pete's overseas adventures

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2010-02-26T19:21:00.003+11:00

Possibly my last post

2008-05-26T04:54:00.001+10:00

Mona and I will be leaving Germany in one month from today so I
thought I would write about the things I would miss and not miss about
Germany...

(in no particular order)

Miss: German beer, delicious, fairly cheap, comes in big servings.

Miss: learning German, although I will keep learning in Australia it
will be different to being immersed in the language.

Not miss: Not being able to understand what's going on around me. I'm
looking forward to getting on a bus or a train and being able to
understand what people are saying, though I'm sure that after hearing
a couple of conversations I'll be wishing that they would talk in some
language that I can't understand

Miss: the long days of summer

Not miss: the short, freezing and wet days of winter

Not miss: CNN, being the only english speaking channel (although MTV
has a bit of english) on TV I have watched more than enough of this
crap. If I ever have to listen to such an American centric view of the
world again I think I'll shoot myself (or the person I'm listening
too)

Miss: The Glockenspiel and Marienplatz, the two big tourist
attractions in the main square of Munich, I have walked past these so
many times that it will be wierd not to see them anymore

Miss: A reliable public transport system

Not miss: Schnitzel. Don't get me wrong, I love schnitzel but I won't
miss it because I'll have Mona to cook it for me!

Miss and not miss: The feeling of being an outsider. Sometimes it
sucks to not understand what people are going on about (even when they
are speaking english) but other times it is fine and really
interesting to see things differently or to be totally confused

Miss: Football/fußball/soccer - call it what you will, I've started to
like it while I've been over here. My local team, Bayern Muenchen, won
the Bundesliga which is better than the dragons have ever done for me.
I am looking forward to Germany winning the European championship soon
too

Not miss: the lack of cricket or rugby league that I can see here. I
know it's to be expected that there isnt much shown here but that
doesn't mean that I'm not looking forward to being able to watch and
play again

Miss: German Bakerys

Not miss: the fact that all shops (including supermarkets) shut at 8
and don't open at all on sundays

Miss: the euro, it will be strange to start thinking of things in
Aussie dollars again

Not miss: having to pay to use public toilets (or even toilets in
maccas and places like that)

Miss: oktoberfest and beer gardens in general, such fun places

Miss: German food, it is pretty tasty

Not miss: Lack of variety in german food - sometimes it feels like
everything is made from pork, potatoes and sour kraut

I'm scratching my head here at the moment traing to think of anything
else. I'm sure there are plenty of things I've forgotten so I'll just
add them later.

Can't wait to see everyone again when we get back to Australia.

Pete

Merry Christmas

2007-12-28T06:12:00.001+11:00

I hope everyone had a great christmas and I wish you all a happy new year too.

I have just put up some more photos, in the "Munich", "German Food" and "Nurenberg" sections.

Update

2007-12-18T05:36:00.001+11:00

Hello,

it´s been quite a while since I wrote anything about what I´m doing so I thought that I would finally try to give a bit of an update of what I´ve been up to...

I moved to Munich in August, speaking no German and thinking that it was going to be fairly easy to find a job over here. I was wrong.

The last few months have been very frustrating at times because of how difficult it´s been to find work. At first I was looking for jobs in Engineering (thinking that Germans like Engineering, and I´d been told that there were quite a few companies that employed people who didn´t speak German). As the weeks went by and by bank balance went down I started to look for other sorts of jobs where they wanted English speakers such as language schools. Still I had no luck, finally I started to look for any sort of work, going to all the hostels and Australian and Irish pubs in town. Still no luck. All the places I tried told me to come back in February when the tourist season picks up again. That didn´t help me much cause there was no way my money was going to last until February.

I finally found a job a couple of weeks ago. It´s nothing special, working in a call centre for an insurance company, but at least it´s some money and it will keep me going while I keep looking for a better job. I´ve also done a couple of shifts in an Irish pub which was actually good fun, I´m going to try to do a few more because it´s cash in hand which is good for the wallet.

During my period of unemployment I was learning German. At first I was learning it from a book and some CDs but later on I took a 2 week course which was pretty full on but it really improved my German so it was worth it. The last few weeks I´ve been concentrating on work but once that settles down and the new year comes I want to get back into learning it.

Oktoberfest was great fun and it was good to catch up with a few people during it.

My brother Tim also came back to visit for a week and a half later on which was great. We did a bit of sight seeing but mostly just hung out together. One day we went to Neuschwanstein castle which is absolutely amazing! It´s the most brilliant castle I´ve ever seen, inside and out. It´s situated in the middle of nowhere on the top of a hill which gives it fantastic views. Inside just about everything is covered with gold and is so detailed and over the top that it´s breathtaking. The king who had it built (Ludwig 2) was famous for building ridiculous castles and making Bavaria bankrupt because of it.

Last month it was one year since I left Australia. It was also Mona and I´s one year anniversary.

I haven´t done a lot of sight seeing lately because I´ve been trying to save money, hopefully I´ll start doing a bit more lately.

Although Mona and I did go to Nürnberg on the weekend. Her brother lives there so we visited him, we also saw a bit of the old city and went to the famous Christmas markets. Every German town has some markets but the ones in Nürnberg are supposed to be the best in Germany. They were quite good but really too crowded for my liking.

The weather here is terrible. It´s a totally normal German winter but, for me, it´s terrible. I think the maximum temperature for the last few weeks has been about 2! You can´t leave home without a couple of jumpers, warm shoes, gloves and a beanie. I´ve only recently bought a jacket and some shoes without holes in them so I´m a lot warmer than I used to be! No snow in the last 2 weeks but I hoping there is some before Christmas.

I only have 2 minutes left on the internet so I hope that explains what I´ve been up to. Now that I´m working I´ll be doing more things so I will have more to write about.

Bis bald,

Pete

One Year

2007-11-22T22:57:00.001+11:00

It´s been one year since I left Australia the second time. It doesn´t really seem that long ago though...

Oktoberfest

2007-11-12T22:01:00.001+11:00

I now this is a bit late but I will write a little about it anyway. Oktoberfest was really cool, I bought Lederhosen (the leather pants) so I could dress up and fit in, at least a bit, with the locals.

My brother Tim and one of his friends came for the first weekend. We got up really early and went in so we could line up for a table. We were lucky and got a good table but then we had to wait four hours until the festival started. We were prepared and had brought breakfast with us so we sat at our table, playing games and eating waiting for it to start.

I also met up with Nathan, Wog and Tracy who are the people I went to Oktoberfest with last year. They were driving around Europe for 3 months and it was good to see them again.

We spent all day at the Löwenbräu tent (same as the pub in the Rocks in Sydney) because Mona and Mary know the waitress there. Once the tent closed we went on a few rides at the site, the dodgem cars were really fun!

The next day we went into town to see the opening parade (which is on the second day for some reason). And then we went back to Wiesn (what the locals call Oktoberfest). This time we spent a bit of time outside looking around at the different tents and stalls that were there.

Later in the week, after Tim had left I met up with Bernadette (from Sydney Water) and Steve. We caught up on all the stuff that happened at Sydney Water since I left and had a good afternoon in one of the tents.

I went once more in the last week of the festival (it goes over three weekends), by then the place was a bit dirty and smelly but it was still good fun. I was with Mona and Mary and we went to some of the more German tents where there weren´t so many tourists.

Photos

2007-11-12T21:50:00.001+11:00

I´ve just put up a whole heap of photos. There are four new albums and I also added new photos to the album called "München, yet again".

I hope you enjoy them!

Look who´s back

2007-10-26T04:23:00.001+10:00

it´s me: pete!

it´s been a long time since I´ve written anything so I thought I would write something just to let people know that I´m not dead.

I´m not dead. Nor seriously injured or anything other bad thing that you could think of.

Having made it clear that I´m not dead I will finish this post with a promise that sometime in the next 2 weeks I vow* to write a much longer post and put up a lot of photos.

Until then,

Pete

* I retain the right to break my vow in unforseen circumstances such as a bright sunny day when I want to go outside instead. Although given that there have already been 2 days of snow here that it very very unlikely.

Croatia

2007-08-11T04:11:00.001+10:00

We left early one morning (5:00 am) to try to beat the holiday crowds. Unfortunately this didn´t work and the first day of our holiday ended with us not making it croatia and spending the night in Slovenia. Talking to the owners of the B & B, it had taken us 14 hours to do a 5 hour drive thanks to all the "Stau" (German word for traffic jam) that we got stuck in throughout Austria!

One of the traffic jams was so bad that someone had even set up an ice cream stall in the middle of the autobahn (the road which is famous for not having a speed limit!).

On the second day we made it to our destination, Plitvica Jezera National Park in Croatia. That day we struggled putting up the tent which was huge and way too big for just Mona and I and went for a swim in a river nearby in the afternoon.

The next day we went to the Lakes in the National Park itself. The lakes are absolutely amazing - I´ve never seen water with such a beautiful colour to it before - I can´t descirbe them, you´ll just have to look at the photos I took. We spent most of the day walking around the lakes, enjoying the scenary and relaxing.

We also visited a small cave nearby which was ok but nothing spectacular.

The next day we went to Bosnia and Herzegovina for white water rafting. We went with some South Africans (who were on British passports) and were supposed to have a few more South Africans with us too but they weren´t allowed into Bosnia so we had to turn around, drop them back at the camp and start out again. The rafting was really really fun! The best/worst rapid (depending on your point of view) was when we went over a 5 metre waterfall and fell to the river below.

We stopped for lunch at a small hut where a man lives with just his dog. His dog had been attacked by a bear 2 weeks before and had some scars and lots of fur missing. He sold us beers which he kept in the river to keep them cold.

In the afternoon we had the chance to jump off an old railway bridge which went over the river which was pretty high and a little scary.

The next day we went to an island called Pag off the coast of Croatia. This island wasn´t very good! We stayed at a camping site called Shimuni but by the time we left it had been renamed to Shitumi. Firstly the camp site was full and way too busy. On the first night there we were woken up by our drunken neighbours playing guitar and 2 in the morning and then again at 4. However compared to the second night there the first was great. On the second night there was a storm and the winds were so strong (and our tent was at the end of a road which worked really well as a wind tunnel) that we had to take the tent down at 2 in the morning because the winds were going to rip it to pieces if it stayed up. Then we had to sleep in the car, which is never particularly comfortable. We left Shitumi the next morning because we´d just had enough of it.

We didn´t really have a plan and just drove up the coast and ended up on another island called Krk. This one was much much better. We spent 2.5 days lying around on the beach (note though that I don´t say we spent 2.5 days lying around on the sand...), relaxing in the sun and in the water. The beach was really nice except for the lack of sand which seems to be a common theme throughout the beaches I´ve seen in Europe. The water was so clear. When you were swimming you could be out deep enough so that you couldn´t touch the bottom when you dove down but you could still clearly see the bottom of the ocean - it was fantastic!

We spent a bit of time reading on the beach and floating around on a 2 euro blow up mattress we bought which has got to be close to the best 2 euros I´ve ever spent. Unfortunately we couldn´t spend more time there because Mona had to get back for work. We spent one more night in Slovenia on the drive home and visited another cave on the last morning of our holiday. It was huge and had some really cool formations but you weren´t allowed to take pictures of them.

So what now for me? I´ve finished with travelling for a while (hopefully not too long - I would like to do some short trips in the next few months) and now I´m looking for a job. Although there´s been a bit of a change of plan for me and rather than moving to London I´ve decided to move to Munich with Mona. I guess this is going to make finding a job a bit more difficult but apparently there are quite a few companies with english speaking employees so hopefully I can find something soon enough. Although it makes finding a house a lot easier! And the rent here is so much cheaper than it is in London.

I am trying to learn German but I´m not very good at it yet - I´m good at saying Hello, how are you? And I´m good with numbers so I can go to the shops ok. Also I´m more than proficient in ordering beers. But there is a lot more work for me to do ...

So for now: Bis Bald!

London

2007-07-27T03:13:00.001+10:00

I spent last week in London which was pretty cool. I stayed with my brother which was great because I hadn´t seen him for a while so we could catch up and also because it was free. The downside was that I had to share a bed with him and there were four people in the room so it was kind of cramped.

While I was there I also went out to see Dave from uni and Jacquie from Sydney Water which was cool too. We ended up going to a pub called The Porterhouse which is actually an Irish pub and I had spent a bit of time in the ones in Dublin so it was funny to end up there in London too. (To Ben - also reminded me of the New Years Porterhouse challange which made me feel a bit queasy in the stomach and then very proud of myself).

While I was there I also went on the London Eye (the big ferris wheel) with my brother. It was good because we chose a really clear day to go so we could see everywhere. I went to the Grenwich Observatory which is where GMT (Grenwich Mean Time) is measured from which was kinda cool. I spent one day walking along the Thames river and crossing over all the bridges, it was good because I got to see a bit of London outside of the city centre and I also got to do a bit of exercise.

One day I went on a day trip to Windsor Castle, Stonehenge and Bath which was fantastic. Windsor Castle is where the Queen lives when she´s not working at Buckingham palace. Stonehenge was my favourite. I had wanted to go there for a long time but hadn´t got around to organising it. There´s not much to do there, just walk around all the stones but even still I liked it. Bath was a nice little city, we went to the old Roman Bathes there and had a bit of a look around which was ok. My personal highlight of the day was getting a photo of a sign for "Slough Trading Estate", where The Office was set so look out for it in my photo section when I have time to upload them. Another interesting thing: around Stonehenge there are a lot of army training grounds and we saw a sign which said "Tank Crossing" (similar to our "Kangaroo Crossing" signs back home). Our guide hadn´t seen a tank crossing the road in all the years she´d been doing the tour but it was our lucky day and we had to stop the bus and wait for a tank to cross the road in front of us - it was a bit of a strange experience!

P.S. To people who have sent me emails in the last couple of weeks, I´m not ignoring you, I´ve just been a bit slack in replying but I will try to reply in the next couple of weeks...

Estonia and Russia

2007-07-27T03:00:00.001+10:00

Well it's a bit late but I thought I'd write a bit about Estonia and Russia.

Estonia was cool. I caught a bus from Riga (in Latvia) and was planning on getting off in Parnu but I had some communication issues with the bus driver which meant I didn't get of at the right stop and ended up having to wait another two hours until we got to the capital Tallinn. I hadn't really wanted to see Parnu anyway, I was just going there so I could head out to an island the next day so I wasn't too fussed about the stuff up.

I spent one day in Tallinn and went on a walking tour around the city which was cool. Tallinn has wireless internet access all over town. It's a very progressive city but I heard that after they removed a Russian monument (which caused a riot among the Russians who live there and the native Estonians in Aprilish) there were also a lot of attacks on their internet system originating from Russia. Moral of the story: don't piss off the Russians.

The next day I went out to an island off the coast called Saremaa which was quite nice. They had a few sites to see: a castle in town and then some old fashioned windmills not too far away. The most unique thing I've seen for a while though were the meteorite craters they had on the island. The largest one was about 100 metres in diameter and had a little lake of water in the bottom of it. I'd never seen anything like it before. I also walked around a bit and saw a few of the smaller craters there.

From Saremaa I headed back to Tallinn for another day and then it was time for an overnight bus ride into Russia. Despite my expectations getting in and out of Russia was no hassle and I think the only reason they still make visitors go through the very beureacratic (not sure about the spelling) visa procedure is so the government can get a bit of extra money.

I started in St Petersburg and had timed my trip well in the fact that it was just coming up to the solstice so it never got dark. It was sort of twilight between 1 and 2 am but that was it, it´s really strange to be walking around after 11 or 12 and it´s still light. I went on a walking tour of St Petersburg which was pretty good and I went to a museum called the Hermitage. Apparantly it´s really famous (I hadn´t heard of it before going there). It´s an art museum (which I didn´t realise before going there either) so it only has paintings which aren´t really my thing so I didn´t spend too long there. Luckyily entrance was free for students and luckily I have my brothers student card!

Also went to a museum which was founded by one of the more famous Tsars (can´t remember which one though) it had one room full of babies/feotuses with deformities in jars. He started collecting them so they could be used for education but now people just go there to look at them (like I did).

From there it was onto Moscow on, by far, the most comfortable overnight trip I took. It was 3rd class but I had a bed and sheets and everything so it was great. Had a bit of trouble finding my way to the hostel (Moscow underground is the busiest one I´ve ever seen - much worse than London) but made it in the end.

Spent some time at the red square and saw Lenins mausoleum and his body, although I think it looked like a wax model and refuse to believe that it was really his body. I also went into the Kremlin but there´s not much to do there. At the red sqare is St Basils Cathedral which is the coolest looking church I´ve seen throughout Europe (and, as anyone who´s been through Europe knows, you can´t help seeing a fair few over here). It has heaps of towers and the whole facade is covered with different colours. I really can´t describe it well enough so you´ll just have to look at the pictures to see for yourself.

Some of the underground stations in Moscow are fantastic - they were built during the Communist era when spending money on fancy public buildings was ok while the people were starving. The oldest stations are the most elaborately decorated. The decorations ranged from marble panels with carvings on them to paitings to scultpures to mosaics and even a few stained glass windows. Again, check my pictures if you want to see them.

Sorry that this post has been so late in coming, I will try to be a bit more up to date in the future. Pete!

Update

2007-07-03T21:18:00.000+10:00

Hi everyone,

I have been a bit quiet lately I know but a quick update on what´s happening...

I went to Russia (St Petersburg and Moscow) which was fantastic and I´ll try to write more about it soon.

Since then I´ve been in München (Munich - but I´m using a german keyboard so I may as well use the dots) relaxing at Mona´s place.

I was getting sick of the constant moving assosciated with travelling so I am taking a break for a while and then we´ll see. Anyway, that´s all from me for now. Stay tuned for more updates.

Pete

P.S. I put a few photos from Russia up on the photo section!

Does anyone know...

2007-06-11T02:15:00.001+10:00

how to say "Please stop the bus and pull over because I'm going to wet my pants if I can't go to the toilet soon" in Estonian?

No? - me either, but earlier this morning I really wished I did...

Latvia

2007-06-11T02:12:00.001+10:00

I really only went to one place in Latvia, which was the capital Riga.

It's a beautiful city with lots of old buildings in different architectural styles that I don't know the names of...

but, for me at the moment, in the words of Paul Kelly, "Every fucking city feels the same"

I got out of the city for a day to visit a place called Sgiulda which had an old castle there which was ok but nothing extraordinary.

On another note: Riga is the British stags/bucks night capital of the world. It's worse than Temple Bar in Dublin. With that in mind I would recommend that if you ever come to Riga don't be there on a Friday or Saturday night.

I had the questionable pleasure of having a group of them stay in my dorm room. And then, to top it off, the next night I had a bunch of arrogant Americans whose only topic on conversation was how much they were going to drink and how many chicks they were going to fuck.

After listening to these two groups (and I only heard what they were saying while they were still sober) I fully understand why locals are sometimes pissed off with tourists coming into their town for a couple of days, treating it like shit and then leaving again.

Latvia is the only country I'm come across where the currency is stronger than the euro. For one euro you only get 0.67 Lats (which is about the same as the British Pound). Most of the countries I've been to the exchange rate is between 2 and 4.But in Hungary, for one euro you get 250 Forints which makes you feel really really rich!

Lithuania

2007-06-08T01:20:00.001+10:00

Started in the capital Vilnius. Arrived there after an overnight bus trip, dropped my bags off at the hostel and went out exploring the city.

Like all the capital cities around this part of the world it was really nice. Full of old houses built in styles that you never see in Australia. It's main area is quite small so you easily walk around it, you've just got to be careful of the cobblestone streets which are everywhere too.

Went to a museum about Soviet and Nazi occupations during the 20th century. It was in the foremer KGB office (which the KGB worked in up until 1990ish). The basement was used as a gaol and I walked through there and saw the cells were political prisoners were held.

There's an area on the 'other' side of the river which has been taken over by artists, drunks and squatters. It's called the Republic of Uzupis which literally means 'Republic of the other side of the river'. It's not much to look at but they have their own constitution which is funny. I tried to find it on the internet but I couldn't so you'll just have to believe me that it's funny.

On my way across the country I went to a place called the Hill of Crosses. It's two small hills where people 'plant' crosses. It was pretty amazing to see, there were literally (I think anyway) millions of wooden crosses on the hill. All the big ones had smaller ones hanging off them. I'm not sure why this tradition started but when the Soviets occupied Lithuania they tore them all down but people kept planting them to show their independence.

My last few days in Lithuania were spent in a place called Nida on the Curonian spit which is a long skinny bit of land just off the western coast of mainland Lithuania. It was quite relaxing to stay there for a couple of days and not do too much. I met a lady who is originally from Lithuania but lives in America now at the bus stop, she was visiting her ex mother in law and I ended up staying at here place which was really cheap plus I didn't have to share a room like I do in hostels.

One day I went for a bike ride. The next I walked over to the Baltic sea, I was planning on going for a swim but I only got in as far as my ankles because the water was freezing. So I ended up sitting on the beach for a while instead.

Poland

2007-06-01T03:03:00.001+10:00

From Prague I caught an overnight train to Krakow in southern Poland. It wasn't too bad, I had a cabin to myself so I could lie down on the seats so I managed to get a few hours of sleep.

Day 1

After getting to the hostel at 6:30 I had an early start to the day. I spent the morning wandering around Wawel Castle. It's not much of a castle but there were some interesting exhibits there so it was ok.

In the afternoon I went on a bike tour. It was run by an American who's been living in Poland for 9 years and was really good. He told us all about the history of Krakow and Poland in general. We rode around the old town but also went out to the Jewish ghetto (where Schindlers List is set) and up a big hill to have a look down on the town.

That evening I crashed pretty early because I didn't sleep too much the night before.

Day 2

I went to Auschwitz. It was really interesting and a very moving experience to see it. There are two camps about two kilometres apart. The first one (Auschwitz 1) has a museum inside with exhibits of what the conditions were like in the camp and what happened to inmates once they arrived.

The Nazis collected all the inmates belongings and sorted them so there are huge piles of shoes, glasses, suitcases, hairbrushes on display. Also they shaved all the hair off everyone who came in so there is a pile of human hair that was left over and also a display of the blankets that it was made into.

The second camp (Birkenau or Auschwitz 2) is where the gas chambers for the mass murder of the Jews are. This camp is huge, it is shocking to see the size of it, it could hold about 100,000 people at one time. At the back of the camp are four gas chambers. The Nazis partially destroyed them as they fled the camp but enough of them remains to get an idea of how big they were.

That evening I went out for a few drinks. We went to a pub called Middle Earth which was cool. It was all in the theme of Lord of the Rings and the rooms were made to look like caves and had carvings on the walls. There was cocktail list where the drinks were named after LOTR characters. For example: Tom Bombadil, Arwen's Kiss, Mad Ork, Nazguls Sting. But there was one called Globetrotter which seemed a bit out of place so I asked someone who worked at the hostel and she said that they'd messed up the translation for Ranger and ended up with Globetrotter.

Day 3

I went to a salt mine near Krakow. It was quite cool, inside everything was made out of salt. There were lots of statues and carvings on the walls. There was also a chapel which was amazing (it took 30 years to build it) because of it's size, the carvings on the wall and the chandeliers which are also made from salt.

That evening some of the people who work at the hostel organised a trip to the movies to see the new Pirates of the Carribean movie (Movie was in English with subtitles). On the way there we had to catch a tram and none of the 6 of us who were staying at the hostel bought tickets.

We got caught by an inspector.

He couldn't speak English so one of the people from the hostel did all the talking. We stood around for ages, occasionally getting updates from her about what was going on. At first it looked like we had to each pay 100 zloty (roughly 25 euro or 40 ozzie dollars) on the spot fine.

We all laughed and said as if we were going to pay the fine, they could send it to our addresses and we'll pay it later, with no intention of ever paying it.

Then we found out that if foreigners didn't pay the fine on the spot they were supposed to be taken to the police station. This wasn't so funny because he had most of our IDs so we couldn't just run away. Also, if we had to go to the police station we would have surely missed the movie.

After a lot of discussion they agreed that we would each pay him 30 zloty cash and that would be the end of the matter. So now, along with supplying the Bulgarian black market I'm encouraging corruption in Poland!

Day 4
Very lazy day. In the afternoon I caught a train to Warsaw.

Day 5
Spent most the day wandering around the old town of Warsaw. It was almost completely destroyed by the Nazis in World War 2 and was rebuilt from the rubble so I don't know if it really qualifies as an 'old' town anymore. The old (or maybe not) town was beautiful to just walk around looking at all the houses. I have some photos of them so you can see what I mean.

Day 6
Went back to the old town and went to a couple of museums. One of them had a film which showed some footage of how Warsaw looked after WW2, it was totally destroyed. It reminded me of footage I saw of Ground Zero in New York.

In the afternoon I went to a park just outside Warsaw, the grounds were really nice and there was a palace built over a lake which looked quite cool. There were also a lot of peacocks wandering around.

Had some drinks at the hostel that night which was good fun. It was a cool because there was a very international group of us: me, 2 english people, 2 scots, 2 germans, an american and a french person.

Day 7

Had to check out in the morning so I woke up regretting the drinks I'd had the night before! Went for a bit of a walk around and went to a museum about the Warsaw uprising which is when the people of Warsaw fought against the Nazi occupiers towards the end of World War 2. Spent the afternoon laying around waiting for my bus.

Day 8
Actually day 1 in Lithuania so stay tuned for my next post!

I'm Bored

2007-05-29T00:26:00.000+10:00

I'm bored.

As say the saying goes "Only boring people get bored" - I'm bored, therefore I must be boring.

But if I'm boring no-one is going to want to talk to me so how will I ever become unbored??

It's a catch 22

But I just found this photo which I thought was pretty funny...

Budapest, Munich and Prague

2007-05-24T03:22:00.001+10:00

I don't have much time to write now which is ok because I don't have much patience either so I wouldn't be writing a long post anyway. This is just a quick update of what I've been up to for the last week and a half or so.

Budapest - an amazing city. Could have easily spent more time there.

Munich - visited Mona for a few days. It was good to have a holiday within my holiday and relax for a few days without having to worry about organising accomodation or train trips.

Prague - good fun but seems to be full of American tourists so I'm well and truly sick of their accents. Looking forward to getting into some less touristy areas after being here.

I'm about to get an overnight train to Krakow in Poland and then I'm spending a month going through Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Russia, all of which I'm really looking forward to!

Tootleoo, Pete

Romania

2007-05-12T07:30:00.001+10:00

Firstly Bucharest is crap! If you ever have the chance to go there do yourself a favour and don't take it.

What can I say about it? Hmmm, they don't seem to want tourists there. It's a city of 2 million people and they can't be bothered to put in a tourists information centre. Although maybe I can understand why cause all the people who worked there would have to do is say "leave now and head to your next destination". The hostel I stayed at was also bollocks (expensive bollocks though).

A few years ago Romania had a dictator called Nicholae Ceausescu who cared more for the appearance of his country than he did for the people of his country. He also had a thing for Paris as far as I could gather. He built a Arc de Triumph just like Paris' and he built an imitation Champs Elysee (only he built it 6 metres longer than the French one). In order to build it he had to bulldoze 20% of Bucharest which left 70,000 people homeless but that didn't matter cause they had their Champs Elysee. I don't think it was actually finished before he was overthrown so it's mostly one big wasteground around it from what I could see.

He also spent a heap of money building the 'Palace of Parliament'. Which is just that: a palace where the government worked. It is a huge building and very grand. I took a tour of it and every thing was made of marble with gold plating. To finance it Ceausescu had to export all the food his country produced which meant that his own people starved but that didn't matter cause he had a beautiful building. It was finished either when he was overthrown but has been now.

Anyway Ceasescu was overthrown in 1989 and executed by firing squad on christmas day - Merry Christmas to you too!

There really wasn't much to see in Bucharest. I spent a day wandering around fairly aimlessly and then caught a train out of there first thing next morning.

I headed to Brasov, Transylvania for some Dracula spotting so I made sure to turn my fangdar up to high before leaving. Brasov itself was a fun little town with a great atmosphere. I walked up the hill next to the town which had great views looking down. I also went to Bran Castle (which for some reason is associated with Dracula even though he never went there). It was cool castle to look at from the outside but nothing special on the inside. I also went to Rasnov fortress nearby - I ate my lunch at the top with the most amazing views of the green trees of the forests and snow capped mountains in the background. Unfortunately my lunch (of peanut butter sandwiches) wasn't the most amazing lunch I've even eaten.

The fortress was a bit ruined now but there were still some buildings intact. One of the towers in a corner even had one of those cages you see in movies where people are put in to starve to death. There wasn't a skeleton in it when I was there but it may well have been used at some stage.

My last stop in Sighisoara was good too. There wasn't too much to see in the city, but it was nice to wander through. There were a bunch of other people at the hostel and we ended up playing ping pong for most of the afternoon and then had a few beers in the basement. The lady who worked there had more than a few beers. She was hilarious, I guess she was about 30 - 35 and spoke broken english. When she was pissed her favourite thing to say was "Shut the fuck off!" which is great cause it combines "Shut the fuck up" and "Fuck off" in one easy phrase. Look out for it in a drunken Romanian pub near you.

From there I had a 10.5 hour train trip to Budapest. At one stage there were so many gypsies coming into my compartment demanding money that I had to lock myself in to get away from them all. Before I locked the door there was one that just couldn't comprehend that I didn't want to give him any money. When I said no he started looking at me like he wanted to kill me, his eyes flared up and he looked really angry, I think he was looking around for something to bludgeon me to death with, but I stayed cool and stared him down and eventually he left with his tail between his legs knowing never to mess with an Australian again.

Now it's Friday night and I'm in Budapest and I really wanted to go out for a beer but no money exchange places were open. I spent an hour and a half walking around the city and didn't see one - I did see a bit of the city though.

I've only been here 4 hours now but I think I might be in love with Budapest. So far it's amazing. I've already started thinking about which parts of my trip I can skip so I can stay here a couple of extra days.

Well, that's all from me for now, I will try to upload a few more Bulgaria photos and some from Romania too in the next couple of days.

As they say in France, Au revoir!!

Bulgaria

2007-05-07T23:37:00.001+10:00

Before I even got to Bulgaria I thought I might not be allowed into Bulgaria.

I caught the bus from Istanbul to a place called Plovdiv in central Bulgaria. At the Turkish-Bulgarian border I agreed with an old lady on the bus (after a lot of sign language, me speaking English which she didn't understand, her speaking something (presumably Turkish or Bulgarian) which I didn't understand and the intervention of another passenger who spoke a little English) to buy duty free cigarettes so that she could sell them once we got to Bulgaria.

Buying them was fine. She even tried to give me a few packets as a thank you for doing it, but I had to explain (using charades) that I didn't smoke. After immigration (where the guy looked at my passport for about 10 minutes before he let me across the border) we had to go through customs. Everyone had to get off the bus and was searched by an offical. Everyone was ok. Everyone, that is, apart from the old lady whom I bought the cigarettes for - she had to go inside for another search and questioning.

At this stage my imagination got a little wild and I started to think that she'd be busted for bringing in more cigarettes than she's allowed to and that she'd crack under the pressure of interrogation and squeal that I bought them for her and that I'd be questioned and I'd probably crack under the pressure and say something stupid so that they'd refuse me entry.

After a 10 minute wait (which seemed much longer to me) she got back on the bus and it was allowed to leave with me on it.

So now I am officially part of the black market for cigarettes in Bulgaria - good on me.

When I stepped off the bus in Plovdiv I had no idea what to do. I had some vague instructions on how to get to the hostel I was staying at but I couldn't find where I was supposed to go so they weren't really any help. I had a map but it wasn't too detailed and anyway, all the signs are in the Cyrillic alphabet so it wouldn't have been any good if I had the most detailed map in the world. I just started walking and luckily it turned out to be the right direction. Eventually I found someone who could help me a little bit and finally I made it to my hostel where I had one of the best showers of my life. Nothing to do with the facilites but all to do with the fact that I had worn the same clothes for 3 days and hadn't showered for a day and a half because I'd been in a rush.

See here for the Cyrillic alphabet to see what I was faced with.

Plovdiv has a beautiful old town with cobblestone streets everywhere (nice on the eyes, less so the feet when I was walking around in thongs). There is an ancient theatre left over from the Roman era which is remarkably well preserved and looks cool. There is a museum there about Bulgarian culture which I really wanted to see but, by chance, the two days I chose to go there were both public holidays and it was shut.

The next day and a half was quite strange. I wanted to visit a small village called Koprivshtitsa to see some traditional homes that Lonely Planet recommended. I had a very interesting bus trip from Plovdiv to Koprivshtitsa. I was stretching my arms by grabbing onto the luggage rack above the seats and the bus driver pulled over on the side of a main road and came up to me and told me off in Bulgarian for doing it. Through out the rest of the trip he kept looking at me in mirror to try and catch me doing it again. This is the same driver who had a couple of porno ads on his sun visor! See here for an example of what I mean. There were sections of the bus trip where we couldn't go above 10 km/h because of the condition of the road, and not small sections - some of them were kilometres long. Also, the bus driver would sometimes drive along with the door open for no apparent reason. We also had to slow down sometimes while we overtook carts being pulled along by donkeys!

Once I arrived in town I tried to find a hostel that was written up in Lonely Planet. I'm sure I found the place (I translated the cyrillic name of it) but they weren't interested in having me there. I think the lady spoke one word of English "NO" - at least that's the only word she used with me. I found a bed and breakfast around the corner. The lady here didn't speak a word of English - the only thing she 'said' which I understood was when it was time to pay and she rubbed her thumb and two fingers together.

My plan the next morning was to get up early, go to the tourist information, leave my pack there, get a map and go and visit the traditional houses I wanted to see. I got to the tourist information office at 9:15 but found out it didn't open until 9:30, I waited until 10:00 before a homeless guy told me I was waiting outside the wrong shop (after pulling a marujana leaf out of his pocket and asking if I wanted to buy it). I went to the real tourist information but it was closed too.

After giving them half an hour I decided that they were never going to come so I went off and tried to find the first of the homes. I managed this fairly easily and picked up a map to help me find the others. I spent the morning looking at the houses but I had to carry my pack with me the whole time which is not fun because it weighed about 24 kg last time I flew with it.

Anyway, once I finished looking at the homes I had to try to get to Sofia, but because the tourist information was closed I had no idea what time the buses and trains went. I was getting the shits with everything so I sat down for a while where the bus had dropped me off the night before in the hope that another one might come that would magically take me to Sofia.

After half an hour or so I got the shits with waiting and walked back to the tourist information which was still closed. I walked around aimlessly for a while and found a bus. I asked the driver if he went to the train station, he said no, he's going to Sofia. So I thought great and just to double check I said to him "Sofia" but he shook his head so I got off and started waiting again. I was looking at the timetables on the wall (using my Lonely Planet to translate) and it looked like a bus was supposed to go to Sofia in 10 minutes and then I looked at the front of the bus and it said Sofia so I asked the driver again. Again, he shook his head.

I got off the bus and was completely confused. I sat there and watched the driver shut the luggage doors and then I remembered something I had read somewhere: that Bulgarians shake their head for yes and nod their head for no. So for the third time I asked him "Sofia" and he shook his head, I quickly chucked my bag underneath the bus and got on. I don't know what he must have thought of me. After that it was easy. I arrived in Sofia safe and sound with no further hassles.

While I was in Sofia I went on a day trip to a place called the Rila Monastery. This was set up ages ago by some Monk who wanted to be isolated from the world and all it's temptations (why anyone would want that is beyond me...) so he built it up a hill in the middle of nowhere. The setting is beautiful: lush green mountains, a stream flowing down the mountain side to power their mill and snow capped mountains in the background.

But the setting is overshadowed by the Monastery itself. The main church inside is covered with bright religious paintings. Normally churches and their paintings don't do too much for me (I've discovered that I'm a castle man) but this one was really really nice. I will put some photos of the monastery and the paintings up in my photo section.

That night I went out with heaps of people from the hostel which was good fun. Drank a lot of Bulgarian beer which is sooooo cheap - 75 euro cents or about 1 aussie dollar.

From Sofia I moved on to Veliko Tarnovo in the north. There I visited a huge fortress they have. It was pretty cool but I think it was also the lizard capital of the world - they were everywhere! Walking around the fort you'd hear/see lizards scurrying away every step you took. There were a couple of them which were bright green and shiny but unfortunately they were too quick (or I was too slow) for me to be able to take a photo of them.

The fort also did a sound and light show each night if enough people paid for it. I don't know where you watched it from if you paid but I'm sure that where ever it was didn't have as good a view as the one from the hostel balcony. The show was really cool, the whole fortress (it's about 500 metres long and 250 metres wide) gets lit up with multi colour lights and looks amazing.

Veliko Tarnovo was really good. That night I had some drinks with the people in the hostel, I wasn't planning on going out but I ended up in some Bulgarian pub with a very multicultural group (Aussies, English, Welsh, Irish, Bulgarian, Belgium) and had a pretty good night.

I ended up catching the train to Bucharest in Romania with some of them the next morning. Which was lucky because the train was an hour and a half late and then it took 6 hours to get there. Bucharest is definitely not is the race to become my favourite city but I'll leave that for the next post.

Verdict on Bulgaria: fantastic! Cheap as chips, the people are friendly, can be a bit hard to get around cause they use a different alphabet but that was part of the fun. Highly recommended.

Istanbul not Constantinople

2007-04-30T05:04:00.000+10:00

I've been waiting for so long to be able to use 'Istanbul not Contantinople' for a heading and now my chance has finally arrived...

I went to Turkey last week. My main reason for going was to go to Gallipoli for Anzac Day, however I had a few days in Istanbul too.

Istanbul is a fantastic city - it's so cool the way that the old mosques are incorperated into the layout of the city amongst the more modern buildings. I visited a few of the mosques there but I think they look better from the outside than they do on the inside. I also went to the old palace for the Sultans. It was interesting to see, my favourite bit was the Harem, where the Sultan lived with his family and his concubines (anywhere between 300 - 500 at one time!)

One day I went on a cruise with Carmen (from Dublin) and her friend along the Bosphorous (the stretch of water that separates European Istanbul from Asian Istanbul). We went right to the end of the Bosphorous to where the Black Sea starts. From there we climbed up a hill to see some ruins of an old fort. The fort itself wasn't too spectacular but the views were magnificent. To the left you could look along the Bosphorous with both sides of Istanbul on it's shores. To the right was the Black Sea, heading towards Russia.

We found a few interesting things for sale in Istanbul, particularly the 'Natural Turkish Viagra' (I will have to put the photos up for that because they are hilarious). I'm firing on all cylinders so I didn't get any but Carmens friend tried some and said it tasted spicy.

The day before Anzac day I went down to the Gallipoli peninsula to get ready for the dawn service. My bus arrived at about 7:30 and I met up with a few friends from Dublin who had got there a bit earlier and were saving me a seat. We spent the night sitting in our sleeping bags in freezing cold weather listening to the pre dawn program. This included a military band playing songs that were popular at the time, interviews with historians and a couple of documentaries about the campaign at Gallipoli and was pretty interesting. The seats were bloody uncomfortable and so I only managed about 5 minutes sleep all night.

The dawn service started at about 4:30 and was ok. But I spent most of the service looking the opposite direction to the stage to see the sun rise over the hills there. Everyone knows how tough it was for the Anzacs, that they landed in a difficult spot to climb up the hills, but to see the shape of the hills emerge from the darkness of the night with my own eyes made it seem so much more real to me and made me appreciate (at least somewhat the impossible task they were given.

After the dawn service we walked up to Lone Pine cemetary where the Australian service was held (there were separate Turkish and New Zealand services). This service was a little more light hearted than the dawn service and I thought it was a bit better because of it.

That evening I watched the Gallipoli movie with Mel Gibson in it. I hadn't seen it since high school and it was good to watch it again while I was in Gallipoli.

The next day we watched a documentary, made about 20 years ago, which interviewed veterans of all nationalities from the battle at Gallipoli. It was really interesting and moving at times to hear what they had to say. The part I found most interesting was how the Anzacs and the Turks maintained a great respect for each other despite the fact they were trying to kill each other every day.

That afternoon we went back to the peninsula to have a look at some of the cemetaries and the main monuments on the site. We saw the Australian, New Zealand and Turkish memorials which were good to see without all the crowds that were there on Anzac day. Our tour guide had a key to the Australian memorial so we got to go inside and sign the visitors book there which was great. We also saw some of the cemetaries around the peninsula and some of the original Anzac trenches. Finally we went to 'The Nek' which is what the final scene in the Gallipoli movie is based on.

The next day I went on a 'cultural tour'. The first stop was Troy - the ruins here weren't very impressive and the replica wooden horse was even less so. In the afternoon we went to a village called Assos in which there is a council rule that all houses must be made out of the rock from the mountain so that they all look like traditional Turkish houses (at least from the outside). Apart from that there were also some ruins from an old Greek village at the top of the mountain. From there you could see across the water to the Greek Island of Lesvos.

In the evening we went to the village where our tour guide grew up. It is just an ordinary Turkish village and no other tour groups go there so it was very interesting to have a look around. It was strange and a little bit sad that some of the houses are just one room rock shacks, some of which don't have running water, but almost all of them have a satellite dish for tv reception on top. It makes you wonder about peoples priorities. We went to visit our tour guides parents house and his mother cooked dinner for us - it was delicious. We had salad, yogurt, bread, rice, potatoes and a pastry which had spinach and fetta inside and rice pudding for desert. It was particularly special because all the ingredients, apart from the tomatoes, were home grown and everything was home made.

My last night in Turkey was spent back in Istanbul watching the final of the world cup. I'm glad Australia won it (as I predicted they would, see 14 March post) but it was a boring game to watch. If it was any other game apart from the final I would have gone home because I had an early bus to catch the next morning.

I've got heaps of photos and I will try to put some of them up in the next day or two for you to look at. Pete!

My brush with fame

2007-04-11T05:51:00.000+10:00

So, I was just sitting at home, watching Man U play in the champions league and surfing the internet when there was a knock on the door.

I almost couldn't be bothered getting up to answer the door but I did, as I got there I saw someone putting something through the letterbox and then I could see their outline walking away.

I opened the door and they turned back towards me and who did I see...

..."Not Bono?" you say - and you'd be right, it wasn't Bono but actually this guy...I can hear you saying "Who's he?" - it's Bertie Ahern - "So, who's he?" - he's the Prime Minister of Ireland. Not as cool as Bono but not bad for a Tuesday night.

I said hello. Actually, before that I said "Oh my god, it's the prime minister", we had a brief chat and then he went off to knock on someone else's door and I went back to watch the soccer.

The end is nigh

2007-04-08T22:36:00.000+10:00

My time in Ireland is almost over.

On Saturday afternoon I will be flying out of Dublin airport for the last time.

The last few weeks have been pretty busy trying to organise different things that I've needed to do in preparation for leaving. I think that I'm just about ready now.

The family that I've been lodging with have all gone on holidays, and it's just me and the dog here now. It's been good because it's given me the space and peace and quiet I've needed to pack my things and try to organise where I'm heading to next.

So, where to from here?

First stop is Munich to visit Mona for a week and then on to Istanbul for a few days. The day before Anzac day I leave for a 5 day tour of Gallipoli which I'm really looking forward to. I've spoken to people who went last year and everyone has said what an amazing experience it is and how moving the dawn service is.

After Gallipoli it's back to Istanbul and depending on how much I saw in the few days before the tour I might stay for a little while longer or, if I've seen enough, I'll catch a train to Bulgaria.

From there my plan is to visit most of the countries in Eastern Europe. Hopefully I'll be able to get off the beaten track and see some sights and towns that most tourists don't get to. I'm a bit worried about the language issue but I'm pretty sure that there will be someone who speaks a little English around when I really need them.

I have a rough plan which involves heading north west from Bulgaria up to the Czech Republic and then north east along the Baltic coast towards Russia. I've already got a tourist visa for Russia and I have to be in Moscow to catch a flight by the 20 June.

After that I will start again in Slovenia and make my way down, along the coast, to Greece where my trip will finish. From Greece I'll fly to London and start looking for a job and a house to live in. At this stage I'm planning on staying in London for a year or so, I'll see how it goes. My little bro Tim has just come over to the UK and will be living and playing cricket in Kent so I will be able to see him which will be great.

I've met some great people here in Dublin and I hope to stay in touch with them. But I am looking forward to leaving, I'm a bit sick of being in the one place at the moment and can't wait to get back into the backpacker mode and do some travelling again!

I don't know what the internet facilities in Eastern Europe are like so I don't think I'll be posting on this site very regularly for a while but I will try to put a few words and some photos up when I can.

I will have a new mobile number while travelling it's +423 663 236 533 and is supposed to work all throughout Europe which my Irish one won't.

See you all later, P!

St Patricks day and my birthday

2007-03-28T22:36:00.000+10:00

My tip from last time for Australia to win the world cup is looking in good shape at the moment.

What's been happening here? Two weekends ago was St Patricks day and what better place to celebrate it than in Ireland!

St Patricks day lasts for about a week here (but St Patricks day sounds much better than St Patricks week so I'll stick to calling it that). There are various shows on leading up to the day (17th of March) and there is a fair, kind of like the Easter show, for the three days of the long weekend. On the day itself the main event is a parade along O'Connell St (the main street in Dublin). I went to the parade with a couple of friends but we slept in so we got there too late to see the parade properly.

We were about five metres back from the barrier so it was difficult to see over the top of the people in front of us. Some of the floats in the parade were big so we could see them allright but when it was just people walking along we didn't really know what was going on. There were some people who arrived even later than us but they came prepared - with ladders which they just set up behind the crowd, had about 3 or 4 people climb up the ladder and they all got a great view of it.

While we were watching the parade we were trying to work out if there was a theme or if people could just make whatever float they felt like and take it into the parade because there didn't seem to be anything in common between the floats (later on I found out the theme was 'Mythical creatures' or something like that which made a little bit of sense).

After the parade we went to the pub (of course) to drink guinness (of course). It was a fun day, that night we ended up watching Ireland playing cricket and beating Pakistan.

On the Sunday there was supposed to be a massive fireworks display which I was looking forward to watching. However the Irish weather had other ideas and started to snow which meant the fireworks had to be cancelled.

On the Monday (which was a public holiday - probably because most people were still hungover from Saturday and wouldn't be any use at work anyway) I went on a bus trip to Wicklow and Glendalough. The weather was freezing, as you can see from my photos but the scenary was pretty spectacular. The Wicklow mountains are in County Wicklow which is next to Dublin, less than an hours drive away. Because they are slightly higher than Dublin they're just a bit colder and the snow wasn't melting as soon as it hit the ground. In the afternoon we went back down a bit to Glendalough which was an ancient Monastic settlement and the weather was mostly sunny so those photos from there make for a big contrast with the ones from the morning.

The best bit of the day for me was the creek behind the pub where we had lunch. After eating I went for a walk (it was warm and sunny at the time) along the creek and just couldn't stop taking photos of it. It looked so nice with the sun and the flowing water and there wasn't any one else around so it was nice and peaceful.

The weekend after Paddys day was my birthday. Mona came over from Germany and on the Saturday night we went out with a few of my friends to watch Australia and South Africa play (fantastic timing that this game was on near my birthday!) and then we went to a pub in Dublin called 'Howl at the Moon', no werewolves there but it was still really cool. We couldn't get a taxi home so had to walk for 45 minutes listening to Dave do Yoda impersonations for most of the way, but to be fair, he does do a very good Yoda.

I took Monday off work and Mona and I went to Malahide, about 30 minutes north of Dublin to see Malahide Castle. It was a really nice castle and one of the oldest in Ireland. A family lived there for 800 years up until 1975 when the last surviving member of the family sold it to the council and moved to Tasmania. Inside the castle now is a collection of furniture from the medieval period which was quite interesting.

Holidays

2007-03-14T00:22:00.000+11:00

I spent the last week in Germany and Austria visiting Mona. It was great fun but now I'm back at work (at a new job) and struggling...

Highlights of the week (in no particular order)

Having a drive on the wrong side of the road in Germany
Driving on the autobahn, where there is no speed limit
Spending two days in Salzburg in Austria
Taking a tour of 'Festung HohenSalzburg' (Salzburg Fortress) which sits on top of a hill in the middle of the city. The views of the surronding mountains were awesome and the museum was pretty interesting. One exhibit was a chastity belt which had some very painful looking spikes on it
The Austrian beerhall where we spent a fun afternoon drinking steins and Mona pretending that she couldn't speak German with the waiters
Getting surprised with two tickets to go and see Bayern Munich play soccer
Visiting a salt mine near Salzburg, particularly seeing the underground border between Germany and Austria
Going to the aquarium at the Olympic park
Not being at work

I've been sick this week, but because I want to save as much money as possible and I don't get sick pay I've been coming into work anyway. So I'll probably make half the office sick too...

Some tips for you:

Australia to win their third world cup in a row
St George Dragons to (finally) win the premiership this year!

Hello from Dublin

2007-02-22T02:38:00.000+11:00

Hi,

I got fired!

It wasn't because I am incompetent (although I might be) or that I'm
lazy (which I definitely can be). Another company bought out a
competitor and this had a big effect on how much work there was here so
they don't need me anymore. I was pretty pissed off though because only
a week earlier I'd been told that my job was safe.

Anyway, I'm over it now and am looking for another job. I have an
interview this afternoon so fingers crossed I get that one.

The reason that I'm writing this post is to let you all know that I made
up a song this afternoon. It's similar to Butterfingers FIG JAM but it
called FIB JAM which stands for Fuck I'm Bored - Just Ask Me. It sums up
my last week quite nicely.

Next week I'm going to Germany and Austria for a (well deserved) break
and hopefully I will have a new job by the time I come back.

Bye for now,

Pete

Snow

2007-02-09T01:51:00.000+11:00

It's snowing in Dublin today. It's so much nicer than the usual stuff
that falls from the sky here.

Belfast

2007-02-06T02:44:00.000+11:00

Two weekends ago was Australia day. I went to a bbq at Kelly and Gayles
place. It was good fun. They'd been to London for New Years and whilst
there visited the Australia shop and stocked up on some Aussie foods,
the ones I remember are: twisties, fan tales, burger rings and tim tams
but there might have been more aswell.

Carmen had made lamingtons aswell which were fantastic. I hadn't had a
lamo in ages so that was good to eat them again. And, of course, there
were sausage sangas. Most of the sausages in Ireland seem to be pork but
these were proper beef sausages and they were delicious!

We went out to a pub afterwards but it was chock a block with Irish
people who wished they were Australian so we didn't stay too long.

On Saturday night I was still recovering from it so just had a quiet one
and went and saw 'The Last King of Scotland', which was really good, at
the movies.

The weekend just gone I went up to Belfast with Kelly, Carmen and one of
her friends. We met Dave up there (who lives in Dublin now but his
parents are still in Belfast).

As soon as we got off the bus we met a crazy old guy called George in
the ATM line. He started talking to us about Australia and he ended up
singing us a song about the Anzacs in Gallipoli. I had to hold his
umbrella and gloves for him because apparently he needed his hands free
to sing. Not the last crazy person we met in Belfast.

We did the Lonely Planet's walking tour of Belfast in the afternoon and
saw some of the murals painted along (the Catholic) Falls Road. I'd
already seen some of them when I came to Belfast in June but there were
some that I hadn't which were interesting to see.

In the evening we went to 'Foo Kin', a chinese restaurant which had a
foo kin crazy maitre de. He was this big Belfast guy, no chinese in him
at all, who liked to try out his Australian accent on us and say things
like: 'What's your favourite colour - blue' and 'What's your name -
Sheila' which he seemed to think were really Australian.

Dave took us to a couple of bars after dinner and we ended up in a
slightly gothic night club where the four of us really stood out from
the crowd. But as the place filled up more 'normal' people came in and
we had a great night out there.

Sunday was pretty lazy, we woke up late, not that it mattered cause
Belfast is a ghost town on Sunday and hardly anything is open. Caught
the bus back to Dublin just in time to watch Australia beat New Zealand
at the MCG thanks to Ricky Ponting and Brad Hodge.

That's me up to date so, hope everyone is well at home, and talk to you
later - Pete

P.S. I'll put some photos from Belfast up in the next few days

Hello from Dublin

2007-01-25T06:44:00.000+11:00

For the last week and a half Mona (from Munich) has been over visiting
me in Ireland. We went down to Kilkenny (a couple of hours south of
Dublin) for the weekend. Kilkenny is a nice little town, much more
relaxed (and cheaper) than Dublin.

While we were there we went to Kilkenny Castle and did a tour of the
inside and also had a walk around the ground which are quite cool but a
lot smaller than they used to be a few centuries ago. Before the family
who owned the Castle started to go bankrupt they owned about three
counties in Ireland so they had a decent sized backyard.

We also went to some churches and to a small museum which was all about
the local history which was interesting.

Even though Kilkenny is relatively small there are still heaps and heaps
of pubs in town so we sampled a few of them...and tried the local beers.
My favourite beer in Ireland is 'Smithwicks' and it's brewed in an old
monastery in Kilkenny so I made sure to drink a few of them.

After that I had to go back to work but we went out in the evenings. One
night we went to the theatre, another time I took Mona to the Australian
pub and we drank some Aussie beers (Coopers, Crown Lager, Extra Dry,
James Boags) and watched Australia beat England (again!) in a one dayer
from Brisbane. I tried to explain the rules of cricket to Mona, who'd
never seen a game before. It's bloody difficult to explain cricket to
someone who wasn't brought up with it, there are so many complicated
little rules

Then one night Mona cooked (with a little help from me) traditional
German food: wiener schnitzel. I didn't realise that cooking schnitzel
was so complicated, I thought you just dipped it in bread crumbs and
that was that. But there is a whole process of washing the meat,
hammering it, then dipping it in flour, egg and finally bread crumbs.
Anyway, the end result was delicious!

Mona's gone back to Germany now and I'm back at work, trying to save
money for travelling once it warms up a bit.

I'm going to an Australia Day party this Friday at one of my friends
places which will be good fun. I think I'm supposed to be in charge of
cooking a bbq so hopefully that goes alright...

Anyway I have to get back to work so see you later!!

Happy New Year

2007-01-08T03:16:00.000+11:00

Happy New Year to everyone!! I hope you all had a great New Year and good start to 2007.

Firstly, congratulations to Australia for winning the Ashes 5 - 0. Not a surprising result but still good to see!

Ben came over to Dublin on the 29th for a few days. We went on a mini pub crawl/walking tour of Dublin on his first day here. Had a look at Temple Bar (the most touristy area in Dublin, full of pubs), saw the River Liffey, strolled round Trinity College, went to Ron Blacks (the smallest pub in Dublin) and went to the Woolshed (the Aussie pub) for some nachos.

The next day we did the 'Porterhouse Challange'. The Porterhouse is a pub which brews its own beer and they have 10 beers on tap. We sat down at lunch time and set about trying to drink a pint of all 10 of them. The first 9 were fine.

When we came to the 10th they had run out so we substituted it with a special beer celebrating the fact that the pub was 10 years old that year (that we later found out was 10% alcohol). This kind of ruined our night. After the beer we started to feel sick and went straight home and fell asleep at about 9. We slept for 15 hours until noon the next day and did not feel like going out at all.

However it was New Years Eve so we were kind of obliged to. We went to a party at a friends of mine and I didn't drink much because I was feeling sick from the day before but I still had a good night. Ben was worse than me and managed to fall asleep at about 11.

Last week Dave Lawler came over for a quick visit from Wales so I went out for dinner with him which was cool.

I have also started work. Working at a health insurance company in the centre of town. The first few days have been training and have been really slow and easy (hopefully the actual job will be like that). I'm not sure exactly what I will be doing but as long as its money and I can save some to go travelling once spring comes and it starts to warm up I don't really care.

That's it from me for now, see you later alligators.

Happy Christmas

2006-12-25T07:45:00.000+11:00

Happy Christmas to everyone!

I hope you all have a great day and enjoy your holidays.

I am back in Dublin now. I found a house to move into very quickly and I've got a job lined up starting on 3 January. Once that starts I will be trying to save a bit of money so that I can travel some more when the winter's over and it warms up a bit.

Germany

2006-12-11T23:14:00.000+11:00

From Dubai I flew into Germany. To describe it more accurately: from a warm and sunny Dubai I flew into a cold and dark Germany. Luckily my visit here hasn't been at all cold, dark and gloomy - just the weather. As it gets closer and closer to Christmas the days get shorter and shorter. The sun sets at about 4:00 in the afternoon at the moment, I'm not looking forward to that aspect of Ireland, which is further north than Germany and thus will have even less daylight hours.

Anyway, I flew into Munich in the south. On the first day I went to Dachau (pronounced Da-how) concentration camp. I had been there before when I went to Oktoberfest but, being Oktoberfest, I had been drinking the night before and was too tired to appreciate the memorial that the camp has been turned into.

I spent about 6 hours at the site, totally absorbed in the displays there. In the morning I got an audio guide and walked around the grounds of the first concentration camp that the Nazi's set up. It was a very sobering experience to listen to the stories of the violence and inhumanity that the prisoners were subjected to. I saw the parade ground where prisoners were punished in front of each other, the barracks where 250 people were forced to live in rooms designed for about 50, the watchtowers and barbed wire that kept the inmates trapped inside and the gas chamber and crematorium where people were murdered and their bodies burnt.

After that there was a video presentation about the camp. It showed images from the camp, the most disturbing were those of piles of dead bodies waiting to be cremated. After the video I walked through the musem housed in one of the former buildings of the camp. This was really interesting. It explained the social and economic conditions in Germany after WW1 that allowed someone like Hitler to come to power and assume total control of the country. It explained the history of the Dachau camp (it was set up in 1933, long before WW2 started) and the role it played as a model for further concentration camps. It also talked about the experiments that the 'doctors' at the camp carried out on the inmates.

I think we should appreciate that Germany has allowed the site to become the memorial that it is and hasn't tried to cover up the atrocities that were committed there. As it says in the camp the way to prevent something like this happening again is to educate people about what happened.

I spent the next day walking around Munich city looking at the sights. At the moment there are Christmas markets all throughout Germany which are really cool and I spent a bit of time in the ones at Munich. They sell everything to do with Christmas - lots of decorations for trees (Mum - you would love some of the stalls they have!), lots of German food and this thing called 'gluwein' (glow wine) which is wine which is served hot. I thought it tasted pretty disgusting but lots of people seem to enjoy drinking it.

That evening I went out with Mona, Mary (Germans that I met at Oktoberfest) and one of their friends. We went to (drum roll...) Ned Kellys - a 'traditional' Australian bar!! Of course, the only traditional Aussie beer they had was Fosters so, after having one of those we went back to the heaps tastier German beers on the menu.

Mona had a few days off work so she decided to come backpacking with me for a little while. It was very handy to have my own personal translator for a few days!

So from Munich we caught a very speedy looking German train to Leipzig. Leipzig is in the former East Germany and is a really nice and picturesque little town. We went to a museum about the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) which explained how Germany was divided between the allied powers (England, France, America and Soviet Union) after WW2. With the Soviet Union forming communist East Germany and the others forming capitalist West Germany. It talked about the conditions in the lead up to the Berlin wall being built and also the conditions leading to it being torn down later on.

We went to a church where the composer Yohann Sebastian Bach had been the director of music. His body is buried inside and there is a big statue of him out the front.

That day Mona convinced me to try 'Leibkuchen' - a German Christmas sweet. It's similar to gingerbread but also has nuts inside it, it was pretty tasty.

In the evening we got caught riding the tram without a ticket and each got a €40 fine. Since then I've made sure I've had a valid ticket whenever I've been on public transport.

The next day we caught a train to Berlin. Berlin was really cool! The first night we went to a pub which had a tropical island theme and the floor was covered in sand which was wierd.

The next day was a massive day of sight seeing. We started by walking along one of the longest remaining sections of the Berlin wall. This section has been turned into a gallery for the graffiti that people painted after the wall was torn down. Then we went to the Brandenburger Tor (Brandenburg Gate), this is a famous momument in Berlin and was one of a few important monuments/buildings to survive the bombings of Berlin relatively intact. It is so famous that it's what the Germans have on the back of their euro coins. We also saw the Reichstag, the German parliament building.

Then we moved on to the Holocaust memorial. This is a strange memorial in that it doesn't have any symbolic meaning, rather you are supposed to walk through the concrete pillars (see pictures) and imagine for yourself what you think it means. On an underground level there is a tribute to some of the 6 million Jews murdered during the Holocaust, including some excerpts from various journals kept by Jewish people writing about their feelings as they faced almost certain death.

In the evening we went to Checkpoint Charlie - the famous border crossing between East and West Berlin. There isn't much remaining, just a small replica hut but nearby there is an interesting museum about various successful and unsuccessful escape attempts.

The next day Mona had to go back to Munich and work so we just had a look at some of the Christmas markets in Berlin before she had to go and I was on my own again.

I went on a walking tour around Berlin. It went to some of the places I had already been but it was good to hear more about the history from the guide. It did go to some places I hadn't been yet: I saw the 'Kaiser-Wilheml-Gedächtniskirche', a church that was damaged in WW2 and has been left unrestored to show the damage caused by war. I saw the university at which Albert Einstein taught before he emigrated to America. I also the the 'Bebelplatz', the square in which the Nazi's burnt 20,000 books by Jewish and other 'undesirable' authors. We also stood above the bunker in which Hitler committed suicide at the end of WW2. The roof and walls are so thick that the government wasn't able to destroy it so just had to fill it with dirt.

From Berlin I travelled up to Hamburg in the north of Germany. I went and checked out the Reeperbahn, Hamburgs equivalent of Amsterdam. Unofrtuantely it's not as asmospheric as Amsterdam so I didn't stay too long. I went to a wax works museum which was ok, some of the models were really realistic (others less so...). I also went to this really strange shop called Harrys. It's full of goods that are supposedly brought to the shop by sailers from all over the world. The shop is full (so full that I couldn't turn around at times because my backpack would have knocked things over) of stuff, a lot of it seemed to be carved wooden figures that looked like they were from Africa though there was one room full of dead animals in various poses.

Today is my last full day in Germany, I am flying to Dublin tomorrow, and it's miserable. I walked around the city for a while this morning but it is freezing cold and raining so I gave up. I decided to use the time to write this post because it is just too cold to be outside. The bad news is that I'm guessing that this is what Dublin weather is going to be like so I don't know how I am going to cope with that!!

I will put up some photos from Germany in the next couple of days.

Dubai

2006-11-27T21:52:00.000+11:00

The flight over here was awful. The people sitting next to me had about 7 elbows each and to make things worse they slept the entire flight while I struggled to get any sleep at all.

Things took a turn for the better when I decided to buy a case of duty free beer at the airport and thus doubled the number of items in Ben's Fridge.
While Ben was at work on the first day I went into the old area of Dubai called Bur Dubai. I went to the Dubai museum which was quite interesting and learnt about the history of Dubai. Which, as far as I can see, can be summed up in three words: pearl fishing, oil and tourism. Pearls were the main export until the discovery of oil in 1960s and that's when Dubai became really rich. Nowadays there are a lot of tourists (which is lukcy cause there is a damn lot of hotels for them to stay in) and that's where Dubai seems to make a lot of money. I also went to another museum which is in what used to be a house of one of the Sheiks of Dubai. This had a really good photo exhibition of photos taken of Dubai throughout the last 50 years or so. The aerial shots showing how much development has taken place over time were interesting.
In the afternoon I walked back to Ben's place along the shores of Dubai creek (although I think it's big enough to be called a river) and had a squiz at some of the fancy architecture that Dubai's well know for.

That night Ben and I went out to a pub called 'The Dubliners' for a few drinks, we got talking to the manager for a little while and I was telling him that I'd been staying in Ireland and he gave us some free pints of Guinness which was good!

The next day Ben had a half day at work and after he finished we went into another part of the old town to have a look at the spice souk (markets) and the gold souk. They were ok but I think I saw enough souks in Morocco and Egypt so that they've lost their appeal for me at the moment. That night we went out with some of Benji's workmates to 'The Irish Village' (I don't know why he kept taking me to Irish pubs), we ended up at a place called 'Rockbottom' which, despite it's name, wasn't too bad.

We got home at 5:00 in the morning and had to get up at 8:30 to go into the desert to do some dune bashing. This is basically just four wheel driving in the desert. It's pretty fun and a couple of times it felt like the car was going to tip over. We also tried sand boarding but it's a fair bit harder than snow boarding and there aren't any chairlifts in the desert so you have to walk up the dunes after you board down them. We also went on little 4 wheel motorbikes. They were great fun, just hooning around the sand dunes hoping that you don't run into anyone else as you go over the top of them. At the end of the morning we saw a couple of ostriches and falcons and posed for some pictures with them.
That was Ben's one day off a week and we were supposed to go out with some of his mates but once we got back from the mornings activites I cooked us some bacon for brekky and then we fell asleep on the lounge for most of the afternoon. We did go out for a few drinks at a bar in one of the more expensive hotels in Dubai. It was really nice but I didn't want to get too used to it cause after this week of crashing on Ben's couch it's back to not so glamorous youth hostels for me.

The next evening we went to Ski Dubai - an indoor ski resort. It was great fun! A very strange experience to be skiing inside, especially when there's a desert outside. There were two runs and one had a jump on it so we spent most of our time trying to go over the jump. I'm leaving tomorrow and I've got a bit of spare time so I thought I'd put a few photos up for you to have a look at. Dubai is an interesting place and it's been great to visit Ben over here. Now it's off to Germany...

Photos

2006-11-17T22:52:00.000+11:00

Photos from Morocco and Egypt are up. Click on the 'my photos' link on the right hand side.

Also, I fly out on the 21st so I've only got a few more days in Oz.

Egypt

2006-11-09T11:57:00.000+11:00

I don't know what my favourite part of Egypt is. There are plenty of contenders.

Walking around the Giza pyramids and the Sphinx
Exploring the many tombs and temples
Spending three relaxing days sailing down the Nile on a felucca
Visiting a traditional Nubian (original inhabitants of Egypt) village
Seeing the exhibits in the Egyptian museum, particularly all of King Tutankhamun's gold

I know what it isn't

The two overnight train trips we had to go on
The fact that we couldn't have a shower for three days on the felucca
That some stupid b#%&h from Queensland dropped and broke my two month old camera (Was it not enough that they won State of Origin - why did she need to do this to me??)

I flew into Cairo from Morocco and landed at 6:30 in the morning. I had no idea what I was going to do that day but ended up being talked into going on a 'tour' by some guy who was hanging out in the hostel. I assumed that there would be a few other people on the 'tour' but it was just him and me in his taxi. Every now and then he even stopped to pick up other passengers (locals) and drop them off where ever they were going.

It started out a bit dodgy but ended up being a good day. He showed me the Giza pyramids which are great. They are right next to the city, I'd assumed they'd be out in the desert but we were driving down a main road, turned a corner and there was a great big pyramid staring back at me! I had the choice of taking a camel or a horse around and, after riding a camel in Morocco, I opted for the more comfortable and less stinky horse - it was the best decision I made all day.

I spent two hours of sitting on a horse in the bright sunshine and despite the fact that I had no suncream (I'd left it at the hostel) and no hat (ditto and I refused to pay $5 for a tea towel and a piece of string to tie it round my head) I didn't get sunburnt at all, which leads me to think that there is a much thicker ozone layer over Egypt than there is over Australia.

The pyramids are huge, the biggest is 140 metres high, and they are pretty spectacular to see up close. I was kind of expecting to see them in perfect condition but they are a bit worn (fair enough considering they're 4500 years old) but even still they're amazing and you really appreciate the skill of the ancient Egyptians in building them.

That afternoon I also went and saw the step pyramid which is nearby.

The next day I walked to the Egyptian Musem. This has a massive collection of artifacts but 99% don't have any description of what they are so I was kind of wandering around guessing as to what I was looking at. The highlights here were the room with all of the gold that was found in Tutankhamun's tomb and the royal mummies room. This room is separate to the rest of the museum because they have to control the temperature in it. There are about 15 mummies on display. Some of them are still fully wrapped in bandages and some are partially uncovered. When you could see their skin it was really brown and looked like leather that had been left out in the sun for too long. On some of them you could see their fingernails, patches of hair and their teeth. One, he had died young, had a perfect smile which was a bit wierd to see! Unfortunately you aren't allowed to take camera inside the museum so I couldn't take any photos of the mummies.

The next day the tour that I was going on started. I met the rest of the group at our hotel and the very first two people I saw were Trev and Jac, whom I met on my bus trip around Europe, so that was a great surprise. It was good to see them again and listen to what they'd been up to since we last saw each other.

From Cairo we caught an overnight train down to Aswan. That evening we went to a 'sound and light' show at Philae Temple. The temple is located on an island in the middle of the Nile so we had to hitch a ride on a boat over to the island. Once we were there we slowly walked through the temple as the big 'lights' highlighted certain areas and the 'sounds' explained some of the history of the temple and also some general history of Egypt. It was pretty difficult to follow what was being said about the history because I was too involved at looking at the various statues and carvings on the walls. This was the first (of many) big temples that I saw and it wasn't the best but when I saw the detail in the carvings for the first time I was amazed. I don't know how long it took to do them but it must have been ages.

The next morning we got up really early, really really early: 3:15 am to join a convoy driving to Abu Simbel. Luckily I got some more sleep in the mini van. We arrived at Abu Simbel at about 7:30 am. The reason for it being so early is so that the tourists can go and have a look at the two tombs before it gets too hot during the daytime. The two tombs at Abu Simbel are for Ramses 2 and his 19th (and favourite) wife, Nefertari. In total his 54 wives had 112 sons and 96 daughters!

The tombs at Abu Simbel are said to be some of the most impressive in Egypt. They are good but what impressed me more is that they're not in their original location. In the 1960s the Nile river was dammed and the new water level was going to cover the island which the tombs were on. So, in a race against time, they had to dig up the tombs, cut into pieces which were small enough to be transported and then move them all to higher ground and reassemble the pieces to make the tombs all over again. They did a really good job and I couldn't even find the marks where they cut the statues and columns inside.

That afternoon we went to a Nubian village. We went into someones house and had hibiscus tea (which tasted ok). We had a bit of a look around the village then went to dinner in a restaurant down the river and afterwards we saw some Nubian dancing.

The next three days were spent sailing down the Nile in a felucca. Felucca's are pretty simple traditional boats that have been used on the Nile for centuries, maybe milleniums. After a hectic few days this was a welcome break and it was great to be able to just sit back and relax.

This is how I typically spent my time: sitting, lying down, chatting, playing cards, swimming and occasionally having a go at steering the boat. Whenever anyone needed the toilet we'd just pull over and they'd have to go and find some bushes to go behind. At night we'd pull over and the crew put up a little shelter around the edge of the boat to keep out mosquitoes (which didn't work). Some nights we also had camp fires and the crew would play drums and sing and try to make us dance around it.

One time when we were going for a swim a group of kids from a nearby village came over to have a look at us and I ended up playing soccer with them for a while which was great fun, though I don't think I'll be getting a call up to the socceroos anytime soon...

We caught the felucca from Aswan up to Luxor. At Luxor we went to the Valley of the Kings. The valley is located in the middle of nowhere. It was purposely chosen by the Pharoahs who are buried there after they realised that pyramids were really just a big advertisement for grave robbers saying "Look. There's a bucket load of gold in here". So far there have been 63 tombs discovered but we were told that there are probably a lot more waiting to be found. We went into three of the tombs. They are really impressive. Because they are more sheltered than the temples the carvings and paintings inside are in much better condition. You're not allowed to take photos so I can't show but the colours of the paintings are really diverse especailly when you consider that all the colours (reds, blues, greens, yellows, black, brown etc) are derived from different types of rocks.

This was pretty much the end of the trip, we had to catch another overnight train back to Cairo which sucked! That night I went to the sound and light show at the pyramids which was good. The next morning I flew out of Cairo to London (with a stopover in Vienna), spent one night in London and then flew to Sydney via Singapore. By the time I got home I'd pretty much spent three days straight in planes so I was really looking forward to getting home and being able to relax.

Well actually...

2006-11-06T19:44:00.000+11:00

That last one was a wee bit of a lie...

I did make it back for Matty's birthday (Happy Birthday Matt) and I'll be in Australia for 2 weeks before heading back to Ireland.

*Places hand over heart* I hearby solemly swear to update my photos and blog in the next few days...

See ya, Pete

Happy Birthday

2006-11-03T18:40:00.000+11:00

Hello,

well I am in Egypt and, unfortunately, I won't be able to make it to my littlest brothers 21st birthday which is on tomorrow (i think) with the time difference between here and back home.

So Matty - Happy Birthday, have a great night and I will have a beer for you over here!!

A couple of Morocco photos

2006-10-13T05:17:00.000+10:00

Hi, the food here has finally caught up with me (and a few others in the group) and I've got diarrhoea so I'm taking it easy tonight so I thought I'd put some photos up for your viewing pleasure...

This is the Berber village of Ait Ben Haddou. All the buildings are made out of clay from the surrounding mountainside.

the same village viewed from the top of the hill

and through a hole in the wall

I really like this photo but I'm not sure how good it looks on the computer. It's of some sand dunes in the Sahara desert and you can see the shadow of me riding a camel

this is my black and white artistic shot, it's the view I got of the rest of the 'caravan' while I was riding my camel

this is Abdul (the guy leading my camel) sitting on top of a dune in the early morning light

here you can see the sun rising over the Sahara

this is some of the group making their way back to breakfast after watching the sunrise

this is one of the many open air butcheries in Morocco. This particular one has a camel's head displayed out the front to let everyone know that they sell camel meat! These places have all sorts of bits (heads, toes, spleen, livers etc - sometimes even a fairly normal looking steak) hanging on hooks out the front. Everytime I walk past one the smell makes me gag and I consider becoming a vegetarian.

That's all for now. See ya.

More Morocco

2006-10-11T02:34:00.000+10:00

Hi,

today we've got the afternoon off and I've found a keyboard which is English so I can type a bit.

The last few days have been fantastic. Last night we slept under the stars in the Sahara desert and woke up at 4:30 am to ride a camel for half an hour to watch the sun rise over the sand dunes. An amazing sight - I took plenty of photos but can't download them at the moment.

Before that we spent a few days in Berber (the original people in Morocco) villages in the High Atlas mountain range. The huts are made out of the clay that is in the mountains so they look like they are a part of the mountain. Entire villages are made out of clay with wooden logs for a bit of framework and straw to help keep the clay together. When it rains (not that it appears to happen all that often) the houses need to be touched up because part of the walls and rooves wash away in the rain.

Before that we were in Marrakesh. The only part of the town we saw were the souks (markets) and the Jemaa el Fna (the main square). The souks are huge, they sell just about anything you can imagine and plenty of things you can't. Jemaa el Fna means the 'square of the dead' - it's called that becuase one Sultan used to display the heads of people who displeased him in the square. During the daytime there are snake charmers and story tellers (at least I think that's what they're doing but I'm not totally sure because I can't speak Arabic) and people with performing monkeys. At night, groups of musicians come out and play. There are also shady looking 'doctors' who sell all sorts of herbs and potions. There was even one 'dentist' who had a pile of old teeth - he could choose another for you if you were missing one.

We've come to Morocco during Ramadan so during the daylight hours no-one is allowed to eat or drink. This makes it a little bit tough sometimes to find something for lunch because most of the shops are closed during the daytime, but we always manage.

In some of the more country areas the Moroccan people have played drums and sung for us in the evening after dinner. It's pretty cool to listen to even though I can't understand what they are saying. I bought a drum in the souks at Marrakesh so I've been listening to try and get some pointers on how to play it Moroccan style.

Got to go now,

Pete

Morocco

2006-10-06T21:31:00.000+10:00

Hi,

I am in Morocco. The keyboard is French/Arabic so I am really struggling to write this post.

Casablanca was fairly shite, way too busy and the people hassle tourists a lot when they walk around the streets.

Then we went to Essaouria and Marrakesh. They are fantastic! Such cool atmospheres around the town, I spent all yesterday hanging around the Medina with Aimee and Tim. I love bargaining - it is so much fun! The only problem is that once you get a taste for it you just want to do more and more.

This keyboard is tough - this is what the paragraph above would look like if I typed normally...

Then ze zent to Essqouriq qnd ?qrrqkesh: They qre fqntqstic1 Such cool qt,ospheres qround the tozn; I spent qll yesterdqy hqnging qround the ?edinq zith Qi,ee qnd Ti,: I love bqrgqining ) it is so ,uch fun1 The only proble, is thqt once you get q tqste for it you just zqnt to do ,ore qnd ,ore:

No wonder I am struggling! Anyway, all is well, I am having a great time and might write again later.

Bye for now, Pete

Oktoberfest(ivity)

2006-09-22T06:02:00.000+10:00

I've got to hand it to those Germans - they know how to throw a great
party.

Oktoberfest was originally held by a king/lord/something of Munich to
celebrate his daughters birthday/wedding/something about 130 years ago. It
went so well that the people of Munich decided that it should become an
annual event. These days it lasts 16 or so days and has seating for 100,000
people, I'm not sure how many people visit the festival in total but it's,
like you know, a lot...

The atmosphere at Oktoberfest is somewhat similar to the Easter show, but
instead of animals or vegetables on display, 14 of the local breweries
offer samples* of their beers. It's similar to the Easter show in that
there are heaps of rides and stalls selling food or souvenirs around. It's
different in that it's not only the kids that are excited to be there. The
adults are too - they get to drink beer!

Similarly to Pamplona and the running of the bulls, I was surprised at how
many of the people there were locals. I'd got the impression that
Oktoberfest was about backpackers (particularly Aussies & Kiwi's) taking
over the town for two weeks while only a few really brave or really drunk
locals came out with them. This couldn't be further from the truth. There
were a lot of backpackers but there heaps of locals and Germans who'd
travelled from other parts of the country there too.

The waitresses are mostly over 40 years old (some a lot over) and yet they
push and step their way through the packed beer halls with all the nimbless
and agility of Mark Gasnier** slipping through the oppositions backline,
all the time carrying up to 15 steins of cold, fresh, beautiful German beer
in their arms. It's pretty amazing to watch from the safety of standing (or
sitting if it's early in the day) on your seat. It can quite intimidating
and a little frightening if you're on the ground and get in their way!

We were pretty generous tippers of our waitress on the first day (paying
€10 per stein when I think they were worth about €7.50) so she ended up
loving us. At the end of the night I managed to talk her into giving me her
badge that all the waitresses were wearing which, as far as I'm aware, you
couldn't buy anywhere so that'll make a cool souvenir.

The beer tents all get really really full and it can take a while to find a
seat at a table and you need to be sitting down to be served. I don't know
why cause as soon as you get your beer you can stand up and walk around...
Anyway, once you get a table it's best to stick with it and for this reason
we only saw the inside of a couple of the tents but I think that the rest
of them would have been somewhat similar. Somewhere in the middle of the
tent is a stage for the band, the floor is full of tables and chairs for
everyone and around the outside are the bars, toilets, kitchens etc.

Throughout the day the band will play and people sing along. As everyone
gets drunker they start singing louder and stand up on the chairs and dance
as well. When the band stops playing everyone just talks to everyone else
until the band starts up again. As everyone drinks more they just
friendlier and friendlier. There is hardly any violence there which
wouldn't happen in Australia. Judging from cricket and footy crowds serving
that much beer to that many Australians would result in heaps of fights.

I've got some funny stories to tell from Oktoberfest but they're not really
G rated so I'll leave them for another time.

Also, one morning while we were down there, to give our livers a break, we
went to a former concentration camp. It's called Dachau and was the first
concentration camp built by the Nazis. It was a good experience to see a
little of what the conditions would have been like for the political
prisoners that were held there, but unfortunately we didn't have enough
time to spend in the museum to read more about how they were treated.

Anyway, that's all for me at the moment. Bye for now,

Pete

* One litre sized samples

** Dragons footy player for all of you who don't live in NSW or those who
do live in NSW but don't support the Dragons (shame on you...)

Update

2006-09-09T04:05:00.000+10:00

Hi, I've been pretty slack lately in writing anything about what I've been doing and in replying to emails. So this will have to suffice for both of those shortcomings.

I've been working a lot lately, 9.5 hours a day on average, because work is paying overtime and I am trying to save as many euros as I can at the moment. I even worked one Saturday (pauses for gasps from the audience).

I've been to a comdey club in the Temple Bar area a few times now. It's pretty funny, though sometimes the comedians speak too quickly so I can't understand what they are saying, but they still sound cool with their Irish accents.

Last Thursday Rose (whom I met on the Pamplona trip) came over to Dublin and we went out and 'tied one on' (that's apparently the Victorian way of saying had a few drinks). On Saturday I got up early and watched a game of league at the Aussie pub in town, it was Melbourne v Manly so not that exciting but it was good to see a game anyway. Then I went down to Kilkenny for the rest of the weekend. It's a nice little town, though it was pretty quiet on Sunday - all the shops were shut except for the pubs (it's Ireland after all) and we didn't really feel like drinking at 11:00 in the morning.

Tomorrow I'm going to watch the Dragons smash the Broncos in the first round of the finals!! Then in the afternoon I'm hopefully going to see a bit of the 'Liffey Swim' - people apparantly swim in the River Liffey (which passes smack bang through the middle of Dublin). Not so amazing that people swim in a river you might think, but there is a rumour that Guiness is made from the river water because they are both the same colour! Though Guiness smells a lot nicer than the Liffey does. That's just a convoluted way of saying that I'm going to watch what kind of people choose to swim in a disgustingly polluted river. On Saturday afternoon I'm hoping to buy a new camera and then I'm going out with some friends Saturday night.

Next Wednesday I am flying to London and bussing it down to Munich in Germany for the opening weekend of Oktoberfest (and don't worry mum - I'm not going for the drinking, I'm going for the cultural experience). I'm going down there with a few people I met on my trip around Europe and a few others I know are going to be there too so it should be a really good time.

I get back from that on a Tuesday night and then the next Saturday Aimee is coming to visit me in Dublin which will be good fun.

That's about all about what I've been doing / will be doing soon. Now to go and reply to some emails...

cultural differences

2006-08-25T05:49:00.000+10:00

here are three things that have really stood out to me as being different between australia and ireland. don't get your hopes up for a massive insight into the differences - they are all pretty mundane

number 3: (notice that i'm going to go backwards to build suspense)...no smoking inside any public places, including public houses, known simply as pubs by most people. this rule is great for non smokers like myself. i love it - i can go out at night, wake up the next morning and be able to wear my clothes again. and that's a real lifesaver when you have as few clothes as i do and dislike washing them as much as i do. the only problem with this rule is that it leads to all the smokers gathering around the entry/exit to every building so whenever you walk into/out of a place (such as pub or supermarket etc) you have to hold your breath to avoid the nicotine clouds hovering there.

number 2: there is government surcharge on plastic bags. whenever you go to any shop, not just supermarkets, and you get a plastic bag you have to pay an extra 15 euro cents. that's about 23 australian cents. i reckon it's a great idea because it cuts down on the amount of plastic bags people use. although it can suck sometimes when you go to the supermarket and forget to bring any other bag and are too tight to spend 15 cents (like myself) so end up cramming as much as you can into your pockets and balancing the rest all the way home. luckily i only live a couple of minutes away from tescos (uk and irelands version of coles) so it's not too bad.

number 1: bread. and more specifically the packaging it comes in - over here the loaves of bread don't have the little plastic doo-dahs on the end of them. i don't know what they are called (maybe someone can help me out) but you all know what i mean, at least all aussies do - the little platic squares with a hole in the middle that keeps the plastic bag closed and the bread fresh. here they just come with a piece of sticky tape that you have to bend round on itself or they don't come with anything at all and you just have to fold the packing over to try and keep the bread fresh.

there you go, my three 'cultural' differences. in other news; i saw miami vice last night - what a crap movie, i fell asleep twice during it. i just checked my credit card balance and i owe visa $4,000. i thought it was about $1,500 so that was a nasty surprise. if only i'd known yesterday, i wouldn't have gone to the movies and i would have been spared 2 hours of miami vice.

Hooray for me

2006-08-17T06:28:00.000+10:00

played cricket last saturday. scored 62* off about 15 or so overs. hit 8 4s and a 6. we smashed the opposition. it felt good.

on sunday i went to 'kilmainham gaol' (not for drunk & disorderly behaviour). it's an old gaol in dublin, not in use anymore. most significant thing about it is that it is where the 14 leaders of the 1916 easter uprising were executed.

the 1916 easter uprising ultimately led to the establishment of a separate (from britain) irish free state which led to the irish republic that exists today.

the thing about the uprising is that it wasn't very popular with the irish people when it happened (they were more concerned about WW1) and it most likely would have passed un-noticed except that the brits decided to execute the leaders of it. this pissed the people off good and proper and started the ultimately successful push for an irish free state.

this was far from the only uprising in ireland's history but it was the last (because it was a success) although there was a civil war in between the uprising and the establishment of the free state (in 1922) so it was a pretty topsy turvy time in ireland.

another interesting thing about the uprising is that there were actually 15 leaders, but only 14 were executed. the lucky one to escape the firing squad was eamonn de valera. the reason he escaped? he was born in and lived in america until the tender age of three before moving to ireland. in 1916 the brits weren't too keen on executing a yanky so he escaped with a gaol sentance. eamonn de valera went on to become both prime minister and president of ireland throughout his lifetime.

here endeth the history lesson. history is much more interesting when you are in the places that what it was in school.

General updating of stuff

2006-08-12T07:02:00.000+10:00

I've been quite busy lately, which has been good. Working 40 hours a week (more than I had to at Sydney Water, no day off every fortnight either) and going out a fair bit too.

I went out on Wednesday night, was meeting a girl from Northern Island who's moved down to Dublin for work, was only going to go for a coffee but had a beer instead and then another and anther. Went to dinner and shared a bottle of wine and then went to 'The Woolshed' (which is the Australian pub in town). I introduced her to some Aussie beers...

My old favourite from home, Tooheys extra dry. The slightly more upmarket Coopers pale ale. And, of course, Fosters. Much to my disgust her favourite was Fosters. Also, becuase I have some time to kill I want to put a picture of Guiness up, here goes...

I'm not sure if I drank any of that on Wednesday but chances are... Anyway I had a crap nights sleep that night and then had to get up at early to go to work on Thursday. Struggled through work and then, for some unknown reason, went out for a couple of drinks after work. Managed to get to bed fairly early but got woken up by my flatmate shouting and banging on the door because he'd locked himself out.

Plans for this weekend: wanting to go to Malahide, which is a little north of Dublin, to check out the castle they have there. Probably going for a wee drink or two on Saturday with a Swedish bloke I met when I first came to Dublin in June who is living here now too.

Beer is expensive over here too. A pint costs somewhere between 4 & 5 euros (I can't get the euro sign to work on the keyboard) which is about $7 or 8 so quite pricey. For this reason I have decided to start a collection, very originally called (drum roll): pete's beer fund. Anyone wanting to make donations (fully tax deductible) may contact me for my bank account details.

I had a phone call from Benny this afternoon, he's just moved to Dubai for two or so months. It was good to hear a familiar voice chat to him and exchange stories.

That's all I've got for now, but I still have a little time so I'm going to put up a picture of hurling. This isn't the game I saw, I just found it on google.

It's time to clean up my...

2006-08-09T05:07:00.000+10:00

...language. I've been informed by by friends at Sydney Water that they can't view my site because of the 'profanity' on it. So I, Peter A Harris, hereby resolve to express myself in ways which do not involve rude, crude or lewd words. We'll see how long I last...

...

f%$k, this is harder than i thought it would be...

...I've been at work for one week now. Yesterday was a public holiday (thank god too because I needed a break after my first week back at work) and even though I'm temping I got paid for it!! Hip hip hooray for Irish workplace laws. John Howard could learn a bit from Bertie Ahern*.

I work for a company called Standard Life. They do life insurance and also investments. When someone wants to cash in their investment they write in to the company and that letter ends up on my (or a similar lackeys) desk and I press some buttons, and lo and behold a cheque comes out for their money. Unfortunately there is a middle man somewhere along the process who approves the cheques so I can't just make them out to myself :(

It's not that exciting but it pays ok and I'm fairly busy so time doesn't drag on too much.

On the weekend I went to Croke park, which is the biggest sporting ground in Ireland, to watch some hurling. Hurling and gaelic football are the main sports of the GAA (Gaelic Athletic Association) and along with soccer are the three biggest sports in Ireland. Hurling is pretty cool. It's like a pumped up version of hockey only there's much more body contact and you can use your hands and feet on the ball as well as your stick (called a hurley). It's a very fast sport to watch and the Irish croud really gets behind their teams, the atmosphere in the stadium was awesome!)

Cork beat Waterford by one point in the last minute of the main game. I was going for Cork because they wear red and white (go the dragons!). Anyway, I'm out of time so I've got to go.

Pete

* Irelands Taoiseach**

** Irelands equivalent of prime minister, pronounced tao-seck

When it rains it pours

2006-07-29T21:59:00.000+10:00

After a week of fruitless searching, interviews with agencies and viewing houses I was beginning to lose faith in the world, and in particular Dublin.

Yesterday morning I got a phone call saying that I had a job, and the world looked just that little bit brighter.

Then, yesterday evening I got another phone call saying that I had a room to stay in, and the world looked positively rosy.

This was in direct contrast to the weather in Dublin which had been nothing but sun, sun and more sun up until yesterday when it started to bucket down.

So anyway, I am moving house on Monday. I'll be sharing a room with another person, which isn't ideal - I would have preferred a room to myself. But I'm sharing a room with 11 people at the moment so I'm sure having only one will be a pleasure compared to the last two weeks. On Tuesday I will start my new job.

My job search is over...

2006-07-28T19:19:00.000+10:00

I just got a job!! Working for Standard Life, which is some sort of insurance company. I'm not sure what I'll be doing but probably just data entry or something equally mundane. I start next Tuesday so I've got four more days of holiday.

Poor old me

2006-07-24T22:06:00.000+10:00

Here I am, sitting in an internet cafe in Dublin feeling sorry for myself.

I'm currently looking for a job and looking for a room and having absolutely no luck with either of them.

Consequently I'm LIVING in a hostel (which isn't fun, STAYING is but LIVING isn't) and spending my days searching for work and accomodation.

On the up side I joined the Leinster cricket club here. But even that is depressing me because, due to the fact that I haven't played for a few months, I'm in terrible form and can't bat to save my life at the moment. I've made 1* and 4 (although that 4 was a beautiful cover drive if I do say so myself).

That's about all I've got to say for myself at the moment. Hopefully soon I'll be able to say that I've found a job or a house, or even better a job and a house.

Bye for now,

Pete

Pamplona

2006-07-11T08:07:00.000+10:00

Pamplona was insane.

That could almost be my entire post on the issue but I'll go into more detail.

The trip left from London and our first stop was at Arromanches beach in Normandy, France. This is one of the beaches where the allied Forces landed during the D-day landings of World War 2.

After the troops landed and captured the beaches from the Germans they set about building an artificial harbour so that they could import supplies of food, ammunition, vehicles, weapons etc.

They sunk huge blocks of concrete in the water to create some protection for the new harbour and then they built four floating piers where the incoming ships could offload the supplies. They then drove the supplies along the piers onto the beaches.

This photo is of the remains of one of the piers. They were originally designed to last for six months but there are still a number of ruins of the outer wall (which you can just see in the background) and the piers along the beach.

Arromanches beach is also where the opening scenes of Saving Private Ryan were filmed.

We also visited the American War Memorial and Cemetery nearby. This is for all the American soldiers who died on the Normandy beaches. There are 9387 graves and it is a humbling experience to walk amongst them all. The cemetary is beautiful, the lawns are perfect and every grave is in line with the ones next to it.

The next day we drove down to the French town of Cognac, famous for its, you guessed it, cognac. We were supposed to go on a tour of the Hennessey Cognac distillery but our driver got lost and by the time we arrived in town the distillery was closed.

Instead we all pooled the money we had for the tour and spent it on ingredients to make some punch. And when I say some punch I mean about 100 L of the stuff. Good times!

After Cognac we stopped at Biarritz beach for a swim. It is supposed to be the surf capital of Europe or something like that. It was nice, but it really wasn't that good - I'd take Coogee over it anyday of the week. Although it did have these cool little tents along the sand.

After our swim we drove to San Sebastian in Spain. We all went into town and split up into little groups for dinner. My group tried to have tapas at a Spanish bar but we must have been served by least tolerant waiter in Spain so it didn't end up being that good.

After dinner our entire trip met up to go out in town. This was the night that Germany were playing the Italians in the soccer semi final. The Spanish word for Germany is 'Alemania' which I thought was pretty appropriate! This was the night where I had my first (of many) sangrias. I'm still not entirely sure what sangria is made out of but from what I can gather it's basically a mixed drink (e.g. vodka and orange or bourbon and coke) where you mix some sort of spirit with red wine. You can also throw in some chunks of fruit if you really want to be upmarket.

The next day, after a bit of a sleep in - thank god, we drove to Pamplona itself. On the first afternoon there we went into town and on a walking tour of the path on which the running of the bulls actually takes place. The path is about 850 metres long and goes straight through the main streets of the town. It is pretty straight except for dead mans corner where the bulls are pretty much guarenteed to be running too fast to turn in time and so they almost alwasy crash into the wall. If you get caught between the wall and the 500 odd kg bull you're pretty much a dead man, hence the name.

The next day was the opening ceremony off the festival. Everyone, tourists and locals alike dresses in the traditional clothes of a white shirt and pants with a red sash round the waist and a red scarf tied around their wrist. At mid day a priest comes onto the balcony of the town hall and everyone takes the scarves off their wrists, holds them in the air and chants "San Fermin, San Fermin..." before tying the scarves around their necks. San Fermin is the guy who the festival is in honour of.

The next few hours are basically one massive food fight. You just walk around with either sangria, champagne, flour, sugar, shaving cream or any combination of them spraying it all over everyone else. I don't know how traditional this aspect of it is but the locals get into it just as much as the tourists and it is a heap of fun.

I spent all the money I'd brought into town on shaving cream. I had to borrow money to buy lunch and even then I spent most of that on a few more bottles of shaving cream.

After that everyone is pretty tired and most people spent the rest of the afternoon lazing around in the main square chatting, drinking sangria or sleeping off the effects of too much sangria.

I didn't drink anything once I got back to camp because the next day was when I was going to run with the bulls and I wanted to be absolutely alert as possible. Given that I don't have the best reflexes in the world to begin with I didn't want them dulled even further.

The next day we got ridiculously early (5:15 am - you don't go on holidays to get up at times like that) to catch a bus into town and claim our spot on the path. We'd been told yesterday where the best places to start from were so a couple of us got there and stood and waited for an hour or so until the fun began.

Before the running starts the police clear out heaps of the crowd so that there is more room remaining for the people who actually run. They also kick out anyone who looks pissed or any females, as it's traditional that they don't run. After all, running is all about proving your manhood.

After that you can move into the newly cleared space and you just wait for it to start. At 8:00 am a rocket is fired to indicate that the first lot of bulls have been released from the starting pen. That's when everyone starts to jog along, not very quickly at first but getting quicker.

I heard the bulls before I saw them. You can easily hear their hooves on the pavements of the streets. Once this happens everyone starts sprinting and most people move over to the sides of the streets to let the bulls pass. Some crazy fuckers try and run directly in front of the bulls and jump out of the way at the very last minute. This is nuts because the grounds wet and slippery - the next day I saw a couple of people get trampled over doing this.

As the bulls ran past me they were within 1 or 2 metres of me and my heart was absolutely racing. Once they were past and the danger gone (at least for the moment) I relaxed a bit and felt the adrenilin flowing through my body which was an awesome feeling.

It was about this time that the second rocket was fired and the second lot of bulls released. I managed to run into the arena at the end of the course long before this lot got anywhere near me so I saw them running through the arena into the holding pen at the other end.

After both lots of bulls have finished the run the gates to the arena are closed and everyone cheers the people who have done the run. Then after a few minutes some of the bulls are let back into the arena to run around with the crowd. This was the point where I thought that I'd done enough so I legged it over the fence and took up a seat in the front row along with a heap of others who'd had the same idea.

For about half an hour the bulls are released into the crowd one or two at a time and run around trying to get people with their horns. The people are supposed to try and move out of the bulls way by distracting their attention and confusing them. They're not supposed to touch the bulls under any circumstances. Unfortunately a lot of tourists do touch the bulls. One idiot even tried to tackle them (he got taken away by the Spanish police at the end and given a bit of a beating apparantly). The locals in the crowd boo when people touch them and the locals who are left in the ring get pissed off and explain to the tourists that they're not supposed to touch them.

That afternoon we had a sangria party back at the campsite before heading in to town later in the evening to watch a bullfight. I saw one but it really wasn't fun at all. In fact it was pretty sad. The bull ended up with about seven knives, each about 40 cm long, in his back. He kept trying to get the matadors right until the very end, by which stage there were four or five of them in the ring. I was really surprised at how suddenly the bull just fell over and died and everyone in the crowd started cheering. I didn't like it so I left after the first one.

In the evening there was a fireworks display. It was really good, there were a few firework companies and they each try to out do the others so the displays are excellent and the whole show goes on for quite a while.

The next day we had another early start. The festival lasts for about a week and each day apart from the opening ceremony they have bull runs in the mornings and fights in the afternoons. On the second day we had bought tickets to watch the run from a balcony about three floors up directly overlooking the street. This was an awesome view of the event.

You can see in the photo how most people have moved to the sides but there are a few crazy ones in the middle waiting for the bulls.

The white bulls are relatively safe, they run the course each year for up to 10 years. Their job is to guide the brown bulls which are ones who are going to be killed in the fights that afternoon. Problems arise when the brown bulls fall over and get separated from the white ones. Instead of running in a straight line they will then try to chase anyone who gets in their field of vision.

After the two lots of bulls had run past our balcony we went inside and watched replays on the tv.

After that we went back to camp, packed up and then had a 24 hour bus ride to get back to london.

All in all, Pamplona (and the rest of the trip) was fantastic. I met some really cool people and now have a few more places to stay when I come back to London later on. The atmosphere of the festival is amazing. There is just such a positive buzz in the air. The whole time apart from the bull fight was really cool and even that was good to see even though I didn't like it. I'd definitely recommend going there to anyone who has the chance.

See you later, Pete

Ireland & Pamplona photos

2006-07-10T22:12:00.000+10:00

Hi, I've added a heap more photos to the Ireland section from the second half of my travels around there.

I've also put in some photos from my trip down to Pamplona for the running of the bulls festival which I've just gotten back from. I'll write about what I actually did there a bit later on.

Stay tuned, Pete.

Ireland Part 2

2006-06-29T05:15:00.000+10:00

Hello, I'll continue on from where I left off last time...in Galway. I met up with people from Inishmore for the first three nights that I was in Galway and we went out, drank beer and watched soccer (although now that's a dirty word). There isn't much to do during the day time in Galway. I did go on a bus trip out to the Burren, which is area with nice views and scenery, and the Cliffs of Moher, which again were pretty nice to look at.

From Galway I caught the bus down to Killarney which is the starting point for the Ring of Kerry which is supposed to be one of the most photographed regions in Ireland. I wouldn't know because the day I went around the Ring of Kerry the weather was miserable and we couldn't see far enough to see anything particularly interesting. It was a bit dissapointing, and to make things worse the bus I was on was full of OAPs (old age people) who took so long to get on and off the bus that it was ridiculous. They could turn a 5 minute photo stop into a 30 minute one!! By the end of the day I had negative patience towards them and was glad when we finally finished.

From Killarney I went across to Cork where I spent a couple of nights. Cork is a much smaller city than Dublin (in terms of population) but it is much more spread out so I had to walk heaps further than I am used to. After 2 months of travelling, eating junk food and drinking heaps of beer I wasn't mad keen on walking so it was a bit of an effort.

While I was in Cork I went out to Blarney to see Blarney Castle and kiss the Blarney stone. It's just another block of stone in the wall of the castle, but to kiss it you have to lie on your back and lean out over the edge of the wall to reach it. Blarney Castle is a really cool castle, I guess becasue it's such a popular attraction they keep it in good shape not like some of the other castle's around which are just in ruins. If I had a castle I'd never let it go to ruins, but I guess that's just me.

After Killarney I went to Kilkenny. Many years ago Kilkenny used to be the capital of Ireland before Dublin, and I don't think the city has changed since. It was really nice and relaxing. I went on a walking tour around the city to see some of the more impressive buildings. We went into the gaol cells (which haven't been used for 200 years) under the court house (in which there was a trial going on). The gaol, along with many of the buildings, is made out of Kilkenny marble which has a lot of limestone in it. Because the gaol has been empty for so long the limestone has dripped out of the marble (I'm sure there's a more technical explanation for it - but that's as good as it gets from me) and formed stalictites and stalicmites inside some of the cells.

While I was here I went and saw 'The wind that shakes the Barley'. It's set in Ireland in 1920 and is about the IRA fighting to make Ireland independant from Great Britain. It's a really good movie and I'd recommend it if you've got a chance to go see it. But be warned - it's pretty sad at the end.

From Kilkenny I went to Waterford, where I am now. Waterford was originally settled by Vikings and I went on a walking tour to see how they settled the city orgininally. One of the guard towers, Reginalds Tower, they built (but was since rebuilt by the Normans) still stands in the city today. There is a canon ball stuck in the walls that was shot by Oliver Cromwells troops during the reformation of the church (sometime during the 1600s). You can still see it sitting in a little hole on the side of the tower today.

P.S. Thanks to my mum for pointing out that prodestant is spelt incorrectly and should be protestant.

P.P.S. Thanks to everyone else who noticed this but didn't bother to point it out to me ;P

More pics

2006-06-18T00:08:00.000+10:00

I've put some pics of my time in Ireland up. Go to the 'my photos' link on the right to view them.

Ireland Part 1

2006-06-16T00:07:00.000+10:00

Hi, I've been travelling around Ireland and Northern Ireland for the last two weeks. It's been really good, at first I wasn't sure how it would be travelling alone, but I've had no problems. There are always plenty of people to talk to (and drink with) at the hostels.

I started in Dublin and stayed there for five or so days. I went to the Guiness Brewery and went on a tour around it. At the end of the tour you got a pint of guiness. I regret to say that at that I really didn't like it and could only manage to drink about a third of my pint before leaving with my tail between my legs.

While I was in Dublin I went on a day trip called the 'Celtic Experience'. It was just north west of Dublin and we went to see a number of different Celtic sites. We went to the Hill of Tara which is where the Pagan Kings of Ireland used to rule from. We also saw the Hill of Slane, which is where St Patrick introduced Christianity to Ireland. We saw the Boyne river, which was where the Catholic armies of King James were defeated by the Prodestant armies of King William of Orange which led to Ireland becoming part of Great Britain and has caused a lot of touble in the country ever since. We also went to the ruins of a monastery, I can't remember the name, where they had a couple of spectacular Celtic crosses. I've got some good photos, so I'll try to post them soon.

From Dublin I caught the bus north to Belfast, the capital of Northern Ireland. While I was in Belfast I took what's called a black cab tour around the city. It takes you into the Shankill Rd (Prodestant) and Falls Rd (Catholic) areas of the city to show you the different murals that each community has painted. The drivers are all locals and they give you an overview of the history of the struggle of control of Northern Ireland. It's pretty shocking to hear about the violence and guerilla warfare that was a part of life daily life for these people. Especially considering that it was so recent (I think the cease fire between the two sides was only signed in 1994 or 98).

From Belfast I also took a day trip up to the Giants Causeway. This isn't on the map but it would be right at the top, just west of Rathlin Island. There are described as the 8th Wonder of the world, and they are pretty cool. Although, not being an expert of world wonders I am unable to confirm whether or not they actually rank 8th. The Giants Causeway is a whole lot of hexagonal shaped columns of rock all jammed in next to each other. That's the best explanation I can give - I will put up some photos later so you can see what I mean.

From Belfast I went to Derry, again not on the map but would be pretty close to Lifford, but on the NI side of the border. Derry is where the Bloody Sunday massacre took place in the early 1970s. U2 have written a song about it. There is a museum dedicated to the victims of Bloody Sunday and it has a short documentary which describes the build up to the day. Similar to Belfast there are also a lot of murals painted around the city. Derry was a fascinating place and I really liked it there, I also had a great night at the hostel there drinking beer and talking to some Canadians and an Irish bloke.

From Derry I went back to Ireland proper to a place called Donegal (which is on the map) not too far from Derry. The hostel in town was full so I had to stay in a B&B, which made a nice (though expensive) change. The best thing about Donegal is that it is where I learnt to like Guiness. I went out one night to a pub to watch some of the world cup (by the way how good was the Australia v Japan game!) and decided I better have another go at guiness, and for some reason, I don't know if it was poured differently or something, it tasted really good. I haven't drunk anything else since then (although that's not a huge acheivement considering it was only a week ago).

From Donegal I basically walked straight west, along the little peninsula there. This area is called the Slieve League Peninsula. I spent one day walking the 20 or so kms from one end to the other. The scenary was pretty spectacular, although it got a bit boring cause all I had for company was the occasional sheep, and seeing that I'm not a Kiwi this wasn't a whole lot of comfort.

I slept well that night and then walked another 10 or so kms back to a place called Glencolmcille the next day and caught a bus back to Donegal.

Next I caught a bus down to Galway and then a ferry across to the Aran Islands. You can see them right next to the compass on the map. I've spent the last few days out there, relaxing on the biggest of the three Island, Inishmore. I had one massive day there (riding a bike all over the Island for nine hours, then going out drinking) and spent the next two days recovering from it. After the pub shut a group of about ten of us ended up going back to one of the locals houses to keep drinking. It was a this little 200 year old cottage with a thatched roof. It turns out that you can buy postcards all around Ireland which have a photo of this cottage. I bought some of them the next day and then went back to his house and took some photos which will look just like the postcard.

This morning I caught the ferry and the bus back to Galway and am staying here for a few days now. Galway is supposed to have a really good atmosphere and I'm meeting up with some of the people I met on Inishmore tonight to go out for some drinks.

Mobile Phone

2006-06-03T02:23:00.000+10:00

I got a mobile the other day, so if you ever feel the need to message me my number is +353 85 7676404 (at least I think that's how you'd have to write it into Aussie phones) but please remember the time difference! I'm 9 hours behind you guys.

I also got a skype account, my name is peterharris136, if anyone uses that you can add me to your contact list.

Photos

2006-05-28T23:38:00.000+10:00

I've just spent the last 3 hours uploading a heap of photos for your viewing pleasure, not a cheap task when you're doing it in pounds so I hope you all take a good long look at them :)

If you click on the 'my photos' link in the links section on the right hand side of this page it will open a new window in which you can take a look at me (and also various sites around Europe, but mostly me!)

On another note, I had the best sleep I've had in the last 3 weeks last night - 10 hours in a bed without a sleeping bag, HOORAY!

Ciao

Update

2006-05-28T04:48:00.000+10:00

Hello,

I'm back from my big trip around Europe. It was an absolute blast, I don't think I've ever drunk so much and had so little sleep in my entire life.

This is a picture that got taken at the Heineken Brewery in Amsterdam on our last night in Europe. Obivously this is a 'before' shot, if there was an 'after' photo I wouldn't have looked in such good shape!

My favourite places on the trip were Rome, Prague & Amsterdam.

I'll write more about what I did later on - I'm too tired to go into much detail at the moment.

I'm currently killing time in London for a couple of days before I head off to Ireland. My plan is to spend a month doing a lap around the country, going to the tourist spots and checking out some of the major cities to see which one I like the most to live in later on.

After that I am planning on going to the running of the bulls festival in spain in early July and then I will head back to Ireland and look for some work.

I've got a lot of good photos from my trip and I will try to upload some of them to show to you tomorrow if I can get my ipod to work on the computers here.

Take care, talk to you later,

Pete

P.S. Hooray for NSW winning State of Origin 1!!!!!

Rome

2006-05-14T01:31:00.000+10:00

Hi,

in Rome at the moment. It is a fantastic city, I spent the afternoon at the Coloseum and the morning in the Sistine Chapel and St Peters Basilica.

I won 100 euros at the casino in monaco a few nights ago!!

Moving onto Venice tomorrow. I am having a great time on the tour so far.

Talk to you later,

Pete

Skinny dipping in the mediteranean

2006-05-10T23:25:00.000+10:00

Hello,

hope you are all doing fine. Im having a great time over here. Im on my topdeck tour now and were in Nice in France. There isnt a whole lot to do here so I went for a swim in the mediteranean and thought i may aswell go skinny dipping while i was in!

The keyboard here is all different so Im really struggling writing this email - but Ill soldier on. There are 30 people in the tour group and weve been to Paris, Lyon & Nice so far. Tonight we go to Monaco where Im planning on winning enough money to pay for my entire holiday, but will be happy if I come out with no less than what I went in with! Then on to Italy tomorrow.

Happy Mothers day to you mum (for soon), I wont be calling you cause I dont know how to use the phones here.

Thanks to everyone whos sent me emails - I will reply later once Im not on this tour anymore.

Anyhow, gotta run now, talk to you all later.

Pete

Singapore so far

2006-04-22T20:25:00.000+10:00

I arrived safe and sound in Singapore a few days ago, and have been busily sight seeing since then.

My first morning in Singapore I went for a walk around the MacRitchie reservoir, it's a working reservoir (hello Sydney Water people!) in Singapore's water supply and yet you can walk right around the waters edge and you can even kayak on the water. The walk I went on was 11 km and took about 4 hours to do, the reservoir is basically surrounded by the sort of rain forest/jungles that used to cover the entire Island of Singapore and as such there is a lot of wildlife in the area. The best part of the walk was the monkeys which lived in the forest. You could walk right up to within a metre or two from them and just look at what they are doing. Some of the baby ones were so cute, I took plenty of photos of them so when I have a chance I will put some on the web.

I've spent today wondering around the city area of Singapore looking at some of the normal tourist attractions. Most of them just want you to buy crappy souvenirs which sucks cause a) I'm trying to not spend too much money and b) there are weight limits on the planes so I couldn't really buy anything even if I wanted to.

One interesting place I went to today was the Chinese Heritage Museum in the Chinatown area of Singapore. It was about the experiences the Chinese immigrants faced when they left China for Singapore. The museum was in an old house/shop in Chinatown and half of it had been restored to its original condition, as the immigrants would have had to live in. It was very very dirty and very very cramped, with whole families living in rooms smaller than your typical bedroom - it made me appreciate my room at this hostel a bit more (not that it's anything luxurious!)

I'm pretty ready to leave Singapore now, I've seen all I really want to, but I've still got one more day here so I'm going to try and go out tonight, sleep in tomorrow and do some washing in the afternoon to kill the day.

Haven't been homesick or missed anyone yet (but it's only been a few days), can't wait to get over to Europe and start exploring over there soon.

Talk to you later,

Pete

Farewell Drinks

2006-04-01T11:03:00.000+11:00

I'm having some farewell drinks before I leave

@ the paddington inn
from 6:30 on saturday the 8th april, i've booked the 'red room' at the back of the pub

come and help me celebrate the start of my overseas travels or come and celebrate seeing the back of me for a while (whatever floats your boat)

a big thank you to elissa and kirsten who can't make the drinks next week but took me out to dinner last night!

p.s. 18 sleeps til i leave

Can you see me?

2006-02-27T14:53:00.000+11:00

This post is to test whether or not pictures work.

This is me on a harbour cruise for my cricket club.

I'm also testing url's by putting in a link to the sydney morning herald www.smh.com.au or click here, and this one should open it in a new window.

The long awaited second post...

2006-02-27T08:42:00.000+11:00

Just checking that this site still works as I'm almost more ready to actually start thinking about starting to get ready to go overseas.

My First Post

2005-10-14T07:29:00.000+10:00

Hi, this is my first post.

As only I know about this site at the moment I do not expect anyone to ever see this