Right, so i arrived in Leeds and immediatly made a whole lot of international friends from Brazil, Canada, the US and Czech republic. For the first week it was just international students and then in the second week the Freshers arrived. This actually created a bit of a divide between the Poms and the Internationals because we had already done alot of the Freshers activities like tours and briefings. As well as this the accommodation seems to be set up to lump all the international people together separate from the English. In Charles Morris where i am staying the whole sixth floor is pretty well dedicated to International people. But slowly and surely i am meeting more and more British people and i'm using all the helpful advice that we were taught during our international O-week, such as talking about the whether, and complaining about stuff... It was all pretty funny. I have signed up for plenty of clubs, but am not sure if i will go through with them. My American mate Ben and my British Nieghbour and a couple of other guys from Charles Morris have been going to American Football practise for the past week, we haven't actually had to put on padding yet and beat each other up - so it has been relatively good fun, running around, catching balls and doing sprints.

I have also gone out alot more than i have done in Newcastle - quite possibly because Leeds has three clubs right on campus. The Venga boys played one night, they have house, indie and cheesy pop music nights as well as quiz nights in the Old Bar. Oh, and i guess i have been attending some classes too, although not too many (not that i have been skipping them, just that it is the first week and they have barely started). I am doing all electives here which should be sweet, two history units and a philosophy. I had the lecture the other day and it was a real hoot, the lecturer used lots of English football (soccer) analagies to explain things. Oh and the accents are a real blast here - everynow and then someone will say something that will make you crack up.

06/09/07

Once I arrived in Paris I walked around some dodgy streets near the station until I found an internet café, where I was able to confirm that I wasn’t staying at a fellow couch surfers place, so I made tracks for the youth hostel that I stayed at before. Unfortunately they were all booked out, but fortunately the helpful man there was able to get me in contact with another hostel pretty close by. I wandered around the area for about 45 minutes trying to find the other hostel but after a few moments of panic I found it at about 11:00. There was a friendly Swedish bloke staying in the same room as me as we went out and got a pizza and chatted until about 1 o’clock. On the way back from the pizza place we saw a guy sleeping in a phone booth, wedged in a V shape, his head on one side and his fee propping the door closed, he looked like a backpacker. The following morning I got up at 7: 30, had my complementary breakfast of croissants and hot chocolate and managed to book myself a ticket back to London.

05/09/07

We woke up at 7:30 this morning and had breaky – toast and cereal, a photo with Anna and Bella (the dog) , then I was dropped off at the train station (handshakes all around on departure) to get to Paris. I would need to change trains four times so I would have to be on full alert. However it all rolled over pretty smoothly, only once did I think that I was on the wrong train on the leg from Kalese to Basel. When I did make it to Basel I experienced something that I probably have only ever experienced once before when I was between the ages of 0 and 4 years old – having no idea what country I was in… fair to say though when I was a little tyke I probably didn’t know or understand the concept of a country though so it probably doesn’t count. The voice on the loud speaker sounded French, but I saw some newspapers in German and from what I could hear I couldn’t hear any funky French accents. Then I saw a sign that said France but I wasn’t sure whether past that sign was France making me be in Germany or whether the whole place was France. Turns out I was in Switzerland, where my travel pass wasn’t even valid. Although the ticket collectors were very relaxed with my pass and didn’t know what they were looking for on it. As yet no has looked at the page with the amount of days I am allowed to travel, let alone marked it off, although one guy did try and punch a hole through it. I think that it would be quite possible to travel everyday of the two months I can use the pass in, not jut the five that I paid for – but that would be cheating. From Basal I went to Mulhouse, then to Belfort with any waiting around. In Belfort I got a nice look around the rather pretty little town and a free sample pa chocolate – ahh France! Some girl also said ‘save?’ randomly in the street to me which I instantly replied ‘we sava’ back to her – then she and her friends walked away. Oh. Sava means ‘how are you?’ and ‘we’ means yes (although its spelled oui) and this is how you are meant to reply (maybe not though). So now I’m on the longest leg (four hours) to Paris and I should arrive at about 8 o’clock. Apparently you can do the whole trip in about 4 hours by the super fast TGV train that goes about 300kph, but it doesn’t stop off at nice villages or Switzerland or have nice scenery (and more importantly it costs more). Udo’s wife, Mrs Schonperlen (no idea how to pronounce it) made me four sandwiches to take with me on my trip and I’ve still got one more to get through. I’m not sure where I’ll stay tonight – I asked a couple of people on the coach surfing website, but haven’t’ had the chance to check to see if they have replied – if not with them then I’ll try and hit up the hostel I stayed at last time I was in Paris – I also need to try and get a spot on a bus back to England tomorrow. Ahh so much fun to be had in my one night in Paris!** ‘One night in Paris’ is the name of Paris Hilton’s infamous porn film

04/09/07

This morning we woke earlier and met Maggy’s uncle at the Mercedes museum. The building is really impressive as were the many cards on display and information. We actually spent about four hours here but it went pretty quickly. I then went with Maggys uncle Udo in his Mercedes E-class wagon back to their place about 25 kms from Stuttgart in a little village although we can’t have gone a minute without being in an urban area. Here I met his wife who only spoke a little English and we had a very nice pretzel and butter with tea. Udo then drove me to a Hugo Boss factory outlet in the near by village Metzingam as this is where the company originated. On the way I asked him about the letters ‘evo’ on a Mercedes Benz in front of us and he thought I was referring to the Italian number plate because Germans pronounce ‘I’s’ as ‘e’s’ when saying the letter. Udo then said ‘if it has an ‘E’ its from Italy and a ‘D’ then its from Germany’ – I thought it was funny… In the Hugo Boss store I looked for some jeans to replace my now repaired ones and found them all to be pretty well priced, but I couldn’t find any that fitted better than my current ones but then I saw some cool brown and black striped pants for only 20 euro so I picked them up and found some undies on the way and was just about to buy them, when I though - I don’t really need these, so I put them back. So it wasn’t a materially fruitful outing but I did get the experience of Hugo Boss for pretty cheap. After a dinner of Schnitzel, Udo’s fourteen year old daughter Anna (who introduced herself to me as Anne only to be corrected by Udo (?)) and I and there lab/German Shepard Bella had a walk from a near by hill back to the house. She could speak alright English, but forgot words occasionally, but this didn’t stop her from talking at all, not by a long shot. On the way back it rained solidly again and got dark.Normally one of the first things that you ask someone you meet is ‘what sort of work do you do?’. Turns out I didn’t ask Udo. He’s a singer – yeah cool eh? He is 56 and a really big guy and speaks with a German accent, but sings fantastically in English. He showed me all of the songs on his computer (just the instruments) and then sang along to a couple, Eric Claptons ‘tears in heaven’ and another that I forgot. He’s got a great deep voice. We then chatted until about Midnight in their living room and went to bed. Maggie called to make sure everything was sweet and that I would get on the right train the next day which was very kind of her – her second interview went really well too. That night I slept fantastically even though the mattress on the fold out was really hard and thin.

03/09/07

I woke up that night because I was thirsty having only drunk fizzy drink that night but was momentarily stumped as to what to do about it. Normally I would go and drink some water from the tap - but Kai had said that the water was too chemically for drinking – was this just like townies saying ‘ohh our water tastes yucky, I prefer bottled water’ or would this water actually kill me? Choosing life, I went into the kitchen and drank as much sparkling mineral water as I could, which wasn’t very much , as this is what Kai gave me yesterday when he offered me some water. I then went back to sleep with a very airy feeling in my belly. That morning after a quick breakfast Dai walked me down to a nearby train station, helped me buy an all day ticket and sent me on my way. I arrived in central Stuttgart no probs and then found the information centre without any difficulty. Thankfully the Porsche Museum wasn’t closed on Mondays like the Mercedes one and with some guidance from a very helpful lady I found the train to go there. The train station is called Porsche platz (Porsche Place) and it really wasn’t hard to find the Porsche dealership from there. I walked in and had a fair mosey around taking some happy snaps and then headed back outside to find the museum. This was a little harder that the dealership to find and I had to walk about 300m around the block. The room had about twenty cars in it and these were all pretty sweet – I even saw my hero car the 959 from 1987 (a good year for stuff) although its body looked a bid second rate (it was made from fibre glass) compared to the much newer Carerra GT that it was parked next to. What do they say about meeting your hero’s??? I asked the friendly assistant if she could put English sub titles on the film that they were showing and she said she could throw up an English version in ten mins, which she did. In the mean time these two men dressed in Black with long black hair came in and started taking photos of all the cars, then the assistant opened the doors for them and they took interior shots – I though they might be publicity guys but one of the men kept getting in the photos as well and later they watched most of the movie with me.After the film it was bout four o’clock and I was getting a bit peckish so I wandered back outside and it was raining, but i had my jacket on so I kept going regardless. The further I walked the harder it go until my white pants went pretty see through (I seem to have this problem with my pants) so I walked into another Porsche building to dry off and because there was a customer restaurant on the top floor and as I bought a 3 euro fifty model car from the museum, that included me. When I go tot the restaurant It was completely empty so I thought I would have a self guided tour of the building as I had missed out on the factory tour. I started at the top of the stairs and check out some riveting storage rooms, and then a very interesting air-conditioning room, then I opened a door to a room that had about thirty businessmen all sitting around a big table, I meekly closed the door and scampered back down the stairs – end of the tour.

02/09/07

Maggy had done all of the organising for me to get to Stuttgart – places to stay and train times. I left Keil at about eleven and arrived in Stuttgart at about seven after changing trains twice. On the second leg of the trip I sat next to a girl called Marie. I was eying her off before we got on the train as she looked pretty cool, she had blonde hair and was wearing a knee length skirt, knee high boots and green glasses (she must have had some sort of top on as well or otherwise I really would have been eyeing her off!). I wanted to walk onto the same carriage as her but a lot of other people did as well so I went into the next one along – it was a good move as there must have been to many people on that carriage and she came and sat next to me. For a while we didn’t say anything, I ate my apple and baguette that Maggy had packed for me (see how nice she is?!) And had a sip of my juice and Marie ate a banana and then sent a message on her phone. It was about here that I was thinking, ‘play it cool Justo, you’ve got heaps of time and she probably doesn’t speak English anyway’. But then a sudden realisation spurred me into action – if I didn’t act soon I could miss my window of opportunity because her next move is likely to be whipping out a book or listening to an pm3 player and one these barricades are erected no conversation can commence. ‘Sprecken Zee English?’And she did! So for the next three hours we chatted about loads of things and she asked questions about me and the stuff that I didn’t – which really highlighted for me that a lot of other people haven’t. She’s a 24 year old Med student who just failed an oral exam and is going back home to Constance for a little while. We swapped email addresses and numbers and she said to look her up if I’m ever going to be in Hamburg again.At Stuttgart I met Kai – an old uni friend of Marks and we went out to a German pub for tea and had a German ravioli type thing with warm potato salad and apple pie – very nice! Kai works for Mercedes Benz deciding if customer s like products and how much they would be prepared to pay for them, at the moment he is working on automatic doors for the 2010 S-class. This sort of thing impressed me greatly and I fired bucket loads of questions about Benz and the German auto industry at him.We then went back to his place in his girlfriends 15 year old Opel Corsa (he rides a new BMW motorbike) and while he made some phone calls I checked out his massive CD and DVD collection. I was really impressed and we and a fair chat about bands and movies before watching a comedy and drinking Mezzer mix (orange/coke) and coke and eating the m and m’s that we picked up on the way. We then watched a couple of ‘Friends’ episodes of which he is a big fan, and then hit the sack.

1/09/07

We drove to Hamburg today in the 1.7l Diesel Corsa on the Autobahn at times reaching 180kph! When we got their we had trouble getting around as their was a triathalon through all of the city – Mark who was driving said ‘Shiezer’ a lot – that and the autobahn made it a very German start to the day!We went on a harbour cruise and it was pretty long, but worthwhile – we saw a lot of big ships as Hamburg is the second biggest port in Europe and many bridges as it has over 2000, more than Amsterdam and Venice combined. Afterwards we walked through a street that has a very German name which I have forgotten. It is where the sailors used to (and still do) hang out – so it is really seedy, lots of sex shops, pubs and I saw a shop that had pistols in the window for a couple of hundred euros. Mark said that it is a lot dodgier at night when you are here and that you don’t want to walk in the side alleys at all. We walked past one street that was closed with a gate that said only men that are over 18 can pass – no women – the prostitute street. When we got back to Kiel, we did a spot of grocery shopping and I was stoked because I walked past a very pretty girl giving out free samples of bread and pesto – awesome! However by the time we left the centre I had had about seven different samples from biccies to coke – at one point I had a nice small bowl of pasta in one had and a cup of premium ice-tea in the other – Good times! It must be a great part time job giving out samples – you get to make people feel so happy.

31/08/07

I woke up pretty late today, had a nice cinnamon scroll thing for breakfast with Maggy and about lunch time we walked into downtown Kiel in the light rain (was nice) and Maggy did some shopping and we got a drink in a coffee shop with a swinging chair, I got a chilli hot chocolate, which was interesting… Maggy also hooked me up with some of her rels and pals in Stuttgart – one who works for Mercedes Benz so that is cool, I leave on Sunday. Tonight we went out to IKEA for a look about then we got nice burgers and chips at a classy but pretty cheap local restaurant (4.80 euro for my Hot Texas burger) it was very good. Maggy went to bed and I talked to Mark for a while about cars – he wants to get an old Dodge charger, he’s nice bloke.

30/08/07

At about twelve or so this morning Maggie and I caught a A$90 000 Mercedes Taxi to the train station where Maggy went off to her interview and I hung out in down town Kiel. I got my phone fixed no probs – the man in the shop spoke pretty good English and I just needed a replacement battery. I then went to catch a bus back to Maggy’s place as she had given me the bus to catch and the station to get off at written on a piece of paper, surely I could go wrong, surely…I must have mispronounced the name of the station to the bus driver and he dropped me off at a place that didn’t look at all familiar – as I was getting off I knew I should have showed him the piece of paper, but I was out of money so I couldn’t have paid to go further and too indecisive. So I walked in what I thought was the right direction, the rain started to lighten up, I saw a lady on a bike that I had seen over in town, I stepped in some dog pooh and almost slipped over (side note: Europeans take dogs everywhere, on trains, buses, into cafes and department stores) and then I asked a random guy at a pedestrian crossing ‘Spreken Zee English? Which he did and he pointed me in the right direction and I got back after only about thirty minutes of walking around. Although that wasn’t the end. I couldn’t open the door to the apartment. I had the keys and everything. The main purpose in mind that a door is constructed for is to open - and I could do it. I pushed and pulled and twisted and ultimately felt very much like I was seven years old. Not even running my fingers through my beard which I have been growing since Switzerland could make me feel any more manly. I called Maggy, but ultimately needed the help of a neighbour to get inside, the neighbour made it all look very simple – turn the key and pull the handle towards you.So from having a broken phone, getting lost and failing to open a door I have met three random Germans who all happily helped me get what I wanted and spoke pretty good English. That must be what travelling is about.

29/08/07

I slept fantastically until Maggy woke me up this morning and I jumped almost to a sitting up position and I yelled out and scared Maggy. She very quietly whispered my name from across the room. I wonder why it shocked me so much when I’m used to being woken up by loud noises? Perhaps that’s just it. Maggy and I took a train to Lubbock, a similar town to Kiel and had lunch and coffee and came back here, had a nice dinner – some Bavarian meat (like hotdog meat cut into steak shapes) and nice potatoes and bacon and then we watched some ‘Friends’. Maggy was getting pretty stressed about the job interview that she has tomorrow and it is pretty important for her but I can’t associate with the stress. It’s nice to be able to help her with English words though and how to phrase things – makes me feel knowledgeable. My big plan for tomorrow is to try and get my phone fixed or sorted out – I’ll go when Maggy is in her job interview – its good to have a purpose. Then with a fixed phone I can contact Keisha and possible meet up with her when I go back to France.

28/08/07

The couple were 17 and 18 years old – the girl was only a year and two months older than Dru – scary! The bloke wants to be a violin maker, which was pretty well exactly what I wanted him to do when I was talking to him – something interesting but not anything I would want to do. The French guy who was sitting outside turned out to be Croatian or something that didn’t speak any English, French or German. We were joined later by a fun German guy called Andreas who to me seemed like a cross between David Whenem (Diver Dan from Seachange), Ian Rowbottom (Dads best man) and Sebastian (Fun adventurous German guy from IH, slightly dorky but in a cool way). He was a marine biologist and was going to Kiel so I hung out with him when we got to Hamburg for an hour as we were 5 mins late to catch the train straight t Kiel. We had a coffee as neither of jus got much sleep on the train. There were beds to sleep in – but we all paid second class prices so only got seats. It was fun talking to Andreas as he was very scientifically smart and he talked about the work he was doing on cold water coral but then he would drop in something that would seem odd like ‘but the best thing about having a passenger on a manned submersible is that when you are going down you get to listen to CD’s – yeah chill out to Pink Floyd’. At Kiel we said our farewells and he gave me his card. Thankfully Maggy was at the train station and had found out that the train from Paris was late. It was really great to see her again and we chatted away like no time had passed. After a cooked breakfast we walked down to the Kiel harbour (I found out hat Keels on boats were not named after Kiel) and sat in a beach basket which is a cool chair with shade valance, foot rest and table, and talked and ate ice creams and drank fizzy drink for about two hours. We then saw some seals being fed at strangely enough the institute where Andreas works before walking back to Maggy and Marks unit.Later Mark cam home from work and I finally got to meet him after hearing so much about him from Maggy – he seems pretty cool and suggested hiring a car to go on the autobahns in - which rates pretty highly in my books. Maggy made us a lovely dinner of steak and potato and a sauce and salad and then we went to the pub for a drink. I already feel comfortable here which is nice and so far I have failed to feel that in many places – but it has made me appreciate the extreme comfortableness that I unknowingly feel when ever I go home to the farm – knowing where everything is and where I can go and what I can do.Maggys got a job interview on Thursday which she s a bit nervous about so I might chill back here in the unit for a bit – which is fine with me. I’ve had two cups of coffee today and a fair bit of tea which is probably why I have been feeling lively enough today which I am surprised at considering the two or so hours of sleep that I got.

27/08/07

Today after sleeping much better than I did the previous night and with a less puffy eye (a Pharmacist told me to dab some alcohol stuff on it and take the piercing out – but the piercest told me never to put alcohol in it – so I just left it and it got better – yeh!) I hit the town at about a quarter to nine.First stop was some markets that I found out about on the internet that were described as colourful (watch out for pickpockets) and very busy by the afternoon. I saw some funky African pants and asked how much they were – an old black man plugged 25 into his calculator – I went to walk off and he asked me to type in what I was willing to pay – I plugged in 10, he said 22, then wanted me to make a higher offer, I still undecided if I actually wanted them went to walk off and he capitulated and said he would accept 10 euro – so that’s how I got my funky African pants. I also bought some socks that are quite plain, but cheap and made in Portugal.I had a baguette and Rockafort cheese in a lovely park outside the French military museum and then I went inside and had a look at guns, armour and Napoleons tomb – by this time I was starting to get knackered and the wastefulness of the world wars didn’t really make me all that happy - just as I didn’t make a French stripper happy less than an hour later… (Surely one of the best segues ever!) I got a photo of the Moulin Rouge and when I was walking back down the street a middle aged lady said to me ‘excuse me mister’ and when you are in a place that doesn’t speak your language you tend to pay attention when you hear it. She spoke a mixture of French and English from then on – but the gist of it went like this:‘Would you like to come in to see a strip show?’‘Oh no, thankyou anyway’ I say‘let me just show you the price’ she sys as she grabbed my hand and leads me into the foyer and draws a 20 on a piece of paper‘no thanks’ I say again‘Ahh but for you I’ll make it 10 euro and you will have a drink and you can stay for as long as you want’‘That’s very kind of you’ I say ‘but I’ll have to pass on it this time’‘Alright five euro’ she says‘no thanks’‘well come in for a quick look’At this moment I’m thinking ‘This will make a pretty good story, and I’ve never been into a strip joint before and its not like they are going to show anything serious if I’m not paying, so I say ‘yeah ok’Inside a pretty girl in a green dress takes me into a dimly lit room with lots of lounges and we sit down together‘So what is your name?’ she says in a thick French accent‘Justin’ I reply trying to sound confident, although I’m clearly on edge, having never talked to someone who would get naked if I asked her to. ‘What’s yours?’‘Segolene’ (it wasn’t actually this, but it was typically French, I’ve just forgotten) ‘where are you from?’‘Australia’‘Kangaroos!’ - a typically French responseWe both laugh – although mine is probably higher pitched and more girly than hers‘so I’ll tell you what could happen, you can have a drink and I’ll dance for you’‘ahh no thanks’‘don’t you like me?’‘Nah it’s not that, I’m sure you do your job just fine – I err, don’t believe in sex before marriage and that sort of stuff and I don’t drink alcohol’‘There will be no sex and you can have an orange juice’‘I think I’ll give it a miss still’‘Well I guess it’s goodbye then’ she said making a sad face‘Yeah goodbye – and good luck with it all’ I said and got up leaving Segolene sitting on the lounge, said ‘merci’ to the door lady on the way out, and tried really hard not to have a satisfied look on my face as I walked back onto the street. So that was a pretty crazy French experience indeed.After getting my stuff from the hostel I headed to the Nord train station where I helped a guy who spoke English find where his train was leaving from – go me! Master of European travel! Then I found out that my mobile refuses to start up. Last night I charged it on a portable battery charger that I got from Emma – but I think that it might have over powered the battery as it was connected to the phone all night. I’m not too sure of the long term consequences yet of not having a phone – but I do know that I can’t text Keisha who I met on the plane coming over here. She lives in France and I was hoping to meet up with her, but previously when I have tried to contact her the number hasn’t worked, but I just realised that it was because I didn’t put the 03 in front of it because I’m calling from an English SIM card – hmm there is no point guessing the consequences – I’m sure it’ll all work out fine.I’m sharing a train cabin now with a German girl who just left her boyfriend, a German couple (although the bloke has a union jack on his pants hmm) and a French guy who is standing outside in the hall – they all look pretty young so hopefully it’ll be a good trip – I might just have to see if they speak English. Random notes– the French and Europeans in general seem to love the Kiwis – especially the All blacks. In an Adidas store there were heaps of All black posters, displays and shirts.– I have seen a substantial amount of Aussie road sign window shades and stickers – I guess that’s how we are represented.Orevoui France and Guten tag Germany!

26/08/07

The room that I stayed at the last night cost 27 euro and I was changing to a 17 euro place for this night – the bummed thing was that the shower was cold and that my eye brow had swollen up for some reason. The two cups of tea at he complementary breakfast calmed me down greatly and put me once again in a good mood to tackle the day. When you think of French food – particularly breakfast, croissants, par chocolates and other special things are sure to arise – as they should because the French certainly love them, but they also don’t seem to mind really basic things which is perhaps why they don’t all get fat. The free breakfast at the hostel was a bread roll and jam. That day I climbed the Eiffel tower to the second floor, which is right up there on my things that are big list, apparently it was the tallest man made thing until the 60’s – it has been used for everything over the years and has even had an elephant up to the first floor; went to the Arc de Triumph where I saw a very good looking couple and became aware of how everyone else is here with someone or are in a group – its funny how travelling alone alternates between a sense of independence and loneliness; dropped into the Renault dealership in the Chom de lees eh and watched a formula 1 race where about one hundred and fifty people were watching it on big tv screens and they all cheered and clapped when Lewis Hamilton ( a Mercedes driver) got a flat tyre but also when all of the drivers finished and the race was won by a Ferrari; went back to Bastille and had a crush on a girl who worked in a DVD shop; hired the DVD ‘Taxi’ and watched it at an Internet Café, I thought it would have English subtitles but I was wrong, I picked up most of the story though, mainly cool French car chases and slapstick – I’m giving it 4 stars; decided to ask out the DVD lady, got disappointed when she wasn’t still working; returned to the same internet café to check emails; had my bag containing my passport, camera etc. given back to me by the owner as I had left it there after watching the movie, then went to my hostel room which had a floor that was covered in water from the small attached bathroom – at least the shower had warm water though.

25/08/07

Mr Fouin drove me to the train station and saw me off I the morning. Fouin by the way is pronounced Fwa and is said the same way that ‘hay’ is said – so if my sister Hayley married Blandines brother her name would be Hay Fouin or Hay Hey – cool eh? I took the long train ride from Le Mans to Pairs as it was cheaper and I wasn’t on a time limit. A lady who sat opposite me in the isle talked to me once in a friendly way, I said ‘Je ne pal pa fonsay’ which means I don’t speak French – and she said this back to me in a way that gave me the impression that I had pronounced it all very wrong and that she believed me. Once in Paris I used the metro to find the hostel without any problems. I then set off to explore the area. Bastille was the suburb that I stayed in and according to Blandine is a pretty high class area. It was also the area where up risings took place during the French revolution and on my walk around the place I found a massive obelisk with a golden women perched on top commemorating the event. I walked along the river which started off quite pleasant as there were people laying on grass watching the boats go by, then the path got narrower and it turned into a tent city as I went under a bridge, then I passed a man lounged across the whole path soaking up the remaining sunlight just wearing a white jock strap, I stepped over him and kept going. It was partly for this reason that I decided to walk back a different way and in doing so got a little lost, not panickingly lost, merrily lost as I knew roughly where I was in relation to where I should be. I got back just as the sun was starting to go down and used a local internet café.

24/08/07

This mornings agenda was set by our visit to the Chenoceau Chateau – which was about an hours drive from Blandines Country Chateau. The impressive things about this castle is that it was built on a river – a small one that leads into the Lau, a larger one. This in itself would have justified visiting it, but it was also surrounded by magnificent gardens. According to Mr Fouin, French gardens are really structured and have geometric lines – where as English ones are more organic, these gardens were a good example of the French style. For lunch we ate a tough baguette and ham and nibble really tiny meat and cheese sausages from the Butchery of a champion white sausage makes. The Labyrinth at the castle was quite impressive although I was more intrigued by the massive vege garden at the palace. We doubted that there would be half as much variety in the 16th century as there were so many different types here, all in very neat rows and no weeds.Quashed or By goshed- Quashed – French people are unwilling to speak English and would prefer you to speak French. It seems that many are trying to speak English and would like to practise or help you where they can – Blandine, her Dad and people in Paris later on.- By Goshed – French people are proud – for a nation that has been conquered by almost everyone they seem to still have pride, clinging to every military triumph such ie. The English didn’t take this or the Germans never occupied this area.- By Goshed – hate the English – but only in the same sort of way that we make jokes about New Zealanders - I guess with a lot more history behind it though. The French call the English ‘Roast Beef’ and the English call the French ‘Frogs’. We arrived back at the farm with some goodies from the bolongerie and I watched a German show badly dubbed to French and tried to guess the story line while Blandine had a shower. We then said our good byes (the double kiss – no hug) and she started her six hour drive to the town where she worked.I chilled out for a while writing this journal in my room then went and had a four course meal, the main being spaghetti bolognaise with Blandines parents. Blandines Dad spoke a moderate amount of English as he had worked in the U.S a bit and we talked about lots of things ranging from desalinisation plants to ‘The Who’. But the main topic of conversation was Australia and where they visited when they came over to see Blandine. We then flicked through their photos on a lap top and agreed that I needed to so some more travelling and learn more about Australian Flowers ( I hadn’t heard of a favourite Aussie Flower of theirs called Azalea). Before long it was 11o’clock and we all headed off to bed.

23/08/07

After having such a big day yesterday we were going to have a relatively quite one today. Blandine gave me a tour of the little farm which consisted of the old barn/living quarters where we slept, another barn still used as a barn and the cottage. The place had been owned by Blandines Grandparents since the 60’s and her Granddad had put up a lot of his own touches to it like stair case to the attic (now the tv room) with alternating steps, a hole in the wall from the kitchen to the living room to pass food through and very colourful wallpaper. They have the same dish washer as we do at our place although their break maker was very different – it was an old style thing built into the wall next to the chimney – the sort that you need a wooden shovel to get the bread out with. After we ate some baguette and home made jam we drove into Tours ( a nearby town of 200 000 people), sampled some great cheese – Rockafort was my favourite – a really strong blue cheese and walked around the streets until we got caught in a shower. So we ran to Blandine’s sisters place to see her new eight day old baby. We chilled here into the evening with Blandines parents and then went out to dinner in a typically French restaurant in a small town. We had plenty of time to order, but I was having trouble and made a snap decision right at the end eventually getting pâté for an entrée, salmon for the main, cheese selection, then tart for dessert. It was all very lovely although I struggled with the mind games with the pâté. I normally wouldn’t ever get salmon at a restaurant but there was no pasta or schnitzel option , so I guess I got to try some proper French cuisine.

22/08/07

We had breakfast in a room of the country homestead with three other guests and the large cheery red faced woman who rant eh B and B and her boisterous toddler. It was typically French - Croissants, baguettes, team and Jus de Pomme (apple juice) and Pear juice from the property. It was all a really fantastic experience and it cost only 40 euro for both of us which Blandines parents had very kindly paid for. Our first stop that morning was Mont St. Michele which is a massive chapel and fortified village built on a rock just off the French coast in 966. There were over 300 stairs to get to the top of the Chapel (which cost 5 euro to enter and included a guided tour) and once there offered amazing views of the French coast line. Our French guide spoke very good English and made the tour quite interesting telling our small group many valuable things about he monks that use to live there. On the way back down to the car we took the busy street that we and deliberately bypassed on the way up and I bought some nice tinned biscuits for Blandines parents as a thank you gift as Blandine said that they were a family favourite.We then drove out of the Normandy district and entered Brittany (home of the British who used to be separate from France) and had a very British Dijon (lunch) –crepes! I had a mix of ham, potato and cheese for the main and then chocolate, cream, banana and ice cream for the dessert – it must have been one of the nicest lunches that I had in Europe.Our next port of call was Saint Malo, a fortified village on the coast. Along thw way we drove right next to the rugged coast line, saw some sail carts on the beach an Blandine very patiently answered all of my niggling question about France and the French language such as ‘If a cars engine is female and a ships anchor is male what would the gender be if I tied a chain to an engine and threw it off the side of a boat and used it as an anchor?’ Surprisingly the answer wasn’t ‘shut up Justin you’re being a twat’ but ‘male’. The French are crazy with their genders – everything is either male or female, there was nothing that I could name that didn’t have a gender and no way of rigging the system either.It was five o’clock when we arrived at St. Malo and we walked along the sea side walk way to the city centre. It was here that the fortifications were built and inside were lovely kissing streets with cobble stone bases. They were named this because they are so narrow that people in buildings on either side of the street could lean out of their windows and kiss in the middle. We walked through the streets, listened to buskers and ate salty butter caramel ice-cream before driving to Blandines country house – which we had dubbed the country Chateau. It was about 23:30 when we arrived (the French generally use twenty four hour time) and I got stuck into the local chunky pig insides pâté, chicken and baguette followed up with home grown nuts, strawberries and home made chocolate mouse, while Blandine talked to her boyfriend Theabeau (Teebow) on the phone. We slept in an old barn that had been converted into very nice living quarters. There were shutters on the windows of my room which made it very dark ad as a result we both slept in quite lat the following day. I slept fantastically but again had an unsettling dream…

21/08/07

That morning I woke at 9:00 like we had agreed after having a fantastic sleep. After eating some really sweet breakfast cereal Blandine and I headed off to the Palace of Versailles in here little Renualt clio. Blandine said that although I wasn’t the clio sport it was a petrol 1.4 litre. I thought this sounded pretty funny because a 1.4 l is pretty tiny still but considering the other options I see where she is coming from. In the car park to the palace we ate the most beautiful pa chocolate that we had picked up along the way ad headed into the grounds. After seeing quite possibly the biggest queue I have ever seen to get into the palace we walked around the massive and very impressive gardens – soaking up the warm sun. Then I lined up in the queue to the palace and Blandine went to a nice bolongerie to get some lunch – bread with ham chunks in it and pastry with ham cheese and potato on it – it was very bon (good)!The cost thirteen euro with our student discounts and included an audio guide. The first thing to know about the palace is that it is huge, there are many many rooms and all of them are intricately decorated with murals, tapestry and statues. So much so that by the end of the tour I tended to simply glance at a 10m square painting that would have had me glued to it if it were at the start of the tour. The highlights of the palace were for me the Hall of Mirrors and King Louis XIV’s room. The hall of mirror sis 750m squared and all along one side is covered in mirrors which reflect he multitude of chandeliers that hang from the ceiling and the large arch windows which look over the gardens. Back in the 16th century when the palace was built mirrors were extremely Cher (expensive – valuable) and this was one way of showing off Louis wealth when he held dance parties in this room. Also the treaty of Versailles was signed in this room - that ended WW1 – which I had learned all about in yr12 modern history. King Louis bedroom was cool because it was so far over the top. Paintings, tapestries a massive four poster bed as well as seats for people he was doing business with. Yup, you know you have power when you can run a country without having to leave your bed. Perhaps this is where Jay and the Doctor got their idea to host the Triple J breakfast show from their bedroom in their happiest Monday of all special??!!WE then ducked back to Blandines house at about 4:00 and she packed her bags and I chatted to Blandines mum about an Indian documentary on the TV while she did some ironing. She only spoke a little English so it was fun!Blandine and I then left to find the Bed and Breakfast where we should stay the night in the deep French country side. We drove on the small back roads to avoid paying the highway toll and so we could see some nice country side, which we certainly did. After 3 hours we arrived thanks to Blandines superb navigating (I wasn’t much help) and rally driving skills. The B and B was an old farm that had orchids on it, the room that we were straying in had a bathroom, and two beds. Blandine had asked me earlier when her mum was booking if I would mind if we had to share a bed if there were only one. I said ‘yeah’ but probably would have slept on the floor in my sleeping bag. There another cultural difference – it is fine for a woman in a relationship of 6 years to sleep in the same bed as a single man…We ate some chicken and baguette that Mrs Fouin had packed for us and joked that if it didn’t fill us up we would have to knock off the Chev (goat) that was in th paddock. I suggested head butting it to death – but Blandine thought that backing over it in the Clio would be better. We then went for a walk through he orchid and farm lanes and picked some blackberries as the sun slowly set. That night I had some unpleasant dreams – a theme that would continue. Not exactly nasty or scary dreams, just ones that made me feel icky…

20/08/07

I left London by coach at seven thirty in the morning and thanks to the lack of sleep that I had had due to my sleeping pattern that I had gotten into staying at my great Aunt Alison’s place, I slept most of the way to Dover where we caught the tunnel train to Calais. I then alternated between napping, watching ‘Pirates of the Caribean 3’ on the tv screen, reading and thinking ‘oh I’m in France’. At our one service stop I used all of my euros (I had a 2 euro coin left over from my last trip) to buy some lunch – a packet of chips.At spot on 3:30 local time we arrived at the Euro lines Bus depot. Right - time to find the metro so I can meet Blandine at Montt Parnese. Okay, Can’t seem to see any signs to the Metro – don’t panic, you may just have to find a local bus to take you to the nearest one – but you don’t have any money, ahh! Hey There’s Blandine, Cool! And then came one of the most awkward greetings I have been a apart of – and I have been a part of a great many awkward greetings. To avoid the dreaded ‘to hug or not to hug’ moment, I make it a rule to go in for it if in doubt – as long as a move is made then the awkwardness of deciding what to do evaporates. Also to avoid going to the same side as the person that I am greeting I make my moves big and simple and well in advance of any contact. This system usually works a treat – but I have never tried it in France before…I went in for the hug but Blandine did not. It was just like hugging me before I learnt the greeting system – stiff, mechanical and unresponsive. Blandine then said ‘you’re in France now – we kiss’ – so we did the kiss on each cheek and she lead the way to the Metro line. Later on we talked about greetings and she said that she found it quite awkward in Australia when she was there because everyone hugged so much. Despite kissing each other , even close French friends don’t hug often – she didn’t even hug her parents when she left for Australia. Looks like I’ll need to make some changes to the ‘greetings system’ when I’m in Europe.I was worried ever so slightly that we would not get on all that well as we didn’t actually hang out all that much in Australia and that I might not be able to understand her as I had trouble talking with our French Contiki driver because of his limited English and thick accent. But on the train to her house on the outskirts of Paris both of these concerns were quashed as we chatted about old times as well as what she had planned for us.We got picked up by her mum in a diesel Citroen C4 and drove to their house in a near by village opposite what I thought was a very large castle but won only a tiny Château. Once there we had baguette and cheese and Duck patte of sorts. Blandine told me that it was all the insides of the duck mashed up. Yum yum! I knew that I couldn’t get out of trying it as I had made Blandine try Vegemite in Australia and besides – the food was something that I had said I was keen to try in France. My mind kept sayi8ng ‘you are eating heart, liver, lungs, intestines and kidneys’ but my stomach said that it wasn’t actually all that bad. After that we went to the local Bolongarie and go some Baguettes and I had a read of my book ‘Zen and the art of Motorcycle maintenance’ and I had dinner with Blandine and her mum – more duck, this time wings and legs that came out of a can. Blandine’s Dad was at their country house which used to be Blandines Grandmother and her brother Adrian was at a mates place. We then watched some crazy French tele – people dodging cows in foam pits and then went to bed – the first time in over a month that I had slept in a proper bed – was very nice!

What do you call a person with no eyes that lives in this city?????? A Venetian Blind.
A Czech soldier in Prague
Laura and myself in fine footwear
Our 5 star accommodation for the twenty days

A tiny street in tiny Monaco
The leaning tower of Pisa
Ahh it must be italy....
Florence by night
The police ride in style in Italy...

The white cliffs of dover

Lovers in Paris, so cliche, so sweet!


Swiss Alps and Belled Cows

Day 20

The day started with Christina the tour guide telling us that there was another option that we could choose to take in Amsterdam – a sex show. Where according to her brief and awkward explanation of it – you pay money to watch people have sex. About half the group paid the twenty six euro to go and see it. Coming into Amsterdam we saw many windmills and the road was lined in places with solar panels - this seemed like a pretty cool country. Their laws with regards to Pot which had now been decriminalised interested a lot more people it appeared though. That night we had time to get dinner in Amsterdam and then have a quick tour of the red light district before the people that had paid went to the sex show. I got a nice kebab and some chips with mayonnaise with the crew that I had been hanging out with a fair bit along the tour Karl, François, Stags, Taz, Caitlin, and Jaya and a lot of the rest of the group went straight to the coffee shops, which are completely different to the café’s. When we joined Christina for the tour of the red light district a large portion of the boys that had paid for the show were not their – apparently they had smoked so much weed that they could not move their legs. The tour of the district was interesting – we found out about how Prostitution is legal and that they rent a little room with a big window and charge people about 20 to 50 euros for a blowjob or the whole thing and can fit about 10 (although she said that some had done up to thirty) ‘sessions’ into a shift. I wondered when they started working as all the windows were closed, until I saw one open and a man walk out – ewwww. We then walked through what would have to be the scariest alley way that I have ever walked down. It was about a metre wide and thirty long and on each side were doors with girls leaning out patting you – I copped a bit of attention by one because she was interested in the sword that I wore on my belt, although thankfully I didn’t get the treatment that Staggs got – the one-two whip manoeuvre. He got whipped in the balls hard enough for him to bend forward in pain and shock and then he got whipped on the bum – very funny stuff, possibly not for him though.
The following day we went and saw cheese and clogs being made at Edam which was just outside of Amsterdam and then had a bike tour through the village – very different to the one in Munich, the lady was middle aged and very cheery – but in a very different field to Stevo. There was an accident though, Tyler a South African girl came up the blind side of Brad and he nudged her into a blackberry bush. She was alright though. We then went back into Amsterdam where we had the remaining day until 7:40 to ourselves. I spent it with Rhian and Jo from Britain, and we checked out Anne Francs house, which was very interesting and then walked around the narrow streets peering into shops. It was in one of these streets that I was offered ecstasy for the first time. On the bus to our last dinner together as a group Meg a very friendly girl from Perth (I have never realised that they have a much stronger accent than people on the eastern side of Australia) announced the awards that we had voted on the day before – Most valuable person, Biggest player, Two can Sam (quickest drunk), Most improved and Biggest piker. I won biggest piker – wooohooo!!! After a nice Thai dinner we headed back to the campsite where we all hung about either smoking weed or playing cards and then went to bed. The following morning we left about a quarter of the group behind and headed back to England.

The Contiki trip was great at giving me the opportunity to see an awful lot of Europe in a very small space of time and for a pretty cheap cost. I don’t know if I ever would have gone to Venice and seen the glass master or lace makers, or gone to a German beer hall or biking tour or many other things by myself. I also think that as I was travelling by myself I could have gotten a bit lonely if I had not been with a group such as this. Although I didn’t go out with them all that often I don’t think it really seemed to matter in the end. The tents and the food that we had were both really awesome and I’ve got no complaints about either of them. It was an ace time and I’ll remember it for a while to come. The main reason that I came to Europe was to see different people and get to know them, followed by seeing a lot of the sights. Contiki let me see a lot of the sights, but as we moved around so much, we didn’t get to get to know to many locals. But that is okay as I’m going to get that opportunity when I see my mates in France and Germany.

Day 19

Heidelberg is a university town set on a nice river which we swam in when we arrived at our campsite. Cabins were on offer for five euro a night but me and a couple of others decided to set up tents and save the money. We went for a brief tour of the village and I hung out with Rhian and very funny British girl and we ambled from shop to shop and then went and saw the ‘good luck in the baby making department’ fertile monkey statue that guards one of their bridges. We all wondered why a little German University town would have this sort of statue, but do you really need as excuse to have a fertile Monkey monument??? For dinner that night we had a nice cheese platter to start off, then some chicken or pork schnitzel followed up by some moose. I opted to not go out that night and played cards with a small group of people until about twelve.

Day 17

I did get grabbed pretty strongly though by Munich. The campsite was really cool. It was set next to a river and a forest which had some sweet walking tracks. It did cost 1 euro to have a shower, which was a bit of a bummer – what wasn’t a bummer though was that it was here that we kept the volley ball up for 33 heads in a row – surely some sort of record! We started out or day in Munich with some free time to check out the Munich stadium which hosted the 1972 Olympics – I chose to investigate the BMW museum across the road from it. It was a massive building the shape of four cylinders slightly overlapping each other, and out the front doors were parked six white, top of the line BM’s from the current line. As soon as I stepped into the building I knew that it wasn’t a museum though – there were only two other people around – both dressed in suits and it was all a bit too clean. A was planning on investigating for myself what the building was, but one of the men was looking at me a bit too intently so I asked him and he directed me back across the road in German mixed with a few English words. Turns out that a BMW museum was still being built and there was a temporary one right next to the stadium – so I checked that out. There were a couple of cars there that I wanted to see like the 70’s M1 super car and the hydrogen 7 series, but a fair few were missing – I guess I now have a reason to see the new museum when it is built.
When we arrived in central Munich we had enough time to get some lunch before our bike ride – I got bratwurst and sour crout. Both of them tasted a little funky actually – but they were certainly edible and then I headed off to meet Stevo the crazy Irishman from Mikes Bikes that would take us on a tour of Munich. This was certainly one of the highlights of the trip for me –Stevo was awesome, a bit nutty but full of energy, and jokes (often naughty) but also of information about the city that we were in. I learned a lot from him that I wouldn’t have if I had not been on the tour – he told us to walk down an alley way and pay attention to the ground. There was a gold treacle set into the cobble stones. Apparently this is a silent mark of respect to people who used to use this alley way to avoid walking past a statue representing the Nazi regime where they would be forced to salute it. Also there were many lion statues and one in particular that was good luck to rub. The story goes that the king of Germany used to sleep around a lot with many women even though he was married and everyone knew this but said nothing – apart from a student who wrote him a letter telling him off and saying that he should be faithful. So the king was very angry at being told what to do and said that he would give 2000 francs to anyone who would bring this student to him - who was most likely going to be hanged. So the student walked in to meet the king on his own accord and the king not wanting to appear a tyrant to everyone in Munich gave the student the 2000 francs for his bravery, and on the way out of the palace, the student rubbed the lions nose – which made it lucky. We rode around for a while doing skids in the parks scaring couples walking arm in arm (Stevo’s idea) and then stopped at the second largest beer garden in Europe that holds 7500 people and sat there for about 1 or two hours while people drank between one and three steins each ( as stein is one litre) of beer. Unsurprisingly, when we started up again there were a few accidents - getting the front and back brakes confused and not seeing a boom gate. The boom gate was outside the ex Luftwaffe headquarters that had somehow escaped the bombing from world war two – so Gary mashing the gate and taking out some of the pavement when the side post came out, actually did more damage to the area then the entire allied force did during the war. That night we went to a Bavarian beer hall – I got a big stein full of Coke and Fanta mixed together (apparently it is a German soft drink) – I felt cool. The food was pretty ace too, a lot of pork and dumplings, as I was eating it I saw the girl from the Mozart and I thought she was looking at me – so I looked away having already put myself on display enough. The man on the stage continued to call for people to Prost (cheers) and then girls started dancing and yodelling and playing with bells. I then caught the eye of the girl from the Mozart concert again and she poked her tongue out at me and smiled, so I tilted my head in her direction – and then checked to see if she had actually been poking her tongue out as a gesture for me to clean something off my face. I then noticed that the people that I had been sitting next to had gotten up and I was all alone, so I got up too and walked to join them where they were standing. But the girl also got up and walked towards the end of the table where I was going – so without realising it had had made the first move and must have appeared strong and decisive. Yah! So I met her at the end of the table and we went out of the noise into the arriving room and chatted. She plays the flute well enough to have her own CD, and teach it for $60 an hour and also likes Aussie Hip hop. At the moment she is living in London but is only there until January when she is heading back to the north shore of Sydney where she lives. We went back inside and I paid for her next drink and asked if she was much of a dancer – she said that it depended on who was leading….. Time to shine Justo! So we did a bit of an awkward jig and then busted out some waltzing moves that I had learned from what Mum and Dad had learned at their dancing classes and then finished it all up with the funky chicken dance that German band was playing. Cool!

Day 15

At the Czech boarder we had to stop for 20mins as all of our passports were taken from us and checked by security – apparently if anyone of us had any problems they would just leave us right there as they had done with some Canadians on a previous tour. Despite getting lost briefly on the way we arrived at the Prague campsite with enough time to kick a soccer ball around on the nice big field before dinner and then heading off into the city for a quick tour. That night many of the Contiki campers we quite upset as they had not been told that you could not buy alcohol at the camp and they sat around moaning for a while.
The next morning we had a quick guided tour of Prague castle and the city by Christina where she showed us a astrological clock that was made hundreds of years ago. It was liked so much by the King at the time that he summoned its maker to him and then had his eyes plucked out so that he would not make another like it. After a cruise up the main river in Prague with lunch on board we had free time which I spent with Taz and Jaya generally ambling about. Most of the other Contikians had headed back to camp so that they could get ready for that nights partying at the clubs. For dinner Taz, Jaya and I ate pasta in a cosy restaurant where we also ordered cocktails (they had non-alcoholic ones). We were planning on just having water, but when we were told that you had to pay for it we all hastily chose drinks from the menu. As it turned out I ordered a pretty effeminate drink – ‘coconut lips’, I didn’t think anyone would really notice – but it was highlighted when the waiter offered it to both Jaya and Taz before sitting it in front of me – later on he asked me if I wanted another ‘lips’ with a grin on his face. We had to quickly finish dinner because at seven we had booked tickets to see a black light theatre performance, which involves using UV lights to make what happens on stage appear trippy. The show was really weird. It did have some cool parts where hands appeared to be flying in the air and clowns juggling in slow motion (I must love jugglers…) but I couldn’t really follow the story line – it was meant to be about how Alice from wonderland grew up after the storybook finished. I guess I could see the change – at the start she was playing with toys and wearing a dress, and at the end she was topless and making out with a magician – but that’s hardly a storyline.
Overall Prague didn’t really grab me in any way – it was quite pretty, it had old buildings, and the streets were narrow and wonky and European, but it just didn’t grab me…

Day 13

After having cranberry juice with breakfast on this morning we all packed up and headed to Vienna, Austria. Again it was a full days travel but it didn’t seem to last as long as others as we played a fair amount of Presidents and Arseholes – the only card game that anyone played on the trip. In Vienna we set up our tents and what not and then a group of about twelve of us went to the beach volleyball court that was there and surprisingly had a really good competitive game (I think I would like to have that as my sport this semester – at the moment it is grabbing me even more than netball!). After a quick shower – the one that I was in only had cool water and you had to hold your hand on the ‘go’ button to get any water – we were off to the theme park, and to race Patrick the French bus driver at the go carts as he had been talking up his skills all day, saying that he would beat us all even if he started at the back of the field. As it was, he did. It cost 10 Euros for ten minutes, but the track was of a decent size and they were proper carts. I started in about fourth position and used the first lap just to get a handle of the cart and to know the track – this is when Patrick over took me and everyone else. After a while I had sussed out most of the corners and was flying along, overtaking two other carts and despite sliding out a little wide on two of the hairpins and I was catching up to Patrick who maintained that he was slowing down to make things more fun. Anyway, I finally got close enough for a heated battle when I prematurely made a passing move on him on one of the hairpins, spinning his car around and stalling mine. The operator came over to start us back up again and although I don’t speak French, I’m pretty sure he was saying to me ‘That was silly, and if you do that again just one more time, your out’. We continued the race and there were not anymore incidents like it.
After this I went on a giant spinning ride where you got a great view of Vienna, but also a crazy contorted view of the theme park rapidly spinning by and the clouds and sky whipping past you upside down. I then walked around with a largish group of people until we decided to have tea, and most of the people went to a pretty expensive restaurant but Caitlin, Jaya and myself just got some cheap Carni food. It was here that I saw a group of people with an Iraqi flag dancing and singing and chanting and they ran past us and it tweaked that they may have won the Asian Cup – good on them. So for the rest of the evening I walked around with Caitlan and Jaya and had an enjoyable enough time looking at the rides and games. It wasn’t until we only had about 25 minutes to go that I really wanted to go on another ride, this time a dancing fun house walking one. I knew that neither of the girls would be up for it so I shouted them tickets and they couldn’t refuse. I’m glad I did though, it was awesome, sliding floors, crazy lasers, and rooms that turn the whites of your eyes and teath a neon yellow (perfect conditions for doing the thriller dance), all finished up with a long slide and a walk through a spinning barrel which I managed to do the Catherine wheel in for the first time. By the time we finished it was 9:25 and we needed to be at the bus at 9:30, which was five minutes walk away – perfect timing. Apparently not according to Jaya and Caitlin who were a little edgy – and I suppose with good right, when we got to the bus everyone was already inside sitting down and we headed off straight away.
That night it rained, and I went to bed early listening to it – and woke up that morning still listening to it. The inside of the tent was a little damp in places where the fly had touched it but nothing serious – certainly not as bad as the boys who somehow had their tent flooded. Within 10 minutes of being up the rain subsided and after a banging breakfast of cereal, sausages and baked beans we headed into Vienna. Christina gave us a quick guided tour past the new royal palace, Spanish Horses stables, Jewish monuments and then we got free time. I spent it with a small group going to a Hotel where a famous Chocolate cake originated. Apparently back in the day the King of Austria was having a big do and wanted a nice dessert, but his head cook was away, so the cooks apprentice stepped up and said that he would like to try something new – and he did, and the king loved it. It was a chocolate cake with marmalade inside it. Now there is a chain of hotels carrying the apprentices name and the cake is sent all over the world. This hotel café where we sat was very high brow and we all felt a little out of place with our rain jackets that we still had and our back packs – but it didn’t bother us too much. Incidentally it was here where I first discovered the small hole in the crouch of my jeans. After this we walked up through the main drag of Vienna which was the most like any Australian Streets that I have seen – not outstandingly European, to the place where Ducky (our cook) had recommended that we eat lunch. It served schnitzel larger than the size of the plate that it was served on, and was quite enjoyable – although I could have done with a bit of sauce or gravy.
The next stop was to the other Austrian palace for forty five minutes before going to the schnapps tour. I opted not to go the schnapps tour so got to stay for about two hours, which despite my first thoughts actually turned out to be one of the most enjoyable times on the trip. After everyone apart from me and four Korean girls left I walked through the hedge mazes, played on their musical fountains, and amazing play gym equipment and had a ball banging a tune out on an oversized xylophone type thing to the rapturous applause of a couple about my age who must have been watching me…I was a little embarrassed, so I made a discreet bow and quickly walked off. I then headed up a hill at the back of the gardens where you could oversee the palace and all the intricate flower patterns and fountains in the massive gardens and the rest of Vienna in the background, before ambling down through the thick forest on one side. Here I got close to squirrels and had a lovely stroll under the dense canopy, before walking past a couple of more fountains and then going out the front of the palace to wait for the bus that took us back to the camp site, where we played a little more volleyball and then got ready for our Mozart concert.
Only about a third of the group opted to go to the concert, but those that had, had made an effort to dress up suitably. Despite wearing my collared shirt I felt a bit second rate walking into this massive red carpeted building knowing that I had a substantial hole in my pants. As we waited around for the show to start, another even smaller Contiki group arrived and began taking pictures of themselves. Stags being the gentleman that he was offered to take the shots so that they could all be in it, and then we started to be ushered into the music room. Carl started talking to one of the quite pretty Contiki girls so I put myself into ultimate flirt mode and headed over to have a chat as well – however all of my ‘so where are you from’ ‘how are you liking the trip’ lines did not seem to intrigue this girl in the way that I had anticipated and I could sense that she wasn’t really interested. Before shuffling off I noticed that the design on the red scarf that she wore on her head was treble and base clefs – she probably knew her music then and was a bit to rich for my blood anyway.
The music was entertaining enough although I had expected there to be more than just ten people on stage – I recognised some of the songs and the dancing and singing was certainly entertaining enough. However the highlight of the night was when Slobbs asked which one on stage was Mozart. Slobbs was awesome – one of those people that you just find yourself laughing at regardless of what they do or say. He seemed to be a good honest bloke.

Day 11

After leaving the campsite and two blokes from our group who had run out of money and were planning on going to Greece where they had some sort of jobs lined up, we headed towards Venice. This stop would have to be one of my favourites. After setting up our gear I charged my camera battery in a bathroom which gave the an excuse to chill out and read my book while I waited outside. Apparently that night people from another tour let down a lot of our tents – but I slept right on through. The next morning we caught a ferry to the Venice. I think that part of the city is on islands and the other part is on the mainland – we camped on the main land. When we got to the islands we went to a glass making demonstration and saw what was my highlight from the trip. The glass master had a glowing lump of glass on the end of a stick and he blew into it and pulled at it so casually and then all of a sudden it was a vase. He then grabbed the lip of it with his tongs and stretched it until it was really thin before whipping it back over itself and attaching it to the vase and vollah a handle! I then spotted a glass horse sitting on a shelf and thought to myself ‘it’s all very well making a vase but there is no way that you could make a horse using the same technique’. But he did. He started with a drippy chunk and pulled bits and teased it until he had a horse that he pulled off the stick and sat it perfectly on the table. It was so impressive. Apparently in order to be a glass master you need to have a fifteen year apprenticeship. After that we saw everything else in the shop that the glass master had made and we could purchase something if we wanted. The Horses cost twenty euro, a crazy colourful life sized cow head that sticks out from a table cost twenty three thousand – almost worth it though, it was very cool.
We then went to a lace shop and saw wad loads of Venetian lace. Apparently each piece needs to be completed by the same person that starts it and for this reason it is really expensive as it takes days for each piece to be completed. But the government supports the industry so a piece that would normally need to be sold for eight hundred euros to get its money back can be sold for one hundred. Then we had free time which i spent with a small group of people ambling through the tiny alleyways that made up the streets, looking into the funny shops and taking photos of the many canals. For lunch we had a really really thick slice of pizza followed up with some ice cream from a place where Stags and I were sure the girl was flirting with us. She only spoke limited English and us even far more limited Italian, and she was pretty. We sat in the shade in a small alley way, and then headed off to check out a massive church. This was the only place where I ever had any trouble with my sword – one of the guards asked me to remove it, while the other one jokingly acted out me slaying a dragon with it. When I returned and showed him my empty sheath, he wanted me to open my mouth to make sure I hadn’t hidden it down my throat. We then found our way through the labyrinth of streets to have our gondola rides through the canals, which was great fun. We saw where Mozart used to live and chatted to the Gondola captain Andrew and had a most pleasant afternoon. In each city that we went to I would always ask Christina the Canadian girl if she would ever live here and then she would ask me. Most answers were the same – ‘yeah I’d do it for a little while, but not forever’. With Venice I said that I wouldn’t have minded at all if I had been born there and at the age of fifteen left school to start my Glass masters apprenticeship. I could have happily lived as a glass master there and owned a gondola instead of a car.

Day 9

Travelling to Rome we stopped at a small town called San Guimento or something like that. Here Stags, Taz and I got lunch in a small cellar. Stags and I got a ham and cheese sandwich. The neat thing was the we got to see the man make it. He cracked the bun open because it was really hard, and sawed off some ham that was sitting out with out any refrigeration and sliced off some hard cheese which was also out. It was a very tough sandwich, but the atmosphere was great. We also got to use his bathroom which we thought he must also use, because It had a homely touch – not like the sort of public bathrooms that we had been used too – no automatic taps and black tiles on the floor and walls - very nice! After more ice cream from anther place there I paid some money to fill my drink bottle up from the public bathroom as I had forgot to do it in the nice one. And this was the only time that I didn’t drink the water. Not because it tasted bad, but because it tasted…. strongly. I’m not sure what of, it was kind of lemony, but it was meant to be pure water – if I had thought it was meant to be cordial, no probs, but as it was I tipped it out in Rome.
The next day in Rome the temperature was stifling and as a result we used the pool at the caravan park a fair bit despite its two euro fifty entry charge. When we arrived we had a tour of the city and had dinner that night where ever we pleased, I sat in a large square and had a nice pasta dish. The following day we lined up outside the Vatican city and ventured through it – it was really impressive, but very overwhelming. There are only so many works of art that have taken tens or hundreds of years to make that you can be impressed by. Saying that, despite being one of the last things that I saw there, Michelangelo’s al fresco in the Sistine chapel was truly something to behold. After a ride on a very long bendy bus to the centre of town we had our guided tour of the really old ruins. It was soooo hot by then and by the first archway our group had dwindled somewhat. I even found myself dozing off on one of our stop offs under a tree – it was mega hot. After the tour ended at the Coliseum we caught a train to the Spanish steps where we said we would meet Christina and had an ice-cream. That night I went out with the group to the club at the campsite and had a really good time. What really made it for me was that they served free pasta at 12:00. It was quite spicy which I loved. It must work out well for them as it would stop people getting drunk as fast, and it would make them buy drinks to try and stop the burning. I danced like a whirling dervish that night until they started playing wicky wicky wah wah rap music. Then I went to bed and almost made the mistake of giving off the wrong sort of message to Caitlin who I danced with a bit that night. I put my arm around her shoulder briefly as we walked off – which lead to a general ‘walking with our arms around each other’ type thing. Caitlin was very nice and pleasant – but I didn’t feel for her at all in that way – and I think that she might have done so towards me.

Day 7

Before we arrived at Florence we stopped off at Pisa and saw the tower. It was worth while – but it seems that taking a photo where you align yourself so that it appears that you are holding up the tower isn’t as original as you might suspect. Almost everyone there was doing it and it was pretty amusing to see a field of people with their right arm out all smiling. In my quest to find an ATM here I almost got sucked into buying a trinket that I didn’t need. An African man asked if Christina (Canadian – not the tour guide) who I was walking with had been to Africa because of her Ugandan bag (she did some volunteer work there) and said that she could have a model elephant as a good luck gift and that I could have one too as I was her boyfriend. I said ‘Gratsi’ and took it and started to walk off feeling like I had already had a stroke of good luck at finding such a cool fella – but then he started asking for money and refusing to take the trinket back, so I placed it on his arm and walked off. I then practised my Italian. I had been told a line off Caitlin that means ‘you are a very beautiful woman’ so I said ‘to say uno bella donna’ to the lady that served me ice-cream, and she laughed at me, pronounced it properly and then turned around. Yah, go me! I said it to a lady earlier and she just smiled at me, and then Caitlin over heard her saying in a strong American accent “wow did you just hear what that guy said to me!” – there were a lot of tourists…
Florence – now this place was nice to look at but didn’t really grab me like some places did. We had a tour of the city and were told about a lot of the statutes that were being displayed in the square –and they were pretty cool – really graphic but very cool. I quite liked the one of Hercules beating up a centaur. We also got a leather making demonstration which was entertaining, but I didn’t buy anything, way too expensive, and again nothing said ‘Justin – you need me’. Actually I have never encountered anything that has said that too me – until I walked into a wooden toy shop across the road from the leather demonstration, and I saw a wooden sword. There was quite a variety, but what really called my name was a medium length weapon. The hilt was just the right size for my hand and I could imagine the shoo shoo sound that it would make when I would wield it. It cost 10 euro, and the sheath cost anther ten, but it made it so much more desirable as I could wear it a lot more frequently. I bought it and wore it several times through out the rest of the tour, and used it generally to fight off evil and to point at things. That night we went to a club called ‘space electronic’ which was really crazy. There were those cages up high where people could dance and there were heaps of people. As it turned out a great deal of them would have been between sixteen and eighteen, as that is the legal age for going out in Italy – the boys in our tour had a field day. I left at about 2:30.

Day 5

We crossed the boarder back into France and travelled along way past some sweet as bro’ scenery of the French Riviera to a small town on the coast. Here after setting up camp and having dinner we went to the beach which was a 15 minute walk away. It was about 9:30 when we got there and the sun was just setting and we skipped across the smooth stones into the deep water of the Mediterranean sea and played with a ball, had swimming races and skipped stones. At the same time some African drummers started to play and a bonfire was lit, it was awesome. After that we played some putt putt in one of the coolest courses I have ever played – it had loop the loops and jumps and river crossings – A-grade fun! We finished up at about 1 o’clock with ice creams – where I was the butt of my first French joke. A random guy that I passed pretended to take my ice-cream and he said ‘merci’ which I knew meant thank you! Ha what fun the French are! The next day we had the option of going to Cannes or Nice – I opted for Nice. The town was having lots of road works done which didn’t help the atmosphere. The beach itself was amazing – the water was so brightly coloured blue that it looked like there must be something wrong with it. There were a couple of waves, but you wouldn’t want to ride them as you would be hammered against the stones on the shore. It was here that I realised the shorts that I have been using as boardies were see through – oh dear! The beach was packed with people sunbaking either on the public beach on the stones or at private beaches on deck chairs that you would have to purchase. After a lunch from the supermarket and some ice cream that I seemed to have a lot of where ever I went we headed back to the campsite.

Day 3

Today there was a lot of travelling as we were going to Switzerland to stay in the Alps. Frankly I don’t remember much about the trip as it was most likely past in sleeping or trying to get to sleep with my neck crooked at a funky angle. When we arrived in the little village we were offered the option of sleeping in cabins at ten Swiss francs a night as it was expected to rain – I was keen to just have a tent and save the money, but the three south African blokes that I would share a tent with over the trip Carl, François, and Stags wanted to have a cabin so I obliged to make up the fourth man. The camp ground was set in between a massive overhanging rock cliff with a waterfall and a fast flowing stream. The following morning we had grated potato for breakfast which was fantastic and then headed up to the top of Jung Frau – which was an optional extra that almost everyone took despite the weighty price tag of 120 Swiss Francs (about A$120). It was worthwhile though, the train ride up to the top which was meant to be an engineering feat in its day took almost two hours, and had a couple of us dozing off along the way, only to be woken up by fantastic views of snow capped peaks and Gorge-ess views. At the top of Jung Frau there is a massive tourist centre built where you can hire sliding boards, go to lookouts and visit an ice palace. All this was very entertaining, but what really took us all by surprise was the trouble that we had getting about. Because we were close to 4kms up the air was a lot thinner than we were used to, and although you couldn’t notice it when you breathed it in, you certainly felt less inclined to climb stairs or walk long distances – which explains why we only got half way to the snow cabin which was only 500m from the exit of the centre.
That night I decided to ‘go out’ with the rest of the crew and ended up at he ‘Bomb shelter’ which is a bar made primarily for the large amounts of Contiki tours that come through the campsite. It started off slowly – trying to talk to people over the way to loud music, but after a while I got stuck into some dancing with ten or so of the crew and had a blast – I probably looked like a goose, but I had a good time and doubted that anyone else would remember how I looked, let alone how they got back to their tent or in whose arms.