Matts Meanderings

I think this all starts on about the 10th of October - just to give you an idea of when i'm talking about.

Once Andrew and I had managed to recover from the long night out, we caught the train back up to Amsterdam and headed to our hostel - the Globe. Somehow, i'd heard about this hostel a few times, but for some reason, it wasn't in the lonely planet, or even vaguely well known. Rather odd. Even the hotel reservation office that we asked for directions didn't know where it was. Strange.

Once we were all sorted, we headed out for dinner with Matt and the other APS guys - Graham and Trevor. They'd just got in from their flights from Oz, so they weren't exactly the most chipper, but it was good to catch up with them for a yarn or two.

A slightly blurry picture of the APS dinner.

The following day, we headed off on mikes bike tour, which was pretty cool. We'd heard that the one in Berlin (or was it Munich?) was very good, and funny to boot, so we thought we'd give this one a bash. We'd also had an order put in by Andrea for some of the cheese from “the cheese factory thats part of a bike tour that's some guys name”. So, how could we not go on it?

Anyway, there was quite a lot of information in this tour - everything from advice on the best places to go, and the best ways to inbibe marijuana, to the history of prostitution in Amsterdam, to how to become a prostitute (apparently, just drop into the prostitution advice centre, and get a 'starter kit'). We got to go and see a proper windmill, and actually learnt a bit about the history of them (they used to be used to pump water, and in WWII, they were used by the local resistance to point in the directions that Nazi convoys had gone). We got to go to a cheese and clog factory, where we got to see how they made cheese, and how they make clogs (they cheat - it takes all of 2 minutes to make some). But, the cheese was *good*.

Other than that we learnt about a founding principle of the Netherland's constitution - the Harm Principle. Goes something like “if an doesn't harm anybody else, its probably legal“. The other part of it was the freedom it gave to the courts - they dont have to prosicute “if the harm caused by punishing someone exceeds the harm caused by the crime“. So, if putting a dad in prison would ruin a family, the courts can decide not to prosicute. Fairly deep and pretty far ahead of its time - especially seeing this was brought in about the 15th century.

After the bike ride, we joined another Aussie (Emily), and a Canadian (Chris), and headed to an Australian bar. Now, before you assume anything, it was because we got a voucher for a free drink, so thats the only reason we went there. But, it actually turned out to be a pretty cool place. They didn't have that much Australian music on the playlist, but I can overlook that. Ended up having a pretty good night - spent a little bit too much, but who cares.

Some 'happy' people at the Australian bar.

On another day, we did the museum thing, and checked out the Van Gogh museum (some pretty cool stuff there - he painted quite a variety of things), and also the Rijksmuseum (most of which was closed, but still had quite a few cool things). And the other place that we checked out was Anne Franks house. Didn't have an awful lot there, but it had quite an impact on me. Made me think about it, and made the Nazi atrocities that much more real. I s'pose it would have meant more to me if i'd actually read the book, but you cant have everything. To make up for it, i bought the book in the bookshop as I left. Reading it is a bit odd, 'cos i've actually been in the house that she describes...

And that was the last of Amsterdam. On the afternoon of the 13th, I climbed onto a plane, and headed back to good old England, to take some time out. And that, I believe, is where i can leave it for a while, cos i'm now officially up to date! Sorry about the huge deluge of posts - I'll try and be a bit more organised next time round and post a bit more often.

So, until something interesting happens (probably next week), au revoir.

Well, Amsterdam is a bit of an odd one, cos this time round, it was just a day trip. We headed in to meet up with Margo (who I met in Scotland), and Andrew. We met up, and wandered around for a while, checked out the place, and had a few beers. All up, didn't see that much of Amsterdam that time round, but it was good with the five of us just kicking back for a while, and relaxing.

Then Andrew and I headed down to Rotterdam (Margo's home town), leaving Matt behind (he couldn't be bothered seeing Rotterdam - I think he went back to Utrecht). We ended up sitting around at Margo's place till all hours of the morning, just yarning about all sorts of things. Was good.

The following day we wandered around Rotterdam, seeing the sights, and getting a bit of a feel for the city. Margo and Andrew had managed to get an opportunity to abseil of a stupidly high tower (unfortunately, only 2 spots - doh!), so I got to take photos for them. Looks like it would have been fun, but crazy.

Margo, the instructor, and Andrew abseiling down the stupidly high tv tower.

After that, we wandered around a bit more, saw some crazy cube houses, i got carried away trying to take arty photos of Margo, saw some pigeons kissing and saw my first real life dutch windmill. Also managed to find an “Australian Ice Cream” shop - i could've sworn they were supposed to be “New Zealand Ice Cream” shops... (side note - New Zealand was named after a province in The Netherlands - Zeeland.).

Crazy cube houses - apparently pretty cool, and roomy inside.

That night, ended up going out partying with Margo, and one of her friends Mara. Was lots of fun, especially with the really bad 80's music . Left the place at 5am - only reason being that we didn't want to miss the last bus. The party seen in The Netherlands is pretty crazy - it doesn't really kick off till about 1am. But, it was a good night - a lot of fun - just letting go, and who cares what people think about my dancing .

PS - feel free to have a squiz at the rest of the photos of Rotterdam .

When we arrived in Utrecht, and found Maud (who Matt had spent a bit of time talking to in Rome - I don't think I'd even met her then... ), she took us out to our hostel, which being the absolutely wonderful person she is, had booked for us. And it was a proper hostel again - with other backpackers! Yay! Was a good feeling . Odd thing was when they gave us the intro spiel, we got the “if you want to smoke grass, go out the back”, and it was just part of the intro. Wasn't really expecting it - a bit of a surprise.

Maud gave us the tour of the town - she ended up taking us places that she'd never been before. Admittedly, she's only lived there for 3 months, but we've seen as much of the place as she has . Even though you associate the canals mainly with Amsterdam, nearly every town has them, and Utrecht is no exception (apparently over a 1/3 of the Netherlands is below sea level...). A few pretty cool buildings, but nothing super exciting about the place. But, it was good to be there with a local, and also to have someone other than Matt to talk to . That night we ended up heading out (with another Rome survivor - Hanneke (pronounced Hannaka)) to a student union party somewhere, which was a lot of fun - pity about the 2am curfew at the hostel.

Hanneke, Matt and Maud at the student union bash

While we were there, we thought we'd better make the effort to go and vote in the Aussie election. So, we jumped on the train, and headed down to the embassy in Den Haag (aka The Hague). Left the station, and went “not another new city...”. So even though it was a new place, with probably a few cool things to see, we walked pretty much straight to the embassy, voted (now that was exciting), then straight back to the station. We got told off for not going to the beach there, but I really couldn't be bothered... So, it wasn't all that much of an exciting day. But after that, Maud, Matt and I went out to some bar for a while, which was fun. Matt piked pretty early, so Maud and I had a fairly deep conversation for a while. Was good.

And then, it was time for the big cheese - Amsterdam!

PS - if, once again, you're bored, check out the photos of Utrecht, and photos from The Hague.

Gah. Why oh why did I start this thing. Its bad, cos I started a precedent on how much I was writing, and even in just saying I'd do it. Painful. Then again, its my own fault for letting it get so far behind...

Anyway, the magical adventure that was The Netherlands all starts in Maastricht. A little city, not that much exciting about it, other than it claims to be the oldest city in The Netherlands. The hostel we stayed in was waaay out in the boonies (over 20 minutes on the bus), but had an added benefit of being attached to a leisure centre with a pool. And as a bonus, my 'residents pass' (for want of a better term) gave us free access to the pool. And seeing i was a little antsy from lack of serious exercise, it was a good thing.

This pool was kinda odd. For starters, the changing room was just a room full of little individual cubicles, with a door on the front (from the outside), and a door on the back (with access to the pool). Wasn't even a catch on the doors, so it made it interesting trying to get changed, while holding the doors shut... Other thing was that when we eventually got access to the 25 metre pool (which I'm almost positive is 20 metres max), after the lesson was finished, they decided to ignore the line markings on the bottom of the pool, remove all the lane ropes, and then get everyone to swim across the pool, rather than up and down. So, swimming involved ducking and weaving to avoid others, rather than the solid exercise i was hoping for... But, at least i got a swim out of it.

Next day we hit the tourist info point (the VVV apparently), and grabbed a map of the town, and wandered around seeing all the sites. Wasn't all that exciting really. Well, no, I lie - we got sidetracked at one point, watching a building get demolished. It was quite amusing - there was lots of guys standing watching, a few with wives, but only one woman standing by herself. Pretty funny. Oh the other exciting thing was finding a street called "Hilarius Street" - i was impressed.

There really wasn't that much that was exciting about the whole place, so we headed of for the excitement of Utrecht, to meet Maud - a fellow survivor of the hostel in Rome. 

PS - now that I've got the photos up, you can check out the photos of Maastricht if you're bored...

Finally got the last of the photos uploaded, and added the links into the menu. At the moment, you've got access to literally all the photos I took - I haven't had chance to whittle them down to a smaller collection of good photos. I'll get there eventually, but I'm just not sure when.

Enjoy!

This time, just to be different, we caught the ferry to the next town, which is a pretty smooth way to travel, if i may say so.

Yet again, we were forced to go to a hostel in a castle, this time in Burg Ehrenbreitstein. It was on the other side of the Rhine from the town, so we had 2 choices - walk up to the bridge (500 metres-ish away), or catch a ferry. So, it was the ferry, except for the time we were out late, and the ferry had stopped - then we were forced to do the walk - about an hour and a half all up. Oh yeah - that was the hostel that had the chair lift going up to it - was pretty fun catching a chair lift up and down from the hostel - even if it wasn't cheap... .

The hostel. So annoyed that we were forced to stay there...

The town's right on the point where the Moselle and the Rhine rivers meet. Right at that point, is a huge statue thing of somebody, in a park called Deutsches Eck (or something). [Getting tired here - I'm getting more and more descriptive ]. All in all, its pretty cool. Check out the photos - you'll probably agree with me.

Other than that, i got a phone call from the Westpac Fraud Department - they'd noticed that my card had been used in Japan and Thailand, while also being used in Germany. So, their computers picked it up as being a bit odd. They picked up the oddity within a day and a half, so I was pretty impressed. They cancelled my card, refunded the dodgy transactions, and wanted to send me a new card. Only problem was, I had no idea where i was going to be in the 2 or 3 days they needed to get it to me. So, I had to get it sent to England, about 2 weeks ahead of where I was - that was the only date I knew where I was going to be. Painful, but I'm glad they picked it up... Not sure how they got my number - but it was a physical card used in both countries, so it wasn't online transactions. Damn credit cards - so many security problems with them - time to get rid of them, and replace them with something better (just have to come up with the something better, and patent the idea ).

And that, I think, is Germany done and finished. I think I'm now up to about the 4th of October, so not too much more to write, but its about 1.30am now, and well and truly past my bedtime. So, that'll do for now. G'nite.

[Edit - fixed a typo, and added in the picture...]

Okey dokey... Time to babble on about Bacharach. I think we arrived there about the 1st of October, so I'm only 3 weeks behind on the posts... Gah! I'll get there soon, I hope.

Anyway, once again, caught the train from A to B, A being Worms, B being Bacharach (or is it supposed to be W to B?). Oh yeah, thats something I should share about German trains - there's a ticket you can get for about €22 that allows up to 5 people to travel anywhere within the state, or on the weekend, allows you to travel anywhere in Germany! Much cheaper than the standard tickets. Has to be off-peak of course, but who really wants to travel peak, anyway?

Burg Stahleck has been completely refurbished, so its really nice inside - pretty much done up the way I'd like to do up an old house/building/castle. Still looks old on the outside, but really nice inside. Only problem with staying in a castle is that they're nearly always built at the top of hills. So, it was a pretty steep climb to get up there - with the pack on .

Good thing about Bacharach was that there was actually some other backpackers there, so it was a lot better. Spent a bit of time with one of the guys we met there - Ricardo - from the Dominican Republic, but living in Puerto Rico. He had been working for a week or so, and was talking some holidays before heading home again. Ended up hiring some bikes, and going for a ride - first downriver to Burg Reichenstein, then up river (past Bacharach again) to St Goar, to Burg Rheinfels - a pretty damn large castle, a bit ruined, but still pretty cool (except for the stinging nettles that i managed to find ). Then again, after all the castles I've seen this year, I'm getting to the point of being almost castled-out. After that, we couldn't be bothered riding back, so we caught the ferry back downstream to home - very relaxing.

Ricardo, Matt and Me on the ferry back to Bacharach
(with thanks to a nice old Indian guy)

Then, the following day, it was onwards to Koblenz.

[Edit - added in the picture]

I must say that I was impressed that I was able to go to a town called Worms (even though its pronounced Verms)... Pretty cool (well, OK, I'm easily impressed, but who cares ).

Well, when we were there, we pretty much wandered around, checked out the sights (took all of an hour), and got lost for a bit. Wasn't too hard to get unlost though. Its a cool little town (I think they claimed it was the oldest town in Germany, but then again, a few towns claim that ), right on the banks of the Rhine. Sat there on the banks, watching the barges go past, while eating dinner - was nice and relaxing.

The hostel was pretty cool - still full of school kids (and an orchestra group), but we managed to get a room with only 4 beds, and a private ensuite - practically a hotel! Very nice, quite enjoyed it. The hostel was right in the middle of town, right opposite a whopping great big cathedral. Quite cool.

While we there, we also ducked off to Heidelberg for a day trip - just for the sake of it. Pretty cool place - its tucked up in a little valley (with a castle above it), so everything up close to the castle is still really old, and all the new stuff is further away - so it doesn't overpower the old. Checked out the castle - very impressive, and also had a wander up through the hills. There's a path through the hills above the town, called the Philosophers Walk (or something), which was a nice walk - pity about the lots of stairs to get there. (Apparently, its a popular place for couples late at night - it'd be quite picturesque ).

Back at Worms, we found we had a room mate, a German guy called Matias. He was a very very talkative guy, with a pretty poor handle on english... We told him that we were going to grab a beer, and read the newspaper (as we'd had a long day), but he really wanted to talk. Very annoying, especially when he lapsed back into German, and expected us to understand. Luckily we lost him along the way, and managed to have a relaxing night after all. Odd thing was that in the middle of the night, he got a phone call, and then disappeared. Strange.

And then it was on to Bacharach...

It all starts in Überlingen. Terribly exciting place, it is (not), but the map said it was a scenic place, so we went there. Its a smallish town on the shore of Lake Constance (big lake on the border with Switzerland, where the Rheine starts). Only problem was, the the hostel was full of school kids. And i mean full. (Apparently, the German hostel thing is really big, as school kids dont go on camps - they go to hostels... its really odd...). Didn't really do all that much there, other than a lot of relaxing, and sitting by the lakeside, and reading the newspaper... Fun. The other thing was that there were no other backpackers there, so it was a bit strange.

Did see a couple of cool things there though - saw a bunch of old men playing chess in the park, with really big chess pieces. Was quite interesting - sat and watched them for more than an hour. I think I could've beaten a few of them . Other than that, there was an after school care centre, where they had lots of outdoor activities, like (butter) knife making, including the hammering of red-hot metal, and other kids making (and painting) wooden roof tiles, and (i think) they were making a mud brick house as well. All in all, it was quite bizzare. The kids were having a ball though, so thats all that matters.

I was going to do all of Germany in one post (cos there's not all that much to say, really), but i might do it as separate posts, just to make it easier to read...

Oh, the other thing that sort of happened here was that I got itchy, and dotted - all over the arms. Very strange; I couldn't figure out why. It was either a bed bugs (in Venice), or an allergic reaction to something (probably washing powder). So, there was lots of anguish and itching to be done. Managed to dig up some cream, but it wasn't helping the best. Really annoying. Took about a week and a half to go - not what i wanted while travelling .

Ok... I just finished booking my next flight - I'm flying to Athens on monday morning (at an unearthly 6.30am - have to get up at about 4 to get there ).

Anyway, I'm off to meet up with Amy - a chick I met in Rome (who was travelling by herself, and was looking for a travelling buddy), and we're going to wander around Greece for a while, check out the Greek islands, then duck over to the south of Italy, hopefully check out Sicily, and Sardinia (maybe even Corsica), and then up to Venice (again (to pick up Lauren - someone I haven't met yet ), then over to France, a quick duck over to Spain (Barcelona), then up through France, ending in Paris.

Well, thats the plan at least. I'm pretty sure it'll work out alright. If all else fails, I'll just wander around for a bit by myself.

Anyway, on a side note, I'm a bit sick at the moment - woke up yesterday with a blocked & runny nose... (isn't it supposed to be one or the other?). Probably too many late nights again - but then again, I'm sleeping in pretty late, so it should counter out. I dunno - all too confusing... Thats another thing - went and played badminton tonight - first time ever. Didn't do too bad - but its been a bit too long since i've done any serious cardiac excercise, so it was a bit painful. Definitely going to hurt tomorrow... Oh, and then I decided it would be fun to run home, just to top it off... . Insane? I think so too...

Other than that, went shopping today, bought lots of stuff that I'd been meaning to buy for a while (still cant find the zip-off cargo pants that i'm after), and got my haircut - so at least I look a little bit more presentable now .

Hmm... Must write some more blog entries, so that when i head off, I'm at least nearly up to date... (Matrix is on telly at the moment, so i'm not concentrating too much here ).

I definitely would have preferred to spend more time in Austria - only got to visit one city there - Innsbruck, and only for two days. Then again, Matt had been through there before, and had seen it all, so i can understand him not wanting to visit all the places again.

Innsbruck is stuck in a valley, surrounded by some pretty damn tall mountains. Its quite pretty actually. But, before I get there, I should say something about the trip there - apparently, that section of railroad is one of the most beautiful in the world. It snakes through and around all these mountains through the Alps, so its quite easy to just stare out the window for long periods of time. Very very nice.

Getting back to Innsbruck again - 'cos of the time of year, there was a lot of clouds around, pretty much obscuring the tops of the mountains - every now and then, you could get a glimpse of a mountain, but not an overall impression. From what I saw though, I'd definitely get intimidated by the mountains if I lived there (I could see myself going outside and yelling at them occasionally - telling them to go and intimidate some other poor smuck, and stop looking over my shoulder...).

Anyway, getting back on track, there's a river running through the middle of the town that feeds straight from a glacier - had an odd milky green colour to it. Looked pretty darn cold too, but didn't want to test out that theory - i was quite happy just assuming that .

Tim, Matt and I wandered around for a while, and had a bit of a look at the place, and then decided to go up the cable car to the top of one of the mountains nearby. Not a cheap thing to do, but, dammit, it was fun . Got to the top of this hill (after a train thing (a funicular i think), then two cable cars), and got to about 2.5 kays up. Where it was snowing! Yay! Matt and I went out and played in the snow for a while (and got cold and wet, but who cares), and generally had a ball.

Back in the hostel, managed to meet some more random strangers, including an Aussie guy who was captaining a yacht round the Med (ahh, the life), and a french girl, who first laughed at how few words i knew, then congratulated me on my french accent for the ones i did know - so all hope is not lost . But, had a good time, playing darts (seems to be a big thing there - the hostel had 6 darts machines - odd).

Went to offload my photos, and when i eventually managed to find somewhere to do it, the guy didn't really know what he was doing. I was stuck in that horrible place where you know more than the guy does, but you dont want to be rude and tell him how to do his job. Gah! After a while, I just took over anyway - it was easier, and wanted to catch a train at some point. Showed him how to do a few things .

And then, it was onto the train, yet again, this time, heading into Germany. Five trains later, and about 6 hours, we arrived in Überlingen.

OK, I'm now back in London, kicking back and relaxing at Paul & Lydias house. (Hopefully, i'm not imposing too much on them... )

I'm back here 'cos:

• It got to the point in The Netherlands that i was well and truly sick of visiting new cities, so i decided i needed some time out to relax for a bit.
• Needed to sort out a few minor things like money and stuff.
• People keep hassling me to upload photos.
• Need to update the blog. Still need to write about Austria, Germany and The Netherlands.
• Need to email and call lots of people (I'll get there, I promise...).
• Need to get myself an ipod type thing (for those that care, i'm probably going to go for an iRiver H340). Got a little sick of not having my music collection with me .
• Need to sort out where i'm going next.

So, I'm here for another week or so, then I'm off again. Not sure where i'm going, but i'm sure i'll find somewhere .

This is going to be a short one because:

1. I'm getting sick of writing about Italy
2. I'm sure you're getting sick of hearing about Italy
3. I was only there for about 22 hours in total

So, caught the train once again, and arrived in Venice (also known as Venezia), right at the perfect time to get caught in some really horrible weather. Windy, rainy, cold. Not much fun really. And seeing that we were only there overnight, it was pretty annoying.

But, ignoring the weather, we went wandering around Venice, having a look round, getting the vibe of the city. Its quite cool, as there are no cars at all, and not even any bicycles. Everyone gets around on foot. Its quite good, but there's none of the 'normal' sounds (of cars) of a city. I was also warned that it can get a bit smelly with all those canals - but turned out fine - no problems.

I think i'm going to go dot-points, as my brain isn't working the best right now:

• Its a veritable rabbit warren of a city - pretty cool though. Lots of little alley ways and little streets (and lots of lost tourists looking at maps).
• The canals have an odd colour too them - sort of a cloudy blue, almost aqua colour (maybe i'll have to show you a photo).
• Saw St Marks Basillica, and San Marco Square - both pretty cool.
• At one point in San Marco Square, all the birds decided it would be a good idea to get up and fly about for a bit - so i got some pretty cool photos of that. Very Alfred Hitchcock - The Birds (not that i've seen it ).
• The hostel was called Palazza Venobia. Which means Venobia Palace. Which, it pretty much was. It was this huge old building, with huge frescos on the walls, and a huge ballroom with sculptures and everything. Really cool.
• Met an american guy (Tim) in the hostel, who was travelling by himself, so we joined up with him for a while to wander about. He ended up heading up to Innsbruck with us later on as well.
• Caught a bus-boat (a vaporetti) round the city, just so that we could check out the place. Ended up joining up with a lone Aussie for a while (cant remember her name), and the 4 of us wandered around for the morning, before we had to go and catch the train.
• On the way to Innsbruck, we went via Verona - didn't actually see the place, but i vaguely remembered it from Romeo and Juliet, so thats pretty cool .

Pretty good time, all up. And that, folks, is Italy.

Oh, one last thing - I think i'll definitely have to go back to Italy. Preferably, this time with a girlfriend/partner - Italy is a place that seems to be pretty good for couples. Lots of romatic places to go, things to see, things to do. One day.

OK. I've slacked off again for long enough, and its about time i actually shared a bit more about my exciting travels.

Rightio then (Matt pauses for a few seconds, and goes and looks up what the last thing he wrote about was... hold music plays softly in the background...). OK, back again. The last thing that i wrote about was Florence. So, in Florence, we'd met Lindsay, Lindsay and Fraser, and we were all heading in the direction of Cinque Terre - a place that I'd never heard of before arriving in Italy. So, we all jumped on a train, and headed out in that direction. The good thing was that Pisa was pretty much in a direct line from Florence to Cinque Terre, so we thought we'd drop in and say hi (funnily enough, the tower didn't say much back...).

Anyway, pretty much there's only two things worth seeing in Pisa, the tower, and the basilica thats right next to it. Walking up the street to the tower, I couldn't help myself but laugh. Talk about an engineering cock-up. I can understand making the mistake, but they realised it was leaning when they'd put the third story up, but for some reason, they decided they should keep going, and put the rest up. What makes it worse, is that they started straightening the upper levels, so its got a decided bent to it. But, I think the town council must be impressed - it definitely brings in the tourists. Only problem is, there's not a lot else in the town to look at. So, all up, we spent about 3 hours in the town, and that included getting lunch. After that, it was straight back to the train, onwards (ever onwards) to Cinque Terre.

Arrived at Cinque Terre, and managed to find out what kind of place it is (brief pause as Matt thinks back about how cool the place was... sorry...). The name strictly translates to “5 Lands” - but it's 5 villages spread out along the Mediterranean, on a really hilly coastline. Each of the villages is crunched up pretty tightly, and the surrounding hills are covered in vineyards. The train station at Riomaggiore was perched on the cliff, with views out over the Med. So, as soon as I got there, I loved it.

So, it was a few days of swimming, sunbaking (on very rocky beaches), kicking back, relaxing, reading, getting sunburnt, going kayaking on the Med,  and generally doing not a lot really. I kinda enjoyed it. Just a little bit . One of the touristy things thats there is a long walk between all the towns. Its a 12km walk, but some of it is pretty damn hilly. Pretty damn nice scenery though - pity about all the other tourists on the trail . Was a fairly warm day, so not the easiest trek - but I'm glad I didn't do it in summer - when it would be a lot worse.

Met a couple of mad Americans there - Chris (in your best game show host voice) a advertising account manager from New York. Mad as a hatter, but a lot of fun. Also met Mara - a student from Chicago University, over for a history subject as part of her course, for a few months. Sounded pretty interesting. She'd also just finished doing language school for a few weeks to brush up her Italian - had a few days off, so she dropped in to check out the beach. Come to think of it, i've met quite a few American students studying o/s - seems fairly popular to head over and do a fairly intense 6-8 weeks on a subject in another country. A good idea actually.

Oh, yeah, thats the other thing - the local wine there was excellent. Ate out quite a bit (couldn't be bothered cooking - and the food was excellent), and we got a bottle of the house wine - very very nice. And that was the cheapest wine they had. Scary, but quite enjoyable...

(written about mid September)

A few funny things I just remembered from London:

• Air Sahara - one of the airlines that I flew on whilst in India - one of the budget airlines (kinda like easyjet, or virgin blue in Aus) - apparently has the worst safety record in the world... Glad that I heard that after I got off the plane. Only heard this as second hand info, so don’t quote me on that...
• While staying at Paul's place, we went and saw the latest Bourne movie, which had a bit of the movie set in Goa, in India. Was quite interesting seeing it, and going "been there" a few times. Then one of the locations looked really familier, and I think it may have been the movie they were filming when I visited Goa with Paul (from infosys). Freaky. Good chance it wasn't, but if it was, cool. Other than that, don’t bother seeing the mvoie. Good storyline, ruined by a director who was trying to be arty with the camera, and inflict migraines and/or epilepsy on the audience.

Anyway, that was my exciting bit of stuff that I absolutely had to share...

(written about the 5th of October)

Back to the grindstone again, time to write some more... i'm currently sitting on a train in the Netherlands, going from Maastricht to Utrecht, and not understanding a single word of Dutch... Makes it fun

Anyway, I think I finished off the last entry in Roma, so, now its onto Florence, also known as Firenze. I must admit that I liked Florence much more than Roma - a combination of a much smaller city, cleaner and less hectic, and a lessening of the 'new country scariness'. Its also a much more pedestrian city - as in lots of pedestrians wandering around, and the streets are pretty pedestrian-friendly. So, much more enjoyable.

Ended up staying in a place called 'Firenze Inn' - a cool place that was pretty much a big old Italian house, with 9 beds in it. The hostel had just been taken over by a new company, and they only had a licence for 9 beds, in a place that could have held 40 (the previous company had lots of beds, ignoring the licence limitations). So, Matt and I had a huge room (one that could've fitted at least 12 people) to ourselves. Pretty cool.

Made the effort to go the the Galleria D'Accademia (which held Michaelangelo's famous statue of David - pretty cool, but kind of a let down), and the Galleria D'Uffizi (which had lots of famous paintings by lots of famous people (can you tell that I wasn't that excited? (there was 2 paintings in the entire place that I liked (as opposed to admiring the skill required), but downstairs, there was a exhibition of modern art, where I liked quite a few of the pieces... Always knew I was a Philistine ))). Thing was, seeing Florence is such a tourist destination, the lines to get in were absolutely painful. Took about an hour and a half to get into one, and about two hours for the other. didn't matter - I got a fair way through my book while waiting. (Side note - Stephen King has serious issues. I was reading 'The Tommyknockers', and its seriously twisted.)

Headed back to the hostel one afternoon (we stayed there about 4 days), and we were both ready to get an early night. Walked into the kitchen, and there was 5 of the people we met in Roma. So much for the early night... Was lots of fun though - especially when the waitress brought out the 3.5 litre 'rocket ships' filled with Heinekin...  One of the scary things was that the place was filled with Aussies on a Contiki tour, so it was pretty scarring.

Other than that, found the Ponte Vechio (a cool bridge covered with jewellers shops), and Piazza Michaelangelo (a cool lookout where you can see a panaromic view of the whole city). I wandered up to see a fortress in the north of the city, which was definitely not worth it. How, I found a park (which had no tourists in it! Only locals!), and sat and read for a while. Very relaxing - just what I needed.

And I think i'll leave it there, and save Pisa and Cinque Terre for the next time.

(written 7/10)

Otherwise, the only other thing we really did in Roma was to visit Vatican City. We just happened to go on the day when the pope gave his first address in a few months. Quite interesting, but not that exciting. We couldn't understand the vast majority of what was said. It was funny to see people going wild when they first saw the Pope, and all the odd ceremonies that the Catholics have. But, now I can say I've had an audience with the Pope . After that, we went on a tour of the Vatican Museum (pretty cool), the Sistine Chapel (wow!), and St Peter's Basilica (very cool, huge, and very impressive). We had a pretty small group - as in the guide, Matt, and me. So, it was pretty personalised. He definitely knew his stuff too - he pointed out one or two in each room, and explained stuff about them, but he also knew about other ones that I asked about. Very cool tour.

Now, heres a question thats got absolutely nothing to do with travelling... But, then again, maybe it does, in a zen like fashion. (Or is it a more Ghandi fashion???)

Anywaaaaay, just curious what people (if anyone actually reads this blog...) think about how long these entries are?  Do you think i'm writing too much, and i should cut down on the rambles, or should i just keep spouting, and write whatever i want to?

I'm not entirely sure if I'm going to listen to you, cos i think i'm sort of using this as a diary for my own personal use anyway. Then again, i s'pose, i'm going to write it anyway, cos i know at least some of the family is reading it, and they'll read it no matter what i spout .

Anyway, leave a comment, and let me know, now that i've at least got some stuff up here.

(Written late September)

Now, all about the Isle of Skye. well, what can I say, its a very cool place. The hostel is in a small town called Kyleakin, a small fishing village just over the bridge to Skye. A great place to sit back, and do not a lot for a long time. A great place to recharge.

Other than sitting around, doing not a lot, we hired a few bikes, then rode up to Plockton, a short 7 miles away. Only problem was, there's lots of hills in between. the stubborn streak in me was the only thing that got me through. Biscuit was too unfit, he gave in, and couldn't make it up the hills (though maybe the fact that his bike wouldn't let him go into the lowest gears had something to do with it... ). After that, sitting in front of the fireplace, talking with all sorts of strangers was pretty cool.

After a day or two there, we caught the ferry out to Harris - an island in the Outer Hebrides, and stayed in a tiny tiny village called Drinishader - which consists of about 6 houses, a post office, and a hostel. Very cool. Even managed to get talking to some of the locals for a while - very friendly. Only "problem" was that the bus went through 3 times a day. Managed to get up early to catch the first one, and headed off to explore the island. Bad thing was that not many buses run around there, so, we ended up hitchhiking. Was an interesting experience - I'll definitely be on the look out for hitchhikers when I get a car again - proper backpackers only though.

One of the places we got to was the beaches on the west coast of Harris - beaches that wouldn't look out of place in the Caribbean. Very beautiful. Pity about the temperature though . Then headed further up, over to Lewis, and to Stornoway - a place that I'd read about a bit, so it was good to know what it looks like. Managed to get a few interesting people who picked us up, ranging from a trainee reverend, to a teacher, to a couple of tourists. We had one woman who'd never been off the Outer Hebrides in her life. She hadn't even been around the islands properly. Very bizarre.

Heading back to the Skye, after catching the ferry, the bus we were on didn't go all the way back to Kyleakin, so more hitchhiking - only this time, in the pouring rain. Fun though. Met a teacher who'd just started teaching on the island, and who was heading to a rave - a rave on an island with about 28,000 people. Bizarre, but very cool place.

We arrived back in Skye, just in time for our Skye Trekker weekend - 2 days of hiking through the middle of nowhere on Skye. A lot of fun. Ended up hiking about 25 km over the two days, a big chunk of it with packs on our backs. One of the first things we did after getting the tents sorted, was wade through a thigh deep river. Kinda interesting start to the whole thing. Only problem was that it meant we had wet socks and shoes for the rest of the weekend Rather enjoyable weekend though, if only in hindsight. Great scenery, a great opportunity to get back outside camping again. Very glad I went on it.

After recuperating for a day or two, headed out on a day trip round Skye, to see a bit more of the place. Saw some really cool places, and heard some really cool stories.

Other than that, met lots of really cool people - one of which was Holly - an English chick, who'd spent a lot of time in the US, and now called New Zealand home. Very interesting accent . Spent a few days hanging out with her, which was a lot of fun.

After that, it was back on the bus (after being threatened by the hostel manager when we told her we were leaving - she really didn't want us to leave (at least I'm glad it was our sausages that were stabbed, rather than us (she'd have fitted right in with the communist secret police ))), heading down to Glasgow. Wasn't too excited when the bus hit the suburbs - was tempted to find out when the next bus back to Skye was... . However, spent a very enjoyable day with my buddy, Lindsay, who was visiting family, while over from Melbourne.

And, I think that pretty much covers (in possibly waaaaay to much detail) what I got up to in Scotland. Cos, after Glasgow, I jumped on a plane, headed for beautiful Roma.

All in all, Scotland is an absolutely amazing place. I'll definitely be heading back there at some point - most likely i'll do some cleaning in a hostel for a while, just to pay for my bed, and do not a lot else. Gonna be good.

Been a while since I sat down to write anything here - not that I've been able to get access to the blog to update it. Stupid computers - always go wrong at the worst point. This time, the worst point is when I'm wandering around Italy, and don't have the access to get it working again. So, on the theory that I'll be able to get access to it at some point, I'll keep writing stuff on my pda, and hopefully get a chance to upload it at some point.

Anyway, I think I'd left all of my avid readers (all 3 of them) when I was in Pitlochry. After a few days there, we jumped back on the bus, and headed on to Inverness, stopping at Loch Ness on the way. Wasn't the most exciting spot to stop on the loch, but there was a dude there who had sold his house, quit his job, and gone full time into Nessie hunting. He lives in a caravan right next to the loch, ands makes little Nessie figures to sell to tourists so he can eat. Pretty cool guy.

We ended up staying at the student hostel in Inverness, which was a very cool place. People there are pretty darn cool. Ended up going out one night with a few people, including one of the hostel staff, and quite a few drinks later, ended up proposing (jokingly) to her. She got all carried away, and the band got told, and then the bar staff, which led to us having to buy a bottle of champagne... All headed downhill from there... Only problem was when a certain friend started messaging people and telling them about my new fiancée... Still, a lot of fun though...

While we were still in Inverness, which means 'mouth of the river ness', we went on a cool walk down the river, visiting all these islands on the river, which was pretty good - nice and relaxing. One last note - a decent pub there that we visited (pretty much with everyone off the bus), was Blackfriars. Very good food, and not a bad atmosphere either.

Then, once again, we were on the move, this time, heading over to the Isle of Skye, off the north western coast. lots to say about that one, so I think I might do that separate.

(Written about mid September...)

Okay, we're where we? I think I'd babbled my way up to the flight to Edinbrugh. And a wonderful flight it was too - especially when the captain tells us theres something wrong with the hydraulics, and we have to hang around a while. Luckily it was only 15 minutes - unlike Andrew, who had to wait on the tarmac for over an hour...

Stayed overnight in Edinburgh, managed to see a show at the comedy festival there (yay!), met up with Sammy - a friends (Bronwyn's)  sister for a few drinks, then clambered on the jump-on jump-off bus (called the jojo bus by those in the know ) the next morning. So, managed to kick about Edinburgh for about 16 hours, all up. Definitely have to make the effort to get back for the comedy festival and do it properly - it pretty much stops the city, with shows on all the time.

Had a lot of fun on the jojo bus - met a few mad people, especially the driver. saw a few of the sights that there are to see, then stopped off at Edradour Distillery. Vaguely interesting tour, but the best bit was the cream liquer that we bought - very, very, very nice... Going to try and get some shipped down when I get organised. If you can get your hands on it, I highly recommend it.

Managed to meet another Aussie (like that’s hard in the U.K. ) - a cop from Sydney called Krsti. We hung out with her for a few days, playing lots of games of 500, climbing a mountain, and generally having a ball. The mountain we climbed - Ben Vrackie, was the highest in the area, and by the time we got to the top (800 metres) or so, it was pretty cold, and very windy. Had to be careful when walking so as not to trip and get blown over. At one point, we were sitting in the lee of a rock, when a very friendly sheep materialise about 2 foor from Andrew's head - kinda scary. Then a few climbed on top of the rock we were leaning against, and was trying to imtimidate us from above. Even worse, one of the other sheep headbutted the other, and nearly pushed it over on top of us... Kinda fun :D

Have had a lot of fun in the MacBackpackers hostels - the staff have all been completely bonkers, so I fitted in perfectly I think within 5 minutes at each hostel, we'd been verbally abused by the staff (in a good way). Was fun .

(Will come back and update these posts with photos when i actually get some photos online...)

(Originally written about the start of september...)

Well... Where can i start with this one... I s'pose it probably starts with arriving...

Arrived in at Heathrow, terribly exciting, and made my way down to Paul & Lydia's place, to give them the pleasure of my company, along with the fragrance of my smelly socks... Had to spend a few days there trying to get over jet lag, which is not fun, not fun at all...

After those few days of heady excitement, we headed up to London to go see some Olympics thing - London is angling to get the Olympics in 2012. Only problem was, there was nothing there. But, we made the most of it, and went and saw Stomp down at the West End. Really good show, quite enjoyed it. Wasn't sure what to expect as I went in, other than guys bashing garbage can lids together, but it turned out good. So, now i can say that I've been to the theatre in London's West End... Just another one of those things that sounds cool .

Other than that, met up with Andrew in London, on another day, and wandered around for a while - showing off my detailed knowledge as a tour guide . We followed that up with meeting yet another Melbournite, Andrea, who we met for dinner. So, it was quite the little reunion. I think Andrea is still having trouble getting over me being out of Australia - a long time ago we had a conversation where I was quite sure that I didn't want to travel - I couldn't see the point. Well, I think i've changed just a bit since then...

Couple of days later, met up with them all again, when we went out for my birthday - was good to have friends around. Almost as good as having family around, but not quite. Got to speak to the fam, which was good. Getting parcels in the mail for pressies was definitely good . Guys (you know who you are) - feel free to do that more often...

Other than that, there was the excitment of organising my baggage - I'm not going to whinge about it, 'cos I dont want to think about it - but, suffice it to saz that it would have been easier, and only marginally more expensive to take it with me on the plane... Gahh!

And that, they say, was that. I wandered up to Edinburgh, and the rest of the story can wait for later...