Prague, Czech Republic

I spend a couple of days in Prague, taking in the sights and ended up meeting a friend where we connected with some of the local energy centres :-)

This is quite a beautiful city, not like anything I've ever experienced. Everywhere you look there are all kinds of interesting even quirky old architecture. A few pics…

The astrological clock...wow!

Charles bridge

A procession of corvettes and harley davidsons. Why anyone would think the general public
wants to be forced into watching them driving their car is beyond me?

Another huge church :-)

Outside St Vitus cathedral

Overall Prague is a bit posh, but well worth a visit if you are in the area. While I was here I suspect there were a bunch of chemtrails being sprayed. Not cool.

Chemtrails?

Anyway, next stop is Bali. Last minute flight changes have turned this an epic 2 day transit extravaganza with a stopover in Dubai and a night in Kuala Lumpur.

Germany

I spent just a few days in Germany visiting a friend in Bochum. Here I spent much time sleeping, eating, checking out the local area, and also managed a visit to Cologne.

The area around Bochum contains the remnants of a lot of industry, mostly mining. Some of which have been converted into parkland which makes for some quirky artwork such as this lightshow we visited...

Unfortunately my tiny camera flash couldn't capture much else :-(

Cologne is also a beautiful city surrounding a huge gothic cathedral with many, many tourists.

Another huge church! :-)

Hopefully all the stairs to the rooftop of the cathedral helped to work off all the cake, gelati, beer, chips and chocolate consumed throughout the day ;-)

Things that are awesome about Germany…

• The trains. The standard trains have two levels, are generally on time, and the high speed trains can get up to 300km/hr…nice. I caught one of these on my way to Prague :-)
• The beer. Enough said
• The cake. Europeans seriously know how to make cake, and black forest cake, in Germany, made me very happy :-)
• Knoppers - kind of like German tim tams :-) --thanks for the link Markus ;-)
• Laughing at random funny German stuff, such as this.

And no doubt many other things I have missed.

It is probably a good thing that I was only here a few days, as I could leave while my clothes still fit…just ;-)

Into the heart of the earth

After heading back to the UK I spent a week or so in the woods of West Sussex for some much needed R&R. The English woods incredibly beautiful, not like anything I've seen in Australia. They have a certain magical, fairytale-like quality, almost as though a gnome or fairy could emerge at any moment to say hello :-)

Here I participated in a week long course encompassing shamanic journeying, various energy practices (chi gong etc), exploring natural movement, bush survival skills and so on.

This was a lot of fun. During the course we built a natural survival shelter from sticks and leaves and each spent a night sleeping inside.

Hello! :-)

We also spent some time wearing blindfolds around the woods, practicing expanded awareness. One night we sat in the woods until nightfall, and made our way back to camp in the dark. I was surprised at how much fear came up initially but gave into it, relaxed and really enjoyed myself. There was a lesson learned here in letting go of the need to know where I'm going ;-)

Anyway, it was a great week, lots of fun and decided to chill out for a while afterwards and visit some sacred sites in the area. On the way back from Glastonbury we stumbled across this crop circle…

Crop circle, not the greatest picture I know

For those of you who may not know about crop circles, they appear in this part of the UK every summer, often around 60 or so each year. They have been known to appear inside of 20 minutes and the crops are not killed in the process, rather the stalks are bent. Very interesting. This is a good site for more info :-)

BucketList. Paris. Tick

I took a couple of days to look around Paris, mostly because I wanted to see the Louvre :-)

Not much to tell really, I wasn't here long enough to get a real feel for life in Paris but it certainly is a beautiful city :-)

Here are a few pics.

Notre Dame

Sigh, I miss my scooter..

Obelisk :-)

Parisian police - coolest job ever :-)

Wandering around the ancient Egypt exhibit. This made me very happy

Large footpath garden with lots of edibles :-)

Ladies be warned, the men here are not afraid chat you up, even if they are old enough to be your father...ewww!

In other news, I'm still super tired from all this travel and am taking this next week off to spend do a shamanic retreat in nature. Should be awesome and will be back online in a week or so :-)

Lourdes, France

Lourdes is a beautiful part of the world, located in the south-west of France. This is a major Catholic pilgrimage site based around the local sacred spring, said to hold healing powers. Given my recent experience with the holy wells in England I thought it would be relevant to visit here also.

Cathedral on the river.

Although this place was beautiful, and situated on an amazing yin earth energy, I found it to be quite a spectacle. There are something like 5 million pilgrims here every year. The town itself is full of hotels and shops selling cheap trinkets etc. Many people come here hoping to be healed (there have been something like 70 verifiable miraculous healings, really, the odds aren't great). This is turned into a public event where ill people are wheeled out on stretchers in front of video cameras etc :-/

The major reason for this place being sacred is based on a girl (later Saint Bernadette) who saw apparitions of the Virgin Mary, whom appeared to her 18 times. The cynic in me thinks it is fortunate she referred to her as the Virgin Mary rather than any other feminine or earth spirit, which may have landed her in hot water, as opposed to sainthood.

Sacred grotto

I found the most amazing energy here on the mountain, in a cave (which is fenced off). The hill itself is dedicated to a walk entailing a series of statues portraying the crucifixion of Jesus. While I understand this is sacred to many Catholics and I respect that, I was surprised to see this request to climb these stone stairs on one's knees. Are the elderly or ill visitors supposed to partake in this? Hmm, possibly a lack of understanding on my part.

Go up on knees??

Anyway, I digress. I did meet some lovely people here, but given my lack of knowledge, understanding and exposure to Catholicism I found it all a bit overwhelming.

I found myself thinking of all the neglected local sacred wells I had just visited as I watched the spectacle at the fountains where people were queued several deep, filling many containers of water. I wonder what benefits can be found from reviving and utilising these local ancient sites, rather than pilgrim-aging across the world to this one location?

I am aware that there is a level of irony and hypocrisy in my saying that given my travels, but I feel there is a benefit in reviving, tapping into, and ultimately respecting these local resources ;-)

While I think of it, for anyone considering collecting local spring water, this site is a great resource. Alternatively for UK-centric ancient holy wells try megalithic :-)

Glastonbury

Glastonbury. The new-age, hippy centre of the UK. This place is awesome. Walking down High St is almost like a scene from Diagon Alley in Harry Potter. Wherever you look there are plenty of shops catering for pagans, new-age books, crystals, psychic readings etc. People are dressed as anything from fairy, pagan, hippy, king, queen, you name it. I even stayed across from a shop called 'The psychic piglet'...lol :-)

Why does Glastonbury attract so many new-agey types you may ask? This is reknown as a powerful energetic centre, with many sacred sites nearby and within town. It is also not far from Stonehenge, Avebury etc. Certainly walking around town I noticed an amazing energy. Generally people are cheerful here, but it also seems to accentuate emotions. People either seem to be either very happy, or angry/upset/disturbed, but mostly there is a very positive vibe going on here.

As a result, much of the energy work around Cornwall and Devon culminated in Glastonbury. Refreshingly, it seems completely the norm here to meditate (or whatever) in public. On arriving I spent a beautiful afternoon in the ruins of the Glastonbury abbey. This is the 'heart chakra' of the town and I felt very happy and peaceful here :-)

Glastonbury Abbey

The Abbey - resting place of King Arthur and Queen Guinevere

What Abbey would be complete without a herb garden? :-)

After the Abbey, I headed to the Tor to watch the sun go down. Being Glastonbury there were quite a few people doing the same.

The Glastonbury Tor

Sunset from the Tor

The following day I spent some time up at Wearyall Hill, the 'throat' chakra of the town :-)
The legend surrounding this tree is that it is supposedly the descendant of a thorn tree planted by Joseph of Arimathea.

Wearyall Hill

Later on I spent an amazing afternoon at the Chalice Well. Wow! Beautiful :-)

The vesica pool

The healing pool

The Lion's head. This well is safe to drink, but relatively high in iron.

The Chalice Well. THE most incredible energy here. A five minute stay recharges the batteries. Of course there were plenty of others there doing similar ;-)

The 'chocolate love temple'. With shops like this what's not to love about Glastonbury? ;-)

The Eden Project

During my travels through Cornwall, I stopped in at the Eden Project. This place is an amazing environmental education centre and a little piece of paradise in Cornwall. Check out the before and now shots;

Before - 1999 - and old mining quarry

Now :-)

Some of the recycled artworks;

The 'wee man' representing the 3+ tonnes of electrical waste each consumer disposes of over a lifetime.

How's this for a kitchen garden?

Outside the cafe

The tropical biodome

The Mediterranean biodome