A mild winter

Last winter, as I trained for a half marathon in April, I was constantly having to run through frost and snow in and around London. This winter, however, has been very mild. It has barely been freezing at all, which is more than I can say for some of the winters I've endured since moving to London. Some years I've witnessed a frozen serpentine in Hyde Park and tubes not running due to snow.

Last week I visited Oslo for a business trip. I expected Norway in winter to be a really cold experience but even there it was surprisingly mild. No snow on the ground and temperatures in the positive side of the Celsius scale.

Grand Hotel in Oslo, where I stayed on this occasion.

Getting up at 4am sucks

Anyone who knows me well will tell you I'm not a morning person. It is hard enough to get in to the office by 9am most mornings.

So when I tell you that I got up this week not once but twice at 4am you will understand that that is quite a struggle for me.

Last week I needed to go to a meeting in Stockholm for work but didn't have time to stay there the night before and needed to be back that night for a work function (at the top of Tower Bridge - can't be missed!)

So I got up at 4am to get the 6:30am flight from Gatwick to Stockholm, just in time for my 11am meeting. Then time for a quick beer (150 SEK for 2 beers! That's about GBP 15!) before hitting the 4:50pm flight back to London City airport in good time to get back to the party on top of London's most famous land mark (well maybe second after the Elizabeth Tower  of the Palace of Westminster best known as the Big Ben).

The second time was leaving Glastonbury yesterday morning, in order to avoid the crowds leaving the festival. It is strange getting up at 4am at a music festival, a time where a good proportion of people have not gone to bed yet.

The up-side, of living in the UK, however, is that 4am is about the time it gets light at this time of the year, and by 5am the sun is truly up.

Glastonbury Festival

I've been a bit poor at updating this travel blog lately, and normally I write about international travel, not things like trips to music festivals. But for Glastonbury I'm going to make an exception.

I've been to a lot of music festivals in my time, both in Europe and in Australia. From going every year to small festivals like Meredith Music Festival (a couple of hours from Melbourne) to bigger European festivals like Sziget in Hungary and Isle of Wight (circa 65,000 people). But nothing I have ever experienced even comes close to Glastonbury.

Glastonbury, where I went for 4 days around this weekend, is a whole city set up in the west country of England catering for the 135,000 ticket-holders  plus many more thousands of staff and performers over 100 stages. It took me about an hour to walk from one side of the festival site to the other, and another 45 minutes to the car park. What a huge set up.

I was fearful of images I remember seeing in newspapers in previous years of revellers wading through knee-deep mud and just about needing boats to haul their camping gear across the site. I encountered a night of rain upon arrival but was lucky to get scorching sun* throughout the long weekend. Which was great for sitting in the sun with cider, watching band after band come and play.

Watching bands play in the sun at Glastonbury

There were hundreds of acts across a handfull of main stages and some 100 other small stages. Watching the Rolling Stones with about 100,000 other people was an interesting experience, but of course some of the more intimate performances might remain more memorable.

Despite the massiveness of it all, the people are friendly and the crowds are mostly tame. The festival organisers did a great job of managing so many people. Nevertheless, a camp out festival still ends with getting home and appreciating the comforts available, like flushing toilets, warm showers, and peace and quiet. Or am I just getting old?

* - Scorching by English standards, that is. Nothing like the 45 degrees I had to endure on New Years Day 2006 at the 2005 Pyramid Rock Festival on Phillip Island with a huge hang over (partly caused by the lack of food available at the festival) and no shade.

Miami to Mexico

My 2012 ended in Miami and 2013 began in Mexico!

I've never spent a Christmas in London. In 2012 I escaped last minute, and flew out on Christmas Day (which actually isn't easy, as there is no public transport in London on Christmas Day, not even the Heathrow Express.)

I thought Christmas Day at Heathrow would be quiet, but boarding the London to New York flight was anything but. It turns out, unsurprisingly really, that these cities' large Jewish populations disregard Christmas altogether.

Miami Beach

I landed in Miami on Christmas night and headed straight for my hostel right in the middle of South Beach's Art Deco District. I didn't have a lonely Christmas night, as the Miami Beach International Travellers Hostel is not a quiet place! The place is something of a party base. Between the party  atmosphere and  the warm weather (t-shirt weather despite it being the middle of winter), it was hard to tell it was Christmas.

South Beach

Miami is an interesting place. The main thing that surprised me (which I first found out on my connecting flight from New York to Miami, where I was the only English speaker apart from the American Airlines crew) was that it's mainly a Spanish-speaking city. With it's large Cuban population, Spanish is the main language used by the locals and English seems to be reserved for the tourists.

But I really liked the place - a much more relaxed part of the US than I'd experienced elsewhere, with beach culture and fitness being prevalent.

Florida Keys

After a couple of nights at Miami I headed back to the airport but not to fly. No, I was there to rent a Mustang Convertible.

I drove the red beast down the Florida Keys, across the long bridges of the Overseas Highway which I'd marvelled at on TV since being a teenager.

Hours later, after battling holiday traffic all day and lots of stop to take photos of....errr, Bridges, I made it all the way down to Key West, the southern most part of continental USA.

The problem with arriving at a popular holiday destination at sunset, especially one that's quite a small city, on a day between Christmas and New Years is that there isn't a lot of accommodation. I couldn't find anything.

In the end I ended up driving the whole 300 km back to Miami stopping off at various motels and hotels on the way with no luck whatsoever.

(Tip to proprietors: If your vacancy sign is lit up but there is no vacancy, turn the damn thing off!!)

Even in Miami I had trouble finding a room, despite going from hotel to hotel and in the end ended up at a run down motel near the airport.  Despite looking far from luxurious, I was desperate to get some sleep, so I went to enquire about a room.

I should have known something was up when they queried in broken English, "you want it for the night?"

Yes, of course I want it for the night, it's a hotel room, right?

Oh.

It's THAT sort of hotel room. Maybe I should have asked for the hourly rate. It's not like I got much sleep anyway.

"You can have room number 5, over there."

"OK," I replied. "Do I get a key?"

"No. Just lock the door behind you."

Upon entering the room and duly locking the door behind me, I definitely knew what kind of place I was in. The windows were boarded up so nobody could see inside. There was a TV, already on, showing only one channel - hardcore porn. And I didn't want to let my face touch the pillowcase.

I slept, shivering from the cold (I was too disgusted to get under the covers, and couldn't go to the car to get more clothes because I couldn't lock the door behind me) whilst thinking about whether my red Mustang would still be waiting for me in the morning.

Morning did, eventually, come. And I was out of there as quickly as possible. I left with my head hung low as I didn't want anyone to see me leaving the place, or the owners to ask "you sure you wanted it for the night?"

I drove to the nearest McDonald's and used their bathroom to get changed from the previous day's clothes and brush my teeth. You know you're in a dodgy hotel when you'd rather bathe in a McDonald's toilet.

Fort Lauderdale

I decided to head up North to Fort Lauderdale. The suburbs between Miami Beach and Fort Lauderdale were quieter beach-side communities and really pleasant.  Fort Lauderdale itself was touristy, with nice beaches and plenty to do. This time I found a hotel nice and early, and enjoyed staying right on the beach.

Return to Miami Beach

I returned to Miami for 3 more nights culminating in New Years Eve. I stayed at the Miami Hostel on the non-beach side of South Beach. Despite being significantly further from the beach than the previous place I stayed, I would have to say it was one of the nicest, friendliest and most pleasant hostels I've ever stayed at. Guests culminated in the outdoor decked area to socialise and relax and prepare for their nights out.

Holding a baby alligator in the Everglades

I was excited to go on an air boat ride in the Everglades, something remembered seeing as a kid back in the 80s in the movie Police Academy 5 (which I thought was good at the time but click the link to see the awful trailer) to go alligator spotting.

New Years Eve was at the world famous Nikki Beach but it wasn't to be a late one as I had to get up at 5am on New Years Day to head to the airport to catch my flight to Cancun.

NYE at Nikki Beach

Cancun

I arrived at the aiport in good time and got through security quickly. Turns out early morning on new years day is a good time to fly. I managed to catch up on sleep for an hour or two in the lounge.

I arrived at Cancun airport about lunchtime, and started off my 2013 with some Mexican food and a Dos Equis beer, complete with lime, while I waited for my girlfriend to fly in from Canada, where she had spent Christmas.

Our first 3 nights in Mexico were spent on Cancun's hotel zone, in an all-inclusive hotel. The hotel zone is a peninsula some 10km long, which contains just about nothing but hotels and golden beaches. I know, it doesn't sound exotic at all, but after a week staying in backpackers hostels and dodgy motels, an all inclusive, beach-side stay, complete with hot tub on the balcony, is exactly what the doctor ordered.

My girlfriend and I spent the days and evenings lounging, drinking, swimming, drinking, eating, drinking and walking along the beach.

We did venture into town on the bus one evening, and experienced shopping in a real Mexican supermarket, where 1 litre bottles of tequila went for about £4/$6.

Isla Mujeres

For our last three nights we headed out of the hotel zone, and caught a ferry over to Isla Mujeres, an island off the coast. We checked into a hotel there which exceeded my expectations. It was the biggest hotel suite I've ever had, with a massive balcony overlooking the tip of the island, and, you guessed it, another balcony hot tub.

Isla Mujeres, while touristy, was more down to earth than the mainland resort area, and definitely very relaxed. Golf cart was the way to get around the island, which could be done in an hour or two if not stopping off at beaches for swimming and nachos.

My hot girlfriend drives me around the island in a golf cart

Unfortunately after 3 nights on the island it was time to leave the snorkelling trips and beach massages behind, and head back to London to proceed with 2013 in reality. 

A quiet weekend in the Cotswolds

Last Friday I took a day off work and ventured into The Cotswolds for a winter long weekend with my girlfriend.

The Cotswolds are a part of England not too far from London (just beyond Oxford) which have rolling hills and cute villages. Apart from the literally freezing cold, it made for a nice relaxing weekend away from the big smoke.

The weekend involved driving around the villages and going on country walks, and then warming up by the a fireplace in a pub.

The place we stayed is worth mentioning. The Feathered Nest Country Inn is a gastropub and B&B in a little village with views over the hills.  Great service, amazing food, large open fire and 5 star hotel quality!

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:

Violence and Looting in London

A rather different travel blog post tonight!

This has certainly been one of the most interesting, and somewhat scary, moments of my time away from Australia.

On Saturday night there was a bit of rioting in the North London area of Tottenham. I didn't pay much attention to it. It is a rough area, and I didn't think much more of it.

On Sunday I had breakfast with friends in Brixton.  The area was just gearing up to have a street festival. It ended that day in looting in the area.

Today is Monday. This evening various looting, rioting and violence has spread all over London. I've just put together a map showing some of the epicentres where this has taken place (in red) compared to where I live (in green).


View London Riots in a larger map

Buildings on fire. Shops ransacked. Buses burned. Police attacked.

I went shopping in Clapham Junction on Sunday. Now I hear the book store is the only shop that hasn't been looted.

Apparently there are not enough police to tackle it all.

And now it is spreading to Camden and Tower Bridge areas.

Interesting times in London. Tomorrow after work I fly to Budapest.

A crazy fortnight of travel: Belfast, Ibiza and Oslo

I have had a busy couple of weeks.

NORTHERN IRELAND

Last week I started the work week in Belfast. I went on the Sunday morning (after a big day at Royal Ascot and an even bigger night out in Putney) to do some sightseeing and stayed for the Monday and Tuesday for work meetings.  It was an interesting time to be there, with the worst violence in 10 years erupting during my stay. See my post on Belfast here.

I came home on Tuesday night and had a few nights at home. On Thursday night I packed my things again, and on Friday headed off to work. After work I joined some friends at the London Zoo for a late night opening, and headed down to Gatwick Airport for another trip away.  I was going to Ibiza, for a very short time, and it went a little something like this:

SPAIN

Friday

21:30 - Arrive at Gatwick and check in. Find out there's nothing to do at Gatwick at this time of the night, and nowhere to buy food, as everything is already closed!

22:30 - Flight takes off from London Gatwick

Saturday

01:30 - Flight lands on the Spanish island of Ibiza. I am all ready to catch a taxi to the other side of the island and withdraw plenty of Euros to cover it. Then I realise there is a bus that can get me there for about €4.

02:30 - I figure out what bus stop to get off at and find my way to the hotel, which is in the middle of nowhere, both thanks to Google Maps the GPS on my Blackberry.

03:00 - I am way too tired (and alone) to see the Ibiza night-life, and anyway I'm in the middle of nowhere, so I go to sleep.

11:00 - I wake up in Ibiza, refreshed. I wander around the San Antonio and realise I'm not far from some nice beaches, bars, restaurants and nightclubs. I walk all the way to the San Antonio city centre and eat breakfast on a rocky beach in a small hidden-away cove.    I enjoy wandering around San Antonio. The place has clear blue water, and is buzzing with life.  I'm a little put off by the vast majority of Brits, some very trashy, and the full English breakfasts advertised at every restaurant and bar.

21:00 - I'm waiting for my friends to arrive from London. I have dinner at a beach-side bar enjoying the sunset. I have some beers from some bars on the way back to the hotel.

Sunday

00:30 - My friends finally arrive at the hotel, having just flown in from London. We don't waste any time. We head out to various bars and club. Our first drink is, sensibly, a vodka and Red Bull. Each one is made in a pint glass, with about a triple shot of vodka and a full can of Red Bull. It costs €5.

06:00 - We've been to a few places and even played 2 rounds of drunk bumper cars. , We haven't made it to any of the megaclubs. We stumble out of a Scottish pub. It is broad daylight, we are drunk, and one of my friends can't stand. I decide to try to flag down a taxi.

06:20 - I haven't succeeded in getting a taxi. I realise there is a taxi rank, so we go and (attempt to) stand in the long queue.

06:21 - We are rescued by a "taxi driver" who offers to take us home for €25. He's not a real taxi driver. I look at my friend who is barely standing. I negotiate the price down to €20 and he takes us to the hotel.

11:30 - I wake up, shower, pack and check out of the hotel.

12:00 - I knock on my friends door and sleep on their couch for another 3 hours.

15:00 - One of my friends and I head down to a beach-side bar, eat lunch, and go to the beach.

18:00 - We return to the hotel to get our other friend, go swimming in the pool and get ready for dinner.

21:00 - We eat dinner at the same beachside bar I went to yesterday, enjoying the sunset.

22:00 - We have a few final drinks at some of the pubs and bars, as I'm about to head back to the airport, after about 48 hours in Ibiza. My friends are staying on for a few more days.

Monday

12:30 - I'm back at the hotel, and luckily the reception guy manages to get me a taxi despite it being a busy night with everyone heading out.

01:15 - I'm at the airport with plenty of time to get my 2:30 flight.  I'm too afraid to have a nap in case I miss my flight!

02:30 - My flight departs Ibiza and I am asleep before take-off

03:30 - My flight lands at Gatwick.  The next train back to the city is at 4:30. But that will get me to work too early to get into the office. So I decide to catch the 5am service. I try to find somewhere to have a nap in the arrivals terminal. All the seats are taken. People are sleeping on the floor but I don't feel like it. I eventually find some seats in the train station, but all the one without armrests are taken. I uncomfortably doze on 3 seats, sleeping around and atop of the armrests.

05:00 - I catch my train back to London. It is already really sunny and warm so I find it hard to sleep.

05:45 - I arrive in the city. I can't get into my work building. I go to McDonald's for breakfast.

06:15 - I manage to get into work, have a shower, and go to have a nap at my desk.

08:00 - One of my colleagues catches me sleeping at my desk. I decide to wake up and proceed with my work day.

By the time I finished finished on Monday night, at about 7pm due to a long meeting, I was feeling absolutely ruined. It was a hot day in London and all I wanted to do was get home. I walked to Cannon Street station but the trains weren't running. I want to the steaming hot Bank underground station, and caught a DLR home. By the time I got home, I just wanted to sleep. But I had to unpack from Ibiza and pack for Oslo. I was heading to Norway the next day for work!

NORWAY

I had Tuesday morning in the office, and at lunch time headed to Paddington station for the Heathrow Express. Storms were brewing in London at this time, and by the time I got to Paddington, there were no trains running, because lightning hit some power lines or signal boxes.  I caught a few tubes and ended up at Heathrow, luckily in good time.  I waited and waited for my flight to board, which ended up being delayed. I eventually made it to Oslo.  Landing at Oslo airport was amazing, watching the fjords on the approach in the "late afternoon" (9:30pm) sunshine!   The Flytoget express train from the airport to the city wasn't running, so I had to combine a train and replacement bus, and then walk, to get to my destination. What a journey it had been that day!

I got to my hotel at 11pm and it was still quite bright.  I had some dinner and went to bed.  I was nursing a cold I think I managed to get partly thanks to my lack of sleep on Sunday night.

On Wednesday I spent the day with a client and then walked around Oslo. It was a warm, sunny day, perfect for a sightseeing stroll around the city. Oslo is a picturesque capital. It is spacious and in true Scandinavian style, with neat buildings, plenty of parkland and views across the Oslo fjord.

The next morning I got up at 4:50am, in time to get the 5:45 replacement bus to the train station to get me to the airport. By 9:30 I was back at London Heathrow and at 10:30 back in my office.

CONCLUSION

It has been a tiring couple of weeks but overall I love my life. Most of the last 5 years have been spent living in London, travelling Europe and the rest of the world, whether it be for business or pleasure.  It is a great opportunity and I am thankful that my life has allowed me to do that.

I suck

I suck. I have not posted since March! Have I travelled in that time? Hell yes!

Some of the places I have been to since March:

• Brazil
• Argentina
• Estonia
• Germany

Germany was Tuesday and Wednesday last week. I flew back on Wednesday night and on Thursday morning headed down to the Isle of Wight for the Isle of Wight Festival.  I came back from that this Monday night, and have been out every night this week. It is now Friday night and tomorrow I am off to Ascot for the Royal Ascot horse races. Then on Sunday I am off to Belfast for work.  I have not yet had a chance to fully unpack all my muddy stuff from the festival.  This is a reflection of my busy (but admittedly awesome) life lately.

I will try to catch up on posts some time soon! Hang in there.

Bed time

It is Friday night, not even 10pm, and I am about to go to bed. WTF, you may ask. You see, I have to get up at 1:30am tomorrow, so that I can leave home at 2am, to catch the 2:15am night bus to Baker Street, from where I plan on catching the 3:30 am easyBus to Stansted Airport and consequently the 6am flight to Bratislava, where I plan on spending the weekend.

Sorry I haven't written in a while. I have trips to the Netherlands and Australia to catch up on, as well as countless older trips. Write to you soon!

2010 - a year of travel in review

It has been a bit of a slack year, blogwise!  I have to be honest, I have not done a good job at all of keeping this blog up-to-date this year. So as the year draws to an end, I thought I could get away with it all by summarising my year of travel in one single post! So here we go...

Let's start with a scary stat. 

I took 36 flights totalling to about 44,900 miles (about 72,250 km) in 2010. Some of this was for personal holiday travel, and some was for business (not business class though - I wish!)

IT ALL BEGAN IN...

Australia. I visited Australia for Christmas and New Years last year, to get away from the London cold and catch up with those at home. It was great! A trip down to Sorrento with one group of mates and another trip to Warrnambool with another group, ensured that I spent as much time as possible on the beach.

A CHILLY RETURN

Brr! The very next morning after landing, I found myself walking to work in the snow!

But really, you can't let winter stop you! So some friends and I ventured right into the cold. Up north. To Yorkshire. The highlight was staying in the seaside town of Whitby, and you can read all about the trip here.

THE WINTER WAY

Making the most of England despite the winter, my girlfriend and I went down South too, and visited New Forest and Portsmouth. But let's not get carried away with English travel. Europe is at our doorstep! A friend and I headed of to Austria for a few days. We had a good time wandering around Vienna, eating ketchup flavoured chocolate and generally being silly, as well as meeting up with some Austrian friends, and visiting them in the mountains where I lived when I was young. My friend headed back to London, and I stayed on to go skiing at Bad Gastein, near Salzburg.  Austria's a great place to spend a winter week!

Reichenau, Austria

SPRING INTO LIFE


It was a spring full of travel.

• A day road-trip to Belgium on a freezing day with some friends, visiting Antwerp and Gent.
• A visit to Zurich in Switzerland for work
• A trip to Portugal at Easter
• A business trip to America, which took me to Minnesota, Chicago and unexpectedly, New York
• A long weekend in the Peak District
• A break from the winter in tropical Barbados, which was definitely a highlight of the year
• A trip to Brussels just to have lunch with some clients

SUMMER IN EUROPE

This summer I spent a lot of time in England.  I attempted a beach trip to Blackpool, stopping off at Liverpool on the way, but being Northern England, it was cold!  I had a few other trips around the UK for work, including Durham, Newcastle and Birmingham.

The highlight of my summer, however, was my trip to Greece.  I went with a bunch of great friends to explore Athens and sail the Cyclades islands!

SPAIN

I finished summer off with a trip to Spain for the August bank holiday weekend, taking in Alicante, Valencia and Zaragoza.

Alicante

The idea came up by looking at what cheap RyanAir flights were available to warm places. I found one into Alicante, which is half way down the Spanish East coast, and one out of Zaragoza, in the North of Spain. This would be a great excuse to traverse the country by train!

But it didn't all go according to plan. When I landed in Alicante and came through passport control, the first thing I did was get changed into shorts. Which is when I realised I didn't have my wallet!  Surely I couldn't have lost my wallet again? (I had lost my wallet half way through the Greek sailing trip just months earlier!)

I asked at the RyanAir desk and they asked someone to check the plane.  No sign of it. Maybe I dropped it in the airport?  I went to the airport Police station, which was in charge of lost property. They asked me to hang around for a few hours in case it showed up. So the first few hours of my holiday were sitting on the airport floor. And then on the phone to the banks, cancelling all my cards! 

But what would I do for money? When I lost my wallet in Greece, I simply borrowed some money from my friends. But I was in Spain alone! HSBC agreed to send me some emergency money through a Western Union Money Transfer. All I had to do is find a Western Union office and show them my reference number passport (which luckily I still had).

I had €3 in my pocket, and luckily the bus from the airport to the city was €2.40. Although I seriously considered walking, had it not been 35 degrees.  I made it to the city and found the Western Union office. The problem was it was now the early afternoon.... and therefore siesta! I had a few hours to kill before the shop re-opened so I went to the beach. Unfortunately I couldn't find any water taps, and €0.60 wasn't enough to buy a drinks, so after a few hours on the beach in the blistering sun, I was parched.  When I finally picked up the emergency cash, the drinks and ice cream I bought were the most delicious I'd ever tasted!

I explored Alicante a bit, which diddn't take long. It is a small city, surrounded by cliffs and a very touristy beach. It wasn't full of English tourists though, which was nice. That night I caught a train up to Valencia, which is Spain's third largest city. Amazing architecture kept me entertained, and the next day I went to a beach too.  The Valencia beach had a lot more locals than Alicante. On the second night I made my way to Zaragoza, which is a quiet city in North of Spain, inland. After some sightseeing there, I headed back to London, with a few Euros to spare.

Valencia by night

OKTOBERFEST

I decided to celebrate the end of my 20's and beginning of my 30's by going to Oktoberfest in Munich with a few friends.  Just like two years ago, we did a package with Alpenrider, staying in a chalet in beautiful Kirchberg in Tirol, Austria.  For two days in a row, they took us into the centre of Munich for the festivities, and then drove us safely back over the border to Austria to recover. I had a great time and it was a perfect start to the next decade of my life!

Drinking Bavarian style, in Lederhosen

SWEDEN

Soon after coming back to London, I had a business trip for a few days in Sweden.  My colleague and I flew into Copenhagen in Denmark, and the next day caught the train across the Oresund bridge-tunnel to Malmo in Sweden. A small city with a beautiful town centre. We had some business meetings and ate some hamburgers, and caught the train up to Stockholm. For more business meetings. And more hamburgers. And hot dogs.

A Swedish hot dog with mashed potato, in a wrap of course

 Luckily on the Friday night some other colleagues of ours came over from London to join us for the weekend, and saved us from the junk food eating. Unfortunately this was replaced by copious amounts of drinking, which in Stockholm, isn't cheap.  It was a great weekend though, exploring various areas of Stockholm night-life.

KRAKOW AND THE HAGUE

Two of my friends from Australia are in Europe and they spent some of their time visiting family in Poland. What a perfect excuse to make my first visit to that country!  We decided to meet up for a weekend in Krakow.

So I consulted good old Ryanair and booked a cheap flight to Krakow on a Saturday morning. The problem was that the flight was at about 6am, out of Stansted airport - London's equivalent of Melbourne's Avalon. I had to get there by about 4:30, which meant that I had to catch the easyBus from Baker Street at 3:30, which in turn meant that I had to catch the night bus from my house to Baker Street at 2am.  So I had to get up at 1am - probably the earliest I have ever gotten up.  I did think of just pulling an all-nighter, but knew I would only have 1 night with my friends, so I wanted to have the energy and awakedness for that.

And that I did. I managed to do a lot of sightseeing with my first day in Krakow, and then had quite the night out that night, with my friends and some people from the hostel. I thought a 3am finish was a good effort for a 1am start the morning before!

Day 2 in Krakow was cut short by the fact that I needed to be at a conference that Sunday night, in the Hague, the Netherlands. So, after only about 30 hours in Krakow, I left my friends on a walking tour in the early afternoon, and started my marathon journey to the Hague: taxi to Krakow Airport, flight to Prague, another flight to Amsterdam, train to Rotterdam, another train to the Hague, taxi to the hotel! Phew! 

After a few days of fun at the conference I was happy to come back home to London!

WINTER

And that was pretty much it for the Autumn, because soon after that, winter hit!

I had a few more domestic trips around the UK for work, going to Edinburgh, Newcastle, Aberdeen, Bristol and Birmingham, but no more holidays, unfortunately. It was time to save my leave for the the trips coming up in the new year.

I welcomed the new year by the first of those, a ski trip over Christmas and New Years Eve to Chamonix in France - which was great fun.

Happy new year! What have you got planned for travel in 2011? I am off to Australia, Brazil, and Argentina.Can't wait!

Newcastle and Birmingham

It is 10:20pm on a Wednesday night in late August.  I am on a train from Newcastle to Birmingham.

This morning I made the trek to Heathrow to fly up to Newcastle. I thought perhaps flying was a bit excessive. 

Yes, it is only a 45 minute flight, but when you factor in getting to Heathrow, getting through security, waiting to board, boarding, taxiing, cueing for takeoff, takeoff, landing, taxiing, disembarking and getting from the airport, it is probably not that much less than the three-and-a-half-hour train journey.

But my doubts were today put to rest. Flying is definitely the way to go. The trip to Heathrow, albeit long, was smooth. Checking in online made the process at the airport quite quick, and getting on the plane didn’t take that long at all. Once on the plane, I was served drinks and snacks, as well as free newspapers. To get the equivalent treatment on the train would have cost a hefty first class ticket. And an hour later, I was “oop-North” in Newcastle. But I didn’t really make up my mind that flying is the way to go until an hour-and-a-half into my train journey down to Birmingham tonight. This is when I realised, that despite being on the train for what felt like forever, I still had 2 hours to go. At least travelling to and from the airports provides changing scenery. Sitting in a single train seat, especially when it is dark outside and there’s no-one interesting to look at inside the carriage, makes for a dreadfully boring trip. Especially when you have forgotten your iPod earphones!

The day up in Newcastle was good. My meeting went well, and I had some spare time to look around either side of the meeting. Despite being miserable weather today in London, Newcastle was actually warm and gloriously sunny. Who would have though the North could have a better climate?

I have a meeting tomorrow morning in Birmingham, so I am staying there tonight. Only another half an hour to go on this train!

Daytrip to Durham

Last Thursday I had a meeting up in Durham.


Durham is way up North, almost in Newcastle, which is almost in Scotland.  It was an early meeting that would have involved getting a 6am train from London.  So a better idea was to go up the night before and stay in a hotel up there.


But the night before was the night of a work trip to Lords to watch some county-level Twenty-20 cricket. I wasn't about to miss that! So my colleague and I went to the cricket. An innings and 4 pints of lager later, it was time to head to Kings Cross for our train.


We found our way there, stocked up on more alcohol, bought some greasy dinner and boarded our train.


The next 3 hours was spent drinking on the train.  Once we arrived "up north" at about midnight, we battled the rain and caught a cab to our hotel.


The hotel had already given away our rooms and offered us a drink to make up for it. By this time I had had certainly enough to drink, but surely I cannot say no to a free drink. After all, it was to make up for the inconvenience of losing a hotel room! "A whisky and coke, please," my colleague led.


An apt summary was this email I wrote while I was there:

My trip has been eventful. When we got here last night our hotel had given away our rooms. So they drove us to another hotel which wasn't anywhere near as nice. They did give us each a whisky and coke to make up for it though.

This morning our cab driver didn't know where he was going and we drove around looking for where our meeting was. Eventually I pulled out my iPhone and guided him with GPS.

But in the process I managed to drop my blackberry.  Realised just a bit before getting on a train back to London. I called the cab company and they said they'd drop it off back at the hotel but when I got there he hadn't come yet. Apparently it will be an hour till he does.

So Colleague and I are sitting at a cafe waiting, watching the world go by.

Yes, it was an eventful trip. Durham, overall, was a very picturesque little city. It was a great place to spend a few hours just sitting around!

World Cup 2010 in London

Back in 2006 when I was living in England the first time, I went on a trip of a lifetime to Munich for the Australia vs. Brazil World Cup football game.

Now it is 2010 and the World Cup is back, and I am in London once more. No trip to South Africa planned but I did manage to head out to the Australian stronghold of Shepherd's Bush last night to watch Australia try to take on Germany.

On the way there is saw lots of Aussies all kitted up and ready to support their team, as well as Germans. The great thing about London is there are samples from all nationalities around.

I watched the start of the game at "Shé Bu Walkie" which provided a magnificent atmosphere.  I watched the rest of the game at the Pavillion, where they had stadium seating set up in front of a massive screen.

Overall, London is going football crazy. Productivity at my work has dropped to a low, ITV and BBC streaming coverage is clogging up the bandwidth, and most conversations are based on how our predictions are going.  The English take their football seriously, and it's great to be a part of it!

Weekend up North – The ‘Pools

In England, at the end of each may, there is a long weekend for “Spring Bank Holiday”. If you think this is a stupid name for a public holiday, then there is also the “Late Summer Bank Holiday” at the end of August. Not that there is an “Early Summer Bank Holiday”.

But I digress. The point is that for the last few months I had been trying to figure out what to do for the “Spring Bank Holiday”. My girlfriend was going to Berlin with a friend, and I didn’t want to join them. I had already been to Berlin, and let’s face it, three’s a crowd. So I decided to go to Spain. But didn’t get around to organising that. So I decided to go to Pink\pop, a Dutch rock festival. But I didn’t get around to organising that. So I decided to go to Southwest England, and check out some of the country’s best beaches. But despite it being 30 degrees on the weekend before bank holiday weekend, the long weekend weather was forecast to be, as they say in England, rubbish! So on the Thursday I finally organised something. I decided to go up north to one of the regional centres I had never been to.

On Saturday morning I caught a train up to the city of Liverpool.

When I arrived, it was pouring. So I sought shelter in the shopping centre across the road from the station. I thought I had arrived in the ultimate Hicksville. To be fair, I did enjoy watching the teenage girls walking around in short skirts and knee high socks, but the environment left much to be desired. The shopping centre consisted predominantly of cheap shoe shops blaring out bad music. The food court didn’t have anything I wanted to eat. What have I done? How am I going to spend a weekend in this hole?

As it turns out, once the rain had mostly subsided and I ventured out past St John’s Shopping Centre, I was actually pleasantly surprised.  The Liverpool city centre is actually a clean, pleasant and architecturally pleasing place. There is a mix of old buildings and very new ones, trendy docklands, big new shopping centres and lively, bustling streets.

I enjoyed walking around Liverpool, and was glad I came. That night I had a few drinks at my hostel, watching the hen party have a few pre-going out drinks all dressed up in their burlesque gear, and chatted to an Argentinian backpacker who was stuck sleeping on a mattress on the floor in my dorm.

I decided that night to hit Mint Casino.  The casinos up north are great. They have roulette for a 50p minimum bet and blackjack for £2. Back home in Melbourne the cheapest games you can find at the casino are $2.50/$10 respectively.  I asked the roulette dealer whether he knew of anywhere that had a poker game going, and he directed me to Circus Casino further in the centre of town.

So I cashed in my chips and headed to Queens Square and into the Circus. It turned out Saturday night was the night with no poker games, but one of the staff gave me a tip of a casino in the suburbs that had a good poker tournament on that night.

So I jumped in a black cab, which drove me through a long tunnel and into some quiet, industrial Merseyside town. The driver didn’t even know where the casino was, but upon asking an old man on the street, we found it.  The poker game had already started when I got there but it wasn’t too late to buy in. So I paid my 33 quid and joined the game as the 28th player.

After re-buys and add-ons (none of which I could afford, I decided) the prize pool was £1350. Wow, I was in a real poker tournament.  And I ended up making it to the final table, to the last 10. I pusehed all-in with my short stack of 6,500, and unfortunately my pocket jacks ran into a pair of bullets and I was out. It was  a fun way to spend a night in Liverpool though. Too bad I couldn’t understand what half of the dudes at the tables were saying!

The next day I walked to the station, taking in the biggest Anglican cathedral in the world and the “famous” Albert Dock on the way, and caught a train up to Blackpool. The Northern Trains service was the shittiest train I had ever been on. But it made for an interesting train ride.

Blackpool was interesting. Blackpool is England’s most popular seaside tourist destination. Like other English beachside towns, it consists of nice coastline with water which is too cold to swim in, lined with tacky shops, bars and amusement centres. The difference is, though, that Blackpool actually pulls it off. This original beachside resort has some real character to it.

I did a lot of walking and took in the atmosphere. I had a go in the amusement arcade, tried out the local casiono there too, wandered along the beach (after the violent 2 metre waves crashing onto the streets had stopped) and just chilled out a bit, making the most of being out of London.

The place I stayed, the Mayfield Hotel, added an interesting element to my visit. It was a small bed and breakfast type place but advertising itself, amongst other places, on Hostelbookers (a site that I use regularly to book my hostels).  The proprietors like putting up backpackers, and prefer this to the stag do’s coming out of places like Liverpool.  Although it wasn’t a typical hostel atmosphere (it was much quieter and nicer) , the owners made a real effort to make their guests feel at home.  They even made sure to introduce guests to others. In fact, while I was out on the Sunday night the owner called me and asked me where I was. I thought perhaps something was wrong. But apparently Lucy, a Swiss girl who was staying solo, was in the hostel and bored, so he wanted to send her my way so we would each have someone to have some drinks with.   A somewhat strange role for a landlord to play, but I thought it really showed he cared for his guests’ experiences.

The next day I had had enough of this seaside attraction (partly because it was cold!) and I headed back to Liverpool (1.5 hours), and then back home to London (another 2 hours).

Long Weekend in the Peak District

I am on a train right now, heading south through the Midlands of England. I have just spent the long weekend with my girlfriend in the Peak District.

We started early on Saturday morning, catching an 8:37am train from London Euston up to Stoke on Trent, where we rented a car and drove off into the Peak District National Park. We went for a bit of a hike in an area called Dovedale, which took us from one quiet village to an even quieter one, along a stream running at the bottom of some steep green hills.

Dovedale

It seems all of the many peaks in the area are lush, green, grassy hills separated by frequent grey rock walls, marking the various paddocks, the majority of which this time of the year are littered with sheep looking after their young lambs.  Horses, ponies, cows and ducks could be found in some of the other fields.

After a good amount of sightseeing all afternoon, we headed to Hartington, a village essentially in the middle of nowhere, to find our accommodation for the weekend. The Hartington Hall YHA is a youth hostel in an old converted and extended manor house.  The main building used to belong to a noble family, and some of the structure dates back to the 1300’s. It became a hostel in the 1930’s and was the first one with electricity and central heating, apparently.  It certainly didn’t seem like many of the youth hostels I’ve stayed in in the past.  It was a grand looking old building of dark grey stone, surrounded by manicured green lawns and gardens full of families playing ball games with their children on encouraging them to play with the farm animals which were outside the barn. The barn itself is where our room was, and couldn’t be much further from the barn that it used to be. Our room was a cosy double en-suite bedroom which was more like a hotel or b’n’b room than an YHA.

On Sunday we got up early again and drove to Alton Towers, England's biggest and most famous theme park. It is full of rollercoasters and other thrill rides and provided for a good old Gold-Coast-style day of fun, just without the sunshine.

I endured and survived:

• THI3TEEN (scary new ride where you unexpectedly drop and go backwards in the pitch dark)
• Air (flying around face-down, then backwards)
• Nemesis
• Duel
• Rita (0 to 100km/h in 2.5 seconds)
• Sonic Spinball
• Oblivion (ridiculously scary vertical drop)

This morning we checked out of our farmhouse home and drove through the green countryside to Bakewell, home of the Bakewell Tart.  A wander around the old town and a stop for breakfast in a busy café, and we were ready to drive on. Now that I am used to it, I really enjoy driving around England.  The roads are narrow and wind around lots of corners and up and down hills, usually surrounded by metre-tall brick walls on either side of the edge of the road, providing for some challenging but fun driving.  We drove around the southern Peak District, took in the scenery and headed back for Stoke, for our slow (but cheap) train back to the South.  We will have two days in London, before we head off to Barbados on Thursday.

The Ceremony of the Keys

Every day on my way to work, I walk past the Tower of London.  Until tonight, I had never been through the gates.

Tonight some friends and I had tickets to the Ceremony of the Keys at the Tower of London. This tradition of locking up the tower gates has happened every night, without fail, for the last 700 years. Even in World War II as bombs were falling upon the tower, the Chief Yoeman Warder still managed to perform the ceremony, albeit 10 minutes late.

This YouTube video I found has a good description of the ceremony I just witnessed:



It was great to see such a fine, formal tradition, whilst standing in the dark and slightly spooky courtyards of the famous landmark.

Train crash in Belgium

On Wednesday I was meant to go to Brussels for some work meetings.

These days, just about nobody flies to Brussels or Paris from London. It is so inconvenient to have to go through the bother of getting to the airport, checking in, waiting, flying, landing and getting from the foreign airport. It is so much easier to catch the train, which is more or less just as fast, if not faster when you take into account the time it takes to travel to airports. You start off in the city centre, jump on a train for two hours, and get off in the city centre - perfect!

But this Monday, something tragic happened. Some local commuter trains in Belgium had a head on collision. The trains, carrying 250–300 people, collided in snowy conditions during the morning rush hour. Some 20 people died and hundreds were injured.

Terrible stuff - you tend to feel pretty safe on the train.

The Eurostar train service running from London to Brussels was stopped for a number of days, as they investigated and cleared up the wreckage on the local tracks next to the international service. The effect on me was that my business trip to Brussels was postponed. But obviously the effect on the injured, deceased and their families was much, much greater. My thoughts go out to them.

Weekend in Portsmouth

This weekend I took my girlfriend away for Valentines Day. I decided that instead of buying her something I would fork out for a nice hotel somewhere, as we are both very keen travellers.

I ended up booking the Hilton at Portsmouth. I booked cheap train tickets from London and a rental car at the Portsmouth end. We ended up having a nice relaxing weekend, driving around New Forest in the car, relaxing in the comfy large hotel room, eating dinner by the Portsmouth Harbour, shopping and walking along the pebbly beach.

Portsmouth is a larger city than I had expected, and it was lucky that we had a car, as the hotel was on the outskirts and a good 15 minute drive to Southsea waterfront. I enjoyed the luxury of staying in a hotel and driving a car to and from our accommodation, compared to the usual walking and public transport travel I have been doing for the last couple of years.

My Business Trip to Birmingham Today

6:50am - Alarm, snooze.

Several times after 6:50am - Alarm, snooze, alarm, snooze, repeat. And then later, acknowledging time to finally get up, alarm, off.

7:55am - Alarm... Shit!! I fell asleep again! I am meant to be on the 8:23am train out of Euston!

I quickly stumble out of bed, blurry eyed, still half asleep, but realising the urgentness of this situation. I go straight to my en-suite bathroom and pee as I brush my teeth at the same time. I don't have time to do both separately. Lucky I had a shower last night!

I find a clean shirt in my cupboard. I choose one that doesn't require cuff-links. That would take too long. I put it on and only button up a couple of buttons. I see a suit hung over the railing of my stairs, I put it on. It is a cheap suit from Burton. I would prefer to wear a nicer suit on a day with business meetings, but I don't have the time to think about it.

I grab my lapop bag, and pull out some stuff I don't need. Like the container that has some remains from yesterday's lunch and the bottle of vodka I bought last night. I forget to take out the cans of dry ginger ale. I run downstairs and out of the door, forgetting to put on a coat.

I am run to the tube station. I am not fit enough to run all the way there, so I really only run bits of it. On the way there, I look out for cabs. It is already after 8am and I don't think I can get to Euston on time. But I don't see any cabs. And even if I did, in morning traffic it could well take longer than the tube.

I get to Bermondsey station, and hurry down the escalators. A Westbound train is about to arrive. Should I catch it to London Bridge and change to the Northern Line to Euston? Or should I go to Green Park and change to the Victoria line? The sign says the tube takes 12 minutes to Green Park and it is already 8:07. That means I would get to Green Park at 8:19 and would have no hope of getting my train to Birmingham. I must catch the Northern line.

I do just that and catch the tube one stop to London Bridge. I change to the Northern Line. I can't run, as the interconnecting tunnels between the Jubilee and Northern lines are too crowded.  I get to the platforms and hear a train. I make a last effort to run to the train, and manage to get on just as the doors are closing. It's unlikely, but maybe I have a chance to make it to Euston on time. After all, I have to. I have an Advance ticket for the 8:23, and it's non refundable!

Surprisingly, I manage to get a seat on the tube. It's not that full. That's strange,  as normally the Northern line is packed in the mornings. I sit down and decide to relax for a few minutes. Worrying can't help me now anyway.  I get my breath back, which is good, because I am on the verge of having an asthma attack. And I don't really suffer asthma. 

We pull into the station and I don't really pay attention to the announcement. "This is Borough. This is a Northern line train to Morden." Morden. That last bit catches my attention. Morden. Isn't that the SOUTH end of the line? Yep, I am an idiot. I got on the Southbound train, AWAY from Euston. By the time I realise this, the train has left Borough, and I am stuck on it for another few minutes. When we finally arrive at Elephant and Castle, I know I have no hope of getting to Euston on time.

8:40am - I finally arrive at Euston. I have definitely missed my train.  I think about going to the ticket counter and asking what I can do to get the next train. But then I look at the departures board. The next fast train to Birmingham is at 8:43. If I waste any time, I have no chance of making to to my 10am meeting on time. I run to platform 2 and get on the train.

8:43am - The train leaves, with me on it. I don't have a ticket for it. My ticket is for the one already 20 minutes up the West Coast Main Line. My hair is sticking up all over the place from the way I was lying on it in bed. My shirt is still mostly unbuttoned. I go into one of the bathrooms to wet my hair and fix it,  button up my shirt and put on the tie I remembered to grab at home and shove in my bag. As I am doing this, I am secretly hoping the ticket inspector has already passed.

Eventually I have to leave the bathroom. After all there are people probably waiting. There were, two of them. I wonder if the seat I had reserved for the 8:23 is available? It's not. In fact, no seat is. The train is full. I can only stand. It is going to be obvious I don't have a reservation for this train.

I stand by one of the exit doors, staring outside at the surprisingly snowy scenery, pondering how I am going to make the Powerpoint presentation standing up. Then the ticket man comes. He checks my ticket. Punches it. No problem. He checks my mandatory resevation. He starts to give it back when he spots the inconsistency. "This is for the 8:23!" He exclaims. 

"Uh. Yeah. I noticed that too when my seat wasn't available." He mumbles some comment about me standing up, says that this should mean a whole new ticket and then lets me off.  Off the hook that is, I am happy that I didn't get kicked off the train zooming up the West Coast Main Line at 120 miles per hour. I am also happy my employer's £52 for the one way ticket didn't go to waste. I am even happier I didn't have to pay for another ticket or a fine out of my own pocket. 

We get to Milton Keynes and a bunch of people get off. I email my 10am meeting participants, tell them I will be 15 minutes late and find a seat that has been vacated by someone going to Milton Keynes. I finish my PowerPoint presentation, and head to the cafe as I have finally settled down and now have an apatite. I pay £4.70 for an bad orange juice and a microwaved ham and cheese panini. I don't get a receipt because the machine is broken. No free breakfast for me.

10:08am - I make it to Birmingham New Street station and walk to my client's office. I almost freeze to death.  I regret forgetting my coat in London, especially considering it always seems to be a hell of a lot colder up North.

I make it to my meeting and one of the lawyers I am seeing with offers me a nice hot cup of tea. All is good. I have a good meeting.

11:50am - I leave my meeting having accomplished what I came to do. I walk to the next meeting, getting a little lost on the way.   As I walk down Colmore Row, it starts snowing. I start to feel even colder than I did before. Why am I only wearing this cheap suit? 

12:00pm - I have made it to the next law firm. I meet my colleague who has come up from London and we go to the meeting room to set up. The lovely Brummy receptionist offers us drinks and biscuits. I have a coffee this time. We present to a room of lawyers, and even though we talk for two hours, they seem interested. That's a good meeting!

About 2:00pm - My colleague and I leave the meeting and we are hungry. We walk to Broad Street, an area which according to the nice Brummy receptionist lady, has a lot of bars. We figure a pub lunch is deserved. We walk past the big Ferris Wheel and one of the first few bars we see is Walkabout, the chain of Aussie themed pubs. I suggest we go in there and my colleague accepts. I eat a chicken parma [typical Aussie pub meal] and have a Toohey's Extra Dry [Aussie beer].

3:45pm - We have eaten our lunch and have made it back to Birmingham New Street Station. We get on the 3:50pm train back to London and drink all the way back to the Capital. On the way home I notice quite a bit of snow on the ground and watch a beautiful sunset. It was a funny day, because it was mostly clear, but the clouds that did come along dumped some snow. Which doesn't happen all that often in England.

5:50pm - I exit Bermondsey Underground Station, back in my hood, surprised to see snow on the ground here in London too. I walk home, freezing, looking forward to getting into my house and writing a blog entry about my day.