In the Middle

France - Germany - Austria

2011-04-17T17:19:00.000+12:00

Better late than never... So from Tours, France we rode through the Loire Valley with heaps of other tourists, none of which came all the way from Andalusia, most came from their support van at the top of the hill. It was nice through there. Then we opted to take a train to Strasbourg as we were super keen on seeing some of Germany and our time was slowly running out. We had to change trains in Paris which resulted in a urban ride from Gare d'Austerlitz via 8 lane round abouts to Gare d'Est for a speedy TGV ride East.

A Chateau in the Loire Valley

Another Chateau in the Loire Valley

Strasbourg

Strasbourg was fun, with Kronenbourg brewery tours and lots of canals, and was starting to feel a lot like Germany. The difference between it, and the citys and towns in the West of France was quite remarkable. From there we started following the Rhine then crossed into Germany proper. After getting caught in the rain and lost on a walking track in the Black Forest we eventually go to Pforzheim to stay with a good friend's family. It was nice to hang out with some Germans as we arrived in the country as we learnt a little language and got a little accustomed to what was going on.

Hidelbourg

Navigating Germany bike paths along the Danube/Donau

Distracted by Volksfest / Beer festivals constantly

From Pforzheim we rode beside rivers (Rhine, Necar, Jangst, Danube) along the extensive and fantastic German bike paths. We didn't really even have a map they were so awesome (way different from Spain! Although it took a lot of the fun navigating and adventure out of it...). Heidelberg and Rothenburg ob der Tauber were very cool, the rain for our few weeks in Germany was not. The beer was fantastic, especially with a massive pretzel.

Action shot of Steph cruising in Germany

Still shot of me stuck in the rain in Germany

Stopped by a wedding party on the bike path... we got champagne!

Beautiful Austria. No rain!

We then pulled into Vienna on August 22nd, a little over 3 months since we landed in Malaga, Spain. We clocked up 3,261kms on our bikes and had at least that many adventures along the way. Only 1 flat tire (thank you Kevlar reinforced touring tyres!) and one serious break down (thank you Madrid bike shop!). All in all a fantastic trip, I would highly recommend cycling as a good way to see Europe next time you are there.

After Vienna we hitched to Budapest for a few nights, flew to London for a few nights, trained to Paris for Steph's Birthday, then bus to Cologne then train to Dusseldorf. From Dusseldorf we just made our flight back to Portland with a stop for a beer in San Francisco with a friend. After 10 days in Portland we came back to New Zealand to be kiwis for a bit.

That was our trip.

Oh, one more thing. I took this little video in Germany, just to show you that it did in fact rain:

France: South West

2010-08-02T22:36:00.000+12:00

So over the Pyranees we went into France. There wasnt even a sign to indicate the border, we only knew for sure we were in France when people started greeting us with Bonjour rather than ola.

The Pyranees and Spain well behind us

We spent a few day biking through French Basque country, avoiding the rain and eating heaps of the tastiest, softest, freshest pastries I have ever had. We then got to Salies de Bearn which was to be the starting place for Stage 18 of the Tour de France.

The chaos before the race

The Tour was nuts. The night before the town was pretty much deserted, then in the morning the Tour Caravan rolled in with all the support crews and hundreds of sponsors vehicles. It was about 4 hours of watching sponsors and officials speeding up and down the road before the cyclists zipped past.

The front line of the Tour de France

The day after the Tour did the stage we followed their lead and managed to get 123kms of the 198km stage done in a day... but we stopped for a longer lunch and many more snacks than Lance did.

Farms, trees and the occasional pretty town... thats rural France

So we hit St Emilion. which is a old town in the middle of the Bordeaux wine region. This made for nice rolling hills and plenty of wine tastings. We took a day to explore the area on our bikes with none of our gear on, it was so much lighter and easier!

The view from St Emilion over the vineyards

From St Emilion we rode another big day to Perigeux. Then from Perigeux north into the Dordogne region, more hills than we normally like, but lots of really nice town and chateaux.

Just a 7th century church in a field of sunflowers...

We then looked at a map a realized that we cant possibly do bike the 1000 odd kiliometers to Germany and have time to explore there, so are now taking the odd train and about to bike through the Loire Valley from here in Tours. Oh, and we have now hit 2000kms of cycling, I dont know about you, but I am impressed!

Confloens: One of many pretty towns.

Spain: The top

2010-07-29T07:07:00.000+12:00

Here is the latest installment on our Europe by Bike adventure. I am on a french keyboard, so apologies for the more frequent typos. We spent a few nights in Burgos, caught the town festival which was tasty, then made a very tough decision to go North. We had wanted to go West to Galacia, having even already got a map, but with only a few months left Germany wasn;t getting any closer.

Burgos

The North of Castile y Leon was very pretty, and hilly. We were very happy with some well placed canyons and gorges which went through, rather than over, the hills.

Handy Gorge

We then crossed over into Cantabria, and we started really seeing the green of Spain. It was so so so much greener, heaps of trees, grass growing in the empty sections rather than dust.

The hills of Cantabria

Luckily we had been on a massive plateu, so although it was pretty tough biking up to the passes, we had some nice downhills to the coast.

Bikes on a Boat in Santander

We spent a few nights in Santander, then to Laredo for a few nights and the WORLD CUP FINAL. We had wanted to be in a big city for the final, but I reckon we couldnt have handled much more than the big party Laredo threw. Good times all round. Everyone was super stoked.

CastroUrbaniles... pretty boats and a good Kebab

One of many crowded beaches along the coast

We then cruised along the coast, which wasnt nearly flat enough, to Bilbao. The Guggenheim Museum was very very very awesome. I have always been sceptical of contemporary art, but the stuff here was amazing, it messed with you senses and looked really cool. I cant possibly do it justice by telling you about it, either go to the Museum or ask me in person so I can use my arms while talking.

The Guggenheim

From Bilbao we snuck over to Barcelona to see a friend and check out the city. It was big, fun, tasty and international.

Sagra Familia catherdral in Barcelona

So back to the bikes in Bilbao; we cruised along the coast; spent some time in San Sabastion and Irun: then went inland to Navarra for about an hour before heading to France over the Pyranees.

The Basque Coast

Well; actually the foothills of the Pyranees; but I will claim it! So now we are in France. No more really good jamon, lomo and chorizo. No more Cruzcampo, Mahou or Estrella. I will miss tapas... Spain was, and is, freaking awesome, we loved it. But if you are going to bike there, be warned it is rather mountainous.

Mountain bike path in Navarra to avoid a motorway.

I will post on France in a while. Right now I am going to call Mum and Dad. They should be out of bed....

Spain: The bottom and the middle

2010-07-02T23:32:00.000+12:00

So we left the farm in Villanueva de San Juan just under a month ago. Since then we haven´t seen too many internet cafes so I have been slow in getting any photos up, but here they are, and there are heaps.

After the farm we road to Carmona, which is 20kms from Sevilla. We opted not to tackle the big city roads, and instead spent the night here then bussed in to town. We had no where to sleep until we found a super friendly shepard just outside town that was more than happy for us to camp with his sheep.

Our first night free camping near Carmona

We spent a few night in Seville, had fun just hanging out and recovering after our first days ride. Staying in an 15th century convent which is now a very reasonably priced hotel in the historic centre and exploring the Alcazar and other interesting things.

Seville by night

From Seville/Carmona we continued through Andalusia towards Cordoba. We camped the night half way between at a campsite which was unfairly located atop a steep hill.

Our bikes between Seville and Cordoba

Yellow Flowers! and a castle. Near Almodovar del Rio

Cordoba

We spent a few nights in Cordoba, got some bells for our bikes so we could communicate better on the road, and watched some more world cup games. After that we headed north into the mountains. We biked for a few days, sleeping in a random bar in the mountains, meeting some locals who gave us an awesome lunch of ham from his own farm, trying not to get too hot and struggling to find the All Whites on TV anywhere.

We then took a sneaky little bus for a few kms over the hardest part of the mountain... this is a holiday after all! We were then out of Andalusia and onto our second map: Castille - La Mancha, the home of Don Quijote, unending flat plains, windmills and castles. We plotted a route to Toledo over the flattest ground we could find and made really good time, the best day being 99kms!

Somewhere in Castille-La Mancha

Windmills in La Mancha... just like Don Quixote!

The beautiful sight of Toledo as we came over the last hill.

We reached Toledo a few days later and relaxed for a few days. The highlight being in an Irish pub full of Italians while the All Whites smashed them... a draw was as good as a win for NZ as far as everyone in that bar was concerned.

Madrid, so many people!

We then got on our bikes and headed towards Madrid.... about 20kms into the ride Stephs derailer snapped off! As good as our bike repair skills are this was way beyond just wiring something back together. So we jumped on a bus to Madrid, thankful to not have to navigate the freeways and streets of the massive city. We spent a few days appreciating the massive diverse city: Mexican food, modern art and NZ almost making to to the second round of the world cup.

From Madrid by train to Segovia, with its awesome Alcazar (Palace/Fortress) and Roman Aqueduct.

The very impressive Roman Aquaduct in Segovia

Pretty people in Segovia

From Segovia we rode towards Burgos, which is about 230kms. It took us three days, with one night camping in a small forest just outside for a small town, we were lucky to catch the owner (or some dude who we think was the owner..) and got permission, which is always nice. And a night in the park of another town after we met the Mayor in the bar and he said it was all good! This is all in Castille y Leon, our 4th province. It is so so so so green compared to everywhere else we have been, its really refreshing.

One of the many pretty, quiet and not too steep roads we travel on.

Free camping in a forest near San Miguel de Benuy

So we got to Burgos two days ago after some really good riding through gorges, rolling hills, small towns and even the odd forest and park. And thats it. Currently we are back in Madrid for a few days to see a friend, before heading back to Burgos to get our bikes and head.... East, West or North... not sure which yet!

One last picture to show you how hard core we are.....

1000kms!!! and counting.

Spain: Ronda

2010-06-05T02:35:00.000+12:00

Our first big bike adventure was a couple of days ago, we rode from here on the farm to Ronda, which is about 60km´s away. On the map it looked loke a pretty easy ride, but unfortunatley I don´t have a topographical map, so we weren´t aware of the mountains we were going to ride over. Aside from the tough ride, insane heat and lack of a big breakfast it was an awesome ride.

View towards Pruna and Olvera from Sierra del Tablón

Southern Spain consists mostly of the Province of Andalusia, and we got a good tast for it riding through many small villages, over the mountain ranges and around fields of grain, olives and pastures. For me the best part is not the amazing scenery but the numerous tight little villages, the Moorish ruins, and massive churches everywhere. Its totally unlike NZ in that so much has happened in such a small space.. the Romans, the Moors, the Catholic influnce... and much more.

Olvera.

We passed through many cool towns, Olvera was atop a hill with a big church and good ice cream... Setenil de las Bodegas was built in to a cliff and had excellent meats.. and even the little towns that to a local were probably little nothings (like Geraldine..? ) seemed to us to be pretty and exciting with there plazas, narrow streets and refreshing little cafes.

The edge of Ronda.

We got into Ronda at about 8pm.. it was a long day, but we took lots of breaks and a long siesta along the way... also it was also our first big ride and it got to 38 degrees! We got a room at a nice little pension (cheap hotel) then went out and got some good tapas.

Steph and I looking over the edge. Its a good 80m down.

The next day we did some proper exploring around town. It was a little touristy, but for good reason. The town is situated on top of an 80m cliff, with part of it on another out crop connected by an big old bridge.

The gorge that runs through Ronda.

The town was built by the Moors back when the controlled this place. The Islamic history is really really interesting.. Andalusia is named from al Andalu and the locals say oholallah (sp?), which means the same as inshallah (God willing).

The "New Bridge" that spans the gorge. Built in the
1700´s.

So we rode back from Ronda a few nights later, and were stoked to discover the first 40kms of the return leg was generally downhill. So we got to Pruna, which is 20kms from the farm, in time for a late breakfast. We are not so sore and are looking forward to starting our big trip, during our siestas on the farm we are looking at different routes and places to visit.

Thats all for now, next time I post will be in a few weeks, probably from Seville, or Cordoba... or somewhere else in Europe..

Cheers!

Spain: Villanueva de San Juan

2010-06-05T01:08:00.002+12:00

Steph and I are in Spain! We arrived here on the farm near Villanueva de San Juan via Malaga. We were one night and a day in Malaga, but that was spent putting out bikes together and fixing flat tyres... we saw a little bit of the town, and had a nice seafood dinner. From there is was a 1.5hr train to Almargen where we were picked up by a friend of the farms owner and dropped here. In case you were wondering, we found this farm on helpexchange.net, we look after the farm and have a free place to stay. Win win.

The entrance to the farm... this photo is deceptively green.

The farm itself is not so large and sits in a beautiful Andalusian valley. Surrounded by lots of olive groves, dry hills and the occasional non-olive tree. We are currently responsible for about 6 dogs, 14 chickens, a large plot of potatoes and some tomoatoes. There are apricots for the pickin, and we are prepping the house to be painted. But when you are getting up at 10am, and siesta is for 4 hours in the afternoon, you don´t have so much time for work...

Two of the dogs we look after... good dirty outside farm dogs.

Before we left Portland we got outselves a couple of touring bikes, panniers and all, so that after our little farm stay, we can head north and explore Europe. They have come in really handy here too as the closest town is 3kms away. Although I say we are in Villanueva de San Juan, which is a small village about 3kms away(population approx. 500), Algarmitas is a flatter and easier ride. It has about 5 bars, a supermarket and about 500 people as well.

Algarmitas, our local town.

We head there for a Cruzcampo (the local brew) or a tinto de verano (red wine and lemonade) and to get some food every couple of days. Tractors, horses and old people are always cruising the streets which is fun. Most of the people in the towns are either retired or children as there isn´t much work here.

The view from our bedroom door.

So thats abou it really. We are just hanging out on the farm, eating dinner at 11pm, learning a little Spanish, biking to nearby villages for a drink, and trying to stay cool (its 35+ degrees every day!). Sometime within the next few weeks we will be heading off on our big biking adventure... if anyone knows any nice flat routes from the south of Spain to Dusseldorf in Germany (we fly out from there September 8th), do let me know.

Looking down the driveway along the valley.

USA: Florida

2010-05-18T12:48:00.001+12:00

Hello all. So we have left Toronto. No more Canada for us for a while. All we saw was Ontario and a little of Montreal, but we loved it, and Toronto was really good to us. I am now a Blue Jays / Raptors fan, which I hear makes for promising starts of seasons, but disappointing finishes..

Anyway... after Toronto we went to Florida, 5 days in North Miami Beach, and then a night down in Key Lago. Miami was fun, the beach is awesome, the hotels and bars super fancy and the city pretty neat.

Little Havana in Miami.

View from the front of our place in Miami Beach.

Miami Beach proper.. looking North to Ft. Lauderdale (I think)

The highlight by far for me was visiting the Everglades National Park. Its a super massive wetlands in the south of Florida with a whole bunch of wild life. We only did a small hike, but saw so many fish, turtles, big birds... and most excitedly, alligators. There was no barrier between the track and all this wildlife, but luckily the alligators are nocturnal and were happy to bask in the sun, rather than try and eat us.

In the Everglades.

Real Alligators. Real Close. No Fence.

That's about it really. My writing skills are getting worse by the minute... Now Steph and I are in Portland, and are packing up our new touring bikes into boxes and getting ready for a flight to Malaga on Wednesday. Come Friday we will be relaxing on our farm near Villanueva de San Juan, Spain for about six weeks before embarking on our first long distance bike ride... we aren't really sure what we are getting into, but I am sure it will be awesome.

Adios Amigos!

Canada: Toronto, Haliburton Highlands

2010-03-14T06:32:00.000+13:00

College and Ossington, near Little Italy. That's how I tell a local where I live, Toronto is all about the intersections. Dundas and Young, Bloor and Bathurst, Concord and our Driveway, all the big ones. We moved to Toronto about 9 months ago to make our fortunes and to experience a hard winter. We found a nice studio basement apartment and jobs relatively quickly but are yet to go to an (ice) hockey game. Toronto has been fun, and the winter surprisingly mild (or maybe we are just tougher than we thought). We have discovered some neat things here and had some fun exploring the city, and also getting away to Montreal, and around the States.

Our street with a little bit of snow

Looking towards downtown from China Town

Toronto Raptors game. I was going to be a fan, until I went to one game where they just didn't want to win.. it was embarrassing.

One of the highlights for me was getting away to Cottage Country (the Haliburton Highlands) and getting some snow shoeing and dog sledding done. Everyone in Toronto always talks about their Cottage, or that they are off to Cottage Country, and as far as I know, Cottage Country is everything in Ontario north of Toronto... I am not sure how the locals feel about that, but it is pretty. There are no mountains though, and I usually associate pretty nature with mountains, but the rocks, lakes and trees made up for it. Dog sledding was by far the most awesome part. Those dogs can pull! And they love it too which was nice. We got to drive the sleds, yelling commands at the dogs and everything.

Our Siberian Husky Team. 5 dogs: Cosmo, Angel, Governor, Dragon and Firefly.

One of the lead dogs, I think his name is Cosmo.

I'm standing on a lake! Next to an Ice Road!

So now that Steph and I have quit our jobs I can tell you what we are doing next... if I knew. We are for sure leaving Toronto by the end of April and heading to the States (Florida and Oregon) to see the family then we hope to head to Europe and see what adventures we can find. I am sure once we are adventuring and not just living somewhere then this blog will be a little more up to date.

Cheers.

PS What! A post on Toronto without a picture of the CN Tower, Ice Skating or a TTC Street Car! Well, I don't actually have any awesome photos of those thing. But here is a nice show of Queen St.

Queen St looking West past the old Town Hall

USA: DC, Philidelphia, Boston

2010-03-14T06:24:00.000+13:00

So the plan was to explore the NE of North America from Toronto much like I did Europe from London, on really cheap flights and speedy trains... unfortunately neither of those things exist here. BUT rental cars are dirt cheap! You can get a car for $12 a day sometimes. So we managed a few adventures down into the States. The first trip took us down through New York and Pennsylvania to Washington DC (9hr drive) for a couple of days and then to Philadelphia. DC is very awesome, all the sights you see on TV, heaps of flags, awesome free Smithsonian Museums (we only got time to see one, the Air and Space museum), excellent happy hour specials and a feeling that something important is happening behind every door.

Somewhere in Pennsylvania, I wouldn't try and paint that roof.

Now for some lazy writing... bullet points! Highlights of the trips included:

Dunkin donuts
Learning new words like Turn Pike
Being close to history: driving near Gettysburg, being where they signed the Declaration of Independence.
Visiting the Basketball Hall of Fame
Philadelphia Cheese Steaks... man, they are good!
Bostons almost European feel, mostly due to narrow streets.
Having a pint of Sam Adams in the original Cheers pub. The beer was expensive for America, but what I would consider a cheap pint in Toronto.
Really good hot, fresh Apple Pie in a small town somewhere in upstate New York.
Getting another 6 month US tourist visa at the border by a really nice immigration officer.

Unhighlights:

NZ Drivers licence not being acceptable ID
Driving through Massachusetts.. its just a freeway going through trees... pretty trees... but similar trees.
Understanding direction from Google about how to go around a round about.. the third right = turn left.
Canadian Consulate in DC... they need some pointers from the US Immigration guy in Buffalo (see highlights above)
Only going for a long weekend.

Seen as no one reads this, they just scan the photos, here are some more.

Me, the White House and one of my favourite T-shirts that I had to retire.

Capitol Hill - you can almost see the lack of progress on Health Care...

An ACTUAL Apollo capsule. Air and Space Museum

One Liberty Bell... Philadelphia.

That's about it really. I don't really have any photos of Philadelphia or Boston. Mostly as we were just hanging out, not doing the exploring thing. They were some good trips though. The plan was to get to New York City too, but that didn't happen... not this time at least.

USA: Oregon

2009-07-25T12:30:00.007+12:00

Here is a quick run down on my last six weeks living in Portland, Oregon, United States of America. Portland is a pretty neat city, considered by some to be one of the hippest places in America at the moment. Much cooler weather than the scorching spring I had in Davis, CA, and contains many more hills and trees.

Downtown Portland.

Some things that were awesome in Portland:

Boating through downtown on a tube behind the boat along the Willamette River.

Seeing Peter Pretrelli from HEROES in a pub while enjoying some Pabst.

Being able to get hot meat pies and grilled cheese (cheese toasties) from some of the many food carts around the city

Going to a Matisyahu concert in an old ballroom with springy floors.

Enjoying a pint.... in an primary school... which is now a pub. Small bars in detention and the honours room, movie theatre with couches in the school hall... beer everywhere.

Serving Loser Pale Ale to hundreds of thirsty punters at the Oregon Brewers Festival.

A ranch/farm (?) on the road to Astoria. Ranches have animals, Farms have crops.

Aside from the good times in Portland, we were able to go on some small road trips around the place. One was to Astoria out on the mouth on Columbia river on the coast.

Mt Hood

Another trip was to Central Oregon. After spending so much of my time in Portland (and up and down the I-5) I was surprised to learn that most of Central and Eastern Oregon is all desert. We camped in Smith Rock State Park, which is situated in the High Desert. Some neat rock formations and classic North American scenery (or what I stereotyped North American scenery to be before I got here).

Smith Rock State Park

On the way back we drove along the Columbia river, around Mt Hood and back into town. A good adventure. Oh, and we got some really really good donuts at this place in Sandy:

I love Donuts.

So my American adventure (Part 1) is almost at a close. I would like to impart some important lessons I learnt while here in America, based mostly on my previous false assumptions:

American Beer is good. Damn good. Forget about all the Buds, Millers, etc, there is heaps of other good beer here. Pabst is the best cheap one.

Peanut Butter is indeed far more versatile than we give it credit. It can go on anything, is good by itself, and is a meal when applied to bread.

There is heaps and heaps of nature! Admittedly I have only seen the West Coast, but I imagined far more free-ways and suburbs... but California and Oregon are rather sparsely populated, and there are trees and lakes and parks everywhere.

Politics seem to very rather important to a lot of people, I found "fair enough" to be an indispensable part of my vocabulary.

104F is very very hot, especially when you are painting a barn roof under the Californian sun.

Lots of Nature...

Next Tuesday Steph and I fly out to Toronto, Canada to start the next chapter. I already have a few job interviews lined up (quite different from the two months spend bumming around in London) and have a couch to surf. So if anyone is in Toronto in the next year or so, pop on in.

Cheers.

USA: Big Trees, Deserts and Ocean

2009-04-09T09:03:00.005+12:00

So Steph and I got hold of a car for a couple of weeks and over Spring Break went on a little road trip. The plan was to get to the Grand Canyon, but due the massiveness of this country it just wasn't feasible. We ended up doing some camping at two national parks: Sequoia National Park and Joshua Tree National Park.

Me on some rocks over looking the Sierra Nevada's in Sequoia National Park

We started out camping in Sequoia National Park which is in the South of the Sierra Nevada's (the mountains along the east of California, not to be confused with the very good beer of the same name). The first camp ground we got to was 3ft deep in snow, so we opted for the camp in the foothills and drove up to the hikes. The wild flowers were blooming which was fantastic, and there were signs everywhere warning about Bears!

A Giant Sequoia. The little trees are big too.

We did a bunch hiking around the park. Saw high peaks, knobby rocks, lots of snow, and wild flowers. The highlight was a meadow of Giant Sequoia tree's. These trees were massive. It was a little surreal really.

Highway in the Mojave

From the first park we drove a sneaky 6 hours to Joshua Tree National Park. The trip there was awesome, as we came over the mountains all the green just disappeared right on the pass and we hit the Mojave desert. It was awesome. Hot driving though!

Joshua Trees in Joshua Tree National Park

We camped next to a collection of massive boulders in the Park and did a but of hiking around. It was rather cold, even during the day, which was a little surprising. The signature Joshua Trees were very cool, scattered through the valleys in all sorts of odd shapes and sizes. Some over 6 metres tall. I do love to visit deserts, they are so different from home!

Sunset over the Park

After the desert adventure we packed up the tent and drove for 9 hours halfway up California back to Davis. I had the opportunity to drive through LA which was pretty cool. Although the interstates go over the city, rather than through it, so I only had to change from one highway to another... nothing too stressful!

The weekend after Spring Break we went on a camping trip to Bodega, which is up on the North coast of California. We camped in a Redwood grove and heard Mountain Lions trying to eat our left overs.

Sonoma Coast

The coast reminded me a lot of the Kaikoura coast, with out the ranges right beside it. Sloping away were some pastures used for grazing (sheep!). It was so much like home. After Bodega we hit Sebastapol which is a small town with not much going on except a tasty micro-brewery, a tasty cookie company and a farmers market with free rice and chocolate at closing time!

Looking North from Bodega Head, over a Californian Poppy.

So those were my recent adventure. We plan on some more camping this weekend, and of course more adventures to come. I haven't yet ventured much past California (aside from 5 days in Portland, which is another cool city) but have got a good taste for this State and I love America.

Ending Thought: Before I arrived in America I believed the stereotype that all American beer was bad. Fortunately after some research I have discovered I was grossly mistaken.

USA: Davis, San Francisco

2009-04-09T08:17:00.008+12:00

I am now in the United States of America, and have been for 2 months and 1 day. Life is pretty sweet, sweeter probably as I am eating way more quality American peanut butter (its so much better/sweeter than all others!). The adventure began way back in February when I arrived in San Francisco and has continued out here in Davis where we are living at the moment. Davis is a small college town in the middle of.... lots of farms. About 1.5hrs from San Francisco.

We live on C St, near 1st St.

Its a nice town with everything you need. A good number of pubs, parks with basketball courts and pick up games, an In-n-Out Burger, an excellent bike path network, easy to navigate, lots of young people, and a shisha shop. What more do you need? Oh, and excellent (albeit expensive) public transport connections to near by cities.

Our apartment.

From Davis we have been on some adventures. More on the big ones in the next post. But we did get one day in in San Francisco. From what I saw walking around and sampling tasty treats its a pretty cool city, and one which has a very good reputation for being awesome. There are some massive bridges and steep streets with houses that Danny Tanner would be proud to live in.

China Town, looking towards the Bay Bridge. 30c Pork Buns!

We did some exploring around the city, over to Oakland and also down south in Silicon Valley. I could very easily seeing myself living here, I am a big fan of big cities, and in my field this is the place to be (outside of Bangalore).

View of SF from above Oakland. Golden Gate Bridge on the right.

So that is me. I am in Davis and loving it. Next post: Road trips around California!

New Zealand: Home

2009-01-21T21:35:00.004+13:00

So I am now at home... and have been here about a month. Home is indeed as sweet as they say it is and I am loving being out here on the farm with my family. Mums cooking is still the best ever and Cookie Time's are still super tasty.

So from India we popped into Singapore and saw Rowan for a few days, sneaked up to Malaysia for a little peak and spent a small amount of time with Dave in Melbourne exploring the Great Ocean Road. Then to Auckland for a couple of fantastic nights with the extended family and talking with the US Consulate.

View of Whiterock (left) and Mt Thomas (right) from Mt Karetu (grass at the bottom)

Back in White Rock I have just been climbing the local hills (Mt Karetu, Mt Thomas), swimming in the best swimming hole ever at Foxes Creek. Just been chillin' out really, getting all my stuff in order, trying to avoid exerting myself too much.

Foxes Creek, best swimming hole in the world, 3m deep some places!

The last six days was spent down south doing a bit of tramping. Started off with an over night to Welcome Flats on the Copeland Track, near Fox Glacier. After that we spent a night in a pub in Haast... classic kiwi stuff.

Some rainforest on the Welcome Flats track.

Then we embarked on the Motatapu walk, which is on Shania Twains property. It was a really good walk. A little hard on my poor IT feet and we didn't have nearly enough food but the challenge was well worth it. I then hitch hiked back to the beginning from Arrowtown to near Wanaka very successfully.. hitchin in NZ isn't so bad. More pics here.

View from the Motatapu Track

My plan now is to hang out and absorb as much New Zealand as I can before I head off to the United States of America in early Feburary.

Sunrise from Mt Karetu summit

Now I am just going to sip on this Monteiths and try and avoid the hot sun... you needn't worry about me though, I have already had one swim today. Life is sweet.

India: Final Leg

2008-12-11T18:38:00.004+13:00

So after Allepey we headed up into the mountains to Munnar. It was a nice little town surrounded by thousands of hectares of TATA Tea Plantations. We spent a few nights here walking around, watching people pick tea, drinking tea, smelling tea leaves and generally enjoying the cooler tea atmosphere.

Tea Pickers and lots of Tea

From Munnar we took a long bus all the way to Ooty. We stopped off in Coimbatore... had my wallet stolen and couldn't find anything cheap... so we were happy to get out of there and on to Ooty, which was another nice mountain station. Established by the British, so there was a surprising amount of Pine and Gum trees.

Pine trees and fresh mountain air... just like home, aside from the Monkeys!

From Ooty we went to Mysore for a few days, mostly just eating coconuts and eating our last meals. Mysore is a easy town to navigate and has a big pretty palace in the middle... our last taste of India really. From there to Bangalore airport and 47 layers of security. Apparently a direct threat was made against a major airport in India for the time we were flying, lucky we got to the airport 6 hours early.

Our last taste of Rickshaws and general Indian-ness in Mysore.

So, contrary to what others say, we have now got India done.... done in the sense that I understand that its a massive country with many, many different cultures, languages, tastes and types of monkeys. It took two months to see what we saw, and we barely scratched the surface.

Now we are relaxing in Singapore. Tonight we go to Melbourne, then Auckland to spend some time with the extended family... then home to WHITE ROCK to be with the family for Christmas. I am looking forward to getting back to New Zealand...

India: Down the middle

2008-11-29T04:02:00.003+13:00

So we carried on to Mumbai after Ahmedabad. Mumbai was a massive city with a few nice bits. I am sure you are all familiar with the main sites after watching the news recently. We were there a good 2 - 3 weeks before all the current action.

From Mumbai we went to Aurangabad and spent some time exploring a type of cave city that was carved out of a hill side about 800 years ago. It was neat exploring the caves, seeing massive Buddahs and having bats run into my chest... it was a really hairy bat.

'The Cathedral' - One of the larger caves in Ellora.

From Aurangabad to Hyderbad. Another cool indian city. Here, with the help of couchsurfing, we managed to see a more contemporary side of India. We went to a sports bar and an english style pub for some beers, meat snacks and sports. Was a nice break from all the culture we have been getting.

We then hit Hampi. An old Hindu town that is now in ruins amongst some cool looking boulders, it was pretty darn incredible. We went off the track a bit and almost lost a jandal, but it all turned out all right... must have been the blessing we got from an elephant the day before!

The river running beside Hampi.

From Hampi to Goa. We stayed 4 days on Agonda beach. It was rather idyllic really. Just sitting in the sun (well, for the first 2 hours of the first day... then I got so sunburnt I hid under coconut trees, in the hut, in the sea or at a bar). Got a scooter and explored the coast too which was nice.

View from out palm leaf hut, right next the ocean... and an ants nest.

From Goa by a 16 hour train to the town of Alleppey in Kerala. On the train we got our first (second, third and fourth) taste of deep fried bananas... I love some indian food. Here we got ourselves a guide and a canoe and explored the backwaters behind the town. Lots of canals, coconuts palms, women washing clothes, water snakes... it was nice and relaxing.

View from the canoe in the back waters.

Right now we are in Alleppey, my feet are getting bitten by mosquitos and we are excited about getting out of this crazy humidity up into the mountains tomorrow to see some tea plantations. 7 days left in India before we head to Singapore... these last two months have flown by. Bring on Christmas with the family!

India: Deserts and Camels

2008-11-10T23:49:00.005+13:00

After Agra we hit Jaipur in Rajasthan. The team consisted of Steph and myself, Andy, and Dan and John. Through those two links you can get more accurate accounts of what went on I guess, but here is my attempt at the facts also.

A secret garden at the end of one of the hill forts / palaces in Jaipur

Rajistan is a state full of Forts, Camels, colourful saris and deserts. A fun state to explore. Jaipur is the pink city, with a average palace in the city and some cool forts on the hills to explore.

View from Johdpur fort.

Johdpur was a similar, smaller and cooler city and is a bit more blue. We saw a cobra being released into the wild by a local guy who caught it in his house (his bed?) which was pretty neat, made us keep to the beaten track just a little more diligently.

Train stopped in the desert.

From Johdpur to Jaisalmer which is right on the edge, or in, the Great Thar Desert. Perfect place to find a camel and got get heat stroke. It was hear we got ourselves some baggy trousers and head scarves and set out for 4 days in the desert, sleeping with the dung beetles under the stars and ambling through scrubby somewhat populated desert during the days.

The evenings were spent hanging out with our guides, eating and making jokes about Pakistan.

Head Scarf, Baggy Pants and a Maharani, what more does a man need?

After Jaisalmer the team broke up and Steph and I hit Bundi for a few days which was really nice. Hired ourselves a scooter and went out into the country side and found a water fall and river to swim in, first swim in frickin' ages.

Monkeys on Bundi fort, we barely got out alive.. seriously!

From Bundi to Udaipur, the town used in James Bond: Octopussy way back in the day (Roger Moore! Oh no....). A not so exciting town really... good place to relax and get a room with a TV to watch the US election coverage. Historic.

Udaipur

Now we are in Ahmedabad, about to catch a train to Mumbai. Life is still sweet and no tropical diseases caught. Oh, and this town is quite Muslim so there is plenty of meat... I am stoked. Right.. time for street meat.

India: MONKEYS and TIGERS!!!

2008-10-26T00:50:00.004+13:00

From Delhi we took our first train (Indian trains are fantastic) up into Uttaranchal to find a mountain. We stopped off in both Almora and Bageshwar for a night looking for information on some trekking but were unable to find anything. So eventually we got to the start of a 94km trek to Pindari Glacier up at 3500m (we were at 1200m). Steph and I both agreed that after many months in London with too much beer and fried chicken (well, for me at least) we were not up to this task, and we only had two blocks of chocomass and no map.....

.. so we started it and it all turned out for the best! It was hard work but super amazing.

A view very near the glacier (the actual glacier wasn't so impressive)

It was mostly a donkey trail used to supply the villages in the valleys on the way so was easy to navigate and we were able to get meals and beds in guest houses all the way along. The perfect trek.

A small village with the HIMALAYAS behind it.

Of all the super amazing sights for me the most exciting was coming across a troop of monkeys! not once, but twice! Hundreds of monkeys swinging around, running about and, well, just being monkeys! I have never really seen them in the wild before and it was a really cool experience. We were unable to catch any.

From the trek we went to Ramnagar to the Jim Corbett Tiger reserve and went hunting for tigers. We got really really lucky and not only saw some wild elephants exploring but we spotted a real live wild tiger strolling across a river bed. It was quite surreal. The best part for me was its growl, it wasn't 'roaring' loudly, just kind of purring, but it was so so deep and loud it echoed around the trees. Below is the shot of the tiger we hunted... zoomed in a little.

From mountains, monkeys, jungles and tigers we took a train or two, met up with Andy and hit the Deserts and Camels of Rajistan. Right now we are in Jodhpur exploring forts, and about to head out on a 4 day camel trek... more on that next time.

India: Rickshaws and Wonders

2008-10-26T00:19:00.006+13:00

So here is my first report from the sub-continent. We landed in Delhi on the 3rd of October rather early in the morning and were hit by the heat and touts almost immediately. A short taxi ride through a bunch of chaotic streets till we arrived in the outer suburbs where we were to stay. First impression: its hot, busy, crazy and has cows on the streets.

Auto-rickshaw's

We spent 4 days in Delhi enjoying the fantastic hospitality of our couch surfing host, trying to stay out of the hit and have moral dilemmas over where or not we should eat the oh so tasty looking street meat... (for the record: I did not eat the tasty looking meat but do regret not eating it and if ever in that situation again would eat it). Instead I opted for a not so tasty looking triangle bread curry deep fried treat from a guy standing in a drain surrounded by a rat. Enough about food.

Jama Mashid

From Delhi we headed to the mountains (next post). We then came back through Delhi and went to Agra and saw the Taj Mahal. We opted not to go inside but instead got a a boat across the rived to watch the sun rise over the back of it. Frickin awesome. Its pretty darn wonderful....

Not so many pictures or stories. But at least you now know we are still alive. More to come soon I think.

London Update

2008-07-22T04:56:00.003+12:00

Just a sneaky post updating you lot on where I am at. I am still living in East London (Bethnal Green) within walking distance of Brick Lane and Old Street, where all the cheapest curries and coolest bars are located. I am working in the heart of Soho in Central London, which makes me feel very cosmopolitan. Life is pretty darn sweet really.

Canary Wharf at night. Not my work place at all, I couldn't wear jandals to work if I worked here.

A few weeks back Andy, Val and Myself went to Hurricane Festival in Germany which was very cool. European festivals are quite an experience, I am surprised I had never heard of them before I got here. I have some pictures on my phone but have no means to put them up here sorry. Saw the Foo Fighter, Radiohead and The Chemical Brothers among a whole lot of other great music.

One thing I really love about London is the music snene. There is always some cool band playing, some open mic night somewhere, or else there is the Johnny Cash impersonator who plays at a kebab shop in Camden from 11pm - 2am Sundays - Thursdays. I have fallen in love with a couple of groups in particular, Dan le Sac vs Scroobius Pip and Queens English.

Dan le Sac (left) vs Scroobius Pip

So I am really enjoying my time here in London and have met some very cool people, seen some very cool things and done some pretty neat stuff. I am in the process of thinking about what to do next... a few things on the cards are a sneaky weekend hitch hiking mission to Wales, a week long music festival in Hungary, and some other even more exciting adventures.... all in all, I am living the dream and looking forward to living it some more.

UK: Manchester

2008-05-29T04:52:00.005+12:00

I should stop following New Zealand sports teams when they come to Europe. My trip to Paris didn't help the All Blacks cause at the Rugby World Cup, and I don't think I helped the Black Caps in the test against England in the Cricket. Oh well, I had fun.

The weekend just passed Andy, Sam and I went up to Manchester to spend a few days exploring and watching Cricket. We took the zing-zing super speedy Tilt Train up there, on which we had an intriguing conversation with an old man about Cheese. Did you know Chedder is actually a place? I didn't.

The Cricket was very cool actually, at Old Trafford. The day we were there Taylor and Mills were smashing the English all over the place. The English fans are fantastic too.

Manchester itself is a very cool city. I think most of the cool stuff was built when it was the centre of the industrial revolution a few hundred years back.

I spent the day after the cricket looking forward to another curry on the Curry Mile, exploring with Sam. We got lost along one of the many canals, had a pint in a pub and watched some cricket, then on the advice of our fantastic host popped into a street festival.

The street festival was very cool, a bunch of European hip hop, acoustic and indie acts playing in a string of bars and underneath railway archers, along with street artists painting the walls. It was a very organised and mainstream way to showcase what is traditionally an underground sort of thing, but I really enjoyed. We cut shapes here till the early hours...

.. once we got back to base we stayed up to 5am hanging out with the fantastic people at Percy Palace (a massive old flat where they have many eclectic people staying all the time... couchsurfing at its finest).

Two un-Manchester related things I would like to finish on. Firstly, I am living in a new flat! Andy, Val and I have separated ways and cease to house the many fantastic couchsurfers and friends we have over the last 7 months. Goodbye Leytonstone.. hello Bethnal Green! I am still East London Hard Core. Although my room is rather small, I still have room for a few of us to sit round and smoke a shisha, so feel free to invite yourself over.

Second thing: A quote from a novel I just finished. The book is call "Of Human Bondage" by my new favourite author W. Somerset Maugham.

Life was before him and time of no account. He could wander, for years if he chose, in unfrequented places, amid strange peoples, where life was led in strange ways. He did not know what he sought or what his journeys would bring him; but he had a feeling he would learn something new about life and gain some clue to the mystery he had solved only to find more mysterious.

I like this quote as it justifies not working for a long time. Its also interesting in that 3 chapters later this guy get married and settles down in a small town by the sea. Just got to live the dream I guess, no matter what dream it is and how frequent it may change.

That is all.

Budapest

2008-05-08T19:40:00.006+12:00

So Lucas and I went on a sneaky long weekend away to Budapest (its in Hungary). We stayed with a couple of American students who we had met in London a few months previous and ended up appreciating a lot more of American college life than we did experience what it was to be Hungarian... which is not a problem as it was a whole lot of fun and we are both cultured enough I think. So aside from the beer pong, mexican parties and excessive use of the word "awesome!" we got a reasonable amount of exploring done.. no fine art though... next time I guess.

View from Castle Hill toward the Danube and Parliament

One of the fanciest thing in Budapest is the parliament buildings, which are the biggest on the continent (smaller than the British Parliament buildings in Westminster though). Information courtesy of a German tout/guide... he had a cool moustache. Also told us the Danube goes through 8 countries... I love touts.

Parliament up close.

Up on the hill is a castle, its a pretty cool Castle with vines growing up it (I love plants which climb walls and building, just a little more than I love box hedges).

My average sized companion with some walls and vines, looking in a hole which may or may not fit an elephant.

A handsome man inside a castle courtyard. You would almost mistake him for royalty.

We did some good exploring around the city. My favourite thing about old cities like Budapest (and most others in Europe) is the streets with lines of buildings all about the same height which all look very similar but up close and all very different.

A street in my favourite style.

Up close these building are fantastic.

Also saw Heroes Square which had some cool statues. Apparently the most detailed and beautiful has been put on a 6 story column, so appreciate the fine details was a little challenging for us.

Heroes Square

So we saw some pretty sweet sites, the weather was pretty darn fantastic and we had a fantastic time. Budapest is indeed a city worth a visit, not sure how you would get a Hungarian experience here though.

The sun, the cloud, and Buda (West back of the Danube)

Something else also happened in Budapest that I would not normally write about, but I feel I should share this with you as it was so special. I have a man crush. I love you Zach.

Zach. Half man, half beard, all awesome.

Morocco: Marakesh, Azrou, Fez, Casablanca

2008-04-29T05:23:00.006+12:00

I love North Africa. I know its not too fair on the 200 million people who live there to lump them all in to one, but the vibe I get when I go there is amazing, and I absolutely love it. Being in bustling markets, quiet mountain villages or arid landscapes in the generally dry and hot conditions of these places is probably the places I most want to be right now (ignoring the fact I am at work at the list of places I would rather be is very very long). Morocco was no exception. From the moment I hit the airport... no, from the moment I boarded the plane in Madrid to go to Casablanca with the Muslim folk and Arabic being spoken, I got excited. Enough talk:

Marrakech

Marrakech: After meeting my travelling companion (Fi from Cairo) we took a train straight to Marrakech, with a quick train transfer and cheese toasty on the way. Marrakesh is a pretty cool city, and I was pleased to find it was stilll very real and raw even though it is so touristy. We stayed in a nice (£8 a nice for a double room) hotel which a friendly tout introduced me too. I was lucky in that Fi had no time for touts, which nicely balances my naivety in following them all. They are still people, and local people at that, so it was good following this guy to the hotel. We spent a few days in here, did some exploring, eventually found some shisha and generally just relaxed. This was not going to be a stressful trip.

Our nut and date guy.

A few days later we took a bus to Khenifra then a Grand Taxi (That's French for Big Taxi.. I am so cultured) to Azrou. The bus ride took us past some really diverse scenery: deserts (almost), olive groves, wheat fields, sun sets on rolling hills with villages and scattered trees and sheep.. pretty much everything. In Khenifra we discovered a really good feed and a Taxi. The Taxi ride itself was an adventure... long story short: we stopped in the dark and the middle of nowhere and the driver demanded more cash, but it all ended nicely when we swapped hats and he asked to stay at our hotel. I love to travel.

View from the Middle Atlas mountains near 'Ain Leuh, near Azrou.

The Taxi took us to Azrou. Azrou is a small berber mountain town famous for its carpets (I actually almost bought one...). We had an amazing day here: starting at a massive local market, then a walk up some mountains for some stunning views (above), sifting through an village and seeing a real snake charmer entertaining a big crowd of locals, finished with a tasty Tangine (Lamb of course.. dads is still the best though). Best day ever.

Fez city wall with some people selling there wares.

From Azrou to Féz. Spent three nights in Fez drinking mint tea, exploring the crazy medina, enjoying sweet views over the city, sampling as much street meat as I could and generally enjoying the heat. Less words and more pictures this time as I actually have some photos (my camera broke in Marrakech, so I stole Fi's for a bit, Fez was my turn).

Some dude posing in front of the court yard leading to the Royal Palaces massive brass doors.

One of the best parts of any Moroccan city is the Medina. The narrow winding streets with local kids running around, food sold in every second shop, street meat vendors and elaborately carved doors at every turn. I love North African towns and Islamic Art, the mosaics and geometric patterns (even on the footpaths) and hard not to appreciate.

Fez Median by night.

From Fez to Casablanca (Casa to us locals). Just one night and one day here before flying home. We spent most of our time checking out the Grand Mosque, which is the 3rd largest in the world and holds 25,000 people (80,000 incl. outside standing). It was pretty big.

Me with my new favourite door.

Casablanca had a very colonial French vibe, but was still a very real city. With people sifting about and the usual tasty city smells (and street meat... kind of... not the kind where a dude just puts a BBQ on the side of the road and put meats in bread for you... but still, a kind of street meat).

Casa street market with the Grand Mosque.

So that was a quick run down on my little trip to Morocco. It was a little unsettling to learn we could get a visa for Mauritania and the border... had I not committed to working (and needed the money) I would have been very very very tempted to sneak on down there... and perhaps on to Senegal.. then... Oh how I love to dream. Mark my words: I will return to North Africa, and for far more than a week.

Next stop: Budapest for a long weekend... in 4 sleeps! Life is indeed sweet.

Europe: All over the place

2008-03-20T07:07:00.008+13:00

This is one of those posts that are pretty much only here for completeness sake. To keep this blogs time line relatively accurate. So, here is a collection of short stories and photos from my last 4 months of adventuring:

Dumfries, Scotland (via Hitch Hiking): Andy and Val vs Lauren and Myself... two teams, one winner. Red card was on the line.. it was intense. Lauren and I started by over sleeping (alarm was set for 5am.. eventually got out the door at 8am..). We then met the opposition at the first Service Station on the M1... we then proceeded to get the first ride and zing ahead... in the end Andy and Val won by 30 minutes... not too bad a margin for a 14 hour race where Lauren and I started 1 hour after. We got to Dumfries and had a fantastic Christmas with a mate and his family, they even gave us stockings. Best Christmas outside NZ ever. No photos as forgot my camera.

Stockholm from a boat

Stockholm, Sweden: Ok, I am a pretty arrogant traveller ("I don't pay for transport.."), but being in London there are many cheap flights all around Europe which lead to us flying to Stockholm for the weekend. Stockholm was pretty cool and I had a good time exploring but I came away with no real appreciation for what it is to be Swedish, or with any real knowledge of Stockholm. It wasn't even that cold either!

Pretty Canterbury

Canterbury, UK: the real one, not the fake one I spent the first 24 years of my life in. My first real English experience (London is not England). We had tea and scones and saw some big cathedrals. My appreciation for England and all things English begins.

Yep, thats in Brussels!

Gent - Brussles, Belgium (via EUROSTAR!!!): Lucas, Andy and I did what I had been excited about for quite some time.. taking the EUROSTAR under the sea to the continent! After work on Friday we jumped on the train and less than two hours later were in Brussels (then another train to Gent). Gent was a very cool little town, and Brussels a pretty cool (and surprisingly diverse city. Then Monday morning for a 1hr48min commute back to work, enjoying a croissant as France rolled by.

Andy on the EUROSTAR!!!!

Sorry to Belgium for talking more about the train than the country, needless to say it had culture, very tasty food, European capitalness and really tasty beer.

Lucas on an ESCALATOR!!!!

Bath - Bristol, UK: Andy, Val and I went on a Easter Escape to Bath and Bristol which was very cool and did well to continue improving my attitude towards England. Bath was cool to look at (Heaps of massive Georgian houses and they use the same rock for all the buildings) but the town itself didn't really have much of a vibe.

Bath in the Snow.

Bristol on the other hand was very cool. Admittedly we were there only one night and almost two days, but it had a really cool feel about (very real..) and the history of the place is very cool (Slavery, exploring, pirates). The Commonwealth and Empire Museum that we went to there made it to my top four best museums of all time.

A pub in Bristol where BLACKBEARD the PIRATE drank at. So did we.

Milton Keynes, UK (via Hitch Hiking): Not too much to report here, went to meet up with an old mate from Uni and had some great times at pubs and university student associations and walking back 12 miles through the country side. Very good times. Most adventurous part was hitching up there (hitching in the UK is awesome) and almost getting a ride on a boat! Did you know you can take a boat in canals all the way from London to almost Scotland? And Birmingham has more canals than Venice? I do now, thanks to a friends canal boat captain.

Part of Englans extensive canal network. IWA Forever!

Football, UK: Caught a very cool game at Emirates Stadium a few weeks back, Sweden vs Brazil, 60,000 people! Heaps of crazy Brazilians. I am now beginning to understand why everyone else in the world loves the sport. Also went up to Bolton to watch the Wanderers take on our boys, West Ham. It was very cool to see the English fans in action.

Brazil vs Sweden with 60,000 people.

That's all for now.... time for me to get away from this computer screen for a week. I am of to Morocco! Just need to go home and pack my bag (and perhaps a quick shisha before I go), a sleep at Heathrow tonight to to Casablanca via Madrid. Life is sweet!

UK: Cardiff, Belfast

2008-02-29T21:54:00.006+13:00

From London we have been lucky enough to go on some sneaky weekend jaunts around the UK and continental Europe. The first two of which were to Cardiff and Belfast. We went to Cardiff perhaps sometime in November last year... and Belfast in December... I think. I am well behind. But here are my thoughts on both. I'll quickly sneak in a photo of the White Cliffs of Dover, my first impression of all that is English.

First escape was to Cardiff, the capital of all that is Welsh. It was a town.. quite nice and windy around the harbour. The highlight (aside from a little shape cutting and a candle that changed colours while it burned.. pretty amazing really) was heading out to the country for a sunday roast with a friend of mine. The countryside was, for lack of a better word, quintessential. It was so... Wales. And aside from the abundance of wild life we don't have at home (I love squirrels) it was also very familiar looking.

The most defining moment for me though was when my mum for the day bought out lunch... it was such a fantastic lunch. Roast Lamb, vegetables, and dessert! .. so good. But the scary part was that it was virtually identical to a roast mum would make for me 20,ooo in White Rock (obviously you can't compare anything to your own mums cooking, my mums is the best in the world by far). If I think about it I shouldn't be surprised, we are after all part of the same empire, but I was a little surprised. Anyway, here's the evidence:

Second jaunt: Belfast. With a sneaky, wicked cheap flight from RyanAir we made one giant carbon footprint and flew over there. Its a cool little town and the most Irish I have ever been. We stayed with a super friendly English lass and managed to really explore the whole town. The most remarkable thing for me was the reality that is Northern Ireland. I have a habit of forgetting about things if they are not on the news every days... so I figured everyone in Northern Ireland was happy and the all the trouble had merrily resolved itself... how ignorant I am. Sure its super safe and it is just a normal town, but the history (a very recent history), is still so real. There is a frickin' massive wall separating two parts of the town, I was well surprised.

And there are also very cool murals all over the place, either side of the divide.
But Belfast is a cool town, its not just all walls and murals. There was a cool market going on in town and we met some very cool people and saw some pretty sites.

So we got Wales and Northern Ireland done over two weekends. Next blog post: Dumfries and Canterbury. And tonight Andy, Lucas and I jump on the EUROSTAR(!!!!) and go under the sea to Belgium. I'll post about that in 2009 sometime. High five!

London

2008-02-24T04:33:00.008+13:00

If you thought I was still in Paris, I apologise, that would be completely my fault. I am in actual fact now in London, England. The capital of the world. The most cosmopolitan, busy, eclectic, explorable and generally English speaking city in the world.. and by far NOT the most English. I love it.

St Pauls Cathedral

I arrived here October 21st, one day after the Rugby World Cup final which luckily enough (there is always some silver lining) had England in it. This made hitch hiking from Paris to London a little too easy in that we jumped in the boot of van load of English lads from London who took me one block from where I was staying in Clapham, London (andy had to take a bus.. poor kid).

Our flat. Andy found it.. and we flipped a coin to choose it, the first we saw. I was convinced as soon as we got a scoop of chips from the local.

It took one week to find a flat, two months to find a job and I am still seeking the best kebab in London. I am now well settled in a flat in Leytonstone, East London. Its absolutely fantastic. We have had many many couchsurfers sleep on our couch, on the kitchen floor and in the stairway cupboard. During my two months of unemployment I was essentially managing (read: conversing and partying) with couchsurfers. Averaged about 6 a night.

Our lounge, note the shisha on the right.. our pride and joy. and the largest thing I own (thank you Fi).

I have now got a sweet job at a company similar to my one one back home, aside from this one is 20 times bigger. WDA is in full swing with a regular crew every week. I have been able to sneak away on a few sneaky little trips, more about that in the next post (yes, I intend to post two or three times in the next few days... it may be possible). Life is pretty darn sweet. Even the English weather has been far better than I anticipated (admittedly I had extremely low expectations).

One high light in London has been having Lauren (my most awesome little sister ever) sneaking over here for Christmas. It was a cool opportunity to explore London together. I didn't realise how much I missed my family until I had Lauren here (which is rather convenient really).

I would like to give you some insight into London, how it works and what I think about it. But I am really not sure where to start. Its massive, that's obvious. Its diverse... which I reckon is the best part. We live in East London, Leytonstone to be precise, and there are more Eastern Europeans, Africans and Middle Easterner people than there are English people. In fact its quite a treat to meet a pom. I love London, you know what i mean?

I thought it best to finish with a small video clip from the banks of the Thames in London just before Christmas. You can see The City in the back ground with the 'gherkin'. I also managed to capture a 'rare' kiwi well out side its natural environment.. cutting some mean shapes. Big ups Lauren!

Paris

2007-11-07T02:15:00.001+13:00

So the plan was to man up and hitch hike to Paris from Berlin. Just a sneaky thousand or so kilometers. I got a kilogram of waffles, three blocks of chocolate and a litre of water and caught a local train to a service station on the edge of Berlin. I then proceeded to ask people where they were going and could I tag along...

... 15 minutes in a frickin awesome old French dude told me he could only take me as far as Dijon... only Dijon I think? I check my map... and bang.. its 200kms from Paris. Holy moly. I thought this has got to be the best ride ever.. but it got better! He bought me breakfast (all you can eat!), lunch, dinner and a french coffee at 3am. We had to make a detour to Munich to pick up a load of timber (I helped load it and got a free jacket!). Holy moly. So I was sitting under this....... only 27 hours after I left Berlin. If that's not the dream, then I don't want to live it.

Paris is super awesome. I feel much the same about Paris as I did Italy. It would be a cliche to fall in love with Paris, but I guess its a cliche for a reason. There is so much history, architecture, museums, pubs, awesome french people and Rugby that its hard not to have fun. Here are some dudes smoking a cigar outside the Louve.. I hope they are living their dream.

We did a sneaky day trip out to Versailles a day before a massive transport strike bought the city to a stand still. You can't really say you have been to France until you have experienced a strike. Versailles was awesome, the gardens were amazing (some of the most impressive box hedges I have ever seen, I love box hedges), and the palace itself was really beautiful. This is me in the galerie des glaces (Hall of Mirrors) where the Treaty of Versailles was signed to end WWI. Wow.French food is indeed rather good. Word of advice though: Never mix camembert and pate in a baguette in front of a french man.

We did a lot of exploring in North Eastern Paris where a lot of North African immigrants live. It was awesome, such hustle and bustle. Such cheap food. So much fun. We also found this basketball court... a fully fledged cage court built under a railway line.

I shall leave you with a picture of Paris in the evening. This is the last chapter of this part of my life. The next is a return to the motherland to seek work and settle down for a while... something I hope I am capable of.

Berlin

2007-11-02T05:08:00.000+13:00

Berlin. I have heard from many many people that Berlin is absolutely fantastic and that I must go there.. so I went there.. and it was absolutely fantastic.. once I got there.

It was quite as mission. First I got a sweet sweet hitch from Poznań to the Berlin Ring Road with a really cool Polish/German dude whom I communicated with with my extensive Polish and German ('spoko spoko', 'alles fitt im schritt?'). Once I was on the Berlin Ring road it took two rides, some bush whacking, a nervous wait at an semi-abandoned rest area and a mad dash across a 6 lane autobahn in my bare feet with cars passing me at 200km/h to get there!

Once I got a ride (and what a ride! Two blocks from where I was staying!) it was all good. I met up with the guy I was staying with who was absolutely fantastic... mostly as the first thing we did was go to the pub for a Berlin beer. This guys main mission was for me to try all the beers from Berlin, which was one I was happy to help out with.

Did some exploring, saw some cool sights. Like a street basketball court in the middle of Alexanderplatz next to the beautiful TV tower (above). There are some amazing museums there, especially the Pergamon Museum which houses the Ishtar Gate and the Processional Way from Babylon and if my historical biblical knowledge is in line, would be the very one Daniel would have walked past/through on his arrival in Babylon to hang out with King Nebuchadnezzar. Also of note: Dudes with BBQ's attached to themselves selling sausages!

Also saw the Berlin Wall which was pretty neat. Even if it is pretty much all gone and you can't tell which graffiti is from before the fall, while David Hasselhoff was pulling down the wall, or after it fell. But it was all pretty cool, and it was good to see Sports were represented by some of its finest ambassadors.

Lastly a neat picture of some trails from passing planes catching the sunset... I have never seen this before and it was pretty cool. Rather romantic really.. well, bromantic at least.

I had decided a while back to man up and hitch hike to Paris.. I thought I was being very brave, adventurous and crazy... next post you will see how manly I really was..

Poland: Olsztyn, Gdańsk, Toruń, Poznań

2007-10-30T05:20:00.000+13:00

Ok... this has got to be the most out of date blog on the planet, but I still want to tell you about my continued adventures in Poland ( I will tell you about my current situation shortly).

After Estonia we had a plan to hitch hike all the way to Poland in two days. This plan failed spectacularly and we ended up getting a night bus from Riga to Białystok. From here we hitch hiked to Olsztyn where we spent a few nights with a couple of fantastic people (one of which I think I have man crush on...) One of the coolest things I noticed was the old soviet style apartment buildings had some very cool paint jobs done, including massive (3m+) high street numbers painted on them. Very handy. Sorry you can't see the numbers on the below photo.

From Olsztyn I embarked on my first solo hitch hiking experience where I pretty speedily (and in once case a little too speedily with a crazy pole in a rattling old Mercedes) got to Gdańsk. Gdańsk is a pretty darn cool city, it has a massive historical centre and a cool history to match (Being part of German mercantile leagues, part of Germany [known to them as Danzig] and the odd solidarity movement). I stayed with some hippies in a small cottage in the middle of a forest somewhere which was incredible. I was once again stunned by other peoples (complete strangers) hospitality. And I even got a chance to get some gardening done.. my first real work in months (if not years).
From Gdańsk I took a sneaky train to Malbork which has the largest medieval castle in Poland. It was well worth the two hour detour.

Hitch hiked from here to Toruń which is a very cool town, again one with a whole lot of history to offer (heaps of churches and it is the birth place of Copernicus). Had fun relaxing and exploring there. On the way there got a sweet ride with a truck driver who was on his way to Hungary. He magically pulled a beer from a sneaky fridge in the truck and gave it too me... right then I was living the definition of living the dream: Getting a free ride with in a massive truck, drinking a free beer, talking Polish to a fantastic Pole driving around Poland on a beautiful autumn day. Damn... could I be any luckier?

Toruń at dusk.

My luck ran out... I got to Poznań and watched the Rugby World Cup quarter final... my plans for Paris and the semi's were slowly being changed to a week recovering from the lose in Amsterdam. These things happen though, onwards and upwards I guess. Poznań was very cool, I don't have any super photos but I had a fantastic time there in art galleries, pubs, bars, clubs, sheesha lounges and an apartment jungle.

From here I hitch hiked to Berlin, which will be the next post, perhaps tomorrow if you are lucky... what an adventure that was. To finish: here is a photo of me and my fantastic host in Toruń, you can take from this what you like, I learnt that I am massive, she is not so massive, and I am a very bad photographer. Boy Henry James would be proud of the number of commas in that sentence (perhaps a public blog is not the best place for a joke only Andy would get?).

Estonia: Tallinn, Saaremaa Island, Tartu

2007-10-06T02:56:00.000+13:00

Yep, I am in love again... Estonia this time. During this trip I have got use to talking to people about little old New Zealand and how we are such a small country trying to make it in a big country's world... well, that doesn't work in Estonia. There are only about 1.5 million Estonians and they are doing way better than we are (at least in regards to web based software application: Skype, Kazaa..). We had been told by a few people and Lonely Planet that Estonians are quiet, reserved people and you had to work hard to get a conversation out of them: that is not the case at all. All Estonians are frickin awesome and out going.

We started in Tallinn. Hitch hiked of course, one ride took us in completely the wrong direction (our fault, good fun though) and another was a Russian dude whose answer to the question "are you a student, or do you work, or what?", was "I do business.... Russian business...". There after an awkward silence ensued.

In Tallinn we went to an old KGB Prison which was again very interesting and made things very real. A bunch of churches (which I am yet to get bored of), a little more protestant in these parts after 99% Catholic Poland (mostly thanks to Pope John Paul II I believe).

Off to Saaremaa Island for an Autumn retreat by the seaside. Was good and relaxing and the Autumn-ness is really starting to come out. On the ferry back to the main land we tried a new hitch hiking technique of simply walking up to people and asking where they are going and can we come along... worked a charm. This is near Tartu, my Saaremaa photos are not quite as cool.

Off to Tartu to party with some students. Fantastic time there, met a world famous (in Estonia) film producer, Ken Saan, who proceeded to buy us Tequila till the early hours. Hard work being us. Also went on a super cool fantastic day trip to look at Russia, it was pretty cool, wish we had a visa. Look at it taunting us:

From Tartu we tried to hitch hike down to Kaunas. I am a good chewer usually but this time we bit off a little to much. We made it to Riga then bussed it to somewhere in Poland. And you will have to wait another month before I write about that as I am still 'doin' it now.

Oh, I am beginning to appreciate art, even went to an art gallery today.. all by myself! So here is some art, I call it: Slide in Water with Sky and No People.

Peace out.

Latvia: Riga, Sigoulda

2007-10-06T02:28:00.000+13:00

Once again I have gotten behind, nonetheless I will attempt to update you on my grand tour. Note that I will plagiarise most of this from Rox, he does such a good job of blogging.

So from Klaipeda in Lithuania we hitch hiked up to Riga which again was a little too easy (aside from an almost 3hrs wait in the rain and hail, but you can't be a real hitch hiker without getting wet). Riga was pretty neat. Saw the Occupation Museum of Latvia which was really good, its still amazing what these people went through. Although Mrs Ayers did a fantastic job of teaching us about World War II in 5th Form History I never truly grasped the significance of it all or the effect it had on normal peoples lives, it was just dates, places and statistics. Going to museums like this one really make it real, which I guess is why we travel, to better understand... stuff. On a lighter note, Rox being a chicken in Riga Old Town:

We went on a sneaky day trip out to Sigoulda which has a National Park with lots of nature and castles. The nature was very Baltic (birches, oaks etc ['etc' as those are the only tree names I know...]) which are slowly getting some good autumn colours going. Here is a view of the main castle, possible built or used by the Teutonic Knights.

While we were exploring something really amazing happened... well, something really amazing form a bunch of kiwis from the land of birds and small harmless reptiles... we saw a snake! and I got a photo! and we chased it! Such an adventure.

So that was Latvia... I feel a little bad only spending 4 days in a country, and I apologise to all Latvians for that, but the World Cup semis are approaching and my money is finally starting to run low, so we had to really get Latvia done and move on to... ESTONIA.

Lithuania: Kaunas, Vilnius, Klaipeda

2007-09-17T03:51:00.000+12:00

After meeting Rox in Warsaw we caught a bus to Kaunas in Lithuania. Kaunas is pretty cool, best part was we found the town square full of locals almost fighting over free beer and a spit roast cow! Due to our lack of a desire to elbow old ladies to get any chance of a piece we settled for sitting back and watching... boy the meat looked good though.

From Kaunas we hitch hiked to Vilnius. Yep, we hitch hiked. We have decided to hitch hike all around these Baltic States as we heard it was the easiest place in the world to do so... and it has turned out really well actually. We got our first ride in less than 20 minutes, in fact, it took me longer to make the sign than to get the ride! The combination of Hitch Hiking and couchsurfing is lethal... we have pretty much only met local people, which I think is the travellers dream.

In Vilnius we destroyed a castle on a hill (read destroyed as went to/saw/appreciated) but the retreat was marred by a fence...

... so we used all our skills and analysed the situation, elicited the requirements then came upon the required solution (on time and on budget):

There is also a district in Vilnius which has declared Independence and has a constitution which was rather interesting, made for a good photo opportunity.

We also did a day trip around the south, went to a cool castle next to a pretty lake..

..and to a theme park dedicated to the old Communists Statues that were everywhere... whose this guy you ask? The dude that gave Warsaw its prettiest building.

From Vilnius we hitch hiked up to the Hill of Crosses which is quite cool, worth the 300km deviation to have a look at.

8 rides and a sneaky bus ride later we arrived in Klaipeda which is right next to a national park on the Curonian Spit which is good for a spot of hiking.

So we are now in Latvia, and Rox is beside me looking at whether hitchhiking all the way to Paris is a good option or not... hopefully it is. Hitch hiking is the new awesome thing we have discovered, the best part is getting stuck in the middle of nowhere and thinking all is lost, having to see views like this till you see a car with there indicator on... is there a sweeter sight?.

Poland: WARSAW

2007-09-17T03:09:00.001+12:00

I am so fickle. I have fallen in love again. My first impression of Warsaw came in Wroclaw where a resident of Warsaw told me it sucked and was not worth it... so I went there with an expectation of a pretty average city, and this expectation was spectacularly exceeded!

How about I refrain from my usual poor commentary and visually stun you with some cool pictures and small descriptions?

My walk from the train station to the metro station afforded me my first glimpse of the Palace of Culture and Science.

Its frickin' beautiful. A gift from Stalin to Warsaw (which Warsaw had to pay for and build).

The old town. Completely rebuilt from scratch recently as it was utterly destroyed after Hitler ordered Warsaw off the map in 1944 after the Uprising.

A new street from the old town.

The old phone exchange building with the Warsaw Uprising logo atop. There was a big battle here during the uprising.

An old Vodka factory.

Prettiness.

A fantastic market in an old Stadium. Got me some cheap socks.

Graffiti. If you can translate please let me know... I hope its not too offensive.

And last and least, Pierce Brosnan. He was everywhere man, massive billboards across the whole city. Made me feel safe knowing he was watching over us.

Ok, so perhaps one story.... First up, Rox and I met up on my last night in Warsaw and we then met up with the students I met in Wroclaw. We started out evening with some sheesha and beers then Kris, the main man, suggested we come to some VIP function his dad was involved with... turned out to be far more than we expected. We were in the same room as the Mayor of Warsaw, the Mayor of Budapest, heaps of free food, and free wine! The last two I was most excited about. Saw some really cool live Polish music too.

Poland: Wroclaw, Krakow

2007-09-07T05:33:00.000+12:00

Gen Dobra. Here is an run down on my adventurous 2 weeks in Poland. I have adopted Poland as my home country in Eastern Europe, and Warsaw as one of my top favourite cites of all time... up there with Cairo and Genova.

So I started my adventure in Wroclaw (pronounced vro-shlav... or something, I am still working on that). I actually stayed in a hostel there as I hadn't organised any couches or anything, but it turned out for the best (as everything always seems to) as I met a student from Warsaw and we went out for a drink... he also introduced me to two other friends of his who we went out with the next night as well... more about them later...

This is the Museum which was closed, but looked real cool. Wroclaw is neat, 3rd in the world for number of bridges in a city (120, behind Venice and St. Petersburg). Its a nice town, good for a few days, and not too many tourists. No one likes tourists.

Lots of art and crap too, which I am increasingly beginning to appreitiate. This is the anonymous pedistrian.

From there to Krakow. Krakow is the main tourist destination in Poland and has a heap of stuff. I spent a few days here (perhaps 5?). Lots of castles, old towns, history, Sheesha, art, beer, new friends, old friends, everything really. Rox and I managed to be on the same connecting train in Poland somewhere where we caught up and then parted ways again, it was an incredible display of timing really.

This is a view from the window of the apartment I was staying in, all very socialist, heaps of apartments in this part of town. From Krakow we went for a day in Aushwitz which is the largest Nazi concentration camp... pretty intense. Also off to the Tatras for a few days hiking with a new friend.Unfortunately the weather wasn't tops so we couldn't spend the night up there, but it was good to get about and about and see some of Poland.

The Tatra Mountains were really cool, and cold. And like German hiking there were pubs with beer scattered threw them... oh well.

Back in Krakow I got to play some real street ball with the same guy in the Tatra photo on this ghetto hoop. Man it was cool, the back board was solid steel, the net was made from a massive chain and the hoop had absolutley no give so all my triples seemed to miss...

Ok, I was going to tack Warsaw on here but seen as its one of my top cities (and Cairo got 4 posts!) I think it deserves its own post... so... off to Warsaw!

Czech Rep.: Pilsner, Olomouc, Prague

2007-08-30T06:39:00.000+12:00

From reading these posts it may seem I throw the word "love" around quite a lot. Its not that I take the use of the word lightly, on the contrary, I think the word love is one of the strongest words to use when describing how you feel about something. I guess everything has its on degree of awesome-ness that I love, really love. On that note...

I love the Central/Eastern Europe. I love the Czech Republic.

First in Pilsner, the home of Pilsner beer. An alright town, if you like beer. Not much else really, a bit of old stuff and tasty whole chickens sold in a kiosk on the street. Went to BEER WORLD which was a massive brewery with 9kms of cellars under ground. Admittedly the beer was pretty good. I love that they call it Beer World... so subtle.

From Pilsner to Olomouc. The reason we went there was because we found a couch and it wasn't in my guide book. Turned out to be fantastic. Stayed with a neat dude who was also hosted an American film crew who were doing a documentary on CouchSurfing. Had me a fantastic birthday out on the town in cellar bars and played Settlers of Catan. What could be better? Well... how about a visit to a zoo where the monkeys run around you! Man, monkeys are cool.

We then joined the film crew as they were very fun people, and I wanted to be there boom operator (alas they had no boom). Off to Prague we went. I love Prague. Some cities are just awesome, often for no real tangible reason. Perhaps it was the mix of a rich old and modern history...,
...or the contemporary cosmopolitan vibe, or the moving Communist Museum...
... or perhaps just the really cheap beer. But I loved it. Spent 5 days with an Slovakian dude who was, and still is I am sure, super super super awesome. Had some real good times exploring, going to church, seeing palaces, shape cutting, inline skating and becoming a famous actor in the next big thing. Loved it.

From Prague I have sneaked into Poland... I love Poland. It is actually a super cool country, one of my favourite so far... well, you can't compare, but it is super awesome. Currently I am sitting in an Internet cafe in Krakow contemplating my future.... where shall I go? The options are many, and the obstacles few... makes for a tough decision. You can count on one thing though, I want blog the results of my decision till well after I have made it.

Keep it real folks, and I apologise for the lack of wit and charm, but I haven't had any meat today (aside from some patay stuff for breakfast which isn't really meat).

Germany: Constance, Munich, Nuremberg, Gefrees

2007-08-30T06:16:00.000+12:00

I spent my first few days in Germany enjoying the fantastic hospitality of Sabine and her family. Ate lots of real good German food, drank lots of real good German beer and baked some Christmas cookies (its summer, so it should be Christmas right?). They live close to Lake Constance which is right at the bottom of Germany and is rather beautiful. I love mums.

From here to Munich for five days. Munich is a pretty neat city, lots of beer and beer gardens. Got me a 1 litre handle which is a challenge to drink, and not as awesome as you would think (volume aside) as it gets a little warm by then end... unless you are speedy. Just chilled in Munich really, took a day trip to a lake, explored the Palace which was occupied by Bavarian kinds (below) and generally got lost in the city, which is the best way to see things. Also went and saw a Brazilian band play, cut some mean shapes.

Hit Nuremberg for a day... thats neat city. Neat old castle over looking the city which had very good views and was fun to explore (the free bits at least... they were asking more than the price of hot street meat for entry...). Nuremberg is also where Hitler started getting big so there is an area where he started building some pretty crazy stuff, notably Zeppelin Field where rallies of 200,000 people where held. A surreal place to be as the history is so recent and has directly effected people I know....

Then to Gefrees. Bet you have never heard of that one. Its where Elisabeth's grandmother lives, a super quintessential German village. Ate heaps of German food. So much meat! I love Germany. I love grandmothers. Spent a few nights sleeping in a super small bed made in 1888 (old stuff is so much older here), doing lots of wandering.... wandering is Germany hiking where you walk for an hour or so then a pub magically appears in front of you and you get a Radler (beer and lemonade... means you don't get too drunk and can still walk home. Those Germans have good beer smarts). Germany is actually super pretty, I am honestly a little surprised... I have fallen for the New Zealand tourist propaganda which tells me that New Zealand is the most beautiful and that nothing compares. Sure NZ is beautiful, real beautiful, but other stuff is too... Such an arrogant kiwi. I love it.

After my first brief appearance I headed East. I will be back there though, starting in Berlin in a few weeks, I am pretty excited about Berlin, I heard you can get kebabs for 1 euro...

Switzerland: Interlaken, Bern, Lucerne, Zurich

2007-08-08T01:51:00.000+12:00

So... as you may or may not have noticed I am a little behind on the old blog updates. Seems I am always apologising about that too, so I will just get straight into it.

After Milan I took a very scenic and tunnel-ful train to Interlaken. I am not to hot on German, Italian or French (or what ever else they speak in Switzerland) but I am pretty sure it means something along the lines of "between two lakes", which it ironically is. Here I spent two nights in a hostel, something I generally avoid but turned out alright. I did some hiking in the Swiss alps which was nowhere near as impressive as the Italian alps due to the low cloud, but it was still very cool and very Swiss. Got myself a hot chocolate with a British climber at some mountain refuge above a glacier.

After Interlaken I hit Bern which, if my memory serves me correctly, was pretty cool. Was old, Swiss and had a bit happening. Cool part was a big concrete pit full of bears. The Einstein museum was pretty neat, seems the Swiss claim any famous person as there own who ever lived in the country for more than a few days (or so some Germans told me).

From there to Lucern which is actually really beautiful. A neat river through the city to a big lake. Lots of cool bridges, old building, city wall with call towers and good chocolate and bakeries.

Then Zurich. Zurich was really cool. I didn't expect much so my expectations were well exceeded. Quite a cool old town, but very new as well. Best part was the night life.... went to a really cool Ska concert in the park then hit a club which had a Icelandic band playing who were absolutely fantastic! No idea what the genre was, perhaps contemporary folk? Had a great night out.

Also went swimming in the river which runs thought the city. It was a hot day and heaps of locals were out. There was a really strong current, so you would jump in one spot then float a few hundred metres then climb out real quick before you got washed away. Good times.

Sorry about the poor descriptions, but it was a while ago and I just want to get something up here. Anyway... next stop was Germany.

Italy: Genoa, Turin, Milan

2007-08-08T00:51:00.000+12:00

So now I have a chance to fill you in on my last week in Italy. I spend 4 days in Genoa and I can quite confidently say that it is defiantly in my top three Italian cities. Before I went there I expected a city with some old stuff, and maybe some character. What I got was the perfect mix of raw, real and edgy Naples and pretty, historic, enchanting Florence. It was a very cosmopolitan city with heaps of immigrants (which is also fantastic) and had a really neat historic centre with many old buildings and really cool narrow streets. I love Genoa...

.. the old...
.. and the new. In most parts there were more kebab places than pizza joints.

I did a day trip for a hike along through Cinque Terre which is a national park with 5 quintessential Italian coastal villages. It was really cool getting outside and getting some walking done. Some really neat scenery and olive groves... reminded me a Crete a bit, but there were far more tourists and the track was... well, there was a track.

I eventually forced myself to leave Genoa after two excellent couch surfing experiences (one included a night time scooter tour of the city.. I think I might have to get me a scooter sometime). Enough about Genoa already!

So, it was to Turin next. I stayed there for 4 nights (it was to be two..). On the first night Davide (CS Host) introduced me to Aperitif... ok, check out this concept... you go to a bar, in our case Obelisk, and you buy a drink, in our case a tasty beer and somewhat high Italian beer price... then the most exciting thing ever happens. You can eat as much as you want! Thats right.. all the pizza, pasta, salads, cheeses, breads you want! Not just chips and dips like a normal bar, but they have all this amazing food just spread all over the place! Fantastic.

So anyway, did some exploring of Turin, it is definitely the most underrated city in Italy. I almost didn't go here, but I am very glad I did. It has some neat old palaces and castles, a very cool National Cinema museum (has the original Laurence of Arabia costume!). Also a very gothic vibe with gargoyles hidden in heaps of old buildings.

I took the train up into the Italian alps with Ryan (SC Host no. 2) and did some hiking... holy moly it was beautiful. The photo below hardly does it justice. I was totally blown away by the very bright colours, massive peaks, snow, grass, rivers, trees... dam.

From Turin to Milan. My original plan was 2 days in Milan but due to good times in Turin and no couches available I cut that back to 4 hours.. which to be honest was enough. Milan is just a city really, has a cool Gothic cathedral and... well.. that's about all I saw. Oh, and these!

Two Lamborghini's just parked up on the side of the road. Wow.

That marked the end of my Italian adventure. What was originally going to be a two week peek turned into a 6 week adventure, that about says it all really. Arrivederci Italia. Next stop... Switzerland.

Italy: Bologna, Padua, Venice, Verona, Tuscany

2007-07-22T08:10:00.000+12:00

Ok, if you are following on from the last post then you will be relieved to learn that I had a really good dinner. Not very Italian though... I started with a big slab of focaccia which was super tasty and real cheap. But then things got a little crazy... I was walking a long and saw a sign for a shwama! I hadn't had one since Syria so I thought I would treat myself. It was really good... but it got me in a middle eastern mood so I had to follow it up with some baklava. So I am well fed and ready to post about the rest of my Italian Adventure.

[Lauren: You like my new hat? I lost the sweat hat sorry...]

So from Florence I jumped on a train and headed to Bologna where I was to have my first solo couch surfing experience. I had exchanged an email or two with the dude I was to stay with and he seemed a bit of alright... turned out he was fantastic! He picked me up from the train station on his scooter! And took me out to an Italian family party (celebrating a baptism) which was incredible. Everyone was so open and hospitable, there were only two things they did not condone: an empty stomach or an empty wine glass. Fortunately the food was most excellent the the wine... dam, I think I like wine now, it was so so good, classic Tuscan flavours.

The graffiti in Italy, specifically Bologna as its a student town, is always very political which is awesome.

From tasty Ragu (Spag Bol!) to Padua. For me Padua was going to simply be a cheap base to make day trips to Venice, but it turned out (thanks to another fantastic CouchSurfing host) to be a pretty darn interesting town, I think I saw the tomb where Luke is buried (he was smuggled over in a barrel of pork), although I am not 100% sure.

Venice is cool. Much like Florence it had the theme park feeling, but again you got the vibe that it was legit. I lurked through the Palazzo where the Venetian boss sat, it was very cool, especially the massive (whole walls, 4x10m) maps from the 1500's (no New Zealand...). I went back to Venice on Saturday night with my host and a bunch of other couch surfing folk for a festival of some kind, it involved heaps of people, loads of fire works, a few bottles of wine and hanging out on the beach till sun rise. Good times in Venice indeed.

I popped over to Verona for a day and a night. It was actually surprisingly beautiful. All I expected was a statue and a balcony, but alas I was again in awe of a pretty city.

And the last 5 or so days (I have lost count) I have been back to central Italy and lurking about in Tuscany. Spent a few nights in Livorno (The communist heart of Italy where people supported France in the World Cup final as they so dislike the current political situation in Italy), Mt Amiata where I stayed with a CS dude and his family who run a restaurant. Back to Perugia for a night out. Then to Certaldo for a buskers festival where Rox and I danced to some hippies playing bongo drums till the sun rose. We are such hippies.

There you have it, that's my current state of being. Thanks for all the comments on the previous post, they motivated me well. Currently I am in Genoa, which my first impression is that its the best city in the world... I will keep you posted on how it pans out.

PS I also went to Siena for a day, it was very Italian, Tuscan, Old and Romantic. There are probably some whole regions I have forgotten to mention... Oh well, it will give me something to talk about when (or if) I get home.

Italy: Rome, Perugia, Pisa, Florence

2007-07-22T05:01:00.000+12:00

So here it is, only a few weeks late, an abridged account of what I have been up to.

So we hit Rome for 5 days, I don't need to tell you how awesome it is. Read all about what happened here, there is no point me cutting and pasting it... I am so lazy.

After Rome it was off to Perugia where Andy started his Italiano course. Perugia was super cool. Met some really cool people and enjoyed some good times there. Perugia is very old school, narrow streets etc, perched on top of a hill. Also very important to the Entruscans, one of my new favourite ancient peoples.

From Perugia to Pisa for a day. I really don't want to ruin any ones trip to Pisa, but I was a little disappointed. I didn't really know what to expect (perhaps a leaning tower), and, well, that's all there is. Its just a tower. Worth a few hours of your time. I spent maybe 4 hours there, 3 hours of which I was asleep on the grass beside the tower...

From Pisa it was on to Florence. I loved Florence. I am not sure why. It felt a little like a theme park and not really like a real city, yet you were still aware that it had a whole lot of real history. I went to the Uffizi Art Gallery and also saw Michelangelo's David. The two highlight's though were going to the History of Science Museum (I learnt heaps and say Galileo's middle finger!), and chillin out by myself beside the river while the sun was setting enjoying the view. Sounds a little nomantic, but it was cool. You see, Florence was my first real solo travel adventure... no longer was Rox there to save me. Solo travel is fantastic! (I still love you Rox.. its just different is all.. its not you, it me!).

So yeah, Florence was super cool.

There you have one back dated post. Right now I am waiting to meet a couch surfing host in Genoa, and its about dinner time... so I am going to sneak out and get something to eat (I hear foccacia bread and pesto and very Genoan...) and most likely a sweet treat.. perhaps a beer. Hmm, so many options... my plan is to return to this computer in an hour or so and post about the last weeks adventures in Padua, Venice, Verona, Livorno, Siena, Certaldo etc.... thats the plan anyway...

Apologies...

2007-07-17T23:03:00.000+12:00

So, I am the worst blogger in the history of people who blogged. I have many excuses: being to busy, too lazy, technological incombatibilities, the time zone, the heat, the distraction of all the food... all legitimate excuses... but still excuses none the less. So I am sorry for the poor state of this blog and will seek to remedy it some time soon. I need to catch up on Rome, Monte Cassino, Perugia, Florence, Bologna, Padova, Venice, Verona, Livorno.... I have done a little bit in the last few weeks.

I would appreciate it if you, you who has some much spare time on their hand so as to read this poor excuse for a blog, could put some comments below: The more offensive the better... I need some motivation... something which is hard to come by in this heat.

Ciao amici,
Tony.

Tunisia

2007-06-26T02:49:00.000+12:00

Ok, so after Greece the plan was to cruise through Italy for a few weeks then sneak up into Europe... that was the plan. As with any good plan it was bound to change. While Rox and I were looking at some maps and some ferry times it came to our attention that aside from the culture, social and economic golf that separates Europe and Africa, its actually not that far at all, so we thought for the Europe half time show we could mix it up and down to Africa... best decision ever.

We spent a couple of nights in Tunis, exploring the markets, smoking shisha (oh how I missed that smooth sweet taste), eating street treats and generally enjoying the north African vibe. It was rather European actually, well, they tried to. Fortunately for us it was still very Arabic. Super liberal though! I was expecting Cairo styles, but in Tunis you can see girls and drink beer! What the!

Sport and Africa.... the perfect combination.

From Tunis we headed down to Kairouan for a day to see some impressive mosques. The town is one of the top four most important places for Muslims, up there with Mecca, Jerusalem and some other one. There are 300 mosques in a medium sized town!

From there we went down to Tozeur to get real hot. Walking around it was 48 degrees Celsius... that is pretty hot! We did some exploring, found a brick making village which was actually interesting, sifted about town, got invited to some old ladies house to get out of the heat in (she feed us too, good old Tunisian hospitality).

We then went by 4WD to the SAHARA DESERT!!!! whoop. It was frickin awesome. When you looked into the wind it felt like you had just opened up the oven door, but there is no tasty pie smell.

Ok, you all know that I am super cool right? One of those people that are up with the latest trends, likes arty movies and has style... well, I am sorry, but I may have misled you... I am not cool at all, in fact, I am very very geeky. Which made the next thing we did the most exciting moment of my life....

..

...we went to the exact spot where George Lucas filmed STAR WARS IV: A New Hope!!!!! Woah... We walked around and explored the exact set they uses... oh my goodness.. Mark Hamil was here! It was very cool.

Tunisia has confirmed what I think I already knew... I love the Middle East and North Africa. It was not just a 5 week stand I had a few months ago. That's the thing with travel, so many places you fall in love and say you will return but in reality the odds of you coming back are really quite slim as the world is so big. There is so much I want to do but so little time and money! But I have a sneaking suspicion I am serious about North Africa...

Carpe Diem.

Italy: Sicily

2007-06-26T02:19:00.000+12:00

So from Naples we went down to Palermo in Sicily and hired a car and spent a few days doing a lap of the island. It is a very cool place, quite densely populated actually.

We checked out the Valley of the Temples, which as you can see from the photo did indeed have temples, but was in fact a ridge, not a valley. For the record, I stole that joke from Rox.

From there we cruised along the coast to Catania to climb Mt. Etna, the largest active volcano in Europe. It was big and active (smoke coming out). We piked and drove most of the way up and just climbed a little hill. Good views though.

While we sifted around the island we just slept on the beach and cooked pasta over the fire. It was fantastic, although a little dirty (who needs showers...). Waking up each morning, going for run along the beach and taking a swim. Living the dream really.

The white sheet was out bed for the night.

Italy: Naples

2007-06-26T01:20:00.000+12:00

You know how everyone says they love Italy and how fantastic Italy is and how you have to go to Italy. Well, I figured there was probably some truth in it but was sceptical about any country that everyone said was awesome, how could it be? Would I love it? And if I did, would I love it like I love ice cream or like I love bread? Would I get the instant gratification ice cream offers yet come away either hungry for something else or super sick or it? Or will it be a consistent love like that of bread where you always come away with you hunger abated yet it is sometimes a lot of work to get it done and often requires a spread?

Well, you will be pleased to learn that Italy in fact combines both ice cream and bread! Literally and figuratively. I love Italy! It is super cool. And you can get Gelato (ice cream) in a sweet bread roll! So the cliche is right, everyone loves Italy (I am sure there are exceptions...)

Naples is south of Rome and is a very cool City. As we got off the train you get the impression it may be a little dirty and smelly, but that is what makes it so great. It is real. There are heaps of different people lurking about and the pizza is fantastic (very different from Winnie Bagoes pizza so you can't compare, Winnies is still the greatest. Naples pizza is simply dough, cheese and tomato paste.... yet is ever so tasty).

From Naples we also explored Pompeii, the Roman city de-stroyed by the eruption of Mt Vesuvius in 79AD. It was very cool in that it was an entire city of houses and shops etc, rather than just a temple. We also stayed a night in Salerno, just south of Naples. From here we went for a walk along the Amalfi Coast which is super super beautiful. Steep cliffs coming down into the ocean. Some bush, lots of cool houses built up along the coast.
Naples was very cool, and if the cities up north are as good as they claim to be then I feel every second word of my future posts will be "awesome", or I will simply not be able to describe them.

Greece: Athens, Delphi, Meteora, Patras

2007-06-26T00:17:00.000+12:00

I am terribly sorry about the huge huge delay in posted to this blog but I haven't really had a chance to sit down on a computer and get it done, I have been busy doing a heck of a lot of not much (many ours on trains, ferries and appreicating stuff). I will try and get up to date now as I am sitting in an air conditioned internet cafe and its super hot outside. One post for the entire main land of Greece does not do it justice, but thems the breaks.

So Greece then... after an 8 day celebration of us conquering Crete we arrived back in Athens. It felt like we had never left. We went and stayed with Cams mates which was super handy.

We went to the Acropolis, its pretty old, on a hill and looks alright. It was actually more impressive from a distance rather than up close as there was heaps of restoration going down.

Who would have thought ancient architecture could be so interesting? I thought they were all just stacks of rocks... that why we travel I guess. Live and learn. Check out this wicked Ionic capitols on fluted columns.

We jumped on a bus and heading down to Delphi, in the south, about 3 hrs by bus from Athens. It is here that the Ancient Greeks through the centre of the world was, it also is home to a big Temple of Apollo and was where a super wise Oracle lived. So its a pretty important and impressive set of ruins. There was a neat sports stadium here tiered seatingand a row of starting blocks for sprints, all this is 2000+ years old, its good to see they enjoyed sport back in the day as much as we do.

We also spent a night up in Meteora where there are a bunch of Monasteries built on top of cliffs. The rocky cliffs rose out of some green bush and we did a bit of exploring around the bush which was cool. The Monasteries are all Greek Orthodox so it was cool to get an insight to where they are coming from.
We left Greece via the town of Patras. Now, if you read Lonely Planet or any other guide to Greece they will probably write off Patras as merely a transit point, a place to leave as soon after you arrive as you can. This was our intention but due to ferry times etc we ended up staying a night and spending a day. After some help from the best tourist information place in the world we got some free bikes and rode around the town for a day. There were some very neat churches, ruins and friendly people. We also semi-accidentally got on to a main high way and rode out on to a massive bridge. It was an exciting adventure.

I shall finish this post with a quote I read at one of the monasteries. Not sure who wrote it. Ponder this:

"Faith is not a matter of understand, but of confidence. And confidence is not unreasonable, it transcends reason. It does not contradict logic and reason, it goes beyond them. In the Orthodox Church, this transcendence of reason is not its denial but its elevation to a point where it can accept the experiences of the divine revelation. The transcendent reason is faith is the absolute surrender of our self, our abandonment to the will and mercy of God."

Ios

2007-06-15T20:59:00.000+12:00

Ios: A Party Island.

We were destroyed by, and we destoryed, Ios. There isnt really much to say about Ios. We stayed at a fancy resort for real cheap, slept and beached during the day and went into one of the 400 give or take bars during the night. Met a few kiwis there and a bunch of people from the Santorini Hostel were doing the rounds of the Greek Islands.

Our time on Ios was pretty much the opposite of our time in Crete... very touristy, didnt seen any locals and slept in a bed.

Sorry no pics as this computer is really slow.... and I am way behind on this blog sorry... in fact I am in a whole other country now. Stay tuned. Its hard spending time in an internet cafe when there is so much cool stuff outside to see and do (and ever so tasty pizza!). I still love you all though. Stay tuned.

Santorini

2007-06-02T23:53:00.000+12:00

So right now I am sitting in an Internet Cafe during my siesta on the Greek Island of Santorini, today has consisted of sleeping in, getting up to watch the All Blacks smoke France, go for a swim then hit the bakery. This afternoon will be Americas Cup then some drinks on the beach.

We have been here 4 days, give or take, I have lost track. Spend all day chillin in the sun, being tourists and exploring... and all night pretty much just partying. Its hard being me, but I think we deserve it after the last month of 'work'.

Santorini reeks of quintessentialism. Everywhere you look is pretty much post card perfect, so if you have seen a post card of this place there is no real reason to come. My only complaint is that the sand on the beach is a little to hot sometimes... but I guess I can get over that.

We did a day tour yesterday on a boat with a few people we met at the hostel. It was super touristy and it was weird being herded to each different site: A quintessential volcano, some quintessential hot springs, some quintessential villages, then a quintessential sunset.

Here we are enjoying some quintessential gyros and some quintessential beers.

And last, but by all means not the least, a very very quintessential greek island sunset. Can you smell the quintessentialism wofting from the screen? Boy, I think I need some new words to describe this, but I am not a word smith.

Tomorrow we are sneaking over to Ios for a sneaky peak, rumours are that it is a "party island", what that means I am really not sure, but I hope to find out.

Have a great week people and enjoy watching Team New Zealand smoke Luna Rossa.

Crete: Sougia -> Hania

2007-06-02T23:03:00.000+12:00

Crete: Done.

After 26 days meandering around the island, clocking up over 300kms on my poor little blistered feet, walking 45kms in one day, up 1km and down 2kms another, we have done it. Was it worth it you ask? Yes, yes it was.

The last few days went by really speedily as we cruised along the coast. We got caught in the rain on the last day which put a bit of a dampener on the mood, but we got stuck in a taverna waiting for a bus for 4 hours which justified some celebratory drinks.

Here are my boys, big ups to them for putting up with me for so long.

Andrew Roxburgh: Was sick as a dog but can still walking hundreds of kilometres

Cam Davis: He won Crete 5 -3 - 1.

We spent a few days in Hania, staying at a nice place with lots of character, the room smelt pretty bad by the end of it.

We hired a Suzuki Samurai and cruised around for a bit. I drove around on the right hand side of the road, it was fun as. Although there were moments when Rox had to give me a friendly reminder to get off the left side, and other times where I had to pretend we were pedestrians and just weave through the intersections. Good times none the less.

We went to see the War Memorial at Souda Bay. Here 467 New Zealanders are buried here from the 1941 Battle of Crete, we laid a poppy (courtesy of the Rangiora RSA) and had some reflective moments.

We also met up with a random kiwi chick we met on CouchSurfing.com . She is a horse trekking guide and allowed us to help her set up, so I am now a horse brushing guru, the best advice I can offer is to just go with the flow.

So we have now done Crete, good and proper. It is a fantastic place, I highly recommend it, and if you are interesting in doing the E4 trail I am happy to hook you up with some info.

Right now I am in Santorini... I think I will post about that separately... so I won't sign off with my usual wit.

Crete: Iraklio -> Sougia

2007-05-27T03:37:00.000+12:00

We are now in Sougia, on the south coast, and I really shouldn't be blogging as I am under the influence... influence of sugar that is. There is a rather nice little bakery with some top Greek baklava and a mean chocolate chip sponge slice thing which has had the sponge soaked in honey, its well good. I shall try and blog anyway.

From Iraklio we hit the track again for an eventful two (or was it three?) days walking, cruising through olive groves, vineyards and quintessential Cretan villages. I can't think of any particularly striking events... but it was terribly bromantic.

We then hit the base of the Psiloritis Range and after scoring some real good beans and wine from a local (read more about that here) we de-stroyed an 800m ascent up to the first hut. From there we crossed the mountains, where we found a plateau. I love plateaus, New Zealand needs a lot more. Staying on the balcony of a surprisingly well located Taverna we gained strength before we conquered the 2456m peak that is Mt Psilitoris, the highest peak in Crete.

Some sheep we saw on the way. They smell that same here as they do at home! But dads look a lot tastier.

So we got to the top, well tired and proud of ourselves. Cam had the brilliant idea of getting naked and taking photos... seen as it was only us (a Swiss guy and 8 Germans 20mins behind), I figured why not. I have some tasteful pictures which I will refrain from publishing, although I am sure they will boost my rating significantly... on the other hand... sorry mum:

Whoop whoop.

Down a tricky rocky section, singing some songs we composed. Next day we started out in overcast weather which quickly turned into a downpour. We hitchhiked with a local who seemed to stop to pick up a snail from the road and as an afterthought put us on the back of his truck. We eventually arrived in Rethymno for 4 days to ride out the storm (well, unseasonable rain). The hostel was fantastic, although there was a bakery, a souvlaki shop, a cafe with pastry treats and a roving donut man who always smiled at me blocking my path to the Internet cafe so I was unable to blog... oh the humanity.

Good times in Rethymno at a hostel, destroyed a yellow banana boat with the Allies (ie, a pom and a yank). Also went to a Greek basketball game, boy they were passionate fans! The players were alright... I think I was well taller than most of them.

From there we got back on the track towards the ominous WHITE MOUNTAINS...

... which allied with the bad weather defeated us. So we are making our way a long the coast instead. A whole lot easier.

This has been a huge post and yet only touches on the good times being had and the male bonding we are experiencing. So until next time I leave you to get back to what ever the heck it is you are doing, and truly hope you are having as good a time doing it as I am having here in Crete.

Crete: Kato Zakros -> Iraklio

2007-05-13T00:50:00.000+12:00

I thought I would be away from computers for a good five weeks but alas I have again been drawn back to the screen. Which is a good thing as I am now able to tell you about our adventures in Crete!

Crete is fantastic. Its hot, rocky, mountainous, tasty and long. I love it. The ferry ride over was fun (aside from the disco/bar that refused to play music..). We started in Kato Zakros right on the eastern end of the island and have been walking about 7ish hours a day, usually starting at 7ish, then having a midday siesta then walking in the evening. The views are very cool, lots of mountains and rocks and islands. The food is awesome, I love olive oil... on everything... in large doses. The small villages scattered every, perched on every hill are just as you expect. White houses with narrow alleys. We haven't really been roughing it, been sleeping in hotels, cafe steps and olive groves. Only downer is I have pretty sore feet, blister central!

Me and a view. Just before we got lost... good lost though, exploring adventurous lost.

Looking down into the Lasithi Plateau. Very flat.

One of the many excellent vistas. So pretty, so romantic. An excellent place to spend quality time with Rox and Cam. I love those guys... so far.

This is an orange and an olive grove. Two very important things. In case you were wondering, the orange was very tasty and the olive grove was shady and comfy.

My undies in an olive grove. Look mum, I am doing my own washing!

Am currently in Ireklio, the biggest city in Crete. Chillin out for a few days, then off to the mountains. Rox pulled the Red Card last night which made for interesting times with a few Englishmen...

I hope life in all your worlds is good. For more information and contradicting accounts see here.

Love from Tony, Cam and Rox.

Istanbul -> Greece

2007-05-02T05:48:00.000+12:00

I have so much to write about but so little time. Gallipoli was fantastic, really well done and, without sounding too emo, moving. Istanbul was very cool. Met Rox and had our first couch surfing experience which could not have been better. Train to Athens was long but good, and Athens is fantastic. Cam, Rox and I jump on a ferry tomorrow for Crete... where will will endeavour to walk 480kms in 5 or so weeks. Good times a coming. I think I will be off line for a while so be sure to enjoy life without any contact from me for a while.

Love Tony.

Turkey

2007-04-22T23:58:00.000+12:00

Atatürk would be proud.

I am now lurkıng about ın a small town called Selcuk next to the ancient ruıns of Ephesus (once home to the Ephesians). Also where John and Mary lıved untıl they dıed. Apparently Johns body ıs burıed ın a tomb we vısıted.

Thıs ıs the large theatre ın Ephesus. Paul spent a faır bit of tıme here, speakıng to the people and he also wrote 1 Corinthians whıle here. I am sıttın ın the grandstand up there, but due to the photo beıng shrunk and me not be as massıve as I would lıke you can`t see me.

It is so cool vısıtıng places lıke Egypt, Damascus and Ephesus where all the bible actiıon happened. It makes ıt so much more... real, more tangible. It not like its super spiritual around these places, but for me personally ıt makes ıt easıer to picture their lıves and how these surrondıngs could have ınfluenced them. Thıs ıs pretty deep, but has been the best part of travellıng around the middle east (followed very closely by the abundance of cheap and ever so tasty food).

Some more ruıns in Ephesus. The poppies were everywhere. I am lookıng foward to Gallıpolı ın a few days.

On the way here we came along Turkeys southern coast. Above ıs a town I got a mean chicken sandwıch in for lunch. My fırst taste of the Medıterranean.

Turkey ıs very cool. A whole lot greener and more lıberal than any other place so far. A lot of fun, I am really lookıng forward to hıttıng Istanbul. I love the bıg cıtıes.

Have a good one. Love from Tony.

Syria

2007-04-17T02:07:00.000+12:00

Syria: its a country. George Bush stıcks ın with Iraq and North Korea ın the Axıs of Evil.. sounds pretty evil eh? Well, mum you will be glad to hear that ıt was super un-evil. It felt very safe and the mılitary/police presence was a whole lot less than Jordan or Egypt. And the people are super friendly.

We started ın Damascus, stayed there for a couple of days. That ıs a very cool cıty. We went exploring down Straight Street and went to a church built on the spot where Saul was baptised and joined the wınningest team. The souqs (markets) are fantastic, there was heaps of stuff like carpet. clothes and things I didn,t really want... but boy, there was some sugar! So many pastry and sweet places, all I bought was food and sheeshas! Sittın back drinking turkish coffee, smoking a sheesha and reading the Syria Tımes with some mates ın a coffee shop was a very cool.Straight Street now.

A small part of the Al Hamdeya Souq. Close to the Omayyad Mousque whıch houses John the Baptısts tomb. There ıs so so much hıstory ın these parts, its very cool but there is so much learnıng!

A busy street (they all seem to be pretty busy. I love mıddle eastern drıvers!) wıth a Shwama ın front, a very cheap and tasty snack.

From Damascus we went to Palmyra which had some very cool ruins of a whole town pretty much, looked Roman but was some other people that made ıt. Saw a bıg stack of real old human bones! Also bought some really good dates stuffed with almonds... İ think travel is all about the food.

Oh. and on the road to Palmyra we were 152km from Iraq! check this out:

Then on to Alepppo, the second biggest city. Good tımes exploring there. Took cool video, check thıs out (sorry, I cant seem to embed ıt).

Saw the Crad de Chevelıers, a very cool and stıll ın one piece crusader castle. While we were there ıs was school holıdays so there were thousands of teenager's running about wanting photos with the massive foreigners... ıt was awesome!

Thıs has been a pretty massive post, but just one last picture. In case you thought this was all fun and games here ıs a picture of me ın one of the bath rooms of the hostels we stayed at.

Currently ın Turkey. and ıt has been snowıng all day... what a contrast. More about that ın the next post (whıch wıll no doubt me months behınd, truly sorry about that).

Jordan

2007-04-12T06:41:00.000+12:00

So I have had a taste of Egypt and have every intention to return to Cairo at some stage for an extended period of time, I still love it. But from Dahab we took a ferry to Aqaba in Jordan. The ferry ride itself was only four hours, but borders and delays made it a 12 hour trip. Good times all round. Camped in Aqaba (the one LAWRENCE OF ARABIA preformed his miracle for Feisal) then headed into the desert and took a 4WD through Wadi Rum (where LAWRENCE OF ARABIA lived for a time and the movie was filmed.

After camping out under the stars (and enduring a mini-sand storm during the night, I awoke to my jandals trying to escape) we hit the road for Wadi Mousa which is right next to Petra. We spent two nights here and an entire day at Petra. Petra is very cool, lots of old buildings cut from rock, but boy was it hot and exhausting exploring it all. You have all seen the final seen of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade... its just like that, but there is way more too it and there is no holy grail inside (sorry to ruin the surprise).

From Petra we hit the road for the DEAD SEA! On the way we got stopped at a check point by the Jordanian Army, that had a awesome Hummer with a massive machine gun on top pointed right at us... it would have been scary had the dude on top not been returning our waves with a cheesy grin almost bigger than his gun. Went for a swim in the Dead Sea... an interesting experience for sure, very buoyant. Went to a church where Moses first spotted the Promised Land, which looked something like this:

Then camping on a hill overlook Jerusalem on Easter Sunday. That was super cool. Here is a shot of the sun setting over Jerusalem and the Dead Sea. You can't make out much due to my cheap camera and non-existent skills, but you get its pretty.

Just for the record: I am now it Syria, its awesome. I am way behind on these posts and emailing people, I apologise. I rarely get online and alternate between blogging and emailing each time I get on. Thanks for all the comments, it makes me feel loved!

Have a great week people, and be sure to get along to support Big Mike Townsend and the Rams, I think they need it!

Dahab!

2007-04-03T02:40:00.000+12:00

Right now I am sitting in an internet cafe at out hotel in Dahab. Dahab is on the the Sinai peninsular opposite Suadi Arabia (we can see it across the sea... i love it!).

There is always a canal! Saw the Suez Canal.. kind of. From a distance, didnèt get any impressivce canal photos though.

Lots of desert, lots of drivig.

On the way we climbed Mt Sinai.. man it was awesome. We started our ascent at about 10:30pm and got to the top at about 1am ish. We took our sleeping bags up and hired some matresses up there and slept under that stars... right where Moses got those rules. It was pretty cool. Sunrise was awesome then back down and on the road to Dahab.

Dahab is cool. A diving resort on the red sea. We spend 4 days here. Went SCUBA diving on the reed, it was spectacular! Lots of Nemos and all his friends. Diving is very cool.

Went snorkelling too which was very cool. Lots of good times, maxin and relaxing, ainèt too taxing.

This is a short post as we are off to the beach for some beers, the local brew, Stella is quite tasty and only about a dollar for a 500ml bottle.... oh dear.

Later yèall.

Luxor

2007-04-03T02:10:00.000+12:00

After jumping off the felluca we made out way to Luxor. On the way we stopped in Edfu and got some real good food and a sneaky shisha (one the smoothest best ones I have had, its funny, I now know the difference between good a bad shisha.... I love Egypt).

Got to Luxor, chilled put then up at 6am the next day to ride donkeys to the valley of the kings. Yeah, donkeys! My feet dragged along the ground and many school girls laughed at me a whole lot, but I mostly just felt sorry for the donkey... sure beats walking though. Went into some tombs, saw a temple, trekked around the mountains for bit.
The Valley of the Kings. Heaps of tombs and old Egyptian holes with dead kings in them.

Some temple. Perhaps.... ChehatsupÉ A queen who started trade with somalia... bet you didnèt know that.
The view from a top the Valley. The contrast betweent the irrigated Nile bits (3% of the country) and the desert (97%) is nuts. I havenèt seen proper green fro ages.

Temples and Kings and Donkeys are all real cool, but the thing I love is all the police with big guns, the check points ever few kilometres and the general police state feel. So I was stoked when I got this pic after some sneaky bashesh...
Peace out!

On the frickin' Nile!

2007-03-29T03:32:00.000+12:00

So after Aswan we embark on a two day Felluca ride down the Nile to Luxor. A felluca is a sail boat with a massive flat mattress covered bit we just lazed about on for two days, these mattresses where covered in material with Winnie the Pooh playing basketball... so Egypt.

It was fantastic. Although the wind meant we spent most of the time sitting on the banks of the Nile. It was fully catered and we had some beers so we had a great time maxin and relaxin in the sun. When ever we stopped locals would always appear trying to sell stuff, to talk to us or just to see what was up. I love the locals, although the ones that see a lot of tourists can get annoying asking for 'bashesh' (a tip), and repeatedly saying "hello, hello, hello, bashesh, hello, hello" until we moved on. Fair enough though, everyone loves free money.

Ros, Trevor, Ahmed, Karen and a ridiculously good looking stranger enjoying some beers and shisha on the banks of the Nile... I think I am living the dream.

Yes, yes I am in fact living the dream.

Keep it real people. I love you all.

Aswan

2007-03-29T03:10:00.000+12:00

Well, after a massive 14 hours train ride (most of which was spent sleeping or listening to Shooting Stars) we arrived in an incredibly hot place in the middle of the desert on the banks of the Nile called Aswan. Aswan was very cool, it has the exciting hustle and bustle that Cairo had, but was about a million times smaller (literally). We chilled in Aswan then took a boat up the Nile to a Neubian village for a feed and some learning (so much learning when you are a tourist...). The boat ride was sick, totally calm, super warm, sun setting. We stopped at a beach for a bit and just chilled, with the golden sands of the Sahara on one side and the Nile on the other.. so we played Hacky Sack. This is where we chilled on the beach on the Nile. Crouching there is Big Jim who is on the tour with us. He is a semi-old dude from the States, real good sort. All the people in the group are absolutely super.. Canadians, Aussies, Poms, Americans, Brazilian and a couple of Kiwis. All good looking (which is the most important thing).

The next morning we got up at 4am.... yes, 4AM!! That is early on this side of the world too. We then joined a convoy to Abu Simbel. Firstly, all tourist have to travel in convoys of buses with police escorts in case of terrorists, its really not necessary though, I haven't seen any terrorists lately, but so so so many police with AK-47s lurking about. Secondly, Abu Simbel is a place with some really old rock stuff, just like all the other really old rock stuff we have seen. So many temples in Egypt.

See, big old stone things. It hard to comprehend the age of all the stuff we see, which makes it all hard to appreciate. What you can appreciate it the millions of tourists, mostly inappropriately dressed Russians.

Well, that was Aswan. Generally for me things are going very very well. The food here is awesome, the people I am meeting are fantastic, and we only shower every couple of days, I am living the dream! And did I mention the Shisha? I think I am addicted, but its just like eating apples....

Cairo - Part III

2007-03-25T01:51:00.000+12:00

Spent another day in Cairo wandering about, got some "interesting" shisha from an cool little local shisha place in some back alley. Checked out the Coptic Churches (saw a cave where Jesus and Mary hid out back in the day) with Fiona. Had some more Shisha... met the tour group then went and got some more shisha... and fantastic last day by myself. Big ups to Fiona for be fantastic and showing me a side of Cairo I would have other wise missed.

The next day was the first of the group trip. We first went to the Egyptian museum... heaps of real old stuff. Was pretty interesting. Then the pyramids baby yeah!

Saw three pyramids up close, and the sphinx. The Pyramids are actually massive! We then rode some camels around the pyramids, sounds real cheesy and touristy, but was fun.

Then a 14 hours over night train to Aswan, Southern Egypt...

Cairo - Part II

2007-03-21T00:37:00.000+12:00

I hope you don't get too use to these daily posts, I just stumbled across an insanely cheap Internet cafe and needed to upload and email some photos to a dude I just met on the street. I broke all the rules and hung out with some boys I met on the street. They took me back to their part of town which was super awesome, real old school. There house was 200 years old and the place was busy as, so many people (I was still the tallest and by far the whitest). Had fun hanging with them talking sports and NZ, they offered me a cup of tea... which I took, probably shouldn't have but it was the best cup of tea ever! Real good. Then caught a bus back to my part of town, had to jump on and off as it was moving. Man I love Cairo.

A random street.

The same random street. It is really hard to capture the shear massive-ness and busyness it a photo. And I don't have my camera out very often as its feels rude, draws a lot of attention and I look like a knob.

This is me and the boys outside their house. They were cool, they guy on the end was working on fixing some welding equipment beside us, and through a translator was asking about how to export to New Zealand... it was interesting.

Well, back to it for me, I think I have a dinner date with some Sudanese guys tonight, it will be interesting to see if anything comes of it.

Cairo - Part I

2007-03-20T09:55:00.000+12:00

"Welcome to Cairo. It is now 6:20am local time and is 16 degrees Celsius...". Oh boy. Landing in Cairo was quite surreal, looking out the window at all the ... brown. So many buildings, so massive. It was feeling like a completely different world until I shared a joke with a border security guy with a machine gun who spoke no English... what was the joke you ask? Pretty much that I am massive. I am stoked I am massive here as well as in NZ. I am still me!

Cairo itself is super super awesome. I can only compare is Suva but about a billion times more massive (smells kind of the same). Its really brown and dull, yet vibrant and exciting at the same time. It was described to me as the City of Contrasts... which it very much is. Today I slept a lot after a long (yet surprisingly comfortable) flight, aside from the dude in front of me who thought his chair was broken as it wouldn't lean back... those are my knees man!

Just had dinner with Fiona, a new friend of mine, at the Best Egyptian Restaurant in Cairo (Ab Elsid). We were joined by Renee, the New Zealand ambassador, that was pretty cool. Also smoked some apple Sheesha... now that is good stuff. Its not often stuff you breathe is tasty, not like smoking at all! The taxi ride out there was an experience, the traffic and drivers here are fantasticly crazy, and there can't be any WoF by the looks of it, my Mirage would have loved it!

Cairo rocks.. and I haven't even seen any 'touristy' stuff yet. No pics right now sorry, I am working on it.

Dam... I love it!

Outski

2007-03-13T11:32:00.000+13:00

So its 1 sleep until I leave the country. The reality is sinking in a bit now, I am getting a little emo about all the people and pies I will have to leave behind... but there is no point having feelings, they are well over rated. What was fantastic though has been the previous weekend. I was lucky enough to be invited to Rosie's Toga party on Friday night, and to co-host a Leaving/Birthday/Awesome party with my flat mates. I could write thousands of words describing how awesome the weekend was, but a few pictures would speak those words much more effectively. Firstly: Big ups to Nina and Ze German (Elizabeth) for being so darn fantastic in helping up put our party on, man I love couch surfers.

From the WDA to the ABC, to the RHS to the CBA. From Geraldine to White Rock to Sydney. There was a very eclectic bunch of people at the biggest party of the year, below is a sample of these ridiculously good looking people.

The most important guest ever.. OPTIMUS PRIME. And another distinguished guest.

Rangiora Old School... I love you Paul.

More good looking people. Its amazing that so many awesome people can be in one place. I feel sorry for every other place that has to suffer the shortage of awesome-ness.

And last but not least, a sneaky pic from the toga party the night before our party...
...I love Togas.

The next post will be far more exciting. Enjoy your week people, I intend to enjoy mine.

Keep it real.

PS Just had the best Roast Lamb meal ever... I love my mum and dad.

Optimus Prime!

2007-03-08T00:00:00.000+13:00

Many great ideas have been born over a few quiet pints at many pubs throughout the world, but only a small fraction of these great ideas go full term and mature into true greatness. Below is a story of one such idea, and the journey it took. It all begins on Thursday 22nd February, an innocent enough day to be sure (aside from the folks celebrating Saint Lucia's Independence Day). It was on this day that I first met Sandra Dillon, a psuedo-couch surfer who was to become the central character in this adventure.

After work I met Sandra and we made our way to Barfly for a few quiet ales. It was here I invited Sandra to our party (Saturday March 10th, 288b Bealey Ave, be there or be square). From here things got interesting... I had decided to make invitation using the least amount of paper I could which meant certain details had to be omitted from the mini-invites, the biggest of the small details being that the party is in fact not just for me, but is also for Dave's birthday. Dave dutifully pointed this out, making for quite an awkward moment, one which could only be saved by me semi-token offering to get him ANYTHING he wanted for his birthday. Now Dave has always had a dream, a dream greater and more noble than any other. A dream so seemingly impossible that he had only spoken of it once before. This dream was of a life sized replica of Optimus Prime. If you are not sure who Optimus Prime is, stop reading right now and go learn up on him and don't come back till you can truly appreciate his awesome-ness.

Once Dave had laid out what he wanted I knew immediately I was unworthy of such a task, so I turned to Sandra and asked if she would be interested in taking on the job of designing and building a 7ft tall Robot in exchange for 10 nights accommodation. She immediately agreed and we proceeded to get ridiculously excited. Every second word for the rest of the evening was either 'Massive!' or 'Awesome!'.

From here we took a few days to collect our thoughts, and we began sourcing materials. The folks at Carton Pack were super helpful and hooked us up with the cardboard we needed at a reasonable price, and Bunnings were more than happy for us to purchase all the tools and paints we needed. So we got the tools, we got the materials, "we got the touch, we got the power!". Sandra then got to work on scaling up the small model we had and after some interesting metric/imperial conversions we got to it.

Things went very smoothly and less than a week later (half of which was spent watching Lawrence of Arabia, boy that's a long movie) we had an Optimus Prime. It could not have been done without the help of Talia an Israeli couch surfer, she was awesome. I also took a sneaky day off work to help, we all had to make sacrifices.

Quite possibly the first line being drawn. Notice the small scale model at the bottom and the plan. This was done very professionally... and Pop's worked out it cost us about $72,000 in labour, lucky for us Sandra agreed to be paid in nights on our couch.

Here is Sandra (top) and Talia during the final stages of production on the Friday cutting shapes.

And here he is, our very own Oprimus Prime. The Robot himself is massive and awesome. He can transform into a truck and back again. He can stand up and he can dance. Well, he can do most of those things...

Maxin and Relaxin..

I think I am in love. Optimus is going to be the distinguished guest at the "Tony's Leaving, Dave's Birthday and Pops' Awesome" Party we are having this Saturday night. So come to our party for the giant robot, but stay for the beer, little pies and good looking people.

Tony Hawk?

2007-02-12T22:35:00.001+13:00

For your amusement I have dug up an email I received in August 2004. As you know my name is Tony Hawke, further to that I am sure you are aware that I really can't skate. Someone forgot to tell South America.... Here is an exact copy of an email I received. I have also received an email requesting I open a new Skate Park in Rio de Janeiro (or was in Sao Paulo?), but I have misplaced that one. Enjoy.

From: Lorena Lopez
Date: Tuesday, August 31, 2004 4:53 AM
Subject: BBC´s radio station Ecuador seeks interview!!

Hello Tony,

My name is Lorena López and Iam Producer of Radio City, the radio station associated with the BBC of London and the biggest newspaper in the country "El Universo" in Ecuador - Latinamerica.

Here we have a program based on high profile interviews about art, culture, entertainment, music, sports, life styles and more with information and interviews from around the world.

Here in our country as all over around the world many people follow your career and really admire your work. That is why we would like to request a 5 minutes phone conversation with you, where you could talk about your accomplishments, the skate world and send a salute to your ecuadorian fans.

We only request 5 minutes of your time and we could call to any phone number you would give us, at any day or time to any part of the world according to your comfortness.

It would be an honour for us and a fulfilling dream for all the ecuadorians to have the opportunity to hear you talking and saluting them.

Please let us know your response as soon as possible.

Thank you very much for your time and attention.

Kind regards,

LORENA LÓPEZ
Producer
RADIO CITY (BBC - El Universo)
Ecuador

(5934) 2 490 xxx ext. 5xx

The funniest part is that they had to navigate through my old high school website to get my email address to send this too. I love the randomness.

White Rock

2007-02-06T22:58:00.000+13:00

I was thinking about calling this post my Tour de White Rock, but unfortunately it has already been taken, so you will have to settle for simply 'White Rock'. White Rock, in case you aren't aware, is a small area in North Canterbury, and is (or was) home to such infamous things as Richard Loe, a killer dog and lots of yellowish white rocks.

Most importantly though, it is my home. It is where my heart it. It is where my mummy and daddy are... boy I love them. So below is a collection of pictures I took today as I was cruising around the district.

Yes, we even have a sign now. Just in case you thought you were somewhere that wasn't awesome.

This is my parents house. On the veranda is my cousin Ellen doing her best JetStar impersonation. I will admit it though, her back flip she showed me moments after was far more impressive.

Where it all began. It was here at this hoop that a young Tony Hawke practised through out the late 90's. It was here that a young man dared to dream, to dream of one day emulating his hero: Rob Hickey. You may not believe this but once Rob Hickey looked me in the eye (I was up on a step) and wished me luck for a high school game... I bet he still remembers that moment as vividly as I do.

The billiard table. Had some good games on this. I play my Grandpop every Christmas, and pretty much any family gathering. We are pretty evenly matched, except he has far superior skill, patience, experience, knowledge and accuracy... but I still have the height advantage.

"The Yards". Notice the Lime Works in the distance, the rocks are white... note also the grass is green. I for one am pretty happy they called it White Rock and not Green Grass.

And finally, this is looking down from the top of Okuku Pass. I really only included this so you would be impressed that I biked up to the top of the pass. Its not much of a view, but if I was on a peak, it wouldn't be a Pass now would it.

In 40 days I will have some much more exciting photos so stay tuned.

Enjoy your week and Happy Waitangi Day.

Christchurch

2007-01-21T12:43:00.000+13:00

I love Christchurch. I use to think it was too massive, too scary, too dirty, and too much not White Rock. But it has really grown on me, I love the city now. It may be the case that I just love where ever I am living, if so, that's cool. But right now I love Christchurch. Its big enough so that there is always something to learn about it and small enough so that you can feel like you own the place.

Below are some pictures I took while meandering around the city yesterday. They are mostly for my benefit so that when I am away I can come here and peruse them, but I am also keen to share my very amateur photography skills and practise putting up pictures.

This is my current flat on Bealey Ave. I will be looking for someone to take over my room in March, so if anyone wants a cheap room real close to the city, set back off the road with two ridiculously good looking flat mates then let me know.

This is looking west down the Avon River from the Barbadoes St bridge. Note the "ducks are swimming on the water"... you can't have a collection of photo's of Christchurch without some ducks.
Looking down New Regent St. There is a cafe down here called... Veronica's I think. Lauren and I went there to get an iced chocolate, they were really tasty. Best part though, they were massive! Not sure if the cafe chick made too much or what, be we got out two glasses and a JUG as well. It was one of the best days of my life.

Cathedral Square during the buskers festival. The Blackstreet Boyz were performing, and they were fantastic. Very amusing and talented dancers. Well worth checking out if your about.

"Practise makes perfect, no one is perfect, so there is no sense practising".
Blackstreet Boyz.

This is the best Soulvaki shop in Christchurch. Well, the best in the City. The lamb soulvaki is awesome, I highly recommend it. One thing to note though, if you go for the extra olives for $1 be warned they are not pitted. So the awkward process of eating a soulvaki gets even more awkward. Don't say I didn't warn you.

"The Hack", City Mall, with my old office in the background. It was here that I met Nathan and his boys when we were out street witnessing. They came along to the Upper Room which was fantastic.

I apologise if all these pictures take ages to load. But I struggled as it was to whittle the number down to these ones, lesson learned. There are some pretty sweet sights in Christchurch. I highly recommend being a practise tourist for while and walking around checking it out, you will need to put on a foreign accent though, try Dutch, or else get some couch surfers and show them around.

So it begins

2007-01-15T23:17:00.000+13:00

I have decided to publish my thoughts and travels for all the world to see, and this is the result. I will take this opportunity to first explain the title for this 'blog'. "In the Middle" is the title for one of my favourite Paul Colman songs. It is a song about being stuck in the middle, between two opposing views of the world, and the struggle that can be. The chorus says it all really:

Sometimes I feel like I'm in the middle
I'm not good enough for you
Not dirty enough for some
Sometimes I feel like I'm in the middle
Not safe enough for you
Not crazy enough for some

I guess I can relate to that. Its a very subtle struggle that is played out in all aspects of life, from the most significant ethical decisions through to the seemingly small things which ultimately shape our character.

So there you go, there is a small glimpse into what you may expect here. But don't fret, this will mostly be stories from my travels through the Middle East, Crete and beyond. But I am sure I will find it hard to resist using this medium to express my many random and often contradictory thoughts and ideas.

Thank you for your time and I look forward to sharing with you.

Keep it real!