Author Archives: JBinnacle

26th March 2018: Dinosaur bones and Lover mummies {Dinosaurs in Teruel, 2018}

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We got to Dinópolis so we could be there when they opened in hopes to ditch the families-with-kids crowds, but to our confusion, we were told that even if the park was open, the palaeontology museum would not be for another hour. Furthermore, the only option to see the museum was with a guided tour. We did not care much about the 3D cinema, but there was literally nothing else we could do until they opened the museum part. We spent the morning in the park. We had to watch the first film, and somehow ended up doing two rides (Viaje en el tiempo & Último Minuto) and a show (the T-rex one), but the big things we cared about were the museum and the so called “Tierra Magna”, where the 1:1 reproduction stand.

The museum has a direct view to the lab, and while it has very few original and unique exhibits, is really good and informative. The big problem was, in my opinion, that it was only guided-access and those stress me out. Why can’t I just roam to my heart’s content and have to listen to a poorly-trained guide? We somehow managed to ditch the tour when the second and third groups came in and a bunch of people mingled around.

A collage showing different fossils and replicas from Dinopolis

It was cold outside, so we only had a quick stroll around “Tierra Magna”. We had lunch and decided we were done. If I had to rate this, I’d say it is a decent palaeontology museum with a lot of kid-friendly stuff around it – the latter is completely skippable, too, but I guess it brings money.

Life-size reproductions of dinosaurs outside Dinópolis Teruel

In the afternoon we headed off to see the cathedral, Cathedral of Santa María de Mediavilla, but I did not manage to sneak a picture of the famous wooden ceilings.

Outside view of the Cathedral

Later, we had a reservation to see the Complex of the Lovers of Teruel, which included the Iglesia de San Pedro (Church of St. Peter), its cloister, and the gardens.

Nave in Saint Peter church

Cloister in Saint Peter Church

Finally we got to the Mausoleum, el Mausoleo de los Amantes. The story tells that she was a rich heiress and he was a poor man, so he left to gain riches. While he was away, she was given off to another man and married, and when he came back she could not be with him because she was loyal to her husband. He died of a broken heart after she refused him a kiss, and she died after kissing his dead body. The bodies of the lovers were buried together afterwards. The two mummified bodies were found in the church of St. Peter, and they were thought to be the lovers, so the tombs were sculpted – if you crouch, which by the way I didn’t, you can see the mummies through the marble. The tombs were designed so that the lovers’ hands are very close, but they don’t really touch, albeit their shadows superimpose, as if they did.

Mausoleum of the lovers - they lie next to each other, hands reaching for the other one, but only the shadows touch

After this, we walked around town for a while and found the third tower, the Torre del Salvador.

Salvador Tower

We finished the tourist day at the monumental Escalinata de Teruel (the Grand Staircase).

Monumental Staircase

As we walked back to the hotel, we saw a beautiful sunset.

Golden sunset

25th March 2018: Main roads that feel like secondary {Dinosaurs in Teruel, 2018}

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We arrived in the Albarracín area after driving for about three hours. Some of the roads were horrid and I was secretly glad my offer to drive had been rejected. We arrived in Albarracín around 11:00 and our first stop was the first Dinópolis mini museum, called the Mar Nummus (Nummus Sea).

As this mountain range used to be sea bead (like 150 million years ago), a bunch of marine fossils can be found in the area. Dozens of ammonites fill up the museum, along with the skull of a Liopleurodon, a marine reptile of the order of the family Pliosauridae, quite obviously a carnivorous one judging by the teeth. As a matter of fact, it was the apex predator of the Middle and Late Jurassic oceans.

Mar Nummus building, featuring a life-size liopleurodon + the skull of the liopleurodon + a lot of ammonite fossils

The visit did not take long, and then we moved on to drive to the Mirador de la Escombrera (Slagheap Viewpoint, don’t ask me) to watch the pineforest Pinares de Rodeno. We decided against walking through the forest because the shortest route was a couple of hours already.

Sandstone cliffs + pine trees

Instead, we drove back to Albarracín and walked throughout the historical centre, a medieval nucleus of streets and houses dedicated to shops and restaurants catering to tourists.

Albarracín, a Medieval city in reddish tones. It is surrounded by a wall

We had lunch, then drove the short 40 minutes to Teruel, where we found our hotel. After dropping our things off, we walked to the centre of the town – which was barely a ten-minute stroll away. Carlos Castel Square is widely known as the “little bull square”, Plaza del Torico.

Teruel is known, aside from dinosaurs, from its Mudéjar style buildings, such as the Towers or the Cathedral. Mudéjar style was used by Iberian Christians between the 13th and 15th Century. It incorporates motifs, decorative elements and construction techniques that were common in Muslim Al-Andalus (such as archways, porcelains, bricks, and so on…). On the first day we saw two of the Towers: Torre de San Pedro (left) and Torre de San Martín (right).

Mudéjar Towers

The second architectural characteristic of Teruel are the Modernist houses, built in the 1910s, such as the ones in the Plaza del Torico – Casa La Madrileña (left) and Casa del Torico (right).

Plaza del Torico: a little bull standing on top of a column. Behind it stand two Modernist Houses at dusk

After this we had dinner and we headed back to the hotel.

25th – 27th March 2018: Dinosaurs in Teruel (Spain)

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This was a palaeontology-inspired trip. Teruel has been building a reputation and a tourist industry based on the fossils and dinosaur-related remains that have been found in the area. I’m into dinosaurs as much as your average seven-year-old, even if I don’t have the memory for all the names as they do.

Dinópolis consists on a big palaeontology park in the town of Teruel and seven smaller centres in different villages in the province. We planned to base up in Teruel and visit Albarracín and Riodeva.

24th March 2018: The day I saw Hatsune Miku (Madrid, Spain)

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“Vocaloid Opera – The End” is an opera for an in the digital world. It was written by Keiichiro Shibuya and performed by Hatsune Miku. Hatsune Miku [初音ミク] is a vocaloid idol. In case you’ve never heard of vocaloids, the idea is a bit complicated. A voicaloid is a singing voice synthesizer software product, basically a computer-generated singing voice. The software was released in 2004 and it exploded with popularity in Japan. Hatsune Miku was given a humanoid shape when it was released in 2017 – and it was definitely a she. So, in a way, Hatsune Miku is a voice synthesiser with a cartoon-female-human form.

Yeah, weird. I have always thought so too. But it was dirt-cheap (8 quid), and there was a session at 18:00 on Saturday that I could attend without a late train back. So I dyed my hair purple (because no, I’m not showing up to a blue-haired character’s show in blue hair), got out my thick faux-fur-neck coat and off I went.

The show was being held at Naves Matadero is a former slaughterhouse turned arts centre. It has turned the buildings into theatres, showrooms and so on. As I walked around the area, looking for my theatre I saw a hell of a lot of families with kids under ten, there to see “the doll” or “the cartoons”. I’m not kidding, during the first ten to fifteen minutes of the show, about twenty families left (≧▽≦).

Entrance to the venue, showing the sign of Naves Matadero Nave 11 and Vocaloid Opera the end

“Vocaloid Opera – The End”, composed by Keiichiro Shibuya [渋谷慶一郎], explores the concept of an artificial being obsessing about death. The whole show is digital, just like Miku, as she wanders the world wondering about “the end”. She seems trapped in a surreal nightmare, with several scenarios that don’t make that much sense. Miku is followed in her trip by a plush rabbit (Alice much?), she talks on the phone and there is a multiple-eye monster around.

Booklet and ticket. Both read Vocalod Opera the end, with the dates. The booklet shows an image of Hatsune Miku, crying blood, the whole booklet is tinted yellow

The music has an electronic flavour, and at times repetitive. It’s loud and you feel it more than hear it. There warnings about bright and strobe lights all around and I understood why – the whole thing relied heavily on CGI and lighting. The chosen topic, along the images were claustrophobic, and I think that was on purpose – there are different “dying” options: drowning, gas masks, withering off.

The climatic “aria” peaks with Miku asking the spectator “Am I dead? Or just asleep? You decide. It makes little difference to me.” In the end, she is a human creation so, like humans, she will “die” sometime too (aaaaand I have opinions about this because I believe that some human creations transcend their authors). And a final downside: knickers. Seriously, what’s with Japanese people and knickers?! She’s a CGI doll – true, wearing CGI clothes designed by the former artistic director of Louis Vuitton, Marc Jacobs, but a CGI doll!

That was all that I did, but here are some pictures I managed to snatch a few pictures, including of the actual 3D rendering of Miku.

Picture of the composer, dressed in yellow

Life-sized sculpture of Hatsune Miku, wearing a chequered dress that shows her waist, and heels. Her hair is flying as she turns.

11th March 2018: An old-fashioned museum and a strike in Madrid (Spain)

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I was looking at a work-related trip and wanted to use up Sunday morning to visit “a couple” of museums, then meet some relatives for lunch. Unfortunately, I was caught in the middle of a public transportation strike, so in the end I had to walk for a long while instead of doing what I wanted! Anyway, what I managed to do was getting to the Museo Geominero Nacional, the “Geomineral Museum” in Madrid. It is located in the headquarters of the Geological and Mining Institute of Spain, in a classical-looking building finished in 1925. It was designed by Franciso Javier de Luue. It is a classical-looking museum with wooden cases and an impressive stained glass ceiling, comprised by a central room and three surrounding balconies.

The access is through a marble staircase and the first corridor is already packed with display cases, even before you get to the main area. These cases show small and not-so-small fossils and replicas, displaying the first taste of the evolution of life on earth.

Once in the main room, most of the floor is taken up by the standing cases holding minerals, fossils and meteorites.

In the centre of the room lie the remains of a mastodon, located in the area of Ciudad Real in the 20th century, one of the crown jewels of the museum.

Of course I have been able to locate the collection of megalodon and shark teeth that are on display on the balcony.

Other displays on the upper floors include Spanish mountain goats, cave bears, and a human-evolution collection. Unfortunately, those did not photograph well due to the sun reflection.

And finally, my favourite piece of the collection is the Tyrannosaurus rex skull replica that presides the museum for the second floor.

When I came out, public transport was not running any more, so I had to walk through the Madrid backstreets until I got to the area where we had arranged to meet, and we went to a restaurant called El Escarpín, where I had an awesome pan of… wait for it… gratin meatballs with molten cheese on a bed of potatoes (Albóndigas gratinadas con queso de tetilla sobre cama de patatas). Amazing! Either that, or I was really ravenous after my hour and a half walking. Serves me right for not keeping up with the news! I learnt my lesson!

10th – 12th February 2018: Highlights of Glasgow and Edinburgh (Scotland, Great Britain)

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This is another trip that I took with customers. We flew into Edinburgh and took a bus directly to Glasgow, where we arrived at around 9:00 on Saturady morning. We made a stop for breakfast, then we walked to Saint Mungo Cathedral.

Then, of course, I guided them up the Necropolis Hill. The weather was very nice for a chance – because I have the exclusivity of good weather in London, but not in Scotland, which yielded to a nice walk.

We had lunch in my favourite Greek restaurant, and then walked around Glasgow – some of the members of the party wanted to go clothes-shopping so I took the opportunity to get into a bookshop or two. We dropped our things off at the hotel and walked in and out some of the shopping centres in the Central Glasgow area. In the evening, I took them to try Wagamama, a ramen / British fusion food chain. I’m always in for ramen (≧▽≦).

On Sunday morning we took the train to Edinburgh. We visited the Old City and Edinburgh Castle, with some awesome sights (because again, the weather was really good – albeit cold as hell, because, have you seen that snow??) and fumbled around for a while.

We had lunch at the Deacon Brodies Tavern, a traditional a restaurant in Castlehill – mince pie here.

We also took a walk towards the New City – and there was shopping again. In the end we had an amazing cup of chocolate as early dinner before we went back. I was supersuprised they wanted dinner, but I had had enough with that chocolate and just some tea at night. The shop where we had chocolate was called Coro: The chocolate Café, and I have no doubt I would go back to that shop.

Just before we headed back to Glasgow, we came across an art installation in Prince Garden, which had lots of pretty coloured lights.

And when we woke up on Monday to go to the bus station and head off to the airport… it was snowing! Honest to god snow on the streets!

We reached Spain without further incident in the afternoon, and that was another weekend wrapped up.

28th January 2018: Amusement Park in Madrid (Spain)

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I had a friend over for the weekend and she wanted to “do something” so I got thinking. She is adcenturous, so I thought that the Madrid amusement park could be a good idea. The Parque de Atracciones de Madrid was established in 1969. I’ve never been much of a rides person, for two reasons. One, it is one of those things that you take up when you’re young, and when I was young my parents were rather opposed to funfairs and rides and so on (with good reason, to be honest, but that’s another story). Two, I tend to be worried that random rides are going to trigger my headaches, especially when I have to take my glasses off.

For this trip, I decided to wear my contacts, so I actually got to go on a few of the rides. I was mostly happy staying back and letting my friend do the roller coasters though.

I was all good with the ride called “The Jungle”, which turned out not only to have animals, but… different cultural approaches.

I enjoyed the “Zeppelin”, and the sights…

And, of course, I rode the carousel “Tiovivo”. Several times to be honest.

It was low season, so the price was much cheaper than normally. Unfortunately, it also meant that a few of the rides were closed. Then again, I wouldn’t have wanted to go onto anything with water in January…

21st January 2018: Zoology at the Zoo (Guadalajara, Spain)

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This was just a stroll down the Zoológico Municipal de Guadalajara, the local town zoo. I just thought I could look up some of the animals I came across and see if I learn any interesting facts. It was not as easy as I thought!

Eurasian otter (Lutra lutra): it is a semiaquatic mamal that is fortunately not threatened. It lives near rivers and coasts in Europe and Asia. It mainly eats fish. They are pretty smart and playful, but they are also very territorial, so they usually live alone. They have webbed claws for swimming and catching fish. Mother otters teach the kits to fish by a game of “catch and release” the fish.

Peafowl (Pavo cristatus ): technically “peacock” is the male (colourful) and “peahen” is the female (brown). The male has long tail feathers that he displays when he wants to impress a female or another male. In India, it was used as ‘guardian animal’ as it screams when tigers approach and it can eat young cobra snakes. Now, that’s pretty cool, and here I thought he was just a pretty tail!

Fallow deer (Dama dama): Fallow deer are native to Europe, and have been introduced to many other places. The bucks (males) are very aggressive and competitive during mating season, and they use their horns to fight. The does (females) do not have horns.

Iberian red deer (Cervus elaphus): The imagery of the red deer has been so powerful in the human psyche that some it can be found in paintings dating 40,000 years back. Normally the males and the young create big family groups. Males create smaller groups that cooperate.

Barbary sheep (Ammotragus lervia). Also called arrui, it is an African mountain goat which lives in arid mountains and canyons and graze grass, bushes and lichens. They were artificially introduced in Southern Europe and became a bit of an invasive species. However, the truth is that they look super chill and zen.

European mouflon (Ovis orientalis musimon): It was originally a mountain creature but it moved to the forest when humans started bothering them. They thrive in rocky areas, though. They tend to live in herds with a lead female.

Wild boar (Sus scrofa): This is the omnivore animal by its own right. It can and will eat anything – from fruit to berries to even baby deer (O_O)!. Many old Indo-European cultures considered the boar a symbol of warrior virtues. In Greek mythology, the hero Herakles had to capture a boar as one of his Labours. In the east, it is considered a symbol of determination and even recklessness.

Iberian wolf (Canis lupus signatus): Unfortunately, the Iberian wolf is a vulnerable species and culling is still legal in Spain (•̀ω•́ ). The Iberian wolf is brown-grey and had a characteristic white area around its mouth. They also have black vertical lines along the front legs, and other dark marks on the leg and the tail. They are predators and prefer hunting big animals, especially deer. Wolves are social creatures, they live and hunt in groups.

Something really cool about wolves in general is that when they run, they place their hind legs on the footprint created by the front paw. Talk about coordination. Wolves have a very bad reputation in Spain, but there have not been confirmed attacks on cattle, much less on people, in recent years. Pictograms of the Iberian wolf have been found in archaeological artefacts from the tribes that lived in Spain before the Romans.

Emu (Dromaius novaehollandiae): Yay for another non-threatened animal. Emu originated in Australia, and are the second-biggest bird in existence after the ostrich. They are flightless, and they eat plants, grasses, insect and arthropods, depending the seasonal availability. Because females can lay several clutches of egg in one season after mating with different males, the male takes care of the incubation, and the chick-rearing. According the mythology of some aboriginal tribes of what now is called New South Wales, the sun had been created by throwing an emu egg into the sky.

Eurasian lynx (Lynx lynx): Native of Europe and Asia, it is widely distributed, which lowers its conservation concerns. The Eurasian lynx is mainly a nocturnal predator, and tends to live solitarily as an adult, although hunting areas may overlap for several individuals. They can hunt small animals, but they are known to prefer bigger prey, such as roe deer and common deer. Conversely, they may be hunted by wolves.

Red fox (Vulpes vulpes): The red fox is one of the animals with the widest habitat range in the whole world. It can be found almost everywhere in the northern Hemisphere, including many cities in Europe. It is an invasive species in Australia, where it was introduced in the 19th century. In European mythology it’s considered symbol of deceit. In Asian mythology it has two-faces, some of them are messengers of the gods, some are tricksters and dangerous. Arab folklore considers the fox cowardly and weak. Native American mythology considers it a crafty creature that steals the coyote’s food – in all cultures however, it seems to be intellingent and able to trick other animals or people. Interesting.

Griffon vulture (Gyps fulvus): A scavenger bird of prey, it feeds mostly off the carcasses of dead animals. It tends to live in flocks or colonies and makes nests on rocky walls. Even if they have a bad rep, they are very cool animals.

White stork (Ciconia ciconia): Credited with bringing babies from Paris, storks used to be long-distance migrants, which lived in North Africa in winter and returned to Europe in summer to breed. For the last twenty years or so, the storks have stayed, at least in Spain. They are also famous for making nests on belfries and other man-made structures, and because they are considered a good omen they have rarely been chased away – until the weight of the nest has made belltowers collapse!

Common kestrel (Falco tinnunculus), I think. Feel free to correct me if I’m wrong. The best thing about the small zoo is the work they carry out recovering injured birds of prey. The birds are nursed back to health and if everything works out they are released into the wild. I really hope this little guy can leave soon! ⋛⋋( ‘◇’)⋌⋚

8th December 2017: Ferrari in Guadalajara (Spain)

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There was a tiny (five) Ferrari sport cars exhibition in Guadalajara, Spain, so I thought I would drop by, just to be able to appreciate what they call “Ferrari red”. I loved the cars, but I don’t think that I would ever be able to get in and out of them. You could not sit down at the wheel though, so I can’t say if I would be able to drive them (≧▽≦).

Ferrari was established in 1939 by Enrico Ferrari out of the racing car division of Alfa Romeo. In 1947, the first Ferrari-branded car was completed – there had been a racing car in 1940, but WWII stopped most competitions at the time. After the war, the racing team, called Scuderia Ferrari, was rebuilt, and went on to become the most successful Formula One Team.

Ferrari produced its first road car in 1949. the original road cars were two-seaters and usually customised. Throughout the 50s and 60s, customers used to personalise their cars, which would eventually become one of the brand’s selling points. Since 2011 clients have been able to work directly with designers so the cars are completely personalised.

The exhibition was organised by the car-maintenance watchdog, and the cars shown were recent models, such as the Ferrari F430 Scuderia (2007), the Ferrari 458 Speciale (2014), or the Ferrari 355 berlinetta (1994).

14th – 16th October 2017: Vienna, Austria

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14th October 2017: Arrival and the Inner ring: Butterflies and Dinosaurs

Between flight and transfer to the city on Saturday morning, I arrived in the city of Vienna at 1pm. As my hotel was between the station and the city centre, I took my chances for an early check in and I was lucky – it was. After dropping my luggage I headed off to walk around Vienna’s Inner Ring, the Ringstrasse, which is a big boulevard that runs around all the old city of Vienna (Unesco World Heritage Site). A bunch of things were on my way and it seemed easy enough to find one’s way around. My hotel was located in a building close to a park, and had three floors, on the 11th, 12th and 13th floors of a building, which gave me some views of the city.

On Saturday the plan was wandering around, but as I am who I am I ended up improvising. My first stop was the outer Vienna State Opera, the Wiener Staatsoper, where a young man dressed as Mozart tried to sell me tickets for a show.

Vienna opera house, a baroque building in light colours with huge windows and an arched entrance

I continued on my walk and I saw the Albertina, a modern art museum, but I was actually heading to the Imperial Palace greenhouse, which is the home of a café and the Schmetterlinghaus, or Imperial Butterfly House. This is an area of the greenhouse where a bunch of butterflies are free to fly around and feed on a bunch of flowers, plants and pieces of apple. I was lucky enough to catch a few good shoots and I was very happy to have decided to go in (albeit I have to say that I was really keen on going there since I had seen that it existed). I really had a blast and enjoyed this, so it was a must that I don’t regret having missed, especially since the 6.50€ for the ticket. I spent around forty minutes in there chasing butterflies.

Vienna Butterfly house: a former greenhouse, and a few close-ups of different butterflies on bushes.

Then I saw the Austrian National Library, the Österreichische Nationalbibliothek.

Severe-looking stone building with columns and windows.

After that I back I walked through the Hofburg Palace, Hofburg Wien, and the Michaelerplatz or Saint Michael Square.

Collage of the former Imperial palace. It is a stone building with columns and windows, and arches

After that I crossed the palace in the opposite direction and ended up at the Heldenplatz, which gave way to Naturhistorisches Museum, the Natural History Museum to see dinosaurs, because there were dinosaurs, which is the home of the Venus von Willendorf, a tiny statue of stone dated back 29,500 years. The museum also holds a collection of minerals, meteorites, preserved animals, dinosaurs, an animatronics dinosaur and a multitude of artefacts from Prehistory to the Middle Ages. I also saw the same dunkleosteus that they have in the Tokyo Kokuritsu Kagaku Hakubutsukan. Have I mentioned dinosaur animatronics?

Collage of the Natural Museum: the building, with a dome, a whale skeleton, an Albertosaurus skeleton, the head of a Dunkleosteous fish, a huge salt stone and the Venus von Willendorf, a small naked woman statuette in golden stone

Following the museum I continued down the Ring Boulevard and it did not take me long to stumble up the Pallas Athene Brunnen (Monument to Palas Athena) and the Austrian Parliament Building, Parlamentsgebäude. The latter was under reconstruction.

Vienna parliament house, under renovation. There is a Palas Athena in white marble with a gold helmet standing in front of it.

I continued my walk until I found the Vienna Town hall, called the Rathaus, where there was a kind of Videogame trade fair or something going on.

Vienna town hall - neogothic building with a lot of towers and spikes.

Then I went on walking towards the university and the church of Votivkirche, a neo-gothic building next to the university.

Gothic church under renovation

Afterwards I went down to the hotel because this is not summer vacations after all, just a weekend escapade and I seriously did not have that much energy. On my way I walked past the stables of the Spanische Hofreitschule (Spanish Riding School) stables and I saw some pretty horses.

Two white horses from the Vienna riding school

And even from the hotel (literally from bed), as my room had views, I could take some pictures of the sunset and the lit buildings. And then I went to sleep at a horribly early hour because I was beat and for some reason I managed over 8 hours of sleep.

Sunset over the skyline of vienna. The buildings are dark and the sky is orange

15th October 2017: Palaces, churches and the Cinema

Because my hotel was **** for a change (I have to say that when I think about the whole weekend the word “decadent” is what comes to mind), I had a kettle and instant coffee ready for me – this was my breakfast. After that I did the online for my flight the following day and of course running into technical difficulties, and I left the hotel at around 9:30, which was a bit later than I had intended.

I was coming up to the Belvedere Palace, and on my way there I took a diversion to see the Karlskirche or Karlskirche (St. Charles’ Church), which I could see from my hotel and illuminated at night. This is a baroque church that sometimes holds classical music concerts.

The church of St. Charles; a Baroque church. It has a dome, and two twisted columns in front.

After taking a wrong turn once or twice this I headed out to my original target, the Schloss Belvedere (Upper Belvedere Palace). This is a Baroque Palace (seriously, Vienna is full of Baroque) that has been turned into a painting gallery. The most famous author in this gallery is Klint, but if I have to be honest, I’m not too appreciative of him – must be my likings for the realists. In the end, I liked the palace itself better than the painting collection, specially the reception room and the staircase.

The Upper Belvedere Palace, a Neoclassical building in white stone.

As I had bought a three-combo ticket including Upper and Lower Belvedere and the Winter Palace, I walked down the Belvedere Gardens to the Unteres Belvedere (Lower Belvedere), which holds the “Medieval Treasure” and temporal exhibitions. The best thing was the gold and mirror room and the marble gallery.

A huge garden with a palace in the background. The garden is artificial in a way, with perfectly-trimmed grass, fountains, and bushes.

The Baroque entrance to the lower Belvedere palace, a stone gate with sculptures on top. It looks like it wants to stare you down. The palace peers through the three open doors in the background

Then I headed off to the centre of the city to see the Winterpalais des Prinzen Eugen (Winter Palace of Prince Eugene), which was not the best thing ever but hey it came within the three-museum combo.

A Neoclassical palace with flags hanging over the door

Then I headed off to Domkirche St. Stephan (St. Stephen’s Cathedral), which is the gothic Catholic cathedral. It is not Baroque but Gothic. The entrance was free, but it also had a paid area, including the catacombs. Unfortunately I was too late for the current tour and too early for the following one, so I decided not to stick around, else I would have got the combo for the catacombs, the tower and the treasure.

A gothic cathedral. Collage showing the outside, with the tower and the ornate windows, and the inside showing the pointed arches inthe nave, and the organ.

As it was, I saw the cathedral and then headed off down different streets and saw the outer area of Katholische Kirche St. Peter (Catholic Church of St. Peter).

Façade of a Neoclassical church

And then headed out to the Michaelerplatz to check the inside of the Michaelskirche (Catholic Church of St. Michael).

Neoclassical church, showing the white and pointy bell tower. The image is tilted so the tower fits in the frame

I checked the Spanische Hofreitschule (Spanish Riding School) for tour tickets, but I was late for that and it was all sold out, so I decided to go to the station and buy some food in the supermarket for both lunch and dinner. On the way I crossed the Stadtpark to see the floral clock and the Johann Strauss monument – Johann Strauß Denkmal.

Finally, I headed off to get some rest at the hotel, and have a shower. At 18:15 I walked down to the cinema at the corner of my hotel building, the Gartenbaukino, because in the end that was the reason I was there – to attend the Austrian premiere of the X JAPAN documentary We are X as Yoshiki was going to be around for a Q&A session afterwards.

There had been a small mix-up with the ticket numbering (all of them had been printed out with the same seating number!), which was solved efficiently. We watched the documentary We are X and then there was a Q&A with Yoshiki himself. There were emotional moments as the fans thanked him for everything he had done and for his music.

Entryway to the cinema. It reads We are X Live + Q&A mit Yoshiki 20.00

Yoshiki sitting in front of a burgundy curtain. He is wearing his sunglasses and a black suit, boots and a golden blouse

After the Q&A some of us stayed talking at the cinema gate and the manager, who had solved the ticket problem, came out to close – and he told us where Yoshiki would be leaving from. And that’s… the story of how I got to talk to Yoshiki, I got his autograph and took a picture with him and I will never, ever, ever forget the rush of that.

I have to say I did not sleep much that night. All the excitement caught up with me and I kept replaying the scene in my head over and over again. in the end I think it was around 2:30 that I could turn the lights off.

16th October 2017: Airport Monday morning

After checking out of the hotel I walked back to the train station and took the CAT towards the airport. I had taken an earlier train than I had already planned and boy was I glad to do so when following arrows at the airport took me as much as 20 minutes. Something I learnt in this trip is how friendly Austrian people are, and that they have a great sense of humour, as apparently one of their star souvenirs is “no kangaroos in Austria”. The return flight was not as good as the first, but it was on time and I could arrive to work smoothly for a crazy week.

23rd & 24th September 2017: San Sebastián Film Festival (Spain)

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23rd September 2017: Let’s go!

Overnight, I headed off to San Sebastián as a Weekend Escapade to the Festival de Cine de San Sebastián International Film Festival that is held over there because they were projecting a Japanese film and the main actor and the director were coming over to present it. The film was “Sandome no Satsujin” [三度目の殺人], the director is Hirozaku Kore-eda and the actor in question was Fukuyama Masaharu, of whom I am a big fan.

I started off at 22:00 on Friday as I had to take a bus to go to Intercambiador de Avenida de América, which is one of the bus hubs in Madrid. My bus to San Sebastián left at 00:30, so in the end I had to wait for almost two hours until I could board. I was dozing for most of the trip so it did not feel too long. I arrived in San Sebastián bus station at around 6:50 in the morning and I had decided that I would go to the so-called Shell Beach, Playa de la Concha, to watch sunrise. I had been told that cafeterias would be open at that time, but not even the one in the bus station was ready.

A beach at night. The sea is calm and it reflects the city lights

My plan of watching a sea sunrise was trumped by the fact that the sea is towards the west, but I still could take a couple of nice pictures.

The sun rising, tinting the sky and the sea blue and orange

Among them were the beach itself, the “skyline” and the Catedral del Buen Pastor (Good Shepherd Cathedral).

A gothic or neogothic church clock tower, spiky with pointy arches

I wandered around, found the theatre where the film was going to be projected and as the sun started warming up, I started feeling less like a homeless dog.

The sun rising along a promenade

I found the local Starbucks at around 9:00 to get some rest, a coffee, and a cookie before I went to the Aquarium, which opened at 10:00. The Aquarium de San Sebastián is a bit more of a museum than anything else. The first part (second floor) is dedicated to the history of ocean commerce, with different types of ships, and rooms focused on the local harbour, companies, traditional boat racing and whaling. This includes an actual right whale skeleton and several sperm whale teeth and some baleens. The second part (first floor) is dedicated to general fishing and the local oceanography society, including machinery and live specimens.

Finally, after all this, you get to the actual aquarium (yay). There are several small tanks and then a big tank with a walk-through tunnels. The inhabitants are pretty standard, with lots of small fish and several magnifying-glass tanks to make the animals look bigger than they are. The third floor hosts the tropical fish including the piranha and the clown fish. All in all it is a nice place, however, it was under construction and some tanks were covered by dark plastic. After that I left the aquarium and I decided to go up Mount Urquil, which hosts a castle and quite nice views of the city and the ocean.

A small building entrance which yields to the aquarium. Collage showing different exhibits inside: a whale skeleton, a seven-grilled shark in alcohol, a trilobites fossil, a shark jaw, a starfish, a shark swimming above through an aquarium tunnel, a lionfish, sarks swimming in the aquarium

I walked by John Malkovich while heading there, but he did not look like he was in the mood (or the clothes) to be recognised, so I did not bug him. Then I started my climb up the mount towards the the local castle, Castillo de La Mota, along the batteries of cannons. The castle has a small history museum, and a look-out balcony, and the top has been transformed into a church, with a giant Christ overlooking. The truth is I was mostly improvising on my visits as the week was hell between work and the death of a family member.

Views from and of the ruins of the castle - the sea, the wall, and the old cannons

After that I had lunch and headed off to the theatre to check out the coming out of people. At this point I planned to wait for the actor and the director to come into the theatre, but for some reason I checked out the schedule, and the name of the actor had been taken out of the presentation! That made me sad for a little while, but I decided that I was okay with it, that it would not be a drama. I had taken my chance, and at least I had gotten some air after all the pain and drama throughout the week. I guess that helped relativise the sadness. I went to a park near the beach to get some sun and enjoy the last days of summer.

A 19th century building with large windows. A banner on the façade reads Festival de San Sebastián 65

A banner for the cinema festival, showing posters for different films. The third murder is on the bottom left

Around 15:00 I returned to the theatre, Teatro Victoria Eugenia to start lining as I wanted a seat close enough to see the subtitles- and I found a place on sixth row which was pretty good. As this was a special people’s vote session, we got a ballot to give our opinions. Then I settled to wait, and eventually at 16:00 the presenter came in, and to my surprise, she announced Kore-eda and Fukuyama. That made me so happy I could have died right there and then, and the best was still to come. Kore-eda told us about the film. Apparently several people consider that he has changed genre, but he told us that he disagrees and that he still tried to make a human drama. However, he thought that we should judge. Then Fukuyama told us that he enjoyed San Sebastián and that they had been having pinchos and that he was happy to have returned. I was shaking so hard I could barely hold the phone as I recorded.

The stage inside the theatre

Director Kore-eda and actor Fukuyama Masaharu on stage

Promo of the film The Third Murder from the Festival Webpage

All this would have made me very happy already, but there is more. “Sandome no Satsujin”, or “The third murder” tells the story of a lawyer whose job is to defend a man accused of murder. As this would be the defendant’s third murder, if found guilty he will be handed the death penalty. The film is a complex story, completely unpredictable – or I was too enthralled to see the ending coming – but when everything fell into place I felt like gawking.

Furthermore, there was more to come – at the end of the film both Kore-eda and Fukuyama had stayed behind. as I was coming out I looked up and told them “otsukaresama deshita”, and both of them bowed and replied “arigatou”. Then we waited for them to come down from the second floor, from where they had taken the ovation. I dropped my vote and rushed through the red carpet. As other people talked to the director I made a beedive towards Fukuyama. It was then or never, and it turned out to be then.

Director Kore-eda and actor Fukuyama Masaharu waving for a picture on the street after the film

I was shaking inside but I managed to tell them that I had been a fan of his since Galileo times and I asked for his autograph. He told me thank you (at some point the interpreter tried to help, but I was busy dying and trying to get my meaning across). He signed my Galileo booklet and I asked him to take a picture with me, to which he also agreed. And thus I fulfilled my wildest dreams (and look horrible in the picture). After Fukuyama had continued on the red carpet I managed to sit down on a curb and I was on the phone with my friend C*****, who prevented me from going completely hysterical in fanby bliss.

After I told her everything, I was pretty dead so I headed off to he hotel (pension) that I had booked for the night, and pretty much giggled and crashed, and uncrashed and giggled some more. At 23:00 I was completely zonked out, not without realising that I had headed to get some rest without grabbing my freebies and some merchandising I wanted from the festival.

Fukuyama Masaharu's autograph on a DVD booklet

24th September 2017: And back

I left the hotel early, around 8:30 to head towards the cinema area and buy the short Festival guide (not the big one for 22€ but the little one for 1.5€) and get the free newspaper. I bought a coffee to go and headed back to the bus station, when my bus was at 10:00. I could not sleep and the Wi-Fi was not working, but I could watch Youtube videos on the seat screen. I managed to get home around 17:00 after a couple of buses, and I was pretty much dead. However, it was totally worth it. I think this is why I was hyper enough to decide to go to Vienna next month…

1st (and 2nd) August 2017: Running out of time! {Japan, summer 2017}

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This was my last day and I had to make the most of it! First I went to Shibakoen [芝公園] and Tokyo Tower [東京タワー], because that always keeps the sadness at bay. I went up the tower and I finally gave in and bought the stamp rally booklet. I should have done it before. The Tower was being visited by a primary school class. Ho boy.

Then I went to Iidabashi [飯田橋] using the Shibakoen subway station. The day before I had hired a private lesson to have a teacher explain Japanese conditionals to me. That was very productive. Finally I was off to Shinjuku [新宿] for yakitori and karaoke with B**** and D****e to say goodbye for now.

Finally, I half-packed because I apparently forgot half of my stuff atover there, and went to bed. At 2:02 in the morning there was the only noticeable quake of the trip, quite a big one. In the morning, I headed off to Narita Airport, checked-in my luggage, and once again, it was time to go back to reality.

31st July 2017: Little Korea and Tsukishima {Japan, summer 2017}

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I met up with B**** in Shin Okubo [新大久保] to walk around Korean Town make-up shops. Afterwards we headed off to Iidabashi [飯田橋] because I needed to drop by the school I had been at the previous year and B**** was nice enough to come with me. we took the chance to have a great sushi lunch at a bit of a more refined sushi place than our usual sushi lines. It was so very amazing!

Then I wanted to go to Ikebukuro [池袋] again because I had not found something I wanted in the Shibuya [渋谷] Tokyu Hands on Saturday, and we found ourselves a nice place to sit down and have something to drink (aka, Starbucks) because it was our chance to try whatever lemon beverage they were selling at the moment.

Then I headed off to Tsukishima [月島] to have okonomiyaki and monja with Ms-san and D****e. And then there was a parfait / icecream / whatever.

30th July 2017: Tokyo → Yokosuka → Sarushima → Yokosuka → Yokohama → Tokyo {Japan, summer 2017}

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We ended up in Yokosuka [横須賀] because D****e wanted to go to a music and book shop called Yajima Record Honten [ヤジマレコード本店], which was sadly closing the following day. The first thing that we did when we arrived, however, was lunch (because we had not gotten up early and we had spent a couple of hours on trains). Yokosuka is known for being an American army base, so it prides itself on being “Americanised”, and the typical dish seems to be hamburgers. This is the avocado burger I ordered.

After this we walked a block north and found Yajima. The key aspect of this shop was that it had a bunch of posters and signatures from old promos from a bunch of J-rockers. It was a bit of a magical place and it is very sad that it is closed now. I took the chance to buy an unopened, brand new copy of Hyde’s Shallow Sleep single, and we took pictures of a bunch of the promos that were still up, some of them twenty or thirty years old.

Afterwards we walked to the pier to catch a ferry to see Sarushima [猿島], which hosts a few old timer army bases and wartime ruins, aside from some very nice ocean views. It would have been nice if we had managed fewer people around, but alas, we all came by ferry so we all arrived at the same time. Sarushima is the only natural island in Tokyo Bay, and geologically it seems to be a continuation of Futtsu cape on the opposite side of the Bay. Although the name means “Monkey Island” there is no monkey there except in a legend that says that a white monkey guided Saint Nichiren through the fog in Tokyo Bay to the safety of the Island. Sarushima is a World Heritage National Historic Site.

Afterwards we went back to Yokosuka Pier and boarded the Mikasa [三笠] warship which was used as flagship in the Russo-Japanese war (and sank after the war because she blew up. Figures). It is now a naval museum where you can VR the battle. I got VR-obliterated. There is a reason why I did not pursue a military career.

Afterwards we diverted our way to go to Yokohama [横浜] and get nikuman for dinner in Chinatown. We sat on a park bench and ate nikuman and drank bubble tea. Afterwards we walked down by the harbour and through Yamashita Koen [山下公園] and looked at the sunset/night skyline. Finally we caught a train back home.

29th July 2017: Shinjuku, Shibuya & Blended Fam {Japan, summer 2017}

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D****e and I were going to have a relaxing weekend, not leaving Tokyo [東京] and stuff, but she wanted to do some shopping. We started off in Shinjuku [新宿], at the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building Tōkyō Tochō [東京都庁], which was as always great and on her subway line anyway.

Collage showing Tokyo from above - thousands of buildings that disappear in the background, and some forlone green parks

Afterwards, I wanted to check something in one of the Shinjuku fandom shops (it said to ask the shop assistant, and I can ask, but I was not sure I would have understood the answer, thus she offered to tag along with me). Unfortunately the item I wanted was already gone, life is tough.

Then we went to Shibuya [渋谷] for lunch, Tokyu Hands and Mandarake. Afterwards we walked in the rain towards Royal Flash to check Arly’s Jewellery Line – Blended Fam. Arimatsu, or Arly, is the drummer for Oblivion Dust, and used to play for VAMPS too. He also designs jewellery, and he makes very pretty stuff – unfortunately quite expensive. We chose to drop by this day because he was going to be in the shop greeting fans, and engraving his most affordable piece of jewellery, a pendant made from his used cymbals. Furthermore, if you got one while he was there, he would engrave your initials on it! Fun. I decided to get one, and he was mortified when “SD” was engraved upside-down, yielding to “DS”. He was mortified. Then I joked about it and I gave it a naughty meaning… making him choke with laughter. So… it was a win, I guess?

The artist engraving the pendant, and the material - old cymbals cut out in a heart-shape.

After the event, we headed off to the Tokyo SkyTree [東京スカイツリー]. We were going to see the nearby fireworks with a friend from there, and have dinner later, or have dinner with her if the rain did not stop. In the end only we had dinner – as it was raining very hard and we thought the fireworks would be cancelled, so we headed off to a nice Chinese restaurant at the SkyTree which had extra long gyoza.

Chinese food - dumplings, rice, sweet and sour pork, soup

When we were coming out we saw one last firework, as the show was not cancelled in the end. Live and learn.

Firework sparks behind the structure of the Tokyo Skytree

28th July 2017: Shopping at Ikebukuro {Japan, summer 2017}

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This is something I had never thought I would have done, but it was strangely fun – I went shopping along Ikebukuro [池袋]. And not fandom shopping – well, yes, there was fandom shopping, but… It was weird. I was in the Book Off as always that I’m around. I was also in the Sanryo Gift Gate but there was no Yoshikitty to be found.

The original intent was going to the Sunshine City Aquarium [サンシャイン水族館] but when I arrived there was a very long line, so I decided to wander around for a while. I accidentally ran into a T-shirt that I loved and had to buy – full of sciency formulae, and a bag I really liked. I found it a bit expensive, so “decided” not to buy it.

After some conbini lunch I went back to the Aquarium and decided to wait as the line did not seem to be about to be longer than 15 minutes (much better than the 45 before).

The Aquarium was full and it never fails to surprise me how Japanese kids are this wild in aquariums in general- but this time I got pushed around by grannies too! XD I also found a new appreciation for pelicans and ended up with a lot of pelicanbutt pictures.

After the aquarium I headed to the Closet Child on my way to the station and bought a very cool T-shirt from a group I don’t really listen to, but very cool, and 1000¥. And then, because I had not really gotten myself anything too expensive in Closet Child, I gave into temptation and went back for the handbag. Many people have complimented me for it, and I really love it.

Afterwards I met up with B**** for sushi and Starbucks while D****e was in a fancy dinner on a boat, with my camera (yay phone pictures). After I got into the train, I was messaging with D****e and we realised that we were on the same train. What are the chances? Very, very small XD

27th July 2017: Osaka → Kyoto → Tokyo {Japan, summer 2017}

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It’s not the first time I’ve done this, but this time it was sane-ish. I left Osaka [大阪] maybe at 8.30 in the morning and took the Shinkansen to Kyoto [京都]. Once there, I found myself a coin locker at the station and went on to the bus area. I was heading to Jonan-gu [城南宮] which was my last shrine of the Kyoto Gosha Meguri ~Shi shin Sou Ou No Miyako~ [京都五社めぐり~四神四神相応の京~] and… under repairs too. But I had finished the Meguri. I had to wait about an hour for the bus. Then 40 minutes ride, about 10 minutes in the shrine, 30 minutes waiting for the bus back and 40 minutes ride again.

After I had some lunch at the station, I headed back to Tokyo [東京], where I met up with D****e in order to hit Nakano Broadway [中野ブロードウェイ] to rummage through TRIO (Yay TRIO for getting me what I needed ♥… and some more stuff I did not need but hey, who cares about those details?). Afterwards we had some kushikatsu dinner.

26th July 2017: Kyoto buses *eyeroll* {Japan, summer 2017}

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Someone told me that using Kansai public transport made her appreciate Tokyo trains, and I whole-heartedly agree. I am thankful to the Kyoto [京都] Tourist Office Lady told me the two shrines I had left in the Kyoto Gosha Meguri ~Shi shin Sou Ou No Miyako~ [京都五社めぐり~四神四神相応の京~] would take me a long time, because it allowed me to plan accordingly. Good thing that with a JR Pass you can travel between Osaka and Kyoto in barely half an hour for free.

I went to Matsuno Taisha [松尾大社], but I did not try the famous sake they had because not a drinker here. The shrine was being restored, too, so that took away some of the impressiveness.

Collage of a Shinto shrine: a vermillion torii, ceremonial sake, and the main buildings in dark wood

After I was back at the station, I travelled back to Osaka [大阪] to get the shuuin at Sumiyoshi Taisha [住吉神社] there.

A vermillion gate that gives way into a Shinto Shrine.

Then I headed out to Zepp Osaka Bayside for the last of my VAMPS concerts for the time being. There had been no surprises this time, so it was just a “normal” concert without extra adrenaline, which was good for a chance, honestly. I was too sore to jump after the previous day though (≧▽≦).

Zepp Osaka Bayside logo in blue neon