Canadian Winter

There are a lot of people who dislike winter. The biggest reason is the bitter cold. Contributing factors are the snow and the dangerous road conditions. All in all the winter is inconvenient because it takes more time to get routine things done.

For example, going to work takes a lot more work, right from the start. You have to factor in the additional seconds it may take to put on extra clothing to stay warm, the five to ten minutes it takes to warm the car up and scrape the ice off the windshield, and the time lost driving slower to work in order to arrive safe.

Board Game Cafe - Korea

This blog so far has featured or mentioned a couple different types of cafes. The first was while in Amsterdam. Cafe's there are places you can purchase alcohol. I also mentioned the coffee shops where it is legal to purchase cannabis. Another was the Dog Cafe in Seoul, Korea. I thought it would be nice to talk about board game cafe's which can also be found in Korea.

As the name suggests, this is a cafe where you can play board games. They have a wide selection of board games. You rent a board game and table, which is super cheap and then you have the option of purchasing snacks and refreshments while you play. It is a great opportunity to try out new board games, or even play old favourites. The first time I was there I played Settlers of Catan. It was a lot of fun. I have played it a few times since and still really enjoy it. I am disappointed there are none of these cafe's in Canada. I think they could be pretty successful.

I have also played monopoly at this place as well as a few others. One of the favourites seems to be Jenga. I think there have been people playing that every time I have went. They also have different things to make the games more interesting. For example, check out the video I took of what happens when someone loses in Jenga:

The Great Ocean Road

After the Grampians we headed towards the ocean. Along the ocean in the Australian state of Victoria, there is a highway called 'The Great Ocean Road.' It was built by soldiers when they returned from World War one, partly because they didn't have any other job for them to do. It now serves as the world's largest war memorial. There were several breath taking sites along the way.

Grampians

After Fraser island I once again took off on my own. I left a lot of my luggage with a former flatmate and flew to Adelaide, from there the plan was to see the Great Ocean Road. I once again purchased a trip through a travel agency and was on my way. The trip went from Adelaide in South Australia to Melbourne in Victoria, so I would add 2 more states to my Australian trip, which would make 4 altogether.

American Village

I thought I would take the opportunity to reflect on my time spent at American Village. At this time I will be able to include visuals as well as reflection after the fact.

La Mazure is pretty much in the middle of nowhere in France. It's country. There is a small town about a 30 minute walk from the site. The small town looks like it came straight from Beauty and the Beast. It was peaceful and quiet.

Fraser Island

After my post graduate diploma in education I started to do a little traveling for my final couple weeks in Australia before I headed home. I did not get a chance to see nearly everything there is to see in Australia, or everything I wanted to see and I do regret that. I am grateful however that I got the opportunity to venture into part of what Australia has to offer.

Cheongdo for Bull Fighting

Cheongdo is a town just outside of the city of Daegu, the city I lived in for one year. In April while I was there, they hosted an annual Bull Fighting event.

The setting was very similar to the county fair back home. We paid about 5 bucks to get in and there were a variety of things offered for entertainment. They had rides and things for kids along with different exhibitions to see.

There were also many tents around with different types of food offered.
The main event or attraction was the bullfighting of course. That is what people came for. When you think bullfight, you probably think, like me, of the Spanish dude with the red hanky and the ferocious bull. This was not the same thing. The bulls were not fighting a person, they were fighting each other. Another tidbit, slightly disappointing was these were not fights to the death. They were fights until one bull gave up and ran away.




Basically to win you had to be able to make the other bull give up. The fights reminded me a lot of bambi. When Bambi is no longer a baby he meets with Faline (the girl deer) and then some other deer shoes up and rams Bambi with his horns, and Bambi rams back.







The bulls head butt each other so hard you can hear there heads hit from a distance. Then they push back and forth until one gives up and runs away. Some matches are very short while some go on for several minutes. The most disappointing match was the American bull. He was the biggest one there, but he was too scared to even start the fight.



This bull was getting ready for the intermission 'show.' Basically a parade around the ring while some guys parachuted from the sky.



Just some displays I thought looked pretty cool.