eyeintim

Category: Uncategorized

  • Untitled post 130

    You’re outside all the time on the Camino, but you really don’t see much wildlife. I think the only animals I’ve seen are farm ones, and that’s not even every day. When I do see them, however, I’m continually surprised that they speak Spanish (and I don’t). If you say “hey” or “yo” or “hi”…

  • Untitled post 131

    It took me awhile to figure out my perfect order (and how to say it), but it’s pretty much now the first thing I say every morning at the magical, ubiquitous Spanish cafe/bars: “Cafe Americano, doble, grande, por favor”. They sometimes ask me something in Spanish after I order, and I never have any idea…

  • Untitled post 132

    We’re always walking west, but early in the morning you always had to turn around

  • Untitled post 133

    We peregrinos all leave the Albergues at different times in the morning. Sometimes you walk alone; sometimes you walk with people you know; sometimes you walk with new people. But we’re all following roughly the same schedule, and stopping in the same towns, so we see & hang out with the same folks all the…

  • Untitled post 134

    The terrain & scenery changes every day on the Camino, but the change was specially dramatic after climbing and crossing into Galicia It becomes lush & green, filled with rock-wall lined paths Absurdly beautiful at times

  • Untitled post 135

    Week four on the Camino. We’ll be wrapping things up soon 😔

  • Untitled post 136

    It’s not only humans on the Camino

  • Untitled post 137

    Sometimes the terrain we walk through seems fake, like it’s a perfectly staged set. I think I actually said those exact words to a fellow peregrino when I took this pic.

  • Untitled post 138

    The terrain gets hilly, and towns get much more rustic on the western edge of Castilla y Leon. Things are still beautiful, in a small-town Spain way, though. Until you look closer, revealing a potentially sinister undercurrent:

  • Untitled post 139

    Something you see all the time throughout Spain, and on the Camino, are giant stork nests atop all the cathedrals. They very visible in this pic because the building wasn’t that tall (places get smaller & poorer West of Burgos).

  • Untitled post 140

    Walking west out of Burgos takes you into the flatness of Castilla y León, where you could sometimes see your entire days walk ahead of you

  • Untitled post 141

    Week three on the Camino. All weeks kinda look the same 📈

  • Untitled post 142

    Walking the Camino, and Spain in general, is really cheap: • €0 = walking the Camino • €3 = getting peregrino credentials that enable you to stay in peregrino Albergues • €7-15 = bed for the night in an Albergue dorm room • €30-35 = private room in peregrino Hostal (totally needed after about a…

  • Untitled post 143

    Sometimes we walk on roads. Sometimes we walk on dirt roads. Sometimes there’s a beautiful old village in the distance. Sometimes there are snow-capped mountains in the far distance. Sometimes you can see all of that in one picture.

  • Untitled post 144

    One of the stories you heard a lot in the early Camino was that there was a winery on the trail that had a fountain of free red wine. It seemed mythical. It also turned out to be true, mostly. There is indeed a free tap of wine at this winery, but it’s only open…

  • Untitled post 145

    Beginning in the towns just east of Leon, places started giving free small tapas with every drink. A beer always paired nicely with a beautiful old building, so the addition of free food brings it to another level. The Camino isn’t just about walking.

  • Untitled post 146

    I’m not sure I’ve ever eaten as much bread in my life as I have here in Spain. It’s served with every meal, and as a hungry peregrino I always want to empty the basket. My favorite are the bocadillos, $2-3 sandwiches filled with sparse amounts of ham, sausage, cheese, or, ideally, tortilla de potato.…

  • Untitled post 147

    I know a common theme is me complaining about pictures, but it’s so hard. Ex: All these pics were taken within a few hours of each other. Which is best? I’ll never know.

  • Untitled post 148

    Week two on the Camino

  • Untitled post 149

    Rumor has it we crossed the halfway mark of the Camino Frances on the Camino de Santiago today, so here’s where I’ve walked: Day 1 (7-Mar-23): Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port, France → Roncesvalles, Spain (25km) Day 2: Roncesvalles → Urdaniz (24km) Day 3: Urdaniz → Pamplona (16km) Day 4: Pamplona → Puente la Reina (24km) Day 5: Puente…

  • Untitled post 150

    We peregrinos, pilgrims, normally stay in Albergues while on the Camino. They’re hostels specifically built and/or run for us, and are much cheaper than normal places. The cheapest are the ones run by the village/town/city, normally €8-12 for a bed in a dorm. Yep, that’s cheap, but the real cost is the quality of life…

  • Every night I put off posting until “later”, and I’m having so much fun each night, that means having to post something right before going to sleep. Which means furiously scrolling through all my recent photos for something good. This also means I always totally skip over fantastic things that have happened, but that aren’t…

  • Untitled post 152

    I’m taking too many pictures. I’m glad I am, but it makes it so hard at the end of each day to decide which ones to post. It makes it even harder that the iPhone takes such stunning photos, even in the evening. In support of this I present this picture, flippantly taken on the…

  • Untitled post 153

    The ramen of Spain is tortilla de patata, and I’ve been eating it pretty much every day. It pairs especially well with $2 beers.

  • Untitled post 154

    It turns out that northern Spain also has lots of cherry blossoms. And they were in full bloom in the morning golden hour leaving Torres del Rio. It took me hours to choose just this one photo.

  • When you walk, you see amazing things you’d never see if just driving in Spain

  • Untitled post 156

    Dad asked me today if I was hiking with people, and to take pictures of people. Fair asks, and I can see why you’d think people aren’t a part of the Camino – I take about 1000 pics of the amazing scenery for every 1 of people. People are actually one of the best things…

  • Untitled post 157

    I can’t stop looking at this random picture I took

  • Untitled post 158

    First seven days on the Camino. Wow. Amazing that 16 miles is the “shortest” day. And that big number on top is from today, so this next seven is looking like more of the same.

  • Untitled post 159

    I’m really struggling to figure out a good way to capture the scenery & experience of the Camino without just posting a bazillion pics, none of which seem to capture it. It’s just so amazing, and breathtaking, and varied, yet consistent. This pic is as good as any to try to summarize in one image:…

  • Untitled post 160

    I already have about 1000 pictures of the old town Spanish streets, and I’ll take 1000 more, which is probably not enough.

  • Untitled post 161

    It’s not only humans on the Camino

  • Untitled post 162

    The best way to guarantee yourself a good time in the evening (and some needed English conversations) when in any city in any country is to head to an Irish pub. When you do you’ll be rewarded by getting to hang out with bartender gems like this fella at Cerveceria Baztán in Pamplona: Please note…

  • Untitled post 163

    Camino de Santiago Day 1: Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port → Roncesvalle • 25 km • 42k steps • 6.5 hours After taking the first step and passing through the final arch in Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port, you have to make a big choice whether to go left or right at this intersection: Alas, since it’s winter, the left route, which goes…

  • Untitled post 164

    Day Two of the Camino has been amazing, but I still don’t feeling like writing, so I’m gonna slow roll this. Here’s the final arch you pass out of from the center of town, to formally start things

  • Untitled post 165

    I plan on doing a post about each day of the Camino de Santiago but today’s stage that took us on a climb into the Pyrenees was wicked hard, and I’m too tired to write. So, just a picture of me taking my first step on my Camino — only 1,000,000 more to go!

  • Untitled post 166

    Arriving in a unfamiliar, small, mountain town in the dark can be both the worst, and the best. The Worst: = You have no bearings or idea where you’re going, you can’t see anything, and towns like Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port shut down really early, so there’s nobody around to help, etc. The hotel receptions also close early,…

  • Long transit stops can be both the worst, and the best. The worst = A three hour train station layover in a town I had no plan to visit, Bayonne (though the station was a picturesque old thing) The best = Discovering that Bayonne is a great little Basque city, with beautiful, medieval, winding streets.…

  • Paris is sooo Paris. It’s everything you’ve heard, read, seen. Everything you expected & wanted. The sights, the streets, the food, the history, the cafes. The cafes!

  • I’m in Paris now, which means toilette pics instead of toilet pics

  • Untitled post 171

    It turns out the first ramen joint I went to in Japan was also the best ramen place I went to in Japan. Which is saying a lot, as I pretty much had ramen at least every other day, and every single bowl was great. Truly – every bowl of ramen I had in Japan…

  • I flew out of Japan today and got this stunning view of Mt. Fuji as a nice departure gift. I’m flying to Paris and am then heading down to Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port, as I’m going to walk the Camino de Santiago across the North of Spain. It should probably take ~30ish days to get to Santiago, and…

  • I’m pretty certain my English is getting worse from disuse here in Japan, as well as from having to speak in slow one-syllable words. So, I’m going to try to not type much today. Instead, a photo journey of the shrine/temple-viewing walk I did on a chilly, foggy, atmospheric day in Koyasan in the mountains…

  • The Japanese are fastidious rule followers. If there are rules or instructions for something –and there are alway instructions for everything– you can bet that 99.99% of people will follow them. You’re not supposed to eat & drinking while out in public, so nobody does (except ignorant me when I first arrived): Everybody wears a…

  • One of the reasons to visit Hiroshima is to see and learn about the A-Bomb Dome, one of the few buildings to not be totally destroyed with the nuclear bomb dropped there: The plaque in this one shows what it looked like before: It’s a stunning sight both day & night, and the city has…

  • Heard it’s warm back in the States. I don’t feel like writing today, so here’s what February should look like: Not sure where I recorded this, but it could really be anywhere in Hokkaido — it’s always snowing everywhere up here 😍

  • My favorite “you’ve never heard of it, but you have to try it when you’re there” food has been Okonomiyaki, which roughly translates to “pull it out of the fridge & grill it up”. It’s kind of like a layered, stuffed pancake, and it’s a Hiroshima specialty. Here are the common layers used in Hiroshima…

  • My favorite sight in Kyoto was the Fushimi Inari-Taisha, which translates to “the Head Shrine of Inari”. It consists of 10,000 Torii gates painted persimmon orange, spread out on & up a mountain: With such a cool sounding Japanese name, I actually found the translation disappointing. I thus propose some alternate ones: • Shrine of…

  • I came to Sapporo because I wanted snow, and, oh boy, did I find it UPDATE: 0% chance of snow today, and there’s a cancel-school-in-the-USA blizzard going on. I love this place!

  • Most of the cars you see on the roads in Japan seem miniaturized. It makes sense, as everything here is tighter, more compact, more efficient. No giant SUVs here – even the cars that have to drive on packed/perma-snow the whole winter are cubes The fire engines all look dehydrated This isn’t a negative post…

  • Pachinko

    Pachinko

    Another big thing in Japan that I just don’t get is Pachinko. It’s like pinball mixed with plinko mixed with a slot machine (kinda). You see big parlors in cities, even bigger ones in the suburbs & outskirts, and it’s the only gambling allowed in Japan (kinda). I don’t think I’ve ever seen a young…

  • One of the street foods they say you have to eat in Osaka, and something the city is known for, is Takoyaki, or octopus balls (not THOSE kind of balls). There’s tons of places in the busy area selling them, and you usually notice those places because of the lines, or the giant octopus or…

  • I had a big night, and it’s late/early, so I’ll explain everything later

  • I really didn’t do much research before coming to Japan, and really didn’t have many things that were “must see” for me. I just wanted to come here & kinda live it. So as I’m traveling around, I end up visiting a lot of things that the books, the sites, the people say I have…

  • I’m staying in an amazing buddhist monastery in Koyasan in the mountains outside of Osaka. Needless to say, this isn’t a party place. But I was able to buy a great NFL Network stream of the Super Bowl for only $.99, so decided to have an 8:30am blowout in my room for the big game

  • A sports post in honor of Super Bowl Sunday! Baseball is clearly the top sport here, even just based upon the number of stadiums & fields you see in the cities. This little league one was on the same grounds as the massive castle in Hiroshima: I even ended up watching the game a bit,…

  • Another short post today, as I’m too busy doing this in Osaka

  • I stopped in Nara on my way from Kyoto to Osaka, because the deer in a park there have learned that if they bow, they get food. I had no idea that the deer would be everywhere, though, nor how tame they’d actually be: They’re definitely food motivated, but the problem was that I didn’t…

  • There’s sometimes not much to do in a Japanese city/town other than eat, or go to shrines & temples, so I end up just randomly walking around a lot, taking random pics of the random things I come across. Like: Bamboo groves Graveyards Water bottle graveyards Amazing art-itecture The guys-with-birds section of the park The…

  • The toilets here beg for your business

  • I got tired of lugging my big daypack around all the time just to hold a water bottle & sunscreen — it’s really meant for carrying lots of weight & hiking. So I bought a cheap European carryall @ H&M in Tokyo. It’s sooo much better, but I definitely had to swallow some of my…

  • I try really hard not to make fun of any of the English translations for things here. I appreciate the effort – when was the last time YOU tried to right something in a different language? So you’re not going to see any posts from me with pics of all the hilarious names you see…

  • I finally saw Mt. Fuji, on the bullet train from Tokyo to Kyoto. It was hard to get a video of it without something getting in the way, but at least this obstruction looks kinda cool: You can’t climb it in winter, so expected there to be more snow up there. Speaking of winter, Japan…

  • Tim: OK, I’m not crazy about temples, but since Kyoto is known for them, I think I’ll go to just one of them while I’m here, the most famous one, Kinkaku-ji Temple. How do I get there today? Google Maps: This is easy – Bus 205 will take you right there & the stop is…

  • Everything You’ve Heard About Japan is True (a series) Example #3: Vending machines are everywhere All over every street In front of houses In front of traditional stores In parking spaces At temple entrances However, 99.9% of the machines are pretty much exactly the same, and just sell liquids – water, soda, Sweat, Boss. Here’s…

  • I don’t care, I’m going to continue posting toilet content if I continue being amazed. In this episode, we see tank filling ingeniously being used as a sink faucet. I did think I’d done something wrong the first time I flushed this toilet, as I’m constantly doing things wrong in this country. But that’s a…

  • This is not the most exciting post (no toilet!) but I paid a bunch of money to go up to the Sky Deck at Tokyo City View, so feel obliged to post about it. So, look, lots of buildings & concrete! Japan National Stadium on the left! And way there in the back, the Japanese…

  • If you’ve seen a Tokyo street scene on tv or in a movie, you’ve most likely seen this view. It’s Shibuya Crossing, kinda like Tokyo’s Times Square, and supposably the busiest pedestrian x-ing in the world. It’s a place I felt like I needed to see, and it turned out to be pretty mesmerizing. See…

  • I know everybody gets jet lagged for days after a 13 hour flight, so I’m not special. But I’ve never before tracked my sleep (via my Apple watch) when in the depths of it. And that there is what jet lag looks like — blue is light sleep; purple is deep sleep; green is wide…

  • The first meal I had in Tokyo might have now ruined all the rest. I had the best sushi I’ve ever had, from a place called Murikita in the Tsujiki market. The setup was also great: A tiny indoor/outdoor spot. First a man in the alley somehow convinces you, in Japanese, to come into his…

  • Library week has been extended! Here’s me catching up on 13th century Japanese poetry* at the Honomori-Chuo Library in Tokyo. It was actually one of the best libraries I’ve ever been in, and even had a rooftop garden & observation deck *a lie – I have no idea what the book is about.

  • #walkabout has begun. That’s⬆mostly everything in my main backpack. And this⬇is mostly everything in my daypack. Talk to you next from 🇯🇵

  • Library week finale was at Arlington Central Library. I spent like four hours here today. JK, I just had to go to the bathroom — libraries are great!

  • Today’s library week destination was the West End Library It’s one of the newest, and just perfect. Located in a fancy condo building, it has a Bluestone Lane attached to it, adding some wonderful cafe chatter as background white noise. That said, library visits are proving to be boring. I wanted to leave as soon…

  • Got one more trivia win in last night @ Exiles before I head out on #walkabout 🙌

  • PHO IS BETTER THAN RAMEN – Interrupting library week, and at great risk of creating some border issues when entering Japan next week, I’d like to unequivocally state that Pho is superior to Ramen. It tastes better*, it’s cheaper, it’s simpler, and the places that serve it are dramatically less likely to be pretentious. And…

  • Library week! Kicked it off with the Southwest Neighborhood Library It’s a new & nice one, built to handle the diverse audience they’re serving these days. The folks there during my visit reflected this: Old people reading newspapers Tech bro on his laptop w/ an extra monitor setup Flirting teens pretending to look for book…

  • A great day

  • Unsurprising, my creative-adjacency has gone nowhere since it first sparked. But I did have another old iPad lying around, so just slammed it up on the wall and I now have a nice expensive digital picture frame in my bathroom. It pairs nicely with the Alexa with 👀.

  • NOBODY HOME – Today’s museum was the National Zoo. Definitively proving this was a good week to go to DC museums, there was nobody there. I think I saw maybe 100 people the entire time? But, a cost: Because it’s winter, there were far fewer creatures to see. Sure, the mammals & monkeys were in…

  • LOCALS DAY I couldn’t force myself into another standard museum slog today, so instead did a walk to see some mostly-outdoor spots that aren’t as well-known. The Einstein Memorial – You can’t see it here, but the sculptor even seemed to capture that mischievous Einstein eye twinkle. Love this spot. The Old Post Office Tower…

  • This Way to Mammals & Rest Rooms Today was the National Museum of Natural History. What a great museum! Huge, with tons of great visuals & writing. It’s full of energy & wonder, and goes DEEP into many topics, eg. minerals; planetary development; human evolution (I’m sure Creationists do lots of squirming in this museum…

  • Unarchived Wish Today’s museum was the National Archives Museum. Overall a pretty good one, as you can’t go wrong when you can show off the Magna Carta, Declaration, Constitution, and Bill of Rights. It was also empty, so no jostling to read the unreadable documents. You can’t take pics in there, however. So what’s this…

  • Kicked off museum week at the National Museum of American History. Unfortunately, as is normal, it really did nothing for me. No exhibit seemed that interesting, and I don’t think I learned anything. There’s probably no need for me to go here again. That said, somehow this pic came out better than viewing it in…

  • Let’s go Buffalo 🦬

  • Perfect dinner to close a great day #jumboslice

  • Theme Week: Food Halls “Food Halls” was my #walkabout week one theme for how I spent my days. They’re great, free places to work (eg. write blog posts), hang out & people watch, read, and, duh, eat. I got to these this week: • The Roost – I wrote up on my recommendation site SnackPantry.com…

  • I’ve been walking the DC streets a lot this week in prep for #walkabout, and this is my favorite genre of scene this week. 2022 is crumpled & gone, yo — time to attack 2023!

  • I had a battery-operated clock on the wall, and it was just too tick-tocky loud all the time. So I cut the cover off an ancient iPad case, nailed it to the wall, jammed an old iPad into it, and then corded it. Instant silent clock, and one that I can change the face of…

  • Is this thing still on? Hello world (part seven)

  • I Believe that we will Win

  • Opening Day, yo!

  • Boomerang child

    This weekend I moved my blog from WordPress back on to Tumblr, cutting the last vestige of my Walkabout (and my costs). The great thing is that I found a cool service (https://www.import2.com/) that enabled to me to easily migrate all of my WordPress posts back in to Tumblr, including keeping the correct dates & media (through…

  • They’re Back

    Have to admit, I was pretty excited to see the first @dcstreetcar roll off the truck and on to the H Street rails last night

  • Game on #usmnt

  • Goodbye, #Movember

  • The Promised Land

    Soon to be sacred ground. Vamos, United.

  • Sic Semper Automobilis!

    Lest people doubt my loyalties as I scooted around town today on my communist vehicle, I strapped Old Glory to the back of it, Harley-like. Potential irony noted, the picture was taken in front of bunting-clad Union Station here in DC. Happy Independence Day!  

  • Harold & Kumar would be proud

    1:41 am food choices are rarely healthy, but always delicious