lydia as “my wife.” We all cheered. I love it when people find love.
They lip-synched to ‘Endless Love’, a tribute to their feelings…
… with of course, the logical result that Lydia gave birth to the child of their love. So touching.
Interestingly, a few years ago, Evan29, as Conk, gave birth on stage too. I told him that Lydia stole his idea, but improved upon it with the 6-foot umbilical cord covered in red sequins.
They soft-launched their impending pod, also called ‘Butt Toot King.’ I listen to the Melbourne drag queen Art Simone’s pod ‘Concealed’, so od course I’ll give this one a go when it’s released. I’m not sure I’m their target demographic, though, being an old straight woman.
One thing that surprised me. People were handing them money, like the strip shows you see in movies. They weren’t small denominations either. I mentioned this to Evan29, and he said, “Yeah, it’s a thing in that scene.”
The things you learn.
I’m so glad to see that performers who make it onto a show like Drag Race are making the most of that opportunity and getting out to see the world. The three of them are so professional in what they do, and they make sure the audience has a great time.
Today Blogless Sandy and I parted company. She was keen to climb more steps on a hike near Taipei 101, the building we visited on the first day here. I wasn’t enthusiastic, but I was going to go with her until Mel said that she was going to get new glasses.
We’d had the option to do that in China but we didn’t do it. I’ve always looked on that as a missed opportunity, so I ditched Blogless Sandy, and a small group of us set out in search of a clearer world with sharper edges.
Getting new glasses fits nicely into my habit of buying useful souvenirs.
Most shops in Taipei don’t open until 11am, so we dawdled our way to the department store. We killed some time at Daiso, where I bought a squeaky toy for the dogs; a hair clip for Georgia31 for looking after them; a nonstick spatula to replace the one I bought in Pyongyang in 2018; and the perfect gift for Tom34 and Sophie. I can’t tell you what it is, as he may be reading this. I’ll show you a photo once I give it to them. It made me laugh.
Mel, being a millennial, had googled where to go to get glasses made on the same day, so we followed like ducklings.
I decided that I wanted everyday glasses, as well as reading glasses, so here I am walking around the shop, seeing if the lenses were ok. Being a frugal person who still likes her reading glasses frames, I simply replaced the lenses on those.
Oh! See the lanyard my phone is hanging from? We were given these when we rode the Breezy Blue train. I’ve been thinking about getting one, so I was rapt.
Here are my new “everyday “ frames.
Everyone was sharing what they were doing on WhatsApp, so we shared too.
We walked back to the hotel and I did what I did in Copenhagen… I gave myself half a day to rest. I read the most amazing book… The Push, by Ashley Audrain, I napped and decided to write this post. In 2 days I’ll be back home, so I wanted to recharge my introvert battery before it all starts again.
A few things about Taiwan I’ve forgotten to mention:
The garbage trucks play music, just like our Mr Whippy trucks do. Imagine how many disappointed children of Australian tourists there must have been over the years.
Their attitude towards the Japanese occupation is very different to China and North Korea’s. Japan conquered the other two countries and treated them terribly, but Taiwan was ceded to Japan and was considered as fully part of Japan. For the 50 years that the Japanese ruled Taiwan, they invested heavily in infrastructure. The Taiwanese seem to regard Japanese rule as a mere fact, not a mortal insult.
People here are really open and friendly. Even though Taipei, for example, is a big city, it feels safe and welcoming.
The pedestrian lights here have that wonderful feature of letting you know how many seconds there are to go before the light changes. I wish they’d do this in Australia. It’s really handy.
It’s not as bad as in Japan, but there are not many public bins around. We’ve learned to be prepared to carry our waste paper etc around with us.
Food is incredibly important here. The department stores make more money from their food courts than they do from the actual things that they sell. People are constantly snacking. I have no idea how they stay so slim.
This photo was posted in WhatsApp, with the caption, “Look Frogdancer! An easy 600 steps to the top!”
I was so glad to be in the glasses shop when that came through. What a horrible set of stairs, I thought as I was happily trying on different frames.
Later, when Blogless Sandy came back, I heard the full horror.
There was no let up to the steps. No flat portions to give people a breather. It was 600 steps straight up. Even she said that if she’d known that, she probably wouldn’t have done it.
But she did, and said the thing that every fool who climbs up a crazy hill says. “The view was worth it.”
We decided to give the night market a miss on our last night, and instead we went down a tiny lane close to our hotel, to a place Mel told me about.
She’d had beef noodles there the night before and said they were good.
Beef noodles is apparently the most Taiwanese thing you can eat. So far, I’d never had it, so being our last night, it was now or never.
This was beef shank with flat noodles and it was delicious. This bowl cost $120 NTD, or $5 AUD.
Afterwards, my little addict and I went back to the bubble tea place, where, after counting her coins, she was ecstatic to realise that she had enough coins left for another bubble tea tomorrow morning before we leave for the airport.
Here’s a glimpse of Sun Moon Lake through the trees, as I was pretending to take a picture while I was fighting for breath on a crazy uphill climb. Why, oh why do I climb things when I’m on holidays? We were driving back to Taipei, and this was a beautiful place to stop for a few hours to break the journey.
Sun Moon Lake is the largest lake in Taiwan. It’s in the mountains in central Taiwan, and is a huge holiday destination here.
It’s not connected to any other body of water and is 748 metres above sea level.
The Japanese made Sun Moon Lake into a dam and increased the depth of the lake by 3 times.
The walk to the pagoda goes up 570 metres. I was NOT a happy camper on the way up. It was a long walk.
Yes, I was grumpy. Look at the size of this thing! Not only had I walked up 500 metres, I still had to go higher.
”Frogdancer!” called Blogless Sandy from the top. “Come up!”
”No,” I said, but we all knew that I’d got my breath back. I was always going to climb up.
But ok… the view wasn’t bad.
I was still tired, though. But look at the mountains behind me.
Those 3 tiny figures on the ground are Cindy and a couple from the group. That’s how tall this pagoda is.
The lake went around three sides of the pagoda, and the mountains encircled us entirely.
The entire interior of this island is covered with mountains.
And what mountains! They’re how mountains should be; all straight up and down with fabulous shapes at the top.
We went down to the town for lunch, then we wandered around for an hour or so.
We sat for a while on the harbour, chatting with some of the group.
Some kid probably went to drama school for 4 years to end up doing this.
Boat time! We had a little cruise on the lake before we went back on the bus.
I tell you, my feet were looking forward to relaxing.
But not so fast…
We stopped off to walk UP to another temple. Bloody hell!
What was strange about this temple was that the monk who founded it had his remains (mainly just his head) split in two. The Japanese took him back to Japan when WWII broke out, and then after the war they gave half of him back to be buried here in this temple.
Half of him.
This was back at the dock when we came back down. It’s probably the monk, in happier times.
Mel took this shot, looking behind us on the bus as we made our way through the traffic back to Taipei. This is the last day of the guided tour. We have a free day tomorrow before we fly home on Friday.
This man takes his pet pig to the night market every night. I tell you what, he’s a big boy!
These are betel nut trees. People here like to chew them, also they are used for Chinese medicine to aid in digestion. They were planted all over the place in the mountains, as we saw on our way to the National Park.
The National Park is 2,300 metres above sea level. Michu Picchu is 2,400 metres, so this will be a little training. If I feel breathless while walking around here, I’ll know to take altitude medication with me to Sth America. (I felt fine, and I was racing around the place as nimble as a mountain goat. )
My ears popped three times while we were driving. These mountains are high.
We left the hotel at 8 am and we didn’t reach the park until after 10. It was a long drive, much of it seemingly straight up. The views were spectacular.
The mountains are so steep, so every piece of flat land was taken up with tea plantations and buildings. It reminded me of North Korea in that very little arable land was wasted.
Remember when I was in Japan this time last year and we were looking at the early cherry blossom? It’s here too.
The forest here is red cypress. Red cypress trees weren’t discovered until the Japanese came. They cut down heaps of them, to the point where there are hardly any mature trees left. The intense wood logging only stopped when Chiang Kai-Shek came to Taiwan.
The result is that there is a lot of erosion after earthquakes disturb the ground , because the smaller cypress trees can’t hold the earth together properly yet. Every now and then, some old trunks are left, to give an indication of just how big the original trees were.
Thankfully, the plan for today was to take a shuttle bus to the top of the mountain, then walk back down. The path was well-defined and easy to navigate. The only uphill climbing would be if people elected to walk fast and then go and see the Three Generations Tree at the other end.
This tree must have been monstrous.
Off we went. We couldn’t have asked for more perfect weather.
A little way down the track, we rounded a curve and saw this. It was all fun and games until:
Well, damn.
Seeing as I wasn’t allowed to frolic, I set off again. See how this tree is holding on to the ancient trunk? To quote Jeff Goldblum in Jurassic Park, “Life will find a way.”
The path kept heading downhill. It was actually fairly steep.
I looked behind me and I was pretty glad that Cindy didn’t make us walk both ways.
Cherry blossoms weren’t the only flowers. Magnolias!
All too soon, I was at the meeting place. We still had heaps of time left. I’d left Blogless Sandy behind at the No Frolic Lake, so I had lunch with Mel and Earnest, then, after getting directions from Cindy, I set off to find the 3 Generations Tree.
I was standing on a bridge looking at this. Imagine how pretty it would be when the river was full.
There were only a handful of people on the path with me. As I walked, I could hear bells from the temple I’d just left. This is such a beautiful place.
Across a stream and up a small hill … and there it was.
”Life will find a way.”
I had a little time up my sleeve, so I walked a little further and discovered the pagoda of the tree spirits.
I’m sure that having a concrete obelisk would be a comfort to all of the tree spirits whose forest was decimated by the Japanese. Talk about rubbing salt in the wound!
I poked my head into the temple when I came back and I saw this thing. Yes, I don’t know what it is, either.
Pretty, isn’t it? I sat here, watching the bees gather pollen and dislodging petals which fell to the ground.
It wouldn’t be a trip to Asia without a tour of a tea plantation. I didn’t buy anything. I still have tea from Vietnam, Japan, China and Borneo to get through!
We didn’t get a tour showing us how tea is produced, like in every other tea plantation I’ve been to. Instead, they had a singing and dancing show instead. It was all in Taiwanese, so when they were talking, I was on my phone messaging the kids.
Suddenly, a girl in costume was standing in front of me, holding out her hands. She wanted me to dance. um…. Ok I guess…
I was lucky to be between two people who knew what they were doing!
We tried some tea. I guess some people in the group don’t like tea much, judging by the expression. 😂 There was a sculpture in the garden…
In the bus on the way home, Cindy told us why the sculpture of a penis was there.
Two tribes in Taiwan have the penis statues. Their legends are different.
The first tribe tells of a house proud goddess who mops the floor, but whenever she does this she makes earthquakes happen. She sees the penis, she gets embarrassed and she takes off. The village is safe from earthquakes.
The second tribe tells of an evil goddess who brings bad luck wherever she goes. When she sees the penis, she gets embarrassed and leaves. Then the village is safe from bad luck.
”I don’t know why they think a goddess would be embarrassed by seeing a penis,” said Cindy, after telling us this.
And then it was back to the hotel. Blogless Sandy and I went out for sushi for dinner, and that was the end of a fantastic day.
This morning, we were whisked away to the Lotus Lake, which is a lake in the middle of Kaohsiung that doesn’t have lotuses in it anymore. However, what it does have is pagodas. This one turned out to be my favourite.
These pagodas were built in 1976 by the temple across the road. One had a dragon at the front and the other a tiger. You enter via the dragon’s mouth and exit by the tiger’s mouth.
I was surprised once we entered from the dragon’s mouth. The hallway was lined on both sides by ceramic art.
It was a shame. People had obviously worked hard on this, and here we all were, marching obliviously past. Look at the details in this thing. And there were hundreds of them.
Well, damn. Looks like I’m climbing more stairs.
A view of my soon-to-be favourite pagoda from halfway up the dragon pagoda.
This is the bridge to the pagodas from the road. Its shape is designed to confuse any evil spirits or bad luck that might wish to follow you.
One down, one to go!
Once I climbed both pagodas, it was time to cross the road and look at the temple.
OK.
It was a little bit ornate.
Even the roof was given the full treatment.
This is the god of good luck.
I thanked him for all he has given me, and asked him to keep up the good work.
I’d show you more photos, but after we all ate fresh pineapple from a little shop outside the temple, we walked down the street to another temple.
This one was dedicated to the god of war and the god of literature.
First the god of good luck and then the god of literature? This was my lucky day!
There he is! I thanked him for all of the stories.
You can see the smoke rising from the incense sticks, taking people’s wishes to heaven.
This temple was much larger, but the congregation have met the challenge of not letting any surface go undecorated.
Taiwan is super chill about different religions. They figure that if a religion has been around for awhile, then it means something and is deserving of respect.
So you can have a mosque beside a church beside a temple. It’s all good.
The day was beginning to heat up. Blogless Sandy and I headed out to the pagoda in the middle of the lake.
The further out over the water we got, the cooler the breeze became.
It was so lovely out there. The breeze was cool and so refreshing, and there was hardly anyone else sharing the space with us. We stayed out there for around 15 minutes, just sitting there chilling.
On the way back I saw those turtles I’d been warned about.
We had lunch at a fast rail train station, because it has a big food court attached to it and this is a TripADeal tour, after all. I liked this sign.
On our way to Chiayi, where we’re staying for the next 2 nights, I snagged this bag of coriander Doritos. They were bright green, and surprisingly more-ish.
We visited Hinoki village, which is an arts and crafts precinct housed in buildings from when the Japanese ruled over Taiwan in the 50 years before they were defeated in 1945. There were some lovely things being sold. My niece and her girlfriend are expecting a baby soon, and I may have bought a little something for them…
The Japanese garden in the middle of the buildings was beautiful.
We also saw what wasabi looks like.
Over dinner at the night market, we also found out what chicken testicle soup looks like. Cindy ordered it. She says that it tastes creamy…
Of course it does.
When I took the photo, Cindy laughed up at me. “ You’ve came all this way to look at testicles!”
“Well Cindy, I’ve been single a long time!” I replied. 🤣🤣
After dinner, we had an hour or so to walk around the night market. Why they allow a market to be opened on a street, but still let traffic barrel through it is a mystery to me. But then again, what could possibly go wrong?
This was the best sight to end the day. People here adaore their pets, and seeing a dog in a pram isn’t unusual.
Retirement Reading Quest – Reading my way to ‘free’ council rates.
I’m on a quest to borrow and read enough books to, in effect, cancel out the cost of my council rates per year.
It’s outlined in this post.
Year 8: 2018/2019 – $1,800
I may as well continue back-tracking. I moved here in 2016, so I’ll chip away at all the rates I paid up till then.
Running Total – $1,465.
Year 7: I’m already a year ahead on my rates, so I’m taking a reader’s suggestion and I’m going to go back and start covering the rates from the year before I started. I may as well.
Year 7: Total needed: 2019/2020…$1,800
Finished! 12/12/2025
Year 6 (2025/2026) $2,590 AREADY COVERED!!!!!!
10/08/2015 – I won’t have another rates notice until August 2026, so I have time to kill. Let’s knock over a previous year’s rates, just for fun.
Year 5 (2024/2025) $2,339 and dog rego ($63) = $2,435.
Finished it before I even had the new rates notice ready.
Year 4 (2023/2024) $2,413.
Success! Not sure exactly when I passed the total, because I was waiting on the dog registrations to come through. But yes – I blitzed it.
Year 3: (2022/2023) $2,350
12/01/2023 FINISHED! Not working gives me heaps more reading time – I recommend it!
