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.
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
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!
Wednesday, September 19, 2007
Off to Spain
I don't know what all the fuss about London weather is about, we've been here 7 days and had 7days of sunshine. It's been excellent. And with that luck I am happy to be heading out of London while the goings relatively good. But before I do I'd like to comment on a couple of things. I've found London quite frank in its business, for instance all the gay bars we walked past were called GAY bar. The sex shops had signs outside that said 'Porn in the basement', and we past an all you can eat noodle bar called Phat Phuc noodle bar. It's pretty funny.
Yesterday we went to the Globe theatre and saw the Merchant of Venice, it was pretty cool, we had to stand for three hours on account of only paying £5 for the tickets but it was worth it. After that things got a bit gloomy. I had forgotten my jacket, and although relatively sunny, it got pretty damn cold, and now I'm sick, not too bad though. We saw a guy threatening to jump off a bridge. By the size of the fall I doubt it would have killed him, and luckily it didn't come to that, cos police talked him out of it. Still it was pretty sad seeing a man that desperate. And a bit sick seeing everyone get their cameras out to take photos, I mena Jesus some people really are low.
Finally I'm very sad to say I heeard news of the death of a class mate back home. George died of cancer, which is incredibly sad, he was far too young and far too nice of a guy. My heart goes out to his friends and family.
Anyway, now we catch the bus to Stansted and from there fly to Spain, should be good.
Catch y'all.
Yesterday we went to the Globe theatre and saw the Merchant of Venice, it was pretty cool, we had to stand for three hours on account of only paying £5 for the tickets but it was worth it. After that things got a bit gloomy. I had forgotten my jacket, and although relatively sunny, it got pretty damn cold, and now I'm sick, not too bad though. We saw a guy threatening to jump off a bridge. By the size of the fall I doubt it would have killed him, and luckily it didn't come to that, cos police talked him out of it. Still it was pretty sad seeing a man that desperate. And a bit sick seeing everyone get their cameras out to take photos, I mena Jesus some people really are low.
Finally I'm very sad to say I heeard news of the death of a class mate back home. George died of cancer, which is incredibly sad, he was far too young and far too nice of a guy. My heart goes out to his friends and family.
Anyway, now we catch the bus to Stansted and from there fly to Spain, should be good.
Catch y'all.
Saturday, September 15, 2007
I'm in London still... and it's better than that Waifs' song my Dad likes.
Well, we've been in London a few days now, and although still not entirely over the jet lag we are seeing some great things and having a great time. Yesterday we went for a long walk and saw all that royal stuff like Buckingham palace etc, it was a bit of an accident to be honest, we just kind of stumbled across it. We were lucky enough to catch the changing of the horse guards, which was pretty cool. I tell you what though, being a guard like that would be a sucky job, they have to just stand there all day and barely move, I'm not disciplined enough really, but regardless it looks as boring as hell, even if they do get to carry swords. Anywho, after that we went to The Globe theatre, the reconstruction of the theatre shakespeare's plays were shown in. We got tickets to see The Merchant of Venice on Tuesday, which I'm pretty excited about. After that we went to the Tate Modern art gallery, and that was really impressive, so many really interesting things to look at, which is kinda a given I guess. Then today we checked out the Natural History museum, and the science museum, which were both relatively interesting, but free admission meant the price was right so I'm not complaining. Then we went and had a look at Harrod's which was pretty impressive in it's excessiveness, but made me realise how much I couldn't afford anything. We've also been spending a lot of time in the parks here which are huge and lovely. I've been managing to stick to budget, which has been excellent for my health in terms of having to walk everywhere and eating cheaply without the option of snacking or gorging. So so far all has been excellent. Really the only downer has been the hostel. It's interesting being in an English speaking country but being a minority in the hostel for speaking English, which is fine, it just makes socialising a little harder because of the language gap. We're moving to another hostel in a couple of days so it will be fine regardless.
Well that's about all I have time for at the moment, so take it easy and I'll catch y'all next time!
Well that's about all I have time for at the moment, so take it easy and I'll catch y'all next time!
Thursday, September 13, 2007
Chucklebear II: European Vacation
So I never did get around to writing that last summary blog for the South America trip. I got back home and was distracted by so many things that I guess I just couldn't be bothered. Anywho, none of that matters any more because I'm back on the road, except this time I am with my girlfriend Brit and we are in Europe. Some of you may be thinking that it really hasn't been that long since I was last away, and are probably wondering how I could possibly afford to go on a trip such as this, and you'd be right to wonder, because basically I can't. But that's all part of the fun and should make things at least a little more interesting for you the reader. This being the case though, you may expect my entries to be briefer and fewer this time around, as I am paying about $6 an hour here instead of the 6cents an hour in South America.
As far as European themed sequels go, I am hoping that this blog at least meets the standard of Deuce Bigalow European Gigolo, and perhaps even be a little more interesting than the instant classic Eurotrip. I figure if you aim high enough you might just reach mediocrity.
But enough blabber, onto the trip. In Adelaide yesterday morning Brit and I jumped on a plane to Singapore , and by pure coincedence found ourselves on the same flight as our dear friend Ben McGee. We managed to organise it so that we were sitting together and enjoyed a pleasant trip before farewelling Ben at the Singapore airport. Our next flight to Zurich surprised us a bit as neither of us had checked how long the flight was, which to our dismay turned out to be a very long one, accentuated by the screaming child in the row behind us. From Zurich we flew to Heathrow airport, tired and disoriented we collected our bags and tried to make sense of the subway system. Given our state we did pretty well, and found our way to our hostel without any major hassles. The hostel is alright, a bit dingy and smelly, but that's what you get for £10. Since then we have been walking round London (mostly Hye park and Nottinghill) and trying to stay awake. Believe it or not everything looks very British, we even saw some squirrels scurrying around in Hyde Park. I'm not really doing it justice at the moment, I'm extremely jet lagged, I have absolutley no sense of time presently, and my current surroundings aren't exactly inspiring. I am currently sitting under fluroescent lights in the basement of a dodgy pizza shop that they have turned into an internet 'cafe', plus there's a guy sitting next to me burping loudly every 20 seconds. He is truly disgusting.
Regardless, it's all a bit hard to believe we're here at the moment. What we have seen of London so far has been pretty cool, and I know that when we get over this jetlag, we're going to enjoy it even more. So until then, take it easy.
Chucklebear
As far as European themed sequels go, I am hoping that this blog at least meets the standard of Deuce Bigalow European Gigolo, and perhaps even be a little more interesting than the instant classic Eurotrip. I figure if you aim high enough you might just reach mediocrity.
But enough blabber, onto the trip. In Adelaide yesterday morning Brit and I jumped on a plane to Singapore , and by pure coincedence found ourselves on the same flight as our dear friend Ben McGee. We managed to organise it so that we were sitting together and enjoyed a pleasant trip before farewelling Ben at the Singapore airport. Our next flight to Zurich surprised us a bit as neither of us had checked how long the flight was, which to our dismay turned out to be a very long one, accentuated by the screaming child in the row behind us. From Zurich we flew to Heathrow airport, tired and disoriented we collected our bags and tried to make sense of the subway system. Given our state we did pretty well, and found our way to our hostel without any major hassles. The hostel is alright, a bit dingy and smelly, but that's what you get for £10. Since then we have been walking round London (mostly Hye park and Nottinghill) and trying to stay awake. Believe it or not everything looks very British, we even saw some squirrels scurrying around in Hyde Park. I'm not really doing it justice at the moment, I'm extremely jet lagged, I have absolutley no sense of time presently, and my current surroundings aren't exactly inspiring. I am currently sitting under fluroescent lights in the basement of a dodgy pizza shop that they have turned into an internet 'cafe', plus there's a guy sitting next to me burping loudly every 20 seconds. He is truly disgusting.
Regardless, it's all a bit hard to believe we're here at the moment. What we have seen of London so far has been pretty cool, and I know that when we get over this jetlag, we're going to enjoy it even more. So until then, take it easy.
Chucklebear
Thursday, March 1, 2007
Galapagos and Beyond
I´m sure you know that by now we have returned from our trip to the Galapagos, and tonight we do in fact begin our journey home. It´s funny, the Galapagos Islands were incredible, possibly the highlight of the entire trip in fact, but I´m not that excited about reporting our experience on them. I´ve noticed that I much prefer writing about the things that go wrong on our trip rather than those that go smoothly. I think it´s a combination of being a well travelled whinger and that I´ve never enjoyed reading about other people´s amazing trips to the most beautiful places, all I get is bored and mildly jealous. That said I´m fully aware that I have included plenty of boring recounts of the aforementioned beautiful places, and will include at least one more in this very entry. It´s just how things seem to be done in travel blogs.
So, we enjoyed a brief and hassle free flight to Baltra Island, from which we were escorted to our amazing Yacht, it had 4 levels, including a sunbathing deck. We were granted the luxuries of a TV and DVD player, hot showers, flushing toilets, airconditioning, washing machines, and an incredible kitchen from which the most amazing meals were prepared. We soon met our tour group and found them to be a mostly pleasant array of people of different ages and nationalities, we also met our guide, who we soon found to be useless.
We were shown to our rooms, Ness shared with a girl we became good friends with called Abby, and Sarah and I were to share a room. We found to our horror that we had again been given the matrimonial suite. This was most complexing. There were two married couples on the cruise, and a long term younger couple, and none of them were given a double bed. It was incredibly strange. On top of this the bed was very small for a double, and it soon became apparent that this was not going to work. Luckily we were able to organise to swap rooms with someone who had a room to himself with two single beds.
Over the next five days we enjoyed some of the most incredible day trips that I have had the privilege to experience. We explored several fascinating islands in the most perfect of weather. We saw hundreds of iguanas, some eating, some sleeping, some fighting, some swimming, and some just hanging out. We saw too many sea lions to mention, playing, barking, sleeping, and feeding their pups. We saw plenty of boobies (Blue footed and Nazcan, not the lady bits), lizards, crabs, Frigate birds, Giant tortoises, penguins and much more. And we saw all of it closer than you could imagine, the zoo will never be the same. All of this was just during our land visits, during the snorkelling we saw a hell of a lot more.
In crystal clear water at a constant 26 degrees Celsius, we saw, Giant turtles scrounging for moss, penguins and sealions fishing and playing with us (many sealions even brushed me as the came to get a closer look at me), thousands of the most spectacularly coloured fish, all different types of rays, including giant sting rays swimming in schools that you could have reached out and touched if you were dumb enough to try, we saw a bunch of sharks (some of them very big), eels, sea snakes, and from the boat we even saw some dolphins playing as the sun set. The girls also saw a few jelly fish, and they were even lucky enough to feel what happens when you get too close to them (I think the welts have finally faded). I saw everything I thought I would and so much more. On one occassion when Ness and I were snorkelling by ourselves in shallow water, four sealions led by a giant Bull sea lion suddenly surrounded us. They circled us very closely and as Ness and I tried to keep our eyes on them we tripped over each other, got all tangled up, basically making quite a scene. We soon got some bad vibes from the Bull Sea lion, who was much bigger than I am, and decided we had better get out of his territory. The females followed us out quite playfully, they were really very curious, but I was relieved when there was some distance between us and the Bull.
I could go on and on about everything we saw, but I´ll leave that until I get home, suffice to say that it was about the most incredible trip I have ever been on, and I could spend months their given the opportunity.
We flew back to Quito, this time it wasn´t such a hassle free trip, and spent a night in a really fancy hotel as part of our Galapagos package. Over the last couple of days we had dinner with some friends that we had met several times throughout our travels (including Christmas), we went to an animal sactuary that was really impressive, we attempted to go to a female prison, but missed visiting hours, and today I went to a barber and had my beard shaved off.
Now this, Í am much more interested in reporting. First of all I asked if I could keep my side burns, and I am sure the hairdresser understood me, she just messed up. She started with the clippers and was careful to keep a sideburn on one side of my face at the length I had requested, but on the other, quicker than you can say ´´side burn tan lines´´ she slipped and sheared a vast majority of it off. I saw her face freeze with fear, waiting for me to yell at her, but I gritted my teeth and smiled, as Ness and Sarah both covered the mouth in a mixture of shock and amusement. She tried to compensate by leaving the other sideburn a little longer, but I would have clearly rathered she even them up. Then as she was shaving me with the razor, she slipped again, this time imbedding her razor quite deeply in to my mole, looking at it now, it appears as if she took half of it clean off. Of course it bled like a bastard, and she freaked out. As it didn´t particularly hurt I told her not to worry about it as she kept trying to stop a rather constant flow of blood, eventually I got her to let me hold a cotton bud to it. I think she also shaved a bit too close as I have come up with a bit of a rash. I left only having to pay two dollars, but with a cotton bud stuck with thick blood to the side of my face, an imminent rash, and ridiculous tanlines where my sideburns of probably 8 years used to be. Are you looking forward to seeing me now Brit?
I´ve decided that taking the timee to ensure that the person you ask to take a blade to your face, has both the skill and pride in their work to request a payment of more than $2, is time well invested. On the plus side I don´t look like a hobo anymore... I more closely resemble someone who´s paid a visit to Sweeney Todd.
Well that just about sums it up.
That was our trip to South America.
I may try to get one more entry in to sum things up, tie up loose ends and all that, but if not, thank you for your patient attention. I don´t know if it´s possible for psychologists to write anything interesting, but I´m not quite a psychologist, so there may have been hope for me. For your sake hope that´s true.
Till next time (if there is one),
Chuckles
So, we enjoyed a brief and hassle free flight to Baltra Island, from which we were escorted to our amazing Yacht, it had 4 levels, including a sunbathing deck. We were granted the luxuries of a TV and DVD player, hot showers, flushing toilets, airconditioning, washing machines, and an incredible kitchen from which the most amazing meals were prepared. We soon met our tour group and found them to be a mostly pleasant array of people of different ages and nationalities, we also met our guide, who we soon found to be useless.
We were shown to our rooms, Ness shared with a girl we became good friends with called Abby, and Sarah and I were to share a room. We found to our horror that we had again been given the matrimonial suite. This was most complexing. There were two married couples on the cruise, and a long term younger couple, and none of them were given a double bed. It was incredibly strange. On top of this the bed was very small for a double, and it soon became apparent that this was not going to work. Luckily we were able to organise to swap rooms with someone who had a room to himself with two single beds.
Over the next five days we enjoyed some of the most incredible day trips that I have had the privilege to experience. We explored several fascinating islands in the most perfect of weather. We saw hundreds of iguanas, some eating, some sleeping, some fighting, some swimming, and some just hanging out. We saw too many sea lions to mention, playing, barking, sleeping, and feeding their pups. We saw plenty of boobies (Blue footed and Nazcan, not the lady bits), lizards, crabs, Frigate birds, Giant tortoises, penguins and much more. And we saw all of it closer than you could imagine, the zoo will never be the same. All of this was just during our land visits, during the snorkelling we saw a hell of a lot more.
In crystal clear water at a constant 26 degrees Celsius, we saw, Giant turtles scrounging for moss, penguins and sealions fishing and playing with us (many sealions even brushed me as the came to get a closer look at me), thousands of the most spectacularly coloured fish, all different types of rays, including giant sting rays swimming in schools that you could have reached out and touched if you were dumb enough to try, we saw a bunch of sharks (some of them very big), eels, sea snakes, and from the boat we even saw some dolphins playing as the sun set. The girls also saw a few jelly fish, and they were even lucky enough to feel what happens when you get too close to them (I think the welts have finally faded). I saw everything I thought I would and so much more. On one occassion when Ness and I were snorkelling by ourselves in shallow water, four sealions led by a giant Bull sea lion suddenly surrounded us. They circled us very closely and as Ness and I tried to keep our eyes on them we tripped over each other, got all tangled up, basically making quite a scene. We soon got some bad vibes from the Bull Sea lion, who was much bigger than I am, and decided we had better get out of his territory. The females followed us out quite playfully, they were really very curious, but I was relieved when there was some distance between us and the Bull.
I could go on and on about everything we saw, but I´ll leave that until I get home, suffice to say that it was about the most incredible trip I have ever been on, and I could spend months their given the opportunity.
We flew back to Quito, this time it wasn´t such a hassle free trip, and spent a night in a really fancy hotel as part of our Galapagos package. Over the last couple of days we had dinner with some friends that we had met several times throughout our travels (including Christmas), we went to an animal sactuary that was really impressive, we attempted to go to a female prison, but missed visiting hours, and today I went to a barber and had my beard shaved off.
Now this, Í am much more interested in reporting. First of all I asked if I could keep my side burns, and I am sure the hairdresser understood me, she just messed up. She started with the clippers and was careful to keep a sideburn on one side of my face at the length I had requested, but on the other, quicker than you can say ´´side burn tan lines´´ she slipped and sheared a vast majority of it off. I saw her face freeze with fear, waiting for me to yell at her, but I gritted my teeth and smiled, as Ness and Sarah both covered the mouth in a mixture of shock and amusement. She tried to compensate by leaving the other sideburn a little longer, but I would have clearly rathered she even them up. Then as she was shaving me with the razor, she slipped again, this time imbedding her razor quite deeply in to my mole, looking at it now, it appears as if she took half of it clean off. Of course it bled like a bastard, and she freaked out. As it didn´t particularly hurt I told her not to worry about it as she kept trying to stop a rather constant flow of blood, eventually I got her to let me hold a cotton bud to it. I think she also shaved a bit too close as I have come up with a bit of a rash. I left only having to pay two dollars, but with a cotton bud stuck with thick blood to the side of my face, an imminent rash, and ridiculous tanlines where my sideburns of probably 8 years used to be. Are you looking forward to seeing me now Brit?
I´ve decided that taking the timee to ensure that the person you ask to take a blade to your face, has both the skill and pride in their work to request a payment of more than $2, is time well invested. On the plus side I don´t look like a hobo anymore... I more closely resemble someone who´s paid a visit to Sweeney Todd.
Well that just about sums it up.
That was our trip to South America.
I may try to get one more entry in to sum things up, tie up loose ends and all that, but if not, thank you for your patient attention. I don´t know if it´s possible for psychologists to write anything interesting, but I´m not quite a psychologist, so there may have been hope for me. For your sake hope that´s true.
Till next time (if there is one),
Chuckles
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