Tales from the deep

I was at the parking lot and a stranger asked me for a lift. He says he "only lives 60 minutes away" and I tell him I live really close by. He got in the car anyway. I get this creepy feeling about him. Anyway, I drive home... apparently I live in an apartment block. He tells me to drop him off at the laundry room. I decide to drive off immediately. However, after doing this I am now out of my car and all my clothes apart from my undies are on the floor. I assume this is because I saw a laundry room.

Anyway, I run to my neighbours' house. I instinctively head for the daughter's 3rd floor balcony. Seems I've done that a few times before. After realizing this was probably not such a good idea to do this in my undies (as I've been running around half-naked carrying my clothes in my arms all this time), I go through the front door. Now here's the weird part (yes, you heard me)... the door was about half a metre away from a wall, hanging up in mid-air (not floating, but protruding), to the side of a bunch of stairs, so I had to hang from the stairway railing to step sideways and reach the door.

After somehow managing to open the door and walking through, I find myself in the room with (presumably) my neighbours and one of my (chick) friends with her girlfriend (even though she's not gay). The daughter, who turns out to be a neighbour that I I've seen around but haven't ever talked to, welcomes me in by saying "it's the alliance" then explains to everybody "we have this alliance thing going." The mum tells me to come in and says they "ordered the super mega pizza pack" or something along those lines and that it's too much for them. I tell them that my family was on holidays and asked if I could join them for dinner. Still in my undies, I seem to take it all in quite well and take a seat in front of the couch as they all watch TV.










Damn weird dreams.

Snoblog 2006: Thredbo

Well, I'm back from a week at the snow and I've been nagged to blog it up and post some photos, so here it is.

We left for the snow in the wee hours of Sunday the 16th of July, not 24 hours after I had gotten more than slightly inebriated at my 22nd birthday party. In between those two events I had worked a 3-hour shift and was understandably tired by the time I had arrived at Central for the coach's departure.

I soon met up with my 'crew' (or 'homies' or 'dizzles'... what does that even mean?) for this year, consisting of Jim, Morgan, and Phil (a girl, don't be deceived by the name) from last year's really small but awesome trip, two of Jim and Morgan's friends, Kevin and Alex (or 'Apte', being his last name), and Phil's snowboarding buddy, BD... affectionately known as DD, ED, EB, JJ, or George W. Delays were the order of the day, and it took quite some time to sort out the Sydney Uni people from the Ski Kaos people (our trip). After randomly running into Bradshaw (from uni), who was on his way to Star City, we soon started loading the buses and were on our way south.

Morgan wtfpwns Apte

Due to my very busy couple of days prior to the trip, I managed to get a fair amount of sleep on the bus trip down and woke up for the McBreakfast stop in Cooma. Before too long we hit the slopes on what can only be described as very disappointing conditions. Little did I know that the trip would be filled with many experiences, both good and bad.

Rain and pain

The sight of the snow upon arrival at Thredbo was not a welcome one. The cover was incredibly limited, and almost immediately after we started riding (or skiing, as was the case for Jim and Kev) the rain came. It would have been all dandy had it been a few degrees colder but as it stood, it was above freezing so the precipitation was rain instead of powder. I fear that my curse of bad weather had followed me around once again.

Monday... ok so the picture looks better than it actually was

It wasn't a very pleasant start to the trip and continued on to the next day. In fact, it was raining so much on Monday that a great majority of my so-called 'waterproof' clothing had been completely soaked. The bad luck didn't end there. While at the High Noon intermediate terrain park, Phil failed to get enough speed approaching the funbox and somehow twisted her knee, an injury she was to carry for the next couple of days. Fortunately, she eventually recovered.

Tuesday

On the topic of injuries, a lot of the sounds heard from our section of the bus throughout the week had been groans of pain. BD had bruised his hip (or thereabouts), and I carried on the tradition of leg injuries (Liza also messed up her leg on last year's trip) by spectacularly face planting on the picnic table in the terrain park after hitting the kicker too slow. It was probably similar to this but instead of slamming into the funbox face-forward, the side of the picnic table caught my shin (quite painfully) and I flew smack-bang onto my side, culminating in a face plant. The entire left side of my body was in tremendous pain. The worst part was that there were only about two witnesses. There were other great crashes throughout the week but thankfully, there were no major injuries for the trip, save for a South African girl who somehow snapped some ligaments in her leg. Ouch.

Bored... or artsy?

Our luck with the weather soon turned as the temperature dropped and snow started falling from the heavens.

Off pissed and off-piste

There was a definite party atmosphere in the trip thanks to the great people, especially the two tour guides, Simmo and Chris. I couldn't have asked for better tour guides. Except Bruce. Bruce is the best. Please give me a season pass. ANYWAY... as the liquid from the sky started to turn into snow the liquid falling into our mouths began to turn into sleep deprivation.

Progress shot of our room's beer consumption

We also ordered an insane amount of pizzas throughout the week, and threw up upon mention of the place Bits 'N' Pizzas by the fourth night. That particular night happened to be the Thredbo Invasion - a pub crawl held by the Ski Kaos folk. A lot of pre-drinking had partaken and the coach to Thredbo was very cheery.

Beer goggles

Stacks on!

Everybody had a great time on the crawl, and I spent a great deal of money. Damn kicking cowboys (like a regular cowboy shot but with some glacier ice on top for a nice kick, hence the kicking part). It was worth it though, and I found myself somehow outlasting Jim. We were watching the Tour de France, and I was trying to wake Jim up for an exciting finish to the stage, but alas he had passed out and my violent shoves did no good at all.

The beer commands you!

The next day was a top day of riding. The runs were still limited, but there was a nice constant stream of snow dusting throughout the day, increasing in intensity at about lunchtime, providing some beautiful views (which I was sadly too lazy to take pictures of) and a surreal feeling while going down some runs.

Thursday

The last day of skiing was probably my favourite day on the slopes. We had some excellent breakfast at Eagle's next followed by some excellent off-piste riding. We went to the highest lifted point in Australia and did both the marked and unmarked runs up there, both of which I enjoyed a lot. We then ended up riding some trees on a traverse, which wasn't that great, but I decided to go off by myself towards more trees, eventually leading me to some more off-piste riding. There was some icy bits but there was also some decent powder and, being the first off-piste I had done since 2003, it made me wonder why I had skipped it the previous two years. After having some unbelievably awesome sausages at the bottom of the slopes, the trip was soon over.

Count it... 11 large pizzas

Highlight of the trip? Probably the off-piste riding at the end. However, this one came close...

The sticker says it all

It's a condom machine with a half-torn off sticker that reads "if product proves faulty, insert baby here for refund". Good stuff.

More pictures

The rest of the pictures I took (sans blurry ones, which I discarded) can be found here. Note that it shows them in reverse order because the Photobucket settings are currently set to show the latest uploaded image.

More on Canada

Only a slightly snow-related side-note (and by slightly related I mean very related), I had gotten confirmation during the week of my interview times at the IEP Work & Ski Canada Job Fair. Both of the interviews are on Sunday, the 6th of August. I interview with Fairmont at 10am and with Panorama at 11am. Like the late Big Kev, I'm excited!

Australia makes it into the round of 16!

If you don't know what I'm on about well then... ummm... I dunno.

Anyway, this momentous occasion in Australian sporting history coincides with a bit of good news for me personally. After a shaky start to the month, which I'd rather not get into, I have some good news to keep me happy. The first bit of good news is the fact that I have successfully applied for my working holiday visa for Canada (see previous entry for more about why I applied), meaning the trip to Canada is almost certainly on. The second bit of good news is that I'm getting a decent amount of hours per week at work (averaging at around 15-20 hours), which means I'm starting to earn money for the trip.

Location, Location, Location

In terms of the IEP program, I decided at the last minute that I'd try for a position at Whistler/Blackcomb (well, a hotel at Whistler/Blackcomb... which will do me just fine) seeing as it's a monster of a ski resort that will no doubt keep me busy for the entire season. My second and third preferences were the aforementioned Panorama and Lake Louise, respectively.

Money, Money, Money

I asked mum if she could 'fund' my trip to Canada. That is, I'd use the credit card, etc. on the condition that I pay her back upon returning and getting a full-time job. Both of us were more than happy with this agreement, figuring that this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for a once-in-a-lifetime experience, so I should make the most of it. I'm really hoping that working during my trip will limit the damage while keeping things fun.

For the meanwhile, work hours have been going well, as I mentioned, and I've saved around $1000 for my return flights to Canada, which will probably end up costing around $2000, give or take. Hopefully the rest will be covered in the next couple of months of work. There's also the possibility that my mum can use a combination of FlyBuys points and United Mileage Plus points to manage a 'free' trip for me, so to speak. I kind of doubt the convenience of this though.

Apart from those details, I've decided to put myself on a self-imposed ban on making any further plans for Canada so as to not get my hopes up too much. It is looking rather good at the moment though.

Let it snow... well, you get the point

Back to matters closer to home and in the near(er) future, my trip to Thredbo is now only about 3 weeks away. I've been watching some snowboard trick tips videos and I plan to improve my skills when I go. Ideally, I'll pull off some sweet moves on tape and get sponsored... although realistically, I'm just hoping I don't get hurt or look like an absolute tool. In any case (except the one where I get hurt), it should be a great week at the snow. The cover has been good at the Snowy Mountains ever since opening weekend (possibly attributed to the multi-million dollar upgrade to the snowmaking system), so let's pray it stays that way until at least after the trip.


And finally, to get back to my first statement, best of luck to the Socceroos in the round of 16 against Italy. I hope the boys make it far, though I don't think anybody will be disappointed with how far they've already made it. Who's the man? Guus the man.

The month that was

...and what a month it was.

It appears that I totally neglected this blog last month due to circumstances beyond my control. That is, they were in my control, but I was too lazy to control them. First it was trying to juggle around my career options while being addicted to a video game, then it was being so off the ball that things started getting weird. After it all calmed down, a plan that was put on the backburner a few years ago came back into consideration.

Addiction

For some reason I had gotten back into Guild Wars, an online video game with the gimmick of no monthly fees, and was playing it an insane amount. After returning from Melbourne, I new job opportunity came up that I quickly jumped onto. Unfortunately, this didn't work out and it left me working only weekends at my old work. This made the addiction to Guild Wars a lot worse at it meant I had more time to play it. Fortunately, I lost most of my desire to play the game after I had finished the main storyline.

Just not on the ball at all

I noticed that I was not paying a lot of attention to certain things last month. Notable moments would have been when I ran a red light late at night because I thought it was about to go green (luckily it was a quiet area with no red light cameras), not being able to go out one night because I didn't even have enough money to pay for the bus (hence not being able to reach an ATM), and generally just doing things I wouldn't normally do. Fortunately, I seem to have gained a good deal of my concentration back lately.

Snow

With the job I thought I had in the bag having fell through, I decided to explore other options. Leigh, a friend of mine from Canberra, asked if I would be interested in working in Canada for a season at the snow. Naturally, I was very interested. This had been something I wanted to do about three years ago before uni got in the way. This time, I have nothing to lose (except a great deal of money, but shut up) so I decided to pursue it.

Meanwhile Morgan, another old acquaintance (from last year's ski trip), had started to organize a trip down to Falls Creek to ski/snowboard for a week. I decided I would join this trip as it had been a place I wanted to go to for the past few seasons (but again, uni got in the way). Unfortunately, we ended up booking too late, and had to settle for Thredbo once again. The season hasn't even started yet and I'm already getting excited about it. In the midst of it all, Morgan asked me if I would do vocals for a song by his band, River of Bass, which I think will be a pretty cool experience.

Anyway, back to Canada... I had done a bit of research about the program by IEP that places people with some employers in or near ski fields in Canada. In my eternal nerdiness, I even made a spreadsheet with details about each employer and each ski resort close to the employers. With the quality of resorts over in Canada, this is something I definitely want to go ahead with. I attended a free information session about the program held by IEP a couple of nights ago, and it answered a few of my questions, so that was really helpful for my cause.

My next step would be obtaining a working holiday visa for Canada. Once this is done, I'd likely be fully committing to this little adventure. This is because you can only be issued a working holiday visa once in your life, meaning if I don't use it then I will have wasted my opportunity. Of course, it would be a nice bonus to secure a job before heading over there, which is why I signed up with IEP. The success rate for applicants in last year's program was supposedly 100%, so that figure is a bit comforting. However, me being me, I'm never sure and will be very nervous about it until I actually know if I have a job or not. I've recently decided that Panorama Mountain Resort (working on the ski fields) and Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise (working in hospitality right next to the ski fields) are my two preferences. Either one would do as both are, in my view, excellent choices.

One hitch is that it is gonna cost me a whole lot of money. Airfares would be around about $2500 after taxes, so I'm going to need to save up. Consequently, I have gone back to working weekdays at my current casual position. Lots more stress but it also restores my cash flow. I really hope all things go smoothly but, knowing life, I'm always preparing myself for a few bumps on the way.

Melbourne!

Best laid plans? Not really...

I have just returned from a very enjoyable (yet incredibly tiring) weekend trip over to Melbourne and it was a great travel experience.

I originally got the desire to visit Melbourne after meeting a steady-flowing stream of Victorians over in Europe, all of whom claimed that Melbourne is a really nice city. Since coming back home, I have waited for an opportunity to visit to see the sights and meet some friends. Unfortunately, work only gives out rosters one week in advance, so effectively, I would have to make plans the weekend before I would go. This is how it turned out and, as it turned out, it would be an expensive flight on a holiday period. Bad planning? Yes. Diabolically clever? Maybe. No matter though, as fun was had.

Murphy's law

On the morning of the flight I had to work a morning shift. Basically, I finished work at 12:15, which would give me a manageable buffer to get home, get changed, and catch the 12:44 train. Unfortunately, not everything went smoothly.

I finished work on time and proceeded to power-walk to my car. This, it turned out, would be a futile attempt to save time as, being peak hour for shopping, the parking lot was in the middle of a traffic jam. I was screaming obscenities inside my car (which must have looked really amusing to other drivers) as cars moved very slowly, taking me probably a total of 10 minutes to get to the main road.

I got home and got changed to my street clothes in record time. I decided to skip grabbing a take-away lunch so that I wouldn't miss my train but, as it turned out, I could have comfortably ordered (and probably eaten) lunch from the KFC across the road because CityRail, role-models for reliability, had the train to Sydney running around 10 minutes late.

By the time it arrived in Sydney it was around 15 or so minutes late. I was sitting at Central Station in Sydney waiting for the next train to the airpor, wishing very bad things towards the state rail system organizers.

Despite all the annoyances, I did get to the airport on time and decided I'd grab a Boost juice before takeoff.

I don't know if I should quote Weather With You or Four Seasons in One Day

Sydney was sunny and warm when I boarded the flight, and I was still drinking my Boost juice, which I had taken with me since it was still full of ice and mostly undrinkable. I was very conscious of the people in the seats around me while I slurped on my drink.

The moment we landed at the airport the captain gave his thanks for flying with Virgin Blue and made a comment that went something like "I hope you have a jacket because it's 8 degrees outside." I immediately cursed out loud in front of everybody (I had only packed my outer thermals).

It turned out that it had started to rain that day, and I had no doubt in my mind that it was my weather curse, the one that makes it rain whenever I go out or travel. "Everywhere you go..." as the song goes. I also had "Four Seasons in One Day" in my head as it's the famous saying about Melbourne. However, it seemed more like 2 seasons, both of them cold, repeated twice during the day.

Anthony and Emily picked me up at the airport and we made our way to the city centre, to meet up with Luke, Simon and Stuart at Flinders Street station. After a short dinner at Degraves Street we headed to E55, a nice underground bar at 55 Elizabeth Street. We also checked out another bar (the name of the bar escapes me) and the casino (I think... I can't remember it all that well) before calling it a night.

Being a tourist is a hard job

I caught the tram from Anthony's place to the city the next day and headed over to the tourist information centre at Federation Square. After making my bag twice as heavy as it originally was due to brochures and flyers, I went to check out the local cuisine. That is, I ducked in to Hungry Jack's for a burger. The rest of my meals for the day would consist of KFC and a French fries joint called Lord of the Fries.

Sights for the day included the architecture at Federation Square, the Yarra River, the Queen Victoria Markets, where I unsuccessfully tried to find a decent jacket, and the Carlton Gardens, where the Royal Exhibition Centre and the Melbourne Museum were located. I didn't go into either though. I covered a fair few miles walking around the city so by this time I was pretty tired. I decided that my last major stop before nightfall would be the Observation Deck at the Rialto tower. This gave some great views of the city, and I was lucky to get pictures before and after the sun set.

I met up with Anthony after resting for a bit in the Observation Deck lounge and we headed over to bide some time at E55 before seeing Charlie Pickering at the Comedy Festival. I noticed that E55 had a tabletop version of Galaga, so I couldn't resist having a game. As for the gig that followed, that was pretty entertaining. It wasn't the best stand-up I've ever seen, but it was funny, and that's what matters. It was probably the first live stand-up performance I've ever been to though. We ended the night by meeting up with Emily and Stuart at Luke's work, a backpacker's hostel/bar, where we basically just chilled.

Trams... TRAMS!!

On my last day in Melbourne, I found out one very important lesson for tourists... use the trams! My legs were either dead or dying after a day's wandering around, something that could have easily been prevented by catching the trams to get to places.

Anyway, the day started with a hangover and a coffee with Alice, a Melbourne local that I met over in Rome. I noticed Andrew Johns from the Newcastle Knights in the table across from me having lunch with a few people. He didn't seem too concerned that his side got smashed by the Melbourne Storm the night before. After coffee and a late breakfast, Alice showed me around the uni for a bit and suggested other places to visit.

I caught the tram back to the city centre and was going to check out the Aquarium. Unfortunately, it would have cost me about $20, which was all I had left in my wallet, and I decided that this would be best spent on food. This made my next stop the MCG, followed by a trip around the city relaxing on the free City Circle Tram.

After my final trip to Lord of the Fries, I checked out a few cool buildings and outdoor sculptures at Docklands as I like outdoor architecture... and let's face it, any sculpture named "cow up a tree" deserves a look. This would be my last activity in Melbourne, and I soon headed to the airport to head home.

My legs are still killing me as I write this entry, and it causes me so much pain to walk that I had to call in sick at work today. That said, it was a very eventful trip, and I should have visited long ago... and besides, my bad planning turned out to have a hint of luck to it as it was a good weekend for people to come out and meet up.


Pictures from the trip should be up by the end of the week.

New side-project...

Side-project? Side-project blog? Side-blog? Whatever. Anyway, it's here and it's me singing really badly. Fun times.

Eurotrip pictures

The pictures from Europe are finally up! Unfortunately they've been mega-resized, but I will attempt to upload some bigger ones in the future. Some of the blurry ones have also been omitted.

Warney! Warney!

I love the dedication of some people. This picture was taken with my mobile phone while I was in the music DVD section of K-Mart.

Why wasn't it in the sports section?

Adrian's cooking disasters

Episode 3: Revenge of the frying pan

Okay, so maybe I said last time that I was gonna do a cooking experiment with pre-made sauces. Unfortunately, that went far too well, and I didn't deem it worthy of a 'disaster'. However, I felt that I should mention it before I moved on.

On a slightly more disastrous note, I did try to cook some mashed potatoes early this morning when I couldn't sleep. It was the second time I had attempted to cook this dish and, since the first time had been a raving success, I was more confident this time around. The only difference this time was that I decided to use less potatoes (last time had too much for one serving). Unfortunately, I had forgotten this fact when I went to add the milk to the mash. The result? Incredibly watery semi-mashed potatoes. However, I did salvage this meal by using a drainer (which I wasn't 100% convinced was clean) to drain out the excess liquid, making the mash a lot more normal.

Anyway, today's episode...

(Not very) Green eggs and ham!

Ingredients:

• Thick round piece of ham
• Egg
• Salt
• Garlic
• Rice
• Frying pan with unknown oil

The vegetable peeler is only there for effect

Take some ham and dice it up into cubes. Look around at the stove top and decide to use the frying pan with an oil from who knows where that's probably been there for 3 or 4 days.

Spooky, no?

After heating up the pan, add the diced up ham and stir until cooked. Don't forget to add salt, and certainly don't forget to spill the salt all over the stove top afterwards. When the ham is done, place it on a plate and move onto the egg. Crack the egg on an edge and proceed to get egg white all over your hands. After cleaning your hands, remember that you turned the stove off and quickly light it to medium. Scramble the eggs then and there, on the pan, to get a nice white and yolk scrambled egg mix. Add salt to the eggs as it cooks. Again, spill the salt all over the stove top afterwards.

The pan with the ham, Sam I am

Place the eggs on the plate, add a bit of oil to the stove, and add some garlic. When the garlic browns, add some rice. Stir the rice around for a bit and add some salt (spill it). When it looks cooked enough, turn off the stove and put the rice on the plate with the ham and scrambled egg.

The finished product

The result? It actually turned out exactly as I expected... it tasted like eggs and ham. Apart from the whole salt-spilling incident, this meal wasn't a disaster at all! But, since this segment is about bad cooking experiences, doesn't that mean that this meal is really a disaster? Think about it.

(Apologies for my shaky hand in the photos)

Back home at last

We got to the airport pretty early where I promptly shed my jacket and pyjamas (I was using them as makeshift thermals). We were one of the first to check in and we hung out at the cafe afterwards. A crowd soon gathered at the arrivals gate, and it turned out that one of the Finnish silver medallists was on his way home from Italy. Dave grabbed my Suomi (i.e. Finland) beanie and stood around waiting for the athlete in the hope that he'd get on Finnish TV. Unfortunately, we heard from Päivi that Dave didn't make the news.

Finland overview

Days spent: 4 nights (2 in Helsinki, 2 in Pietarsaari/Jakobstad)
Aussies met: None!
Winter activities undertaken: 5
Times carded at pub/club: 1

The voyage home

...is a great movie.

Anyway, the series of flights home turned out a lot better than I had expected. I managed about 6 hours sleep in total and watched a couple of movies and TV programs. The food was pretty dodgey as usual, and I intentionally didn't eat too much for 'breakfast' so I could have some proper food upon arrival. We got through customs without any drama, and the only annoying thing was waiting a very long time for our baggage to get sput out by the Sydney International Airport baggage carousels of doom.

We were eventually greeted by our respective parents (both of whom got there late) and I ran into Jon, a former tutor from uni and a good friend, who was also coming back from Europe, but from Frankfurt through Singapore (kinda makes me wonder why they didn't put us through Germany instead of England).

It's a strange feeling - I'm happy to be home but at the same time I want to go back to Europe where I had so much fun.

"And now my 'final thought'..."

It's been a great journey. Saw many cities, many sights, and met many great people. If I could go through it again I would not hesitate one bit. It's been quite a life-changing experience for me, and I never really expected to get so influenced by such a short trip. I feel more motivated to try new things, to see new places, and to just 'do stuff' in general. I've also been inspired to spend a year overseas somewhere. I'm leaning towards Germany right now because of the beer, the language, and the people... but there are other possibilities (Canada and Japan just to name a couple).

I'd also like to extend my thanks to Dave for putting up with my crap for so long and for trying to make sure I didn't drink too much (which usually didn't work out too well). Thanks to all the people who gave us a bed (or mattress, or caravan) to sleep in and being such great hosts to both of us.

I'll be back, Europe. I'll be back.

Europe overview

Time spent: 6 weeks
Time spent on plane or train: At least 3 and a half days
Money spent: Far too much
Fridge magnets bought: 10


As Tim Shaw from Demtel would say... "But wait, there's more!"

Adrian and Dave's Eurotrip: Deleted scenes

One way street

When we arrived in London, we had a coupon for an airport transfer to our hostel. The driver, whose name escapes me, was a very helpful fellow. He showed us around the urban sights of London, gave us some tips about drinking and staying safe... and he took us the wrong way down a one-way street. He took a wrong turn and suddenly there was a stream of traffic coming towards us. Cabs were beeping, motorcycle riders were waving their arms (which seemed dangerous seeing as their arms should be on the handlebars)... it was great!

Paris: City of love

We were walking to the 'Peace and Love' after arriving at Paris Nord station, and just as we got there we witnessed a massive brawl involving several school kids. Later on, in our first experience with the Paris Metro (mass transit system), we saw yet another fight. It was amusing that the ticket vendor was watching the fight and laughing. City of love indeed.

Absinthe!

Not really too notable, but we had a shot of absinthe at the 'Peace and Love' on our first night there. It tasted pretty bad, and didn't make me hallucinate, so it was pretty disappointing. Apparently the more commercial brands of absinthe have been watered down, so to speak.

Gypsies, tramps and thieves

We got to Rome, booked our tickets, and decided to stop by a Maccas for a quick feed. When we were sitting down and eating our burgers and fries, a gypsy comes up to us asking for money. Dave offered her some fries. She took the whole pack!

Speaking of crazy gypsies, when we took a walking tour of the city, we happened across a group of gypsies trying to distract us with a baby. Chris, the tour guide, told us to stay away from them cause they'll steal our wallets. As we were crossing the road one of the gypsies starts yelling at me. It was incredibly weird.

After the walking tour, we took the train back to the hostel. We were with a couple of Americans, and started talking about how crazy the gypsies were, and how it was so obvious that they wanted to pick our pockets. While this was all happening, one of the Americans had his wallet lifted. Fortunately, he felt it and pushed the pickpocket, causing him to drop the wallet. The pickpocket promptly left the train at the stop.

Not the best of travel shoes

Throughout the trip I was wearing a pair of Allen Iverson shoes that I got during my last trip overseas (2002/2003). It was very worn out, and probably wasn't the best pair of shoes I could have been wearing in the European winter. The sole was very worn out, which meant I had barely any grip. This wasn't too good for wet marble floors or ice. The shoe was also very cold, especially when I was wearing only one pair of socks. Oh well, I managed to make it 6 weeks without buying a new pair while I was over there.

Cunning German beer bottle opening tricks

When we were in the metro system in Hamburg, we decided to start drinking our beers (you can drink beer in public there). As the bottles weren't twist tops, and we didn't have any beer bottle openers, Finn had to improvise. He calmly took a bottle and opened another bottle with it using the first bottle's cap. For the last bottle, he got Jenny's lighter and used the bottom to force the cap off. I have yet to duplicate such amazing German skill.

"Welcome to Finland"

Crazy drivers in Finland - on the way from the airport a truck nearly turned into the bus that we were in. Päivi looked at us and said "Welcome to Finland".

Entire butt

As we were walking along in Helsinki we saw a cafe/restaurant sign with the day's specials. The sign read "Entire Butt - 5 Euros". Wonder what that was all about.

The WC

After we had just boarded our final long-distance train in Europe (from Pietarsaari to Helsinki), Dave decided to use the WC (water closet, or simply 'toilet' as we would say) and, to his surprise, a woman was inside, forgetting to lock the door behind her. Dave and I were in hysterics at the incident.

Last days

Well, the sauna and snow was a weird experience... it felt like being stabbed by several billion knives on the skin.

Yesterday, we went for a small shopping trip then had lunch with more of Dave's relatives, and then went cross-country skiing with them. I got used to the cross-country skiing surprisingly quickly, and was going fast before no time. Of course, this meant I was sweating a lot under my 5 layers of clothing, half of which I soon shed. It was fun, and I definitely want to do it again.

We caught the train back to Helsinki later that evening, and got back at around 11 pm. We packed a bit then checked out the intriguing Helsinki night life. Drunks on the train, age limits ranging from 20 to 25, bars made of ice, guys dancing by themselves in a unique way, drunks being kicked out of pubs, kicked out drunks lying in the street screaming things... the city had it all. It was great. Unfortunately, we didn't really have much time out and headed back home at around 3 am.

Today, we are heading back home. It should be a fun 27 or so hours in transit (almost 24 of which will be flying)... look out for a post-Europe update when I get back to Australia at around Monday afternoon. It's been a great experience, so I've got a lot to say.

'Til then... off to Oz!

Architecture in Helsinki

The plan to stay up till we had to leave didn't exactly go very well. We tried to get a bit of sleep but overslept, so we ended up running late.

When we got to Tegel airport the flight wasn't even checking in yet, so I decided to pick up an English-language paper to read on the plane. Unfortunately, they had the exact same paper for free before boarding the plane. The plane trip was alright. I watched a nice little program about business innovation, a topic that interests me. I also managed to get a small amount of sleep, and woke up confused just after the plane landed.

Germany overview

Days spent: (Not enough!) 6 nights (2 in Munich, 2 in Hamburg, 2 in Berlin)
Films watched at Berlinale: 2
Litres of beer consumed: Quite a bit
Times carded at pub/club: 2

Helsinki syndrome

We arrived in Helsinki-Vantaa airport on time, got through the gates without even going through a customs check, and were promptly greeted by Päivi (another of Dave's distant cousins) and her digital camera. We headed over to Päivi's place for a hearty meal then had a look at some sights in the centre of Helsinki and saw He-Man at a museum. We were feeling quite tired afterwards, so we headed back to Päivi's to crash but had enough time to consume as sizable amount of food beforehand.

Yesterday, I woke up a bit late after catching up on some sleep. I think I managed 12 hours. We had a look at some architecture and frozen lakes (walking on water was cool), stopped over at Hesburger, a fast-food chain, and went shopping (though bought nothing aside from souvenirs). In the evening we caught a train north and west to visit the Sundqvist family home in Pietarsaari (a.k.a. Jakobstad - its Swedish name). I filled up on a late dinner then headed to bed at about midnight.

Today, we went for a bit of ice skating early in the afternoon, had some reindeer meat (amongst other things) for lunch, then went on a bit of a road trip. We visited Dave's old ancestral house, the graveyard where some of Dave's relatives were, and also visited some of his living relatives. The coolest part of the day was perhaps the ride on a ski-doo. Unfortunately, it was probably only going at half speed (around 70-80 km/h).

Anyway, we're back at the Sundqvist home now and about to go on a hot sauna then roll around in the snow. Should be interesting since I've done neither before.

Checkpoint Charlie and the chocolate factory

We reached Berlin Ostbahnhof (eastern train station) yesterday afternoon and met up with Dave's friend Ralf soon after. We would have gotten to our hostel fairly quickly if it wasn't for Ralf's friends, locals who seemed to be lost in the metro system, and kept arguing about which train to catch to get to our hostel.

We eventually reached the "Heart of Gold" hostel, which carried a Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy theme. After getting settled in to our dorm, we headed over to Postdamer Platz to see about some tickets to Berlinale screenings. We managed to score a couple of tickets for tonight and a massive burger at a sports cafe.

We didn't really know what to do for the rest of the night, so we decided to go on a pub crawl. We managed to meet up with Ralf and his friend Stefan halfway through the crawl. Anyway, I don't remember much of the night due to the free vodka, but it somehow involved me stealing matches, a lighter, and spraining my ankle (and Dave stealing a pint glass) and, somewhere in between that, dancing with some Dane who loved crown princess Mary of Denmark. Twas a good night.

Today we woke up pretty hung over from the night before, but still soldiered on to do a walking tour of Berlin. It was a very informative tour, and the highlights were the book burning memorial, a meal at Schlotsky's, and hearing about the uprising leading up to the tearing down of the Berlin wall. Two small but very interesting details also managed to stick with me from the tour.

1) A prominent Nazi building now houses a Russian travel agency and a Chinese peking restaurant; and
2) We visited Checkpoint Charlie, where there was a stand-off between the East Germans and the Americans that nearly prompted WWIII... AND we also checked out a famous chocolate store in the same tour. Freaky, no?

Anyway, after the tour we had a bit of rest back at the hostel then headed off on our mini Berlinale tour. We first watched "The Night Listener" starring Robin Williams and Toni Collette. It was quite a good film, and I really enjoyed the Q&A with the director and writer of the original novel at the end of the film.

After having some feed at Cafe Adler (the former CIA spy cafe at Checkpoint Charlie), we headed over to the Reichstag, the house of parliament, to see some night views of the city while admiring the architecture of the dome at the top.

We ended the night by watching another film, a German film called "Lenz", which was a very unique and interesting film. It was a shame that the Q&A afterwards was in German, so we couldn't really understand any of it.

It's now about 4:30 am and, since our flight leaves at around 9:25 am, meaning we'll have to be at the airport at 7:25 am, we have decided to do the responsible thing and just stay at the 24 hour bar at the hostel drinking beer until 6 in the morning.

Ciao, Italia!

The alps

After another day of doing very little at all in an effort to recover in time for the snow, we left fair Bologna for Innsbruck in Austria. Alex decided to tag along and was rather excited about being able to ski the Austrian alps.

Innsbruck made an immediate impression with the city being smack bang in the middle of a whole bunch of snow-capped mountains. We took in the view for a few minutes then headed over to the hostel. For dinner we did the Austrian thing to do and cooked a bunch of sausages.

Italy overview

Days spent: 9 nights (4 nights in Rome, 5 nights in Bologna)
Sick days: 5
Gypsies stealing our McDonald's French Fries: 1
Times carded at pub/club: 0

Don't forget to bring your towel

Ok, so this is pretty much an exact recollection:

*last morning in Bologna*
Me: "Dave, don't forget your towel"
Me (thinking to self): "Hehe, would be funny if I ended up leaving my towel"

*first night in Innsbruck*
Me: "Ah crap"

But anyway, day 1 of snowboarding finally crept up on me and I was still feeling a bit crook. I managed to muster one run on a crappy hill before deciding that I'd just watch Dave and Alex fall while trying to learn to snowboard. The place we went to (Stubaier Gletscher, or Stubai Glacier) gave some good views, but I really couldn't judge it in terms of boarding due to what little I got done.

We got home after a really long bus trip where I got some much needed shut eye and decided to get some traditional Austrian cuisine. For me eating dinner was a good sign because I managed an entire chicken schnitzel (wiener schnitzel, hehe), which meant I must have been feeling much better. I slept early and awoke pumped up about riding that glacier.

Unfortunately, due to a lack of communication, we ended up at the wrong resort, which was a bit annoying since we had 5 days of gear hire at the glacier. Fortunately, we could use our ski pass there so we just bit the extra hire fee and spent the day at Axamer Lizum. Getting lost turned out to be a blessing in disguise for me because the resort was really nice, and the view from the top was spectacular. On the run down I had one of those moments where you go "yup, this is why I snowboard." It was great.

What wasn't so great was Dave falling hard on his back and snapping the wrist band on his watch (and he almost lost the watch too). We had more Austrian cuisine for dinner, and had it with Eve, the English backpacker from Alex's room, so lots of stories were shared and fun (and strudel) was had. I also managed to score a free towel from the hostel.

Austrian chicks are hot

That is all.

Adrian vs the Glacier, part 2!

Today I finally got to check out what this glacier business was all about. I must say I wasn't terribly impressed by it. This was probably due to the fact that it was a bit icy at points, and the bits that weren't icy had moguls because of the amount of skiiers (yes, they run rampant here like everywhere else). I'm hoping for a big dump tonight so we can see some freshies tomorrow.

The good news for today? We managed to get some money back from not using our gear yesterday. The bad news for today? Dave managed to injure himself even more by somehow spraining his ankle. Alex was a bit sore from falling a lot too. In contrast, I was totally fine. It seems that now I'm feeling good, the others are feeling bad.

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow

Well the weather outside was frightful... but it meant some cover, at last. The snow on Monday didn't really bring a lot of powder to the glacier (though it was pretty to look at) but what was really impressive was the snow yesterday (Tuesday). I was skeptical that the glacier would get any decent cover at all, but I was proven wrong by the blizzard conditions yesterday, which brought about lots of powder on the mountain. It also meant a lot of the lifts were closed but that didn't matter cause I just kept doing the same run over and over againm, practicing switch and other stuff in the zero visibility powder-filled run. It was great and made the expensive trip worth it.

Today we arrived in Munich and it started snowing as soon as we checked into the hotel. Reminded me of "Weather With You" by Crowded House. I had a very nice kebab (kebabs in Germany seem to be infinitely more awesome - and more common! - than kebabs in Australia) and now we're figuring out what to do next.

Austria overview

Days spent: 6 nights
Snow bunnies: 0
Incredibly tall Austrian waitresses: 1
Times carded at pub/club: 0

Beer!

It seems to be a common theme here in Munich. Needless to say, lots of alcohol (mainly beer) was consumed over the past couple of days. Yesterday we did a walking tour of the city, which was very informative (and very cold). When the tour finished we checked out the Deutsches Museum, a rather impressive science and technology museum. I wish I could have spent an entire day there, because there was some really cool stuff on display.

We grabbed some dinner and a new SIM card before heading over to the Hofbräuhaus, the world-famous beer hall. We headed back to the hostel bar afterwards and crashed in the early hours of the morning after watching Kill Bill vol. 1.

Right now we're on the train to Hamburg and the seats are rather uncomfortable. I was a bit annoyed to find out that some people at the hostel had gotten tickets for the Bayern game tonight and were looking for takers. Two nights in Munich just wasn't enough. Oh well.

I still haven't had a hamburger...

Although hamburgers don't actually come from Hamburg, but anyway... Yesterday we had we were picked up by Finn and Jenny (Dave's distant cousins) at the Hauptbahnhof (central train station) then had stuffed baked potatoes for dinner. Now, this may not sound too filling nor exciting, but the potato was rather large, and the taste of the random stuffing was surprisingly good.

Afterwards, we decided to grab some beers from the supermarket (I love how beer is so cheap here) and drank them while looking at stellar night-time views of the lakeside (I love how you can drink in public here). We then headed to the Reeperbahn, the central spot for nightlife in St. Pauli. We hung out at a bar dedicated to Barbarella, suitably named Barbarabar. It got a bit too smoke-filled in there after a while, so I decided to walk down the street and grab some KFC and meet the others later on.

After we were reunited we had a quick stroll down Herbertstraße, the prostitution street of Hamburg, and reminded me a lot of the Red Light District in Amsterdam, only the girls here were a lot more attractive. It was amusing as usual, with the whole walking down a street with red lights and scantily clad women in windows thing.

We danced the night away in some clubs along the way to the harbour, which was fairly busy even in the wee hours of the morning. It was also an unexpectedly nice sight. We crashed at around 4 in the morning - we had to sleep early for the trip to see more of Dave's relatives.

We got up fairly early today - at 1 in the afternoon - then headed out to see the Seligers after a quick breakfast. We were promptly thwarted by a traffic jam on the autobahn caused by a 3-car prang. After passing the horrible-looking crash, we proceeded to cruise at a steady 140 km/h (gotta love how there's no speed limits). I think we reached 160 at one point, and it didn't even seem like we were going that fast. The Germans sure make good roads and cars to go on them.

We got to the Seliger residence at around 4 in the afternoon and had a late lunch. It was incredibly tasty and reminded me of one of my US grandmother's dishes. Dinner soon followed, but not before a short tour of the magnificent house ("old school" as I'd like to call it) and a few tunes courtesy of Finn and Paul (Jenni's boyfriend). I also played a bit, as did Dave.

We had a lengthy discussion during and after dinner about topics ranging from beer to bird flu. What followed was a great jam session from Finn and Paul and then photos. We finally headed back to Hamburg at around 9 pm. When we got back to Finn's place I was feeling rather tired, so I decided to opt out of another night out.

Right now I'm writing up this blog and checking out the schedule for Berlinale (the Berlin International Film Festival), since we might be able to catch a few flicks while we're there (and I hope we do).


That was a pretty lengthy update, and I don't know when I'll be able to update next so, 'til next time...

Saturday night fever

Thorpie says they're fully sick

I woke up on Saturday morning feeling a bit on the ill side. Looking back at it, it was probably a combination of the walk up St. Peter's and the lack of heating in the room we were in. The cigarette smoke at Roma Termini station didn't help either. We arrived at Bologna and were promptly greeted by Alex and Sara. They helped us with taking our luggage over to Alex's place and did a bit of catching up. Sara went home and Alex cooked us some bolognese (a.k.a. "Ragu"). We met up with Sara again for a big dinner at her place, which was fun, though I was still feeling sick at the time.

Closed on Sundays

I woke up on Sunday morning feeling a bit worse for wear but I, stubbornly, soldiered on. Alex showed us some sights of the city, including a couple of cool churches. What I also noticed was that barely anything was open due to it being a Sunday (and Italy is a very Catholic country). I seemed to feel worse and worse as the day progressed, and when we got home I just felt like lying down. I tried to eat dinner, but it just would go down well.

Ferraris are cool

Yesterday we went to the Ferrari gallery in Maranello. It probably cost just as much to actually get there than to get in. The gallery was very cool, and had Ferraris from the past, as well as various parts like the engines and gearboxes. In retrospect, while the gallery was nice, I shouldn't have gone due to my illness. When we got home I was feeling like crap.

Fortunately, when I woke up today I was feeling a lot better than I was yesterday. Still not recovered, but the headache is almost gone, and I coughed up a fair amount of phlegm, which helped the chest. One thing that is still a bit bad was my legs. All I gotta do today is walk over to the train station to reserve some train seats, then probably just rest for the next two days.

The coincidences keep getting freakier

We checked out the square at the Vatican on Wednesday but narrowly missed the Pope speak, which I hear was quite a spectacle. After that we headed over to a walking tour of the city by Chris, a great tour guide originally from Ohio. He walked us through some sites and gave us a bit of a history lesson on the Roman empire. Lots of very interesting stuff, and made me kind of miss history classes back in high school.

Once the tour was finished we headed back to the hostel and grabbed dinner at a gourmet pizza place nextdoor. Soon enough it was 8:15, which was the meeting time for the pub crawl. I don't remember all the details of the night, but the wacky pictures of me on Dave's camera suggest that I had a good time along with everybody else.

Yesterday a majority of those who went on the pub crawl was in recovery mode, and it was a gloomy day, so we decided to just chill out at the hostel and cook some snags in celebration of Australia Day. Alas, we couldn't find any Aussie beer (that wasn't Fosters) so we just settled for some Carlsberg to go with the meals.

That night we went for a walk over to the Fountain of Trevi, which was very beautiful at night, apart from the scumbags fishing for coins from the fountain. On the walk back we were talking to an Aussie chick from Adelaide (I think her name was Jemma, but I can't be 100% sure). Out of sheer coincidence, it turned out that she was very good friends with our friend Rebecca, who studied in Adelaide.

When we got back to the hostel we played some drinking games with the staff and the other backpackers. Drinking games are fun. I then ducked out with a few of them to a late-night pizzeria and had a good chat. I promptly fell asleep after getting back to the hostel and got some short sleep for an early start.

This morning we checked out the Sistine Chapel at the Vatican Museum and St. Peter's Basilica. I personally thought St. Peter's was far better than the Sistine Chapel, though I like sculptures better than paintings. We climbed the dome at St. Peter's, which gave some great views of the city. It started to rain after this so we rushed over to check out the Spanish Steps before calling it a day in terms of sightseeing.

Tomorrow morning we head over to Bologna to visit Alex, which we're looking forward to.

I think I'll stop counting the Australians now

Our last day in Paris saw us going to the Hotel de Ville and looking at people ice skating (hoping for them to fall over), and checking out the Bastille, which was good to see on a sunny day. We wanted to go back to the Arc de Triomphe to see the traffic again. It was a massive roundabout with no lanes and seemingly no rules. When we went there before we were just waiting for a crash to happen. Sadly, we were both pretty tired and out of train tickets so we just hung out at the bar at the bottom of the 'Peace and Love' (the hostel we were staying at) until we left for our train.

The train was ridiculously cramped, and the bottom bunks that we had were on a bit of a slant, which made sleeping somewhat difficult. We went to book some tickets to go to Bologna on the 27th but, as luck would have it, there was a train strike from the morning of the 27th to the morning of the 28th, so we had to go with a train to Bologna on that morning.

We eventually made it to the 'Yellow Hostel' in one piece and got settled in. The first day in Rome didn't really amount to much sightseeing, although we did walk over to the Colosseum in the middle of the night after a few beers and a bottle of bubbly. I thought the sparkling was nice, but Dave thought it was way too sweet, and so did Alice, the claustrophobic Aussie that we ran into at the hostel, and desperately wanted to get out of Rome.

Today we might check out the Vatican and maybe go on a walking tour of the city, then tonight is the pub crawl, which should be a lot of fun. Also looking forward to Australia Day tomorrow, as it is crammed with Aussies here.

France overview

Days spent: 4 nights
Aussies met: I stopped counting after about 16
Croissants eaten: 2
Times carded at pub/club: 1

The saga continues

To the Louvre!

After a day of wandering around aimlessly in Amsterdam and drinking at random bars, we boarded the morning train to Paris. We were approached by some American about a hostel close to the station, so we decided to check it out. It turned that it wasn’t THAT close to the station (although it’s close to A station), but the place had a good atmosphere so we decided to stay there.

We checked out Notre Dame and got soaked in the rain thereafter, but dried it all off in the big behemoth of a museum known as the Louvre. Saw some cool pieces of history for a couple of hours and probably didn’t even get to see half of the things there. Afterwards we were feeling very tired, so this only meant one thing... party! We mingled with the other people staying at the hostel at the bar on the ground floor and I got pretty drunk. There are so many Australians here, and most of them are from Melbourne. There must be something about Melbourne that drives them away.

Anyway, after a morning of recovery, we checked out Notre Dame again so we could do the tower walk. Got some really nice views of Paris and got some really tired legs. Afterwards, we sat back and watched some roller bladers and roller skaters do some fancy stuff on the street whilst a band played by the riverside. It was a very nice experience.

Lost in translation

France has probably been the hardest so far in terms of the language barrier. Half the people don’t speak much English, if any at all, so it’s hard to go shopping or to buy a meal. One other thing I noticed is that the keyboards have a strange layout (AZERTY as opposed to QWERTY, and the symbols are all over the place). Fortunately there’s an option to change the layout to the English layout (and fortunately I remember where most of the letters and symbols are).

It’s a small world after all

I woke up yesterday feeling rather refreshed since I slept at about 8 and didn’t drink at all. Dave, on the other hand, was feeling a bit off after a day of walking and a night of drinking cheap red wine. Due to this very reason, we decided to minimize the walking and stair-climbing for the day.

The day involved Dave getting an extremely cheesy caricature before we went on a cruise on the Seine, which was really nice. What was nicer was seeing the Arc de Triomphe then walking down the Champs Elysee (okay, so minimizing the walking didn’t work out too well). To top off the day we saw the Eiffel Tower at night which is quite a site to behold.

When the day was over we got drunk on Champagne (from the actual region, not ‘sparkling wine’)... unfortunately it tasted the same as every other bubbly I’ve had. Oh well. We downed the bottle pretty quickly then proceeded to get some happy hour pints and head over to a pub near the Moulin Rouge.

Perhaps the craziest part of the night (apart from the 10 Euro vodka and Red Bulls) was running into somebody from the same town as me. I was standing outside catching some air and hydrating myself with some water when some girls tapped on the window. (I think) they asked how old I was. I said ‘21’ and they didn’t believe me, so I showed them my driver’s license. They got excited and grabbed another girl at the bar. She showed me her driver’s license and, lo and behold, she was from my town. Freaky. I think she was working at the Moulin Rouge or something.

More European adventures

Big update today. Bear in mind that these entries were written at separate points in time, so I may be referring to ‘yesterday’ or ‘last night’ or whatever but it is not necessarily relative to today. But anywho...

Radio Ga Ga

Last night we saw We Will Rock You at the Dominion Theatre. It was an awesome show, especially for people who know the songs. I didn’t really know what to expect (apart from Queen songs, obviously) and was very pleasantly surprised.

Earlier in the day, we had checked out in the morning to switch to budget rooms then had a quick lunch before heading off to Paddington station to book tickets for Chippenham. Afterwards, we checked out a bit of the British Museum. The place was massive and beautiful, but alas we didn’t get to see all of it). We then headed over to see a view of London from the London Eye. We went there just after the sun set, so we got to take some great photos of London at night. This was the last sightseeing stop before checking in to the new rooms at the YHA then seeing the show.

We had both stayed up late after having a big night out on Wednesday, so at this point we were incredibly sleepy. Dave was dozing off at various points in the show. I was almost falling asleep in some of the slower songs too but, despite the tiredness, the show was well worth it (£30 each).

This morning we checked out of the hostel and put our things in the luggage storage room then checked out more of the British Museum. After leaving the museum we got some roasted chestnuts that were selling on the street just outside of the museum. They were... very interesting. This was the last "meal" I would have for quite a while because, unbeknownst to me at the time, Buckingham Palace, our next stop, was, shall we say, out of the way. Walked a lot to the palace, took a couple of photos, then walked a lot to the station so we could go back to the YHA to pick up our things.

After much lugging of luggage in London’s Underground (I now regret taking way too many things), we eventually made it to Paddington station 10 minutes before our train was to leave. That meant not having time to get any lunch. I am writing this entry on the train to Chippenham (and quite a nice train it is, albeit expensive) only having eaten breakfast, a roasted chestnut, and a barley sugar. But anyway, tonight we’re meeting up with Liza (whom I met on my last snow trip) in Chippenham and staying at her place for the next two nights. Should be a nice change having somebody show us around.

Hello lamppost, what’cha knowin’?

(I apologize in advance if I spell anybody’s name wrong)

Our first day in Chippenham was supposed to be laid back and uneventful, but eventful it turned out to be. After getting settled into the humble abode that was Liza’s caravan and checked emails we went out to a local pub known as The Plough. It was a nice little establishment, and Liza, Dave and myself treated ourselves to some pints whilst waiting for Liza’s friends. Soon enough it got busier, with some of Liza’s friends and Alison, a new girl, who also happened to be from Australia (and looked strangely familiar), turning up.

We had some cheesy chips, played ‘I have never’, I was paid to drink some pepper-laced Guinness, and all was having a good time. Then, as the night was about to come to a close Kirsty (one of Liza’s friends) accidentally bumped into one of the lampposts outside. It nudged a bit then snapped back into place. For one reason or another she thought it a good idea to keep shaking the lamppost. She was shaking it really hard and, all of a sudden, the middle of the pole broke and top half of the lamppost came crashing down to the ground. We all stood there in amazement. Kirsty refused to clean up the mess and started mouthing off who I assumed to be the owner of the pub. Needless to say, I don’t think she’d be welcome there anytime soon.

When in Bath, do as the Romans do

On our second day out of London, we decided to check out Bath. Matt, Liza’s brother, chauffeured myself, Dave, Liza and Alison to Bath, and the five of us saw the sights. This involved eating KFC, having some incredibly delicious milkshakes from a place called Shake Away, and seeing a street performer put on a show. Oh, and we saw some sights too.

The Roman baths were quite impressive, albeit a bit smelly. It would have been nice to actually go for a spa, but they weren’t allowing that yet. The other four seemed to have a good time listening to the audio guides while I was taking loads of photos (which all probably turned out very blurry due to my shaky hands).

Just a side note, since Internet access here seems so varied (i.e. lack of CD drives and USB drives, or just lack of time in general), I probably won’t bother posting photos until the end of the trip unless I get the chance to transfer some over. Anyway, back to Bath...

After wrecking some stamp machines at the Roman baths and confessing to it on the comments book, we checked out a street performer doing some performing. Matt was asked to help out in the massive unicycle segment and was having a hard time keeping the unicycle up. He did a good job though. When the street performer finished we had a look at Bath Abbey, which was a nice looking church. I guess it wasn’t really the best idea for Matt to bark like a dog since it could be heard throughout the entire abbey, but in the end it was pretty entertaining.

Later that night we went out to some pubs and clubs in Chippenham. Liza got hit on by a lesbian, I danced with a whole group of lesbians, and Dave was dancing like... well I have no idea really. One thing I noticed is that the music played in clubs here is exactly the same as it is in Australia.

Who is Jessica Baker?

I got an e-mail from my parents saying they found a card in one of my shirts that was going in the wash. It had an e-mail address and mobile phone number on it, both of wish were UK-based. From what I gather it belongs to a girl named Jessica Baker. Who is this girl? Did I magically gain girl attraction powers one day and got a girl’s contact details before going on my trip? I guess it will stay a mystery forever.

Stonehenge rocks

Well, not really, I just wanted to say that. It was a nice little trip down to Stonehenge, and it looked nice enough, but the fact that they were charging £5 each person to get closer to it (and you don’t even get to touch it) was a bit annoying. Instead of paying to get in, we decided to just take photos from over the fence, which was good enough for me. We then checked out Woodhenge (heehee) and the Avebury Ring, more ceremonial landmarks. Afterwards, we had a Sunday roast at the Swan Inn then headed back.

Dave and I got packed and got ready to say our goodbyes to Chippenham but, according to Liza, we couldn’t end our stay without going to a place called ‘Scabby Kebabies’. It was a charming trailer on the side of the road that served kebabs, and was supposedly the best in Chippenham. I had a small kebab that I couldn’t even finish (I blame the salad and garlic sauce!) before heading off on the bus and train back to London.

We got lodging at the Oxford Street YHA (which was the closest to Paddington station) and headed off to Heathrow airport the following morning via the Heathrow Express (a.k.a. Hex) from Paddington station. It was amusing because we spent about 3 times more time in the airport than we did in the flight (where Dave spilt some water onto my newspaper and my jeans).

England overview

Days spent: 6 nights (4 in London, 2 in Chippenham)
Aussies met: 4 in London, 1 in Chippenham
Starbucks sightings: Far too many
Times carded at pub/club: 1

BICYCLE! BICYCLE!

We arrived in Amsterdam and caught a train to Amsterdam Centraal (the central station in Amsterdam) then a tram to where we thought was the hostel. We got lost a couple of times but finally found the ‘Stayokay’ hostel in Vondelpark. It is a very nice YHA, and beats the living hell out of the two hostels we stayed at in London. One thing that stands out in this city is the bicycles. Dave and I have almost been twice run over by streams of people riding through on the bike lane. It’s something we have to get used to.

After checking in, we had a complementary dinner and Heineken then headed off on a bit of a pub crawl. Oddly enough, half the pubs we went to were Irish pubs (and even stranger was the fact that we didn’t go to any in the UK). I had quite a few to drink, the most memorable of which was the appropriately named ‘Irish Car Bomb’ (which was actually not too bad in terms of taste). At the end of the night we got some Burger King then headed back to the hostel. Dave says I tried to kick him in the groin as he was climbing up the bunk bed, but I don’t remember that.

Today we’re going to hire out some bikes and check out the Van Gogh museum and maybe some other sights.

Dutch women are hot

That is all.

Skating on thin ice

Yesterday we hired out some bikes. Dave was alright on them but they were a bit too big for me, so stopping was a bit of a hassle. But anyway, we visited the Van Gogh museum and the Rijksmuseum (which had the Night Watch on display, which excited Dave probably a little too much). After dinner we were both feeling rather dodgy (more so Dave due to his flu) so we just decided to call it a night.

Today we went on a canal cruise and got to see some of the sights of Amsterdam through that. After being ripped off to use the Internet for a short amount of time and nearly having a spectacular crash on the bike due to being led onto a road and not having the ability to stop and get out of the way, we at some Japanese restaurant near the YHA. Possibly the best food we’ve had in Europe. It’s a shame it wasn’t European food.

Lunch was followed by a stop over at the Heineken Experience (after getting a bit lost). It was pretty good, mainly due to the admission price including 3 beers and a Heineken beer glass, which made it worth it. In our tipsiness after the Heineken ex-brewery (beer isn’t actually brewed at the factory anymore), we decided to go ice-skating at the local rink. I wasn’t going as good as I had hoped (haven’t skated for about 8 years and haven’t roller bladed for nearly as long) but Dave came out worse, with a bruised knee and elbow.

Right now we’re waiting for the laundry to finish before we head off for some dinner and see the spectacle of the infamous Red Light District.

The girl at the laundry room

As I was heading down to check on my laundry I held open the door for a girl who also happened to be going down for laundry. We got to talking and it turned out that she’s from Melbourne. Aussies seem to be everywhere. Anyway, she was really nice, but I was stupid enough not to get her name or anything like that. I’m really bad at this kind of thing, and I feel like smacking my head on a desk.

Accidental layover in Amsterdam

After a rather amusing yet boring tour of the Red Light District last night, Dave and I packed our things this morning and got ready to go to Paris. Unfortunately, upon arriving at the Amsterdam Centraal, we found out that the trains were all booked out for today. I had forgotten that we had to reserve seats in some of the trains in advance. Silly silly me. Anyway, this meant that we had to book the earliest train tomorrow morning, which is at 6:56am (ouch). I guess it gives us another day to look at hot Dutch women. Hooray!

The Netherlands overview

Days spent: 4 nights in Amsterdam
Aussies met: 6
Starbucks sightings: None (I’m freaking out!)
Times carded at pub/club: 0

In London still

Well, after my last update we had quite a big day full of excitement. And by excitement I mean staring at paintings at the National Gallery and at famous dead people at Westminster Abbey for what seemed like forever. But, we are in London, and seeing as Dave is a lot more cultured than I am, I let him absorb all that culture. Mmm culture.

Took lots of photos, which I will likely post at Liza's place, which is where we're headed tomorrow afternoon. As for today, we plan to see some more sights, hopefully book some tickets to Wiltshire for tomorrow, then see We Will Rock You at the theatre.

I must add that getting around here in the Underground is a lot more convenient than, say, Sydney's rail network, which is ridiculous in comparison. Well, it's ridiculous anyway, but this just makes a joke out of it.

But anyway, we should head off and do stuff. 'Til next time...