Leaving Hungary...

As of 6:15 PM this Friday, June 15, I'll be leaving Budapest and heading in to Kyiv to start shooting Chernobyl. I haven't a clue what my internet access there will be like, but I suspect it won't be nearly as convenient as what I have right now (Wifi in-house at my nephew Tristan's place, where I'm staying) so those of you who have been in regular contact with me, please don't expect me to be too prompt with my email replies.

Budapest has been AMAZING, and I'm really quite sad that I have to leave tomorrow. There's been no shortage of interesting things to keep me occupied during my stay. I've climbed Gellert Hill (Among other things, an old WWII fortress, but with evidence of use dating back to 1200BC and the Celts.), wandered through St. Stephen's Basilica (Szent István-bazilika in Hungarian) seen his mummified hand in a shrine. (The church keeps it in a reliquary at the back of the basilica. The hand is kept in the dark unless you put 100 Forints ($0.75 CDN or so) into a small machine to one side. Once you've paid up, a light comes on illuminating the hand for 60 seconds or so. If you want more time to pray to it, you need to pay more.) The rest of the Basilica is absolutely GORGEOUS, and quite honestly blows St. Paul's in London clear out of the water. Even Notre Dame in Paris couldn't hold a candle up to what they've got here in Budapest.

(Below: St. Stephen's Basilica, as seen from the apse, looking down the nave towards the altar.)

I've tried, twice, to visit the Hungarian Parliament and take a guided tour of the place, but haven't been able to swing it unfortunately. I'll have to do it next time I'm in town.

Other highlights here have included Statue Park, or Szoborpark, is a park just outside of Budapest proper where a large number of old Soviet-era statues have been "retired" ... Personally I think it was a true stroke of genius, saving all of them and making a park out of them. It's an AMAZING place, and well worth a visit if any of you reading this ever happen to make your way to Budapest. This is definitely on my list of places to come back to. I'd love to spend a few days working on a photo essay here. Sadly, I only had an hour before I had to hop back on my bus and head back in to town.

(Below: "Liberation Monument" which used to stand at the top of Gellert Hill.)

Last but not least on my itinerary for the week was a visit to the Children's Railroad, a small-gauge rail-line operated almost entirely by children. Apparently these things were quite common during the soviet days, and a quick google search reveals that there are several still in operation, though the Budapest one is still, from what I can find, the largest and most successful of the ones that remain. It took me an hour or so to find my way to Széchenyi-hegy (I believe, but am not sure, that "hegy" means "station" or "stop"). From there I took the train to János-hegy, then got off, walked for a while, and took a chair-lift back down to the city before busing home. The railway is another thing I'd love to come back and spend a week or two shooting as a documentary project. The kids are AMAZING, they literally do everything except drive the train itself (a job reserved for adults only), though, as the picture below illustrates, boredom does strike at times.

(Below: A young ticket-inspector takes a break from his duties to admire the scenery on the trip from Széchenyi-hegy to János-hegy.)

That's all for now. I'll do what I can to post an update or two once I've arrived in Kyiv, but I make no promises. I'm flying solo from Budapest on (That is, I've had wonderful friends and family putting me up until now) so things should get a bit more ... interesting... as I progress east.

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Nic's Current Location:
Tristan and Krisztina Hume's Apartment, Budapest, Hungary
+47° 29' 25.43", +19° 4' 6.08"

A week of Cryptographers, Crepes, and Trains.

It's been the better part of a week since my last "real" update. My apologies...

Before leaving London I got to take a day-trip out to Milton Keynes, where Bletchley Park is located. Those of you not familiar with the Park's history really should be. Wikipedia article is here. I had an AMAZING time out there, and even got to see a full-size, *FUNCTIONING* replica of Colossus, the world's first electronic computer. (It's existence has only been recently declassified, and ENIAC, in the US, was incorrectly regarded as the first until recently. Colussus pre-dated ENIAC by two or so years.) I had a WONDERFUL chat with one of the engineers who have been rebuilding Colossus, and managed to get myself some paper-tape from a bona-fide Lorenz 40/42 Cipher being cracked by the machine. Interestingly enough, due to the parallel architecture used by Colossus, it still breaks codes as fast, and sometimes faster, as modern-day computers running software to crack the same 1943 ciphers. Astounding. I'll spare you all the technical details, but suffice it to say this is one of the few computers I've seen in my life that I've ever truly been in awe of.

(Below: Nic with Colossus)

Other treats before I departed London included going to see Othello as a groundling at Shakespeare's globe, which I now count as one of the highlights of my theatre-going career. Met up with my friends dan and Laura for what was supposed to be *A* pint, but turned into several, at the Founders Arms, on the Thames, following the performance. I also managed to cram in a quick visit to King's Cross, platform 9 3/4. Those of you who get the reference will, I hope, be pleasantly amused.

(Below: Platform 9 3/4.)

Packed up and snuck out of Robyn and Jamie's place early on Friday morning and hopped the train in to Waterloo. Went through the most thorough security search of my life when I was told my backpack was "packed too densely" for the security x-ray to scan it properly. Spent 45 minutes standing beside a nice security who was was emptying everything (and I do mean EVERYTHING) out onto a steel table. I did get a good laugh when he sniffed the two jars of Veggemite I was taking to my nephew Tristan in Budapest. The stuff is concentrated yeast extract, and smells about as pleasant as you'd expect.

Wrote a small snippet of this blog while I was on the train... I managed to snag GPS coordinates here, at +51° 5' 43.86", +1° 2' 11.20", shortly before entering the Chunnel, and another set of coords here, +50° 39' 35.21", +3° 1' 27.78", shortly after popping out on the other side, in France.

Spent the afternoon in Paris, with visits to Notre Dame and the Eiffel Tower both on the to-do list, as well as a brief detour into some obscure back alleys in le Quatier Latin, to get away from all the touristy crap and kitsch. Walked about 10 minutes and did everything I could to get myself lost in back alleys. Ended up having an awesome lunch at a tiny little crepes restaurant (for lack of a better word) about the size of my bathroom back home in Victoria. The place was so small that I actually couldn't turn around inside with my backpack on. Had to back out once I'd bought my food. The woman who worked there was absolutely THRILLED to have someone as "exotique" as a Canadian in her store. Had two ham and cheese crepes for lunch, with a Nutella crepe for desert. Spent an hour or so reading on the banks of the Seine, then went off to the Eiffel Tower. Was rather annoyed to find multiple-hour-long lineups to get up the thing, AND was told that even if I waited, I wouldn't be allowed up with my backpack due to security concerns. Went across the Seine to la Place de Varsovie, only to find an "Experience Rugby" event going on. Seems someone had the bright idea of bringing in artificial turf, inflatable bumpers, and several tents, and holding a rugby tournament in the middle of Paris. What can I say? It seemed like a pretty cool idea, really, and it looked like everyone was having a blast, to say the least.

(Below: Rugby in la Place de Varsovie. It is, indeed, a strange world.)

Just chilled out for the evening in Paris, then caught the night train to Munich at 10:45 from Gare de l'Est. For the sake of brevity (i.e. I'm tired right now) suffice it to say the transfer through Munich was uneventful, and I made it all the way in to Budapest without too many hassles. Got to see some gorgeous scenery along the way as well, which was great. Snagged one more set of GPS coordinates here, at +48° 11' 32.15", +16° 18' 47.17", on the way into Wien, en-route to Budapest. Was met by my nephew Tristan at the train station, showered at his place (where I'm staying for the week) then went out and was ... errr... warmly introduced... to the city. Having a wonderful time here thus far, but will have more updates once I've explored a bit tomorrow.

(Below: One last picture. Heroes Square, +47° 30' 52.80", +19° 4' 39.02", (Wikipedia link here) in Budapest.)


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Nic's Current Location:
Tristan and Krisztina Hume's Apartment, Budapest, Hungary
+47° 29' 25.43", +19° 4' 6.08"

New post? Not quite...

Have safely arrived in Budapest.

I had many grand plans to write a nice long new post detailing my last days in London and my 48 hour (quite interesting) journey to Budapest via Paris, as well as my adventures with Chunnel security and what it's like to watch a rugby tournament taking place in the middle of a Paris street.

Sadly (well, not really) my plans have been delayed as my most wonderful nephew Tristan has gotten me quite drunk on Hungarian beer and German Jagermeister as a welcome to the country. I promise I'll update tomorrow. (Depending on how bad the hangover is.)

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Nic's Current Location:
Tristan and Krisztina Hume's Apartment, Budapest, Hungary
+47° 29' 25.43", +19° 4' 6.08"

A bit of history, and a good view...

Spent most of the daytime today in the Imperial War Museum. It's awfully similar to the way I remember it being when I was here last (1998 or so) but it's still an incredible place to simply wander through. The Secret War exhibit, which deals with everything from codebreaking to special forces black ops, was particularly interesting; The twin 15" canons mounted in the park directly in front of the museum were quite a bit more intimidating than I had recalled. Awe-inspiring might be a better word.

Took a walk up to The Canada Store (Yes, that's it's name, though it plays triple-duty as "The Australian Store" and "The South African store") to pick up some Vegemite for my nephew Tristan in Budapest, which is where I'm off to on Friday. (Note: Who knew that you could buy Vegemite in 1kg bulk containers?)

From there I walked down towards the River and met up with a friend of Robyn's named Michelle and hung out with her for a bit (Why do I always meet beautiful, intelligent women when I'm about to LEAVE a city?) before meeting up with Robyn and Jamie and heading up the London Eye. There's a GORGEOUS view (as you'd expect) from the top; the whole thing's a bit pricey, but a damn neat experience, and not like anything else I've ever done.

(Below: View of the Houses of Parliament, and Big Ben, from the top of the London Eye.)

Am off to bed now, but will endeavour to post here more regularly when I can.

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Nic's Current Location:
Robyn Goodman's House, Sevenoaks, Kent, England.
N+51° 16' 42.16", W+0° 10' 44.09"

A late update...

So a number of you, most notably my dad, have been harassing me for a blog update. It's late here, and I'm exhausted, but here you go. Things have been exceedingly busy for the last week. Most of my time in Vancouver was spent doing last-minute odds-and-ends work on packing, lightening my pack (I ditched most of my cold-weather gear, contact lens solution, and DVD's, but cut down almost 20 pounds) and the like. Got on the plane with no problem at all, even though my checked baggage was STILL overweight at 23kg, and my carry-on must have been 20 lbs at least, well over the 5lb maximum... Regardless, I got on OK. Had all my gear serial numbers recorded by Canada Customs so I can get back into the country without being charged tax on my own gear. When I offered to unpack my bag and let the customs officer check the numbers she just told me it "looked like it was all old" and not to worry about it... Go figure. (Above: St. Paul's Cathedral at Sunset, as seen from Shakespeare's Globe, across the river Thames.)

Arrived in London with relatively few complications, was treated to a WONDERFUL dinner by Robyn's new in-laws who are, quite possibly, the nicest people I've ever met. Have spent my first few days in London exploring the Fleet Street area of town, in particular a "small" church called St. Bride's, (There's a half-decent Wikipedia article here as well.) which calls itself "...the spiritual home of printing & the media." It's a wonderful place that was designed by Christopher Wren, in the late 1600's, though parts of the crypt and foundations date back to the first century and earlier. They've actually created a small chapel in the crypt, so that services can be held in the same place they were 2000 years ago. Pretty neat if you ask me.

I'm PRETTY sure this is the place Matt Lambert told me about several months ago, with a spiral stair-case up the spire and a great view of St. Paul's, but they wouldn't let me go up it without having arranged something well before-hand. Perhaps next time I visit...

(Below: St. Bride's is the tall steeple on the left. Fleet street can be seen on the right-hand side.)

Other highlights while I've been here have included climbing the great fire Monument, and getting all the way to the top of St. Paul's Cathedral (600-and-something steps... Yeesh...), having beer in a pub called Seven Stars that's been around since 1602, and seeing The Merchant of Venice at Shakespeare's Globe...

(Below: Seven Stars. Note the "A.D. 1602" at the top of the sign.)

Plan on heading to the War Museum and the London Eye tomorrow, have also booked my tickets to Bletchley Park on Wednesday, my Othello groundling ticket for Thursday, and my train tickets to Budapest (with a half-day in Paris, and a transfer in Munich) as well.

That's all for now, It's 1:30 here and I need to be up in 6 hours. My apologies if I'm slightly less than coherent in this post, it's been a long, long week...

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Nic's Current Location: Robyn Goodman's House; Sevenoaks, Kent. UK.
+51° 16' 42.64", +0° 10' 43.69"

Off the grid and gone...

So, I'm gone... Or at least, I've left Victoria and I'm in Vancouver and I'm only semi-connected to the world... For the first time since I was 17 or so I don't have a cell phone and it's really, REALLY strange...

I said goodbye to my dad this morning (picture above) at the Schwartz Bay ferry terminal hopped on the 11AM boat out of Victoria, hit the mainland right on schedule at 12:35 and then spent four hours busing and walking around Richmond and downtown Vancouver picking my D200 from Nikon (it feels *SO* good to have a "real" camera back in my hands. My backup D80 just wasn't cutting it...) and picking up my British passport from Visa Connection with my Russian and Mongolian visas in it. My backpack weighs in at around 80 pounds or so, by my best guess, with my camera bag adding another 25 to that. (I know that sounds a lot, but that's still well under 1/3 of my body-weight, which, as I understand it, is the recommended max weight for a pack)... Amazingly enough it didn't actually feel very heavy at all once I got it up on my shoulders and had all the straps adjusted... I wouldn't want to walk for 8 hours with it, but that's more because I'm in bad shape and my legs would get tired rather than from any discomfort. The biggest problem I had (and it wasn't REALLY a problem) is that with my camera bag slung across my body UNDER the backpack straps, the camera-bag strap digs in a bit, and is much harder to adjust than when I don't have the backpack on. Hardly critical, but a mild nuisance...

The overall experience was good, as it was handy to see how well I could move around with all my gear. Aside from being firmly reminded of exactly HOW out-of-shape I am, I'm quite pleased with everything. The gear is heavy, but quite manageable, and I'm quite sure I'd be able to run short distances with it if necessary (One of my hard-and-fast rules is that I'll never go traveling/on-assignment with gear that I can't run with, or abandon, should the need arise...)

I'm at my brother Mark's house now, and am relaxing a bit before doing some invoicing and then going for a beer with my friend Kirsti, who I haven't seen in almost a year (She was an ASM at last year's Shakespeare in the Summer festival in Victoria. I was, for a time, the Technical Director of said festival...)

My plans for tomorrow involve a beach, a book, and my D200. (Hopefully some cute girls as well, but I'll have to play that bit by ear...)


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Nic's Current Location:
Mark Hume's House, Vancouver, Canada
+49° 14' 46.69"N, -123° 10' 10.30"W

A brief update on my itinerary...

Yes, it's been AGES since I posted.

Yes, that makes me a bad person.

Yes, I'm cross-posting a facebook post because I'm rushed for time. Sorry. There will be more soon. (In more recent news, I just got word, as I was typing this, that my Mongolian visa has been OK'd... Hooray!)

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I've been getting piles and PILES of people asking where I'm going, how long I'm gone for, etc. etc. etc. over the last few weeks... I hardly mind explaining my travel plans to people, but after the 30th or 40th time, it gets a bit old... SO... Here's what I'm doing, where I'm going, and all that... You can keep track of my on my blog and webpage if you're so inclined...

As most of you know, I was laid off from the Times Colonist at the end of February, 2007. Not having much of a freelance editorial market in Victoria, I figured now would be a GREAT time to take off and visit some places and do some work that I've always wanted to. Chernobyl seemed like a good idea, and I've always been quite curious about the area and it's stories) ... After getting myself vaguely set-up to visit the worlds only urban nuclear disaster area, I figured a brief jaunt up to Russia would be in order... From there I got hooked on the idea of taking the Trans-Siberian (Technically Trans-Manchurian in my case) Railroad across the continent, and ending up in Mongolia for a month, before progressing on to China... After that, and seeing as I'd be in "that corner of the world" I figured a stint down to Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand would be in order too. Laos is supposed to be nice that time of year as well...

After South Asia, I've got two options:
a) If I'm utterly travel-weary and exhausted, I'll head home.
b) If I'm having a blast and not burned out, I'll keep heading south.

If I take option A, I plan on hitching a ride on a freighter over to Vancouver... if I choose option B then I expect I'll head down through the Indies, into Australia, then New Zealand, then catch a freighter from THERE over to Punta Arenas or somewhere near the south end of South America, and work my way back north from there... If I can find a way to go anywhere NEAR Antarctica at the same time, I'd love to do that too. We'll see...

I've got a very rough travel itinerary that gets me as far as Thailand so far. The dates are as follows:

June 1: Fly Vancouver --> London England. Get put up by exceedingly generous friends, try and network a bit, and visit some old friends.

June 8-ish: Train to Budapest via Paris. Spend some time in Budapest visiting my nephew (who is also generously putting me up)

June 16: Kiev. Spend 3 1/2 weeks in Kiev and Chernobyl doing documentary work around the old reactor and the surrounding area.

July 7: Leave for St. Petersburg. Most "tourist" stuff here, though I hope to find some interesting stuff to shoot as well.

July 14: Moscow. A few tidbits of remaining doc. work on Chernobyl. There are some cemeteries and memorials I want to visit, and one survivor in particular I want to try and track down.

July 21-ish: Trans-siberian express to Irkutsk. Possible stop in Yeketarinburg. End up in Irkutsk.

August 4: Enter Mongolia. 1 month based in / around Ulan Bataar. Hope to get out into the Gobi for a bit just to check it out. May try for a train-trip to Uliastay. We'll see.

September 1: China. Have a dual-entry visa. Expect to only stay a month, and want to hit Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong, and (somehow) see the Three Gorges dam as well.

September 29-ish: Vietnam: No plans beyond staying a month. Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City are both (obviously) on the list.

Late October: Cambodia. Ditto to Thailand re: no specific plans. Will see what haapens.

November: Thailand or Laos.

Things get awfully fuzzy from here on in. I'm not about to try and plan things beyond 6 months out. I'm QUITE confident in my own ability to find trouble / end up in the middle of a civil war / get arrested / whatever.

So. There you have it. That's where I'll be. If anyone feels like joining up with me along the way, feel free to drop me a line (nic@nichume.com, or facebook, are the best ways to reach me these days. Obviously my cell phone and land-lines are NOT the best ways to reach me.)