In the summer of 2011, I did the obligatory European trip. One of my friends was studying in Regensburg, Germany. The home of the previous Pope. It was an exciting year. I made it to 5 or 6 different countries with my Eurorail pass. I was happy that I was under 25 and could still travel with a youth pass. Luckily, I had a few friends dotted all over Europe due to my experience in Japan and was able to meet with a few people in Europe even though I was traveling primarily by myself. 

If I can remember correctly, my travels began in London and parts of the UK, mainly Hereford. It was fun, met some friends. Drank a lot of beer and cider. Was gleeful when I found out that there was something called half-pints and went through a maze. We had ice cream too!

This is the hedge maze. One of the great wonders of (Edit) England...It actually was very pretty and I had a great time. And there's a lovely Welsh man in the middle of the maze taking a photo. 

Next I went to the Netherlands, primarily Amsterdam. It was nice. Lots of canals, a lot of coffee shops. I never knew how prolific the amount of weed in Amsterdam was until I actually went there. All in all it was neat. The beaches were lovely and I saw a lot of miniature figurines, went to probably the most awesome zoo ever called Burgers Zoo. Saw snakes in jars...Which really just reminded me of Chinese liquor. Food wasn't (isn't) great in the Netherlands. Got confirmation from a Japanese girl who lives in Amsterdam today. I'm not imagining that the food is crap. But they do have some awesome Turkish foods. 

Next came Germany, Regensburg and Munich to be exact. I met up with my dear friend who I've known since I was 12 or 13 years old. We had awesome ice cream and chocolates in Germany. It was also the first time I've ever had schnitzel. Very exciting experience.

 Als my first döner. Which was also tasty and nice. Not my last döner by the way. I've had a lot more since then.

 Potato, meat and beer at the Hofbräuhaus in München. Was great fun. I got drunk off a stein of beer. Ate a lot while in Germany. 

 Had tasty dessert cakes and coffee with my lovely friend. And wonderful frolicking was done in Germany woods. 

 Also had my first real German bratwurst. 

Great time hiking in Müchen.

Copenhagen was beautiful.

 Next real food experience was of a Danish pastry with my favorite Dane. We had an awesome time with delicious pastries and the beauty that is Copenhagen. 

Back to Hamburg, Köln, Amsterdam, Limburg to Belgium. Had delicious belgian waffles. This particular one had apples stuffed inside. Was very, very tasty. Can't get enough of them waffles. 

After catching a flight from Belgium my Danish friend and I met up again in Ireland. Yes, I do end up in Ireland and London a lot. We travelled around Dublin, Killarney, Kilkenny, Limerick and Cork together. It was wonderful. We had delicious food, with delicious meaty goodness and also some rather in expensive sushi. It was nice. We also met a few characters. Notably an old gentle man that gave us a ride back to our hostel and took us to his garden. He gave us fruit there. It could've been very scary because of all my Korean horror movie watching ways. But it was nice, he had cute dogs. 

The hikes in Ireland were really breath taking. Later I travelled to Belfast myself and saw Giant's Causeway and had some delicious curry while I was in Belfast. Belfast was really, really nice. I enjoyed every minute of it. Had a real nice feeling for the city and there shops, restaurants and even hostel were really welcoming. I loved it.

If you can't tell by now, I'm a real big fan of Ireland and it's nature. It's BEAUTIFUL. Too bad the food's not great. But I had a fantastic chicken Vindaloo. 

Next I met up again with my old friend in London and we went to see Much Ado About Nothing with David Tennant and Catherine Tate and then to the Doctor Who Experience in London. It was a once and a life time experience...and so concludes my travel experience of 2011. 

Past Food Travel - Japan 2010

Summer 2010 - Japan

So in 2010, I went on a cultural exchange (NPO) called World Campus International (WCI). It was a great experience. I spent 2 month traveling to various cities in Japan, living with LOVELY host families and meeting dear friends from around the world. While I was there I stayed with multiple host families who were quite frankly some of the best people I've met in my entire life. They were all willing to help and share with me. I really loved the experience of living with host families and would highly, highly recommend it. I got along great with all my host families and I love all of them dearly.  Didn't hurt that they cooked for me and took me to amazing places either. :P All the food was oishii! I miss the experience so much. 

It was an amazing experience to meet so many different people. This is a picture of my first host family who farmed their own land and had an organic bakery/ restaurant and taught Japanese and English classes to children in Omura, Japan. 

 This is in Ueda, Nagano with my host sister Raruka-chan making me pancakes. She was so sweet. Of couse I was taking advantage of child labor but she was an amazing and insistant cook.

 These are my Beautiful host sister from Ueda. Let's see if I can still remember names, there was Ayana, Lilica and Raruka, and there was also Haruna that isn't pictured. They were so sweet and lived in a rural area that you could imagine Totoro living in. Lot of fun, lots of giggles, lots of plants. By the way, I used to share a twin bed with all 3 of the girls! Baby feet in the face, always fun.

Lots of beautiful wild life and vegetation there too. 

I didn't always force my families to cook for me. I also cooked for them. This is my host family in Tama. Ahh, they were so sweet to me and I miss them a bunch. Tama is the city that Hello Kitty comes from. I made my host family some fried rice and Szechuan beef. It was fun. First time I watched Avatar was with my Host brother and I got to meet some interesting birds and go to Mount Fuji with these lovely people even through 4 hours of traffic! I miss them too!

 

We also experienced food together as an exchange group. This is our WCI meeting were me and these lovely girls made soba noodles on our own. It was fun! We also were a part of wonderful events the entire time. Including being dressed as ninjas and climbing Castle walls. 

We enjoyed many outings, that included the largest, most famous fish market in the world. Tsukiji. I enjoyed the best fish here. Was so much fun, there are so many out door markets and food vendors outside and freshest fish around.

 A lot of eating and drinking was done that summer.

Although I met new friends in Japan, I also met one of my oldest friends there too! We had a lot of Korean and Japanese BBQs while we were there (because my buddy is allergic to fish!). It was so tasty and loads of fun! Restaurants weren't expensive, around $10 USD at the time per meal and sometimes we even had our own personal room with a TV!!! 

Although my friend wasn't impressed all the time. I think it was because the people next to us were smoking and flirting annoyingly with the waiter.

But she also took my first McD in Japan. They have shrimp burgers and stuff. However, if you're in Japan and want fast food you ought to try:

• Moss Burger
• First Kitchen (shortened by the Japanese to Fah-King *giggle*)
• curry places (Curry House CoCo)
• beef bowl places
• ramen places
• bento boxes from connivence stores (surprisingly delicious)
• The bottom floor of department stores have restaurants and grocery stores that sell everything on the cheap after 8pm 
• vending machine restaurants! Those are fun. 

Desserts were also plentiful and decadent with mochi ice cream, chocolate cakes round every corner, and crepes with cheese cake, ice cream, fruit and whip cream all in one go and a chocolate sauce on top....Man I miss Japan a lot.

Ramen is exceptionally good in Japan. Try areas like Kyoto for some spectacular ramen. I also was able to meet another amazing person from Simplysyn in Japan. We had some ramen and karaoke through the night. Oooh and had dinner at Jonathan's an American style restaurant in Japan that has a bitch come button. I love those.

I also had my fair share of odd Japanese food. For instance, bread in a can. There was boobie pudding, natto (fermented slimy bean thing), raw squid...I can't seem to think of anything else but I'm sure there was!

Sashimi horse meat. My first experience with horse meat. It wasn't the best, I would've preferred tuna. It really just tasted like raw beef.

We also enjoyed some fruit. Although fruit in Japan is SUPER expensive. Super dooper expensive. Water melons can go for close to 100 bucks sometimes and it's common to see a vine of grapes for 5000 yen (50 USD) at the department store. It really is a bit insane but the fruit is quite delicious. I can still remember the peach (momo) my host family bought for me. Tasty, tasty. 

Of couse I was (am) known for foraging for food and plucking fruit when I see it. Japan was not an exception. I saw persimmons growing! First time ever so I had to pluck it even if it wasn't ripe. I also got raspberries from walks, blueberries and a huge pummeloes.

There were some interesting drinks as well including loads of sake and a milky soda called calpis, a lot of sake and green tea.

I even had the luxury of learning how to make green tea thanks to my beautiful host family in Toyota city.


BTW, you ought to also go to a maid cafe, a strange and niche thing in Japan where you a served by cute girls that act as maids. They also have little sister cafes were the girls act like your little sister. It's strange and fantasy filling.

This is one in Nagoya. It was nice, they girl even decorated our drinks with cute pictures!

All in all Japan was one of the best experiences of my life. I would highly recommend going for anyone BUT especially if you love food like I do. It was great fun, it was an amazing learning experience and I still miss it. The people, the place, everything but the heat! Do try everything that occurs though, Kabuki theaters, ninja shows, and go to an Onsens, one of the most relaxing things ever even if you are naked.

Past Travel - Food

I've been VERY nostalgic today. It could be that it's because I'm avoiding the trials and tribulations of my thesis or I am sick and I want to comfort myself with nicer, healthier and easier times. Or a mixture of the two. But I went looking back at old food photos I've taken over the last four or five years now. I want to share my food experiences from my travels with you. My 2 blog visitors. I hope you enjoy them as I have.

I guess I should start with the oldest first and move my way closer to the present?

Spring 2009 - Ireland and UK 

In 2009, I experienced my first real trip away from home. I went to Ireland and the UK with my brother. Mainly focused in Dublin and London. We stayed in the rather ghetto part of Dublin on the cheap and then took the ferry into Liverpool and a train to London. Was a good experience and my first real taste of being abroad (China with my mom doesn't count).

Of course we tried the obligatory fish and chips. Well, I tried chicken and chips. My brother had the fish and chips. It was at the "best" fish and chips shop in Dublin...somehow I doubt it but you never know.

We had even more fried food there, a nice Uncle Ben's chicken sandwich - I mean Uncle Ben's Cabin, why not? Sadly it tasted exactly how it looked. Fried, greasy and not what I expected from Uncle Ben.

 After finding out that Irish food was pretty bland and getting tired of fried foods we tried the Wagamama in Ireland, a chain Japanese restaurant. Which, was OK. We were quite honestly too poor to afford to dine out in Ireland.

But there were some saving graces about Irish food. For instance Irish stew really does rock. The Guinness made it all the better.

 Once we arrived in London we knew that Chinese restaurants and Asian restaurants in general were the cheapest way to dine without dying on fastfood. So we had some awesome Ramen in Chinatown. Ramen eventually became a theme for me as I travelled.

We aslo discovered that they have BBQ cuttle fish along with Peking duck. Who knew?

For the trip in total I learned a few things. For example, Lays potato chips are called Walkers in the UK and Ireland and the Irish drink a lot more beer than I first thought.

Oh! and never order lasagna in Ireland, it's too much cheese. I never knew that was a thing, but it is. There can be too much cheese.

Winter 2009 - UK and Canada

After my first trip to Ireland and the UK I caught the traveling bug. During the winter of that year I went back to London to see all the extra things and dragged along my beautiful friend. 

 We tried English Tea. It was nice, we also shared a full English breakfast, which was enormous.

 We had awesome desserts. I remember a very awesome profiteroles in chocolate sauce. We even had a tiramisu made for us by an Italian man, who was living at the B&B we stayed at. Actually, I think it was already made but he served it to us.  We also had lots of pub food and lots of beer too.

 We tried digestive cookies

 And saw humorous signs and handome men

Once again, we knew the importance of ramen and beer. 

Forgot to mention we also enjoyed our fair share of Kinder Eggs and candies.

The Dark Times 2009 - Canada

 So on our flight home we were ment to fly home with a layover in Calgary Canada. There was a massive snow storm though. So the airline suggested we go to Regina, which landed us in Regina for roughly 4 days and up until Christmas day. It really was a Christmas miracle that we made it home, considering there was talk about flights being grounded till New Years. 

 During that time we ate donuts and drank coffee from Tim Hortons and became chummy with the flight staff, especially Dale. We also found out that Canadians are the nicest people on Earth, learned some Canadianisms, eh and got offered cookies from strangers, places to stay and booze. Sadly it was a very hectic time and there was a hockey championships in the city!!! And of course there was 3 plus feet of snow and -26 C degrees out which made it impossible to leave.

 So we ate pizza and watched movies a lot of the time. Though I do remember a Canadian waitress who was quite nice...

Eventually we made it home! YAY! I believe it was at 7 pm and we were over joyed! It's a bit sad that we lost all our Canadianisms though.

Here's a picture of our predicament and all the boarding passes we accumulated due to the booking and rebooking process!

2010 Spring - San Francisco Bay Area

The horrible experience of being locked down in Canada didn't scare me away from traveling though! In the spring of 2010 I went to San Francisco for 4 days before moving along south towards LA to see my sister. While I was there I was able to meet one of my favorite people in the world Carlos!

I saw bread baked as animals!

Had some Thai food, enjoyed some awesome drinks and saw the wonderful sights. 

Dun...dun...duuuuun...I'm going to leave the rest of 2010 and 2011 for another post. Do let me know if this is boring or if you want to see more. Not sure why that would matter much though. I'll probably do it anyhow.