So guys it has been a while and so many things have happened, most have been extremely excellent, few have been rather shite, and often things have got a bit strange.
Last time I spoke to you guys we were in Munich, and we had a lot of fun there, but we also had many troubles with people in our dorm. I think I wrote about one night of annoyances, but the next night was much worse and it wasn´t even the same people offending. Brit and I had gone to bed at a reasonable time (around 11.30) and went to sleep. The rest of the room, all nine beds worth were occupied by a bunch of football fanatics who did not return home until very late and very drunk, they came into the room on variuos occassions during the night screaming their football song and then wandering back out again, they thought they were pretty funny. Brit and I asked on many occasions very politely I must stress if they could quieten down a bit. A reasonable request at 1am, 1.30am, 2.30 am, 4am, and finally at 5.30am. We did not raise our voices, but eventually they started harrasing us telling us we should have learned German before coming over and eventually when I got up I was pushed around a little. I went and got management, but when I saw him I knew he´d be no good, his intentions were good, but he was tiny, and a pacifist. eventually the thugs left the room, but they were there to confront us at breakfast, still drunk and now angry, it was a little intimidating but I soon realised they were all bark with little bite. One guy got up and threw a ceramic cup at us, but missed by a long shot he threatened to hit but when I didn´t back away, he retreated. Long story short, drunk football supporters=worlds biggest jerks. Otherwise Munich was excellent.
Then we headed to Prague. I won´t dwell on Prague much except to say the Hostel was excellent, as was the beer. The town itself was pretty but touristy and food was more expensive than it is in Germany. We saw some sights, we went to a torure museum and a communist museum (this country is still very angery about the communist regime of only a decade ago). We had a generally pleasant time.
Now though we are in Berlin, and it is an extremely excellent city. Probably the best one we´ve been to so far. The city has so much history and so much diversity. Crazy contrasts all over the place. We went on an alternative tour of Berlin and saw some excellent things, abandoned warehouses used as squats, skateparks, and some not changed since they were bombed in the war. A crazy warehouse museum/squat/gallery/cinema/pub. I can hardly express how amazing this city is. The nightlife is great, the shopping is cheap and unique, even our hostel is nice.
But alas it is our last night here, and tomorrow we must move on to Bruges in Belgium.
And I shall leave it there so I can get back to enjoying this amazing city.
Catch ya all next time.
Dylan
Thursday, November 8, 2007
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
Germany.
Just a quickie guys. We´re now in Munich and have been for a few days. It´s been quite excellent, we´ve done little else apart from take a free tour (that was incredibly interesting), walk around town, eat lots of sausages, and of course drink a lot of beer. Getting to Munich from Paris was hell. There was a plane strike in France (they always seem to be striking in some area or another), which we of course did not hear about, so all the people who had their planes cancelled went and booked the trains completely full. So when we went to get on our train, to our dismay (and to many many others as well) we were not able to get into Munich until 4am (we thought we´d be there by 3pm). But we got there so all is well.
Tomorrow we leave for Prague, we´re not really sure how we´re gonna get there, but we are going to somehow.
The rest of our time in Paris was excellent, we went to the Catacombs, which was really creepy. 1km of an underground quarry that was converted to an ossuary. Piles of bones making up approximately 6 million people´s remains, and not just piles of bones but piles of bones organized into pretty patterns... Morbid! But quite cool. I don´t know why it was decided that it would be a good idea to make patterns out of peoples remains, but who knows what people were thinking in the 1700s.
Other things we´ve been reminded of since the last blog is that people are quite often jerks, especially in hostel rooms. The only language that jerks seem to understand is jerkish and luckily I am very fluent, so safe to say that when people keep me up at night, they sure as hell aren´t getting a sleep in in the morning! This rule will apply to any future offspring I can assure you.
Anyway you guys should wish us luck in our travels to Prague cos we need all we can get.
Till next time,
Sir Chuckleton
P.S.
Good to hear everything went smoothly with the wedding Uncle Chris I wish I could have been there. Also you underestimate Mum´s cooking, despite the amazing food we´ve been having I still look forward to Mum´s (which is equally good)... You forget that her cooking has a very strong selling feature... It´s free!
Tomorrow we leave for Prague, we´re not really sure how we´re gonna get there, but we are going to somehow.
The rest of our time in Paris was excellent, we went to the Catacombs, which was really creepy. 1km of an underground quarry that was converted to an ossuary. Piles of bones making up approximately 6 million people´s remains, and not just piles of bones but piles of bones organized into pretty patterns... Morbid! But quite cool. I don´t know why it was decided that it would be a good idea to make patterns out of peoples remains, but who knows what people were thinking in the 1700s.
Other things we´ve been reminded of since the last blog is that people are quite often jerks, especially in hostel rooms. The only language that jerks seem to understand is jerkish and luckily I am very fluent, so safe to say that when people keep me up at night, they sure as hell aren´t getting a sleep in in the morning! This rule will apply to any future offspring I can assure you.
Anyway you guys should wish us luck in our travels to Prague cos we need all we can get.
Till next time,
Sir Chuckleton
P.S.
Good to hear everything went smoothly with the wedding Uncle Chris I wish I could have been there. Also you underestimate Mum´s cooking, despite the amazing food we´ve been having I still look forward to Mum´s (which is equally good)... You forget that her cooking has a very strong selling feature... It´s free!
Friday, October 26, 2007
Florence to Paris
Hello all. Today is our third day in Paris, and it has been amazing, but first I shall tell you about Florence.
Florence was cool. Both figuratively and literally. There was plenty to do and see, and the weather was icy cold. The latter would not have been too much of a problem except that we were staying in a tent at a camp ground, so even in taking refuge in our tent did not altogether relieve us from the cold. However, we persevered and made the most of our time in this beautiful city. We saw Michelangelo's David, which was a lot biger than I expected (in most places anyway), we waited 3 hours in the cold to get in to the Ufizzi Gallery, which was more or less worth the wait, but most importantly we ate a lot of delicious pizza and pasta, and in spite of the cold, Gelati. After our time in Florence we made the ambitious trip to Paris by train, we left Florence at 7am and arrived in Paris at 11pm. It may not have been the best way to do things in hindsight, but we're here noww and loving it. The first two nights we slept in a bit of a hole in Belleville, but made such good use of our days that it was barely noticable that the bed was just a wooden board with a sheet on it. Our second hostel in Montemarte is mildly better.
On our first day in Paris we had a look at the Louvre, walked under the Arc D'Triomphe, climbed up the Eiffel Tower, and went to an excellent (and free) photography museum exhibiting an excellent display of amongst other things pieces from Larry Clark's work, and of course we ate a whole heap of delicious pastries. On the second day we had a look at Notre Dame cathedral, ate some more pastries, sat in a cafè with some delicious coffee, checked out Montemarte and capped off the day drinking wine on the steps of Sacre Coeur overlooking the city, and today we set out for the overwhelming task of exploring the Louvre. It was pretty excellent, but exhausting. Tomorrow we head for the Catacombs and a picnic in the Luxembourg gardens. After that we head for Munich, and after that we've decided to take a side trip to Prague, it's all very exciting.
So until next time...
Take it easy,
Dylan
Florence was cool. Both figuratively and literally. There was plenty to do and see, and the weather was icy cold. The latter would not have been too much of a problem except that we were staying in a tent at a camp ground, so even in taking refuge in our tent did not altogether relieve us from the cold. However, we persevered and made the most of our time in this beautiful city. We saw Michelangelo's David, which was a lot biger than I expected (in most places anyway), we waited 3 hours in the cold to get in to the Ufizzi Gallery, which was more or less worth the wait, but most importantly we ate a lot of delicious pizza and pasta, and in spite of the cold, Gelati. After our time in Florence we made the ambitious trip to Paris by train, we left Florence at 7am and arrived in Paris at 11pm. It may not have been the best way to do things in hindsight, but we're here noww and loving it. The first two nights we slept in a bit of a hole in Belleville, but made such good use of our days that it was barely noticable that the bed was just a wooden board with a sheet on it. Our second hostel in Montemarte is mildly better.
On our first day in Paris we had a look at the Louvre, walked under the Arc D'Triomphe, climbed up the Eiffel Tower, and went to an excellent (and free) photography museum exhibiting an excellent display of amongst other things pieces from Larry Clark's work, and of course we ate a whole heap of delicious pastries. On the second day we had a look at Notre Dame cathedral, ate some more pastries, sat in a cafè with some delicious coffee, checked out Montemarte and capped off the day drinking wine on the steps of Sacre Coeur overlooking the city, and today we set out for the overwhelming task of exploring the Louvre. It was pretty excellent, but exhausting. Tomorrow we head for the Catacombs and a picnic in the Luxembourg gardens. After that we head for Munich, and after that we've decided to take a side trip to Prague, it's all very exciting.
So until next time...
Take it easy,
Dylan
Friday, October 19, 2007
Cannes, Rome, Cinque Terre
Okay so it's been awhile since I've had a chance to blog, we've been very busy and internet prices have been extortionate. However, we are in Florence now and have found an internet parlour with reaonable rates. I was excited to find my first comment on my blog (cheers lauchy) which confirms that I have at least one reader. Anyway I should go back to what has happened since Avignon. Well as you may have guessed, from Avignon we headed to Cannes for a couple of nights. The train trip there was excellent, we had a great view of Cosa Azure along the way, which is so beautiful that I have decided that I will buy a beach house there... well when I've got that kind of cash. Cannes itself, although touristy was still stunning. We had an excellent cheap hotel room just out of town, and perfect weather for swimming, which we made the most of. From Cannes we had a trecherous train trip to Rome, it took about 15 hours, we had to change trains several times and we for each train we had to pay a booking fee which we were horrified to find was 15 euros each. So after a couple of those I ouldn't afford to eat let alone rent accommodation. We got into rome at around 10pm, tired, hungry, grumpy, and with some alarming indicators of sickness, we got terribly lost on the way to the hostel and then when we eventually found it we were told our bookin had been given away, and were directed to another place that was 20 minutes walk away (which is annoying with a 20kg pack on your back), and also was a shithole. The next day Brit and I awoke sick with severe colds, but perservered with sight seeing regardless (having little choice as we were locked out between 11am and 4pm for a "cleaning" time that was not very evident upon return...), we went and saw the ruins and the Colosium, and it was all very exciting. we also ate a lot of Gelati and Pizza and Pasta, and that was almost equally as exciting. The following day, still ill, we headed to the Vatican, we waited in line for almost 2 hours and pay 26 Aus dollars, and for that I hoped that we would at least see the Pope dance the Charleston on top of a flagpole. We didn't but it was all very impressive and the Sistine Chapel was probably worth the admission. After that we sat outside of Saint Peter's Catherdral, which was equally impressive, and I reflected upon the fact that this was probably as close as I wold ever get to the Pope, and realised that I didn't really care either. I also wondered why he so closely resembles my own image of Satan rather than God, and that if there is a God why thinking this means that I am likely to go to hell. 15 minutes later I was eating Gelati and had forgotten all about it. We then stopped at the Fountain Di Trevi and that was cool also, but by now we had had just about enough of Rome, we were sick, tired, and decided to get an ealy night's sleep so we could ge up early to go to Cinque Terre. An annoying American girl had other ideas for us though.
After being asleep for a couple of hours tops, she and a Local Roman man crashed into the dorm drunkenly, and took part in some very unpleasant activities in the bed directly next to me for the entire duration of the night. I hardly slept a wink and at 4.45 I got up and used the hostel compute until Brit got up at 6am and we headed to Cinque Terre.
Now this place really did live up to expectations. We stayed at an cosy hostel filled with lovely people, we met a really nce Canadian couple that we spent some time with. And Cinque Terre itself was amazing. The walk was fantastic, the weather again was superb, the water a clear bright turquoise that couldn't be resisted, and the views were unbelievable. I could spend weeks there swimming off the rocks in the calm sea, I'd recommend it to anyone with half a chance of making it there. We spent 2 and a half days there, and today we travelled quite easily to Florence. We've got ourselves some cheap accommodation at a camp ground that overlooks the city, and we're going to spend at least four nights here, maybe 5. Then it's on to Paris!
I'll keep you informed regardless.
regards,
Dylan
After being asleep for a couple of hours tops, she and a Local Roman man crashed into the dorm drunkenly, and took part in some very unpleasant activities in the bed directly next to me for the entire duration of the night. I hardly slept a wink and at 4.45 I got up and used the hostel compute until Brit got up at 6am and we headed to Cinque Terre.
Now this place really did live up to expectations. We stayed at an cosy hostel filled with lovely people, we met a really nce Canadian couple that we spent some time with. And Cinque Terre itself was amazing. The walk was fantastic, the weather again was superb, the water a clear bright turquoise that couldn't be resisted, and the views were unbelievable. I could spend weeks there swimming off the rocks in the calm sea, I'd recommend it to anyone with half a chance of making it there. We spent 2 and a half days there, and today we travelled quite easily to Florence. We've got ourselves some cheap accommodation at a camp ground that overlooks the city, and we're going to spend at least four nights here, maybe 5. Then it's on to Paris!
I'll keep you informed regardless.
regards,
Dylan
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
Goodbye Spain. Hello France
Our last few stops in Spain were relatively relaxed and hassle free. We spent a few nights in Valencia, which Brit donned "The Adelaide of Spain" namely because there wasn't too much to do, but it was nice enough, and we were able to spend a good deal of our time there drinking extremely cheap (yet very drinkable) wine. From there we returned to Barcelona and checked out the Picasso museum and the modern art museum, both of which were well worth the price of admission. We ate a lot of the free pasta people left behind at the hostel, and a lot of fresh bread from the bakeries, occasionally we did so amidst the jovial atmosphere of the Barcelona beaches, other times we did so in derelict car parks that could have easily been located in Marion (much to Brit's dismay), but on the whole we ate our fill and did so happily and cheaply.
From Barcelona we headed to France, specifically Montpelier. We were nervous about not being able to speak any French, having heard all the stereotypes, so we learnt a couple of phrases that we hoped may help us. Pardon, jé ne parle pas Franés- I'm sorry I cannot speak French, and Parle vou Anglais?- Can you speak English? I'm sure my spelling isn't correct but you get the idea. To our delight, these phrases have been ample especially when delivered apologetically and politely. The French have been very accommodating thus far and most can speak at least a little English and have been happy to help in any way that they could. I can imagine the people they might be less likely to help out, like our American acquaintance from the last blog, demanding "CAN YOU SPEAK ENGLISH, you know EEENNNGLISH?" I wouldn't help here either. I must point out that this isn't my view of all Americans or even the stereotypical American, we've met many lovely ones, however I will never forget our obnoxious American acquaintance, just as I will always remember who the jerks are back home (I'm sure none of you readers are, but there are probably only four of you so I'd be pretty safe to say so.
Regardless, Montpelier was a cute city, and we stayed in a é star hotel that felt like a ( star hotel to us.
And now we are in Avignon, a beautiful old city, that has a fantastic wall around it, which has been present since the 15th century. We have been having a fantastic time just walking around looking at things, trying to keep to budget, and have mostly been successful, save last night when we accidentally spent an exorbitant amount on dinner because we were looking at the lunch prices instead of the dinner prices, it was a good meal though so what can you do?
France is tré expensive though, which doesn't make heaps of sense to me because by and large the people aren't that well off, they only earn about 19000 euros a year which isn't much in comparison to other western european countries, and this is largely due to the fact that they only work 4 days a week, and generally don't start work till 10 which they then follow with an overly long lunch break... I mean the French know how to live, and somehow they do it cheaply as well! Alright I best be off, we're headed to Cannes next then Italy where internet prices are reportedly ridiculous (9 euros an hour apparently) so it may be awhile before I get to Blog again.
Take care all,
Dylan
P.S.
Congratulations to Erin and Mark Seaborn, just married, I regret missing the wedding but maybe we'll bump into you on your honeymoon I hear you're headed this way!
And I should also send a belated happy birthday to Nanna, although I spoke to her on her birthday, I just thought it worth mentioning that she's the kind of 80 year old I want to be one day, active, travelling, and larger than life... of course I'd like to continue to be male.
From Barcelona we headed to France, specifically Montpelier. We were nervous about not being able to speak any French, having heard all the stereotypes, so we learnt a couple of phrases that we hoped may help us. Pardon, jé ne parle pas Franés- I'm sorry I cannot speak French, and Parle vou Anglais?- Can you speak English? I'm sure my spelling isn't correct but you get the idea. To our delight, these phrases have been ample especially when delivered apologetically and politely. The French have been very accommodating thus far and most can speak at least a little English and have been happy to help in any way that they could. I can imagine the people they might be less likely to help out, like our American acquaintance from the last blog, demanding "CAN YOU SPEAK ENGLISH, you know EEENNNGLISH?" I wouldn't help here either. I must point out that this isn't my view of all Americans or even the stereotypical American, we've met many lovely ones, however I will never forget our obnoxious American acquaintance, just as I will always remember who the jerks are back home (I'm sure none of you readers are, but there are probably only four of you so I'd be pretty safe to say so.
Regardless, Montpelier was a cute city, and we stayed in a é star hotel that felt like a ( star hotel to us.
And now we are in Avignon, a beautiful old city, that has a fantastic wall around it, which has been present since the 15th century. We have been having a fantastic time just walking around looking at things, trying to keep to budget, and have mostly been successful, save last night when we accidentally spent an exorbitant amount on dinner because we were looking at the lunch prices instead of the dinner prices, it was a good meal though so what can you do?
France is tré expensive though, which doesn't make heaps of sense to me because by and large the people aren't that well off, they only earn about 19000 euros a year which isn't much in comparison to other western european countries, and this is largely due to the fact that they only work 4 days a week, and generally don't start work till 10 which they then follow with an overly long lunch break... I mean the French know how to live, and somehow they do it cheaply as well! Alright I best be off, we're headed to Cannes next then Italy where internet prices are reportedly ridiculous (9 euros an hour apparently) so it may be awhile before I get to Blog again.
Take care all,
Dylan
P.S.
Congratulations to Erin and Mark Seaborn, just married, I regret missing the wedding but maybe we'll bump into you on your honeymoon I hear you're headed this way!
And I should also send a belated happy birthday to Nanna, although I spoke to her on her birthday, I just thought it worth mentioning that she's the kind of 80 year old I want to be one day, active, travelling, and larger than life... of course I'd like to continue to be male.
Monday, October 1, 2007
San Sebastian, Granada, and Valencia
Much has happened since my last blog, but it has been hard to find the time to write, so I´ll try and get it all out now.
A fewe things I didn´t mention about the SanSebastian trip: Brit had her first of what would become many unpleasant public transport experiences on the train on the way to San Sebastian. She had to sit next to a very unpleasant and possibly insane young man, that reminded us both of Kyle Sandilands. I tried to get her to swap with me but she had nothing of it and opted to sit next to the glowering, yelling, unpleasant and somewhat perverted young man for the entire journey. Upon arriving at San Sebastian we had some trouble finding our accommodation, but once we did, it immediately felt pretty dodgy. The guy who met us didn´t run the hostel (he was away), and he had overbooked the place so we had the thrill of staying in this guys room. Which was just a matress on the floor of a room the size of a closet. Upon entering we were asked not to use his weed or his flavoured condom, which we were only too happy to oblige. However the rest of the stay was very nice, we saw Richard Gere´s new film the Hoax, and we even saw Richard Gere, which was very exciting.
From San Sebastian we took a God awfully long train trip to Granada, in which we endured a four hour stop at the train station in Madrid. At the the Madrid train station I witnessed the most obnoxious American middle-aged hippy tourist I think I have ever come across, not speaking a word of Spanish and demanding things of officials everywhere barking at them in English like they were the idiots. I relayed the story to Brit, and did an excellent impression of her. However, I received instant Karma and found that we would be sharing the train trip to Granada together, and beyond that realising that we spoke English she latched on to us and basically made us her tour guide, following us to our accommodation, complaining to them when they did not have anything for her diespite the fact she hadn´t booked and it was after midnight, and then when they found her a bed she complained about the bathrooms being too dirty. It´s about as close as I´ve come to throttling someone, she was literally in my top 3 most irritating people of all time.
Anyway Granada was a pretty cool place, it looked beautiful with the Alhambra overlooking the city. And they have this excellent free tapas culture, where with every drink you get free food, and pretty good food too. We visited the Alhambra and that was mind blowing, the amount of detail in every aspect of the palace was incredible, and the views were spectacular. I think that is the one thing Australia really needs, big f***-off castles splattered about the place. It was also refreshing to see something old and cool without Jesus splattered all over it.
Beyond these however, our experiences of Granada turned a bit sour. When we wanted to book another two nights at the hostel, we were told it was quite full so we´d have to spend one night on the roof, but the following night we could have a bed again, the weather had been good thus far so we agreed. Of course that night it rained all nigh and everything of mine at least got soaked (including several books and my passport) and we only got a couple of hours sleep cos we were wet and uncomfortable. Then the next night they said they´d overbooked so we´d have to sleep on the roof again, in no mood to that, with the weather looking menacing again, we kindly told them to go f*** themselves and asked them to relocate us to another hostel which, they happily obliged.
The next morning we set off to catch a bus to Valencia, but I got the time wrong by an hour and we had to wait another 4 hours for the next bus, which meant a) we wouldn´t get to Valencia until after 1am, b) we couldn´t do our washing,which we desperately neede to do, and c) I was not very popular that day. The bus trip when it finally came about was horrid. Everyone stank, and was generally rude. I mean people were on their mobile phones the entire trip, and not talking quietly, but actually shouting into their phones, and I am not exaggerating. When it got to midnight and the guy in front of me was still doing this to lighten the mode I pretended to answer my phone and talk loudly in to it.
"Yeah, hey, I´m on the bus.... Yeah the BUS. Other people?..Oh I think they´re trying to sleep... no TRYING....TRYING.....Well I guess some of them are CRYING now... etc."
The guy in front of me shut up right away, and people behind me were laughing, I guess it occurred to me that most people have a basic understanding of English.
Anyway now we´re in Valencia and we´ve been trying to get our washing done, and it´s been harder than it should be as the washing machine was malfunctioning a bit, but I think it´s alright now. Anyway, we´ve got a few days here to relax, which is lucky cos I think we´re due for a good run.
Cath ya next time.
Dylan
A fewe things I didn´t mention about the SanSebastian trip: Brit had her first of what would become many unpleasant public transport experiences on the train on the way to San Sebastian. She had to sit next to a very unpleasant and possibly insane young man, that reminded us both of Kyle Sandilands. I tried to get her to swap with me but she had nothing of it and opted to sit next to the glowering, yelling, unpleasant and somewhat perverted young man for the entire journey. Upon arriving at San Sebastian we had some trouble finding our accommodation, but once we did, it immediately felt pretty dodgy. The guy who met us didn´t run the hostel (he was away), and he had overbooked the place so we had the thrill of staying in this guys room. Which was just a matress on the floor of a room the size of a closet. Upon entering we were asked not to use his weed or his flavoured condom, which we were only too happy to oblige. However the rest of the stay was very nice, we saw Richard Gere´s new film the Hoax, and we even saw Richard Gere, which was very exciting.
From San Sebastian we took a God awfully long train trip to Granada, in which we endured a four hour stop at the train station in Madrid. At the the Madrid train station I witnessed the most obnoxious American middle-aged hippy tourist I think I have ever come across, not speaking a word of Spanish and demanding things of officials everywhere barking at them in English like they were the idiots. I relayed the story to Brit, and did an excellent impression of her. However, I received instant Karma and found that we would be sharing the train trip to Granada together, and beyond that realising that we spoke English she latched on to us and basically made us her tour guide, following us to our accommodation, complaining to them when they did not have anything for her diespite the fact she hadn´t booked and it was after midnight, and then when they found her a bed she complained about the bathrooms being too dirty. It´s about as close as I´ve come to throttling someone, she was literally in my top 3 most irritating people of all time.
Anyway Granada was a pretty cool place, it looked beautiful with the Alhambra overlooking the city. And they have this excellent free tapas culture, where with every drink you get free food, and pretty good food too. We visited the Alhambra and that was mind blowing, the amount of detail in every aspect of the palace was incredible, and the views were spectacular. I think that is the one thing Australia really needs, big f***-off castles splattered about the place. It was also refreshing to see something old and cool without Jesus splattered all over it.
Beyond these however, our experiences of Granada turned a bit sour. When we wanted to book another two nights at the hostel, we were told it was quite full so we´d have to spend one night on the roof, but the following night we could have a bed again, the weather had been good thus far so we agreed. Of course that night it rained all nigh and everything of mine at least got soaked (including several books and my passport) and we only got a couple of hours sleep cos we were wet and uncomfortable. Then the next night they said they´d overbooked so we´d have to sleep on the roof again, in no mood to that, with the weather looking menacing again, we kindly told them to go f*** themselves and asked them to relocate us to another hostel which, they happily obliged.
The next morning we set off to catch a bus to Valencia, but I got the time wrong by an hour and we had to wait another 4 hours for the next bus, which meant a) we wouldn´t get to Valencia until after 1am, b) we couldn´t do our washing,which we desperately neede to do, and c) I was not very popular that day. The bus trip when it finally came about was horrid. Everyone stank, and was generally rude. I mean people were on their mobile phones the entire trip, and not talking quietly, but actually shouting into their phones, and I am not exaggerating. When it got to midnight and the guy in front of me was still doing this to lighten the mode I pretended to answer my phone and talk loudly in to it.
"Yeah, hey, I´m on the bus.... Yeah the BUS. Other people?..Oh I think they´re trying to sleep... no TRYING....TRYING.....Well I guess some of them are CRYING now... etc."
The guy in front of me shut up right away, and people behind me were laughing, I guess it occurred to me that most people have a basic understanding of English.
Anyway now we´re in Valencia and we´ve been trying to get our washing done, and it´s been harder than it should be as the washing machine was malfunctioning a bit, but I think it´s alright now. Anyway, we´ve got a few days here to relax, which is lucky cos I think we´re due for a good run.
Cath ya next time.
Dylan
Sunday, September 23, 2007
Spain shenanigans
Well we are now well and truly in Spain, and thus far it´s been pretty hectic. Currently we are a bit off our original course, but it is perhaps for the better.
We flew into Spain on Wednesday I think, and spent the night in a really nice little town called Girona, it has beautiful old medievil buildings and a pretty relaxed atmosphere. Fro there we tried to book accomodation for a few days in Barcelona, but to our dismay everything was pretty much booked up. We settled on spending one night in one hostel and another in a different one, and then hopefully work out the rest when we got there. It turns out that there was this big festival going on and there was no affordable accommodation to be found anywhere, and we got a bit stressed out because of it. We spent the one day we had in Barcleona checking out Gaudi´s Cathedral and park, La Sagrada Familia and Parc Guell, and they were pretty amazing in all honesty. Gaudi was clearly a genius.
Anyway we had to come to a decision as what to do next as time was running short. We considered buying a tent and camping, we even considered sleeping on the beach or in the airport but decided that these weren´t really very realistic options. So we made a snap decision to catch a train to San Sebastian on the North Coast of Spain, which was never in our plans, but has proved to have been an excellent decision. The weather is beautiful here, and the beaches are pretty spectacular, and by pure coincidence there´s an international film festival going on. Richard Gere and Demi Moore are supposedly here, we´ve been looking out for them on the beaches but instead all we seem to see are fat naked men (one who we deemed the Walrus man), and not as fat naked women. Oh well. We got tickets to Richard Gere´s film the Hoax tonight as part of the film festival, apparently we may even get to walk down the red carpet and tickets only cost us 5euros.
Otherwise though all this travelling has been eating up my money. Hopefully staying put in the one place for a little while will mean I can recoup my losses.
Alright, I best be off considering my budget and all.
Catch yáll later!
We flew into Spain on Wednesday I think, and spent the night in a really nice little town called Girona, it has beautiful old medievil buildings and a pretty relaxed atmosphere. Fro there we tried to book accomodation for a few days in Barcelona, but to our dismay everything was pretty much booked up. We settled on spending one night in one hostel and another in a different one, and then hopefully work out the rest when we got there. It turns out that there was this big festival going on and there was no affordable accommodation to be found anywhere, and we got a bit stressed out because of it. We spent the one day we had in Barcleona checking out Gaudi´s Cathedral and park, La Sagrada Familia and Parc Guell, and they were pretty amazing in all honesty. Gaudi was clearly a genius.
Anyway we had to come to a decision as what to do next as time was running short. We considered buying a tent and camping, we even considered sleeping on the beach or in the airport but decided that these weren´t really very realistic options. So we made a snap decision to catch a train to San Sebastian on the North Coast of Spain, which was never in our plans, but has proved to have been an excellent decision. The weather is beautiful here, and the beaches are pretty spectacular, and by pure coincidence there´s an international film festival going on. Richard Gere and Demi Moore are supposedly here, we´ve been looking out for them on the beaches but instead all we seem to see are fat naked men (one who we deemed the Walrus man), and not as fat naked women. Oh well. We got tickets to Richard Gere´s film the Hoax tonight as part of the film festival, apparently we may even get to walk down the red carpet and tickets only cost us 5euros.
Otherwise though all this travelling has been eating up my money. Hopefully staying put in the one place for a little while will mean I can recoup my losses.
Alright, I best be off considering my budget and all.
Catch yáll later!
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