I'm walking in nearly complete darkness, only able to navigate thanks to my head lamp. As I come around a bend in the road, there's a gap in line of trees along the right hand side, their black silhouettes dropping away to reveal the view. This is what I had been hoping to find when I ventured out of camp, so stop and turn off the light. In front of me lies the valley, almost not recognizable compared with its daytime self. The night sky, almost but not completely black, is studded with stars. The dark outline of a low hill in the middle distance; spots of light scattered sparsely across it, each little cluster signifying a farmhouse. Behind it, the orange glow of a town. At this distance you can't make out any shapes - it's barely visible in the daylight- but the light radiating skywards marks its location like a beacon. There are thousands of pinpricks of brightness within that diffuse radiance; each one denoting a single streetlight, a single lighted window, or the headlights of car. I don't know if it's an illusion, but from where I'm standing, they seem to be twinkling like distant fireflies. It's funny when you come to think of it, you come out here to get away from the hustle and bustle of the city, but once you're up here, looking down at the city lights from the stillness of the mountain, it's actually quite beautiful.
Many companies in Taiwan have a (for me) strange practice where, if there is a work day squeezed in between a national holiday and a weekend, they will give their employees that day off. As compensation, you have to come in to work on a Saturday, usually the week before or the week after. This Tuesday it was the 228 Peace Memorial Day which commemorates the February 28 Incident. Due to the squeeze day policy this meant that we had a nice long four day weekend. It is still winter here in north Taiwan with bone chilling temperatures of around … Read the rest
The last few days in Finland have been great. We arrived here on Sunday morning and my friend Reetta met us up in the train station and brought us to her parents house. They cant speak a word of English but are really nice. We explored the nearby area on bike and tried a real finish sauna; nice and relaxing. After dinner I also got a chance to try my tea making skills as I tried to teach her parents how to make green tea.

Yesterday we started the main adventure of the Finish part … Read the rest
During the last few days, the internet access has been very limited as we have been camping slightly northwest of the middle of nowhere. We had read in our guide-book that a place called Cape Kolka was supposed to be very special with a desolate moon landscape. This sounded very interesting to me so we checked and rechecked how to get there which, the place being so remote and desolate, was rather hard. Eventually we did find a bus to take us there as well as a campsite willing to rent us a tent and some sleeping bags and off … Read the rest
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