My new book in ebook form!

I have an upcoming exhibition based on my book Metiers d'Ailleurs.
Despite the French-only title, the book is totally bilingual. I even have a long intro by my Anglo BFF!
So don't hesitate to buy it! It's available in book form & Ebook. The link is bellow.
Thanks.

http://www.blurb.com/ebooks/542425-les-m-tiers-d-ailleurs-par-h-l-ne-barrette

My new website!

My new website is finally in! Although still work in progress!
Check it out: eleniphotos.ca

Not a usual travel story post.

This is to mention that the photo above has been picked to participate at the A Smith Gallery's Hipstamatic exhibition in Texas, USA! A Blurb catalog will be made of all the photos. I'm over-joyed!

 The receptions will be on Feb 22nd & March 29th from 4pm to 7pm. The exhibition will be on from Feb 14th to March 30th 2014.
Too bad I can't be there but for those who will be in the area during that time, it's not to be missed.

My best Christmas ever!

After a hiatus of 16 months, I'm back with some more travel stories. 

In this post I'm going to narrate my favourite Christmas. It all started on December 23rd 1989, in Ireland. We (my BFF, Sara E. Baxter & I), started hitchhiking from Dublin to Doolin, a quiet (back then) fishing village on the West Coast of county Clare. It was in Lahinch (I think) that we stopped in a pub, for God-knows-what (maybe just a quick break), that a group of twenty-somethings lads asked us to have a pint in celebration of someone's  bachelor party. We had a couple of pints, before we knew it, it was almost dark. 

It turned out to be impossible to have a lift in the dark on backroads. Thankfully, a woman gave us a short lift, we walked the rest. In the dark, on back roads, no lights, not sure if we were going the right way, trying to avoid puddles (no snow in Ireland but it rains a lot.).

We arrived at our chosen youth hostel in Doolin, hours later, completely exhausted, hungry & wet.  There, there was 3 British men who immediately told us to take our boots off & warm up by the turf fire. Bliss. 

It turns out that the 3 British men were into "caving". ( exploring caves) and we here to explore Pol An Ionáin !(Now totally touristy! Check it out! http://www.doolincave.ie/) They invited us to join them for a visit. As there was 3 of us (also a German guy who wanted to come.), we went in 2 groups of 3. (They had only 3 wetsuits.)  It was surreal!  There we were, on the side of the road, changing into our wetsuits in front of cows. We had to crawl on our belly in a few inches of freezing water, sometimes doing things Indiana Jones-esque) and inch our way to a big cave , where we saw the biggest stalactite in the Northern Hemisphere! There was a huge mud pool were we spent a while having a mud fight. So much fun, throwing handful of  mud in the other two's face! Before we inched our back back, (the same way we came in), we had to have a freezing cold "shower" to remove some of the mud in our hair, in a small fall inside.

When we finally came back, all 9 of us backpackers (Brits, Canadians, Northern Irish, & German) shared a communal huge Christmas dinner and the friendly owner (Carmel) even brought us some food! 

We then sat by the turf fire, sharing some warm mulled wine (from the German), Guinness & whiskey, sang some songs and played music.

The next morning, Sara & I were totally aching but happy! 

The hostel was The Rainbow Hostel , I'm happy to report that it's still going to this day, is totally worth it! Here's the link  http://rainbowhostel.net/. Over the years, I've been to 3 different Doolin hostel is this by far, THE best & friendliest! 

My BFF, Sara E. Baxter,  is a great writer & editor. Check out her website.  http://www.saraebaxter.com/

The photo above is of the Doolin coast, taken on a frigid January 2000. 

Sydney, Australia

Mannie and I, Champion's Bar, Sydney, Jan 1992.

Many memories of my 1 year in Sydney. Where to begin? At the beginning one might say! 

Let me first tell you how I ended up in Australia in the first place. I never had any desire to go there. I never mentioned that I wanted to go there. I happened so fast. I was all set to go visit a friend in San Francisco, USA. Sara called me saying that she was going there and "what about us traveling together?" It was all it took.

So, by the time we (Sara and I) arrived in Australia (via the USA, Hawai'i, Fiji and New-Zealand), we didn't have enough money to leave the airport! We called Sara's sister's friend's boyfriend. He picked us up and showed us around before leaving us at his girlfriend's flat (apartment). 

It took longer than we thought finding a job,  so we had many filler jobs in the mean time like selling roses (1 night), being "squeegees" (washing car window at light stops) (3 days).

In the end, I never had a full time job but a lot of very part time jobs like teaching French to University (Uni in OZ lingo) students. The coolest job I had was working as a B&W technician for a professional darkroom 1 day a week.

I did attend to a lot of concerts. I saw Midnight Oil, INXS (with Michael Hutchence!), Yothu Yindi (an aboriginal group, totally awesome!), Hoodoo Gurus, a few reggae and African bands, to name a few.

We did visit a campground where wild kangaroos came to us for food. The little Canadian girl  was impressed. I can say, without a doubt, that the kangaroos ("roos") don't communicate with "click" sounds like Skippy did in my childhood program.

My most cherished memory is meeting Mannie Torishiba, the man on the photo.  He was a gentle soul from Papua/New Guinea who came here (so he told us.) as a footballer. We met him one evening at Champion's bar in Sydney's suburb of Bondi. Sara and I were playing darts when he came over and said something to the fact that he could teach us how to play with a blow stick. (His sense of humor was awesome!). Over the next few months, we all became good friends and regulars at Champion's bar, a rough bar full of Maoris. (they look mean but are sweethearts really.)
He loved bottled Guinness.

I heard from Mannie was a few years later when I was in London, maybe in 1994.

Bob

Bob is the across the street neighbor.

He loooooves to be pet! He's always at the front door meowing for some love and attention.
He's the same built & his face his the same as my beloved Sam. He also enjoys a good belly rub. He's sweet and gentle.
He's like Sam dropped in a flour bag!
Not hard to love!

Arachnophobia

This is not my usual "travel story" kind of post. A recent experience with Tibetan monks made me ponder about Buddhism.  About how Buddhists do not kill any animal or insects, as small as an ant.

This made me think of spiders and how I dislike them. They make me shiver in disgust. 

However, over the years and with the help of my encounters with many different spiders, I have managed to "control" my insane fear about them.

Here some of "famous" encounters:

- In my travels in Fiji, once we (my travel buddy, Sara & I) went horseback riding (with no saddles! A painful story), each sitting behind an experienced Fijian rider, whipping through a tropical rain forest when, I scream with fear in my voice: "SPIDER, SPIDER, SPIDER!" Straight ahead was a giant lime-green spider's web with a spider, waiting for us. (so I thought!) We narrowly avoided it. 

- I encountered many huge black spiders on the island of Tobago in the Caribbean. I just let them be and walked away (or run!), returning hours later in the hope they had moved on. 

- While stopped on a small tropical forest road in Mozambique, there was a tiny white spider that, I was told, was one of the most poisonous kind. It was on the outside front windshield and I, sitting inside the bakkie (truck).  I managed to keep my cool as long as it stayed put on the other side. I did not want to pass for a typical white Western female and panic. ...besides, I could not flee as there was the  dense tropical forest as I open the bakkie door. I had no where to run. 


- A friend in London, England, had a pet tarantula (yuk!). The beast was not in its cage but its sheddings were. (Apparently they shed their skin like snakes do.) I could not even bring myself to come close to them , let alone touch them. 


- This last story does not involve me. It is to mention how much some people have a phobia of spiders. I will not name him. (although Sara will know who I'm talking about.) A guy in England slept on his sofa because there was a spider on the stairs!  Now every body knows that there is no dangerous spiders in England!

Despite my notable improvement since then, (I do not run, panic or scream if I see one in Canada. I know that no spider in Canada is poisonous.) I still think that if ever, some unfortunate day, a tarantula cross my path, I would most likely faint!

To end this post, a quote from the Buddha:

“There are only two mistakes one can make along the road to truth; not going all the way, and not starting.”