Random Findings

I was very bored today, so I forced Rob into taking a walk with me.
The best way to learn a city is to walk it. You always see things that you would never have seen if you rode in a bus or car. We were told that there were many hiking paths that went up into the mountains, we just had to find them. We walked along a main street for awhile trying to find a bridge to cross the river. As we were walking we saw four beautiful birds.


I don't know if they were cranes or herons, I'm leaning more towards heron because it flew with its neck curved, but I don't know for sure. They were a dusty blue colour, and darker blue under their wings. They were standing in the river, but when we walked by they became airborne gliding around in formation for a while before resting in the trees on the far side. After that we found a trail that didn't really look public, but we decided to walk it anyway. It was a nice footpath beside a frozen river. After a bit though we saw in the distance a monk doing monk things, so we decided to turn around quietly and leave him to his monkish activities. The second path we found seemed more promising as it had a sign, with a map. This was a really nice path that followed a frozen stream up the mountain. In the summer i am sure it will be just beautiful, when the leaves come out, the ferns wake up and the flowers bloom. Along the way we found an underground spring with absolutely delicious water, and a outdoor gym. We didn't follow the path to the end, as the sun was setting. Maybe tomorrow...