Jez and I woke up later than the 4 other people in our hostel room. This was basically due to the fact that we were also the last ones to go to bed the night before. By the time we rose from our slumber, the Finnish girls in our room had already gone for a run, showered and were ready to attack the day.
We received a nice little compliment when one of the Finnish girls remarked how quiet we were coming in last night. She was a light sleeper, was not wearing ear plugs and didn’t wake up when we barged in at 3am in the morning. Jez and I must be quite good at it by now. This is even more of an achievement as (I’m told) my snoring is significantly worse when I’m drunk. It appears that miracles do happen.
For the day we had to get Jez’s camera fixed. Even though he got a top of the line Olympus, it turns out that’s its not water and/or shock proof. He can still take photos, but the screen is completely blank. He therefore cannot see the photo he is taking, nor whether it got my best side or not (something of great concern to me).
With one broken camera in hand, we trekked to the outskirts of Vienna. It honestly was a dead ringer for some of the commercial suburbs in Sydney. If I didn’t know it, I could have sworn we were in North Ryde.
We arrived at the address given on the warranty, which turned out to be Olympus’ Austrian headquarters. Unfortunately, they couldn’t help us out but they directed us to a Mega Markt just across the street. The Mega Markt people at least knew what they were talking about; but, they told us they would have to send it to the Olympus store, which we had just been to, and it would take a few days. In short, we weren’t going to get the camera fixed in Austria.
In order to cheer ourselves up, we decided to head to the Sigmund Freud Museum to see were the father of psychoanalysis did his work. It took a while to get there, and once we did we realised we had made a huge mistake. The Sigmund Freud Museum was under construction. Instead of books and lounges, we found hammers and scaffolding.
We grabbed some really nice Indian from a place recommended in one of the guide books. Whilst we were doing it, something strange started to happen. It started raining. I cant remember the last time it rained when we were out and about. We had planned just to cruise around the city for a while but then decided to head back to the hostel and just chill.
That night we stayed in the hostel bar and ended up playing some more cards with the Dutch girls we met the night before.
Peace out,
Monty
Friday, August 14, 2009
August 12 - Ljubljana to Vienna
The Mont and I made an early start - springing out of bed shortly after 7 so as to grab some brekkie at the hostel and then get to the train station on time for our 8:05 train to Vienna. The train trip itself was very uneventful with both of us taking the chance to completely switch off and watch some movies on our computers.
Some 6 hours later, we arrived in Vienna and had little trouble jumping on the metro and finding our way to the hostel. This represented a significant break from the norm in that normally we arrive in cities with no idea where the hostel we are staying in is, let alone how to get there. Our first task once we had checked in was to jump online and find out whereabouts the Olympus store was so that I could go and get my supposed unbreakable, by quite clearly broken, camera fixed. So we looked it up on google, grabbed all the necessary paperwork and headed off to find it. It was only once we got moving that I realised that I actually had the wrong pieces of paper and that going to the store would be a waste of time.
Accordingly, we abondoned the plan of going to the Olympus store and instead headed into downtown Vienna to have a wander around. To be honest, there wasn't a great deal to see. There were plenty of grand old buildings but after having spent the past 2 months surrounded by grand olf buildings we weren't exactly awestruck. What we were significantly more excited about was the prospect of schnitzel, so we decided to head for an early dinner at a restaurant recommended by the hostel and we were not disappointed with two oif the world's biggest plates being placed in front of us, absolutely piled with chips and schnitzel. Working our way through these monsters was no small feat of gastronomical endurance but we managed to do so with the help of a couple of steins of delicious Austrian beer.
Our hungers well and truly sated, we headed back to the hostel to have a couple more beers, play some cards and see where the night would take us. Before long we had met a huge number of people at the hostel and were playing uno with a bunch of Dutch girls and Turckish guys (one of whom bizarrely told me that I look like Christiano Ronaldo). Despite our plans to head out into town, we were having too much fun a the hostel so wound up not going anywhere but still had a ripper of a night.
Still Blazin'
Jez
Some 6 hours later, we arrived in Vienna and had little trouble jumping on the metro and finding our way to the hostel. This represented a significant break from the norm in that normally we arrive in cities with no idea where the hostel we are staying in is, let alone how to get there. Our first task once we had checked in was to jump online and find out whereabouts the Olympus store was so that I could go and get my supposed unbreakable, by quite clearly broken, camera fixed. So we looked it up on google, grabbed all the necessary paperwork and headed off to find it. It was only once we got moving that I realised that I actually had the wrong pieces of paper and that going to the store would be a waste of time.
Accordingly, we abondoned the plan of going to the Olympus store and instead headed into downtown Vienna to have a wander around. To be honest, there wasn't a great deal to see. There were plenty of grand old buildings but after having spent the past 2 months surrounded by grand olf buildings we weren't exactly awestruck. What we were significantly more excited about was the prospect of schnitzel, so we decided to head for an early dinner at a restaurant recommended by the hostel and we were not disappointed with two oif the world's biggest plates being placed in front of us, absolutely piled with chips and schnitzel. Working our way through these monsters was no small feat of gastronomical endurance but we managed to do so with the help of a couple of steins of delicious Austrian beer.
Our hungers well and truly sated, we headed back to the hostel to have a couple more beers, play some cards and see where the night would take us. Before long we had met a huge number of people at the hostel and were playing uno with a bunch of Dutch girls and Turckish guys (one of whom bizarrely told me that I look like Christiano Ronaldo). Despite our plans to head out into town, we were having too much fun a the hostel so wound up not going anywhere but still had a ripper of a night.
Still Blazin'
Jez
August 11 - Bovec to Ljubljana
Jez and I woke up feeling fresh this morning from the clean mountain air of Bovec. To further add to our freshness, we had a very respectable breakfast of fruit and bread; not a delicacy we tend to indulge in often.
The whole purpose of our trip to Bovec was to try our hand at some white water rafting. Both our travelling books mentioned that if you are going to do white water rafting anywhere in Europe, Bovec is the place to do it. The water here is nothing like you will find anywhere else in the world. It is extremely clear and a picturesque turquoise colour.
Jez and I had booked the rafting the day before, so at 10am we headed off to get our raft on. The rafting was awesome, with Jez and I in a mini raft with just the 2 of us and an instructor. The water was a crisp 11 degrees and the instructor, noticing our powerful rafting strokes, took us on all the better lines (a line is a channel of water that flows down the river) so we got the most out of our experience. There were some rapids in which we went down sideways. In order to keep the raft afloat, we actually had to lean into the rapid rather than away. Still, we performed this maneuver with aplomb and to our credit did not flip over once.
The best rapid of the day was the last one. We went down sideways and then proceeded to ‘surf’ the rapid. Surfing occurs when you hit the bottom of the rapid and don’t move on account of the water going every which way and hence not pushing you forward. Real talk. Its pretty cool because you get stuck at the bottom for a few seconds whilst all the water pours down around you.
After our white water rafting adventure, we caught the bus back which was as uneventful as a snail climbing up a wall. Not a snail that is high on drugs mind you, but just an ordinary snail.
We got back to Ljubljana and chilled out for a while. For dinner that night we walked around the river area of Ljubljana where all the restaurants are congregated and had pizzas for dinner. There were 3 sizes of pizzas to choose from: Small, classic and family. Jez and I chose a classic each. We were given enough pizza that we could have used them as rafts during the white water rafting we had done earlier in the day. Despite the challenge that our Italian food provided, we quickly demolished them. Jez even had room left over for an ice cream.
We went to one of the bars for a beer, but as nothing was really happening we decided to call it a day and went to bed.
Word,
Monty
The whole purpose of our trip to Bovec was to try our hand at some white water rafting. Both our travelling books mentioned that if you are going to do white water rafting anywhere in Europe, Bovec is the place to do it. The water here is nothing like you will find anywhere else in the world. It is extremely clear and a picturesque turquoise colour.
Jez and I had booked the rafting the day before, so at 10am we headed off to get our raft on. The rafting was awesome, with Jez and I in a mini raft with just the 2 of us and an instructor. The water was a crisp 11 degrees and the instructor, noticing our powerful rafting strokes, took us on all the better lines (a line is a channel of water that flows down the river) so we got the most out of our experience. There were some rapids in which we went down sideways. In order to keep the raft afloat, we actually had to lean into the rapid rather than away. Still, we performed this maneuver with aplomb and to our credit did not flip over once.
The best rapid of the day was the last one. We went down sideways and then proceeded to ‘surf’ the rapid. Surfing occurs when you hit the bottom of the rapid and don’t move on account of the water going every which way and hence not pushing you forward. Real talk. Its pretty cool because you get stuck at the bottom for a few seconds whilst all the water pours down around you.
After our white water rafting adventure, we caught the bus back which was as uneventful as a snail climbing up a wall. Not a snail that is high on drugs mind you, but just an ordinary snail.
We got back to Ljubljana and chilled out for a while. For dinner that night we walked around the river area of Ljubljana where all the restaurants are congregated and had pizzas for dinner. There were 3 sizes of pizzas to choose from: Small, classic and family. Jez and I chose a classic each. We were given enough pizza that we could have used them as rafts during the white water rafting we had done earlier in the day. Despite the challenge that our Italian food provided, we quickly demolished them. Jez even had room left over for an ice cream.
We went to one of the bars for a beer, but as nothing was really happening we decided to call it a day and went to bed.
Word,
Monty
August 10 - Ljubljana to Bovec
In all it was a pretty uneventful day. After waking at about 9, well in time to make the most of the free hostel breakfast, we quickly made our way down to enquire about white water rafting the next day. We had originally thought that we may be able to organise a day trip from Ljuljana but it quickly became apparent that it would be significantly more cost-effective to get up into the mountains and then book with one of the companies up there.
Accordingly, before long we were at the bus station and boarding a bus for Bovec, a small town set between two mountains and adjacent to the Soca River. We had heard great things about the Soca, both for the white-water opportunities and for the river itself which is renowned for being a unique emerald colour.So, after we had arrived, booked our rafting trip for the following day and been shown to our spacious digs for the night, we did our bodies a favour and went running - hoping to get a look at the river. Unfortunately, a wrong turn and the failure of his bike shorts to contain his rippling thighs meant that Monty did not quite make it, but I went and had a look and if possible it made me more even more excited. It scarcely needs to be said that excitement levels were at all time highs.
Once we made it back into town and stopped sweating bullets, Mont and I wandered into town, grabbed some supplies and cooked up a gourmet feast of chilli and rice, all topped off with fresh melon and orange juice. It was very good and very cheap, both of which suited us down to the ground. After a quick stopover at the local internet cafe, which ended up costing us a lot more than we thought, we headed to bed relatively early and I had plenty of time to listen to Monty's nightly nasal symphony as I attempted (largely in vain) to get some shut-eye.
Psyched for rafting!
Jez
Accordingly, before long we were at the bus station and boarding a bus for Bovec, a small town set between two mountains and adjacent to the Soca River. We had heard great things about the Soca, both for the white-water opportunities and for the river itself which is renowned for being a unique emerald colour.So, after we had arrived, booked our rafting trip for the following day and been shown to our spacious digs for the night, we did our bodies a favour and went running - hoping to get a look at the river. Unfortunately, a wrong turn and the failure of his bike shorts to contain his rippling thighs meant that Monty did not quite make it, but I went and had a look and if possible it made me more even more excited. It scarcely needs to be said that excitement levels were at all time highs.
Once we made it back into town and stopped sweating bullets, Mont and I wandered into town, grabbed some supplies and cooked up a gourmet feast of chilli and rice, all topped off with fresh melon and orange juice. It was very good and very cheap, both of which suited us down to the ground. After a quick stopover at the local internet cafe, which ended up costing us a lot more than we thought, we headed to bed relatively early and I had plenty of time to listen to Monty's nightly nasal symphony as I attempted (largely in vain) to get some shut-eye.
Psyched for rafting!
Jez
Monday, August 10, 2009
August 9 - Hvar to Ljubljana
Today was planned to be a day of travelling. Jez and I woke up earlier than normal as we had to race down to the bus station. We quickly hopped on the bus to Stari Grad, on the other side of Hvar (Hvar is both a town and the name of the entire island). From there we took a 2 hour ferry to Split and hopped on the next train to Zagreeb, the capital of Croatia.
This trip was a touch more stressful than normal due to a few recent crashes on the same line. Apparently, Croatia had experienced some intense bush fires in the past few weeks. As a result, the government had put down a special substance on the tracks to help them recover or something. Anyway, this substance caused not one but two crashes.
It takes more than steel to scare Jez or myself and our bravado was rewarded when we reached Zagreb in one piece. We had planned on spending the night here before trekking it up to Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia the next day. However, a train to Ljubljana arrived half an hour after we got to Zagreb so we decided to grab a quick corner store dinner and jump back on the train.
There were no reservations on this train, and by the time Jez and I had jumped on all the seats were taken. We took this in our stride and made camp in an area near the WC (aka toilet).
At this stage we met Jessie, an American girl about our age from West Virginia (the very same as referred to in the song, Take Me Home, Country Road). According to Jessie, this is the last song played each night in every pub in the state at closing time. Real Talk.
We got talking to Jessie for a few minutes, when we heard an enormous thunk. This turned out to be another carriage that they had attached to the train so everyone could get a seat.
Thankful, we made the dash for cash on the platform from our carriage to the new one before the train left without us. After about an hour into the journey, passport control police arrived (Yes, I know what your thinking. But its OK, I’m currently writing this blog from Slovenia)
The passport guy noticed I had a rejection stamp from Macedonia and asked what it was about. When I explained it was a rip in the page, he asked if Germany (another stamp) were OK with hit. When I assured him they were, he just laughed, mentioned something about silly Macedonian police (which I know for a fact they are), stamped it, and walked off.
That night we crashed in a hostel that is normally a 300-bed college which is turned into a hostel each European summer break. It definitely reminded us of our time at Drews.
End transmission,
Monty
This trip was a touch more stressful than normal due to a few recent crashes on the same line. Apparently, Croatia had experienced some intense bush fires in the past few weeks. As a result, the government had put down a special substance on the tracks to help them recover or something. Anyway, this substance caused not one but two crashes.
It takes more than steel to scare Jez or myself and our bravado was rewarded when we reached Zagreb in one piece. We had planned on spending the night here before trekking it up to Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia the next day. However, a train to Ljubljana arrived half an hour after we got to Zagreb so we decided to grab a quick corner store dinner and jump back on the train.
There were no reservations on this train, and by the time Jez and I had jumped on all the seats were taken. We took this in our stride and made camp in an area near the WC (aka toilet).
At this stage we met Jessie, an American girl about our age from West Virginia (the very same as referred to in the song, Take Me Home, Country Road). According to Jessie, this is the last song played each night in every pub in the state at closing time. Real Talk.
We got talking to Jessie for a few minutes, when we heard an enormous thunk. This turned out to be another carriage that they had attached to the train so everyone could get a seat.
Thankful, we made the dash for cash on the platform from our carriage to the new one before the train left without us. After about an hour into the journey, passport control police arrived (Yes, I know what your thinking. But its OK, I’m currently writing this blog from Slovenia)
The passport guy noticed I had a rejection stamp from Macedonia and asked what it was about. When I explained it was a rip in the page, he asked if Germany (another stamp) were OK with hit. When I assured him they were, he just laughed, mentioned something about silly Macedonian police (which I know for a fact they are), stamped it, and walked off.
That night we crashed in a hostel that is normally a 300-bed college which is turned into a hostel each European summer break. It definitely reminded us of our time at Drews.
End transmission,
Monty
August 8 - Hvar
I woke up feeling significantly worse than on previous days - no doubt feeling an accumulated hangover from the previous week's nocturnal activities. Having spent most of the past week lazing around the beach or cruising around on boats Monty and I decided that we needed to get our lives sorted out so headed into town to do our laundry. This may sounds somewhat mundane but given it had been a long long time since we had worn completely fresh clothes, we were both more than a little excited by the prospect. So, we headed off into town wearing just our shorts and thongs (so we could wash all our stuff), found the laundromat and then went our separate ways to kill the time until we could collect our gear. Whilst Monty caught up on some net time I went and had lunch with the others at a square in town and then for a quick swim at the beach before meeting Monty back at the laundromat at 4. Whilst his clothes were all full, I was told to come back in about 2 hours as my gear was not yet dry - another two shirtless hours for me... After walking to the bus station with a big group of the others who were heading off and saying another round of sad farewells, we headed into an internet cafe where we were able to check up on the cricket score (loving the resurgence of Mitchell Johnson!) and watch the rugby via live streaming. While the result of the game was obviously disappointing, it was good to be able to watch it and I think everyone felt that with our scrum dominance we won at least some sort of moral victory.
We then headed back to our place for a delicious dinner of spag bol ala Nolasco before wandering back into town for our last ngiht in Hvar. Whilst most of us were still feeling under the weather and opted for a relatively quiet night, it was still good fun with plenty of good convo and people watching opportunities. Accordingly, we were both tucked up in bed at a reasonable hour, with backpacks filled with clean clothes and ready to hit the road for a big travel day that was to follow.
Hope all is well back home
Jez
We then headed back to our place for a delicious dinner of spag bol ala Nolasco before wandering back into town for our last ngiht in Hvar. Whilst most of us were still feeling under the weather and opted for a relatively quiet night, it was still good fun with plenty of good convo and people watching opportunities. Accordingly, we were both tucked up in bed at a reasonable hour, with backpacks filled with clean clothes and ready to hit the road for a big travel day that was to follow.
Hope all is well back home
Jez
August 7 - Hvar
With the largeness of the previous night still in our heads and definitely in our bodies, Jez and I woke feeling better than expected. Jez especially; with the red bull and alcohol still coursing through his veins, he decided to go for a run, much to my amazement.
The group decided to hire a couple of boats and head out to explore some of the surrounding islands. The 2 people who had their boating licenses with them were Elly Chapman and Luke Chapman. So they sat down with the guy to book the boats. They were a very good team and became known as Chapman, Chapman and Associates, a very reputable firm.
We hopped on the boats and headed off to one of the secluded beaches that can only be accessed by boat or a 20 minute walk over rough terrain. It was awesome, with only a handful of people within cooee of us.
As there were 12 people, and the boats held exactly 6 people each, we hired 2 of them (if you don’t see how this works please consult your nearest calculator). One of the boats had moored right near the beach, whilst the other one had dropped anchor about 40 meters off the coast. Much to our detriment, the anchor had become wedged on the ocean floor, some 10 or more meters below the surface. This little incident set us back a good half an hour as some of the boys tried to dive down long enough to free the anchor before their eardrums decided to give out on them. Eventually, with some maneuvering of the boat, the little anchor was defeated.
As a victory celebration, the team headed off to another island which had some nice seafood restaurants on them. It was a great lunch. A little secluded island, a great view of the ocean, great company and great seafood.
After lunch we headed off to another island which was described by numerous people as the ‘Tree Top’ bar. Everyone pictured a massive pub/bar up in the trees. Unfortunately it wasn’t quite that, but it was still pretty cool with a good outdoor vibe and hammocks to have a kip on. Everyone just basically slept off the massive lunch.
That night went to the Hvar formula that we had developed: Dinner and drinks in one of the rooms, followed by Carpe Diem, followed by the Castle. Everyone had a great night. Special mention must go to SP who couldn’t get into his room as he didn’t have the key. He therefore fell asleep outside on some concrete stairs. A very good effort.
It honestly one of the best days so far.
Cheerio,
Monty
The group decided to hire a couple of boats and head out to explore some of the surrounding islands. The 2 people who had their boating licenses with them were Elly Chapman and Luke Chapman. So they sat down with the guy to book the boats. They were a very good team and became known as Chapman, Chapman and Associates, a very reputable firm.
We hopped on the boats and headed off to one of the secluded beaches that can only be accessed by boat or a 20 minute walk over rough terrain. It was awesome, with only a handful of people within cooee of us.
As there were 12 people, and the boats held exactly 6 people each, we hired 2 of them (if you don’t see how this works please consult your nearest calculator). One of the boats had moored right near the beach, whilst the other one had dropped anchor about 40 meters off the coast. Much to our detriment, the anchor had become wedged on the ocean floor, some 10 or more meters below the surface. This little incident set us back a good half an hour as some of the boys tried to dive down long enough to free the anchor before their eardrums decided to give out on them. Eventually, with some maneuvering of the boat, the little anchor was defeated.
As a victory celebration, the team headed off to another island which had some nice seafood restaurants on them. It was a great lunch. A little secluded island, a great view of the ocean, great company and great seafood.
After lunch we headed off to another island which was described by numerous people as the ‘Tree Top’ bar. Everyone pictured a massive pub/bar up in the trees. Unfortunately it wasn’t quite that, but it was still pretty cool with a good outdoor vibe and hammocks to have a kip on. Everyone just basically slept off the massive lunch.
That night went to the Hvar formula that we had developed: Dinner and drinks in one of the rooms, followed by Carpe Diem, followed by the Castle. Everyone had a great night. Special mention must go to SP who couldn’t get into his room as he didn’t have the key. He therefore fell asleep outside on some concrete stairs. A very good effort.
It honestly one of the best days so far.
Cheerio,
Monty
August 6 - Hvar
After another great night's sleep Monty and I woke up feeling as fresh as daisies and wasted little further time (by this stage it was pushing 11) in smuggling up, grabbing our lilos and heading to the beach. Unlike the previous day which had seen us go to the main city beach, this time we went to a slightly more secluded one and made the most of the extra space available in lazing around on our sunbeds, creating a veritable armada of lilos (that is correct...) and floating around getting some sun. We did this for the vast majority of the day, only really getting out of the water to eat some cheap pizzas and play some cards.
By late afternoon we had all had our fill of the beach so headed back to our respective accommodations to quickly change before heading to a bar on the rocks on the other side of town called Hula Hula to watch the sunset. Despite all of the drinks being fairly rank (reviews included nail polish remover, turpentine and anti-freeze), it was a really cool scene with us being able to sit on the rocks and watch the duel entertainments of the changing colours in the sky and the progressively drunker (and predominantly male) crowd grooving to the obligatory euro-trash beats. Once the sun had dipped below the horizon and we had taken enough photos to completely overwhelm facebook we headed into town to grab dinner.
Though we had been a little concerned that it would be out of our price range we managed to find a really good seafood restaurant where we feasted on the absolutely delicious grilled squid and knocked back some very passable locally bottled white wine. It was all very cultured. What followed was not exactly cultured but it certainly was one of the best night's we've had in Europe.
After a couple of beers at the pub down the road and then some mojitos while we waited for the girls to run home and beautify themselves, we met up at the docks and jumped (literally) onto water taxis and headed out to one of the smaller islands where one of the local nightclubs was throwing a full moon party.It was an amazing set-up for a party with a number of bars, a huge dancefloor around a swimming pool, a beach volleyball court and plenty of lounges and deckchairs on which to have a drink, a chat and even a cheeky spade. To say that we launched ourselves into the party would be something of an understatement with some outrageous rounds of drinks, some straw limbo, some swimming and some of the greatest moves that the dancefloor had ever see, including the bobsled and the helicopter. It says a lot about how much fun we were having that when they eventually stopped the music at about 4:15 am we all just started singing in unison and kept dancing. Given Monty's love of dancing, which has been mentioned repeatedly in the blog, I think it is fair to suggest that he had at least 3 times as much fun as everyone else.
Once we made it back to the island after another highly amusing water taxi we decided that we were not yet ready for bed so went for another swim before walking up the hill to our apartment where we eventually turned in at the highly respectable hour of 5:45. It had been a truly epic night and one that will live long in our memories.
Could very easily move to Hvar!
Jez
By late afternoon we had all had our fill of the beach so headed back to our respective accommodations to quickly change before heading to a bar on the rocks on the other side of town called Hula Hula to watch the sunset. Despite all of the drinks being fairly rank (reviews included nail polish remover, turpentine and anti-freeze), it was a really cool scene with us being able to sit on the rocks and watch the duel entertainments of the changing colours in the sky and the progressively drunker (and predominantly male) crowd grooving to the obligatory euro-trash beats. Once the sun had dipped below the horizon and we had taken enough photos to completely overwhelm facebook we headed into town to grab dinner.
Though we had been a little concerned that it would be out of our price range we managed to find a really good seafood restaurant where we feasted on the absolutely delicious grilled squid and knocked back some very passable locally bottled white wine. It was all very cultured. What followed was not exactly cultured but it certainly was one of the best night's we've had in Europe.
After a couple of beers at the pub down the road and then some mojitos while we waited for the girls to run home and beautify themselves, we met up at the docks and jumped (literally) onto water taxis and headed out to one of the smaller islands where one of the local nightclubs was throwing a full moon party.It was an amazing set-up for a party with a number of bars, a huge dancefloor around a swimming pool, a beach volleyball court and plenty of lounges and deckchairs on which to have a drink, a chat and even a cheeky spade. To say that we launched ourselves into the party would be something of an understatement with some outrageous rounds of drinks, some straw limbo, some swimming and some of the greatest moves that the dancefloor had ever see, including the bobsled and the helicopter. It says a lot about how much fun we were having that when they eventually stopped the music at about 4:15 am we all just started singing in unison and kept dancing. Given Monty's love of dancing, which has been mentioned repeatedly in the blog, I think it is fair to suggest that he had at least 3 times as much fun as everyone else.
Once we made it back to the island after another highly amusing water taxi we decided that we were not yet ready for bed so went for another swim before walking up the hill to our apartment where we eventually turned in at the highly respectable hour of 5:45. It had been a truly epic night and one that will live long in our memories.
Could very easily move to Hvar!
Jez
August 5 - Hvar
After the massiveness of the night before, Jez and I woke up late in the morning, with the sun almost at its highest point in the sky. We were craving some bacon and eggs for breakfast, as we had access to a kitchenette in our room. However, this was unable to happen on account of two factors. Firstly, we couldn’t find any bacon in the supermarket and secondly, we didn’t have any pots or pans to cook anything with. With this in mind, we had cheese and salami sandwiches for our breakfast/brunch/lunch.
By the time our Master Chef creation was demolished, the others were down at the beach. Jez and I joined them to bust out the budgies and soak up some sun. When we got down there we discovered we could buy a lie-low for 40 Kunas (About $10 AUD). So, about 10 of our crew purchased these fairly dodgy lie-lows and got amongst it. Jaz found it pleasant reading his book in his lie-low, until some little shit decided it would be funny to splash him, drenching Jaz and his book.
Apart from that incident the lie-lows were a roaring success. In the little enclosed beach, we floated to one side of the cliffs where a party at one of the clubs was just starting up. There was about 100 people dancing (99 of them blokes) and the music was pumping. We floated up on our ‘lows and did some dancing, much to the amusement of some of the people on land. We did that for a while and then decided to head back into the beach.
After our lie-low antics we were starting to get hungry. So Jez and I went back to our place, made ourselves beautiful (it didn’t take long) and headed over to one of the other places some people in our group were staying in. Tom Nolasco cooked up a storm. His spag bol definitely hit the spot.
After dinner, everyone got ready to head out. It was at this point that Sven appeared. One of the blokes (Sean Paul, or SP for short) decided/was forced to get his hair straightened. His look, coupled with his long sleeve white shirt done up to the top button, made him look very Swedish; hence the name Sven.
That night the crew went out to Carpe Diem. As with the previous night, it was packed and took ages to get a drink. Sven took care of some of us with drinks, ordering absinth shots with a gin & tonic chaser. A very good way to kick start the night.
After the usual drinking, dancing and debauchery occurred, everyone headed off to bed.
Blog to you later,
Monty
By the time our Master Chef creation was demolished, the others were down at the beach. Jez and I joined them to bust out the budgies and soak up some sun. When we got down there we discovered we could buy a lie-low for 40 Kunas (About $10 AUD). So, about 10 of our crew purchased these fairly dodgy lie-lows and got amongst it. Jaz found it pleasant reading his book in his lie-low, until some little shit decided it would be funny to splash him, drenching Jaz and his book.
Apart from that incident the lie-lows were a roaring success. In the little enclosed beach, we floated to one side of the cliffs where a party at one of the clubs was just starting up. There was about 100 people dancing (99 of them blokes) and the music was pumping. We floated up on our ‘lows and did some dancing, much to the amusement of some of the people on land. We did that for a while and then decided to head back into the beach.
After our lie-low antics we were starting to get hungry. So Jez and I went back to our place, made ourselves beautiful (it didn’t take long) and headed over to one of the other places some people in our group were staying in. Tom Nolasco cooked up a storm. His spag bol definitely hit the spot.
After dinner, everyone got ready to head out. It was at this point that Sven appeared. One of the blokes (Sean Paul, or SP for short) decided/was forced to get his hair straightened. His look, coupled with his long sleeve white shirt done up to the top button, made him look very Swedish; hence the name Sven.
That night the crew went out to Carpe Diem. As with the previous night, it was packed and took ages to get a drink. Sven took care of some of us with drinks, ordering absinth shots with a gin & tonic chaser. A very good way to kick start the night.
After the usual drinking, dancing and debauchery occurred, everyone headed off to bed.
Blog to you later,
Monty
August 4 - Somewhere in Bosnia to Hvar
It was another day that did not have a proper beginning given that I barely slept throughout the night, however nothing much happened for the first half of the day anyway so it doesn't much matter where we begin the day's events. Quite literally I spent the first at least 12 hours of the day trying to make myself as comfortable on the bus so that I could get some sleep. I had no other alternatives as every form of entertainment available to me - my computer, iPod, camera and phone were either broken or out of battery and I had recently finished my book. It was a boring, boring day. Thankfully, though we had originally intended to go to Dubrovnik to catch up with the others, we were able to change our plans and go to Split where the others would be by the time we got there. Thanks to some help from the lady behind us who could speak English, we were able to do this without too much drama and by about 4 pm and after 17 hours on the bus we were pulling into Split. We were not planning on staying long however and caught the first available ferry to Hvar, which is a small island off the Dalmation coast.
Once we got on the ferry we became a little concerned as we had made no plans whatsoever with regards to accommodation and the two hostels that we had contacted were both full. When we got off the boat however, we were able to negotiate a relatively cheap room for the two of us before having some way way overdue showers (seriously the amount of dirt that came off my legs was frightening) and changing into some (relatively but not really) clean clothes. From here we went and caught up with some of the others from our crew in Greece plus a number of other people from Sydney that they had met up with along the way and commenced the night's drinking. It ended up being a great night with a few drinks at their apartment as everyone traded traveling stories, followed by some cocktails at a bar down near by the harbour before moving on to Hvar's main nightclub which is in an old monastery overlooking the port. It barely needs to be said that Monty relished the opportunity to CS on the DF and great times were had by all as we rocked out to a variety of old favourites spliced with some full-blown eurotrash doof-doof. Eventually however, the night wound down and the Mont and I headed home at about 4:30, not having had a proper meal the whole day, but having more than made up for it by consuming more than our share of liquid carbs. We were both looking forward to hitting the hay as it was our first night in a proper bed after having spent the previous three nights sleeping on public transport.
Over and out
Jez
Once we got on the ferry we became a little concerned as we had made no plans whatsoever with regards to accommodation and the two hostels that we had contacted were both full. When we got off the boat however, we were able to negotiate a relatively cheap room for the two of us before having some way way overdue showers (seriously the amount of dirt that came off my legs was frightening) and changing into some (relatively but not really) clean clothes. From here we went and caught up with some of the others from our crew in Greece plus a number of other people from Sydney that they had met up with along the way and commenced the night's drinking. It ended up being a great night with a few drinks at their apartment as everyone traded traveling stories, followed by some cocktails at a bar down near by the harbour before moving on to Hvar's main nightclub which is in an old monastery overlooking the port. It barely needs to be said that Monty relished the opportunity to CS on the DF and great times were had by all as we rocked out to a variety of old favourites spliced with some full-blown eurotrash doof-doof. Eventually however, the night wound down and the Mont and I headed home at about 4:30, not having had a proper meal the whole day, but having more than made up for it by consuming more than our share of liquid carbs. We were both looking forward to hitting the hay as it was our first night in a proper bed after having spent the previous three nights sleeping on public transport.
Over and out
Jez
August 3 - Belgrade
After getting a great sleep in a 6-person cabin which only contained Jez and myself, we arrived in Belgrade. If we were here 15 years ago, odds are that we probably would have been shot during the hostilities. However, the only shots we would be getting here were at the bar (Thankyou, thankyou, I was up half the night thinking of that one).
We were really keen to get to Dubrovnik to meet up with some of the people we were in Greece with, so we hopped off to the bus station which conveniently was right next to the train station. We rocked up to the bus station and enquired about tickets. Unfortunately, we were going to have to take an overnight bus to Dubrovnik (luckily for me it didn’t go by Macedonia).
I went and got some cash out of the ATM for the bus tickets and received a call from an unknown number in Australia. It was NAB checking that my card hadn’t been nicked and that I was actually withdrawing money from Belgrade. Good to know to they are checking up on me and they are looking after my dosh.
As our bus left at around 11pm that night, we had the whole day to kill. So, we decided to have a bit of a wander around. One of the more interesting things we saw was a few blocks away from the train and bus stations. There was a 10 storey building that had been gutted, obviously from a bomb blast. All that was left was the concrete structures supporting the building. For some reason, it hadn’t been knocked down. Still, it was a vivid reminder of Belgrade’s recent past.
For the rest of the morning we just wandered around downtown Belgrade. One of the highlights was a ‘Life in Clay’ art exhibit that was on in the streets of Belgrade. It really was a slow morning….
After getting our clay fix, we headed off and had a look at the Kalemegdan Citadel which had some pretty good views of the city. We were walking around and saw a sign informing us that we risk our own lives by walking around here. Presumably they have just forgotten to take it down since the introduction of peace here.
For lunch we went to ? Café. ? Café was originally called the Cathedral Café due to its proximity to a cathedral. However, it was decided that this was too controversial so they were forced to change it. In the interim, the owners of the café called it ? Café. That was back in the 1850’s and it doesn’t look like changing anytime soon. Real Talk.
The service at ? Café was very, very questionable. The waiter really didn’t want to be there. We would catch his eye and signal him to come over, and he would just take off in the complete opposite direction. No tips were left.
We passed the time in the afternoon by grabbing a milkshake and playing some cards in another café. This was until we were informed that we couldn’t play cards there. This wasn’t due to us hogging the table, as there were dozens as spare tables around us. We can only assume that the waiter was a cards-cist (my new made up word for someone who doesn’t like cards).
After being booted from the café for having too much fun (perhaps he was worried we were stealing it from homeless people), we headed off to the movie theatre to watch Harry Potter. Thankfully it was in English with Serbian subtitles, as we hadn’t actually checked prior. It was just before the movie started that we both realised that when the movie finished at 8pm, the left luggage compartment at the station may not be open when we get there. And with our luck we were experiencing at the moment, it would be the case, making us unable to catch the overnight bus to Dubrovnik. Thankfully Belgrade does not like to kick a man whilst he is down, and the left luggage compartment was open.
Satisfied that we were actually going to have all our worldly possessions with us on the bus, we went to an Irish pub for dinner. When this pub advertised ‘dinner’ what it actually meant was ‘toasted ham and cheese sandwiches’ which tasted awesome and reminded us both of Australia.
After the traditional Aussie dinner, we went back to the station to grab our luggage and hop on the bus. By now, Jez and I are getting a feel for travelling, so before we hopped on the bus we both bought a litre of beer for the trip.
When we polished off the beers we tried to get some shut eye. This proved to be difficult as we were woken every time we stopped to drop someone off, which was regularly. We were also woken at around 3am for passport checks out of Serbia and into Bosnia. This proved to be more successful than our last passport check on a bus and I was allowed to continue on.
Keep up the good work,
Monty
We were really keen to get to Dubrovnik to meet up with some of the people we were in Greece with, so we hopped off to the bus station which conveniently was right next to the train station. We rocked up to the bus station and enquired about tickets. Unfortunately, we were going to have to take an overnight bus to Dubrovnik (luckily for me it didn’t go by Macedonia).
I went and got some cash out of the ATM for the bus tickets and received a call from an unknown number in Australia. It was NAB checking that my card hadn’t been nicked and that I was actually withdrawing money from Belgrade. Good to know to they are checking up on me and they are looking after my dosh.
As our bus left at around 11pm that night, we had the whole day to kill. So, we decided to have a bit of a wander around. One of the more interesting things we saw was a few blocks away from the train and bus stations. There was a 10 storey building that had been gutted, obviously from a bomb blast. All that was left was the concrete structures supporting the building. For some reason, it hadn’t been knocked down. Still, it was a vivid reminder of Belgrade’s recent past.
For the rest of the morning we just wandered around downtown Belgrade. One of the highlights was a ‘Life in Clay’ art exhibit that was on in the streets of Belgrade. It really was a slow morning….
After getting our clay fix, we headed off and had a look at the Kalemegdan Citadel which had some pretty good views of the city. We were walking around and saw a sign informing us that we risk our own lives by walking around here. Presumably they have just forgotten to take it down since the introduction of peace here.
For lunch we went to ? Café. ? Café was originally called the Cathedral Café due to its proximity to a cathedral. However, it was decided that this was too controversial so they were forced to change it. In the interim, the owners of the café called it ? Café. That was back in the 1850’s and it doesn’t look like changing anytime soon. Real Talk.
The service at ? Café was very, very questionable. The waiter really didn’t want to be there. We would catch his eye and signal him to come over, and he would just take off in the complete opposite direction. No tips were left.
We passed the time in the afternoon by grabbing a milkshake and playing some cards in another café. This was until we were informed that we couldn’t play cards there. This wasn’t due to us hogging the table, as there were dozens as spare tables around us. We can only assume that the waiter was a cards-cist (my new made up word for someone who doesn’t like cards).
After being booted from the café for having too much fun (perhaps he was worried we were stealing it from homeless people), we headed off to the movie theatre to watch Harry Potter. Thankfully it was in English with Serbian subtitles, as we hadn’t actually checked prior. It was just before the movie started that we both realised that when the movie finished at 8pm, the left luggage compartment at the station may not be open when we get there. And with our luck we were experiencing at the moment, it would be the case, making us unable to catch the overnight bus to Dubrovnik. Thankfully Belgrade does not like to kick a man whilst he is down, and the left luggage compartment was open.
Satisfied that we were actually going to have all our worldly possessions with us on the bus, we went to an Irish pub for dinner. When this pub advertised ‘dinner’ what it actually meant was ‘toasted ham and cheese sandwiches’ which tasted awesome and reminded us both of Australia.
After the traditional Aussie dinner, we went back to the station to grab our luggage and hop on the bus. By now, Jez and I are getting a feel for travelling, so before we hopped on the bus we both bought a litre of beer for the trip.
When we polished off the beers we tried to get some shut eye. This proved to be difficult as we were woken every time we stopped to drop someone off, which was regularly. We were also woken at around 3am for passport checks out of Serbia and into Bosnia. This proved to be more successful than our last passport check on a bus and I was allowed to continue on.
Keep up the good work,
Monty
August 2 - Thessaloniki to Sofia, Sofia to the Macedonian Border, The Macedonian Border back to Sofia, Sofia to Belgrade
As seems appropriate for a day that seemed to never end, it is difficult to determine exactly where it started, though I am going to pick up the narrative where Monty left it - boarding the train in Thessaloniki. Whilst Monty seemed relatively able to fall asleep relatively quickly, my usually stellar transport sleeping skills completely deserted me and I had to endure one of the world's most punishing train trips.
For a start, the cabin we were in was full, cramped and smoky and populated by a couple who seemed to have little regard for anyone in expanding their frames as much as possible so as to get comfortable and sleep. This was illustrated most clearly when about and hour into the journey the bloke took his shirt off and wiped his armpits with it. He remained shirtless for the remainder of the journey. The second big problem was that the train kept inexplicably stopping in the middle of nowhere and for up to half an hour and for no obvious reason. This was all the more disconcerting as the train changed direction at least 3 or 4 times. The last thing that was a big pain was the fact that for whatever reason, when we crossed the border they deemed it necessary to take our passports off the train to stamp them. This meant that on one occasion I actually had to get off the train with the guy and stand on the platform for half an hour (at about 3 am) and on the other occasion we were told to wait on the train and we basically had to sit and wait and hope that the train did not start moving before the border police came back with our passports.
Another problem that we encountered was that despite being advised to the contrary, our Eurrail passes do not work in Bulgaria and we had no money for tickets, this meant that when we did eventually arrive in Sofia (only 2.5 hours late despite all the stopping and starting) we had to go to the ATM with the ticket collector and then pay him for the tickets. His reply was golden. "OK - all good - no papers" and then our 20 euros straight into his pocket. We had arrived in Sofia but the day's adventures were only just beginning.
After being directed to the bus station we were able to book ourselves tickets to Skopje, the capital of Macedonia, from where we hoped to get another bus onwards to Dubrovnik in southern Croatia on the coast. After a breakfast of twix bars and potato chips we boarded the train, happy that we were on our way hopeful that we would arrive in Dubrovnik either later that night or early the next morning. There was one thing that bothered us however - our Lonely Planet book when discussing the visa requirements for tourists in Macedonia said that no visas are required for citizens of the USA, Canada and New Zealand. It did not say anything at all about Australia. This was a mild concern but we figured that it was just a typo and we approached the border with no idea the drama that was about to unfold.
After successfully having our passports stamped out of Bulgaria and checked over by the world's most enthusiastic sniffer dog, the bus cruised up to the Macedonian border check where we handed over our passports and sat and waited for the formalities to take place. However, things seemed to be taking a little longer than usual and soon the bus driver was asking "Simon James" to get off the bus. It was at this point that I began to worry. I began to really worry when I looked out the window of the bus and saw Monty shaking his head and appearing to plead with the border guard. His body language did not bode well - maybe the Lonely Planet was not a typo after all...
Monty was soon getting off the bus and he had one small piece of good news and one massive piece of bad. We did not need visas, but his passport had been rejected by the Macedonians as a couple of the pages (which had absolutely nothing on them) had been ripped slightly on the top corner. So it was off the bus for us and as we took our bags off and watched the bus cruise off into the distance the direness of our predicament became blatantly obvious. We were quite literally sitting at the border of Macedonia and Bulgaria in the middle of nowhere and with no idea where we would go next our how we would get there.
But first, in an act that perfectly encapsulated the absurdity of our situation, as my passport had already been stamped signifying my entry into Macedonia, I had to walk across the border, walk around the building and then walk back across the border so that they could stamp me out of the country. So, whilst Monty has a stamp in his passport showing that he has been denied entry on account of him being an illegal alien, I have both an entry and exit stamp from the same 15 minute period. Whilst this was kinda funny, it did not change the fact that we were sitting at the border with no idea what we were going to do.
Thankfully, after we had explained our predicament to the Bulgarian border police (they replied that the Macedonians were "f*cking c*nts), they took pity on us, gave us nectarines and convinced an Albanian bloke to give us a lift back to Sofia. Whilst the prospect of driving through a strange country with a stranger who could barely speak english and seemed to think that the listed speed limit was an indicator of half the speed at which one should drive was not exactly welcoming, we made it back to Sofia with little trouble and I even managed to sneak a nap in along the way.
Once we got back into Sofia, our Albanian mate dropped us off in the middle of town and our next adventure began. We had no idea exactly where we were, no idea how to say "train station" in Bulgarian, and absolutely no idea how to get there so we decided to ask people on the street. They told us to just jump on the bus that was coming and we'd be sweet. We took them at their word and thought we'd be there without too much drama. Once we actually got on the bus and got talking to these two young guys, it turned out that we were going in completely the wrong direction and that we needed to get off the bus, walk across an abandoned lot and get on another bus which would actually take us to the station. It was once we got to this next bus stop that I had one of the most confusing conversations of my 24 years.
Whilst Monty was off in the bushes relieving himself, an elderly lady approached and sparked up a conversation in Bulgarian. I tried to respond that I could not understand her and that I could only speak English. She did not seem to understand this and continued to jabber away at me. I began pointing in the direction we were going and saying Tsentralna Gara (I had learnt how to say central station) to which she shook her head vigourously and said "da" repeatedly. (Da means yes in Bulgarian). So here I am with this elderly woman talking to me in Bulgarian even though I have not offered her a single word to indicate that I can understand her, shaking her head like a maniac and saying yes - I was thoroughly confused. When the bus came we had no choice but to get on it and soon we were at the train station. I have since learnt that in Bulgaria they nod to say no and shake their head to say yes... Those bloody Bulbarians!
Anyways, Mont and I found ourselves back at the train station and went and asked whether we could get a bus to Belgrade. Apparently we had missed it by about 5 minutes and had no choice but to wait about 5 hours and then get the overnight train. Whilst this was no a prospect that either of us relished we made the best of it and went and got a good cheap feed at a restaurant near the staion. The meal itself was OK but was made infinitely better for the fact that it was dirt cheap and was served by one of the friendliest and most enthusiastic waiters we had yet encountered.
Eventually we got on the train (we had made the excellent decision to pay the extra cash for a sleeper cabin) and before long we were crossing the border into Serbia. Thankfully, we passed through with a minimum of fuss, though it was still pretty bizarre with one of the border police appearing to be just walking around holding a screwdriver and looking menacing. I have never been so happy to cross a border, though we did feel a little like drug smugglers when we started celebrating having avoided detainment. With this hurdle passed and with the carriage to ourselves, Monty and I were soon asleep having had without doubt the craziest day of our European adventure.
A little weary but Still Blazin'!
Jez
For a start, the cabin we were in was full, cramped and smoky and populated by a couple who seemed to have little regard for anyone in expanding their frames as much as possible so as to get comfortable and sleep. This was illustrated most clearly when about and hour into the journey the bloke took his shirt off and wiped his armpits with it. He remained shirtless for the remainder of the journey. The second big problem was that the train kept inexplicably stopping in the middle of nowhere and for up to half an hour and for no obvious reason. This was all the more disconcerting as the train changed direction at least 3 or 4 times. The last thing that was a big pain was the fact that for whatever reason, when we crossed the border they deemed it necessary to take our passports off the train to stamp them. This meant that on one occasion I actually had to get off the train with the guy and stand on the platform for half an hour (at about 3 am) and on the other occasion we were told to wait on the train and we basically had to sit and wait and hope that the train did not start moving before the border police came back with our passports.
Another problem that we encountered was that despite being advised to the contrary, our Eurrail passes do not work in Bulgaria and we had no money for tickets, this meant that when we did eventually arrive in Sofia (only 2.5 hours late despite all the stopping and starting) we had to go to the ATM with the ticket collector and then pay him for the tickets. His reply was golden. "OK - all good - no papers" and then our 20 euros straight into his pocket. We had arrived in Sofia but the day's adventures were only just beginning.
After being directed to the bus station we were able to book ourselves tickets to Skopje, the capital of Macedonia, from where we hoped to get another bus onwards to Dubrovnik in southern Croatia on the coast. After a breakfast of twix bars and potato chips we boarded the train, happy that we were on our way hopeful that we would arrive in Dubrovnik either later that night or early the next morning. There was one thing that bothered us however - our Lonely Planet book when discussing the visa requirements for tourists in Macedonia said that no visas are required for citizens of the USA, Canada and New Zealand. It did not say anything at all about Australia. This was a mild concern but we figured that it was just a typo and we approached the border with no idea the drama that was about to unfold.
After successfully having our passports stamped out of Bulgaria and checked over by the world's most enthusiastic sniffer dog, the bus cruised up to the Macedonian border check where we handed over our passports and sat and waited for the formalities to take place. However, things seemed to be taking a little longer than usual and soon the bus driver was asking "Simon James" to get off the bus. It was at this point that I began to worry. I began to really worry when I looked out the window of the bus and saw Monty shaking his head and appearing to plead with the border guard. His body language did not bode well - maybe the Lonely Planet was not a typo after all...
Monty was soon getting off the bus and he had one small piece of good news and one massive piece of bad. We did not need visas, but his passport had been rejected by the Macedonians as a couple of the pages (which had absolutely nothing on them) had been ripped slightly on the top corner. So it was off the bus for us and as we took our bags off and watched the bus cruise off into the distance the direness of our predicament became blatantly obvious. We were quite literally sitting at the border of Macedonia and Bulgaria in the middle of nowhere and with no idea where we would go next our how we would get there.
But first, in an act that perfectly encapsulated the absurdity of our situation, as my passport had already been stamped signifying my entry into Macedonia, I had to walk across the border, walk around the building and then walk back across the border so that they could stamp me out of the country. So, whilst Monty has a stamp in his passport showing that he has been denied entry on account of him being an illegal alien, I have both an entry and exit stamp from the same 15 minute period. Whilst this was kinda funny, it did not change the fact that we were sitting at the border with no idea what we were going to do.
Thankfully, after we had explained our predicament to the Bulgarian border police (they replied that the Macedonians were "f*cking c*nts), they took pity on us, gave us nectarines and convinced an Albanian bloke to give us a lift back to Sofia. Whilst the prospect of driving through a strange country with a stranger who could barely speak english and seemed to think that the listed speed limit was an indicator of half the speed at which one should drive was not exactly welcoming, we made it back to Sofia with little trouble and I even managed to sneak a nap in along the way.
Once we got back into Sofia, our Albanian mate dropped us off in the middle of town and our next adventure began. We had no idea exactly where we were, no idea how to say "train station" in Bulgarian, and absolutely no idea how to get there so we decided to ask people on the street. They told us to just jump on the bus that was coming and we'd be sweet. We took them at their word and thought we'd be there without too much drama. Once we actually got on the bus and got talking to these two young guys, it turned out that we were going in completely the wrong direction and that we needed to get off the bus, walk across an abandoned lot and get on another bus which would actually take us to the station. It was once we got to this next bus stop that I had one of the most confusing conversations of my 24 years.
Whilst Monty was off in the bushes relieving himself, an elderly lady approached and sparked up a conversation in Bulgarian. I tried to respond that I could not understand her and that I could only speak English. She did not seem to understand this and continued to jabber away at me. I began pointing in the direction we were going and saying Tsentralna Gara (I had learnt how to say central station) to which she shook her head vigourously and said "da" repeatedly. (Da means yes in Bulgarian). So here I am with this elderly woman talking to me in Bulgarian even though I have not offered her a single word to indicate that I can understand her, shaking her head like a maniac and saying yes - I was thoroughly confused. When the bus came we had no choice but to get on it and soon we were at the train station. I have since learnt that in Bulgaria they nod to say no and shake their head to say yes... Those bloody Bulbarians!
Anyways, Mont and I found ourselves back at the train station and went and asked whether we could get a bus to Belgrade. Apparently we had missed it by about 5 minutes and had no choice but to wait about 5 hours and then get the overnight train. Whilst this was no a prospect that either of us relished we made the best of it and went and got a good cheap feed at a restaurant near the staion. The meal itself was OK but was made infinitely better for the fact that it was dirt cheap and was served by one of the friendliest and most enthusiastic waiters we had yet encountered.
Eventually we got on the train (we had made the excellent decision to pay the extra cash for a sleeper cabin) and before long we were crossing the border into Serbia. Thankfully, we passed through with a minimum of fuss, though it was still pretty bizarre with one of the border police appearing to be just walking around holding a screwdriver and looking menacing. I have never been so happy to cross a border, though we did feel a little like drug smugglers when we started celebrating having avoided detainment. With this hurdle passed and with the carriage to ourselves, Monty and I were soon asleep having had without doubt the craziest day of our European adventure.
A little weary but Still Blazin'!
Jez
August 1 - Athens to Thessaloniki
After a cracker sleep, Jez and I woke up refreshed and ready to attack the day. For those of you out their reading this who don’t know, Athens is at the bottom of Greece and Greece is at the arse end of Europe. Therefore, the only way to go is north. With this in mind, we headed to the train station to catch a train to the only place we could, Thessaloniki. Thessaloniki is in northern Greece and is the only way to get out of Greece without swimming.
The train ride was uneventful and we got to our destination just before dinner. As I mentioned above, Greece is in the arse end of Europe. It can be safely said that Thessaloniki has nothing going for it and is thus the arse end of Greece. Jez and I settled down and had our last authentic Greek salad as part of dinner.
After dinner we hoped onto an overnight train to Sofia, Bulgaria.
I know this blog seems short in stature. To be honest, I’m sure that other stuff happened. However, I am writing this blog a few days later and a lot has happened between now and then. Stuff that has used up a lot of my memory, thus reducing my memories of this day. However, the more interesting stuff is to come. You will have to read on to understand what I am talking about. All will reveal itself.
Read on……
Monty
The train ride was uneventful and we got to our destination just before dinner. As I mentioned above, Greece is in the arse end of Europe. It can be safely said that Thessaloniki has nothing going for it and is thus the arse end of Greece. Jez and I settled down and had our last authentic Greek salad as part of dinner.
After dinner we hoped onto an overnight train to Sofia, Bulgaria.
I know this blog seems short in stature. To be honest, I’m sure that other stuff happened. However, I am writing this blog a few days later and a lot has happened between now and then. Stuff that has used up a lot of my memory, thus reducing my memories of this day. However, the more interesting stuff is to come. You will have to read on to understand what I am talking about. All will reveal itself.
Read on……
Monty
July 31 - Mykanos to Athens
As a direct result of our decision not to go out the night before we all awoke feeling chipper and wasted little time in wandering into town to grab some breakfast. However, it seems that all of Greece has been running on a similar timeframe to us and that the concept of having breakfast at 9 am is as foreign to everyone else as it had been to us and as a result, nothing was open. We eventually found a bakery and a fruit shop and everyone took the opportunity to load up on vitamins by smashing down juice, yoghurt, bananas and also the obligatory chocolate croissants. We then found ourselves a pharmacy and, concerned that the ferry would be a repeat of the day previous, bought enough seasickness tablets to medicate an army. Luckily however, the seas were calm and the ferry trip was relatively uneventful meaning that we arrived in Athens feeling a million times better than we had felt arriving in Mykanos.
After getting the metro to the hostel and finding ourselves a much-craved Gyros, we headed to the Acropolis where we hauled ourselves up the hill to have a wander around the ruins. It was certainly very cool though the fact that there was all sorts of scaffolding kinda meant that it looked more as though it were under construction than having been standing for millenia.
Following this we headed back to the hostel where we caught up on some admin stuff before heading back into town for our last dinner with the whole crew from the Greek Islands. Given that for many it was the last meal they would be having in Greece everyone piled into all the traditional Greek fare including tzatziki, greek salad and moussaka and after another great meal, some gelato, a huge number of unsuccessful jumping photos and all sorts of sad goodbyes we made our way back to the hostel and grabbed some shut-eye in anticipation of beginning our adventure through eastern Europe in the morning.
Prepared to really do some blazin'
Jez
After getting the metro to the hostel and finding ourselves a much-craved Gyros, we headed to the Acropolis where we hauled ourselves up the hill to have a wander around the ruins. It was certainly very cool though the fact that there was all sorts of scaffolding kinda meant that it looked more as though it were under construction than having been standing for millenia.
Following this we headed back to the hostel where we caught up on some admin stuff before heading back into town for our last dinner with the whole crew from the Greek Islands. Given that for many it was the last meal they would be having in Greece everyone piled into all the traditional Greek fare including tzatziki, greek salad and moussaka and after another great meal, some gelato, a huge number of unsuccessful jumping photos and all sorts of sad goodbyes we made our way back to the hostel and grabbed some shut-eye in anticipation of beginning our adventure through eastern Europe in the morning.
Prepared to really do some blazin'
Jez
July 30 - Ios to Mykonos
This day has and will go down as one of the most painful and memorable days we have in Europa.
After getting to sleep at daybreak, the team packed up and headed down to the port to catch the ferry to Mykonos. As Jez mentioned in one of his previous blogs, the Greek Islands are windy. Santorini seems to be sheltered and hence miss the air onslaught. Apparently it is no coincidence that the Greek Islands that are more populated (Ios and Mykonos) are the windier ones. Back in the day these winds were used by ships as trade winds to deliver goods across the Mediterranean. These ships would have stop over’s in the Greek Islands en route to Europe.
So in short, it was windy. Whilst this wind was great for trade ships a few centuries ago, it was not so good for 20 hungover young adults trying to get from Ios to Mykonos in 2009.
The first half an hour was OK. The sea was fairly rough and the catamaran occasionally got some air. However, one of the elderly ladies on the ferry thought that she was in mortal danger and shrieked at the top of her lings every time we dropped back onto the ocean.
Then, the sea sickness began. First cab off the rank was a bloke towards the front of the ferry. Without a paper spew bag handy, he made a dash for a bin in front of him. Luckily, he did make it in time. However, as he was running like his life depended on it, feet pumping as hard as they could, a shout of ‘No!’ was heard from behind us. We turned to see a ferry employee chasing after the sea sick lad, arm outstretched with a spew bag in hand. He was too late.
There were a few people sitting together in the ferry, namely Jez, Jane, Molly, Courtney (Molly’s friend), BJ, Andrea, Jaz (part of the law contingent) and myself. The first of this crew to loose it was Jane. To make things more interesting, she had bought a nutella crepe just before boarding the ferry and had only started eating it whilst we were onboard. As I’m sure you can guess, the crepe was not digested by the time that it found its way back up. So Jane, having just discarded her crepe was heard to say: “That actually tasted pretty good.” BJ was in hysterics. Yummy.
After BJ and calmed down, she went to get Jane some more bags to help her out. As people were in desperate need for bags, BJ became an temporary employee of the ferry company, dutifully providing spew bags to weary passengers. A constant customer was a girl near the front of the ferry. She continually had her head in a bag and had a really nice friend who for the entire journey held her hair back and couriered the full bags to the bin.
Half way through the trip saw the emergence of ‘Spew Corner’ in which Jane, Jez and Jaz sat near the windows and repeatedly tried to lose as much weight as possible. At last count they collectively lost about 10 kilos between them and are currently seeing if they can do a subway commercial of some sorts.
At one stage in Spew Corner, Jez was lying down on the floor and Jaz and Jane were sitting up in their seats. Jane went for a good heave and landed a good portion of her breakfast entirely in the bag. The bag happened to be millimeters from Jez’s head, so he was treated to a nice silhouette and splash sound of Jane’s chunder.
The final part worth mentioning of Spew Corner was Jaz. Unfortunately for him, the sea sickness not affected his stomach but also his body movements. At one stage Jez looked over to see Jaz hugging a pole for dear life. Later on, I saw Jaz sitting down making no effect whatsoever to control his muscle movements. At this stage he was moving entirely with the sea and was one with the ocean.
After an eternity our prayer were answered and we reached the holy land. That night, a few of the girls went to Paradise Beach, where sleazy I T’s (Italians) poured vodka down their throats hoping to get lucky. They didn’t. The rest of us headed for a nice dinner after having a good old fashioned group spooning session.
Later,
Monty
After getting to sleep at daybreak, the team packed up and headed down to the port to catch the ferry to Mykonos. As Jez mentioned in one of his previous blogs, the Greek Islands are windy. Santorini seems to be sheltered and hence miss the air onslaught. Apparently it is no coincidence that the Greek Islands that are more populated (Ios and Mykonos) are the windier ones. Back in the day these winds were used by ships as trade winds to deliver goods across the Mediterranean. These ships would have stop over’s in the Greek Islands en route to Europe.
So in short, it was windy. Whilst this wind was great for trade ships a few centuries ago, it was not so good for 20 hungover young adults trying to get from Ios to Mykonos in 2009.
The first half an hour was OK. The sea was fairly rough and the catamaran occasionally got some air. However, one of the elderly ladies on the ferry thought that she was in mortal danger and shrieked at the top of her lings every time we dropped back onto the ocean.
Then, the sea sickness began. First cab off the rank was a bloke towards the front of the ferry. Without a paper spew bag handy, he made a dash for a bin in front of him. Luckily, he did make it in time. However, as he was running like his life depended on it, feet pumping as hard as they could, a shout of ‘No!’ was heard from behind us. We turned to see a ferry employee chasing after the sea sick lad, arm outstretched with a spew bag in hand. He was too late.
There were a few people sitting together in the ferry, namely Jez, Jane, Molly, Courtney (Molly’s friend), BJ, Andrea, Jaz (part of the law contingent) and myself. The first of this crew to loose it was Jane. To make things more interesting, she had bought a nutella crepe just before boarding the ferry and had only started eating it whilst we were onboard. As I’m sure you can guess, the crepe was not digested by the time that it found its way back up. So Jane, having just discarded her crepe was heard to say: “That actually tasted pretty good.” BJ was in hysterics. Yummy.
After BJ and calmed down, she went to get Jane some more bags to help her out. As people were in desperate need for bags, BJ became an temporary employee of the ferry company, dutifully providing spew bags to weary passengers. A constant customer was a girl near the front of the ferry. She continually had her head in a bag and had a really nice friend who for the entire journey held her hair back and couriered the full bags to the bin.
Half way through the trip saw the emergence of ‘Spew Corner’ in which Jane, Jez and Jaz sat near the windows and repeatedly tried to lose as much weight as possible. At last count they collectively lost about 10 kilos between them and are currently seeing if they can do a subway commercial of some sorts.
At one stage in Spew Corner, Jez was lying down on the floor and Jaz and Jane were sitting up in their seats. Jane went for a good heave and landed a good portion of her breakfast entirely in the bag. The bag happened to be millimeters from Jez’s head, so he was treated to a nice silhouette and splash sound of Jane’s chunder.
The final part worth mentioning of Spew Corner was Jaz. Unfortunately for him, the sea sickness not affected his stomach but also his body movements. At one stage Jez looked over to see Jaz hugging a pole for dear life. Later on, I saw Jaz sitting down making no effect whatsoever to control his muscle movements. At this stage he was moving entirely with the sea and was one with the ocean.
After an eternity our prayer were answered and we reached the holy land. That night, a few of the girls went to Paradise Beach, where sleazy I T’s (Italians) poured vodka down their throats hoping to get lucky. They didn’t. The rest of us headed for a nice dinner after having a good old fashioned group spooning session.
Later,
Monty
July 29 - Ios
The day began relatively early due to our collective decision not to punish ourselves the night before and we wasted little time in gathering at a local restaurant for a delicious breakfast of muesli, yoghurt, fruit and honey washed down by fresh orange juice. I know this is much more detail than is usually given to discussing mealtimes on the blog but it was particularly noteworthy as it is the first proper healthy breakfast that either of us have had in long long time. Anyways, after this delivious breakfast we were all feeling energised and made our way down to the beach where we engaged in a healthy mix of swimming, lying in the sun and, in the case of quite a few of the others, a variety of watersports. However, the wind continued to play havoc and by mid-afternoon we all headed back to the hostel to seek some respite.
After a couple of lazy hours by the pool we headed out for another big team dinner at a local restaurant where we all knocked back a couple of cocktails as well as enormous plates of food. Then, after a couple of cheeky preparatory drinks back at the hotel, headed out into the night where we danced the night away at the somewhat suggestively titled Disco 69. Though my memories of the night are not complete I have distinct memories of dancing on a variety of podiums and would bet a good amount of money that there were abundant shots involved. Eventually, everyone began drifting back to the hotel and after a compulsory stop at the local Gyros vendor I made it back to bed at about 5. As to when Monty made it to bed I cannot comment, not because there is a story that needs censorship but because I simply do not remember. He tells me he had a good night and that I was a drunken mess.
Over and out
Jez
After a couple of lazy hours by the pool we headed out for another big team dinner at a local restaurant where we all knocked back a couple of cocktails as well as enormous plates of food. Then, after a couple of cheeky preparatory drinks back at the hotel, headed out into the night where we danced the night away at the somewhat suggestively titled Disco 69. Though my memories of the night are not complete I have distinct memories of dancing on a variety of podiums and would bet a good amount of money that there were abundant shots involved. Eventually, everyone began drifting back to the hotel and after a compulsory stop at the local Gyros vendor I made it back to bed at about 5. As to when Monty made it to bed I cannot comment, not because there is a story that needs censorship but because I simply do not remember. He tells me he had a good night and that I was a drunken mess.
Over and out
Jez
July 28 - Ios
The day started with me feeling a touch more refreshed than my travelling counterparts. This was not due to my rehydration powers, nor my ability to get toxins out of my body quickly. It was simply due to the fact that I got more sleep than must due to the fact that I spiked and crashed earlier the previous night. There were parts of the night that went unaccounted for and I distinctly remember being in a massive club before heading home. Upon further investigation, I realised that this ‘club’ was one of the smallest bars I have had the pleasure of visiting; it was actually the size of a two standard living rooms. Seriously.
But enough about my time travelling…. The day started slowly as people filtered down to the beach. One of the girls, Lucy and myself decided that we were stable enough that we could take the 15 min walk down to the beach. We left the hostel and walked left down the hill towards the beach. We reached the beach but it looked different to the one we visited last night when we went to Harmony. After 20 minutes of walking around and asking people, we discovered that we had in fact walked the entirely opposite way to the port where the ferry dropped us off. Note: Walking out of the hostel, left to the port, right to the beach. Oh well, it was a nice walk anyway.
We hopped on a bus and in half an hour were at the beach. Everyone else had been at the beach for a while now so as we were arriving they were heading to a beach club called Far Out. Far Out is right on the beach and things start to get loud at about 3pm.
So a bunch of us headed off to Far Out to grab a beverage and lounge by the pool. Everything was uneventful for about an hour or 2, then the music was turned up. It was at this point that 20-30 blokes descended onto the dance floor and got their groove on. The majority, if not all of these blokes, were wearing only speedo’s and were more interested in each other than the bunch of scantily clad girls dancing on a podium. The words flaming and flamboyant do not do them justice. We all chuckled/dry-retched at some of the moves these blokes were putting on each other. After a bit of encouragement from the girls, Jez and I smuggled up and hit the dance floor aswell. Luckily for us, the other blokes were all very self absorbed and paid us little attention.
With our clothes back on we settled in to view the dace floor. It was at this point that we all noticed Trendy Boy off to the side of the dance floor. Trendy Boy was high as a kite. He was also just wearing shorts and a t-shirt, and had 3 diamontes on his face on his cheek bone on the right side of his face. He was just rocking out have a good time and minding his own business. Then out of the blue he gets his kit off down to his blue and orange undies, which had Trendy Boy written across the top and the rainbow sweatbands he wore on each wrist. He was dancing along to all the songs as if his life depended on it. Some of the girls, seeing his enthusiasm, went over and joined in. Soon enough, our whole group was dancing with Trendy Boy, taking out moves from his lead. This culminated in us all dancing to moves of the Rainbow Song, which was apparently massive in Europe a few years ago.
The lyrics of the chorus were thus: ‘I had a dream, I could fly, Over the rainbow, So high.’ And the dance moves were: On dream, we put our hands to the side of our heads to create a pillow and pretend to sleep. On fly, we flapped our arms like wings. On rainbow, we followed an arc over our heads, creating a rainbow. And on high we pointed our hands to the sky. This repertoire was performed repeatedly during the duration of the song. It also became our theme song for the rest of our stay in the Greek islands. Thank you Trendy Boy, wherever you are now, and God bless.
After our encounter with Trendy Boy, we went back to the hostel and had dinner at Seven Eleven. This has absolutely no connection to the 7-11 we all know and love at 3 am on a night out. And its surprising 7-11 haven’t tried suing seven eleven for trademark infringements. But we really didn’t care as they served up some good food.
After that, Andrea, myself and a few others went out to Orange Bar as the others crashed and went to bed as last nights antics caught up to them. Orange Bar has hundreds of different types of shots. Andrea and I had a malteser shot which tasted just like the real thing. After that, we all walked around for a while and, after realising we were fighting a losing battle, went to bed.
Yours truly,
Monty
But enough about my time travelling…. The day started slowly as people filtered down to the beach. One of the girls, Lucy and myself decided that we were stable enough that we could take the 15 min walk down to the beach. We left the hostel and walked left down the hill towards the beach. We reached the beach but it looked different to the one we visited last night when we went to Harmony. After 20 minutes of walking around and asking people, we discovered that we had in fact walked the entirely opposite way to the port where the ferry dropped us off. Note: Walking out of the hostel, left to the port, right to the beach. Oh well, it was a nice walk anyway.
We hopped on a bus and in half an hour were at the beach. Everyone else had been at the beach for a while now so as we were arriving they were heading to a beach club called Far Out. Far Out is right on the beach and things start to get loud at about 3pm.
So a bunch of us headed off to Far Out to grab a beverage and lounge by the pool. Everything was uneventful for about an hour or 2, then the music was turned up. It was at this point that 20-30 blokes descended onto the dance floor and got their groove on. The majority, if not all of these blokes, were wearing only speedo’s and were more interested in each other than the bunch of scantily clad girls dancing on a podium. The words flaming and flamboyant do not do them justice. We all chuckled/dry-retched at some of the moves these blokes were putting on each other. After a bit of encouragement from the girls, Jez and I smuggled up and hit the dance floor aswell. Luckily for us, the other blokes were all very self absorbed and paid us little attention.
With our clothes back on we settled in to view the dace floor. It was at this point that we all noticed Trendy Boy off to the side of the dance floor. Trendy Boy was high as a kite. He was also just wearing shorts and a t-shirt, and had 3 diamontes on his face on his cheek bone on the right side of his face. He was just rocking out have a good time and minding his own business. Then out of the blue he gets his kit off down to his blue and orange undies, which had Trendy Boy written across the top and the rainbow sweatbands he wore on each wrist. He was dancing along to all the songs as if his life depended on it. Some of the girls, seeing his enthusiasm, went over and joined in. Soon enough, our whole group was dancing with Trendy Boy, taking out moves from his lead. This culminated in us all dancing to moves of the Rainbow Song, which was apparently massive in Europe a few years ago.
The lyrics of the chorus were thus: ‘I had a dream, I could fly, Over the rainbow, So high.’ And the dance moves were: On dream, we put our hands to the side of our heads to create a pillow and pretend to sleep. On fly, we flapped our arms like wings. On rainbow, we followed an arc over our heads, creating a rainbow. And on high we pointed our hands to the sky. This repertoire was performed repeatedly during the duration of the song. It also became our theme song for the rest of our stay in the Greek islands. Thank you Trendy Boy, wherever you are now, and God bless.
After our encounter with Trendy Boy, we went back to the hostel and had dinner at Seven Eleven. This has absolutely no connection to the 7-11 we all know and love at 3 am on a night out. And its surprising 7-11 haven’t tried suing seven eleven for trademark infringements. But we really didn’t care as they served up some good food.
After that, Andrea, myself and a few others went out to Orange Bar as the others crashed and went to bed as last nights antics caught up to them. Orange Bar has hundreds of different types of shots. Andrea and I had a malteser shot which tasted just like the real thing. After that, we all walked around for a while and, after realising we were fighting a losing battle, went to bed.
Yours truly,
Monty
July 27 - Santorini to Ios
After rushing around in the morning to make sure that we got to the ferry terminal on time for the trip to Ios we were a little disconcerted to hear that our boat had actually been cancelled and the one that we were getting on instead was over an hour late. So, after waiting for what seemed like ages and ages we eventually got on the ferry only to find that we had no seats and that we would have to sit on the floor. This was no real problem and after an hour spent playing Go Fish and Cheat we disembarked and headed for our new abode, the Ios Resort, where we wasted no time in budgie-ing up and lying by the pool.
We did this for an hour or two before getting our fun kit on and heading to a restaurant called harmony which overlooked the beach. The dinner certainly lived up to the view with cheap cocktails, beers and mexican food being enjoyed by all as we watched the sun go down. It was an amazing meal all round and a perfect start to a night which ended up escalating pretty quickly. After some drinking games back in our rooms we headed out into downtown Ios and though Monty charged a little too hard too early and had to go home, most of us kicked onwards and upwards into the night, doing something of an Ios pub / club crawl until the wee hours. It was a great day all-round and a top start to our time in Ios.
Hope all is swell back home
Jez
We did this for an hour or two before getting our fun kit on and heading to a restaurant called harmony which overlooked the beach. The dinner certainly lived up to the view with cheap cocktails, beers and mexican food being enjoyed by all as we watched the sun go down. It was an amazing meal all round and a perfect start to a night which ended up escalating pretty quickly. After some drinking games back in our rooms we headed out into downtown Ios and though Monty charged a little too hard too early and had to go home, most of us kicked onwards and upwards into the night, doing something of an Ios pub / club crawl until the wee hours. It was a great day all-round and a top start to our time in Ios.
Hope all is swell back home
Jez
July 26 - Santorini
The group woke up in the mid morning, feeling quite relieved that none of us had been eaten by, or turned into, vampires. Oia, the town in which we watched the sunset last night, is supposedly a local vampire hang out, and has been for hundreds if not thousands of years. So, with us all still able to be out in sunlight, we hopped on our quad bikes and headed out to get some Santorini history. This involved headed to some of the ruins on the island.
The ruins happened to be at the top of the highest point in Santorini and it took a while to reach the summit. I was sharing a quad with Lou, one of the girls who studies law with a bunch of other people we were in Greece with. Unfortunately, whilst our quad was admirable on the flats and downhill slopes, it really struggled on the uphill climbs. This resulted in a test of my quad biking ability to get to the top of the hill (It wasn’t really my ability, all I had to do was hold the throttle down). But still, there were some hairy moments when we both thought that the bike would actually start rolling backwards. According to the speedometer, the slowest we got to was a measly 4 kilometres per hour. We were definitely not going to win the Melbourne Grand Prix. In fact, a few snails could have given us a run for our money.
Relieved, we eventually reached the top of the hill. Molly (Jane’s sister) and Jane’s quad didn’t have phenomenal breaks, and were forced to put a brick behind one of the back wheels to stop their bike trying to take the quickest way possible back down the hill. Whilst it would have been quick for the bike, it would have been a long walk for the two girls.
The ruins were pretty cool and very old (some from around a couple of hundred BC). Lou happened to be interested in ancient Greece and so was able to play resident tour guide for the group.
Jez and I were able to quickly get some photos of us in our budgie smugglers standing in front of some ruins. Whilst the girls were laughing and taking photos of us, one of the staff members whistled and shouted at us in Greek. We only realised what he wanted when he mimed pulling his pants up. Regrettably, Jez and I put some respectable clothes on.
The ride down the hill was quite fun. As we were feeling a little adventurous, there was a bit of overtaking going on which escalated into a race down the hill. Before you know it, we were in a real life version of Mario Kart. The only differences being that we didn’t have stuff to through at people and if we crashed, we probably wouldn’t get back up straight away.
We all got back to the hostel in one piece. We went and had some dinner at another authentic Greek restaurant and again went out to Murphy’s.
Later in the evening, 2 of our party decided they wanted to sleep in the same bed. This caused a bit of a reshuffle in everyone’s sleeping arrangements, forcing Jez to bunk up with Jane and Molly (the Taylor sisters in case people aren’t aware). Jane refused yours truly to be offered the same opportunity from fear of retribution. So in the double bed the sleeping arrangements went Molly, Jez then Jane. This gave birth to the oscillating spoon. Jez would spoon one Taylor, get uncomfortable after an hour, then turn over and spoon the other one. Jez would like me to assure our readers that this was entirely above board and that was and is a gentleman. Well maybe not a gentleman but nothing untoward happened regardless. It was an entirely platonic oscillating spoon. Ah, if only I was provided the same opportunity
A man can dream…..
Monty
The ruins happened to be at the top of the highest point in Santorini and it took a while to reach the summit. I was sharing a quad with Lou, one of the girls who studies law with a bunch of other people we were in Greece with. Unfortunately, whilst our quad was admirable on the flats and downhill slopes, it really struggled on the uphill climbs. This resulted in a test of my quad biking ability to get to the top of the hill (It wasn’t really my ability, all I had to do was hold the throttle down). But still, there were some hairy moments when we both thought that the bike would actually start rolling backwards. According to the speedometer, the slowest we got to was a measly 4 kilometres per hour. We were definitely not going to win the Melbourne Grand Prix. In fact, a few snails could have given us a run for our money.
Relieved, we eventually reached the top of the hill. Molly (Jane’s sister) and Jane’s quad didn’t have phenomenal breaks, and were forced to put a brick behind one of the back wheels to stop their bike trying to take the quickest way possible back down the hill. Whilst it would have been quick for the bike, it would have been a long walk for the two girls.
The ruins were pretty cool and very old (some from around a couple of hundred BC). Lou happened to be interested in ancient Greece and so was able to play resident tour guide for the group.
Jez and I were able to quickly get some photos of us in our budgie smugglers standing in front of some ruins. Whilst the girls were laughing and taking photos of us, one of the staff members whistled and shouted at us in Greek. We only realised what he wanted when he mimed pulling his pants up. Regrettably, Jez and I put some respectable clothes on.
The ride down the hill was quite fun. As we were feeling a little adventurous, there was a bit of overtaking going on which escalated into a race down the hill. Before you know it, we were in a real life version of Mario Kart. The only differences being that we didn’t have stuff to through at people and if we crashed, we probably wouldn’t get back up straight away.
We all got back to the hostel in one piece. We went and had some dinner at another authentic Greek restaurant and again went out to Murphy’s.
Later in the evening, 2 of our party decided they wanted to sleep in the same bed. This caused a bit of a reshuffle in everyone’s sleeping arrangements, forcing Jez to bunk up with Jane and Molly (the Taylor sisters in case people aren’t aware). Jane refused yours truly to be offered the same opportunity from fear of retribution. So in the double bed the sleeping arrangements went Molly, Jez then Jane. This gave birth to the oscillating spoon. Jez would spoon one Taylor, get uncomfortable after an hour, then turn over and spoon the other one. Jez would like me to assure our readers that this was entirely above board and that was and is a gentleman. Well maybe not a gentleman but nothing untoward happened regardless. It was an entirely platonic oscillating spoon. Ah, if only I was provided the same opportunity
A man can dream…..
Monty
July 25 - Santorini
After a moderately big night the night before, we made a fairly leisurely start to the day before meeting up with everyone at the quadbike rental place at about 10:30 (which Monty continually pronounced as ten terty) where we handed over our licences, gave ourselves an appropriately corny quadbike gang name - Greece Lightning - and sped off into the distance to explore the sights of Santorini. Our first stop of the day was supposed to be the red sand beach but due to some creative navigating by the girls we ended up at Parissa which is famous for its black sand. Santorini itself was once a massive volcano and so many of the beaches, including Parissa, have black sand. This was quite a sight to see, but given the thermometre was pushing well into the mid-thirties (mid-terties according to Monty), the sand was blisteringly hot and the walk from the towel to the water's edge was very painful and best negotiated at high speed. After a bit of tanning we were all getting over the heat and made our way towards another beach which promised red sand. Though it was more pebbles than actual sand, it was well worth the trip and after a quick lunch and a walk around the headland we spent the remainder of the afternoon lazing on the red pebbles and making the most of the underwater capabilities of my camera.
From here we headed of to Oia to watch the famous sunset over a dinner of pita bread, tzatziki, chocolate chip cookies and plums. Whilst the sunset was pretty spectacular it didn't quite live up to the hype and as soon as the sun hit the horizon we manned our quadbikes and made the perilous trip back into town. Though we had originally had high hopes of a night out on the town, these failed to fully materialise and though we did go to out for a little while, there was not a great deal happening so we were tucked up in bed at a reasonable hour.
Still Blazin'
Jez
From here we headed of to Oia to watch the famous sunset over a dinner of pita bread, tzatziki, chocolate chip cookies and plums. Whilst the sunset was pretty spectacular it didn't quite live up to the hype and as soon as the sun hit the horizon we manned our quadbikes and made the perilous trip back into town. Though we had originally had high hopes of a night out on the town, these failed to fully materialise and though we did go to out for a little while, there was not a great deal happening so we were tucked up in bed at a reasonable hour.
Still Blazin'
Jez
July 24 - Athens to Santorini
Jez, Andrea and I were staying together in a room together and woke up before 6am so we could get down to the port to catch the ferry to our first Greek island: Santorini. Bleary eyed, we headed downstairs and met 6 other people that we would be spending the next week with. A few more people had caught a ferry the day before. In typical Jane Taylor style, see had organized this week down to when we could take our bathroom breaks, but failed to book the ferry tickets she told us to book far enough in advance. This resulted in her and a few others being forced to catch the overnight ferry. Apparently, this trip was not a 5 star luxury cruise. They were out on the deck and didn’t get much sleep on account of the bunch of drunk Aussies next to them making noises to the wee hours of the morning. When this finally subsided, they were kept awake by the cleaners throwing out the empty bottles into bins. Not something you can fall asleep to.
But enough about stuff that didn’t happen to either myself or Jez! Back in Athens, we boarded our ferry which turned out to be very uneventful. We played some backgammon and got a bit of shut eye in anticipation of the Greek tsunami that we were about to encounter.
We found our hostel, which was run by George. George is a born and breed Santorinian who is one of the most helpful people we have met on out trip so far. Working with him was a guy about our age who we didn’t remember/know his name. He was simply referred to as either George’s Protégé or George Junior. That afternoon, we hung around by the pool and got to know the area we were staying in which (thanks to Jane) happened to be very central.
That night, we headed to one of the restaurants that George recommended and we had booked earlier in the day. When we went to book it, the manager skeptically asked our we found out about his restaurant. All we had to do was drop Georges name to see a big smile cross his face and his reluctance disappear. So, there was about 20 of us sitting in the middle of the restaurant in 2 tables of 10. Half of us went for the moussaka, which is a very authentic Greek lasagna with egg plant in it. As the dinner wore on, the conversation got louder and cruder. As we were walking out, one of the other patrons of the restaurant gave us the ultimate insult/compliment by assuming that we were on a Contiki tour.
That night we headed out to Murphy’s (obviously a Irish pub) and danced the night away.
Ciao,
Monty
But enough about stuff that didn’t happen to either myself or Jez! Back in Athens, we boarded our ferry which turned out to be very uneventful. We played some backgammon and got a bit of shut eye in anticipation of the Greek tsunami that we were about to encounter.
We found our hostel, which was run by George. George is a born and breed Santorinian who is one of the most helpful people we have met on out trip so far. Working with him was a guy about our age who we didn’t remember/know his name. He was simply referred to as either George’s Protégé or George Junior. That afternoon, we hung around by the pool and got to know the area we were staying in which (thanks to Jane) happened to be very central.
That night, we headed to one of the restaurants that George recommended and we had booked earlier in the day. When we went to book it, the manager skeptically asked our we found out about his restaurant. All we had to do was drop Georges name to see a big smile cross his face and his reluctance disappear. So, there was about 20 of us sitting in the middle of the restaurant in 2 tables of 10. Half of us went for the moussaka, which is a very authentic Greek lasagna with egg plant in it. As the dinner wore on, the conversation got louder and cruder. As we were walking out, one of the other patrons of the restaurant gave us the ultimate insult/compliment by assuming that we were on a Contiki tour.
That night we headed out to Murphy’s (obviously a Irish pub) and danced the night away.
Ciao,
Monty
Saturday, August 1, 2009
July 23 - Riga, Latvia to Athens, Greece
Monty and I again woke early, needing to get out gear together and get to the airport to make sure that we completed our bizarrely roundabout journey to Greece. Being the accomplished early-risers / public transport navigators that we have become, this was a relatively easy task and we were soon sitting in the luxurious surrounds of Riga Airport, wondering how we had managed to accumulate so many Lats (the Latvian currency) and trying to spend as much of our remaining coins and notes as possible. So, after an unnecessarily large breakfast, we went and boarded the plane and after another uneventful flight, touched down in Athens (a large number of people on the plane actually cheered) and were immediately hit by the increase in temperature. After grabbing our bags and heading through the non-existant immigration and customs we went and found the train station, grabbed our tickets into downtown Athens and jumped on the train. This all sounds relatively straightforward, but given that we can literally not speak a word of Greek between us, it was no mean feat.
We eventually made it to our hostel where we dumped our bags and caught up with all of the people that we are going to be spending the next week with on the islands. All in all it was a very lazy afternoon and after a quick run to the supermarket where we stocked up on booze and snacks, and a pretty good authentic Greek dinner at the hostel, we were tucked up nice and early in preparation for our early ferry that was to follow in the morning.
Jez
We eventually made it to our hostel where we dumped our bags and caught up with all of the people that we are going to be spending the next week with on the islands. All in all it was a very lazy afternoon and after a quick run to the supermarket where we stocked up on booze and snacks, and a pretty good authentic Greek dinner at the hostel, we were tucked up nice and early in preparation for our early ferry that was to follow in the morning.
Jez
July 22 - Zug to Riga
For all of you readers out there who don’t know, Riga is the capital of Latvia. Yes, the same Latvia that is considered one of the Baltic states and was part of the Iron Curtain back in the day.
Jez and I had no overwhelming desire to visit Latvia, nor was there any spiritual reason for the detour. Rather, in true backpacker style, it was the cheapest way to get from Zurich to Athens (go figure). We flew Latvia’s national carrier, the ever expanding, BalticAir. BalticAir isn’t up there with Qantas just yet. But the big news according to the inflight magazine was they now fly to 2 Estonian cities. Stop the press!
So, the day started off with Reggie driving us to Zurich and showing us a great view of Zurich from one of its highest points. She then dropped us off at the airport where we got our first BalticAir experience.
We landed in Latvia and found our way to the hostel with no dramas. Once there, we were given a complimentary beer and told all about Riga by Chris, one of the guys working at the hostel. We were made aware of a few things to watch out for. One of them being girls that invite you to clubs. When you get in there abd have a few drinks, the bill is ridiculously expensive (around 1,000 Lats which equates to approximately $AUD2,500) and you have to pay or they wont let you leave. Chris told us the worst he had saw was a bloke getting done for 5,000 Lats! That’s about $AUD12,500!!! A very expensive night on the piss.
That night, Jez and I hit up some traditional Latvian food which was pretty darn good. It was rice which some marinated lamb.
After that we headed back and went on a pub crawl organized by the hostel. The majority of these people were Aussies and Kiwis. This is a crucial bit of information.
So there we all were at the first pub, with the Aussies and Kiwis were talking to these 2 Turkish blokes. After 15 minutes we had convinced the Turkish blokes that I was a minke whale hunter, Jez was a kangaroo shearer, and one of the other guys was a koala bear poacher hunter (koala bear paws are a delicacy, especially when put into a soup). We also had convinced them that there was a forest in the middle of Australia (its called the Simpson Forest, and it very similar to the Amazon), and that drop bears exist (for an educational lesson on drop bears, type in “drop bears Bundaberg rum” into youtube.
After the pub brawl, Jez and I hit a club, realised it was shit and went to bed, ready to have our 2nd BalticAir experience in as many days.
Blog off,
Monty
Jez and I had no overwhelming desire to visit Latvia, nor was there any spiritual reason for the detour. Rather, in true backpacker style, it was the cheapest way to get from Zurich to Athens (go figure). We flew Latvia’s national carrier, the ever expanding, BalticAir. BalticAir isn’t up there with Qantas just yet. But the big news according to the inflight magazine was they now fly to 2 Estonian cities. Stop the press!
So, the day started off with Reggie driving us to Zurich and showing us a great view of Zurich from one of its highest points. She then dropped us off at the airport where we got our first BalticAir experience.
We landed in Latvia and found our way to the hostel with no dramas. Once there, we were given a complimentary beer and told all about Riga by Chris, one of the guys working at the hostel. We were made aware of a few things to watch out for. One of them being girls that invite you to clubs. When you get in there abd have a few drinks, the bill is ridiculously expensive (around 1,000 Lats which equates to approximately $AUD2,500) and you have to pay or they wont let you leave. Chris told us the worst he had saw was a bloke getting done for 5,000 Lats! That’s about $AUD12,500!!! A very expensive night on the piss.
That night, Jez and I hit up some traditional Latvian food which was pretty darn good. It was rice which some marinated lamb.
After that we headed back and went on a pub crawl organized by the hostel. The majority of these people were Aussies and Kiwis. This is a crucial bit of information.
So there we all were at the first pub, with the Aussies and Kiwis were talking to these 2 Turkish blokes. After 15 minutes we had convinced the Turkish blokes that I was a minke whale hunter, Jez was a kangaroo shearer, and one of the other guys was a koala bear poacher hunter (koala bear paws are a delicacy, especially when put into a soup). We also had convinced them that there was a forest in the middle of Australia (its called the Simpson Forest, and it very similar to the Amazon), and that drop bears exist (for an educational lesson on drop bears, type in “drop bears Bundaberg rum” into youtube.
After the pub brawl, Jez and I hit a club, realised it was shit and went to bed, ready to have our 2nd BalticAir experience in as many days.
Blog off,
Monty
July 21 - Reggie's Retreat
Mont and I woke late, having been disinclined to get out of our luxuriously comfortable beds and continuing to enjoy the fact that we had rooms to ourselves. However, we did eventually wake from our slumber and were content to find that we had no real plan for the day other than to rest, recover, recuperate and relax. In the end it was an awesome day with games of gemsch, Ciao Sepp (always played "slapways") and beach volleyball punctuated by delicious healthy homecooked meals and dips in the pool. Probably the highlight was our afternoon game of volleyball with Reggie and myself being taught a thorough lesson by Angie and "King" Monty (whose success was built primarily on their elaborate post-point celebration ritual), though I think all would agree that we had the superior hand signals and that ultimately, beach volleyball was the winner on the day.
That night we headed down to the lake for dinner which was a definite highlight, with the food, setting and company all being first class. The only thing that lacked a little was the ability of Monty and I to overcome the crippling linguistic boundaries of being in an Italian restaurant in the German speaking part of Switzerland. Though given Reggie can apparently speak every language known to modern man, we were in good hands and after plenty of smiling and nodding on our parts and plenty of apparently comprehensible gibber on hers, everything went swimmingly (except for Monty having finished his food before we even started - though this was clearly the kitchen's fault).
After dinner we headed to a local bar to grab a quiet drink but by this stage we were all pretty tired so we were soon headed back to the retreat to get another good night's sleep. Even though we really did not accomplish much it was great to have a proper "down" day and good times were had by all.
Feeling refreshed and recharged!
Jez
That night we headed down to the lake for dinner which was a definite highlight, with the food, setting and company all being first class. The only thing that lacked a little was the ability of Monty and I to overcome the crippling linguistic boundaries of being in an Italian restaurant in the German speaking part of Switzerland. Though given Reggie can apparently speak every language known to modern man, we were in good hands and after plenty of smiling and nodding on our parts and plenty of apparently comprehensible gibber on hers, everything went swimmingly (except for Monty having finished his food before we even started - though this was clearly the kitchen's fault).
After dinner we headed to a local bar to grab a quiet drink but by this stage we were all pretty tired so we were soon headed back to the retreat to get another good night's sleep. Even though we really did not accomplish much it was great to have a proper "down" day and good times were had by all.
Feeling refreshed and recharged!
Jez
July 20 - Lyon to Zug
Our alarm went off at the spritely hour of 5am, just as the first rays of sunlight were creeping over the horizon. As we had spent the last night in a park, Jez and I were not feeling our best. Rather, we were feeling significantly below our best. Our aim for the day was to get to Zug, just below Zurich in Switzerland were Reggie, a girl Jez knows from Australia, lives.
So, we trudged off to the train station to wait for our train to Geneva. After arriving at the station, we realised that we were not going to be travelling by train, but by bus. At 6:04am, the bus promptly left Lyon and headed off to Geneva. Due to the ungodly hour, there was enough room for Jez and I to have an entire row of 4 seats each. This proved decisive as we quickly drifted off into a better sleep than the night before.
According to Jez, I was at my snoring best this trip and before you know it I was unconscious and making sure that no one else got much sleep. However, I awoke in Geneva feeling pretty good.
At Geneva we hopped on a train that took us to Bern, then from Bern we made it to Interlarken. Interlarken is the extreme sports capital of Switzerland, and it would have been rude not to get amongst the action whilst we were here. (If you take a look at a map of Switzerland, you will notice that Interlarken is a bit of a detour from Geneva to Zug).
When we got to Interlarken, we got in contact with a company that does canyoning and off we went. Canyoning involves being driven half way up a mountain and making your way down by the river. This is a lot more fun than it sounds. There were parts where we had to abseil down waterfalls, parts where we jumped off waterfalls and parts where we went down rapids by ourselves, like a natural slippery dip.
The highlight was this one abseil we had to do. A few days beforehand, there had been massive rains which had pushed a lot of rocks to the bottom of a waterfall. This meant that it was too shallow to safely jump off. Therefore, we had to abseil around the corner of a cliff. We had to abseil out and the jump off the cliff, and the rope brought us around the corner and onto the other side of the cliff. It was pretty cool. The funniest one of these was Jez. He got a little excited and pushed harder with his left leg than his right. This caused him to spin around whilst going around the corner of the cliff, giving him a perfect view of the other side of the cliff on the other side of the river. No harm was done though as he landed safely on the other side.
After a few hours of canyoning, we hopped back on the train and went to Bern, switched train and caught one to Zurich. After that, we got a 15 minute train and we finally arrived at Zug.
Reggie’s place was awesome. We got there and, as the rest of her family was on holidays, Jez and I found out we had a room each! This was a 5 star resort (later to be named Reggie’s Retreat). After dumping out stuff, we had the first home cooked meal in a long time. After that, some of Reggie’s friends came over and we jumped in the pool and chilled out in the spa (all the time, Jez and I were in the budgies of course).
That night, we had a much better sleep than the night before. This was mainly due to the fact that we were indoors.
Over and out,
Monty
So, we trudged off to the train station to wait for our train to Geneva. After arriving at the station, we realised that we were not going to be travelling by train, but by bus. At 6:04am, the bus promptly left Lyon and headed off to Geneva. Due to the ungodly hour, there was enough room for Jez and I to have an entire row of 4 seats each. This proved decisive as we quickly drifted off into a better sleep than the night before.
According to Jez, I was at my snoring best this trip and before you know it I was unconscious and making sure that no one else got much sleep. However, I awoke in Geneva feeling pretty good.
At Geneva we hopped on a train that took us to Bern, then from Bern we made it to Interlarken. Interlarken is the extreme sports capital of Switzerland, and it would have been rude not to get amongst the action whilst we were here. (If you take a look at a map of Switzerland, you will notice that Interlarken is a bit of a detour from Geneva to Zug).
When we got to Interlarken, we got in contact with a company that does canyoning and off we went. Canyoning involves being driven half way up a mountain and making your way down by the river. This is a lot more fun than it sounds. There were parts where we had to abseil down waterfalls, parts where we jumped off waterfalls and parts where we went down rapids by ourselves, like a natural slippery dip.
The highlight was this one abseil we had to do. A few days beforehand, there had been massive rains which had pushed a lot of rocks to the bottom of a waterfall. This meant that it was too shallow to safely jump off. Therefore, we had to abseil around the corner of a cliff. We had to abseil out and the jump off the cliff, and the rope brought us around the corner and onto the other side of the cliff. It was pretty cool. The funniest one of these was Jez. He got a little excited and pushed harder with his left leg than his right. This caused him to spin around whilst going around the corner of the cliff, giving him a perfect view of the other side of the cliff on the other side of the river. No harm was done though as he landed safely on the other side.
After a few hours of canyoning, we hopped back on the train and went to Bern, switched train and caught one to Zurich. After that, we got a 15 minute train and we finally arrived at Zug.
Reggie’s place was awesome. We got there and, as the rest of her family was on holidays, Jez and I found out we had a room each! This was a 5 star resort (later to be named Reggie’s Retreat). After dumping out stuff, we had the first home cooked meal in a long time. After that, some of Reggie’s friends came over and we jumped in the pool and chilled out in the spa (all the time, Jez and I were in the budgies of course).
That night, we had a much better sleep than the night before. This was mainly due to the fact that we were indoors.
Over and out,
Monty
July 19 - Training Day Number 2
We woke early and wasted little time in getting our bags and getting down to the metro station where we caught the first two trains of the day, getting from our hostel to the main train station where we were told that if we wanted to go to Cerbere then we should make our way to platform 14. When we got to platform 14, we saw that the next train was bound for Portbou, which we managed to work out was right next to Cerbere, so we got on. This was a major blunder. The train turned out not to be going anywhere near Cerbere, but instead just went to another train station in Barcelona and though there was a train departing for Montpellier from this station (which would have been an ideal result) this train was full and we had to head back to the station that we had originally been at and then get the next train to Cerbere. This whole debacle cost us about 2 and a half hours.
Eventually we managed to get on a train to Cerbere, from where we had hoped to get a connecting train to Montpellier and from there make our way towards Geneva. Upon arrival in Cerbere some 3 hours later, it became evident that this would be easier said than done. Our connecting route was planned to be Cerbere to Perpignan, Perpignan to Valence, Valence to Lyon and then Lyon to Geneva which if you try is really not that difficult to say. But given that almost all of these trains seemed to be completely full, actually doing this route was flat out impossible. As a result, we got a new schedule. Cerbere to Perpignan, Perpignan to Montpellier (we got there eventually), Montpellier to Lyon and then Lyon to Geneva. Again, this all sounds pretty easy. In reality it was an adventure that took most of the next 18 hours.
Our primary problem was that we arrived at Lyon at about 11:15 pm and had to be onboard our train to Geneva at about 6 am. We were not at all inclined to be paying for accommodation for the 4 hours we would be there so we had planned on sleeping in the train station. However, despite Monty having scoped out Gare de Lyon's premier sleeping location, we were told that they shut the station between the hours of 1 and 5 am so we were out on our arses. After our attempts to find a cheap hotel fell flat we decided there was nothing for it but to find a good location and sleep in the park. This was tough as we were ideally looking for somewhere that offered some sort of protection from the prospect of getting all of our gear stolen, but also a bit of darkness and quiet. The result we managed was pretty good really - jumping the fence and sleeping in the garden of a pretty swanky looking apartment building. It was certainly not the most comfortable accommodation that we have managed this trip but it was certainly the cheapest and despite our lingering fears that we would be woken by either the apartment's security personel, random passers-by or wandering vagrants, we both eventually drifted off to sleep.
Jez
Eventually we managed to get on a train to Cerbere, from where we had hoped to get a connecting train to Montpellier and from there make our way towards Geneva. Upon arrival in Cerbere some 3 hours later, it became evident that this would be easier said than done. Our connecting route was planned to be Cerbere to Perpignan, Perpignan to Valence, Valence to Lyon and then Lyon to Geneva which if you try is really not that difficult to say. But given that almost all of these trains seemed to be completely full, actually doing this route was flat out impossible. As a result, we got a new schedule. Cerbere to Perpignan, Perpignan to Montpellier (we got there eventually), Montpellier to Lyon and then Lyon to Geneva. Again, this all sounds pretty easy. In reality it was an adventure that took most of the next 18 hours.
Our primary problem was that we arrived at Lyon at about 11:15 pm and had to be onboard our train to Geneva at about 6 am. We were not at all inclined to be paying for accommodation for the 4 hours we would be there so we had planned on sleeping in the train station. However, despite Monty having scoped out Gare de Lyon's premier sleeping location, we were told that they shut the station between the hours of 1 and 5 am so we were out on our arses. After our attempts to find a cheap hotel fell flat we decided there was nothing for it but to find a good location and sleep in the park. This was tough as we were ideally looking for somewhere that offered some sort of protection from the prospect of getting all of our gear stolen, but also a bit of darkness and quiet. The result we managed was pretty good really - jumping the fence and sleeping in the garden of a pretty swanky looking apartment building. It was certainly not the most comfortable accommodation that we have managed this trip but it was certainly the cheapest and despite our lingering fears that we would be woken by either the apartment's security personel, random passers-by or wandering vagrants, we both eventually drifted off to sleep.
Jez
July 18 - Barcelona
The alarm woke us promptly at 9am. No, we didn’t have to catch a train or save the world (no time for any of that), the Bledisloe was on! We had done some research whilst in Barcelona and discovered an Irish pub down the road that was going to show it. So, off we struggled to the pub. There were about 12 people in the pub, half Aussie and half kiwi. A few of the Aussie guys hadn’t actually gone to bed the night before and were just charging on. They were extremely committed.
As the history books tell us, the Wallabies went down 22-16 with rugby the winner on the day, and let us never mention the game again….
As our body’s battery levels were low, we went back to the hostel at around 11 and got some shut eye.
We woke at the pleasant hour of 3pm, feeling mightily refreshed. Feeling that we should do something besides sleep the day away, we smuggled up and hit the beach. This was as non-eventful as watching a snail crawl across the floor. The highlight being this guy who sold donuts that balanced on a plate on top of his head. He was singing, playing the triangle, and running over to people all while still balancing the donuts. It was very impressive.
That night we went down to the hostel bar again and ran into the 3 Welsh boys we had met 3 nights ago. 2 of them were the drunkest Welsh people I have ever seen, and they were hilarious. They had been at the pub since 1pm watching the Ashes and had decided to hit it hard. They were accidently spilling beer all over their sober mate and running up to talk to random chicks (which the sober mate actually didn’t mind). They had no idea where their passport or cameras were (with the sober mate) and would periodically have stress attacks before realising that they were with their mate.
At around midnight, Jez’s body shut down and he hopped off to bed whilst I went on a pub crawl organised by the hostel. I went to the first pub, had a beer, realised that the pub crawlers were the only people there and promptly went back to the hostel and went to bed.
Cheers,
Monty
As the history books tell us, the Wallabies went down 22-16 with rugby the winner on the day, and let us never mention the game again….
As our body’s battery levels were low, we went back to the hostel at around 11 and got some shut eye.
We woke at the pleasant hour of 3pm, feeling mightily refreshed. Feeling that we should do something besides sleep the day away, we smuggled up and hit the beach. This was as non-eventful as watching a snail crawl across the floor. The highlight being this guy who sold donuts that balanced on a plate on top of his head. He was singing, playing the triangle, and running over to people all while still balancing the donuts. It was very impressive.
That night we went down to the hostel bar again and ran into the 3 Welsh boys we had met 3 nights ago. 2 of them were the drunkest Welsh people I have ever seen, and they were hilarious. They had been at the pub since 1pm watching the Ashes and had decided to hit it hard. They were accidently spilling beer all over their sober mate and running up to talk to random chicks (which the sober mate actually didn’t mind). They had no idea where their passport or cameras were (with the sober mate) and would periodically have stress attacks before realising that they were with their mate.
At around midnight, Jez’s body shut down and he hopped off to bed whilst I went on a pub crawl organised by the hostel. I went to the first pub, had a beer, realised that the pub crawlers were the only people there and promptly went back to the hostel and went to bed.
Cheers,
Monty
July 17 - Barcelona
We made a very slow start to the day not getting moving until about 11. This was not so much the result of the excesses of the night before as it was a result of the excesses of the past 6 weeks. It seems that our bodies are slowly approaching total system failure. Regardless, we headed out into the rain determined to find the famed Sagrada Familia. Real Talk: when completed, the Sagrada Familia will be the world's largest cathedral, and once you go and have a look at this thing it is not hard to see why. It is enormous. It is no surprise at all that it has taken so long to build, with construction having started in 1926 and the completion date still upwards of 20 years away.
Following this, we headed off to the train station to book our train from Barca to Geneva which was in a couple of days time. We thought this was very responsible of us (booking a whole two days in advance and all) but it turned out to be a debacle. After waiting in various lines for what must have been over an hour we finally made it to the front desk only to be given some pretty average news. Despite having Eurrail passes, catching the night train was going to cost 70 euros each and the day train that runs between the two cities was completely full. We could get there, but it would mean taking a whole bunch of different trains and switching at various places. This news was really not that bad, but given we had been so proud of ourselves to be getting ourselves together and doing the booking a couple of days in advance, we were feeling a little let down, and that out traveling philosophy of flying by the seat of our pants, truly was the philosophy endorsed by St. Christopher (the patron saint of travelers). Real talk.
By this stage we were both pretty tired and we headed back to the hostel for a bit of down time before wandering down La Ramblas to the Aussie pub so we could watch the cricket. Whilst it was good to just sit there and do nothing for a while, pretty soon our cricketing fortunes were heading south at a rate of knots and we had to beat a hasty retreat before we sunk fully into depression. Our time watching the cricket was also notable for Monty's demolition of about 35 litres of orange juice - all consumed in the name of boosting his immune system.
For dinner, we headed back to the tapas restaurant from the previous night before wandering back to the hostel, perching ourselves in the bar with a pack of cards and seeing where the night would take us. Whilst the games of gin we started out with were very civilised, our posse quickly multiplied and soon we were playing a significantly less civilised game of "hang the dealer". It was at about this time that Monty absolutely hit the wall and headed for bed whilst the rest of us (4 Americans, 2 girls from Sydney and myself) jumped in cabs and headed for a club called Razzamatazz. It was a phenomenal night with a live band singing all sorts of weird songs up on stage (something about building a treehouse?), heaps of good music, and plenty of cutting sick on the dancefloor. However, my night was to come to an abrupt end. Bizarrely, I became convinced that one of the American girls that we had been drinking with all night was trying to pickpocket me. Accordingly, I vanished into the night, found some of the others and caught a cab back to the hostel. It was only when I woke up the next morning and was told that she was furious that I had just left her standing there that I realised just how ridiculous this was. Anyways, it was a really good night out and I certainly felt as though I had got a good taste of Barca's famed nightlife.
Jez
Following this, we headed off to the train station to book our train from Barca to Geneva which was in a couple of days time. We thought this was very responsible of us (booking a whole two days in advance and all) but it turned out to be a debacle. After waiting in various lines for what must have been over an hour we finally made it to the front desk only to be given some pretty average news. Despite having Eurrail passes, catching the night train was going to cost 70 euros each and the day train that runs between the two cities was completely full. We could get there, but it would mean taking a whole bunch of different trains and switching at various places. This news was really not that bad, but given we had been so proud of ourselves to be getting ourselves together and doing the booking a couple of days in advance, we were feeling a little let down, and that out traveling philosophy of flying by the seat of our pants, truly was the philosophy endorsed by St. Christopher (the patron saint of travelers). Real talk.
By this stage we were both pretty tired and we headed back to the hostel for a bit of down time before wandering down La Ramblas to the Aussie pub so we could watch the cricket. Whilst it was good to just sit there and do nothing for a while, pretty soon our cricketing fortunes were heading south at a rate of knots and we had to beat a hasty retreat before we sunk fully into depression. Our time watching the cricket was also notable for Monty's demolition of about 35 litres of orange juice - all consumed in the name of boosting his immune system.
For dinner, we headed back to the tapas restaurant from the previous night before wandering back to the hostel, perching ourselves in the bar with a pack of cards and seeing where the night would take us. Whilst the games of gin we started out with were very civilised, our posse quickly multiplied and soon we were playing a significantly less civilised game of "hang the dealer". It was at about this time that Monty absolutely hit the wall and headed for bed whilst the rest of us (4 Americans, 2 girls from Sydney and myself) jumped in cabs and headed for a club called Razzamatazz. It was a phenomenal night with a live band singing all sorts of weird songs up on stage (something about building a treehouse?), heaps of good music, and plenty of cutting sick on the dancefloor. However, my night was to come to an abrupt end. Bizarrely, I became convinced that one of the American girls that we had been drinking with all night was trying to pickpocket me. Accordingly, I vanished into the night, found some of the others and caught a cab back to the hostel. It was only when I woke up the next morning and was told that she was furious that I had just left her standing there that I realised just how ridiculous this was. Anyways, it was a really good night out and I certainly felt as though I had got a good taste of Barca's famed nightlife.
Jez
July 16 - Barcelona
Jez and I woke up feeling pretty good considering the Welsh assault that we confronted the night before. We woke up as one of the pommies in our room was getting in. He had spent the majority of the morning at the cop station. Being the idiot that he was, he decided to go for a swim at about 4am, and left everything (wallet, jeans, passport, phone, ect) on the beach in Barcelona. For those of you who don’t know, Barcelona is the pick pocket capital of Spain, if not Europe. Needless to say, the pommie found his jeans 50 metres up the beach with no valuables in sight. Idiot.
After listening to the drunken sob story, we grabbed some breakfast and headed out to see one of Barcelona’s main attractions, La Ramblas. La Ramblas is actually a street, with buskers and stalls going down the middle of a large median strip. You can buy almost anything here, from fruit and meat to live chickens and turtles. We walked down La Ramblas and just soaked up the atmosphere. The buskers here go all out. They don’t showcase any talents, but they get dressed up to the nines. Some of the favourites were these weird guys on bikes, and someone in an Alien costume (from the movie Alien).
For lunch we took a leaf out of the Lonely Planet and headed to La Fonda, a place just off La Ramblas in the Gothic Quarter. It turned out to be a great find. It was a fairly classy restaurant (with table cloths and waiters actually dressed up. Jez and I were not used to this), and the set menu was massive for under 10 Euros. Unfortunately, we looked a bit out of place with singlets and thongs.
In the afternoon hit the beach (in the budgies of course). Its not really a beach, but it has sand and water and was created for the 1992 Olympics (Real talk). Basically in 1991, they got a shit load of sand and dumped it near the waters edge. The result is a 10 cm layer of sand, under which is dirt. Over the years, the dirt has started turning the sand a darker and darker colour. The water wasn’t that clean and it was packed, and it once again made us appreciate how good Aussie beaches are. They one good thing it had going for it is that you didn’t have to leave your spot to get a beer, coke, water or massage, with tons of people walking on the beach offering all these goods and services.
That night, we met up with Georgie Mosman and a few of her friends. We walked around the Gothic Quarter and stumbled upon a guy (playing the guitar and singing) and a girl (singing back up). They were amazing and were close to signing a record deal. They were muchos authentic.
Till we blog again,
Monty
After listening to the drunken sob story, we grabbed some breakfast and headed out to see one of Barcelona’s main attractions, La Ramblas. La Ramblas is actually a street, with buskers and stalls going down the middle of a large median strip. You can buy almost anything here, from fruit and meat to live chickens and turtles. We walked down La Ramblas and just soaked up the atmosphere. The buskers here go all out. They don’t showcase any talents, but they get dressed up to the nines. Some of the favourites were these weird guys on bikes, and someone in an Alien costume (from the movie Alien).
For lunch we took a leaf out of the Lonely Planet and headed to La Fonda, a place just off La Ramblas in the Gothic Quarter. It turned out to be a great find. It was a fairly classy restaurant (with table cloths and waiters actually dressed up. Jez and I were not used to this), and the set menu was massive for under 10 Euros. Unfortunately, we looked a bit out of place with singlets and thongs.
In the afternoon hit the beach (in the budgies of course). Its not really a beach, but it has sand and water and was created for the 1992 Olympics (Real talk). Basically in 1991, they got a shit load of sand and dumped it near the waters edge. The result is a 10 cm layer of sand, under which is dirt. Over the years, the dirt has started turning the sand a darker and darker colour. The water wasn’t that clean and it was packed, and it once again made us appreciate how good Aussie beaches are. They one good thing it had going for it is that you didn’t have to leave your spot to get a beer, coke, water or massage, with tons of people walking on the beach offering all these goods and services.
That night, we met up with Georgie Mosman and a few of her friends. We walked around the Gothic Quarter and stumbled upon a guy (playing the guitar and singing) and a girl (singing back up). They were amazing and were close to signing a record deal. They were muchos authentic.
Till we blog again,
Monty
July 15 - San Sebastian to Barcelona
After our efforts at the Cider House the night before, Monty and I were feeling worse for wear but we had plans to get to Barca so wasted little time in checking out of the hostel (even though we couldn't find Leo) and headed for the bus station. Upon our arrival we were relieved to find that the buses weren't all full but a little annoyed to find that we would have to wait about 4 hours. However, my rapidly improving ability to hablas espanol allowed me to charm the receptionist at a hotel next to the train station into letting us use the wifi for free and the next couple of hours passed with us updating the blog, scrolling through facebook and reading every last article we could find on le tour de france, the ashes and the upcoming bledisloe test.
Once we got on the train we realised that it was not going to be a pleasant journey. The bus was hot and crowded and we had a bunch of loud Americans behind us and a group of giggling Spanish teenagers in front of us. We were further unnerved when the couple in front of us informed us that of the 15 people they knew that had been to Barca, 14 (including themselves) had been either pickpocketed or robbed. Besides this, the bus trip was largely uneventful with Monty reading his book and me trying to catch up on sleep.
Upon arriving in Barca at about 10, we decided not to try and negotiate the public transport system and instead opted for a cab to our hostel. Though we're not entirely sure whethere the cabbie was ripping us off we eventually made it there and were pleased to find that it seemed like a pretty cool place with quite a big bar. We decided to make use of this facility, and despite neither of us planning on having too much to drink we soon found ourselves engaged in drinking games with 3 Welsh blokes. Thankfully though, sense prevailed and with a big day of touristing on the agenda for the next day we decided not to go out and were tucked up in bed at a reasonable hour.
Jez
Once we got on the train we realised that it was not going to be a pleasant journey. The bus was hot and crowded and we had a bunch of loud Americans behind us and a group of giggling Spanish teenagers in front of us. We were further unnerved when the couple in front of us informed us that of the 15 people they knew that had been to Barca, 14 (including themselves) had been either pickpocketed or robbed. Besides this, the bus trip was largely uneventful with Monty reading his book and me trying to catch up on sleep.
Upon arriving in Barca at about 10, we decided not to try and negotiate the public transport system and instead opted for a cab to our hostel. Though we're not entirely sure whethere the cabbie was ripping us off we eventually made it there and were pleased to find that it seemed like a pretty cool place with quite a big bar. We decided to make use of this facility, and despite neither of us planning on having too much to drink we soon found ourselves engaged in drinking games with 3 Welsh blokes. Thankfully though, sense prevailed and with a big day of touristing on the agenda for the next day we decided not to go out and were tucked up in bed at a reasonable hour.
Jez
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)