Andrew is much more of a foodie than I am, in the sense that he likes to plan out his meals and document them. As for me, I certainly enjoy food and trying new dishes, but I'm often content with eating whatever I happen to stumble upon when hunger strikes. Of all the things about Japan that Andrew was looking forward to, food topped the list. Predictably I was less enthusiastic (that's not to say I wasn't excited about it though). Thinking back on all the meals I had in Japan, it's hard to overstate just how good the food was. Before our trip Japanese wouldn't have cracked my top list of cuisines, but now I'm not so sure. Sushi was never my favorite - I mean, I liked it from time to time - but I was never crazy about it. There's just something different about it in Japan, however. The first time Andrew and I tried it there, in downtown Osaka, the fish seemed to melt in our mouths (yes, that's a good thing). The sushi back home ...
In the end I worked in town of Norseman, Western Australia for five months. Luckily I had enough hours on the job to keep me occupied because there wasn't much else to do in town. My first thought upon learning about Norseman was, why the name? There are a ton of odd town names in Australia - Toowoomba, Wagga Wagga, Woolloomooloo, Maroochydore - but most of them have Aboriginal origins. Norseman, as I soon learned, was the name of Lawrence Sinclair's horse. In 1894 Sinclair stumbled upon gold in the area. As legend has it, his horse kicked up a gold nugget with its hoof. A gold rush was already on around Kalgoorlie, and prospectors soon flooded into the area seeking riches (the wiki page has a short blurb about the town). on the edge of nowhere: Norseman, WA Norseman, the eponymous horse whose owner founded the town. Norseman Gold, a mine next to the town, is the longest continuously running gold mining operation in Australi...
After spending two nights and only one full day in Berastagi I was set to move on to Lake Toba. More specifically I was headed to Samosir, the island within Lake Toba. Samosir, the largest island within an island in the world (within the island of Sumatra), is nearly the size of Singapore! The island is a popular destination for both international and Indonesian tourists looking to get away from the hustle and bustle of Indonesian cities. The views are hard to beat too! From Medan to Berastagi to Lake Toba View of Lake Toba from Samosir Island Actually Samosir used to be more of a tourist attraction, as did the rest of Sumatra. Backpackers even set up a Koh Phagnan style Full Moon party on Samosir. Nowadays it receives a fraction of the international tourists. Many people I met on the Banana Pancake Trail, a name for the typical backpacker stops in SE Asia, were only stopping in Bali and the surrounding islands when going to...
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