Hi Everyone
Since I last wrote (when I described my advetures in Amsterdam), I have been watching the World Cup and enjoying the summer weather in London.The latter has involved sightseeing within London on the weekends, andon work days spending lunchtime in the park.It has been so hot that the Tube (underground rail system) has beenrunning at reduced speed (to avoid derailing) and blaring frequentannouncements warning people to carry water bottles on trains.
In the absence of the beach (which I miss dearly), the parks are theplace to be in London. The parks are super lively, with peoplepicnicking, sunbathing and of course playing "football".But as the mercury hit record highs, the air conditioning in our workbuilding stopped working, resulting in a massive 7-floor sauna tryingto be a law firm. It wasn't fun. But having drinks in London alley-waybars provided good relief on numerous nights.It has been great watching the World Cup unfold in one of the world'sgreatest footballing nations. St George Crosses (white and red Englishflags) are draped in every second window and flying from the top ofmany many cars.As well as watching various England and other games, I have beenfollowing the Socceroos progress carefully. Took the afternoon offwork to watch Australia destroy Japan at a pub near work; but thendecided to take it a notch higher for the Brazil game and head toMunich, Germany.
It was a tour run by the Irish company that I did my Ireland tourwith. Early on a Friday morning we (myself and 20 other Aussies and Irish) departed London and headed to Dover for the Ferry across theEnglish Channel. Amazingly enough, on the Ferry I randomly bumped into Ben, an Aussie dude I met in San Diego, and flew to Las Vegas with, when I wasbackpacking the USA. It really is a small world!!!Upon landing in Calais, we drove all day until we reached Amsterdamfor a stopover. I had been to Amsterdam only a few weeks earlier, so Iwas delighted when our city accommodation suddenly didn't have spacefor us, and we ended up staying in cabins in a picturesque caravanpark ouside of Amsterdam, that lay beside a marina in the Dutchcountryside by the coast. We caught public transport into the city andhad a night on the Red Light District (as you do) and then attemptedto catch public transport back to the campsite. We managed to get asfar as the nearest town but the [last] bus didn't go any further. Weended up walking for over an hour in the pitch dark on a desertedcountry road to eventually find our caravan park - but what afantastic experience on a beautiful warm night in the fresh seasideair with a bunch of great Aussies!!The next morning we embarked on our long drive from Amsterdam toMunich. And long is no exaggeration. Holland is of course to the Northof Germany and Munich is in Bavaria in Southern Germany, and as I found out, Germany is a very large country! But a nice one!! I reallyenjoyed the forest covered hills and valleys and fast cars speedingpast on the autobahns.We found home in a camping site a couple of hours outside of Munich. It was run by Germans who couldn't speak English with the aid of anEnglish guy providing the tents and luxuries such as air mattresses.On the first night I lost my tour group so I mingled in the outsideseating of the campsite's restaurant/bar with some English footballfollowers and local German kids. That was fun, especially with the aid of the German beer that was flowing for €2/500ml (significantly cheaper and tastefully superior beer to what I have had to get used toin London). It was interesting attempting to order pizza and beer inGerman but I think I managed to get the point accross.Early the next day we headed to Munich! We started drinking early onthe bus and got into the spirit of things, hanging Aussie flags fromthe [clearly Irish due to the leprachauns on the side] bus anddrinking breakfast beers. German beers go down surprising well at 9amon a hot day!
We arrived at the Munich Olympiastadion where the official fan zonewas located. But before heading in, we decided to wander onto themetro and take a ride into the main part of town. Some of us exploredthis old part of beautiful Munich amongst a sea of yellow and greencrowds supporting Australia and Brazil. My favourite part of the daywas sitting in a huge traditional beer hall drinking fine beer fromhuge litre stines (€6.20 ea. - great value) while chanting Australiasongs [from classics "Waltzing Matilda" to "Stand up for theSocceroos..."] at the Brazilians, completely drowning out the German folk music band.After that we boarded a crowded metro back to Olympiastadion uponwhich we further exchanged some chants and competitive banter with theBrazilians on board. Then we headed into the official fan zone wherewe drank many more beers and had fun all dressed up in our Aussiegear. I had never felt so Australian and loved every moment of it!! The Brazilian fans had a great attitude and all of the interaction wasfun in great spirits - not the slightest bit of violence or even batattitude at all.As Australia came on we sang and we cheered to the, unfortunatelydisappointing, end. But that didn't totally dampen the mood as thepartying continued until we eventually boarded our bus back to thecampsite and fell asleep exhausted. The atmosphere that day was sofantastic that I can claim it had been one of the best days of mylife!The next day we drove from Bavaria to Paris, arriving in Paris late ona hot and humid afternoon. We went on a bus ride, checking out all thesites and almost crashing in the crazy, seemingly rule-less roundabout around the Arc de Triomphe. Some of us then made our way by footto Sacre-Cour where we climbed the steps and enjoyed the magnificentParis views during a beautiful pink Paris dusk. By the time we werefinished there I was in a group of only 4 people, and although we weredesperate for dinner by about 10pm, we instead decided to just grab anice cream and make the most of our short time in Paris by making ourway to the Eiffel Tower.We found a metro station and somehow managed to buy tickets and getthe metro to take us to the right stop for the Tower. And it was worthsurpassing dinner for!! As we approached the tower, the 11pm lightshow had just illuminated, and we gazed at the amazing structure as itsparkled and lit up the Paris skyline. We then went up the tower andmarvelled at the Paris views until the midnight light show and theneventually made our way down, some of the last people to leave. Wow,spending midnight of a perfect summer night on the Eiffel Tower! Whata week!!
The next day it was time to head back to London but Kylie, an Aussie girl from Bathurst, and I didn't let that stop us. We got up earlyand insisted on doing further sightseeing before being forced to leavethe magnificent city. We managed to check out Notre Dame and thenwandered the streets for a bit before resting for coffees at a streetside cafe and heading back for the bus and the long drive back toLondon.My favourite thing about being in France was using my very limitedFrench from school to speak to people, including the usual niceties (bonjour, bon soir, merci....) and ordering things like coffees andmetro tickets; with a huge sense of satisfaction when my mutteringswere understood!As we sailed back across the English channel I enjoyed sipping on some French wine, in an attempt to grab hold of the French experience forjust a few moments longer, but indeed the trip was soon over as Ifound myself back in South London, boarding the Tube for the long rideback to my North London "home".
Since coming back life has been just as busy. Watching Australia play"football" matches in pubs (being particularly horrified at whathappened with Italy just an hour or two ago in the 94th minute), goingout, shopping, and going to the Wireless Festival in Hyde Park, which I somehow managed to score some free tickets to. Saw acts including The Strokes, Ben Lee (about 80% Aussie audience for him) and James Blunt. Not the best acts, but there's something really cool aboutwatching bands play on a sunny day in the middle of Hyde Park, one ofthe greatest parks in one of the greatest cities in the world.Next weekend I'm hoping to make it to Belgium for a huge rockfestival, and the weekend after, a trip to an English beach atBournemouth with some Hungarian friends. Eventually I'm hoping to dosome sailing around the Croatian islands. I hope it all works out sowish me luck! I also hope all of you in the Southern Hemisphere [whatthey call "antipodeans" here] are surviving the winter as I enjoy the sun. I never thought I'd be saying that about London!
Missing you and wishing you were here to share the exprience......
Where in the World is DK?
07 June 2006
Southampton, Winchester, Amsterdam and Sunny London
Since I sent my last [blog entry] I spent first week working in the city and settling into the apartment in London's outer northern suburbs.
The highlight of that week was Friday night, when work shouted us to excellent cocktails at a nearby bar.
That weekend, I decided to get out of London and see some other parts of England, after all, it would be a shame to leave England only having been to London. So on Saturday morning (quite hung over after said cocktails), I made my way to Waterloo Station and jumped on a train to the city of Southampton, a port city on the South coast of England.
The train ride (about £30 return) was pleasant and comfortable. The views were nice (very green lush forests and fields, small towns, creeks and rivers and towards the end some harbours) and the ride was generally relaxing, until at the time I thought the train was due to arrive at Southampton we were still in the middle of nowhere. I spotted a station and found a route map and realised we were somewhere completely different to where I believe the train went via and panicked, thinking I was on the wrong train. Eventually I worked out that the train was indeed heading to Southampton, but taking the 2 hour out-of-the-way route instead of the one hour fast route I thought I was on. So I was comforted but at the same time feeling quite guilty because my friend Mel who was picking me up at the station had to wait an hour for me to get there!
Mel is a friend I had met in San Diego earlier in my journey. She lives in Southampton and was kind enough to let me stay the weekend with her and show me around the region. Unfortunately on the way home from the train station an old couple decided they didn't have to give way to their right at a roundabout and crashed their car directly into the side of Mel's car, without even slowing down. Luckily no-one was hurt, but when the man drove the car away from the accident, he made maneuvers on road which unfortunately showed he should no longer be driving. Sad, but true. Anyway, it was an interesting welcome to the city.
On Saturday night we decided to catch the bus instead, and head into town where we hit the bars and clubs so that I could experience the Southampton nightlife, which was actually really good and quite a bit of fun.
On Sunday Mel took me to the nearby city of Winchester. It is an old city that was the centre of William the Conqueror's kingdom after he invaded in 1066 and was the capital for a few hundred years before everything moved to London. We walked around town in the pouring rain, and visited the famous Winchester Cathedral, the biggest in all of Europe. Many of the cathedral scenes in the new Da Vinci Code movie were filmed there. Upon returning to Southampton in the afternoon we were inspired to go see the movie on the very same day, and did so to get away from the rain. It was cool seeing the places I'd been to just a few hours earlier on the big screen. After that, we went to the harbourside and fantasized about how great it would be to own one of the big boats there. I was then dropped off at the train station and made my way back to London, arriving home at about midnight, just in time to retire to bed and prepare for another week of work in the city.
my first flat in England
It was a fairly non-eventful week just going to work, applying for longer term and better paying jobs, and doing all sorts of homely stuff I'm not used to doing, like laundry, ironing, cooking and washing dishes! (What is this world coming to?)
On Friday I went to work with all my things packed for the weekend. After work I had some drinks with colleagues and headed to Paddington Station to check in to my Spring Bank Holiday long-weekend tour to Amsterdam!
I enjoyed the coach drive from London to Dover, having some beers along the way and chatting to the the other travellers (again mainly Aussies). Once we arrived at Dover the bus boarded a ferry and we sailed across the English channel in pitch dark, to the port of Calais in France. Once on the European continent I slept all the way to Amsterdam, ready to start enjoying it bright and early in the morning.
Most of the tourist attractions weren't open so I headed to a local market with some of the people in my group. It has everything from a wide range of fresh flowers, to cheese, fish and even chocolate bottoms, breasts, penises, vaginas! [the Dutch are very liberated] One of the girls bought one and we nibbled on her vagina all afternoon long.
Breakfast and many meals after that were at some of the city's many gourmet bakeries selling beautiful pastries and cakes. The rest of the morning was spent visiting some of the city's coffee shops and then going on a long canal cruise (complete with picnic lunch) along some of the city's many old Canals, which criss cross throughout the whole city like a large spider-web.... until we were eventually let into our hostel to check in and have an afternoon nap to recover from the long overnight drive and busy morning.
On Saturday night our group visited the famous Red Light District, walking around doing some "window shopping", seeing a live show and then partying in some of the areas nightclubs.
But Sunday was the highlight of the weekend. We went on a big bike ride around Amsterdam, weaving trams, cars and other bikes on the city streets, and riding along beautiful parks and canals and even the odd windmill. Riding a bike seems to be the standard method of transportation in Holland, and it was good fun riding along the mainly flat terrain, when I wasn't being yelled at by locals for fatal mistakes like riding on the left, not giving way or stopping suddenly. I got sworn at in Dutch several times!
But when they weren't yelling at me from their bike seat, I found the Dutch to be very pleasant and helpful people. I really enjoyed it in their country.
We hit a few bars on Sunday night and headed home early on Monday morning. I enjoyed the drive home, staring out of the window at the Dutch, Belgian and French scenery.
We again caught the ferry from Calais to Dover, this time in the rain. But just as we approached British coastline, the sun came out and we watched the famous White Cliffs of Dover glisten in the sun as they grew nearer.
Then back to London and back to work the next day (a bit of an anticlimax but gotta earn the money to support these weekend trips somehow).
Since coming back to London I have been enjoying fantastic summer weather. It has been in the mid 20s and sunny just about every day. My aunty is visiting me from the Czech Republic at the moment, so I spent the weekend with her sightseeing, shopping and doing a ferry cruise down the Thames.
I hope all is well back in Australia. I think of you guys in Melbourne as I frolic out in the warm European London sun. Oh, and go the Socceroos! I have become very patriotic since leaving down under. Unfortunately I won't be able to watch them play Japan as that is 2pm on Monday, London time and work calls.
[Edit: it turns out the English are very understanding of the need to watch world cup football, so I worked through lunch and then went down to the pub next to work to watch it during work time!]
Cheerio!
15 May 2006
London Life and Irish Insights
Hi everyone.
Life in London has been good. It is an interesting place, with always heaps going on. Most of my London time has been spent working and organizing places to live. I have been learning to make do with what I have. For example I discovered that hair wax makes a good shoe polish.
Mel arrived in London which gave me a good excuse to take some time off work and head over to Ireland with her for a one-week-trip.
We flew from London Heathrow to Dublin on a Sunday afternoon after a 4am visit to a London hospital emergency room earlier that day to get Mel some medicine as she was not feeling very well. That was quite an adventure.
Dublin is a largely tourist oriented city, but our first night there was largely uneventful. In our backpackers hostel Mel rested and I did laundry. But the fun started bright and early the next day when we met our Irish tour leader and jumped on the Paddywagon and headed off to Northern Ireland.
In Northern Ireland we visited the cities of Belfast and Derry. Northern Ireland is of course the part of Ireland still controlled by the UK, where until recently there has been much violence between the Irish nationalists and the British loyalists (also referred to as the Catholics and Protestants respectively). I never realised quite how segregated the communities were in these places, with actual walls and gates separating the cities in half. The police cars look like armoured personnel carriers and the police stations look like maximum security prisons, except instead of keeping prisoners in, they are designed to keep the IRA out. I learned a lot about human nature in those couple of days and some of it was quite sad. Despite all this, the locals were very friendly and we had fun visiting the local pubs.
We left the troubles of Northern Ireland behind as we headed South back into the Republic, where we saw amazing beaches that even we as Australians would be proud of: sandy beaches that unlike Aussie beaches were abounded by rolling vibrant grassy hills of fields separated by rock walls.
We bathed in seaweed baths, explored various castles and ruins, strolled down the streets of numerous pleasant towns and looked at magnificent gardens, including from a horse-pulled carriage. And of course visited many a pub to sample some Irish whiskey and Irish beers; and not just Guinness. At the risk of sounding a bit girly, I did prefer the Baby Guiness (a shot of Tia Maria topped with Baileys) to a real Guiness.
When Mel and I returned to Dublin on a busy Saturday night at the conclusion of our tour, we struggled to find accommodation for less than €100 for the night. In the end we booked nice a suburban hotel for a discounted price on good old wotif.com (I have put that website to very good use over the past few weeks).
We headed to Dublin Airport the next day, said goodbye to each other and headed our own ways. I back to London, and Mel off to Paris.
I moved in with a colleague's boyfriend for a week in the inner Eastern suburbs of London but on the Saturday just gone I finally moved into my own flat, sharing with Rachel and Stevo. No more sleeping in a different bed every few nights - very exciting! I finally got to unpack my huge suitcase and don't plan on using it again until later this year.
London is looking great. Everything is very green and there are flowers everywhere. The weather has improved and I have worn T-shirts without jumpers a couple of times now.
To everyone back in Australia, I hope you are surviving autumn. I hear it's been cold.
I'll write again next time I have some developments. At the moment I am contemplating a long-weekend trip to Amsterdam at the end of the month and a trip to Munich for a World Cup soccer game (Australia vs. Brazil) in mid June. So hopefully both of these trips will eventuate, as well as a visit to a European rock festival. Wish me good luck and sufficient funds in organising these little side-trips.
Life in London has been good. It is an interesting place, with always heaps going on. Most of my London time has been spent working and organizing places to live. I have been learning to make do with what I have. For example I discovered that hair wax makes a good shoe polish.
Mel arrived in London which gave me a good excuse to take some time off work and head over to Ireland with her for a one-week-trip.
We flew from London Heathrow to Dublin on a Sunday afternoon after a 4am visit to a London hospital emergency room earlier that day to get Mel some medicine as she was not feeling very well. That was quite an adventure.
Dublin is a largely tourist oriented city, but our first night there was largely uneventful. In our backpackers hostel Mel rested and I did laundry. But the fun started bright and early the next day when we met our Irish tour leader and jumped on the Paddywagon and headed off to Northern Ireland.
In Northern Ireland we visited the cities of Belfast and Derry. Northern Ireland is of course the part of Ireland still controlled by the UK, where until recently there has been much violence between the Irish nationalists and the British loyalists (also referred to as the Catholics and Protestants respectively). I never realised quite how segregated the communities were in these places, with actual walls and gates separating the cities in half. The police cars look like armoured personnel carriers and the police stations look like maximum security prisons, except instead of keeping prisoners in, they are designed to keep the IRA out. I learned a lot about human nature in those couple of days and some of it was quite sad. Despite all this, the locals were very friendly and we had fun visiting the local pubs.
We left the troubles of Northern Ireland behind as we headed South back into the Republic, where we saw amazing beaches that even we as Australians would be proud of: sandy beaches that unlike Aussie beaches were abounded by rolling vibrant grassy hills of fields separated by rock walls.
We bathed in seaweed baths, explored various castles and ruins, strolled down the streets of numerous pleasant towns and looked at magnificent gardens, including from a horse-pulled carriage. And of course visited many a pub to sample some Irish whiskey and Irish beers; and not just Guinness. At the risk of sounding a bit girly, I did prefer the Baby Guiness (a shot of Tia Maria topped with Baileys) to a real Guiness.
When Mel and I returned to Dublin on a busy Saturday night at the conclusion of our tour, we struggled to find accommodation for less than €100 for the night. In the end we booked nice a suburban hotel for a discounted price on good old wotif.com (I have put that website to very good use over the past few weeks).
We headed to Dublin Airport the next day, said goodbye to each other and headed our own ways. I back to London, and Mel off to Paris.
I moved in with a colleague's boyfriend for a week in the inner Eastern suburbs of London but on the Saturday just gone I finally moved into my own flat, sharing with Rachel and Stevo. No more sleeping in a different bed every few nights - very exciting! I finally got to unpack my huge suitcase and don't plan on using it again until later this year.
London is looking great. Everything is very green and there are flowers everywhere. The weather has improved and I have worn T-shirts without jumpers a couple of times now.
To everyone back in Australia, I hope you are surviving autumn. I hear it's been cold.
I'll write again next time I have some developments. At the moment I am contemplating a long-weekend trip to Amsterdam at the end of the month and a trip to Munich for a World Cup soccer game (Australia vs. Brazil) in mid June. So hopefully both of these trips will eventuate, as well as a visit to a European rock festival. Wish me good luck and sufficient funds in organising these little side-trips.
24 April 2006
Life in Prague, Return to London, Easter in Edinburgh
When I last wrote I was in Prague.
Prague is the only city I have seen on my travels so far that hasn't got a Starbuck's. I am so proud of that!
I left the beautiful city somewhat sad that I was leaving its brilliant vibrant yet classic atmosphere, but reassured that I would return very soon. After all my eventual trip home begins with a flight from Prague, so I have to go back to catch it.
From Prague I took a coach to the city of Brno, in the Moravia region of the Czech Republic. I spent a few hours there and then went to Brno Airport. This international airport is probably the smallest airport I
have ever been to, and reminded me a little bit of Launceston Airport in Tasmania which I visited earlier this year. It was a beautiful sunny afternoon so after checking in I went back outside and sat on the grass and bench outside relaxing in the sun, something you really can't do at the world's bigger airports. After eventually deciding I better head to the departure lounge, the passport control bloke made me sign my Czech passport, because apparently it is not valid without a signature. Interesting that I managed to get in and out of England and into the Czech Republic with it, but not out.
My Ryan Air flight from Brno to London was much less comfortable than the coach ride from Prague to Brno. The coach had movies, magazines, a free beverage service, reclining seats and customer service with a
smile. The Ryan Air flight had none of these.
When I left the plane the shock of the cold almost blew me away. It was a horrible stormy evening (which didn't exactly result in a smooth flight either - it was one of the scariest landings I've had yet). It was not a nice welcome back to England but since then the weather has improved a bit. (The weather is now quite mild and the trees are starting to go green, a transformation from grey to green that I have been looking forward to witnessing.)
London is huge and very busy. It has 5 major commercial airports, and the bus from Stansted Airport where I landed took about 2 hours to get to central London. I then needed to get 2 underground trains to finally get to my destination. Once I arrived in South Kensington I walked around in the rain and freezing cold for quite a while before I found the Beit Quad, which is the Imperial College hall of residence where I was staying. Once there I was very happy because it is beaut accommodation, and an absolute bargain for London Standards (yet still quite expensive on the Aussie-Dollar-Credit-Card).
Kensington is an absolutely beautiful part of London. Very safe, clean and posh. I have really enjoyed just walking around the streets and beautiful parklands. During the day I have been trying to get myself
organised, applying for jobs, looking around at more permanent accommodation and other fun stuff like that.
I was walking through the Imperial College campus a week or 2 ago when I saw adds for STA Travel Easter weekends. I realised why be in London for 4 days of not being able to work or organise anything, and made an impulse purchase to go to Edinburgh for a 4 day tour starting Good Friday.
So I got up on Friday and headed to the departure point of the tour on the tube (London underground train system, the only way to get around London). It happened to turn out that there were 3 Aussie girls on the
same carriage as me that were all headed to Edinburgh too. We all got talking and didn't even notice that the train didn't stop at the station we required. Two stations later we got off the train and caught the next one going back in the other direction. But it turned out to be an overland train headed in a completely different
direction. We were lost, and late for our tour, with no way to contact the operators. A bit of panic and running for trains to backtrack we eventually made it onto the tour bus.
The tour consisted of 30 people, of which 3 were South Africans (or Saffas as we call them here in London), 2 kiwis, 2 Americans, 2 Hungarians and the rest were Aussies, including the tour leader. Everyone lived in London to either work or study and were getting away for Easter. The bus ride was long. Very long. 10 hours, and the bus didn't have a DVD player nor a toilet. I managed to use the time to catch up on sleep the best one can on a bus.
It was worth it though. Edinburgh is a beautiful, friendly city. It is also a party capital. The city was full of people from all around Europe partying on stag trips, rugby trips and of course Aussie tourers. Much of our time was spent in the bars and nightclubs, but we still managed to fit in a bit of sightseeing. We had beautiful sunny weather which really made the city shine. The old architecture and overlapping city streets (many streets run over others below as the city was built over the old town) made every corner a picturesque place to explore.
Highlights for me of the trip were the side trip to the beautiful town of Sterling (where the battle from Braveheart happened) and the ghost tour of Edinburgh's underground alleyways on a cold, wet, rainy night.
I have also attached some photos from the tour. I haven't got my photos yet, but downloaded some photos that some Saffa mates took in my presence.
I'm back in London now, back to trying to get settled in. Beit Quad has become student accommodation again so they kicked me out. I will move into a flat soon, but in the meantime I've been hopping around
various dodgy hotels around London, basically the cheapest ones in or near Central London, staying a few nights at each.
I've finally found some work. I'm temping as a litigation paralegal at a big international law firm called [Law Firm], working on a huge matter, acting for a publicly listed company. The work is expected to go till mid-June, with plenty of overtime, so that should keep me going for a bit.
On Sunday I'm off to Dublin to do a 6-day-all-Ireland tour. That should be great!
I know this was a ridiculously long email, but I hadn't written in a while so I hope that at least justifies it.
Cheerio
Daniel
SOME STATISTICS ABOUT THE TRIP SO FAR:
Prague is the only city I have seen on my travels so far that hasn't got a Starbuck's. I am so proud of that!
I left the beautiful city somewhat sad that I was leaving its brilliant vibrant yet classic atmosphere, but reassured that I would return very soon. After all my eventual trip home begins with a flight from Prague, so I have to go back to catch it.
From Prague I took a coach to the city of Brno, in the Moravia region of the Czech Republic. I spent a few hours there and then went to Brno Airport. This international airport is probably the smallest airport I
have ever been to, and reminded me a little bit of Launceston Airport in Tasmania which I visited earlier this year. It was a beautiful sunny afternoon so after checking in I went back outside and sat on the grass and bench outside relaxing in the sun, something you really can't do at the world's bigger airports. After eventually deciding I better head to the departure lounge, the passport control bloke made me sign my Czech passport, because apparently it is not valid without a signature. Interesting that I managed to get in and out of England and into the Czech Republic with it, but not out.
My Ryan Air flight from Brno to London was much less comfortable than the coach ride from Prague to Brno. The coach had movies, magazines, a free beverage service, reclining seats and customer service with a
smile. The Ryan Air flight had none of these.
When I left the plane the shock of the cold almost blew me away. It was a horrible stormy evening (which didn't exactly result in a smooth flight either - it was one of the scariest landings I've had yet). It was not a nice welcome back to England but since then the weather has improved a bit. (The weather is now quite mild and the trees are starting to go green, a transformation from grey to green that I have been looking forward to witnessing.)
London is huge and very busy. It has 5 major commercial airports, and the bus from Stansted Airport where I landed took about 2 hours to get to central London. I then needed to get 2 underground trains to finally get to my destination. Once I arrived in South Kensington I walked around in the rain and freezing cold for quite a while before I found the Beit Quad, which is the Imperial College hall of residence where I was staying. Once there I was very happy because it is beaut accommodation, and an absolute bargain for London Standards (yet still quite expensive on the Aussie-Dollar-Credit-Card).
Kensington is an absolutely beautiful part of London. Very safe, clean and posh. I have really enjoyed just walking around the streets and beautiful parklands. During the day I have been trying to get myself
organised, applying for jobs, looking around at more permanent accommodation and other fun stuff like that.
I was walking through the Imperial College campus a week or 2 ago when I saw adds for STA Travel Easter weekends. I realised why be in London for 4 days of not being able to work or organise anything, and made an impulse purchase to go to Edinburgh for a 4 day tour starting Good Friday.
So I got up on Friday and headed to the departure point of the tour on the tube (London underground train system, the only way to get around London). It happened to turn out that there were 3 Aussie girls on the
same carriage as me that were all headed to Edinburgh too. We all got talking and didn't even notice that the train didn't stop at the station we required. Two stations later we got off the train and caught the next one going back in the other direction. But it turned out to be an overland train headed in a completely different
direction. We were lost, and late for our tour, with no way to contact the operators. A bit of panic and running for trains to backtrack we eventually made it onto the tour bus.
The tour consisted of 30 people, of which 3 were South Africans (or Saffas as we call them here in London), 2 kiwis, 2 Americans, 2 Hungarians and the rest were Aussies, including the tour leader. Everyone lived in London to either work or study and were getting away for Easter. The bus ride was long. Very long. 10 hours, and the bus didn't have a DVD player nor a toilet. I managed to use the time to catch up on sleep the best one can on a bus.
It was worth it though. Edinburgh is a beautiful, friendly city. It is also a party capital. The city was full of people from all around Europe partying on stag trips, rugby trips and of course Aussie tourers. Much of our time was spent in the bars and nightclubs, but we still managed to fit in a bit of sightseeing. We had beautiful sunny weather which really made the city shine. The old architecture and overlapping city streets (many streets run over others below as the city was built over the old town) made every corner a picturesque place to explore.
Highlights for me of the trip were the side trip to the beautiful town of Sterling (where the battle from Braveheart happened) and the ghost tour of Edinburgh's underground alleyways on a cold, wet, rainy night.
I have also attached some photos from the tour. I haven't got my photos yet, but downloaded some photos that some Saffa mates took in my presence.
I'm back in London now, back to trying to get settled in. Beit Quad has become student accommodation again so they kicked me out. I will move into a flat soon, but in the meantime I've been hopping around
various dodgy hotels around London, basically the cheapest ones in or near Central London, staying a few nights at each.
I've finally found some work. I'm temping as a litigation paralegal at a big international law firm called [Law Firm], working on a huge matter, acting for a publicly listed company. The work is expected to go till mid-June, with plenty of overtime, so that should keep me going for a bit.
On Sunday I'm off to Dublin to do a 6-day-all-Ireland tour. That should be great!
I know this was a ridiculously long email, but I hadn't written in a while so I hope that at least justifies it.
Cheerio
Daniel
SOME STATISTICS ABOUT THE TRIP SO FAR:
- Time spent travelling so far: It was 2 months on Easter Monday
- Most nights slept in one bed: 7 (London at Rach and Stevo's House)
- Number of Flights Flown: 9 flights in 9 weeks (MEL-LAX, OAK-SAN, SAN-LAS, LAS-DEN, DEN-JFK, JFK-BOS, BOS-LHR, LHR-PRG, BRQ-STN)
- Number of Photos Taken: Approaching 1,000
- Combined number of Animals lived with: 6 (3 dogs, a snake, a turtle and a cat) [and numerous mice if you count the mice I saw in the kitchen of the San Francisco Hotel I stayed in]
- Number of American States Visited: 8 in 5 weeks (CA, NV, AZ, CO, NY, MA, NH, ME). I'll have to visit the other 42 next time.
- Number of Group Emails written: 9 including this one, I think
- Number of times at an Aussie Pub in the 1st week of being in Lodnon: 3 or 4. Was clearly feeling homesick that week!
06 April 2006
My new homes (for now): England & Czechia
Hi Everyone!
The last time I wrote I was in the middle of registration interviews with some legal recruitment agencies in London. The interviews went well and I have currently got the recruiters looking for short term legal positions for me. I am also registered for temp work, and so far have worked half a day as a "paralegal" in a scanning house, helping a scanning outsourcing company scan documents in for importation into a litigation database. Sounds interesting, perhaps. However, it was work that a 3 year old could have done (removing coloured pages from batches of documents), so I am hoping to get something more challenging soon, otherwise I will feel that my 6 years at University had really gone to waste.I have not been much of a tourist in London.
After travelling the USA for 5 weeks, sightseeing every day, I wanted a bit of a rest in England. I went to a lot of pubs, caught up with friends, and just generally enjoyed some socialising, particularly with Rach and Stevo who were kind enough to put me up at their house and show me around London. Thanks, I really appreciate it.
I did manage to make it to one tourist attraction, the "British Airways London Eye" which is basically a massive Ferris Wheel with views all over London; that pretends to be a British Airways aeroplane by calling the ride a "flight". We went at sunset, so we got the best of both worlds - seeing the cityscape during the day and also with the lights on as it got dark. Unfortunately we couldn't see the sunset itself, through the clouds and smog.
On Friday I decided to go ahead fly to Prague in the Czech Republic, because, being so close, I was too excited to put it off any longer. So I headed off to visit my Czech family and friends and to return to London when work related matters required me to. That's the beauty of Europe - everything is so close!
So I flew into Prague to return to Czechia for the first time in 20 years (I originally left in 1986). Entering the country was an overwhelming feeling, a mix of feeling like I was in a foreign place at the same time as feeling like I was home. For the first few days and even now to some extent, every time I hear someone speak Czech it catches my attention the same way it would when I heard the language back in Australia (quite rare) but then I remind myself that its the just normal thing here.I was picked up at Prague Airport by my aunty and cousin and taken back to their house in the Czech countryside just out of Prague. Just seeing the countryside, the small towns, the roads, creeks and forests was an amazing experience for me. The landscape and dwellings are just so radically different to Australia that I really appreciate the contrast.It was really nice staying in a house in a country village in central Europe - a really cosy warm feeling. But I really enjoyed the trips to Prague! Prague is an amazing city. So modern yet so old at the same time. You travel around in a really modern metro system only to exit onto cobble stone streets with buildings that date back a long time before the First Fleet ever landed on Australian shores. It is a real city of contrasts. You pay the equivalent of $3 for a beautiful traditional meal and 80c for a 500ml beer, and then potentially pay more than what we would pay in Australia for a McDonald's meal.At the moment there are some pretty serious floods in the Czech Republic, Austria, Hungary and Germany but not as serious as the major floods in 2002. Luckily the areas that I am visiting are mainly unaffected, although some restaurants on the banks of the river Vltava here in Prague are well under water.
At the moment I am staying with a friend of my mum's in a Prague apartment for a few days to be closer to the city. A snake and a turtle also live in my room, so I am not lonely. They keep an eye on me. I have been feeling sick over the last few days so I have been resting, but my mum's friend has taken very good care of me here, so I have been lucky.I have a few more days to check out Prague, then on Sunday I'm catching a bus to the city of Brno in Moravia, from where I will fly back to London to continue job hunting. But I will come back to Prague again soon for a Longer time, there is still so much more for me to experience here.
Next week I will be living on campus at a London University. The halls of residence are public accommodation during the Easter Holidays. So that should be an interesting experience. After that, who knows what's next? I just filled out a volunteer application form for the Roskilde Festival in Denmark for June.
Ahoj
27 March 2006
From New England to Old England
Hello Everyone!
I enjoyed my time in Boston, Massachusetts and even road tripped up to some of the other US States in the "New England" area including New Hampshire and Maine. I got to see the Bush (as in the George Snr. and George W.) family Summertime retreat in a beautiful seaside town called Kennebunkport. The people around there are super friendly.Not only did I get to drive for the first time on the 'right' side of the road, but managed to drive in three states and tackle Boston peak-hour traffic. I loved driving the Buick, thanks Longin! Of course as fate would have it, upon getting used to driving on the right side of the road, time to jet off to the UK where driving on the right side of the road is generally frowned upon.I checked out downtown Boston (thanks for the tour, Dave), packed and headed off to Boson Airport the next morning at 6:00am. Thanks for putting me up in your beautiful home and for looking after me so well, Arijana and Dave - it felt like home.
Six hours later I was at London Heathrow Airport. Rach, Stevo and their friend Emma met up with me at the airport and took me back to Rach and Stevo's house. I enjoyed the weekend, going to a few pubs and generally chilling out, taking in the London atmosphere.
Within the about first 24 hours in England, I even managed to see my first English pub fist fight. Ahh, the home country. England does feel a lot more familiar to me than America did - it really is to some extent the same culture as Australia. I like it. But I did convince Rach and Stevo to take me to a "Walkabout" (a chain of Aussie pubs) so I could have some Aussie beer (VB of course), listen to some Aussie music (in America Jet and The Veronicas were popular but other than that no Aussie music) and see some AFL.
Today I am seeing some recruitment agencies about temp paralegal work to earn some British pounds. The Aussie dollar doesn't go a long way here, especially after its recent slump. What are you guys back at home doing to my dollar? At this stage I have a flight booked for Prague on Friday, but I'm not sure whether I'll take that flight or move it back and stay in London longer.Thank you Melburnians for keeping me up to date on what Melbourne is/was like with the Commonwealth Games on. I managed to catch some of the coverage here in England but there was no coverage of the Games in the USA and I suspect many Americans wouldn't even know there's such a thing as the Commonwealth Games. Incidentally, as a final note and while on the topic of the Commonwealth, I got asked a couple of times by Americans whether we use British Pounds in Australia! No wonder our Aussie dollar is so weak compared to the American dollar, when they haven't even heard of it. Take care and let me know how you are going.
Cheers,
Daniel(in an Internet cafe on Commercial Street, a couple of blocks away from Liverpool Street Station - yes, the one in Monopoly)
I enjoyed my time in Boston, Massachusetts and even road tripped up to some of the other US States in the "New England" area including New Hampshire and Maine. I got to see the Bush (as in the George Snr. and George W.) family Summertime retreat in a beautiful seaside town called Kennebunkport. The people around there are super friendly.Not only did I get to drive for the first time on the 'right' side of the road, but managed to drive in three states and tackle Boston peak-hour traffic. I loved driving the Buick, thanks Longin! Of course as fate would have it, upon getting used to driving on the right side of the road, time to jet off to the UK where driving on the right side of the road is generally frowned upon.I checked out downtown Boston (thanks for the tour, Dave), packed and headed off to Boson Airport the next morning at 6:00am. Thanks for putting me up in your beautiful home and for looking after me so well, Arijana and Dave - it felt like home.
Six hours later I was at London Heathrow Airport. Rach, Stevo and their friend Emma met up with me at the airport and took me back to Rach and Stevo's house. I enjoyed the weekend, going to a few pubs and generally chilling out, taking in the London atmosphere.
Within the about first 24 hours in England, I even managed to see my first English pub fist fight. Ahh, the home country. England does feel a lot more familiar to me than America did - it really is to some extent the same culture as Australia. I like it. But I did convince Rach and Stevo to take me to a "Walkabout" (a chain of Aussie pubs) so I could have some Aussie beer (VB of course), listen to some Aussie music (in America Jet and The Veronicas were popular but other than that no Aussie music) and see some AFL.
Today I am seeing some recruitment agencies about temp paralegal work to earn some British pounds. The Aussie dollar doesn't go a long way here, especially after its recent slump. What are you guys back at home doing to my dollar? At this stage I have a flight booked for Prague on Friday, but I'm not sure whether I'll take that flight or move it back and stay in London longer.Thank you Melburnians for keeping me up to date on what Melbourne is/was like with the Commonwealth Games on. I managed to catch some of the coverage here in England but there was no coverage of the Games in the USA and I suspect many Americans wouldn't even know there's such a thing as the Commonwealth Games. Incidentally, as a final note and while on the topic of the Commonwealth, I got asked a couple of times by Americans whether we use British Pounds in Australia! No wonder our Aussie dollar is so weak compared to the American dollar, when they haven't even heard of it. Take care and let me know how you are going.
Cheers,
Daniel(in an Internet cafe on Commercial Street, a couple of blocks away from Liverpool Street Station - yes, the one in Monopoly)
22 March 2006
NEW YORK NEW YORK
Hi Everyone
I spent my last day at Copper Mountain, Colorado (Thursday) skiing in the sunshine. Can't beat that!
That night I went to a nearby town called Dillon to have dinner with Ben, Mel and Copper Mountain Veteran Bryn. We went to a chain restaurant called "Ruby Tuesday's" which is really cool: good food and cheap drinks. The special was $3.50 Long Island Iced Teas that night, which was great. If I had any more than 2 it could have gotten messy (great drink, order one some time if you are unfamiliar with it. It was the first time I dared to try one and I was impressed).
Ben (my friend from Melbourne) and I then went to another nearby town called Frisco to rent a car. We had booked a small Ford but were upgraded to a brand new (about 200 miles on the clock) Chevrolet that
looked very similar to a PT Cruiser. We then drove this very American car to Denver to catch an overnight flight to New York City, departing at 1:00am Denver Time.
Four hours and little sleep later, we arrived in New York City (JFK Airport) at 7:00am (Friday) New York Time. It was a great day to arrive in New York city as it was St Patrick's Day. New York takes their St Patrick's Day very seriously and we enjoyed the parade for a few hours on the famous 5th Ave (a fashion
part of town).
We then followed up by going to numerous Irish bars (of which there are A LOT in Manhattan) and drinking beers. Unfortunately we were so tired that we went to bed at pathetic St Patrick's day 10:00pm.
We checked in to our Hostel which was conveniently located near the Corner of 55th and 8th, which if you know Manhattan is a really great spot, near Times Square/Broadway, and Central Park.
I woke up the next afternoon at 1:30pm wondering how I managed to sleep in that late, until I eventually figured out by talking to the room-mates in the Hostel that it was in fact 1:30am and that I had plenty more sleeping to do. I have come to realise that I act strangely when I am mega-tired and somewhat drunk (I acted equally stupid in LA after my 14 hour flight from Melbourne followed by a big night out).
That day (Saturday) we explored New York some more, including Central Park, Broadway, Wall Street, Soho, Battery Park and Ground Zero. After seeing Ground Zero, the rest of the New York trip was often spent reflecting on the events of "9/11" and how terrible it must have been that day to all that were in New York City. Walking around the busy city made me appreciate what absolute chaos it must have been that day in 2001.
On a lighter note, that night we went bar hopping in Greenwich Village with some cool French girls from our hostel and had a lot of fun. Overall a rather big night out, which is very easy to do in lively Manhattan.
The Next Day (Sunday) we slept in, did some shopping, and went to the Empire State Building. We followed up with another big night on the town, this time in Upper East Side.
On our last day in N.Y. (Monday) were woken up in our dorm room by tradesmen unexpectedly barging in and literally ripping the windows and window frames from the walls of the dorm and replacing them very loudly with new windows as we tried to sleep in the shivering cold they had just let in from outside (it was very very very cold in New York). Ah, the luxurious life of a backpacker. Later, we took a free ferry to Staten Island right past the Statue of Liberty. After exploring Staten Island briefly we headed back to Manhattan only to catch the subway away to Brooklyn so that we could walk back to Manhattan again along the Brooklyn Bridge. It was a really nice walk [thanks for the tip, Natacha and Carine].
Again we hit a few bars that night (after not managing to get any cheap tickets for Broadway shows for that night as was the plan) and followed in the footsteps of Harold and Kumar to try to find a White Castle hamburger store [we succeeded...those little burgers are nice] before going to bed nice and early (1:30am) as the next day we had to get up really early.
We were up at 5:00am today (Tuesday) and made our way to JFK Airport where Ben returned to Colorado and I flew up to Boston. Boston is my last stop in the USA before I head on to the UK.
I was greeted at the airport by a friend and welcomed in her beautiful home. It is a pleasant rest from the backpackers hostels that have been my home over the last few weeks (although they have been heaps of
fun!). I met up with some friends of my family from when I lived in Austria (1986) and it was great to catch up with them although my memory of them was rather poor (my mind must have been elsewhere when I was 5 years old). One of them took me to Harvard University today and I had fun getting photos taken at the Law School. It was a really nice campus and it had squirrels running around it! How cool! We should get some of those at Deakin Uni in Melbourne.
Boston is very nice and of all the American cities the closest I have come across to reminding me of Melbourne. The sights along the river remind me of the Yarra at home. Suburban Boston reminds me of what I imaged Salem to look like in the book/movie "The Crucible" in the witch hunting days (but without the witch hunting of course), but downtown appears to be quite contemporary...I'm yet to check it out.
On Friday morning I am flying from Boston to London, and I expect my next email will be from there.
I hope everyone travelling around is having a great time too and everyone at home is going well. In particular, I hope everyone in Melbourne has managed to survive the Commonwealth Games.
I spent my last day at Copper Mountain, Colorado (Thursday) skiing in the sunshine. Can't beat that!
That night I went to a nearby town called Dillon to have dinner with Ben, Mel and Copper Mountain Veteran Bryn. We went to a chain restaurant called "Ruby Tuesday's" which is really cool: good food and cheap drinks. The special was $3.50 Long Island Iced Teas that night, which was great. If I had any more than 2 it could have gotten messy (great drink, order one some time if you are unfamiliar with it. It was the first time I dared to try one and I was impressed).
Ben (my friend from Melbourne) and I then went to another nearby town called Frisco to rent a car. We had booked a small Ford but were upgraded to a brand new (about 200 miles on the clock) Chevrolet that
looked very similar to a PT Cruiser. We then drove this very American car to Denver to catch an overnight flight to New York City, departing at 1:00am Denver Time.
Four hours and little sleep later, we arrived in New York City (JFK Airport) at 7:00am (Friday) New York Time. It was a great day to arrive in New York city as it was St Patrick's Day. New York takes their St Patrick's Day very seriously and we enjoyed the parade for a few hours on the famous 5th Ave (a fashion
part of town).
We then followed up by going to numerous Irish bars (of which there are A LOT in Manhattan) and drinking beers. Unfortunately we were so tired that we went to bed at pathetic St Patrick's day 10:00pm.
We checked in to our Hostel which was conveniently located near the Corner of 55th and 8th, which if you know Manhattan is a really great spot, near Times Square/Broadway, and Central Park.
I woke up the next afternoon at 1:30pm wondering how I managed to sleep in that late, until I eventually figured out by talking to the room-mates in the Hostel that it was in fact 1:30am and that I had plenty more sleeping to do. I have come to realise that I act strangely when I am mega-tired and somewhat drunk (I acted equally stupid in LA after my 14 hour flight from Melbourne followed by a big night out).
That day (Saturday) we explored New York some more, including Central Park, Broadway, Wall Street, Soho, Battery Park and Ground Zero. After seeing Ground Zero, the rest of the New York trip was often spent reflecting on the events of "9/11" and how terrible it must have been that day to all that were in New York City. Walking around the busy city made me appreciate what absolute chaos it must have been that day in 2001.
On a lighter note, that night we went bar hopping in Greenwich Village with some cool French girls from our hostel and had a lot of fun. Overall a rather big night out, which is very easy to do in lively Manhattan.
The Next Day (Sunday) we slept in, did some shopping, and went to the Empire State Building. We followed up with another big night on the town, this time in Upper East Side.
On our last day in N.Y. (Monday) were woken up in our dorm room by tradesmen unexpectedly barging in and literally ripping the windows and window frames from the walls of the dorm and replacing them very loudly with new windows as we tried to sleep in the shivering cold they had just let in from outside (it was very very very cold in New York). Ah, the luxurious life of a backpacker. Later, we took a free ferry to Staten Island right past the Statue of Liberty. After exploring Staten Island briefly we headed back to Manhattan only to catch the subway away to Brooklyn so that we could walk back to Manhattan again along the Brooklyn Bridge. It was a really nice walk [thanks for the tip, Natacha and Carine].
Again we hit a few bars that night (after not managing to get any cheap tickets for Broadway shows for that night as was the plan) and followed in the footsteps of Harold and Kumar to try to find a White Castle hamburger store [we succeeded...those little burgers are nice] before going to bed nice and early (1:30am) as the next day we had to get up really early.
We were up at 5:00am today (Tuesday) and made our way to JFK Airport where Ben returned to Colorado and I flew up to Boston. Boston is my last stop in the USA before I head on to the UK.
I was greeted at the airport by a friend and welcomed in her beautiful home. It is a pleasant rest from the backpackers hostels that have been my home over the last few weeks (although they have been heaps of
fun!). I met up with some friends of my family from when I lived in Austria (1986) and it was great to catch up with them although my memory of them was rather poor (my mind must have been elsewhere when I was 5 years old). One of them took me to Harvard University today and I had fun getting photos taken at the Law School. It was a really nice campus and it had squirrels running around it! How cool! We should get some of those at Deakin Uni in Melbourne.
Boston is very nice and of all the American cities the closest I have come across to reminding me of Melbourne. The sights along the river remind me of the Yarra at home. Suburban Boston reminds me of what I imaged Salem to look like in the book/movie "The Crucible" in the witch hunting days (but without the witch hunting of course), but downtown appears to be quite contemporary...I'm yet to check it out.
On Friday morning I am flying from Boston to London, and I expect my next email will be from there.
I hope everyone travelling around is having a great time too and everyone at home is going well. In particular, I hope everyone in Melbourne has managed to survive the Commonwealth Games.
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