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!
Where in the World is DK?
24 October 2006
21 August 2006
Daniel's England Top 10
Hey everyone.
Here's a list of the top 10 things I have gotten up or experienced in England since my last email (in chronological order, not in order of topness):
1. Enduring the London heatwave as it breaks a number of records: Hottest July ever, hottest July day ever, and Hottest temperature recorded in all of Europe. Roads were literally melting, trains are running at limited speed and of course the poms winged a lot.
2. My first West End show! Blue Man Group. It's was good. I had seen ads for it on the Strip in Las Vegas and Broadway in New York but finally saw it in London's West End.
3. On a tropical London weekend (humid, hot and alternating between bright sunny patches and heavy downpours of rain) catching a train with a friend to classical Oxford, to do some sight seeing and visit some of the many, many pubs. As well as a traditional English cream tea (sconnes) while it rained.
4. On the university town theme, a day trip to Cambridge to walk around and check out the collages and punting boats crashing into each other on the river.
5. Watching Danger Mouse on TV like I used to as a kid but now actually knowing many of the places Danger Mouse goes (he lives in a post box on Baker Street, where I pass through every day).
6. Joining my work's Technology & Litigation group softball team and playing softball in one of the world's most famous parks: Hyde Park
7. Catching a train to historical to Hastings (of 1066 fame) on a warm day to lie, and walk on (with great difficulty), the pebbled rather than sandy beach. The pebbles there are really big - they are more like big large rounded rocks than pebbles. Had English-style fish and chips (cod, not flake) at one of the many many fish and chip shops lining the foreshore.
8. A day trip by train to Southend-on-Sea, including a walk and mini-train ride along the "world's longest leisure peer".
9. Witnessing London first hand during a critical terror alert, as terror attempts to blow up planes to the US are foiled, causing havock all around London and its 5 international airports.
10. Going to lots of BBQs and finiding out that the English can't do it as well as us Aussies.
Sorry I have been really slow to reply to emails, I know I still have to write to many of you individually. I have no internet at home (our broadband company decided we don't have internet in our area months after we have been successfuly using it and paying for it!) and I have been flat out at work.
I'm off to the Rhine Valley in Germany for the long weekend this weekend and also visiting Croatia, Slovenia, Italy, Austria in the coming month, so I'll write more when that all happens.
14 July 2006
Belgium rocks!
Hey everyone!
When I last wrote I had just come back to England from my trip to Munich via Amsterdam and Paris. Since then I have been back to work in London, making money for further travelling adventures. It has been very hot in Europe generally, and unusually warm in England in particular. The authorities in London have issued a level 3 heat warning. To put this into perspective, level 4 would be a "national emergency"!
On the last weekend of June/1st weekend of July I headed on a group tour (consisting the usual combination of a few North Americans and the rest being Aussies and South Africans) to Belgium. The purpose of this tour was to go to Belgium's Rock Werchter music festival. We arrived in the small Belgian city of Leuven mid Friday afternoon, checked into the Novotel across the road from the Stella Artois brewery, and enjoyed the beautiful town square bars in the sunshine, sipping on Stella and Kriek (cherry beer) for hours on end.
On Saturday we went to the festival. The day kicked off with Australia's own Wolfmother. It was amazing seeing a band that I saw as a mere supporting act at a pub gig in Melbourne only a couple of years ago, now rocking out the main stage at a huge European festival. They were cheered on by plenty of Australians in the crowd, waving around Aussie flags and blow up kangaroos in the mosh pit.
The rest of the day was spent in the heat (about 30C in the shade, had there actually been any shade to hide in) watching bands including Raconteurs, Arctic Monkeys, Placebo, Franz Ferdinand and Kaiser Chiefs [awesome band, huge here in the UK]; and enjoying some more Stellas and Krieks. It was a great day, the Europeans really do know how to put on good summer rock fests!
On Sunday we checked out of our hotel in Leuven and drove to the beautiful city of Bruges (Brugge). I had heard from one or two people that Belgium wasn't that interesting, and immediately after entering Bruges this reputation was quickly dispelled. The city is built around numerous canals and criss-crossed by clean, narrow, cobble-stone streets, surrounded by fantastic looking old buildings in great condition. The city has a really medieval feel to it, which is accentuated by minimal car traffic and frequent horse drawn carriages clopping through the alleyways. I visited quaint Belgian chocolatiers, stocking up on boutique chocolates (the chocolate, especially the dark variety, smelled so good in the shops that there was no resistance possible) and then a beer shop to stock up on a variety of fruity beers. We had lunch in the picturesque main square and then rested, away from the heat, under the shade of a green leafy tree before getting back on the coach and driving all the way back to London (...thanks to the aid of a Sea France channel crossing to help us get over those hard to drive bits).
The next week was spent battling with the daily routine of getting into an incredibly hot stuffy tube trains to get to work and back, breaking that routine here and there for some obligatory beer or cider stops after work.
On Saturday morning I headed to Victoria coach station to meet up with some friends (some Hungarian girls I met on my Easter trip to Scotland and their friends) and endure a long hot bus-ride to Bournemouth, on England's South Coast. Bournemouth actually reminded me a bit of the Victorian coast, with a general look and feel of Cowes, Sorrento or St Kilda in Melbourne. The beach was a great sandy beach, even by Aussie standards, although a bit on the dirty side. That evening we had a BBQ on the beach and hit the town for a bit of clubbing. We stayed in a traditional English hotel which came with a traditional English breakfast (with fried bread [yuck] and all). After the rain stopped on Sunday we went to the beach and sunbathed in the sunshine. I wasn't brave enough to get into the water though, as it was really cold!
It was so nice on the beach that I forfeited my pre-paid bus ride back to stay on the beach a bit longer, and scabbed a lift back to London with an Englishman and a Kiwi from the group. This turned out to be great, because we stopped off on the way in New Forest, which is literally the nicest part of England I have seen to date! It is a fantastic, huge national park spanning many, many miles with lush green forests and meadows. It was a beautiful warm evening, so we took a bush walk. Amazingly, the forest is full of free roaming horses and ponies, of which we came across many groups. They were really tame and let us come right up to them and pat them. It was awesome being able to come up to seemingly wild animals in the forest, which were in fact friendly, inquisitive animals. We drove off back to London as the sun set over the park, arriving home just in time to go to bed and rest up for another week of work in the big city.
On the topic of work, I have been offered a 6 month contract to continue work as a paralegal at CMS Cameron McKenna so I think I'll see that out and come home in January. I have a flight booked that will get me home just in time for Australia day. Bring on the BBQs! For those of you working at law firms back home, feel free to start putting in a good word for me.
Unfortunately the work contract also means I will not have the opportunity to do quite as much travelling around Europe as I have been doing, so I'm going to cut down the group emails from the regular intervals I've been sending them at just to when something exciting happens (like the week or two I'm planning on spending in Croatia in September). This way I won't annoy you with "I went to the office again today" style emails. Of course I would still love to hear from you all on a regular basis, so feel free to drop me a line whenever and I'll let you know what I've been up to!
Hope to hear from you soon!
Dan
When I last wrote I had just come back to England from my trip to Munich via Amsterdam and Paris. Since then I have been back to work in London, making money for further travelling adventures. It has been very hot in Europe generally, and unusually warm in England in particular. The authorities in London have issued a level 3 heat warning. To put this into perspective, level 4 would be a "national emergency"!
On the last weekend of June/1st weekend of July I headed on a group tour (consisting the usual combination of a few North Americans and the rest being Aussies and South Africans) to Belgium. The purpose of this tour was to go to Belgium's Rock Werchter music festival. We arrived in the small Belgian city of Leuven mid Friday afternoon, checked into the Novotel across the road from the Stella Artois brewery, and enjoyed the beautiful town square bars in the sunshine, sipping on Stella and Kriek (cherry beer) for hours on end.
On Saturday we went to the festival. The day kicked off with Australia's own Wolfmother. It was amazing seeing a band that I saw as a mere supporting act at a pub gig in Melbourne only a couple of years ago, now rocking out the main stage at a huge European festival. They were cheered on by plenty of Australians in the crowd, waving around Aussie flags and blow up kangaroos in the mosh pit.
The rest of the day was spent in the heat (about 30C in the shade, had there actually been any shade to hide in) watching bands including Raconteurs, Arctic Monkeys, Placebo, Franz Ferdinand and Kaiser Chiefs [awesome band, huge here in the UK]; and enjoying some more Stellas and Krieks. It was a great day, the Europeans really do know how to put on good summer rock fests!
On Sunday we checked out of our hotel in Leuven and drove to the beautiful city of Bruges (Brugge). I had heard from one or two people that Belgium wasn't that interesting, and immediately after entering Bruges this reputation was quickly dispelled. The city is built around numerous canals and criss-crossed by clean, narrow, cobble-stone streets, surrounded by fantastic looking old buildings in great condition. The city has a really medieval feel to it, which is accentuated by minimal car traffic and frequent horse drawn carriages clopping through the alleyways. I visited quaint Belgian chocolatiers, stocking up on boutique chocolates (the chocolate, especially the dark variety, smelled so good in the shops that there was no resistance possible) and then a beer shop to stock up on a variety of fruity beers. We had lunch in the picturesque main square and then rested, away from the heat, under the shade of a green leafy tree before getting back on the coach and driving all the way back to London (...thanks to the aid of a Sea France channel crossing to help us get over those hard to drive bits).
The next week was spent battling with the daily routine of getting into an incredibly hot stuffy tube trains to get to work and back, breaking that routine here and there for some obligatory beer or cider stops after work.
On Saturday morning I headed to Victoria coach station to meet up with some friends (some Hungarian girls I met on my Easter trip to Scotland and their friends) and endure a long hot bus-ride to Bournemouth, on England's South Coast. Bournemouth actually reminded me a bit of the Victorian coast, with a general look and feel of Cowes, Sorrento or St Kilda in Melbourne. The beach was a great sandy beach, even by Aussie standards, although a bit on the dirty side. That evening we had a BBQ on the beach and hit the town for a bit of clubbing. We stayed in a traditional English hotel which came with a traditional English breakfast (with fried bread [yuck] and all). After the rain stopped on Sunday we went to the beach and sunbathed in the sunshine. I wasn't brave enough to get into the water though, as it was really cold!
It was so nice on the beach that I forfeited my pre-paid bus ride back to stay on the beach a bit longer, and scabbed a lift back to London with an Englishman and a Kiwi from the group. This turned out to be great, because we stopped off on the way in New Forest, which is literally the nicest part of England I have seen to date! It is a fantastic, huge national park spanning many, many miles with lush green forests and meadows. It was a beautiful warm evening, so we took a bush walk. Amazingly, the forest is full of free roaming horses and ponies, of which we came across many groups. They were really tame and let us come right up to them and pat them. It was awesome being able to come up to seemingly wild animals in the forest, which were in fact friendly, inquisitive animals. We drove off back to London as the sun set over the park, arriving home just in time to go to bed and rest up for another week of work in the big city.
On the topic of work, I have been offered a 6 month contract to continue work as a paralegal at CMS Cameron McKenna so I think I'll see that out and come home in January. I have a flight booked that will get me home just in time for Australia day. Bring on the BBQs! For those of you working at law firms back home, feel free to start putting in a good word for me.
Unfortunately the work contract also means I will not have the opportunity to do quite as much travelling around Europe as I have been doing, so I'm going to cut down the group emails from the regular intervals I've been sending them at just to when something exciting happens (like the week or two I'm planning on spending in Croatia in September). This way I won't annoy you with "I went to the office again today" style emails. Of course I would still love to hear from you all on a regular basis, so feel free to drop me a line whenever and I'll let you know what I've been up to!
Hope to hear from you soon!
Dan
26 June 2006
SUMMER FUN: England, Netherlands, Germany & France
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......
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......
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!
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