http://www.alwaystravelling.com Thu, 30 Apr 2009 15:34:14 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en test http://www.alwaystravelling.com/2009/04/30/test/ For the girls out there who like handbags marginally more than home-delivered BLTs and breathing, the Guangzhou leather market is the place for you. There are so many stalls here of handbags upon handbags upon shoes upon handbags that cows literally come here to die to save the slaughterhouse transportation ... http://www.alwaystravelling.com/2008/04/27/to-the-leather-market/ Guangzhou, China. Super-far south. I wake up at 4am and can’t sleep, so take sunrise photos from balcony like a right tourist. Order a BLT from room service and rearrange my clothes in the drawers to make room for all the stuff I’m planning on buying. Then take a morning ... http://www.alwaystravelling.com/2008/04/25/waking-and-breathing/ Germany to China. The first thing that goes wrong happens some 15 seconds after I've farewelled my airport entourage and stepped into the departure area: first I set the beepers off with some bobby pins lurking in the depths of my back pocket (which take a good ten minutes to ... http://www.alwaystravelling.com/2008/04/21/next-continent-thanks/ Pros - sampling assorted culinary delicacies of various nations eg. chocolates crepes, currywurst etc. - being able to justify spending €30 on a Viennese concert ticket in the name of cultural enlightenment but not €3.50 on lunch (or is this a con?) - consuming copius amounts of beer, coffee and other dubious substances ... http://www.alwaystravelling.com/2008/04/18/hindsight-the-joys-and-woes-of-backpacking/ Today I got up, tripped over a lone shoe on the floor and crashed head first into the wardrobe. I gave up on breakfast after I poured my tea all over the muesli instead of milk, then went downstairs to the laundry to find I'd accidentally dyed all my clothes ... http://www.alwaystravelling.com/2008/04/15/idiocy-a-how-to-guide/ Who would win in a blue between a monkey with a funny looking head and a ... well, a regular-looking tiger? Frankly, it's too bad the chimps we saw yesterday were too busy leaving pungent feces deposits about the place to amuse the humans. But this little guy is quite ... http://www.alwaystravelling.com/2008/04/12/monkey-vs-tiger/ Still near Konstanz, southern Germany. We’re heading to a monkey farm to feed the little critters popcorn and break our new boots in with monkey doo. Too late, we’re told that there are no buses there but instead a rather delightful little stroll through the woods. Inside the forest it is ... http://www.alwaystravelling.com/2008/04/11/monkey-farm/ Next German mission. We're heading for Meersburg, a town near Lake Constance which boasts the oldest castle in Germany. Then to castle #2, Schloss Salem, which is now a posh boarding school for the über rich and snotty. The day starts as mine generally do - with massive public transport ... http://www.alwaystravelling.com/2008/04/07/princesses-and-castles/ Hamburg – kooky ‘postmodern’ exhibition, though frankly unlike one I’ve seen before, because normally you can in fact see them. “Dialogue in the dark” basically means you walk about in – you guessed it – the dark, led by blind people, and have to touch and smell everyday sorts of ... http://www.alwaystravelling.com/2008/04/03/dialog-im-dunkeln/