D & G's Big European Adventure

Everything comes to an end...

2008-06-21T00:01:00.000-07:00

Did I say we'd get to Madrid stress and argument free? Yes I did and I was right. Having Jane on board with us made the last leg of the journey completely pain and hassle free. Especially as Madrid is even bigger than Barcelona, with a population of 6 million people and just as many cars, having to navigate without her would have been a nightmare!

We were pleased to find also that the hotel we were staying at was the nicest we've had yet, I must have done my research when I booked it. It reeked class and featured several sun decks near the top of the hotel with lounges and decking just perfect for sitting back and enjoying the evening sunlight.

Yes, even worse than Barcelona, it was now not getting dark until after 10pm allowing the long, hot summer days to stretch out forever. Most days have been around 30c and we've been lapping up the sun and heat knowing that we're returning to the cold and wet. There was just one thing about the hotel that wasn't quite as classy as one would have liked. In the bathroom, the toilet faces the vanity and a mirrored drawer in the cabinet so when you're sitting on the loo, you're staring at your junk in the mirror. Classy huh?

After we arrived, Gareth happened to read the AVIS contract that I'd been carrying and lucky he did too! Where I thought we were dropping the car off at the airport in 3 days time (incurring 75 Euros worth of parking fees in the meantime) he found that we were actually meant to be dropping it off a block from our hotel. A quick visit to the AVIS office and we were able to return the car early, saving us 3 days worth of rental fees on the car and GPS (and a final farewell to Jane) as well as the 75 Euro in parking fees! We were very happy about that and figured it was money we wouldn't have had so would spend it on our favourite thing – us!

Madrid reminded us a lot of New York in terms of a major road which we were staying on (Gran Via) that act as a hub for the suburbs surrounding it. The locals call it their version of Broadway and it's easy to see why, with lots of big billboards, flashing neon lights and cinemas and theatres lining the street. One of the theatres near us is home to Beauty and the Beast while another is featuring High School Musical – The Musical! Marky D, we thought of you immediately! Unfortunately they were both in Spanish so we weren't able to go and see either.

As Madrid was our last stop, we have been slowly winding down, continuing to sleep late, going for a late breakfast followed by several spots of shopping (it's very addictive), getting some sight seeing done and then stopping for a rest before dinner.

We were also able to hire the day spa in the hotel for our private use and spent an hour using the spa, sauna, steam room and ice bath which was awesome! We both felt great afterwards and I think it was a great way to prepare for the end of the trip and get our bodies ready for the long flight home and for the detox we have planned. We realised the other day that I'd had 4 alcohol free days in over 9 weeks (G has had about 8) so a detox is definitely in order for the both of us. That didn't stop us here though, having a couple of nights out, one of which found us in a jam packed bar with one long continuous drag show for the 3 hours we were there. Who else should one of them do a number to just after we arrived but Kylie. (Better the Devil) I told you, the bitch is international!

Spain in general is currently undergoing several fads we noticed. The first we noticed in other parts of Europe also (mainly Prague and Berlin) but it was most noticeable once we got to Spain – the mullet. They have all your different varieties, the shaved on top with straight mullet, the permed mullet but the most common is your country bumpkin, serial killer style mullet. They are seriously everywhere, even on the hottest boys sometimes! You really have to wonder. Another massive fad also a little in France but again, mostly in Spain is the facial piercing. Lower lips are popular as are lebrets (in the middle, between your lower lip and your chin) but most popular are to the side of the lebret. 30% – 40% of young guys seem to have them which is massive! Tattoos are also V common, with more than 50% sporting some visible ink. Arms, legs, necks – it doesn't matter where although calf's are very popular.

As we've also mentioned in previous blogs, pronunciation is key when speaking foreign languages. We have learned another important pronunciation rule with Spanish, revolving around chicken. Chicken in Spanish, is 'pollo'. You have to be careful to pronounce the 'o' at the end as if you have an 'a' at the end instead as in 'polla', it changes the meaning completely. Where Pollo is chicken, Polla means penis. You don't want to be ordering that in a restaurant now do you? Nuggets anyone?

We have been reminiscing a lot already about the trip and we've both learned some interesting things about each other. This blog's learnings section includes some of these things we have learnt about each other over the last 9 weeks.

Learnings:

I apply my lip balm "weird" according to Gareth. We don't know what it is I do, but always seem to have one pointy side.
G has also learnt that I sigh a lot for no apparent reason.
I have learnt that G has a big OCD streak when it comes to the locking of doors and windows. He is also ultra paranoid about being pick pocketed in the street.
Breakfast buffets in Spain serve Champagne

We also thought it would be interesting to have a stats section for this, our final blog post for our trip.

Stats

Items of clothing bought – 43 (Dan 31, Gareth 12)

Km's driven – 4246km (Glasgow – London, 2199km, Paris – Madrid, 2047km)

Hotels/BB's we stayed in - 33

Litres of wine consumed (approx) - 42

Countries visited – 14

Currencies used -7

So now we're home again, doing the washing and settling back into our life. It's a little sad that it's all over but we're mostly happy to be home in our apartment, with our own couches, our shower, our coffee machine and most importantly, our own bed!! Thanks to all of you for visiting our blog, leaving us messages and all your good wishes along the way. We look forward to catching up with all of you before too long.

Love Dan and Gareth xx

Hola! Or should that be holler?

2008-06-19T02:54:00.000-07:00

Last time we chatted, we had just arrived in Spain, in a small town called Figueres, famous for being the birthplace of Salvidor Dali. Of course we took a couple of hours out the next day to visit the Dali museum which is not only full of his original works but was designed by him as well. Gareth has always been a Dali fan and while I knew some of his works, I didn’t know just how much of a creative genius the man really was. Paintings, sculptures, drawings and art installations, including some awesome revolving 3D holograms that he created. Truly amazing.

We’d arrived in Figueres from Toulouse without Jane’s help so we were now more confident in our ability to get us to Barcelona in one piece. When we had Jane we were able to avoid paying tolls on motorways as we could take the secondary roads. It made the journey a little longer at times but much prettier also, taking us through sleepy little towns and along curved country roads instead of the monolithic highways. Without her guiding us, we now had to take the motorways so we could follow the signs. We knew that there would be tolls, but we had no idea just how many, or how much it would cost us! All up we paid close to 50 Euro (about $80 AUD) in tolls between Toulouse and Valencia! With me at the wheel and Gareth being map master for the day, we arrived safely and well ahead of schedule, getting in early in the afternoon.

Barcelona is a huge city with loads of freeways but we made it to our hotel without getting lost and with only a little stress as G wrestled the gigantic map we’d picked up at a roadside stop. We stayed in the Eixample area which sits about 15 mins walk from the centre of the city and is also the gay hub of Barcelona.

As we wanted to experience some of the local nightlife, we also now had to get used to eating late. Eating at 10pm is considered early so we did as the locals do, had a mid afternoon snack, a siesta in the early evening and headed out for dinner after 10.30pm most nights we were there. Being the weekend, we hit the bars and clubs quite hard and had several very long walks home at dawn.

During the day we continued to hit the shops and bought heaps of clothes (especially me) which had the additional benefit of saving us from doing any more washing. Bonus! We also saw the various buildings designed by Gaudi, the Sagrada Familia, La Pedrera and ‘The Magic Fountain’,
which I really loved.

The fountain has several light shows all designed with different themed soundtracks, just like the Bellagio in Vegas but better, I thought. There was a movie soundtrack one with the theme songs from E.T, Titanic, Star Wars and Superman which was great, but my favourite was the Disney one. No surprises there for any of you I’m sure.

After more than a week in France, we now also had to get used to Spanish rather than the French we had grown quite comfortable with. We both found ourselves ordering something in a shop or restaurant and saying “Sil vous plait” instead of “Porvivore” and “Merci” instead of “Gracias”. We both knew how to say hello though, or at least we thought we did. For the first few days, whenever we’d enter a shop and were greeted by the shop assistants, after the initial “Ola”, they would always speak to Gareth in English but speak to me in Spanish. It was puzzling to us both… Did I look Spanish? We didn’t think so but just couldn’t figure out why. After about 4 days in Spain, I actually listened to G when he greeted them back and was amused to hear that instead of “Ola”, he was saying “Holler”. I think he watches too much Tyra!! No wonder they knew he didn’t speak Spanish! The funny thing is that he always thought she said “holler” on her show because of her large Hispanic audience who speak Spanish. Naturally, we have gotten a lot of enjoyment out of that and now have several “Raise the roof, give up for Tyra!! HOLLER!” moments each day.

A large part of our day has continued to revolve around food – what we would eat, where and what time, and we have managed to find some great restaurants that serve very yummy tapas and great big jugs of delicious sangria. Unfortunately we had our dreams shattered at one of the restaurants though. When the sangria came out they hadn’t stirred it properly and there was about 2 cms of undissolved white sugar sitting in the bottom of the jug! No wonder it tasted so good!!

Spain also wins bonus points from G as when his phone roams to a new network, the network it lands on a majority of the time is “movistar”. He insists they know who he is and I just tell him “Holler!”

After 3 nights in Barcelona, it was time to start moving towards our last stop, Madrid and we chose Valencia, down the coast a couple of hours as the mid point stop for us. Again with no Jane to keep us on track, we finally found our way out of Barcelona and hit the motorway towards Valencia. We got to the city ok and we’d printed out the directions from Google maps so we should be right, right? Well, we would have been had there been any signs anywhere but as Valencia seemed to be completely devoid of signs, well the ones we were looking for anyway! Even though we were following the directions, the streets had moved or been renamed and we quickly become lost with no idea of how we would find our hotel as we also didn’t have any maps on us. Jane, we need you!! After a stressful hour or so and a little bit of luck, we stumbled across one of the streets close to our hotel – I recognised the street name from the directions we had – so parked the car and kept following the directions on foot until we found the hotel.

First thing we did the next morning was to find our local AVIS office and rent another tom tom. Finally we had Jane back with us and were once again ready to safely, happily and quickly head to Madrid knowing that we could depend on her to get us there stress and argument free.

Au revoir!

2008-06-15T13:29:00.000-07:00

What we are listening to: Rhianna – Shut up and drive (remix)– it is on the radio all the time!

After spending a couple of great days in Paris, we continued our drive south and took in some great parts of the French countryside and experienced a completely different country. It is picturesque and beautiful but a world away from the busy cities and highly polished Parisian people. We drove south through the Loire valley and Dordogne region.

First thing on our agenda was to pick up our second car and another tom tom and discovered when we went through the language options that the tom tom lady’s name is actually Jane. There was an option for ‘Ken’ the male Australian voice but he was not installed – we gave 'Tim' the Irish man a go for only a short time but he got a little hard to understand (and kept on saying to be sure). We also discovered after talking to some other travellers at dinner one night that we are not the only ones who talk to her or at times disagree with her directions (They also had Jane and agreed that she was troublesome). It seems we’re not all that crazy after all! And bonus - the car we were given this time, an Opel Astra, was brand new. It had only 6 kms on the dash. Wow, go us. Being new it drives like a dream and corners like it is on rails. Bonus if you can name the pop-culture reference on this one. I couldn’t! We have traced our journey through France on the map on the left.

First stop, Orleans – birth place of Joan of Arc and still it seems the local economy revolves around her name. Let her live in peace I reckon. It is a cute little city with some lovely little streets but once again, apart from a Cathedral and a museum (the Joan of Arc museum, of course), there just wasn’t much there! Luckily we had our fare share of culture in Paris so a few quiet days certainly wouldn’t go astray!

We also took in a few Chateaus that were absolutely breath taking- Chenonceau and Chambord; expansive estates, gardens and amazing structures. I kept asking Dan if he would buy me a chateau for Christmas so I can live in hope til then. If he buys me one, then we would have the room to get a dog! Win, win I reckon!

On our way to Tours we stopped off for lunch at a lovely lake side town called Blois. They had a marathon so most of the streets were blocked off and we found an amazing café atop a hill near a church (what else?) for a rest and some lunch before continuing on our way.

From Tours, it was onto Bordeaux – as in the wine and we did enjoy some good ones too. After a bit of a search, we found the one and only gay bar that was open on a Tuesday night and what a night! It started slow but soon two boys were putting on a show for everyone dancing around waving feathered fans and wearing sunnies. And of course it wasn’t long until the pink wig came out and everyone (including the bar man) was having a go and loving themselves sick. It was just like being at home! Tim, Ben and Paula – we thought of you three straight away, you would have loved it! Then at one stage Lady Marmalade came on and 4 boys got up and danced on the actual bar… it was crazy! One thing we have noticed over here is that no matter where you are, the music is the same - Madonna, Britney and of course Kylie. Even in some of the smallest bars we have found in the dingiest cities, she always makes an appearance. I guess she really is international! A very late, slightly messy night and a hangover for both of us the next morning.

This also marked the beginning of some very hot days followed by huge but brief storms late in the afternoon. Lucky I got to drive through that one again! How is it that when we swap drivers after Dan gets tired, it seems to be a signal for the heavens to open up!?

Next stop was Toulouse where we had to say good bye to Jane so as to not incur a 100 Euro fee for taking her to Spain with us. She was in good spirits but was holding back what would have been tears if she allowed herself any softer emotion. We had a bit of a drama dropping it off as the AVIS lady wouldn’t accept the GPS at first but after convincing her to look up our contract on the system and then making some phone calls to Paris, she was told she could do it. What she said at first was “impossible”, was now possible. Showing some rare restraint, Dan bit his tongue about that, although he couldn’t help saying “Je ne pense pas, c’est tres complique”. (“I do not think it’s very complicated”) which surprised her as she just assumed he couldn’t speak any French at all. Dan, argumentative? Never.

Our last night in France was spent in Toulouse and we decided that our last meal should be traditional French in a local square. We were halfway through our entrées when the rain started. We were under outdoor umbrellas but before we could finish them the rain was coming in between the gaps and splashing onto us off our plates. Not the best way to enjoy Foie Gras or Salmon tartare!

With Jane left behind us, we had to rely on maps and our keen sense of direction for the next part of the drive. I mean, really. We’re two grown men, fully able to drive and read maps and road signs… how hard could it be??

We were now on our own (sans technology) from Toulouse to Figueres, then onto Barcelona. Needless to say I was a little bit scared but we successfully passed the first challenge by making it to the medieval town of Carcassonne. It is the last remaining entirely walled city in Europe and they have a great shop that sells all sorts of delicious, handmade biscuits, gateaux and truffles. We did our best to support the local economy and said goodbye to France, crossing the border into Spain and arriving in Figueres mid afternoon.

Learnings:

An Oom pa-pa band (as we saw in Bavaria) is not the same as an oompa loompa band.
It is possible to give some one a travelling haircut with beard clippers and nail scissors.
As the waiter gave Daniel his meal in Bordeaux, we both swear he said, “Here is your chicken and dog box.”

Next up is Spain which marks one week to go. :(

This story is brought to you by the letter p. P for Paris.

2008-06-10T13:50:00.000-07:00

As I mentioned in the last blog, we (Dan) booked the wrong dates for our arrival so we got an extra few days in Paris as a bonus. Only for a moment were we homeless/room less in Paris. Then we rocked up to the hotel we were booked into and luckily they had vacancies. As it turned out, it probably was for the best. Who would say no to an extra 2 days in Paris?

For the four days we took it really easy and pretended we were Parisian. We ate baguettes, croissants and talked French with varying degrees of success, we really could live here! It is getting easier though. We’re now able to negotiate most conversations in French and don’t have to revert to English too often which makes the whole experience all that more rewarding.
After a really good sleep in after the tour we went for what would be many walks around the city. We got to the Eiffel tower and decided the lines were too long, so we grabbed some food from a vendor and sat in the Champs de Mars. Actually, I read while Dan had a sleep in the park. He can sleep anywhere – I don’t know how he does it… we had to save our energy for the show we were seeing that night!

We continued to work out the credit card with a bit of shopping and we even helped locals move a lounge on trolleys along La Sienne – they started with a case of beer and were more than half way thru when we helped them. They had been moving the lounge on top of two trolleys for over an hour!

Yes, you may have guessed it… we saw the Moulin Rouge (cue the music!) it had everything… of course the dancers and the can-can, but also a ventriloquist, a juggler person, even a lady who swam with huge snakes in a giant aquarium. We did the dinner show and it was worth every cent. The sets and costumes were amazing with platforms descending out of the ceiling and stairs rising out of the floor. Just think of one of Kylie’s shows with massive plumes of feathers, add steroids, get their tits out, stir a little and times it by 10! It really was awesome.
After the show we didn’t want to go home so we hit the streets looking for somewhere to drink! (as you do).

At the second bar we met some nice locals who at 2 am, as the bar was closing, realised they had to work tomorrow. We were also taught some of the nuances of the French pronunciation. I couldn’t and still can’t tell the difference from La Sienne to La Sienne (something about the ne sound)… ask Dan about how to pronounce Enchante’ for example… he got a 5 minute lesson on that word alone. Apparently he has a beautiful French accent though according to the lady we were chatting to.

The next day after a sleep in (thank goodness for dark thick curtains) we made our way to the Musée du Louvre complete with secret entrance (well not secret), rather the second, little known about entrance. No line for us, we bought tickets and straight in! We did all the usual things and we reckon the real Mona Lisa was not on display – people cameras were flashing everywhere, right in front of the guards and they didn’t do a thing… thankfully not that many people there when we got to it, I walked up to the front of the rail to get a sort of good look – she was still a bit away…

Dinner that night was wine, cheese, meats (and foie gras for Dan) and of course a baguette by the shores of La Sienne, topped off with a layered chocolate/coffee pudding and egg custard tart. We saw the locals do it when we went on our cruise on the first night of the tour and we just had to do it as well. The wine and nibbles tasted great with an awesome setting.

In our attempt to avoid the queues we went to the Eiffel tower 30 minutes before it opened. Our patience was rewarded as we first the first lift to the very top of the tower. It was great to take in the view without the crowds which arrived soon after. When we left the queue to get to the summit was very long and we all know how much Dan and I like to wait in line.

Again we went out for a nice dinner to mark our last night in Paris. We found a nice ‘jazz’ place on the island. Well if you call a solo piano player who seemed to just speed up his standards ‘jazz’. Definition aside, it was great – food was exquisite and a perfect way to end four fantastic days. It was sad to say good bye to Paris but we were looking forward to seeing some more of the country. First stop, Orleans.

Observations

In the Marais district, in the mornings, there is an overwhelming smell of disinfectant through the streets as they disinfect the paths and out front of restaurants. More than can be said for some of our cesspit bars at home!
Even homeless people walk around with a baguette, yes true
There are a lot of Laundromats around the Marais.

Learnings

The French do not use the word ‘sweet’ when describing red wine. Dan asked which was the sweetest red on the list and she said, “No sweet for rouge. Rouge is soft or heavy. Sweet is for white”
If a croissant has curved ends it has been made with butter, if it is straight it has been made with margarine
There is a buzzer warning just before the doors slam shut on the metro for a reason. Also the speed of the doors slamming will leave a nice bruise on your arm.

What's that smell?

2008-06-07T14:00:00.000-07:00

Well, we finally found where we grant me admin rights on this blog so now it should say who published/wrote what post. We knew it had to be there somewhere!

The next stop on the tour was the great city of Amsterdam. Yes you've all heard the stories and yes they are true. Being a simple boy from the suburbs I was blown away with the liberal attitude to everything.

In the air lingers a sent of something which I can not place, well actually it was everywhere, the smell of marijuana. You can buy it in cafe's, you just have to ask for the menu. Also they sell many varieties of mushrooms and they ain't for your stirfry!

We took in one of Amsterdam's more unusual forms of entertainment - an erotic cabaret. It makes it sound almost classy, I can assure you is wasn't. Some of the acts we fun, like the male stripper who called up some girls on stage and I think you've heard about the banana performance - yes, still going strong. I was pleased NOT to have been called on stage for that one.

After they show we went to a couple of bars and made friends with the owner of one. He actually invited us to his birthday party in a couple of nights but we wouldn't be in the city. After the bar had shut he let us stay and keep drinking with him and a two of his friends. Needless to say i woke up with a bit of a headache. Unlike me, Dan woke up looking and feeling good, as usual. I still haven't figured out how he does that...

We slept in a little before we attacked the city, walking around the canals and shopping area before joining a canal cruise in the evening. We visited the attic and home of where Anne Frank and her family lived. It was quite a moving experience, especially the closing video of Otto the father; he survived Auschwitz and Anne died only a month before liberation... I will be reading her diary again (I first read it in school) and I am sure I will have more understanding and appreciation after all I have seen and read now.

We roamed the streets for the day and came home atound 3pm for a nap. I know sad isn't it but we needed it after some pretty heavy nights. The cruise was very much a farewell for everyone on tour. We drank, laughed and took some really bad photos. The cruise finished but in no way had we - we took the party to The Grasshopper - quite an infamous club and we drank and danced and talked crap until the wee hours of the morning.

We got up with only a few hours to spare only to find that we weren't leaving until an hour later than planned so we could have slept in. AHHH and we needed it. Dan did grab an extra hour after breakfast but I stayed up. Only one casualty for the big night, Dan lost his shirt! Yes it has happened before just ask Charlie! He did have it on when we arrived home but not when we left the hotel the next morning.

We boarded the bus feeling a little precious to our onward journey to Paris. It was a strange bus ride back to Paris - sad to be saying goodbye to some of our new friends, happy to see others go and excited for the next two weeks.

Upon arriving in Paris, we looked at our confirmation for the hotel and we had booked the wrong dates. OOOPS. We booked 5-7th rather than 3-5th. this worked out quite well, giving us another two nights in Paris but nowhere to stay! I was getting a little worried but Dan just took it in his stride. We rocked up to the hotel and luckily they had vacancies so we had 4 nights there rather than having to move. I am sure Dan will update you on the brilliant location...

The tour is over, friends have been made and heaps of new experiences will remain in our memories forever. We have lots of food to try and make back home and all the photos to go thru. Any one for a slide night?

Learning:

I can not go one for one Vodka with Dan
Before using a new mouth wash for the first time it is best to read the instructions. Dan didn't and it was CONCENTRATED and burnt a layer of skin off the inside of his mouth. Skin actually came off. And he just thought it was stronger than he was used to...

Challenge Update

2008-06-06T08:44:00.000-07:00

Dea: This is the best we could come up with I'm afraid...

Sad, we know...

Charles: Here's the one 'real cafe' we found in the Dam... no pics of us actually drinking coffee there tho as we didn't get your challenge until after we'd already left. It was just coincidence we had a photo of the sign...

Unfortunately we didn't have any random photos of dikes, with or without our fingers in them :(

It was a bit hard on the tour to do challenges as we usually only had 1 free day in each city. Now that we're on our own again though, we have plenty of time and opportunities to fulfil challenges for you all! We're in France for the next week, then Spain for the week after that so get creative and see what you can come up with for us!

Currywurst, Bratwurst, Liverwurst, it's the worst!

2008-06-06T06:13:00.000-07:00

Another long drive and we found ourselves in the beautiful city of Prague, my (Dan) favourite place from my last trip to Europe. It was nice to be back, to return to some of my favourite places and see lots of new ones too. Luckily this visit did not feature any middle of the night meetings with dodgy police like my first one did.

It was only a half day drive from Budapest (about 5 hours) so after a short walking tour of the city and orientating ourselves a little, we had dinner with the group and hit a couple of bars for some drinks and a boogie. I couldn’t remember where the bars were I visited last time and hadn’t seen any sex shops or bars to pick up a local ‘gay guide’ but I came up with an idea.

Posing as a guest of the Prague Four Seasons, I paid a visit to the concierge who looked it up and provided me with a map of it. Ever so helpful. Off to the bar we had been looking for, only to find that it was karaoke night and only had about a dozen people there. Oh well, we were at least able to get a guide and then went to the club I wanted to go to. It was closed. After a few more attempts and finding somewhere open and worth staying at, we finally found somewhere, got down to some Britney and Kylie (who else?) and dragged ourselves home for some sleep.

The hotel had free wifi access (albeit it only available in the lobby) which was the first time in a few weeks so we were determined to get the most out of it and spent the next morning doing some housekeeping; washing in the bathtub, paying some bills (they don’t stop when you’re on holiday unfortunately!) and catching up on things online. As the bus is feels rather cramped at times and some of the beds have been a tad soft, I made time for a Thai massage which I’d been thinking about since missing out a couple of days earlier at the spa. Having never had one before I didn’t know what to expect and although there were moments of pain as she dug into my back and shoulders with her elbows, forearms and feet, I left feeling recharged (albeit sore) and ready to go!

G, Nicky and Jess, the girls we’ve been hanging out with, wanted to see St Vitus’ cathedral (its stained glass windows are renowned) and the changing of the guard so we slapped on the sunscreen and joined the heaving throngs of tourists.

Food has never been far from our minds on this tour so when we spotted a restaurant/bar called Cowboys with a rooftop terrace, we aimed straight for it. After eating European cuisine for the last few weeks (lots of pizza, pasta and thick goulashes and creamy sauces) we were all hanging for some meat. A couple of steaks and cocktails later, we were fully satisfied.

Afterwards we visited Prague castle and parts of the old town, climbed the astronomical tower and then popped back to the hotel for a shower and nap, returning to the city for a couple of drinks in one of the bars we’d been at the previous night.

The next stop on the tour had us returning to Germany with a 3 night stop in Berlin. The timing was great as it turned out to be the nicest hotel, modern with great furniture and rooms with free wi-fi available in every room so we were very happy… it really is the simple things for us at this point of the trip.

Learnings:

There seems to be a strange connection between the weight of our packs and the amount of weight we gain. In spite of doing loads of shopping, our packs seem to be getting lighter each time. Perhaps I am eating clothes in my sleep as I have lost a couple of items... this would account for my expanded waistline. Sadly, the totally HOT new jeans and T shirt I bought in London will have to wait a couple of months till I can wear them comfortably again.

Straws in Prague are really, really long!

Berlin is a great city, one that we will return to it which is more than I can say about some of the places we’ve been to. The combination of the Nazi regime and years of occupation and oppression make it a fascinating spot, rich in history, beautiful architecture and people with interesting stories to tell.

A tour with a local guide was fantastic as we got lots of anecdotes and personal insights as we saw the sights; Brandenburg Gate, Checkpoint Charlie, remaining sections of the Berlin Wall, and various monuments to victims of the holocaust.

We heard some fascinating stories of how people’s lives were changed by the wall. It appeared without warning on a Sunday, separating families and people from their homes and jobs. If you had happened to stay on the opposite side that Saturday night, you were stuck and weren’t allowed back. It started off as big rolls of razor wire and the wall was built progressively by prisoners over the following 12 months. I never knew why it was built in the first place so was amazed to find out that it was created to stop East Berliners from fleeing to the west. At the time it was under Russian occupation and the people had been leaving steadily to escape the oppression and create better lives for themselves which was having a negative effect on the economy. The government saw this as a way to prevent it getting any worse and to stop people from leaving and further.

The next morning we were up bright and early and caught the train to a concentration camp outside of Berlin called Sachenhausen (pron. Sack-zen-how-zen). Most of the camp and the surrounding town was destroyed by bombing during WWII but it had been rebuilt as it was, using photos and former prisoners’ recollections.

It was largely used as a labour camp during WWII and only had a fairly small population of Jews, in comparison to some of the bigger camps. A lot of the people were persecuted there because of their political views and many because they were gay. It was a huge place and it was a very hot day (32c) so after a couple of hours there we were over it and headed back to Berlin to see some of the memorials up close.

A brand new one had been opened several days earlier - the Memorial to the Homosexuals Persecuted under the Socialist Regime.

In 1935, the National Socialists issued an order making all male homosexuality a crime and the provisions governing homosexual behaviour in Section 175 of the Criminal Code were significantly expanded and made stricter. A kiss was enough reason to persecute and there were more than 50,000 convictions. Under Section 175, the punishment was imprisonment; in some cases, convicted offenders were castrated. Thousands of men were sent to concentration camps for being gay and many of them died there from hunger, disease and abuse or were the victims of targeted killings. Although we still have a long way to go in terms of acceptance in the eyes of the government, seeing things like this does make you realise how lucky we really have it both as gay men, and as Australians.

After a pretty intense morning we took ourselves to the Reichstad (German parliament) for coffee and cake. We had a heads up that to get to the top book a table in the restaurant and you go in the disabled/handicap rear entrance and bypass the hour plus queue. (I can hear you now, handicapped rear entrance - minds out of the gutter please). You dont have to actually eat you can just not go to your booking but we did and had a great coffee. The views from the top are amazing.

That night we went bar hopping and met a really interesting East Berliner. He looked like Hedwig from Hedwig and the Angry Inch, complete with long peroxided hair, thick eyeliner and black fingernail polish. Especially funny because when I mentioned the movie to him he’d never heard of it but that’s not the interesting part. It turned out that his Grandfather had died in Sachenhausen and that after growing up in East Berlin, he wanted to have a better life when he was 25. He was then caught trying to escape over the wall and was actually in prison when the wall came down. They weren’t allowed radio, tv or newspapers so he didn’t even know about the wall coming down until he was released. Talk about things changing while you’re away huh?

The next day we visited Checkpoint Charlie museum and the Holocaust museum which was also very informative and moving; lots of different stories about people escaping and people being murdered in the camps etc.

It was all very heavy really so after those we spent the rest of the day shopping, saw some markets and ended the day with a visit to a great tapas restaurant to rival Encasa in Sydney!!

We also realised that day that we were only a few days away from the end of the tour and that it would all be over after our next city, Amsterdam.

Learnings:

Gay guide descriptions are often lost in translation. One 'club' marked on the map was actually a hairdressing salon with a club membership. Funny it wasn't open at 11pm at night when we were looking for it...

Bars and clubs are not the same thing

If a place doesn't have a 'No Dogs' sign in the window - it is OK for dogs to go inside. We have seen dogs in a bar, on public transport and sitting on top of a subwoofer/speaker in a club!

'Goya' is not gay, even though listed in the Gay guide

The hills are alive with the sound of... something.

2008-05-31T01:52:00.000-07:00

After a short drive we had a stop in the city of Salzburg. We walked around for a few hours and managed to do many things. We skipped around the streets (yes we did, literally), we spent sometime in the dwarf garden (actually it is a garden of dwarf statues – I don’t think they can grow dwarves) naturally, we had some photos taken with them and you can be forgiven if you can’t pick me or Dan in some of the shots, particularly Dan, I know it can be a bit difficult, he fits in so well.

For the fans of The Sound of Music, Dan and Nicky skipped around the fountain while there was a wedding party having wedding shots. Oh well, we were on holidays and it gave them something to talk about. We didn’t see any lonely goat herds though, nor any lonely goat whores for that matter!

We took in a nice walk along the canal and walked past Mozart’s house (it is yellow). We found the yummiest doughnut-like balls of doughy goodness. They were great so we bought a bag of them – not quite as tasty as Millie’s Cookies though! We had thoughts of eating them on the bus to the next stop but our hedonistic need for instant gratification took over and we scoffed them all.

Our next stop was Vienna. We didn’t have anything organised so it was a very free and relaxing stay. We caught a classical music concert with ballet and some opera (talk about culture!) in a former palace which was excellent! Loads of pieces that we’ve all head a million times, played perfectly. We were so close that we could see everything and even hear the breathing of the oboe player. We also noticed he sweated a lot and the other people in the orchestra kept shooting him dirty looks. Perhaps he need not breathe so enthusiastically into the instrument. The opera singers were awesome particularly the lady, a buxom, voluptuous lady with the most amazing soprano. I could have listened to her for hours!

We had a lovely dinner at a Japanese restaurant in a backstreet and we kept on asking the waitress questions about the menu. We worked out most things but the whole entrée and chef special was a bit of a challenge. Half way thru she got a bit stroppy and (as I was asking questions from a different section of the menu (that was CLEARLY the lunch section) then as if a light globe suddenly was illuminated, she said, “oh sorry, you don’t speak German”. After that she was lovely and very attentive, actually going through and explaining every dish on the menu for us. Needless to say she got a nice tip.

One the first evening we spent the night in the amusement park, known for having the world’s oldest ferris wheel. We rode roller coasters, rides, and went on the Ecstasy. Well, it was about 4 minutes of insane, gravity defying terror. We spent what felt like an entire minute flying upside down, spinning to loud German techno, with disco lights, with a strobe and fake smoke. It was an awesome ride, but I did have to sit down for 15 minutes afterwards, I couldn’t walk, dizzy and feeling a bit sick. Think a massive octopus that spins, with four carriages on each tentacle that has 360 degree movement. Dan did take footage of the entire ride but that was with the photos that went missing. Bloody technology! For some reason 80 or so of our photos just disappeared, we hadn’t touched them between one day and the next and I went to back them up to PC and hard drive but they were not there (see learnings). Such is life!

We also saw a shitty flea market, a crappy Torture Museum but the day picked up with, coffee and cake at Café Diglas, which was a traditional Viennese coffee house. We also visited the Catacombs under St Stephen’s Church where we saw lots and lots of bones from the bodies thrown into mass graves at the time of the black plague.

The second night we went to some bars in the Gay guide – they were small and smoky. So smoky in fact that I had to leave early as I couldn’t keep my eyes open it was that thick. Cue the music, smoke gets in your eyes, Dan and Nicky stayed out clubbing till 2am.

The next stop was the cities of Buda and Pest or Budapest as we call it (pronounced Buda-pesht). What a great city. It is stunning by night and very easy to get around.

After getting a tour of the city with a local guide, who was most pleasing on the eye, we had a traditional gypsy dinner. We all had our photograph taken and had the opportunity to have them printed on plates. A flyer about this was handed to each person outlining what to do if you wanted it etc and we saw a great example of things getting lost in translation. The final 2 paragraphs of the flyer read:

“Please help us in trying to create something nice and lasting for the memory of the day.
A kind smile or a discreet hugging is of great assistance to me, and this way or joined efforts can be fruitful.”

Ahem. Needless to say, lots of discreet hugging went on throughout dinner and into the following day. It was most “fruitful”.

We finished of the night in a bar just down the road drinking way to much vodka, but hey, when in Budapest…

Our free day in Budapest was spent visiting some sights- Labyrinth Caves, markets and a few very relaxing hours at the thermal baths.

The public transport system was quite good and we were very pleased to find that for once, our hotel had a metro stop right out the front! Most of our accommodation has been on the outskirts of the cities and often requiring tram or bus rides to the train station and then usually a couple of trains into the city heart so it was a nice change.

The caves were quite fun, 1200m series of caves carved by water and Turksm with original “cave paintings” in them. There was only limited lighting and sound effects used as well to create a very eerie (and very dark) atmosphere. Of course Dan couldn’t help himself but do some aboriginal dancing when the music sounded like something from a corroboree.

After that we took a walk through the markets and bought some souvenirs and spent some time looking at babushka dolls from Elvis and Marilyn to Madonna, Bill Clinton and Nelson Mandela.
After a morning of walking around, we all wanted some rest and relaxation so we visited the thermal baths, a series of hot pools (all at differing temperatures, the coolest being 28c and the hottest being 38c) where hundreds of locals spend hours soaking their worries away. You could also get Thai massages (no happy endings) but we were too late for Dan to get one so we just enjoyed the pools and people watched instead. Lots of sunburnt people who had obviously been there all day and loads of very fat men in very small speedos.

Afterwards, we enjoyed a very nice dinner and took a walk down to the Danube to see Budapest by night which was beautiful.

We have been learning lots of local phrases, courtesy of a map we were given with a phrase section. Some of these are:

Egen, hall saga von = Yes, it smells like fish
Meg.foug hah tom AH pop-shit dat? = Please may I fondle your buttocks?
Meg mosh.tad oh k.zed? = Have you washed your hands?
Kem-e-neh-ben, yor,shaben, Mosht = Harder, Faster, Now.
Sok, talk eh. F ail-knee Ozz arshe shure randy? = Do you fuck on first dates?
Et sair, mash od sore, had mod sore. Edt Houdge = Once, twice, three times a lady

As you can imagine, we have had much practise and many opportunities to use these phrases while in Budapest.

Learnings:

When in a city (Vienna for instance), always take the address of the hotel with you when you go out at night. It is very hard to get to your destination with no English, without knowing the street name and not really knowing the name of the hotel. We have learnt this the hard way. Every street looks the same at night, although I did know when the driver went around in circles (three times). Luckily in this instance, we knew our way just well enough from the Palace to get home!
The dodgiest bars generally have the cheapest (and very nice) Vodka
It is best to avoid restaurants that advertise on their door or menus, “we speak English”
It is advisable to back up your photos every night, this won’t always be able to be done in the morning or on the bus.
Always charge the camera at night while asleep so it is fully charged everyday
Contrary to popular belief you can make friends with salad (particularly if you are lactose and gluten intolerant), and you can make yourself love fruit, even when you get it for dessert everytime you have a group dinner!

Somewhere over the rainbow

2008-05-28T01:37:00.000-07:00

For those who haven’t been to Venice, it is a city surrounded by canals and water. We were told it was built on marsh land and is slowly sinking. It is a fascinating city with our senses working overtime!

The combination of rain, the full moon and a high tide brought an unexpected charm to the city. We marched through St Marks square sans shoes with water halfway up to our knees. Although we went for the shoeless option, many people were buying temporary Wellingtons (think big plastic socks. (soft if you ask me!). Functional but in no way fashionable.

So instead of seeing people waltz in the square to the classical music, it was more a case of wade through the square to sounds of splashing. It was quite funny watching water push itself upwards through the paving. Also I found fascinating that the church was at least 50 cm under water and they have on hand some temporary walkways so we don’t get any wetter walking around. Apparently St Marks floods regularly…

Of course we had our gondola ride but again the tide meant the internal canals were off limits as the gondola couldn’t fit under the many bridges. And what is a gondola ride without a song?

Punt, punt punt your gondola

Gently down the canal

Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily

Life is just so swell!

We shared a bottle of champagne on the gondola and afterwards, Dan recreated Madonna's Like A Virgin video and danced under the same bridge as she did!

That night we had a romantical dinner of mussels and a GREAT wine in one of the very nice restaurants overlooking the grand canal which was a very fitting end to a magic day in spite of the hideous weather.

Disney fans read this: we went to Neuchswanstein castle, the castle that Walt Disney used as inspiration for Sleeping Beauty’s castle. It was even grander than I had imagined. We took a tour of the inside and walked around the exterior. King Ludwig III who had it created had some serious fascination with swans – they are everywhere. In the carvings, statues, paintings and even massive porcelain swans that double as vases. It was excessive opulence. One room took 4 master wood carvers 14 months to complete. Again Dan couldn’t help but sing Disney songs, and for once I actually didn’t mind. I even requested a song, but he politely said, “that isn’t a Disney song.” Obviously I need to spend more time on my research. Beauty and the Beast or Phantom of the Opera – it’s all the same to me!

We arrived in Munich late in the evening and had dinner in the hotel which was surprisingly good. The food is an experience, with lots of new flavours and dishes to experience. We are keen to try our hand at some of the new dishes we have tasted once we get home. We had a lovely beer soup with pancake strips in it. (Who would have thought?) As we had been told, in Europe strange things sometimes happen without warning and we found this out ourselves. for us it was a public holiday - seemingly out of nowhere (Corpus Christi Day) and it shut down the city.

Not to worry though, we enjoyed a much-needed sleep in and took ourselves off to the Modern Art Gallery. The only thing was, we didn’t read the info we had on it so what we thought was the Modern Art Gallery was actually the one with Rennaissance and Impressionist paintings at it. Upside was that we got to see one of Monet’s ‘Waterlillies’, some of Manet and Picasso’s sculptures and even saw Van Gogh’s ‘ Sunflowers”.

We went to a Bavarian beer hall for dinner and drank steins! It was a great night with me (G) being pull up on stage to do the traditional slapping dance. (think National Lampoon’s European vacation).

We do have this captured on video… I must say I did better than the local German boy they also pulled out of the audience; at one stage (and we have it captured on camera) that I was in time and doing the same move as the real traditional dancer (His name was Leo and he was quite the hit with Dan and most of the girls in the tour group)! A bit of history of the building the beer hall was in. Hitler used to do many of his speeches in the hall and underneath in the public bar was one of his famous drinking spots. If you look closely at the ceiling of the public bar you can see the original SS signs underneath the painting where they have attempted to blend with the new painting.

Learnings:

When attempting to dry clothes, it is never a good idea to have them touching the actual lamp. I did (without noticing) but luckily Dan was on hand to remove the new polo shirt from the lamp, put out the flames and fan the smoke detector to prevent the alarm being activated and the hotel evacuated.

Observations:

There is a Disney song for almost every occasion

You need to adopt different and distinct pedestrian styles in each city to survive:

Italy – make your intention known and don’t change pace. This means you can walk out on busiest road and people will stop and drive around you
Germany and Budapest – wait for the green man even if there is no cars anywhere on the road. This is due to the culture of following rules (I reckon communism or oppressive regimes had something to do with this)
France – good luck – crazy drivers, no line markings and seeminly no road rules. God help us when we drive through France in a couple of weeks

Roma

2008-05-27T07:55:00.000-07:00

Roma - the centre of Italian history, home to some of the most amazing structures we have ever seen and the first of our 3 night stays.

For our first full day there we made an early dash into the city so we could beat the crowds and the queues for The Colosseum. We were first in line and managed to get some great shots before the hordes took over.

From there we had a local guide show us around the city and saw some ruins and the monument of the unknown soldier and left the guide at the Pantheon. Our group then went off to explore the city and tracked down most of the other “must sees” – The fountain of youth (I bathed my face and filled our bottles to make our insides young too), tossed our 3 coins into The Trevi Fountain for luck and so we could return to Rome and enjoyed a gelati on the Spanish Steps.

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Oops, forgot to mention a rather important thing we did here too - visiting The Vatican. We spent a couple of hours here, walking through the endless halls filled with artworks, sculptures and tapestries but after seeing a couple of palaces already, I was a bit like Shania Twain - they didn't impress me much. A couple of breaks later and we finally got to the Sistine Chapel which again, was rather underwhelming. The famous ceiling that was painted by Michaelango is in fact a mosaic of dozens of small pictures, rather than the one big one I expected.

We walked through St Paul's Cathedral, looked at a bunch of Pope's corpses (they display their embalmed bodies in glass cabinets - how vulgar), we walked down through the big square where the Pope gives his speeches and had our own display.

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During the afternoon the weather turned and we had the first afternoon of showers that would continue for the next few days. As planned, we wanted to have another picnic for dinner so after stopping at a deli for the essential wine, bread, cheese and antipasti, we found a lovely park in the city with big trees to shield us and lots of green grass everywhere. After setting up our picnic, we took a look around and realised that it wasn’t quite as nice as we thought it was. While the park in Annecy was peaceful and quiet and had a lovely canal running nearby, this time we had settled down to eat in a dog park and spent the next 20 mins fending off our dinner from marauding canines with a taste for smoked meats. Funny.

After dinner we ventured off to find the Mouth of Truth. We wandered. In circles. For an hour and a half. When we finally found it near the entrance to a church, the gates were closed. We sat down and finished off the wine from dinner then went to see the Colosseum by night before heading home to the hotel for sleep.

The next day we took a day trip to Pompeii, three hours south of Rome. Pompeii is the city that was buried by ash and volcanic rock when Mt Vesuvius erupted in 79AD. The city was (re)discovered in 1748 and has been slowly excavated the city since then and are still only 2/3’s completed. We had a tour of the site and saw the famous mummified remains of several Pompeiians, shielding their mouths from the ash and smoke and even saw the curled up remains of a dog. While there, we also walked through an ancient brothel, complete with stone beds and pictures above each doorway advertising what you could get inside the room, just like a menu. Those Pompeiians were a horny and creative bunch!!

We left Roma early the next morning, and began our journey to Venezia, stopping at a gorgeous hilltop town, Orvietto for a couple of hours to explore. Of course no day is without song with me around and Nicky and I spent much of our time singing in our best falsetto every time someone said the name of the town or we saw a sign. Sung to the tune of the French folk song ‘Alouette’.

“Orvietto, jaunty Orvietto, Orvietto jaunty aleeoo”

We stumbled across a great studio of an Italian painter and we all fell in love with his paintings and sculptures. There were prints available of a lot of his paintings so we bought several for home. Unfortunately the sculptures and original I loved the most were either not for sale (sculptures) or 900 Euro for the painting. Sadly, there were no prints for that one either :(

We grabbed a quick bite to eat, a macchiato to wash it down with and jumped back on the bus to continue our drive to Venezia and its famous canals.

Bellisima, Ciao Bella, Arrivederci!

2008-05-22T01:57:00.000-07:00

For the last week we have been enjoying the sights, sounds and smells of Italy where we have found things to look at, yummy treats to eat (up to 3kg) and most importantly, things to pose in photos with!

September - Cry for you

After leaving Nice, we spent the day on the coach making our way towards Florence. On the way out of Nice, we stopped at a real French perfume factory and all left smelling like the proverbial French whores.

To break up a long day of driving, we stopped at Pisa to see the leaning tower. Needless to say there was hardly anyone doing a neutral stand posing with the tower and we saw some interesting ideas people had to make their photos fun. Here are a couple we came up with :

The next day in Florence we spent the day taking a group walking tour seeing everything Florence had to offer and statues. Lots and lots of statues. King Neptune. The statue of David. Life size replicas of the great artists and writers, Donatello, Michaelangelo, Leonardi Davinci, Dante, Machiavelli. Hercules. We climbed the Duomo (Thanks for the tip Charlie!), which is a big domed cathedral, and got some fab views of the city and surrounds. As we wandered the streets, we stopped for a macchiato and slice of pizza at this café here, a cappuccino and gelati at that little shop there and after 7 hrs of free time and both a little tired and grumpy, we met up with the group for dinner. The joys of group travel sometimes!

We have both had our moments where we have needed to get away from the little group of friends we have made but after a few hours on our own, we are ready to meet up with them again and continue exploring together.

Lunch the following day was at a winery in Tuscany, in a beautiful, tiny village called San Gimiano. As we enjoyed some antipasti, and then an amazing local soup called Ribollita, we tasted 4 of the winery’s wines and enjoyed the scenery.

It was a veggie soup with loads of cabbage, bread and yummy vegetable goodness.

Ribollita Soup

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, plus some for drizzling at the table
4 large cloves garlic, chopped
1 medium onion chopped
2 carrotts, peeled and diced
2 ribs celery, chopped
1 fresh laurel leaf or 1 dried bay leaf
Coarse saltand freshly ground black pepper
2 cans small white beans, such as cannellini beans
6 cups chicken stock or broth
2 cups tomato sauce
3 cups stale chewy Italian bread, crust removed and bread torn into pieces aboutt 1/2 a loaf
1 small white onion, thinly sliced or finely chopped, for garnish
1 cup grated Parmigiano-Reggiano, for garnish

Looking out from San Gimi, it was surrounded by lovely green fields and has the honour of having the most towers in Italy with 76 in the town itself. Walking through the tiny streets was like stepping back in time as many of the buildings were a bit run down and you could see where bricks and walls had fallen away and then been repaired. Quite extraordinary. It was a great day and we were both looking forward to seeing loads of history as we continued our journey onwards to Rome.

Observations:

I wasn’t aware before the trip but after watching Gareth eat an apple a day, I’ve noticed he gnaws on them like a little rat

On our way to France again

2008-05-21T14:04:00.000-07:00

Lucky for us we got to practice some more of our French language skills in this next part of the trip. (Annecy and then Nice).

On our way to Annecy we were able to relax and take in the view of the Swiss/ French Alps. We had a stop at Geneva, the home of the UN and a really big fountain. Our only goal (you could say we set ourselves a challenge) in Geneva was to spend all our Swiss money, down to the last cent. I can say we succeeded with style. We walked through to the old town section and found a nice coffee shop which served panini and the usual fare. We ordered in French and with a drink we didn’t have enough money. I think the lady behind the counter felt sorry for us (we do very good puppy dog eyes) and she just kept on discounting our meal until the register matched the shrapnel we had in our hand!

From Geneva we arrived in Annecy, a great French city on the water with quite an extensive canal system. We grabbed a paddle boat and paddled on the lake. Lucky me, I was serenaded by Dan and 3 girls from the tour singing Disney tunes. Yes, lucky, lucky me. 25 minutes in to the paddle we were called in due to the rain and lightning. Probably a good thing too, it started pouring down as we got to shore. We spent the rest of the afternoon walking through the old town section (we seem to gravitate towards the old stuff). We had our first nutella crepe and Paula, you are right, it was awesome but we resisted the temptation to get a second one.

Rather than sit in a restaurant and eat and drink, we decided to do as the locals do and make ourselves a picnic and sit beside the canal for dinner. We walked the local streets and ordered some cheese, prosciutto (a special type - it was smoked too and lovely), some baguettes and of course wine and champagne made in the traditional method (fermented in the bottle). The canal we sat at was next door to a kids play area and you don’t need too much of an imagination to guess we made sure we had a go on every piece of equipment, even the cubby house!

Everything was beautiful and with the sun up until 9 pm it was a great evening where we, with a few other people on the tour, chatted, drank and watched the world go by. It would have to rate as one of the best nights we’ve had so far. We plan to do the same in Italy when we are there too!

In Nice, part of the French Riviera we scored big time… in a good way of course. Our hotel was on the promenade and we got an ocean frontage apartment room with it’s own kitchen, lounge area and a table. Nice was nice. (I just had the write that!) Dan and I went for a refreshing (ie freezing) dip in the Mediterranean and spent the night wandering around and had dinner in a cute little café filled with locals and not one word on the menu was in English! The food was good but the experience was awesome.

The next day we continued to roam the streets looking at and buying lots of clothes. At lunch Dan chalked up another first. He had Tartare De Boeuf (Steak Tartare) which is a local delicacy. It’s basically raw minced beef, with raw egg yolk, chopped capers and various sauces mixed through it. I tasted some and it was surprisingly quite yummy. I couldn’t have eaten the entire plate though Dan did well to get through it all.

We spent the night in Monaco and tried our hand in the grand casino. Dan managed to remain even but I lost €25. We sipped cocktails in the bar and watched an insane amount of money be thrown around. One guy we were near was gambling with 100,000K chips and betting three at a time! We also saw them setting up for the Monaco Grand Prix and even got to drive on part of the track for a while which was pretty cool.

Unfortunately during the night Dan started getting cramps and spent the night vomiting. We suspected it was the Tartare De Boeuf, but others have been getting 24 hr bugs on the bus so perhaps it was just that. Luckily though, after spending a lot of the next day on the bus sleeping and a good nights rest, he was back to normal the next day. Well, as normal as Dan can be anyway!

Observations:

Dan has added another item to his lists of firsts - an alcohol free day, after 4 weeks travelling!
It is not just a cliché, every second person in France actually does walk around with a baguette
In France cars have a unique way of parking. They park with the handbrake off and cars just use the bumper bars on the cars to push their way into the spot. We have seen this many times. In Nice too they have another way of parking see pic below on right hand side
There is dog poo everywhere

Parlez-vous Francais?

2008-05-12T09:51:00.000-07:00

Paris - city of love, romance and people pashing in the street, in parks and on public transport.

After checking in at our hotel, we boarded the tour bus once again for an orientation tour, and our first glimpses of all the Parisian sights – Le Tour Eiffel, L’Arc De Triomphe, Le Musee du Louvre, Le Cathedral Notre Dame, L’Avenue Champs Elysses and the beautiful River Seine which runs through the city. Dinner was in a French bistro (where else?) and our first real chance to chat to some of the people we would be spending the next month with. Who would become friends and who would we not get along with? Knowing me, there would be bound to be someone I didn’t get along with. As we started to chat, we were pleased to find that everyone seemed lovely and friendly and surprisingly, most of the tour are from Australia.

After a very yummy dinner (French pate, Mmmm) we all went on a romantical cruise on the Seine and saw some beautiful views of the city and lots of locals getting amorous by the river. We then had the opportunity to see Paris by night and were back at the Eiffel Tower to see its nightly light display before heading back to the hotel to recharge the batteries for a very busy next day.

Bright and early, we grabbed a quick (and very average) breakfast and headed into to city on the metro – we were staying on the outskirts of Paris, much to my disappointment. It was a free day so Gareth and I separated from the group, first stop was the top of the Arc de Triomphe. We made our way up the Champs Elysses, through the Tuileries Gardens to Place de la Corcorde, a giant square teeming with traffic and tourists snapping away.

The thing with traffic in Paris is that on roundabouts, you have right of way coming onto the roundabout, give way as you exit and there are no lanes or line markings. This makes for some very interesting manoeuvres as cars, bicycles, coach tours and mopeds all bustle through on their journey and was very entertaining to watch!

By this time we were rather hungry and tracked down a little restaurant where we put our newly acquired French skills to good use. The food was delicious. Real French Onion soup, some nice fish for G and a grilled Andoillette Troye (sausage) for me. While eating it, I began to be a little suspicious of the smoky flavour and interesting texture of the meat and sausage skin but thought better not to be thinking about it too much. At our lunch stop the next day I saw it again, this time with the English translation – tripe. Hello, Revolting! After a few moments of revulsion I decided to add it my list of firsts for this trip. In London I had my first Foie Gras experience which was amazing and I loved. Who knew fatty goose liver tasted so good? But back to Paris…

We spent the afternoon wandering and riding the metro back and forth between sights and areas on Paris. We climbed the tower of Sacre’ Coeur and explored the streets around Mont Marte, and ate in the Latin Quarter where we met a nice old French lady who we chatted with for a while. It gave me the chance to practise my French and she practised her English. Speaking is getting easier, it’s the listening that’s still tricky as they tend to speak very quickly. Baby steps.
I am very happy to say that Gareth loves Paris as much as I do and we’re both really looking forward to returning at the end of our tour and spending more time there. Paris is such a beautiful city, full of magic and wonderful things to see and do.

Next day it was “Au revoir” to Paris and a seven hour drive to Interlaken, Switzerland – the home of Lindt, milk maids and great big cow bells.

We had dinner in a local restaurant, Bebbi’s with an eccentric host where we gorged ourselves on cheese fondue, rosti, chicken and topped it off with chocolate fondue! Wow, activity food which you all know I love and a great taste. Bring me back to Switzerland anytime.

For our free day in Interlaken, we caught the cog railway up into the mountains, to Jungfrau to spend the day 3.6 kms above sea level. It was cold. Very cold. After a few absolutely gorgeous days in Paris where we were breaking out the T shirts and shorts, experiencing -6c (wind chill not included) at the top was a little bit of a shock to the system.

We tobogganed, threw snow balls and slid our way through an ice palace, stopping every now and then for coffees and to defrost by the heaters. Neither of us had gloves so after a few minutes out in the cold, our fingers were red and numb and felt like they were going to drop off!

Interlaken is the Swiss centre of adventure sports so once we came down the mountain, we both went Paragliding which was just amazing. After running off the side of a mountain 1.3kms up, we spent about 20 mins riding the thermal drafts and getting some amazing views of the town below. Surrounded by snow capped mountains, the town surrounds two huge, stunning lakes the most perfect crystal blue you can imagine. As you can see in these photos, the pilots we had have the most amazing workplace you could hope for.

Just lay back and think of England...

2008-05-10T13:04:00.000-07:00

The last full day in London was an exceptionally busy one. I had held the possibility of catching up with Berns and another friend between sightseeing for a coffee or pint (when in London). It was not meant to be with visits to Soho, Canary Wharf, Canada water, the London Eye, Camden markets and then back to Covent Gardens – Drury Lane for a theatre performance. I think in all the only free time was when someone had to find a bathroom.

The London Eye was superb. Even if you are afraid of heights, which I am prone to at times, this was fine. It moves effortlessly through the arc of a circle, well technically it is the circumference but that sounds awkward. The views offered were unreal. From the summit, the people look figurine like and the city appears to be at a frozen in time. It was a great way to see just how big London really is. I loved it so much I even got sucked in to buying a touristy picture there.
Lord of the Rings was quite a spectacular, we watched it with our friend from Sydney, John Anthony who was in London at the same time and Troy's partner Mark who we were staying with. The set and staging were AMAZING. The highlight was when Gandalf the Grey was defeated by the demon and he falls into the fiery pit. It was probably the best piece of work I have seen for many, many years. Of course there were some aspects we didn’t necessarily agree with. Gandalf spoke too fast (they did pack nine hours of the movies into a three hour show) and at times just yelled. He just didn’t seem to command the scenes he was in. Galadrial was weak and wore annoying high shoes. Frodo and Sam were great and we think Frodo hurt himself in the last scene. He walked off limping…oops.

Some Lord Of The Rings montages, because everyone loves a montage. Even Rocky had a montage...

Camden markets was an experience for me. An eclectic mix of people that reminded me of a Newtown on steroids. Goths, punks and ravers walk side by side and there is a shop for every one. No matter what predeliction or fetish I am sure you will find it in Camden. Dan even bought a velvet jacket. Across from where he bought that there was this rave shop with intense music, imagine hardcore techno at 100 decibels, fluro and ultra violet lights (my white shirt lit up), a strobe and very big dungeon feel and you may come close. They had goggles for £200. Yes 200 POUNDS!

After getting up at 5am, we said our goodbyes to Mark and Troy on route to board the Eurostar to Paris. That was a great and smooth ride. At one moment you are in King Cross and before you know it your phone beeps to say you are on a new network and you arrive in Paris. If only we could get something like that to Melbourne, it would be fun.

As we left the station my first experience in Paris was someone asking me if I could speak English. Of course I said yes and she held out a piece of paper. As soon as I read the first line I knew… gypsy woman wanting money. Lucky for me I just said no and kept walking. After that I am developing my Daniel streak, or should I say my Europe persona. No looking at people, head down, holding onto the bag tightly and just walking through crowds with the occasional “excuse' moi”.

We boarded our transport (the coach) which would serve as a mobile home for the next 28 days and it already felt good to have someone do the driving and thinking for us. It works out every second day (give or take) we have a free day where we do what we want. The first being a whole day in Paris the do whatever it is that we want.

Challenge Update:

Charlie, as you can see we have successfully completed your second challenge.

Dea, your latest challenge will be exactly that.
Wendy, we have collected yellow things from every major city up until the start of the tour. We will start again after the tour! It has been fun and not as easy as we thought.

Some observations:

The people in Paris are by far the best looking people we have come across so far.
I (Gareth) use a lot more parentheses (brackets) than Dan does in his writing.
I (Gareth) get a little grumpy if I am hungry
We had to look really hard for the exchange rate for Australian dollar against the Euro. Our hotel and other bureau de change didn’t have it listed.

London - The forgotten parts

2008-05-10T12:47:00.000-07:00

Gareth forgot a few things in the last blog so as he predicted, I will fill in some blanks from London. Our second day there we did a day trip and caught the train up to Hampton Court Palace (which served as Lara Croft’s mansion in the Tomb Raider movies). We even took part in a live theatre piece as guests of the Royal Court on the day Queen Mary gave birth to Prince Edward I! It was all very exciting as you can well imagine.

On the night we went to G.A.Y Club, we had our first dodgy overseas experience – the cab drivers. In London the cab companies have such heavy restrictions on who can be a driver that it’s opened up an underground cabbie network and when you come out of a club, they come and offer their services. The best part is because they’re not licensed, you haggle with them for the best price depending on where you want to go. If you don’t like their price, you can move onto the next one – which we did a couple of times before finding one that would take us back to Mark’s house for £25. Considering the first one wanted £35, we got quite a bargain!

Observations

Gareth found out that even in London, woollen jumpers shrink when washed in hot water. Luckily, it now fits me so it’s not a complete waste!
It pays to check which direction the tube is going. Simply finding the right line is not enough.
Don’t take anything a stranger offers to you in the street. They’re generally a gypsy, a crook or some other form of dodgy character and will then want you to pay for whatever it is they’ve given you. Luckily, the Sydney rudeness lives in me and I’ve become very good at yelling “No” in their faces and pushing past them with my hands securing my pockets of course)
Eating lots of hot brekkies and 2 course lunch and dinners tends to take its toll. G and I have both put on 2kg so far. Little fatty fat hats.

London, London, London

2008-05-05T13:43:00.000-07:00

Well, all that seems a life time away now. Manchester United won the match and are now in the final of the Champions League. We thought that Dan’s new favourite Renaldo, was reported to have been caught in a hotel room with 3 transvestite prostitutes and apparently didn’t know they weren’t women until late... but we've just found out it wasn't him - it was a Brazillian footballer with a similar name. Dan is very relieved... his dream stays intact.

So really back to what you are here for, to read about our trip.

Adele – Chasing Pavements

Going to Oxford and coming back the English weather was as expected; bad. At one stage the temperature was a low 6 degrees. We made it bearable with some more Millie’s cookies, this time, Sticky Toffee Crunch. Dan insists they help keep you warm and ward off the rain. Of course we had to buy almost one of each flavour as they are big, soft (not crunchy to our surprise) and have chunks of chocolate and yumminess through them. So they must be good for you too!

Dan also found a new chocolate he likes – a Yorkie bar!

The TomTom lady – she never got a name after all that, had periodic laryngitis, but as we knew our journey was coming to an end we no longer hit her to speak but rather let her die a slow death. That’ll teach her!

Robyn – Be Mine

We dropped the car back without too much effort and frustration and only a few hours late (well 5, but we just said the weather and traffic from Oxford held us up). No dramas there!

Forgot to mention in Oxford we visited the Museum of the History of Science in Oxford. That was interesting! I even saw Einstein's blackboard from a lecture in 1931 - complete with his chalked equations. I think the formulae prove the expansion of the universe (or something) I swear I understood it at the time. Actually for those that are interested… (I had to look this up – I am not a geek) The first three lines establish an equation for D, the measure of expansion in the universe. The lower four lines provide numerical values for the expansion, density, radius and age of the universe.

London is a big and busy city. I think my and Dan’s experiences and thoughts of the city are somewhat different. I have finally settled in after 6 days and am getting used to the underground, the people, the crowds and finally, the sun.

Yes that is right we have had sun for the last 4 days! Maybe Dan was on the money with Millie’s Cookies after all. We have done SO many things, it feels like there hasn’t been a spare second at all. This is in fact the first break either of us have had to put down anything about London. I know Dan will add more in the next posting. A list of things in no particular order - We have seen Westminster, Tower Bridge, Oxford street shopping, SOHO, Carnaby Street, the West End, Buckingham Palace (Lizzie says hi!), Trafalgar Square and lots more.

We also caught up with Berns and Gem and had an awesome night at a restaurant and then out for more drinks. I think I can speak for us all (with the exception of Dan who woke up feeling and looking great) that is was a big night. On a school night (Thursday) and all too! Mind you pints will do that to a person! I should mention at this point that Dan has not had an alcohol free day in nearly 3 weeks and hasn’t had one hangover yet, the bastard. I however, do not bounce back nearly as well.

We have had dinner with Troy and Mark in an awesome Vegetarian restaurant somewhere – really nice food. Friday we had dinner with Berns in a nice part of the city which reminded me of Norton Street a little or Lygon Street in Melbourne.

On Saturday, Dan and I went our separate ways – first time since the holidays and it was a nice change for both of us. While he spent the day shopping up a storm (any surprises there?) I spent the day with Berns and Gem taking in the sights of London. We went to the British Museum (yes we saw the wrapped pussy) and topped off the day with a coffee at the TATE Modern overlooking St Paul’s and the Millennium Bridge on the Thames. It was an awesome and exhausting day. We left the TATE after 6pm after starting the day at 9.30.

Troy, Dan and I then went out and had a night at the Astoria (we all know it as G.A.Y Club) which was an interesting night. Such a diverse crowd. It was a bit weird dancing in an old theatre, but it was an awesome space for sure – nothing special at all but nice. The music started off great but went down hill until David Jordan sang and we left.

The next two days we spent in Chislehurst with my relatives; Matt, Ali and their kids. We stayed with them and it was brilliant to relax and unwind after the bustle of London. We walked from the station to their house and all it seemed we did was drink, talk and eat. I think at last count we had 5 bottles of wine, 1 champagne, countless beers, some dessert wine, some sherry and Limoncello. We had so much to catch up on and it was lovely just sitting back and watching their kids and swapping stories. Needless to say we took lots of photos for the family back home.
We took a river cruise on the Thames today with Matt and Ali and kids after visiting some more touristy places.

I really enjoyed the Greenwich Observatory Hill where it is zero degrees longitude and houses the Greenwich Meridian Line which separates East and West! You can see Dan and me on both sides of the world - fighting for world domination (or at least our part of the world)

England just isn't Australia

2008-04-29T14:01:00.000-07:00

Much of the Snowdonia region sits on top of huge deposits of slate so bright and early we continued South, stopping at Blaenau Ffestiniog to take a tour of the Llechwedd Slate Mine. It has a huge underground lake which was cool and saw how they split slate into the sheets used for making everything around here, from coasters and roof tiles to blackboards and fences!

Driving through the countryside, it’s obvious it’s Spring as not only are there flowers blooming, but thousands of baby lambs are frolicking in the meadows and wagging their tails. That’s right, their tails. They are so cute, they look like little woolly cats or something. Or lambs with tails if you prefer.

We couldn’t come to Wales and not find it, so we entered the co-ordinates into the tom tom and stopped in to visit Daffyd Thomas in Llandewi Brefi. He wasn’t home unfortunately, so we were the only gays in the village. We enjoyed a quick Bacardi & Coke with Myffanwy at the pub and then headed to our next stopover in the Southern town of Cardiff.

Kylie - In My Arms

We’ve also become quite masterful at locating cafes with accessible power points. Very handy when we forget to charge the camera or laptop and being able to plug in while you have a cuppa and something to eat is just so time efficient! We’ve also become quite adapt at searching for Free Wifi while sitting in the car parked outside of cafes…

Learnings for this leg include:

· You can’t enter trains from between the carriages. Doors are best used for this
· GPS lady has laryngitis and at one stage couldn’t speak at all. Hitting her didn’t help get her voice back
· Most drivers all but ignore speed limits over here so even as we sit doing 80 mph on the motorway (120 kms ph), cars fly past us constantly, even in the rain! Crazy poms!

Cardiff itself is a fairly small seaside town which we wandered around a little the night before but didn’t get a really good look at, so after brekkie we went for a walk around town and found Millie’s Cookies, the yummiest, tastiest, ever-so-scrumptious cookies you’ve ever tasted! Of course I had to buy a box for the car before heading off for the day. Raspberry and White Chocolate was the first flavour to go.

Alphabeat - Fascination

Leaving from Cardiff, the day was cold and wet and certainly not conducive to searching the countryside so we ditched Bristol from our plans and drove straight to Bath for a look around. After some lunch and finding not a real lot there, we then went onto see something G had been hanging out for, Stonehenge. Most unfortunately, from about half an hour before we got there, right through our visit the rain and wind was relentless so although seeing the site was quite awe inspiring, we didn’t enjoy it as much as we would have otherwise. Soaking wet and shivering with cold, we returned to the car. Luckily we had a Millie’s Double Choc chip cookie to warm us up! A quick change into dry clothes in the back seat and we were on our way back into England to Bournemouth.

The rain and wind didn’t give up until we got there, and even then continued off and on so after a wander around the city and a nice dinner and bottle of wine, we returned to the B&B to watch the semi final football (soccer) game between Manchester United and Barcelona. I have found a new boyfriend, for when Gareth gets sick of me - Cristiano Renaldo who plays for Man U.

He loves me. He tells me so. May 21st is the Final and we will be watching from somewhere in Europe.

The weather as well as the quality and price of restaurants over here, are really starting to make us appreciate how good we have it at home. The weather is (usually) pretty good and we have a handful of restaurants we can go to, safe in the knowledge that we will have a great meal with some good wine and we wont pay an absolute fortune for it. Over here, we often go out in search of a nice place for dinner and are left wandering for ages - and when we do finally find somewhere, we pay seemingly huge amounts for what would cost us very little back home. Different perspectives I guess.

As English as Mustard

2008-04-29T13:58:00.000-07:00

As G said in the last post, we were in Manchester for 3 nights which was a nice change after moving each day for the previous couple. On our first night, we met some nice boys, Craig and Matt who took us under their wings and showed us Canal Street. Right lovely boys they are! 3 nights out on the town drinking proved to be too much for G who is now very tired and needs to detox and of course I’m to blame. I’m well bad I am!

3 nights out as well as driving in the car listening to Radio 1, has given us a good understanding of the English charts at the moment. From here on out, we will be including a “D&G Trip Soundtrack” within our posts so you can see what we’re listening to as we travel around.

Sugarbabes - About you now

We left Manchester in sheets of driving rain and headed for Chester, the gateway to Wales. As we arrived, the sun came out and there was even a marching band to welcome us! Honestly. Other people will tell you that it was for the annual St George Day celebration but I’m not convinced.

We found it to be the cutest little town full of laneways and shops and still surrounded by the old city wall, to which there are 4 gates. Here you can see where the wall was breached during the siege of 1645 and the Roman garden which holds many of the stones left from a Roman settlement built almost 2000 years ago. We bought some art and relished the first real sunshine in three days.

It wasn’t to last. From a warm 17c in Chester, we then headed into Wales and within 50 mins, the rain had returned and the temperature had dropped to 10c. Conwy is another of 5 walled towns King Edward I built to defend Wales from invasion in the 13th century, most of which are still standing today. Had a bite for lunch,

a quick look at Conwy Castle and continued on our way.

As we headed to our next stop for the night we found ourselves driving through the Snowdonia mountains which reminded us a lot of the Scottish Highlands. We were running ahead of schedule so we stopped along the way and decided to climb one of the mountains that we noticed had a small trail up the side of. Gareth reclaimed his title as King of the World, or the mountain at least, and while we were up there a cloud began to creep over the top of the hill across from us. Way cool.

Arriving in the tiny mountain village of Betws-y-Coed (pronounced Bet-oos-a-code), we wandered around, taken by the natural beauty of the place and found a B&B for the night before heading out for a good English Sunday roast.

Girl's Aloud - Can't Speak French

We also think the lady on our GPS has a cold as her voice became quite ‘froggy’ and thick since yesterday afternoon, making her a little hard to understand. I think she must have been out crackbagging for the last 3 nights as well. Manchester will do that to you.
We continue to broaden our minds and are revelling in learning so much about the world.

· Beetroots don’t go “ra ra ra”
· Bears don’t respond when you growl at them in Museums

Dea, as you can see, we have been making animal friends everywhere we go.

Rain, rain go away!

2008-04-25T07:29:00.000-07:00

What they say about the weather in England is true. It sucks. EVERY day since crossing the Scotland/England border it has rained. There have been some moments of sunshine but not too many. I (Gareth) even drove through three hail storms. They say Melbourne has four seasons in one day – well here it is literally rain, hail and shine, all in one stretch of road.

Did you know the city of Manchester does not have any laundromats in the city? The nearest one is a 10-15 minute drive east. Also they call them laundrettes; Dan’s question of, “where is the nearest laundromat?” was met with a blank stare as if his second head was showing… Dan even mentioned, as only he can articulate, “well, you would think the fact that half the word was the same she would have figured out what I wanted.” Lucky for us the other guy in the information centre understood!

We decided to skip Liverpool and spend some time in Manchester. We have three nights here and we are staying on Canal Street. Yes the very street where Queer as Folk (The original UK version) was filmed; it is just like it is on TV -a vibrant night life and clubs everywhere. It was a tough decision and we were changing our plans every few hours but decided to go to Manchester for the next few days and already we’re glad we did.

Every club is in very close proximity to each other literally on every corner, across car parks and up and down the street – it also appears to cater for all types. We were lucky enough to find accommodation I the first pub/hotel we enquired at – only to realise shortly after that it is largely a bears pub!

We have finished our washing and are just relaxing today – taking a day off. We are hanging out in a funky bar/club on Canal Street called Via. All in the one place, multi levels and bars, lots of seating in and nooks for talking, a tapas restaurant, even a line dancing hall downstairs. I wish we had something like this at home (apart from the line dancing). This pub is perfect for us to watch people and just chill, it is a miserable day outside after all (no surprise there)

Happy ANZAC Day! We haven’t forgotten, in true style I have still got a headache from the last night. I blame Daniel… Dan did drag me from place to place and give me lots of alcohol. I stopped trying to match him double vodka for double vodka so concentrated on the beer instead. In one place we even had a £1 shot each.

We have been remarkably fortunate with our timing, whether it is for securing accommodation, ordering food before a whole group of people come in, getting tables at restaurants where they say you need a booking and finishing driving through Scotland before the PETROL STRIKE! Yes…wouldn’t that have made our drive around Scotland interesting and more expensive. Already we have seen the price rises of 20p a litre overnight on the news. It is funny for all the imperial measurements they use here, ounces, pounds, miles, yards, pints etc they display and charge per litre for petrol?

We have also been fortunate in avoiding traffic jams (seriously I will have to genuinely thank Dan for that one…… (BIG dramas on the M1 yesterday – bloody GPS lady wanted us to take the M1 – we intentionally ignored her… she kept on telling us to turn around, turn around, TURN AROUND so we turned her off! Unassisted and alone (well not really) and with our keen sense of directions (Dan, which way is east again – is it the same for the Northern Hemisphere?) we made it to Manchester and saw some great countryside!

On our way to Manchester we passed through and enjoyed the sights of York and stayed there overnight; I even got in a run up and down the river at 7 am. When I got back and it poured down rain and it stayed like that for much of the day. We decided to drive through to Nottingham – of Robin Hood fame; a great spot. We walked through the gardens of Nottingham Castle and had a series of photos with Robin Hood and his merry men. Who would have thought they would create a statue of Robin Hood looking so young and with such thick legs! We even took a walk down to the caves underneath Nottingham where people lived, worked in an underground tannery and was later used as a bomb shelter from the bombings of WWII.

I am constantly amazed at the history of some of these places. Things which we learnt in history classes (with varying degrees of recall) – we are actually at these places many hundreds of years later – and to think I haven’t even been to Europe yet! I am sure I will be blown away.

Some more observations:

Jeans worn really low so you see your undies brand and half your bum is fashion de rigueur here. We were talking to some boys last night and they even said some people won’t talk to you if you have the wrong brand showing. And we think Sydney is pretentious! The staples are Calvin Klein and Aussiebum.
You can park on either side of the road facing in either direction. You often see cars drive along the wrong side of the road to secure that perfect park.
The drivers are very considerate they will let you turn right in front of them by flicking their lights, even when they have the right of way.
The rip in my jeans on my right knee is on a journey of its own, doubling in size since Scotland. Errr. Dan wants to draw faces on my knee but I just wont let him.

Farewell to Scottish soil

2008-04-24T01:12:00.000-07:00

In the last blog we left you in Edinburgh where we’d been pissing it up and enjoying our time on the town. It didn‘t really change that much really – we continued to find the yummiest restaurants in town – recommended to us by the very cute boy, I (Dan) thought, working the reception desk – and discovering the town on our own terms.

We spent the day on Monday walking up Princes St which is the major shopping street in Edinburgh and wandered around just soaking up the atmosphere with a spot of shopping here and there before doing the dinner and jazz thing as Gareth mentioned in the previous entry.

I must say the jazz bar was very cool – a 17 piece band including 4 tubas, saxes, bass, piano, and 4 boys (one of them a hottie) blowing their horns. A nice bottle of red and a good night had by all.
Yesterday we started the day at Holyrood House –the Queen’s residence in Edinburgh.

Very interesting slice of history about Mary Queen of Scots and her lot and then continued our walk along the Royal Mile. We had lunch at a beautiful restaurant with the suited lunch crowd and then checked out Edinburgh Castle, where I bought some very tasty Honey Mead, before making our way back down the mile to the recommended Fudge shop for our afternoon serving of sugary goodness washed down with Belgian hot chocolate. Mmmm. I do like me some fudge! After making friends with a patch of daffodils (they grow wild everywhere),

we had a quiet night for a change as we wanted to get up early to walk up Arthur’s Seat, a mountainy look-outy thingo overlooking the city to take some photos of Edinburgh Castle and the city, basking in the early morning light.

Yes, well that was the intended plan anyway. 6.15am and up the mountain we went to face icy temps and buffeting winds only to find the early morning light we were seeking was hiding behind a thick blanket of cloud and broke through for only minutes at a time. After sitting it out for a while, we gave it up as a nice idea that would not come to fruition and headed back for brekkie, one more chat with the hotel cutie and then off to England we went!

The ordinary weather turned respectably foul as we left Scottish soil and ventured into Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, to sheets of driving rain and bad luck with our pub grub lunch. Just 1 min after arriving and securing our table they decided to stop taking orders as they were too busy. Really. Those of you who known how patient I am with bad service can imagine how happy I was with that turn of events. Off to Maccas, back to the car and another few hours of driving ahead of us before stopping at Durham Cathedral (only because they filmed part of Harry Potter there, what part though, we couldn’t figure out!)

and then stopping at the lovely town of York for the night. A little trouble finding accommodation but after a little bit of searching, we managed to find a place for only 73 pounds (about $180) which was quite good, compared to the other place we found that was available for 169 pounds (about $420) for the night. What else was there to do then, but head to the pub for a meal and watch the Manchester United vs Barcelona football (soccer) game whilst sucking down some schooners of beer and scratching ourselves. Actually, I drank the finest red wine they had to offer, but that isn’t as good a story. And there wasn’t any scratching. At least not by me.

We have added to the things we have learnt along the way though. Today we learnt that:

Even in the Northern Hemisphere, the sun still goes from East to West

When it says “No Photos allowed” that means even when you don’t have the flash turned on!

The English like their witch’s hats. Even when they might only need a dozen or so to mark an area on a highway, they are only happy with using every single one no less than eleventy billion.

I may actually like soccer!

Observations:

As we go further south, the mountainous landscape has given way to flat meadows and there are no more big hairy coos, much to my dismay!

What is nice though, are the huge paddocks full of heather which are really beautiful.

Och aye is that a big hairy haggis I see?

2008-04-22T02:37:00.000-07:00

So we pick up the story here – Gareth and Dan are in Edinburgh and we have seen sunshine and blue sky but it still doesn’t take away from the cold. The city is a bit of a mess in places - they are doing a lot of road works for a tram system to begin in 2011.

I’ll come back to Edinburgh but have to cover other parts of the trip – I don’t want to peak too early!

I (Gareth) have been doing most of the driving as Dan’s foot has been hurting and we have set a cracking pace on the amount of distance covered on foot in all places we have been so far. The tom tom lady (the GPS map thing) (we don’t have a name for her yet) has been most helpful along the way – she can be a little frustrating tho – sometimes her instructions are overly repetitive and watch out if you miss a turn off – there is tone in her voice!!!

Back in Fort William (seems a life time away now) there was a cemetery across the road - with real life bunnies. It was very funny watching Daniel run through the cemetery (utterly respectful of course) yelling bunnies, bunnies and trying to catch them. Those Scottish people do have a sense of humour looking at the picture to the left - the cemetery! click on the image to see it bigger

Off to Loch Ness and Dan has covered that one already. I think Dan had found his calling – a clansman… Ahh McCheetah.

We had an overnighter at Aviemore where it was quite difficult to get accommodation. We rang around without luck ( I was getting a little frustrated) so enlisted the help of the local tourist information desk. We weren’t the only ones… there was a judo/karate competition in town and all accommodation was full. We did manage to get into a family B&B which was a pleasant surprise and close to the city centre. We went for a lovely dinner at the Boat Hotel at Boat on Garten (funny name!)

Next along we had lunch in a lovely (Really small) town called Dunkeld with a magnificent old cathedral and ruins! The Cathedral has both Gothic and Norman influence having being built in stages over a period of nearly 250 years between 1260 and 1501. The restored choir is the oldest part or the original church, having been completed in 1350. It contains some of the original red stone in its east gable – wow! Or as I like to state, ‘all this even before Australia was discovered!

Again there was a really old cemetery which we had to look through. I see a pattern forming here…

Note: Could the shot on the left be our next Christmas card picture?

On our way to Edinburgh we made a detour to Stirling to see Stirling castle.

With a setting of mountains, rocky crags and the winding river Forth, Stirling is ‘the brooch which clasps together the Highlands and the Lowlands'. With an amazing history it was said, ‘he who holds Stirling holds Scotland’ – advice that fired William Wallace and Robert the Bruce. Fortress, royal palace, military garrison – Stirling Castle is absolutely amazing, it still has markings in the front wall where cannons were fired at it way back when I reckon it was about 1746… It is here I did my Cher impersonation too!

So now in Edinburgh, and we, like Alicia Bridges, have been loving the nightlife, yep every bar in the on night. Last night we had a few hours in a really cool and groovy jazz bar and knocked back a nice bottle of red. We had come from Creelers for dinner where the food was amazing.

Some observations:

Along the highway there is a lot of road kill
Hot Breakfasts always consist of bacon, eggs, mushrooms, sausages, tomatoes and toast
A flat white is a filtered coffee (think McDonald’s before McCafe), and tastes like dish water. To get a coffee resembling anything like what we’re used to, one must ask for a Latte
The ‘@’ key is in a different spot on the key board
The people in Edinburgh walk a lot faster than anywhere else we have been. We must be in holiday mode because people are pushing past us!

Challenge Met

2008-04-22T01:02:00.000-07:00

For our first assignment Charles set us the task of getting a photo with Nessie and saying Hi from him.

We're glad to say that not only did we track her down swimming in Loch Ness but we even made human/monster contact! Photographic evidence below.

The infamous loch where many a Nessie hunter has met his doom.

On the lookout for the beast. Is that a splash from the monster's tail?

Nessie in her natural habitat. See her nasty and dangerous fangs!

Making contact. As you can see, she's not really that scary at all. In fact we had a nice cup of tea with her and cuddles all round. Charlie, she said to say hello back and that you still owe her from that bet you lost to her in a bar many years ago.

Challenges won 1/1. Next!

And we're off!

2008-04-20T01:37:00.000-07:00

We've had a bit of trouble with the internet connection and finding wireless hotspots in our accomodation so we've been delayed in uploading. Hopefully this is the last of it and we can now catch you up on what we've been doing....

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As at 17 April

Well. Our flights were delayed several times – late leaving Sydney, then again at Singapore, resulting in missing our connecting flight at Heathrow. They’d booked us onto a new one but we missed that one too, by just 5 mins! So back to the lounge we went… all I can say is Thank God for Qantas Club lounges! The flight staff were very nice about it tho – as it was their fault we missed our connecting flight, we got champagne and chocolates and both walked away with Morrissey PJ’s to make up for it. Who said flirting with the stewards doesn’t get you anywhere? Finally got to Glasgow 6 hrs late and decided to stay two nights rather than the one we’d intended.

It’s been quite cold so far, about 10c each day but today it warmed up a bit up to 12c, positively tropical and only one jumper required! We knew it would be cool but somehow managed to miss the fact that Scotland is a very cold place most of the year and I for one only brought one jumper and one jacket. Oh well, gives me an excuse to shop!

Yesterday we did lots of walking around Glasgow,

exploring the city streets, Kelvingrove Museum and Art Gallery;

we hung out at Glasgow Necropolisand visited St Mungo’s Museum of Religious Life and Art, all of which unfortunately left me with an injured foot. I think it may be the gout!

That has definitely affected my time in the house and has stopped us (me) from doing

too much walking for the next couple of days as I rest it. Luckily, there isn’t much to do at the moment as we wind our way up through the

Scottish Highlands in our rental car.

The countryside is beautiful, lots of babbling brooks, snow capped mountains and wide open plains, but as for anything to do – forget it. Lucky there are plenty
of pubs around!

After leaving Glasgow this morning we drove a few hours North, stopping at the villages of Luss on Loch Lomond, Inverary and Glencoe and are now at Fort William for the night. Tomorrow we’ll keep driving North and hopefully spot Nessie before reaching the top of our journey at Inverness and winding our way back down the other side to Edinburgh for a few nights.

So far it’s been quite the journey of self discovery. In just 2 days, we’ve learnt that:

cotton doesn’t grow on sheep, even when it’s organic;
there are lots of paintings on the walls when you’re in an art gallery,
everyone is able to sound Scottish simply by putting the word “wee” in front of any object you’re talking about, and
everything seems really cheap when you see all prices as dollars instead of pounds. That sandwich for 4.95? Bargain! Ring it on up!

We hope to grow our list of learnings as we go and if these are anything to go by so far, we’ll be able to write several books by the time the trip is over!!

So, where are we going this time?

2008-03-25T22:52:00.000-07:00

We're doing a combination of our own self-drive discovery and an organised tour with Kamuka! We've got a plan, a GPS and an incredible sense of humour - have to have one with my sense of direction!

For those of you not familiar with how great I am with maps, read these posts from my last trip here and here.

The trip will be in three sections - The UK, The Tour and The Last Hurrah!

The UK

Scotland

England & Wales

The Tour

Europe

The Last Hurrah

Another countdown...

2008-01-30T17:45:00.000-08:00

The tickets are paid for, the tour is booked. The 10 weeks off is scheduled, the work needing to be done before we leave is piling up. We know where we're going but we're still working out how we're getting from place to place. One-way car hire fees and Inter-country public transport is now being weighed up. We have 10 weeks and loads to decide on, work out, organise and otherwise do.

This time round G is accompanying me and we will be taking turns updating this blog (That's right babe, we will! :P) and keeping you all informed of our movements. We will be taking the laptop and mobile internet connection with us which will allow us to update as we go: while we are waiting for queues to move, waiting for lights to change and to escape the people on our tour bus. That's right, we'll be able to write from the bus! Technology never sounded so good!

So come along for the ride and please post lots of questions and comments and even the odd dare or two if you like! Better yet, Set us a series of challenges and we'll see how we go at completing them as we go. As with everything in life, you're only limited by your imagination...

See you when we get there...
D & G