Florence!
Departing the perfumery, we weaved our way along cliff tops, tore through tunnels (have never seen so many tunnels in my life!! - at first they were fun - then they became annoying as it became hard to read my book - the tunnel lights caused a strobe effect - thought I would have an epileptic fit!) and barrelled along bridges. The scenery and roadways were amazing. The road just goes across the side of a really steep hill side - giant arched bridges carried us over massive valleys - then the tunnels bored into the next ridge line, to be carried on another bridge again. It must have taken many years to build the road system. Before this, you would have needed to follow a very wriggly coastline.
Border checks were virtually non existent - the strictest place was UK/French border. We sailed from France straight into Italy without blinking an eye. One thing that was different was the way you were served in service stations. The attitude of the attendant was one thing - as was the stupid system! You had to look at the food through a glass fridge, then queue up to pay for it - you had to tell them in Italian what you wanted. You then needed to line back up at the counter, get grunted at by the attendant, hand over your receipt then finally get your food!
Another thing I am not sure if I mentioned yet, was he fact that you had to pay for toilets when you used them. If you did not, some of the toilet attendants (ahh, what a job) would get surly with you. Their purpose was MEANT to mean that the toilet was always clean - this was not always the case. We learnt that the best thing to do was use the toilet, then pay on the way out - if you thought it was good enough. I had great satisfaction using a dirty toilet, then upon leaving, throwing a handful of now useless Swiss Francs into their bowl!!
We wended down the coast and went through one of the biggest sea ports of the area - Genoa - we did not stop though. I saw container after container of terracotta pots being made ready for shipment to good old down under - also saw a heap of tractors and ag equipment. Here’s a link to the port - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genoa
The country side began to change as we moved into the Tuscany region - rolling hills and olive groves. After about 9 hours on the bus - fun, fun, fun - we made it to Florence - then we drove through it to our campsite 9kms from town. This was the first time we had been to a camp like this - it had about 4 restaurants, a bar, 6 pools, and catered to large groups of people and families. To use the facilities, you had to charge up a card and then flash it against a card reader to pay for stuff. It would have been nice if the tour guide remembered to tell us - cos we pissed a few store owners off trying to pay cash.
We had our first massive Italian feed that night - pizza, pasta and red wine. Then we hit the onsite bottleo and bought a bottle of vodka for 7 Euros! It was back to our miniscule cabins then for some drinks. I was a little bit tired from the bus - I was about the only one to have stayed awake the whole trip - so I hit the sack early - listening to the annoying Americans just outside of the cabin crapping on about how good they were.
Florence link - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florence
The next morning, we cruised into Florence for an organised walking tour. Normally we had a couple of things organised, then we could have free time to explore the city in our own time. We were warned about “Stendhal Syndrome” as we pulled into town - this link will describe it - lucky for me I did not get it - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stendhal_syndrome
The walking tour was great - even though it was raining and cold. It sort of made the old buildings seem more realistic. The sun did come out later and made a great day. The architecture and the statues sprinkled through the town were awesome. With our walking tour over, Mark, a new friend called Kate and I slipped away from the group. There were some annoying clingers on - so this was our only option J . We trekked away from the old town and made it to their university. It was still a little cold and wet, so we decided it was time for coffee and lunch. We found this large building which held a heap butchers, bakers, restaurants and fish mongers. With our broken Italian, we ordered our meals - I ended up getting “bread salad” by mistake (mine). It was stale bread mixed with salad and vinegar - quite tasty really.
After lunch, we slipped back into the main square - none of our tour was in sight! We climbed the main dome - which was pretty spectacular - there’s actually a dome within a dome. It was quite claustrophobic as we neared the top - almost walking sideways in a stoop between the internal and external domes. Great views of the city from the top - it looked very much like a medieval town from a fantasy novel - eg Raymond Fiest or Fritz Leiber ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fafhrd_and_the_Gray_Mouser ). Once we made the top of the dome, we decided to climb the tower next door. We ditched Kate at this point - she did not want to do the tower. We did a lot of exercise on the whole tour - most of it by climbing the main attractions! Here’s a link to the dome and tower http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florence_Cathedral
By now, we were a little over going into museums and art galleries - but we both knew we would cop it if we did not make an effort to go and see the original statue of David - even though we had seen a copy of him out in the main square. We lined up outside the main gallery for about 45 minutes before we finally shuffled through the doors. Leading up to the main statue were about 7 statues Michelangelo
( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michelangelo - take note this guys appears in a lot more history and our travels) had worked on through his life - the statues were incomplete - and seemed to be imprisoned in the marble - probably why they were called the prisoners!
The main statue was breath taking - I literally stopped in my tracks when I saw him! There were masses of people walking round him looking up at him with fevered eyes. We stayed in there for about half an hour just walking round him. We then moved into the main area of the museum, only to come back to David about 10 minutes later. Mark was that inspired, he bought a large poster of the statue.
Once we got out, we wondered round the town - totally over seeing anything else - although we did make it to the bridge in the centre of town that house’s lots of jewellery shops. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ponte_Vecchio
We headed to the restaurant and meeting point at about 7pm. We were promised a great meal, followed by karaoke - which we were a little dubious about. As it turned out, we were right to have been - the meal was good - but then when we went into the next bar, we realised we had been caught in a tourist trap again! About 3 tourist busses of Contiki tools turned up - we wanted out ASAP. One good thing about the bar though, they sold table kegs - 5L of beer with it’s own tap. Very cool!
On the bus back to the camp, I got talked into - well maybe the 5L of beer helped - into busting out the Dingo Rap on the bus - it went down quite well!
The next brief will be about romantic Rome!
Ciao for now……
Friday, July 4, 2008
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Nice!
Nice!
Well, we departed Switzerland, just as the mist and cloud lifted, revealing the true beauty of our campground. We had breakfast in Switzerland, lunch in Italy and dinner once again in France. We drove through one of the longest tunnels in Europe - 18kms or so. The amazing thing was that they started building it 300 years ago!!
Nice was very nice! A coastal holiday town on the med - a blend of really old buildings mixed with the new. We were warned to keep a very close eye on our belongings as we pulled up to the bus stop. The bus driver said that he had occasions where scumbags had climbed on the coach as people were getting off to steal what they could! For this reason, one person from the trip had to guard the door anytime the bus was open. Despite being told to be careful, we did not see any crime in this town.
The tour leader, Heather, told us that if were to swim in the Med, we would find it very salty. A few of us scoffed at this. Later in the day, as we scrambled down the pebble (well rock) beach - first time I had ever seen a beach that did not have sand - and plunged into the freezing cold water, we realised she was right! The water was that salty, it aided floatation! It was very clear and cold - a pity the sun was not out, otherwise it would have looked magical. We dragged ourselves out of the water and lay rather uncomfortably on the rocks drying off. Not many people were in the water that day - only the tourists!
Here is a link regarding Nice: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nice
Nice is very close to a range of famous towns and cities - Cannes - you may have heard of the film festival - as well as the principality of Monaco. We went to Monaco for the night - it was only about a 30 minute drive from where we were staying. Like Switzerland, it also was a fairytale town - more so for it’s man made beauty and the way it hugs the steep shore line. Here is a link to check out - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monaco
We drove past billion dollars worth of yachts and motor vehicles as we approached the casino. The amount of money in this town was amazing, The buildings were pristine, no graffiti in sight and no litter on the ground. The casino was just like any other casino I have ever seen - admittedly, I did not go into the main one - you needed to pay a 10 Euro cover charge just to enter! The “paupers” casino was set downstairs - even still it was very plush.
All in all, this was a very beautiful part of the world! We departed Nice early on the second morning and stopped at a perfumery - very interesting place to see . We were now on our way to Florence - which will be my next update!
Well, we departed Switzerland, just as the mist and cloud lifted, revealing the true beauty of our campground. We had breakfast in Switzerland, lunch in Italy and dinner once again in France. We drove through one of the longest tunnels in Europe - 18kms or so. The amazing thing was that they started building it 300 years ago!!
Nice was very nice! A coastal holiday town on the med - a blend of really old buildings mixed with the new. We were warned to keep a very close eye on our belongings as we pulled up to the bus stop. The bus driver said that he had occasions where scumbags had climbed on the coach as people were getting off to steal what they could! For this reason, one person from the trip had to guard the door anytime the bus was open. Despite being told to be careful, we did not see any crime in this town.
The tour leader, Heather, told us that if were to swim in the Med, we would find it very salty. A few of us scoffed at this. Later in the day, as we scrambled down the pebble (well rock) beach - first time I had ever seen a beach that did not have sand - and plunged into the freezing cold water, we realised she was right! The water was that salty, it aided floatation! It was very clear and cold - a pity the sun was not out, otherwise it would have looked magical. We dragged ourselves out of the water and lay rather uncomfortably on the rocks drying off. Not many people were in the water that day - only the tourists!
Here is a link regarding Nice: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nice
Nice is very close to a range of famous towns and cities - Cannes - you may have heard of the film festival - as well as the principality of Monaco. We went to Monaco for the night - it was only about a 30 minute drive from where we were staying. Like Switzerland, it also was a fairytale town - more so for it’s man made beauty and the way it hugs the steep shore line. Here is a link to check out - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monaco
We drove past billion dollars worth of yachts and motor vehicles as we approached the casino. The amount of money in this town was amazing, The buildings were pristine, no graffiti in sight and no litter on the ground. The casino was just like any other casino I have ever seen - admittedly, I did not go into the main one - you needed to pay a 10 Euro cover charge just to enter! The “paupers” casino was set downstairs - even still it was very plush.
All in all, this was a very beautiful part of the world! We departed Nice early on the second morning and stopped at a perfumery - very interesting place to see . We were now on our way to Florence - which will be my next update!
Saturday, June 21, 2008
The Switzerland Section
Alas, I can not seem to get my video camera recharged, so the promised vids are still not ready for presentation. The weather here has turned and the "summer" days are almost equal to a cold winters day in Brissy! As well as it being my Dad's birthday, this Sunday is going to be the longest day of the year - there is some excitement - but also disappointment - cos it means we are on the slide to winter! Enough of this - on to the Switzerland part of the trip!
SWITZERLANDI would vote this place as the most magical country in the world! We stayed in a valley in Lauterbrunnen - about 72 waterfalls pour into the valley - it was magical! There is a big rock filled river flowing down the middle of the valley. We had got there just after the winter melt, so it looked spectacular! The only problem was that it was raining and a little bit overcast - but that did not dampen the mood or the spirits. Here is a link to it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lauterbrunnen
Walking through the green meadows, all you could hear were cows and sheep with their bells a-ringing. Apparently, they have these so they can be found in the fog/snow. A lot of the houses in the valley were made from pine and some where even built round about 1750! Unfortunately, or cabins were very small - we had to have 4 people in each cabin - you could not swing a cat in there - yet alone bend down to pull your socks on! One of the girls from Canberra had an unfortunate snoring problem - as soon as the bus took off, her head would be nodding and her snores would echo up the aisle. I had the misfortune of being placed next to her cabin - the snores reverberated through the wall and woke all of us up....
We needed to change our Euros to Swiss Francs - this was the only country we needed to do this in, so it was not too painful. We bought beers from their local general store - in front of it - was a cold little mountain stream that came from one of the waterfalls - the stream eventually fed into the main river. We were encouraged to leave our beers in the stream to chill them down! It was awesome. Also, if you stood still for long enough, big trout would swim out of the drain pipe and among the beer!
Had a bit of a bender at the bar on our first night in - got to bed at about 2am. We got up early the next morning and again had the choice of a couple of optionals - I decided to jump on the train that takes us to the top of the tallest mountain in Europe - Mt Jungfrau - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jungfrau . Our guide warned us that some people may suffer altitude sickness. I scoffed at the thought and eagerly awaited the train to take us up!
We stopped at a few mountain side towns on the way up - I expected to see Heidi come bouncing round the corner with a basketful of daisies. Still feeling OK - despite a little bit of a hangover.
We stop at a look out half way up - still feeling fine - unfortunately, there was a white out, which meant we had no views at all. We continued the trip to the top - and as soon as I got off the train, it hit me!! It felt like I was walking in space or under water. My heart was beating abnormally fast and it felt like I would faint. Several other people who got off the train were affected in the same manner. We walked through the big complex at the top of the mountain - and I felt worse and worse. All I wanted to do was get back down to the valley. Again, it was a white out on top, so the spectacular views which the brochures promised were not seen :(
I started to spark up on the descent back into the valley and was back in beer drinking spirits by the time I got back to camp. The little bar encouraged people to write on coasters and then hang them on the roof - my contribution was:
Pat a sheep, milk a cow
See the sights of Mt Jungfrau
Just don't do it if you are weak
Return to camp, beers chilled in the creek
Hit the bar, become a wreck
Enjoy your tour with Topdeck!
After two days here, I've decided it's definitely going to be a place to visit again - this thought was reinforced as we left the country to go to Nice (back in France) - driving past massive mountain ranges and glistening green lakes.
Enough for now - the next part will be about nice Nice!!
SWITZERLANDI would vote this place as the most magical country in the world! We stayed in a valley in Lauterbrunnen - about 72 waterfalls pour into the valley - it was magical! There is a big rock filled river flowing down the middle of the valley. We had got there just after the winter melt, so it looked spectacular! The only problem was that it was raining and a little bit overcast - but that did not dampen the mood or the spirits. Here is a link to it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lauterbrunnen
Walking through the green meadows, all you could hear were cows and sheep with their bells a-ringing. Apparently, they have these so they can be found in the fog/snow. A lot of the houses in the valley were made from pine and some where even built round about 1750! Unfortunately, or cabins were very small - we had to have 4 people in each cabin - you could not swing a cat in there - yet alone bend down to pull your socks on! One of the girls from Canberra had an unfortunate snoring problem - as soon as the bus took off, her head would be nodding and her snores would echo up the aisle. I had the misfortune of being placed next to her cabin - the snores reverberated through the wall and woke all of us up....
We needed to change our Euros to Swiss Francs - this was the only country we needed to do this in, so it was not too painful. We bought beers from their local general store - in front of it - was a cold little mountain stream that came from one of the waterfalls - the stream eventually fed into the main river. We were encouraged to leave our beers in the stream to chill them down! It was awesome. Also, if you stood still for long enough, big trout would swim out of the drain pipe and among the beer!
Had a bit of a bender at the bar on our first night in - got to bed at about 2am. We got up early the next morning and again had the choice of a couple of optionals - I decided to jump on the train that takes us to the top of the tallest mountain in Europe - Mt Jungfrau - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jungfrau . Our guide warned us that some people may suffer altitude sickness. I scoffed at the thought and eagerly awaited the train to take us up!
We stopped at a few mountain side towns on the way up - I expected to see Heidi come bouncing round the corner with a basketful of daisies. Still feeling OK - despite a little bit of a hangover.
We stop at a look out half way up - still feeling fine - unfortunately, there was a white out, which meant we had no views at all. We continued the trip to the top - and as soon as I got off the train, it hit me!! It felt like I was walking in space or under water. My heart was beating abnormally fast and it felt like I would faint. Several other people who got off the train were affected in the same manner. We walked through the big complex at the top of the mountain - and I felt worse and worse. All I wanted to do was get back down to the valley. Again, it was a white out on top, so the spectacular views which the brochures promised were not seen :(
I started to spark up on the descent back into the valley and was back in beer drinking spirits by the time I got back to camp. The little bar encouraged people to write on coasters and then hang them on the roof - my contribution was:
Pat a sheep, milk a cow
See the sights of Mt Jungfrau
Just don't do it if you are weak
Return to camp, beers chilled in the creek
Hit the bar, become a wreck
Enjoy your tour with Topdeck!
After two days here, I've decided it's definitely going to be a place to visit again - this thought was reinforced as we left the country to go to Nice (back in France) - driving past massive mountain ranges and glistening green lakes.
Enough for now - the next part will be about nice Nice!!
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Looking for Work in London....
Well, as you can all tell, I have been very slack in filling in my blog and keeping you all updated. Now that I am back in London - looking for work - albeit slowly - will use this time to bring you up to speed about my travels.....
I think the easiest way to do this will be to break it into each city I visited. I do have some vids of each place which I will eventually upload to you tube and can then pop the links in the blog. So, without further ado, lets talk about Paris!
PARIS
We caught the bus to Dover from London - alas the white cliffs were covered with white fog, so the views were not that great. The ferry ride over was pretty cool - serving beer at the bar! I did not realise how far away Paris was from the coast line - about 6 hours after touching down, the bus pulled into the outskirts of the city. We rocked up to our hotel - and were a little disappointed with the size and quality of the place - but given it was our first day on tour, we were excited!
We did a bus tour of the city on the first night - got to get out at some of the major land marks and see them in their lit up glory. We ran into a heap of black conmen - referred to as “string men” - they try and grab your hand as you walk past and tie a friendship band to it - they then make you buy it.
The next day was ours to spend doing what we wanted - we climbed the tower - ie walked up to the second platform, before catching the lift to the top. Great view from there! After that, Mark and a new girl we met called Rachel braved the Metro train and went out to the catacombs - there is an ossuary (a display of human bones) in the cavern as well - which was awesome to see. The catacombs apparently spread for hundreds of kms under the city - only a little part of it is open to the public. You walk through a series of tunnels with dripping water (and very cool temps) before you come to the first part of the bone displays - unbelievable to think the whole display is made up of bones that used to be humans that lived their lives! Read more information about them at this link!! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catacombs_of_Paris
We left Rachel and we went into the back streets to a tapas bar - yeah - I know - why eat Spanish in Paris?? Had a great coffee though! We then headed back to the Arc de Triomphe - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arc_de_Triomphe
This sits in the middle of one of the craziest roundabouts I have ever seen - when I get my camera charged, will put some vid of it online - we climbed it and stayed up there for a while watching the city traffic.
We then walked down one of the lardy-dar streets - and saw a riot - students laying in the street causing traffic chaos. Within a few minutes, the French riot police turned up in about 8 big paddy wagons - they looked like imperial storm troopers - with a few swings of their batons, the rebel rousers were soon moved on. We followed the riot march to the Arc - again I got some vid footage of the paddy wagons - so will put some on line when I get a chance.
Had a champagne picnic in the evening under the shadow of the tower - pity it had been raining though, since the picnic was outside!! Was pretty weird to watch the French military guarding the base of the tower, walking round with machine guns.
Six of us made the mistake of choosing to do one of the optionals the tour offers - it was to see a cabaret show - very much aimed at tourists - and was certainly not authentically French. We left it very disappointed that we wasted our money - we voted this as the worst optional when we filled in our end of trip survey.
Well, I have about another 10 cities to blog about - so stay tuned! In the mean time, we are looking for jobs - and then it will be looking for a unit to live in.
Adios!
Matt
I think the easiest way to do this will be to break it into each city I visited. I do have some vids of each place which I will eventually upload to you tube and can then pop the links in the blog. So, without further ado, lets talk about Paris!
PARIS
We caught the bus to Dover from London - alas the white cliffs were covered with white fog, so the views were not that great. The ferry ride over was pretty cool - serving beer at the bar! I did not realise how far away Paris was from the coast line - about 6 hours after touching down, the bus pulled into the outskirts of the city. We rocked up to our hotel - and were a little disappointed with the size and quality of the place - but given it was our first day on tour, we were excited!
We did a bus tour of the city on the first night - got to get out at some of the major land marks and see them in their lit up glory. We ran into a heap of black conmen - referred to as “string men” - they try and grab your hand as you walk past and tie a friendship band to it - they then make you buy it.
The next day was ours to spend doing what we wanted - we climbed the tower - ie walked up to the second platform, before catching the lift to the top. Great view from there! After that, Mark and a new girl we met called Rachel braved the Metro train and went out to the catacombs - there is an ossuary (a display of human bones) in the cavern as well - which was awesome to see. The catacombs apparently spread for hundreds of kms under the city - only a little part of it is open to the public. You walk through a series of tunnels with dripping water (and very cool temps) before you come to the first part of the bone displays - unbelievable to think the whole display is made up of bones that used to be humans that lived their lives! Read more information about them at this link!! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catacombs_of_Paris
We left Rachel and we went into the back streets to a tapas bar - yeah - I know - why eat Spanish in Paris?? Had a great coffee though! We then headed back to the Arc de Triomphe - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arc_de_Triomphe
This sits in the middle of one of the craziest roundabouts I have ever seen - when I get my camera charged, will put some vid of it online - we climbed it and stayed up there for a while watching the city traffic.
We then walked down one of the lardy-dar streets - and saw a riot - students laying in the street causing traffic chaos. Within a few minutes, the French riot police turned up in about 8 big paddy wagons - they looked like imperial storm troopers - with a few swings of their batons, the rebel rousers were soon moved on. We followed the riot march to the Arc - again I got some vid footage of the paddy wagons - so will put some on line when I get a chance.
Had a champagne picnic in the evening under the shadow of the tower - pity it had been raining though, since the picnic was outside!! Was pretty weird to watch the French military guarding the base of the tower, walking round with machine guns.
Six of us made the mistake of choosing to do one of the optionals the tour offers - it was to see a cabaret show - very much aimed at tourists - and was certainly not authentically French. We left it very disappointed that we wasted our money - we voted this as the worst optional when we filled in our end of trip survey.
Well, I have about another 10 cities to blog about - so stay tuned! In the mean time, we are looking for jobs - and then it will be looking for a unit to live in.
Adios!
Matt
Thursday, May 22, 2008
In Florence!
Well, having a ripping trip so far - apart from some really annoying Americans!
Have 6 mins left of net credit so this will be really quick!
Have climbed the Eiffel Tower, have scurried through the catacombs and ossuary under the Paris Streets, seen a cabaret show in the city too - although it was shithouse!
Seen the sights of Switzerland - one awesome country I would go back to in a snap!
Been in Nice for two nights - went swimming in the Med - very cold and very very salty!
Now in Florence - have just seen the statue of David!!
Off to Rome tomorrow - will write more when I get to a new net post!
Rgds
Mattyp
Have 6 mins left of net credit so this will be really quick!
Have climbed the Eiffel Tower, have scurried through the catacombs and ossuary under the Paris Streets, seen a cabaret show in the city too - although it was shithouse!
Seen the sights of Switzerland - one awesome country I would go back to in a snap!
Been in Nice for two nights - went swimming in the Med - very cold and very very salty!
Now in Florence - have just seen the statue of David!!
Off to Rome tomorrow - will write more when I get to a new net post!
Rgds
Mattyp
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
Who said the UK is cold??
Well, the first week has passed in a flash. The weather has been perfect since we got here. Temperatures have ranged from about 10 degrees to 27 degrees. On the hotter days, it was funny to see the pasty white fat poms strip bare and lay about in the sun. The weird thing here is that we do not seem to be getting sun burnt - although we have seen a lot of beetroot red poms after their whaling session. They seem to have no concept of right or wrong - have spotted some very fat people stripping to their underwear - in full public view of families and kiddies - infact, caught a glimpse of one mans meat and 2 vege as he wallowed on the grass.
Have seen heaps of sights already - including the London Eye - pefect views!, Big Ben, Westminster, Trafalgar and Leicester Square and Piccadilly Circus, Tower Bridge, the Palace, the Hyde Park Arch, Kingston Palace etc etc - every where you look over here you see history!
Can now proudly say have mastered the tube - well, confidence is building each day! Had a few wrong trains - eg wanted to go to the city then realised I was on the way to Heathrow! The tube system is crazy - rather than use escalators, have been trying to use the stairs - in some stations, this means like 200 stairs to climb! There are over 28o tube stations too!
Every street is packed with people - and every street looks the same. Its very easy to get lost - especially when you are obstinate like me and refuse to ask directions! We went out on Saturday night to Soho - it was like hitting the valley - just multiplied by a factor of about 50 million!! Pubs are on every corner - often offering a meal and a pint for about £4.50 - which is very reasonable! There is an awesome shop here called Marks and Spencer - they sell pre-pared single meals - very tast and high quality - I dont think I will be cooking again!
Have not bothered looking for a job yet - will do that in about 3 weeks - which is when I get back from my European tour! Thats right, as of tomorrow - Thursday, 15th May, I am gallivanting through France, Switzerland, Italy, Austria, Czech Republic and Germany. Am travelling with a group called Top Deck - which are meant to be a little bit better than Contiki. Two nights at least in each place (4 in France). Hopefully they will all be cool people on the tour!
Well, I am signing off now - have to pack for the trip - I hear some gasp in surprise - yes - I learnt it pays to pack in advance now!
Anyway, will try and do updates during the tour - maybe use it as an excuse to stay away from others I am travelling with. Will post some pics soon too.
Cheers and Beers!
Matt
Have seen heaps of sights already - including the London Eye - pefect views!, Big Ben, Westminster, Trafalgar and Leicester Square and Piccadilly Circus, Tower Bridge, the Palace, the Hyde Park Arch, Kingston Palace etc etc - every where you look over here you see history!
Can now proudly say have mastered the tube - well, confidence is building each day! Had a few wrong trains - eg wanted to go to the city then realised I was on the way to Heathrow! The tube system is crazy - rather than use escalators, have been trying to use the stairs - in some stations, this means like 200 stairs to climb! There are over 28o tube stations too!
Every street is packed with people - and every street looks the same. Its very easy to get lost - especially when you are obstinate like me and refuse to ask directions! We went out on Saturday night to Soho - it was like hitting the valley - just multiplied by a factor of about 50 million!! Pubs are on every corner - often offering a meal and a pint for about £4.50 - which is very reasonable! There is an awesome shop here called Marks and Spencer - they sell pre-pared single meals - very tast and high quality - I dont think I will be cooking again!
Have not bothered looking for a job yet - will do that in about 3 weeks - which is when I get back from my European tour! Thats right, as of tomorrow - Thursday, 15th May, I am gallivanting through France, Switzerland, Italy, Austria, Czech Republic and Germany. Am travelling with a group called Top Deck - which are meant to be a little bit better than Contiki. Two nights at least in each place (4 in France). Hopefully they will all be cool people on the tour!
Well, I am signing off now - have to pack for the trip - I hear some gasp in surprise - yes - I learnt it pays to pack in advance now!
Anyway, will try and do updates during the tour - maybe use it as an excuse to stay away from others I am travelling with. Will post some pics soon too.
Cheers and Beers!
Matt
Tuesday, May 6, 2008
London Calling!
Hey All!!
Well I have made it to the UK safe and well!
Had a great flight with JAL - would reccomend them all the way!! Great food, great service and beer! A really big thanks needs to go to Mon from QANTAS who bumped us up to have three seats the whole way here!! Goes to show being nice and smilimg does pay off.
Stayed the night in Narita and had a great sushi meal. Todays flight was a long haul one - well the longest I have done - 12 hours. We flew with the sun - I left Japan at 12 midday and arrived here at 15:30. One of the best parts of the flight was flying over Siberia and Russia - it was an exhilirating feeling to see the world from 12km - amazing landscape. It was also great flying over Europe proper - I never realised what the geogrpahy was like!
Landing in the UK was awesome - there was not a cloud in the sky - we could see a patchwork of fields as far as the eye could see. The funny thing was we had to circle for about 15 minute - in that time we actually flew from one side of the country to the other twice! Some of the fields were bright yellow - I assume they were canola crops - got some video of it which I will post - when I can get a cord for my camera - unfortunately, in the rush to pack, i forgot the cord.
One thing I regret was leaving the packing till 9pm the night before!! Will I ever learn.
In shorts and shirts at the moment - heading to the pub for a trivia night with the girls we are staying with - should be a lark (damn, UK speak slipping in already! :)
Anyway, will update when I have a few more things to say....
Cheers and beers - Matt!
Well I have made it to the UK safe and well!
Had a great flight with JAL - would reccomend them all the way!! Great food, great service and beer! A really big thanks needs to go to Mon from QANTAS who bumped us up to have three seats the whole way here!! Goes to show being nice and smilimg does pay off.
Stayed the night in Narita and had a great sushi meal. Todays flight was a long haul one - well the longest I have done - 12 hours. We flew with the sun - I left Japan at 12 midday and arrived here at 15:30. One of the best parts of the flight was flying over Siberia and Russia - it was an exhilirating feeling to see the world from 12km - amazing landscape. It was also great flying over Europe proper - I never realised what the geogrpahy was like!
Landing in the UK was awesome - there was not a cloud in the sky - we could see a patchwork of fields as far as the eye could see. The funny thing was we had to circle for about 15 minute - in that time we actually flew from one side of the country to the other twice! Some of the fields were bright yellow - I assume they were canola crops - got some video of it which I will post - when I can get a cord for my camera - unfortunately, in the rush to pack, i forgot the cord.
One thing I regret was leaving the packing till 9pm the night before!! Will I ever learn.
In shorts and shirts at the moment - heading to the pub for a trivia night with the girls we are staying with - should be a lark (damn, UK speak slipping in already! :)
Anyway, will update when I have a few more things to say....
Cheers and beers - Matt!
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