My last night in Seattle, a Saturday night, was meant to be spent going out and enjoying the vibrant nightlife downtown Seattle has to offer. I met some people to go out with but it wasn't to be, because the 31 year old American had lost his ID (they check everyone for ID), an Aussie girl was being stalked by some local gangs and was too afraid to go out,and there were some 19 year olds, which of course in the USA is underage. So we stayed an partied in the hostel.
The Green Tortoise Hostel in Seattle is one of the best places I've ever stayed in. Spotless showers are a luxury when you're hosteling it. Seattle was meant to be a pass-through city for me, but it turns out to be a really interesting place, with heaps to do, so I wish I had arranged to stay longer. But how could I be sad to leave when I was heading on to Whistler Village, British Columbia, to ski North America's premier ski resort, Whistler Blackcomb.
The six or seven hours from Seattle to Whistler went surprisingly quickly, thanks to catching up on sleep, chatting to fellow Aussies from the hostel and a border crossing from the USA. The US customs officials (with guns, of course) were surprisingly full on coming out of the US, asking all sorts of questions of most of the people on the bus. But they mainly picked on the black man. His bag was the only one they searched, asking “do you have any drugs in here?” as they opened it.
The service from Seattle terminated in Vancouver, where I had to change to another bus. A good American bloke which some girls from my hostel and I met on the bus was kind enough to offer us some of the cheap duty free beers he bought on the border which we subtly (ok, maybe not so subtly) drank in the Vancouver train station McDonald's. He was headed to Whistler as well, so gave me some tips on the way up as well as an initial tour on arrival. The trip up itself was great, with amazing views of lakes and snow-capped mountains all the way up!
When I arrived I met up with my friends Amanda and Jayson, who had flown to British Columbia from London to go skiing.
Together we had booked a small townhouse apartment, complete with 2 balconies overlooking snowy mountain ranges, one with a hot tub!
The week was spent skiing the vast terrain of the dual Whistler and Blackcomb Mountains. Each mountain feels like its 4 times the size of Mount Hotham (for those Aussie skiers), and there's 2 of them!
One of the highlights was skiing the run which will be the Men's downhill race run for the 2010 Vancouver/Whistler Winter Olympics.
The night life in the Village was surprisingly quiet, probably due to the fact it was the end of the season. This time of the year normally brings little snow, but we were lucky as the mountain still had excellent snow cover (2.6 metres). We were usually so exhausted after a day of skiing the vast terrain though, that we were happy to have some drinks in our private hot-tub instead of hitting the town every night.
During my last 2 days on the mountain we got to sample the World Ski and Snowboard Festival in the village, which involved all sorts of festivities including band performances on big stages with the snowy mountains as a backdrop.
Today it was time to depart Whistler. I spent the morning hanging out in the Village, enjoying some really warm weather (sunny T-shirt weather) and checking out the goings-on of the festival. Then caught the greyhound back to Vancouver for the next set of Canadian adventures!
Where in the World is DK?
13 April 2008
06 April 2008
Seattle
Virgin has in the last few months started a domestic airline in the USA, called (predictably enough) Virgin America. They look pretty cool online and are cheap enough, so I decided to give them a go. American authorities recommend getting to the airport 2 hours prior to scheduled departure, so I got to San Francisco Airport exactly 2 hours prior, only to be disappointed to find that my Virgin America flight to Seattle was a few hours delayed due to one of their planes being buggered (not their exact words). In the end it meant I spent over 5 hours in an especially boring airport terminal. One that only had one pizza restaurant and one cafe. The pizza made for a good late breakfast, though. And on the bright side, Virgin America bribed us not to hate them by supplying free alcohol. Their in flight entertainment was also awesome, I was won over. Mainly by the free alcohol.
Upon arriving in Seattle I was pleased to find that the way downtown was by bus, which only cost $1.50 and was due to depart in a few minutes. It was a long few minutes though, as I came to the realisation of how bloody cold Seattle is. There was no snow, but to me it felt like it should have started coming down any moment. Instead, rain started coming down while I was on the bus, and I managed to get drenched upon disembarking, mainly due to the fact I got lost looking for my hostel. I eventually found it at about 9:30pm, but was freezing and dripping wet when I did so. I recovered by having a quiet one.
Today was my only full day in Seattle so I packed a lot in. Got up early and started with a tour to the Boeing plane assembly plant just out of the city. This plant is in the largest building in the world (by volume). The place is huge. When standing inside, “Jumbo” jets look small. The building is so big in fact, that when they first started using it, it created it's own weather. Clouds would form inside it, and sometimes it would rain! They fixed it by installing giant blower fans.
I am a bit of an airline industry geek, so I was interested to see the first ever Boeing 787 Dreamliner (a revolutionary new airliner) in production, and almost finished.
I got the tour driver to drop me off at Seattle most recognisable landmark, the Space Needle. I went up and checked out the views, and then caught the monorail downtown.
I spent the rest of the day exploring the downtown area and doing some shopping. Seattle is the place where the first Starbucks coffee opened. I went to try to have a coffee there, but the line was almost out the door, and I didn't think it was worth the wait. They really love their Starbucks here though! Without exaggeration, there really seems to be one on every block here! There were several points in the city where I noticed there were 2 different Starbucks in direct view. It is quite ridiculous, really.
Last night as I walked around in the rain I came to the unfortunate realisation that my old shoes were no longer waterproof. So seeing as I am heading up to the snow tomorrow (Whistler still has 2.6m of snow as of today) I decided to shop for some new shoes. The sale in Nike Town worked out well for me.
Tomorrow, if all goes according to plan, I'm catching a Greyhound bus for 217 miles to Whistler, British Columbia (Canada) via Vancouver.
Upon arriving in Seattle I was pleased to find that the way downtown was by bus, which only cost $1.50 and was due to depart in a few minutes. It was a long few minutes though, as I came to the realisation of how bloody cold Seattle is. There was no snow, but to me it felt like it should have started coming down any moment. Instead, rain started coming down while I was on the bus, and I managed to get drenched upon disembarking, mainly due to the fact I got lost looking for my hostel. I eventually found it at about 9:30pm, but was freezing and dripping wet when I did so. I recovered by having a quiet one.
Today was my only full day in Seattle so I packed a lot in. Got up early and started with a tour to the Boeing plane assembly plant just out of the city. This plant is in the largest building in the world (by volume). The place is huge. When standing inside, “Jumbo” jets look small. The building is so big in fact, that when they first started using it, it created it's own weather. Clouds would form inside it, and sometimes it would rain! They fixed it by installing giant blower fans.
I am a bit of an airline industry geek, so I was interested to see the first ever Boeing 787 Dreamliner (a revolutionary new airliner) in production, and almost finished.
I got the tour driver to drop me off at Seattle most recognisable landmark, the Space Needle. I went up and checked out the views, and then caught the monorail downtown.
I spent the rest of the day exploring the downtown area and doing some shopping. Seattle is the place where the first Starbucks coffee opened. I went to try to have a coffee there, but the line was almost out the door, and I didn't think it was worth the wait. They really love their Starbucks here though! Without exaggeration, there really seems to be one on every block here! There were several points in the city where I noticed there were 2 different Starbucks in direct view. It is quite ridiculous, really.
Last night as I walked around in the rain I came to the unfortunate realisation that my old shoes were no longer waterproof. So seeing as I am heading up to the snow tomorrow (Whistler still has 2.6m of snow as of today) I decided to shop for some new shoes. The sale in Nike Town worked out well for me.
Tomorrow, if all goes according to plan, I'm catching a Greyhound bus for 217 miles to Whistler, British Columbia (Canada) via Vancouver.
05 April 2008
Sydney to San Francisco
Last time I came to America I flew into LA and hated the place. Then I went up to San Francisco and loved it. So this time around I decided to make my North American entry point San Francisco. There are no direct flights from Melbourne so I had to fly via Sydney.
The night prior to my departure the Bureau of Meteorology released a warning about extreme winds and sure enough, when I woke up in the morning there was weather trouble. I immediately got mental images of my plane crash landing into Melbourne's western suburbs, but was also worried about flight delays, because if my flight up to Sydney was delayed, I'd miss my San Fran connection, and that flight only flies a few times a week.
Luckily, my flight was a morning flight, and at the time of departure, winds were only about 50-60km/h (not yet to 100km/h gale force as predicted for later). My flight was bumpy, but landed in sunny Sydney without a problem. Apparently Melbourne got worse in the afternoon so I was lucky. Sydney, on the other hand was beautiful. 29 degrees and clear blue sky. The views of the harbour from the plane were awesome, I almost wanted to stay in Sydney. But I was off to another great harbour city.
My flying was really quiet. No-one to chat to. From Sydney there was an unfriendly woman only interested in sleeping, and on the big flight I was stuck next to a middle aged Eastern European couple who only seemed to know a few words in English. And much to my disappointment, the American school girl coming home with her school group from their Spring break trip to Australia and New Zealand didn't seem very interested in chatting to me either.
I only managed to catch a few hours sleep on the 14 hours flight so I was pretty tired when I landed. And due to the time difference, it was only about 10 am the same day I departed, so I had a long way to go until nighttime. I kept myself awake by going shopping and walking the steep streets, and at nightfall sinking some cheap beers with hostel randoms.
Last time I was in San Fran I wanted to walk across the Golden Gate Bridge. I walked up to it one afternoon but by the time I got there it was late and cold. So this time I dedicated a day to it. I rented a bike at touristy Fishermen's Wharf, and rode along the bay, up and over the bridge, and down to an affluent town across the bay, and caught a ferry back. As with everything in San Francisco (including just walking the streets), it provided for stunning views. When I first started walking around the city on this trip, I thought that it is not as cool as I remembered it. Perhaps last time I only loved San Fran so much thanks to the contrast with LA. But then when walking the streets, I couldn't help myself exhaling audible “wow”s on many street corners, I realised again why the city is so special. The number 1 place for urban views. It had won me back.
My second and last night in SF was spent on a hostel-organised pub crawl. It was pretty fun, as you might expect. I also had a few too many drinks, as you might expect. This morning I was meant to get up at 9ish to make the 10 am checkout time but awoke from my slumber at about 11. Oops. Ah, must be the jet lag! ;)
Luckily I had enough foresight when booking my trip to make my flight departing SF at 2:30 in the afternoon. So as I write this I am at SF airport, waiting for my flight to Seattle, which, as it happens to be is more than 3 hours delayed anyway. What better way to spend a hangover than 5 hours in an airport terminal. If only there was a McDonald's here to make my stomach feel better....
The night prior to my departure the Bureau of Meteorology released a warning about extreme winds and sure enough, when I woke up in the morning there was weather trouble. I immediately got mental images of my plane crash landing into Melbourne's western suburbs, but was also worried about flight delays, because if my flight up to Sydney was delayed, I'd miss my San Fran connection, and that flight only flies a few times a week.
Luckily, my flight was a morning flight, and at the time of departure, winds were only about 50-60km/h (not yet to 100km/h gale force as predicted for later). My flight was bumpy, but landed in sunny Sydney without a problem. Apparently Melbourne got worse in the afternoon so I was lucky. Sydney, on the other hand was beautiful. 29 degrees and clear blue sky. The views of the harbour from the plane were awesome, I almost wanted to stay in Sydney. But I was off to another great harbour city.
My flying was really quiet. No-one to chat to. From Sydney there was an unfriendly woman only interested in sleeping, and on the big flight I was stuck next to a middle aged Eastern European couple who only seemed to know a few words in English. And much to my disappointment, the American school girl coming home with her school group from their Spring break trip to Australia and New Zealand didn't seem very interested in chatting to me either.
I only managed to catch a few hours sleep on the 14 hours flight so I was pretty tired when I landed. And due to the time difference, it was only about 10 am the same day I departed, so I had a long way to go until nighttime. I kept myself awake by going shopping and walking the steep streets, and at nightfall sinking some cheap beers with hostel randoms.
Last time I was in San Fran I wanted to walk across the Golden Gate Bridge. I walked up to it one afternoon but by the time I got there it was late and cold. So this time I dedicated a day to it. I rented a bike at touristy Fishermen's Wharf, and rode along the bay, up and over the bridge, and down to an affluent town across the bay, and caught a ferry back. As with everything in San Francisco (including just walking the streets), it provided for stunning views. When I first started walking around the city on this trip, I thought that it is not as cool as I remembered it. Perhaps last time I only loved San Fran so much thanks to the contrast with LA. But then when walking the streets, I couldn't help myself exhaling audible “wow”s on many street corners, I realised again why the city is so special. The number 1 place for urban views. It had won me back.
My second and last night in SF was spent on a hostel-organised pub crawl. It was pretty fun, as you might expect. I also had a few too many drinks, as you might expect. This morning I was meant to get up at 9ish to make the 10 am checkout time but awoke from my slumber at about 11. Oops. Ah, must be the jet lag! ;)
Luckily I had enough foresight when booking my trip to make my flight departing SF at 2:30 in the afternoon. So as I write this I am at SF airport, waiting for my flight to Seattle, which, as it happens to be is more than 3 hours delayed anyway. What better way to spend a hangover than 5 hours in an airport terminal. If only there was a McDonald's here to make my stomach feel better....
30 January 2007
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.
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.
17 December 2006
News from the other side of the Ashes battle
Hi Everyone!
Sorry I haven't written in a couple of months.
November was a quieter month for me than the last few I have written about. In fact I did not even leave England. The time was spent working, going out with friends (including a marathon 12-hour Monopoly pub-crawl, visiting pubs on many of the Monopoly board streets), going to gigs (including Aussie bands The Living End and Wolfmother) and generally hiding away from the increasingly British weather.
It has been fun being an Australian amongst the English because it allows me to give them a hard time for what is happening to them in the Cricket. On the down side, not only can I not go to any games because I am on the wrong side of the world, but I can't even conveniently watch them on TV because the time difference dictates that they start at about midnight each night.
December has been all about Christmas shopping and more prominently Christmas functions. I have been to various work Christmas lunches and parties, enjoying all the free festivities.
Yesterday I did my first bit of international travel for almost 2 months, going on a day-trip to Lille in France on the Eurostar train. It's a great city and, despite the cold rainy weather, I still had a great time as always in France, trying to communicate in worse than broken French, I like to call it "Shattered French". The famous Lille Christmas market was nice but smaller than expected but the shopping malls were huge with great shopping (something you come to appreciate living in London). It was also good to get away from the cold and rain, even though being on the giant open air ferris wheel in the rain was kind of fun.
Next week I'm off to Prague to have a continental Christmas and New Year. Then its back to England for a last few weeks of Winter. I'm due back in Melbourne on January 25th, so hope to see those of you in Australia some time soon after that, and those of you in Europe before I head off. At this stage I am not 100% sure if I'm coming back to Oz long term, or just for a short break from the winter and coming back to Europe, although at this moment it looks like I will be coming back to Melbourne to look for a lawyer job. We'll see what happens!
Sorry I haven't written in a couple of months.
November was a quieter month for me than the last few I have written about. In fact I did not even leave England. The time was spent working, going out with friends (including a marathon 12-hour Monopoly pub-crawl, visiting pubs on many of the Monopoly board streets), going to gigs (including Aussie bands The Living End and Wolfmother) and generally hiding away from the increasingly British weather.
It has been fun being an Australian amongst the English because it allows me to give them a hard time for what is happening to them in the Cricket. On the down side, not only can I not go to any games because I am on the wrong side of the world, but I can't even conveniently watch them on TV because the time difference dictates that they start at about midnight each night.
December has been all about Christmas shopping and more prominently Christmas functions. I have been to various work Christmas lunches and parties, enjoying all the free festivities.
Yesterday I did my first bit of international travel for almost 2 months, going on a day-trip to Lille in France on the Eurostar train. It's a great city and, despite the cold rainy weather, I still had a great time as always in France, trying to communicate in worse than broken French, I like to call it "Shattered French". The famous Lille Christmas market was nice but smaller than expected but the shopping malls were huge with great shopping (something you come to appreciate living in London). It was also good to get away from the cold and rain, even though being on the giant open air ferris wheel in the rain was kind of fun.
Next week I'm off to Prague to have a continental Christmas and New Year. Then its back to England for a last few weeks of Winter. I'm due back in Melbourne on January 25th, so hope to see those of you in Australia some time soon after that, and those of you in Europe before I head off. At this stage I am not 100% sure if I'm coming back to Oz long term, or just for a short break from the winter and coming back to Europe, although at this moment it looks like I will be coming back to Melbourne to look for a lawyer job. We'll see what happens!
09 November 2006
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).
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).
24 October 2006
Wine tasting with Adolf, sailing with crazy Captain Ivo and much much more
Hi everyone!
I have been concentrating on travelling again recently. It all started with the August "Summer Bank Holiday" weekend in the UK. Having 3 days off work meant that I had to go and visit the continent otherwise it would be 3 days wasted by staying in England. Flights to everywhere were very expensive so I opened a backpackers magazine and booked the first interesting coach tour I saw. So very early on the Saturday morning I headed off on a bus to Germany. It was a boring bus ride but it was a perfect opportunity to catch up on sleep and even read up on German lingo in my phrasebook.
Upon arrival in the small town of Bad Salzig in the Rhein Valley (a picturesque German wine making region) in the evening, accompanied by a random selection of people on the tour, I drank some local wine, followed by drinking some more local wine, followed by eating, and then drinking some more local wine, more local wine and then some local beer. (The drinks were included in the tour price, the company was good, and the wine was OK - what else could I do?)
Later that night it was interesting using the German I learned earlier to talk to some non-English-speaking locals in a pub. Not surprisingly, I woke up the next morning with a bit of a headache, but that was soon forgotten about thanks to an early morning stroll around the small city of Boppard and a river cruise up the Rhein Valley, underneath the countless medieval castles, green forests and abundant fertile vineyards. We overlooked the beautiful green region from the famous Loriley cliff, and then walked around a local city and attended a wine tasting, presented by a winemaker called Adolf. I've attached some photos from this beautiful place! Back at the hotel the theme was again local wine.
On the bus ride home we stopped off in the beautiful Belgian city of Ghent. That was the third Belgian city I'd been to and the third one I loved, making Belgium grow in my heart as one of my favourite places.
The next few weeks were spent working and partying the last few weeks of Summer away in London, counting down to my 2 weeks of annual leave in the 2nd half of September.
So half way through September I flew out of London to the city of Ancona in Italy. The flight was full of Aussies and Kiwis all heading to sail Croatia (flying cheapo RyanAir to Ancona and catching a ferry across the Adriatic Sea seemed to be the most cost effective way of getting to Croatia.) Ancona wasn't particularly interesting as it was really just a port city, but the overnight ferry ride to Split in Croatia was quite luxurious and fun. Getting to Split was a bit of a disappointment because instead of finding warm Croatian weather, I was greeted with rain, rain and more rain.
I boarded the boat that I would spend a week sailing the Dalmatian Coast of Croatia in. It was the smallest and oldest boat in the fleet of about 17. I was a little bit shocked about the cramped conditions (and the fact we only had 1 toilet/shower for 19 passangers) but luckily I was the only one on the boat who got a room to myself, making it much more bearable. The first three days of sailing were quite bad on account of the weather. We hit some storms and really rough seas. One on occassion, our crazy captain took us head on into a storm the other (bigger and more stable) boats did not choose to brave. The main way of making time pass was balancing out on the deck trying not to vomit. Or fall overboard. Despite the bad weather the water was still warm, and we even managed to go for a swim when we found a tranquil bay.
We saw some beautiful coastal towns and when we got to the southernmost point of the tour, Dubrovnik, the sun finally came out. Immediately the whole place looked so much better – amazing how a bit of shining sun can really bring a place out. Walking around the old castle walls of Dubrovnik was great. It also proved to be a great place for a night out.
The rest of the tour was spent sailing from island to island during the day while we sunbathed on the roof and every now and then anchored in the beautiful clear water for a swim. I swam in some amazingly picturesque locations, each time in crystal clear water. In the evenings we would moor up in a port and explore the village or city we ended up in, explore the streets, eat the local cuisine in great outdoors restaurants among scenic old town ruins and party in the local bars and nightclubs (or on the roof of our boat with our sleazy alcoholic, yet lots of fun, chef). My favourite of these places was Hvar, an amazing, hilly, old town, surrounded by castle walls, overlooking a peaceful marina in a bay surrounded by green hills.
The sailing tour finished with a night back in Split. The highlight of the night was getting a local with a small zippy electronic baggage trolley to drive 16 of us (it felt more dangerous as it sounds) to a huge outdoor nightclub on a hill just out of town overlooking a beach. The next morning I wasn't quite ready to leave Split, so I hired an apartment with some people from the sailing tour and stayed an extra day. That day was spent walking around the local markets before going on a white water rafting trip in the hills about an hour inland from Split. The most dangerous part of the this, unfortunately, was being driven up in a car by a speeding, chain-smoking, non-seatbelt-wearing, Croatian soldier in his early 90's Audi that I WISHED had seatbelts in the back. Luckilly we did make it to the lovely clear river where we boarded some rafts and went down a beautiful forest valley. The rapids were fun but nothing too extreme. The highlight was when we came to a waterfall and stopped to get out of the raft and go through the waterfall. Behind the waterfall we found a small cave that we went into, but to get across had to swim through a small cave lake of 7ºC cold water and then climb up a rock face in the dark. It was fun!
The next day was my birthday. The 2 girls I was staying with took me out to an awesome birthday breakfast in a nice outside restaurant. I then said bye and caught a super modern German tilt-train from Split, winding through the mountain ranges to Croatia's capital, Zagreb.
It was a nice city that I enjoyed walking around in the afternoon, but I had a Croatia/Slovenia/Austria Eurail pass to utilise, so I continued on by rail to Slovenia the next day. Catching the train through Slovenia was great. The countryside was probably the most picturesque I have seen, with a great mix of lakes, forests and small quant villages, each built around a single church old tower. I made it to Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia and was going to look around a bit, until I realised that the next train to Vienna was a mere 15 min away so I jumped on that. It was actually a train to somewhere called Maribor, at which I was meant to change to a Vienna train. The problem was that about 45min after we were meant to hit Maribor the train was still in the middle of nowhere. I eventually asked a conductor I saw and she told me in 30% Slovenian, 30% English, 40% German (that I somehow managed to piece together) that I was in fact not on a Maribor train, that the train split in 2 way, way back and that I was in fact heading to somewhere completely different. She ushered me off the train at a small village somewhere and directed me to run onto a small, old, rickety, local train that was about to depart. I followed her instructions. The train ride was an interesting experience. The train stopped at lots of little villages and at other places which didn't even constitute villages. Some of the stations were literally nothing more than a patch of gravel in a field. The passengers were all local farm people, the conductor spoke no English and had evidently never seen a Eurail pass in his life. I wasn't really sure where I was, or even if I was still in Slovenia, and was a bit annoyed that I was only seeing this beautiful sunny day through a train window, but an hour or two later, I did manage to arrive in this Maribor place. I looked around the town for an hour, and was impressed. It was a nice little city. I spent about 2,000 Tolars in a local supermarket and jumped on the next train to Vienna.
The trains distance trains in Sloevnia and Austria were great. I only had a 2nd class ticket but 2nd class was way superior to 1st class in Britain. It was all comfortable big seats in 6-seater-cabins. A great way to travel Europe, assuming you manage to find your way onto the right train. I arrived in Vienna quite late, and the hostel I wanted to check into had no space. I managed to walk to a few hotels near the Südbahnhof train station, picked the cheapest (nay, least expensive) and just crashed – I was exhausted.
I spent the next day just walking around Vienna. The highlight of this was finding the Gorilla in the Prater amusement park. I had been there as a 6 year old with my parents (just after we managed to escape from then Communist Czechoslovakia), 20 years earlier almost to the day, at which time I had a photo with the Gorilla much to my terror at the time, because I was crying, scared of the big ape. So I got a photo with same Gorilla 20 years later. Maybe I'll go back again when I'm 46.
That evening I caught a train from Vienna's Westbahnhof station to the beautiful city of Salzburg. Again, I arrived late and just crashed in a nearby hotel. The next day was the last day of my trip. I spent the morning walking around the Salzburg streets, marvelling at the scenery, which was a mix of great architecture and beautiful gardens, placed against a background of big green hills (which, of course, are alive with the sound of music).
In the afternoon I joined up with a tour group to the ice caves, right up in the Alps. That was a most amazing experience. It involved a super-steep bus ride, followed by an even steeper cable car ride, then a steep walk but all this was rewarded with amazing views over the Alps and valleys below and an even more amazing ice cave. The tour of the cave, aided by old-style open flame torches for light, was an hour long, and any longer would have been painful as the cave temperature is litrally 0ºC. The cave is full of walls of ice and naturally formed ice sculptures. After the cave tour we rewarded ourselves with frankfurters and local beer as we sat, thawing out, and overlooking the Alpine scenery.
Upon return to Salzburg it was a trip to the airport with one of the people from the ice caves tour that was on the same flight as me. At the airport, a last attempt to sample some Austrian cuisine (goulash and beer) and then waiting for a flight which was an hour and a half delayed, resulting in me getting back to London after the trains from the airport had finished running. A coach ride and night bus ride later, I made it home. At 3 am. And went to work the next day. Since then, work has been keeping me busy. I have been seconded to a large French Pharmaceuticals company outside of London so I'm constantly tiring myself out commuting to Surrey, but it's all good fun. Last Friday was my firm's annual party, which was a no-expenses-spared extravaganza, which I'm still recovering from.
Since October ticked over, the previously surprisingly sunny weather has taken a dramatic turn for the cold. So London winter, here I come. My next main holiday is not till December so the next couple of months will be spent trying to save some of these valuable British Pounds to bring back home, instead of spending it all on travel and booze. Wish me luck!
See you in January!
I have been concentrating on travelling again recently. It all started with the August "Summer Bank Holiday" weekend in the UK. Having 3 days off work meant that I had to go and visit the continent otherwise it would be 3 days wasted by staying in England. Flights to everywhere were very expensive so I opened a backpackers magazine and booked the first interesting coach tour I saw. So very early on the Saturday morning I headed off on a bus to Germany. It was a boring bus ride but it was a perfect opportunity to catch up on sleep and even read up on German lingo in my phrasebook.
Upon arrival in the small town of Bad Salzig in the Rhein Valley (a picturesque German wine making region) in the evening, accompanied by a random selection of people on the tour, I drank some local wine, followed by drinking some more local wine, followed by eating, and then drinking some more local wine, more local wine and then some local beer. (The drinks were included in the tour price, the company was good, and the wine was OK - what else could I do?)
Later that night it was interesting using the German I learned earlier to talk to some non-English-speaking locals in a pub. Not surprisingly, I woke up the next morning with a bit of a headache, but that was soon forgotten about thanks to an early morning stroll around the small city of Boppard and a river cruise up the Rhein Valley, underneath the countless medieval castles, green forests and abundant fertile vineyards. We overlooked the beautiful green region from the famous Loriley cliff, and then walked around a local city and attended a wine tasting, presented by a winemaker called Adolf. I've attached some photos from this beautiful place! Back at the hotel the theme was again local wine.
On the bus ride home we stopped off in the beautiful Belgian city of Ghent. That was the third Belgian city I'd been to and the third one I loved, making Belgium grow in my heart as one of my favourite places.
The next few weeks were spent working and partying the last few weeks of Summer away in London, counting down to my 2 weeks of annual leave in the 2nd half of September.
So half way through September I flew out of London to the city of Ancona in Italy. The flight was full of Aussies and Kiwis all heading to sail Croatia (flying cheapo RyanAir to Ancona and catching a ferry across the Adriatic Sea seemed to be the most cost effective way of getting to Croatia.) Ancona wasn't particularly interesting as it was really just a port city, but the overnight ferry ride to Split in Croatia was quite luxurious and fun. Getting to Split was a bit of a disappointment because instead of finding warm Croatian weather, I was greeted with rain, rain and more rain.
I boarded the boat that I would spend a week sailing the Dalmatian Coast of Croatia in. It was the smallest and oldest boat in the fleet of about 17. I was a little bit shocked about the cramped conditions (and the fact we only had 1 toilet/shower for 19 passangers) but luckily I was the only one on the boat who got a room to myself, making it much more bearable. The first three days of sailing were quite bad on account of the weather. We hit some storms and really rough seas. One on occassion, our crazy captain took us head on into a storm the other (bigger and more stable) boats did not choose to brave. The main way of making time pass was balancing out on the deck trying not to vomit. Or fall overboard. Despite the bad weather the water was still warm, and we even managed to go for a swim when we found a tranquil bay.
We saw some beautiful coastal towns and when we got to the southernmost point of the tour, Dubrovnik, the sun finally came out. Immediately the whole place looked so much better – amazing how a bit of shining sun can really bring a place out. Walking around the old castle walls of Dubrovnik was great. It also proved to be a great place for a night out.
The rest of the tour was spent sailing from island to island during the day while we sunbathed on the roof and every now and then anchored in the beautiful clear water for a swim. I swam in some amazingly picturesque locations, each time in crystal clear water. In the evenings we would moor up in a port and explore the village or city we ended up in, explore the streets, eat the local cuisine in great outdoors restaurants among scenic old town ruins and party in the local bars and nightclubs (or on the roof of our boat with our sleazy alcoholic, yet lots of fun, chef). My favourite of these places was Hvar, an amazing, hilly, old town, surrounded by castle walls, overlooking a peaceful marina in a bay surrounded by green hills.
The sailing tour finished with a night back in Split. The highlight of the night was getting a local with a small zippy electronic baggage trolley to drive 16 of us (it felt more dangerous as it sounds) to a huge outdoor nightclub on a hill just out of town overlooking a beach. The next morning I wasn't quite ready to leave Split, so I hired an apartment with some people from the sailing tour and stayed an extra day. That day was spent walking around the local markets before going on a white water rafting trip in the hills about an hour inland from Split. The most dangerous part of the this, unfortunately, was being driven up in a car by a speeding, chain-smoking, non-seatbelt-wearing, Croatian soldier in his early 90's Audi that I WISHED had seatbelts in the back. Luckilly we did make it to the lovely clear river where we boarded some rafts and went down a beautiful forest valley. The rapids were fun but nothing too extreme. The highlight was when we came to a waterfall and stopped to get out of the raft and go through the waterfall. Behind the waterfall we found a small cave that we went into, but to get across had to swim through a small cave lake of 7ºC cold water and then climb up a rock face in the dark. It was fun!
The next day was my birthday. The 2 girls I was staying with took me out to an awesome birthday breakfast in a nice outside restaurant. I then said bye and caught a super modern German tilt-train from Split, winding through the mountain ranges to Croatia's capital, Zagreb.
It was a nice city that I enjoyed walking around in the afternoon, but I had a Croatia/Slovenia/Austria Eurail pass to utilise, so I continued on by rail to Slovenia the next day. Catching the train through Slovenia was great. The countryside was probably the most picturesque I have seen, with a great mix of lakes, forests and small quant villages, each built around a single church old tower. I made it to Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia and was going to look around a bit, until I realised that the next train to Vienna was a mere 15 min away so I jumped on that. It was actually a train to somewhere called Maribor, at which I was meant to change to a Vienna train. The problem was that about 45min after we were meant to hit Maribor the train was still in the middle of nowhere. I eventually asked a conductor I saw and she told me in 30% Slovenian, 30% English, 40% German (that I somehow managed to piece together) that I was in fact not on a Maribor train, that the train split in 2 way, way back and that I was in fact heading to somewhere completely different. She ushered me off the train at a small village somewhere and directed me to run onto a small, old, rickety, local train that was about to depart. I followed her instructions. The train ride was an interesting experience. The train stopped at lots of little villages and at other places which didn't even constitute villages. Some of the stations were literally nothing more than a patch of gravel in a field. The passengers were all local farm people, the conductor spoke no English and had evidently never seen a Eurail pass in his life. I wasn't really sure where I was, or even if I was still in Slovenia, and was a bit annoyed that I was only seeing this beautiful sunny day through a train window, but an hour or two later, I did manage to arrive in this Maribor place. I looked around the town for an hour, and was impressed. It was a nice little city. I spent about 2,000 Tolars in a local supermarket and jumped on the next train to Vienna.
The trains distance trains in Sloevnia and Austria were great. I only had a 2nd class ticket but 2nd class was way superior to 1st class in Britain. It was all comfortable big seats in 6-seater-cabins. A great way to travel Europe, assuming you manage to find your way onto the right train. I arrived in Vienna quite late, and the hostel I wanted to check into had no space. I managed to walk to a few hotels near the Südbahnhof train station, picked the cheapest (nay, least expensive) and just crashed – I was exhausted.
I spent the next day just walking around Vienna. The highlight of this was finding the Gorilla in the Prater amusement park. I had been there as a 6 year old with my parents (just after we managed to escape from then Communist Czechoslovakia), 20 years earlier almost to the day, at which time I had a photo with the Gorilla much to my terror at the time, because I was crying, scared of the big ape. So I got a photo with same Gorilla 20 years later. Maybe I'll go back again when I'm 46.
That evening I caught a train from Vienna's Westbahnhof station to the beautiful city of Salzburg. Again, I arrived late and just crashed in a nearby hotel. The next day was the last day of my trip. I spent the morning walking around the Salzburg streets, marvelling at the scenery, which was a mix of great architecture and beautiful gardens, placed against a background of big green hills (which, of course, are alive with the sound of music).
In the afternoon I joined up with a tour group to the ice caves, right up in the Alps. That was a most amazing experience. It involved a super-steep bus ride, followed by an even steeper cable car ride, then a steep walk but all this was rewarded with amazing views over the Alps and valleys below and an even more amazing ice cave. The tour of the cave, aided by old-style open flame torches for light, was an hour long, and any longer would have been painful as the cave temperature is litrally 0ºC. The cave is full of walls of ice and naturally formed ice sculptures. After the cave tour we rewarded ourselves with frankfurters and local beer as we sat, thawing out, and overlooking the Alpine scenery.
Upon return to Salzburg it was a trip to the airport with one of the people from the ice caves tour that was on the same flight as me. At the airport, a last attempt to sample some Austrian cuisine (goulash and beer) and then waiting for a flight which was an hour and a half delayed, resulting in me getting back to London after the trains from the airport had finished running. A coach ride and night bus ride later, I made it home. At 3 am. And went to work the next day. Since then, work has been keeping me busy. I have been seconded to a large French Pharmaceuticals company outside of London so I'm constantly tiring myself out commuting to Surrey, but it's all good fun. Last Friday was my firm's annual party, which was a no-expenses-spared extravaganza, which I'm still recovering from.
Since October ticked over, the previously surprisingly sunny weather has taken a dramatic turn for the cold. So London winter, here I come. My next main holiday is not till December so the next couple of months will be spent trying to save some of these valuable British Pounds to bring back home, instead of spending it all on travel and booze. Wish me luck!
See you in January!
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