Trent Hendrick's Travels

Seattle

2009-07-16T00:54:00.001-07:00

so Jeanette, Andrew and the Kids dropped me off at the bus stop. it was a bit sad to wave them goodbye, but i guess all good things must come to an end and i'll see them when they get back to Oz for a visit. i boarded the bus and i noticed a little old man (probably in his 80's) with a laptop. the bus i was on had free wifi so a few people on the bus were making the most of this to kill a bit of time. anyway, i thought, isn't that great that the old guy still wants to learn how to use a computer, even at his age. i sat down in the seat behind the little old guy and didn't really think too much of it. it wasn't until i caught a glance at his screen when i realised why he wanted to learn how to use a computer. he was watching hardcore porn! not only was i a little shocked (talk about never judge a book by its cover) i was a bit worried about his blood pressure.
not long after i got on the bus, i was at the border, so we all had to get out and go through the drill, which was actually pretty painless this time and before i knew it was in seattle.

before i'd even made it to the states, i always knew i going to visit Seattle. growing up listening to the sounds of the Seattle grunge scene, how could i not? i guess in a lot of ways that's where my obsession with music all began. i don't really remember having much music in my house when i was a kid. it wasn't until years later, when i was in my mid teens, that i found my dad's record collection and it was full of classic albums like: The Who 'Live at Leeds', The Beatles 'Abbey Road' etc. when i found them, i was almost angry that i hadn't been brought up with this stuff - i had so much musical education to catch up on! so i guess you could say, it wasn't until my brother introduced me to Pearl Jam, that i really began listening to music. in someways the love affair with that style of music continues. every now and then i'll dust off the case off a Pearl Jam album and listen to it again. i still get a kick out of it. even though i've never been a heroin addict or really dealt with many of the subjects of the songs personally, it kind of feels like so much of my DNA is in those words and sounds. so as you can imagine it was pretty exciting for me to be in the place where it all started.

i read a bob dylan interview recently. in it he said how much he really admired Neil Young, so much so that a couple of years ago he found out where Neil used to live and went to his old house to have a look around, and kind of put himself in the same situations Neil was in. ie: looking out his bedroom window to have a look at what a young Neil might have seen, etc. i guess, to try to piece together whatever it is makes Neil Young and why he writes songs the way he does. when i read it, i totally identified with it.
i'm really into song writing, and occasionally i dabble in it a little bit. but i'm mainly into finding out how songs come about; where do songwriters get there influences from? how are they written? why were they written? where did those words come from? what makes a song make connect with you? how come sometimes a few words in a song can say exactly how you feel? music is really magic to me, i say magic because i just can't explain it. i guess you could say there are sometimes i'd really love to be a magician.
anyway, i kind of felt the same way Bob Dylan did as i walked around Seattle. experiencing all the sights and smells that my musical heros would've experienced. it was just cool to think that maybe this is the cafe Eddie Vedder gets his coffee from. having said all that. i found out what Eddie's address is in Seattle, and i'll be honest i toyed with the idea of going there, but then i thought:

A) it would be a bit creepy me hanging out the front of his house, but also

B) it might be a little disappointing.

i think sometimes when you meet your heroes, they dont live up to what you expect, so i thought it would be better just to let it be.

but i did go visit the house of one of Seattles rock stars, but i didn't think he would mind (he's a little bit too dead to do that), thats right, i went to Kurt Cobain's house. it was actually quite a modest place as far as mansions go. it kind of fit in with all the other shingle houses in the neighbourhood and had a nice view over the water and a little park next door. apparently he would go there and sit on the park bench. as you can imagine, the bench has turned into a bit of a shrine now. there is still a bit of mystery about his death, some people say his wife killed him or had him killed, (it seems that a lot of people that wrote on the bench seem to believe this one) others say he was simply depressed and wanted to end it all. i guess its one of those things that we'll never ever know. but i can't help but wonder, i wonder what his music would be like today?
while i'm on the dead guy theme, at my hostel there was a tour that visited all the dead famous people, like Kurts house, Jimi Hendrix’s grave, Bruce Lee’s grave (which i found by accident trying to find Jimi’s) but it was so popular that i couldn't get on it, so in order to visit the grave of Mr Jimi Hendrix, i had to catch a couple of buses out to where Jimi was buried. It wasn’t so bad because i met an older Australian lady by the name of Kathy at the hostel who was also keen to check out the grave, so at least i had someone to share the pain with. I should probably mention that public transport is free within the city during certain times of the day. Anyway, when we got there i was a little worried mainly because the cemetery was pretty big and i thought i would’ve been like looking for a needle in a hay stack. Christ i was wrong, talk about elaborate. the thing was bloody massive!
Anyway, while i’m on the topic, i should mention a book called 'where are they buried?' i brought it a couple of years ago and if you're like me and interested in reading about famous peoples lives, there demise and also where there buried, it might be up your alley.

considering Seattle grunge scene kind of goes hand in hand with heavy drug use, in particular, heroin. i kind of expected to find seattle to be a pretty dirty place. but infact i found the total opposite. of course there were a few people i noticed around town that had some battle scars from days gone by, but overall the city was really clean, the people here are really friendly and from what i saw, are really into recycling, as well as a large portion of people riding bikes.
The Capitol hill area was a bit of a highlight for me. I went up there one night with a couple of people for a drink, and we found this place that did old rock n roll dancing. even though my dancing was limited to doing the Twist (which i felt pretty embarrassed about because the people around me were amazing) it was still a fun night. Anyway, i decided to go up to Capital Hill during the day. There are some really nice little coffee shops there and also some good clothing shops. But the main reason i wanted to go was i wanted to go to bar called the comet tavern. Because it was where bands like Pearl Jam, Nirvana and various other seattle bands started. When i got there i found that there was a giant barrier around a few streets. I asked a couple of people what was going on, and found that there was a block party with a few local bands and also some bigger ones like the Gossip and Sonic Youth, who were headlining. Luckily i could still buy tickets too it (which was only US$25). Anyway, i got in, listened to a couple of bands, then make my way to the Comet. It was here i got chatting to a couple of people who lived in Seattle. It turned out to be the best thing i could’ve done. They took me under there wing and showed me some of acts that i should go and see. Then they invited me back to there place for drinks and even took me to there favourite restaurant (a little Mexican food place) which was very nice of them. After the block party finished we went to see a band called Champagne Champagne (click here to visit there myspace) who were friends of theres. Talk about a great day!

Of course its not just bands that have come out of Seattle. Starbucks, the coffee chain that we love to hate came from here and i went to 1912 Pike Place which is where it all started. I don’t know why i bothered to be honest i probably passed about 80 of them on the way there. But i do have a theory as to why Starbucks went so well in seattle. Its because Microsoft also started in Seattle. who works at Mircosoft? Nerds. and what do nerds need to stay up late and play ‘world of warcraft’ to all hours? Thats right, caffeine! To be totally honest seattle has quite a strong coffee culture and there are quite a number of coffee houses around Seattle, so its not that hard to find something descent to drink. Also Microsoft have quite a good name here. I’ve spoken to a lot of people here and, not only do they employ a hell of a lot of people, Bill Gates and his wife still live in Seattle and give a lot to charity and the community. Kudos to them, i say.

I saw one of Seattle’s most famous monuments, the Sky needle. Its pretty hard to miss to be honest. I didn’t bother going up, because it was quite expensive. Instead i opted to go to the building next to it the ‘Seattle music project’. Which, by the way, is a rather interesting building designed by Frank Gehry. Inside they had a exhibition of musical instruments once owned by a number of bands from the grunge era. As well as a great Jimi Hendrix section with a number of guitars, or should i say, debris because he had a bit of a habit of smashing them or setting them alight. Also they short documentaries on artist and interviews as well as little recording booths so you could record your own songs.
Public market is pretty famous, mainly for the fish mongers throwing the fish around. But i think the most interesting part of the Public market is down one of its little alleys. Its not that easy to find, but there is a wall that is covered in chewing gum. Its got to be one of top 10 most unhygienic sights in the world, but quite pretty in its own way (see the picture below to see what i mean).

While i was here i heard about a film festival called ‘HUMP!’ at first i thought that maybe HUMP stood for something, but nope. It is exactly what it is. Its a film festival for amateur porn film makers. Apparently it’s started here in Seattle back in 2005 and has been going strong ever since. Apparently its quite funny.

Something i found quite interesting was, a lot of Seattle’s revenue in the early days came from it having a big lumber industry. To get the timber from the top of the hill to the saw mill, they used to slide the trees down a road. It was this road that the locals named skid road which they believe the saying ‘skid row’ might have come from. Anyway, as you could’ve imagined, if you have a large lumber industry theres a good chance that the majority of the buildings in town would be built with timber. Problem was they had a massive fire and the majority of seattle burnt to the ground. To make sure this never happened again, the government need to put in a decent water system. But of course they had no money, they needed taxes. When it came time for people to rebuild there establishments, the government told them that they had to build the first level of there buildings with brick or stone. Sounds like a pretty strange request huh? Actually, its genius! They figured out that it they shoot water cannons that the mountains and more or less create a small landslide that would cover the town up to the first story, then they would used the first floor, which would now be a basement to link all the pipes together.
I did a tour of the underground city, which was quite interesting. There were still bits and pieces people had left behind etc. Apparently many shops kept trading underground for many years, until it was closed to the public. Later, during the prohibition years, it was secretly used as to start up speakeasy’s and do other illegal activities.

I really enjoyed Seattle. It might be that i met a number of cool, interesting people. Not just at the block party, but also in my hostel, though there was one asian guy in my hostel who kept calling me ‘handsome’, i know what you’re thinking, I should be getting used to men cracking on to me by now, but i think this was more of a case of his English skills weren’t that great.
I found Seattle quite a cool, edgy and at times wacky place to visit. Its definitely somewhere i would like to come back to some day. next i'm catching a flight to San Francisco, to meet up with Josh and Kate, who i began the trip with, to experience some more of the wild west. California, here i come!

Vancouver

2009-06-24T21:20:00.001-07:00

To get to Vancouver from Toronto I was going to have to catch a flight that I’d booked a few weeks beforehand. The trip to the airport was meant to be pretty stress free, but in true style, it turned to shit. First I had to catch a train, which broke down a couple of stops before I had to get off. After a bit of a wait, a replacement bus, of course when people are treated like cattle, they start acting like them. People were pushing a shoving and trying to force there way onto the bus. After a while we all squished on the bus like sardines, and we were on our way to the bus station… sort of.
We got to the first bus station and the bus driver crashed the bus into the shelter and got stuck. I’m not a racist guy whatsoever and I do my best not to believe stereotypes, but I had a good giggle at the Asian people on the bus rolling there eyes at how bad the bus drivers driving was.
After a while of the bus driver trying to unhook himself from the shelter, a guy, who was also going to the airport, and I decided to give the bus a miss and catch a cab to the airport bus station. It was lucky I left so early but it ended up being a bit of a struggle checking in on time.
Canada doesn’t really have a great selection of airlines. I heard that there used to be a number of budget airlines but they were bought out by Air Canada, so Air Canada has a bit of a monopoly of Canadian skies. Except for West Jet, which is who I flew with. Something interesting about West Jet, is the employees own a share of the company, which makes the staff really friendly and very helpful. Also they are a bit fun, like cracking jokes during the safety procedures etc. I find flying is more enjoyable when it’s not taken so seriously, also I think it relaxes people who aren’t good flyers too. Considering it’s a budget airline, you still get a free drink and also some biscuits as well as free use of the TV, which is something you don’t normally get from a budget airline back home.

Anyway, after about 5 hour flight, I touched down in Vancouver and was greeted by my sister, Jeanette, her husband, Andrew, and my niece and nephew, Phoebe and Jeremy. It was so great to see them! The reason they live in Vancouver now is because Andrew got transferred with his job, and it was also a good experience for the kids, so they moved over about a year ago.
We drove from the airport and went straight to there new home. They live in a suburb of Surrey which is a little seaside area, a little under an hour out of Vancouver city. When we pulled into there street, it reminded me of Wisteria Lane from the TV show ‘Desperate Housewives’. It’s a really nice street with some beautiful homes on it and there house is no exception. I got my own room down stairs with a bathroom and everything! More than anything, it was nice to be in a family environment again and not live out of a backpack for a while.

The first week I was here I really didn’t do a lot, which was fine by me. I really just wanted to chill out, sleep in to catch up on some rest and spend some time with family. As much as I love my niece and nephew, I’ll be honest, it took me a little getting used to having kids around. Having been on my own for quite a while, and not having much interaction with kids along the way, I forgot about how full on they are. They wanted me to play with them all the time, I was pretty exhausted and wasn’t in the mood for being the ‘cool uncle’. When they didn’t get there way, they weren’t to happy about it. But after a while I got used to it and got move involved. In the end I kind of enjoyed listening to them having tantrums just so I could hear the inventive ways they would procrastinate going to bed or the reason why they didn’t eat there dinner but somehow had room for ice cream.

I picked up Phoebe from school a couple of times before she finished for the year. (they finish school in the middle of year to coincide with summer, which is different to back where we finish at the end of the year) and Jeremy just finished Kinder so I got to go to his graduation. It was pretty cute. The kids did some plays like ‘the 3 little pigs and the big bad wolf’ etc. I might be bias but Jeremy was the best little pig in my opinion, and also the smartest – he made his house out of bricks! At the end they got to come up and get there certificate to say they passed kinder. On the way up to collect it, the teacher read out a questionnaire the kids had answered. they had questions like: ‘what was the best thing you learnt at kinder?’ and ‘what is your favourite memory at kinder?’, and you got the kind of answers kids of that age would say like ‘playtime’ etc. but my favourite question was ‘what do you want to be when you get old?’ we got a few girls who wanted to be Fairies and Princesses and Jeremy and a few of the other boys wanted to be Fireman but my favourite answer came from a cute little petite girl who wanted to be… a Hunter!?

I wondered if the kids would have kept there Australian accents or if they have adopted Canadian accents. It turned out they have a bit of both. Phoebe has a stronger accent, that she goes in and out of being both Australian and Canadian. I’ve noticed that when someone Canadian talks to her she flips into Canadian mode. I guess its only natural she’s at school and interacts with Canadian people all the time. Jeremy on the other hand still sounds Australian, mainly because he hasn’t started school full time as yet. But still has some interaction with Canadians when he goes to Kindergarten, so the occasional word has a bit of a twang to it. I’m sure it will get stronger.
Phoebe’s not such a little kid these days, she has developed her own little personality and you can have some grown-up conversations with her too. She’s also learning electric guitar, so I had lots of fun showing her chords and writing silly songs with her. while i was here i introduced her to bands like The Cure (i think 'Love Cats' is her new favourite song, i'd catch her humming it all the time) and the Beach Boys (i think 'Surfin' Surfari' is a close second)
Jeremy is a cute little fella, but he’s also a little terror! He's loud and never stops talking, even when he goes to the bathroom! I was starting to think that he was having conversations with his poo, and maybe it was talking back to him! but having said all that, he has a shy side too. but boy, can that kid eat! it felt like he had an appetite 24/7 - i dunno how it all fits in there! Jeremy’s just hit that age where he likes pushing boundaries and he can be a bit of a handful at times, but deep down I know it’s just a phase and he’ll grow out of it.
They’re both a crack up. So often they would say funny stuff without them even realizing it. In some ways I was a little shocked to find how much both of them have grown. I kind of found it a little sad that I missed out on seeing them grow up over the last couple of years of me living interstate and traveling abroad. And now, with them living over overseas, I’m sure it will be just as tricky.

OK, enough about my family, more about TRAVEL. as i said, i spent a fair bit of time at the family home, but i did venture into Vancouver a few times to check it out. Vancouver is currently planning for the 2010 Winter Olympics and its no wonder they won the bid to hold them here. Vancouver is the 2nd most livable city in the world and it doesn’t get that reputation for nothing - It’s a really nice city.
before i came here i watched 'No Reservations' which is a TV show hosted by Anthony Bourdain, who is a chef. its a really good show. not only does he talk about food in the city, he gives you some really good information and background about the city. one of the things that he bought up food wise was, there is a street vendor that sells hot dogs with a Japanese twist. he does them with seaweed sprinkled on top, and forget about mustard or ketchup, he puts wasabi on the top! i had to give one a go. it was kind of interesting but, i didn't really rate it to highly. 2 thumbs down from me.

a section of town that i really liked was a place called Gas Town. apparently it goes its name from Jack 'Gassy' Deighton (rather unfortunately nick name, don't you think?) for telling long winded stories. but i think the more likely story is that there is gas lighting all around the area. anyway, regardless of the name, i felt it had lots of character. with little boutique stores, vintage clothing as well as some pretty cool furniture and record shops. but it turns pretty quickly from trendy to bumsville. i haven't mentioned this yet, but since I’ve been in Canada I’ve noticed quite a lot of homeless right throughout the country. Vancouver is not exception. If anything they probably have more because it’s generally a little warmer on the west coast also the winters aren’t as harsh. Don’t quote me on this, but I heard the reason is because the government closed a lot of the mental institutions and tried to integrate them into society which obviously didn’t work very well at all.
Granville Island is an interesting part of town too. i guess you would say its a little more alternative. with markets, and art galleries and pan flute, plenty of pan flutes. you can't have a hippy market without them, its practically a prerequisite when starting market, that and someone has to be walking around with dreadlocks.

one thing i've noticed since being overseas is how a lot of countries make a big effort to have a lot of green space, even if they are a massive city. i noticed that Vancouver has a few little parks scattered around the town, but probably Stanley park is the most noticeable one. its really nice to walk around in. not only does it have some amazingly beautiful trees, they little art and craft markets and a couple of restaurants too. i think you could probably spend days just wandering in there. they also had a miniature railway in the middle of the park, and of course the kids dragged us on in. i think its really funny what kids find fun and interesting.

one day we went up to Grouse mountain, with is probably the closest ski field from the city. of course it was a little too hot to go skiing but there were other things to check out. they had a bear enclosure there for some bears that were orphaned and also a show on Canadian birds of prey which was pretty amazing. on top of the mountain they have zip lines, which are like giant flying foxes. Phoebe is a bit of a dare devil so she convinced me to go on them with her and her dad. it was lots of fun, some of them go from one mountain to the other, and the view from up there is nothing short of spectacular, but its a shame i couldn't go a little slower that 100 miles an hour. it would've been nice to take in the view.

while i was here we did a week long family trip to Vancouver Island. family holidays are always tricky, especially when your kids are young. there were always going to be plenty of 'are we there yet?' and 'he punched me!' coming from the back of the car. but i wasn't quite ready for the car sickness. we weren't that far into the trip when we got a 'i don't feel well' followed by a projectile vomit, it was like something out of the movie, the Exorcist. lucky Jeanette had it covered and had a some sick bags handy.
first couple of days we spent in Victoria, (which is actually the capital of British Columbia, not Vancouver like me, and most people think) it wasn't a very big place but it was pleasant.
the picture below is where we stayed... just kidding. but it is probably one of the things i was most impressed with. the Empress hotel was built in 1908 for a few million dollars (which i imagine would've been an obscene amount back in those days) i think it would be a great setting to shoot a movie in. don't you think? apparently Hollywood does shoot a lot of movies in Canada, because it keeps costs down.

it was here in Victoria that i did a whale watching tour. Jeanette had gone once before and told me it was a must do. god i'm glad i went. we saw so many Killer Whales and they came up so close to the boat (the closest was probably about 10m away), they are such amazing creatures.
on the way to our next destination, we stayed a night in Port Alberni. Port Alberi is a bit of a nothing town. even though they say its the 'Salmon capital of the world'. i know, its a pretty big call, but we did see some salmon swimming up stream and jumping out of the water. it actually reminded me a lot of the clip below.

from there we spent a few nights in Ucluelet. we did a couple of tours there one was a bear watching boat tour. the boat was flat bottomed to you could go up really close to the bears on the shore. one of the bears even climbed a tree! the other tour we did was to the natural hot springs, which were very relaxing. its kind of hard to believe that the hot water comes from the earth and not out of a shower! to get to the hot springs you have to take a boat, because its out in the woods. on the way back to town we spotted some lousy grey whales, which are much bigger than the killer whales i'd seen a few days earlier. i guess you're wondering why i called them 'lousy grey whales'. most people would find spotting whales pretty exciting, but i was hoping to spot a sasquash. mainly becuase it would've been great to write about in the blog. unfortunately my sasqutch hunt wasn't as fruitful...
from the parts of Canada i've seen so far, i'd have to say BC has some of the most beautiful nature and probably the most stereotypical. plenty of pine trees that seem to be millions of years old etc. it might be all this fresh air going to my head, but i might be joining Greenpeace, chaining myself to trees and throwing myself in front of harpoons soon.
as we were driving around i kept noticing stones getting placed on top of each other, that almost resemble a giant rock person. Phoebe told me they were called Inukshuk's and they were made by the indigenous people of Canada as a marker so they could remember how to get back to the same spot. apparently each tribe had there own design.
we weren't that blessed with great weather so we didn't get to take advantage of the beaches, but still, i had a great time on Vancouver Island, and somehow we managed to get through the week without wringing the neck of one of the kids. bonus!

i know, i'm a nerd, but I’m interested in brands. Mainly because they generally do some pretty strange stuff. It could be just me, but they get even more wacky when you hit North America. One day we went and got ice creams from ‘Dairy Queen’ or as its now known, ‘DQ’ (it seems to be the corporate fashion to abbreviate names at the moment). DQ are known for having a little swirl at the top of there ice creams. Andrew was telling me that they go to great lengths to making the swirl just right, and its so important to the brand, that they have patent the swirl so no other ice cream shop can be serve there ice cream that way! A little absurd, don’t you think? But it doesn’t stop there, as we were chatting one night a Harley Davidson drove passed and he told me that the tone that come out of a Harley’s exhaust is also patent. Crazy, huh?

while i was here, we went for lunch one day at a restaurant chain call 'Earls'. as i was sitting at our table i couldn't help but notice something. i lent over and said to Jeanette and Andrew, ' have you noticed that every single one of the waitresses are ridiculously good looking? like i mean, not one of them is ugly...' Andrew told me that Earl's (and a couple of other restaurants) as known for hiring a certain type of employee. i'm guessing that type is: 5'11'', petite, D cup, Brunette or Blonde. apparently its written into the code of conduct that employees are encouraged to openly flirt with patrons. i couldn't get over it! but when you think about us men seem to fall for it, the more i looked at the patrons, the more i began to realize that there clientele were men, and i guess if you're actually stupid enough to believe that the waitress is really THAT into you, you need your head read. on the other hand, i was a little shocked that in this day and age, they can get away with only hiring attractive people. but as Andrew told me 'how can you prove otherwise?'. fair point.

As I mentioned, the first week I didn’t really do much, so it gave me a lot of time to catch up on movies I wanted to see and watch a bit of TV. Below is one of the as that I saw quite a bit.

You get these types of ads all the time here, its true, we have similar ones back home. But wherever I am when I see one, I always ask myself the same question, ‘Who buys this shit?’. the scary thing is, as soon as this ad come on, i bet a bunch of Stepford wives out there instantly pick up the phone, dial the 1800 number and buy a dozen. i personally think these kind of ads are hilarious - the acting in them is horrible! i mean, who really shakes there head when they open up a crowded closet? but probably my favourite bit is the offers. you know the ones. 'you call in the next 30 seconds you get a free set of steak knives!' the thing is, these ads get run so often it doesn't matter if you don't call now, just call them in the next ad break, where i guarantee the same ad will be running again.

something that, while being here in Canada, has kind of annoyed me. i noticed that a lot of American tourist pay with American money, which in someways i find a little bit disrespectful and comes cross as a bit arrogant, like the greenback is the only important currency in the world or something. i mean, if your visiting a different country you might as well use there currency. how hard is it to get money from an ATM? actually, come to think of it, i came across it while i was in europe too. i dunno, maybe i'm getting on my high horse over nothing.

well, i guess its time to move on before i start to wear out my welcome. i didn't even realize it but i've been here for nearly 4 weeks! its mainly because i've had such an enjoyable time here. i'll admit, i have noticed that i've slowed down my pace a lot over the last couple of months, perhaps i'm running out of puff? i guess this much time on the road can do that to you. but in a lot of ways, spending sometime with family has made me wind down even more, and i guess its made me feel even more ready to come home. but when i think about it, there's not that many cities left in this trip, so there's no time to get all homesick, i'll be home before i know it.

Toronto

2009-06-17T19:34:00.000-07:00

to get to Ottawa and to Toronto i would have to catch a greyhound bus. you hear so pretty unsavory things about the Greyhound bus service. things like: when prisoners get out of jail, they are given the stuff they came in with and also a one way greyhound ticket outta there (i imagine so the cops don't have to deal with them). also i heard that last year some guy was listening to his iPod a little too loud and the mental guy behind him killed him in cold blood, then when the police came he cut the guys head off. charming. needless to say, my iPod didn't come out of my bag. and i didn't look side ways at people next to me. ok, all those things are true but it really isn't as bad as people make it out to be. i dunno what it is but, whenever people pass on travel advice they always tend to tell the worst case scenario. of course bus stations are always going to have strange people hanging around them, but the bus really wasn't that bad. the only bad thing is having to listen to the music the emo girl was playing in the seat next to me... come to think of it, now i know why the mental guy decapitated the other guy, he must've been an emo.

anyway, before i got to Ottawa i remembered that my old high school friend, Aphra, who lives in Ottawa, had she had sent me an email at the start of my travels, saying that if i came her way to let her know. i thought they we might just catch up for a drink or something, but lucky for me she invited me to stay with her and her boyfriend for a couple days.
it was really good to see Alpha, it had been so long since i saw her last, but the most refreshing part was, she hadn't changed a bit. The reason Aphra is living here, is because she began traveling, just like me, around the world, but only got as far as Banff where she met her, now boyfriend, Gord. Gord's original from Ottawa so that's why they live here. i don't blame her for cashing in her around-the-world ticket, Gord is a really nice guy, i think the feeling is mutual when i say, we got on like a house on fire.

the first couple of days we stayed in a house that they rent that's not far from town so i could do some exploring. then the next couple of days we stayed with Gord's family at there farm which gave me an opportunity to get outside of a city for a while and experience something different. the family house is a beautiful old place, with a giant barn out the back to keep the horses. Gord's parents, Harry and Nancy, were very kind to me, serving up some amazing food - i hadn't eaten that well in a long time!
one day i helped Nancy pick up some horse feed. it was really strange, just the smell of malassis in the air, instantly transported me back to when i was younger. my Auntie and Uncle used to have a farm in Mansfield. when i was younger i used to go up there a fair bit and feed the horses and and 'help out' around the farm. i have such fond memories of those times. riding (and falling off) motor bikes with my dad, going down to the creek, catching frogs and going into town for lunch. it was really nice thinking about those moments i had, i hope i never forget them.

before i got here, people were telling me to avoid Ottawa like the plague. 'it's boring, why would you want to go there?!!' they were all saying. Maybe i had low expectations, but i didn't find it to be that bad. They had a little market area called the Byward market that i liked, it was here that i tried a beaver tail. no, i didn't eat a REAL beaver's tail, it was like a big flat cinnamon donut. apparently its the thing to do while you're in Ottawa. it was good!
i think Ottawa would be a really nice place to visit in the winter. the river that runs though the city freezes over, so you can skate up and down it. there are probably people out there that are thinking, 'so what?', but i think it might be because i'm Australian, rivers don't really freeze much, if at all, in Australia, so the whole concept seems so exciting and foreign to me, apparently they set up stalls on the ice and everything.

Ottawa is the capital of Canada and it actually has a similarity to Australia's capital, Canberra. both cities were built in the middle of two major cities because they couldn't decided which city was going to be the capital. of course with it being the capital, it has a number of government buildings, statues of important dead people and monuments. Parliament hill is generally where they all are, you can picked them from a mile off, Parliament Hill is perched right on a hill, funnily enough, that over looks the water. i heard that there is a limit on how tall you can build buildings here in Ottawa so that that it doesn't overshadow the buildings on Parliament Hill, it might be rubbish, so don't quote me on that.
i don't think the similarities stop at where we have our capitals cities. i've found Canadian's to be very much like Australian's. i think we have a similar sense of humour, and when you think about it we have a similar history ie: being part of the commonwealth. having said that they have Queen Elizabeth on there currency too, but she looks a bit older compared to the ones back home, maybe they gave her a face lift. speaking on money they call there $1 coins 'loonies' because of the picture of the Loon on the back. and they called $2 coins 'toonies' after cartoons... ok, not really. i'm not really sure why they call them that. i'm still a bit confused by the money you would expect that there size would depend on how much its worth, but the 10 cent piece is smaller than the 5 cent piece!?!

if looking at buildings isn't your cup of tea, hopefully art is. i checked out the national gallery and i was surprised at how good it was. They also had and exhibition for the 'Governor General’s Awards in Visual and Media Arts' they were all pretty good, except for a couple. but there was one artist that stood out for me. her name was Rita McKeough and her work was pretty nutty. lots of things hooked up to machines to make them work or make things move - it was awesome! i'm a big fan of kinetic sculpture, so this really tickled my fancy. just in the general section they had Andy Warhol's 'Brillo Boxes' and Chuck Close potrait. one thing i really liked there was, one artist had made a dinosaur-like skeleton of out of plastic deck chairs - it was amazing. in the Canadian art section, i also really liked 'Pavane' (see picture below) by an artist from Quebec called Jean Paul Riopelle. the painting was created by smearing the paint which i thought was quite cool.

while we're in the capital i should probably mention of of the most fun things on earth - tax. Canadian's get taxed quite a bit. depending on which bracket your in, you can be taxed up to 50% of your earnings. but it does have a few perks, if you're Canadian you do get free health care, which is always a good thing.

While i was here i had my first Tim Horton's experience. Tim Horton's is a fast food franchise here in Canada, it was started by a Hockey player by the name of, you guess it, Tim Horton. Tim ended up dying in a car accident and his widow ended up selling off his share of the company for next to nix, she's probably kicking her self now, its the biggest, even bigger than McDonald's and Subway, fast food chain in Canada. There menu consists of Bagels, Coffee, Muffins, Doughnuts, and 'Tim Bits' which are dough nut holes as well as a few other things. i had a bagel and some Tim Bits. it was pretty good as far as fast food chains go, actually i was surprised at how cheap it was too.

from Ottawa, i risked life and limb again and caught the Greyhound down to Toronto. actually the bus ride was quite good. i sat next to a girl who had good taste in music, in fact i noticed she was playing the Pearl Jam album, 'Yield'. i was surprised because not many people really rate that album, but its probably one of my favourtie albums of all time. anyway, we chatted about the album, amongst other things, which made the bus trip a lot easier to get though. when i got into Toronto i tracked down my old friends from University days, Elle and Angie, who i was very excited about staying with for a few days. a few years ago, just after we finished uni, they won a big advertising award that allowed them to work at a Leo Burnett office of there choice, 3 years on there still in Toronto working at Leo Burnett, and still loving it by the sounds of things.

the first night i got there, they took me to some advertising shin-dig. but i can't remember any of it - i got so trashed! i've had big nights before, and usually i get flashbacks of things that i did or said, but the next morning i had no recollection of what i did. in some ways it's a shame i can't remember any of it, it sounds like i had the night of my life! Angie and Elle told me that i was dancing with the CEO of some big advertising company and playing air guitar on my knees. sounds like i'll never work in Toronto.

Elle and Angie took me to some of the cool places to hang out. we spent a fair bit of time in and around the kensington market area, which i really liked. full of cool little vintage and recycled clothing stores, somehow angie persuaded me to buy a marching band jacket! there are plenty of cool little bars around that area too, come to think of it, we were pretty much booze hounds the whole time i was there.

while i was in Toronto i did a day trip down to a waterfall, you might have heard of it, its called Niagara falls. before i got there, i had heard that the Canadian side is a lot better than the American side of the falls, and it was very true, the American view is pretty rubbish. apparently the falls used to move something like 6 meters every year. i got took the 'Maid of the Mist' which is a ferry that goes right into the horseshoe falls, it was pretty cool to hear the roar of the water crashing around you, also a bit mental that you can drive a boat in that close to them. its funny, whenever you ask a canadian 'what is it that makes you Canadian?' the first thing they say is 'well, were not american' but i was a little confused, because as we were going through the falls there was plenty of fist punching and 'yeah!! whoo hoo!!' going. very american if you ask me. but who knows, they may have come from the American side.

Niagara itself is a strange place. one minute your seeing an amazing natural wonder, then next your bombarded with Haunted house's, Gift shops, 'Ripley's believe it or not' and 'Guinness World record' stores. i guess its not for everyone, but i kind of enjoyed looking at how incredibly tacky the place was. the drinking age in Canada is 19 years old, which is lower than in America, which is 21. so a lot of American's cross the border so they can drink. because Niagara is right on the border, i imagine it gets a lot of Yanks coming over to whet there whistle. so maybe the stores and attractions are more interesting when your tipsy.

i would say i saw a lot of Toronto, but i'm pretty sure Elle and Angie showed me all the good places. it didn't really matter, truth be told, i just wanted to hang out with them again. it was so good to see them. seeing there apartment and hearing the stories behind the furniture that they had brought or found for it, meeting the friends that they'd made over here, showing me there favourite shops. it really really great to see them so happy and how settled they are here. i've really missed them since they left Melbourne, we used to have some great nights out together, but who knows, one day we might share a city again.

i had a great time in both Ottawa and Toronto, mainly because i've seen some familar faces, which has been really nice. i'm flying to Vancouver next to see some more familiar faces: my sister, my brother in-law, my niece and my nephew. i can't wait to see them!

Montreal

2009-06-10T15:56:00.000-07:00

so as you can imagine, with full body sun burn the train ride to Montreal wasnt so hunky dory, infact from someone elses perspective it probably looked like i was walking on egg shells or something. i felt that if i just stayed in my seat as still as possible i would get through it. apart from the sunburn, everything was pretty good. the train was nice and it had a food carriage there if i found the strength to get up and grab a drink or a bite to eat. well, that was until the border check. because i was planning on spending a bit of time in Canada, i wrote down on the visa form that i would be in the country for roughly 30 days. not long when you think about it, but it soon became clear to me that the border patrol thought that was an outragously long time to spend in Canada. they kept drilling me with questions about what i was doing here, and if i had family here, etc. i was thinking í'm an Australian, what harm can i do?' and í'm part of the freaking Commonwealth, again, i'm no danger!' maybe the problem was i didn't look burnt to a crisp in my passport and they couldn't work out why. anyway, they did eventually stamp my passport and let me go on my way, but it mustn't have been just me that they were given a thorough look over, the train waited at the border for nearly 2 hours!

i got recommended a cool hostel to stay at while i was here in Montreal. i've found that usually if you get recommended a place, its pretty good and generally thats how i travel. i might have a bit of a look on hostelworld.com beforehand but i hardly ever book anything, mainly because i'm an indecisive sod but also i think its half the fun of traveling. i guess i've got away with it quite easily because i haven't really been traveling in peak season, so i might have to change my routine pretty soon. gay marriage is legal in Canada. i think Quebec as a provance was one of the first to make it legal. so i guess i shouldn't have been surprised when i saw a mass of rainbow flags and men in hot pants right near my hostel.

i met some really nice people while i was at my hostel so we did a fair bit of sightseeing together. one day we hired bikes and rode them to the top of Mount Royal. it was a pretty tough ride up, mainly because the bikes were really heavy but the view from the top was nice and so was the ride down. actually, Montreal got gots its name from Mount Royal. makes sense when you think about! while i was on my bike i noticed quite a number of markets and stuff going on around the city and not only on weekends too. there are some great little streets around Montreal full of vintage clothing as well as new labels.

overall i think Montreal is quite edgy and a bit dirty in places, but i prefer that. probably the most touristy area is the old town. mainly because its got lots of old buildings and restaurants, also it has the Notre Dame Basilica, which i walked passed but i didn't bother going in, A) because you had to pay to get in it and B) i've seen so many churches and basilicas, i've lost count.

winter Canada sounds pretty greuling, its so cold infact that that Montreal has an underground city, full of shops and restaurants to escape the elements. while i'm sort of on the topic of architecture, there was a building that i spotted while i was walking along the dock in the Old town that i found interesting. i later found out it was called 'Habitat 67' and it was built to demonstrate cheap and affordable living for the Expo in 1967. it was apparently meant be be pulled down after the Expo but it was spared. i'm kind of in two mind of whether i like it or not. on one hand it looks like someones thrown a bunch of block on top of each other, in other words, a bit of an eye sore. but then again i like the idea of affordable living. it kind of reminds me of how IKEA are currently trying to make affordable housing (click here if your interested finding out more about IKEA's affordable housing). apparently Habitat 67 isn't so affordable these days, infact there very much in demand and expensive. i think i'd like them more if they were less of them. i'll leave a picture of the apartment block so you can make up your own mind.

i got told that i should try some smoked meat while i was here and that a deli called Schwartz's on St Laurent st is the best place to get it from, so i decided that i would check it out. when i got there i was shocked to find that the line was running out the door. i had to wait a little but but holy moley it was worth it. i sat down and went to order a mixture of stuff but and the waiter said 'no, no, no, you don't want that, i'll tell you what your after' i laughed because i thought i was having a Seinfeld moment, instead of the Soup Nazi i had the Meat Nazi. i decided to run with it and i'm glad i did, it was delicious! i think if i got too much stuff i would've had taste overload.
i get the feeling that food is a big part of the people of Montreal. there are plenty of restaurants and you see people eating out quite a bit. supposedly seafood is really good here.

in the Queen Elizabeth Hotel in 1969, John lennon and Yoko Ono did one of there 'Bed-in' protests against the Vietnam war. i tried the Amsterdam Hilton when i was there, because it was the first of the bed-in protests, but nobody knew where it was, but i guess the Queen Elizabeth Hotel in Montreal is a close second. so casually walked into this swanky hotel and got in the lift to go up to room 1742. i thought someone might stop me because i wasn't staying there, but i guess they were too busy to even notice me. there was a little plaque on the door that had John and Yoko's name on it. it was pretty cool because that was the room they recorded the anthem 'Give Peace a Chance'.

incidentally, while i was here there was a John and Yoko exhibition at one of the art galleries. it was pretty cool, they had some of John and Yoko's art work, the guitar John used during the recording of 'Give Peace a Chance' and various pictures and recordings they made together. there was this one piece where it was a white phone on the wall. i was a little confused about it so i asked one of the people working at the gallery what it was all about. apparently Yoko calls once a day and who ever is lucky enough to answer gets to chat with her. i imagine (pardon the pun) that most people would say stupid stuff like 'oh, i'm such a BIG fan Miss Ono' but you know what? if i answered i'd ask her the tough questions like 'why did you break up the greatest band of all time?'.

i'm a fan of John Lennon's music, but i really hate the way people (and Yoko) has made him into this marytr feature. i read a fair bit about John and he's not perfect. if you really wanted to be honest you could call him a hypocrite. for instance in the song 'imagine' he sings 'imagine no possession, its easy if you try...' then you see him in the filmclip in a massive mansion and his wife is wearing a fur coat. i'm not denying that he did some great things for so many people and for for peace, i just think that he should be remembered as a human being with good points and bad points, just like the rest of us. i think we can all admit to being hypocrites every now and then, i sure can. i think its funny how when people die, sometimes history changes to make that person sound better (or sometimes, worse) and not exactly what they were.

apparently Montreal is known for its good nightlife. but i was a bit of a party pooper so i didn't really explore it too much. a bit of a highlight for me was i went and saw Cirque de Soliel. i think it began here in Montreal however many years ago so it was cool to see it from where it all started. the show i went and saw was built around the secret life of bugs and insects. it was such and amazing all round performance. the costumes were quite amazing and the sheer skill of the performers was brilliant! the thing i liked most about it were the ideas were really creative but quite simple when you looked at. i think thats the key to great creative stuff - don't over complicate it! the best part of it all was there wasn't an animal to be seen. i remember when i was a kid getting taken to the circus and they had lion and elephants and stuff like that. during the show you would be dazzled by the animals doing tricks and stuff. but i remember when the show was over and all the frills had been packed away and it was time to go home, i would look over and see the way the animals had to live and would think how horrible it must've be for them. i found it so nice to sit through a circus that didn't have animals because the entertainment was guilt free.

while i was in Montreal i decided i would spend a couple of days in Quebec City. to catch a greyhound bus there it was going to cost me something like $40 one way but i got a really hot tip from my hostel that there was a guy that has a van that drives back and forth every day he picked you up and dropped you off for $25, so i went with him. he was a really nice guy actually. he pointed out a few good cheap eats as well as a couple of places to have a drink.

the hostel i stayed in was really nice. really friendly and homely. i met some nice travellers there too. one girl from Spain who couldn't stop talking about how much she loved Australia when she visited a couple of years ago and how much she wanted to come back. i had no idea how hard it was to get into Australia. i had the feeling she was going to propose to me so she could get citizenship (just quietly, i was hoping she would - she was red hot!). anyway, enough of that. more about Quebec City.

Quebec City is a really beautiful little place, i think it was founded by the french way back when, and then it was taken over with a surprise attack from the english. i found it very hard to believe i was in North America, because it actually reminded me very much of europe, with the beautiful and very european looking Château Frontenac Hotel and various cute little stone cottages and little windy lanes built around it, also the original city was a walled, which is not to uncommon for european cities. but there was something different about it, it took me a little while to put my finger on it, but i think i figured out what it was: the lighting. it seemed way too bright, the way light was hitting the buildings seemed totally different to the way it does in europe. i might think that because i travelled europe mainly in winter and early summer but thats my theory, and i'm sticking to it!

both Montreal and Quebec City are part of the provance of Quebec, which means they are bilingual, speaking both english and french. i didn't really run into much trouble in Montreal because most people could speak english, but i did have a few troubles in Quebec City, everything is pretty much in French. i heard the french that they use here is different to the french spoken in france. its probably a dialect. but in recent years the have made a real effort to improve the quality of the french that is spoken in Quebec. which is similar to what i heard in Paris about 'the immortals' (click here to read about my Paris blog) to find out the reason they speak french in an English speaking country, your gonna have to read on a little further, for now i'm going to talk about the Citadalle fort.
it was built because the English owned the area and kept getting attacked by the Yanks so they built the Citadalle to fend off future attacks. it ended up being a big waste of money because the Americans never attacked again, but maybe that was becuase they knew they didn't stand a chance. the Citadalle is built in a star shape so that no matter which way you attack it, it doesn't have a weak point. regardless of how battle proof the Citadalle is, the government were really worried that the people of Quebec might side with American's so thats why they allowed the people to speak french. thats why people here still speak french. today the citadalle is still used as an army barracks and the Governor General lives there too, but you can do tours of area.
from what i can gather Quebec as a provence is quite different to the rest of Canada. not only do they speak french they apparently they do a lot of things the french way ie: tax etc. recently they wanted to be seperate from Canada. they even went to the poles and only missed out on being there own country by 1%. i wouldn't be surprised that in the near future that they do seperate.

i liked the dock area. they had some nice little shops and areas you could sit, have a drink and people watch for a while. another nice little area to chilled out in were the leafy parks near the Citadalle. they were actually designed by the guy who designed New York's Central park.
while i was here i ended up running into a girl and a guy that i met in Montreal and we ended up going for a drink in the revolving restaurant. it sounded pretty corny to me, and when i saw the menu i was glad we were only staying for a drink. but one thing that was well in my price range was the view. i sipped my drink very slowly and revolved as many times as i could before reality set in and i got given the bill.

apparently the best maple syrup come from Quebec (though i person from Quebec told me that, so they may be a little bias) so i had some pancakes and maple syrup. there were two types of syrup i could try. they stuff they make all year round, and the legit stuff that comes from the maple trees. i tried them both and the legit stuff was so much better. the waitress told me the best time for maple syrup is just after winter when they gather the sap from the maple trees and make the syrup. i got told i should try another delicacy from this part of the world, a thing called 'poutain'. i find it hard to believe that a french person could think of such a horrible, fatty dish. it consists of french fries, with cheese curd and gravy all melted together! i shared it with a couple of other people, i took a few mouthfuls but that was more than enough for me. i could almost feel my cholesterol rising with every bite.

in the provence of Quebec there really proud of singer Celine Dion, shes probably one of there biggest exports. but i dunno, i'd be disowning her pretty quick smart! have you ever seen her do a version of AC/DC's 'Shook me all night long'? it was pretty cringe worthy, i'm pretty sure Bon Scott rolled in his grave, and he didn't even sing it! check the video below to see what i mean...

while i was walking around town i went into an American Apparel shop to have a look around. i was just wandering around, minding my own business when a girl that worked at the shop asked me if i needed a hand with anything. i said 'no thanks, i'm just having a look around' from that she must've noticed my accent and asked me where i came from, to which i replied 'i'm from Australia'. she said 'oh, i met an Australian guy while i was traveling overseas...' i was like 'oh yeah, there's only 20 odd million of us, i might know hime, whats his name?' she said 'Dan Brumm'. i nearly died. Dan Brumm used to be the Audio Engineer i used to work with when i had to do radio ads back in Brisbane. i thought it might have been another Dan Brumm, so i described him. sure enough it was him. i couldn't believe i was in Quebec City and i met someone that had a friend in common. we ended up getting on quite well and that night she took me out with a couple of friends. it was funny because i noticed all these people were going up to one of her male friends and chatting to him and getting photos with him. i said to him later 'geez, your a popular guy' he laughed and played it down. it wasn't until later when i asked him what he does with him self that he revealed that he was currently on Canada's version of 'Australian Idol' (hence explaining why everyone kept going up to him)

its hard for me to pick which city i liked better, becuase i liked them both, but in different ways. i think Montreal is edgy and cool, and i thought Quebec City was european, but i think Quebec City was probably a little more touristy. for instance both cities had murals around the place, but i found there was a better chance you would see something spray painted in Montreal than you would in Quebec City. Quebec City had more of a polished feel to it, with the murals most likely legal and painted with a brush. not to say they they weren't cool, they were just different.

next i'm off to Toronto via Canada's capital city, Ottawa. more when i get there.

New York

2009-06-04T19:39:00.000-07:00

WARNING: extremely long blog grab yourself a big cup of cawfee (coffee) and maybe a hot dog or two, to set the mood.

before i took off i felt i needed a bit of reading material. Sylvia Plath has been popping up in my life quite a lot recently, well, not literally she's a bit dead to be doing that, but just in newspaper articles and songs etc. i've never really read much poetry but i thought i should check some of her stuff out so i got a selection of her work chosen by her ex husband Ted Hughes. i found that a bit interesting in itself because she commited suicide because of Ted's wandering eye. i got chatting to a guy that worked at the book shop about it and he said that Ted never spoke of Sylvia until he released a book of poetry called 'birthday letters' just before he died. apparently its about there relationship, so i brought that book too. as i was leaving to go to the airport a guy at the hostel finished 'On the Road' by Jack Kerouac and said that i should read it so he gave it to me. so it looks like i'm going to be a very busy book worm in the next couple weeks.

the flight was pretty good, nothing to really report. food was rubbish, but i would be shocked if i recieved otherwise. i touched down into New York and to be honest, i was a bit worried that they wouldn't let me in. they have upped there security since i left for my trip, so i had to to fill in a form online filling them in on the in's and out's of everything, things like are you a terrorist? and what kind of underwear do you wear? pfft! like a terrorist would tick the box saying that he was a terrorist anyway! oh and incase your interested, i wear grey underwear... and brown ones when i know i could be in dangerous situation! anyway, i had to carry this piece of paper on me at all times or something. as i was standing in line at customs i was overwhelmed at how patriotic the airport was. i had hardly step foot in the country and i was being bombarded with stars and stripes and words like 'pledge' and 'pride'. anyway, after a little bit of a drilling they let me into the country. i collected my bag and got the bus to my hostel so i could begin being a new yorker.

in a stroke of luck my mate, and fellow traveller, Byron who i met in Cardiff (click here to read the Cardiff post) was in New York staying with a mate of his who was studying film here, so we caught up and checked out a lot of the sights together. actually one day we checked out some sights dressed up as sailors and recreated Ol' Blue Eyes & Co singing 'New York, New York'. don't believe me? check out the photo below.

i was actually quite surprised that one really cared less, we hardly got a comment and no one really took a second look. i guess New Yorkers are kind of used to eccentric behaviour. as you can see from the photo we went to the Empire State Building which, to me wasn't as big as i thought it was going to be, probably because the buildings around it were quite tall too. when you get up the top, the view is quite amazing, but so windy... especially if your wearing a sailor outfit.

after that we walked to Time Square, which i found such a bizarre place. not because the lights are flashing everywhere, in someways it reminded me of Tokyo. no, it was that they had deck chairs set up everywhere so people could sit and watch the advertisements. isn't funny that we spend our lives, channel surfing to get away from commercials, then you come to a place to watch them? heres a funny little fact. originally it wasn't called Time Square, it got its name after the first ad for The New York Times appeared.
from there we caught a ferry to Staten lsland, mainly because its free and it goes right passed the statue of Liberty. i figured that there's no point in paying the $40 to go to liberty island because you can't climb the statue anymore. so cruising passed the statue was good enough for me.

heres a hot tip for anyone going to NYC on a budget. i brought a ticket pass they lets you get into a lot of the main art galleries and various attractions around NYC, it was $70, and i think it was worth every cent.

i went to the Met which was quite good. they have a bit of everything, italian, french, american they had some great Egyptian stuff there that i liked. they had a great art collection too. George Seurat's 'a sunday afternoon on the island of la grande jatte', some Warhol and Chuck Close just to name a few of the stuff hanging on there walls. also they had Damien Hirst's 'The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living' which is a shark in a glass container filled with formaldehyde solution. it certainly lives up to its title, it scared the shit out of me (it was lucky that was the day i wore my brown undies!) my only complaint is that the museum is SO big! it takes hours to get around to see everything.

i visited the Guggenheim too, which means i've completed the Guggenheim grand slam! they had an exhibition on Frank Lloyd Wright who was the architect who created the New York Guggenheim, which was kinda cool because it kind of put a lot of his work into context, but it meant that i couldn't see a lot the famous works of art that they have there. oh well, it was a pretty cool building to look at. but i have to say when i go through a building i think about how i walk through a space, and i have to say i felt it didn't work that well. its built like a spiral that you walk around in circles from the bottom, right up to the top, which is good because you see an exhibition in order, but then when you get to the top... thats it, you have to turn around and walk back, which i found annoying because i hate backtracking. it wasnt just the Guggenheim, i found that a couple of times. the Museum of Natural history was the same, but what it offered was quite good. they had an film projected on a roof of a room, on how our solar system was created and how earth has changed over the years, all narrated by Mr Robert Redford. it was pretty amazing. there was a point at the start when Robert said something around the lines of 'Hi, i'm Robert Redford and i'm about to show you how our earth was created...' and then a little kid piped up and said 'but didn't God create it?' i guess thats kind of cute and innocent, but heres something thats not. i heard that something like 40% of politicians in America still believe that god created the earth and not the 'big bang' theory. kind of scary, don't you think?
for me MoMA was probably the best, mainly because i like modern art. they had interesting art work with some pretty big names in there too. but something i liked about it was it had furniture, architecture and other creative things there also, which i found refreshing.

of course, you don't go to new york and not go for a walk around Central Park. to be honest you can't really miss it, its massive! its a really enjoyable to walk around in too, with its big trees and lakes, its kind of hard to believe its all man made. they generally have people playing music scattered throughout the park, as well as its fair share of yuppies going for a run at lunchtime. there are plenty of little stalls in the park, which is quite a good spot to get a hot dog. speaking of food, i got told before i came here i should go to a deli and get a sandwich, good thing i remembered - they were amazing! Byron and I had them so often that the guy who owned the store knew us by name in the end. on the weekend they shut down a lot of streets (even the big ones) and have lots of little markets, they sell all different types of food there too, as well as clothing and other bits and pieces.

there are some pretty famous residence of New York. not far from Central Park is the Dakoda building. not only is it the most expensive apartment block in New York it was also where John Lennon lived with Yoko Ono and was also the place he was fatally shot by Mark Chapman. i was surprised to hear that Yoko still lives there today. also not far from the Guggenheim is the little apartment Andy Warhol used to live in. it looks pretty humble from the out the front, but i noticed it was for sale for about $4.5 million so i imagine its quite nice inside. i also saw one of the factories he used to create his work in, which was pretty cool.
i had a couple of brushes with celebrities while i was here. on one evening while i was walking to my hostel i saw Jermaine from New Zealand Comedy duo 'Flight of the Conchords' walking down the street. which i thought was pretty cool, then i walked a little further and i saw Keanu Reeves having a coffee. i don't normally ask for autographs, but since i've been traveling i've been carrying a little note pad just so i can jot down little ideas i have or things i want to research later, also i stick in tickets and stuff like that to compare designs from around the world, but mainly just to keep memories, so i figured that i should get him to put his name in it. i imagine being a celebrity and people asking for your autograph must get tiring after a while, but he was really nice actually.

i went to the Hotel Chelsea which, over the years has had some pretty famous people go through its doors. Janis Joplin, Leonard Cohen, Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix, Stanley Kubrick all lived here for a while, and hows this? the book 'On the road' by Jack Kerouac, (the book that was given to my by the guy in the London hostel) was written here. in a room on the 3rd floor Sid Vicious of punk band the Sex Pistols stabbed his girlfriend, Nancy Spungen, to death. author/alcoholic Dylan Thomas used to drink in the bar so i thought i might grab a beer in there. it was there that i met an australian girl called Chloe, who lived in the hotel chelsea for a while, we got chatting and she ended up showing me around the building pointing out some of the rooms where people lived, which was pretty lucky.

i was walking passed the Ed Sullivan theater and put my name into the ballot for tickets to the Late Show with David Letterman. i didn't really expect to get called up, but amazingly i got a ticket and a spare ticket for Byron, which was very lucky! i thought Byron was going to wet himself when he found out the news. at first we thought we the guests were Bill Cosby and Paula Abdul, which i personally would've got a laugh out of Paula trying to resurrect her singing career. but we got the friday night taping, which they do on the monday night, so we got Paris Hilton and comedian Steven Wright. David was in fine form and subtly ripped into Paris, which was gold! mainly because, lets face it, Paris shouldn't be famous at all.

being the Seinfeld fan that i am i couldn't leave without seeing a few sights. apparently Kenny Kramer, the guy the Kramer character is based on, does tours, but he wasn't doing them yet so i had to do it myself. first stop was the Soup Nazi's kitchen, unfortunately 'no soup for me!', it was closed, which was a bit shattering. anyway, i so got over it and when up to 'Tom's Restaurant' which is the restaurant that they used to eat at. i was surprised that the out side was still the same after all these years, but the inside was totally different to the TV show, ah, the tricks of TV land.

its funny, you walk around and you see stuff and your like 'oh, yeah thats that!' you know, things like street names, Madison Ave, Broadway, 5th Ave etc, New York is filled with so many iconic things like: Radio City Music Hall, the 'LOVE' statue by Robert Indiana, Rockefeller building, Carnegie Hall, Wall St and Grand Central Station. while i'm on the topic of Grand Central Station, i'm a big fan of a group called Improv Everywhere, who do stunts through out the world, mainly they do things with large groups that are a bit shocking like riding the subway with no pants on. but probably there most famous stunt was at Grand Central Station, check out the video below to see what i mean.

you hear some pretty funny stuff around town too. i found this website that publishes conversations overheard around New York, some of them are hilarious! click here to check them out.

its really easy to get around New York, walking around its pretty much a grid system, and they are numbered, avenues run up streets cross them. simple! but its a pretty big place, i brought a weekly unlimited ticket for the subway and it only cost me about $20, the subway is a bit dirty at times, depending on your train, but they run quite often and they have express trains too.

i follow a great little blog called Wooster Collective, which posts street art from all over the world on its blog (click here to check out Wooster Collective) anyway, last year i saw the video below that incorporated the hot air that gets blown up from the subways

pretty clever huh? unfortuantly i didn't get to see any of them while i was here, but i think it demonstrates the creative vibe of New York. you always hear music on the streets or in parks. and i think New York City really encourage the arts too, i heard that something like 10% of all apartments, regardless of how swanky they are, have to be rented out at a cheaper affordable price to artists. actually i should mention that i was impressed by some of the architecture around the city, i was expecting big dirty buildings, but some of them where really quite beautiful.

one night Byrons mate took us out to a bar in the East Village that is really good for live music. this particular night was run by billy joel's old sax player. they just get a number of local musics together and they jam together. i've heard occasionally people John Mayer and Norah Jones pop in too. another bar i liked was called 'Niagra'. i'd heard about it before i came to New York because its the local watering hole of bands like the Stokes and Ryan Adams. i didn't see anyone famous, but it was a pretty cool little place to have a few Budweisers.

i wanted to go to a baseball game while i was here, and i guess Yankee Stadium is pretty much the holy grail when i comes to baseball. Byron and I tried to get tickets but they were really expensive so i had to give it a miss. when we got there, i was surprised to find that there were two Yankee Stadiums, built right next to each other. i asked around it it turns out that they build a new one so it could fit in more people, and obviously make more money. i asked what would happen to the stadium full of history, the stadium that created baseball legends like Mickey Mantle, Babe Ruth and Joe DiMaggio - the original Yankee Stadium? i was shocked to find out that it would be pulled down. which i thought was a real shame how money gets in the way of history, i could never imagine the MCG getting ripped down. anyway, there are a couple of baseball teams in New York. the Yankees are probably the most well known, but i like the underdogs - the Mets. they don't win as much, but i'm used to that, i've been following the Richmond Tigers in the AFL for years now, so i'm used to the beatings.

New York is broke up into different 5 boroughs i mainly checked out Manhatten mainly because thats where most of the sights are. i spent a lot of my time in the East Village, Greenwich Village and SOHO they're full of restaurants and cool little shops.
when i first got here i was staying in Harlem, which is a little bit rough, in fact while i was ordering chinese food from a hole in the wall (seriously, it was a little hole in the wall) that was just up the road from my hostel. before i could put my order in a guy came up to me and said 'what kind of after shave do you wear?' i told him that i didn't wear aftershave but that didn't stop him from producing some hot goods to flog me. i told him that i wasn't interested. i wasn't sure how he would take it, but he was ok, actually we ended up having a chat about crime in New York and how he did a bit of travel himself (probably strapping large amounts of heroin to his chest, i'm guessing he didn't know the difference between traveling and trafficing).
after a couple of days of fearing for my life i decided to move hostels. to be honest, the majority of people i met in Harlem were quite nice but there were a couple of loose cannons that made me want to move. i ended up staying in the east village which is an area i really liked and an added bonus was it was right near where Byron was staying.

though its a bit of novelty to used a 'dime' and 'quarter', i find money and buying stuff over here pretty strange. the notes, or 'greenbacks' as they call them, all looks the same so i never know how much money i have in my wallet, but also when you buy stuff, sometimes it will have the tax included and other times it doesn't. also something i've had to get used to since i've gotten to the states was tipping - i never know what to do! everyone that isn't from Australia is probably saying 'what a Terry Tight-Arse!' but the reason i find it kinda tricky is because in Australia you don't really tip. the reason you have to tip is because the minimum wage is appauling (something like $6 an hour). i guess the only positive is you get good service. i find it really strange that the government don't lift the minimum wage, when you think about it, if people have a better wage, quality of life is lifted and perhaps we wouldn't have people flogging stolen goods in Harlem. just a thought.

i was really surprised at the size of cars over here, they're MASSIVE. i haven't seen one small car on the road. its a little bit excessive to be honest. having said that, while i was here General Motors filed for Bankruptcy. they had a piece on it on the news and interviewed a so-called expert. he was saying that 'America makes the best cars in the world' and argued that the government weren't doing enough to help export the cars overseas. but to be totally honest, having just come from Europe, there is no place for an American car in europe, they all drive small cars that are fuel effiecient. i'm already starting to get that feeling that America really does think that 'big is better' when clearly, its not the case. to be honest the main reason that they have gone under is because of the workers. now, i'm all for paying people well and retirement funds, but the General Motors employee package is ridiculous! they get paid something like $50 an hour to work on an assembly line, then when they retire i heard they get something like, a new car every year plus a huge retirement fund and health care for them and there family. crazy!

i went to the site where the two towers once stood, and i was surprised to see that its still a massive hole in the ground. there is a memorial not far from the site to the victims of 9/11 but there are a number of memorials around the city as well. there was one in the east village (i think) that i really liked made of tiles that people had decorated, i felt it was touching. September 11, 2001 changed the world forever, in some ways we'll probably never be the same again. so imagine how it has changed the city it happened in. New Yorkers have a bit of a reputation of being a bit abrupt, but i heard that 9/11 has changed the people quite a bit, making them a lot more friendly to others. i guess in times of trouble people stick together.

while i was here I got invited to Byron's mates 21st in Long Island. it was a bit of a hike but we finally got out there. Long Island is really quite nice, well at least the area i was in anyway. it was kind of like the movies, picture perfect houses with nice lawns and it seemed that every second house had an American flag hanging out the front. you know how you watch films like 'American Pie' and you get an idea in your head about what American parties are like. ok, the party wasn't as wild as they make out in the movies but there were definately a number of differences to the parties back home. for intances: they play heaps of drinking games that actually involve skill. they played this game called 'Beer Pong' where you had cups of beer lined up like bowling pins at both ends of a table, then you would have to try and throw a ping pong ball into a cup so that the other person would chug it down. it was way too skillful for my liking. call me simple but i prefer something a little home grown like 'Goon of Fortune' where by you hang a bladder from a cask of wine to a hills hoist. spin it. then who ever it falls on, that person has to chug. i never said the game was classy, but it does the trick.

i also found girls at the part to be really forward. in my opinion its generally its the guy that will go speak to a girl, but here it was the total opposite. there was a couple of stereotype though. i met a girl called Britney who, i think was probably a cheerleader at one stage, and they do have red plastic cups. i did noticed that when i was walking through a university it was also full of sterotypes. like: the goths, the cheerleaders, the jocks, the alternative people playing hacky sack, the guy in a trenchcoat that could have a gun. it was borderline hilarious.

the next day feeling we were all feeling a little seedy and i clearly wasn't thinking straight. we had the bright idea of going to a beach that was close by. my head was so fried that i forgot to put sunscreen on and before i knew it the rest of my body was fried. i haven't been that burnt in a very long time, it was sure to make the train journey to montreal a painful one. but more about that in the next blog.

i was here in New York for about 10 days and i feel i only scratched the surface. bi have to say i loved every minute of it, so much so that i would love to live here one day. at least now i can wear one of those 'I heart NY' t-shirts and actually mean it.

London for a third time

2009-05-22T11:08:00.000-07:00

i got into merry england with a spring in my step. i was looking forward to getting back to a place that i didn't have to learn my way around and was planning on planning a day trip here and there but overall, having a relaxing time before i waved goodbye to Europe and fly out to New York. oh how that didn't happen.

i got to my hostel and went to a pay with my debit card when i realized that it wasn't in my wallet. 'shit' i said 'i think i've been robbed'. i always keep my card in the same place but i took a moment to look through my bag to see if i had just misplaced it, but to no avail. i don't really know how it happened to be honest. i'm really careful about where i put my wallet, but i've come to 2 conclusions.
- i think its either been stolen from me while i was sleeping by someone else that was sleeping in my dorm
- or i've left it in an ATM while i was taking money out.
oh well, there was nothing i could do about it now, i just have to fix it. Lucie, the woman that worked at the hostel was really helpful and showed me where the nearest exchange shop was so i could change all the money i had accumulated from different countries, into pound. all up i had a little over £30 and some ear plug that i found at the bottom of my bag, which i guess would come in handy to block out the traffic if i had to sleep on the street. then Lucie let me use the phone to cancel my card and the internet to get in contact with people i knew in london so i could crash on someones floor/bath/car/balcony for a couple of nights.

after that i went for a walk to clear my head, and think about what i was going to do next. i kind of surprised myself at how calm i was about the whole situation. here i am in London, one of the worlds most expensive cities in the world with only £30, that is expected to last me for 3-4 working days until my card was delivered.

when i came back from my walk, i check my email. luckily my old work mate, Jess, had replied to one of the emails and helped me out in my hour of need by letting me crash on her couch for a couple of days. since i caught up with Jess last, she has moved house right next to Warwick Avenue Tube (yes, the one from the Duffy song) and is now living in a very swanky part of town with some A-List celebrities as neighbours. too bad to couldn't really enjoy staying in such a nice spot. the next couple of days i spent in a call shop, in a tug of war with my bank to get emergency money until my card arrived. at first they said that i couldn't get money, then when i said something around the lines of 'christ! its my money why can't i have it? i've got £30 to last me 4 fecking days in freaking London and i'm about to eat my shoe because i haven't eaten in days' i might have exaggerated a bit, but suddenly they came around and said they would wire me some money. anyway, after a couple of days i finally got some cold hard cash. the second thing i wanted the bank to help me out with was get me the tracking number of the package with my card inside so i knew which day it was going i was going to recieve it and make i was there to sign for it. sounds like a pretty simple task, but there must be some fine print that states that when you join a bank they will do everything possible to make banking the most annoying experience life has to offer. i swear, they couldn't organise a piss up at a pub. the whole task took them forever! i lost count of how many times i called up to find out the number. after about 6 days my card arrived, then the next day i got an email from my bank telling me the number i needed to know - which would've been great about 4 days earlier.
because my card was stolen they had to send me out my new PIN number seperately. i was getting pretty desperate at this point because i was running out of the money that was wired to me and living hand to mouth. i hung around waiting for my PIN to turn up for a couple of days. 'how hard could it be?' i was thinking 'they sent me the card, all they have to do is send the PIN to the same address'. but i forgot i was dealing with a bank here, nothing is that simple. no, they decided to write the wrong postcode on the envelope didn't they. it was just lucky that i was walking passed a DHL (the courier company) that i thought i would check where my package was. it was then that they informed me of the blunder. as the old saying 'if you want something done right, you have to do it yourself' i told them i would go and pick up the parcel.
when i finally got my card i worked out that it took a little more than 3-4 working days. infact it was closer to 8 days! leaving me with one day to fully enjoy London. the scary thing about this whole drama is, i can't get over how much my life revolves around a piece of plastic and what a nightmare it is to get a new one. i'm seriously thinking about changing banks when i get home, but the more i think about it, the more i think that they're all the same.

while i was waiting for my card i had plenty of quality TV time. apart from watching some quality soaps, i managed to fit in some news, which is where i learnt about a group called 'ZipCar' that operate a car-sharing scheme. its early days yet so they are only set up in some councils but the cars have designated parking spots in the neighbourhood that people can use with a swipe of a card (similar to an Oyster card). they interviewed one of the people that use the 'ZipCar' system and they were saying that they save so much money, going on to say that it costs less than half it would to own and run a car. i think its such a brilliant idea!

even though i was without a card, London this time wasnt a total write off. i still managed to see a few things around london, like go to Portobello and Spitalfields markets, kicked around Covent Garden and i went to a pub called the 'Dublin Castle' in Camden which is where Blur, Amy Winehouse, Travis and a few other big names got a name for themselves. i also heard it was a local haunt of the drug addled Pete Doherty so i wasn't so surprised when i saw about 8 signs in the toilet saying 'it is illegal to take drugs on the premises' and 'these toilets are patrolled regularly', but don't get the wrong idea about the place, it was pretty harmless. i saw some bads which were quite good too.
i also caught up with my friend Halley. we used to work together at a part time job i had while studying at university. shes just been to LA and New York and gave me a travellers guide to New York which will come in handy. the reason Halley is over here, apart from travel is because shes a comedian and she's going to do a show at the Edinburgh comedy festival this year. she's just come off doing a well recieved show at the Melbourne comedy festival and even did some work with Fiona O'Laughlin, which is a pretty big deal, so i hope the Edinburgh fest goes just as well for her.
oneday to kill some time i went to the flicks and saw the new Charlie Kaufman film 'Synecdoche, New York'. in my opinion whatever Kaufman does generally turns to gold, i love just about every one of his films: 'Being John Malkovich', 'Eternal Sunshine of the spotless mind', 'Human Nature', they're all so clever, a bit trippy, yet still manage to be very insightful. 'Synecdoche, New York' is kind of hard to explain, so much so i might have to watch it again to fully get my head around it, until then i wont even try to explain it, but i recommend seeing it if you get the chance. i really liked the score done by Jon Brion, his stuff is generally pretty good too. heres a song from the film called 'Little Person' that i liked.

i guess that concludes my time in europe, well for now anyway. i'm off to a city that never sleeps (i imagine everyone has insomnia) and fruit are on steroids (from what i can gather, there apples are meant to be a really big!) i'm kind of looking forward to a change to be honest. even though i've really enjoyed my time in europe and i would love to come back here again some day, i think a change might be a good thing. more when i hit the US of A.

Athens

2009-05-17T14:11:00.000-07:00

as the ferry pulled out of Santorini and headed for Athens, i had a feeling that the next 8 or so hours were going to suck big time. i hate crowds at the best of times and it was just my luck that the boat was packed full of people and so there wasn't really enough room for everyone to sit comfortably. i got a seat at one stage but it was far from relaxing, infact it reminded me of a food court in the middle of Christmas shopping panic. the 8 hours couldn't come quick enough, not even a book and a newly charged iPod could get me through it, i had to escape to the corridors of the sleeper cabins to get some peace and quiet so i could read my book. but even Hunter S. Thompson and a newly charged iPod could get me through this pain. i was tempted to throw myself overboard in an effort to save my sanity. as the boat rocked from side to side, i caught a glimpse of myself in the window, looking at myself dead in the face and seeing the life almost drain from my eyes, i said to myself 'i am never going on another boat ride again'.
when we finally came into the port the whole crowd cheered (i'm glad i wasn't the only one who felt the excitement) jumped off the boat, found a cab to my hostel that i ended up sharing with an older couple from New Zealand. as soon as i got there i checked in, when into my room and fell into bed.

the next day i woke up in a better mood than the one i went to bed with and began sight seeing. because i was only here for a couple of days i decided to do a walking tour. something that put me into an even better mood was that day all the museums and archaeological sites in Athens were free - talk about good timing!
the guide took us around to a number of different ruins like the 'Agora' which was originally a market place type thing, and the place where they had the olympic games (which is now a newer stadium) and couple of other buildings. i noiced the Hadrian built a number of them, geez he was a busy boy, if he wasn't building a giant wall in England he was building something else in Greece.
as i've said before you see ruins everywhere and Athens is, in my opinion, the grand daddy of ruins, they are everywhere. it seems no matter where they dig they seem to find something. for instance in the metro they have exhibitions of columns and pots that they found while they were digging for the metro. one of the metro stations was built over a old burial site so there is an exhibit of an open grave where you can see where someones bones! but after a while you see so many of them, you tend to turn off or be like 'oh yeah, there ANOTHER ruin...'

of course you can't go to Athens and not visit the most famous ruin of them all, the Acropolis. i was pretty surprised how much stuff was there, i always thought it was just the Parthenon. there were theaters and temples but of course the one that everyone is here to see is the Parthenon. its a pretty amazing sight during the day, but i think it looks best at night when its lit up. it was a lot bigger than i thought it was. most things you visit are generally smaller than what you think they are, but the Parthenon was pretty big. but it did have something in common with the other sights in europe, it was covered in scaffolding. i always thought that the way the parthenon looks is pretty much how it would've always looked, except more complete. but they think it would've been plastered and have been painted. the Acropolis is on top of one of the main hills here in Athens, and you get some brilliant views from up there too.

the building where the president lives they have traditional guards out the front. i think its every hour on the hour they do a little march for the people. i saw it, and its pretty funny. they wear a dress-like costume and they have pom-poms on there feet, which is funny enough, but to top it off they kick there legs out when they march! when they have finished they stay still and have there very own stylist (probably not the real name for them) to come and fix up there uniform. i asked why they have pom-poms on there feet, apparently it was to make there feet look bigger so when the enemy saw them they were scared. now, if i cast my mind back to the days of the school yard i remember kids getting laughed at for not wearing the latest in cool shoes by some snotty faced little bully, imagine if they turned up in shoes with pom-poms! seriously, if they don't pass the 'school yard test', what hope have you got in battle? apparently if your a boy you have to join the army for a period of time. which i kind of find strange, but what i find strange is you have to be 180cm (6 feet) tall. when you think about it, wouldn't you prefer a little guy? my logic is they would be a smaller target to hit.

before i got here, i didn't hear to many people giving Athens a good wrap. i kept hearing things like 'only spend a couple of days, maximum!' and 'i wouldn't want to walk around at night'. and to be totally honest i know exactly what they are talking about. apart from the sights there really isn't much keeping you here, and i think i could've done them in a day. you don't have to wander too far out of the touristy areas to find parts of the city that are really dirty. and of a night, areas full of prostitutes and drug dealers. i did find one area that was pretty cool, they had a couple of good clothing stores and also some great antique stores, full of old radios and gramophones, lamps, cameras etc. ever since i stayed with Viv in Edinburgh (click here to see my Edinburgh blog) i've been obsessed with this kind of stuff, i'm definitely going to start collecting these kind of things when i get home!

its been pretty hot here in Greece, so much so i've unleashed my hairy legs and started wearing shorts. i hate shorts with a passion, i can't really explain why, i guess its just a pet hate i have, i suppose i just prefer wearing pants. also my legs are incredibly hairy, but i seem to fit right in here in Greece, i'm pretty sure i've seen some old women with better facial hair than me.

i get the feeling that the Greeks are quite religious. while i was checking out some of the Greek orthodox churches i noticed a lot of people stopping to give the sign of the cross when they walked passed the church, there was even a guy going by on a scooter that stopped!

i dunno if you would put Mythology on par with religion, though in some ways its the same, you know, the whole making up stories to explain things ie: creation. if you've been reading this blog for a while you would notice i'm not such a fan of religion, but i do like Mythology. probably its because its not taken very seriously. but i think the main reason i like it, is because it kind of childlike and reminds me of when i was a kid. i remember if i didn't quite understand something as a kid, and i would come up with my own conclusions, and i guess thats whats the Greeks did except my versions a little different to theres, for instance i used to think that when it was raining i used to think it was god taking a leak...

when i travel i do the best to get a bit of an understanding of the country, they way people live and there feelings on certain issues, generally i get this information from speaking to locals and asking questions. while i was here in Athens i ended up sharing a room in the hostel with a, surprise surprise, gay guy. i swear, i'm a magnet or something! anyway, we got talking and after a while the subject of gay rights in Greece came up, it turned out that he did an interview with the BBC about the subject (click here to view the video) when i saw it i was pretty shocked the video and heard his side of the story, of how another people tried to run him over and hurt him just because of hit sexuality. then again, i'm sure there are similar instances in Australia, its just that i'm not aware of it. its pretty sad to hear that some people are so insecure about the whole thing that they act in such an extreme way.

even though i wouldn't rave about Athens, i guess its still one of those places you should visit, even if it is for a little while. now i'm off to London...

Santorini

2009-05-13T03:39:00.001-07:00

before i set sail for the Greek Islands i had to stay in the Turkish coastal town of Bodrum. i wouldn't say it was the best way to say goodbye to Turkey. it was pretty, they had a little castle, nice beaches and had a harbor full of expensive boats (if thats your thing). but it was really touristy, full of crap stores flogging dodgy 'tradional turkish' stuff with made in Taiwan tags hanging off the side, plenty of terrible 'doof doof' music pumping out of clubs, as well as its fair share of fat people getting 'tanned'... umm, since when has bright pink been a tan? anyway, i only had to spend a night there.

the next morning i got up bright and early to catch the ferry to Kos. originally my plan was to go straight to Santorini via Kos, but because its early in the holiday season the ferries aren't working in full force as yet, so they didn't have a ferry until the following evening, which was fine, Kos isn't a bad to get stranded for a couple of days. they had some ruins in the middle of the main town (it seems that you can't really escape ruins) and apparently there are some nice hot springs somewhere on the island, but i never saw them, i did a whole lot of nothing to be honest. the last couple months have been hectic to say the very least so i decided i would chill out and do some long walks along the beaches and watching the sun set... wait a minute, this is starting to sound like a profile on one of those online dating sites.

anyway, the next evening i ran into a lot of luck. as soon as i got on the boat i was instantly adopted by an American family, and before i knew it they were teaching me card games, which killed a lot of time. lucky were weren't playing strip poker, i would've lost my pants pretty quick smart - i was horrible! after a few hours we finally made it to Santorini at about midnight. as we were waiting for the ship to dock, i ran into my second bit of luck. i met some fellow australians who were also looking for a place to stay. at the dock they have a number of people from various hotels trying to get you to stay with them, we ended up getting a place for 5 EURO's each, a night. when we got there the place was like a hotel and had a swimming pool, internet, close to the beach, the works! couldn't believe our luck!

there are plenty of Greek islands you can visit, but Santorini is really the only greek island that i was keen to visit. the rest of the major ones are based around partying and i just wasnt really in the mood. also i've been told Santorini is the most 'typical' greek island, with its white buildings and blue painted roofs - the kind of stuff you see on postcards. Pira is the main city that is full of them, they are all really pretty. there are a couple of other towns that are like that too, but i wouldn't say all of them. something i found kind of funny was the crosses on top of the churches have lights on them. which to me looked like something you would see in Las Vegas.
another thing that surprised me was, i knew that white reples sunlight, but i couldn't get over how well it did it. when you touch a building thats painted white, its stone cold, its no wonder that you see people painting all the time. imagine if you owned a paint company that only sold white paint here in Greece - you would make a fortune! oh, here a funny little fact for the trivia bank, apparently they think that Santorini could be the lost city of Atlantis, though some scientists are skeptical, but who knows for sure.

i had great weather while i was here, but the sun here is really strong. i had to buy a hat and some seriously strong sunscreen. usually i'm one of those poor unfortunate people that is either white as a ghost or red like a lobster, but some how i manage to get a tan. i would hate to visit greece without a good pair of sunglasses. because everything is painted white, its a little tough on the eyes, my eyes were burnt quite a few times. but not from the glare from the sun, but from people wearing next to nothing. why is it that its the people shouldn't take there clothes off, are the ones that feel more open to letting it all hang out? having said that, there are some good things about the sun - sunsets. apparently Santorini has some of the best sunsets in the world. pretty big statement, i know, but they are quite nice. i think mainly because alot of Santorini is quite high up, so you see them from an elevated view.

Santorini is quite big and there is a pretty big distance between the towns. before i got here i was tempted to hire a vespa or 4 wheeler, to get around the island, but because i met some people we ended up splitting a car, which didn't end up costing us much at all. i was surprised to find how rocky Santorini is. a lot the beaches are quite strange to me, mainly because when i think of beaches i think of golden sand, but because of the volanic rock they have a lot of different kinds of beaches, some of them with black sand! supposedly when it gets quite hot the sand heats up to scorching temperatures and you can't walk on it.

food wise there is Gyros, which is pretty much the greek cousin of the Kabab. however in Turkey they would put the filling in bread, here they put it in pita bread. but after Turkey i was all kababed out (not even a name change could fool me) so i decided i would hold off on the Gyros until i got to Athens. however one of my favourite greek foods is Saganaki, which is fried cheese, so had have some while i was here, mmm so good! i got some tzatziki dip and olives to have over a few drinks with the people i was staying with, which were also amazing. we went out for dinner one night and i got some really tasty calamari, and i tried some Musaka which is a traditional greek dish that is kind of like a lasagna.

i've been thinking about the Greek islands and find them a strange place. most of the year they are closed, with the majority of businesses shutting up shop to go on holiday. i was speaking to a local guy who told me that pretty much the islands are set up for tourism, and you can definitely see that. i wouldn't say i saw many homes around the place. even the guy that i was talking to wasn't originally from that island, he came here to work over the summer months.

while i was here they had the european extravaganza that is 'Eurovision'. if your not familiar with Eurovision, its like a big song contest that countries throughout europe compete in. generally speaking, its so bad that its good. bad dance moves, funny songs, interesting costumes, i find it very hard to get through it with a straight face. but i was a little surprised that its wasn't that big here in Greece, not many people got behind it all. nobody talked about it, it wasn't really in the press, and not that many places had it playing on there TV's. i always thought it was big in europe. though i have heard that over the last couple of years its been incredibly political, with countries only giving good scores to there neighbours or to there allies. anyway, if you missed it, heres a bit of a clip of what Greece had to offer.

before i got here i was bracing myself, because i was kind of expected the Greek islands to be really expensive, but i didn't really find that at all. i suppose i am visiting here just before the boom, so i guess things are a little bit cheaper. so far the only expensive part has been catching the ferries, which is why i decided to spend most of my time on one island, rather than hop from one to the other. plus i was running out of time, because i booked a cheap flight out of Athens for the 20th and i wanted to spend a couple of days there. not to worry, i saw the island i wanted to see most.

so far i haven't run into Nana Mouskouri or Demis Roussos or any Greek Gods or Godesses, and there hasn't been any breaking of plates, but who knows, i may find them all in my next stop, Athens.

Selcuk

2009-05-10T05:09:00.000-07:00

another overnıght bus loomed ahead of me. thıs tıme ıt was 10 hours, so ı thought after the 16 hour rıde from Canekkale to Cappadocıa, ıt would be easy - how wrong ı was. ı don't thınk ı got a wınk of sleep the whole tıme. and to make matters worst, we stopped for some food at a road house restaurant, and ıt was horrıble! ıt smelt lıke an arm pıt... ok, maybe a slıght overexageratıon, but ıt was pretty bad. ı'm not a relıgous man, but when ı got back on the bus ı closed my eyes and prayed for sleep. but closıng my eyes was as close as ı got to gettıng some shut eye. anyway, at 6am ı got ınto a lıttle town outsıde where ı caught a small shuttle bus to Pamukkale where ı planned to spend the day before headıng to Selcuk. ıt was on thıs bus that ı met some students from Sıngapore, who had the same plan as ı dıd. we got on quıte well so we ended up spendıng the next couple of days together.

the reason ı came to Pamukkale (pronounced Pam-uk-kel-le) ıs because, whıle ı was ın Granada, Spaın (clıck here to see my Granada post) they had a photo exhıbıtıon, outsıde of the Alhambra, of amazıng places throughtout the world and Pamulkkale's sprıngs featured ın one of the photos. as soon as ı saw ıt ı saıd 'ı have to go there'. The Sprıngs here don't look lıke your avergage hot sprıngs. because a large amount of chalk ıs created here and they kınd of make thıs step-lıke cascade of basıns from whıch the hot sprıng water runs down - a lot of people descrıbe ıt as a 'frozen waterfall'. ıts such an amazıng sıght. the water ın the chalk basıns ıs just the most amazıng turquoise. normally there ıs more water and you can bath ın them but unfortuately there was only a sectıon that was full, but because ıts a UNESCO Herıtage sıte, ı couldn't go ınto the basıns, whıch was probably a good thıng. as you can ımagıne, not havıng any sleep ın the bus, ı was pretty tıred. at one poınt whıle ı was sıttıng down, ı was almost dozıng off. ı thought 'ıf ı go anywhere near those pools the headlıne ın the local newspaper ıs goıng to read 'SLEEP DEPRIVED AUSTRALIAN DROWNS IN PAMUKKALE POOLS''. havıng saıd that, there were other sectıons ı could dıp my feet ınto... and survıved ı mıght add. apparently before ıt was a UNESCO sıte there used to be a bıg hotel up on top of the hıll and a lot of the sıte was destroyed by people usıng soap and shampoo ın the basıns, whıch eroded a lot of them. but sınce then the hotel has been removed and the area seems to be a lot better for ıt, for ınstance, now you have to walk around barefoot. on top of the hıll ıs some old roman ruıns. most of ıt ısn't that excıtıng (how excıtıng can some slab of marble on the ground be?) but there was an ampıtheater that was ın pretty good shape. but ın my opınıon, apart from the sprıngs, there ısn't much else there to see.

from there, myself and my newly found frıends from Sıngapore, jumped ın a bus and headed to Selcuk (ı know, ı dıd some serıous travel that day). when we got there we were almost attacked buy hostel owners tryıng to get us to stay at there hostel. serıously they were lıke vultures, cırclıng the weak. ı had been recommended a place ın Selcuk by the lady that owned the place ın Cappadocıa so we had planned to go there and check ıt out. ı told the Sıngapore crew of whıch way we were headıng and one of the hostel owners got a bıt heated and had a go at me, sayıng that ı had only just met these people and was stealıng hıs busıness, whıch wasn't the case at all. anyway, wıth the angry hostel owners shakıng there fısts, we left promptly and found our hostel whıch turned out to be really nıce and not very expensıve at all. but best of all, the eractıc nıght porter remınded me of George Costanza's Dad from the TV show 'Seınfeld'.

Selcuk ıs about a 30 mınute walk to the ancıent cıty of Ephesus, but ınstead we dıd a tour so we got a lıft up there. to be honest, Ephasus ıs probably one of the best ancıent ruıns ı've vısıted. maınly because they've taken the ruıns and put them back together, kınd of lıke a bıg game of leggo, and reconstructed the cıty. so often you turn up at these sıtes and you see a bunch of rocks on the ground and your meant to construct ıt ın your head. ı thınk ıt leaves you feelıng underwhelmed. at least here you you can actually see what the buıldıng, or at least the fascade of the buıldıng looked lıke. ı found the layout of the cıty was quıte funny too. for ınstance, the Lıbrary and a brothel were buılt rıght next to ıt. whıch possıbly explaıned the prıorıtıes of the ancıent cıvılızatıon. ı dıdn't thınk the tour was that good, ıf ıt were me ı thınk ı would've prefered to just walk around at my own pace. however the tour guıde dıd say somethıng that ı found ınterestıng. there was a buıldıng that was somethıng lıke a prehıstorıc shoppıng centre, but ıt had a mosque on the top of ıt. the tour guıde explaıned that ıt was probably a case of a guy wantıng to buıld a shoppıng centre to make money from the rent, but wasn't allowed to. so he saıd he was goıng to buıld a mosque ınstead, whıch was gıven the go ahead. but ınstead of doıng that, he combıned the two. ı reckon ıf there were programmes lıke 'Today Tonıght' or an 'A Current Affaır' back ın those days, they would've been all over that one. ınfact they probably would've done and epısode about shonky buılders too - half of ıt has fallen down now! God ı hate those programmes.

just a shırt walk outsıde of Selcuk ıs the 'Temple of Artemis'. well, maybe ı should say was the 'Temple of Artemıs'. Apparently ıts one of the '7 wonders of the ancıent world' but ı don't really know how ıt can be, theres only one column left and ı'm pretty sure thats been reconstructed. the only thıng that left me gob smacked about the sıte was the gıant bırds nest on top of the column, ıt was MASSIVE! all ı can gather ıs theres some sort of gıant bırd terrorısıng the locals. swoopıng down to steal small chıldren, rapıng the local corn fıelds for food, ıts annoyıng when you get bırd poo on your clean car as ıt ıs, ımagıne ıf a bırd of that sıze dropped one on your car!

ı haven't really talked about food except for, of course, kababs. but the food here ıs pretty good. ıt mıght be just me, but ı thınk they have a strange selectıon of foods from neıghbourıng countrıes and ı notıced rıce pops up a faır bıt too. ı love pıdes, whıch are lıke a pızza but ınstead of beıng round they are oval shaped. daıry ıs also a bıt of a favourıte wıth the turks, they have one cheese called whıte cheese that ıs a lıttle bıt lıke fetta, but not quıte. also they drınk a lot of yogurt, but ı fınd ıt a bıt sour.
of course ı couldn't leave Turkey wıthout havıng a turkısh delıght, whıch was very nıce but nothıng on the sugar rıchter scale compared to some of the other stuff. the Turks have a real sweet tooth. baklava whıch ıs a lıttle pastry desert made wıth nuts. ıts ıncredıbly sweet, ıts almost lıke they drench ıt ın honey and sugar.
at sunset you're meant to drınk rakı whıch ıs a lıttle bıt lıke oyzo, except you mıx ıt wıth water. ıts strange, because when you do ıt goes from clear to cloudy. ı'd hate to thınk of what ıt does to your stomach, but ı know what ıt does to your head - ıts very potent!

theres not much to do ın Selcuk ıtself, but whıle ı was here ı went to a barber and got a shave. whıch sounds pretty mundane, but ıt turned out to be one of the best experıences. the guy gave me a shave and ı thought that that was ıt, but then he brought out thıs cotton bud thıng and doused ıt ın a solutıon and set ıt alıght. ı was thınkıng 'what the hell ıs goıng to happen next?'. ı have these lıttle lıght haırs on my cheeks - ı thınk my brother has them too, my sıster has labelled them 'whısphy bıts'. anyway, thıs guy notıced these and he dabbed the flame on my cheek and burnt them off! then the when he had fınıshed, hıs lıttle gırl, who was sıttıng there watchıng thıs all happen, took great pleasure ın blowıng out the torch lıke a bırthday candle. talk about a thorough shave! ı'm quıte a haıry guy so one false move and ı could've been up ın flames, lucky for me the guy was a professıonal.

sınce ı've been ın Turkey you hear horror storıes about women travellers beıng harrassed by Turkısh men. ı haven't seen that myself, though ı have notıced that they do stare at women. but ı thınk ıf you're a woman travelıng to Turkey, somethıng to keep ın mınd ıs, ıts a dıfferent culture and you should probably respect ıt. for ınstance ı've seen some gırl gettıng around ın a sınglets and short shorts, whıch ı can understand, ıts quıte hot here, and ıts fıne to wear that attıre back home, but ın a country lıke turkey ıts probably better to show less skın.

I've really enjoyed Turkey. orıgınally ı only planned to go to Istanbul, but ı totally fell ın love wıth the place, so ı decıded to see more of ıt - and ı'm really glad ı have. the thıng ıs, Turkey ıs so bıg, ı've only touched on a small part of ıt, so ı wıll defınately come back at some stage. for now ı'm headıng further down the coast to catch a boat to one of the Greek ıslands. ı can feel some good tımes ahead.

Cappadocia

2009-05-07T02:09:00.000-07:00

the bus trıp was always goıng to be a test of endurance and preparatıon was essentıal. lucky for me just as ı was leavıng, ı spıed a copy of 'Fear and Loathıng ın Las Vegas' by Mr Hunter S. Thompson ın the book swap sectıon, which kept me goıng.

the bus trıp was a bıt of an eye openner, ın the sense that when ı looked out of the wındow, ı drove passed a lot of poverty. some of the houses people lıve ın are ıncredıbly run down, and on the farms the equıpment they use ıs ancıent. ıts not lıke Turkey ıs the only place you see ıt, ın fact you see ıt throughtout Europe. regardless, ıts always pretty sad to see. but havıng saıd that, Turkey has some beautıful country sıde.

on the bus they showed a movıe. ıt was all ın Turkısh so ı couldn't understand a work of ıt, but ı just looked at the pıctures. but somethıng ı found ınterestıng was, as ı was watchıng ı notıced two thıngs. fırst one was they faded out the sex scene pretty quıck smart, no real surprıses there. but the second was far more strange, one of the characters was smokıng but they blurred out the cıgarette so ıt looked lıke he was smokıng a bıg blur. ı mentıoned about censorshıp ın Turkey once before ın my Istanbul post (clıck here to read the Istanbul post) about how Youtube ıs banned here. ı got to the bottom of that one. apparently they have a bıt of a hıstory wıth Greece and some Greeks put a vıdeo on Youtube about there old presıdent Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, sayıng that he was gay, or somethıng lıke that, so the websıte got banned. pretty crazy stuff! you'd thınk that they mıght just ban the vıdeos they dıdn't lıke.

before ı booked my tıcket to come here ı was ummıng and ahhıng about whether or not to go, maınly because of the dıstance factor, but to be honest the 16hour bus trıp wasn't as bad as ı thought ıt was, ı thınk ı managed to fıt ın a couple of hours sleep and felt surprısıngly refreshed as ı came ınto the Cappadocıa area. as soon as ı saw the place ı saıd to myself 'ı honestly thınk thıs ıs the most amazıng place ı've ever seen', Cappadocıa ıs ıncredıbly unıque and known for ıts landscape. there are a lot of houses carved out of volcanic rock some of them stand by themselves. they have a number of names for the dıfferent types of them ıe: Mushroom houses or Faıry Houses. they were formed because the rock is quite fragıle (sometımes ıt crumbles under your feet) and the weather has eroded it away. ıt resembles somethıng out of the Flıntstones! ı kınd of expect to hear Fred to yell out a bıg 'Yaba daba dooo!!!' at any moment. not many people lıve ın them these days because ıts a bıt too dangerous, so they moved ınto more modern accomodatıon just out of the older area. but ı heard that durıng the summer when ıt gets really hot, they moved back ınto them, because ıts a lot cooler.

I stayed in Gorome, which is a little town within the Cappadocia area. the hostel was great, it was run by a family and was really homely. it served great home cooked meals, but the maın reason ı lıked ıt was because one of there children was hilarious. he had A.D.D. and was full of beans. at times he was a little bit of a handful, but he was such a cute kid that you couldn't get angry at hım. i watched his mother help him with his homework but you could see that he was a million miles away. it seemed lıke ıt took them a couple of hours to do one worksheet, but i could see that he was quite bright. when i spoke to him, i was impressed with what you could talk to him about and what he knew. infact, he taught me that the moon is now longer considered a planet. ı,d never heard that and so ı asked hım where he learnt ıt from, he told me he saw ıt on the Dıscovery channel. ı thınk ıts funny how some kıds don't learn from readıng text books or more tradıonal ways of learnıng, but wıll learn stuff ın a non conventıonal way. yet at school, teachıng methods haven't seemed to change to suıt dıfferent chıldren.

not far from where ı was stayıng was an open aır museum whıch had a number of rock houses and churches carved out of the stone. they were quıte ınterestıng, they are lıke nothıng ı've ever seen before, whıle some of them had some pretty over the top frescos on the ceılıngs and walls, but ı notıced some of them had pretty prımıtıve drawıngs on them that ı felt resembled Aborıgınal artwork. ı never expected to see somethıng so sımılar when the two cultures are so far apart.

even ıf you don't go ınto the houses the landscape ıtself ıs quıte amazıng, and at tımes almost alıen (whıch ıs not far from the truth, parts of Cappadocıa where appartently used ın Star Wars). ı thınk ı sat up on one of the hılls and admıred the landscape for hours. ıts great to go walkıng and explorıng the canyons, but ı suggest gettıng home before dark. there was one guy at my hostel that went for a walk but got lost and ınstead of retracıng hıs steps (whıch would be probably the most obvıous thıng to do) he kept walkıng. he dıdn't end up gettıng home untıl about 2am and ın my opınıon, was very lucky.

Cappadocıa ıs quıte a bıg place and the towns are quıte a dıstance from each other and at tımes quıte hard to get around so ı decıded to take a tour because ıt was easıer. one of the fırst stops was to an underground cıty. apparently there was somethıng lıke 200 of them, but you can only go down about 20 or so these days. they were buılt to hıde from there enermıes (maınly the Romans). ı found the whole desıgn of them was quıte amazıng, and really well thought out. they buılt the walls really low to the ground so that ıf enemıes got ın they would have to duck, and ın doıng so, make them move slower. also they had traps and rooms that had bıg round rocks so they could roll them over doors. ı was surprısed at how deep the cıtıes went, sometımes they were 8 levels deep.

they also took us to a place called the 'valley of the pigeons', where they had lıttle areas carved out of the rock for nestıng. Pıgeons were quıte ımportant to the people here, there eggs were used for plaster ınsıde there homes, there waste was used for fertılızıng the soıl to grow food and they were also used as communıcatıon, to send messages to each other. kınd of lıke a prımıtıve SMS when you thınk about ıt. ı wonder ıf some of the messages they were somethıng lıke 'OMG! dıd you see wat Ahmet was wearıng? LOL! some1 betta tell hım that that pashmına was so 45B.C!'... but, probably not though.

I haven't mentıoned thıs yet but Turkısh currency ıs Lıra, and lıke just about everythıng ın Turkey, ıt has Mustafa Kemal Atatürk face all over ıt. Its roughly about 1 to 1 wıth the Australıan dollar, whıch ıs great for me because ı thınk most thıngs (ıf you're outsıde of Istanbul) ıs quıte cheap. apparently the Lıra had a bıt of a make over because orıgınally everythıng used to be ın the mıllıons but now ıts down to sıngle numbers whıch makes thıngs a lot easıer, but on paper doesn't make you look rıch.

there ıs somethıng really magıcal about Cappadocıa. ıts wıthout doubt one of the most unıque places ı've been too. ı'm goıng to go out on a lımb and even say that ıt was THE hıghlıght of my trıp. i'm heading to Selcuk next, and lets face ıt, after that last statement, ıts got a lot stacked up against it. but ı'm sure ıts got somethıng up ıts sleeve. more when ı get there.

Canakkale

2009-05-04T08:38:00.001-07:00

at 8am i headed south west from Istanbul to Canakkale (pronouced Cha-ka-na-le). to get to Canakkale its a 6 hour bus ride and a short ferry ride. the bus trip was pretty good really, in fact it was better than average - they gave you cups of tea and cake! but christ, the driving was out of control at times. i thought Italians were bad drivers, but the Turks take the cake. speeding, weaving between traffic, driving in the middle of two lanes - its outragous! maybe thats why they give you free tea and cake? to keep your eyes off what is happening on the road! its pretty cheap to get around here too. i think its that theres so much competition. also there service is excellent, they picked me up right out the front of my hostel.

theres not really a lot in Canakkale, a little ruin thingy, a market etc. and there is the horse prop that they used in the movie 'Troy'. but thats about it, its not even that pretty. but the reason i'm here is because its a good base to visit the big horse (the real thing) and Gallipoli.

I did a day trip to the Troy site, and i have to say, its pretty underwhelming. when you're at school you hear about Troy and the story about how the Greek army hid inside a giant wooden horse to ambush the city. but when you get there, its over grown with weeds. i did a tour of the site and the guide told me that Troy was built over 9 times over the years. and as you walk around you see the remains of the walls from the different cities. they were designed in a pretty clever way. on one of the walls they laid the stone in a way that it wouldn't be effected by earthquakes, also all the doors to the city were tucked away so that battering rams couldn't be used to gain force to the city (hence the Trojan Horse). but in a way, if it didn't have the walls, all it would have is a little amphitheater and some mud brick founations of a house, the rest is ruins that are just scattered along the ground. they have a replica of the Trojan horse, but i'm not sure that it would've fooled me. if anything, it resembles something that you might find at Wobbie's World. (if you're not familiar with Wobbie's World, it was a piss weak amusement park in Melbourne, Australia). apparently there not even sure if it was a horse that they used, it could've been a giant penguin... but probably not.
all in all, i wouldn't recommend anyone to go there. but i guess its one of those places where people will ask you when you get back from traveling 'Did you go to Troy?' at least now i can say with a big smile, 'Yes, and i think i would've had more fun being trapped in a cupboard'.

this is going to sound very 'unAustralian', whatever that might mean, but to be totally honest i wasn't going to visit Gallipoli. i have my own opinions about war and how it should be remembered, and most of those opinions i feel shouldn't be express in a blog. but one of my main concerns is the people that visit the site. most of them have no idea of what its all about, or why we visit it. Lauren and Thomas, the lovely (and well informed, i might add) Australian couple that i met in Istanbul, did the dawn service on ANZAC day and told me of a few Australian girls that were on there tour, that were talking and watching there portable DVD player that they brought with them to watch '90210' during the service - how disrespectful! but get this, it was only this year they banned drinking at the dawn service. now really, why on earth would you want to drink alcohol at the dawn service? or even after it, which many people do. as far as i'm concerned, its like going to a funeral just so you can eat the sandwiches at the wake. i said that to some Australian guy while i was here and he said (insert dopey Australian voice here) 'yeah but thats what they would've wanted, thats why they made the ultimate sacrifice, so we have the freedom to drink, it's Australian'. now, correct me if i'm wrong, but i don't remember hearing about a digger falling to the ground after getting shot and in his final breath saying 'i really hope in 90 years time, people will be sinking a beer on the site where i was killed'. i real struggle to come to terms with what is 'Australian'. whoever wrote the rule book, i'd love to have a chat him/her about the section where you must wear blue singlets, and thongs (thats flip flops for American readers), stubbie shorts, and so on.
having said all of that, i felt in someways i should visit the site because, as i have said before in this blog, this trip in a lot of ways is about learning. so with that in mind, i decided to go.
it didn't start to well, i drew the short straw and had to sit next to the annoying old guy, didn't shut up. worst of all, half of it was just rubbish, i came to the conclusion that he mustn't have been able to stand silence. anyway, we went to where the main burial sites, like Lone Pine, ANZAC cove, and heard all the stories about how they attacked and where they went wrong. looking at where the diggers were dropped off, you could tell that they didn't have much of a chance. its pretty crazy to think that the amount of people that visit on ANZAC day, the same amount of people are buried below them. they took us to the grave of Simpson. i would say that most kids in Australian schools learn about the story of Simpson and how he helped carry many wounded men back to safety with the help of his donkey until he was shot. seeing where he would collect men from, its surprises me that he wasn't shot earlier.
perhaps coming from the stand point of someone thats never had to go to war or even be effect by war, I find it so hard to comprehent how war works, and how there are rules in war etc. to me it doesn't really make sence, and after hearing a couple of stories, it confused me even more. for instance, the distance from ANZAC trenches to enemy trenches was, at some points, just 8metres apart. so when there was a cease fire the Australian army and the Turks would share supplies, cigarettes and help each other carry the dead to graves. then when cease fire was over, you would begin shooting at the person you were helping 5 minutes beforehand.
something that impressed me while i was there is, its kind of amazing that the Turkish people let Australians come on ANZAC day at all. when you think about, it wasn't just Australians and New Zealanders that were killed here. there were thousands of Turkish people killed by Australians. i wonder if the tables were turned, would we do the same?
i noticed that its not just Australians and New Zealanders that come to Gallipoli, a lot of Turkish students do too. apparently the government pays for them to come and visit the site for educational purposes, which i think is a brilliant idea.
Walking around there made me feel incredibly awkward, which i knew it would. even though in some ways i'm a little intrigued by it (mainly the whole 'whats on the otherside?' thing), i don't except death very well. infact sometimes i find my emotions are all out of wack. like when i hear bad news, sometimes my reaction is to laugh, or when i'm in an argument with someone i'll have a huge smile on my face, which is not the emotion i'm feeling at all - its kind of strange. anyway, I'm still in two minds about what i feel about Gallipoli, perhaps i never will be able to make my mind up about it. all i know is i hope i never have to experience a war.

while i was at Gallipoli i heard about a Turkish guy called Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. before the war he wasn't anything important, but due to his bravery and leadership the whole country got behind him and eventually he came into power and became Turkey's first President. but that wasn't why i thought he was great. before he came into power, the majority of Turkey couldn't read or write. Mustafa implimented a system where the people of Turkey could learn to read and write. they were hoping that within 3 years people would learn the basic skills, but within 3 months 70% of Turkey could read and write - isn't that amazing! its no wonder people here in Turkey talk about him with such praise and at the exact time of his death, on the 10 November, at 9:05am, almost all cars and people in the street pause for one minute in remembrance.

I noticed a couple of things here in Canakkale. people don't seem to get all dressed up as they did in Istanbul. you would always see men in suits whereas here its more jeans and a t-shirt. i don't know whether or not its because people in Istanbul put on a show a little more or perhaps the people here in Canakkale are a little more working class. maybe its a little bit of both.

coming here was a different experience for me. in some ways i didn't want to do it, but perhaps something in me felt that i had to. i'm heading to Cappadocia next. its a very long bus trip, but from the photos i've seen, it should be worth it. more when i get there.

Istanbul

2009-05-02T05:37:00.000-07:00

i had to catch an overnight train to Istanbul because it was the only train that ran. i was so sick of sleeping on couchettes and putting up with seedy people wandering around, so i ending up biting the bullet and brought a sleeper cabin, and i'm glad i did, there was 3 beds, but i was the only one in the cabin, which meant i didn't have to put up with snorers! also the cabin was quite nice, in some ways it reminded me of the cabin in the Wes Anderson film, 'the Darjeeling limited'. all was pretty good until i got woken up at 3am by border patrol. when you get to the Turkish border you have to buy a visa. depending if the guy likes you or not it can cost you anywhere 15 to 20 EURO's, the guy clearly didn't like me much, i had to pay 20EUROS. it was pretty strange actually it took me ages at border patrol, whenever most borders see that your Australian they let you pass straight away, but it was different here. eventually i passed there criterias and headed back to my cabin i was feeling a bit parched and asked the guy who was in charge of my carriage if i could by some water with Bulgarian money seeing as i just used all my Euros on my visa, but he said 'no, only Euro's'. because we had to wait for all of the other passangers to get there visas, which was taking FOREVER becuase there was only one guy on border control. they guy in charge of my carriage asked me to buy him some whiskey from the tax free shop, and shoved $20 US in my hand. i figured, yeah why not, i'll only be quick. so i ran over to get it for him. i handed the guy behind the counter the money and got my whiskey, but they had to fill in documents and stuff in order for it to be tax free but they were having problems with there computer. i don't generally feel uncomfortable when i'm traveling, but i was starting to get the feeling like i was getting set up because they were taking so long and i was trying to hurry them up, telling them 'my train is going to leave'. i was at that point where i didn't even want to get the guy whiskey and said ' forget it, give me a refund and hand me back my passport' but they were in no rush and wouldn't hand me my passport. this went on for about 10 minutes and i was getting really annoyed at this point, because i felt like something was up. they eventually sold me the whiskey and gave me my passport and i ran back to the train. as i got on board i saw the customs guy get to my cabin and he asked me 'what is in your bag?'. so much was running through my head at that stage because the door was openned and i was thinking 'how did they get the door open? and what have they done to my bag?'. i told the customs guy it was just full of clothes. he brought it, and left the room. as soon as he left, i locked the door and went through my bag, expecting to find something that i would have to turf out the window at some stage. thank god i didn't find anything. i'm not really a big drinker, but christ, after that i was tempted to drink the whole bottle of whiskey. then there was a knock at my door. it was the guy who asked me to get the whiskey for him i handed it over and he gave me a bottle of water. i sat down and drank the whole bottle in one gulp. afterwards, i couldn't help but think, was all that stress worth a bottle of water?

when i woke up the next morning, not only was i was in Istanbul but it was my birthday. i can't believe i'm 24! i know this is very cliche but, where has the time gone? its not like i've been sitting on my hands for the last 24 years, when i look back, i suppose i've done more than most people my age, but i always thought i would've done more with my life by this stage. but i figure i will have plenty of catching up to do when i get back home.
it was a stroke of luck that when i checked into my hostel, i met an Australian couple, Lauren and Tom, that have just spent the last 3 months in Asia and India and were about to live and work as school teachers in London for 6 or so months. we got on so well we spent the day together checking out some of the sights and that evening we celebrated my birthday by having dinner and a few drinks. i look forward to catching up with them when i head back to London in a few weeks time.

anyway enough about me, more about Istanbul. i had a feeing that i was going to like Istanbul from the moment i got off the train.

there are a heap of Mosques around the place, i think you could spend weeks just looking at them, but the two main ones to see are 'Hagia Sophia' and the 'Blue mosque'. 'Hagia Sophia' is a lot older than the Blue Mosque and i think is a little bit better, but unfortuately the mosaics on the walls have fallen off over the years so there isn't much left of them. a good thing about 'Hagia Sophia' is there are a couple of sights to see within the walls of the mosque like this thing called the 'Sweating stone' which is this hole in one of the pilars that you put your thumb in and wipe your hand across the stone, apparently it gives you good luck, but with the amount of hand and thumbs that touch it each day, your more likely to get germs than luck.
the Blue Mosque is newer and was supposedly built by the architect to overshadow the 'Hagia Sophia' and is condidered the last piece of great classical Ottoman architecture. its pretty cool inside, but before you go in you have to take your shoes off. i really like have Mosques around because of the call to prayer that gets played over loudspeaker, you can hear it everwhere! the first one is at 8am, i use it as an alarm clock!

Topkapi is the royal palace, which, as you would expect, is quite nice, some might even say fit for a king... well, maybe in this case, a Sultan. but i tell you what, some those Sultans had some tickets on themselves. they went around calling themselves things like such-and-such the Magnificent - the ego! i never saw one named such-and-such the Modest. anyway, there are plenty of decorative tiles on the walls, gold, mother of pearl, fountians, daggers, etc. but i think its the view over the water that does it for me.

ı went to a spıces market, whıch was pretty cool, the dıfferent colour spıces were great! but I really loved the bazaar's, they are amazing to walk through. with the colours, mayhem and the excitement all around you, you can't help get caught up in it all. even the little men running about with there trays full of tea are pretty cool. they sell a little bit of anything and everything outside of the markets but on the inside they sell, what i would consider, more traditional stuff, like rugs, Aladdins lamps* (*Genie not included), traditional instruments, which are pretty cool, pashminas etc. but i really fell in love with the lanterns, they are amazing to look at with all of the lead lighting. they sell these glass beads called Nazar Boncuk, which look like a big blue eye, which is meant to keep an eye out for bad luck. you see them everywhere!
i have to say its a bit strange being in a place where you have to bargain for everything and theres a good chance someone is trying to rip you off, esspecially when you come from Australia and you don't really have to haggle much for a good price. also you get the shop owners hassling you quite (it seems like theres no such as window shopping) which, to be honest, normally puts me off buyıng something, but its just part of day to day life here so you have to be switched on to it. having saıd that sometimes they just want to have a chat with you. i was walking passed a rug shop and got chatting to this one guy, he ended up giving me a tea and talk about the ways he would speak get customers attention, some of his tactics were outragous, and pretty funny really - they were almost lıke bad pick up lines. but it was interesting all the same. his family had been in the rug business for what seemed like forever, he said he always was going to sell rugs.

ı went to thıs thıng called the 'Basilica Cistern' whıch ıs lıke a underground chamber that was buılt ın the 6th century that can hold around 80,000 cubic metres of water and was buılt to provıded water to the area. not only ıs ıt pretty amazıng to look at, ı thınk ıts pretty amazıng pıece of forward thınkıng (ı really love hearıng about forward thınkıng ıdeas). ıts held up by coloumns, but there are two coloumns that have Medusa's head on the bottom of them that have a couple of mysterıes that surroundıng them. they don't know exactly where they came from, ıts rumoured that the heads were brought there from an antique building, but there not exactly sure. the other mystery is why one of the heads is upside down, and the other is tilted to one side. who knows?

i went to a turkısh bath while i was here. i have to say getting a wash from a big hairy Turkish man isn't my idea of a good time. but i suppose this trip is all about trying things outside of your comfort zone and experiencing different aspects of different cultures. i wouldn't say it was a relaxing experience, it was really rough - slapping your back and stretching your arms and legs. when it was all over i felt like i'd just been beaten with a rolling pin. after all the brutality you lay on heated slabs of marble, which is probably as relaxing as it gets. but it was kind of interesting to experience something like that.
while i was getting my massage there were a couple of guys from Russia getting a massage too. i might add that when your in there your not really wearing much, in fact, your pretty much down to wearing a flanel. we got chatting and they asked me if i wanted to get a drink after this. because it was so hot (the room is like a sauna) i was well and truely up for a cold beverage. it wasn't until we got out of the sauna and into our clothes that i realized that they were as gay as a raınbow! ı was thınkıng 'oh, here we go, ı'm goıng to get hit on by 2 gay guys... agaın', it was then that i remembered that i saw one of them take a peek while i was getting a massage! (he's only human) i've said this before, and i'll say it again, i don't care if your gay. its just that gay people think that i am too, which is when it generally gets a bit awkward, because i'm not. over a drink they discreetly asked me if i was gay, when they found out that i wasn't gay they were fine. ıt turns out they were award wınnıng hairdressers who worked for Wella. ıf ı had some haır, ı would've got them to cut ıt.

the buıldıngs here are quıte ınterestıng, ı notıced on the traın ın, and also from just walkıng around that there are a lot of houses made out of tımber. ı heard on the grapevıne that there was a huge earthquake here and a lot of people wıth houses made of brıck lost there homes, whereas the people that had tımber homes survıved, so they put some rule ın place that houses had to be made out of tımber from that poınt on. ı'm not sure how factual that ıs or whether or not the rule stıll applıes. but ıt mıght worth havıng another look at ıt, because ıt looks lıke some of them are fallıng to pıeces.
there are some really beautıful green manıcured parks wıth colourful flowers and fountaıns, perfect for eatıng some lunch ın. speakıng of food, ı haven't really trıed much turkısh food as yet, well, except for the odd Kabab, ı'm savıng myself for a smaller town, generally you fınd better food there and ıts also a lot cheaper. but ı dıd have an 'elastıc ıcecream', for some strange reason ıts really stretchy, lıke bubble gum.

i mainly hung out in the old town, but over the other side of the river is the new town, i went to venture over there one day but couldn't get across because there was a protest and they said that there was a bomb on the bridge so no one could cross. i wasn't worried or anything, there clearly wasn't a bomb, it was just a way of getting there point across, either way i had to postpone my trip across the river until the next day. when there ısn't a bomb threat, its pretty easy to get across and to get around, they have a tram lıne that runs around ıstanbul. ınterestıng thıng ı notıced about ıt was you don't get a ticket, you get gıven token to rıde the tram. anyway, it wasn't until i got over to the otherside that i realized how touristy the old town is. the new town still has its attractıons, lıke 'Galata Kulesı' whıch ıs a bıg tower, apparently ıt has great vıews from the top, ı would've gone up but the lıne was outragous and ı couldn,t be arsed, also there ıs the Domlabahce Palace, whıch had the most amazıng front gates. ıt was pretty heavıly guarded but ı'm pretty sure you can do tours of ıt, but ı'm sure ıts pretty sımılar to a lot of the other palaces ı've seen so ı also gave ıt a mıss. but ı thınk the new town ıs a lot more alternative, and probably a little more up my alley. cool lıttle side streets to explore, street art, cool shops. i really liked it! ı thınk ıf ı were to come back here agaın ı would defınately stay over thıs sıde of town.

somethıng thıng you notıce as you walk around Istanbul ıs men here are very affectıonate. ıts nothıng to see men holdıng hands, kıss each other hello or goodbye or have there arm around each other - not ın a gay way, just as a sıgn of affectıon. the only reason ı brıng ıt up ıs, ı thınk ıt demonstrates one of the bıg dıfferences between eastern and western culture. ıf men hold hands back home you would probably automatıcally thınk that the were gay or ıt wasn't approprıate or somethıng, when really, who cares? i don't really find it strange, if anything i think its strange that its not seen as ok in western culture.

every now and then ı try and put a youtube vıdeo ın the blog, just to keep ıt excıtıng. but don't expect any vıdeos whıle ı'm here ın Turkey. not because ı don't want to, ıts because youtube ıs banned here ın Turkey. when you look ıt up, ıt comes up wıth a bıg government dısclaımer thıng. pretty crazy huh?

except for the whole censorshıp of youtube thıng, Istanbul ıs a really amazıng place. ı would recommended anyone to come here, ıt seems the more you walk around the more secrets ıt has to gıve. ı'm off to Canakkale whıch ıs a town between Troy and Gallıpolı, so ı'm sure ı'll have plenty to wrıte about ın the next post.

Sofia

2009-04-24T11:18:00.001-07:00

silly me got to the airport a couple of hours too early. in hindsight i probably should've checked my ticket and not relied on my memory. but it didn't really matter, i met some American's who were also waiting for my flight but weren't staying in Sofia, they were catching a bus to Greece so i killed some time talking to them. anyway, after a bit of a wait, the plane arrived and before i knew it we were jetting off to Bulgaria. when flying i always love the part when the pilot gets on the PA and gives his two cents. they always seem to be putting on a voice or something. you know what i mean, they always have a deep confident voice that's slightly cocky. you never hear a pilot who sounds nervous or whose voice breaks, do you? maybe its a criteria for being a pilot. deep confident voice? CHECK! and what happens to the pilots that don't have deep confident voices? maybe they drive buses or limos or something, you never hear them make announcements. anyway, i'm rambling so i'll stop.
i'll never forget this next bit as long as i live. the flight was pretty cruisy, not much terbulance to speak of, so i wasn't worried about my life at all, but clearly the other people in the plane were. as we landed softly on terra firma the passengers on the plane erupted into applause, as if they were expecting to crash. i've flown EasyJet a couple of times now and i think i prefer them to RyanAir. for a few reasons, but mainly because i think there are less hidden charges as well as you get more luggage allowance (16kg on Ryanair whereas EasyJet allow 20kg) but with both airlines i've never felt i was going to drop out of the sky - i found the clapping experience a little bizarre so say the very least.
as soon as i got out of the door of the airport i was hounded by taxi drivers asking if i needed a lift. on all the hostel websites they tell you not to use the taxis at the airport because they are all dodgy and will most likely charge you too much so i opted for the bus. problem was i didn't realize the bus driver didn't sell them. you had to get your ticket before you go on. i asked a young woman who was sitting on the bus (because i figured that if anyone was going to speak english it was going to be someone from a younger generation, sure enough i was right) where i could get a ticket from, she told me not to worry about it because they never check, plus the bus driver didn't seem to care to much. her father who was sitting next to her, ended up giving me a spare bus ticket that he had, i offered to pay him, but he wouldn't take it. i found that quite a bit while i was last in the balkan countries, the people here are so friendly and so giving. isn't it funny that people that generally don't have much to give are generally the ones who give the most. the daughter ended up being really helpful pointing out which stop i needed, so i was already beginning to get a good feeling about the place.
after a bit of walk and trying to figure out the signs, (the Americans i met were nice enough to give me a map but it was in english not in Cyrillic). it was a miracle, but i made it to my hostel, which was pretty good. they offered, a full breakfast and a dinner with a local beer, couldn't really go wrong really.

when i say Sofia, you might think of the sharp witted little old lady from the TV show 'The Golden Girls' which is true, to an extent... but its actually the Capital of Bulgaria. I wouldn't say Sofia is a beautiful city, its pretty rough around the edges lots of buildings crumbling and streets that aren't that well looked after, it actually gets worst the further you go out of the city. but there are a few things around town worth looking at, but most of them are churches, which is a big slap in the face to me. but Sofia is like a supermarket for Churches, they've got one in every sizes and in every religion. i'll even admit, some of them where quite good. one of my favourites was the Church of St. George which is considered to be one of the oldest buildings in Bulgaria, built by the romans in around the 4th century. a lot of it is rubble, but you can still go inside and see the frescos on the roof. the other building i liked was the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral which again was really old, but i liked mainly because it was only lit with candles, it kind of transported you to another time. it has a gold roof and apparently when it hails, the Gypsys hang around that the bottom of it and get the little pieces of gold that get chipped off! another good one was the Russian Church, which isn't very big, but interesting all the same.
getting away from Churches for a moment, they have another building called the National Palace of Culture which from what i can gather is a big conference centre. it looks like a bit of an eye sore to me, but the people here seem to like it.
as i said, i would say there is a good majority of the town that is run down but Sofia has been through a bit,from what i've seen traveling, communism generally doesn't help a city much. having said that there are still a number of nice buildings around, the good ones (which, funnily enough, are generally government buildings) look like something you might see in Vienna. i heard that just outside of the city there is a monastery and that there's good bush walking in the mountains nearby, but the weather wasn't that great while i was here so i decided to pass. apparently Bulgaria is getting a name for itself when it comes to outdoor sports.

while i was walking around i found a couple of little markets, the first one was just rubbish selling toys, shoes, cheap clothing, fruit and veg, that kind of thing. while i was there i saw some, what looked like, hot dogs. i was feeling peckish so i brought one. bad idea. i'll leave you to read between the lines as to what happened next.
the second market was quite good, more of a trash and treasure kind of market, with old guys selling various things from when Bulgaria was communist. there was one guy there who spoke excellent English. he asked me where i was from, as soon as i mentioned Australia i couldn't shut him up about his trip to Australia 15 years ago when he visited Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney. it was quite funny in a way, because he was telling me how boring he found Adelaide, i laughed and told him 'everybody thinks that'.
after i recovered from the hotdog i went for a round 2 with Bulgarian food. its pretty similar to the food in the neighboring countries. meat, meat, meat, and chicken... oh, wait, that's a meat too. as you can see, there isn't much choice in that department and there isn't much choice in the portion size either. when i ordered i asked the waiter how big it was, he said 'quite small', thinking that i might have ordered too little i kept the menu just in case i needed to order more. but there was no need to worry, IT WAS FREAKIN' HUGE! i almost had to get rolled out of the restaurant.

something i heard while i was here which i found interesting was, they have a couple of Porsche police cars. not because they are well funded but because they are corrupt. it was a case of, they saw them, they liked them, they took them, they kept them, they painted them police colours. supposedly they are less corrupt now, but who knows.
here in Bulgaria there currency is Lev and its not really that strong, having said that its about as strong as the Australian dollar when you convert it to Euros. but everything is quite cheap here, a lot cheaper than it is back home. speaking of money, i noticed that the Bulgarians love a punt. there seems to be a casino on every corner.
another thing i noticed was a number of stray animals that wander the streets. cats and dogs are everywhere, its pretty sad to see. when you come to places like this you look at the people and how hard it must've been to get by during different periods in there history, even now. you don't even think about animals, and how it must effect them too. so often you see them hanging around restaurants looking for scraps.
something i found interesting was when i asked a question like 'do you speak english' and there response was a nod they actually mean 'no'. the same goes when they shake there head, it actually means 'yes'. what a topsy turvy world!
i had a bit of a Borat moment while i was here. while i was walking down the street i saw a horse/donkey pulling a car! i would've loved to have seen my face, i'm sure my jaw was on the ground.

i think a couple of days in Sofia was more than enough. so i spent a couple of days in Veliko Tarnovo, which is about a 3 hour drive east of Sofia. i'm really glad i did, not only was it quite a nice town, it was cheap and a good place to relax for a while. my hostel overlooked a beautiful green forrest and also had breakfast and dinner included in the price. but the best part of it all was the owners had a 3 year old son who was great fun, he spoke a mish mash of Bulgarian and english - he was a real little character.
considering Sofia is the capital, it isn't a very big place, so its no surprise that Veliko Tarnovo is a lot smaller, in someways it reminded me a little bit of Mostar in Bosnia. Veliko Tarnovo's main attraction is a giant fort, not far from where i was staying, which is quite good to look around and they have some amazing views from the top. of an evening they have a lightshow, projecting different colours all over the walls of the fort. it sounds corny, but it was pretty good.
Most of all Veliko Tarnovo was a great place to chill out for a while and get some sleep, well kind of. in my last blog i signed off by saying that i was sure that there would've been more sleepless night tales ahead, unfortunately i was right. there was one guy in my room who snored so loud that it sounded like a tractor! normally after a while i can get to sleep but he was so loud that at about 3am i gave up on getting to sleep that i moved and set up camp on the couches.

i enjoyed my time here in Bulgaria, it wasn't really that eventful, and i don't think i'm going to look back on Bulgaria and go 'i'm so glad i went there', but i was nice to have a break for a while. Turkey, here i come!

Madrid

2009-04-23T02:48:00.001-07:00

there was a time when i would prefer to go to a major city, but i think i've hit a point where i'm a bit over them. mainly because they are so big and there are so many tourists (if thats not pot calling the kettle black, i don't know what is). Madrid is very touristy. they are everywhere and with tourists come tacky shops and people flogging maraccas and other things spanish stereotypes. i find it a bit of a turn off really, especially since i've just come from from places that aren't as busy. there are parts of the town that aren't jammed packed full of tourists.
as you can probably tell, i wasn't really looking forward to Madrid and my first impressions weren't the greatest. but i have to say, after i did a bit of exploring outside the touristy areas, i did warm to the place.

i wouldn't say all the plazas are great. as i was saying, there are a lot of tourists and people flogging tacky items to them, but some of the plazas were quite cool. some of the architecture around town is interesting and very elaborate at times, with domed roofs, fountains etc. it got to the point where, sometimes it felt like on every buildings roof was a statue of a horse on its hind legs.
there transport here is quite good. when i first got into Madrid i used the underground a little bit to get to my hostel. it works in a pretty similar way to the London tube. before i got here i heard that on the news they continually report about people getting stuff stolen while on the underground. i didn't have a problem, though i was extra careful. the good thing about the underground is its only 1 EURO per trip and its 2 EURO's to the airport, which is perfect for me since i'm flying out of here. usually most cities bump up the price quite a bit when you have to go to the airport.
not that i was looking, trust me i wasn't, but i noticed there were plenty of prostitutes around, and they're weren't just ladies of the night either, you'd see them at all times of the day, even in the morning, i suppose when you're in the mood you're in the mood, but just after breakfast?

I checked out the Palacio Real. some of its decore was also really over the top, plenty of gold, red velvet, marble, frescos - all the good things in life. there was a room that was full of armour which was pretty cool. i was quite surprised to see that they used to have there own pharmacy in the palace, i guess it makes sence, you don't just want anyone making medicine for the Royals. but something that was a bit out of place was there was a few rooms with a bit an asian influence. supposedly, at one stage, it was very fashionable to have something asian in your palace. i found it a pretty good palace to check out, i think it was probably worth waiting in the hot sun for a ticket. as i was wandering the halls of the Palace i came across the portait of Carlos III, i reckon he's a dead ringer for legendary Australian cricketer and commentor, Bill Lawry, what do you think? i wonder what Carlos III batting average was?

Carlos III

Bill Lawry

the Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, which is the Centre of Contempary Art is quite good. i suppose you can't leave Spain without seeing some of its most famous artists. they have quite a big collection of Miro, Dali and Picasso. actually, they have a really famous painting of Picasso's called 'Guernica' its quite massive and pretty interesting to look at. i really enjoy Picasso because his work just seems so off the cuff. i remember when i was at University i did an elective in art. one lesson we sat down and watch a movie observing Picasso painting, it was quite amazing to see the picture come together, and how one minute something was nothing but a squiggle on a page and then the next it was a bird or something - genius! the museum had a couple of other artists from outside of Spain, like a statue by pop artist Roy Lichtenstein. i didn't realise Roy did sculpture, i've only known his paintings. anyway, the sculpture was titled 'brushstroke'. i wouldn't be surprised if he perhaps meant for it to be his 'final brushstroke' because he died not long after. but i might be reading into it a bit too much.

the other art gallery in Madrid worth seeing is the Museo del Prado, if your into old paintings this is your place, plenty of Rubens and Rembrandt. i have to say, this stuff doesn't really tickle my fancy much, but after 6pm you get in free, so i can't complain. there was one painting there that had me a little perplexed. there was a guy with massive breasts and he had a baby suckling from his nipple. who knows, maybe they did have plastic surgury in the 15th century, but if so, maybe he should've looking into some botox, his crows feet were horrendous.

though there are a number of nice parks around Madrid to break up the city, my pick is the park right behind the Museo del Prado called, Parque de el Retiro. big old trees provide much needed shade from the spanish sun, and also plenty of lush green grass to lay down and chill out on. the the array of kooky statues seem to be a bit of a hit with the local kids. something i really liked in the park was the Palacia de Cristal which is like a giant glass gazebo, its very old and classic looking, it would be perfect setting for a movie. on the grounds they also have a lake where you can hire a boat to row around and yep, you guess it, a monument with more horse statues.

Madrid is quite big but all the sights are surprisingly walkable. on the otherside of the city they have this egyptian temple thing here which is a little bit strange, not really what you might expect in the middle of spain, apparently it was a gift from the Egyptians and was relocated stone by stone to Madrid. something kind of funny happened while i was at the Templo de Debod. i saw this person walking with and older lady, and was pushing a older man in a wheelchair down the street. from behind, and from the way he was dressed, it looked like person was a teenager, but as i got up closer it was a man in his 50's! i couldn't help but laugh, but then he started having a tantrum, and it reminded me so much of the movie 'Kevin and Perry Go Large'. if you haven't seen the movie, check out the trailer below, its so bad that its good. looking at the trailer again, it made me wonder why i didn't go to Ibiza while i was here... kidding!

usually when i get to a big city they offer a free* tour of the place (*you give them a tip at the end, so its not exactly free) and in they tour they give you a bit of a quick run down of the history of the country and the place. its really good because otherwise, i find, you feel a bit disconnected from what it is your looking at. here in Madrid they normally do offer this but have run into a few problems with the government and tourism board because of red tape etc. its a bit of a shame really becuase, for people like myself who travel on a shoe string budget who are a totally different demographic, can't always afford to pay for a fancy tour (the bus tours here are about 20EURO, which i think is a bit steep considering they just play a tape as they drive passed sights) also it doesn't educate tourists about the struggles of the city and, more often than not, the charming qualities of the city. i always think its a shame when making a quick buck gets in the way of people enjoying themselves. hopefully they lift the ban soon so that more tourists can enjoy Madrid to its fullist.

After spending nearly a month here in Spain, i'm totally fasinated by it. becuase i didn't get to do the tour my history on Spain isn't that great, but i heard a few things here and there from other people. i was shocked when i heard it used to be under the dictatorship of Franco. and when you think about it was only recently that Juan Carlos came into power that it turned into a democracy (by the way, Juan Carlos is a very popular guy around here, so much so his face features on the 1 and 2 EURO coin). it really made me think about how much Spain has been through, and why things are the way they are. also maybe i should've been paying more attenion in history class, i think i'm going to have to spend next week on wikipedia. anyway, thanks to the lovely people at EasyJet i'm flying to Sofia in Bulgaria where i'm sure many tales of sleepless nights lay ahead, stay tuned.

Valencia

2009-04-20T16:21:00.000-07:00

I was told the bus trip to Valencia was going to be roughly 5 hours. so i was thinking, 'what a push over, i'll blink and i'll be there'. well, turns out it was a little longer than 5 hours infact i didn't get into Valencia until midnight. i wandered the streets of Valencia until i found my hostel and collapsed in a heap on my bed, hoping to fall into a deep slumber. unfortuately the guy in the next bed had other ideas and snored his head off all night long. it was then i realised i was back in the land of living in hostels once again.

the next morning, with the little sleep i had, i dragged myself out of bed and got straight into it. Valencia is a really cute little place. in some ways it reminded me of Barcelona but only a smaller, Mini me, version, less night life and not as busy... after reading that you must be thinking, 'whats he on about? it sounds nothing like Barcelona' but i think the buildings in the city centre are quite similar to the ones in Barcelona, minus the Gaudi's of course, i also spied with my little eye a number of beautiful frescos around town. its really clean here in Valencia, i suppose being smaller makes it easier to keep clean, but i have noticed that the Spanish seem to at least make an effort when it comes to recycling, they always have mulitiple bins so you can sort your rubbish. who knows if they really use it to its fullist.

apart from Valencia Oranges, (orange trees seem to be everywhere you look, but taste horrible by the way, very sour) i didn't really know what Valencia had to offer so i did a walking tour to get a better idea. our tour began out the front of the old Cathedral which, like most things in europe, was built on top of another old church which was build over a mosque. quite a nice cathedral really, very old and all that jazz, it has a belltower that they seem pretty proud of. but i think the more interesting thing about it is that the catholic church have come out and said that its in this church that the holy grail lives. geez, if Dan Brown was going to go to all that effort of writing the DaVinci Code, you'd think he might do a bit of research before hand. something pretty important happens on the steps out the front of the cathedral, every so often there is a meeting by 8 guys who get together and chat about what will happen with the water around Spain (i think, spain, it could be just the area) they are voted into the position and have an incredible amount of power, other they are aloud to talk about it, the president and king can be invited, but its whatever they say, goes. not even the government can over rule it. supposedly its been going since there was a mosque on the site. hence the men point with there feet, because pointing with your fingers is considered rude.

the topic of water seemed to pop up quite a bit in Valencia. originally the town had a big river running around it, but after a flood they decided to block off one of the rivers. the government were going to put a highway in, but the people of Valencia didn't want a bar of it so they began planting trees and plants in the river bed to create gardens. the government got the picture and let it as park land. its actually really nice to wander around in, again, plenty of orange trees, but also fountains and other varieties of plants. thank god they did, it would've been hideous otherwise. if you follow it, it takews you right down to 'The City of Arts and Sciences' which is this group of ultra modern buildings designed by local hero/architect Santiago Calatrava. apparently he's quite famous, but it don't think i've ever heard of him. they tell me he's currently working on something for Ground Zero in New York, so he must be a big deal. apart from 'the City of Arts and Sciences, there really isn't much outside of the city centre, unless you want to go to the beach.

when there was a river that ran around the city (which i think acted as a moat) they had walls and towers to keep invaders out - they must have had a few invasions becuase there are some dints that look like something a cannonball would leave behind. anyway, the draw bridge would close of an evening and if you didn't make it back in time you were stuck out there for the night, these days its not really a problem if you get locked out, you'd probably just go on a massive bender until the doors openned in the morning. but, in those days i heard it wasn't the best place to stuck becuase rapist and murderers who hang out the front and if you managed to fend off them, there was also a crocodile that lived in the river that would eat you, or so the legend goes. eventually they pulled down the walls but kept a couple of towers to use them as prisons.

something i thought was kind of interesting was there was either a town hall or church not far from the cathedral. anyway, it burnt down but the only thing that was saved was the roof, which was apparently its best feature. the towns people loved it so much that they put the old roof onto of another building not far away. it is a really beautiful ceiling so i understand them wanting to keep it. the building that put it on is quite interesting too, but it wasn't what was on the outside that i thought was interesting it has various gargoyles on the outside of the building, i spotted one in particular that seemed to be, lets say, 'enjoying himself'. the weather in Valencia was quite good so i didn't get to see the full effect. before your mind starts heading toward the gutter, when it rains it looks like he is drooling.

the market in the centre of town doesn't have anything over the one in Barcelona, food or atmosphere wise, but the building itself is quite nice, in some ways it reminded me of a giant glass church, but thats just me. though i have to say, seeing some of the skinned animals staring back at me brought the inner vegetarian out in me. speaking of food, Paella is said to be invented here, so i had to give it ago. it was good, but i could taste any overwhelming difference to any of the ones i'd had in spain, perhaps my tastebuds aren't finely tuned. as i mentioned the weather has been great here in Valencia, but apparently its hard not to get a nice day, its sunny most days of the year - which makes it perfect sangria drinking conditions. good times, good times!

something i didn't realize about spain its divided. there set up is similar to how UK is made up with Scotland, England, Ireland and Wales having there own parliments. the same is here in Spain each region has its own seperate governments. also gay marriage is legal in Spain, which surprised me a bit because they are quite religious here. but it made me think, is same sex marriage legal in Australia?

i really enjoyed Valencia, but i think a couple of days was more than enough, off to Madrid for a couple of days, where i will finish my Spanish adventure.

Granada

2009-04-14T08:43:00.000-07:00

Originally Granada wasn't on my Spain 'to do' list. but i've met quite a number of people along the way that have raved about it. it was on the way i was headed, so i felt i should check it out.
in Porto i met Amy, Jinse and Sarah who were teaching english here in Granada. Amy told me that she hosts couch surfers all the time and had room for me, and said that i was more than welcome to stay with them when i got there. if you don't know what couch surfing is, basically its like an online community for travellers. you set up a profile about yourself, you email people the town you want to stay in and if they have room you can stay on there couch free of charge. i feel a bit funny about it myself. even though i think its quite safe, (they have a few things in place to make sure the people are who they say they are and previous guests can comment on there experience) i think i would prefer to host someone rather than stay at someones place, mainly because i'm on my own and i feel a bit uncomfortable about dropping into someones place that i don't know. what if you get stuck with some one thats a bit strange? but i think this time it was a bit different because i knew the people beforehand.

the bus ride was quite a good one. i fell asleep only to be wake myself up by drooling all over myself. charming, i know. but when i did wake up and looked out the window i noticed i was passing through, what seemed to be miles and miles of olive farms. apparently Olives are one of this regions biggest exports. after a few hours i finally made it to Granada and met up with Amy, dropped my backpack off and got into exploring the town. well, kind of, just when i was about to throw my thermals into the bin (and set it alight, i might add) the heavens openned. pretty much the whole time i was here it rained cats and dogs (just in case the RSPCA are reading, not literally) but occationaly the sun did come out and i made the most of it.

before i got here i heard he Granada had a bit of a Moroccan feel to it. i haven't been to Morocco but from what i imagine it would be like, i can see what there on about - especially in the old town, with its sandy coloured buildings, lots of arches, patterns and pebble roads. Pebble roads aren't just in Granada, i've noticed them throughout Spain and also Portugal, they have some great patterns through them. but because they're uneven i think i trip at least twice a day! probably the most obvious moroccan influence is Granada's main sight, its called the Alhumbra and is an old muslim palace. its a bit of a nightmare to get into it, there are only limited tickets solded per day, and because its really popular i had to line up at 7:30am to get tickets for the afternoon, not much fun, but it was worth it. the i have never seen a palace with so much detail, it was amazing, i probably say 'amazing' a little too much but it actually was. the gardens were brilliant too. full of manicured gardens, fountains, etc i think i spent a few hours just wandering around them.
i was kind of expecting to see lots of hippies and for Granada to be older, perhaps smaller and a bit cosier, and there are aspects of that, but i think generally its quite modern. i probably only thought that because during the 70's Granada was teaming with hippies. supposedly you get taxed by the size of your house or something like that (sounds similar to Amsterdam, click here to see the Amsterdam post) so what the hippies did was live in caves up in the hills so the only thing that they were taxed for was the front door. if you go for a wander up into the hills (probably a half hour walk) they're still up there! of course where theres hippies theres smoke and where theres smoke theres pot. i was surprised to hear that hash is legal here in spain. well, when i say legal i mean that its illegal to sell it but not illegal to have it on you, most police turn a blind eye. having said that i wouldn't smoke a spliff right in front of a cop.
there is a big student community here in Granada some thing like 100,000 students go to the university here. which i think is a good thing for a city, generally you find better shops and more interesting things to do while you in a city full of students.

a good thing about staying with people that live here is they take you to all the cool places around town. in Granada when you order a beer or wine they give you free tapas. did i hear someone say 'bottoms up'? when it comes to the tapas, sometimes its you get what your given, but the places we went to you were able to choose what you wanted. it was so good, after a few drinks you've pretty much got dinner sorted.
apart from eating tapas i didn't really try anything new food wise. unless you count Chupa Chups. thats right, Chupa Chups are spanish. i was surprised to hear that after all this time i was pronoucing the name all wrong, its actually pronounced Choopa Choops. I think Chupa means 'suck' in Spanish. hears another useless peice of information for you, the Chupa Chup logo was designed by surrealist painter, Salvador Dali.

of course i didn't eat out the whole time i was here. because i was staying free of charge i felt a bit guilty so i decided to cook dinner for the house. i just cooked pasta because it was quite easy to make, everybody seemed pretty happy with it. something interesting Amy told me was when they sit down to eat they don't start there meal without having bread on the table. i don't normally eat bread with dinner, not sure why, just haven't grown up in the habit of eating it with dinner. anyway, Amy was saying when she first moved in she would start eating her meal without bread and they would look at her funny, as if to say 'wheres your bread, you weirdo?' i was staying with Amy, who is American, but here house mates are from spain so it gave me a good chance to chat to some Spaniards even though Amy had to translate most of the time. her house mates were quite nice, David (pronounced Dar-vid) tried to teach me a few words here and there, but i'm pretty hopeless and didn't retain much. he was telling me that people in Granada, and in the region, are really lazy with the language and generally shorten or don't pronouce the whole word, which must make it tricky if you wanted to learn the language here. something else i really like about the language is, when you ask a question they use an upside down question mark to begin the question, and a normal question mark to finish it ie: ¿ are you not wearing any pants again? it's awesome isn't it? sorry... ¿ it's awesome isn't it? Amy's other housemate Miriam played guitar and taught me some flamenco chords, which are kind of strange, but on the other hand kind of use similar shapes to normal chords, except there on different strings. she told me i was a fast learner, so i'm looking forward to exploring them further.

speaking of Flamenco we went and saw some while i was here. when we were out one night we stumbled across some, which i thought was pretty good, but they told me that i should wait until i saw the real thing. the concert was quite good, i thought the guitarist was brilliant. Jinse was telling me that the musicians play to the dancers rather than the other way around, which i thought was interesting. the dancers dance with so many sharp movements and it was so passionate, but at the same time it seemed like they had the ego of Mick Jagger, but so did the singers. at times i found the singers a bit painful to listen to, it sounded like they. i was going to show them a thing or two about dancing but i don't think spain is quite ready for 'the robot'. anyway, i suppose its not really surprising that there dancing is so passionate. people here in general are quite passionate, even the way they pronounce the language. it sometimes seems that even talking about the weather is an important subject.

come to think of it most nights i was here we went out. if we weren't out eating tapas we were having dinner at someones house, or watching some DVD's. one night they took me to a house party, which was great - i love a good house party! some how i ended up being DJ for half the night. I ripped out a few different tracks from various Australian groups as well as a few others, which seemed to go down quite well with the crowd. the guy whose party it was, told me i could DJ anytime. by the way, i've put my finger on why they have siestas here in Spain. everybody here eats dinner really late (roughly around 10pm, which i can kind of understand at the moment, the sun sets at around 9.30pm) and most of the time don't come back from partying until the wee hours of the morning. after a few days here i was really getting into having a nap of an afternoon.

something i noticed here in Granada, was how slow everyone walks. its such a nightmare walking on the foot paths because you get stuck behind dordlers all the time. and when you try to over take they just seem to get in your way, worst of all, they are totally oblivious to whats happening around them!
they must do everything slow here, i noticed was they've only just released the movie 'Control' at the cinemas. i'm pretty sure i saw that at the cinemas over a year ago. if you haven't seen 'Control' its a brilliant Anton Corbijn film about the tragic life and untimely death of Ian Curtis, lead singer of Joy Division. shot beautifully in black and white, you don't really need to be a fan of Joy Division to enjoy it, i fully recommend it.

i've really enjoy my time here hanging out with everyone, and in a lot of ways, it was really hard to leave Granada. i found them all really interesting to chat to and to hang out with. for instance, Sarah was telling me about a french website that gets various music artists from around the world to do acoustic versions of there songs in all sorts of strange places, ie: supermarkets, trams, etc. its a really great website, and a great way to find new music. click here to check out some of the videos. anyway, i just want to send out a big thank you to everyone i met in Granada, Amy and her house mates in particular for letting me stay. next stop Valencia.

Seville

2009-04-12T07:36:00.000-07:00

There were only 2 buses that left to go to Seville, one at 6.30am and another at 1.45pm. i chose the early one because it gave me more time to hang out in Seville. I thought waking up that early was going to kill me, but i felt great - i didnt even yawn! but the trip itself was quite long, i got into Seville at about 1.45pm. after a bit of mucking around and trying to figure out the map. i found my hostel. i think in a pervious life it might have been quite a nice place, but it had been let go. it reminded me of Fawlty towers, but with a spanish feel to it. when i arrived they didnt have the key to my room so they kept screaming the names of the cleaners, (in a very John Cleese style, i might add) until they found the one with the key. then the cleaner threw it from the top level down three flights of stairs and landed at my feet with a thud! i couldnt help but laugh when i saw the expession on the guests faces. when i finally go to my room, it was pretty dodgy, the shower was gross and the toilet, for some reason, had a hanger sticking out of the top of it to make it flush. then at breakfast a HUGE cockroach, probably about the size of my fist, was walking around on the floor. suddenly everyone wasn't so hungry. but it wasn't all bad, they had a roof top terrace, which was nice of an evening, and offered a walking tour.

The Cathedral of Seville, is quite an amazing piece of architecture, i believe that its the largest gothic cathedral in the world. trust me in the flesh its mighty big! even if you don't go in, its quite impressive on the outside, with plenty of carvings and detail. inside is the tomb of Christopher Columbus, while i was here i heard that Columbus had to do a bit of exploring in the Queens pants to get funding for his trips, but i guess it was all worth it, they love him here. the Cathedral was build on top of an old mosque, everything from the old mosque was destroyed expect for the bell tower which still stands today. i went up the top and had a look around, as you can imagine, the view was pretty good.

i was told Seville used to have a real muslim feel to it but a lot it was destroyed by the catholics. only the tower in the cathedral and the Torre del Oro or better known as the 'Golden Tower' (which used to be used as a jail) are pretty much the only things left, but i think if you look hard enough you can find little bits here and there.

If big is your thing Plaza de Espana, is right up your alley, its bloody massive! it was build in the early 1900's for a world fair, but only for latin countries. i think its a bit of the old 'good from a far, but far from good' myself. as i got up close to it, i didn't find it too exciting except for its ceramics, which were taken from the town over the river called Triana which is known for its ceramics. its really hot here in Seville and i think the amount of bricks storing the heat don't help too much, the days i was here it hovered around the high 20's to low 30's but i've heard it gets as hot as 55 degrees here in the summer. so i found the parks surrounding Plaza de Espana quite refreshing to walk around.

while i was here i saw first hand how religious the Spanish are. they have this festival over easter called 'Semana Santa' where people from far and wide come to Seville (not always, but apparently Seville is the place to be for Semana Santa) they dress up in, what looks like Ku Klux Klan uniforms (in fact the KKK stole it from 'Semana Santa') and carry candles and effergies around the town from one church to the catheral. i got here on the sunday so i miss all the prosessions but i saw all the wax that had dripped from the candles all over the streets of Seville, red and white droplets everywhere - quite pretty really.

its big business too, hostels and hotels here bump up there prices, sometimes doubling or tripling them during the easter period. also some people lease out there balconies so others can watch the prosessions.

they have bull fighting here in Seville, which is the first place in spain i've come across that has done it. i noticed there were heaps of people dressed up to go see a the duel, i guess its kind of like how we dress up for spring carnival horse racing. anyway, a few people have asked me if i'm going to go to a bull fight while i'm here in spain, and i have to say the answer to that is, no. i know its one of those must do spanish things but i think i wouldn't find it an enjoyable experience. i've met a couple of people that have gone and they have said it was very hard to watch. the poor bulls haven't got a chance and i personally believe that if you don't believe in something, you shouldn't help fund it by going, no matter how much of a tradicional experience it is.

they also had a bit of flamenco dancing here in Seville. once again, Seville is the first place in spain that i've noticed that has done this. supposidly its a southern thing and doesn't happen much in the north. i didn't end up going to a concert because i'm meeting up with people in Granada and were going to see a show there.

for lunch one day i got recommended a good little tapas place. not a soul spoke english so once again i did the old point to the menu, smile at the waiter and hope for the best. the food there was really good, and reasonably priced, but i really enjoyed the atomsphere, so much so i didn't want to leave. the guy behind the bar was so funny. i had no idea what he was saying, but it was great just to watch his expressions. when you eat there you stand at the bar and i noticed that he wrote the price down on the bar in front of you with a bit of chalk. which i thought was pretty cool. i really love how in bars and in restaurants here, the walls are packed full of old photos, effergies, newspaper articles and other nic nacs, so much so, you can't see the paint. it looks so amazing.

Seville is really beautiful to just wander around. the buildings are quite old and typical of what you might expect from a spanish city, little windy roads, decorative tiles, earthy colours, i'm really enjoying the explosion of colour here in Spain, its seems everywhere and everythign has a rich, warm feel to it. i was walking down one little street in the jewish area that had vines growing over the top of it, only allowing a little bit of sunlight to punch through, and i was thinking to myself 'this is like something you would find on a postcard', then a walked about 5 meters further and found that it was on a postcard!

i mentioned in one of my more recent blogs about work ethic. to give you another example of this. they are building an underground at the moment (even though they probably don't need it, its big, but not that big. they have a tram here that only has 4 stops! whats the point?) anyway, the government wanted to get it done before the Semana Santa so they said to there workers, if they work more hours they would DOUBLE there pay, which i think is pretty unheard of during this economic crisis. instead they went on strike.

so far, i think Seville is the most 'spanish' place ive visited. and i think spain is quickly turning into one of the best places i've visited. next stop is Granada.

Lagos

2009-04-10T03:53:00.000-07:00

i read more of my book, and i'm really enjoying it, so it made the 4 hours bus ride to lagos quite a good one. i got out at the bus station and started heading to my hostel. which sounds easy but i could hardly find a street sign. lucky for me the people here are quite helpful and pointed me in the right direction. even when i finally did get a map it was no good to me, there are quite a number of winding roads here, and i was forever getting lost. but Lagos isn't that big so i didn't worry to much, i always found my way back some how.

i've found hostels in Portugal by far some of the best i've stayed in, and for roughly the same about of money as the rest of europe. but the hostel i stayed in here probably wasn't as nice as the other places i've stayed at, but what can i expect, it was dirt cheap, but it had charm. for instance it didn't have a kitchen or a stove but it had a BBQ, which i was happy with because it suited the climate. a good thing was it was pretty close to everything.

Lagos is quite a small little seaside town. something i like about it is, i don't think any of the buildings are over 2 story's high, and its flat. i don't think the buildings are quite as nice or as interesting as the ones i saw in other parts of Portugal but you can't win them all. i dunno if its just that i don't pay that much attention to the sky at home but the skies here seem so big are stunning to watch the whispy clouds roll passed. i used to love watching clouds when i was a kid, i would lay on the trampoline for ages using my imagination to create shapes. the beaches here are probably its biggest attraction. i think when it warms up a bit they would be heaving with people, but at this time of year the water is Fr-reee-zziing! but its still nice to walk on the sand, there are a number of beaches hidden away, there was one beach i found that had some really beautiful rock formations where the rock has eroded over time, the holes were big enough so that you could walk through them, which was fun. you always see people flogging boat tours, i ended up doing one. they took you right into the areas you can't get to by foot. at one point they drove the boat right into a cave, it almost felt like you we in a giants mouth, because with the tide going in and out it made the boat go up and down, making you feel like the giant was taking a breath... well, kind of, i thought it was cool. before i went i wasn't sure if i was going to like like and thought it was going to be a waste of money, be i ended up really enjoying it. i get the feeling Lagos would be a bit of a party town during the summer, its early days at the moment but still there seems to be a number of bars and clubs with music pumping out of them.

allow me to put my cranky pants on for a moment... well, maybe the cranky pants aren't fully on and zipped up, but i definately have a trouser leg on. the only thing that kind of annoyed me about Lagos was it was full of Australian's. not the Australian's that you would probably know back home, Australian's that i like to called 'Exteme Australian's'. i don't know where they come from but the majority that i have met almost sound and act like they are either Paul Hogans secret love children or have gone to the 'Steve Irwin school of how to behave good n' stuff'. i have never met people like them, and i live in Australia. its almost like they go out of there way to be as 'Aussie' as they could possibly be. i swear, some of them were born with those hats that have corks hanging off them, and i'm pretty sure after the birth the doctor presented a icy cold Fosters tinnie from a polystyrene esky to there mother! in case you haven't noticed, i don't have much in common with them.

before i left Portugal i wanted to try Portuguese chicken. its meant to really good. hell, Nandos have made a killing out of it for years so trying the real thing must be better. i'm not sure if i wrote this in my london blogs but, Nandos in England is so different to the Nandos in Australia. they don't look at all like fast food places, they are set up like sit down restaurants. anyway, i went to a little place that sold Portuguese chicken and it was amazing, not surprisingly, much better than Nandos. i always thought that Peri Peri sauce was just a marketing ploy, turns out its real. but its spelled differently, instead of Peri Peri its Piri Piri and it just means chilli.

while i was here it was Good Friday, when you think about it, nothing good came out of it, esspecially from Jesus' perspective. anyway, i obviously ate fish, not because im a good little catholic, but it was a good excuse for me to have some seafood. i ordered fish and chips from this little place that was up the road from where i was staying. i was watching the little old lady out the back making them, she looked like she could've done it blindfolded, i'm sure she has made them a million times before. when they were done i ended up walking down to the beach to eat them. they were so good, probably the best fish and chips ive ever had, i think the scenery might have helped a bit too.

apart from being quite a number of Aussies i noticed quite a few brits too. which reminded me. you might remember a little while back that there was a little english girl called Maddie McCann, who was on holiday with her parents. it is believed she was abducted in a Portuguese town called Praia Da Luz, which isn't far from Lagos. she's been missing for quite a while now, i think it was in the news around 2007. it reminded me quite lot of the Lindy Chamberlain case back in Australia, becuase the press at one stage were pointing the finger at Maddie's parents. anyway, i was quite surprised to see how 3 years on, the amount of billboards there are with her face on them as well as full page ads in the newspapers. if she is alive, i find it a bit surprising with so many pictures of this girl around the place that they havent found her, largos, as well as the surrounding towns, aren't very big, i dont think you could hide her for long. it made me think of how horrible it would be for her parents to lose a child, and after all this time still not know anything.

something i won't miss about Portugal, though it could still be the case in Spain (i can't remember) is you aren't meant to flush toilet paper down the toilet, your meant to put it in the bins provided. they say its because the sewage system can't handle it, but i can't quite get my head around that one. how it can push other, seemingly bigger, objects down a toilet, but not toilet paper? it could be just me but sometimes i've noticed an uninvited woft which isn't very pleasant. its lucky im my not a smoker, because with the amount of methane in the air, it i think if you lit an open flame you would probably lose more than just an eyebrow. i know, i know, i haven't been this low brow for a while, but i thought i should bring it up.

i was planning to stick around here for a little while until the easter rush had disappeared but, even though it was beautiful, a few days here was probably enough to be honest. i decided to spend the extra money i would have to pay for a hostel in Seville (they jack up the prices over Easter) and make a move. i haven't had a shave in ages and my beard is growing out of control, i'm sure people are calling me Grizzly Adams behind my back, so perhaps i might have to visit a Barber of Seville (see what i did there).

Lisbon

2009-04-05T13:19:00.000-07:00

i can't say i have any complaints about the train trip to Lisbon (i know, this could be a first) it was only 3 hours, which is nothing, and i read a fair bit of my book, which is good. the only problem i encountered was finding somewhere to sleep. because of Easter i think everyone is on holidays, so many hostels are booked out. a couple of people that i've met have had to swap and change a number of times, so i guess i was lucky i only had to change twice. the first night i stayed in a OK hostel that was a bit out of town, all i care about was somewhere to sleep really, so it didn't worry me too much. the rest of the time i spent in Lisbon i spent at a really nice little hostel that was a bit closer to the city. the people that ran it were really friendly and helped me plan my day, showing me what areas to check out. i also met some cool people there, on the first day i met a group of American girls that were teaching English in Spain and 2 Brazilian guys that were on holiday, they were a really nice group and we all went and checked out 'Castelo de Sao Jorge' which is the castle on the hill that overlooks the town. it was quite a good castle really, but i found out later that it wasn't the original. it was rebuilt about 200 years ago, so its still pretty old. the area surrounding it was quite interesting too, great buildings all painted different colours. on a tuedays, not far from the Castle they have a flea market, which was quite good, though i kind of find it funny what some people think is worth selling, there was stuff there that was just junk, well, maybe to the untrained eye it was.

Lisbon is broken up into a few different areas. I found the 'Bairro Alto' area quite cool, plenty of little art galleries, street are, live music, bars and cafes and course the characters that come with them. i was just wandering around there and i noticed a few people were going down an alley way so being the inquisitive person i am, i followed them. probably the best idea i've ever had. i noticed that everyone was going to a park. the 'Bairro Alto' area is quite an elevated part of the city, and the park had an awesome view over the city and water. all these hippies were there drinking beer and wine and playing bongo's, it was brilliant!

although its nice during the day time, and i've had some great weather while i've been here, i think that Lisbon looks best at night, the way the street lamps lights up the streets and highlight the peeling paint and copple stones, looks nothing short of amazing. also the crowds from the bars spill into the street, so it makes it feel very festive. only problem is with that time of night, just like in Barcelona, if you walk around, you get offered drugs quite a bit.

Its quite hilly here in Lisbon, so there's no wonder that they have quite a number of trams, trolleys, and funiculars to get around. even though there were a couple of trams and funiculars in Porto, i think its more of a experience to ride them in Lisbon, most of them are quite old and i think some of them are heritage listed, i really like hearing them clunking there way around the town, i think its a really good way to get around and experience the town. they also have a huge lift, which connects the lower part of the town to the higher part. i found it quite beautiful, apparently i was designed by a guy that worked for Gustave Eiffel (the designer of the Eiffel tower), and you can kind of see the influence.

i did a trip out to Belem, you can get a train there, but because the weather was so nice, i decided to walk. Belem is just on the outskirts of Lisbon and originally would've been on its own, but because Lisbon has sprawled out over the years, its now kind of part of Lisbon. its quite a nice little spot, they have some nice parks and a number of museums there, even though i didn't end up going in, one of the buildings, Jerónimos Monastery, was huge, quite elaborate and interesting to look at. There is also Belem Palace, which was originally built for royalty but its now the official residence of the President of Portugal. i went to the Contempary Art Gallery. which wasn't too bad, they had a couple of big names in Warhol and Hockney, and there one one room that had projections of mice running around on the floor, which was kind of cool. but, the main reason i came to visit Belem is to get a 'pastéis de Belém' which is there specialty here. its kind of like a creme brulee, but in a tart. very nice.

when i was in Chester staying with my friend Celeste (click here to read the Chester post), i spoke to her parents who had visited Lisbon once before. they recommended that i should do a day trip out to a place called Sintra. i'm so glad i did. Sintra is a little over half an hour on a train from Lisbon and is know for its 'romantic architecture'. the town isn't very big but its very cute with its little lanes to explore. in the 'old town' part of the city, there are a number of nice buildings, the 'town hall' is one of them, and also the 'Sintra National Palace' which is nice, but in my opinion, probably not as nice as a few of the other attractions. only problem is a few of the other things to see are quite far apart. you can walk them but it takes a while, so i caught the bus. 'Pena National Palace' was a big of a highlight for me. it was a little bit expensive to get in, but i felt it was worth it. i've see a number of castles and palaces now, but i felt this one was probably one of the best. it looks a little bit like something from a fairy tale. the inside is really nicely preserved, in a way, it kind of feels like you're having a gander while the King or Queen have just popped out for for some lunch. the palace is perched right on the top of a hill and as you can imagine, the views from up there amazing. looking over neighbouring towns and the surrounding park land, you can even see as far as the ocean. i probably would've gone into more buildings but you had to pay quite a bit to enter them, which was a bit of a downer, but i guess yo can't do everything. while i was there i was told to try a pastry called 'travesseiros de sintra' as the name suggests, its from Sintra. i'm not intirely sure what was in it, but it was quite sweet. i really liked Sintra, if anyone asked me what to do i recommend a trip out there.

i ran into a few people that i met in Porto, so we went out to bars and ate together a few times, it broke the budget a little bit but i figured that while i had good company i should take advantage of it. so often i haven't found cool people to hang out with, sometimes there are just some people you don't click with, and traveling on your own can be quite lonely at times, so i figured i should make the most of hanging out with people i like while i can.

i think the Portugese language is a strange one. because of its location you would kind of expect it to sound really similar to Spanish, or perhaps have a bit of an Italian feel too it. on paper it does look a little bit spanish, but it doesn't really sound like that at all, if anything it sounds a little bit Polish or something from around that area.

People here in Portugal and Spain are pretty laid back, you always see people sitting drinking coffee, having a cigar or reading the paper, which is great, i could kind of get used to this kind of life style, minus the cigar bit. but in someways they kind of lack work ethic. one of the American girl was telling me that one of her friends that she is studying with, who is Spanish, only just got her first job and she is 24. i ask if she just meant a professional job, but no, she meant ever! the girl was just handing out flyers and she was so pleased with herself because most people her age dont work and study, they sponge off there parents. which i think is kind of strange. having said that, since i've been traveling i've realise how hard Australians work, maybe even to a point where we work too much.

since i've been traveling i've been told i look either French or Irish, which i guess is slightly believable. most people don't have a clue where may accent is from, which i think is a dead giveaway, though i think it might have softened since i've been away. but i got told the other day that i looked Portuguese, which i think is a bit of a stretch, considering the Portuguese are generally quite dark and i'm as pasty as they come.

i heard that Porto and Lisbon are poles apart and i think that is true. there are some things that they have in common, but at the end of the day Lisbon is a capital city and has many traits of a capital. first thing i noticed about Lisbon was i found it to be 'on show'. its a lot more polished than Porto, they have big brand shops, shopping centres etc. and most of the houses and buildings are generally bigger and more looked after. its not until you get out out the city centre a bit that you start to find abandoned or decaying buildings, which i find a little bit more interesting, i think they have more character. also,you see a lot more tourists around. don't get me wrong. Lisbon still has its charm but i think i just prefered Porto a little bit more, i think mainly because i'm a little bit over bigger cities now. i'm off to Largos next which should be quite nice, hopefully the weathers good so i can enjoy the beaches, and i don't mean Bette Midler singing 'Wind Beneath My Wings'. more when i get there.

Porto

2009-04-02T07:48:00.000-07:00

Now, on my last post i did promise not to rant too much about the epic train ride, so i'm going to do my best. it started pretty well. i got on my train at about 10:30pm (it was the only train for that day) and i met 3 English students (2 guys, 1 girl) that were traveling to Morocco for charity. they were really cool and were doing the majority of there traveling by hitch hiking. i personally feel a bit iffy about hitch hiking, but there uni has been doing this charity adventure for many years now and they assured me that it was fine. they said they had already met one guy in France that, not only gave them a lift, he put them up for the night and took them out for dinner and drinks. how incredibly thoughtful, i tell you, the French are getting a bad wrap. they were telling me other students that have done the same trip have been given lifts by actor, Ewan McGregor, while he was filming 'the long way around' series, and also by the French soccer team. what a great story to tell the grand kids! anyway, they were heading to Madrid to catch another train, so at about 3am they got out, and it got a bit grim after that. it was really hard to get to sleep because for some reason the heaters were on full ball. but i some how got, what felt like, an hours sleep, which was just enough to keep me going.
at about 9:30am i got out at my connecting station, that was in the middle of absolutely nowhere. the guy in the ticket booth spoke no English so i had to use my charades skills to the best of my ability to buy a ticket up to Porto. first thing i was a little bit shocked at was, when the train pulled in, how good it was. the station i was standing at seemed to be just about crumbling in front of me, so i kind of expected the same for the train. not the case, they are brand spanking new.
after a short train ride into Porto i got out and i instantly i fell in love with the place. Porto was so beautiful. the train station had all these different pictures painted on the tiles that looked like they had been there for hundreds of years, and just in the short walk to my hostel i was thinking 'this has got to be other of the most character filled places i've ever been to', it was like every building seemed to have a story, and the longer i stayed here, the more i got that feeling. i noticed i've really enjoyed places when i had no idea what was there or what to expect, so in a sense whatever i came across was going to be bonus.

the hostel i'm staying in is really cool. it was clean, had nice showers and breakfast included. but it was decked out nicely too, it was movie themed and has plenty of vintage movie posters hanging up and a good range of DVD's. after my epic journey, i was feeling rather haggard and wasn't into doing much, so i parked myself in front of the TV and the DVD range came in very handy indeed. The people that ran the hostel were really nice too. they cooked us some traditional sausages and some other little bits and pieces, which was nice. the guy who cooked them was telling me that in the 1500's the they were trying to drive the jews out of the country. the way they knew if people were jewish was because the sausages that everyone ate were make or pork and the jews didn't eat them. so the jews put there heads together and came up with a solution, they would make the sausages out of chicken! sounds like it was an idea that wouldn't last long right? wrong, most people didn't find out that they were made of chicken until hundreds of years later! i asked the guy at the hostel if people here are still into making there own sausages etc. and he said that the older generation still do, everyone seems to have there own recipes, but a lot of people just buy it from the shops. he said its probably one of those fine arts that we will lose after time. which i think is a real shame.

apart from the guy who looked and dressed exactly like Kurt Cobain (turns out grunge isn't dead), i met a older woman who was also staying at the hostel, which you don't get very often. her name was Carol, i'm guessing she was in her late 60's maybe early 70's. i found her really interesting. she grew up in New York but she had spent most of her life as a social worker, working all around the world and had only recently retired, and now lives in Thailand. she was here in Porto to do a 200km walk to the north of Portugal, i was quite impressed with that, then she told me that she had just come from doing an 800km walk across spain and in a months time was doing a camping trip with a couple of other women, or as she put them, 'crazy grannies', in Mongolia. she was such an amazing woman, and had no signs of slowing down. it made me think, 'i hope i'm that active when i'm that age'. even when i was young i've always got on with people that were older than me, or at the very least, listened to grown ups speak to each other. i still do. i don't really know why, i guess i've just always been interested in hearing their stories because they've already experienced and seen so much in there lives.

i did a fair bit of just wandering around town while i was here, i love all the buildings here, they are just so amazing to look at, i've noticed quite a lot of houses have tiles on them with interesting patterns or sometimes scenes are painted on the tile. when you get high enough you all you can see is a sea of terracotta roofs. i found one little book store in particular that was brilliant, it was so old with ornate wood paneling but best of all it had an amazing winding stair case up to the second floor. oh, i thought i should mention that Porto has put me in such a good mood i've even found my second wind for checking out churches!
its quite common to see beautiful old buildings that have falling into disrepair and just been abandoned. either the people here have no money to renovate them or they haven't got enough money to pull them down, so they just leave them.
i really like some of the signage on the shops here too. some of it looks like its been hanging in from the day the shop opened, truth be told it probably has (there doesn't seem to be a high turn over of shops). some of the craftsmanship and type choices are supurb (i'm a bit of a type nut). you don't really see nice type selection too often these days, mainly because everyone who owns a computer thinks they are a designer which makes some design horrendous. there are times when 'Cooper black' or 'Stencil' just won't do kids.
there really proud of there bridges here. they have 6 of them that cross the river, to be honest its nothing to really rave about but one of them was designed by Mr Eiffel, the guy who did the Effiel Tower.

i've found Porto quite a safe place really. the people here really friendly, i don't speak any portuguese so i was wondering how that would go down with the locals, but they are more than happy to help you out. there are a couple of sketchy looking characters a times, but there are everywhere throughout europe. and the majority of places are pretty safe to walk around during the day, just at night i wouldn't fancy a stroll around some of the darker alley ways.

before i got here i thought that Portuguese food would be pretty much exactly the same as Spanish food, but it turns out its not. well, there are some things that are similar, but there are differences. one difference i've noticed is that there pastry is really yellow in colour and its kind of a cross between pastry and cake, but not quite cake. if that makes sence, very strange.
while i was here i wanted to try a a dish thats only served in Porto. its called 'Francesinha', and its kind of like a sandwich with different types of meat in it, with melted cheese over the top of it, covering it, then they put a spicy gravy over the top of it. it sounds, and kind of looks, like something your mates would invent on a footy trip and dare you to eat, but it was pretty tasty actually.
i don't think i've mentioned this yet but, you're not really meant to drink the water in Spain and Portugal. some people say you can, others say you shouldn't. i've decided not to take the risk, there's nothing worst than being sick while you're traveling. but it does make it traveling around this area a bit of a pain, because it is warming up a little bit now, and i imagine its only going to get worst. speaking of drinking, as you might have figured from the name, Porto is famous for its port. supposidly the surrounding area around is perfect for growing grapes. there are a number of different cellars to visit here in Porto, but i got a tour of Ferreira cellars. the building they were in was so old and amazing to walk through. on the tour that gave you a rough outline of how to create Port, i kind of knew most of it, you don't grow up in the yarra valley and not learn a thing or two about how its made. but they got to sample some of the stuff at the end which was pretty good. i'm not much of a port drinker myself, but i felt it was one of those things i should try while i was here.

i went out one night with a couple of people i met at the hostel and had a great time. there was a street party that we just kind of fell into, there was a huge crowd of people listening to a band playing jazz. after that we ended up crashing a birthday party by accident. we saw one bar that had music pumping out of it so we went in, it was a great vibe so we just hung around, it until someone offered us birthday cake that we realised it was a mother and daughter joint birthday part. the daughter was turning 17 and the mum was turning 41 but i don't believe her, i swear she looked like the daughters sister, at the very most she she looked 21. which reminds me, if got to get me a portuguese wife! they age incredibly well. it was such a brilliant night, not only did we we get birthday cake, they showed us some dance moves, apparently its all in the hips. the only thing we missed out on was the lolly bag at the end, which is always the sign of a classic birthday party.

well i think i'm going to have to go out on a limb here and say that i would easily put Porto in my top 10 of favourite places. i think mainly because it felt quite untouched by tourists. i haven't met too many people that have traveled to Portugal and if they have, they have only been to Lisbon, so Porto seems a little bit forgotten about. i'm heading to Lisbon next, which i think should still be lots of fun. i've heard that Porto and Lisbon are like chalk and cheese so i'm looking forward to seeing what its like and comparing the two cities.

San Sebastian

2009-03-29T03:37:00.000-07:00

i caught an overnight bus to San Sebastian, if you've been reading this blog a while you'll probably know how much i hate overnight transport, it just totally ruins you for the next day, but it does save you a bit of money. i don't think i got one wink of sleep but having said that, the bus was a lot more roomy than other buses i've been on, which make it a bit more comfortable. while i'm on the bus i had a spanish girl sit next to me on the bus who wanted to talk to me, problem was, she didn't speak any english and i don't speak spanish, i tried to explain to her i had no idea what she was saying, but it didn't stop her. after a solid hour of one sided conversation, she got the picture. when i finally arrived at about 7am in the morning i was pretty tired to say the least, but i couldn't check into my hostel until noon. so i just dropped my bag off and had a wander around. i was a bit worried at first the weather wasn't looking very good, and San Sebastian is right on the water and pretty much everything revolves around the beach. so if the weather was crap, i was expecting my time here wouldn't be too grand either. lucky for me the weather came out and i sat down next to the water and sunned myself like a lizard. i nearly fell asleep in the process.

since i've been here in Spain, i've already experienced a few little changes in culture. got in on a Sunday which in Europe is generally a really quiet day, but for some reason, people were everywhere and San Sebastian had plenty of stuff going on ie: markets, soccer games on the beaches and a number of shops open. i found out later that in spain some shops will stay open on a sunday and close on a monday, which is a bit different to the rest of europe.
i haven't been caught out by the town shutting down from everyone going for a 'siesta' as yet, which is what i kind of expected coming to a smaller town because thats what i experienced when i was in Cinque Terre in Italy, things close but not to the extent that its a ghost town. but, then again, i do say 'yet', its still early days.
also i dunno what it is, but it seems that every second person has a body piercing. bottom lips and noses in particular.

my old work mate Aaron, who is also quite well travelled, told me that while i was here i should check out a place that sold really good local food. it took me a little while to find it, but the search was well worth it. the place was packed, standing room only, and there was a real vibrance in the air. i shuffled my way to the bar, problem was, i couldn't see a menu so, the guy behind me saw that i had no idea, so he said 'do you want me to help you order?' to which i replied 'yeah, that would be brilliant!'. he orded me 2 different dishes, the first was a meat dish that was so tender it seriously melted in my mouth. The other one he ordered for me was cod in a light batter, which also was cooked to perfection. best of all it wasn't expensive at all, in fact the perfect price for a traveller so i invited a few people from the hostel to show them how good it was, they all loved it too. if you're ever in San Sebastian make sure to check out 'La Cuchara de San Telmo', just look for a red spoon hanging out the front. i found while i was here i found out that its considered polite to throw your servette on the ground, and that tapas here is called 'pintxos', supposidly tapas is what they say in Barcelona, i heard that one of the languages they speak in Barcelona, called Catalan, sounds totally different to normal spanish, so tapas could be a Catalan thing. but it hasn't all been fine dining, i've been cooking for myself as well, i went to a little butcher and brought some sausages and cooked them up, they were delightful. i've found the fresh food here quite good compared to other countries i've visited.

San Sebastian is a really pretty place. really clean and from what i can gather its a bit of a swanky holidaying area, but if you're looking for sights you're not really going to find much here. there originally was a wall around parts of the town (i think to stop others attacking from the sea, but don't quote me on that) but most of it has been pulled down over the years to expand the city. they have some sculptures here that they are pretty proud of, one of them is called 'El Peine del viento' which is kind of looks like giant rusted steel forks coming out of rocks, i think the main reason the locals like it so much is because the artist, Eduardo Chillida, used to be the goal keeper for the local soccer team here.
on the top of one of the hills is a kind of fortress thingy that has a giant jesus on the top of it. it was kind of a poor mans version of 'Christ the Redeemer' the well known Jesus statue in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. except he didnt have his arms out he was giving the peace sign. it could be the delinquint in me but while i was up there looking at the view (which was pretty by the way) i was thinking to myself 'if you knocked off the pointer finger it would look like he was giving the bird to boats floating passed' of course i didn't do it, but it shows how much spare time i had on my hands while i was here.
i pretty much spent a lot of the time chilling out on the beach and enjoying the scenery. something that was rather funny, i was walking to the beach and i ran into a guy called Kyle, who i used to go to high school with and i hadn't seen him since we finshed. he was here for a couple of days for business, i hate saying this word but it was really 'random', i never expect to meet people that i know.

while i was here i did a day trip to Bilbao, which was an enjoyable hour bus ride through the hills. Bilbao is a nice little place, not really much there except for the thing i went to Bilboa for, the Guggenheim. going to the Guggenheim was on my 'must do' list when i came to spain, its a pretty amazing space to see and walk through. apart from being another of, Frank Gehry's Architectual masterpieces (you may have noticed, if you'be been reading the blog for a while, i have seen a few of his buildings now) its contents are pretty good. they had some Richard Serra sculpture, i saw his 'clara clara' piece in Paris (click here to read the Paris blog) but they had a room at the Guggenheim that was given to him to design something for it, so that was pretty interesting.
also they had a Japanese artist called 'Murakami' who is pretty cool, i've known about him for a little while now, some of his work hung at GoMA while i was living in Brisvegas. i quite like his stuff, he does work in a number of different mediums: sculpture, animation and painting to name a couple. all of it tends to have a very sickly sweet anime quality to it, but on the other hand, its very sexual. i wouldn't be surprised if he's quite heavily into Andy Warhol because he kind of blurs the lines between artist and commercial artist, for instance he did some designs for patterns on Louis Vuitton handbags, he also sells wallpaper and action figures of his work.
they also have a couple of Jeff Koons sculptures. i missed out on his exhibition in Berlin by a couple of days so i was glad to be able to see some of his work while i was here. one was just outside of the main entrance, its of a giant dog (probably about 20m high) made out out earth, and had flowers growing all over it, which was pretty cool.

the hostel i stayed in was pretty chilled out and the people that worked there were really friendly, i also met some cool people while i was here, i got on really well with a swedish guy in particular, his name was David, and had just moved to Spain for work, from what i could gather, he designs websites. i dunno what it is about the Swedes but everyone of them i've met have turned out to be awesome. i liked San Sebastian, i think i would've liked it a bit more if it was just a little bit hotter so i could enjoy the beaches, but oh well. now i'm putting the rest of my spanish exploring off for a moment and heading off to Porto in Portugal for a while. i think its going to be another epic train ride, i'll do my best not to rant to much on the next blog.

Barcelona

2009-03-23T11:45:00.001-07:00

truth is, i'm a bit of a homebody at heart. I've noticed that ever time i get settled for a little bit, like staying at Celeste's or at Sarah's i find it really hard to get back into the groove of traveling again. i've been in two minds about heading home. mainly because i'm going broke thick and fast, as well as i wasn't really enjoying it as much. but gave myself a good slapping across the face, pulled myself together and decided to give spain ago, hoping that it would change my mind. i boarded the plane and in under 2 hours i was in Genova Airport, from there i caught a bus to Barcelona. when i got to the bus station i had to figure out how to get to my hostel. i had to catch the tube a couple of stops then change a couple of times. i had no idea what i was doing, and i think i ended up buying more tickets then i had to but i didn't really mind, i was there. as soon as i got onto La Rambla (which is the main road), i could feel a real buzz in the air. something that really struck me though was, as i was walking down La Rambla i couldn't get over how often i was offered drugs. not just pot, but class-A drugs, like cocaine. either i look like a really big stoner or drugs are rife here. maybe that was the buzz i could feel? anyway i found the hostel that i wanted to stay at, it was in Plaza Real, it included breakfast, dinner and did tours as well, but most of all it was a really friendly environment. but unfortuately it was fully booked out, not surprising really, so i ended up staying at an OK hostel just across the plaza. it was a little bit more than i would've normally paid but it was in a good location and offered breakfast. the only crap thing was there was a guy in my room who snored and, i think, he was sick because he was making all these strange noises that were all phlemy and yuck!

Generally, well i think, La Rambla is pretty rubbish, with tourist trap resturants (when you see what they are serving, you just know its going to be average), dodgy street preformers (since when has a guy dressed up as a statue been entertainment?), but occationally you find a good musician that are quite good to listen to, but you dont have to be on La Rambla to hear music, it seems to be everywhere. anyway, one hot tip that i got, was to check out 'La Boqueria' which is the market just off La Rambla. it was the best market i think i've ever been to. i swear there must be animals that i'm not aware of becuase i've never seen so many different types of meat, it was mental! i had lunch there a couple of times, also they had fruit and veg and they sold all different kinds of freshly squeezed juice, i dunno what it is, but when you travel the food you taste always seems to taste 10 times better than you've had before. it might be becuase i've been eating rubbish most of the time i've been traveling, so when i do get to try something good, its generally better.
while i was walking around i found a little area that had good food at a reasonable price (actually so far, i've found Spain to be quite expensive, i was kind of hoping that it wouldn't be. but then again, i am in a major city it might be better then i head to smaller towns). i had a Seafood Paella, which is kind of like a rice dish, it was brilliant, and really filling.

one of the reasons i wanted to go to Spain was to see some of Antoni Gaudí's work. Gaudí was an architect that did a number of really crazy buildings, its pretty hard not to see one while your here, they are everywhere. i was thinking to myself as i walked passed one on the way to La Pedrera, which is an apartment block he designed that doubles as a Gaudí museum, 'this guy looks like he was dropping acid, then playing with shells and bones to create houses' and it turns out i wasn't far off. he didn't drop acid, but he did use natural elements, like shells and bones, as inspiration for a lot of his work. so i guess 2 out of 3 ain't bad. i found his buidings almost dream like, it was quite fasinating really, some of the stuff he used to make designs for his buildings were really clever, i even saw broken bottles in the roof. i was looking at some of his furniture designs too, and i wouldn't be surprised if he was the grand daddy of ergonomics, just the way the chairs were moulded to suit the bodies shape and even the door handles in some of the houses he did were made by taking a cast of plastecine that had been grasped, to fit the hand perfectly.
a lot of the buidlings he created are now world heritage listed. so i went to a couple of other buildings that he did, like the Sagrada Família which is a church that is considered to be his master piece, but he never saw it finished, actually i think they are still trying to complete it. but, to be honest, i found it a bit of a let down. don't get me wrong, the outside is quite amazing to look at, but to get inside you had to pay something like 11 EURO then if you wanted to go up in a lift you had to wait in a really long line and pay a further 3 EURO. i found it a bit of a rip off and didn't go up and i was kind of kicking myself that i paid to go in. the other thing of his that i would recommend to other people to see is Park Güell which, in case you haven't guessed, is a park that he was commissioned to do. there are heaps of buildings within the park but i found the wall of the park quite interesting to look at. best of all its free to go in an have a look around.

i checked out the Olympic stadium which was originally built for an earlier games that was interupted by the Spanish Civil War. the only way i knew of it was from the 1992 Olympics, when the stadium was redeveloped. i still have memories of watching it on TV, because it was the first time i really remember an Olympic games. i remember the song that one of the guys from the 3 tenors sung at the Openning and Closing ceremony. also the guy shooting the flame up into the cauldron to begin the games. but probably my strongest memory is Dad and i going down the street to, probably, go and get bread and the news paper for breakfast. i remember us walking past a Retravision, or some store like that, where all these people where hanging out the front to watch Kieren Perkins on TV win the gold medal in the 1500m swim. i find it funny when i think of things like that, because back then i don't think i could've dreamed of being there, Barcelona seemed so far away.

i really liked wandering around the Gothic part of town with all the old buildings and such. as i think i've said before, i'm a little bit over churches now, but i ran into one that was quite good. i can't remember the name of it though, i think it was build during a time when the romans were here. anyway, it didn't really have a roof because it had a garden growing in the middle of it with a pond. i actually thought to myself 'this is probably one of the best churches i've been in' mainly because i felt it showed what religion should be all about, showing off god's creations for us all to admire and enjoy. sure beats getting preached to, don't you think?

i went to the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya, which is the national museum, but it was originally built for the World Fair (do we even still have those? if anyone knows, leave me a comment?) the building and its surounding area is quite symetrical and impressive. i climbed the stairs to the top and i thought, while i was up there, i should have a look around inside. i only went into the free area of the gallery but i noticed that the art work was really rich in colour and quite flowing, it wasn't like they were, i guess, how do i explain this... like trying to tell a kid to 'colour between the lines'. sometimes it crossed over the lines. but it wasnt messy or anything. i'm a fan of roughly drawn or painted work i think it describes the moment you are in while your painting it. i've always found painting a little bit scary, because i find it hard to paint myself out of trouble, but its thrilling at the same time. anyway thats enough about that. i'm constantly amazed at what some tourist will take photos of, i particularly like it when they pose in a way to make them look like there not posing. i watched this guy get his mate to take a photo of him looking at a painting, but then it wasn't right so he had to take another. another classic was i saw this girl on the top of a open-air double decker bus who wanted to get her photo taken, looking into middle distance with her hair blowing in the wind, her friend was just about to take her photo when the bus stopped, she made the gesture to her friend to wait, then when the bus started moving again she began looking into middle distance again, ready for the shot to be taken. why you would go to such effort i have no idea, what happened to the good old smile to camera?

i think i was getting used to small little towns because i totally underestimated the size of Barcelona, its freakin' HUGE! i don't generally like catching buses and trains becuase i feel sometimes you really miss out on seeing things, so i do a lot of walking, but here, i walked A LOT. but the weather has been nice and with the sun on my back, its been a pleasure, but i definately fall in a heap at the end of the day. Though spanish architecture has its own flavour, ie: fresco's, mosaics, ornate carvings, sandy coloured, quite rugged etc, everything you'd expect from a mediterranean city. something i did noticed while i was here, and it could be just me, but the buildings and general layout of Barcelona reminds me quite a lot of Paris. there buildings are quite high and some (not all) are very similar in style. also the layout of the roads is have a really big road followed by smaller ones that run in between the bigger one which is kind of how Paris works too. they even have an Arch de Triumph look alike, and guess what its called... yep, you guess it 'Arc de Triomf'. to me, it kind of makes sence to have a french connection because they are so close to one another, but then again, it could just be me. but i found it a little bit easier to navigate around here than i did in Paris.

i found the people here are pretty friendly, always putting there hands in your pockets and stuff, only kidding, you definately have to be careful of pick pockets here, La Rambla has a bit of reputation in particular, i didn't have a problem. but honestly, i did find Barcelona to have a friendly atmosphere. but i found some couples EXTREMELY touchy-feely, it was a bit much at times. but i like the old guys that get dressed up in there sunday best (no matter how hot it is) and sit on the bench at beach and just watch life pass by (and they probably do a little bit of perving while there at it too), people here are generally pretty relaxed but not many speak english, and i think its only going to get harder for me to communicate from now on.

i really enjoyed Barcelona, its probably been one of my favourite cities, it always seemed like there was something always going on, at midnight when most cities are winding down, its like Barcelona is only getting started, and there are heaps of cool little bars, with lots of character to get started in. even though i think i did a really good chunck of Barcelona, more than i could write about. i could easily spend weeks apon weeks here just wandering, what seem to be, endless streets. but i had already booked a cheap flight to Sofia in a months time, and i wanted to see a fair bit more of Spain while i'm here so i couldn't stay longer. if i do have some time left over i think i might come back. i suppose in a lot of ways i have to say a big 'Gracias' (pronounced 'Gra-th-e-us-th', as if you have a lisp) to Barcelona, because its made me start to enjoy traveling again. anyway, its time to say 'Hola!' to Sans Sebastian. more when i get there.

Chester

2009-03-20T08:54:00.001-07:00

i was very excited about my next stop. not just because Chester is meant to be very pretty, but i was meeting up with my friend Celeste. For those who don't know Celeste, or Lesty as i call her, we have been friends since we were in Uni and we started our professional lives working together as a creative team at an advertising agency. her and her boyfriend, Dusty (no, he's not a cowboy), moved over her at the start of the year so it was always my plan to come here and see them at some stage.

let me tell you, Lesty is living the dream. not only did she pick me up in Dustys work car, a brand new Jag, her place is awesome! its a fully furnished 3 level apartment with a brilliant location, just a stone throw from the main strip. i wasn't stuck on the couch either, i was lucky enough to get my own room with a double bed, and there was even a TV in the bathroom, when i saw that i thought i was living at Graceland! OK, i'm starting to sound like a real estate agent so i'd better stop, all i'm saying is maybe i should visit Chester more often.

Celeste is a bit of a movie buff, and always fills me in with whats good to watch, so the majority of the time i was here i spent it with Celeste watching pirated DVD's, i can't figure out where the pirates would come from, Chester is landlocked, celeste said not to ask questions. anyway, we saw pretty much all of the 1st season of '30 Rock' which could be my new favourite TV show, its really well written. 'Slumdog Millionaire' which is a really good film, its kind of strange no one has thought of it before. 'Australia', which was better than i expected. also the new Kate Winslet movie 'the Reader', which i also thought was really good, but i kind of find it hard to take Kate Winslet serious after seeing her in 'Extras'. if you don't know what i mean, there is an episode of 'Extras' where one of the characters has just got a boyfriend who likes to talk dirty on the phone, the character is quite awkward about it all so Kate Winslet gives her some advice, i'll leave you with a clip of how it all pans out. very funny.

when i finally got my arse into gear and ventured outside it turned out that Chester is a really cute little place. which kind of surprised me a little bit because i expected it to be a little bit more working class, because its so close to Liverpool. the town itself is full of tudor buildings which are really beautiful. the thing that astounds me is how they are built, they are really top heavy. the top floor almost always leans out over the floor below it, it kind of defies logic. wouldn't you build, the levels below, wider to give it more strength? strange. something else i noticed on the building was the brick work, some of them had some great patterns.
Chester is a walled city, well at least it used to be, its sprawled out a little bit over the year. you can do a walk around the walls, so Celeste and I did that which was nice except the wind was absolutly freezing, but it gave us a good chance to catch up and chat about old times. i like to think Celeste are pretty tight knit, we've known each other for quite a while now, and i guess when you work with someone one on one for many years you get to know them quite well, and i guess in a lot of ways, celeste knows me better than most people. i'm really lucky to have a friend as caring as Celeste, and in a lot of ways i guess i look at her more as a sister. i'm quite close to her family also and i was a bit shattered when i found out i was going to just miss out on seeing her mum and dad, Tina and Richard, but we got to skype them which was great. Richard is a photographer and was telling about a new piece of equipment that he brought for his camera that is kind of like a GPS, because it remembers where the photo was taken, and then you can upload it Google maps to the exact position from where you took the shot. how cool is that!

also during my time here i decided to get clean and made the first step in breaking my coke addiction, admitting that have a problem. i couldn't afford the Betty Ford clinic so Celeste's place had to do. i always thought i didn't have a problem, i always said 'i could give up at anytime', but didn't realise how much coca-cola had taken over my life, i was getting serious headaches from not having it, it was kind of frightening but in the same breath its funny becuase i thought i was being so well behaved, cutting down my cokes to just a couple a day, there was a time when i was having more. anyway, i'm feeling clean and have a new lease on life, i'm sure it will all eventually feature in the made-for-TV movie on my life, so you will be able to see how i kicked the habit cold turkey with someone devilishly handsome and charasmatic, like a Brad Pitt, playing my character. then again it will probably be someone a little more washed up, someone like Nudge from 'Hey Dad'.

i had a great time in Chester, it was really great to see Celeste and have some home cooked meals, i lived with Celeste for a little while and let me tell you, her mashed potato can't be beaten, this is starting to sound like a quote from the movie 'the Castle' but, i dunno what she does with it, but its brilliant! all i'm saying is, if her and Dusty go for a trip to Ireland, Dusty had better watch his back.
anyway, next time i'm writing another post i will be doing so while eating tapas and fending off pick pockets, thats right, i'm off to Spain. but first i have to go to Liverpool for a night, then fly out of there for Barcelona, truth be told i just wanted to fly out of an airport thats called 'John Lennon International Airport'. i'm actually really looking forward to a bit of a change in culture, and i think Spain is just what the doctor ordered. more when i get there!

Snowdonia

2009-03-15T12:18:00.000-07:00

to be totally honest, i had no idea what i was going to do after Cardiff. i hadn't really met many people that had travelled to Wales so i didn't really know which towns to visit. all i knew of Wales was Cardiff and that the Snowdonia area at the top of Wales was worth a look. i was lucky that the girl that worked in the hostel had a good knewledge of the area and pointed out a few different places for me to check out. it was lucky i did because she also showed me of how to get there.

good transport here in Wales is as fictional as the dragon on the Welsh flag. i heard that wales has some really beautiful country side so i wanted to at least travel through some of it on the way to Snowdonia, but the only way by train to get to the top of wales goes back out to england then shoots back into wales at the end, putting on a lot more travel time and missing out on some of the best bits of scenery, so i decided to used the local buses. it took me longer in the long run because the bus companies don't offer many runs so i would sometimes have to wait a couple of hours for a connecting bus, but in the end i think it was worth it. along the way i noticed that spring has definately sprung, with flowers begining to bloom as well as plently of baby lambs running about with there, yet-to-be-docked tails in endless fields sectioned off by hedges or stone walls. actually the Welsh kind of get treated by the English similar to the way Aussies treat New Zealanders, plenty of sheep jokes and stuff like that. which made me think, i've been through a fair bit of the United Kingdom but to be honest theres nothing united about it, the Scots hate the English, the English hate the Irish and the Welsh hate everyone.

after going through a number of cute little towns my first stop was Aberystwyth (try saything that 10 times fast) which is a little seaside town. i couldn't get into a hostel there so i had to stay in a B&B which ended up being quite nice and right on the water, and the cooked breakfast was just what the doctor ordered. Aberystwyth itself isn't very big but a nice spot, as i mentioned its right on the water and it has the ruins of an old castle but there isn't a hell of a lot of things to do there, which pretty much sums up the majority of wales, and the rest of this blog to be honest. its mainly just a pretty place to hang out.

next stop was Llanberis which is a little town at the foot of Mt Snowdon (if you hadn't guessed thats were Snowdonia gets its name from) to get there i had to get 2 small train rides then catch a bus and wait for an hour for another bus. it was while waiting i met a guy who was also waiting for the bus, he told me his name but i'm hopeless at remembering names, it mightt have been Adam. anyway, we got chatting because we were the only two people there, and it turned out he was in the airforce, he used to be a pilot but had an injury and couldn't continue flying. we got talking about a number of things, it turned out that his parents were killed in a car accident (on christmas day too i might add) when he was only 3 and his fiance, who i imagine he met while serving in the airforce, was killed in battle. naturally, i started to feeling sorry for the guy, but i was thinking to myself, why is this guy telling me so much about himself? he hardly knew me at all. anyway, the bus came and we got off at the same stop, i told him earlier that i was going to the hostel in the town so he said he'd show me where it was. anyway we got there and i checked in but i couldn't go up to my room because it was getting cleaned. i thought that once this guy had shown me the hostel he would go on his way but he insisted on showing me around the town, there wasn't really much to point out, it was quite small, it had a couple of shops and a lake behind it, he suggested that we head to the lake, but i was starting to feel a little bit uncomfortable about this guy, sure he's really helpful, but what is he getting out of it? i decided that going to a remote area like a lake wasn't such a good idea. so i said 'if you show me everything now, i'm not going to have anything left to explore, do you know where i can ge some internet?' he pointed out a library up the road, then i said 'i hope you don't miss your connecting bus just to show me around, what time did it get here again?' i thought i was never going to shake him, but after a few more minutes he left to catch his bus. he might have meant well and just been one of those people that was overly friendly, but i just got a bad feeling from him after a while, i might have been over reacting but i didn't fancy getting chopped up into little pieces, well, not today anyway. i think sometimes you have to follow your instict and i guess being alone i'm an easy target.

Anyway, the rest of the time in Llanbreris was quite nice, and pretty relaxed. theres a little train here that goes up to Snowdons peak but it was closed for maintenace so i caught a bus up to a point and did a bit of a walk around but nothing too over the top, there were a couple of lakes about half way up, so i sat there and read for a while and made the most of the sunshine. if your a fan of the outdoors, Wales is definately for you, there seems to be a huge treking and climbing community here.
while i was here i did a 'Britney Spears'. no, i didnt forget to wear underwear or have a wardrobe malfunction. i shaved my hair off. i was sick of having to to get it cut all the time and having longer hair while your traveling can be a nightmare at times, so i went to the hairdresses and got them to give me a number 4 all over, just for there own amusement they gave me a mo hawk for a bit. the little old ladys who were in there getting there blue rinse were loving it. its a strange feeling because i've never really had short hair before and it looks better than i expected. its good for a change, but it think i prefer having my hair longer.

i didn't mention this in my Cardiff post but you learn pretty quick that Wales is a bilingual country. whenever you see road signs they are both in English and Welsh. supposedly when they get there bills around here, they are given 2, one in english and one in welsh. sounds like a terrible waste of paper to me. whenever i see the Welsh words they don't look like you could pronouce them at all. the letters that sit next to one another look strange, i suppose its becuase i only know how to speak english i always look at it and try to apply the english rules, which simply just don't work. something interesting i noticed was, in Cardiff most people spoke english, but the further north in wales you go the more people speak welsh.

after Llanberis i headed off to the little, seaside, walled town of Caernarfon, which was originally built by Edward I and has a castle that connects to the walls and sits right on the water. in hindsight, heading to wales and putting a ban on myself seeing castles was probably a bad idea, i've seen a stupid amount of castles since i've been in europe and they are all pretty much the same, but the majority of things to see in Wales are castles, supposidly they have more than anyone. again, unless you count the castle theres not really much to see a guess, but its still quite a pretty little place to wander around and look in shops etc. the hostel i stayed at had a young family that ran it who were really nice, but they had a little Jack Russell that reminded me of my dog, Eddie, so it was nice having a dog to pat and play with.

i had to head to Bangor because i was going to Chester the next day and the train left from there, so i spent a day up there. i knew of Bangor because the Beatles came here once to do listen to the Maharishi do a seminar on meditation. anyway, Bangor is also a seaside village but probably bigger than the other towns i went to. they have a university here which is quite old and beautiful to walk around but probably the best thing about having a university in a town is the students, i found this place a bit more youthful, with cafes and bars etc. but more importantly for me a music shop, i was desperate to play guitar, even if i had to pose as a man in the market for a new guitar, i think the fake moustache and glasses through off the sales assistant because he let me play for a while.

i suppose because i didn't know much about wales it was always going to be a little bit hit and miss, but thinking back, i think i hit more than i missed in Wales, though on the train to Chester i noticed a town called Conwy that looked like an interesting spot, almost a combination of a number of places i visited, but i suppose you can't do everything. i'm writing this blog a in Chester becuase there was hardly any internet access in wales, i hope you haven't been hanging on the edge of your seat, don't blame me, blame the welsh! anyway, more about Chester in the next blog.

Cardiff

2009-03-13T08:43:00.000-07:00

i decided that on the way to Cardiff i would stop off in Bristol because i'm a big fan of the street artist, Banksy. he is from here and you can see a number of is work around town (if you haven't heard of Bansky before click here to check out his website which displays some of his work). before i came here i got told that Bristol is a really rough place, but i didn't find it like that at all, it kind of reminded me of Liverpool a little bit, of course, like anywhere there are bad parts, the Stokes Croft area where a number of Banksy's was a bit rough around the edges but apart from that i thought it was quite good with many cool and creative things happening around town. in some ways i was a little bit annoyed at myself for buying a ticket to cardiff, it would've been nice to spend a couple of days here.

the thing i like about Banksy is his appropriation, the place he puts his work and the stuff designed for the space is very clever and, i think, makes you think. for instance this piece is one of the many i saw in Bristol

i think its quite clever on its own, but the thing that adds so much more to the piece is that its painted on the side of a sexual health clinic.
another thing i like about his is he has change peoples opinions on street art. before him, a number of people felt that it was mindless and a plague on society, and to be fair there is some aspects of it that aren't that good ie: tagging. but now Banksy's work is admired throughout the world and his work is highly sort after, for instance some people have even taken insurance out on the wall his work was painted on. people here seem to be really proud of his work too, i asked a number of people where i could find some of his stuff and they were more than happy to point out stuff to me even the little old lady in the tourist office showed me where to find a couple.

at some train stations that i've visited throughout europe i've been able to leave my backpack but in the UK its a bit different, they are a bit paranoid about terrorism, which i can understand, these are the times we live in, its kind of surprising that other places throughout europe offer lockers for bags come to think of, anyway, this meant i had to lug my backpack around for the day but i think it was well worth it.

anyway, on to Cardiff. i got off my the train and found my hostel which pretty easy to find, it was right near the big rugby stadium and a short walk from the station. when i got there i thought i got the wrong place, the hostel was more like a hotel! the best part of all is they made a bit of mix up and they put me in a 4 person dorm with a TV, lounges, an amazing view over the river and an ensuite but most importantly i got the room all to myself so i caught up on some much needed sleep, i stayed in that room for a couple of nights before they realised and then they moved me to a dorm, which was still pretty good. i met a guy from Sydney called Byron, top bloke, him and i had a similar sence of humour and got on quite well. We pretty much hung out together the whole time i was here.

one night we went out with a couple of people we met from the hostel. one of the girls we went out with turned out to be a HUGE liability, she said that some guy threw a drink at her so she grabbed a drink and threw it all over him. Byron and I didn't see it happen but obviously the guy was rather annoyed and it was getting pretty heated so we made the decision to get the group together and head off. problem was, the guy who had the drink poured over him, followed us out of the club and kept egging us on to try and make us fight him, Byron and i didn't really give a shit about what the guy was saying, we knew what he was trying to do, but the girl just made it worst, by giving the guy the finger. By this stage Byron and i were pretty sick of this chick, becuase if there was going to be a fight i'm pretty sure it wasn't going to be her that was going to get a knuckle sandwich, it was going to be us, so we told her to pull her head in. i think they must have a few problems with fighting and other drink related stuff becuase on the Saturday i was here they totally shut down the main street of Cardiff off to traffic so that the police and the ambulance can get through. and i dunno what they feed the guys here but they are all built like german tanks, they are massive so there not the kind of people you want to get on the bad side of. anyway, the moral of the story is, don't party with girls from far north Queensland.

Something that was fun was Wales played Italy in the rugby, i wouldn't say i'm not a huge sports fan but i figured that watching a Rugby match in wales is probably a 'must do'. so Byron and i went to a little pub and watched it on the big screen. the vibe in the pub was brillant and funnily enough, a little less troublesome than the previous night. the game didnt start off too well, italy scored first and it wasn't looking good for a while there but they came back and won the match.
to be totally honest, Cardiff is a little bit on the boring side, its not very big and there isn't really a lot to do here. they have a castle here but i'm a little bit castled out having been in europe 6 months now, i think i've seen enough castles to last me a lifetime, but there is a really big park right next to it which was nice to walk around in.
i went out to Cardiff bay which was quite nice, it was a nice day weather wise so i think that helped. it looked like they had pumped a hell of a lot of money into the area, with heaps of new buildings around and the older ones being renovated. probably one of the more interesting of the newer buildings is the Wales Millennium Centre, which got the nick name 'the armadillo' because it has copper plates all over it that resemble the animals protective armour. apart from that there aren't too many sights, i suppose you could add the National Museum which had a number of big artist hanging in there.

anyway, i think i was quite lucky i to have met Byron, he made my stay here bareable. having said that i haven't given up on Wales quite just yet, i'm looking forward to heading up north towards the Snowdonia mountain range, which is meant to have some beautiful sweeping country side, so don't expect an exciting action packed blog when i get around to writing about it i think it will be for my viewing pleasure rather than your reading pleasure. more when i get around to writing more i suppose. bye for now!

Bath

2009-03-12T10:23:00.000-07:00

call me a nerd (i know that i would) but i love public transport, mainly because everyone can use it, its not exclusive but also it kind of fascinates me how it all works, like who decides bus routes? why do they go through those destinations? i noticed that in london a lot of buses ran from low socio economic areas into high socio economic areas, was it done that way originally so that servants for the rich could get to work? just a thought. anyway, i saw on the news that bus companies were stopping some less popular services because of the economic crisis it wasn't viable for them to run to run it anymore which has left people in remote areas high and dry. its a real shame i think, esspecially for the elderly that can no longer drive and probably can't afford a taxi either. alot of transport in the UK is privately owned and so a lot of things cost an arm and a leg and i imagine that a lot of there decisions are all profit based, its definately a downfall of privatizing public transport.
i think i may have been ripped off on the train ride, i read that you could catch the train to Bath for under £20, turns out it cost me double and it wasnt worth me catching the tube to the bus station, it probably wouldn't have been much of a saving with all the muddling around. anyway, i tried to see the positive, i got there earlier and i was there in about an hour. someone asked me the other day 'whats it like travelling?' and i replied 'traveling is great except for all the traveling' i enjoy when i get to place, but moving is such a pain in the arse.

Bath is a really old and really beautiful place, but one of the first things i noticed was the accent had changed again and this time they sounded a little bit like pirates, lots of ahhhh's and eyyyy's i expected someone to say 'shiver me timbers!' at any moment. i did a walking tour with an old english gentleman as the tour guide. he was saying that the majority of bath's buildings are built out of limestone from the surrounding hills, its a really nice honey colour too, he pointed out a couple of significant buildings, like where Jane Austen lived and he pointed out a couple areas around the place that apparently appear in her books. i can't say i've ever read a Jane Austen they sound a little bit lovey dovey to me, so i think i'll give them a miss. he also showed me the Royal Cresent which is a really amazing building made up of 30 or so house, one of them is where the Grand Old Duke of York lived, you know they one, who had 10,000 men, he marched them to the top of the hill and marched them back down again... and so on and so on. my guide was impressed i knew the song, even though i have no idea how the hell i knew it. i think the most impressive buildings are The Circus which is, as the name may suggest, a group of building that go around a circle or round about. a Prime Minster lived in two of them for a bit, and supposedly actor Johnny Depp bought one recently, its a very nice end of town.

Bath isn't very big but i noticed that there was a number of parks around the place which was enjoyable for a change. Of course i checked out the roman baths, they were really quite amazing, they were built when the Romans moved in and used the natural springs to create these spas, going through them i was amazed at how ahead of the game the Romans were. they were really into cleanliness and would bath at least once a day, but also use the spa as a way to heal the wounded or sick. at the end they give you a drink of the water, to try out its healing qualities, it tasted a bit funny but at the moment i need all the help i can get.

while i was here i went into a walk-in clinic because i've been having dizzy spells the last couple of weeks and i was a bit worried at what i might be, mainly because my Mum is a diabetic and i wasn't sure if light-headedness was a symptom so i thought i would get it check out. the Walk-in clinic here are quite good, i waited for about an hour (which, i think, is pretty standard) and i didnt have to pay a cent or pound or penny or whatever, you get my drift. I saw the Micheal Moore documentary 'Sicko' which is about screwed the American health system is over there, of course, like most things Mike Moore does, it was pretty bias but it is worth a look if you haven't seen it. anyway, it mentions the British Health system in the Doco and i was impressed, the French system is probably even better with doctors actually driving to your house. i remember talking to an American couple who were studying medicine while i was in Switzerland, about whether or not free health care would ever come into play in the states. the girl was all for it, but guy pretty much said that it would never happen because why would doctors want to be paid less? he had a point, doctors with a private practise would probably earn more, but not much more, i argued that the idea was to benefit everyone not just individuals, but clearly didn't see my point, which i found incredibly frustrating. hopefully President Obama has more sense. by the way, if your wondering, the nurse did all the test and i'm fine, she said that its a bit of wear and tear and that i should just take it easy over the next couple of days.

but my hostel didn't really help when i came to relaxing. it was pretty average when it came to getting sleep. there is a pub underneath it so i heard the throbbing sounds of Justin Timberlake until the wee hours of the morning, though i imagine so girls would love to hear the throbbing sounds of Justin Timberlake as they drift off to sleep, i can't say i really did. and another night some guys got home drunk and woke everyone up trying to get into there beds. actually it was kind of funny in a way because i know that when i'm intoxicated that i think i'm quiet as a mouse when i get home, but i'm sure i'm not. i suppose a positive from staying there was that i got breakfast included.

i did a day trip to Stonehenge while i was here, from Bath its only a stone throw away (see what i did there). the trip there was quite nice, pretty of open country side and occationally you would pass through a little village with cottages that had thatched roofs etc. in the distance i saw the Westbury White Horse which is an area of ground that had been carved out into a shape of a horse, underneath the ground is chalk which made the area white. we went through an area called Cley Hill which is known for is UFO and crop circle sightings which is quite funny, incase your wonering i didnt see any little green men.after about an hour drive we arrived at Stonehenge. my first impression was it was smaller than i expected. don't get me wrong it was still big, i certianly wouldn't have wanted to lug those massive rocks around, but it was just smaller than i imagined. its quite an amazing sight, and the more info you get of it the more amazing it gets. its still quite a mystery as to why it was built out of those stones because they taken from miles away, but also, why did they build it at all? theres a few ideas that run around but i think the likely answer is it was used as a calander. because of the way the stones are situated, when sun rises you can tell what time of year it is and what season we are in. quite clever really. but i like a bit of mystery and i think sometimes were not meant to know some things. things like when you put socks in the wash how come one generally goes missing? or why is the lint in your belly button always blue? i'll leave you those to ponder for a while. the only dampener is there is a huge bloodly highway that runs about 50 metres away from Stonehenge, which kind of ruins the experience a little bit. i heard that they are thinking of putting the road underground, hopefully they do.

i'm going to spain pretty soon, i picked up a cheap flight while i was in london, so i figured i should make the most of being in an place that has a sells a good range of books in english, so got a book called 'e'. my creative director, Nancy, recommended it to me ages ago so i thought i should buy it, its based in an advertising agency that is pitching for the coca-cola account and its all written in the form of emails, which i think sounds like an interesting way to write a book. anyway should be an interesting . anyway, thats all from me for a bit, next stop: Cardiff, Wales.

London for a second time

2009-03-05T08:51:00.000-08:00

ah, the joys of not catching a bus or a train. i caught a plane from Amsterdam to London Gatwick and the flight took a little under an hour and was pretty much hassle free, except i had to get to the airport quite early.

having done most of the touristy things around London last time i was here (click here if you want to read about what i got up to) pretty much, this time i just enjoyed walking around checking out shops and stuff. the only real touristy things i did were go to the British Museum which has an amazing collection, from Eygptian stuff to Native American, a bit of everything really, they even had a section on clocks! the Natural History Museum which had a whole section on dinosaurs, i remembered back to when i was a kid and the movie 'Jurassic Park' came out and was really into them. both were interesting buildings just to walk through. while i was walking around town i did a fair bit of people watching and now i totally understand why the Kinks sang songs about eccentric people and where the guys from the TV show 'Little Britain' got the inspiration for there characters. there are a lot of strange looking people around, well, there are strange people everywhere i guess, but there seems to be a lot more weird types breeding here.

My friend Sarah's whose been living and working here in London for a little under a year has decided to head back home to Melbourne so she had her going away drinks and dinner in Brick Lane with a few friends from work and a couple other people thats she met traveling, people like Marc and Jack who are simply hilarious, when they get together theyre like a comedy duo. we got on really well, mainly because we would poke a bit of fun at Sarah. also we had a brilliant tube ride home with Marc and I breaking into an amazing rendition of the Elton John classic 'Don't Let the Sun Go Down On Me', the people on the train loved it, so much so we got an applause at the end. the guy who was sitting next to me said to us as he got off, 'whatever you guys are doing now is wasted, you need to pursue a career in show business'.

While i was here i once again got Sarah's house to myself. Sarah and her housemate Deanna went to Poland for the weekend with Jack and Marc, but i still had plenty of catching up to do. Flick and Jess, who i used to work with, had moved to London since i had been here last so i had a lovely boozy afternoon with them at a number of bars and pubs in Soho, so it was nice to catch up with them to see what they'd been up too, and talk about old times.

Something i wanted to do while i was here was checked out a West End play. so i got a ticket for one called 'Avenue Q' that i had heard about it a few months back from a couple of other travellers that i'd met so i decided i should go and see it because they raved about it so much. i guess you could say the show is loosly based on the kids TV show 'Sesame Street' with the majority of the characters in the show being puppets, who couldnt afford to live on Sesame Street so they live on Avenue Q. but its not as innocent as you might think, they sings songs like 'Everybodys a little bit racist sometimes' and 'The Internet Is for Porn' (click here to here it for yourself) there was even a puppet sex scene! i love cheeky humour so really enjoyed it, but i wasnt the only one the audience was roaring with laughter. its was really well put together, come to think of it i dont know why i dont see more live theater, i remember when my Mum took me to see 'Cats' when i was a little kid i thought it was amazing, so much so when we got a cat i named him 'Magic' after 'Mr. Mistoffelees'.

the weather here has been quite good really but one of the days i was here was glorious so i decided to do a trip up to Cambridge. Cambridge is a really pretty town and it was a lot smaller than i thought it was going to be. a couple of the sights are the little river that runs through it which is quite nice to walk along, they even have gondala-like things you can float down it on and they have a really old round church, supposidly theres only meant to be 4 or 5 of them. but of course, Cambridge is probably best known for its University. is really old, infact its the second oldest in the english speaking world, being founded somewhere in the 1200's but i never realised that Cambrige University was actually started by Oxford to escape the hostile townspeople of Oxford. something i noticed while i was there is that one stretch of road would change names a number of times. the reason being that the road is named after the college thats in front of it.
there are a number of Colleges that make up Cambridge University but probably the most famous is Trinity which originally was made up of a couple of colleges but the King combined them. a statue of the King holding a sword sits above the gate as you walk into it. as as you can imagine, students being students, they get up to a bit of mischief, one day some one noticed that the sword in the Kings hand had been replaced with a chair leg! supposidly the University has replaced the sword a couple of times but he always ends up with a wooden chair leg, which i thought was quite funny.
there are lots of amazing buildings in the University some of them hundreds and hundreds of years old in many different styles of Architecture. but probably the most epic of all the buildings is King's College Chapel, as the name suggests it was built because of the King, but it was built in a few different stages due to Kings dying and the next in line to the throne changing his mind about how the chapel should look. the leadlighting in the chapel is incredible and during WWII to make sure it wouldnt be destroyed it was numbered and removed then reassembled after the war had finished. its also meant to have a pretty kick-arse choir, even though the acoutics in the church are brillant, i think i would rather punch myself in the bollocks then listen to them.
something strange is in the colleges there are grassy areas in the squares, or courts as they call them, but only the 'fellows' (which i think are the teachers that work there) can walk on the grass. i've noticed that you can't walk on grass in a lot of places while i've been traveling, i find that so strange coming for Australia. i love laying on grass its probably one of the best things in life, since when has it been for the elite few? and another thing was women weren't allowed to study at Cambridge until 1869 with the openning of the girls college, they were allowed to sit exam etc but the University didnt give out degrees to women until 1947! how ridiculous is that!
the university has had a number of notable alumni over the years; Princes, Poets, Nobel Prize winners (something like 83 of them have come from here) and Prime Ministers but probably the most famous is Mr Isaac Newton, who was also a fellow here. Of course he was the clever fella that figured out gravity by seeing an apple drop from a tree, something i liked was, out side of the window of the room he lived in while he was here was an apple tree which was grown from the roots of the original apple tree.
Cambridge is such an amazing spot, it oozes with history and tradition, i had a really enjoyable day there.

something i thought it was quite funny that i heard when i was here last time but didnt mention. The mayor of London is a guy called Boris Johnson, to most British hes rather embarrassing, he always sort of looks disheveled and he bumbles around, quite funny. anyway he found this old law saying that you were allowed to drink on the tube and he wanted to ban it. English laws are generally quite funny, there so old and strange at times, mainly becuase something probably happened once so they thought they'd better put something in place so it wouldnt happen again. anyway, hardly anyone knew that you could legally get drunk there. so on the night before the new law was put into place, everyone threw a huge party on the tube!

something i noticed that i thought was pretty nifty was you can use certain ATM's here to top up your phone credit, when you think about it, its a brilliant idea, i'm pretty sure they don't have that back home, why not? the phone companies are pretty much all the same.

Newspapers here are generally pretty horrible, theres this girl in the news at the moment called Jade Goody, she became a minor celebrity over here for being on Big Brother a few years back, i believe she said something racist to another constestant on the show and all hell broke loose. anyway, unfortuately Jade is dying of cervical cancer and doctors have only given her days to live. the thing that makes me sick is the ways its been played out in the media. as far as i'm meant to believe she has been doing interviews and she got married to her boyfriend (who sounds like a real tool by the way) and sold the pictures to the papers for X amount money so that she can save up a nest egg for her 2 children. to some extent i can understand that, i dont think its something that i would do but i suppose if i had kids i would do what i could to protect them finacially. anyway, theres a huge media storm about it all, my friend Sarah was working at a doctors where Jade was getting treatment, she was telling me that the media would call up pretending to be doctors from other hospitals to find out her progress. which made me think, are people really that sick and twisted that they will do ANYTHING for personal gain? this poor woman is DYING, give her and her family some respect. it really made me sick to see how dog eat dog the world is. but who do you blame? the journo's for pestering or the readers for buying the newspapers? though i shouldn't get on my high horse, Australian papers are just as bad.

once again i had a really good time in London, its always handy when you have friends in a place. its so nice of Sarah and Deanna to let me stay with them, i really apprieciated it, its so nice to have the creature comforts of a home for a bit, living in a hostel for a while gets a little bit tiring after a while.
Sarah gave me a couple of books for the rest of my journey. the first being George Orwells 'Nineteen Eighty Four' which was on my 'to do' list so i was really greatful at that, but then she gave a book titled 'Marley & Me' i looked on the back cover and it read 'Life and Love with the World's Worst Dog' i'm sure i would've had a really perplexed look on my face when she gave it to me. somehow i dont think i'm going to get around to reading that one.
i think now that Sarah's not going to be here next time i'm back in London i think its going to be a different experience, but i'll have new friends in the form of Deanna, Marc and Jack. next stop is Bath, to re-educate myself the importance of cleaning behind my ears, or so i imagine. more when i get there.

Amsterdam for a second time

2009-03-02T07:10:00.000-08:00

nothing really much to report really, if the title of this blog isnt a give away enough, i'd been to Amsterdam before (click here to see the post from last time) i enjoyed it so much, that when Sarah was thinking of places we could go for a few days before she headed back home, i instantly decided that we should come back for round two.
the train ride was reasonably painless, but i didnt really have much distance to travel. but i was still feeling the effects of doing too much and had a splitting headache when i got off train so i headed straight for my hostel. as soon as i openned the door, i was hit in the face with smoke, as if to remind me where i was. Sarah wasnt getting into Amsterdam until about 7pm that evening so i took the opportunity and went to my room and i slept. it was probably the best idea i've ever had, it did me the world of good and amazingly i woke up just as Sarah was walking in the front door of the hostel.

pretty much for the next couple of days we had coffee, ate, one place we went to had this massive cat, who acted like he pretty much owned the place. its actually not that uncommon to see a furry friend mainly to keep the other little furry ones away. Amsterdam has a bit of a problem with mice, mainly due to the water. i brought a few things in a couple of the vintage stores here. i'm so sick of sticking to a budget so it thought bugger it and brought a jacket, a vest, a flannelette shirt and a few other little bits and pieces, it didnt really cost me that much either. i really hate having limited things to wear, i always feel i'm wearing the same clothes all the time, so i think a few new additions to the wardrobe should do the trick.

i saw and found out a couple of other things while i was here. one of them was, back in the day, how much you were taxed depended upon how wide your house was. so, needless to say, there are some pretty skinny little homes around the place, the smallest being just 1.8m wide, how does someone live like that? oh and have you ever wondered why all the sporting teams from the Netherlands dress in Orange even though orange doesnt appear on there flag? i know that i have. it turns out its because they were governed by the House of Orange. also even though it is legal here in Amsterdam, New Zealand is the number 1 user of Cannabis on the planet. i tell you, when i get back i think i might do the Trivia night circuit, i think i would make a killing with the amount of worthless knowledge i've picked up along the way.

when i travel i really like to involve myself into things that are typical of that particular area, whether it be a national dish or perhaps a drink, so of course i wouldnt be doing myself justice if i didnt try what Amsterdam is known for. (just like the last blog Nanna, this is where you have to stop reading for a while) across the road from our hostel, Sarah and I (mainly Sarah) got wind that there was a cafe that sold hash muffins, so Sarah twisted my arm and made me go over. let me just say that Sarah is a really bad influence, i was like 'Please Sarah, don't force me to put this devils cake into my mouth, what would my Nanna think?' but she wouldn't take no for an answer and shoved it down my throat. at first nothing really happened except my arms and legs were a little bit heavier than usual but that was about it. i thought that maybe we had a dud batch, so a said to Sarah that we should go to this resturant that i went to last time i was here that was just across the river. so we made it to the dock and waited for our ferry. i couldnt remember which ferry it was so i asked a guy if he knew which one i needed to get, once he found out we were both Australian he was very talkative. but in the middle of him chatting, the hash muffin kicked it. it was like a switch, one second i was fine the next i was somewhere else and was trying my best to talk to this guy without breaking into fits of laughter. anyway we boarded the ferry and set off to the other side, but when we got there i couldnt remember how to get to the resturant, from memory it was a bit of a distance and i wasnt really in the state of mind to find it, so we had a bit of a giggle about it and got back on the ferry and headed back. we wound up in a Kabab shop (as you do) then Sarah said to me 'can we not eat here?' i was thinking, whats wrong with his place, i'm going to have you speak about kababs that way, esspecially since they have been a stable part of my diet since been traveling, i've become defensive about them. but it wasnt the food she was freaking out about, she asked me if her mouth was moving and told her 'nup' she was convinced it was chattering and began to flip out a little bit, i couldnt help but laugh. so i got the kababs we ordered and sat out side on the steps of our hostel. Sarah thought it might be a good idea if she went inside and had a lay down for a while, before we knew it she had fallen asleep by 8:30pm, what a party animal! we both had a good laugh about it the next day and both realised how extremely uncool we are. (OK Nanna you can continue reading).

actually come to think of it, Nanna you might not want to read this next story either its a little bit beyond the PG rating i've tried to keep to for the rest of the blog. i call this story 'the calamity of sleeping in hostels'. let me set the scene for you, it was our first night we stayed at the hostel and we were in a 18 bed mixed dorm room (may i remind you i said 18 beds, which means 18 people in this one room) it was probably about 2 or 3 o'clock in the morning when i got woken up to the sound of squeaking. which in some circumstances isnt to out of the usual, you know, people rolling over in the night and whatnot. but when the squeaking almost had a rhythm to it i felt something was up, and it certainly was for one gentleman in the room. seems that him and his girlfriend were, well, lets just just say they were 'in the throws' and didnt seem to mind that there were quite a number of people in the room with them. i had to put the pillow over my head to get some sleep. the next day i found it really hard to look at them without having a giggle under my breath. i told Sar about it and she said that she didnt hear a thing, lucky for her she didnt miss out on the encore the next night when they kept both of us up. in the whole time i've been travelling i havent come across that yet, and i find it hard to see how you could in that situation. and to do it twice, thats just plain cocky.

the past couple of days have been really relaxing and enjoyable, in comparison to when i arrived, i feel a hell of a lot better. Next i fly to London to stay with Sar for a couple more days. more when i get there.

Bruges

2009-02-24T02:50:00.000-08:00

I caught a train from Switzerland to Bruges, with a few changes along the way. i always freak out when i have to change trains, i always think i'm going to miss the stop and be stranded somewhere. anyway, as you can imagine, Switzerland to Belgium is a bit of a hike and i didnt end up getting into Bruges until about 2am. but if you've been wondering whatever happened to the guy from the band 'simply red', i'm pretty sure he is now a train conductor.

my plan was to come to Bruges to get closer to Amsterdam, because i'm meeting my friend Sarah there at the end of the week, but also for a bit of R&R, i think i've been burning the candle at both ends for the last month, especially in Switzerland because it was so expensive to stay there, i got into my room, and just my luck, 2 guys (who later turned out to be an Aussies) were snoring there heads off. it looked like R&R was going straight out the window. i was laying there for a while, praying something mysterious would happen to him like a giant magic cork would appear out of no where and plug his mouth. after a while he turned over and stopped snoring long enough for me to fall asleep. problem was, i was woken up at the crack of dawn to the sound of drilling and banging hammers. the people at reception forgot to mention that they were having renovations. but i did see a light at the end of the tunnel. the hostel provided breakfast, and not a crappy breakfast, a half decent one. i havent been eating that well of late so i couldnt get enough of this. also when you ate at the hostels resturant you got to sample some of the beers. you can't come to Bruges without sampling beers, theres something like 160 of them to choose from. so that was a bit of a bonus. i tried one of them that was cherry flavoured, it brought back bad memories of when i had a cold or something when i was a kid, becuase it tasted a bit like medicine. i couldnt finish it.

The first day i was here i didnt really think much of it, i think it was mainly because i was tired and restless. but after the second day i started to get into the swing of things. Bruges is a cute little medieval place, its got some canels that run through it, sometimes its called 'the Venice of the north' but i dunno about that, its a pretty big call. all the things to see an do are in the old town, there isnt much out side of that. On a wednesday in the 'Grote Markt' which is big square in the centre of town, they had a food market, they roast chickens and waffles, chocolate, cheeses, fries with sauces, all the vices in life. this is where i started to enjoy being able to afford things again. actually, getting back to fries for a second, they are so mad about there fries here, they even have a museum about the humble potato and how to make the best fries, supposidly the trick to making great fries is to fry them twice

They have this Church here called the 'Basilica of the Holy Blood' which is where they supposidly keep a vile of Jesus' blood handy just in case of an emergency blood transfusion... kidding. i went there, and i'm constently amazed how the church will screw money out of people. to actually see the vile or blood you have to pay something like 20EURO's. i couldnt really give a rats behind, but its the people that really believe in God that actually pay the money that i feel sorry for. but it made me think, if we 'have' Jesus' blood, have the church allowed scientists to do DNA samples on it? and would they consider letting Jesus 'rise again' through cloning?
another churchy thing they are quite proud of here, is a Michelangelo statue of the Madonna and child they say it 'is to Bruges what the Mona Lisa is to the Louve', again, really MASSIVE call, and i didnt think it was that great but they love it.

But overall, i think Bruges is just a nice place to chill out for a bit, i did a fair bit of walking around here, they have some nice little quaint parks here where the canals run through, its seems to be where all the swans hang out. so that was nice, also the buildings here are so old and have quite a lot of character with there high pitched roofs and ornate carvings. while i was walking around i noticed a funny looking post sticking out of the ground, when i got closer i noticed it wasnt a post, it was an old cannon sticking up out of the ground. turns out it was left behind by dutch troops in the 1600's but nobody really knows when and how it got stunk in the ground like that, and why it was left there. crazy!

after a couple of days i was a bit sick of Bruge, it was nice and all but a little on the boring side. also i wanted to catch up with Celine, who i stayed with when i was in Brussels towards the start of my trip (click here to check out the Brussells post) she had just begun moving to Gent when i was in Brussels so i wanted to see how she was getting on.

first of all i forgot how nice Gent is, its kind of like it has a fascade of an old town but its got plenty of cool stuff going on around it. i think theres a arts university there so it has a studenty feel to it. i really like it there. anyway, back to Celine. Celine came from Brussels and only spoke French so moving to Gent (even though is under an hour from Brussels) is a pretty big move becuase she had to learn a whole new language, Flemish. she said learning the language was coming along, but tricky at times because she was limited in explaining herself, but her house mates sounded pretty cool and they helped her by speaking french some of the time. also she still worked in Brussels and so i imagine it would be hard to practise. but was looking at getting some work in Gent to help her use the language more.
but it sounded like she was keeping busy, she is designing some hats for a fashion show which is great news, and some of her illustration work, that she was doing while i was there last, got given the go ahead and was given some money to create it. it was really lovely catching up with her for lunch, shes such a nice person and it was great to have a conversation other than 'hostel chat'. another great thing about catching up with her was Celine has a sweet tooth and took me to an amazing cake store for some cup cakes. they were so good!

so decided that after having lunch with Celine i would head up to Antwerp and stay the night there. i'm so glad i did. from the moment i got out of the train i knew i was going to like this place. the station was really beautiful, with a massive glass arched roof. and right next to the station is a zoo, which turns out is one of the oldest in Europe. i was pretty sick of lugging my bag around by this point so i went and found my hostel. the guy that owned it with his wife, was so lovely and helpful, pointing out areas to check and what not. there place was more like a home than a hostel, that evening i sat down and watched a couple of DVD's 'Coffee and Cigarettes' which was ok, a bit hit and miss at times, but the part with Steve Coogan was gold. and the other guy in the hostel wanted to watch 'Monsters Ball' which i'd seen before but, whatever. it was great to zone out for a while and not do too much for a change.

the next day i ventured out to explore the city. and was soon kicking myself that i stayed too long in Bruges and didnt come here earlier. there were plenty of great bars, nice street art and clothing shops, supposidly some great fashion labels come from here, but i mainly checked out the vintage clothing stuff. i pretty much spent a lot of the time doing my best to get lost to try and find things that werent on the tourist map. i found a little make-shift auction that was in a market place, some of the stuff they were selling was quite good but i particulally liked the auctioneer yelling 'do-i-hear-four-euro?-four-four-four-five-euro-five-five-five-six?-once-twice-three-times-SOLD! to the man in the brown jacket" but obviously he said it in flemish, but it was cool. but, on the tourist side of things there is a couple of things to see, the house of master painter Rubens is one of them. you can see where he painted thousands of paintings (with a little help from others) as well as see a couple in the flesh. i'm not sure a huge fan so i didnt bother going in, plus a didnt have much time here because i needed to get to Amsterdam to check-in to the other hostel.

at the moment here in Belgium there is a big discussion on whether or not to devide the country between the Flemish and French speaking. one of the main partys behind this movement is from up this way and there are a few people that say that people in Antwerp at quite racist. i found that really quite hard to believe becuase i found the place extremely mulitcultural, esspecially in the 'diamond district' which is, funnily enough, where they have a big diamond trade, but its also extremely jewish part of town.

it was a pain that i spent too much time in Bruges and didnt come here earlier, i wish i spent another day or so here, there was so much more to explore. but in someways its like a little Amsterdam and i was heading to the real thing, so not to worry. i love hearing funny laws and stuff like that, while i heard while i was here that its actually legal to carry 3 grams on pot on you along as your coming from Amsterdam.

Something i found a bit annoying was i didnt meet anyone at either of the hostels that i would consider keeping in contact with. i met one american guy who was constantly googling topics in our conversation on his iPhone. and of course there were the two Australian guys who were bogans, if i were to rate them out of 10, 10 being the most bogan, i would probably give them about an 11, maybe even a 12. i just had nothing in common with them, it didnt help that we didnt get off on the right foot when they interupted my sleeping. but also they were a bit younger than me (straight out of school) so i think that might have made a difference

but i'm really looking forward to going back to Amsterdam, its easily one of my favourite places i've travelled too, but most of all i'm looking forward to seeing Sarah. i've kind of found it a little bit tricky the last couple of months being by myself, so i think hanging out with a friend will be just what the doctor ordered, more when i get there.

Switzerland

2009-02-18T13:17:00.000-08:00

This is another one of those 'before you start grab a Cup of Tea' moments. its a pretty long one, maybe to fit in with the theme of Switzerland you should crack open a block of Toblerone too.

well i hit a little bit of a hiccup when i got on the wrong train. but it wasnt entirely my fault, the train i got on wasnt meant to pull into that platform and becuase i was told my train would be pulling into that platform i just got on without thinking to double check. the train pulled out and started heading the wrong direction so i asked the 50 something year old man in front of me where the train is going. he filled me in and i freaked for second because i thought i might have to buy another expensive ticket and also the train im on might be on an express train, lucky for me it wasnt and i didnt have to get another ticket. the guy opposite me ended up being helpful and showed me what i had to do to get on the right track. so after a bit of a delay i got on the RIGHT train this time and headed off to Switzerland. the surroundings outside were nothing short of amazing, the mountains were so big, they made me fell incredibly small.

i thought about heading to Innsbruck for the day but with the mishap i decided against it, i'm kind of glad i didnt go too, i only really wanted to go to see the Swarovski factory, sounds riviting doesnt it? but i didnt want to go for the diamonds but for the way they had been cut. i heard that there is one exhibition of a diamonds that are cut like a sun and moon dancing togther, which sounds all sweet, but if you take a photo with a flash the reflection creates a skull over the face of the moon. how cool is that!? anyway, i never saw it, but i think that now i heard about it, thats enough for me. i love concepts like that, it doesnt matter if i didnt see it.

Zurich a really pretty city, not very big and the buildings are a bit of a mix of old and new but all very classy and well looked after. I stayed in the old town which was cool, they had some cool shops not far from my hostel. but they are generally really expensive and well out of my price range, though i had to say goodbye to my Nudie Jeans while i was here, they had lasted me well. I had begun to wear 2 massive holes in my croutch and i feared that at any moment my junk may be out and about for all to see if i wasnt careful. i love my Nudies and i've been trying to find a pair to replace them for a while, but without much luck, (i thought that you could get them everywhere, not so) but i found a place in Zurich that sold them, when i converted it, they cost the same as they would in Oz so i bit the bullet and brought some.

I had a bit of a funny experience while i was here in Zurich, i was sitting at the computer minding my own business when this guy-slash-girl sat next to me, well, at this stage is was slash-girl because i wasnt really paying any attention to her, um, him, errr... whatever. i was typing away minding my own business when he said 'hi, i see your on facebook...' 'yeah, i am' i replied, i had now realized that she was infact a he. i wasnt being rude just because because he like to dress like a chick, he could've been wearing a chicken suit for all i cared, but i was in the middle of checking my email and it was costing me a small fortune, so my attention was on the computer. he kept chatting away at me for ages telling me he was originally from Brazil but was living here for a while and was a make up artist. i kept giving similar responses. anyway, my time had run out on the computer so i was stuck with this guy. he asked me if i'd been out to bars much in Zurich and i said 'Nup', and he said 'well theres this really great little bar around the corner from here, do you wanna grab a drink?' i dont want to sound like i didnt want to have a drink with him because i thought he was gay, but the gaydar was going off and i dont think it was JUST for a drink, if you know what i'm saying. so i had had to think of something quick 'err... i... um, don't really drink. but thanks'. poor guy, i felt terrible but i think it for the best for both of us. i dunno what it is, but guys always think i'm gay, like the old bloke in Japan (click here to check out the Japan blog) at least this time it was less awkward.

having said that, there are a couple of good bars here in Zurich (incase your wondering i didnt go to the one the guy had recommended), i met a guy from Argentina (not gay by the way) while i was here. he was great, he was so funny but i think it was mainly becuase his english wasnt so great so the words he used string sentances made his conversation so much more interesting. we came across one bar that had a band playing blues, so i couldnt help but go in. i dunno what it is, ive never really got into the blues before, but the last couple of years ive kind of started to get into it, my old house mate would play it a fair bit so it proberly came from there. anyway, the band were pulling out all the tricks. i noticed in the corner of the bar there was this big black guy who was sitting drinking who looked like he had emerged from the muddy banks of the Mississippi river just to grace us with his presence. they called him up to sing one song before they finished and this guy brought the house down. he was doing everything ad lib and im pretty sure at one stage he ripped out the line ¨your gonna be my hoochy-choochy-smoochy-woochy woman!¨ it was so funny.

Zurich is nice but to be totally honest there really isnt a lot to do here, they have a big lake but so does Lilydale, and i would say that Lilydale is a must see. its all very business here so i was quite happy to move on. I had heard a lot about Luzern while i was in Zurich. i was heading to Interlaken and Luzern was on the way so i dropped in for the day. Luzern is a small little place, but full on character. and i must have gone on the right day, when i was there there were these big brass bands dressed up as animals and other strange costumes marching down the streets playing music. sounds lame, and i think if i saw that in Melbourne i would head in the other direction but i becuase i was somewhere other than where i live, i was interested.
there most famous attraction here is a wooden bridge here called the Chapel Bridge that crosses over the Reuss River, supposedly europes oldest wooden bridge, it was built in 1333, it was actually pretty interesting they had paintings inside of it that depict Luzerns history dating back to the 17th century. connected to the bridge is a tower that originally was a torture chamber but had a few other uses. probably there second biggest drawcard is a thing called the Lion Monument, which is a 10 meter by 5 metre sculpture of a stabbed lion, left to die, that was carved out of a rock face. its The carving commemorates the hundreds of Swiss who were massacred in 1792 during the French Revolution. its quite amazing, even Mark Twain thought so, they had a quote by him about the sculpture in the tourst guide. apart from being quite nice, thats about all to see there, it was well worth the stop on the way to Interlaken.

So from there i headed off to Interlaken, which was a pretty little little train ride that wove its way around the mountains, and right by a huge lake, it was so beautiful, its blue rivaled the blue sea i saw in the south of France, just a little more icey. there really isnt much in Interlarken, its not very big, but its pleasent. But its Interlarken's surrounds are what i was here for, i'm not much of a skiier, apart from doing a bit of skiing at school, i've never really done it. but i heard you can do some intense tobogganing here infact its tobogan run goes for 15km. so i got up early and after a bus ride, a train ride, another bus ride i was at Grindlewald. but there was a catch, first you had to trek up the hill pulling the toboggan behind you (the lifts only went up so far) and it took 2 and half hours to climb it. it was one of the most grueling things i think i have ever done, i was with a couple of american guys who were playing pro basketball in France (dont ask me how i keep meeting these professional sports people) and even they were struggling. there was a restaurant at the top of the mountain (i heard it was extremely expensive because they had to fly in there supplies in with helicopters!), so i was thinking at least when i get to the top i can chillout for a bit, i think i got about 3 quarters of the way and it began to really struggle. i was so high up, above the clouds in fact, then i asked some people walking down the hill if the restaurant on the top was open, trying to keep my hopes alive, but they said 'no', as soon as i heard that i couldnt be bothered climbing another 45 minutes to get to a restaurant that wasnt open, i'd been climbing for about 2 hours by this stage and i was so hot, i never expected that considering how high up i was. my shirt was drenched in sweat, so i thought, bugger it. i sat down for a moment and took in the view, it was really quite something. and i can officially say that i have heard silence. its was dead quiet up there, just me and a million dollar view. once i had caught my breath i began sledging down, and it was worth the climb. i came off a couple of times but it was fun. when i got to the second stage i stopped and had some lunch, it was possibly one of the great experiences ever. there was some party going on, people were dressed up, they were selling local food and music blaring (what is it was Europeans are that song 'heeeeeey baby (oh ah) i wanna knooooow, will you be my girl?' they love it!) and i got caught up in a conga line. the food i had was brilliant. i got this plate with pickles, baked potatoes and melted cheese, i was so good. i was thinking to myself, im at a party in the middle of the Alps eating melted cheese, does life get better than this? all in all it was a brilliant day, except that i got really burnt, and i was so sore from walking up the mountain, i found muscles that i didnt even know i had. it turns out that Interlarken is meant to be extreme sports capital, because of hits hot air pockets its meant to be a really good for paragliding, because you stay up for ages, maybe next time.

fom there i was heading to Geneva but to get there i had to change at Bern, so i figured i'd have a look around. it was snowing heavily and it was a Sunday, which translated into Europe speak means: 'Nothing open', so i didnt really get to see it in its best light. one thing that saved me from the snow was they have arcades everywhere which i thought was so clever forward thinking from when they built this place, considering how much it snows. Bern is actually the capital of Switzerland which suprised me when i saw it, it was pretty small, too small to be a capitial. the Bern town logo is of a bear and they keep one in an encloser here, he didnt want to come out and say 'hello' while i was there, it was pretty chilly and i wouldnt want to get in the way of the whole hibernation thing, i was thinking of having a sleep too after all that treking the day before.
it was hear in Bern that Albert Einstein created the famous formula E=MC2, they have a Museum about him here but it was closed so i didnt get to go. one thing i think it funny about Einstein, it seemed like the smarter he got, the crazier his hair got, maybe someone should do a thesis on that... ok, maybe not. supposidly old Einstein was a bit of a ladies man, and had a couple of illegitament children. cheeky bugger! here i am thinking he is this nice old fella who played with numbers, when it turns out he's a dirty old fella playing the field.
while i was hear i managed to find a chocolate shop open, i couldnt leave Switzerland without sampling some of the finest chocolate in the world. i had a white chocolate, one with caramel and a milk chocolate with orange. i'm usually a white chocolate person myself but the orange was my favourite, but lest face it they were all delicious! anyway after a couple of hours i had to bid farewell to Bern and catch my connecting train to Geneva.

just as i was getting used to calling roads 'Strausse' and people speaking Swiss-German they had to go and change everything to 'Rue', thats right, in Geneva they speak French.
Geneva is quite different to the rest of Switzerland, i think Geneva is definately has a lot more french flavour to it, the architecture and food in particular but even the pick pockets, i saw one guy get something taken out of his pocket while i was here, i was too far away to yell out, i never had a problem but you've got to be so careful. it seems that every man and his dog has openned up a world wide organisation here, UNICEF, United Nations, Red Cross, there all here. out the front of the United Nations building is a giant wooden chair, but with only 3 legs, the other one looks like it has blown off. its meant to be a reminder to the people in Government who visit the UN of land minds. i was surprised to hear that while i was in Bosnia, that there are still a lot of land mines around, because its 'too expensive' to get rid of them, i thought that it would be more costly to stitch a kids leg back on than it would be to remove a bomb.
i had a bit of a walk around the city, its probably a little bit bigger than Zurich but not much more, but i think they may have sprun a leak while i was here becuase there was this massive jet of water coming out of the lake area... kidding! thats the Jet d'Eau, you've probably seen it before, its one of Genevas famous landmarks. The old town is quite nice full of expensive stores and churches blah, blah, blah! you know the drill. i was looking around at all these expensive shops and walked past a few people dripping in jewelry and i was thinking to myself, i dont need any of this. money to me really isnt that important, sure its nice to have nice stuff, but i wouldn't be breaking my neck to buy a Rolex. to me money just allows me freedom to do what i want, like travel, i hate asking for money or owing people money its just not me at all.

Oh, i ran into my Argentinian friend while i was here, he was flying out of Geneva so he was staying at my hostel for a night. such a great guy, i have never laughted so much. Geneva was nice but overall it was a very business-y kind of place and after a couple of days i was quite happy to move on.

since i've been traveling in Switzerland i noticed that a lot of there buildings, mainly there homes are almost intirely made out of timber which look amazing, they really fit right in with the surroundings. some of the bigger buildings are more solid, and its not uncommon to see a fesco on the side of them. but it was the newer building i really liked. the way theyre built is almost a formula. for instance the train stations i saw were either painted white, had stainless steal somewhere, had heaps of glass, and if there was writing, it was in Helvetica or in some other nice sans serif typeface. then they would paint a part of it a bright colour like an orange or something. noticed this in Austria and Germany too, they all looked might cool by the way. but you know what, i dont think i saw a single exposed brick house, they were all rendered.

I spent alot of time in furniture and book shops while i was here, i really love good design and being here is little walking around a trendy store like 'Space' but on a really large scale. it seems like everyone here has a Charles and Ray Eames creation, mark my words, one of these days i'm going to get me an Eames Lounge Chair and ottoman thingy. some other Swiss design that you cant ignore while your here is, the Swiss army knife, they flog them everywhere, even in every hostel i stayed in! while i was here i also found a shop that sold vintage advertising posters, just like the ones i saw in Cannes, so spent plenty of time in there.

There are a couple of famous people that call Switzerland home, one of them is Tina Turner, i never really understood why Tina wrote 'I'm your private dancer, dancing for money...' she is a big pop star, why would she have to dance for money? but now i do, Tina would've had to do a hell of a lot of private dancing to afford to live here, its REALLY expensive. but there are a few ways to save money. most hostels give you a free travel card so you can ride the tram or bus for free. also if you leave a deposit most cities offer a free bike to ride around.

you may not have noticed, but i've been trying to find really stereotypical things about a place and see if it really exsists or not, ie: are the french really that rude? turns out, the majority are pretty good. another one for France was, do you see mimes? and sadly i have to say, no. its kind of like Myth Buster's but without blowing shit up. for me Switzerland's stereotype that i wanted to bust is, are there really Saint Bernard with barrels under there chin? turns out i didnt find any along my travels. Stereotype: BUSTED! but i didnt get very high up in the mountains so they might hang out around there.

Your probably wondering 'why did Trent make one big blog about Switzerland rather than do posts about each town he visited? well its because Switzerland is so freaking expensive that i couldn't afford to fully write each post so i had to wait until i found a place with more affordable internet. sorry about how long it is, i was doing so well too. i can't really put my finger on why this place is so expensive too, its really just another country. anyway, time to say see ya later to the Swiss and head to Bruges

Salzburg

2009-02-16T09:20:00.000-08:00

the bus ride to Salzburg was nothing short of epic. it was so painful dunno if i want to talk about it, it was a good couple of days i will never get back. put it this way, i finished my book earlier than expected. anyway, i got into salzburg about 11:30pm and boy was i glad to find my hostel, i couldn´t wait to hit the hay. i think i´m coming down with a cold, but i figure if i keep ingnoring it, it might go away.

Salzburg gots is name from its salt mines (supposedly 'Salz' means salt) you can do a tour of them, i didnt bother because i saw some saltmines in Poland and i figured how different could they be. Salzburg is famous for a couple of reasons, Mozart came from here and you see a number of coffee houses, resturants and hotels named after him. the funny part is Mozart hated this place and couldn't wait to get out of here so i think its funny that people here are trying to make a quick buck out of him. the guy who invented Red Bull came from around here, supposedly he is one of the worlds richest men and considering he's in his late 60's he's one of Austria's most eligible bachelors. just be carefull what he puts in your drinks ladies. i wonder why red bull gives you wings? But of of course its 'The Sound of Music' that is probably its biggest darw card. I feel a bit embarresed to say this, and i know that my friend Iona (who might add here obsession with the movie is a little unhealthy) would kill me for saying this, but i´ve never actually seen 'The Sound of Music', i know, i know, its a classic but it never walked passed the whimsy section at the video store so its never crossed my mind. luckily for me, the hostel i stayed in played it daily so i had the chance to get filled in. while i was watching it, obviously a lot of the songs were familiar but it kept thinking of 'Chasers war on everything' and the segment they used to do called 'if life were a musical' god i love that show. but also i was reminded about how there is a part where the Nun is talking to Maria and it sounds like she drops the C bomb. the line is 'what is it you can't face?'. you fill in the blanks as to what it sounds like (click here if you wanna hear it for yourself.). now that i had watched the film, (by the way, i think i felt my manhood shrivel the longer i watched it) i was ready to do the tour. to be honest, i really wanted to do the tour, mainly because i'd heard about how many crazy fanatical people (people like Iona) go on the tour. it sounded like a bit of a laugh so i signed myself up. there were a couple of wierdos on the the bus but not as many as expected, but they did sing along with all the songs, actually the tour guide was the worst affender. we saw the main point of interest in the movie like the house, which is actually two houses, they were shot in a way to make it look like they were one house, ah the wonders of Hollywood. one of the houses is now owned by Harvard University, up until recently they still had the gazebo from the film there, but it became tricky to study due to the amount of tourist going there, so it was relocated to a park up the road a bit. the gazebo is locked these day becuase some woman tried to re enacted the scene from the movie and fell and hurt herself (Iona, was this woman you? i'm putting nothing passed you) all in all it was a pretty good trip, i got to see that 'Sound of Music' fans are a different breed and i also saw a bit outside of Salzburg too because the wedding scene in the movie was done in a church elsewhere, i thought it was kind of strange because the church in Salzburg is quite nice and in someways better. who knows why? i think, the funny part about this whole 'Sound of Music' thing is, i was speaking to the girl that worked at the hostel about it and she was saying that hardly anyone in Salzburg has even seen the film, her included, and they play the film every day.

Salzburg itself is really pretty and not very big at all, quite walkable actually. it was snowing while i was here which gave it that little bit of magic (oh my god, did i just write magic? i'm sounding more and more camp by the minute, look what the sound of music has done to me!) its streets are really beautiful. the old town is full of shops (some of which are actually built into the side of a rock face) they mainly sell tradional stuff like hand made shoes or really big names. but in the new side of the river i found a couple of shops that were really cool. in one of them they had heaps of quirky items, one in particular caught my eye. it was a toaster that doubled as a lamp, who knows why you would want a toaster lamp, but it was interesting.

There a huge fort up on the hill and from what i can gather it was built for the Archbishops here becuase they pretty much governed this place, so what they said goes. its really quite massive, i think i heard that it was one of europe's biggest. becuase it perched right on the top of the hill the view from the top is stunning, while i was here Salzburg was covered in a blanket of snow. i found out while i was there they had a giant organ in the fort that was pretty much used as a giant alarm clock. it would ring out in the morning to wake everyone in the town up, and at night it would ring out to tell everyone it was bed time. hows that!? all i could think of was whether or not it was loud enough to cause an avalanche. getting back to the Archbishops for a second, one of them didnt really take to the whole celibat thing too well and his 'lady friend' ended up having 14 children to him. he ended up having a place called Mirabelle built for here, the gardens of Merabella are meant to be quite nice, at the moment it looks like a field of white. i saw photos and in summer they do look beautiful, they also feature in the 'Sound of Music'.
I noticed that there mad about puppets here, i saw a couple of puppet shops. i thought it was funny when i heard that the puppets that were in the 'Sound of Music' were doing a tour of the states at the moment.

I've noticed the longer i go, the shorter my blogs are getting, some people probably thought this day would never come. i can hear them now 'finally, Trent has written a blog that hasn't got a word count of 10,000'. maybe i'm running out of interesting things to say, or maybe I'm getting lazy. it could be a combination of the two, hopefully its still worth your time to read it.

i really enjoyed it here, in fact, combined with my memories of Vienna i really liked Austria, even though i thought Vienna was a little bit straight. but overall i think its a really beautiful country, i'd love to come back here one day. so i think the plan is to go to Switzerland next, unless a better offer comes up. i think my trip in Switzerland may be a quick one due to how expensive it is, but i'll just have to wait and see. more soon!

Split

2009-02-13T07:14:00.000-08:00

i took another bus ride to Split. courtesy of my new book purchases it was less boring than normal, in fact i read half of the Syd Barrett one, and so far hes coming across as a bit mental, surprise surprise. anyway, i came over the hill i saw Split in my sights, it felt a little bit like déjà vu, because it reminded me so much of the south of France. actually, the longer i was here, the more i felt that. there were palm trees along the water, labyrinths of streets, really relaxed, etc. i think if you wanted to go to the south of France for a holiday, but couldn't afford it, i would recommend coming to Croatia, its so cheap here. I'm getting side tracked, anyway, i got off the bus and i got hounded by a little old lady, telling me that she had a room i could stay in that i had supposedly booked, i had no recollection of this, but then i remember, as i got out of the old guys car in Dubrovnik he said he had friends in Split, he told me that they were cheap, i said 'oh yeah, that's ok i think I've got somewhere'. he clearly didn't take that as a polite, thanks but no thanks. i tried to explain to her that i had somewhere to stay but she wouldn't take no for an answer, and i hated doing it, she was looking at me like he life depended on it, but i really didn't want to stay there. eventually she let me go on my way to the hostel i had in mind. on the way there i got hounded by other people asking me to stay with them, geez, i knew it was low season, but these guys are really desperate. i ended up finding my hostel, which was in such a good location, right in the heart of the old town.

Split is the same deal as Dubrovnik, its more of a summer destination, but oh well. but i enjoyed it a bit more than Dubrovnik, i think mainly because of the location of my hostel, actually, i think where you stay plays a big part in whether or not you like a place. my hostel was pretty good, newly renovated and had some cool people staying here too. meeting cool people are always a bonus too. but think the main reason was that the weather here was better and that there were more people around, giving the place a bit of a vibe. they had a couple of good bars here too but you had to go searching for them.

the main thing to see here is Diocletian's Palace, which was built for, yep you guess it, Diocletian, who was a Roman Emperor, it was built for his place of retirement, maybe they didn't have meals on wheels back in those days? anyway, he lived there right up until his death and was buried there. this Diocletian guy killed more Catholics than any other Emperor so after time, probably when it was ok to be a catholic, as a pay back they built a church other top of where he was buried. the bell tower at the top is supposedly the towns symbol, and has a great view over the water and the city. the palace is massive and is built as a fortress. its changed shape over compared to what it would've originally looked like, today everything you would want is within its walls, shops, markets, squares etc. actually i lie, just outside of the walls is a market of this and that, mainly crappy clothes and stuff, but i found stalls of food, there was raw meat there just sitting in the sun and carcasses hanging up, i could practically taste the food poisoning, it always astounds me to see stuff like that and how people still buy it and manage not to die, they must just get used to it after years of eating it. I'm up for trying stuff wherever i go, but i'm pretty sure if i tried some of the food from there, i would be getting well acquainted with a toilet bowl not far after consumption. another thing outside of the walls that i did while i was here was i walked up Marjan, which is a hill here in Split. its quite pretty with it being densely covered in pine trees etc. Up the top you get a great view all around, they have a zoo about half way, but it looks like its fallen into disrepair.

i saw a photography exhibition while i was here, some artist from the Czech republic who, funnily enough, took photos of the Czech republic. he was pretty good too, they were all in black and white but i felt it suited the landscape, they were shot in the winter and having it in black and white made the shots really moody. it made me want to explore more of Czech i really loved Prague when i was there. i planned on heading back to Czech soon actually, Kate and Josh are living there and working at a hostel, (for those who have no idea who they are, I began traveling Europe with Kate and Josh) and its Kate's birthday at the end of the month. i felt really torn, because it was either, i go and see them, or i continue on my original plan and head to Switzerland. i really wanted to see Switzerland so i made the tough decision of not going to see them also because im meeting my friend Sarah in Amsterdam at the end of the month, so travel wise it would've been quite tricky. im keeping an eye out for cheap flights, so who knows, hopefully i might be able to do both. at the hostel, for some reason. they always had the discovery channel playing on the TV. i saw this show where they had a camera that would take something like 20,000 frames a second and they put it in slow motion to watch what happened when, for example a boxer gets punched in the face or when you burst a balloon. i sat there glued to the TV, it was fascinating! click here to check it out.

something that had got to me while I've been in this part of the world is EVERYONE smokes, you can't escape it. because its illegal to smoke in pubs and clubs in Australia, i totally forgot what it was like to be in a bar full of smoke, i hated it. i hated smelling of smoke all the time and i would end up with these massive head aches, it was horrible. i remember when they introduced the ban in Australia and people said that it was going to kill bars and clubs, if anything i think its made it better. but i don't see it changing here anytime soon.

I'm heading to Salzburg next, which turns out it isnt as easy as it sounds. i dunno what it is, but i found public transport here really quite difficult. you can't just jump on a bus anywhere, you have to go through all of these detours to get anywhere, which is why i've have to do a big loop. i think it might have something to do with certian countries not getting along with each other. which is why, to get to Salzburg i have to go all the way to Zagreb then back out to Salzburg, its a bit of a pain but what can you do? hopefully the hills will be alive with the sound of music when i get there.

Dubrovnik

2009-02-10T05:54:00.000-08:00

There was only one bus that went from Sarajevo to Dubrovnik and it was at 6:30am. now, mornings and i are a little bit like a knife and a toaster, you probably shouldn't put the two together. but after some struggle to get up on time, i finally make it to the bus station and headed off to Croatia. i slept for a fair bit of it, which i think is a skill i have acquired over the past 6 months, getting sleep on the bus is not that easy. but i still manage to see some of the country side to, as we were getting closer to Croatia i noticed it got a lot greener which was quite nice. after a 6 hours on the bus, oh and this i packed some lunch so i didn't starve, i finally made it to Dubrovnik. i heard that people from hostels will hang around the station trying to get you to go to there place, i had a place in mind but i had to get a bus there and wasn't really in the mood. this old guy said he had a hostel and said he'd drive me there, he showed me photos and stuff and looked pretty legit so i figured why not, he was pretty old so if he attacked me i was pretty sure i would be fine. it ended up being fine but i was just cautious. the hostel was really nice, really cheap and i got a room to my self which was nice. the old guy was really friendly and one night even gave me some dinner that his wife had made, Mussel's in a sauce, it was delicious, i'd hit the jack pot!

i think everyone in Australia is aware of Brit Lapthorne, the Australian girl that was murdered here in Dubrovnik recently, because I've been away i have found it a little hard to keep up with the news and this story in particular, but I'll be honest, it did make me a little bit wary. The guy at the hostel mentioned her to me and was very clear that Dubrovnik is very safe, saying that unfortunately that was a one off incident and that 'he is a 70 year old man and has never had a problem' and i have to say i kind of agree with him, i felt really safe here. but the guy that worked in the hostel in Sarajevo told me that there have been problems here in the past with a group of guys posing as Police harassing girls. its very hard to know who to believe, either way, you've got to be careful wherever you go and be aware of whats happening around you. but for the old guy to tell me that, it must be crippling the tourism industry here.

Dubrovnik is more of a summer destination, i knew that before i planned to come here, because i probably wasnt going to see it in summer and it was on the way. too bad for me it poured pretty much the whole time i was here, i got totally drenched, but when it wasnt raining i had a good look around. Dubrovnik has a really pretty old town, i totally understand why its world heritage listed. the tiny little streets are so beautiful i didnt mind getting lost down them at all. the old town has a giant wall around it which was built in, something like, 1450 to keep other countries from invading it, you can you walk around it these days, i had some great views from up there of bell towers punching through the canopy of terracotta roofs, very pretty. also you get some really nice ocean views from up there. Dubrovnik is known for its beaches, but unfortunately for me no nude sun baking, as i said, way too cold. but there is not only beaches here, as i said earlier, it got greener as i came closer to croatia and there are plenty of forest around, i sometimes forget how nice it is to have trees until i come to a place like this.

just a few observations I've had. since I've been in eastern Europe i keep getting told by people 'there are lots of pretty women in ' i got it here, and from a taxi driver in Sarajevo. either, the woman are a tourist attraction or i must look like I'm in the market for a mail order bride! oh, and I've decided i wouldn't want to be an old person and live in Croatia. from what i can understand, they don't get a pension at all and so its not uncommon to see them around town collecting bottles to exchange them for money, its pretty sad to see.

i brought a couple of books while i was here, because I'm beginning to go brain dead, also because I'll be doing some long trips too, but mainly its because i found a shop that sold books in English. i brought George Orwell's classic 'Animal Farm' which I've wanted to read for years but have never got around to it, i think the concept for the book is brilliant. and the other book is on the life of Pink Floyd founder and former front man Syd Barrett. I'm not a massive fan of Pink Floyd, but i like a couple of there songs, anyway, I've been intrigued with Syd Barrett for a while, he went totally mad from taking drugs and became a totally recluse, and ended living with his Mum (you know you've lost your mind when your end up living with your mum at 40 years of age), i know that he died a couple of years ago and the author of this book supposedly tracked him down and had one last interview with him. should be a good read. best part of it all i got them cheaper for some reason, the guy told me that tourists get certain things cheaper this time of year, i wasn't complaining.

i liked Dubrovnik, but it was actually a bit strange being here after being in Sarajevo and Belgrade, it seemed too nice, if that makes sense? i dunno, i found it really boring compared to the other places i've been. i think i kind of got used to seeing blown up buildings and began to get excited by them. i'm pretty sure this place was bombed during the war, but have done quite a bit to repair the city. supposedly there are markers where the bombs were dropped but i didnt see any. also, as i said earlier i came at the wrong time of of year so I'd like to come back either this summer or another summer to get a real feel for the place, i think this place would be heaving if it was hotter. i think i would make more of an effort to visit some of the islands if it were hotter too, i heard they are pretty dead this time of year. next stop, Split.

Sarajevo

2009-02-07T03:41:00.000-08:00

at the hostel i was staying at in Belgrade, they had a van service to Sarajevo. i figured it would be a lot easier to get that than but up with another hellish train journey. and it ended up being really good. the scenery wasnt that pretty, and the bus driving kept calling me Aaron, i think when he looked at my passport he thought my middle name was my first name, no matter how many time i said my name was Trent, to him, i was always going to be Aaron. on the bus i met Dunja and Nemanja, a Serbian couple who were also on there way to Sarajevo. Dunja was studying law and her boyfriend Nemanja was studying violin. we got on really well we ended up hanging out quite a bit in Sarajevo. they were here to visit Dunjas step brother, Ogi. because he lived here, he knew the town better than all of us so him and his girlfriend came along for drinks too. first thing i noticed about Ogi was when he spoke english he spoke with an American accent. it turned out that he had got a scholarship to play basketball for a college in Philadelphia and lived there for 4 years. it was pretty funny to hear him speak because i think if you closed your eyes you could've sworn you were talking to a black guy, every second word was "Dawg" and would finish was "ya know what i'm sayin'?". Nemaja was telling me that Ogi plays basketball professionally over here and is one of Bosnias best players. it was really great having locals taking me around. i found Ogi was a quite an interesting guy, he told me a little bit about the war and how his father is Muslim. but during the war, to escape, his father and mother had to pretend that all there paperwork (ie passport or birth certificate) was burnt or destroyed so they could change there names, then they pretended that they were Jewish so they could flee the country, the way i'm telling it doesn't give it much justice, it was quite an amazing story when he told it. its really good to speak to people that live in a place because they can honesty tell you what life is like here, so often, as a traveler, i feel you can sometimes just float in over the top of a place and not really get a full understanding of it. Dunja and Nemanja have invited me back to Belgrade in the summer so they can show me around Belgrade and see it from there perspective, hopefully i get back there, i'm sure it would be interesting.

Sarajevo and interesting history seem to come hand in hand. it was here in Sarajevo, not far from the old town and just across from the river, that Franz Ferdinand (not the band, the guy the band got its name from) was assassinated, it was this and a chain of events that eventually triggered WWI. originally they had foot prints in the pavement of where the assassin stood, but they were destroyed in the war and were never replaced.
Of course, Bosnia is known for the Bosnian War in the mid 90's. i was in a book store here and they had a book on Sarajevo full of photos of what it was like during and just after the war. the place was such a mess, it was a little hard to believe it was the same place, today you do see quite a few reminders of the past like bullet holes, boarded up buildings, some even missing half there sides etc but when i compared it to the photos, Sarajevo is looking pretty good. well the main centre anyway. the further out of town your go the worst it is. the hostel i'm staying in is a house in the old town. the owner was telling me the upstairs area, which is where i'm staying was bombed with grenades on 9 seperate occations. he was saying this house and the surrounding area only looks this good because everybody help each other out, otherwise it would still be a mess. he told the libary in the old town was hit with a bomb and something like 3 million books were lost, some of which cannot be replaced. something i've noticed while walking around here, they fill some of bomb blast holes in the street with red cement which are called 'Sarajevo roses', i later found out that its probably the place where a number of people may have lost there lives so i guess its kind of a mark of respect for the innocent lives lost.

something quite interesting is during the war they built a tunnel under the airport so people could smuggle in supplies and ammunition into Sarajevo without getting caught. The entrance to the tunnel was hidden in the house of a civilian, the guy, whose house it was still lives there, and hes created the downs stairs areas into a museum. i found the tunnels really fascinating, originally they went for about 800m but these days the majority of it has collapsed, but you can still walk about 30m of it, it was really small probably only about 1m wide and 1.5m high, i had to duck my head the whole way, i can only imagine what it would've been like to walk the whole way carrying supplies, the tunnel would also leak so you would have to contend with the water too.

Sarajevo is a tucked away at the bottom of a valley. in spite of what has happen here, the old town is the closest I've been to stepping back in time. it looks taotally different to Belgrade with its stone roads, small shops with people making, what looks like, copper teapots and plates all by hand and they have heaps of thrift shops here so thats kept me pretty entertained. but i think ive been entertaining the locals too. i bought a toffee apple because i hadn't had one since i was a little kid. problem was i forgot how messy those things are and i got it all over my face and hands, people were looking and laughing at me and i think i nearly lost a tooth in the process. it was SO sticky, but i think thats half the fun of eating a toffee apple.

this place is probably a lot more multicultural than other cities, and I've heard at times it can be quite a tense place because of the different religions here but i didn't witness anything. I've noticed that there are a lot of mosques here, and something i haven't experienced before was in the morning, noon and nightfall, they have a call to prayer, where an Arabic voice sings over a loudspeaker for about a minute or so, the first time i heard it, i didn't know what it was, it was quite loud and no matter where you are, you could hear it. i have to say, even though I'm not into religion i did enjoy hearing it.

Sarajevo hasn't always been attached with doom and gloom, which i think sometimes people forget. this year was the 25th anniversary of Sarajevo hosting the winter Olympics. i didn't realize it was on and heard what sounded like gun shots, it scared the living day lights out of me, but it wasn't until i looked out the window i saw fireworks. its crazy but because of Sarajevo's history i instantly thought it must be gun fire. but in truth I've never felt so safe, and not only here, but in Belgrade and Zagreb, i was actually bracing myself for this part of the trip but its been a pleasant surprise.

while i was here i tried lots of great local foods, like Cevapi which is slices of meat in a roll, with cheese and raw onion which was pretty good, and there was this swirly pie thingy made or pastry and meat in the centre, that was pretty good too. i tried some Bosnian coffee while i was here too, i was worried i would be up for the next 3 days because of the amount of caffeine they put in it, but it ok. something i found out about the coffee is there are different types for different times of the day or occasion. theres even one that politely asks you to leave the house. crazy! i found a lot of there stuff is very sweet, which i imagine is the Turkish influence, its like everything is made with sugar! i wouldnt be surprised if i left this place a diabetic.

while i was here i has 'Miss Sarajevo' by U2 in my head, i dont really like U2 that much except for a couple of there songs, mainly because i think Bono is a wanker. anyway, the song is about the Bosnian war. i did a bit of research and found that the song was written for a Doco, also called 'Miss Sarajevo', that was made about the Miss Sarajevo pageant that was held during the war. i did get thinking about what daily life during the war would've been like, it turns out that to keep some sort of normality in the peoples lives that not only did they have a Miss Sarajevo pageant they had bands that played quite often too, it sounds a bit crazy that people would just carry on like that, but i suppose it was a good thing too, something to look forward too.

i met a brother and sister traveling duo while i was here in Sarajevo, Jamie and Kirsty were from Wellington in England and were making there way across the globe to Wellington in NZ. get it? they are also doing a travel blog so click here to check it out. they were pretty cool and we got on quite well. we did a day trip out to Mostar which was pretty eventful. we had to catch a train at 6:45am to get there because there aren't many trains that head out there. i feel asleep and slept the whole way, it was amazing that i wasn't touched up by a gypsy. anyway, Mostar is pretty similar to Sarajevo, just a smaller version really, there main feature here is the Stari Grad which is a bridge that was built back in the 1500's, during the summer local boys jump off it into the water below for tourist, well, maybe not for the tourists, more likely for there money. you wouldn't catch me jumping off it, its roughly 30m above the water, which isn't so bad, its the water that scares me, it flows VERY quickly and i don't think my doggy paddle would be enough to save me. funny story about the bridge, the architect that built it never saw its completion, he did a runner towards the end because the King said that he would be killed if the bridge collapsed, so the architect didn't hang around to find out. it actually wasn't his handy work that made the bridge fall, it was a bomb from the war. but it was a no-brainer decision to rebuild it after the war had finished.
but it wasn't the stari grad that was my favorite attraction of Mostar, not by a long shot. it was the bronze statue of Kung Fu legend Bruce Lee. now your probably wondering 'why is there a statue of Bruce Lee in Bosnia?' and to be honest, so was i. there are a couple of stories floating around. the first is that Mostar is quite divided by religion and originally they wanted to put a statue of religious figure in the spot but they couldn't make a decision so they asked everyone who was someone that they all liked and they came to the agreement of Bruce Lee. the second is he was chosen by the organizers as 'a symbol of the fight against ethnic divisions', huh? i'm pretty sure Bruce Lee just used to kick the shit out of everyone. anyway, in the end i didn't see the Bruce Lee statue because vandals had pulled it down, i was pretty shattered, i don't think my life will ever be complete.

I enjoyed it here in Sarajevo, not only did i see some really interesting stuff but i met some really interesting people too. now i'm off to Dubrovnik, more when i get there.

Belgrade

2009-02-03T09:47:00.000-08:00

my train ride was a bit of a pain, but it was my fault, i kind of left my run to the train a bit late and i didn't get to buy some food for the train trip. at first i didn't think it would be a problem, sometimes there is a food carriage where you can buy stuff, but unfortunately for me, not on this one. the train to Belgrade was meant to take about 6 hours but it ended up being about 8, i was STARVING by the end of it. the trip to Belgrade was a real eye opener, not because of the lack of food, but what i saw out my window. its nothing to see a shell of a car or a old washing machine left to rust on the side of the road, not to mention the amount of litter, it was like a rubbish dump. but the most disturbing part was seeing the shanty towns. they were so many little make shift houses. it was pretty sad to see people living in those conditions, especially the little kids who were waving at the train as it went by, they were probably about the same age as my niece and nephew and they were dirty and had runny noses. it was really sad and put a lot into perspective for me. especially when i saw a great big billboard above them. for people that don't know, when im not traveling, my day to day job is being an art director at an advertising agency. seeing that billboard about all those shanty houses made me think, i help brands make millions of dollars by selling product to target markets, but what i really should be doing is using my smarts to give back to people rather than become a statistic in an annual review. i mean, to buy that advertising space for a few weeks would be enough to send quite a few kids to school.

Belgrade is an interesting place, it didn't take me long before i came across a couple of buildings that had been bombed. it was pretty strange to see them, i found out later that they had been bombed by NATO back in 1999, which when you think about it wasn't that long ago. the reason they hadn't been torn down and built over was because they are kind of a tourist attraction, which in itself was weird, and because the government created a law saying that if you buy the land that was bombed, the building that stood there had to be rebuilt, this one in particular because it was done by a famous Architect. so, imagine being me for a second, i just got off the train from seeing all the shanty towns and then i see all of these bombed buildings, all before i have even got to my hostel. i felt like i walked into a 3rd world country. it was pretty crazy.
the guy at the hostel told me to check out a couple more bombed building just up the road from the ones i saw. you could look inside these ones (well, through the windows, not actually inside them), there were still books in the offices and bits and pieces of furniture.

while i was here i went an checked out the National bank of Serbia, sounds pretty boring huh, but one of the best things about traveling outside of the EU is checking out the designs on the money (because all you use is EURO when your in the EU), the currency they use here is called Dinar and some of the notes are pretty cool. but that wasn't the only reason i went there. Serbia was effected by hyperinflation in the early to mid nineties, so they had some notes there that were 5,000,000,000,000 Dinars, which is absolutely crazy. i spoke to the woman that worked there and was asking about them, she said for Serbs, they are times they would rather forget, so i didn't asked her too many questions. its funny, in the exhibition they had coins, but i have not been given a coin the whole time I've been here, only notes, and the notes they use here are still really high numbers so, if your ever here, take money out of the bank and get a receipt, for most people its the only time you'll be a millionaire on paper. they also had an exhibition on forgery which was pretty interesting, i could hardly tell the difference between the real stuff and the fake stuff. something cool that was there was you can get your face put on a Dinar note, so i got one done, its pretty funny, the photo of me was pretty bad so it looks like a criminal on a bank note.

something im really enjoying here is there alphabet, i find it really interesting, mainly from a font perspective. the letters are really sharp and sometimes they don't have tales then sometimes they have extra tails, for instance 'Belgrade' in the native alphabet turns out looking like 'Београд'. even though you can kind of make out what it says, it does make it a little tricky to get around, mainly because the map you get when you arrive here is written with the english letters, so when you walk around the street and try to find signs to get your bearings, you cant compare the two. but i managed.

i wouldn't say Belgrade is a beautiful city, you'd be kidding yourself if you thought it would be, but its not all bad, occasionally you see a nice building or a park to wander through. theres a place called Kalemegdan which has a garden and the remains of a castle and a big fortress which is quite nice, its pretty old and like most things in Europe, was added to over time. its worth a look. i think they have a military museum in there too, but i wasn't interested so i gave it a miss. supposedly the night life here is quite good but i didn't witness any of it, I'm boring.
i took a bus across the river to an old town called Zemum, it was a bit different compared to the rest of Belgrade mainly because, it used to be owned by Austria but after the war became part of Belgrade. it was a small little place with a market selling, well, rubbish really, nothing worth buying. but it had a cool tower thing amongst the poky little, colourfully painted homes, in its own way it was really cute. a good thing about Zemum is its built right along the Danube river so it had a bit of a view as i walked back, its nothing spectacular, most of the boats looked like they were more likely to sink than float, but the sun was shining so i made the most of it. something i found interesting while i was out was the amount of people walking around, i was here during the week and people were just shopping, having lunch, doing coffee, it was like no one had a job and no one cared less.

where i was staying was pretty good, the people here were really friendly and extremely helpful, pointing out things on the map for me to check out and giving me a brief run down of what it is and its history. also the breakfast that was included had home made jams made by the guys mum and other local foods, really nice. but the best thing about staying there was they had a guitar. i hadn't played in months and i was pretty rusty, but it was great to have a play for a while. the only off putting thing was i went to get a drink of water from the tap, when i looked at the glass, i found the water was REALLY cloudy, i could hardly see through it! i asked the guy if it was ok to drink and he said it was, and he took a sip, come to think of it, i haven't seen that guy since... not really, i'm only kidding! but i decided to pass of drinking the water. my hostel was right near a giant church which ended up being really handy because you could see the church wherever you are in Belgrade so it was easy to find home. if you've been reading the blog you would've noticed that i'm not a huge fan of the church, i think it might have been the 13 years of catholic education that might have done it, but thats another story. there was something i did like about this church, was the chime the bells made. it was pretty crazy, it sounded exactly what a church in a communist country would sound like, i don't know how to describe it maybe like something straight from a propaganda film or something. pretty funny.

Belgrade's a bit dirty at times, but its been through a fair bit, bombs, hyperinflation, all mainly because of Milošević, i did a wikipedia search of him while i was here, geez, he sounds like a nasty piece of work and thats putting it lightly, one of his past times seemed to be kidnapping political opponents just for kicks! but i felt quite safe here and the people here are great, while i was here i ate at a little shop around the corner from the hostel, i got talking to the people that worked there and the customers and they were all really lovely.
i think if i was going to describe Belgrade i would like to think of it as a pair of old shoes, you know they have holes in them, but they are really comfortable, so you don't throw them away. i dunno if that makes sense, but i know what i mean. its been an interesting stay, originally when i was planning this trip, Belgrade wasn't on the list, but when we couldn't get a ferry across to Dubrovnik from Bari i had to rethink what i was going to do, it kind of threw my plans up in the air BIG time. i hate saying this because its so cliche but, i guess everything happens for a reason. I've seen another side of Europe, and in a way, another side of life. anyway, next is Sarajevo.

Zagreb

2009-02-01T07:43:00.001-08:00

After some thought i figured i would head to Zagreb. The train ride to Zagreb ended up being a really good experience, the train was running an hour late and i ended up speaking to this young guy who was from Croatia, we got on quite well so on the train ride there him and a girl who was in our carriage filled me in on a few interesting facts about the area and the people, like how Croatia and the surrounding areas were once called Yugoslavia and filled me in on the Bosnian war. it was a little hard to take it all in but it was all really interesting to hear it from a the point of view of someone who lived here and had friends that grew up amongst it. he was saying that now Slovenians and Croatians don't really get along he was saying its quite common to get group emails telling them not to buy Slovenian products and when Croatia tried to join the EU Slovenia protested to slow down the process, well that's what they believe anyway, crazy huh!
it was funny, i was asking them what they were doing while in Ljubljana and it turned out the girl was visiting her boyfriend who is Slovenian. i asked her if it is hard to date someone that's A) in an different country to you and B) is technically her enemy. she said it was hard especially because she is a bit torn as to what she wants to do. she wanted to stay in Croatia and help rebuild her home with the knowledge shes gained from studying but then on the other hand she wanted to be with her boyfriend and earn the EURO so she could get ahead. by the sounds of it Croatia is in a strange situation of 'there damned if they do, and there damned if they don't' because there currency is pretty weak but if they join the EU they have to close 4 of there 5 ports because of an agreement in the contract which means the loss of many jobs. i think interesting times lay ahead for Croatia. another little fact they told me that i like was the currency they use here is called Kuna which i think the rough translation means fur because that's what they used to trade in. on there 2Kuna coin they have a little weasel kind of thing which is the animal they used to skin to trade with.
they asked me where Ive been traveling, so i told them about where i had been and what my plans were, they couldn't get over it and said that they couldn't even dream of doing a trip like that. it wasn't until then that i realized how lucky i was to be doing this trip and that i shouldn't really be complaining about how tired i was from traveling, because so many people don't get this opportunity. anyway, they were both really lovely and helpful, the guy even walked me to my hostel. i didn't think of it at the time but i didn't even catch there names.

the security at the border was a little over the top, both Slovenian and Croatian border police checked our passports and it was all very serious, i was a little surprised, through out all my traveling around Europe hardly anyone had checked my passport and now they were being really thorough but i suppose this was an exception, it was the first border to and from the EU.

first observation was how religious Croatians are, they had a small church kind of area inside the train station! while i was walking around i found a little spot under a bridge that had a fresco of the virgin Mary with candles all around it and people praying, because it was dark and it was only lit with the candles it was quite an interesting place. there was another church that had the Croatian coat of arms in the tiles in the roof which was quite interesting and there was a big cathedral, but i didn't really rate it much.
second observation was there are so many Museums here, they seem to have a museum for anything and everything its a bit ridiculous really.
third observation was how they park there cars here. they don't have any parking so they just drive as close as they can to the side of the road, stop there car and put the hazard lights on.

there's not really a hell of a lot to do here in Zagreb so i just wandered around and saw a bit of the town. the area starting from the train station up to the main square is nice, the majority of the buildings were quite old but still well looked after but in parts are a bit run down and have graffiti on the walls. it was nothing to rave about, i felt it wasn't until i went behind and beyond the main square that it started getting interesting. there was a mix of really old and really new. the old buildings were better looked after and it looked like they had just built a big shopping centre with all the big names in it, like Chanel, Dior etc. i was a little bit shocked in some ways, after what i had seen before, i didn't expect to see brands like that at all. the neighborhood seemed to be in a transformation, i wouldn't be surprised if i came back here in a couple of years time and they had converted the old factory's into apartments, it could potentially be a different city, which i think is a good thing, but i hope it doesnt change so much that it loses its idenity.

the second day i was here i found out that Croatia were in the final for the European Handball Championships against France. the streets were buzzing and there was a sea of white and red checked shirts (the same as Croatian flag) in the main square. the place was going off, over night they erected a huge screen and stage, it was nothing like the place i walked through the night before. so a few of us from the hostel braved the snow and watched the game on the big screen. there were a couple from Brazil who were really into it, the girl actually used to play professionally for Brazil. part of the group were 2 girls from New Zealand that have Asian background, i get the feeling Zagreb doesn't get too many tourists from Asian because everyone stared at them, it was quite incredible (more about the two girls later). the atmosphere was really amazing, the crowd were jumping up and down and chanting stuff that sounded a little bit like this. unfortunately for us Croatia lost. it was strange because to me its just a game, sure it would've been nice to win but it wasn't the end of the world, but to the Croatian people it must have been, i spotted a few people crying and everyone was really silent. a bit extreme don't you think?

Zagreb is built at the bottom of a mountain range and because of the weather at the moment a couple of us from the hostel went up to check out the snow. we originally wanted to go skiing because its pretty cheap to do it here, but we couldn't find a store that would hire out wet weather gear. it didn't really matter, we found a toboggan when we got up there so had heaps of fun falling off that. i couldn't get over how white it was up there, there was a huge dump of snow and everything was covered, it was really pretty. up the top of the mountain was a little restaurant where we had lunch, we found out later that the place we went its one of the best places to get really good Croatian food, which was lucky for us. we asked a local guy who was sitting near us what to have and he pretty much ordered for us, the food was brilliant! we had a sausage thing that was wrapped in cabbage with a sour sauce with mashed potato. it kind of reminded me of the food i had in Hungry, which is not really surprising considering how close the two countries are. as some of you may or may not not know, before this trip i used to be a Vegetarian, but i decided that while i was overseas i wanted to try foods from all over the world so i unvegetarianised (is that even a word?) myself. im actually glad i did, especially here, mainly because i think i would've been hard pressed to find a food without meat in it.

now i mentioned the two New Zealand girls before, i have never met anyone with this much bad luck. while they were traveling in Spain one of them got there wallet stolen, so they canceled her card and used the other girls card until they got there new one. but then on the over night train to Vienna they both fell asleep and the other one, the one that had the bank card, had her whole bag stolen. so they ended up getting stuck in Zagreb because that's where they had to change trains to go to Vienna. so they have been stuck here in Zagreb for a week waiting for there cards to turn up. luckily for them, they arranged with the hostel that they would pay for there stay once they get there cards, which were being sent to the hostels address.
but then one night the guy that was working her got incredibly drunk and i believe, even though he denies it, ate some of our food that we had all brought together for dinner and threw a lot of it in the bin, we asked him what happened and how it got like that, and he had some pretty lame excuses (at one point he kind of sounded a bit like Vicky Pollard from Little Britain) because he was drunk he totally lost his shit and told the girls that they had to leave in the morning because he thought they said that he did it (even though we all thought he did it, we never said that he actually did) at one point i thought it was going to get violent, thank god it didn't but it put a whole dampener on the evening and the time we had spent there, up until that point it was a pretty fun place to stay because the other owner of the hostel was really cool, but after that i was kind of glad i was leaving the next day. anyway, the next morning the guy apologized to the girls and told them they could stay on, obviously after that instance they didn't really want to stay but did anyway because of there bankcards.

before i got here i heard that Zagreb was voted 'Europe's most boring capital' and i could see how it could be normally, but Christ, after everything that happened while i was here, for me, Zagreb was far from boring. Next stop Belgrade.

Ljubljana

2009-01-29T13:55:00.000-08:00

i couldnt wait to put Italy behind me, the guy at the bus station in Venice told me i had to catch a train to Mestre if i wanted to catch a bus, which is no big deal it was only the next stop over. anyway, i caught it there and the bus station was closed for lunch so it looked like putting it all behind me had to wait a little while, i was a little bit worried that it wouldnt open in time, becuase my bus was coming at 4pm. when it finally did the guy at the bus station was so unhelpful, i think he wanted to go for a smoke so he just told me there were no buses today and walked off. knowing full well that there was a bus i asked the girl at the train desk and she found out that there was a bus at 4.50pm down the road and i could buy my ticket on the bus. why the guy couldn-t have waited 5 minutes to tell me that, i dont know? what a lazy sod!
so i waited around down this really dodgy alley for about half an hour and finally the bus shows up. buses arent that great at the best of times, but i had a feeling this one was going to be interesting. i've never read this book but i've been meaning to for years its called 'the guide to Molvanîa' its written by the guys that created the panel, the late show and thank god your here. the book is a guide to a fictional eastern european city called Molvanîa, i remember the tag line for the book being something like 'a land untouched by modern dentisty' and as soon as i got on the bus, i thought 'this bus must be going to Molvanîa' lets just say there were a lot of gummy smiles. the more i had a look around the more i noticed other things, people with sausages cutting off bits to eat, there was two guys sitting next to each other head to toe in leather, then about half way they put on a DVD to watch, it was the strangest B-grade movie (not good B-grade) it was a slap stick comedy and there were UFOs, it was bizarre, but it was a huge hit with everyone on the bus. The movie got about half way and died, it must have been a pirated copy becuase it didnt have scene selection so they couldn't get it back to the point it stopped so they started it from the start again.
the girl at the station told me it was 20EUROs to get this bus, so when i got on i handed them a 20EURO note and got on, the guy came up to me later handed me 6EURO back and in broken english tried to explain to me that is was 74EURO, i didn't hand over anymore money because he said something like 'pay later' so when i got into Ljubljana, i casually got off the bus, got my bag and wandered off into the night. there way no way on earth i was going to pay that much for that bus ride.

the hostel was really easy to find and pretty awesome. friendly staff, free internet, the rooms were great and more importantly, clean! i met a guy here that knew my friend Erin who i used to go to uni with, small world huh? anyway, enough with all the boring stuff, more about Ljubljana.

after the bus ride i wasnt sure what to expect from Ljubljana i think thats the great thing about eastern europe, its like a lucky dip in a lot of ways. anyway, Ljubljana is a really small little place but full on character. its got a big castle on the top of a hill which was originally built somewhere around the 1100s, and the town is pretty much built around. i dont think its the greatest of castles, bits and pieces of it are built in different periods but geez, if these walls could talk, throughout time its been used as a number of things, one example is during WWII it was used as a prison, these days its more or less a tourist attraction, the view from up the top is pretty good.

the old town is quite beautiful and kind of kooky. its got all these really old beautiful buildings, some of them really well restored others a little worst for wear. on a couple of them i noticed they had mutrals but they werent that well preserved, it looked like the sun had bleached them, but they were still quite pretty, well, what was left of them. the part i found kooky was i found this derelict building that looked like it was falling apart down stairs, but when i looked up top and in the window they had all this kitch furniture and lights on up the top, i thought it may have been a shop or something, it didnt look very inviting from downstairs but i thought, nothing ventured, nothing gained so walked up the dodgy stair case up the top and found nothing was in there and the stuff i had seen from the street was like a set of a movie to make you think something was there. i figure it must be some art piece, becuase there are a couple of strange things like that around, like a heap of crazy bird feeders all bunched together. i liked it, mainly because i didnt expect it.
there is a river that runs through the middle of the town and along there are quite a number of great little bars, everyone of them with there own individual flavour. the town centre at night is still quite viberant considering how cold it is here, it snowed a little bit while i was here, it wasnt too heavy which was nice, i could still walk around in it.
not far from the town centre is the Tivoli which is a big garden, its not really much to rave about but behind it is a forest which is quite beautiful i went for a wander around, but the paths werent that good and i had to turn around becuase i couldnt get any further, supposedly on the other side is a zoo but i didnt make it, im sure ive seen most of the animals before so no big loss.
they have an area here similar to Christiana in Copenhagen (click here to see my Copenhagen post) its not far from the main train station, it was pretty cool, plenty of street art and strange stuff but since ive been to Christiana it wasnt that exciting, it felt like i was just doing it again. apart from that and the Tivoli there isnt really much worth seeing outside of the town centre.

not far from my hostel is a market place, i always like to wander around market places whenever i get the chance, i dont know why, i think i just like the vibe of them. anyway, i got some food from one of the venders, just some bread, she must have realised i wasnt from her, i went to hand over the money for it, but she wouldnt take it, she just smiled and gentlely pushed my hand holding the money back to me. i think i was a little in shock, even though it wasnt that expensive, coming from Venice where everything is expensive and you dont get anything for free, i just didnt expect it. come to think of it, all the locals i have met have been very friendly.

while i was here I did a day trip out to Bled. its about an hour by bus and it was really beautiful. so much nature to take in the mountains are amazing and are snow capped at the moment which, i think, makes them look even better. Bled is a cute little place, its got a huge lake in the middle of the town, theres an island in the middle of the lake with, what i was told, was a monestry. but probably the main attraction is the castle perched on the top of a cliff, it beats the pants off the one in Ljubljana, mainly becuase it looks like its going to fall off the edge at any moment. to get up there is a bit of a hike but the view from up the top is amazing. something ive noticed about both Ljubljana and Bled was how clean they both were, (i think ive been taking more notice since ive been to Naples.)

during the bus ride to Ljubljana i was thinking to myself 'have i had enough? i'm not enjoying this that much anymore, should i just throw in the towel?' luckily Ljubljana has snapped me out of that, well, at least for the time being. even though there wasnt a lot to do here, it was very pretty and worth the look. i have no idea where im going next so i guess youll find out when i do.

Venice

2009-01-29T04:56:00.000-08:00

finally we left Naples and thank god for that, at one stage i didn't think i was going to make it out alive, and we caught an overnight train to Venice. we arrived about 8:30am, having only had a few winks of sleep. we couldn't check into our hostel until 2:00pm so we just dropped our bags off and wandered the city. we were both really tired which i think ended up being a good thing because i was beyond sleep so i walked all day.

I think compared to Naples anything could've been beautiful but Venice actually was very pretty, probably the prettiest place i've visited so far. the canals look quite clean, well, cleaner than i thought they would be, i still wouldn't go for a swim in them, they sometimes left off a bit of a smell. speaking of the water i was surprised to see how high the water rises. some mornings it would be right up to the brim, sometimes even flooding the streets. but then in the afternoon it would drop down quite a bit with the tide. Piazza San Marco was a good example of this, a fair amount of it was flooded when i was there, and they had planks of wood to get from one side to the other. which has to make you think, what is Venice going to do about global warming?

speaking of Piazza San Marco, St Mark's Basilica is there, which is quite nice i suppose. at this point i'm really over seeing churches, but this one was interesting, it looked like it had mosaics on the ceiling. it would've taken so long to create so i appreciated the blood, sweat and tears that would've gone into making it. a famous part of the square is St Marks Campanile which is more or less a big tower that was originally built in 1500s. over the years its been burnt, damaged by earthquakes and it eventually collapsed in 1902 when it developed a huge crack, amazingly no one was killed, the only loss was the caretakers cat, but it was rebuilt and the replica still stands today.

the streets of Venice are fantastic, really small and windy, there's no point in having a map, you might as well throw it to the wind, so many times there we would walk and somehow make our way back to the hostel and never know how we did it, i swear there was a portal down one of the streets that sends you in the right direction.
obviously with all the canals there are quite a number of bridges around, the Rialto Bridge is meant to be one of the better ones, but to me it was just a bridge. seeing the gondolas go down the canals is quite special, something i liked most with having no cars there meant no horns, i think if i heard another beep i was going to go mad! italians love the horn! i didn't go on a gondola ride because they were too expensive, but i caught a ferry which was still expensive, but a lot cheaper. it was actually a really good way to see Venice some of the buildings are really beautiful, its kind of amazing that they are still standing. someone said to me going to Venice is a little bit like going back in time, and to an extent they were right.

something that Venice is known for is its Venician Glass some of it is really quite beautiful, great colours and some of the things that create out of it is nothing short of amazing. the Guidecca island is supposidly where all the factories are but i didnt bother going over there because i wasnt that into it. something else ive noticed here in Venice is there masks, they are sold everywhere and just like the glass, quite amazing, some of them quite elabrate and others plain freaky. they are mainly used for the Carnival of Venice supposidly the Maskmakers have a special position in society and have with their own laws. crazy! but the thing that puzzles me the most is Venician blinds, i didnt see one set the whole time i was here.

i checked out Peggy Guggenheim's house. Peggy Guggenheim was an american art collector who mainly lived in Paris but had a house here. she was a huge supporter of modern abstract art and some of the work in her personal collection rivals that of some countries. with Man Rays, Pollocks (i think she may have had an affair with Jackson Pollock but dont quote me on that), heaps of Picassos, Max Ernst (whom she was married to for a while) and Kandinsky just to name a couple. something that annoyed me was there was a piece of work by Yoko Ono, and i say piece very loosly, all she did was plant and olive tree. i swear Yoko Ono is such a joke i cant believe she hasnt been found out yet, i bet she didnt even water the plant to make it grow! not to mention she broke up the Beatles, need i say more?

our hostel was not bad and reasonably priced for Venice, it was in a cute little square, but it didn't have a kitchen which made it a little bit hard because generally thats how ive been saving money. actually it was really hard to find a hostel in Venice that had a kitchen. anyway, we met a nice guy from Brazil who was staying in our dorm. i kind of felt a bit sorry for him, because he had just moved over here on exchange to study, but by the sounds of it, he hadn't done much research. he didn't know anyone, he didn't have a phone, no where to live, the University here didn't offer his course, he didn't speak much of the language and when i spoke to him about money exchange rates he told me 1EURO is something like 4 Brazilian dollars (i didnt catch the currency they use over there). poor guy, he was really nice and understandably a bit scared i think too. so we invited him to have pizza with us one night, i hope it works out for him.

something i enjoyed while i was here was every morning i would go to the cute little coffee shop just underneath the hostel and get a coffee, i really liked going there the owners were really friendly, the price was pretty good and there coffees were easily the best i've ever had. anyway, i used to just sit there and people watch but my favourite thing to do was watch these two little birds that would come in everyday and sneak in the door to get the crumbs off the floor. everyday they would try and figure out ways of getting the crumbs without getting caught by the owner, who would chase them out. sometimes they would get away with being in there for ages. hiding behind chairs then sticking there little heads out to see if the guy had gone. i always wanted them to stay inside, so i would never tell the owner or i would cover for them by ordering another coffee.
one morning while i was there, there was an old italian man sitting having a drink, he had some photos he had taken and would show everyone and anyone that walked passed. come to think of it he might had had a bit of dementia. he showed me and i must of taken my beanie off and he began to show me how to style my hair, i laughed and tried to do it the way he showed me but he saw saying i had it all wrong, he gestured as if to say may i show you, i figured why not he's pretty harmless so i ran with it. he brushed my fringe forward and gave me a Elvis looking style with a curl at the front. he was so pleased with himself he was pointing it out to everyone. i thought it was hilarious and laughed my headed off.

i stayed in Venice for about 3 days which was probably a day too long, Venice is really nice but really quite boring to be honest, you can pretty much do all the sights in a day, and oh my god this place is expensive, everything costs an arm and a leg! for instance we had a pretty basic lunch one day and it cost me 10EURO! and the food wasn't even that good, actually you have to watch out because there are a lot of places that microwave pasta meals and serve them, how dodgy is that! and the price of internet was outrageous, thats why the blogs so late, sorry about that.

i have to say, overall i've been pretty disappointed with Italy. i thought, before getting here, it would be the gem of the trip, but it hasn't worked out that way at all. but i'm glad i went, at least now i know. Venice wasn't just the end of my time in Italy it was also the end of my time traveling with Ash. she had to fly back to Dublin to continue working at her job. i really enjoyed telling here fake history and would wait and see if she would figure out if i was lying. she figured out pretty early on that half the stuff that was coming out of my mouth was rubbish and i was doing it for a laugh because i was bored. it was nice to travel with someone for a bit, even though at times it was difficult, but i'm looking forward to traveling on my own again too. now i'm off to Ljubljana.

Naples

2009-01-24T11:14:00.000-08:00

didn't get off to a great start. we brought our ticket and waited at the train station for our train to pull in. we saw it come up on the arivals board and just as it was time for it to pull in, the name dropped off the screen. there was no way we could've missed it, we were way ahead of it coming in, and with the way italian public transport is, there was no chance it would be early. are a bit of investigative work we found out that the workers had suddenly decided to go on strike. i've heard since this is quite common in italy, they go on strike at the drop of a hat. anyway i finally made it on the train and headed south to Naples. along the way was quite beautiful with mountainous country side and good weather to boot. i was thinking Naples is going to be awesome, becuase i my mind i had painted a picture of a cute sideside town, something maybe similar to Nice but perhaps a little bit more built up, and of course, Italian. boy i was wrong.

we got off the train station in the mid afternoon and wondered what i had stepped into. where was the cute little town i had imagined? what is this ghetto in its place? Ghetto in some cases might me a harsh word but to be totally honest i think it sums up the majority of Naples quite well. I thought Rome was messy and full of litter, but naples takes the cake. its so dirty here, mess and rubbish everywhere. i heard the further you go down in italy the dirtier it gets but this was ridiculous. and the amount of dodgy characters selling/pushing hot goods was out of control. you might think i'm imagining this stuff and perhaps carrying on a bit. but when we got to the hostel even the old man at reception told us to keep very little money on us at all times as well as keep it safe (like the inside pocket of a jacket) so that pick pockets don't steal it. he gave us a map of the city and showed us the safest streets to walk down to get to the sights and pretty much pleaded with us not to go out passed 10 o'clock. he was so nice and helpful, it was great to have someone keep an eye out for you.

we did the sights which to be honest were nothing to rave about. they have couple of castles on there coastline, not far from each other, and the area around there is ok. but part from that, i don't think it was that great. i heard you could do Naples in a day, i think i did it in a couple of hours! but to be honest i didn't really care, the main reason i came to Naples was to see the anicent city of Pompeii.

Pompeii is just a small train ride out of Naples. but even that was a eye openner, we were looking for our train (because there were about 20 platforms it wasn't as easy as it sounds) and this little italian man, who must have heard me ask the information area which platform, came up to me and said 'are you looking for Pompeii?' i said 'yeah' so he said 'i know where to go, you head this way, turn right and... actually, its on my way i'll show you' he had a toursit information badge on so i thought why not. but in the back of my mind i was thinking 'he's being a little too helpful, what does he want?' anyway he walked us down to the platform and as soon as he got there, he said 'this is the train to Pompeii that will be 5 EURO please' i was like 'what?' i couldn't believe it. i was kind of angry at him because i hate when someone pretends to be doing you a favour then when really its for there own benifit. i thought it was kind of sad that this is what the world had come to. he wouldn't leave us alone so we gave him some EURO because somehow in his mind he thought it was ok, once we did and he buzzed off. its a shame becuase those kind of experiences, i think, make you less trusting of everyone.
the train was pretty horrible, it leaked, smelt really funky and looking out the window during the train trip i saw how dirty naples and its surrounding towns were. which made me think, who is in charge of cleaning this stuff? i know that its the people that live here that make it dirty but i'm sure these people pay taxes. i had heard about the Italian government and how corrupt they are, but i didn't really realise how little they really did until i came here. people that live here don't really even seem to notice the mess and i think thats the main problem, education. i think that littering has become so much part of there lives that perhaps they don't know what they are doing. for instance you always see people smoking in italy, not just in Naples but everywhere in italy, and it just seems like a reflex action to throw there butt on the ground, not put it out and throw it in a bin. its sad but in some ways i think its too far gone. but then again, what do i know? i'm just someone on the outside looking in.

thank god after the train ride Pompeii was really worth it. it all started i suppose when Mt Vesuvius blew its top and covered the city with ash and volcanic debris thousands of years ago. to see this city preserved in time was quite an amazing thing to see you can still see shop names written on the walls, its amazing that some of the frescos are still intact. the thing i think is funny is it was accidentally discovered. in 1748 some workers were digging a hole or something and found some bones in a cavity. luckily one of them was smart enough to fill the hole with plaster and when they dug the plaster out they found it created a figure. to see those poor people and animals (there was a cast of a dog too) was a combination of tragic and amazing all at the same time, the amount of detail was breath taking, you could see the folds of there clothes and everything. something i found interesting was there was a laundry and back in those days they used to use urine to help clean clothes becuase of its ammonia properties. it made me think, not that i'd try it, but could we still use urine to clean our clothes? or would it be impossible because i imagine that our diets have changed so much over time. i dunno, until i figure it out i'll keep using Omo.

anyway, that was my Naples experience, i think in some ways experience is an understatement. the plan was to head to Bari and catch a ferry to Dubrovnik but the ferries arent running at the moment which is a bit of a pain, so were heading up to Venice, its a bi of the long way around but what can you do? more when i get there.

Rome

2009-01-19T12:43:00.001-08:00

after i left Florence i was a bit worried, i felt that maybe Italy wouldn't live up to the expectations i had of it. but some of the train ride down to Rome was quite nice and i saw a few of the little villages i had in mind. but after being in Rome my faith was restored, well not religiously, but in Italy. i think i liked it a lot more than Florence, it has some beautiful old buildings and i think the streets have a lot more character and some of the Piazza's are great. i did a fair bit here but i won't bore you with all the details (as i'm sure i sometimes do) but i'll tell you a few highlights.

i suppose a good place to start is the hostel. because the hostel we stayed in Florence was so good i figured this one was going to ok because it was recommended by the last hostel. turns out i was wrong. well, i didn't think it was too bad, but i'm a boy and i think sometimes i'm totally oblivious to things like this. but Ash went and had a shower and when she came back to the dorm and i could see from the look on her face i was going to get an ear bashing. she threw a bit of a tantrum and said the showers were horrible. i found it really hard to keep a straight face to be honest its pretty rare for her to really lose it, and shes no princess so what she was saying was true, the showers were pretty rank. but i persuaded her that we should stay here becuase from what i'd heard about Rome, not many hostel here are that great. she soon got over it and i got a laugh out of it. actually the staff were pretty rude too and they had a creepy cleaner who always seemed to be peering around corners i even had a go at one of the staff members for being so unhelpful, and thats saying something, usually i wouldn't say a word. but on the positive we did meet some cool people at the hostel. Kim and Sam who were an aussie couple in there 30's who were at the tail end of there honeymoon around Europe. they were really lovely and we cooked together a couple of nights we were here. (oh, by the way they weren't staying in the dorm on there honeymoon they were in the other section of the hostel.)

when your in rome you have to see the Colosseum. its such an amazing structure, its no wonder that its in the 7 wonders of the world. i did a tour of it and i found out some awesome facts. the Colosseum was built because they had a Emperor called Nero that they didn't like very much. he had a man made lake where the Colosseum stands today, and when he died to forget about his reign, they drained the lake (it saved them from digging the foundations) and built over it an area for the people of rome to forget there troubles by watching men hack each other to death, sounds relaxing, doesn't it? and get this, the guy who loses the battle is made to smile before he is killed.

when you see the Colosseum these days, its a bit of a shadow of its former self. there is only one half of the other layer remaining, i thought maybe it was from a natural disaster like an earthquake, but i was wrong it was from the people and artists of rome. when Italys religion changed to Catholic the Colosseum wasn't used any more so they allowed people to take what they wanted from it to build there homes, statues more churches. because the other layer was marble, it was well sort after, hence theres only half of it left.

actually, another strange fact is before italy was catholic they were pagen and would burn catholics as torches to keep the Colosseum lit up at night. but i think the most ironic bit is, after the Colosseum stopped getting used it started filling up with soil (it went right up to the second teir) anyway, it turned out it was the Vatican that paid for it to be repaired. go figure.

oh and you know how they say 'Rome wasn't built in a day', i tell you i think they did a pretty good job when it came to building the Colosseum, they did it in something like 8 years! i think thats pretty quick when you think about it

and now for a bit of a rant. on my tour of the Colosseum, i had a few American tourists on it. now i want to start off by saying, just about every American i had met up to that point i had got on really well with, i still keep in contact with some of them. the people on the tour were from Georgia which, going on there accents, is in the south. i dunno if that was the main difference but they were the rudest people i have ever met in my life. they did a number, and said a number of stupid things, but the straw that broke the camels back was when one of them, pulled out a texta and wrote his name on the Colosseum then gloated to his mate about it, i nearly died! i couldn't believe that they had just heard the guide say this is one of the 7 wonders of the world, and to respect it and look after it, and then he pulled out a texta and defaced it. and to top it all off they were in there 50's, you'd think by then you would have some sence. i'm kicking myself now i didn't say anything. i mean imagine how he would feel if i wrote 'Trent was here' on the White House. it was disgusting! for the people reading this, i don't want you to get the wrong idea about Americans because as i said, the majority i've met have been awesome. and its probably got nothing to do with them coming from America, there are idiots in every country, but i just needed to vent.

you know, on the way to the Trevi fountain, i have to admit, i was thinking, how good could this be, its a fountain, its 10 mintues of my life i'm never going to get back. but actually was pretty good, impressive in fact. something that was kinda overated are the Spanish steps, i heard they were featured in the Audrey Hepburn movie 'Roman Holiday', but i've never seen it, i think maybe you would like them if you had seen the movie. otherwise in a word, rubbish. theres not even a good view at the top.

being the good little catholic boy i am i just had to visit the Vatican city. i actually never knew that the Vatican City is the smallest country in the world. it was actually a good day to visit because on wednesdays Pope 'eggs' Benidict does a service kind of thing, so i got to see him. i have to say i'm not much of a fan of this pope, i don't think i'm the only one, i think for a lot of people the jury is still out. in my opinion hes got big shoes to fill, Pope John Paul II was pretty bloody good. but also i heard that recently he made some offensive comments about homosexuals. i'm sure it did get things for numbers in churchs, seriously 'eggs' get with the times.

the grounds of the Vatican are quite beautiful, the church don't look like they are struggling too much, and they have some great art work in the galleries and of course there is the Sistine chapel, which is nothing short of amazing. i learnt that the first panel that was painted was a bit of trail and error becuase when Michelangelo painted it he realised that he had done the figures too small and you could hardly see them from the ground looking up. its pretty amazing but kills your neck after a while. i think the best part was 'the final judgement' which is painted on the back wall of the church not on the ceiling. once Michelangelo finished it, a preist said to him he didn't like it because he thought it was 'too busy'. Michelangelo was furious and as pay back he painted the priest into the painting but in hell, with the snake wrapped around him biting him in the parts! the priest was really ticked off so he went to the pope to get him to tell Michelangelo to paint it out. the priest said 'if Michelangelo had painted you in heaven i could've done something about it, but since your in hell, even i can't help you'. if you don't want to go to the Vatican i reckon the church that gives the Sistine chapel a run for its money is the 'Sant'Ignazio di Loyola a Campo Marzio' its roof is quite amazing. i kind of reminded me of those magic eye books, becuase as you walked around the roof played perspective tricks with your eye. brilliant!

St Peter's Basilica is HUGE, but i wouldn't really rave about it, big doesn't mean better. i personally couldn't leave the Vatican without a bit of blasphemy, even if it was under my breath.

to give you some idea of how catholic the Italians are, they broadcast a service live on TV every sunday in a different church each week. speaking of television. i never thought Australia was really that conservative until i came overseas. to be honest i think most of Australia would flip if they started putting page 3 girls in newspapers. i'm not a prude by any means, but here in Italy even i've blushed a few times. there late night TV is out of control, every channel is nude central, you can't escape it, i wouldn't be surprised if they read the news nude too.

Capitoline Hill is quite interesting legend had it, its where Rome was founded by 2 brothers, Romulus and Remus who were found in the river by a wolf and raised by her. to put a long sotry short the two brothers had a fight, and Romulus killed Remus hence thats why is called Rome. its all rubbish of course but its a nice story. anyway, the area surrounding is full of old ruins, i think it might have been where the Palace was at one stage. its kind of interesting but after a while it becomes rubble, still its pretty crazy to think of how old it is though. something interesting in the Capitoline Hill area is the Arch of Titus, which is like a big arch way they built when the romans were victorious over the Jews. as a sign of respect you can't walk under it these days, but supposidly a important trumpet was stolen during the war and the jewish people what it back. there are two stories floating around, Italian government say they down have it and believe its lost. but another theory is its somewhere in the Vatican. i smell a rat, but i couldn't help but think, this kind of thing sounds right up Dan Brown's alley, did i hear someone say 'the trumpet code'?
something i thought was kinda funny is they are trying to build another underground line in Rome but contantly run into problems because whenever they dig they find something and the experts get called in to inspect it, its taken them something like 2 years so far and they are no where near being finished.

not far from Capitoline Hill is 'Bocca della verita' which means 'mouth of truth', its famous becuase of its role as a lie detector. it was believed that if if you told a lie with your hand in the mouth of the sculpture, it would be bitten off! luckily butter wouldn't melt in my mouth (isn't that right Nanna) and my hand is still in one piece.

now for some day to day observations. i had heard that the Police here are quite lazy but it was almost laughable at how lazy they actually were, i always caught them having a smoke or having a laugh with another police officer. supposidly they don't get paid very well so the locals don't really mind. but considering how lazy they are, there mad about sirens, i don't think you can go 3 minutes without hearing a police siren, there probably in a rush to get work so they can knock off for the day. i also heard the police target tourist a fair bit and get you to pay your fine on the spot to them, something tells me the fine doesn't make it back to the police station. i didn't experience this so i dunno if it really true or not. traffic in Rome is a nightmare. i heard about this too, but you really have to experience it to believe it. i think the road rules over here are there are no rules. no lines on the ground. no giving way. absolute chaos! i thought about hiring a Vespa for a bit of fun, you know the whole when in rome thing, but i dont think i would've come back alive. i don't really understand why they rush on the road, they dont when there off them. something i found a bit of a shame about Rome was the amount of litter. there river is totally choked with the stuff and the colour of it is like a lime green. yuk! on another note completely i've had 'Italian Spiderman' in my head the hold time i've been here. i can't take credit for it, my mate Gabe showed it to me ages ago, but its pretty funny, click here to check it out. the story behind it is pretty cool. it was done by some Australian uni students for an assignment, they put it on youtube and got heaps of hits so they kept doing episodes and it became a bit of a youtube sensation.

oh, i got a hair cut while i was here in Italy, the barber was hilarious. he didn't speak much english at all so it was kinda hard to explain what i wanted. as he was cutting away he kept saying 'milano, milano' and 'kaka, si?' i just smiled as i had no idea what he was on about. at the end of the hair cut he grabbed a newspaper and said 'Kaka' and pointed to a photo of a soccer player. i think he was trying to say he was cutting my hair like him but i don't think it really looks like it at all. it looks a bit nerdy at the moment but it always does when you first get your hair cut, give it a week or two and it will be fine.

looking over what i've just written i've realised that maybe i have bored you with the details, sorry about that, scary thing is i saw more than what i've written about. anyway, taking the good with the bad, i really enjoyed Rome, some might say I came, i saw, i conquered, i brought the T-Shirt. next Naples!

Florence

2009-01-16T08:50:00.000-08:00

i got word of a really good hostel here in Florence from a guy that was staying in the hostel in Cinque Terre, it sounded a bit too good to be true. he said that for 18EURO a night you got a cooked breakfast, a cooked dinner, a free walking tour and free internet. it was worth checking it out regardless if i thought he was pulling my leg, but lucky for me he came through with the goods. its possibly the best hostel i've stayed in to date. its a really nice environment with people over the years drawing or painting on the walls pictures or quotes, though a couple of quotes were a little bizarre, ie this one 'you can put a cat in an oven, but it doesn't make it a biscuit ' what does that even mean? anyway, ive met some cool people here too which is always a bonus.

i did the tour that the hostel offered and surprise, surprise, it turns out Florence is quite an interesting place. the Medici family seemed to pop up in its history quite a bit. they were the people that invent the early banking system like interest rates etc (can i hear everyone at home saying "wow, thanks Medici family!") anyway as you might gather they were quite weathly and had a lot of power around here, so much so they governed for about 300 years. they were obscenely rich and had two massive palaces, the main Medici guy didnt like hanging around with all the poor people much so he commissioned a giant walk way, high above the towns people, to run between his two palaces, which were about 1km away from each other. even if things got in the way, like other peoples homes, even a church the walk way ran straight through it. its quite amazing to see but at the same time you have to feel for the people that lost half there living room to it. anyway, when it was finally complete the head honcho still wasnt pleased. when he walked over the bit that ran over the Ponte Vecchio (which is a bridge) he didnt like the bad smells from below, because in that time, the shops that ran along the bridge were butchers, so he ruled that from that day onward only jewelery shops will do business on the bridge, and its been like that ever since. supposidly some of the worlds best jewellers trade there. its actually a great little bridge, so much character, it looks like the shops are only propped up by stilts.

i personally think over the other side of the river is a lot nicer, mainly because of its gardens which make the place a bit greener. dont get me wrong the other side is nice too but its a bit commercial, at first i got a bit overwhelmed by the amount of stores, dodgy little markets and tourists. but, it wasnt until i looked up at the buildings the stores were in that i saw there beauty. they were actually really nice. having said that, there must be some good shops around because the general dress standard of people here, i think, is pretty high. there are some seriously trendy people around.

a particular part i really liked about Florence was there was this church in the poorer parts of town that centuries ago used to house a lot of homeless, then the government saw what good they were doing so they got they more or less funded the church to teach people how to make leather goods as a way to support themselves. and because of the skills they learnt some of them became really good at creating things from leather and this made some of the poorest families end up being some of the richest in Florence. The church now is burial site to some of Florence's most when known people like Michelangelo and Gallio Galilei.

there are some really famous pieces of art here in Florence. in the Uffizi gallery they have work but nearly all of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, but proberly the most famous piece they have is the 'The Birth of Venus' i was surprised at how big it was, most famous artworks you see are a lot smaller than you would imagine. but the most famous artwork they have here in Florence is the grand daddy of all sculpture, Michelangelo's 'David'. throughout the town there are quite a few David's but the real one is in a little museum which was something i was quite surprised by. the Museum it was in was in a really rubbish part of town, and there are hardly any signs to find the place. considering how famous its is you would think it would be in some amazing HUGE gallery, but not the case. still the work itself didn't disappoint. its quite amazing to see how well crafted it is, its hard to believe it used to be just a slab of marble. David comes from the story 'David and Goliath' of how a boy defeated a giant not by strenght but by using his brain, so was they commissioned Michelangelo to make him to describe the Florentine people, becuase it was there brains ie the banking system that made them one of the most wealthy towns in Italy, if not the world at that stage. i like how Michelangelo intensionally made the head and hands of David slightly bigger to physically describe this, subtle but clever. only problem with the work in my eyes is his pubic hair is a little too perfect.

thoughout are a number of stutues and there was one i really like called 'Perseus with the Head of Medusa', for a few reasons. the artwork is made out of metal, but as the artist was coming towards the end of finishing it, he started to run out of metal so get gathered up all the metal things in his house that were metal and melted them down to finish it off. the second reason is there is a secret self portait of the artist hidden in it, if you go around to the back of the statue and look up between his ears, and if you look closely you can see a man with a beard in the back of his head. i thought that was pretty awesome!

There is an amazing cathedral here in Florence called the Duomo. it has a huge dome at the top and its the only one of its kind anywhere in the world, theres a couple of great stories behind it. the first is nobody really knows how it was done becuase they believe that the architect either burnt the copy of the plans, or the plans are in the golden ball at the top, but they think if it is removed it may make the building crumble. i think its quite amazing that and even with todays technology it can never be reproduced due to its sheer size. i climbed the 400,000 odd steps to the top (ok, i may have embellished the number a little bit) are had a great view from the top. the building is really big, it wasnt until i was over on a hill on the other side of the river, that i was able to compare its size to everything else. ITS MASSIVE!

i did a day trip out to Pisa while i was here. i was planning on staying there for a night on the way to Florence but it ended up cheaper to day trip, the hostels cost an arm and a leg! lucky i didn't, there really isnt much to do there except for seeing the leaning tower. for me the fun bit was watching everyone making a fool of themselves posing with it, like they are trying to hold it up to stop it from falling. i must admit i gave it a go too, its all in good fun i suppose. i was really surprised as to how far it was actually leaning. i heard that over the years they had been trying to stop it from leaning too much, just in case it falls, but it didnt look like it. but to be honest if they straightened it, i dont think Pisa would really be worth the visit.

the free meal at the hostel was ok but nothing to really rave about, so a few of us from the hostel went out for dinner, i had a 'Margherita' pizza, which is the tradional pizza of Italy. i remember a few facts from when i learnt italian in my primary school days about the Margherita. it was named after an italian queen and the ingredients are meant to resemble the colours of the italian flag (red = tomato sauce, white = mozzarella, green = herbs). wow, i actually retained knowledge from school, 1 point to Trent! anyway, it was pretty good, but my plan is to try and get invited back to a Nonnas place so she can cook for me i think thats the only way i'm going to be able to try real italian cuisine.

i'm in two minds as to whether or not i like Florence, i mean its nice but i think i've seen so many great places along the way, it kind of felt like just another town. i dunno maybe i'm just beening too harsh, then again it could be one of those places i'll look back on in a few years and like my experience here. anyway, heading to Rome next which should be good, more when i get there.

Cinque Terre

2009-01-14T07:55:00.000-08:00

So i said goodbye to south of France and headed for italy. the train trip was rather enjoyable because the route it takes is right along the coast, which is absolutely stunning. i didn't get into Cinque Terre until about 9pm and by that stage it was like a ghost town and the hostel i planned to stay in showed no signs of life, i think the town goes to bed at 8pm. only one coffee shop was open, luckily the guy in there spoke pretty good english and i asked him where i could find a hostel that was open. he called a hotel that was open up the road a bit and i had to stay there, it was a bit expensive but it was only for one night so i didn't mind. the next day i got to my hostel, the guy that owned it was really nice and very helpful, i think his name was Macchiato, ok, not really, but it was something like that. the dorm was in a great location, not far from the town centre and right near a tiny little port which is really nice, its just a few boats and a couple of sleepy fisherman.

before i go on i should fill you in a little bit about Cinque Terre. Cinque Terre is made up of 5 coastal towns (hence the name, Cinque means 5 and Terre i guess means town) Monterosso, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola and Riomaggiore which is where i stayed. i had never heard of Cinque Terre until i came over here, it seems everyone that i've met traveling has recommended it so i thought i should check it out. Riomaggiore is a funny little town. its really cute and its exactly what you would picture in your mind of what a little italian villiage would be like. something i thought was funny was the little shops that selling groceries all sell the same thing at exactly the same price and are all about 10 steps from each other. but come 12 o'clock the town shuts down and there is nothing open until about 5pm when they open for a couple of hours. the first day i got caught out because i didn't get anything to eat for lunch so i was starving by the time they openned again. i think because teh town is so sleepy, it makes you feel the same way, i can't remember the last time i went to bed at 8pm but here it was the norm. oh, and i'm conviced animals run the town, cats and dogs run around everywhere, its hilarious!

to be totally honest there isn't a lot to do here, but its a good place to chill out and just its beauty. one evening Ash and I polished off a bottle of local vino down at the docks which was great, actually thats a bit of an extra bonus of traveling with someone, you kind of share expenses a bit, normally i wouldn't buy a bottle of wine for myself but when you break it up its not too bad. something you can do here though is walk along the coast going from town to town. some of the treks are quite easy but other were a nightmare, some of the paths had eroded away which made it difficult to get around. a one stage i ended up getting lost and a flagged down a local school bus for directions. i was lucky enough to get a lift with him to the town i was getting to. this was my first taste of italian driving, because the roads here are quite small i could understand he had to beep his horn as he was going around corners, but he was horn happy, he would beep whenever he got the chance which was pretty funny. considering how windy the roads were it didn't slow him down much but i'm sure he knew the roads like the back of his hand. something interesting i found along the way was under a bridge were all these locks people had lcoked onto the railing. i couldn't figure out why so i asked the guy i met on the first night, who owned the coffee shop, he told me that it started when in an old italian movie a couple put a lock on a railing and threw away the key to symbloize that there love was forever. supposidly you see it alot through out italy not just Cinque Terre. The guy suggested i should do it with Ash, i tried to explain that we are just traveling together not a couple but i don't think he could get his head around it. something i've noticed already about the italian people is how passionate they are, whenever i watch them talking its so full on, they throw there arms about and there voice gets louder, it sounds like there arguing (but you can tell there not) i really like it, but they definately know which side there bread is buttered, whenever i went into a shop to buy something, regardless of where i was in the line, i would always be the last to be served and the locals always came first, it might be just a small town mentality but i didn't mind too much. actually the food was worth the wait, just about every morning i had ciabatta bread that was dipped in olive oil, it was so good, i'm hooked.

Most of the towns are pretty similar, they're built into the side of the mountain and are quite small, the little lanes that run up and down the hill and around the homes are nice to walk around. out of the 5 towns i think Riomaggiore, Vernazza and Monterosso where the nicest, they just had a bit more to do in them. in Monterosso i had my first real italian Gelati, it was so good, i think i liked it more because i imagined the guy that sold me it had been selling them his whole life.

Cinque terre was definately worth a look, but a couple of days is more than enough, now i'm off to Florence. Ciao!

Nice

2009-01-10T10:37:00.000-08:00

the night train ride was an epic one. there was a crazy guy pacing up and down the carriage the whole night which was a nightmare because it was hard enough to sleep as it was. but i did manage to get a couple of winks of sleep. my plan for heading south was to get away from winter as much as possible, below zero was starting to do my head in. i was a bit worried the trip south hadn't paid off, i looked out the window and saw snow capped mountains, but i then i looked out the otherside of the train and saw the sun come up over the riviera and knew it was all good! it was 16 degree outside, and it was the first time i'd seen double figures in ages!

Nice is well, nice. the beaches are quite beautiful and seem to go for miles and miles. i loved watching the people running along the water. it must be in fashion to where spandex while running and let me tell you, spandex isn't for everyone. the water is so clean too, i have never seen water so blue, there were even a couple of game people in the water having a swim. i didn't think much of the Nice to begin with, but then i stumbled across the old town which was beautiful. full of really old buildings that just seem to be built on top over each other. i really liked the colours of them too, i saw one guy painting his house and was doing such a shotty job, but it kind of added to the charm of it. the narrow little streets with washing lines hanging high up and plenty of food shops at street level was exactly what i had pictured in my head of what Nice would be like. i think the main highlight was the market where you could sample some of the local food and it was so fresh, i think its a shame to think that we don't really do our shopping like this in Australia, and whenever we need vegetables we generally have big chains like Coles or Woolworths top of mind. i managed to find a couple of cool, second hand furniture shops too. the church in the old town was great it was only lit with daylight and i think it made it more attractive, the way the rays of light would burst in though the windows was brilliant, it was like the big guy upstairs was pointing things out.
the view from castle hill was stunning, these days its pretty much a look out, but i from what i could gather from the bad translation, the Greeks once had a castle there and then when it was taken over, it was burnt down. well something around those lines, the translation was shocking. on a day to day level, every morning i would go to this bakery which was around the corner from where i was staying. the food was pretty good, but the part i loved the most was the way the lady would wrapped the food up and then say 'vuala!' i thought it was great, i couldn't wait until the next morning to order all over again!
i think the old town was probably the best bit of Nice, i found the town outside of that didn't really have a good vibe to it, its pretty quiet and i know that its not peak season but i don't think it would be much of a party town in the summer. from seeing the number of chemists around, i imagine its where a lot of the older crowd hang out. the main reason i made the decision to stay in Nice was it was so much cheaper to stay here and travel out to other areas than to move from place to place. i thought with it being in the off season everywhere would be a lot cheaper, but as it turns out, not the case.

i did a day trip to Cannes, which was such an amazing place. in case you've been living under a rock, its where they hold the Cannes film festival, they have to big cinema there with the red carpet, so walked up and down it pretending to be a movie star signing autographs, i think everyone thought i had a screw loose. there are famous peoples hand prints in concrete around the cinema, it turns out Clint Eastwood and i have the same size hand, and Bruce Willis has really small hands, and you know what they say about small hands... small gloves. the old town there is really beautiful also. small little streets with so much character, and its on the top of a big hill so you get to see a great view also. there are 2 islands not far from the beach that you can get a boat out to (something annoying is you have to catch 2 seperate boats to get to them, which means you have to go back to the beach to catch the other) supposidly one of the islands is where the man in the iron mask was held. Around Cannes there are quite a number of murals which i think were pretty cool, generally they have something to do with movies or making movies.
there were a couple of markets that were brilliant, a food one and also a second hand market, you should've seen the stuff they were selling, vintage Chanel, Dior, etc. they had some beautiful old vintage advertising posters that were put on canvas, i fell in love with one of them, the picture was of a swimmer with a diving board in the back ground, i wanted to buy it but it cost 350 EUROS which was a bit pricey, i still considered buying it because i liked it so much, but i eventually talked myself out of it, mainly because it was so big, even if i rolled it up i think i would have trouble sending it home and it would've been tricky traveling with it. not to worry.
there are some really expensive stores along the main street in Cannes too, Yves Staint Laurent, Armani, you name and expensive brand, they had it. i got the shock of my life while i was walking on the beach too, first of all its sand in Cannes whereas it was rocks in Nice, but that wasn't the shock, it was the 70 year lady walking around topless, she reminded me of the lady in 'Something about Mary'. my eyes are still sore! apart from that little episode, i really loved Cannes. Cannes is also the home of the Cannes Lions which is a really big international advertsing award, so hopefully its not the last time i visit here.

Another day i went out to Antibes, which is a nice little spot. it looked like it was surrounded by a huge wall, and you could walk on the the top of it. it was a nice little town, and was lot less touristy than Cannes but in some ways quite similar. not far from there is Fort Carre which is funnily enough an old fort. i didn't get to go inside because i only discovered it later in the day and it was closed, not to worry i think i've seen my fair share of forts and castles to last me a lifetime. it rather silly but i think my experience of Antibes was ruined by one of the waiters in a restraunt, he was just so rude, it was a bit of a shame because the majority of french i have met have been lovely and very friendly but he really lived up to the french stereotype, a stereotype i imagine if your french you would want to prove wrong. anyway, Antibes was still worth a look.

I also did a day trip to Monaco which was quite interesting, it was so clean and it was like everything had its place, i found the town was build really symetrical too which is no mean feat since its built on a hill. it is a lot more built up compare to the rest of the south that i have visited and of course it was extremely wealthy, the highrises are quite amazing and the yachts were unbelievable. i think it kind of had an old world feel too it too, it was kinda like you stepped right into the 1950's becuase generally the architecture is quite classic. i checked out a couple of casinos too, the first one i think was for the plebs but the second was in a beautiful old building, but there was a 10 EURO fee to go into the gaming area, it definately sorted the men from the boys because i wasn't that interested in watching other people pay, well, unless they were going to share the profits. Monaco is a tax haven, but i can't figure out, if nobody pays tax, how do they afford to have royalty? anyway it explains why you see so many sports cars around the place, Ferrari's, Porche, Rolls Royce, etc. and not to mention trophy wifes, it was pretty funny to see 70 year old men with 20 somethings on there arm, but i suppose, when you think about it, both parties are getting what they want out of it. speaking of playboys i saw the Royal Palace where Price Albert of Monaco lives, i get the feeling he's quite popular amongst the locals, they have a lot of photos of him and his family in shop windows. Albert is the son of movie star Grace Kelly, who later became royalty here, you can see heaps of photos of her around town and there are a number of streets named after her and other members of the royal family. its funny as i was walking around some of it was quite familiar and i figured out it was from a F1 nintendo game that i had as a kid, they race on the streets of Monaco when the Grand Prix comes to town, so it was kind of strange to think i had virtually been here before.
being in the south really reminds me a lot of the movie 'The Life Aquatic', esspecially in Monaco where they had a some prehistoric sea equipment out the front of one of the museums.
Monaco was nice, and it was interesting to see how the other half live but it wasnt really for me, it all seemed a bit too polished, i think the other places i visited where more interesting because they were more rustic.

anyway, its been great spending time in the south but now its time say 'Bon Voyage' to France and head to Italy, which i think should be amazing.

Paris for a second time

2009-01-06T02:53:00.000-08:00

The bus ride wasn't great, trying to sleep on those things is an art form, but i met a English bloke called Dan on the bus and we got on like a house on fire, he was a musician so we talked a lot about music, we also joke about the photo on my passport, because now it looks nothing like me, i cant get over how much i've changed! but i don't think i've just change physically, i think this trip has made me a different person too, i think having time by myself has been a really good thing and i've kind of sorted myself out a bit. oh, and i've got a 'things-to-do' list a mile long for when i get back, its brilliant, i think i'm going to hit the ground running.

I ended up staying where i did the last time i was here, which is pretty nice and cheap (well, cheap for paris) and the guy that checked me in, Marcus, remembered me from last time. hes australian also and we got on quite well, i fact on the first sunday of the year you are meant to eat a cake that has a little present inside it, the person who gets the present in there piece is king for the day. he gave me a slice but unfortunately for me, Marcus got a little aeroplane in his piece.

I didn't end up catching up with Maddy and Mike as i planned to do. on the first day her phone didn't work when i tried to call and the second day for sme strange reason my phone card didn't work, which was a bit of a pain, not to worry i'll see them back in London at some stage. but i did catch up with Claire, who i used to go to high school with. she has moved over here to live with a guy she met while traveling over her last year. we went for dinner in a little chinese resturant that was around the corner from my hostel, it was a really really cool little place and was deck out like St Jeromes (a bar i used to go to in Melbourne), the food was great and quite cheap, i think i was a bit of a student hangout. anyway, it was really nice to catch up with her, it felt like i hadn't seen her in ages. Claire is possibly one of he nicest people you will ever meet.

not really a lot to report on the tourist side, i kinda did everything last time i was here (check out my last Paris trip here). i spent a lot of time just walking around, checking out clothes and book stores and just enjoying paris. i brought Eric Captons Autobiography, so i've been reading that quite a lot so thats kept me busy. oh, and it was snowing here, i've seen snow before but i've never experienced it snowing so that was pretty exciting, well for about an hour it was, it was bloody freezing, its funny, because some of the fountains here have frozen over and only squirt out a little bit of water, they look like they have conjunctivitis or something. on the sunday i was here all the galleries were free, i saw most of them when i was here last time except for the pompedui, which is the modern art gallery. they had some brilliant work in there, like Duchamp's 'fontaine' which is a urinal, it was pretty outragous in its day. plenty of Matisse, Pollock and Picasso. i was really into this one artist that layered posters and then tore them off leaving this amazing collage. something i thought was good was this HUGE plane made out of wicker, it looked like it could've come from the Michel Gondry film 'Science of sleep'. they had a sculpture that was made with a trash compactor which i thought looked amazing!

anyway i'm off to the South of France, but this time i'm not going alone, i've got myself a travel buddy! i was kinda sick of traveling on my own, not that it hasnt been fun and i do like my own company, but the opportunity came up so i thought 'why not?' i met Ashleigh in Dublin, she is originally from Sydney and was one of the group of people that i got on with that worked in the Hostel there. i dont know how long we'll travel together for but i think it will be nice to hang out with someone for a while and have more of a conversation than 'where are you from?' 'where have you been?'

anyway, a bit of a short blog but i'm sure i'll have more to write about when i get south. though, its good to see i can write under a million words for a change. oh, incase you were wondering, the mime tally is still at zero. see you soon!