A blog detailing the ongoing slobberpalooza that is the life of those with both a baby and a boxer.
When I last left off, we were just leaving the very stunning Switzerland, and heading back to France.
We left Geneva, and then headed on the bus to the small French alpine town of Annecy. This was a lovely little town that sadly we didn't end up seeing much off. We got to the hotel at about 4pm, and from then until we left it just pissed down with rain. We attempted to do some exploring before dinner at 8:30 (the Europeans eat in the middle of the night, I swear), but got crapped off with getting wet, so we just went to a supermarket, grabbed some French wine and cheese and had some other people from the tour back to our room to watch Ian Thorpe win gold.
Dinner that night was uneventful, we had a reasonably nice salmon lasagne, but the experience was spoiled a bit by the famous French service (or lack there of). Fortunately Matt, the tour leader knew where the cheapest beer in town was, so we had a couple of Grande Bieres and all was good.
The fun thing about Annecy was that hardly anyone spoke english, so we had to rely on our rudimentary French.
The next morning we left for the French Riveria, where we spent a couple of days.
The drive down on the bus was really nice, someone Australian guy in the 19th century decided that it would be a good idea to plant some eucalyptus and bottle brushes there, and since the climate is almost identical to Adelaide, they have gone nuts. It was really quite welcoming, after being a way from home for a while, to see rolling hills covered in Australian trees. We could have been on any Australian freeway judging by the scenery.
However, once you come across the last hill into the cove where Nice sits, the illusion pops like a balloon. Partly because of the cobalt blue ocean, but mostly because if there is a square meter of land there, someone has built a 5 story block of flats on it. Seriously, it's like Surfers Paradise on steroids.
So we checked into the hotel that would be our home for the next couple of nights, had a quick shower and then got back on to the bus, to have dinner in Monaco. We had a gorgeous dinner al fresco in one of the squares of the worlds richest city, before heading off to the famous square with the casino for a look around. The amount of money here bent my head. In the 45 minutes we strolled around the square and part of the famous grand prix circuit, I saw the following cars.
Ferrari F40, McLaren Supercar, Lambourgini Countac as well as a few Lotus', Porsches and Maseratis. It was better than the Adelaide motor show.
We also perused the menu for the restaurant of the Ritz hotel across the road from the casino, where you can enjoy black truffles or caviar for more than 500 Australian dollars.
They only let 3o people per year emigrate to Monaco, and you need to pay a non refundable charge of 1,000,000 euro to apply. They prefer sports stars to movie stars, which is why they let Boris Becker buy a house there but not Arnold Schwarzanegger.
The next day, in need of a rest, we headed for the beach for a swim. The weather was stunning, and the beach had wall to wall bare breasts! Magnificent. The beach is not sand but pebbles which at first seems unappealing, but it's better than you think because it lets you enjoy the sea breeze without being sand blasted. The colour of the water is just unbelievable, it is the colour of the feature walls in our Magill house.
So we did a bit of exploring amongst the markets and streets of Nice, but like I said most of the day was whiled away at the beach. Karen got sunburned to a crisp, since she forgot to take a t shirt to swim in.
For lunch that day we went up to the market square, which transfers into a restaurant square at meal times. I have never seen so many outdoor tables. Seriously, imagine an area the size of Victoria square covered in tables with waiters running around and you will get an idea. I had probably the best lunch I have ever had there, a sensational seafood paella salad.
We went back to the hotel and relaxed for a while, and organised a group to head back to the square for dinner. I was really keen to get some of the French provisional cooking that Anthony Bourdain craps on about so much in his book, and I wasn't disappointed.
First course for me, was escargot, or snails for the non French speaker. Quite delicious, but all the snail does is provides and oyster like texture to the garlic and basil (but mostly garlic). Sadly no frogs legs on the menu, so I had to settle for beef in Burgundy (I can't remember what this is called in French. Deeeelicious.
On the way out to Italy the next morning we stopped by a perfumery, and picked up some French perfume, and saw how it was made.
On last note I need to add before I finish with France is about French wine. Let me tell you, you can't judge it from the shit that they export to Australia. French wine is good. I mean really good. We probably drank 6 different bottles of red, all of them reasonably priced, and we didn't get one dud. Just like we drink Kellermeister and export Jacobs Creek, they export the rubbishy metallic tasting stuff and keep the nice Boujellais (I probably spelt that wrong) to themselves.
We left Geneva, and then headed on the bus to the small French alpine town of Annecy. This was a lovely little town that sadly we didn't end up seeing much off. We got to the hotel at about 4pm, and from then until we left it just pissed down with rain. We attempted to do some exploring before dinner at 8:30 (the Europeans eat in the middle of the night, I swear), but got crapped off with getting wet, so we just went to a supermarket, grabbed some French wine and cheese and had some other people from the tour back to our room to watch Ian Thorpe win gold.
Dinner that night was uneventful, we had a reasonably nice salmon lasagne, but the experience was spoiled a bit by the famous French service (or lack there of). Fortunately Matt, the tour leader knew where the cheapest beer in town was, so we had a couple of Grande Bieres and all was good.
The fun thing about Annecy was that hardly anyone spoke english, so we had to rely on our rudimentary French.
The next morning we left for the French Riveria, where we spent a couple of days.
The drive down on the bus was really nice, someone Australian guy in the 19th century decided that it would be a good idea to plant some eucalyptus and bottle brushes there, and since the climate is almost identical to Adelaide, they have gone nuts. It was really quite welcoming, after being a way from home for a while, to see rolling hills covered in Australian trees. We could have been on any Australian freeway judging by the scenery.
However, once you come across the last hill into the cove where Nice sits, the illusion pops like a balloon. Partly because of the cobalt blue ocean, but mostly because if there is a square meter of land there, someone has built a 5 story block of flats on it. Seriously, it's like Surfers Paradise on steroids.
So we checked into the hotel that would be our home for the next couple of nights, had a quick shower and then got back on to the bus, to have dinner in Monaco. We had a gorgeous dinner al fresco in one of the squares of the worlds richest city, before heading off to the famous square with the casino for a look around. The amount of money here bent my head. In the 45 minutes we strolled around the square and part of the famous grand prix circuit, I saw the following cars.
Ferrari F40, McLaren Supercar, Lambourgini Countac as well as a few Lotus', Porsches and Maseratis. It was better than the Adelaide motor show.
We also perused the menu for the restaurant of the Ritz hotel across the road from the casino, where you can enjoy black truffles or caviar for more than 500 Australian dollars.
They only let 3o people per year emigrate to Monaco, and you need to pay a non refundable charge of 1,000,000 euro to apply. They prefer sports stars to movie stars, which is why they let Boris Becker buy a house there but not Arnold Schwarzanegger.
The next day, in need of a rest, we headed for the beach for a swim. The weather was stunning, and the beach had wall to wall bare breasts! Magnificent. The beach is not sand but pebbles which at first seems unappealing, but it's better than you think because it lets you enjoy the sea breeze without being sand blasted. The colour of the water is just unbelievable, it is the colour of the feature walls in our Magill house.
So we did a bit of exploring amongst the markets and streets of Nice, but like I said most of the day was whiled away at the beach. Karen got sunburned to a crisp, since she forgot to take a t shirt to swim in.
For lunch that day we went up to the market square, which transfers into a restaurant square at meal times. I have never seen so many outdoor tables. Seriously, imagine an area the size of Victoria square covered in tables with waiters running around and you will get an idea. I had probably the best lunch I have ever had there, a sensational seafood paella salad.
We went back to the hotel and relaxed for a while, and organised a group to head back to the square for dinner. I was really keen to get some of the French provisional cooking that Anthony Bourdain craps on about so much in his book, and I wasn't disappointed.
First course for me, was escargot, or snails for the non French speaker. Quite delicious, but all the snail does is provides and oyster like texture to the garlic and basil (but mostly garlic). Sadly no frogs legs on the menu, so I had to settle for beef in Burgundy (I can't remember what this is called in French. Deeeelicious.
On the way out to Italy the next morning we stopped by a perfumery, and picked up some French perfume, and saw how it was made.
On last note I need to add before I finish with France is about French wine. Let me tell you, you can't judge it from the shit that they export to Australia. French wine is good. I mean really good. We probably drank 6 different bottles of red, all of them reasonably priced, and we didn't get one dud. Just like we drink Kellermeister and export Jacobs Creek, they export the rubbishy metallic tasting stuff and keep the nice Boujellais (I probably spelt that wrong) to themselves.
Ok, this time I am going to finish this off I promise.
Right then, so after the big department store we decided to go and have a look at the Louvre. We only had a day so we didn't venture inside, it took us long enough to walk through the courtyard. To give you an idea, the actual building is about 700m long by 500m wide, and then the the 'front yard' is another 1000m. The place is absolutely massive. There is some 9 km of walkways in there. It used to be Louis XIV's house before he decided it wasn' t quite big enough and moved to a bigger place in Marseilles. Any wonder the starving peasants cut his head off.
When we were sick of Louis' extravagance, we wandered off to another art gallery, the Rodin gallery. Karen is a bit of a fan of his work, we have some copies of his sculptures in the Adelaide Art Gallery. Most of the sculptures are in a garden and it was a pretty pleasant way to spend an afternoon, munching on a baghette and looking at bronze statues.
We rounded off the days sightseeing by going back to the eiffel tower and having a crepe. With warm nutella, banana and whipped cream no less. A very delicious French experience.
That night we headed out with some people from the tour to the Moulin Rouge. We took a photo of it and then ducked in to see a can can show at the cheaper place next door (only 50 each instead of 90!!). It was a bit amateurish but a good nights entertainment, I liked it because neither of us really realised that you actually get to see boobies. The needle marks in the legs of one of the skankier girls was a the only way to tell we weren't in the actual Moulin Rouge.
One thing that I forgot to mention about the night was that we had a kebab before the show, and the picture in the shop showed a kebab and chips. Well the French, being the masters of fine cuisine that they are, put the chips actually on the kebab. Bizarre. We also visited an Australian theme bar across the road while we were waiting for the show to start, and I paid $10A for a Coopers Sparkling. A ridiculous price I know, but you get a little desperate after a few weeks of cold turkey.
So that was Paris. The next day we were on the bus to a little town in Switzerland called Interlaken, which roughly translates to between lakes. No prizes for guessing that the town is between two lakes, but not just your ordinary lakes, massive, beautiful blue glacial lakes. Interlaken is without doubt the prettiest place I have ever been, the gorgeous lakes, breathtaking Swiss alps and all of the lovely chalet style buildings - I hope I can get some photos up soon.
The air is just amazing to breath, especially after being in Paris. And the water..... Seriously the stuff that comes out of their taps is better than the stuff we buy in bottles.
For dinner on our first night in Switzerland we went to a joint called Bebe's for Rosti and Fondue. The night was absolutely hilarious, the proprietor, Bebe was a muscle bound, all singing, all dancing, all yodelling Swiss crowd pleaser in fluffy cow pants. (They're big on cows in Switzerland, you know like the Milka ad). We had cheese fondue for mains and chocolate for desert, and I am happy to say that I gorged myself, at least when we weren't singing or sculling or forming congo lines behind Bebe.
The Swiss are an amazingly civilized race of people, so much so that they have a train that you can catch up to the top of the largest glacier in the area, Jungfraujoch, coming in at a dizzying 3900m. So we took the two hour train trip to the top, and while doing so saw the most mind blowing scenery, mountains have always fascinated me, but these ones took the cake. Again, I'll try to get some photos up soon, but just understand that these babies are BIG.
At the top, we had our first experience with altitude sickness. It is strangely like being hung over - and having been up there it amazes me that people have been to the top of Everest, which is almost twice as high, and walked up there. Wow.
The big bonus was though, that on a glacier, there is snow, and we played in it. It was wild, and Karen got to tick snow off of her list because she hadn't seen close up before. So we did the cliche thing and threw some snowballs around, and then got some sleds and had a few runs down one of the smaller slopes. You sure realise what sort of altitude you are at when you try to run back up.
That afternoon, back down at a mere 700m, we spent the afternoon walking around and looking at watches and Swiss army knives. I bought a cool Swiss army knife with mountain bike tools on it, and they even put my name on it. For dinner that night we had another traditional Swiss meal, Karen had a wienerschnitzel and I had a 380 gram schweinwurst and more rosti.
And that brings us to the chocolate. Oh my god, Swiss chocolate is the best. Cadbury doesn't even come close, I wish there was some way to get some home. We ate a fair bit while we were there to make up for it though. Also, sorry Adelaide, but Farmers Union is not the best iced coffee in the world. Swiss Caffee Latte is heaven in a milk carton.
We also visited Geneva on the way back into France. Had lunch and a quick look at the UN and left. However, Geneva is apparently one of the most advanced, civilized and efficient cities in the world. If I said to you name a dodgy place, you sure wouldn't think of Geneva. Nor should you, except if you are using the quality of public toilets as a judge. Geneva has the worst public loos I have seen to date, Thailand included.
One last thing about the Switzerland before I wind up, I was looking forward to trying out a bit of my high school German. However since the Swiss are all so well educated and well traveled, I hardly got a chance because the locals all recognize you as a tourist and address you in very eloquent english.
Oh, and the German word for jewelry is Schmuck.
Right then, so after the big department store we decided to go and have a look at the Louvre. We only had a day so we didn't venture inside, it took us long enough to walk through the courtyard. To give you an idea, the actual building is about 700m long by 500m wide, and then the the 'front yard' is another 1000m. The place is absolutely massive. There is some 9 km of walkways in there. It used to be Louis XIV's house before he decided it wasn' t quite big enough and moved to a bigger place in Marseilles. Any wonder the starving peasants cut his head off.
When we were sick of Louis' extravagance, we wandered off to another art gallery, the Rodin gallery. Karen is a bit of a fan of his work, we have some copies of his sculptures in the Adelaide Art Gallery. Most of the sculptures are in a garden and it was a pretty pleasant way to spend an afternoon, munching on a baghette and looking at bronze statues.
We rounded off the days sightseeing by going back to the eiffel tower and having a crepe. With warm nutella, banana and whipped cream no less. A very delicious French experience.
That night we headed out with some people from the tour to the Moulin Rouge. We took a photo of it and then ducked in to see a can can show at the cheaper place next door (only 50 each instead of 90!!). It was a bit amateurish but a good nights entertainment, I liked it because neither of us really realised that you actually get to see boobies. The needle marks in the legs of one of the skankier girls was a the only way to tell we weren't in the actual Moulin Rouge.
One thing that I forgot to mention about the night was that we had a kebab before the show, and the picture in the shop showed a kebab and chips. Well the French, being the masters of fine cuisine that they are, put the chips actually on the kebab. Bizarre. We also visited an Australian theme bar across the road while we were waiting for the show to start, and I paid $10A for a Coopers Sparkling. A ridiculous price I know, but you get a little desperate after a few weeks of cold turkey.
So that was Paris. The next day we were on the bus to a little town in Switzerland called Interlaken, which roughly translates to between lakes. No prizes for guessing that the town is between two lakes, but not just your ordinary lakes, massive, beautiful blue glacial lakes. Interlaken is without doubt the prettiest place I have ever been, the gorgeous lakes, breathtaking Swiss alps and all of the lovely chalet style buildings - I hope I can get some photos up soon.
The air is just amazing to breath, especially after being in Paris. And the water..... Seriously the stuff that comes out of their taps is better than the stuff we buy in bottles.
For dinner on our first night in Switzerland we went to a joint called Bebe's for Rosti and Fondue. The night was absolutely hilarious, the proprietor, Bebe was a muscle bound, all singing, all dancing, all yodelling Swiss crowd pleaser in fluffy cow pants. (They're big on cows in Switzerland, you know like the Milka ad). We had cheese fondue for mains and chocolate for desert, and I am happy to say that I gorged myself, at least when we weren't singing or sculling or forming congo lines behind Bebe.
The Swiss are an amazingly civilized race of people, so much so that they have a train that you can catch up to the top of the largest glacier in the area, Jungfraujoch, coming in at a dizzying 3900m. So we took the two hour train trip to the top, and while doing so saw the most mind blowing scenery, mountains have always fascinated me, but these ones took the cake. Again, I'll try to get some photos up soon, but just understand that these babies are BIG.
At the top, we had our first experience with altitude sickness. It is strangely like being hung over - and having been up there it amazes me that people have been to the top of Everest, which is almost twice as high, and walked up there. Wow.
The big bonus was though, that on a glacier, there is snow, and we played in it. It was wild, and Karen got to tick snow off of her list because she hadn't seen close up before. So we did the cliche thing and threw some snowballs around, and then got some sleds and had a few runs down one of the smaller slopes. You sure realise what sort of altitude you are at when you try to run back up.
That afternoon, back down at a mere 700m, we spent the afternoon walking around and looking at watches and Swiss army knives. I bought a cool Swiss army knife with mountain bike tools on it, and they even put my name on it. For dinner that night we had another traditional Swiss meal, Karen had a wienerschnitzel and I had a 380 gram schweinwurst and more rosti.
And that brings us to the chocolate. Oh my god, Swiss chocolate is the best. Cadbury doesn't even come close, I wish there was some way to get some home. We ate a fair bit while we were there to make up for it though. Also, sorry Adelaide, but Farmers Union is not the best iced coffee in the world. Swiss Caffee Latte is heaven in a milk carton.
We also visited Geneva on the way back into France. Had lunch and a quick look at the UN and left. However, Geneva is apparently one of the most advanced, civilized and efficient cities in the world. If I said to you name a dodgy place, you sure wouldn't think of Geneva. Nor should you, except if you are using the quality of public toilets as a judge. Geneva has the worst public loos I have seen to date, Thailand included.
One last thing about the Switzerland before I wind up, I was looking forward to trying out a bit of my high school German. However since the Swiss are all so well educated and well traveled, I hardly got a chance because the locals all recognize you as a tourist and address you in very eloquent english.
Oh, and the German word for jewelry is Schmuck.
On the previous episode, we left James and Karen eating dinner in a French restaurant in Paris...
Following the dinner, we all strolled down to the River Siene, and boarded a boat for a cruise down the river. The architecture and bridges in Paris really are quite something to behold, and it was a great night for a cruise. The recorded commentry on the boat was quite cheesy though, it was some guy with a smooth French accent crapping on about how romantic the city is.
Day 2 in Paris was a fairly full and exhausting one.
We got up, and negotiated the underground again and found our way to Notre Dame. That's one big church I'm here to tell you, it's any wonder it took over 100 years to build. It's one of the great extravagences of Louis XIV, which I will talk more about in a bit.
From here, we wandered along the designer shopping strip, and saw a whole lot of ridiculously priced clothing, and found ourselves in a seven story, designer clothing department store. Again, more stratospheric prices, but the interesting thing I wanted to mention that we saw a lady in the shop with her dog. It's amazing, people take their dogs ever where here, on trains, into shopes, in taxi's, the works! I just can't imagine taking Floyd into David Jones to slobber on everything, but no one seems to care here.
To be continued.....
Following the dinner, we all strolled down to the River Siene, and boarded a boat for a cruise down the river. The architecture and bridges in Paris really are quite something to behold, and it was a great night for a cruise. The recorded commentry on the boat was quite cheesy though, it was some guy with a smooth French accent crapping on about how romantic the city is.
Day 2 in Paris was a fairly full and exhausting one.
We got up, and negotiated the underground again and found our way to Notre Dame. That's one big church I'm here to tell you, it's any wonder it took over 100 years to build. It's one of the great extravagences of Louis XIV, which I will talk more about in a bit.
From here, we wandered along the designer shopping strip, and saw a whole lot of ridiculously priced clothing, and found ourselves in a seven story, designer clothing department store. Again, more stratospheric prices, but the interesting thing I wanted to mention that we saw a lady in the shop with her dog. It's amazing, people take their dogs ever where here, on trains, into shopes, in taxi's, the works! I just can't imagine taking Floyd into David Jones to slobber on everything, but no one seems to care here.
To be continued.....
Back again with the first update in a while, we have been having too much fun!
Furthermore, the net cafe in Interlaken, where we have been for the last 2 days wanted the equivalent of $20/h to use it. We are now in France again and this hotel has free internet, but the keyboard is non-QWERTY qnd reqlly hqrd to type on let ,e tell you: so this updqte ,ight not be qs lush qnd detqiled qs I ,ight hqve hoped:
But we'll press on, I will just type slowly two fingered; I look a bit like my dad trying to type.
Last Friday we left the hostel in Edinburgh at 4am and didn't arrive at the hotel in Paris a full 11 hours later. Bearing in mind the actual distance travelled was less than Adelaide to Melbourne, it was a bastard of a trip. We got delayed in london and then had to negoitate the oh so well signposted and helpfully staffed French airport, train and underground system (note sarcasm).
****update - the above was started a couple of days ago in France, and for various reasons, most notably running out of time and the damn annoying keyboard. We are now in Italy with a QWERTY, but there is only 15 minutes to dinner, so I will publish what I get done now and you'll just have to keep waiting for the rest. Don't worry, I am keeping notes in my diary so you won't miss anything.*****
Right O, where were we? Oh that's right, the French underground. One thing I forgot to mention about Scotland was the fact that every tourist place you went, particularly in the highlands, there was a guy in the full scottish garb murdering 'Scotland the Brave' or 'Amazing Grace' with the bagpipes in an attempt to get people to put money in the hat. The same in France, we got on the train from the airport, and a station later some kid got on the next station with an accordian and cranked out some French favourites. Just what we need on a crowded train in the heat. I held firm when he came down the car looking for coins, but Karen dropped what turned out to be £1 in his cup.
Once we finally got to the hotel, we met up with the tour group who have turned out to be a fantastic bunch of people. Introductions over, it was on the big bus, and off for a tour of the sights of Paris. You can probably guess the next bit, but I'll tell you anyway, it was past the Eiffel tower, round the Arc de Triumph, past the Louvre, through Peace square (where they used to cut peoples heads off) and then out to dinner.
Dinner was in a 'proper' French restaurant, with the waiters in dinner suits with napkins over thier arms. It wasn't a bad meal for a group booking of 40. I had the steak with bernaise sauce, partially because this would be in my favourite food top 5, and partially because we had been in the UK for 2 weeks where beef is more expensive than Lobster and I craved a steak. What I liked was the fact that no matter how you asked for it to be cooked, you got it rare. They wouldn't lower themselves to over do a steak.
To be continued......
Furthermore, the net cafe in Interlaken, where we have been for the last 2 days wanted the equivalent of $20/h to use it. We are now in France again and this hotel has free internet, but the keyboard is non-QWERTY qnd reqlly hqrd to type on let ,e tell you: so this updqte ,ight not be qs lush qnd detqiled qs I ,ight hqve hoped:
But we'll press on, I will just type slowly two fingered; I look a bit like my dad trying to type.
Last Friday we left the hostel in Edinburgh at 4am and didn't arrive at the hotel in Paris a full 11 hours later. Bearing in mind the actual distance travelled was less than Adelaide to Melbourne, it was a bastard of a trip. We got delayed in london and then had to negoitate the oh so well signposted and helpfully staffed French airport, train and underground system (note sarcasm).
****update - the above was started a couple of days ago in France, and for various reasons, most notably running out of time and the damn annoying keyboard. We are now in Italy with a QWERTY, but there is only 15 minutes to dinner, so I will publish what I get done now and you'll just have to keep waiting for the rest. Don't worry, I am keeping notes in my diary so you won't miss anything.*****
Right O, where were we? Oh that's right, the French underground. One thing I forgot to mention about Scotland was the fact that every tourist place you went, particularly in the highlands, there was a guy in the full scottish garb murdering 'Scotland the Brave' or 'Amazing Grace' with the bagpipes in an attempt to get people to put money in the hat. The same in France, we got on the train from the airport, and a station later some kid got on the next station with an accordian and cranked out some French favourites. Just what we need on a crowded train in the heat. I held firm when he came down the car looking for coins, but Karen dropped what turned out to be £1 in his cup.
Once we finally got to the hotel, we met up with the tour group who have turned out to be a fantastic bunch of people. Introductions over, it was on the big bus, and off for a tour of the sights of Paris. You can probably guess the next bit, but I'll tell you anyway, it was past the Eiffel tower, round the Arc de Triumph, past the Louvre, through Peace square (where they used to cut peoples heads off) and then out to dinner.
Dinner was in a 'proper' French restaurant, with the waiters in dinner suits with napkins over thier arms. It wasn't a bad meal for a group booking of 40. I had the steak with bernaise sauce, partially because this would be in my favourite food top 5, and partially because we had been in the UK for 2 weeks where beef is more expensive than Lobster and I craved a steak. What I liked was the fact that no matter how you asked for it to be cooked, you got it rare. They wouldn't lower themselves to over do a steak.
To be continued......
Whoah! Three days since the last update! That is a record for this trip.
Well it has been because we have been kinda busy here in Scotland. I still love this country even thought it has done nothing but rain since we've been here. Enough with the idle chatter though, we have a lot to get through so get comfy......
Ok, where did I leave off? That's right, six fringe shows in one day. Right then, the next day we set aside as our explore Edinburgh trip. We started out early and made our way up the stretch of road they call The Royal Mile (which is a mile and a half, but you get that) to Edinburgh castle. I know I've said this before, but wow. I mean, just wow. It is built on a cragy old volcano and commands and amazing view of the city. They reckon that the first buildings up there date back to the 4th century. Hopefully soon I can upload the photos because you really have to see the place. Like a lot of other places we've visited on this trip, it was a history lesson. On several occasions, the place has been under siege, and they hardy Scots have been able to hold out in there for years at a time, and once you get up there you can see why, nobody would be able to climb up the rock that it sits on.
That took a good part of the morning and then into the afternoon, and once we had taken in as much history as we could take, we started the amble down the royal mile (which is a whole shit load easier than the climb up, I'm tellin' yoo jimmy). Lots and lots of tourist shops, which the locals affectionately refer to as tartan blanket shops. There is some interesting stuff amongst the tourist rubbish though, most notably the whiskey heritage centre and the tartan mill where you can see the stuff being made.
A quick beer in the afternoon, and then we toddled off to see another fringe show. We met the performers for this show in the cue for tickets the other day, and their show seemed pretty interesting so we went along (the fact they gave a 2 for 1 didn't hurt their cause either). They were from Boston and their show was called Anger Box, which was a collection of nine monologues supposed to reflect contemporary american life, warts and all. To be honest with you, some worked and some didn't, but the ones that did were both confronting and moving.
We then ran off to catch another show, The Big Value comedy show. Absolute champagne comedy. I can't remember the names of the four stand ups right now, and the guide is up in our room, but just take it from me that they were funny.
Yesterday, it was time to get out of the city, so we got on the bus and headed out to St Andrews, the home of Golf. No golf on this day though, because it was bloody pouring. I mean pissing down, and the course was soon flooded and closed. I was a little disappointed not to get a round, but not as disappointed as the hordes of rich americans on their golf package holidays. We did get a bit of a stroll around the hallowed turf though, which was good. We also checked out the British museum of golf, and browsed some of the 17 golf shops in the town (of 17,000 people). Since it was raining so heavily, a good proportion of our day was spent in the local, and we had the local bottle conditioned ale, which was one of the best beers I have ever tasted. Certainly the best one I have had here.
We got back and caught one more fringe show, Colin and Fergus. They are supposed to be these up and coming comic geniuses, but I reckon they are just a bit over rated. I am going to go out on a limb and say that while our fringe has less shows, I think they are of a better standard. I realise what a massive generalisation that is, but hey, it's my blog and I'll call it as I see it. Following Colin and Fergus, we caught up with one of our rover friends from home Cathy, and had yet more beers (who can see a pattern emerging with this holiday....)
That brings us to today. Today I did something I have always wanted to do, and that was visit the Scottish highlands. Let me tell you I was not disappointed. Not by a long shot. We went on a one day tour with a company called Haggis, they have been on Getaway, and are pretty much talked up by every guide book you can get your hands on. It was excellent. Our Sean Connery sounding tour guide was really funny and had an encyclopedic knowledge of the area and Scottish history. Once again, you really need to see the pictures to appreciate how stunning the scenery is, it's a little too late at night for me to be creative enough with words to do them justice.
The ultimate destination of this Highland fling was of course the very famous Loch Ness. Karen and I went on a boat cruise around it, and I was lucky enough to snag a picture of the monster. True story, you wait until I find a net cafe that will let me upload photos and I will prove it. You'll see....
Well it has been because we have been kinda busy here in Scotland. I still love this country even thought it has done nothing but rain since we've been here. Enough with the idle chatter though, we have a lot to get through so get comfy......
Ok, where did I leave off? That's right, six fringe shows in one day. Right then, the next day we set aside as our explore Edinburgh trip. We started out early and made our way up the stretch of road they call The Royal Mile (which is a mile and a half, but you get that) to Edinburgh castle. I know I've said this before, but wow. I mean, just wow. It is built on a cragy old volcano and commands and amazing view of the city. They reckon that the first buildings up there date back to the 4th century. Hopefully soon I can upload the photos because you really have to see the place. Like a lot of other places we've visited on this trip, it was a history lesson. On several occasions, the place has been under siege, and they hardy Scots have been able to hold out in there for years at a time, and once you get up there you can see why, nobody would be able to climb up the rock that it sits on.
That took a good part of the morning and then into the afternoon, and once we had taken in as much history as we could take, we started the amble down the royal mile (which is a whole shit load easier than the climb up, I'm tellin' yoo jimmy). Lots and lots of tourist shops, which the locals affectionately refer to as tartan blanket shops. There is some interesting stuff amongst the tourist rubbish though, most notably the whiskey heritage centre and the tartan mill where you can see the stuff being made.
A quick beer in the afternoon, and then we toddled off to see another fringe show. We met the performers for this show in the cue for tickets the other day, and their show seemed pretty interesting so we went along (the fact they gave a 2 for 1 didn't hurt their cause either). They were from Boston and their show was called Anger Box, which was a collection of nine monologues supposed to reflect contemporary american life, warts and all. To be honest with you, some worked and some didn't, but the ones that did were both confronting and moving.
We then ran off to catch another show, The Big Value comedy show. Absolute champagne comedy. I can't remember the names of the four stand ups right now, and the guide is up in our room, but just take it from me that they were funny.
Yesterday, it was time to get out of the city, so we got on the bus and headed out to St Andrews, the home of Golf. No golf on this day though, because it was bloody pouring. I mean pissing down, and the course was soon flooded and closed. I was a little disappointed not to get a round, but not as disappointed as the hordes of rich americans on their golf package holidays. We did get a bit of a stroll around the hallowed turf though, which was good. We also checked out the British museum of golf, and browsed some of the 17 golf shops in the town (of 17,000 people). Since it was raining so heavily, a good proportion of our day was spent in the local, and we had the local bottle conditioned ale, which was one of the best beers I have ever tasted. Certainly the best one I have had here.
We got back and caught one more fringe show, Colin and Fergus. They are supposed to be these up and coming comic geniuses, but I reckon they are just a bit over rated. I am going to go out on a limb and say that while our fringe has less shows, I think they are of a better standard. I realise what a massive generalisation that is, but hey, it's my blog and I'll call it as I see it. Following Colin and Fergus, we caught up with one of our rover friends from home Cathy, and had yet more beers (who can see a pattern emerging with this holiday....)
That brings us to today. Today I did something I have always wanted to do, and that was visit the Scottish highlands. Let me tell you I was not disappointed. Not by a long shot. We went on a one day tour with a company called Haggis, they have been on Getaway, and are pretty much talked up by every guide book you can get your hands on. It was excellent. Our Sean Connery sounding tour guide was really funny and had an encyclopedic knowledge of the area and Scottish history. Once again, you really need to see the pictures to appreciate how stunning the scenery is, it's a little too late at night for me to be creative enough with words to do them justice.
The ultimate destination of this Highland fling was of course the very famous Loch Ness. Karen and I went on a boat cruise around it, and I was lucky enough to snag a picture of the monster. True story, you wait until I find a net cafe that will let me upload photos and I will prove it. You'll see....
Ok, straight off of the bat, I love Scotland. The weather is rubbish (a couple of inches of rain everyday since we've been here), but it doesn't matter. It's historic and scenic and the people are very friendly, and then there's the whiskey......
It's been a couple of days since I posted, but that's because we have been in Fringe overdrive. Yesterday was 2 for 1 tickets to everything so we just went nuts and saw 6 shows. We saw another 2 today, so here is a blow by blow report.
The first show we saw was called Cabbages, by 3 kids calling themselves Eleventhirtyone. It was, in the local lingo, shite. I mean really fricken bad. It was supposed to be sketch comedy, but it was about as funny as a fart in an elevator. The only amusement I got was trying to think up adjectives to describe how deplorable it was. Just think of the worst Scouts Shouts young director trash you have seen, and then times that by 10 and you get some idea.
Next cab off of the rank was a show by Andy Train , called just push the button. Andy is a male nurse, and he spends 45 minutes sharing funny anecdotes about the medical profession. He was amusing, but we had heard a lot of his material before from our nurse friends (you know who you are...)
Stop 3 on our arts overload day was a show called The sitcom trails, by a group of the same name. The premise was that the cast acted out half of 3 sitcoms, and then you voted on which one you see the end of. These guys have a television show which is supposed to be comedy gold, but the stage version was just OK in my book. It had it's moments, but glad we only paid half price.
From here things began to improve, probably because we stopped the 3 shows above were afternoon shows, and the following shows were in the evening. Anyway, number 4 was a gig by a wiley Irish comedian Paddy Burns called the 7 rules of happiness. Paddy also works as a motivational speaker, and his show was bloody funny.
Following Paddy, we went to see a show by a group of New Yorkers called Neutrino. It was an instant movie, in that 3 crews ran around outside shooting a film with camcorders while two guys cut it together with music live on stage, as they ran into the theatre with tape after tape. Very, very cool, and they used Karen's bead necklace as a prop.
Finally yesterday, we went and saw some old school stand up comedy by Janey Godley. Janey is a Glaswegian who had a hard childhood and married into the Glasgow mob. She was a total face ache I'm here to tell you. She also has a blog (see here website), which is also bloody hilarious as you can read for yourself, after you have finished here of course.
We rounded out last night with a few soothing bundies at the bar here at the hostel. It's a pretty wild bar, and reminds me a lot of Rover Moots I have been to, for obvious reasons. People from all around the world being drunk and silly.
Today, well, we did shit loads as well, but you know what? I'm tired and we are getting up early to go to St Andrews tomorrow, so you are going to have to wait until tommorrow to hear about it.
It's been a couple of days since I posted, but that's because we have been in Fringe overdrive. Yesterday was 2 for 1 tickets to everything so we just went nuts and saw 6 shows. We saw another 2 today, so here is a blow by blow report.
The first show we saw was called Cabbages, by 3 kids calling themselves Eleventhirtyone. It was, in the local lingo, shite. I mean really fricken bad. It was supposed to be sketch comedy, but it was about as funny as a fart in an elevator. The only amusement I got was trying to think up adjectives to describe how deplorable it was. Just think of the worst Scouts Shouts young director trash you have seen, and then times that by 10 and you get some idea.
Next cab off of the rank was a show by Andy Train , called just push the button. Andy is a male nurse, and he spends 45 minutes sharing funny anecdotes about the medical profession. He was amusing, but we had heard a lot of his material before from our nurse friends (you know who you are...)
Stop 3 on our arts overload day was a show called The sitcom trails, by a group of the same name. The premise was that the cast acted out half of 3 sitcoms, and then you voted on which one you see the end of. These guys have a television show which is supposed to be comedy gold, but the stage version was just OK in my book. It had it's moments, but glad we only paid half price.
From here things began to improve, probably because we stopped the 3 shows above were afternoon shows, and the following shows were in the evening. Anyway, number 4 was a gig by a wiley Irish comedian Paddy Burns called the 7 rules of happiness. Paddy also works as a motivational speaker, and his show was bloody funny.
Following Paddy, we went to see a show by a group of New Yorkers called Neutrino. It was an instant movie, in that 3 crews ran around outside shooting a film with camcorders while two guys cut it together with music live on stage, as they ran into the theatre with tape after tape. Very, very cool, and they used Karen's bead necklace as a prop.
Finally yesterday, we went and saw some old school stand up comedy by Janey Godley. Janey is a Glaswegian who had a hard childhood and married into the Glasgow mob. She was a total face ache I'm here to tell you. She also has a blog (see here website), which is also bloody hilarious as you can read for yourself, after you have finished here of course.
We rounded out last night with a few soothing bundies at the bar here at the hostel. It's a pretty wild bar, and reminds me a lot of Rover Moots I have been to, for obvious reasons. People from all around the world being drunk and silly.
Today, well, we did shit loads as well, but you know what? I'm tired and we are getting up early to go to St Andrews tomorrow, so you are going to have to wait until tommorrow to hear about it.
Well, here we are, city number 3. Edinburgh.
We've only been here a few hours, but already we have a clear leader. This city kicks major league ass. It's just the most beautiful, historic place, with majestic buildings and surrounding scenery to match.
The difference between this hostel and the one in London is like the difference between a McCain Pom Noisette from the freezer section of coles and a Truffle. Just amazing, this place is an old castle with the better facilities than I have seen in a lot of hotels. I only have 17 mins of internet time left, and I have a lot of other cool stuff to tell you about so I won't talk about it too much right now, but lets just say tommorrow morning is pencilled in for a big sleep in.
There is a lot of people here in town at the moment, with the Festival and the Tattoo on all at once. A lot of them, who probably are more organised than I am, have similar ideas to me. Ticket to the Tattoo? Try the scalpers, if you are lucky you'll get one for less than triple the face value. Hmmm. Round of Golf on the old course at St Andrews? Did you book six months ago? Maybe you can go in the lottery for a cancellation spot (the one where if you win, you get to pay nearly $600A for a round of golf). Ticket to see Nancy Cartrights show in the fringe? Dreaming. Bugger!
The vibe of the fringe in the city is absolutely electric though, and there are literally thousands of shows to see, we have caught a couple already. The first was called improverty, an 5 person improv group from the University of Edinburgh. Champagne comedy. We actually saw them in London a couple of days ago but I forgot to mention it but they are up here now and this seemed like a good time to mention it.
The show we actually caught this afternoon was another couple of locals doing a show called "The Joy of Wine", a bit of Gang show standard sketch comedy taking the piss out of wine tasting. Had it's moments, and the toilet humour double entendres were a scream (for a juvenille like me anyway), but on the whole worth about the 4 quid we paid to see it.
We also saw the opening pageant today with all of the pipe bands in town for the Tattoo in it, so I don't feel so bad about missing the Tattoo now. I suspect that won't be the last set of bagpipes I will hear this week either.
Tommorrow is two for one day, so Karen and I are going to Fringe out and see a stack of shows so we can do some other sight seeing later in the week.
On a final note, this hostel has good access to the internet so I'll keep the breakfast updates coming.
We've only been here a few hours, but already we have a clear leader. This city kicks major league ass. It's just the most beautiful, historic place, with majestic buildings and surrounding scenery to match.
The difference between this hostel and the one in London is like the difference between a McCain Pom Noisette from the freezer section of coles and a Truffle. Just amazing, this place is an old castle with the better facilities than I have seen in a lot of hotels. I only have 17 mins of internet time left, and I have a lot of other cool stuff to tell you about so I won't talk about it too much right now, but lets just say tommorrow morning is pencilled in for a big sleep in.
There is a lot of people here in town at the moment, with the Festival and the Tattoo on all at once. A lot of them, who probably are more organised than I am, have similar ideas to me. Ticket to the Tattoo? Try the scalpers, if you are lucky you'll get one for less than triple the face value. Hmmm. Round of Golf on the old course at St Andrews? Did you book six months ago? Maybe you can go in the lottery for a cancellation spot (the one where if you win, you get to pay nearly $600A for a round of golf). Ticket to see Nancy Cartrights show in the fringe? Dreaming. Bugger!
The vibe of the fringe in the city is absolutely electric though, and there are literally thousands of shows to see, we have caught a couple already. The first was called improverty, an 5 person improv group from the University of Edinburgh. Champagne comedy. We actually saw them in London a couple of days ago but I forgot to mention it but they are up here now and this seemed like a good time to mention it.
The show we actually caught this afternoon was another couple of locals doing a show called "The Joy of Wine", a bit of Gang show standard sketch comedy taking the piss out of wine tasting. Had it's moments, and the toilet humour double entendres were a scream (for a juvenille like me anyway), but on the whole worth about the 4 quid we paid to see it.
We also saw the opening pageant today with all of the pipe bands in town for the Tattoo in it, so I don't feel so bad about missing the Tattoo now. I suspect that won't be the last set of bagpipes I will hear this week either.
Tommorrow is two for one day, so Karen and I are going to Fringe out and see a stack of shows so we can do some other sight seeing later in the week.
On a final note, this hostel has good access to the internet so I'll keep the breakfast updates coming.
.... and wandered around, I bought some funky records with that ol' Motown Sound. I miss you like a left arm, that's been lost in a war - Today I dream of home and not of London anymore...
or so the song goes. The first thing that I want to say is that I incorrectly titled yesterdays post "Last day in London". I did that because it was early in the morning and I was typing it on our last day, but actually reporting on the second last day. Oh well, you'll all get over it.
Second thing to be mentioned before I start crapping on about the last day is that if head on over to our photos page (click the link down and to the right) you can check out all of our happy snaps.
So what did we actually do on our last day in London, well, we caught the tube over to Camden and wandered around. Didn't see any funky records, but we had a delicious curry and saw a whole lot of weird shit and a whole lot of weird people that buy said weird shit. Everything from knee high boots with spikes in the front, to t-shirts with built in flashing signs to Soviet military uniforms.
Following this, we caught our first double decker bus back to Jason's place to download the photos from the camera, and then, being fairly exhausted from being on our feet all week, we whiled away the afternoon at the most traditional looking English pub we could find. I had one of those traditional, luke warm, hand pumped ales that the poms seem to crap on about, and maybe it's like Vegemite in that you have to be brought up on it to like it, but my verdict is meh. However, the traditional pies we had for dinner were deeeelish.
And that was London. A pretty cool place on the whole, but definitely in the nice place to visit but you wouldn't wan't to live there category. I will admit that our perspective was a little warped by the steamy tropical weather that is as rare in London as snow in Adelaide, and the fact that we were staying in a hot 3rd floor bunkroom which only had a window that opened wide enough to let in the noise of the road works downstairs that started at 5 every morning. It is grand and fascinating city though, and we are better people for having been.
or so the song goes. The first thing that I want to say is that I incorrectly titled yesterdays post "Last day in London". I did that because it was early in the morning and I was typing it on our last day, but actually reporting on the second last day. Oh well, you'll all get over it.
Second thing to be mentioned before I start crapping on about the last day is that if head on over to our photos page (click the link down and to the right) you can check out all of our happy snaps.
So what did we actually do on our last day in London, well, we caught the tube over to Camden and wandered around. Didn't see any funky records, but we had a delicious curry and saw a whole lot of weird shit and a whole lot of weird people that buy said weird shit. Everything from knee high boots with spikes in the front, to t-shirts with built in flashing signs to Soviet military uniforms.
Following this, we caught our first double decker bus back to Jason's place to download the photos from the camera, and then, being fairly exhausted from being on our feet all week, we whiled away the afternoon at the most traditional looking English pub we could find. I had one of those traditional, luke warm, hand pumped ales that the poms seem to crap on about, and maybe it's like Vegemite in that you have to be brought up on it to like it, but my verdict is meh. However, the traditional pies we had for dinner were deeeelish.
And that was London. A pretty cool place on the whole, but definitely in the nice place to visit but you wouldn't wan't to live there category. I will admit that our perspective was a little warped by the steamy tropical weather that is as rare in London as snow in Adelaide, and the fact that we were staying in a hot 3rd floor bunkroom which only had a window that opened wide enough to let in the noise of the road works downstairs that started at 5 every morning. It is grand and fascinating city though, and we are better people for having been.
Well, here I am again doing what has become a bit of a ritual, having breakfast, a cup of tea and typing my blog.
Now before I get too into it, there is some cool stuff that I forgot to tell you all about. Karen is pregnant. No, not really, but I would just like to say that was her joke and not mine. First cool thing is the phone boxes here have their phone numbers printed on them so you can ring them up. I messaged Jason the other day to find out what he was doing, and I was in the subway and he told me to send him the number on the nearest phone box. I did, and then it rang. Very matrix, I was kind of expecting to disappear when I answered.
The other cool thing that I forgot to mention was that back in the good old days in the Tower of London when they used to relieve people of their heads and put them on stakes on London Bridge, they kept vicious ravens that would pick the eyes out and rip the flesh. You know, quoth the raven and all that stuff. Well, they still have ravens there, and signs warning you that they are nasty! Well maybe you had to be there, but I thought it was kinda cool.
Anyhow, yesterday then. In the morning Karen and I headed off to the British museum. George and Ira were wrong, it hasn't lost it's charm at all (and if you don't get that cryptic reference, tough, I'm not explaining it until I get home, you can all think about it). It was absolutely massive. I mean huge, and it is full of the most amazing artifacts, heaps of Roman, Egyptian and Viking bits and pieces. Maybe I am just juvenile or too much of a Lord of the Rings nerd, but there is something about 1000-3000 year old swords that just tickles my fancy.
Karen was funny at the museum, it was all she could do to not tell people off for touching the artifacts. At one point, I think she even dobbed on some people to the security guards. I guess if you spend 40 hours a week telling people not to touch, it's a hard habit to break just because you are on holidays.
Yesterday afternoon, we had a long chat and a few beers with my long lost Aunty and Uncle Brenda and Keith. It was a lovely afternoon sharing family news and events, and listening to Keiths fascinating tales of a life in rockets. They were then kind enough to buy us dinner at an absolutely beautiful Italian restaurant, which when you are backpacking on a budget (and let me tell you, this little town is expensive) is all your wishes come true. After a week of cheap shitty food, scallopini and a machiato was just divine.
I am going around to Jason's this afternoon, so hopefully I will be able to share some photos from this week with you all. We leave this hostel at 5:30 tomorrow morning, so no guarantees that updates will be as frequent next week.
Now before I get too into it, there is some cool stuff that I forgot to tell you all about. Karen is pregnant. No, not really, but I would just like to say that was her joke and not mine. First cool thing is the phone boxes here have their phone numbers printed on them so you can ring them up. I messaged Jason the other day to find out what he was doing, and I was in the subway and he told me to send him the number on the nearest phone box. I did, and then it rang. Very matrix, I was kind of expecting to disappear when I answered.
The other cool thing that I forgot to mention was that back in the good old days in the Tower of London when they used to relieve people of their heads and put them on stakes on London Bridge, they kept vicious ravens that would pick the eyes out and rip the flesh. You know, quoth the raven and all that stuff. Well, they still have ravens there, and signs warning you that they are nasty! Well maybe you had to be there, but I thought it was kinda cool.
Anyhow, yesterday then. In the morning Karen and I headed off to the British museum. George and Ira were wrong, it hasn't lost it's charm at all (and if you don't get that cryptic reference, tough, I'm not explaining it until I get home, you can all think about it). It was absolutely massive. I mean huge, and it is full of the most amazing artifacts, heaps of Roman, Egyptian and Viking bits and pieces. Maybe I am just juvenile or too much of a Lord of the Rings nerd, but there is something about 1000-3000 year old swords that just tickles my fancy.
Karen was funny at the museum, it was all she could do to not tell people off for touching the artifacts. At one point, I think she even dobbed on some people to the security guards. I guess if you spend 40 hours a week telling people not to touch, it's a hard habit to break just because you are on holidays.
Yesterday afternoon, we had a long chat and a few beers with my long lost Aunty and Uncle Brenda and Keith. It was a lovely afternoon sharing family news and events, and listening to Keiths fascinating tales of a life in rockets. They were then kind enough to buy us dinner at an absolutely beautiful Italian restaurant, which when you are backpacking on a budget (and let me tell you, this little town is expensive) is all your wishes come true. After a week of cheap shitty food, scallopini and a machiato was just divine.
I am going around to Jason's this afternoon, so hopefully I will be able to share some photos from this week with you all. We leave this hostel at 5:30 tomorrow morning, so no guarantees that updates will be as frequent next week.
Ok, I know that I have mentioned this before, and I don't want to sound soft, but the heat here is really starting to get to us. It is bizarre, the heat and the humidity in Thailand didn't seem to bother us, but the hot, humid weather here is grating. I think it's because in Bangkok you are expecting the weather to be like that, and the city is set up to cope. Buildings and trains are airconditioned, there's lots of shade, etcetera etcetera. But here.... It is so rarely hot that when it does get hot it is unbearable. Most buildings hardly have ventilation let alone airconditioning, and the busses and trains are unbearable, the windows don't open and again, no air con. It's any wonder people drop dead here when it get's above 30, there is just no relief anywhere.
Despite our decidedly shitty accommodation, we are still having a blast here in the Old Dart. Yesterday we visited the Tower of London which was amazing. The history is unlike anything we have in Australia, the white tower in the centre of it was build by William the Conqueror in 1071. That just bends my head. Nearly a millennium ago. Wow. I think the contents of the tower tickled my fancy more than Karen's but then I guess the vast range of swords, spears, jousting sticks (no price tag on them so I couldn't tell them they were dreaming), suits of armour and other instruments of war and torture are going to appeal more to your male audience.
They do have the crown jewels to keep the ladies happy though, and let me tell you, there is some big rocks in there.
For a change of pace in the afternoon, we visited Tate modern art gallery which was cool in a couple of ways, firstly because of the priceless art, they have to air condition the joint, and secondly because the art in there rocks. There is some amazing installation pieces, and the one that I liked the most was the big circular room with the walls that slowly change colour. It does your head in because the colour fills up your whole field of vision.
To round out the day yesterday, we met up with Jason again and went to a traditional English pub, the Camden Arms, for a few pints and Steak and gravy pie for tea.
Today's agenda is the British Museum, meet up with my long lost Aunty and Uncle, and then I might see if we can find a TV to watch the final Big Brother eviction here.
Oh, and one more thing. Did you know you can leave comments for us on any of the posts we make here. True story, just click below where it says "x comments", and then click "post a comment". Too easy, hope to hear from you all soon.
Despite our decidedly shitty accommodation, we are still having a blast here in the Old Dart. Yesterday we visited the Tower of London which was amazing. The history is unlike anything we have in Australia, the white tower in the centre of it was build by William the Conqueror in 1071. That just bends my head. Nearly a millennium ago. Wow. I think the contents of the tower tickled my fancy more than Karen's but then I guess the vast range of swords, spears, jousting sticks (no price tag on them so I couldn't tell them they were dreaming), suits of armour and other instruments of war and torture are going to appeal more to your male audience.
They do have the crown jewels to keep the ladies happy though, and let me tell you, there is some big rocks in there.
For a change of pace in the afternoon, we visited Tate modern art gallery which was cool in a couple of ways, firstly because of the priceless art, they have to air condition the joint, and secondly because the art in there rocks. There is some amazing installation pieces, and the one that I liked the most was the big circular room with the walls that slowly change colour. It does your head in because the colour fills up your whole field of vision.
To round out the day yesterday, we met up with Jason again and went to a traditional English pub, the Camden Arms, for a few pints and Steak and gravy pie for tea.
Today's agenda is the British Museum, meet up with my long lost Aunty and Uncle, and then I might see if we can find a TV to watch the final Big Brother eviction here.
Oh, and one more thing. Did you know you can leave comments for us on any of the posts we make here. True story, just click below where it says "x comments", and then click "post a comment". Too easy, hope to hear from you all soon.
Morning all, here I am at down in the hostel net area , at 10 to 7 in the morning. Why am I here so early I hear you ask? Well, I tried to call my long lost Aunty and Uncle a couple of times yesterday, but unfortunately they weren't home. So I thought that I would get up and ring them early to make sure I catch them. However, my mobile phone has magically lost the number out of it somehow between yesterday and today. Great. So I had to come and pay my pound to use the net to find the number, and now since I paid for an hour, I might as well blog.
I tell you what, one thing I never expected in a hundred years about London would be that we would have some trouble sleeping because it was too warm. True story, it has been getting down to about 20 as a minimum, which is not too bad, but of course, buildings here are designed to stay warm not stay cool. So our room on the third floor with the window that hardly opens hasn't been the best. I notice the temperature has dropped significantly outside now, so hopefully tonight will be an improvement. Also the two girls from Calgary have moved out of our room today so we have been able to snag the bottom bunks which also should help.
But enough of that. Yesterday was a bit of fun. We had a bit of a sleep in to recover from the jet lag and got going at about 10:30. We caught the tube down to Leciester square where they were setting up for the UK premier of I, Robot. There was a bit of a stage and the red carpet was there, it looked pretty exciting. We would have got along for a look at the celebritys but we found something better to do which I will get to in a sec.
So we had a look at the square, and then wandered down to Trafalgar square and saw those famous fountains and Nelson's column. And about a bajillion kids. It is school holidays here and they have a bit of a fun thing for kids there with face painters and the scouts and what not. So after the obligatory photos, we sought refuge in the National Gallery and National Portrait Gallery, which were good.
So while we were feeling snooty after seeing all of the high art, we trundled off down the road to Buckinghuge palace. Not a bad place the queens got there, the gardens are certainly better kept than mine. What is odd is that when we went to the royal palace in Thailand, the guards with machine guns didn't really look out of place. But to see your London bobbies packing Uzi's at the gate to Liz's joint was a bit strange. Queen Elizabeth II also doesn't have a pet white elephant roaming the grounds like King Rama IX, but them's the breaks I suppose.
Following the palace, we went to Westminster Abbey and Big Ben. More obligatory happy snaps and then the rest of the afternoon was whiled away on a boat cruise down the Themes drinking beer and taking in the famous sights such as Tower Bridge.
This took a little longer than we had hoped, so we had to rush back to the hostel on the tube to get ready - and rush hour it was on the tube at 5:30 in the afternoon. Furthermore, they sure aren't designed for hot weather, it is disgusting down there when you are jammed into a train shoulder to shoulder with 1000's of other sweaty people .
Then off to the Theatre. While in Leicester square, we stopped off on of the many half price ticket booths to grab some tickets to a West End musical. We managed to jag tickets to We Will Rock You, the musical written by Ben Elton with the music of Queen, playing at the Dominion theatre.
I am lost for words to describe how good it was. Just bloody Amazing. My hair seemed to be up on the back of my neck every second minute. I mean.... like I said, dumbfounded. I sure hope they get around to bringing it to Adelaide one day.
Oh well, must log off and get some breakfast, today we are off to the British Museum and the Tower of London.
I tell you what, one thing I never expected in a hundred years about London would be that we would have some trouble sleeping because it was too warm. True story, it has been getting down to about 20 as a minimum, which is not too bad, but of course, buildings here are designed to stay warm not stay cool. So our room on the third floor with the window that hardly opens hasn't been the best. I notice the temperature has dropped significantly outside now, so hopefully tonight will be an improvement. Also the two girls from Calgary have moved out of our room today so we have been able to snag the bottom bunks which also should help.
But enough of that. Yesterday was a bit of fun. We had a bit of a sleep in to recover from the jet lag and got going at about 10:30. We caught the tube down to Leciester square where they were setting up for the UK premier of I, Robot. There was a bit of a stage and the red carpet was there, it looked pretty exciting. We would have got along for a look at the celebritys but we found something better to do which I will get to in a sec.
So we had a look at the square, and then wandered down to Trafalgar square and saw those famous fountains and Nelson's column. And about a bajillion kids. It is school holidays here and they have a bit of a fun thing for kids there with face painters and the scouts and what not. So after the obligatory photos, we sought refuge in the National Gallery and National Portrait Gallery, which were good.
So while we were feeling snooty after seeing all of the high art, we trundled off down the road to Buckinghuge palace. Not a bad place the queens got there, the gardens are certainly better kept than mine. What is odd is that when we went to the royal palace in Thailand, the guards with machine guns didn't really look out of place. But to see your London bobbies packing Uzi's at the gate to Liz's joint was a bit strange. Queen Elizabeth II also doesn't have a pet white elephant roaming the grounds like King Rama IX, but them's the breaks I suppose.
Following the palace, we went to Westminster Abbey and Big Ben. More obligatory happy snaps and then the rest of the afternoon was whiled away on a boat cruise down the Themes drinking beer and taking in the famous sights such as Tower Bridge.
This took a little longer than we had hoped, so we had to rush back to the hostel on the tube to get ready - and rush hour it was on the tube at 5:30 in the afternoon. Furthermore, they sure aren't designed for hot weather, it is disgusting down there when you are jammed into a train shoulder to shoulder with 1000's of other sweaty people .
Then off to the Theatre. While in Leicester square, we stopped off on of the many half price ticket booths to grab some tickets to a West End musical. We managed to jag tickets to We Will Rock You, the musical written by Ben Elton with the music of Queen, playing at the Dominion theatre.
I am lost for words to describe how good it was. Just bloody Amazing. My hair seemed to be up on the back of my neck every second minute. I mean.... like I said, dumbfounded. I sure hope they get around to bringing it to Adelaide one day.
Oh well, must log off and get some breakfast, today we are off to the British Museum and the Tower of London.
Hi to all.
I hope you are enjoying our first few days. I must admit that I am not home sick and I know it hasn't been long but there is no place like home.
I miss my ensuite probably the most
....The showers in this hostel suck....you just have to push one of those timer buttons and it turns off after 20 seconds. (pain the arse)
I miss my kitchen
......I can't believe how much they smoke over here and I am not used to smoke in the kitchen bathroom and even how much smoke is in the pubs. I heard the cigarettes are really cheap (and food expensive) .
Any way enough bitching already, it is all part of the experience.
And Leanne to add to my text about Monopoly we a have to go to Kings cross station to catch tube and today we are going to Liecester Square and Piccadilly Circus.
Ciao Kazza
I hope you are enjoying our first few days. I must admit that I am not home sick and I know it hasn't been long but there is no place like home.
I miss my ensuite probably the most
....The showers in this hostel suck....you just have to push one of those timer buttons and it turns off after 20 seconds. (pain the arse)
I miss my kitchen
......I can't believe how much they smoke over here and I am not used to smoke in the kitchen bathroom and even how much smoke is in the pubs. I heard the cigarettes are really cheap (and food expensive) .
Any way enough bitching already, it is all part of the experience.
And Leanne to add to my text about Monopoly we a have to go to Kings cross station to catch tube and today we are going to Liecester Square and Piccadilly Circus.
Ciao Kazza
*Again, sorry no photos. I have caught up with Jason here in london now so we should have some in the next couple of days*
Ok. We're here in London and what do you know, it's pissing with rain. But I'll get to that in a sec. First things first let's talk about the flight.
We left Thailand at 1:15 am this morning. We arrived here in London at 6:15 this morning, transit time: 12 hours. So after an inflight meal and 6 hours of not the most comfortable sleep we've ever had, we woke up to face today, at 2am local time. It is now 10:20, so if this post has spelling errors, it's because I have been awake for 20 hours.
Not the most productive day ever, but fun nonetheless. We spend a good couple of hours post flight this morning fighting our way through the hordes in immigration and on the tube. We checked in here, and decided on some lunch. We each had a kebab, they were the biggest I have ever seen, but then they'd want to be for 4 pound 50 ($11!)
We met up with Jason and decided to contast our Bangkok shopping experience with a trip to that famously and hideously expensive department store, Harrods. Holy cow some people must hate money. We got a bit of a giggle out of some things. For example, there is a designer grungy AC/DC, complete with the faded look for a miserly 80 quid. And also some fleecy tracky bottoms with a silly logo on the arse of them, a steal at 200 quid. The bogans back in Australia are sitting on a gold mine!
Anyway, the rest of the day was largely spent drinking, chatting and relaxing. We did manage to get in a pilgrimage to Abbey Road, and of course Karen had to take the obligatory photo of me on that famous level crossing. Getting home proved to be a bit of a pain, since there was a thunderstorm and driving rain and half of the trains in the tube stopped working. But we got here in the end.
Ok. We're here in London and what do you know, it's pissing with rain. But I'll get to that in a sec. First things first let's talk about the flight.
We left Thailand at 1:15 am this morning. We arrived here in London at 6:15 this morning, transit time: 12 hours. So after an inflight meal and 6 hours of not the most comfortable sleep we've ever had, we woke up to face today, at 2am local time. It is now 10:20, so if this post has spelling errors, it's because I have been awake for 20 hours.
Not the most productive day ever, but fun nonetheless. We spend a good couple of hours post flight this morning fighting our way through the hordes in immigration and on the tube. We checked in here, and decided on some lunch. We each had a kebab, they were the biggest I have ever seen, but then they'd want to be for 4 pound 50 ($11!)
We met up with Jason and decided to contast our Bangkok shopping experience with a trip to that famously and hideously expensive department store, Harrods. Holy cow some people must hate money. We got a bit of a giggle out of some things. For example, there is a designer grungy AC/DC, complete with the faded look for a miserly 80 quid. And also some fleecy tracky bottoms with a silly logo on the arse of them, a steal at 200 quid. The bogans back in Australia are sitting on a gold mine!
Anyway, the rest of the day was largely spent drinking, chatting and relaxing. We did manage to get in a pilgrimage to Abbey Road, and of course Karen had to take the obligatory photo of me on that famous level crossing. Getting home proved to be a bit of a pain, since there was a thunderstorm and driving rain and half of the trains in the tube stopped working. But we got here in the end.
*Note: I still have not been able to find the technology to upload photos. Sit tight, I'm working on it*
Day 2 in Thailand was an interesting one. We started the day by undertaking a tour of the Royal Palace and Temples. You really need to see photos to understand, but needless to say that I walked around the place looking at the magnificent Thai and Buddhist architecture thinking "it's good to be the king...."
The tour was excellent and the guide was knowledgeable and helpful , but as with all things in Thailand, the operators of the tour where out to extract money from you. The "final stop" on the tour was not infact a temple or palace, but a large gem and jewelry factory. Surprise, Surprise, being conned into more cut price purchases. In fairness to them, it was very nice and genuine stuff, but like I alluded to in my last entry, everyone here is out to get money out of you in some way or another. In a country where the average policeman earns 5000 baht per month ($1500) and they have such a ready supply of tourists, I guess it's not surprising.
We had a pretty lazy afternoon, resting up before the big flight. We spent our last couple of hours down at the Patpong night market, getting a couple of last minute bits. The operators at this market were worse that the other market, coming up with outrages opening prices. Patpong was a bit of fun though, as it is amongst the strip clubs and brothels, and the locals certainly go out of their way to make sure you are aware of all of the different ways to catch AIDS off of their girls. We caught a Tuk Tuk back to the hotel and this was probably the highlight of the evening, it was one of those "fun because it was dangerous" routines.
Day 2 in Thailand was an interesting one. We started the day by undertaking a tour of the Royal Palace and Temples. You really need to see photos to understand, but needless to say that I walked around the place looking at the magnificent Thai and Buddhist architecture thinking "it's good to be the king...."
The tour was excellent and the guide was knowledgeable and helpful , but as with all things in Thailand, the operators of the tour where out to extract money from you. The "final stop" on the tour was not infact a temple or palace, but a large gem and jewelry factory. Surprise, Surprise, being conned into more cut price purchases. In fairness to them, it was very nice and genuine stuff, but like I alluded to in my last entry, everyone here is out to get money out of you in some way or another. In a country where the average policeman earns 5000 baht per month ($1500) and they have such a ready supply of tourists, I guess it's not surprising.
We had a pretty lazy afternoon, resting up before the big flight. We spent our last couple of hours down at the Patpong night market, getting a couple of last minute bits. The operators at this market were worse that the other market, coming up with outrages opening prices. Patpong was a bit of fun though, as it is amongst the strip clubs and brothels, and the locals certainly go out of their way to make sure you are aware of all of the different ways to catch AIDS off of their girls. We caught a Tuk Tuk back to the hotel and this was probably the highlight of the evening, it was one of those "fun because it was dangerous" routines.
Oh. My. God.
So this is Bangkok! Organised chaos is the way it was described to me by a fellow Aussie I met at the airport and on reflection now I reckon that is a pretty accurate description.
I might as well start at the beginning.
We touched down and the first observation I made was that for a country that hangs people for drug trafficking, customs was remarkably painless to get through. You can almost understand why people are prepared to take the risk, the lady at customs had no intention in the world of checking our bags - must have been too close to knock off time.
The second immediate observation that we made was the humidity. We walked out of the airport to meet our hotel transfer, and I am not joking, you can almost eat the air in this place. It was still at least 28 degrees with driving rain and thunderstorms. Mix that with the pollution here and you get an atmosphere you feel like you are swimming through rather than walking through.
So anyway, we get into this crappy old minivan with a couple of other blokes from Adelaide and headed for the hotel. No seat belts, optional road rules and an absolutely amazing amount of traffic (and we're talking 11:00pm Saturday night) made for an interesting journey. We saw no less than 3 traffic accidents on the way, and you can see why road trauma is the number one killer of Thai's - it really is every man for himself out there. Motorbike weaving in, out and on the footpath, Tuk Tuk's cutting in and stopping and all manner of other vehicles jerry rigged for various purposes are the norm.
Bangkok at night reminds me of Blade Runner, with the Neon, the driving rain and the seedy vibe.
Today was the shopping day, and this is where it really starts to get fun. Despite all the warnings you get about people ripping you off, you are just not ready for the volume of people out there who notice you are of western origin and thus try and separate you from your money. For example just trying to walk down to the Sky train station to get to the market, we had, and I kid you not, at least 15 tuk tuk drivers try and pick us up to take us to what ever shop they were being paid off by.
Chatachuk weekend market was our first stop, the world's biggest market. It is sort of like Melbourne's Queen street market on steroids, and with more weird smelly food. We got completely lost in the place, and no doubt we saw less than a quarter of the 9,000 stalls, but we got some bargains anyway. A few CD's, Shirts, shoes and I got a genuine Tag Heuer watch. Only $10A! Well it says made in Switzerland so I assume it's real......
The thing is, all of the vendors see that you are western and ask ridiculous prices for everything, in case you are a sucker. Fortunately, Karen is the haggle master, and we managed to get everything pretty cheap, although you always get the nagging feeling you could have driven them lower.
Next stop was a bit of lunch which was a bit of an ordeal. It is tempting to eat off the street vendors, despite the warnings, because some of it smells so good, and it is soooo cheap. But, we decided that after a morning on our feet, we wanted to have a quiet sit down lunch. Ha! Quiet! There is no such word in this city, maybe with the exception of a Buddhist temple. So after fighting through a few places looking for somewhere, we very nearly gave up and did the piss weak tourist thing and ate at McDonald's. ( A value meal here is 49 Baht, or $1.80). Fortunately we persisted and found a reasonable place to eat, and for the princely sum of $12 we had fried king prawns, bbq ribs, a curry, rice and two drinks.
Rested and ready, we then tackled the famous Pan Thip plaza. This is a 7 storey computer market with everything a geek could ever want. This is where they sell the copy software and DVD's, and has been subject to Hollywood funded raids lately apparently. One of the funniest moments was when I was doing a covert deal for some DVD's with a shady guy, the police walked past, and he ripped his wares into a bag and hid behind his rack of legitimate DVD's until the danger passed. People are soliciting you from all angles to buy there stuff, and again, haggling is the order of the day, and it is hard work getting a decent price.
A final note, I have some pictures to embellish this entry, but it appears yahoo photos is not working, and despite the fact that I told optusnet before I left not to cancel my internet with my phone, they seem to and I can't upload to my server either. So you'll have to wait for pictures.
So this is Bangkok! Organised chaos is the way it was described to me by a fellow Aussie I met at the airport and on reflection now I reckon that is a pretty accurate description.
I might as well start at the beginning.
We touched down and the first observation I made was that for a country that hangs people for drug trafficking, customs was remarkably painless to get through. You can almost understand why people are prepared to take the risk, the lady at customs had no intention in the world of checking our bags - must have been too close to knock off time.
The second immediate observation that we made was the humidity. We walked out of the airport to meet our hotel transfer, and I am not joking, you can almost eat the air in this place. It was still at least 28 degrees with driving rain and thunderstorms. Mix that with the pollution here and you get an atmosphere you feel like you are swimming through rather than walking through.
So anyway, we get into this crappy old minivan with a couple of other blokes from Adelaide and headed for the hotel. No seat belts, optional road rules and an absolutely amazing amount of traffic (and we're talking 11:00pm Saturday night) made for an interesting journey. We saw no less than 3 traffic accidents on the way, and you can see why road trauma is the number one killer of Thai's - it really is every man for himself out there. Motorbike weaving in, out and on the footpath, Tuk Tuk's cutting in and stopping and all manner of other vehicles jerry rigged for various purposes are the norm.
Bangkok at night reminds me of Blade Runner, with the Neon, the driving rain and the seedy vibe.
Today was the shopping day, and this is where it really starts to get fun. Despite all the warnings you get about people ripping you off, you are just not ready for the volume of people out there who notice you are of western origin and thus try and separate you from your money. For example just trying to walk down to the Sky train station to get to the market, we had, and I kid you not, at least 15 tuk tuk drivers try and pick us up to take us to what ever shop they were being paid off by.
Chatachuk weekend market was our first stop, the world's biggest market. It is sort of like Melbourne's Queen street market on steroids, and with more weird smelly food. We got completely lost in the place, and no doubt we saw less than a quarter of the 9,000 stalls, but we got some bargains anyway. A few CD's, Shirts, shoes and I got a genuine Tag Heuer watch. Only $10A! Well it says made in Switzerland so I assume it's real......
The thing is, all of the vendors see that you are western and ask ridiculous prices for everything, in case you are a sucker. Fortunately, Karen is the haggle master, and we managed to get everything pretty cheap, although you always get the nagging feeling you could have driven them lower.
Next stop was a bit of lunch which was a bit of an ordeal. It is tempting to eat off the street vendors, despite the warnings, because some of it smells so good, and it is soooo cheap. But, we decided that after a morning on our feet, we wanted to have a quiet sit down lunch. Ha! Quiet! There is no such word in this city, maybe with the exception of a Buddhist temple. So after fighting through a few places looking for somewhere, we very nearly gave up and did the piss weak tourist thing and ate at McDonald's. ( A value meal here is 49 Baht, or $1.80). Fortunately we persisted and found a reasonable place to eat, and for the princely sum of $12 we had fried king prawns, bbq ribs, a curry, rice and two drinks.
Rested and ready, we then tackled the famous Pan Thip plaza. This is a 7 storey computer market with everything a geek could ever want. This is where they sell the copy software and DVD's, and has been subject to Hollywood funded raids lately apparently. One of the funniest moments was when I was doing a covert deal for some DVD's with a shady guy, the police walked past, and he ripped his wares into a bag and hid behind his rack of legitimate DVD's until the danger passed. People are soliciting you from all angles to buy there stuff, and again, haggling is the order of the day, and it is hard work getting a decent price.
A final note, I have some pictures to embellish this entry, but it appears yahoo photos is not working, and despite the fact that I told optusnet before I left not to cancel my internet with my phone, they seem to and I can't upload to my server either. So you'll have to wait for pictures.
About me
- I'm James
- From Adelaide, South Australia, Australia
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