Wednesday, May 30, 2007
Now in Technicolour!
Hi everyone. I have managed to get some pictures up, from the Egypt and Greece post until the end of Contili. Check 'em out! Click the images to see larger versions.
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
...But who needs nails, anyway?
Well, I have made it to the Isle of Man! Just! In a series of close calls! I had to catch four different trains and one ferry, and I'm still stressed! Arrggh!
Hehe, not that stressed, but it was quite a day. I had between 45 minutes and eight minutes to get off one train, find the other and board it, so I was counting on the British Railways to come through for me, cause I couldn't afford to be late. Hence the stress.
It all started at 4.45am which didn't help. This was an especially strenuous wake-up call (just my phone alarm, although it turns out it has no alarm tone which is not irritating) because I hadn't really woken up at any time before 8.30 / 9am for the past two weeks. My excuse is that I was sleeping off the horrendously early mornings we endured during both of my tours (amounting to about a solid two months!). Failing that, my excuse is that Tony was doing it.
Anyway, I wake up at this ungodly hour, notice it is light (bizzarre, huh? I think they must only have dark from about 10pm till 4am. No wonder the farmers are so surly.), get dressed, try to put on my pack which seems to be 10kg heavier than it was when I last put it on (that, or I am 10kgs' worth of less fit), try again, finally get the damned thing on, and try to sneak downstairs while my footsteps resound like some mythical giant looking for food ("I smell the blud of an English-mun!") to wait for my taxi.
It is about 5.15 (still in the a.m.) when I make it in to the living room. I have time to remove my pack, wonder how on earth I'm going to get it on again, and write a note to Tony's lovely flatmates before the phone rings. I lunge for it, knowing it's my taxi and trying to not let it ring for too long - if my giant's feet didn't do it, I don't want an automated phone call to wake them. Downstairs, lock the door on the way out, look at the key in my hand... Hmm. Hopefully they found it - I did the only thing I really could do and posted it through the post-hole in their door.
The taxi was mind-blowingly expensive, but luckily they put it on my credit card so I can pretend it didn't happen. I got to the station in plenty of time, found my platform (who ever heard of a train station with platforms upstairs? Yeah, okay, but still...). I got on the train and looked around for somewhere to put my pack. Nowhere. A nice young man told me that it would be fine on the seat beside me as only mad people would catch a train at this hour of the morning. I heartily agreed, and we chatted for an hour or so until he arrived at his station, whereuopn I went and got some (neither fresh nor reasonably priced - stupid lying advertisements) breakfast.
It was all going quite well, I thought. We seemed to be going along at a reasonable rate of knots, so I decided I could have a little nap. About an hour later I was woken by the sound of some strange but rather lound and insistent beeping coming over the intercom. My heart sunk. "If it's anything like on the busses at home..." Sure enough, a few minutes later: "Ladies and gentlemen, this train is having some technical difficulties and will have to be resigned at the next station." Bugger. "Oh well," I thought, "Surely an exchange of trains can be accomplished with minimal fuss". Hahaha.
We swapped trains, after a lot of waiting around for some (undoubtedly important :p ) reason or other, and were underway again. We had one station left to go before I had a scheduled change for the first time, and I had only ten minutes before that next train left. I was clutching my seat and trying to reason with myself that jibbering aloud, or anything in a similar vein, would not make the train go any faster.
I got off the train with two minutes to spare and a slightly panicked look on my face. I ran (well, as much as running is possible when with every step you are wondering if the paving is going to crack under your massive weight, or if your joints will go first) to the conductor to ask him where I should get my next train. He smiled at me and said, "Yours is the next one to this platform". Oh, thank god. I wobbled happily over to a seat and waited for my first train to get on its way and my new train to arrive.
This one was fairly uneventful, except for the fact that the driver seemed to have an aversion to going at any sort of speed. I'm sure I wasn't the only one white-knuckled at the end of the trip. A nice, generous gap of 45 minutes had been eaten down to a mere five by the time I arrived.
Back on a platform somewhere in England, I looked at my ticket for the next train and noticed that my seat number was "OOC", or possibly "00C", given that I had previously been in seats called things like "42A". I wondered what kind of seat that was. I showed a conductor and he seemed to have no idea, telling me to just "find a seat anywhere". This proved to be easier said than done, so I ended up sitting disconsolately on the floor outside the toilet in a seatless non-compartment full of people whose fluorescent tabards proclaimed them to be 'Railway Police', and just outside the completely empty First Class comparment whose large, plush purple seats stared mockingly at me (oh yes, seats can stare). "Well, this is going to be a great two hours," I thought. When the man came throught to check our tickets, I decided to ask him where my seat was, pointing out that this was a ticket where I was meant to get a seat. He looked momentarily at a loss, then said to me, "Just go an sit through there for me, will ya loov?". He nodded toward the First Class compartment. W00t!
I knew that at the next station I only had eight minutes to find and board the correct train. I'd made it in less than that at the previous two stations, but I'd also been a lot later in arriving than that at those stations. I tried to rest and distract myself until we got there, which mostly worked. I still had five minutes when we arrived, so I was pretty happy. I found the train with two minutes to spare, found a seat, and grinned. This was my final train, and it was going to Heysham Port! I managed to stop short of jiggling in my seat and singing "I'm go-ing to the Isle of Maa-aan, I'm go-ing to the Isle of Maa-aan", but it was a close thing.
The only thing left to worry about was getting on the ferry. This wouldn't have usually worried me, because this train would get me to the port an hour before my check-in time. However, I didn't have a ticket. I had booked it - the previous October, acutally - but my travel agent (bless) hadn't managed to organise the booking until I had left the country. All I had was a confirmation email... and I'd forgotten to print it out. I had written down the reference number, but all of a sudden I wasn't sure it would be enough.
I was first off the train and first to the check-in desk at the port - possibly due to my having looked at a map on the internet before I left to find out where it was in relation to the train station. I find I tend to do a lot more homework when I'm travelling by myself - you get just that much more paranoid because you have no-one else to blame. I stomped heavily up to the check-in desk past signs asking you to present your ticket there, got out the page which my reference number was on, and smiled with all the confidence I could muster at the clerk. "Hi, I have a booking for the 2.15 sailing this afternoon. I have my reference number." I managed to look fairly confident, and not to add "but nothing else". I gave it, got a boarding pass, and nearly skipped over to the waiting room. I valued my ankles too much to actually have tried it with my pack on.
The boat left more or less on time (well, less really but I was in too bouyant a mood to care) and I arrived at the Isle of Man. A nice taxi lady took me up the hill to Mrs. Cartmell's house, whose name is Jeanette. I am her only homestayer, but Jeanette's four-year-old daughter and Tatiana, her au pair, make up the rest of the household. So far I have figured out how to get to the town centre and the racetrack without getting lost (mapmapmapgood), and I have walked the track from Quarterbridge Road, up Bray hill, through the Grandstand and up to where the Mountain Road finishes. Not that that will make sense to more than... um, dad, but still, this is a good thing. Learned cat agrees.
The races start on Saturday when I hope to be in the Grandstand, if I can get tickets. Until then I will be watching practices every evening at about 6pm. There are SO MANY cool motorbikes here. Squee.
So, I made it! It was a nail-biter, but who really needs nails, anyway?
Hehe, not that stressed, but it was quite a day. I had between 45 minutes and eight minutes to get off one train, find the other and board it, so I was counting on the British Railways to come through for me, cause I couldn't afford to be late. Hence the stress.
It all started at 4.45am which didn't help. This was an especially strenuous wake-up call (just my phone alarm, although it turns out it has no alarm tone which is not irritating) because I hadn't really woken up at any time before 8.30 / 9am for the past two weeks. My excuse is that I was sleeping off the horrendously early mornings we endured during both of my tours (amounting to about a solid two months!). Failing that, my excuse is that Tony was doing it.
Anyway, I wake up at this ungodly hour, notice it is light (bizzarre, huh? I think they must only have dark from about 10pm till 4am. No wonder the farmers are so surly.), get dressed, try to put on my pack which seems to be 10kg heavier than it was when I last put it on (that, or I am 10kgs' worth of less fit), try again, finally get the damned thing on, and try to sneak downstairs while my footsteps resound like some mythical giant looking for food ("I smell the blud of an English-mun!") to wait for my taxi.
It is about 5.15 (still in the a.m.) when I make it in to the living room. I have time to remove my pack, wonder how on earth I'm going to get it on again, and write a note to Tony's lovely flatmates before the phone rings. I lunge for it, knowing it's my taxi and trying to not let it ring for too long - if my giant's feet didn't do it, I don't want an automated phone call to wake them. Downstairs, lock the door on the way out, look at the key in my hand... Hmm. Hopefully they found it - I did the only thing I really could do and posted it through the post-hole in their door.
The taxi was mind-blowingly expensive, but luckily they put it on my credit card so I can pretend it didn't happen. I got to the station in plenty of time, found my platform (who ever heard of a train station with platforms upstairs? Yeah, okay, but still...). I got on the train and looked around for somewhere to put my pack. Nowhere. A nice young man told me that it would be fine on the seat beside me as only mad people would catch a train at this hour of the morning. I heartily agreed, and we chatted for an hour or so until he arrived at his station, whereuopn I went and got some (neither fresh nor reasonably priced - stupid lying advertisements) breakfast.
It was all going quite well, I thought. We seemed to be going along at a reasonable rate of knots, so I decided I could have a little nap. About an hour later I was woken by the sound of some strange but rather lound and insistent beeping coming over the intercom. My heart sunk. "If it's anything like on the busses at home..." Sure enough, a few minutes later: "Ladies and gentlemen, this train is having some technical difficulties and will have to be resigned at the next station." Bugger. "Oh well," I thought, "Surely an exchange of trains can be accomplished with minimal fuss". Hahaha.
We swapped trains, after a lot of waiting around for some (undoubtedly important :p ) reason or other, and were underway again. We had one station left to go before I had a scheduled change for the first time, and I had only ten minutes before that next train left. I was clutching my seat and trying to reason with myself that jibbering aloud, or anything in a similar vein, would not make the train go any faster.
I got off the train with two minutes to spare and a slightly panicked look on my face. I ran (well, as much as running is possible when with every step you are wondering if the paving is going to crack under your massive weight, or if your joints will go first) to the conductor to ask him where I should get my next train. He smiled at me and said, "Yours is the next one to this platform". Oh, thank god. I wobbled happily over to a seat and waited for my first train to get on its way and my new train to arrive.
This one was fairly uneventful, except for the fact that the driver seemed to have an aversion to going at any sort of speed. I'm sure I wasn't the only one white-knuckled at the end of the trip. A nice, generous gap of 45 minutes had been eaten down to a mere five by the time I arrived.
Back on a platform somewhere in England, I looked at my ticket for the next train and noticed that my seat number was "OOC", or possibly "00C", given that I had previously been in seats called things like "42A". I wondered what kind of seat that was. I showed a conductor and he seemed to have no idea, telling me to just "find a seat anywhere". This proved to be easier said than done, so I ended up sitting disconsolately on the floor outside the toilet in a seatless non-compartment full of people whose fluorescent tabards proclaimed them to be 'Railway Police', and just outside the completely empty First Class comparment whose large, plush purple seats stared mockingly at me (oh yes, seats can stare). "Well, this is going to be a great two hours," I thought. When the man came throught to check our tickets, I decided to ask him where my seat was, pointing out that this was a ticket where I was meant to get a seat. He looked momentarily at a loss, then said to me, "Just go an sit through there for me, will ya loov?". He nodded toward the First Class compartment. W00t!
I knew that at the next station I only had eight minutes to find and board the correct train. I'd made it in less than that at the previous two stations, but I'd also been a lot later in arriving than that at those stations. I tried to rest and distract myself until we got there, which mostly worked. I still had five minutes when we arrived, so I was pretty happy. I found the train with two minutes to spare, found a seat, and grinned. This was my final train, and it was going to Heysham Port! I managed to stop short of jiggling in my seat and singing "I'm go-ing to the Isle of Maa-aan, I'm go-ing to the Isle of Maa-aan", but it was a close thing.
The only thing left to worry about was getting on the ferry. This wouldn't have usually worried me, because this train would get me to the port an hour before my check-in time. However, I didn't have a ticket. I had booked it - the previous October, acutally - but my travel agent (bless) hadn't managed to organise the booking until I had left the country. All I had was a confirmation email... and I'd forgotten to print it out. I had written down the reference number, but all of a sudden I wasn't sure it would be enough.
I was first off the train and first to the check-in desk at the port - possibly due to my having looked at a map on the internet before I left to find out where it was in relation to the train station. I find I tend to do a lot more homework when I'm travelling by myself - you get just that much more paranoid because you have no-one else to blame. I stomped heavily up to the check-in desk past signs asking you to present your ticket there, got out the page which my reference number was on, and smiled with all the confidence I could muster at the clerk. "Hi, I have a booking for the 2.15 sailing this afternoon. I have my reference number." I managed to look fairly confident, and not to add "but nothing else". I gave it, got a boarding pass, and nearly skipped over to the waiting room. I valued my ankles too much to actually have tried it with my pack on.
The boat left more or less on time (well, less really but I was in too bouyant a mood to care) and I arrived at the Isle of Man. A nice taxi lady took me up the hill to Mrs. Cartmell's house, whose name is Jeanette. I am her only homestayer, but Jeanette's four-year-old daughter and Tatiana, her au pair, make up the rest of the household. So far I have figured out how to get to the town centre and the racetrack without getting lost (mapmapmapgood), and I have walked the track from Quarterbridge Road, up Bray hill, through the Grandstand and up to where the Mountain Road finishes. Not that that will make sense to more than... um, dad, but still, this is a good thing. Learned cat agrees.
The races start on Saturday when I hope to be in the Grandstand, if I can get tickets. Until then I will be watching practices every evening at about 6pm. There are SO MANY cool motorbikes here. Squee.
So, I made it! It was a nail-biter, but who really needs nails, anyway?
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
Ticking boxes
While in London there are a certain number of things One Must Do. This is my list so far. If I don't have a 'box' for something you're going to ask me if I've done, do comment and let me know.
In other news, the Isle of Man's ferry compnay, the Steam Packet Company, have rather badly bollocksed their bookings. Luckily I read the website and found this out, because they had me booked for a ferry I could not have possibly caught as it departed before my train arrived at the port. Happily, they have now booked me for a ferry which it IS physically possible for me to catch, and it will take me five less hours to reach the Isle of Man. Yay.
Update 24/05/07: Went out in Soho! They have bars which are like... like cool things. And they have bars which play metal, and have garlic in their shots. Don't believe me? Let's ask Learned Cat.
There you have it folks. Last night was also Caturday. Do not click link, or it is can be caturday for you today.
- Buckingham Palace and the Changing of the Guard
- Tower of London - check.
- Big Ben - check.
- Houses of Parliament - umm, sort of. I wandered past them...
- Westminster Abbey
- The Tate Modern - check, though there are still more floors I'd like to do.
- Tower Bridge and London Bridge - check - I've walked over both.
- Windsor Castle
- Hampton Court Palace and the Labyrinth
- British Museum
- Madame Tussaude's
- Go to that toy store with five floors - check
- London Eye
- At least one of the inner city parks - check. Done a few now.
- South Kensington museums
- Go out in Soho - check. What strange bars you have. "All the better to drinkify you with".
- Get rained upon - check.
- The Tube - check. I'm pretty good at the Underground now.
- Get your transport delayed by a suicide on the Tube - check.
- Take a red double-decker bus - check
- Take an above-ground train - check
- Catch a black cab
- Get lost - check, Mr. Pullar.
- Get into a conversation about communism in a dodgy-looking pub - check.
- Get mugged (might try to skip this one if possible)
- Camden Markets
- Slimelight
- Go to the Leon Paul factory shop
In other news, the Isle of Man's ferry compnay, the Steam Packet Company, have rather badly bollocksed their bookings. Luckily I read the website and found this out, because they had me booked for a ferry I could not have possibly caught as it departed before my train arrived at the port. Happily, they have now booked me for a ferry which it IS physically possible for me to catch, and it will take me five less hours to reach the Isle of Man. Yay.
Update 24/05/07: Went out in Soho! They have bars which are like... like cool things. And they have bars which play metal, and have garlic in their shots. Don't believe me? Let's ask Learned Cat.
There you have it folks. Last night was also Caturday. Do not click link, or it is can be caturday for you today.
Thursday, May 17, 2007
London Town
London is... hmm. Well, the overwhelming thing which London is at the moment, is damp. It's not raining constantly, but it has that cold (but not cold enough to have snow or anything cool like that), drizzly, constantly overcast-ness that makes me feel so at home! Honestly, why go to the northern hemisphere for summer? It's just like winter at home!
Anyway, I've obviously been here too long - I'm whinging like a pom. On the first day I was here I stayed with a girl from New Zealand called Lisa. She is a nurse and is living here. She took me to the supermarket, which, while it may not sound exciting to you, really was! Supermarkets here really are: you can get everything there. Including, it turns out, Vegemite!
On Sunday I was going to check in to a hostel when I got a text from Tony saying that I could stay at his, which is excellent. He has a lovely house, and his flatmates are really nice. That day we went for a little wander through the city. Well, it turned out to be a pretty big wander actually. We went to the Tate Modern Art Gallery, which was neat, and walked through Soho, Chinatown, and some other parts of the Monopoly board ("This is Leicester Square," says Tony. Oh, think I; That's a yellow one.) I saw the Houses of Parliament, Big Ben, and Tower Bridge from a distance, along with the London Eye which I plan to go on at some point, just because I am a tourist. Hmm, maybe I'll skip that one.
Yesterday I went out to Holland Park, a very pretty park in the West (flash) end. I had some really good soup for lunch there. I told the girl "I'm not sure if I should get the soup or the bolognaise". She must have misheard me, or else she is very decisive because she immediately turned around and served me some soup. "Okay, soup it is. Thanks." Either way, it was a good thing, becuase it was fabulous soup.
After the park, I went to visit a friend of mine who is living here, called Jamie. We hung out for a bit, then caught this random overground train to Camden, then walked for five minutes in the wrong direction, but eventually found a pub where we had some food, and drinks. It was also drinks for a friend of his' birthday, so I met her, and so many Kiwi goths, some of whom I remember from way back when, that I wondered if I was really in London at all! It was cool though.
I have organised my rail ticket to the port where I catch my ferry to the Isle of Man. It is one way, because I'm going up to Scotland afterward, and it cost me 65 pounds! Eeek. I'm not quite excited about going to the Isle of Man yet - it still seems quite far away. I'm not sure exactly what will happen after that, but my rough plan goes Inverness - Loch Ness - Edinburgh - Newcastle, from where I will hopefully find a way to get to Ogle Castle which, it turns out, is in the middle of exactly nowhere (look at the satellite images by clicking the "satellite" or "hybrid" buttons here on a google map search for Ogle Castle) - and then either back to London or around to the West Country (the south-west, that is) to Cornwall, Stonehenge, Bath, Devon etc, and maybe to one or both University towns. I'm not sure how long I will be anywhere, or where - it will depend on a nujmber of factors, the major one being "when I feel like it".
The other is money. My funds aren't lasting as well as I thought they would, so there is a possibility that I will be home earlier than I had planned... Still, not having money will force me to do some things that I might not have considered doing, had I had plenty. I sense adventures ahead! Hehe.
Anyway, I've obviously been here too long - I'm whinging like a pom. On the first day I was here I stayed with a girl from New Zealand called Lisa. She is a nurse and is living here. She took me to the supermarket, which, while it may not sound exciting to you, really was! Supermarkets here really are: you can get everything there. Including, it turns out, Vegemite!
On Sunday I was going to check in to a hostel when I got a text from Tony saying that I could stay at his, which is excellent. He has a lovely house, and his flatmates are really nice. That day we went for a little wander through the city. Well, it turned out to be a pretty big wander actually. We went to the Tate Modern Art Gallery, which was neat, and walked through Soho, Chinatown, and some other parts of the Monopoly board ("This is Leicester Square," says Tony. Oh, think I; That's a yellow one.) I saw the Houses of Parliament, Big Ben, and Tower Bridge from a distance, along with the London Eye which I plan to go on at some point, just because I am a tourist. Hmm, maybe I'll skip that one.
Yesterday I went out to Holland Park, a very pretty park in the West (flash) end. I had some really good soup for lunch there. I told the girl "I'm not sure if I should get the soup or the bolognaise". She must have misheard me, or else she is very decisive because she immediately turned around and served me some soup. "Okay, soup it is. Thanks." Either way, it was a good thing, becuase it was fabulous soup.
After the park, I went to visit a friend of mine who is living here, called Jamie. We hung out for a bit, then caught this random overground train to Camden, then walked for five minutes in the wrong direction, but eventually found a pub where we had some food, and drinks. It was also drinks for a friend of his' birthday, so I met her, and so many Kiwi goths, some of whom I remember from way back when, that I wondered if I was really in London at all! It was cool though.
I have organised my rail ticket to the port where I catch my ferry to the Isle of Man. It is one way, because I'm going up to Scotland afterward, and it cost me 65 pounds! Eeek. I'm not quite excited about going to the Isle of Man yet - it still seems quite far away. I'm not sure exactly what will happen after that, but my rough plan goes Inverness - Loch Ness - Edinburgh - Newcastle, from where I will hopefully find a way to get to Ogle Castle which, it turns out, is in the middle of exactly nowhere (look at the satellite images by clicking the "satellite" or "hybrid" buttons here on a google map search for Ogle Castle) - and then either back to London or around to the West Country (the south-west, that is) to Cornwall, Stonehenge, Bath, Devon etc, and maybe to one or both University towns. I'm not sure how long I will be anywhere, or where - it will depend on a nujmber of factors, the major one being "when I feel like it".
The other is money. My funds aren't lasting as well as I thought they would, so there is a possibility that I will be home earlier than I had planned... Still, not having money will force me to do some things that I might not have considered doing, had I had plenty. I sense adventures ahead! Hehe.
Monday, May 14, 2007
Contiki VI - Western Europe - the End!
On the way to Munich from Vienna we stopped behind this picturesque little village called Mauthausen and visited the concentration camp there. Mauthausen was originally a slave camp, taking people from Austria and Germany to work in a quarry there, before it became a death camp like others. It was the last camp to be liberated by the allies.
We arrived at the quarry, now a picturesque lawn with a lake, surrounded with white cliffs, and took the stairs that the slaves had to take whilst carrying these huge chunks of rock. Some of us had a hard time making it to the top despite the fact that we were all relatively well-fed (Eastern Europe notwithstanding) and not carrying huge blocks of stone. It was a sobering climb.
After the steps we went to see the camp proper, although most of it was chicken-wired off due to some recent storm damage. We went in to a room and saw a video about what had happened there - it was quite horrific, but there was some hopeful sides: the residents of the village eventually became aware of what was happening there and so, when there was an escape attempt, some of them hid prisoners and helped them to safety. Go good Germans!
After the camp we drove on through some stunning scenery straight out of the Sound of Music, to see some more good Germans at a traditional Barvarian Beer Hall in Munich. I ate this huge pork knuckle (haha dad - I have photos) and drank a massive two litre stein of beer. It was great.
The stunning scenery
The Beeeeer
The next morning we had a few hours free to wander around Munich. The first job on the list was to get a haircut! I had been hating my hair since India, as my short hair was growing out into one of those mullets that you get when you grow your hair. Eew. I found a place and got a reasonable cut, although the way he styled it I thought made me look like a German! Hehe.
After that I had enough time to see the church with the "Devil's Footprint" in it, and buy some Erdbeeren - strawberries - from a stall (they were nowhere near as flavoursome as the ones at home: we are so lucky!) before going to watch the famous Glockenspiel in the town square. For those who don't know, this is a big old clock (and when I say old, I mean before New Zealand was discovered) which has this funky little clockwork dancing figure parade when it chimes at certain times. They do a little dance representing the medieval wedding it was built to commemorate, or that is what I am told it is about. The chimes are out of tune and out of time, and the figures are somewhat weathered, but it is pretty amazing for something that old!
Back on the bus, we headed back to a beautiful part of Austria which is called Austrian Tyrol (hi Andrea's sister!). There some people went white water rafting while I sat warm and dry in a cafe and waited for them, along with the others who were too poor or too smart to do it (hehe). We picked up the drowned rats a couple of hours later and went on to our accommodations. This was not a hotel as it had been for most of the way since Rome; we were back to Contiki campsite accommodation. This was good because there was a book-swap shelf there! I left my Neil Gaiman book which I bought in Florence there and took a nice, big, generic fantasy book which kept me occupied until Amsterdam, our final stop.
Before Amsterdam we did the Swiss Alps, and St Goar, which is back in Germany. The Alps were fantastic - the scenery reminds me of the south of the South Island. Huge, snow capped mountains towering over skinny, glacier-melt-blue lakes or flat glacier-carved meadows. Fabulous. Only difference is in the South Island there are no rumours of submarines in the lakes, and no overhanging cliffs which are rigged to explode! Mad Swiss. Pretty cool though.
We stopped on the way at Lichtenstein (small, had bicycles, not much else), Swarovski, where I bought nothing (the cheapest thing I liked was about $NZ600, though there was plenty more which was much pricier... *sigh*) and then at Lucerne (nice bridge, cool statue or two) where I did spend money - I bought a Swiss (Longines) watch.
The camp site was nice, nestled right near a waterfall. I didn't have time to investigate that though; most of us caught a cog railway train up a mountain called Jungfrau to a place called "the Top of Europe". The ride took about two hours, and required us to change trains once, but it didn't ever get boring. The scenery was stunning. Snow all over the place, especially high up, and cliffs and waterfalls and views over valleys... yeah, very cool.
The view from the campsite
Out the window of the cog train
We got to the top, and it was a) cold, and b) dizzyingly high up. Not from vertigo or anything; just from the lack of oxygen! I went to run up a set of stairs (I was feeling enthusiastic) and by the time I got to the top I was short of breath and dizzy. No, that does Not usually happen, thank you.
We took the lift to the top level of the building, and had some photos in front of a sign. It was like a viewing platform, but there were clouds over the mountain so we couldn't see much. I managed to drop my camera there so unfortunately I am relying on other people to send me their pics of the rest.
We wandered through caves carved of ice, with huge, fabulous ice sculptures (amusingly, there was one of some penguins and a guy was showing his family around and said "And look, here are some dolphins"! Hehe. He was from India, and I'm pretty sure they don't get penguins there, so fair enough I guess... still funny though ^^ ). We went outside, emerging into a sleet storm and I took two quick pics of one of the girls on her camera before rushing back in to the relative warmth of the building. We also went souvenir shopping - I bought, and then posted (they have post boxes everywhere now it seems!) a postcard which I sent to my Youthline peeps.
The next day we went to St Goar, stopping at the University town of Heidelburg for lunch. I was luckily able to find a couple of disposable cameras there, so I could click away at everything again. The drive was beautiful, along the river Rhine where there are castles all the way, which I am told used to serve as toll stations for the river. In St Goar we went and saw some traditional beer steins (yes, more enforced souvenir shopping - don't worry guys, I didn't get you one... evil dust collectors!) and then went to a wine tasting.
This tasting was much better than the one in Beaujolais - if you remember that one was "here, have a glass of wine. Now drink it. Okay, you've tasted wine". At this one we got little glasses of a few different varieties, and although there was no light to speak of to really look at the colour, it was a nice atmosphere and one of the five wines was actually quite good.
The next day we drove on to our final stop - Amsterdam! We went to Edam first, a suburb north of the city. It was a beautiful little place, all tulips and canals. We did a bike ride on these fabulous "granny bikes" - back-pedal brakes and everything - which I managed not to fall off. We took photos of a dyke and a windmill, and got heckled for doing so by one of the local kids. I told him that when he came to NZ and took a photo of the Sky Tower I hoped I'd be there to laugh at him, but he was walking away as I said it. Still, it made me feel better.
After the bikes we went to a "cheese and clogs" demonstration. The cheese was fabulous, so I bought a piece (cheese with ham - oh yeah. Not sure that it's better then the walnut cheese from Mercer though) and saw a guy make a clog from scratch which was pretty neat. Ten we piled, once again, back on to the coach and headed for Amsterdam.
Our hotel/hostel thing was cute, and not to far from the centre of the city where we headed after dinner. We all went for a walk through the red light district, and some of the people went to a sex show, but I was really not interested so I went out to a coffee house with some of the others and tried some of the local specialities. We then met up with the people who went to the show and went clubbing, which was fun. Home late, and slept late the next day.
The next day I ran a few errands, including buying something clean to wear out to the Final Dinner of the tour that night. We had, perhaps a little oddly, Chinese for dinner after going for a cruise along the river. It was raining heavily so we all got quite damp that night. After dinner I went out with some friends from the group and we sat in a bar reminiscing over the tour.
The next day we packed up in the rain and drove on for Calais. We left a few people behind in Amsterdam, one behind at the border (her visa had expired a year ago!) and then the rest of us parted in London. There were a few tears, but most people stayed that night at the hotel we arrived at so they went off to check in and I had to leave so I didn't get to say goodbye. I stayed my first night with Lisa, a Kiwi nurse whom I met on tour, and am now bludging off Tony, Kali's brother. I have seen a bit of London, but that will have to wait for next update!
We arrived at the quarry, now a picturesque lawn with a lake, surrounded with white cliffs, and took the stairs that the slaves had to take whilst carrying these huge chunks of rock. Some of us had a hard time making it to the top despite the fact that we were all relatively well-fed (Eastern Europe notwithstanding) and not carrying huge blocks of stone. It was a sobering climb.
After the steps we went to see the camp proper, although most of it was chicken-wired off due to some recent storm damage. We went in to a room and saw a video about what had happened there - it was quite horrific, but there was some hopeful sides: the residents of the village eventually became aware of what was happening there and so, when there was an escape attempt, some of them hid prisoners and helped them to safety. Go good Germans!
After the camp we drove on through some stunning scenery straight out of the Sound of Music, to see some more good Germans at a traditional Barvarian Beer Hall in Munich. I ate this huge pork knuckle (haha dad - I have photos) and drank a massive two litre stein of beer. It was great.
The stunning scenery
The BeeeeerThe next morning we had a few hours free to wander around Munich. The first job on the list was to get a haircut! I had been hating my hair since India, as my short hair was growing out into one of those mullets that you get when you grow your hair. Eew. I found a place and got a reasonable cut, although the way he styled it I thought made me look like a German! Hehe.
After that I had enough time to see the church with the "Devil's Footprint" in it, and buy some Erdbeeren - strawberries - from a stall (they were nowhere near as flavoursome as the ones at home: we are so lucky!) before going to watch the famous Glockenspiel in the town square. For those who don't know, this is a big old clock (and when I say old, I mean before New Zealand was discovered) which has this funky little clockwork dancing figure parade when it chimes at certain times. They do a little dance representing the medieval wedding it was built to commemorate, or that is what I am told it is about. The chimes are out of tune and out of time, and the figures are somewhat weathered, but it is pretty amazing for something that old!
Back on the bus, we headed back to a beautiful part of Austria which is called Austrian Tyrol (hi Andrea's sister!). There some people went white water rafting while I sat warm and dry in a cafe and waited for them, along with the others who were too poor or too smart to do it (hehe). We picked up the drowned rats a couple of hours later and went on to our accommodations. This was not a hotel as it had been for most of the way since Rome; we were back to Contiki campsite accommodation. This was good because there was a book-swap shelf there! I left my Neil Gaiman book which I bought in Florence there and took a nice, big, generic fantasy book which kept me occupied until Amsterdam, our final stop.
Before Amsterdam we did the Swiss Alps, and St Goar, which is back in Germany. The Alps were fantastic - the scenery reminds me of the south of the South Island. Huge, snow capped mountains towering over skinny, glacier-melt-blue lakes or flat glacier-carved meadows. Fabulous. Only difference is in the South Island there are no rumours of submarines in the lakes, and no overhanging cliffs which are rigged to explode! Mad Swiss. Pretty cool though.
We stopped on the way at Lichtenstein (small, had bicycles, not much else), Swarovski, where I bought nothing (the cheapest thing I liked was about $NZ600, though there was plenty more which was much pricier... *sigh*) and then at Lucerne (nice bridge, cool statue or two) where I did spend money - I bought a Swiss (Longines) watch.
The camp site was nice, nestled right near a waterfall. I didn't have time to investigate that though; most of us caught a cog railway train up a mountain called Jungfrau to a place called "the Top of Europe". The ride took about two hours, and required us to change trains once, but it didn't ever get boring. The scenery was stunning. Snow all over the place, especially high up, and cliffs and waterfalls and views over valleys... yeah, very cool.
The view from the campsite
Out the window of the cog trainWe got to the top, and it was a) cold, and b) dizzyingly high up. Not from vertigo or anything; just from the lack of oxygen! I went to run up a set of stairs (I was feeling enthusiastic) and by the time I got to the top I was short of breath and dizzy. No, that does Not usually happen, thank you.
We took the lift to the top level of the building, and had some photos in front of a sign. It was like a viewing platform, but there were clouds over the mountain so we couldn't see much. I managed to drop my camera there so unfortunately I am relying on other people to send me their pics of the rest.
We wandered through caves carved of ice, with huge, fabulous ice sculptures (amusingly, there was one of some penguins and a guy was showing his family around and said "And look, here are some dolphins"! Hehe. He was from India, and I'm pretty sure they don't get penguins there, so fair enough I guess... still funny though ^^ ). We went outside, emerging into a sleet storm and I took two quick pics of one of the girls on her camera before rushing back in to the relative warmth of the building. We also went souvenir shopping - I bought, and then posted (they have post boxes everywhere now it seems!) a postcard which I sent to my Youthline peeps.
The next day we went to St Goar, stopping at the University town of Heidelburg for lunch. I was luckily able to find a couple of disposable cameras there, so I could click away at everything again. The drive was beautiful, along the river Rhine where there are castles all the way, which I am told used to serve as toll stations for the river. In St Goar we went and saw some traditional beer steins (yes, more enforced souvenir shopping - don't worry guys, I didn't get you one... evil dust collectors!) and then went to a wine tasting.
This tasting was much better than the one in Beaujolais - if you remember that one was "here, have a glass of wine. Now drink it. Okay, you've tasted wine". At this one we got little glasses of a few different varieties, and although there was no light to speak of to really look at the colour, it was a nice atmosphere and one of the five wines was actually quite good.
The next day we drove on to our final stop - Amsterdam! We went to Edam first, a suburb north of the city. It was a beautiful little place, all tulips and canals. We did a bike ride on these fabulous "granny bikes" - back-pedal brakes and everything - which I managed not to fall off. We took photos of a dyke and a windmill, and got heckled for doing so by one of the local kids. I told him that when he came to NZ and took a photo of the Sky Tower I hoped I'd be there to laugh at him, but he was walking away as I said it. Still, it made me feel better.
After the bikes we went to a "cheese and clogs" demonstration. The cheese was fabulous, so I bought a piece (cheese with ham - oh yeah. Not sure that it's better then the walnut cheese from Mercer though) and saw a guy make a clog from scratch which was pretty neat. Ten we piled, once again, back on to the coach and headed for Amsterdam.
Our hotel/hostel thing was cute, and not to far from the centre of the city where we headed after dinner. We all went for a walk through the red light district, and some of the people went to a sex show, but I was really not interested so I went out to a coffee house with some of the others and tried some of the local specialities. We then met up with the people who went to the show and went clubbing, which was fun. Home late, and slept late the next day.
The next day I ran a few errands, including buying something clean to wear out to the Final Dinner of the tour that night. We had, perhaps a little oddly, Chinese for dinner after going for a cruise along the river. It was raining heavily so we all got quite damp that night. After dinner I went out with some friends from the group and we sat in a bar reminiscing over the tour.
The next day we packed up in the rain and drove on for Calais. We left a few people behind in Amsterdam, one behind at the border (her visa had expired a year ago!) and then the rest of us parted in London. There were a few tears, but most people stayed that night at the hotel we arrived at so they went off to check in and I had to leave so I didn't get to say goodbye. I stayed my first night with Lisa, a Kiwi nurse whom I met on tour, and am now bludging off Tony, Kali's brother. I have seen a bit of London, but that will have to wait for next update!
Sunday, May 13, 2007
Contiki V - Eastern Europe and the east of the West.
As you might be able to tell from my last post, I was pretty tired after Gallipoli, so much of the last week and a bit has been a blur. From one Eastern Bloc country to another, staying only a night in each and seeing very little has left me dizzy! Luckily I have been keeping up with my travel journal notes so I can figure out what I have done in the last week for you.
The day of the Dawn Service at Gallipoli, we drove to Istanbul where we stayed the night, and then in the morning we did a city tour and went and looked at some carpets. I remember going to a place called the Spice Markets, which was cool. It was a big covered bazaar, much like I had imagined these things would look. There were some spices, but much more besides that. I had managed to lose this beautiful black pashmina I bought in India somewhere so when I found one which was exactly the same there, I bought it. It cost me heaps less than it did in India! I wish I could say that it was because my bargaining skills had improved, but he was offering it about five NZ dollars so I didn't have the heart to try to bargain him down!
The Haga Sophia and Istanbul
After the markets we went to see the Haga Sophia and the Blue Mosque, two mosques which sit right opposite each other. We got some good history on them, although I already knew that the Sophia was originally a church. Unfortunately I didn't have time to go and ask them to 'give it back' as Someone thought might be a good idea, as we were off to a carpet-selling attempt. I sat through that (it was cool, but these blatant attempts to get money off us annoy me), then I went and found some lunch. Everyone else went to see the Grand Bazaar, but I was exhausted so I went back to the hotel to do some washing and sleep. It was so nice to have clean clothes! I hadn't had a chance to wash since before Egypt, so you can imagine I was a little manky. After my nap and washing expdition, the others came back from town and we all got changed and went out to see a belly dancing show. That was great, although the belly dancers were better in Egypt. The male dancers were great though - knife throwing and all sorts of fun!
In Bulgaria we just basically stopped at the hotel (which was nice), slept, and then went again. I saw very little apart from fields, a nuclear power station, and lots of those communist flats.
Bucharest in Romania was great. There was this whole street which was basically a fountain... it's hard to describe but there was like a big fountain in the middle of the road, then down the length of it in the middle was a long pool with jets spraying into and above it in all directions. Very cool! They also had a building, at the end of the street, which is worth mentioning. It is apparently the second biggest building in the world, after the Pentagon. It was built under the communists and was made, like so many buildings in Europe, to rival Versailles. It is so huge that they still can't find uses for all the rooms, despite housing Parliament and a number of other government departments there. The logistics of heating and air conditioning the behemoth are such that it is still damp and cold in many rooms, too. Yay for communist dictators who have no-one to tell them that they are being ridiculous! I like follies. Except when it's my folly.
One end of the Street O' Fountains
In the same city, we stayed in a hotel that looked like it was a converted lunatic asylum, probably haunted, and if not then definitely a hollywood supernatural horror film set. So cool. Well, I liked it. Some of the other girls were a little less than impressed. Hehe.
The next day we stopped at the castle of Vlad Tepec, also known as Vlad the Impaler, Vlad Dracul, or "Dracula". Apart from the name and the bloodiness he has very little in common with the fictional vampire (see Erzebet Bathory for that stuff), but the castle was cool anyway.
I think this is a living room or something. I have many more impressive
pictures, but they are all in the wrong orientation...
From Romania we went to Budapest in Hungary, where we went for a cruise on the not-very-Blue Danube and saw the illuminated sights - lots of cool buildings. There was free wine, which was not disgusting, so the next day I was nursing my only hangover of the tour so far. I rather liked the city, and will have to go back and drink less!
Ooh, look at the prety liiights
And some more scenery, in the cold light of day. It was still pretty, even though I didn't feel so well...
My next stop was Vienna. We arrived in the evening and went out to see a concert of Mozart and Strauss music, which was great, despite my apprehensions of it being a bad orchestra. The women's dresses were awful (peach and poofy, like some 80s brisdesmaid nightmare), but they were very good at what they did.
The next day I got to meet a friend of mine whom I work on the Santharia project with, by the name of Christian, though we call him Art. We wandered around Vienna together and he showed me the sights. Thanks so much for the awesome day, Art! We went on this massive ferris-wheel thing (which I wasn't at all nervous about...) and into this massive Versailles-style palace called Schonbrunn Palace, and walked around the centre of town. There were some amazing builldings, but one of the highlights I will mention was the statue of the baby elephant which is outside the natural history musem. Soo cuute! We also ate heaps of traditional food: sausage, Sacher torte, Vienna coffee... it was a fabulous place and I had a great day out! After I left Art I went and had some... oh, I forget what it's called, but it is a traditional dessert - pancakes with plums and stuff. It was very good, so thanks for the tip, Art!
A sphinx presides over the dusk outside Shonbrunn Palace in Vienna
Well, that's as much as I have time for today, but tune in next time for Germany and the West!
The day of the Dawn Service at Gallipoli, we drove to Istanbul where we stayed the night, and then in the morning we did a city tour and went and looked at some carpets. I remember going to a place called the Spice Markets, which was cool. It was a big covered bazaar, much like I had imagined these things would look. There were some spices, but much more besides that. I had managed to lose this beautiful black pashmina I bought in India somewhere so when I found one which was exactly the same there, I bought it. It cost me heaps less than it did in India! I wish I could say that it was because my bargaining skills had improved, but he was offering it about five NZ dollars so I didn't have the heart to try to bargain him down!
The Haga Sophia and IstanbulAfter the markets we went to see the Haga Sophia and the Blue Mosque, two mosques which sit right opposite each other. We got some good history on them, although I already knew that the Sophia was originally a church. Unfortunately I didn't have time to go and ask them to 'give it back' as Someone thought might be a good idea, as we were off to a carpet-selling attempt. I sat through that (it was cool, but these blatant attempts to get money off us annoy me), then I went and found some lunch. Everyone else went to see the Grand Bazaar, but I was exhausted so I went back to the hotel to do some washing and sleep. It was so nice to have clean clothes! I hadn't had a chance to wash since before Egypt, so you can imagine I was a little manky. After my nap and washing expdition, the others came back from town and we all got changed and went out to see a belly dancing show. That was great, although the belly dancers were better in Egypt. The male dancers were great though - knife throwing and all sorts of fun!
In Bulgaria we just basically stopped at the hotel (which was nice), slept, and then went again. I saw very little apart from fields, a nuclear power station, and lots of those communist flats.
Bucharest in Romania was great. There was this whole street which was basically a fountain... it's hard to describe but there was like a big fountain in the middle of the road, then down the length of it in the middle was a long pool with jets spraying into and above it in all directions. Very cool! They also had a building, at the end of the street, which is worth mentioning. It is apparently the second biggest building in the world, after the Pentagon. It was built under the communists and was made, like so many buildings in Europe, to rival Versailles. It is so huge that they still can't find uses for all the rooms, despite housing Parliament and a number of other government departments there. The logistics of heating and air conditioning the behemoth are such that it is still damp and cold in many rooms, too. Yay for communist dictators who have no-one to tell them that they are being ridiculous! I like follies. Except when it's my folly.
One end of the Street O' FountainsIn the same city, we stayed in a hotel that looked like it was a converted lunatic asylum, probably haunted, and if not then definitely a hollywood supernatural horror film set. So cool. Well, I liked it. Some of the other girls were a little less than impressed. Hehe.
The next day we stopped at the castle of Vlad Tepec, also known as Vlad the Impaler, Vlad Dracul, or "Dracula". Apart from the name and the bloodiness he has very little in common with the fictional vampire (see Erzebet Bathory for that stuff), but the castle was cool anyway.
I think this is a living room or something. I have many more impressivepictures, but they are all in the wrong orientation...
From Romania we went to Budapest in Hungary, where we went for a cruise on the not-very-Blue Danube and saw the illuminated sights - lots of cool buildings. There was free wine, which was not disgusting, so the next day I was nursing my only hangover of the tour so far. I rather liked the city, and will have to go back and drink less!
Ooh, look at the prety liiights
And some more scenery, in the cold light of day. It was still pretty, even though I didn't feel so well...My next stop was Vienna. We arrived in the evening and went out to see a concert of Mozart and Strauss music, which was great, despite my apprehensions of it being a bad orchestra. The women's dresses were awful (peach and poofy, like some 80s brisdesmaid nightmare), but they were very good at what they did.
The next day I got to meet a friend of mine whom I work on the Santharia project with, by the name of Christian, though we call him Art. We wandered around Vienna together and he showed me the sights. Thanks so much for the awesome day, Art! We went on this massive ferris-wheel thing (which I wasn't at all nervous about...) and into this massive Versailles-style palace called Schonbrunn Palace, and walked around the centre of town. There were some amazing builldings, but one of the highlights I will mention was the statue of the baby elephant which is outside the natural history musem. Soo cuute! We also ate heaps of traditional food: sausage, Sacher torte, Vienna coffee... it was a fabulous place and I had a great day out! After I left Art I went and had some... oh, I forget what it's called, but it is a traditional dessert - pancakes with plums and stuff. It was very good, so thanks for the tip, Art!
A sphinx presides over the dusk outside Shonbrunn Palace in ViennaWell, that's as much as I have time for today, but tune in next time for Germany and the West!
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