Finland

Looking down from 37000 feet(despite my dislike of imperial measurements, metres just don't feel right to describe altitude.), I can see the territory below me. Its now three hours until we touch down in Melbourne, and the trip ends. Although, to me the trip won't be over until I've found a new place to call home in Melbourne.

So our whirlwind through Scandinavia ended with Finland. Despite my thinking it would be the last country we visited, I was wrong, as a few days later we ended up in Estonia. My cousin Shannon picked us up from the airport, and we stay with him, Saara and Nicolas for most of our trip in Finland.

If Iceland is Niceland, then Finland would be Fineland. Our first trip out was into Helsinki itself, to check out the town. Its a fantastic city, full of life and character. And its beautiful, as with the rest of Scandinavia, very neat and clean. We explored the city, check out the markets near the harbour, and wandering around out to a monument to Sibelius we saw on a postcard.

The next day we took a ferry out to the Island of Sumelinna, a 15 minute ride away. Its an old fortified island, with the walls still intact. It would have been an imposing naval stronghold in days past, now its dotted with restaurants and cafe's. Again, it reminded me of Rottnest, with no cars except for service vehicles and minimal settlement. After that, we headed over to the sports ground to watch Shannon play cricket. Finland isn't really where I expected to find a cricket league, but there it was, a Twenty20 match in Helsinki. The cricket teams are mainly expats from Australia, New Zealand, England, India, Pakistan and South Africa. For some its social, for overs its more serious, but it seems like they all have a good time.

And then it was Liz's Birthday! We went out to a lake the next morning for a swim, the water being colder than I expected but pleasant once you were in. Then we headed into town to stock up for the meal I planned to cook. And we spent the rest of the afternoon in the kitchen, making a pesto for the pesto roasted potatoes, and preparing Liz's favourite, pan fried salmon, but using Finnish salmon, which turned out pretty well.

The next morning we got up early, as I was taking Liz to Estonia for her birthday. A two hour ferry ride later, and we were in Estonia. Tallinn is another pretty town, with a famed old town, reminiscent of Cesky Krumlov for Bruges, but with a charm of its own. Estonia was quite cheap compared to Finland, so much so that the ferry was full of Finns loading up on cheap booze and the sailing back.

We wandered around the old town, full of cobblestone streets that seemed much easier to navigate when your not lugging a suitcase around. We spent most of our time looking for somewhere good for coffee and cake or some other meal. We had a drink in the 'Ice Bar' attached to our hotel, famed for its frozen glassware. Turns out they were just frozen shot glasses, but we had a shot of vodka and I ate most of my shot glass. We had a bit of a wander through the new town, enough to see it was like any other city of its size, ad then caught the ferry back to Helsinki.

Went out to Turku, as Angela had been telling me for months to go see the Turku castle, which we did. It was an interesting castle, but the third of forth one we had been to recently, but it was interesting to have a wander around inside. We resolved that that was it for museums, and headed off the next morning.

Not really sure of where to go next, we got on a train to Jyvaskyla, a small town in central Finland, skirted by lakes. Liz wanted to stay near a lake where she could go for a swim, and we would have, if the weather was agreeable, but it wasn't. Still, we spent two night in Jyvaskyla, relaxing a bit and exploring the town. We hired some bikes and rode around for the day, which was great fun riding along the lake. We tried walking the bikes through a 'nature trail', but after three lots of knocked down barriers we came to a river that the bridge had been sealed off. We took that as a sign to head back.

We took a boat ride on a steam ship down the lake, all the way to Lahti. Although we knew it would take all day, Liz thought we might be able to get off at the stops to look around. We couldn't, so I spent most of the day reading, which Was an entirely pleasant thing to do whilst chugging down the lake. It was very pretty though, when I did turn my head up to look.

So then we had one last day in Helsinki. We tried to fit in as much as we could, heading into town again for one last trip around, some last minute shopping and another trip over to Sumenlinna so Liz could have a swim at the beach. We then had a really nice meal at a traditional Finnish restaurant with Shannon and family, and went home for a Sauna.

It was really nice spending time with Shannon and Saara, Again we were so fortunate for their wonderful hospitality. We also had a great time playing with Nicolas, my little second cousin (I think he's my second cousin... My cousins son, whatever that is...). He even managed to teach us some Finnish. And we will never hear Mama Mia the same way again.

And now were on a plane. Its just over two hours until touch down, I'm doing my best to ignore the fact its been roughly thirty hours since we got to Helsinki airport. Or that we have a few hours in the car before we get to Kyabram. Or that my body has no idea what time it is. Or that we need to find a place to live. I'll just smile, as I can see the Great Sandy Desert below me.

Scandinavia

I'm on a steam boat, playing slalom down Paijanne Lake, the longest lake in Finland. Before we left Melbourne, I had no idea that I would be taking so many trips on boats during our travels, but I guess that's the nature of travel.

We got to Oslo on Sam's birthday, so it was extra nice of he and Val to let us stay with them for a few days. Again, it was excellent to catch up with an old friend and with Sam it was great to see what a life he has carved out for himself since he left Melbourne. Oh and Sam, the burgers were excellent. I look forward to tales from the Australian Institute of Burger Technology.

Oslo is a beautiful city, like most parts of Scandinavia, its very clean and the people are very friendly. Victims of our own planning, we only really had a day to explore Oslo, so Val dropped us off in Vigeland Park, full of impressive sculptures and gardens. After a bit of a wander we walked across town to the Folk Museum. Its a big open air museum, full of reassembled farmhouses from across Norway. We also perused some of the exhibits in the Museum, including a great one on Norway in the 80's. I especially liked the mullet clad mannequin, reclining in his bean bag watching a non-stop loop of Aha's 'Take on me'.

That night we watched the Michael Jackson memorial on television, just waiting for the explosive finale where he would leap from the coffin and straight into a dance number. Alas, this ultimate act of showmanship did not occur, leaving me saddened. If anyone could have pulled something like that off, it would have been Jackson.

The next day we took the bus to Sweden, but not until after we visited Sam at work for the best breakfast we've had all trip. It was a true Melbourne style cook up, which made me realise what a Mecca Melbourne is for a late lazy breakfast. Anyway, then we got on the bus for Sweden, where after the initial excitement of free wifi wore off when I discovered I still had Sam's keys. Sorry about that one Skipper.

So we went to Goteborg, chosen as a stopover simply to breakup the trip to Malmo rather than any other reason. Its another of those times I wish we had more time to look around, as it looked gorgeous and I'm sure there is plenty more to explore. We took a tram and then a ferry out to Styros, an island in the archipelago. I wish we had a day to explore it and the surrounding islands, dotted with there pretty houses and people on bikes, like a tasteful version of Rottnest. We didn't really have much time there, just long enough to have a bad burger at the local cafe/bar, as a cover band belted out the hits. Heading back we got caught in another downpour.

Then onto Malmo the next morning. We got in and found our Hotel, which had free waffles you could make yourself. Really, what more could you want in a hotel? We caught up with Maria for a bit of a meal and a wander around town. Malmo had a really nice feel to it, its definitely a place I could spend more time. It just seemed relaxing, tucked away in the corner of Sweden where no one would bother it.

We visited the old castle, now a Museum. Despite the fact we were getting quite over visiting Museums, we had a good time, and they had a great exhibition on Nelson Mandela. We also went to the Kunsthall, which had an exhibition on Sonic Youth. Lot of cool artwork from band members and collaborators, video-clips, sculpture and reverse karaoke, where Kim Gordon's vocals drifted out over an empty stage covered in instruments. I've never wanted to know how to play a Sonic Youth song more.

And then we left Malmo, jumping on a train across the sound to Copenhagen. I had been emailing Bridget as I heard she would be in Copenhagen around then. When we checked into our hotel I was told that a girl had been dancing around the lobby that morning, very excited that we would be checking in to the same hotel as them. So we caught up with Bridget, Jade and Olga that evening, wandered around the city and tried to ignore how damned expensive Copenhagen is.

All the way along the trip we had been getting told how nice Copenhagen is, and how much we would like it. Well, its ok, but I don't think I'd make such a big deal about it. I was however, very tired by the time we got to Copenhagen, I was quite over wandering around cities and sight seeing, so its probably another one I'll ave to check out again when I'm in a better mood. That said, we did have an enjoyable time watching some jazz in a beer garden in the park, and just wandering around town at night was quite nice.

And then we got on a plane and headed to Finland. Our whirlwind tour of Scandinavia was great, but we didn't really spend enough time anywhere to really get to know a place. It was a sort of our plan, to do a whistle stop tour to see what we liked and to head back again next time we are in Europe. When we have more money of course, as the aussie dollar doesn't buy a lot of kroner, be them Norwegian, Swedish or Danish.

London

I wouldn't say we've had a really good plan for the last half of this trip, in fact, things have been very last minute and ad hoc, but sometimes that works out for the better. Right now for instance, I'm on a ferry. On my way to Estonia. I certainly didn't see that one coming. But here we are., and I'm looking forward to spending the night in Tallinn.

So, to catch up a bit on the last while.

We've been to England twice, or to London I should say. Actually, we transited once on the way to Paris and will again on the way home, so we've been to England a fair bit. I had envisaged beforehand we would spend time in London, and I just presumed it would be longer. But our first stay was two days on the way to Iceland.

This was a quick stop, and we didn't plan to do anything more than organise the trip to Iceland. First business was a trip to the shops. It was so relaxing to be able to order a coffee without loosing something in translation. It put a big smile on my face. After two weeks in Italy, I felt like I could relax. So went spent the whole day in a shopping centre. Trying to buy shoes. We failed miserably, but had a good time. We ate 'Tapas for a tenner', continuing the trend of eating traditional food in the wrong region.

We also got in a quick bit of touristing the next day, seeing Trafalgar square, Piccadilly circus and Leicester square. We drank a bottle of wine in front of the British museum, and saw the arrival of Bruno, or more accurately, the crowd gathered in Leicester Square for him. Saw a show in the west end, it was one of the last nights for 'La Clique', a burlesque/circus acts show, I had a good time at that, entertaining dreams of running away to join the circus.

Then we went to Iceland. And we came back. We spent most of the first day back bickering about what to do fr the rest of the trip. We wanted to try to get to Scandinavia, but thought it would probably be too hard, and too expensive, so we kind of decided to spend another week in England. We planned to get out to the countryside, maybe go to Cardiff on the 8th maybe?

Visited lots more museums. I saw the Rosetta stone at the British Museum, the fabled object from Double Dragon 3. It turns out its real. Actually, I was really keen to see this, its such a cool relic of the past, and what it meant for translating language is quite remarkable. Also saw some more Monet, Da Vinci, Michaelangelo, etc at the National Gallery. The National Gallery is a bit like an album of B-sides from chart topping pop stars. Its got all the stars, but none of the hits. But still plenty of good stuff. Also saw a photo exhibit of Bob Dylan portraits at the Portrait Gallery, which was good but quite short. And a trip to the Tate modern, to see... I don't even know what half of t was. There was some rope.

I caught up with Wes for a drink, which was good fun. We went to a few bars near his work (which I got lost trying to find). Yes, the beer is kind of warm and kind of flat. But it's pretty good and a damn sight better than Emu Bitter or VB. And most of the bars we went to would find you drinking outside in the street as they are packed inside. It was nice to see Wes. Its so easy to have a conversation with Wes, and I always have a good time when we catch up. Also went to Brick Lane to get a curry, but it turns out its just like Lygon St with offers of discounts and free wine, so we ate a few streets away at an awesome Indian restaurant that I'll never remember the name of.

Went to Brighton for a day. Its near the sea, the beach is full of rocks and it's expensive for a coffee, but still kind of cool. Got a haircut, which has proved to be fine (with hindsight). Went for a walk down the pier and lost some change into those coin machine games. I used to love them as a kid.

Perhaps the highlight of London, or even the trip so far, was spending a day dragging Liz around bookshops, continuing my quest for a copy of Green Mars. I had previously though my goal complete on our first trip, until I got back home to discover I had in fact bought a second copy of Blue Mars. But this time, with some grit, determination, and visits to 12 bookshops, I finally found a copy. Then I saw another one in Forbidden Planet the next day, but I don't want to talk about it. I am enjoying the book thus far.

Anyway, we didn't have a hectic time, as we planned to spend the next week getting out and exploring the countryside, but I got a message, more a demand really, from Sam telling us to get over to Oslo.

So we did.

Buses

Just a quick note as I have catching up to do in regards to other travels, however this couldn't wait.

I am travelling on a bus from Oslo, Norway, to Gothenberg, Sweden. And there is free wifi. On the bus! Yet another reason why European transport is better than Australian transport.

And the Ashes starts in five minutes...

Iceland

We're back in the UK now after almost two weeks in sunny Iceland. Its been the highlight of the trip so far. I've never been anywhere remotely like it, the scenery running the gamut from a moonscape to mountains to desert. Except no forests. There's a joke about it.

So we spent the first four or five days in Reykjavik with Catherine, Liz's sister, who we stayed with for two days in the UK prior. I'll talk about the UK in a later post. So the three of us stayed in Reykjavik and went out to do some of the numerous tourist day trips you can do from there.

Our first trip out was to the Blue lagoon, a beautiful man made lagoon heated by the local geothermal plant. The water is full of silica particles, so its this incredible light blue colour and the silica is supposed to be good for your skin, which is why people rub big gobs of this pure white condensed silica mud all over themselves. Its a bus ride from Reykjavik, but we saw this tour you could do on Midsummers eve, where you hiked up a mountain and did a midnight swim there. What we didn't know was that the hike was quite difficult, it would be pouring with rain (and we had no wet weather gear) and the guides only spoke Icelandic. Anyway, after an uncomfortable hour and a half of climbing and descending(which would have been awesome, but for the weather), we got to the lagoon and relaxed. It seemed like a harrowing ordeal at the time, like this weather would actually kill us (the wind did threaten to blow you off the cliffs), but in hindsight, it was more just walking in drenched clothing that was unpleasant. Oh, and getting back into wet clothes after a swim for an hours bus ride home; well that sucked. But the lagoon was awesome.

We did the 'golden circle' tour, which was a bus ride to all these natural sights nearby. We stood in the rift valley created between the European and North American tectonic plates. We saw the spectacular Gulfoss waterfall, which was being buzzed by joyriding helicopters. We visited Geysir, and its surrounding geysers. And we went inside a geothermal plant.

Iceland loves showing off its renewable energy. We kept getting geothermal plants and hydro stations pointed out to us. Most of the countries energy is generated that way, and they have massive reserves of power untapped, so much power that they are building plants to run aluminium smelters over the country, effectively exporting some of that energy. And they have plans to generate hydrogen for fueling the cars they love so dearly. Also they use the waste heat to heat hot water which is then plumbed to every house for heating, thereby providing incredibly cheap heat and hot water, two things that are a major part of most peoples home heating bills.

We did another day trip out to landmannalaugar. Its an area in the central highlands, near the hekla volcano, that has a few geothermal springs. the spring runs into a river so you can jump in and sit in this lovely warm water, swim a few metres to glacial melt where its freezing cold, and then back again. Geologically its really interesting with incredible variety in the colour of the rocks. Its a long way from Reykjavik though, so we spent most of the day (around eight hours) on the bus to spend just two hours there, which is a bit of a waste. but we did see more hydro plants...

Liz and I then went up to Saudarkrokur to catch up with Kristinn. Kristinns family are the nicest people in the world. We really got looked after there, from his grandmother making sure we never went hungry between meals, to his aunt's fantastic and accommodating cooking, to the three story house rented for the wedding guest that we had command of. It was an absolute highlight to an already great trip. A couple of awesome things happened up near Saudarkrokur.

News of Michael Jacksons death ( i must be the last blog online to mention it...) broke when we were staying in Saudarkrokur. It was late, but still light outside. Kristinn was upstairs on the top floor having a drink after an evening playing whist with us and his parents. We heard a knock on the door, and I went out to balcony where Ross and Olga where waiting below. I told them they would have to climb the fire escape, which Ross did, bounding up to tell me Jackson was dead. He and I scrambled up the stairs to break the news to Kristinn. Fun.

We took a drive out the Grettislaug, a natural hot spring on the beach. On the way we climbed over a fence and wandered around a stream to get some photos of a cool waterfall, one of the many streams trickling down from Mt Tindastoll. Grettislaug was awesome, close to the water, but sheltered by rocks, and lovely and warm. Icelanders love to swim, it seems, and with so many natural or man made heated pools, why not make a habit of it.

There was a bonfire on the beach on Friday night, I'm not quite sure I recall the occasion, but there was a band playing next to the fire. Ross, Dean and I kicked an Aussie rules football around, attracting a bunch of local kids to join in. They kicked the flat regular football into the sea, so I ran across to the red house, suited up in my swimmers, climbed out onto the rocks and went in after it. The local men thought me strange on the way out, and I got some applause from the local kids. I've never felt water so cold, but once I got out I was quite fine, I had imgined the wind would chill me to the bone, but it was fine. I stood by the embers of the bonfire for a while, until I was told that Kristinns grandmother had seen me heading out and gone home to fire up the spa for me.

Sad to leave, we took a quick flight back to Reykjavik. Booking the flights on the Eagle Air Iceland site in English was twice the price (115 euro) of booking it via the site in Icelandic (9700 Kronur), luckily we had locals to call on our behalf. Then two nights relaxing and exploring Reykjavik, before back to the UK.

I could go on about Iceland, it was something truly special and remarkable, one of those memories you'll leave earth with. I'd go on, but Its something I'll do to each and everyone in turn in person whenever I see you.

Leaving italy

I'm on a plane now, an Airbus 319 bound for Stansted, London. Flying Easyjet, which so far seems ok, they have one of those speedy boarding systems where you can pay extra to board sooner. Fuck that. The plane still takes off at the same time. It seems to have more leg room than your standard Australian budget carrier and the plane is very clean. I just got served a blisteringly hot panini, it looks terrible. And they are trying to sell us lottery tickets. Yes, lottery tickets.

I like Italy. I do. It reminds me of my grandparents and great grandparents, which it should I suppose, they are Italian. Wandering through a citrus grove with lemon trees in bloom and mandarines littering the floors was a greatly nostalgic experience. That said, I'm happy to be heading off to England. I want to walk into a shop and buy something without have to think too hard. Oh, and a find an English bookshop. A good second hand bookshop with a big sci-fi section.

Italian traffic is kind of a force unto itself. The only way to cross the street is just to walk out and hope for the best. They park where-ever they feel like, on corners, on the footpath, in intersections. Cars will stop traffic in both directions so that the two drivers can have a chat (I was on a bus that did this for a couple of minutes as cars honked...). I'm glad I wasn't driving. And buses run early. Early. I don't get how a bus can leave before the scheduled time. But they do.

So we travelled around Italy for more than two weeks, saw a bit of the north and a bit of the south. I talked about the north already, so since then we headed back to Rome for a few nights and did the Roman tourist bit. We wandered around for an afternoon, seeing ancient ruins and modern ruins alike. We saw the Trevi fountain, tossing in our coin in the obligatory tourist bit. Saw the Spanish Steps, climbed the Spanish Steps, got harassed by rose sellers on the Spanish Steps and then Left the Spanish Steps. My favourite part of that afternoon was sitting in the Pantheon for a while. It was free, which at this stage of the trip is becoming important. But it was also spectacularly beautiful. I could sit in there for ages just admiring the massive dome ceiling. Its also got the tomb of Raphael in it, so its got that going for it too.

We did the Colosseum, we didn't really intend to go in, but we wanted to see the Roman forum which was all part of the same ticket (despite two different guide books insisting it was free...). The Colosseum was alright, I wouldn't have lost sleep if I didn't go inside though. The Palatine Hill was more interesting, lots of ruins and the like, and in the end we didn't see a lot of the Roman Forum, having had our fill with the Palatine and being dead tired by that point.

Went to the Vatican. Whilst we were ready for a long wait to get in, there was no real queue and we waltzed straight in. I was expecting to see shitloads of religious paintings, but it was actually a lot of Egyptian artifacts and other sculpture. After an hour or so though, its became rather repetitive, so we pushed on, and on, and on. It was ridiculously large, considering we sped through a lot of it and missed completely other sections. But the Raphael rooms were great. Awesome big frescoes wrapping around the rooms. Then the Sistine chapel. It was smaller than I thought, I was expecting something the size of St peters, and the panels of the fresco were quite small from the ground, but they are just awesome to look at. The Last Judgement and Creation of Man are worth the trip (though I probably spent longer looking at a large poster of Creation of Man in the gift shop than the actual painting...).

Then you get to St Peters square and the Cathedral. That's one big church. Another place you could spend ages just wandering around admiring how much money the church has. There is absolutely nothing spared in there, its all marble and statues and gold trim and... Wow the church has some money. Oddly enough (to me anyway) was the sound reinforcement system is big arrays of Bose 151 outdoor speakers. Black ones, spray painted the colour of Carrara marble. Odd. There was another Michelangelo sculpture inside, one of his Peita, which was also excellent, and very well lit from behind, so it made my photo look good.

Then we left Rome, onto Sorrento.

Circumvesuviana may just be the most awesome railway line in the world. It has a number of things going for it. Firstly, Pompeii. It has Pompeii as one of its stops. Then the is this stretch between Pozzano and Vico Equense. Its a tunnel the entire way through. Except for this tiny bit at Scrajo, a stop inside the tunnel where you an see a bit of daylight poking through, like a bit has been knocked out of the mountain. And then there is Seiano, a stop that's on a bridge, over a ravine. Cool.

I've been looking forward to Pompeii for a while and I really enjoyed it. Its remarkably preserved. I thought it was a tiny remote village, but it was quite an affluent town. The houses that you can wander through would have been wealthy estates and are very impressive. We saw some impressive frescoes, statues and columns. We saw some of the plaster cast of people killed (you can still see their skeletons sticking through the plaster) in the eruption. We saw the amphitheatre where Pink Floyd recorded a show. Most of the really cool artifacts have been rounded up and sent of to the Naples Archaeological Museum, which should be called the 'Naples Museum of cool shit we pinched from Pompeii'. We didn't go to the museum, so that'll be something to do next time I'm in Italy.

We took a day out to the Amalfi coast. Its a day that revealed to me several things, mainly my crippling dependence on coffee. I didn't have a cup in the morning and by mid day my decision making process was a bit fuzzy, choosing to walk into town instead of take a bus. By the time we reached Positano, I was basically on autopilot, we wandered aimlessly for 45 minutes before finding the way into town. Then I got irritable. Not that there was any reason not to. Positano isn't a very nice place. Its apparently 90% boutiques and 10% overpriced restaurants. Not my sort of place at all.

So we got another bus to Amalfi, where finally at 16 o'clock I had my first espresso of the day. Liz said you could see the colour return to my face as I drank that coffee. I instantly felt better and we had a good time in Amalfi. Its a nice enough little town, again heavy on the tourist trade, but it was more relaxed and there was evidence of life beyond tourism. So we wandered around for a while and caught a bus as that cup of coffee started wearing off. The trip is spectacular by the way, it twists and turns and winds around through the mountains along the cliffs that plunge into the sea. In my weakened state, I became quite car sick. I had to shut my eyes on that crowded bus and think about nice things for an hour and half. So I'm sure the Amalfi coast is quite nice, the moral of the story is that I need more coffee.

And we spent a day or two around Sorrento. We probably overstayed in Sorrento. We had originally planned to go to Capri as well, but after the Amalfi coast we'd seen enough tourist restaurants and ice-cream shops. Sorrento was actually nice, pretty touristy, but nice. Tourist traps are tourist traps because they are nice places to visit. But once they become totally geared towards that tourism, they really stop being nice places to visit. The views were nice, but I would rather have been somewhere else. Oh, and we saw fireworks. Over a few nights. Lots of them. Don't know what they were for.

So this has ended up being a marathon post, but I'm trapped on a plane, I'm bored and I have nothing to read. Oh wait, I do! I've got a copy of 'Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom'! Oh well, I'm going to read that now. I was going to make two posts out of this, but I can just see things banking up, so why bother.

Italia

As I waited for my computer to boot up I had a good hard look at my reflection in the screen. I've been travelling a month, and have grown a bit of a beard. My face looks tired for sure, and my eyes are a bit puffy due to hay-fever and less sleep than I would like. I looked hard to see if I'd gained any weight, but I couldn't really say.

I haven't had a haircut since we left, despite best intentions. I intend now to keep the beard until we get home, but I definitely need to loose the hair. I also tried to grow my fingernails, they got quite long at one stage, but I found it a bit of hassle, they kept breaking on things. I've abandoned a few items of clothing along the way, trying to reduce the amount of luggage I'm carrying. I've got too many books, I need to post some home when I get to London.

So, a month over, and I'm having a good time. I am keeping track of the days though, maybe that's not a good sign. We're not even half way through our trip, although it feels like we're nearing the end for some reason. We're on a train to Florence now, just leaving Lucca.

Lucca is one of those places that everyone gushes about and its pretty easy to see why. Its quaint. Not in a bad way, its just quaint. There's a massive wall that surround the city, massive in width, not height. There is a park on top of it that stretches all the way around and you can walk or ride a bike. We didn't do much in Lucca, we weren't even there 24 hours. But It was nice just to stroll through the back streets that remind me something of being lost in a Melbourne alleyway. We had a couple of drinks at this bar last night. It wasn't sheap for a glass of wine (4 euro) but there was this buffet antipasti on the bar that after an hour we realised was free. And its was full of tasty tidbits. We also had some cecina, a chickpea based snack, kind of like a pizza with no topping. It was cheap and awesome.

Before Lucca was the Cinque Terre, five villages set in the cliffs with this walking track that wins between them. The walking track takes you through all these vineyards and lemon groves, with tiny gardens everywhere and sheer cliffs below you in some spots. The villages themselves are nice, lots of little restaurants, cafes and souvenir shops. We spent a day walking the tracks and the next day took the train between villages. Incredibly picturesque, but I'm happy not to be climbing those tracks right now.

We stayed in La Spezia, which is a proper town about 10 minutes away by train. We had takeaway pizza by a water fountain and wandered up the hill through the middle of all these houses. Saw a lot of cats, which made me happy. Before La Spezia, we did the tourist dash through Pisa. Leaning tower, check. Bad photos, check. People say there's nothing more to Pisa than the Field of Miracles (where the tower and a few churches are) . I'm inclined to believe them.

So thats been the last few days, tommorow morning we are going to line up all day to try to get in to see David. We didn't reserve tickets (20 euro to reserve, vs 6.50 if you wait in line...), so I don't know if we will get in. I haven't hadd an internet connection for a few days, despite snatching a few minutes today to check on accomodation, so I need to catch up on news. I saw theres been a cabinet reshuffle and Andrew Symonds has been fired. I miss the internet...

Munich

Obligatory photo of person with beer larger than head.

Nutters surfing on in a river. A river.

The happiest vending machine mascot ever.

So we've made it to Rome. not that is was an epic trek, mainly we just had to sit on buses, but we've reached the end of the first part of our trip. That's the structured part over and done with, so now we have to plan out the next step. We're staying in the beehive (thanks Alex and Jane!), it's a nice apartment in central Rome. I'm drinking a Peroni as I type this, listening to the buses out our window. There is this little old Italian lady across the street who stares out her window smoking. Nice.

Munich was, as per usual, excellent. I keep saying that about each city we visit, but each city has its own set of charms and we probably aren't staying long enough to see the negatives. Anyway, Munich is pretty much as the postcards suggest. Giant beers and lots of them. Its a city geared towards beer drinking, so much so that they consider beer season to be the fifth season on the calendar. I drank my required 1.5 litres a day, and felt very Bavarian. Beer and sausage galore. plates of roasted meats. I felt quite at home despite not understanding anything said to me.

We did a day trip out to Neuschwanstein Castle, the castle Disney stole as the look for sleeping beauty's castle and the castle that Ludwig II built as an homage to Richard Wagner. It really is awesome countryside, you can point your camera anywhere and end up with a postcard.

We did the Venice thing and did it in style. In and out in two hours.We ran to St Marks Square, took a few photos on the canal and got a pizza. The pizza was great actually, we sat on this park bench and watched all these kids drinking beer in the square as we ate. Good people watching. Then we got the hell out of there. I'm sure there's lots to see in Venice, but really, I'm over canals and cobblestones.

We've bee in Rome two nights now, the weather has been pretty bad, but it seems nice out now. We're not doing any sight seeing as we're planning out the rest of our trip through Italy. We've booked some train tickets tomorrow to head through Pisa on our way to La Spezia, so we can go see the Cinque Terre. Then we're off to Florence, via Lucca. I don't know why, but I really want to see David for some reason.

Then we're going to head down south, then back to sight see in Rome before heading off to the UK next week. Looking forward to the rest of Italy, Rome so far hasn't done anything to impress me. That said, we've got a kitchen where we are, and if nothing else, I've really liked cooking again. Makes me yearn for my own kitchen. Then that reminds me I have no home anymore and I get depressed.

Later.

Austria and Formatting

So I managed to get a stable internet connection in Vienna for long enough to download a copy of Open Office. The power of formatting and fonts are mine! Mwoo-ha-ha! Using my preferred font (Rockwell, which I had to download separately)just feels so much nicer, even though this is going to get pasted into blogger and formatted into whatever font they use (turns out its Georgia). Oh well.

However, it does mean I can continue writing Koala Police Department. I started writing in Cesky Krumlov, but without being able to format the scripts it became a bit hard to keep track of. I've got the plotting done for around four or five more episodes, so I'll be scripting them as I travel, I'm still keen to make more episodes, at least up to episode 12, which will round out the first 'season'. Beyond that, we'll see. At this rate is will take another 6 years to get that far anyway...

Had a good time in Vienna. Its a nice place, a pretty place and yes, an expensive place. The hostel was pretty good though, a decent room and good facilities, a kitchen, lounges, nice courtyard and good enough internet for me to loose a few hours last night to wikipedia...

We went on a 'grape grazing' tour. You jump on a few trains and head out to the Wachau valley. Once there its straight into a winery for very generous 'tastes' of some wines. Then onto some bikes for a ride through the countryside. Then a stop for an awesome BBQ lunch (sausages! Pork chops! more wine!) and a bit of time for a dip in the freezing Danube river. Then more bike riding and a leisurely boat ride back to a quaint little town. We checked out the castle ruins at the top of this murderous hill climb, It was the prison where King Richard the Lionheart was imprisoned... You know, the one who rocks up at the end of Robin hood... Anyway, then you have to take three trains back get back to the city. Thing is, in most of Europe, its totally fine to drink booze on the trains. So we drank ten bottles of wine between the twenty of us on the tour.

After all that drinking we rocked back to town and decided it was a good idea to do a pub crawl. So far every stop theres been an organised pub crawl you can go on. We'd resisted thus far, but after a day of drinking we thought it might be good to chat a bit more to some of the people who we've been on the buses with for almost a month. We'll it was a good idea, but I remember now that I'm old and don't do late night drinking sessions out and about anymore. Anyway, we had to figure out how to catch a bus home at 2 in the morning, which was difficult as the drivers at that time don't speak english or don't want to make it easy for the drunks, so eventually we made it back in a cab, which turned out to be nice actually. Woke up with a hangover, not a severe one, but enough to take me a few hours to recover.

I'm having a good time right now, I was a bit worried that I'd get sick of travelling by this stage. We've still got two months before we're supposed to leave, and after a few more days we're off the bus and on our own. Kind of looking forward to loosing the 'structure' of the busabout coach. Its been fine, and its a pretty good way to get around, but I wouldn't do it again. Theres enough freedom to do what you want, but the pick up and drop off points being hostels mean that you end up staying at their accommodation for atleast one night, unless theres something else in walking distance. Its been a good introduction to Europe, but next time I'd probably do the rail pass thing. Looking forward to Italy, where we are going to make our own way around for a week or two.

More general thoughts on Europe so far:

Smoking. Lots more people seem to smoke, the smell of the smoke doesn't seem to bother me as much. The last rest stop had ashtrays in the toilet cubicles and by all the urinals. Two birds, one stone. Australia seems more progressive with its smoking restrictions, which seems strange that prohibiting something should be seen as progressive.

I miss television, but probably not as much as I thought I would. I'm keen to know what has happened to Jack Bauer (that is not an invitation for anyone to tell me...), really keen to see the rest of the Dollhouse (It got renewed for a second seaon! Awesome!) and kind of curious to see the end of Prison break (god knows why. That last season sucked). And then I think of new things that I must be missing. At least I got to see the end of Battlestar Galactica, I loved that show so much, and really enjoyed the finale

Have been thinking about work. I miss my job, I hope its still there when I get back. When I get back things will definitely have moved on without we there, so it will be interesting what kind of job I'll have when I return. Sometimes I think I'd like to move back to more of a sales role, I'd like to really get the shop floor sorted a bit better. But I think I'll probably have a lot of programming work to do. I imagine there is a three months worth of fix up work to do. There's also going to new toys to play with. I like new toys...

We're in the Czech Republic now, which I have to keep reminding myself not to call Czechoslovakia. The revolution that lead to separation of the two nations was called the velvet revolution, which is a good name for a revolution.

We spent a few days in Prague. My first impression was that it was a city where all the adults disappeared 15 years ago and the kids were left to figure out how to make it work themselves. Its fairly run down, in some places you can touch the walls and the limestone crumbles beneath your fingertips. But there dusting it of, restoring it and in ten years will be a bustling European metropolis.

Didn't do a lot in Prague. We had a coffee at this cubist cafe, but didn't visit the museum of cubism. Went to the castle and wandered around, but didn't go inside. Saw a museum which had a tractor exhibit, but didn't enter. We're getting pretty weary of museums and what not. It seems that every city has a torture museum, a wax museum and a Salvador Dali exhibit. And a busker playing Oasis covers.

Bought a book of Kafka stories, as when your in Prague you should be reading Kafka. It's called 'The Basic Kafka' and its one of those books that's just dense small text, when a story finishes, the next one starts below it. I like its style. I finished 'The Metamorphosis', which was good. I'll read some more of the smaller passages later. I've also finished Asimov's 'The Naked Sun', which was pretty good also.

I'm haunting any English language bookshops I can find to try to dig up a copy of 'Green Mars'. I finished 'Red Mars'  which was awesome and I bought a copy of 'Blue Mars' in a secondhand bookshop in Amsterdam, it's teasing me sitting there in my suitcase unable to be read until I find a copy of 'Green Mars'. And of course its a big book, adding extra weight to my suitcase .

We're in Cesky Krumlov now, its a small town that we're staying extra time in to relax. All this travelling (5 countries in less that two weeks) has started to be a drag, so we're being dead lazy here. We're in this great guesthouse, so we're pretty much just lazing about reading and eating. The foods been good here, and cheap. I keep saying beer is cheap everywhere I go, but a half litre of beer for a buck fifty is awesome. Good beer too, although not as good as in Belgium.

So we're here until Sunday and then onto Vienna. I'm feeling a bit more energised after two days here already and looking forward to getting back into the travelling rhythm. Still a few more weeks in continental Europe, then off to the UK, Iceland (which I'm super pumped for) and Scandinavia.

mainly Berlin

In Prague now, which is agreeable thus far. I actually really like the room we are in, its this loft, 9 flights of stairs up, with two windows that open a little. You can stand on tip-toes and strain to see a rather cool view of the city. Right now I'm sitting in an easy chair under one of the windows, the sounds of a local soccer match drifting in. Its a couple of blocks away at a small stadium, but the crowd is really belting out the tunes, Which I'm sure are the Czech equivalents of 'your going home in the back of a divvy van'.

I should talk about Berlin, I suppose. Berlins a great city, I didn't see everything I wanted to, but I saw plenty still. the Jewish museum, the memorial to murdered European Jews, the homosexual memorial, Brandenburg gate, the wall, a bunch of museums. All in all, plenty to keep you occupied (get it - occupied... groan). Didn't see the East Berlin museum, I'd really like to see that sometime.

So much has happened in the recent history of Germany, Berlin in particular, you just kind of wonder whats going to happen next. In all though I found Berlin as a city not trying to deny its shady past but to try to move forward. And its poor, apparently. "Poor, but sexy" Berlin's gay mayor likes to say. Lots of construction projects. Lots of demolition projects. Things in Berlin have been burnt down and rebuilt a lot. And the weirdest thing was this district with massive scaffolding covered in vinyl that look like buildings. Big Fake buildings. Crazy.

The Jewish museum was a real highlight, a real architectural treat. Designed by Daniel Lieberskind, its zigzag structure sets up all these really interesting spaces and voids. There's forced perspective to some of it too, and the architecture really enhances the experience, creating this disorienting uncomfortable space. There is a room called the "Memory Void', which I won't describe but you definitely see if your in Berlin.

Its a similar feeling at the Jewish memorial, this sloping undulating land with all of the blocks standing upright creating something like a maze for you to wander through. The entire structure is coated in this finish that makes graffiti wipe right off (there were seven swastikas painted there in the first year...). Unfortunately, the company that makes that coating is a subsidiary of the company that manufactured the gas used to kill millions of Jews during the war. So there is a bit of resentment about it from the Jewish community.

Across the road is the homosexual memorial, to those who were killed during the war. Its a big ol' block of concrete that has a window in it. When you peer in to see whats up, its a video of two dudes kissing. I thought it was cool.

We stayed near the massive soviet built TV tower. An awesome, big phallic icon of communist might. However it backfired on the godless commies, as when the sunlight hits its massive glass bulb it refracts as a massive cross, a veritable beacon to the almighty. The locals call it the 'Popes Revenge'.

If any of the above sounds like I paid attention on a bicycle tour of the city, its because I did. As I rode around I found myself thinking of Justin a fair bit, especially when we reached the big statue of Marx and Engels. You can go sit on Uncle Karls lap and get a photo, although I didn't. I think Justin would have liked it here.

Berlin, and now in Prague, 15 or so years after the velvet revolution  have had me thinking about how different the map of Europe is now compared to a century ago. As a kid I thought maps were permanent and didn't realise they were constantly in flux. Strange to think of the changes in just my lifetime, that when I was a child this city was divided down the middle and people died trying to cross it. It makes me wonder what things will look like by the end of the century.

The crowd outside is getting really riled up now. We're going to try find a local pub to eat some goulash, or I will anyway, don't know what Liz will eat.

Moments from Berlin. Words coming later.

Germany

I started writing another entry as we left bruges, but was in a bitchy mood so I wont post what I wrote. 

We are just about to cross into Germany, having done just spent three days in Amsterdam and two days in Bruges. 

Bruges, well I liked Bruges. A fellow traveller (an aussie who was deported from the UK for having the wrong visa) had a saying amongst his friends: 'Don't go all Bruges on me'. Fair enough, I can see his point, its pretty soft, but I really enjoyed it. It was rammed with tourists, something that must annoy the locals to no end, but they seem to get on with their lives and ignore us the best they can. Had a funny little map guide written with a great sense of humour.

The beer was everything I'd been let to believe and more. It got me thinking why I stomach the piss back home. I tried to drink as widely as I could and didn't find anything disagreeable, I drank mainly things I'd never heard of, as the popular ones are exported anyway. Even Liz got into it, the Kriek or cherry beer she found enjoyable.

I was wondering how we would find Amsterdam before we got there. Its a bit of a weird one, again, very touristy, but a lot more locals a lot more intent on hitting you with their bikes. Bikes everywhere. Everywhere. Didn't get a lot of pictures in Amsterdam, having been told that a lot of the locals in the more colourful districts don't like cameras. A lot of pimps will break them or you. Fair enough.

My blistering coffee addiction hit in Amsterdam, our hostel not providing my morning cups of coffee. In fact, the entire hostel was terrible. under renovation, poorly organised, no internet, no kitchen, and the smells. We had to shift rooms, ending up in a sightly nicer one that had an en suite (6 beds though), but then we smelt the en suite. I've never been accused of being clean and therefore have known my fair share of rotten smells, but something in that bathroom was unnatural. I smell that bad can not occur conventionally, but would have to be specially manufactured by a team of evil chemists.

But back to my coffee woes, It turns out there are two kinds of coffee shop in Amsterdam. One that sells coffee (a cafe) and one that sells coffee and dope (a coffee shop). I had images of a drug fueled utopia with everyone smiling and helping each other out, wandering the streets in a stupor and eating snack food everywhere. Well, its kind of like that, but mainly its a lot of people working in cafes who keep forgetting what you ordered. But we did find a big park that was mainly full of stoners wandering around and playing frisbee. It was called Vondelpark, and its great fun adding 'Vondel' to the start of words. Try it and you'll see.

Saw a couple of good museums. The Rijkmuseum was pretty cool, lots of stuff about the powerful Dutch navy and traders whom I respect from to many hours playing as them in Sid Meiers Pirates. Also a bunch of Rembrandts. I didn't realise how awesome Rembrandt was before, but he kicks arse. Also some of his students were cool, and Vermeer was also excellent. I much preferred the Dutch masters to a lot of the Italian and French Renaissance pieces I saw in the Lourve.

The sexmusuem was cheap, both in euros and in general. A musuem full of pornography from the  last century, exactly as good as it sounds.

Anne Franks house was very moving. Wandering around those rooms really gets into your stomach and twists it in a very emotional way. I've not read the book (Liz is reading a copy next to me right now) but I knew the story and to really have it played out in front of you like that was saddening. Its just one story out of millions of the tragedy of world war two.

Well, I didn't think I'd write that much about Amsterdam, but there you have it. We've just crossed into Germany now and for some reason they've put a DVD of Greys Anatomy episodes on the bus. So I guess this is as good a place as any to stop writing. Read into that what you will.

Told you so.

I want this on a postcard.

Is this thing on?

Hmm.  So it seems that I didn't bother to put open office onto this laptop. Not really a problem, as I prefer notepad in many ways. anyway, I'm writing this offline as I'm on the bus on the way to Bruges, currently we are passing through the La Somme region in France. I'm still not sure if this will be a blog, a group email, maybe a private one (or a group one that I personalise. But anyway, here are things I have learned.

European hand drying technology is superior to Australian hand drying technology. The hand sensors actually work. your hands dry quicker. amazing. The most amazing is the Dyson air blade, I've only seen it in airports, but its like drying your hands with a thermo-nuclear weapon.

Coffee is affordable, or at least if you drink espresso. really, the rest of a cup of coffee is just filler anyway. An espresso is between 1 - 1.5 Euro, where as a flat white, cappuccino, etc is double that. Its always struck me as odd that in Australia, a short black is only slightly cheaper than a flat white, despite all that extra milk and labour to heat and pour. I need to check the price of a cup of tea, as it annoys me back home when you pay the same as for a coffee and get given a cup of water and a tea bag.

I found the tackiest urinal in the world. And it was right at our first hostel! Picture to follow.

Paris was spectacular. The entire city is built to beat you over the head with a sense of history and culture. My gosh the money that has flowed through those streets. It seems like if something was worth building, it was worth building to excess. Its probably just that those places are the ones that are preserved, restored and expanded upon. The scale of places like theMusee de Louvre and Chateau de Versailles we're quite unbelievable. No wonder the peasants revolted (I really don't understand the French revolution, but I'm sure I'm going to look it up on wikipedia at some point.)

I have no cohesive wi-fi strategy at this point. I guess I'll just latch onto as much free wi-fi as I can at hostels and pay for access when I need to. That combined with my crippling laziness will mean sporadic updates at best, which is probably fine, as I'm sure you don't need daily updates on how much fun I am having. Pictures will follow too as I figure out a flickr account or some such.

My coffee addiction is quite bad. The first two hours of this trip I was surly and uninspired, a mood I am blaming on breakfast coffee at the hostel which I am convinced was decaf. I guess I am going to have to carry a jar of instant and a spoon for the duration of the trip.

On speaking french. After being told that its a good idea to try to speak a little of the language as a gesture of good faith, I now think its not worth the effort. Every bonjour gets me nowhere. I wait in line to say 'Bonjour, Un Cafe' S'il vous plait?", and every time I'm greeted by a "hello". I know think its just a waste of both our times waiting for me butcher the french language, so from here on I'm going to open all conversations with "g'day".

Drinks here come in centilitres. I remember being told by a builder that centimetres are a unit of measure taught to children as they can't grasp the more accurate millimetre. Not that I'm commenting on European education standards.

Anyway, We are almost in Belgium now, headed across the border in a coach filled 95% with Australians. I hoped to see less of them on this trip, we have plenty back home. So I'll end this here, hopefully I'll have some access to post it in the near future. Otherwise this all becomes some bastard journal, to be read back after my trip is over, highlights mixed with photos and set to music and burnt to DVD. No, that's a bit too much.

-Troy