2012: A year of travel in review

I have not been posting to my travel blog much this year so seeing as it is now December, I thought I'd write a summary for 2012.

• My year started well with waking up on New Years Day in Paris. I had got there just for new years eve (with only about 2 hours to spare) after getting spending the night on a bus stuck on a closed, icy mountain road in the French Alps and having to be rescued by the rescue services (see separate blog post). I would visit Paris two more times in 2012, both in November, with a business trip and a trip to Disneyland Paris in the same week. 

• My business travel year also started well. I travelled to Pennsylvania for business meetings, and combined the trip with a weekend in Atlantic City. I managed to lose both my passports on this trip and only realised on my way to the airport to fly back to London. Luckily I managed to get them back!

• The Spring was packed full of travel! A boys' trip to Las Vegas for a mate's 30th, a long weekend in Tenerife, a business trip and weekend in Ireland, a surprisingly rainy weekend in Gibraltar, and Easter in Australia, where I went just for a week. I surprised my parents as I didn't tell them I was coming home. On my way back from Melbourne I stopped over in Doha to look around. 

• During the summer, my parents were over from Australia. With them, I travelled to Prague and Venice, and also did various sightseeing around the south of England. 

• However, my main trip this summer was to the Benicassim Festival, on the coast of Spain between Barcelona and Valencia  We stayed at a spa resort instead of roughing it camping, spending the nights at the festival and the afternoons recovering on the beach.

• Autumn was spent chasing the last of the summer sun. I saw my parents off to Dubai on their way back to Australia, and had a weekend in Ibiza with my girlfriend.

• Other business trip destinations this year included Brussels, Madrid, Munich, Oslo, Prague, Vienna and Zurich.

• My travel year will finish off with flying to Miami on Christmas Day to get some winter Florida sun!

Overall less flights this year than 2011 but about the same distance flown:

G'day from the land of the Drive Thru Bottle-o

When I last wrote I was just gearing up for Christmas, with a little shopping trip to France. The week that followed involved more Christmas festivities and paying particular attention to the media's reports about the trouble at Heathrow Airport.

First of all apparently many people were missing flights because the extra airport security needed after the August London terrorism scare couldn't cope with the masses all escaping London for the holidays.
Then to make matters worse, you may have heard that London was engulfed in some major fog. It really was quite bad. Think of the worst fog you have ever seen early in the morning or very late at night, and apply it for four days non-stop. That's what it was like. Hundreds and hundreds of flights from Heathrow were cancelled, and I was worried because on Saturday 23rd December (the busiest Heathrow day - oh no), I was to fly to Prague.

On the night of the 22nd I had a lovely English Christmas dinner followed by pressies with my house mates and friends and retired to bed early (around midnight) because the next morning was a 4am start to get to the airport the recommended 2 hours early for my flight to Prague. Luckily the fog had lightened up a bit, and the crowds were really full on (I had to wheel my suitcase over people's feet to get through) but it was manageable. In the end my flight had a 90min delay not because of weather conditions or crowds, but because some idiot parked a truck in front of the departure gate where we were meant to get on a bus to take us to the plane on the tarmac, and took over an hour to move it. Nevertheless I arrived in equally foggy Prague safe and sound.

I was greeted by my Czech aunt and cousin and taken to their village outside of Prague. There I relaxed, enjoyed a traditional Czech Christmas (minus the carp fish for dinner, having schnitzels instead), including pressies on Christmas Eve and just generally chilled out in the countryside, including a nice forest bike ride in around freezing temperatures.

On Christmas Day my aunt and cuz took me to Plzen (Pilsen), the original city where Pilsner beer came from and where lager as we know it was initially invented. I was sure to have some Pils at a traditional 17th Century beer hall, complimented of course with some beef gulas.

By the 27th I was well and truly over village life (although going to the well in the village square with buckets to get water and collecting firewood did have a certain 1800's charm about it) so I ventured into Prague itself. I spent the next few days in Prague walking around, taking in the winter atmosphere (and a lot of sausages
served on cardboard with mustard and rye bread), feeling like a bit of a dag walking around with thermals under my jeans and a ski jacket. I felt like less of a dag when mid afternoon on the 28th the heavens opened and covered the city with a few inches of snow. It was wonderful walking around the city and home through the suburbs on fresh powder. Everything looks so nice blanketed in white. Great, although I I returned to feeling like a dag falling on my arse after slipping on ice.

By the 29th December I was a bit bored with Czechia and decided on impulse to jump on a train to Dresden, Germany, for a day trip. The 2.5 hour train ride was beautiful. The whole train link between Prague and Dresden runs along the bank of the Elbe River, the valley looking quite magical covered in snow.

Dresden itself was a really nice city. It was close to flattened by the allies in WW2 but you wouldn't guess it by looking at it. It was rebuilt to a crisp clean city yet retaining what looked like to me as old style-architecture that you see in cities like Prague as well as massive contemporary shopping centres that the Czechs seemed to be visiting in swarms.

Upon returning to Prague that night I met up with some friends of my mum who she used to hang out with when she was 18. They still lived in the same neighbourhood and they took me to a pub in the area which my
mum and her friends used to hang out in. It's a really good feeling travelling across to the other side of the world to see what the folks used to do for a good time (ie. drink beer - more than happy to follow those footsteps).

For New Years weekend my friend Nicolle came over from London and we partied in the city. Midnight was spent on the amazing Charles Bridge (amongst the horde of mostly Italians) watching fire works shoot out from just about every surrounding neighbourhood.

New Years Day was a lovely day, and I tried to suppress my hangover by going for a walk in Petrin, a big hilly park right by the city. But by 5pm I was in bed trying to forget about my hung over existence. The
next day I left that existence behind, catching a train to Vienna. The 4-hour fast Pendolino Tilt train ride was quite luxurious. The luxury continued as I got picked up in Vienna by a friend who took me by car to the village that I lived in as a refugee when I was 6 years old after my parents and I escaped the Communist Czech Republic. I stayed in the Guest House run by the family that put us up when we stayed there originally, so it was a nice trip down memory lane. I got to do some alpine sightseeing in the snow, and even went skiing for a day.

Then I returned to Prague and then London. I worked my last week in London and went for a weekend ski trip in Italy. The European snow season was really poor so there wasn't that much good skiing to be done, but in Italy it is enough of an adrenalin rush just getting into a car, so our taxi ride from the airport made up for the poor snow in the thrill stakes.

Upon returning to London for the last time it was all about packing and going away parties before finally arriving back in Melbourne on the 25th January, to some beautiful weather, great food and welcoming friends and family.

Thanks to everyone who I met along the trip for making it fun and successful and for those at home for staying in touch.

A Wintery Approach to Christmas

Since I last wrote the winter here in England has really started to set in. To celebrate, the English seemed to have gone firework crazy. Every night for the last month the suburbs have echoed and been lit up during the evenings with fireworks from every direction you look into. Unlike in Australia where we have to drive to Canberra to get our hands on these big boys' toys, they are widely available here in corner stores. This all lead to build up to a strange English ritual called "Bonfire Night" the other night when everyone crowds together to enjoy massive fireworks displays and big bon fires all over London, leaving the city and suburbs in a thick smoky haze the next morning.

A few weeks ago, when I was coming in to land from my weekend away in Prague I could see fireworks all over London from the plane which was quite an amazing site. The weekend away in Prague was interesting and almost didn't happen. A week earlier, in true Daniel style, I had lost my wallet on a London. I withdrew some money over-the-counter at a bank branch to cover me until I would receive replacement cards but stupidly on the Friday afternoon that I was flying out I left all the cash I had at the my client's office in Guildford, Surrey, as I headed to London Gatwick Airport. Half way between Guildford and Gatwick, the train that I was on stopped in some small town and wouldn't continue because a lorry (English for truck) had wedged itself under a bridge up ahead and the train line was closed until they could remove it and certify the bridge safe. I started getting worried as I knew JetStar-style-cheapo-airline EasyJet closed check in strictly 30min before scheduled departure. I knew I had to get a taxi the rest of the way but others people from the train were fighting to get one of the few available taxis in the town. This is when I also realised I had no money what-so-ever to pay for a taxi to get to the airport. This is when panic started to set in, but luckily for me I managed to team up with 3 random strangers to split a cab which we somehow managed to get, and one of the strangers, a trainee Catholic priest, agreed to cover my share. I managed to get the plane in time, and make it to Prague for a nice weekend of carefully budgeted small spending of some Czech Koruny I managed to borrow from my aunt over there.

While in Prague I ventured into the suburbs and found the house I lived in up when I was 5 years old, and visited my neighbours across the road. They had some difficulty in recognising me, but that was a nice trip down memory lane (or Severovichodni V street to be exact).

Back here in London I've been learning to cope with the cold weather which everyone assures me will get much colder. As opposed to winter in Australia, which is just bothersome, there is something romantic about the winter in Europe. The cold seems to go nicely with the feeling of the place, and the people rug up really elegantly.

But the countdown to my return to warm weather in Oz in January has now begun. I am looking forward to having proper Aussie (Melburnian style) fish & chips when I get home. The English version of fish & chips is battered cod with chips and peas (with no flake, potato cakes or dim sims in sight, or even defined in the dialect for that matter).

Life in Prague, Return to London, Easter in Edinburgh

When I last wrote I was in Prague.

Prague is the only city I have seen on my travels so far that hasn't got a Starbuck's. I am so proud of that!

I left the beautiful city somewhat sad that I was leaving its brilliant vibrant yet classic atmosphere, but reassured that I would return very soon. After all my eventual trip home begins with a flight from Prague, so I have to go back to catch it.

From Prague I took a coach to the city of Brno, in the Moravia region of the Czech Republic. I spent a few hours there and then went to Brno Airport. This international airport is probably the smallest airport I
have ever been to, and reminded me a little bit of Launceston Airport in Tasmania which I visited earlier this year. It was a beautiful sunny afternoon so after checking in I went back outside and sat on the grass and bench outside relaxing in the sun, something you really can't do at the world's bigger airports. After eventually deciding I better head to the departure lounge, the passport control bloke made me sign my Czech passport, because apparently it is not valid without a signature. Interesting that I managed to get in and out of England and into the Czech Republic with it, but not out.

My Ryan Air flight from Brno to London was much less comfortable than the coach ride from Prague to Brno. The coach had movies, magazines, a free beverage service, reclining seats and customer service with a
smile. The Ryan Air flight had none of these.

When I left the plane the shock of the cold almost blew me away. It was a horrible stormy evening (which didn't exactly result in a smooth flight either - it was one of the scariest landings I've had yet). It was not a nice welcome back to England but since then the weather has improved a bit. (The weather is now quite mild and the trees are starting to go green, a transformation from grey to green that I have been looking forward to witnessing.)

London is huge and very busy. It has 5 major commercial airports, and the bus from Stansted Airport where I landed took about 2 hours to get to central London. I then needed to get 2 underground trains to finally get to my destination. Once I arrived in South Kensington I walked around in the rain and freezing cold for quite a while before I found the Beit Quad, which is the Imperial College hall of residence where I was staying. Once there I was very happy because it is beaut accommodation, and an absolute bargain for London Standards (yet still quite expensive on the Aussie-Dollar-Credit-Card).

Kensington is an absolutely beautiful part of London. Very safe, clean and posh. I have really enjoyed just walking around the streets and beautiful parklands. During the day I have been trying to get myself
organised, applying for jobs, looking around at more permanent accommodation and other fun stuff like that.

I was walking through the Imperial College campus a week or 2 ago when I saw adds for STA Travel Easter weekends. I realised why be in London for 4 days of not being able to work or organise anything, and made an impulse purchase to go to  Edinburgh for a 4 day tour starting Good Friday.

So I got up on Friday and headed to the departure point of the tour on the tube (London underground train system, the only way to get around London). It happened to turn out that there were 3 Aussie girls on the
same carriage as me that were all headed to  Edinburgh too. We all got talking and didn't even notice that the train didn't stop at the station we required. Two stations later we got off the train and caught the next one going back in the other direction. But it turned out to be an overland train headed in a completely different
direction. We were lost, and late for our tour, with no way to contact the operators. A bit of panic and running for trains to backtrack we eventually made it onto the tour bus.

The tour consisted of 30 people, of which 3 were South Africans (or Saffas as we call them here in London), 2 kiwis, 2 Americans, 2 Hungarians and the rest were Aussies, including the tour leader. Everyone lived in London to either work or study and were getting away for Easter. The bus ride was long. Very long. 10 hours, and the bus didn't have a DVD player nor a toilet. I managed to use the time to catch up on sleep the best one can on a bus. 

 It was worth it though.  Edinburgh is a beautiful, friendly city. It is also a party capital. The city was full of people from all around Europe partying on stag trips, rugby trips and of course Aussie tourers. Much of our time was spent in the bars and nightclubs, but we still managed to fit in a bit of sightseeing. We had beautiful sunny weather which really made the city shine. The old architecture and overlapping city streets (many streets run over others below as the city was built over the old town) made every corner a picturesque place to explore. 

Highlights for me of the trip were the side trip to the beautiful town of Sterling (where the battle from Braveheart happened) and the ghost tour of Edinburgh's underground alleyways on a cold, wet, rainy night.

I have also attached some photos from the tour. I haven't got my photos yet, but downloaded some photos that some Saffa mates took in my presence.   


I'm back in London now, back to trying to get settled in. Beit Quad has become student accommodation again so they kicked me out. I will move into a flat soon, but in the meantime I've been hopping around
various dodgy hotels around London, basically the cheapest ones in or near Central London, staying a few nights at each.

I've finally found some work. I'm temping as a litigation paralegal at a big international law firm called [Law Firm], working on a huge matter, acting for a publicly listed company. The work is expected to go till mid-June, with plenty of overtime, so that should keep me going for a bit.

On Sunday I'm off to Dublin to do a 6-day-all-Ireland tour. That should be great!

I know this was a ridiculously long email, but I hadn't written in a while so I hope that at least justifies it.

Cheerio

Daniel

SOME STATISTICS ABOUT THE TRIP SO FAR:

• Time spent travelling so far: It was 2 months on Easter Monday
• Most nights slept in one bed: 7 (London at Rach and Stevo's House)
• Number of Flights Flown: 9 flights in 9 weeks (MEL-LAX, OAK-SAN, SAN-LAS, LAS-DEN, DEN-JFK, JFK-BOS, BOS-LHR, LHR-PRG, BRQ-STN)
• Number of Photos Taken: Approaching 1,000
• Combined number of Animals lived with: 6 (3 dogs, a snake, a turtle and a cat) [and numerous mice if you count the mice I saw in the kitchen of the San Francisco Hotel I stayed in]
• Number of American States Visited: 8 in 5 weeks (CA, NV, AZ, CO, NY, MA, NH, ME). I'll have to visit the other 42 next time.
• Number of Group Emails written: 9 including this one, I think
• Number of times at an Aussie Pub in the 1st week of being in Lodnon: 3 or 4. Was clearly feeling homesick that week!

My new homes (for now): England & Czechia

Hi Everyone!

The last time I wrote I was in the middle of registration interviews with some legal recruitment agencies in London. The interviews went well and I have currently got the recruiters looking for short term legal positions for me. I am also registered for temp work, and so far have worked half a day as a "paralegal" in a scanning house, helping a scanning outsourcing company scan documents in for importation into a litigation database. Sounds interesting, perhaps. However, it was work that a 3 year old could have done (removing coloured pages from batches of documents), so I am hoping to get something more challenging soon, otherwise I will feel that my 6 years at University had really gone to waste.I have not been much of a tourist in London.

After travelling the USA for 5 weeks, sightseeing every day, I wanted a bit of a rest in England. I went to a lot of pubs, caught up with friends, and just generally enjoyed some socialising, particularly with Rach and Stevo who were kind enough to put me up at their house and show me around London. Thanks, I really appreciate it.

I did manage to make it to one tourist attraction, the "British Airways London Eye" which is basically a massive Ferris Wheel with views all over London; that pretends to be a British Airways aeroplane by calling the ride a "flight". We went at sunset, so we got the best of both worlds - seeing the cityscape during the day and also with the lights on as it got dark. Unfortunately we couldn't see the sunset itself, through the clouds and smog.

On Friday I decided to go ahead fly to Prague in the Czech Republic, because, being so close, I was too excited to put it off any longer. So I headed off to visit my Czech family and friends and to return to London when work related matters required me to. That's the beauty of Europe - everything is so close!

So I flew into Prague to return to Czechia for the first time in 20 years (I originally left in 1986). Entering the country was an overwhelming feeling, a mix of feeling like I was in a foreign place at the same time as feeling like I was home. For the first few days and even now to some extent, every time I hear someone speak Czech it catches my attention the same way it would when I heard the language back in Australia (quite rare) but then I remind myself that its the just normal thing here.I was picked up at Prague Airport by my aunty and cousin and taken back to their house in the Czech countryside just out of Prague. Just seeing the countryside, the small towns, the roads, creeks and forests was an amazing experience for me. The landscape and dwellings are just so radically different to Australia that I really appreciate the contrast.It was really nice staying in a house in a country village in central Europe - a really cosy warm feeling. But I really enjoyed the trips to Prague! Prague is an amazing city. So modern yet so old at the same time. You travel around in a really modern metro system only to exit onto cobble stone streets with buildings that date back a long time before the First Fleet ever landed on Australian shores. It is a real city of contrasts. You pay the equivalent of $3 for a beautiful traditional meal and 80c for a 500ml beer, and then potentially pay more than what we would pay in Australia for a McDonald's meal.At the moment there are some pretty serious floods in the Czech Republic, Austria, Hungary and Germany but not as serious as the major floods in 2002. Luckily the areas that I am visiting are mainly unaffected, although some restaurants on the banks of the river Vltava here in Prague are well under water.

At the moment I am staying with a friend of my mum's in a Prague apartment for a few days to be closer to the city. A snake and a turtle also live in my room, so I am not lonely. They keep an eye on me. I have been feeling sick over the last few days so I have been resting, but my mum's friend has taken very good care of me here, so I have been lucky.I have a few more days to check out Prague, then on Sunday I'm catching a bus to the city of Brno in Moravia, from where I will fly back to London to continue job hunting. But I will come back to Prague again soon for a Longer time, there is still so much more for me to experience here.

Next week I will be living on campus at a London University. The halls of residence are public accommodation during the Easter Holidays. So that should be an interesting experience. After that, who knows what's next? I just filled out a volunteer application form for the Roskilde Festival in Denmark for June.

Ahoj