We got a lie in this morning...yeahh!! Departure time of 9am for a change to get us on the road to Budapest. The starter motor in the bus has been fixed, but now we've got a leak down the back that's making some of the seats a bit damp and unusable. Wonder how we'll cope in countries with uneven roads an extreme temperatures!?
Budapest started off badly for me, and I judged it early and had a bad first impression. We got off the bus and had to walk down a busy shopping street in Pest (the one leading to the market) to get to our hostel for two nights (Domino Hostel). There were beggars on the street and restaurant owners trying to get us into their place for food (like that was going to happen with all of our big rucksacks and all our gear?!). The place looked grotty and dirty and not all that welcoming, and rather than having my normal sense of feeling safe, I was instead feeling quite uncomfortable about being there.
We had been warned that the hostel was basic but clean and safe. I would tend to disagree a bit. The kitchen looked manky so cooking there wasn't going to happen. The rooms we had were 8 bed dorms so we weren't sharing with unknowns which was good. They weren't the cleanest though, I raised the duvet on my bed to check it out and there was hair underneath it and stains on the sheet, so I was glad that I had my sleeping bag liner with me! A lot of the group went to the Gellert Baths to unwind and freshen up but a few of us stayed behind to wander the surroundings. When we went to lock the door to our room it didn't seem like it was going to happen. When you turned the key nothing happened, you could just push the door open (no need to even use the handle), so I went off to reception to see what could be done as there was no way I was leaving my stuff in a room with a door that didn't lock! While I was bashing my head off the brick wall that was the language barrier and lack of understanding of the lady in reception Barbara had managed to get it to lock, but there was a gap of half an inch between the door and door frame that could easily have been negotiated to get into the room. The lady at reception refused to give us the keys to the individual lockers so we stored all of our valuables in a single locker and hoped that it'd be ok (it turned out grand).
We didn't venture too far from the hostel at all on the first night, and had chinese for dinner in a place at the end of the street. I figured that I needed to see a bit more of the place than just the streets around the hostel to be able to make up my mind for sure as to whether or not I liked the city. So, early on the 31st I got up and went on a bus tour with Loonie and Ann staying on for a full circuit of the tour route to avoid the wind and rain (you feckers at home had BBQ weather as I believe). We saw a lot of the place that way and were able to pick where we wanted to get off on the 2nd circuit. Feeling tired and less than excited about exploring either Buda or Pest in the rain we got off at the 0km marker at the foot of Buda Castle and took the funicular up the hill (avoiding what I heard was 5,000 steps). We spent a good 2 hours or so wandering around up there before meeting up with the group to go to the Labyrinths. That was another freaky experience that I wouldn't be too keen on repeating. Very creepy and damp and dark down there, and then we took the wrong exit and ended up separated from the group who went ahead to the restaurant for dinner leaving a small search party looking for us. Eventually we all made it to the restaurant where we sampled local cuisine (I had goulash soup...Mmmmm) in very large portions and then rolled home in the rain (30 minute walk).
It was only really after dinner when I saw the city by night with all of the lighting on the beautiful buildings that I thought, yea, this place is kinda nice. So Budapest, thanks, but I'll probably not be back. The first impression and crap from the hostel put too much of a dampner on it for me.
For photos from Budapest click here.
Sunday, May 31, 2009
Friday, May 29, 2009
Day 5 & 6 (Kotna Hora & Vienna)
So today we left the Czech Republic behind us and head for Vienna, Austria where we've got another 2 night stay *bounce*. The only scheduled stop on the way was in Kotna Hora to see a church where a very bored monk has created sculptures from human skulls and other bones. I think it may well be the weirdest tourist attraction that I've ever visited..I certainly can't think of any other that's up in the same league as it.
In the centre of the church there was a skull & bone chandelier with four pillars underneath with more bones. Then in each of the four corners of the church there was a stack of bones/skulls that was incredibly high and wide. The info all seemed to be in Czech so I don't know the background story for the place for sure (think it's people who died from a plague) – reckon it's something that might be interesting to read up on. Very, very weird stuff – check out the photo album referenced below to see for yourself!
We had our first bus issue today – it didn't start up when we came back from looking at the bone art! It was quite worrying to see Martin walking down to the back with a screwdriver in his hand. When he got back on the bus he reverse rolled the bus out of the parking spot and slightly down the hill we were parked on and tried to start the engine again – thankfully it sprang into life. Apparently some people were cold on the bus so the heating was put on for an age...it reached sauna temperatures and I was about ready to pass out.
When we got back on the road I watched some tv shows and kept an eye out on what was going on with the landscape outside of the bus. The most random sight of the day has to have been the row of theme restaurants and amusement park places we saw before we passed the village of Jetzeldorf. There was a medieval place with a giant dragon, a huge globe, a restaurant in an airplane, an American style casino and some kind of animal world. The strange thing was that these were out in the middle of nowhere..if they were on the outskirts of a town then fair enough, but it was like they'd just been plonked down on a free bit of land – like Field of Dreams, if we build it, they will come.
We made good time getting to Vienna which was great, especially given how lovely the hostel was (Meninger Hostel Vienna). We had free wifi in the reception area again, the location was extremely central and the rooms were top notch. The place was more like a hotel than a hostel really! Rather than spending another fortune on restaurant food the vast majority of us took advantage of the kitchen in the basement to cook up a storm of microwave meals, salads and pasta dishes. Loonie and I had pasta stuffed with spinach with a red pesto sauce, melted mozzerella and some delicious brown bread. Delicious and much cheaper than we've been paying for eating out recently!
We had a full day in Vienna on May 29th to go explore the city, so that we did. Loonie wanted to visit some museums and galleries, and I was more on for exploring the city to find the Butterfly House and Planetarium so after heading out pretty early (with our packed lunch made from the all you can eat breakfast buffet at the hostel) and going to the Imperial Palace to see the morning training session for the Spanish Riding school we headed off separately. I wasn't sure that I wanted to pay €12 to get in to see some horses exercising, but it was actually very good. They have 5 or 6 horses out for 30 minutes at a time trotting them around a fabulous arena (I think it must have been a ballroom in the Palace) before bringing out a different set of horses. The brochure for the place said that it's not always possible to see them training the horses to jump (straight up in the air – no fence involved), but I saw not 1, not 2, but 4 jumps total in the hour and a bit that I watched for. Within the second set of horses I watched there was a single bay amongst all the grey who was phenomenal. It trotted sideways the entire length of the arena, making it through two poles set a little more than a horse width apart in the centre of the arena – crazy stuff!
After leaving the horses I joined up with Mel, Abby & Sara for a portion of the day (they went for coffee at the palace while I went into the Butterfly House). I wasn't sure what to expect with the Butterfly House, whether it was going to be live ones or a museum showing the different species so I was very pleasantly surprised to find it to be a big conservatory/glasshouse at one side of the palace. It was very beautiful in there, definitely somewhere you could spend an hour or two relaxing (if only they had more than on bench – reckon it's a strategic lack of them in there).
When I managed to tear myself away from the butterflies the four of us made our way to Prater to find the Giant Ferris wheel with a stop off at the Cathedral and a costume shop en route. It was pretty big, but I've seen bigger to be honest. The impressive thing about it was that instead of having the normal little bucket shapes or pods for people to get into to go around on it, there were wooden cabin shaped things that held 14 people. I waited until later that evening when I met up with Loonie again to go up on it – I rediscovered my dislike for heights..what am I going to be like skydiving?? Next to the fairground was the Planetarium that I wanted to go to. I bought my ticket, got inside the IMAX and sat down waiting for the show to start – it was in German! I understood some of the words for the star signs but not much else if I'm honest. It was cool to sit back and look at the stars though, and I was even able to pick out a few constellations.
Loonie eventually found Prater after getting lost a few times, so in addition to the ferris wheel we went on a water ride in the fairground..twice! The first time down I took a video clip of her, the second time down she tried to take one of me (but it didn't come out properly). It was great craic..we were laughing our heads off the whole way down. We were sat into a pod like a walzter with a rubber tube on the bottom, which was then raised up to the top of the big slide on a lift that twisted us around and around until we got up there. Then we were released onto the slide and the pod spun around in circles in the opposite direction to the spirals of the slide, very fast! So fast in face that Loonie was thrown sideways and couldn't get back up so was left clinging for dear life laying across half the pod..hilarious!
Vienna was wonderful, and like Brugge is somewhere I'd consider revisiting in future. The hostel was fab so I'd definitely use them again.
For photos from Kotna Hora and Vienna click here.
In the centre of the church there was a skull & bone chandelier with four pillars underneath with more bones. Then in each of the four corners of the church there was a stack of bones/skulls that was incredibly high and wide. The info all seemed to be in Czech so I don't know the background story for the place for sure (think it's people who died from a plague) – reckon it's something that might be interesting to read up on. Very, very weird stuff – check out the photo album referenced below to see for yourself!
We had our first bus issue today – it didn't start up when we came back from looking at the bone art! It was quite worrying to see Martin walking down to the back with a screwdriver in his hand. When he got back on the bus he reverse rolled the bus out of the parking spot and slightly down the hill we were parked on and tried to start the engine again – thankfully it sprang into life. Apparently some people were cold on the bus so the heating was put on for an age...it reached sauna temperatures and I was about ready to pass out.
When we got back on the road I watched some tv shows and kept an eye out on what was going on with the landscape outside of the bus. The most random sight of the day has to have been the row of theme restaurants and amusement park places we saw before we passed the village of Jetzeldorf. There was a medieval place with a giant dragon, a huge globe, a restaurant in an airplane, an American style casino and some kind of animal world. The strange thing was that these were out in the middle of nowhere..if they were on the outskirts of a town then fair enough, but it was like they'd just been plonked down on a free bit of land – like Field of Dreams, if we build it, they will come.
We made good time getting to Vienna which was great, especially given how lovely the hostel was (Meninger Hostel Vienna). We had free wifi in the reception area again, the location was extremely central and the rooms were top notch. The place was more like a hotel than a hostel really! Rather than spending another fortune on restaurant food the vast majority of us took advantage of the kitchen in the basement to cook up a storm of microwave meals, salads and pasta dishes. Loonie and I had pasta stuffed with spinach with a red pesto sauce, melted mozzerella and some delicious brown bread. Delicious and much cheaper than we've been paying for eating out recently!
We had a full day in Vienna on May 29th to go explore the city, so that we did. Loonie wanted to visit some museums and galleries, and I was more on for exploring the city to find the Butterfly House and Planetarium so after heading out pretty early (with our packed lunch made from the all you can eat breakfast buffet at the hostel) and going to the Imperial Palace to see the morning training session for the Spanish Riding school we headed off separately. I wasn't sure that I wanted to pay €12 to get in to see some horses exercising, but it was actually very good. They have 5 or 6 horses out for 30 minutes at a time trotting them around a fabulous arena (I think it must have been a ballroom in the Palace) before bringing out a different set of horses. The brochure for the place said that it's not always possible to see them training the horses to jump (straight up in the air – no fence involved), but I saw not 1, not 2, but 4 jumps total in the hour and a bit that I watched for. Within the second set of horses I watched there was a single bay amongst all the grey who was phenomenal. It trotted sideways the entire length of the arena, making it through two poles set a little more than a horse width apart in the centre of the arena – crazy stuff!
After leaving the horses I joined up with Mel, Abby & Sara for a portion of the day (they went for coffee at the palace while I went into the Butterfly House). I wasn't sure what to expect with the Butterfly House, whether it was going to be live ones or a museum showing the different species so I was very pleasantly surprised to find it to be a big conservatory/glasshouse at one side of the palace. It was very beautiful in there, definitely somewhere you could spend an hour or two relaxing (if only they had more than on bench – reckon it's a strategic lack of them in there).
When I managed to tear myself away from the butterflies the four of us made our way to Prater to find the Giant Ferris wheel with a stop off at the Cathedral and a costume shop en route. It was pretty big, but I've seen bigger to be honest. The impressive thing about it was that instead of having the normal little bucket shapes or pods for people to get into to go around on it, there were wooden cabin shaped things that held 14 people. I waited until later that evening when I met up with Loonie again to go up on it – I rediscovered my dislike for heights..what am I going to be like skydiving?? Next to the fairground was the Planetarium that I wanted to go to. I bought my ticket, got inside the IMAX and sat down waiting for the show to start – it was in German! I understood some of the words for the star signs but not much else if I'm honest. It was cool to sit back and look at the stars though, and I was even able to pick out a few constellations.
Loonie eventually found Prater after getting lost a few times, so in addition to the ferris wheel we went on a water ride in the fairground..twice! The first time down I took a video clip of her, the second time down she tried to take one of me (but it didn't come out properly). It was great craic..we were laughing our heads off the whole way down. We were sat into a pod like a walzter with a rubber tube on the bottom, which was then raised up to the top of the big slide on a lift that twisted us around and around until we got up there. Then we were released onto the slide and the pod spun around in circles in the opposite direction to the spirals of the slide, very fast! So fast in face that Loonie was thrown sideways and couldn't get back up so was left clinging for dear life laying across half the pod..hilarious!
Vienna was wonderful, and like Brugge is somewhere I'd consider revisiting in future. The hostel was fab so I'd definitely use them again.
For photos from Kotna Hora and Vienna click here.
Thursday, May 28, 2009
The day I wrote something..
Greetings from middle Earth, Frodo Baggins here, aka the wiley and reclusive blogger Loonie Tune. Thought I better give this blogging (I would rather a flogging :)) malarkey a go and fill you in on my adventurous quest, plus I'm feeling 'blogging' (feel free to release this word with a hasty curse of your choice) guilty. Lemmie is such a whizz on the oul' 'notebook' (one that's not made from paper & has lines in it!!!), and I fear I am a very lazy and naughty Luddite.
Well we set out from London on Sunday the 24th of May, and it's now only Tuesday the 26th of May but for some bizarre Rip Van Winkle sensation it feels like we've been away for a hundred years or more. Suppose it could be the fact that we've been in England, France, Belgium, Germany and now the Czech Republic, all in 3 days. *Phew*!! It's already proving to be a very tiring trip,but enjoyable none the less.
All the bloody packing and unpacking is a nightmare though. Me no-likey and I'd rather stick pins in my eyes at this stage but it must be done. In the name of crazy people travelling by bus from London to Sydney everywhere. Two buckles on my rucksack broke the night of the 21st of May as I packed my bag for the first first time at 1am. It was rather infuriating and bothersome and causing me much hardship, but I watched McGuyver as a child, so with two candles, a can of hairspray and three forks, everything was A ok in a jiffy.
I'm on the bus now leaving Germany as I write this horses pop. We're heading to Prague in the Czech Republic for two nights. Oh the joy to be staying in a place for 2 whole blissful nights. What a treat! I can finally wash my tunderwear and socks, all five pairs each. Also going to bed late and then having to be up showered, ready, breakfast in the belly (not shrinking yet God damn it) and on the bus by 8am is proving laborious. It was especially tough this morning as I was a wee bit hungover (Sorry Mumsie but I learn from the best...only kiddin..tee hee!) today from the beer before and after dinner and the 'wine tasting' which was more like wine guzzling, somewhere in between. But I'll stick to my story of blaming the surprisingly tasty Snitzel I had for dinner, cooked up by the infamous hostel owner, Herman the Crazy German. The man is definitely cuckoo and a few sandwiches short of a picnic, but a really lovely and kind man, and far too bloody generous with his wine samples I may add! There was no sniffing or snorting, appreciating the delicate bouquets, or sacrilegious spitting out of precious vino, what ever that's about anyhow. Just good glugging down of full shot glasses of pleasing and pleasant plonk. Strangely the samples got more tasty as the evening progressed! Funny that! It was certainly a bizarre experience we shared with Herman the German, and I'm sure we'll have many more on this whirlwind trip. Here's hoping there will be no more magic, reappearing snitzels though – uhhh! Thought I'd never feel alive again, feckin snitzel!
I'm amongst the living now again as my father would say.
The people on the bus are a real mixed bag of liquourice allsorts, with different ages, personalities, nationalities etc, but all seem very nice and hopefully it will stay that way. Tour leader Kim takes no shit let me tell you. She's like a blonde, female Arnie (she'll be back to terminate you if you're naughty and break the rules) but she's as sound as an english pound. It's an amazing job she does and she does it very well.
Hmmm, well what to say next am running out of thoughts and entering Homer Simpson 'Duh' mode, bloody german beer, that is oh so tasty, you have temporarily fried my already dodgy brain. Oh a break from blogging, Cappadocia in turkey, Yeah!!! There's a sheet going around and I must decide whether I want to go abseiling or trekking. Trekking me thinks, would feel too much like a marshmallow squished into an elastic band with the abseiling. Shall definitely give it a go another time when I don't look like I'm related to the Michelin man. The nerdy part of me which is growing increasingly every day wants to take one of the many fantastic treks on offer. Oh so many to choose from. Am going to go hot air ballooning in Turkey too (don't be worrying mother). How very exciting Philleas Fogg like I can't wait. Well shall love you and leave you. Must give my rambling scrawling to my more than capable friend, who is now also doubling as my typist, the wonderful and sublime Lemmie. I fear I will melt if I look at the teeny little laptop/notebook thingy. It's screen is too small and I might just fling it across the room. Will have to write my blogs the old fashioned way or it just wouldn't happen. Compromise is great and is working well for us.
Over and out form Frodo Baggins minus the hairy feet, smelly and sore maybe. Til we meet again, take care earthlings xxx
Big shout out to Mike in Dublin, Legend I tell ya!
Well we set out from London on Sunday the 24th of May, and it's now only Tuesday the 26th of May but for some bizarre Rip Van Winkle sensation it feels like we've been away for a hundred years or more. Suppose it could be the fact that we've been in England, France, Belgium, Germany and now the Czech Republic, all in 3 days. *Phew*!! It's already proving to be a very tiring trip,but enjoyable none the less.
All the bloody packing and unpacking is a nightmare though. Me no-likey and I'd rather stick pins in my eyes at this stage but it must be done. In the name of crazy people travelling by bus from London to Sydney everywhere. Two buckles on my rucksack broke the night of the 21st of May as I packed my bag for the first first time at 1am. It was rather infuriating and bothersome and causing me much hardship, but I watched McGuyver as a child, so with two candles, a can of hairspray and three forks, everything was A ok in a jiffy.
I'm on the bus now leaving Germany as I write this horses pop. We're heading to Prague in the Czech Republic for two nights. Oh the joy to be staying in a place for 2 whole blissful nights. What a treat! I can finally wash my tunderwear and socks, all five pairs each. Also going to bed late and then having to be up showered, ready, breakfast in the belly (not shrinking yet God damn it) and on the bus by 8am is proving laborious. It was especially tough this morning as I was a wee bit hungover (Sorry Mumsie but I learn from the best...only kiddin..tee hee!) today from the beer before and after dinner and the 'wine tasting' which was more like wine guzzling, somewhere in between. But I'll stick to my story of blaming the surprisingly tasty Snitzel I had for dinner, cooked up by the infamous hostel owner, Herman the Crazy German. The man is definitely cuckoo and a few sandwiches short of a picnic, but a really lovely and kind man, and far too bloody generous with his wine samples I may add! There was no sniffing or snorting, appreciating the delicate bouquets, or sacrilegious spitting out of precious vino, what ever that's about anyhow. Just good glugging down of full shot glasses of pleasing and pleasant plonk. Strangely the samples got more tasty as the evening progressed! Funny that! It was certainly a bizarre experience we shared with Herman the German, and I'm sure we'll have many more on this whirlwind trip. Here's hoping there will be no more magic, reappearing snitzels though – uhhh! Thought I'd never feel alive again, feckin snitzel!
I'm amongst the living now again as my father would say.
The people on the bus are a real mixed bag of liquourice allsorts, with different ages, personalities, nationalities etc, but all seem very nice and hopefully it will stay that way. Tour leader Kim takes no shit let me tell you. She's like a blonde, female Arnie (she'll be back to terminate you if you're naughty and break the rules) but she's as sound as an english pound. It's an amazing job she does and she does it very well.
Hmmm, well what to say next am running out of thoughts and entering Homer Simpson 'Duh' mode, bloody german beer, that is oh so tasty, you have temporarily fried my already dodgy brain. Oh a break from blogging, Cappadocia in turkey, Yeah!!! There's a sheet going around and I must decide whether I want to go abseiling or trekking. Trekking me thinks, would feel too much like a marshmallow squished into an elastic band with the abseiling. Shall definitely give it a go another time when I don't look like I'm related to the Michelin man. The nerdy part of me which is growing increasingly every day wants to take one of the many fantastic treks on offer. Oh so many to choose from. Am going to go hot air ballooning in Turkey too (don't be worrying mother). How very exciting Philleas Fogg like I can't wait. Well shall love you and leave you. Must give my rambling scrawling to my more than capable friend, who is now also doubling as my typist, the wonderful and sublime Lemmie. I fear I will melt if I look at the teeny little laptop/notebook thingy. It's screen is too small and I might just fling it across the room. Will have to write my blogs the old fashioned way or it just wouldn't happen. Compromise is great and is working well for us.
Over and out form Frodo Baggins minus the hairy feet, smelly and sore maybe. Til we meet again, take care earthlings xxx
Big shout out to Mike in Dublin, Legend I tell ya!
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Day 4 (Prague)
Ahhh, the joy of waking up and not being in a rush to swallow down breakfast (I should really say toast as that's become the staple food provided in the morning) before carting out my freshly repacked rucksack to the bus and selecting a new seat for the day's driving. Glorious!
Even though I didn't need to be up crack of sparrow early I was up and about around 7.30am..very weird for me. I reckon there's a good chance that when I get home I'll actually get up before 9am for a change..though I imagine it wouldn't last too long! We met up with Kim and a few of the other passengers in the lobby of the hostel (Plus Prague) at 9am to get the tram into the city centre to go walkabout. There was so much chatter going on on the tram that we missed our stop, not just by one or two..but by a lot..and ended up in Suburbia at a stop not too far from the end of the line. So, off we got, crossed the track, bought new tickets and then waited for the next tram going back into town. A diversion of about 45mins, but we got to see a lot more of Prague than we would have had we got off at the right place in the first place :)
We decided to walk the sights rather than get an organised foot, bike, boat or segway tour (I really wanted to have a go on a segway, but €75 was a bit steep and the morning started out pretty rainy so I thought it might be a washout. We got off the tram at Charles Bridge and strolled across it looking at all the stalls. There were some seriously amazing photos, that I would definitely have been sucked into buying if I was on a city break, but resisted because I can't realistically carry any more than I already have. I did buy a shiny silk headscarf for Iran from a vendor who was haggling with himself rather than me..he kept dropping his price even though I wasn't saying anything. We continued up the hill and en route to the castle stopped in Starbucks for some decent coffee, the stuff in the hostel was not only cold, it was foul tasting. By the time we made it up, the changing of the guards was starting up and there were masses of people lining the square. I thought I'd got it sussed standing on a wall where I could see everything, but then one of the guards came over with his big gun and sword type thingy and ordered me down..I wasn't about to argue! There was a big fanfare about it, but it wasn't anything spectacular that I could see (though my view was pretty poor).
We all split off into little splinter groups at that stage and Loonie and I headed off to explore out the back of the castle. On our way down the hill we stopped off in St. Wenceslas' Vineyard to sample the local cuisine. Loonie had the cheese plate, all of which went down well with the exception of one piece that in her words 'tasted like a lump of goat'. I went for the Czech sausage with cabbage (lettuce) and bread, which was delicious. I washed it down with a glass of Rose from the vineyard which was also pretty good. It was a delightful way to spend an afternoon, so relaxing to sit and watch the world go by..so much better than rushing down a sandwich in 15mins and heading back to my desk because the seat needs to be vacated for the next person to come along.
After lunch we stumbled upon a toy museum so paid to go have a look. It was good, but the one in Malmo was better in my opinion. From there we walked on toward the river and found some kids playground equipment so had a bit of fun taking pictures and videos there. By complete fluke we found the smallest street in Prague – it's so narrow that there are traffic lights on it that you need to activate at the bottom if you want to walk up it. We eventually made our way back to the Charles Bridge and crossed over to go in search of the Astronomical Clock where we were meeting the group for dinner at 6.45pm. We were going au natural with no map and just our cunning sense of direction to guide us..that didn't work out completely well, but we made a good attempt! We got to the square where we reckoned the clock was but couldn't see sight nor sound of it. We looked up at every building but it wasn't to be found, so we headed into the tourist office to ask about it. It would appear that the clock isn't at the top of the building, but rather on the side of it so looking skyward was useless to us. We watched the 6pm event at it and I have to admit it was rather disappointing..I expected something astronomical and it definitely wasn't!
While we waited for the full gang to arrive we had a beer, the unfortunate thing was that it was lemon flavoured which as first was refreshing, but it soon turned gross! For dinner Kim had gotten us 20% off at a Czech restaurant just off the square. We arrived and the 14 of us were squished around the table and got our menus. The waiter was possibly the most sour looking waiter I've ever had. He wasn't particularly helpful. We asked about splitting the bill into two groups rather than having to try work out what everyone owed off a bill for 14 - not possible. We asked about the dishes to make sure that we'd get what we expected if we ordered what we thought we liked the sound of and instead of answering the questions he just kept saying to read the menu, very annoying! When the food came out it looked pretty good, mine was pretty tasty, the only issue I had was finding a hair in it, and pretty grossly because I was so hungry it didn't stop me from eating a large percentage of it. Alex also had a hair in his and Mel had an issue with grizzle or something from the meat getting stuck in her teeth. Everyone else seemed pretty ok with their dish. When the bill arrived the guy had written down figures on two pages – but there was no description to say what the numbers were for! Kim asked him to give her some info on how he'd put it together..but he was too busy with his customers to help (are we purple? were we not customers?). So she went to everyone to work out how much theirs was to be and what the figure was minus the 20% discount. We were shy by a good bit and it was only when we said we'd paid for everything we had and we weren't paying the rest that he offered to help analyse the bill. There was a cover charge per person that had to be added on. We left a wad of cash and a mountain of coins which he insisted on counting out while we waited. So a very eventful dinner!
We got the tram back to the hostel and started packing for tomorrow's journey to Vienna..Austria here we come!
Photos from Prague are here:
Even though I didn't need to be up crack of sparrow early I was up and about around 7.30am..very weird for me. I reckon there's a good chance that when I get home I'll actually get up before 9am for a change..though I imagine it wouldn't last too long! We met up with Kim and a few of the other passengers in the lobby of the hostel (Plus Prague) at 9am to get the tram into the city centre to go walkabout. There was so much chatter going on on the tram that we missed our stop, not just by one or two..but by a lot..and ended up in Suburbia at a stop not too far from the end of the line. So, off we got, crossed the track, bought new tickets and then waited for the next tram going back into town. A diversion of about 45mins, but we got to see a lot more of Prague than we would have had we got off at the right place in the first place :)
We decided to walk the sights rather than get an organised foot, bike, boat or segway tour (I really wanted to have a go on a segway, but €75 was a bit steep and the morning started out pretty rainy so I thought it might be a washout. We got off the tram at Charles Bridge and strolled across it looking at all the stalls. There were some seriously amazing photos, that I would definitely have been sucked into buying if I was on a city break, but resisted because I can't realistically carry any more than I already have. I did buy a shiny silk headscarf for Iran from a vendor who was haggling with himself rather than me..he kept dropping his price even though I wasn't saying anything. We continued up the hill and en route to the castle stopped in Starbucks for some decent coffee, the stuff in the hostel was not only cold, it was foul tasting. By the time we made it up, the changing of the guards was starting up and there were masses of people lining the square. I thought I'd got it sussed standing on a wall where I could see everything, but then one of the guards came over with his big gun and sword type thingy and ordered me down..I wasn't about to argue! There was a big fanfare about it, but it wasn't anything spectacular that I could see (though my view was pretty poor).
We all split off into little splinter groups at that stage and Loonie and I headed off to explore out the back of the castle. On our way down the hill we stopped off in St. Wenceslas' Vineyard to sample the local cuisine. Loonie had the cheese plate, all of which went down well with the exception of one piece that in her words 'tasted like a lump of goat'. I went for the Czech sausage with cabbage (lettuce) and bread, which was delicious. I washed it down with a glass of Rose from the vineyard which was also pretty good. It was a delightful way to spend an afternoon, so relaxing to sit and watch the world go by..so much better than rushing down a sandwich in 15mins and heading back to my desk because the seat needs to be vacated for the next person to come along.
After lunch we stumbled upon a toy museum so paid to go have a look. It was good, but the one in Malmo was better in my opinion. From there we walked on toward the river and found some kids playground equipment so had a bit of fun taking pictures and videos there. By complete fluke we found the smallest street in Prague – it's so narrow that there are traffic lights on it that you need to activate at the bottom if you want to walk up it. We eventually made our way back to the Charles Bridge and crossed over to go in search of the Astronomical Clock where we were meeting the group for dinner at 6.45pm. We were going au natural with no map and just our cunning sense of direction to guide us..that didn't work out completely well, but we made a good attempt! We got to the square where we reckoned the clock was but couldn't see sight nor sound of it. We looked up at every building but it wasn't to be found, so we headed into the tourist office to ask about it. It would appear that the clock isn't at the top of the building, but rather on the side of it so looking skyward was useless to us. We watched the 6pm event at it and I have to admit it was rather disappointing..I expected something astronomical and it definitely wasn't!
While we waited for the full gang to arrive we had a beer, the unfortunate thing was that it was lemon flavoured which as first was refreshing, but it soon turned gross! For dinner Kim had gotten us 20% off at a Czech restaurant just off the square. We arrived and the 14 of us were squished around the table and got our menus. The waiter was possibly the most sour looking waiter I've ever had. He wasn't particularly helpful. We asked about splitting the bill into two groups rather than having to try work out what everyone owed off a bill for 14 - not possible. We asked about the dishes to make sure that we'd get what we expected if we ordered what we thought we liked the sound of and instead of answering the questions he just kept saying to read the menu, very annoying! When the food came out it looked pretty good, mine was pretty tasty, the only issue I had was finding a hair in it, and pretty grossly because I was so hungry it didn't stop me from eating a large percentage of it. Alex also had a hair in his and Mel had an issue with grizzle or something from the meat getting stuck in her teeth. Everyone else seemed pretty ok with their dish. When the bill arrived the guy had written down figures on two pages – but there was no description to say what the numbers were for! Kim asked him to give her some info on how he'd put it together..but he was too busy with his customers to help (are we purple? were we not customers?). So she went to everyone to work out how much theirs was to be and what the figure was minus the 20% discount. We were shy by a good bit and it was only when we said we'd paid for everything we had and we weren't paying the rest that he offered to help analyse the bill. There was a cover charge per person that had to be added on. We left a wad of cash and a mountain of coins which he insisted on counting out while we waited. So a very eventful dinner!
We got the tram back to the hostel and started packing for tomorrow's journey to Vienna..Austria here we come!
Photos from Prague are here:
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Day 3 (St. Goar - Prague)
We have arrived in Prague where we'll be staying for two nights. I think perhaps the wine tasting and beer drinking was taken a tad too far last night as I woke up feeling awful..as did Loonie. A lesson learned me thinks because getting on the bus at 8am was NOT fun!
The drive from St. Goar to Prague was our longest yet (though I'm sure we've got multiple longer drives ahead of us). Martin put fuel in the bus for the first time since we left London, which shocked me cos we've been driving quite a bit. The only stops on the way were for lunch and at the border between Germany & Czech Republic. Lunch was another roadside cafe style place, so the selection was all convenience foods again. I'm already looking forward to having lunchtime in a town so we can get something decent too eat. We all needed to get some currency exchange sorted and Kim had some official business to sort out so we had a quick pit-stop on the border to get all that done.
We arrived in Prague around 5pm local time which was pretty much the ETA we expected. The hostel is lovely, definitely the best yet. We've got an apartment style room with two bedrooms each holding 4 people. Our bunk mates for the two nights are Michelle and Barbara. The hostel has a pool and sauna that I'm hoping to try out a little later tonight or early tomorrow. We've also take advantage of the washroom facilities and put on our first load of laundry for the trip. I've not run out of clothes yet but reckon it's better to keep on top of things when we have the facilities rather than run out in a week or so.
I've not really seen a whole lot so far except scenery flashing by the bus windows, but I'm surprisingly ok about that. I'm enjoying how the trip is working out so far, and having fun making new friends on the bus. We're going to have a group dinner tomorrow evening, but tonight and tomorrow are free for us to do our own thing which is nice.
The drive from St. Goar to Prague was our longest yet (though I'm sure we've got multiple longer drives ahead of us). Martin put fuel in the bus for the first time since we left London, which shocked me cos we've been driving quite a bit. The only stops on the way were for lunch and at the border between Germany & Czech Republic. Lunch was another roadside cafe style place, so the selection was all convenience foods again. I'm already looking forward to having lunchtime in a town so we can get something decent too eat. We all needed to get some currency exchange sorted and Kim had some official business to sort out so we had a quick pit-stop on the border to get all that done.
We arrived in Prague around 5pm local time which was pretty much the ETA we expected. The hostel is lovely, definitely the best yet. We've got an apartment style room with two bedrooms each holding 4 people. Our bunk mates for the two nights are Michelle and Barbara. The hostel has a pool and sauna that I'm hoping to try out a little later tonight or early tomorrow. We've also take advantage of the washroom facilities and put on our first load of laundry for the trip. I've not run out of clothes yet but reckon it's better to keep on top of things when we have the facilities rather than run out in a week or so.
I've not really seen a whole lot so far except scenery flashing by the bus windows, but I'm surprisingly ok about that. I'm enjoying how the trip is working out so far, and having fun making new friends on the bus. We're going to have a group dinner tomorrow evening, but tonight and tomorrow are free for us to do our own thing which is nice.
Monday, May 25, 2009
Day 2 (Brugge - St. Goar)
Based on the old OzBUS itinerary we were scheduled to go to Heidleburg today, but that's off the table as it's too far away from St Goar and our date with Herman the German.
The hostel in Brugge last night was fine, but the room we were sharing was super noisy (reckon that's the bad side of being on the first floor..we were right over the pub). The bunk Una and I had was not in the best of shape and was already leaning sideways before anyone even lay down. I thought it best to avoid clambering onto the top bunk in case it made the whole thing crash to the ground ending up with an Una sandwiched between bunks. So, I rolled out my crash mat and sleeping bag liner and slept on the floor (it was surprisingly comfortable). Breakfast this morning was cornflakes and toast, not exactly the biggest spread, but the coffee was lovely. We had the bus loaded up in time for our 8.30am departure and amazingly there were no stragglers given some of them had been out til 3am. I was tucked up on the floor shortly after midnight myself, very, very sleepy after a long day..but unable to block out the noise even with my earplugs!
I think the drive time today was somewhere around 7 or 8 hours with breaks for lunch (at a roadside convenience store with a Burger King and a counter serving German food) and one for a guided tour of Marksburg Castle. I didn't go into the castle, but from the feedback of those that did I didn't miss a whole lot. The guide did the tour in German and very few people could piece it together, so that coupled with her lack of enthusiasm was what people were talking about most once they got out. While the tour was running I sat outside and chatted with Mel, Alet and Barbara as I'd not really had a chance to talk to them up to that point. We were set for a 4pm departure from the castle but the tour dragged on so it was closer to 4.30pm by the time we were loaded up and ready to go...though we almost left Ann behind (we only spotted she was missing when the bus started to turn around the carpark – Oops!)
It was around 5.30pm when we arrived at Herman's place. We were warned that the accommodation wasn't going to be of a great standard, but in honesty it wasn't nearly as bad as I expected. For the 20 of us there 4 rooms with compartments with two single mattresses in them and curtains to be pulled across, and a set of bunk beds. The room I initially chose (with Ann, Una & Michelle) was a bit damp, so I moved next door to bunk up with Alex, April & Ana where there were a good few spare beds. They were comfortable enough, and I got to use my sleeping bag and liner so they are proving useful!
We sat down to dinner at 7pm for a 3 course meal prepared by Herman (€9). Salad starter, schnitzel and chips for mains and fruit cocktail with ice-cream for dessert. When the first of the main course plates came out I was worried about whether I was going to be able to eat it or not, the big problem being that the town of St. Goar was about 35mins walk away and didn't look to have all that much in it. The problem was that on top of the schnitzel there was a big steaming pile of mushrooms....not good! Thankfully I have 3 fellow mushroom haters on the bus so we were able to get ours served up without the fungus. It was absolutely delicious...not normally a fan of breaded pork, but my god..this was yummy! After dinner 7 of us went to the bar for a wine tasting evening with Herman (€5 for 6 glasses). It was more of a wine drinking evening than tasting because we had to finish up what we had before we got the next glass. The dry white didn't go down too well, but the medium dry and the sweet white were lovely. The rose was ok, but nothing that I'd drink again. The red was never going to sit well with me, so I was hoping the final one wouldn't be another red, and I was pleasantly surprised by a strawberry flavoured wine that was presented to us. We had an 80's tv show playing to explain German wine making to us – the wine of the 90's is set to be Reisling don't you know :)
As we were finishing up the wine tasting the rest of the crew came in to join us in the bar where there were such classics as Take That's Relight My Fire and DJ Mark McCabe with Maniac 2000. Only in Germany! We stayed up quite late chatting with people and drinking far too much beer before heading for a shower too avoid having to get up early tomorrow morning.
During the drive today we got information about the prices for the optional extra tours that can be sorted out for us as a group for whoever wants to opt in. I can't remember all of them, but there were two that stuck with me that I'm almost definitely signing up for (both in Nepal) – (1) flight over Everest (2) an adventure day that includes a ride on an elephant. There's white water rafting up on offer too and I'm tempted by that, but am slightly put off after hearing about Kim's experience her first and only time doing it. I'm leaning toward skipping the hot air balloon ride in Turkey, because at €165 it's a bit steep given that I was on one just last year in Phoenix. Have to make a call on it in the next few days as it'll be happening in the next two weeks and numbers need to be finalised soon. Think I need to check out the photos from it on the OzBUS website to get a better idea at what the scenery in the area is.
The itinerary update for today is that we're no longer going to Dracula's Castle (boo!) and won't in fact even be going into Romania (double boo!). Instead we're going to be driving through Serbia (though that's not listed on our Daz white OzBUS t-shirts). Apparently the roads that the bus has taken on previous voyages through Romania weren't great, and the infrastructure in Serbia is better so that's why the decision was taken to change the route. Though we lose one country in our list, we gain another one in it's place so I guess we can't complain too much :)
Something that was mentioned yesterday that I'd forgotten about was that we're now looking at a 3rd flight on the trip (not so overland anymore then really is it?). With the current climate in Pakistan, there's a high possibility that instead of driving from Iran onwards, we'll take a flight from Tehran to somewhere in Pakistan (haven't heard where yet). By doing this we're getting a few days back and by the sounds of it these will be used to give us some extra time in the sun further on in the trip.
Photos from today are here:
The hostel in Brugge last night was fine, but the room we were sharing was super noisy (reckon that's the bad side of being on the first floor..we were right over the pub). The bunk Una and I had was not in the best of shape and was already leaning sideways before anyone even lay down. I thought it best to avoid clambering onto the top bunk in case it made the whole thing crash to the ground ending up with an Una sandwiched between bunks. So, I rolled out my crash mat and sleeping bag liner and slept on the floor (it was surprisingly comfortable). Breakfast this morning was cornflakes and toast, not exactly the biggest spread, but the coffee was lovely. We had the bus loaded up in time for our 8.30am departure and amazingly there were no stragglers given some of them had been out til 3am. I was tucked up on the floor shortly after midnight myself, very, very sleepy after a long day..but unable to block out the noise even with my earplugs!
I think the drive time today was somewhere around 7 or 8 hours with breaks for lunch (at a roadside convenience store with a Burger King and a counter serving German food) and one for a guided tour of Marksburg Castle. I didn't go into the castle, but from the feedback of those that did I didn't miss a whole lot. The guide did the tour in German and very few people could piece it together, so that coupled with her lack of enthusiasm was what people were talking about most once they got out. While the tour was running I sat outside and chatted with Mel, Alet and Barbara as I'd not really had a chance to talk to them up to that point. We were set for a 4pm departure from the castle but the tour dragged on so it was closer to 4.30pm by the time we were loaded up and ready to go...though we almost left Ann behind (we only spotted she was missing when the bus started to turn around the carpark – Oops!)
It was around 5.30pm when we arrived at Herman's place. We were warned that the accommodation wasn't going to be of a great standard, but in honesty it wasn't nearly as bad as I expected. For the 20 of us there 4 rooms with compartments with two single mattresses in them and curtains to be pulled across, and a set of bunk beds. The room I initially chose (with Ann, Una & Michelle) was a bit damp, so I moved next door to bunk up with Alex, April & Ana where there were a good few spare beds. They were comfortable enough, and I got to use my sleeping bag and liner so they are proving useful!
We sat down to dinner at 7pm for a 3 course meal prepared by Herman (€9). Salad starter, schnitzel and chips for mains and fruit cocktail with ice-cream for dessert. When the first of the main course plates came out I was worried about whether I was going to be able to eat it or not, the big problem being that the town of St. Goar was about 35mins walk away and didn't look to have all that much in it. The problem was that on top of the schnitzel there was a big steaming pile of mushrooms....not good! Thankfully I have 3 fellow mushroom haters on the bus so we were able to get ours served up without the fungus. It was absolutely delicious...not normally a fan of breaded pork, but my god..this was yummy! After dinner 7 of us went to the bar for a wine tasting evening with Herman (€5 for 6 glasses). It was more of a wine drinking evening than tasting because we had to finish up what we had before we got the next glass. The dry white didn't go down too well, but the medium dry and the sweet white were lovely. The rose was ok, but nothing that I'd drink again. The red was never going to sit well with me, so I was hoping the final one wouldn't be another red, and I was pleasantly surprised by a strawberry flavoured wine that was presented to us. We had an 80's tv show playing to explain German wine making to us – the wine of the 90's is set to be Reisling don't you know :)
As we were finishing up the wine tasting the rest of the crew came in to join us in the bar where there were such classics as Take That's Relight My Fire and DJ Mark McCabe with Maniac 2000. Only in Germany! We stayed up quite late chatting with people and drinking far too much beer before heading for a shower too avoid having to get up early tomorrow morning.
During the drive today we got information about the prices for the optional extra tours that can be sorted out for us as a group for whoever wants to opt in. I can't remember all of them, but there were two that stuck with me that I'm almost definitely signing up for (both in Nepal) – (1) flight over Everest (2) an adventure day that includes a ride on an elephant. There's white water rafting up on offer too and I'm tempted by that, but am slightly put off after hearing about Kim's experience her first and only time doing it. I'm leaning toward skipping the hot air balloon ride in Turkey, because at €165 it's a bit steep given that I was on one just last year in Phoenix. Have to make a call on it in the next few days as it'll be happening in the next two weeks and numbers need to be finalised soon. Think I need to check out the photos from it on the OzBUS website to get a better idea at what the scenery in the area is.
The itinerary update for today is that we're no longer going to Dracula's Castle (boo!) and won't in fact even be going into Romania (double boo!). Instead we're going to be driving through Serbia (though that's not listed on our Daz white OzBUS t-shirts). Apparently the roads that the bus has taken on previous voyages through Romania weren't great, and the infrastructure in Serbia is better so that's why the decision was taken to change the route. Though we lose one country in our list, we gain another one in it's place so I guess we can't complain too much :)
Something that was mentioned yesterday that I'd forgotten about was that we're now looking at a 3rd flight on the trip (not so overland anymore then really is it?). With the current climate in Pakistan, there's a high possibility that instead of driving from Iran onwards, we'll take a flight from Tehran to somewhere in Pakistan (haven't heard where yet). By doing this we're getting a few days back and by the sounds of it these will be used to give us some extra time in the sun further on in the trip.
Photos from today are here:
Sunday, May 24, 2009
Day 1 (London - Brugge)
We were both pretty unhappy about having to re-pack our rucksacks last night...it's going to take a bit of getting used to I feel. I'm starting to wonder if the best way to manage it would be to take what I need for two days at a time out of the rucksack and keep that stuff to one side so that I don't have to keep opening up the big section of the bag..definitely something to think about to try save some time and energy! I can't get rid of anything else from the bag as yet...we'll see how it goes and if I need to ship my crash mat and sleeping bag back home to reduce some of the bulk, because I probably won't need them until we hit Australia..we'll wait and see.
Alarm bells were ringing at the crack of dawn to get us up and ready in time to leave the luxury of the Park Plaza County Hall hotel at 6.45am this morning. We met the OzBUS crew and our fellow OzBUSers (along with 3 people who'd been on OzBUS 6) at Cleopatra's Needle shortly after 7am. We met the now infamous Alastair and Stephen and posed for some pictures with the bus before hitting the road shortly before 7.30am to drive to Dover to catch our ferry.
We've got a bit more info on what to expect after meeting Kim our tour leader. She'll be with us for the full 91 days, but it appears that we change bus a couple of times during the trip so we change drivers at that time too! At the moment we've got Martin who'll be taking us through from London on to the Turkey/Iran border, which by my calculations should be around June 4th. The type of bus will vary depending on where we are, that should be interesting!
Kim has been filling us in on how the trip will be run and the general housekeeping type issues. Rooming arrangements will be rotated to make sure no-one is stuck sharing with a snorer or someone with smelly feet for the whole trip. We need to make sure there are at least 2 people keeping watch over the bags when we're loading and unloading at hostels/hotels. Everyday before we arrive at our destination we need to have a whip around to make sure the bus is cleaned up, and other things like that. She's also been giving us a warts and all view about what can and will happen along the way with people irritating each other and how we'll be shocked and maybe even upset by what we see in some of the destinations along the way.
Bruges (or Brugge, pronounced Bra-hah by the locals) is a beautiful place, and I'll definitely be looking to come back to spend a bit more time exploring here. We're only staying a single night so made the most of the early afternoon arrival by taking a bike tour this afternoon. The route was about 5km around and we were excellently guided by Jos a local guy who runs bike tours during the hotter months and takes the winter off for his own holidays. The main square has every type of architecture I've ever heard of and is very, impressive. The roads are all cobbled making cycling somewhat difficult (I'm not a cyclist by any stretch of the imagination) but it was very enjoyable overall.
We're staying at Charlie Rockets hostel which is only a few minutes from the main square. It's got a pub downstairs and many, many steep and winding steps up to the rooms. Thankfully we're on the first floor so only have half the number of steps to try negotiate with the big bags. But having carted them all the way up there this afternoon it seems mad that we've to carry them back down again in less than 10 hours! Oh it really is whistle stop!
For dinner we all headed out to a local restaurant called Da Passage which was excellent! i went with local cuisine of Flemish Stew on recommendation from the bike trip earlier in the day, and I wasn't disappointed, it was delicious. Though the bill was cheap by Irish standards at €79 for 4 people (4 mains, 4 beers, 2 desserts), it wasn't helpful in making me to stick to my budget for the day. I'll be looking for cheap places to eat for a few days to make up the difference in what I'd budgeted for today and what I actually spent on the bike ride and dinner.
Now for the interesting stuff that you'll all be wondering about! The crew on the bus all seem really sound..though I guess it's early days yet so we'll see who starts rubbing people up the wrong way (hoping it's not me!). There are 20 passengers on the bus in total – 15 ladies and 5 lads. As we already knew, 9 of the passengers are Irish so there are some familiar accents dotted around the bus. I haven't had a chance to talk to everyone yet, and I've not caught all the names, but I guess that'll come in a few days time. There hasn't been any drama as yet, so nothing juicy to report to ye...the only thing that'll come of news is that the first person to lose something was......ME?!? I somehow managed to drop my phone while we were at a stop on the bike tour..thankfully someone spotted it (believe that was Alex..thanks!!) and I got it back. Won't be letting that happen again. And here's me thinking Loonie was gonna lose her stuff.
Loonie is talking about blogging but we're looking at her handwriting the entries and me typing them up on the road to speed up the contributions. Her inner luddite is stopping her from embracing the netbook and telling tales.
Tomorrow we're hitting the road to Germany with a stop in St. Goar to stay with Herman the German, who has been likened to a 70's porn star with a penchant for dressing in costume. Let's see how he greets us!
Photos from today are here,
Alarm bells were ringing at the crack of dawn to get us up and ready in time to leave the luxury of the Park Plaza County Hall hotel at 6.45am this morning. We met the OzBUS crew and our fellow OzBUSers (along with 3 people who'd been on OzBUS 6) at Cleopatra's Needle shortly after 7am. We met the now infamous Alastair and Stephen and posed for some pictures with the bus before hitting the road shortly before 7.30am to drive to Dover to catch our ferry.
We've got a bit more info on what to expect after meeting Kim our tour leader. She'll be with us for the full 91 days, but it appears that we change bus a couple of times during the trip so we change drivers at that time too! At the moment we've got Martin who'll be taking us through from London on to the Turkey/Iran border, which by my calculations should be around June 4th. The type of bus will vary depending on where we are, that should be interesting!
Kim has been filling us in on how the trip will be run and the general housekeeping type issues. Rooming arrangements will be rotated to make sure no-one is stuck sharing with a snorer or someone with smelly feet for the whole trip. We need to make sure there are at least 2 people keeping watch over the bags when we're loading and unloading at hostels/hotels. Everyday before we arrive at our destination we need to have a whip around to make sure the bus is cleaned up, and other things like that. She's also been giving us a warts and all view about what can and will happen along the way with people irritating each other and how we'll be shocked and maybe even upset by what we see in some of the destinations along the way.
Bruges (or Brugge, pronounced Bra-hah by the locals) is a beautiful place, and I'll definitely be looking to come back to spend a bit more time exploring here. We're only staying a single night so made the most of the early afternoon arrival by taking a bike tour this afternoon. The route was about 5km around and we were excellently guided by Jos a local guy who runs bike tours during the hotter months and takes the winter off for his own holidays. The main square has every type of architecture I've ever heard of and is very, impressive. The roads are all cobbled making cycling somewhat difficult (I'm not a cyclist by any stretch of the imagination) but it was very enjoyable overall.
We're staying at Charlie Rockets hostel which is only a few minutes from the main square. It's got a pub downstairs and many, many steep and winding steps up to the rooms. Thankfully we're on the first floor so only have half the number of steps to try negotiate with the big bags. But having carted them all the way up there this afternoon it seems mad that we've to carry them back down again in less than 10 hours! Oh it really is whistle stop!
For dinner we all headed out to a local restaurant called Da Passage which was excellent! i went with local cuisine of Flemish Stew on recommendation from the bike trip earlier in the day, and I wasn't disappointed, it was delicious. Though the bill was cheap by Irish standards at €79 for 4 people (4 mains, 4 beers, 2 desserts), it wasn't helpful in making me to stick to my budget for the day. I'll be looking for cheap places to eat for a few days to make up the difference in what I'd budgeted for today and what I actually spent on the bike ride and dinner.
Now for the interesting stuff that you'll all be wondering about! The crew on the bus all seem really sound..though I guess it's early days yet so we'll see who starts rubbing people up the wrong way (hoping it's not me!). There are 20 passengers on the bus in total – 15 ladies and 5 lads. As we already knew, 9 of the passengers are Irish so there are some familiar accents dotted around the bus. I haven't had a chance to talk to everyone yet, and I've not caught all the names, but I guess that'll come in a few days time. There hasn't been any drama as yet, so nothing juicy to report to ye...the only thing that'll come of news is that the first person to lose something was......ME?!? I somehow managed to drop my phone while we were at a stop on the bike tour..thankfully someone spotted it (believe that was Alex..thanks!!) and I got it back. Won't be letting that happen again. And here's me thinking Loonie was gonna lose her stuff.
Loonie is talking about blogging but we're looking at her handwriting the entries and me typing them up on the road to speed up the contributions. Her inner luddite is stopping her from embracing the netbook and telling tales.
Tomorrow we're hitting the road to Germany with a stop in St. Goar to stay with Herman the German, who has been likened to a 70's porn star with a penchant for dressing in costume. Let's see how he greets us!
Photos from today are here,
Saturday, May 23, 2009
London Baby!
Verdict on Sail & Rail...not the best way to get to London when you're lugging along rucksacks that contain you're worldly goods for 5 months. No seat reservations = no seats which was a major pain between Crewe & London..not pleasant when you've been up for a long, long time! But..it was a great adventure and that's what this trip is all about :)
When the 3 of us (Lemmie, Loonie and Trish) finally arrived into London Euston we were waaaaay too tired to go treking the streets or tube line to find the hotel, so we got a cab. We're staying at the fab Park Plaza County Hall hotel for our last two nights of luxury before the bus..and I gotta say it's pretty swish. I'm loving their free wifi in the bar in particular! Lots of neon pink and green around the place which is not to my taste normally but it works well here - my only complaints would be the frosted glass, sliding bathroom door and the the lobsided glasses in the bar and the rooms! What's with that? The hotel is just behind London's Eye so is majorly central. We ate around the corner at Ned's Noodle Bar - great noodles (tried the rice variety for a change and they were ace!).
We were up early this morning to meet Lucy (who it transpired was running late) so we wandered off up to Trafalgar Square and got to see the changing of the guards completely by fluke along the way. When we met Lucy the four of us headed off to Tate Modern for a nosey around and grabbed some lunch there. I've never been before so will definitely be going back the next time I'm in London to have a proper look around. I don't know if it's a weekly occurence or not, but there seemed to be some sort of festival on outside with lots of activities for kids, it looked like a lot of fun.
From there we went to Walkabout Ozzie Bar near the Temple underground stop to watch the Heineken Cup Final. We were hoping to meet some of the other OzBUSers there but we didn't recognise anyone so just kicked back and enjoyed some afternoon beers with the rugby game..and what a game it was. Leinster started so well and then things seemed to turn and I was very, very worried. But the better team were indeed victorious on the day and the boys in blue reigned supreme.
Shortly after Lucy ran to get her train, we headed back towards the hotel. Just as we finished up our noodles (yes, for the second night running) Loonie realised that she'd left her shopping bag from Tate Modern in Walkabout...oh the hilarity! So herself and Trish headed back over to try get it back to find that they were charging into the place at that stage. They talked their way in and after much crawling around on the floor they got it back. Great news..but not so good for poor Loonie's feet which were already blistered before walking all the way back over there and back!
We leave at 7am tomorrow morning from Cleopatra's Needle. We've gotta repack the bags :(
For the photos of the adventure so far, take a look here:
When the 3 of us (Lemmie, Loonie and Trish) finally arrived into London Euston we were waaaaay too tired to go treking the streets or tube line to find the hotel, so we got a cab. We're staying at the fab Park Plaza County Hall hotel for our last two nights of luxury before the bus..and I gotta say it's pretty swish. I'm loving their free wifi in the bar in particular! Lots of neon pink and green around the place which is not to my taste normally but it works well here - my only complaints would be the frosted glass, sliding bathroom door and the the lobsided glasses in the bar and the rooms! What's with that? The hotel is just behind London's Eye so is majorly central. We ate around the corner at Ned's Noodle Bar - great noodles (tried the rice variety for a change and they were ace!).
We were up early this morning to meet Lucy (who it transpired was running late) so we wandered off up to Trafalgar Square and got to see the changing of the guards completely by fluke along the way. When we met Lucy the four of us headed off to Tate Modern for a nosey around and grabbed some lunch there. I've never been before so will definitely be going back the next time I'm in London to have a proper look around. I don't know if it's a weekly occurence or not, but there seemed to be some sort of festival on outside with lots of activities for kids, it looked like a lot of fun.
From there we went to Walkabout Ozzie Bar near the Temple underground stop to watch the Heineken Cup Final. We were hoping to meet some of the other OzBUSers there but we didn't recognise anyone so just kicked back and enjoyed some afternoon beers with the rugby game..and what a game it was. Leinster started so well and then things seemed to turn and I was very, very worried. But the better team were indeed victorious on the day and the boys in blue reigned supreme.
Shortly after Lucy ran to get her train, we headed back towards the hotel. Just as we finished up our noodles (yes, for the second night running) Loonie realised that she'd left her shopping bag from Tate Modern in Walkabout...oh the hilarity! So herself and Trish headed back over to try get it back to find that they were charging into the place at that stage. They talked their way in and after much crawling around on the floor they got it back. Great news..but not so good for poor Loonie's feet which were already blistered before walking all the way back over there and back!
We leave at 7am tomorrow morning from Cleopatra's Needle. We've gotta repack the bags :(
For the photos of the adventure so far, take a look here:
Friday, May 22, 2009
Farewell Emerald Isle
So here we are...it's finally D-Day and we're set to leave Dublin on the 13.30 ferry from Dun Laoghaire..I can't believe it's actually time!
I've got very, very mixed emotions this morning. I'm excited about the adventure I have ahead, but at the same time I'm devastated to be leaving. I've been working towards this trip for so many years that I'm finding it hard to believe that it's actually going to happen and that it's no longer just a pipe dream. I'm struggling to comprehend that this time on Sunday morning instead of preparing to board a ferry to the UK, the ferry I'll be preparing for will be taking me to France and so starting the big trip. I'm going to miss a whole lot of things from my life here..and I'm really, really going to struggle with the absence of the key people in my life. But, you all know how much I'm going to miss you, and know I'll be home with a few million pictures and lots of stories to tell you. See you when I see you, take care and be safe :x
My bags are packed with all but the netbook I'm typing on to be slotted in. I dunno how I'm going to survive with the few bits of clothing that I have in my rucksack, and I don't exactly have any room to buy anything else en route. Maybe a bigger rucksack was in order..but then I know I'd just have filled it with as much stuff as would fit rather than leaving room free. Now all that remains is to wait for my lift to the ferry port...
..keep in touch, we'll be blogging about the trip and not the boring prep stuff soon enough.
I've got very, very mixed emotions this morning. I'm excited about the adventure I have ahead, but at the same time I'm devastated to be leaving. I've been working towards this trip for so many years that I'm finding it hard to believe that it's actually going to happen and that it's no longer just a pipe dream. I'm struggling to comprehend that this time on Sunday morning instead of preparing to board a ferry to the UK, the ferry I'll be preparing for will be taking me to France and so starting the big trip. I'm going to miss a whole lot of things from my life here..and I'm really, really going to struggle with the absence of the key people in my life. But, you all know how much I'm going to miss you, and know I'll be home with a few million pictures and lots of stories to tell you. See you when I see you, take care and be safe :x
My bags are packed with all but the netbook I'm typing on to be slotted in. I dunno how I'm going to survive with the few bits of clothing that I have in my rucksack, and I don't exactly have any room to buy anything else en route. Maybe a bigger rucksack was in order..but then I know I'd just have filled it with as much stuff as would fit rather than leaving room free. Now all that remains is to wait for my lift to the ferry port...
..keep in touch, we'll be blogging about the trip and not the boring prep stuff soon enough.
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
Eek! I'm packed...I think
I've never been a fan of packing..I think I pushed this fact far to the back of my head when I was thinking about this trip.
I've been putting it off forever but finally got my rucksack packed today..I'm sure I've left out lots of important stuff, and packed lots of crap! This photo shows the final product of many, many hours of:
"do I need this?"
"maybe"
"if it's a maybe then it's out - I don't need it"
"but, but, but, but..what if.."
In the end a lot of stuff got cut because I ran out of space. I reckon I need to unpack it all again tomorrow and be even more ruthless with that's in there. The thing on my mind at the moment is that I have visions of all my photos being of me wearing the same clothes...not good for 5 months worth of shots - I swear I do have more than one tshirt in the bag!!
We'll see how I fare on the road and how much of the bag contents are still with me when I make it to Sydney! Amazingly the only chargers I'm taking are for my camera battery (because the USB/car charger unit was €50 and I don't really need it), a battery charger and laptop charger..everything else can be charged with my super-duper gift from Lolly, a power-chimp..pocket sized charger that'll do my phone, & ipod. A genius invention!
My carry-on bag hasn't been packed yet..reckon it'll be heavier than I'd hoped because I'll have books etc in there. Will lose them along the way though so should be ok for airline restrictions! That's tomorrow's challenge...baby steps!
I've been putting it off forever but finally got my rucksack packed today..I'm sure I've left out lots of important stuff, and packed lots of crap! This photo shows the final product of many, many hours of:"do I need this?"
"maybe"
"if it's a maybe then it's out - I don't need it"
"but, but, but, but..what if.."
In the end a lot of stuff got cut because I ran out of space. I reckon I need to unpack it all again tomorrow and be even more ruthless with that's in there. The thing on my mind at the moment is that I have visions of all my photos being of me wearing the same clothes...not good for 5 months worth of shots - I swear I do have more than one tshirt in the bag!!
We'll see how I fare on the road and how much of the bag contents are still with me when I make it to Sydney! Amazingly the only chargers I'm taking are for my camera battery (because the USB/car charger unit was €50 and I don't really need it), a battery charger and laptop charger..everything else can be charged with my super-duper gift from Lolly, a power-chimp..pocket sized charger that'll do my phone, & ipod. A genius invention!
My carry-on bag hasn't been packed yet..reckon it'll be heavier than I'd hoped because I'll have books etc in there. Will lose them along the way though so should be ok for airline restrictions! That's tomorrow's challenge...baby steps!
Saturday, May 16, 2009
Best Send Off..EVER!
So here it is..before 10am on Saturday when I'd normally still be snoring it out enjoying a lie in, and this particular Saturday when I have even less reason than normal to have to be up..I'm here typing up a blog entry. Why? Cos my head is throbbing from all the drink last night and the room starts to spin afresh if I lie back down. Were we playing 'Scorthy Bingo...JW, Mr Green & Aileen...you'd have me with 'sick as a small hospital'.
I had the best time last night. It was great to see so many of ye out, I'm really chuffed that so many people were able to make it..I know I didn't get around to everyone for a drink..if I missed you..sorry..my bad, I'll get you when I get back! I haven't looked at the camera yet..no doubt I'm making my same stupid face in all of them ;) I'll post some up in the next few days when I've had a chance to screen them.
Special thanks to people who flew in for last night. Dave - you are a legend my friend (miss the little goldfish song a lot!), and Sarah - please come to Oz on your hols..pretty, pretty please?
I'm struggling to comprehend that I don't have to go to work on Monday..it's gonna be weird not to have to be there after almost 8 years with the company. It's definitely going to be weird not seeing people for so long..got a lot of friends in work..not just colleagues. Please keep in touch guys?!
My last day went very, very fast...didn't get to do everything I wanted/needed to, but I'm sure it'll still be there when I get back. I was hoping the speeches thing would be avoided since I'm only gone for a few months..but it wasn't. Those things are sooooo embarrassing...I'm sure I sounded like a mumbling fool! I am super chuffed and surprised by my departing gift - a Sydney Bridge climb and a Parachute Jump from 15,000ft in New Zealand. I kinda feel like I shouldn't go back to work now...ye gave WAY too generously to the collection, that kinda generosity should be for people who are leaving long term...but not liking to complain I'll take the gifts and smile - a seriously large thank you from me to you! I'll make sure to get the DVD of the parachute jump..something to entertain ye with when I get back! And I will be back...
I had the best time last night. It was great to see so many of ye out, I'm really chuffed that so many people were able to make it..I know I didn't get around to everyone for a drink..if I missed you..sorry..my bad, I'll get you when I get back! I haven't looked at the camera yet..no doubt I'm making my same stupid face in all of them ;) I'll post some up in the next few days when I've had a chance to screen them.
Special thanks to people who flew in for last night. Dave - you are a legend my friend (miss the little goldfish song a lot!), and Sarah - please come to Oz on your hols..pretty, pretty please?
I'm struggling to comprehend that I don't have to go to work on Monday..it's gonna be weird not to have to be there after almost 8 years with the company. It's definitely going to be weird not seeing people for so long..got a lot of friends in work..not just colleagues. Please keep in touch guys?!
My last day went very, very fast...didn't get to do everything I wanted/needed to, but I'm sure it'll still be there when I get back. I was hoping the speeches thing would be avoided since I'm only gone for a few months..but it wasn't. Those things are sooooo embarrassing...I'm sure I sounded like a mumbling fool! I am super chuffed and surprised by my departing gift - a Sydney Bridge climb and a Parachute Jump from 15,000ft in New Zealand. I kinda feel like I shouldn't go back to work now...ye gave WAY too generously to the collection, that kinda generosity should be for people who are leaving long term...but not liking to complain I'll take the gifts and smile - a seriously large thank you from me to you! I'll make sure to get the DVD of the parachute jump..something to entertain ye with when I get back! And I will be back...
Friday, May 15, 2009
Last Day in Work
Eeek! It's my last day in work..I'm gonna be a bum til next January..feels weird already. I'm excited about the travelling which will keep my mind occupied for the first couple of months, but I have NO idea what I'm going to do with the time off when I get back. Scary and exciting at the same time.
Hoping to get the Iran visas sorted this morning. Finally got a headscarf yesterday and got my photos taken...hilarious!
Hoping to get the Iran visas sorted this morning. Finally got a headscarf yesterday and got my photos taken...hilarious!
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Nearly ready for the off!
Man it's crazy how time flies (whether or not you're having fun). It seems like last week when we started talking about this trip and now it's less than two weeks from starting! We're down to 3 days left in our respective workplaces and are both very much looking forward to drinkies this Friday. Hope to see as many of ye out as possible..if I miss you then I'll try catch up before we leave..if not it'll be November before you see me... (I'm so happy to be offcall for 8 whole months - no middle of the night scratch shortages or ECAM errors...BLISS!)
At this stage I think the only things we have to sort out are visas for Iran (but we're on the case) and payment for our Bali to Darwin flight. Loonie's visa application form and photos arrived in my post box today..ohh how I giggled at the photos...reckon mine will be funny too if I ever get my ass in gear and get a headscarf. I'm really not looking forward to that aspect of the trip..happy to adhere to customs and traditions in the host countries that we enter..but not keen on looking like Peig. Hoping to get to the embassy before the end of the week and the flight payment is underway so it looks like we'll have everything finalised going into our last weekend in the Emerald Isle. So, as Loonie has been saying all along..no need to panic..it'll all get done and dusted in lots of time!
I was speaking to Alastair from OzBus today while paying for my flight and it seems the final tally of people on the OzBUS 9 will be 21..a nice number I reckon (I was hoping for some empty seats on the bus so we have a bit more space to play with) it seems that of the 21 there's a contingent of 9 crazy Irish :) He mentioned a few blogs that are being kept along the way so I'm on a google mission to try find them this evening...
I got another travel gift today (reckon if this keeps up I might go travelling more often :P) from the ever wonderful Conor..I was asking where I might get an indestructible, waterproof, dustproof USB stick to keep a copy of documents I need to bring as it seems a bit too late to order one online..hey presto..I got one today...32GB of waterproof space..nice (yes M..he really is too good to me)
:)
Anyone who wants an occasional postcard from the road..I suggest sending me on your address to add to the list. I don't know them all off by heart and I'm running out of time to write up an address book!
At this stage I think the only things we have to sort out are visas for Iran (but we're on the case) and payment for our Bali to Darwin flight. Loonie's visa application form and photos arrived in my post box today..ohh how I giggled at the photos...reckon mine will be funny too if I ever get my ass in gear and get a headscarf. I'm really not looking forward to that aspect of the trip..happy to adhere to customs and traditions in the host countries that we enter..but not keen on looking like Peig. Hoping to get to the embassy before the end of the week and the flight payment is underway so it looks like we'll have everything finalised going into our last weekend in the Emerald Isle. So, as Loonie has been saying all along..no need to panic..it'll all get done and dusted in lots of time!
I was speaking to Alastair from OzBus today while paying for my flight and it seems the final tally of people on the OzBUS 9 will be 21..a nice number I reckon (I was hoping for some empty seats on the bus so we have a bit more space to play with) it seems that of the 21 there's a contingent of 9 crazy Irish :) He mentioned a few blogs that are being kept along the way so I'm on a google mission to try find them this evening...
I got another travel gift today (reckon if this keeps up I might go travelling more often :P) from the ever wonderful Conor..I was asking where I might get an indestructible, waterproof, dustproof USB stick to keep a copy of documents I need to bring as it seems a bit too late to order one online..hey presto..I got one today...32GB of waterproof space..nice (yes M..he really is too good to me)
:)
Anyone who wants an occasional postcard from the road..I suggest sending me on your address to add to the list. I don't know them all off by heart and I'm running out of time to write up an address book!
Friday, May 1, 2009
East Timor out too...
I've been looking at the new OzBUS site in a bit more detail today and spotted that in addition to removing Myanmar, they've also removed East Timor from the list. I knew it was unlikely we'd get to go there..but guess this signals that it's been removed from the itinerary for good. Oh well..it's still one heck of an adventure even if we're down 2 countries!
The Facebook Group has another new member..we're now up to 9! Wonder how many more people will be on the bus. Curious about the mix of people that we'll be travelling with!
Had a lovely evening with the Wexford ladies last night..looking forward to one final catchup before we leave! Thanks for the pressies!!
The Facebook Group has another new member..we're now up to 9! Wonder how many more people will be on the bus. Curious about the mix of people that we'll be travelling with!
Had a lovely evening with the Wexford ladies last night..looking forward to one final catchup before we leave! Thanks for the pressies!!
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