Afternoon beer delivery. Siem Reap, Cambodia.

While showing someone photos of Siem Reap recently, they commented how it looked like a movie set. They don’t know how accurate that is.

For the first day and a half, I felt like I was on a massive back lot set (with a ton of other tourists and, of course, Justine) and people going about their lives were extras milling around.

But back to the picture, the best things here I think are the small patch of sunlight, and the repetition of the kegs. The pipe in the centre is annoying but forgivable.

On Saturday, I made first use of one of my Christmas presents from Justine — a voucher to brew beer at Barleycorn Brewers. Trav, Stephan and Chris came along; since all of them drink beer in varying styles and amounts and none have brewed beer before it seemed only fitting.

The brewery is quite small but seems capable of handling the steady stream of customers who are all either brewing their beer, bottling their beer or just lounging around on the seats provided — there’s a big-screen TV, DVD player and cable TV along one wall, as well as signed sporting memorabilia. All that’s needed is a pool table and it would be a true “bloke’s club”.

Unable to decide between two or three choices, we were given a box of six different beers which will taken from our veritable bounty of 144 bottles upon bottling. One I was considering (a pilsener similar one I drank in Prague) was not available, so I moved onto my second choice which was a lager similar to Stella Artois (curiously called “Stella!”).

We first tasted the Stella! and all seemed to agree that it was rather a nice drop. Not too challenging to drink and it went down easy. Stephan said it reminded him a little of VB, which I also detected. I detest VB but the biggest comparison is that it was refreshing and easy to drink. It certainly didn’t taste like bile.

The second was an ale of some sort and though it was good, drinking over 100 bottles of it seemed a difficult task indeed. So, we opted for the Stella!.

Since the advantage of the brewery is that they do all the real hard work (buying expensive equipment, having plenty of different and interesting raw materials on hand, sterilising the equipment, storing the beer), all we had to do was add the ingredients to the large kettle of boiling water as directed, set a timer, then sit down and drink some more. I’m still interested in brewing at home, but this is a hell of a lot more convenient.

There are now three agonising weeks to wait until we go back and bottle all 144 138 bottles and taste the creation we made. Since this was the first time — and I was the guinea pig, with Justine forking over all the money — we stuck mostly to the recipe (only going over a little bit on a few ingredients). Assuming that the beer tastes like the one we tasted (or better) I can see at least some of the four of us going back to brew more.

O sweet nectar of the Gods, how you ease my suffering at the hands of my oppressors.

This beer, Peroni, is one I’ve been drinking for a while now. It’s a light refreshing beer and really suited to warm weather. It comes from Italy and when we were in Rome especially, I was surprised to see that it’s actually quite popular over there. Other “imported” beers we get here are often not popular in their original countries. This was one of the few that was. Tasted better with a mushroom and truffle spaghetti, though.

Day Twenty-Five
Rome
1 September 2007 - 23:16

This morning was the earliest we’ve gotten up so far, 6am. We got ready and left our apartment around 7am with plenty of time to get lost on the way to the train station. Justine lead the way by following “Alla Ferrovia” signs while I tried to take photos as the sun rose and then catch up to Justine.

We caught a train one stop off the island, sat around a bit and grabbed breakfast from a food court; the McDonald’s there had Nastro Azzuro beer on tap! At 8:50am we boarded the train to Florence, as we’d decided a few days earlier to pop in and see Michelangelo’s David at the Accademia.

At the station, the line to buy a map was far too long so we just started walking. Justine went to the toilet at what is apparently the most disgusting McDonald’s bathroom ever. Luckily though, they had free maps of Florence, so her sacrifice was sort of justified.

We headed the wrong way as usual but were able to correct it before it posed a problem. A short while later we found the Accademia but there was no line, and it was a Saturday! A sign said “reservations only” and I asked a security guard there who told us just to go in. So much for the lines!

As we rounded the corner past the “unfinished statues”, I saw David in all his glory. My first thought is that is was far larger than I had ever imagined. My second, and something Justine pointed out, is that the hands are vastly oversized.

We got a close-up look and though the signs said “no photos” and a few guards were asking people to stop, I managed to snap a couple of wide-angle shots from the hip.

Around the corner is a large room filled with plaster casts used as “practices” for bronzes or marble statues. Tours through there run once an hour and were were lucky enough to get an almost private tour with us and another girl. The tour guide showed us through and explained the statues and paintings. I asked (for Justine) about David’s hands and the thought about the size is that they are meant to display strength (the hand on the side) and intelligence (the hand near his head). Either that or it was due to the statue having a higher position originally (i.e. perspective).

We rushed back to the train station and just caught the next train to Pisa.

At Pisa, we left the station, when Justine was soiled by an inconsiderate pigeon. After cleaning up we walked to the famed tower. It’s actually a lot smaller than I expected. Lines to climb it (they run every 30 minutes) were over 2 hours long so we snapped the obligatory silly shots and grabbed the next train to Rome.

Our train had six seats in a room but we ended with just the two of us in the room. Nice. In Rome we took the Metro and easily found our hotel for once. We went out but change our minges and instead settled in for the night.

Day Sixteen
Prague
23 August 2007 - 23:41

We slept in this morning, and after breakfast (and being informed that there are no laundromats in Prague) Justine washed our clothes in the bath while I wrestled with the terrible internet connection which we paid 5€ for and is pathetically flaky.

Just as the afternoon hit, we left to go to Prague castle, again wandering the streets aimlessly. On the way, we grabbed an ice cream each (15Kc for one scoop, about $1) and sat in a well-manicured park, completed with fruit trees.

We climbed a large set of stairs up to the castle, which offered a great view of the city before heading into the castle — but not before looking at the “well fed” guards trying to stand still. We walked right past them.

There are a lot of old buildings inside the 1,000 year old castle, St Peter’s Basilica, which is just as old and a few other bits and pieces.

We entered a large cathedral and after marveling at the two storey pipe organ, the massive silver burial thing and the sheer number of people buried there, we climbed the 287 steps to the top of the tower. The stairway was so busy that condensation was forming on the walls. Yuck.

The view was OK, the trip down was just as awful as the one up. We then saw St Peter’s Basilica which houses St Ludmila’s bones in plains sight.

Next was Prague Castle which is so large inside they used to hold jousting tournaments there! Unfortunately, the castle isn’t that interesting so we left and descended the long hill.

We grabbed dinner at an Italian restaurant “Donna” something-or-other, where I had tagliatelle with deer ragu. Justine had porcini risotto. That and three drinks was around 360Kc, or $22.

Food in supermarkets here is incredibly cheap; especially beer. A 500mL beer costs 19Kc (or $1.13) and a 10×500mL slab of Staropramen beer is 89Kc (or $5.30!). If you buy the right products a lot of things are this cheap. In the touristy areas a 500mL water jumps from 15Kc (in a convenience store) to 65Kc or more!

Beer in pubs is as low as 25Kc for a good quality beer (500mL, as usual), which is a bargain too.

P.S. C’mon guys, where are the comments? Plenty day one, then nothing for ten days and nothing for six more?

Day Eight
Amsterdam
15 August 2007 23:43

Three countries, one day. This morning we were in Paris; we woke later than intended and made our way to the Goncourt station and then to Nord. While reserving our tickets we were told we had to pay 50€ even though we had a Eurail Pass — how annoying!

Once our booking was complete we had to run to catch our train but just made it. Another tourist was no so lucky. Our tickets were in First Class, so we were given food (the young lady kept making us take more and more!) and the seats were very comfortable. The train was a Thalys train and during our trip to Brussels the majority of our time was spent at 250-300km/h.

On arriving at Brussels we headed the wrong way (as usual) but eventuallz found our way. After a long walk we came across the “Grand Square” which is even nicer than it sounds. Two ancient churches across from one another, and circled by buildings from the 1600s, all covered with gold.

We sat and shared some waffles with strawberries, chocolate sauce, whipped cream and ice cream. I also had a local beer which had a strong apricot flavour.

Eventually, we moved on and as we left the square we found a gold statue that people kept walking up to and touching. It was some kind of ritual; touch the statue (head first, to feet) then other small things around it. Weird.

Further on, the souvenir stores were all selling objects of a kid peeing. We saw why a few steps later — there is a statue of a kid peeing. I guess that’s important for some reason. Across the street a man was selling escargot so I had to buy some and try it for myself. They came with a spicy, salty broth. Escargot are quite chewy. The bit of the snail that touches the ground was quite hardso I didn’t eat that on any, but I did eat all ten.

We walked back to the station, collected our bags and managed to catch a train an hour earlier than intended. On to Amsterdam, then. The train trip this time was three hours and had a lot of stops — no 300km/h for us, and no more free food. What a gyp.

As we left the train station at Amsterdam it started raining hard. We donned our coats for the first time, so the train stopped; of course. This time going in the right direction (and through the Red Light District) we found our hotel, which has been standing since 1659 (at least the building has). Quite pricy but so is all accommodation here.

We strolled the streets a bit more and grabbed a reasonably cheap pizza which wasn’t too bad but could have been better. Retreating to our hotel we climbed the three flights of stairs that are so steep we felt like we needed sherpas and to make base camp for the night.

Now I can hear trams “dinging” every now and then, they are the same new trams that are being rolled out through Melbourne.