How to Divorce During the War highlights how families can be torn apart, sometimes because of politics (Film review)

Display of posters of films, including that for How to Divorce 

During the War, screened at the 50th Hong Kong

International Film Festival 

 

  

Lithuanian filmmaker Andrius Blaževičius at the Q&A

session after a Hong Kong International Film Festival 

screening of his film 

 

How to Divorce During the War (Lithuania-Luxembourg-Ireland, 2025)

- Andrius Blaževičius, director-scriptwriter

- Starring: Marius Repšys, Žygimantė Elena Jakštaitė, Amelija Adomaitytė

- Part of the HKIFF's Young Cinema Competition (World) program 

 

I don't know if others feel the same way about this but How to Divorce During the War strikes me as a title for an absurdist comedy rather than, say, an utterly serious drama.  As it turned out though, there is very little to laugh about in this work, set in 2022 Lithuania, about a nuclear family whose world is turned upside down by the parents splitting around the time that the Russians attacked Ukraine.

 

Vitas (played by Marius Repšys) is a filmmaker who spends more time daily cleaning the family home and being the main caregiver for pre-teen daughter Dovile (essayed by Amelija Adomaityte) than on the latest script that he's working on but has writer's block over.  In the eyes of his high-flying media exec spouse, Marija (Žygimantė Elena Jakštaitė), he is a shadow of the interesting, intelligent man that she married -- and so she wants out.  (She's also in a lesbian relationship with a colleague who seems to have egged her to divorce her husband.)

 

Since their house was in Marija's name, she had the legal right to ask Vitas to move out of it.  Which he reluctantly did.  Their daughter Dovile stays with Marija while Vitas moves back in with his parents, who he finds increasingly hard to get along with; especially after he finds -- via their doing such as spouting pro-Russian propaganda about the Ukraine war -- that they do not share his political views, which are more aligned with that of his now-ex-wife along with their daughter.

 

Consequently, Vitas finds himself part of not just one but two families at war with themselves at a low point in his professional life.  And, truly, it's hard not to feel for him.  And, also, Doville.  Who doesn't say much but watches, observes and knows far more -- about the family situation and also what's going on in the world at large -- than her parents and other adults may realise.  

 

On the other hand, Marija is not always as easy to have sympathy for; and is someone whose actions I sometimes could understand but I disagreed with at others.  The most complex character in the movie, it is through her that one is shown the domestic and internal conflicts that can arise from a woman becoming the main provider of the family -- something that still is the exception rather than the rule.  Also the conflict that a working person has with regards to how much one should -- or, maybe the better word is can -- professionally and financially sacrifice for one's ideological beliefs.  

 

My sense is that many Hongkongers who viewed this film will most relate to Vitas: particularly, his experiences with his parents.  Because of what happened here in 2019 and after China imposed a national security law on Hong Kong (in 2020), and how what happened were covered and portrayed by media on different sides of the political equation, conflicts (have) ensued between many parents and their (adult) offspring; and resulted in the breaking up of families -- or, at the very least, an increasing number of (adult) offspring deciding to move out of family abodes to live on their own.    

 

Part of me wanted to ask How to Divorce During the War's director-scriptwriter, Andrius Blaževičius, whether he was aware of Hong Kong's situation during the Q&A that was held after the screening I attended of his film.  Also, whether he knew that many Hongkongers feel a kinship with Ukrainians (and why).  But while I didn't, I do get the sense that he wasn't entirely clueless about why this sensitive dramatic offering is one that can resonate with people here even though they live thousands of kilometers away from Lithuania and Ukraine.

 

My rating for this film: 7.0 

Ernest and Celestine: A Trip to Gibberitia is a treat for -- and has lessons to impart -- both the young and old (Film review)

 

Animator-filmmaker Julian Chheng answered questions after 

the Hong Kong International Film Festival screening of his movie :)

 

Ernest and Celestine: A Trip to Gibberitia (France-Luxembourg, 2022)

- Julian Chheng and Jean-Christophe Roger, co-directors

- Voice artists: Lambert Wilson, Pauline Brunner 

- Part of the Hong Kong International Film Festival's Gala Presentation program

 

Ten years after I was charmed by Ernest & Celestine (2012) at the Hong Kong International Film Festival, I viewed its sequel at this year's fest.  Although the two cinematic offerings have different sets of directors, the titular characters (originally created by Belgian author-illustrator Gabrielle Vincent) are voiced by the same actors in both animated movies: with Lambert Wilson giving his voice to Ernest, the big bear with a big love for music, and Pauline Brunner giving her voice to Celestine, the little mouse who has far more courage and daring than most creatures many times her size.

 

After met and become fast friends in the 2012 movie, Ernest and Celestine now are house mates in this thoroughly entertaining follow up film. Ernest and Celestine: A Trip to Gibberitia begins with Ernest having just woken up from a nightmare (that shows his having encountered political oppression in his past) and three months of hibernation. The big bear is very hungry and is not happy to discover that there's not much at all to eat in the house.  It gets even more disgruntled after Celestine accidentally breaks his prize violin, and more upset still to discover that the little mouse has headed off to his home country to get it repaired by its maker -- the bear version of Antonio Stradivari.        

 

Although Ernest had told Celestine that Gibberitia was a land where much music could be heard, this turns out to not be the case when they get there and find that all but the playing of one musical note has been outlawed -- and that the maker of Ernest's violin is now a wanted criminal.  The bear's impulse is to get out of there (again) as soon as possible but this is not easy to do.  And soon, Ernest -- and Celestine -- find themselves embroiled in matters concerning Ernest's family (who consist of an authoritative doctor mother, imperious judge father and cute younger sister (named Mira) who looks set to follow in their mother's professional footsteps) and Gibberitia at large.

 

At the Q&A session that followed the screening of Ernest and Celestine: A Trip to Gibberitia here in Hong Kong, co-director Julian Chheng (who shared that his mother's originally from Hong Kong) was asked if this animated work had been banned or otherwise censored anywhere in the world.  This should tell you something about the film having political themes that involve rebelling against the authorities (as well as Hong Kong being the kind of place where tales of bears and a mouse as well as, most certainly, sheep and wolves can be considered problematic).       

 

Another question asked pointed to Ernest and Celestine: A Trip to Gibberitia also having subject matter that Hong Kongers (and other Asians) can relate to: including offspring wanting to pursue interests and careers that their parents -- at least initially -- frown upon their doing.  And when Julian Chheng divulged that he had drawn upon his personal experience with regard to this, there was much amusement indeed!

 

On a (still) lighter note: there is little doubt that this enchanting animated offering is a wonderful celebration of artistry -- visual and musical  Put another way: Ernest and Celestine: A Trip to Gibberitia is absolutely an audio-visual treat (with the voice work of the voice artists being top notch, as is the musical score by Vincent Courtois); one that I can see children loving and adults being able to appreciate it too.  In addition, the lessons and messages its makers seek to impart are ones that are worth taking by both the young and old.  (If any confirmation was needed: animated movies are not just for kids -- and, in fact, there were none at the Hong Kong International Film Festival screening I attended!) 

 

My rating for this film: 8.5     

Especially for fans of Puppet Ponyo... ;b

The Ponyo sisters hanging out at home in Hong Kong

Puppet Ponyo posing at the Tai Tam Tuk Reservoir

on a rare day out in the Big Lychee :)

Puppet Ponyo looking rather anxious for some reason

out on the beachfront at Mui Wo ;)

In the comments section of the hiking photo-essay I posted on this blog last Friday, regular reader -- and commenter -- Bill wondered how his favorite puppet plushie was doing.  While he was most certainly correct in his assumption that she was hanging out with the other Ponyo sisters at the time of writing, here's going ahead and giving him some visual evidence that Puppet Ponyo does venture outdoors in Hong Kong every now and then!

Although she certainly does enjoy visiting other territories (including Germany, Japan, Macau, Vietnam, South Korea, Luxembourg, Norway and The Netherlands), my regular travelling companion could be said to be most at home in Hong Kong.  This is, after all, the part of the world where Puppet Ponyo has done such as gone out hiking with me, to the beach, museums, and even a wetland park and a concert as well as knows that she's always free to just chill on my bed with Stress Ponyo and Muse Ponyo!  

At the same time though, it's true enough that the territory where Puppet Ponyo gets recognized the most and also attracts the most positive reaction is the Land of the Rising Sun.  In addition, Japan is where I'm most likely to encounter strangers willing to pose (with) Puppet Ponyo for me.

Those obliging folks who helped pose Puppet Ponyo in front of Kamakura's Daibutsu and the Tokyo Metropolitan Government's headquarters will forever have a place in my heart and memories.  And on my most recent Japan trip, another nice stranger offered to help hold on to my beloved travelling companion on the grounds of Matsumoto Castle when the winds threatened to blow the little puppet plushie -- if not away, then into either the castle's moat or the nearby sandy pathway! 

On other occasions, my German friend, my Tokyo-based American friend, her mother, other good friends and my mother have been the ones helping to make sure that Puppet Ponyo will look good for my camera.  So, actually, one of the great pleasures when viewing many of the pictures of my beloved travelling companion is my remembering the other people involved in getting those particular photos taken as well as the places where Puppet Ponyo and I were at the time that those snaps were taken. :)

Amsterdam's semi-hidden De Krijtberg

A physically impresive church which wasn't mentioned

in either my German friend's or my Amsterdam guidebooks!

 

The light at the time of the day that we visited

created some interesting visual effects

 

There's much within the church 

that catches the eye (too)!

 

Some five and a half years ago now, I went and spent time in Germany with my German friend who had recently returned to Deutschland after living and working in Hong Kong for a little over seven years.  Eager to show me some of her country's most famous sights, she took me to several cities, villages and towns, including the historic cathedral town of Speyer.

 

In many of these places, we'd inevitably visit at least one cathedral or church.  And I have to be honest and admit that I got "churched" out fairly early on!  Consequently, on the day that we went to Speyer (where we visited three churches in addition to its UNESCO World Heritage-listed cathedral), I told her that from now on, I was going to limit her to showing me "only" a maximum of three churches and cathedrals a day -- and I can remember this "rule" causing her much stress in Mainz, where there apparently were so many Christian places of worship that she wanted to take me to!

 

On my second trip to Germany and our first visit to Luxembourg in December 2015, that onus to visit churches and cathedrals remained strong.  So it was with some surprise that I got to realizing that it wasn't until my seventh day in the Netherlands that I visited my first churches and such in that country!  

 

As it turned out, the first two Christian places of worship I visited in Amsterdam were the "hidden church" and English Reformed Church located within the enclosed courtyard of the Begijnhof.  Then, shortly after my German friend, American friend and I left the Beginjhof's confines and I was admiring the late afternoon sky, my gaze was led -- seemingly by divine intervention! -- to an impressive nearby building whose identity was not disclosed in any of our tourist maps or guidebook but turned out to be a church built in 1881 on the grounds of yet another of those "hidden churches" which the Catholics resorted to worshipping in for a time after the Reformation and the founding of the largely Protestant Dutch Republic.

A Jesuit church dedicated to the St Francis Xavier who had done missionary work in several parts of Asia (and whose body was buried for a time in Malacca's St Paul's Church, and some relics remain installed in one of Macau's churches), De Krijtberg stands out from its neighboring buildings, thanks in no small part to its two 55-feet-high towers.  Built in the Neo-Gothic style, it's quite a bit bigger than it looks, due to only one side of its building being visible from the street.  On a related note: its exterior only hints at how impressive its generously decorated interior looks.

Seriously threatened with demolition in the 1970s, De Krijtberg was thankfully restored instead -- with that work finally being completed only in 2001.  I may not be all that religious but I do recognize human artistry.  And this is one of those churches that I'd consider a glorious work of art even while realizing that for some people, it's first and foremost a place of worship. 

Amsterdam's very accessible Royal Palace! (Photo-essay)

When my German friend and I visited Luxembourg in December 2014, we were surprised to discover that its Palais Grand Ducal was located in a central area of the capital city, with souvenir shops and eateries as well as the high court building and the home of its national legislature located within a stone's throw of the Luxembourg ruler's official residence.  

If anything, the Royal Palace Amsterdam appears to be situated even closer to "the masses" -- with it abutting Dam Square, where tourists, hot dog and hamburger sellers and buskers dressed like Darth Vader and Death abound!  Even more amazingly, I never saw anything approaching the Dutch equivalent of, say, the bearskin-hatted sentries at Buckingham Palace -- whose daily Changing of the Guards ceremony I loved watching as a child -- outside the palace. Also, there didn't seem to be all that many security guards about when my German friend and I went and visited the publicly accessible sections of this royal residence!

Something else I found interesting about that which is known in Dutch as either the Koninklijk Paleis Amsterdam or Paleis op de Dam is that its building had originally been constructed as Amsterdam's town hall -- and, in fact, had that function from 1648 to 1808.  One look at the photos of its interior below, though, and I think you'll agree that it actually is pretty palatial looking all the same...even if also creepy at times! ;b

 View of Amsterdam's royal palace from Dam Square

on the kind of gray day that was the norm when I was in the city

No I was not kidding about spotting Darth Vader 

at Dam Square, and in front of the royal palace! ;)

 

Walk in to the palace -- particular its Citizens' Hall -- though, 

and you'll feel like you've been transported into a different world!

 

At one end of the hall can be found this dramatic scene,

at the center of which sits Justice with a sword in one hand

and the scales in the other

On top of that group of statues is a giant one

of Atlas holding the celestial globe

 

What by palatial standards is a more workaday room ;b

 

In 2013, Queen Beatrix signed her abdication papers at this very desk,

while sitting on the very chair behind it -- and in so doing, 

passed on the Dutch throne to her son Willem-Alexander

 

In truth, such as these sculptures in the room known as the tribunal 

gave me the creeps, and had me wondering why royals would choose 

to live in this building, however grand parts of it really is! ;O

Back in Hong Kong and online once more! :)

Guess where I spent Christmas 2015 

and New Year's Day 2016...

A hint: it's a city where canals and bicycles abound! ;b

Kudos to those of you who correctly guessed Amsterdam! :)

Happy New Year to this blog's readers, especially the regulars (regardless of whether you reveal yourself on the comments threads or not) among you!  My apologies for not having posted for over two weeks -- but I've been travelling and, as is my wont when doing so, not spending all that much time in front of a computer and remain one of those people who feel able to get around and by without a smartphone. 

For the first time since 2009, I was away from Hong Kong over the Christmas period.  And for what may well be the first time since I moved to the Big Lychee, I rang in the new year in another part of the world from it.  Specifically, I just returned from spending the tail end of 2015 and the first couple of days of 2016 in what the Western European country popularly known as Holland and, actually, more correctly as the Netherlands.

A good chunk of my time in the Netherlands was spent in Amsterdam, the country's capital and most populous city (which actually is smaller than I thought -- with a population of less than 1 million people in the city proper).  I also managed to spend a day in The Hague, and a half day strolling about Haarlem, and am happy I did so because these other cities were noticeably different in many ways from Amsterdam; consequently, I felt like I got a more balanced picture of the Netherlands than if I had just remained in the exuberant multi-ethnic city that felt to me like New York City to the rest of the USA, and London to the rest of England/Britain.

If truth be told, this was not the time of the year that I considered ideal to visit the Netherlands -- and I definitely would not have opted to do so if I visited on my own.  But my German friend (who I had visited in Germany in December 2014  and also went with to Luxembourg) had asked me to consider going to Amsterdam over the holiday period as she'd then be able to meet up with me there.  And, as it so happened, it turned out that my going over to Europe this time of the year also meant that I was able to meet up with one other good friend -- who I had last hung out with in 2002, when we were both living in Philadelphia!

One reason why this was not the time I'd pick to go to Europe is that I'm not a big fan of wintry weather.  As I had jokingly told my German friend when I visited her in Germany in the last month of 2014, there was a possibility that I'd burst into tears if I were to catch sight of snow.  As it turned out, it didn't snow during that German visit -- and it was rain rather than its colder, whiter cousin that dampen the spiris on this trip to the Netherlands.

But on my way back to Hong Kong, I did have a bit of snow fall on me in Munich -- where the plane I had taken from Amsterdam had been one of those smaller aircraft that could not be connected to the airport's air bridges, and the plane for my connecting flight had to be de-iced before it could take off!  Still, just like I actually didn't cry when beholding surprisingly large amounts of snow in Norway last June, I did manage to hold back the tears at the snowy sights.  Now if my flight had been delayed or cancelled, it may have been a different matter -- though, come to think of it, I wouldn't mind spending one day or night in beery Munich, with or sans the white stuff... ;b 

10 more things I learnt about Germany on my most recent holiday there

Just one of the monumental sights I saw 

on my most recent trip to Germany

A snack I came across at a train station in Germany ;)

The final resting place of an avid reader

that I encountered on my most recent German vacation!

Ten more German vacation observations (to add to those that I made after my 2010 trip to Deutschland) -- again, in no particular order:-

1) Christianity's presence in Germany is noticeable not only in the many churches, cathedrals and minsters to be found in the country but also such practices as the vast majority of shops being closed on Sundays (with about the only exceptions being bakeries -- and those are only open in the morning on Sundays -- and petrol stations)!

2) Among the baked items I discovered in Germany this time around was the Berliner brezel -- which, to my mind, looked pretzel shaped but tasted more like a donut (though not one filled with jam the way that a regular Berliner -- donut, not person! -- is)

3) At Christmas markets in Germany, one can expect to find stalls selling gluhwein, many varieties of sausages, ditto re brushes, headgear, craft items, candies, spices and chocolate desserts, including chocolate covered fruits such as bananas, strawberries and pineapple rings -- and chocolate covered marshmallow treats that my German friend told me used to be called "negro kisses" but in our more politically correct times are now known as chocolate kisses!

4) In what also can be seen as a sign of political correctness (or increased egalitarianism), female versions (equivalents?) of St Nicholas as well as the more traditional males can be seen out and about on St Nicholas Day (on which my recent European vacation happened to have begun on!)

5) I'm not sure whether this is seen as forward-thinking or not but in Germany, children are allowed in bars and the sense I often got was that the brauhaus, especially those of the craft variety, are considered family friendly and look to be places where whole families are likely to go for a meal rather than just to drink and be merry.

6) Germans love their drink but don't seem to get drunk much or easily -- at least in the places I visited (which did include a number of brauhaus, and Christmas markets where lots of alcohol was being served!). I think one big reason for this is that, like with such as the Japanese (as opposed to the British), they tend to eat on occasions when they're drinking -- even if it's "just" a big pretzel!

7) Germany is full of surprises in terms of such as the kind of art to be found in religious buildngs, palaces and outdoor public spaces, the lack of tourists in some truly attractive towns* and -- I can hear my German friend screaming from thousands of miles re my stating this -- the number of sexy lingerie stores that can be found in many a town center!

8) One reason for Germany being full of surprises for the visitor is that many non-Germans don't realize that regional diversity exists in terms of such as the cuisine.  As my German friend said, what is often taken to be German food, culture, etc. outside of Germany is actually just Bavarian!

9) For much of its history, the part of Europe now known as Germany didn't have the borders that it currently does.  One consequence of this was that there has been more movement of people and populations around then is often realized, and ditto re their mixing.    

10) In more than one German town that I visited, it can be such a visual treat to stroll around the older sections that this museophile actually found myself often preferring to do that rather than check out a museum or more in the town! ;b

*I get the feeling that the stigma of Nazism continues to pervade many people's idea of Germany and that this is a not insignificant factor behind the country not attracting as many foreign tourists as would otherwise be expected.  Another possible factor is that people may think that it's expensive to visit.  I found neither to be the case -- with many of the Germans I met being friendly and welcoming (and also fluent in English), and food, drink and hotel prices to be quite a bit lower than Hong Kong, especially if you take into account the quality!

And for the record: this time around, the places in Germany that I visited included Ludwigshafen, Mannheim, Trier, Weinheim and Freiburg -- with a couple of days in neighboring Luxembourg thrown into the holiday equation. :)

Luxembourg's accessible Palais Grand Ducal

This is a really nice looking building -- 

but would you think it's a palace?

Puppet Ponyo poses in front of the gates at the back

of what is, in fact, Luxembourg's Palais Grand Ducal!

Early on during my German friend's and my visit to Luxembourg, we walked by a building in the center of the capital city that caught our eye because it had interesting decorations on its walls.  Elegant rather than outright grand to our eyes, it nevertheless turned out to be the Palais Grand Ducal (Grand Ducal Palace, aka Palace of the Grand Dukes) -- the official residence of the country's ruler.

It wasn't just the Palais Grand Ducal's relatively modest size that made me fail to immediately recognize that it's a palace, and that of a reigning head of state at that.  Rather, it that it seems so accessible -- in terms of there being no fencing at the front of it (only the back section where, one presumes, cars drive in) -- and there only being two soldiers visibly guarding the front (and just one more guarding the back).  

All of this makes the official residence of Luxembourg's ruler seem a far cry not only from the likes of Buckingham Palace and the White House but also the Chief Executive of Hong Kong's official residence.  As I later was to learn, visits by the public also can be made to the Palais Grand Ducal for several weeks in the summer too!  Talk about being an accessible palace and place!!

Something else I found interesting was Luxembourg's high court building being literally adjacent to the Palais Grand Ducal -- and the country's national legislature (i.e., the Chamber of Deputies) being located just a few meters away too.  In view of this, finding out that when it was originally constructed in the 16th century, the building housed the town hall actually isn't too surprising -- and ditto re the Grand Duke actually living for more of the year in the less central Berg Castle and also having a holiday home in the south of France!

As it's often been noted, "the rich are different".  Nonetheless, the ruler of Luxembourg does seem to realize -- unlike, say, the ruler of Hong Kong (something I perhaps noticed particularly since my visit to Luxembourg took place when the Occupy phase of the Umbrella Movement still was going on)  -- that, it's actually considered a good thing to, symbolically at least, come across as being close to the populace and accessible to the people, to the point of literally opening one's home to them for at least part of the year!

Notable sights at Luxembourg's Cathedral Notre-Dame

Old and (relatively) new at Luxembourg's Cathedral Notre-Dame

Not your usual European cathedral sights - 

Indian-inspired design elements among the columns!

 Another unusual presence in the cathedral is that of

a Madonna whose clothing is regularly changed!

On the first day that my German friend and I were in Luxembourg, we opted to go on a guided tour offered twice a week by the Luxembourg Tourist Office known as the Wenzel Circular Walk.  Lasting two and half hours long, it was very informative -- and close to being a personal tour thanks to there being only one other person going along it!  -- and all in all, we're glad that we went on it.

Among the places we stopped at on the tour was the Cathedral Notre Dame which, as our guide informed and proceeded to show us, was a former Jesuit church with Gothic and Renaissance elements that was considerably enlarged in the 20th century.  And among the visual highlights of this building pointed out by our extremely knowledgeable guide were columns in the older section of the cathedral that contained Indian motifs to commemorate the Jesuits' presence in India, and a Madonna figure displayed in the newer part of the cathedral whose clothes are regularly changed.

I'm not sure if I would have noticed these elements if the guide hadn't pointed out -- so there are indeed benefits to going on guided tours if the guide does his research and is good at communicating it, as was the case with the one we had in Luxembourg.  At the same time though, it's also true that one of the reasons why I generally prefer to go about on my own (or with a travelling companion as compatible as my German friend) is that this way, I/we can go about exploring and checking out stuff, etc. at our own pace -- and thus be able to linger whenever we want, etc.

So it was nice to have time to do just that in Luxembourg as well as go on the guided tour.  As it so happened, the day after we went on that tour, we returned to several sites that we felt that we had overly-hurried through or past the day before, including the cathedral.  And at the very least, it was only on our guide-free visit that I felt that I had enough time to more fully appreciate the sights and take the sort of photos I liked of those very elements -- and more -- that had been pointed out on the guided tour the previous day!

10 highlights of my 2014 year

What my favorite song of 2014 is about

The kind of views to be had along the best bicycle ride 

I've been on in years, not just 2014!

More than once last year, I got to thinking that 2014 seemed like the worst of times; but at other times, I also felt that it was the best.  Rather than fixate on the negatives, here's focusing when looking back at the year for the ninth year in a row now (wow!) on the positives and fondly recalling 10 of its highlights.

To be honest, I'm not sure if anyone other than myself gets much out of reading these lists.  But should you do, feel free to check out those for 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007 and 2006 along with 2014's!

1) Best Bar: Sake Bar Ginn gets my vote for the second year running!   Part of me still can't quite believe that I can love a drinking establishment located in Lan Kwai Fong so much.  However, the fact that one can easily forget that one is in Lan Kwai Fong -- even, sometimes Hong Kong -- while imbibing the lovely sake and partaking of the delicious food on offer there, and chatting with the many nice people amongs its patrons and staff, makes it the kind of place that I've ended up happily spending quite a bit of time in over the past few years! :)

2) Best Bicycle Ride: Up until I got on a bicycle at Bichen-Ichinomiya this past September, I had not been on a bicycle in years, even decades.  Fortunately, it's as the proverbial "they" say, once you know how to ride a bicycle, you won't forget how to do so.  And the 17 kilometer Kibi Plain bicycle ride I took from Bichen-Ichinomiya to Soja was as wonderful a way to celebrate my birthday as I had hoped that it would be -- actually, maybe even better than I had imagined it possible to be! :)

 

3) Best Book: I come from a part of the world where people live to eat (as opposed to eat to live).  So it's only natural that I'm a foodie -- and one who doesn't only love to eat but love to peruse through what has been described as "food porn".  In addition to having bookmarked lots of food blogs on my computer, I also enjoy reading books about food and eating.  Among my favorite books now is Steven A. Shaw's Asian Dining Rules. Sure, it's geared to American readers who are not super familiar with Asian food -- but Shaw clearly loves Asian food, is much more respectful of Asian food and cultures than many Americans I know, and writes in a way that makes one gain a greater appreciation of Asian food, the people who prepare them, and the people willing to give what's foreign to them a try.

4) Best Exhibition: On my most recent vacation (to Germany and Luxembourg), I didn't visit a single art museum or gallery.  In contrast, when I visited Japan in May of last year, I not only spent time in an art museum but it was at Kanazawa's 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art where I saw my favorite exhibition (and artworks) of 2014. Leandro Erlich is an Argentinian conceptual artist whose Swimming Pool is a permanent installation of the Kanazawa art museum.  But I had the good fortune to be in Kanazawa when the museum also was playing host to Leandro Erlich - The Ordinary? -- a special exhibition of the artist's works -- and thus was able to see a number of works over the course of just a few hours!

5) Best Hike: When I started hiking in Hong Kong, little did I think that within seven years or so, I'd have hiked up (and then down) the territory's highest and third highest peaks not once but twice each. While my second Tai Mo Shan hike may well be among my favorite hikes of 2014, the absolute favorite easily is the Sunset Peak hike I went on this past Chinese New Year -- which yielded as clear and beautiful views of the Lantau mountain's top as the ones on the 2013 Chinese New Year hike were cloudy and unclear! 

6) Best Meal: A new Japanese sushi-ya opened in a quiet section of Causeway Bay in 2014.  The first time I went to Uehara, I got a bit freaked out to discover that it's omakase only at dinner there. But while understandably pricey, dinners there are so wonderful that I've now had omakase there three times -- with my most recent visit having yielded what has to be my favorite meal of 2014, one so sublime that I definitely know where I'll be going when the time comes to give myself an ultra wonderful dining treat. ;b

7) Best Museum: The Hong Kong Maritime Museum may not be considered by many to be Hong Kong's best museum and I have a feeling that few living in "Asia's World City" have been through its doors.  I myself have to confess to not having bothered to do so when it was located in Stanley but early in 2014, I visited the museum which is now situated in Central, and was pleasantly surprised by how it made subject matter that I don't usually have much interest in to be really interesting -- and enough so that my German friend (who was here on a visit) and I ended up staying in there for longer than we had anticipated, and only left at the end because it was the announced that the museum was closing for the day!  

8) Best National Day Commemoration: Certain people don't care much for celebrating their national days.  (I think of Tanzanians, whose national day it often seemed - when I lived there - most people most happily celebrated by resting at home!)  Other people, like many Americans, get all bursting with pride and love for their country, and love doing such as going and watching 4th of July parades and fireworks.  But no one I know has celebrated a national day like many Hong Kongers did on October 1st, 2014 - by going out on the streets in their thousands to show their love for Hong Kong and exercising their right to be seen and heard on China's National Day. 

9) Best Song: The Umbrella Movement/Revolution's anthem, Raise the Umbrella, was voted the song of the year 2014 at Commercial Radio's annual music awards last week.  To me, this speaks of how strong support for the Umbrella Movement/Revolution remains -- and also how much this song strikes a chord with others besides myself.  Please go here to check out a music video featuring it that comes complete with Chinese and English subtitles.

10) Best Vacation: Partly because I ended up carrying over 10 leave days from 2013 to 2014, I took more out-of-town vacations this past year than has been the norm for some years now.  One of these saw me heading back to Penang for a few days, another saw my mother and I in South Korea in September, and this past December saw me hanging out with my German friend in Germany and also Luxembourg. I also made two separate visits to Japan in 2014, and it was the one which I've yet to actually chronicle yet which was my favorite vacation of the past year!  So yes, I will write about -- and put up many photos of -- the Japan trip I took last September... after I'm done doing such as blogging about my recent European vacation and writing up my "best of..." 2014 lists! ;)

Four (or is it five?) museums visited in Germany and Luxembourg

Night view of two Luxembourg museums 

 The Luxembourg City Museum of History has sections that look 

more like that of a fortress than a museological institution

Exhibits in the Museum Drai Echelen include this model 
of the old Luxembourg City fortress atop the Bock

I know that there are people who give museums a wide berth, and maybe especially when they're on holiday.  But it's hard for me to imagine my not going to at least one museological establishment when I'm on vacation, especially one that lasts more than a day or weekend. 

As it is, it's actually a bit of a surprise for me to realize that on the trip I took to Germany and Luxembourg less than a month ago (still!), there were a few towns where my German friend and I didn't go into a museum.  Also, that none of the museological institutions that we did visit were art museums -- in contrast to my Germany 2010 vacation, among whose highlights included a visit to Cologne's excellent Wallraf-Ritchardtz-Museum and Fondation Corbord!

Perhaps the closest to an art museum that I visited this time around was Trier's Rheinisches Landesmuseum -- an archaeology museum that is home to impressive ancient Roman mosaics and funerary art. Sadly while it undoubtedly has treasures in its collection, I found Trier's largest and most well known museum to have been the most disappointing of the many attractions (including a number of UNESCO World Heritage Listed sites) that I visited in that lovely city: partly because its exhibit design seemed among uninspired and dated; and also because its English audioguide was the least informative of all the ones made available at museums that I visited on this vacation.

Far more informative and interesting to my mind was the other museum I visited in Trier: the Museum Karl-Marx House which I've blogged about in some detail. And if they qualify as a museum (which I think they would and should!), those sections of Mannheim Palace that have been open to the public also would get my vote as a better museological attraction than the Rheinisches Landesmuseum.

As with those two museums, the two museological institutions that my German friend and I went to in Luxembourg were history museums.  And like them, the building that houses the Museum Drai Echelen is of historical significance, so one's visiting a historical monument as well as museum when one goes there.

Housed in the 18th century Fort Thungen, which looks rather eerie at night and imposing any time, the Museum Drai Echelen tells the history of Luxembourg, particularly its fortifications.  Having got in to town on a Wednesday, my German friend and I decided to take advantage of the museum waiving its admission fee between 5pm to 8pm on that particular day of the week.  And whatever fears we had about it being packed when we visited quickly disappeared when we got there after a lengthy feeling walk on a not particularly well lit path. In fact, we may well have been the more than 10 room-museum's only visitors that whole evening!

Suffice to say that I don't think that the Museum Drai Echelen deserves to have so few visitors as it looks to do (at least one dark winter evenings like the one we visited it on!).  And this too re that which gets my vote for the best museum I visited on this December 2014 vacation -- the Musee d'Histoire de la Ville de Luxembourg (aka the Luxembourg City Museum of History). 

Ironically, we probably would not have thought to visit this museum if not for the fact that the weather was on the gloomy, cold and wet side for much of our visit to Luxembourg; this because the thing with Luxembourg City, as with so many of the other cities and towns I visited on this recent holiday, is that just strolling about in them can yield so many historical and beautiful sights!  But once we entered into the exhibit area of the Luxembourg City Museum of History, my German friend and I knew that we'd be in for a real museological treat -- and be likely to spend several hours in the place.

If truth be told, none of the artefacts at the museum look as valuable in and of themselves as some of those to be found at the Rheinisches Landesmuseum in Trier.  But it seemed as though this state of affairs -- and, it has to be said, what looks to be a very nice sized budget -- motivated the Luxembourg museum's curators and exhibit designers to come up with creative, and visually and otherwise interesting ways to inform visitors about various sections of Luxembourg City's history and contemporary society.

Among the highlights for me in this museum was a temporary exhibit consisting of a series of photographs of women who cleaned for a living, and their workplaces, with a focus on the lighting in them.  It was interesting to see how the majority of the pictured women were not originally from Luxembourg -- and the different parts of the world they came from (including Portugal, Eastern Europe, Latin America and West Africa).  And it was nice to see, from the way in which they posed and looked at the camera, that they came across as women who know that they're performing important work that contributes to maintaining an environment that helps people to be healthy and feel good.