Mevo's into the great wide open

Wien

2010-10-05T23:07:00.002+11:00

So I got into vienna, just before midday. I had a bit of a nothing afternoon, as it was the end of the week and I needed to get my stuff back in order, do my laundry etc. I walked around and got myself a feed.

The next morning I went out for an adventure to check out town. The weather in vienna was much like sydney when I left, rainy, windy and 14 degrees. It was just like being at home. Thankfully I had carried my leather jacket, scarf and beanie all the way through greece and singapore.

The next afternoon my swiss mate that I met in montreal, Michaela was flying in to vienna. We were going to hang out and travel round for a week while she had some time off before starting uni.

I had had a look at the train time tables and we agreed to meet at the Lanstrabe station, hopefully on the 18:44 train. I made my way there and looked up what platform she should be getting in at.

Right on time the train rocked up and she stepped out of the door in the carriage that was right in front of me! Hows that for luck.

She had organised to crash at a friend of a friends place in vienna, so we jumped on the U-bahn and made out way out there. We met the people who lived at this place we were staying at before heading out into town for a look.

We had been recommended this cool little place in the middle of town, just off the touristy strip that did rad pita breads and had their own beers, happy days.

Next morning, after a heaps long sleep we eventually headed into town for a look around midday. We were so reluctant to head out into the world as it had been raining all morning and it was windy and cold.

More random sight seeing was done, as well as hiding from the rain in cafe's, shops and the like. I was also caught on camera looking like a bloody tourist. Another rather random thing we did to get out of the cold and rain was to loiter in shops.

I was also caught on camera looking like a "bloody tourist".

I made the most of this time by trying on womens purple and green skinny jeans, which was good for a laugh and randomed out the girls working in the clothing shops.

The next morning it was beautiful and sunny, so we headed out to Schonbrunn palace, just out of the middle of town. This is one of the biggest attractions in Vienna. It was the scene of some big love storey between this emperor franz joseph bloke and some bird named sissy or something.

A lot of the europeans are supposed to love it. Any way, it was an amazing old palace and gardens, which had huge lawns, heaps of flower beds and bits of forrest. There was also a labyrinth, sculptures scattered thought the grounds and even some fake roman ruins built there a few hundred years ago, because they felt like it.

It was really cool to check out, and the labyrinth was fun as well. It had climbing pole thingos that I had to climb up, as well as some other bits and pieces like this pad with different bells connected to bells like a giant xylophone.

After going through the labyrinth we climbed to the top of the hill, and over looked the palace and gardens, it was super impressive. To get down from there we walked through the woods where I saw my first european squirrels of the trip.

For the afternoon we jumped on the u-bahn and headed over the other side of the danube for an adventure. This led us through a residential building complex, past the Vienna UN offices and into the danube park, and past the danube tower.

And in the eve dinner was found down near the markets, before randomly running into this fantastic little cafe in a side st that also doubled as a second hand furniture shop. There was prices on pretty much everything on the wall and every thing hanging from the roof. Cool concept. And it was hipster central.

The next morning we were off on our next adventure, bratislava.

Crete, the PG cut

2010-09-20T22:12:00.002+10:00

I got into Crete at 2130.

It was a little bit of a change coming from the super organised and rigid frankfurt to the very laid back (disorganised?) greek city of Heraklion. Oh, it was hot like sydney in summer as well!

I had to get a bus into the middle of town to get a coach out to Malia, where I was staying for the next week (having a holiday from my holiday) with an international crew of trashbags I met last year in Toronto.

Of course being tired, hot and there not being much information on where I had to change busses I missed the centre of town where I was due to stop, so I got off at the next stop and hiked through the middle of Heraklion on a saturday night. It was interesting. I then had a 45 minute adventure trying to find the coach terminal, which of course was not signposted from the central bus interchange.

Eventually I was able to get myself on a coach bound for Malia. I was dropped off on the middle of the street with only vague directions to my hotel. I had neglected to print off a map, so after asking some of the many touts out the front of the dodgy pubs and clubs I was able to find my way. I got given good directions first up, which i kinda followed. Then I got bad directions of someone else which I followed for too long.

Then I got good directions again and I then I was eventually able to find my way to the triton hotel. As I walked into the reception area, my mate from Toronto, Anthony walked in.

I then got signed in and headed over to the room to dump my bags. I then went up to the pool where the girls, Anke and Erinne were waiting, with free alcohol from the bar. After quickly skulking two beers to try and catch up I had a shower and we ventured down the road into town.

Malia is strange, and a bit disgusting. It is like a gigantic mutated schoolies week, kinda like kuta, but filled full of teenage english and german trashbags instead of aussie trashbags.

The girls had an early night while anthony and I went out and trashed on. We had good fun haggling (or is that messing) with touts and going into random clubs while watching the scenes of trashbaggery and filth unfolding in front of us.

Most of the week was spent doing much the same thing. Up for breakfast, go for a walk, laze by the pool, drink, eat lunch, drink, do something in the arvo, eat dinner, drink, go out.

This is how I spent my week, in the shade putting on sun screen

Good times, very lazy.

One day we got some quad bikes, they were rad. Alternatively I went on adventures with anthony tearing up the bush, and with erinne finding random places up in the hills around malia.

The climate was good on crete, it very much reminded erinne and myself of australia, with similar looking plants and soil, as well as the sea breeze and the dry heat.

I spent most of the days hiding under the shade, sometimes covered in a towel to avoid sunburn.

On the friday we went out on a boat for a day trip, and we paid the extra EU$5 for the "bbq lunch". It all started off rather nicely, we got a lift to the port with the boat operator. We jumped on and after a quarter hour cruise we stopped for a swim at a little protected beach for about half an hour which was nice.

The water was lovely, like a bath. Nice and clear as well. The sand was good enough as well, if a little coarse. I did a massive spear dive off the railing of the boat into the sea. Good times.

There was some other people on the boat, Swedes who were more cautious and just jumped or used the ladder.

When we putted off again it was for an hour and a half to the port of sissy. Here things got interesting, as it was rough out on the water. I think it was sea state four. I was on the back with my crew, and anke was not looking good. Also some of the sweeds were struggling. I was fine, and erinne was falling asleep.

I saw a few people have a vow over the side, and when we finally got into port people did not waste any time getting onto dry land.

It was then time for our "BBQ lunch" and old mate took us to get it….. at a kebab shop. After lauging our arse off we had a feed of bread, tatziki, chips and a slouvaki stick. Good times.

After that anke had enough so she walked up to the main drag and got a bus back to malia. Erinne, anthony and myself went off to get second lunch. We found a restraint and got some octopus and fried whitebait. The octopus was tops, but the pilchards were a little too much for me.

After that we had a bit of a boat trip back, and everyone was back besides anke. It was still rough as guts out there, and pretty much everyone was struggling. I noticed more crook people then before.

There was yet again people having voms off the side.

That night we hung round the pool and played some drinking games with some german lads we found there, good times.

The next morning we were up early, Anke had her flight at 9am, anthonnys at midday. Erinne had a late flight, and I was off the next morning very early. I crawled out of bed to say goodbye to anke, before heading off for breakfast.

We then said bye to anthony before hanging round for a little. We got a small gift for the woman who worked at the pool bar who had been doing a top job putting up with some of the tossers who were also there over the past week.

Erinne and I then went off to Heraklion where we were booked into a rather cheap hotel/hostel for the night. I was not keen on overnighting it in Heraklion airport as it is rather "agricultural". That and having somewhere for a quick nap and a shower would be awesome.

We bussed it into Heraklion, and were almost going to hike round and get a bus to the hotel, but Erinne was able to haggle a cheap fare out of a taxi driver. As it was just before midday we went off into town for an explore, to see what crete really was like.

So erinne and I caught a bus into the middle of town and went walking round the narrow winding streets of Heraklion. Of course we needed to get our fix of caffeine so we found a bar in a back street, before heading down towards the harbour looking for lunch.

After a bit of an adventure, a stroll through some markets and avoiding the sun as much as possible we ended up at this nice little restaurant, where a bloke had his mum doing the cooking.

We ordered way too much food, but it was excellent. I got possibly the best calamari ever there. As well as some octopus, meat balls and of course tatziki and bread. I think we sat there for over an hour and a half stuffing our faces, and watching the stray cats that were hanging round.

We then went off on another adventure through town, eventually ending up back in the middle of town. After getting the bus back to the hotel it was time for a quick swim in the pool before napping for a few hours.

At about seven it was time to get dinner as erinne had to get to the airport round eight. I was still stuffed from lunch but managed to get a beer into me as well as bludge one of her lamb cutlets. It was then time to say goodbye to the last member of the toronto crew.

I then went off to get a few more hours sleep before my early start. I had to be up at five to get myself to the airport. I had a flight at 0630 so I was at the airport at half five. Yet again free interwebs in greek airport, so happy days.

I jumped onto the olympic flight to Athens, thankfully only an hour long. We had to use a set of steps to get to the plane, and then when we arrived at athens we pulled up to the jetbridge, but used steps…..

There was a two hour connection in athens, so I chilled, waiting to get myself into vienna…..

Frankas, the first time

2010-09-14T06:09:00.000+10:00

I was only in Frankfurt for two days, it was probably long enough.

On my flight from singapore to frankfurt I was made to wait in the pre check in area by the singapore airport staff who were checking people in for QANTAS. It was pretty boring, as I could not get the free interwebs or use any of the rad free stuff inside the airport.

I had to wait until about an hour before take off to get my boarding pass from check in. Thankfully though I was able to get into business class, which made for a rad flight. I was seated next to a german girl, Sandra.

She was in the final year of her studies to become a vet, and had done here two month practical placement in Queensland. We both managed to get a decent sleep and also had an awesome chat.

She was originally from frankfurt, and told me the two days was long enough, as there was little else there then banks and the red light district.

I got into franks at about half six in the morning, and then had an adventure on the S-bahn and U-bahn then just walking to find my hostel, which was fine as I had a heap of time any way.

I got in and then spent most of the morning doing my laundry before heading off for an adventure. True to form I was only walking round frankas for about an hour before I had a tout and two rather dodgy looking strippers chase me down the road trying to get my to go into a titty bar, at 2pm, on a wednesday. "Free entry and only EU$5 for a table dance". I would then probably then get a bill for EU$100 for two beers. That and I only do titty bars on bucks nights.

The next day I also went out walking round the town, looking at old buildings and I found a few old record stores to have a look at and I found a few street presses to have a read of.

And after that I had another half day to spend. I mostly spent it looking through the street markets around the river main, before chilling on the banks for a while, before heading up to the haupbahnhoff to get a train into the airport, where there was an epic line up at check in.

I was flying agean to heraklion, via thesaloniki. Everything went smoothly and I had about an hour to kill. I wanted to use the interwebs but they asked EU$8 an hour for wireless, so I just watched a show on my lappy.

Back into the great wide open

2010-08-20T23:47:00.006+10:00

Well here I am again, off on my way around the world. I have finally got around to writing my blog again after being slack for this first week.

At the moment I am in Singapore airport, waiting to fly out for Frankfurt. I have been here for a week long stopover whilst I am en-route to europe.

It has been a bit of a change, having to go from cold rainy sydney to Singapore. I got of the plane wearing leather boots, trousers and carrying a sweater and a wool lined leather jacket.

From cold rainy Sydney, to hot rainy Singapore.

I am staying at a hostel here in Little India, where there is a cluster of hostels within a few blocks around the edge closest to the city, and close to a few train stations. I have to say the train system here, the MRT is brilliant. It is a full blown metro system that covers most of the city and it is cheap like a budgie.

It cost me $3 to get into town from the airport, which took about half an hour, with trains running every three minutes! Compared to sydney, where I paid $18 for an hours ride into the airport, with slow trains that run only every half hour.

One thing that I am particularly fond of is the public safety video they have on the screens where they have a live action video of a terrorist planting a bomb on the train and the bystanders thinking it was a little suss and not doing anything. There is then footage of the train leaving the station and going into the tunnel before there is a dodgy CGI explosion coming from the tunnel.

It then cuts to some stills of the London and Madrid train bombings, showing the destroyed carriages and even some human remains. It is just the thing you need to see before you hop on a train.

I checked into my hostel and collapsed into bed the first night.

The next morning I met an aussie girl, Jamie down in the common area. We were both in town for the same amount of time and both did not have plans so we decided to head off together.

First afternoon was a quiet one, mainly walking round the downtown area, and areas like Boat Quay. I thought it was looking a little nasty as I went down into the MRT, and sure enough ten minutes later when we resurfaced it was pouring down.

So we chilled for an hour till the rain cleared.

After the rain cleared we headed around the colonial district for a while and eventually ended up where every other tourist does, the Merlion. I don't get whats so great about it but any way. From there you could look over the harbour and see this totally bizarre group of three buildings that have what looks like an oil tanker on top.

Turns out it's the bloody casino. Makes sense I guess, only a casino would do something so tacky.

Here is a pic of Fabien and myself in front of this stupid thing

Also, something that made me laugh my arse off was when jamie had a "It's coming right for us" moment when this mad giant goldfish in a pond out the front of an office building launched itself at her. It swam on it's side really fast on the surface and smashed into the concrete. No idea why it did that but she freaked out and I pissed myself.

Next day was a nature day, and we headed out to this island off the north coast of the main island called Palau Ubin (malay for island of granite). To get there you have to catch a train out to Bukit Timah station and transfer onto a bus to Changi village and then catch a bumboat out to the island.

The bumboat only runs when it has a full load of 12 people to go across so there can be a bit of a wait to get across. We were lucky and only had a half hour wait which we used to have a bit of lunch which we got from the supermarket.

On the boat across we met an englishman named Paul, who was on a quick visit from Jakarta, where he is teaching english.

Palau Ubin is like what singapore used to be like back in the day. It is covered in jungle, sparsely populated and undeveloped, which was a nice change from the busyness of the middle of Singapore.

We hired bikes and spent the rest of the day cruising round on the dirt roads, checking the place out, we found a chinese temple in the middle of the jungle, a few national park things, and most curiously an old tudor style house that had been built there about a hundred years ago as some blokes holiday house.

There were also some unreal looking lakes that had formed in the old granite quarries. After the days adventures we went to one of the places in "town" and had a beer at the end of the day.

The next day was taken up with a visit to Sentosa "asia's favourite playground". There they had "Singapore's hippest beach" which was on the bay and looked out at the shipping and oil refineries. Also the white sand on the beach was trucked in from a river somewhere. I actually thought it was brickies sand it was that course. I also managed to get epicly sunburnt.

There was a heap of other attractions as well, like a bird exhibit and show, roller coasters, a universal studios theme park, a theme attraction in an old british fortress on one corner of the island.

To get out to sentosa you have to catch the train down to where else but a giant shopping centre. You then have the option of taking a gondola for $20 or a monorail for $3 over to the island. Funnily enough I went for the monorail.

There was also a heap of young american blokes with jarhead hair cuts hanging round there, particularly at the bars. Turns out there was a US Navy aircraft carrier in singapore harbour, so 5000 seppo sailors on leave were disgorged into singapore. Do not want.

The next day jamie and I did our own things, she had a girl day and went shopping, I found another aussie bloke, Fabian and we went off cruising round singapore looking for more rad stuff.

We went down to the train station to organise a train ticket to KL, and then off on a pilgrimage to Raffles. Fabian as a bar tender is huge on cocktails and the Singapore Sling from Raffles is iconic, so we went down and got one.

It was a backpacker budget blowing S$25 for a Singapore Sling, which was premixed. Still, I have been to Raffles and had a sling.

Later that night we met up with Jamie and her room mate, Elizabeth who was down from KL with a few of her friends for the weekend, and we were going to teach them how to trash on like aussies do.

Activities included drinking cheap scotch on the steps around boat quay, tearing up dance floors of random clubs, and staying out till half five in the morning.

Funnily enough the next day was more of a rest day, although I did check out Orchard rd, which freaked me out with it's large scale consumerism and masses of people.

I did however get off orchard rd and up into Fort Canning park, which is on a hill overlooking the town. There used to be a colonial fort there. And later a command bunker was built there, just in time for the second world war.

The bunker is now open to the public, so I went in there and checked it out, it was pretty rad. There is also a resivour on site. It was exactly what I needed after the mentalness of Orchard rd.

I had a rest day for most of the next day, organising travel plans and doing some writing, before heading out to the Malay quarter for a look around, before I went over to the Art-Deco skyscraper, Parkview Square and lost my shit.

I just looked it up, and although it looks like it was built in the 30's or 40's was only built in 1999. I am regretting that I didn't take my camera with me. The square out the front had statues of famous world leaders, scientists and artists.

There was also a bar in the ground floor lobby, that had this massive ceiling, a wine chiller that went up three stories, and art-deco furniture. I so want to come back here for a drink one day.

I later went for a walk down to the Marina Promenade, and over to the haggard casino. It is around where they have a temporary stadium set up for the Youth Olympic Games, the F1 circuit and a heap of restraunts.

And on my travels I came across a section of eight "tactical response" police officers on patrol around the harbour. They were kitted out in body armour and were carrying sub-machine guns. Although they were wearing berets so they looked less aggressive then similar police I saw in new york who were wearing helmets.

The next day I hit the botanic gardens, which was amazing. I think I spent something like six hours in there and covered most of it on foot. I got caught sitting in a pavilion there for about and hour when an afternoon storm blew in and it bucketed down.

And then the next day I had a plane to catch to Frankfurt, so here I am writing this. The check in staff QANTAS use in Singapore are provided by the airport so they are not as good to people using staff tickets as real QANTAS staff are.

They are making me wait round till 50 minutes before the flight as I am on standby, even though they are staying I am pretty much definitely on. Let's see eh.

Stand-by Roulette

2009-03-17T06:29:00.002+11:00

Some times you win, sometimes you loose.

Ironiclly I lost when playing stand-by roulette in Las Vegas.

I am able to do this trip so cheaply because I am a Qantas brat, and I am flying on Z tickets, which are airline industry stand by specials. Sure it only costs you like $50 to fly Las Vegas to San Fran, or $90 to fly from Vancouver to Toronto but you are not guranteed a seat on a flight, particulary when using "open" tickets like I am, which can be used any time until they expire (usually three or four months).

I guess I was up against pretty long odds, I wanted to fly out of Las Vegas on a Sunday, and sundays are generally one of the busiest times to fly, particualry the afternoons, but I just wanted out of vegas.

I was ticked on United.

The day before I checked the seats on the aircraft (a bloody scarebus A320, I blame them), and there was seven seats on the 0945 flight, and a few more on the 0615 and 0700 flights but I took my chances with the 0945. I was in the airport and checked in at 0830. I failed to get on the 0945, the 1630, the 1800 and the 2015 flights.

The flights were running about 45 mins to an hour late as well, due to weather at SFO which had created a back log of air traffic.

Actually I almost made it on the 2015 flight, which was delayed till about 2030. The flight had checked in almost full, and a few other standby peeps got on. I was pretty much bottom of the list as I was on a Qantas issued stand-by ticket.

As the flight was pretty much boarded there were three people who had checked in but not gone through the boarding gate. There was about five minutes before the doors were to close and one turned up. I got called over to the ticking counter and they told me to walk on with the ticket agent.

I was in the line the the dodgy bridge thingo when I heard a few words I had been dreading. "Mr Mevius, come back up please" and I saw two women running/waddling fast as they could down the air bridge.

Old mate at united was pretty good and told that me that my bags were on the way to SFO and I might be able to get on a US Airlines flight under a code share. It was departing at 2144 and they had some seats left.

I raced back over to ticketing and got my US Airways standby pass and then I eventually got through security and over to the gate. I was given a boarding pass at about 2115 and easily made it on.

Although due to air traffic it was delayed to 2255, i still got to san fran about midnight.

Sin City

2009-03-15T09:06:00.003+11:00

I am in Las Vegas at the moment.

I have been trying to figure out what's so great about the place to tell you the truth.

The whole town is like Penrith Panthers club that stretches for five kilomteres and the bogans here have seppo accents instead of westie accents.

I went out and for some reason walked the entire length of the strip, something like four miles and back the first night I was in, it took me like four hours.

The clubs are over priced and only play generic top 40 shit as well.

I guess I would be having more fun if I was with a big trashbag crew, as I have been having trouble getting a crew together at this hostel I am staying at, in a wonderfully dodgy old motel in north Vegas, up past the stratosphere.

I did how ever see Melbourne indy-electro band Cut Copy last night which was rad, and today I went out and shot a german sub-machine gun, the 9mm Mp-5 which was bloody awesome.

The MP-5's stock fitted me like a glove and it was so easy to control in fully-auomatic fire. The range was only 25M long, and I put every round into the middle of the silhouette target, so old mate would have had a bad day.

Pics to come.

I am wanting to get out of here tomorow or on monday but the flights look full, so I might have to wait until tuesday where the flights are almost empty. I am off to san fran next, then home on friday.

Fun and games

2009-03-04T13:42:00.008+11:00

I am over in Rochester, Upstate New York as I am writing this.

I have been to Toronto and Hamilton in ontario, where I caught up with my old mate Benny Baker and hung round on the campus of Mc Master uni where he is studying/living in the dorms there.

Benny went of skiing the night I turned up, so we played some left handed table tennis for a while before he went off to ski on some slush, as the weather was warm (got above freezing) and the snow had melted.

In the time he was out I was just chilling in the dorms and I went to put a pot of water on the boil, and the bottom was a little scummy and it had a bit of a burning smell to it.

Right then the fire alarm started screaming it's tits off. I was only wearing my uggies, trackie daks and a hoodie, and it was freezing out. I took my pot of water off and evacuated with the rest of the people in the building. I had a look at the fire indicator panel on the way out though and thankfully the alarm had come up on the third floor, and I was on the fifth.

When he got back we went down the uni bar for beers and shuffle board with some poms, where we ended up loosing as all the aussie sports teams suck at the moment, it is looking like it was going to be the turning point for aussie sports teams but it was not to be.

Here is a pic of me and benny taken out the front of his dorms, note the Roots t-shirt

The next day we we hung round the campus for a while and went for a bushwalk out the back of his uni campus, which was tops but I am sure it would be much nicer in the summer.

I later got picked up by a random interwebs mate, Hoadie from the lee-enfield forum. It was an hour drive to his place over in St Catherines, closer to the US border.

It was there we were to meet with Sean and his wife Christie who I was going to stay with for a few days. I had also come into contact with sean on the lee-enfield forum, and the funny this in the bloke used to live just around the corner from me in Cronulla.

We stopped at Niagra Falls on our way through because it is something you have to do on the tourist trail, particulary when it was on the way to Rochester. I got some semi-decent pictures at night.

It was so bloody cold part of the falls was frozen. There was also freezing spray coming off the falls and onto the windshield of the car.

We also had a suprisingly easy time crossing the boarder over into the US as well. I have been told that land crossings into the US from Canada can be a little difficult if you are not citizens of those nations. Sean's wife Christy is a US citizen, Sean has a green card and I still had my tourist visa in my passport from when I transfered through San Fran so we got pretty much waved straight through.

I was staying with Sean and his young family, where I have been crashing on the lounge. It is a nice change from staying in backpackers everywhere. The next day we went for a little drive to check out a bit of Lake Ontario. Here is a picture of the local marina.

Yes it was bloody cold, probaly about minus 10 or 15 before windchill.

And I have also been going out shooting. We had good fun with Lee-Enfield 303's, a Klashnikov, some Mosin-Nagants, a Mauser and a few other interesting pieces, incuding a 1911 .45 pistol.

I wanted to take some pictures out at the range, but because it was so cold my camera wasn't working properly, and even one of the shotguns was not working properly.

Here is a picture of some of the shootin' irons I was playing with.

Top to bottom, a semi automatio Klashnikov clone, two Mosin-nagant 91/30's, a No4mk1 Lee-Enfield (Savage made), and two No1mk3* Lee-Enfields, one Lithgow (Australia) and one Enfield (England).

And one of me shooting a Kalashnikov

And an old Nazi marked german K98 mauser. For an old battle rifle the thing was smooth! I now know why so many were hacked up to make hunting rifles after the war.

I am also off to New York/New Jersey tomorrow morning on the train. It will take seven hours. There I will catching up with my mate Joey from Jersey. I met joey a few weeks back in Vancouver and he has very kindly offered to put me up for a few days.

Poutine, and other rad food in Montreal

2009-02-28T13:55:00.002+11:00

I have really embraced a bit of the local stuff when I have been here in Canada. The food over in Quebec was also better than what I found in other parts of Canada so far.

Poutine has been my favourite so far. Best half past three in the morning food ever.

It is a delightful mess of chips, covered in cheese curds and gravy. There are also some variations on the main recipe. The one I had the other Thursday at half past three in the morning had a creamy pepper gravy on it instead of your standard brown gravy.

I also found Chocky milk for sale as well in Montreal and I went crazy for it. I didn't really see any out west.

There were also markets with fantastic butchers in them. It was a pity that I only really found the awesome butchers until I was about to leave.

This cabinet had all kinds of weird and wonderful meats in it. Goose, duck, rabbit, hare, beef, chicken, lamb, moose and oma's favourite horse.

I got some very nice chicken there for cheap as well, and in the same market some brilliant Bananas, Apples and Oranges.

I was definitely feeling better when I left Montreal.

Montreal Part 1

2009-02-28T08:44:00.008+11:00

After I had an epic sleep in after my nightmare day I dragged myself out of bed and went walking round Montreal.

I was a little weirded out at first as it was about minus seven degrees and there was snow ever where, and all the signage was in French. How ever minor, I was getting my first taste of culture shock, and a little climate shock as I have never been in a city covered in snow.

It was even snowing a little which was nice. I walked up the main drag of Montreal, Rue Sainte Catherine to look around. I then randomly wandered into the RESO, otherwise known as "The Underground City".

It is unreal, in the middle of the city pretty much all of the office buildings and malls are all underground and connected together. It is air conditioned so it's heated in winter when the streets are covered in snow, and cooled in summer when it reaches extreme temperatures of like 20 degrees.

It covers something like 12 square kilometres, connecting 60 buildings with 32 kilometres of tunnels connecting everything. You can also access seven of the metro stations from the underground city as well.

I also love the fact that they have a functioning metro system in the middle of the city, it makes getting round so quick and easy, as trains come every few minutes.

I then went into the tourism office where I got a rather handy map and the French Canadian woman circled a whole bunch of rad stuff to do round town. I got some groceries and went back to the hostel for dinner and a quiet one.

There I met a swiss german girl, Michaela who listened to my story about the nightmare day I had before, and we ended up catching a gig that night, up on the Plateau (plateau of Mont Royal) which is the arty part of town.

It was some random indy band from Florida called "Clock Hands Strangle" who were playing a small gig on a Monday night in Montreal for a $5 cover. I liked their set and I went to have a chat with the singer at the merch stand after their set. When the bloke heard I was an Aussie he gave me a free CD which was pretty rad.

The next morning there were blue sky's and awesome visibility, so I met Michaela and we decided to do the tourist thing and go up to the Olympic Stadium. It was very handy that I met her as well, as being Swiss they can speak German, French and English so that helped me get over the language barrier quickly.

The Olympic stadium was built for the 1976 Olympics, and I think is an awesome structure. It is also the largest inclined tower in the world, although it was a bit of an easy one because the only other inclined tower in the world is the leaning tower of Pisa.

We had unreal views of the city as well, it was about the first clear day for a while which was nice. The tour of the stadium was interesting as well. We also checked out the Quay and Old Montreal.

There were some awesome buildings down in Old Montreal, and a lot of history there.

I went and got some more food and that night made up some epic mash, which was good to get into me after having to eat out in Vancouver for a week.

Wednesday Michaela went off to Mont Tremblant for a few days to snowboard and I was off on my own again. It was rather quiet in the hostel I was staying in, I had my four bunk room to myself for three nights in a row which was nice. The only problem was that there was not that many people hanging round in the common area that you could team up with and go do things with.

I decided to go off on an epic walk around the Plateau and Mont Royal park it's self. I caught the Metro and then walked up Rue Mont Royal. There was ice and snow covering everything, and we were even getting some fresh snow. It was a little windy but I was warm enough.

There were mad people jogging on the snow and ice.

There were squirrels and stuff there as well.

There was some stairs to get to the top.

And when I got to the top I had an awesome view of the city.

The next day I went off on a big trip up to the markets where they had all kinds of good stuff. A bloke gave me some Oranges for half price because I was an Aussie who was able to spit out a very dodgy "Parle vouz Anglais" instead of just speaking English.

I also got some very nice corn fed chicken thighs for cheap, even if I had to bone and skin it.

It was Thursday night, so it was the Hostel pub crawl night. All of a sudden all these people who had been hiding in their rooms all came out and met so we could get our trashbag on. I think something like 15 people including my new Belgian room mate turned up.

We took the metro up to Sherbrooke station and then walk a few blocks over to the main pub and club strip, Boul Saint-Laurent. We went to a few awesome little bars above shops where they had all kinds of cheap booze, much cheaper than anywhere else I have been in Canada so far.

I after a while I ended up in a group with a Brazilian girl from , a Dutch girl, a girl from Vancouver and a bloke from Toronto. Most of them were uni students on a break.

After getting into some wonderfully cheap Sambuca shots and pints of beer. Eventually we ended up in some random club that was full to capacity, that was playing 50's rock 'n roll. The people in there were going mental, there was even some bloke swinging off the fire sprinklers. The dance floor was overflowing as well.

We ended up leaving there at about three in the morning and squeezing the five of us in a taxi to get back to the hostel. Thing is we were hungry so we went out looking for late night feed.

I wanted some of that glorious Montreal poutine so we went off and got some. I will dedicate a post to Poutine and how awesome it is.

We got home from getting Poutine at half past four in the morning, it was good.

What a prick of a day (15 Feb 09)

2009-02-26T08:38:00.004+11:00

I didn't really sleep on the Saturday night, although I did get get up at half past four as i had to get a 0700 flight to Toronto, followed by a train trip to Montreal.

I quickly packed the rest of my things and jumped in the shower. I spent too long on the so wonderfully warm shower, then because the sink didn't have a plug it took me a while to shave because I was always turning the tap on and off (should have done it the night before.... or improvsed a plug made from some paper towel like I do now).

I just missed the 0528 bus to the airport by like a minute and had to wait half an hour for the next one, in Vancouver before sun up, it was cold and lame. Once I was on the bus though I was there in about 15 minutes.

The bus drops you about a kay or so from the airport at a little terminal where a few busses drop people off to get the shuttle, which runs every 15 minutes or so. I jumped on the second bus and I was quickly off. When the bus stopped at Vancouver International I stayed on, as I was catching a domestic flight. I made the rookie error of not asking if it drops people at the domestic terminal.

It dosen't.

So I went round in a loop and ended up back where I started. And the next bus wasn't for another 15 minutes... epic fail.

I eventually got into the airport around 0610, so I should have had plenty of time. I eventually got through the line at around quarter past and when I went to check in it turned out Air Canada hadn't listed me properly when I rang reservations the day before. The operator confused the E in my sirname with an A (aussie accent) and because of that I could not check in. I had to ring up reservations again and re-list, as they couldn't do it there at the airport.

By the time I had done that and gotten to bag check it was 0630 and the flight had closed, although Air Canada staff were able to check my bags and possibly get me on if I can get through security in time.

I couldn't. The security line was about 40 minutes long. And then when I was in the line I went to pull out my toletries bag from my carry on, as in this "age of terror" that we live in we have to pull all liquids and pastes out of your carry on for inspection.

I eventually got through the security line and got to the gate, where I had missed my flight. The gate staff were helpful and listed me on the next flight, in an hour.

I then went to look in my bag for my tickets wallet. It is slighty larger than an airline ticket, but thicker. It has all handy things like spare VISA cards, something like CAD$200, my insurance details, a mobile phone SIM and other handy things. I normally keep my passport in there as well but I had that in my pocket for boarding.

I opened up my bag and I couldn't find the bloody thing. I started to stress a bit and I ran around like a headless chook around the airport trying to find the bloody thing, which I thought was dropped in the security line when I went to get the toothpaste out, as that was the last time I had seen it.

Failing to find anything I got on the 0815 flight enroute to Toronto. It was a three and a half hour flight but we arrived at 1600 due to crossing a few time zones and delays at Van.

It then took 45 minutes for my bag to come out and I still had to get into the train station in the middle of Toronto. I got on the bus, then took the metro into Union Station.

I was supposed to be on the half past four train to Montreal but there was no way I was going to make that one. I got into Union Station in the middle of Toronto at at half past six, and I quickly made my way over to the VIA Rail counter to see if I could get on a train that night.

I gave the bloke at the ticket office my booking reference and he said the next train was leaving in two minutes, and if I hurried I could make it. He printed off my tickets and I then got my Amazing Racer on and dashed through the train station with my pack on my back searching for the platform.

I quickly found the platform and ran up the stairs and jumped into my assigned carriage. And even before I had my pack off they had closed the doors and we were on our way.

I then had a rather uneventful five and a half hour trip to Montreal. This train stopped everywhere so it took longer than normal, an express will get you between the two citys in four and a half hours.

I basicall sat back and chilled, and listened to some slow happy female singer-songwriter music to relax myself at the end of a rather long and tiring day.

I did however loose my shit when I saw the snacks cart with a bottle of chocky milk on it! I love the stuff and I could not find any in western Canada so that made me happy.

I eventually got into Montreal, just after midnight and instead of walking the few blocks to my hostel I decided to get a taxi for like $6 and save walking through the snow in a city I didn't know looking for a place to stay.

I got in to the hostel at about half past 12 and I collapsed into bed.

At least I had an adventure eh! ..... Oh dear, I am stating to talk like the locals

Epicness

2009-02-19T14:41:00.003+11:00

I have had a few awesome days, followed by a day where nothing went right.

On Friday last week I went back down to Stanly park with a few of the people I have picked up along the way. Most of us hired bikes and some of us went to play pitch and putt golf in the park there.

As expected we all sucked at golf, but we were only mucking round any way so it didn't really matter that much. I think I ended up something like 34 over par after 18 holes that were 100m at the most.

Myself golfing in my trackie daks, note the ball in the air.

There was also a raccoon hanging round on the golf course, they are kinda like possums.

After that I jumped on my dodgy $12 a day road pushbike and went for an epic ride with Mark. I was happy enough explore the trails but Mark had other ideas. We ended up riding from Stanly Park, through Gastown and East Hastings (the ghetto, junkies everywhere) over to the Pacific Coliseum that I saw the Giants at the other day and over the Iron Workers bridge.

This is the view from the Iron Workers bridge over to down town Vancouver, that big green thing on the right is Stanley Park and you might be able to make out the Lions Gate bridge that runs into Stanley Park.

Marks back

From there we rode all through North Vancouver and back over the Lions Gate bridge and into Stanly Park again to hit some trails up on my dodgy bike. It took us about four hours and I think we covered something like 15 or so kilometers, possibly more.

The next morning was Saturday, which was of course Rugby morning, where a crew of us would pack into a nearby pub that was showing the 6 nations at 8 in the morning and serving beer. We had even picked up some new members of our rugby crew in the past week as well.

After a big day watching rugby I wanted to have an early night as I had to be up early to catch a flight to Toronto then a train to Montreal.

I was ironing my pants and shirt in the laundry when I met some top girls from Vancouver Island who were over for a trashy weekend. I had my walkman phone on and I was singing and dancing to Sarah Blasko while kinda ironing in the laundry, which was near their rooms.

They ended up dragging me kicking and screaming out on the town (ok maybe not kicking and screaming). Canadian girls are awesome, I just met them and they were buying me drinks and doing my ironing for me.

After a top night out though the wheels fell off....

Stay tuned for my Montreal trip special.

City of Glass, City of Bums

2009-02-13T08:03:00.005+11:00

I have been in Vancouver for a few days where I have been getting my trashbag out with a multinational crew of backpackers that I have quickly met and fallen in with.

I had a good bus ride down the Sea to Sky highway that links Vancouver and Whistler, there is a crazy amount of construction going on there at the moment in the lead up to the Winter Olympics in one year.

The first night i got into Vancouver I randomly decided to go on a ghost tour of Gastown, which is the oldest part of Vancouver, and infested with bums. When we left there was four of us in the tour, until we got to the statue of the fallen soldier being carried away by an angel out the front of the old train station.

After a few minutes a few other backpackers came running up to us, including Joey from Jersey, Ross the wild looking Englishman with a huge beard and wearing only a t-shirt, and an aussie girl.

Allegedly they missed the start of the tour and ran all the way down Granville St past all the roadworks and bums to catch up with us and join the circle where our tour guide was having a talk. Ross had a beer in his hand wrapped in a plastic bag and was about 1/3rd of the way through when the local constabulary tapped him on the shoulder and wanted a word.

Turns out you can't drink on the streets here and they probably thought he was a bum hassling some poor tourists.

And then we ran into "The Captain". He is a bum that has a big beard and wares a pirate hat and yarrs at people. He was trying to get people to pay him a dollar so we could get a photo with the captain. It was just such a random bum, and kept calling himself the captain.

The other bum's were not as entertaining. We had one have a go at us for not giving him some change, and when we were walking past a bottle-o he stormed in the door walking through our group and saying "It takes an old lady to give someone change".

We later also got taken into "Blood Alley" by out guide, where alot of bums and drug addict prostitutes hang out and there are rats on the street. I was getting a funny feeling about the place, it could maybe have been a ghost, but was more likely me just getting nervous about hanging round in a dodgy alley.

The tour was kinda interesting and the guide had some good stories as well as a lot of knowledge of the history of the area which was mainly why i went there in first place.

After that was over we went on the first of many trashy nights out in van.

The next day I went down to Stanly Park with some of the people I met and we checked out the aquarium which was pretty cool. The people who where not from near the coast were amazed. The Sea Otters were really cool and the dolphins here don't suck so much.

And then it turned into a trashy night.

The next night a just went wandering round Vancouver. It was pub/club night on friday night and we went out and I met some seppo's that were actually pretty cool.

The next few days I went off and checked out Downtown Vancouver. On the Sunday morning a few of us went off to watch wales vs scotland six nations rugby games in a pub at 7 in the morning in Gastown. It was opening early for a Manchester United game but they had the rugby channel.

Only thing was that the pub didn't open until 8 and the rugby was delayed, so we got to watch the games from the day before and drink beer before breakfast time.We also found out that the other game would be on later that afternoon so we went and checked that out.

The next few days most of my regular crew went up to whistler so I had time off to check out Van, get a few things worked out and to let my liver recover.

I went into Stanly park for another walk and was looking at the Stanly park van which had their services written on it, which included "Coyote Awareness". I took no more than ten steps and there on the tarmac road was a coyote with half a rabbit in it's mouth was staring back at me not more than 10 meters away.

I froze and we stared at each other for a while and I was thinking about how I should take a photo, but before I could grab my camera it trotted off into the bush.

That is a photo I took of the coyote's arse, the white thing is the rabbit.

I also found the Hotel Vancouver, which is where we stayed here about 10 years ago.

Stay tuned for a new special post, Architecture in Vancouver.

I also went to a comedy club with the hostel group, and yesterday I went on a brewery tour and tasting before heading off to see the Vancouver Giant's play hockey. They are the local under 20's team and it was an experience. I wanted to see the NHL game but tickets sold out months ago and it was $40 for a ticket up in the nosebleeds. A ticket to the giants was $20 and only a short bus ride away.

I didn't really understand what was going on but it was pretty interesting and I definitely rate it. It kinda looks like it is rugby on ice.

Have a go at these pictures I snapped.

And then of course we went to the pub. Here is a picture of some of the crew I have been hanging round with.

And now I am having a nothing day and working out when I am off next on my travels, I will be flying to Toronto and then immediately taking a train over to Montreal, which should be fun.

More from whistler

2009-02-05T07:40:00.003+11:00

People in wistler don't realise that it isn't 2004 any more, with me randomly encountering this Flashmob in the middle of town last thursday at quarter past 5, where someone blew a whistle and a heap of people rushed into the town square and had a massive pillow fight for a minute then ran off when the next whistle blew.

And I saw a funny thing in the supermarket as well, goats milk. Maybe Lucky could do with some.

After the last blog post I went into the GLC in whister and saw two awesome Vancouver indy pop acts, Adeline who is a solo singer songwriter and Hey Ocean! who are a four piece band.

While I was in there I met this lovely young couple from over near Margaret river in WA. They were on their honeymoon and wanted to catch a band they could do some dancing to, and we got our dance on to Adeline.

They left after the support and I continued to dance like an idiot for Hey Ocean's set.

I also had a quiet one on Sunday, as the mountain fills up with weekend skiiers.

I did however head into town on Sunday afternoon, as the Superbowl is on. Being unfamiliar with gridiron I was rather confused with the rather lenghty going ons of American football.

By the time I got into the pub it was the start of the second half of the 60 minute game. Well the second half took two hours! I bumped into an aussie bloke who was staying in my lodge a few nights before and I hung round with him and tried to figure out how the game worked.

I was going for Arizona, who in a nail biter clawed their way back into the lead, but lost in the last 30 seconds of the game, which sucked. The pub also gave away some t-shirts for various NFL teams, so I grabbed one, a medium, which is like an XL back home. No idea what teams logo was on the front either, but it made a good layering shirt for skiing. I will try and shrink in a dryer later on.

When Monday rolled round I was keen to get up on the mountain again as there had been some more snow, and I skied all day, even if it was a little overcast.

I got straight up to the mountain on Tuesday morning as well, where portie hooked me up with a cheap lift ticket. He was working on the top of the "Magic" chair, which is at the base of Blackcomb on their beginner slope. I hung round with him and chatted randomy for about and hour, and played with the glovedog which randomly turned up.

This dog had a pink childs glove in it's mouth. We were not sure if there was a girl trapped in a well or under and avalance somewhere, or if the dog had eaten the said child. We were just throwing this glove round for the dog to fetch, which was pretty good.

And here is a pic of porte hard at work on the lift's.

I went back up the mountain, where it was lovely and sunny above the low clowd that was about one third of the way up the hill. It was an unreal day skiing up there, and I started smashing the blue runs on Blackcomb. I had some of these runs to myself on Blackcomb which was tops.

Have a go at "Merlins" here on Blackcomb, as seen from the Wizard chair

I later went on the peak2peak gondola, connecting the top stations of Whistler and Blackcomb. It streatches over 4km's between the mountains, with an unsupported span some something like 3km's! It is amazing that they were able to put the thing up there.

Here is the view from one side of the gondola

Passing another gondola

The view down to the village

In the middle of the span looking at the creek running between the mountains.

And here is a pic of town from whistler when the cloud cleared.

And here are my ski's for the time I was here, my blue planks of radness, Carnage and Destruction.

After I returned my gear to Spicy I met up with Lori and some of her friends for dinner and a few drinks in the GLC, in my opinion one of the better pubs in Whistler.

Here is a picture of us, possibly auditioning for the Wiggles.

And a proper photo so our mums know we actually met up.

Tonight I am heading into another local pub where I am catching up with everyone, and I am staying one night in Lori's share house before heading back to Vancouver

2009-02-01T15:10:00.002+11:00

Hey peeps, it's been a while since updates because I have not had much access to the interwebs here.

The flight to San Fran was a rather uneventful 14 hours in a half empty 747. I was flying in business class that was pretty much empty. Out of my row of seven seats, only two seats were occupied.

I made sure to take my QANTAS pj's off the plane with me as I had not packed any. I also made sure to order and eat everything on the brekky menu to try and hold me over till dinner, which was toast, smoked salmon, bacon, eggs, mushrooms, tomato and potato cake, washed down with juice and coffee. I also ordered the fruit but was way too full to eat it.

When I got into San Fran around half past ten in the morning, I had to make my way over to the United counter and try to get myself onto a flight to Vancouver. I found out that I just missed the 1100 flight to vancouver and the next one on either United or Air Canada was at quarter to seven that night :( the dangers of standby roulette I guess.

I checked my bags and then killed a few hours in the non secure zone, until I realised that I still had my duty free grog in my carry on. Now because of this age of terror we live in you cant take liquids through screening in your carry on any more.

When I realised this I had a talk to Perry, the manager at the United domestic check in. I wanted to get my bag back but he instead offered to check it in in a box for free, which was awesome because checking in extra bags later on costs about $US 125. I just had to get a $16 box from some other dudes.

After waiting round at SFO all day I finally got onto my two and a half hour flight up to Vancouver I was put onto the flight ten minutes before take off. I found myself in the premium economy section, with a whole extra five inches of foot room.

Two hours into an uneventful flight the bloke next to me asked to borrow a pen. He had a bit of a funny accent which I couldn't pick, turned out it was Australian mixed with Canadian. He turned out to be a bloke who had moved to Canada when he was about my age after he had come here backpacking and found himself a girlfriend.

Dr Rob soon warned me off Canadian girls, saying I could quite easily find myself moving over here. He gave me a good idea of what to expect here in Canada, particulary weather wise, and he was even good enough to give me a lift into my hostel in downtown Vancouver, which was on his way home.

Canadian customs and immigration were also very easy to deal with, with the bloke chatting to me about how he stayed in the hostel just up the road in Cronulla and quickly waving me through, I had also collected my bags within 15 minutes of getting off the plane.

I got into my hostel around 11 at night and grabbed a kebab from next door, and like a nanna got to bed, mainly because I was wiped out from over 28 hours of traveling.

The next day I went up Granville St looking for some cold weather gear and found myself some bargains. I went into the Bay department store and got myself a pretty good parka for half price, which was about CAD$130 and some boots for about CAD$40.

Then I was up to whistler on the 3pm bus. I got in round about half past five and met up with portie and renee, after a quick gidday I was off to my lodge, about two kay's south of the village. The bus system runs pretty close to my lodge and I got in there around seven.

I had a shower and got to sleep as tommorow was one of the biggest days of the year in Whistler, 'strayla day.

Most of the work force in Whistler is Australian and on aussie day they all go off. I got into town around 10 in the morning and the pubs were overflowing with aussies. I bumped into the 'stralian bobsled team and got a photo in their sled.

I also met up with Lori for a quick hello.

The next few days I bummed around Whistler and I later got some ski's from Lori who sorted my hire out of the best price, so that was awesome.

I went up the mountain a few days but yesterday was pretty much a write off. When I went up in the morning the weather wasn't too bad, but the snow was rather Icy. After midday the weather really turned sour, and I went up the top of the mountain to ride the peak to peak gondola. It was blowing a gale and the gondola was closed, so I skied down to the bottom of the mountain.

There was some fresh snow, but it was very windy and the cloud was sitting about halfway down the mountain. By the time I got to the bottom it was raining and horrible, and half the lifts were closed so I just went into the pub and had a beer, and got a ticket to the indy pop act "Hey ocean" that is playing there tonight.

I hung round the hostel and did my washing, then met portie and renee for a late lunch today and now I am about to head off to the gig, and that's my first week.

SFO

2009-01-25T09:50:00.004+11:00

Well I am on an 8 hour lay over in san fran because united and air canada have scratched a heap of flights to vancouver.

There is a heap of rad old 50's toys and artwork for things like trains and space things like ships robots. When looking at the robots i started humming the Flight of the Conchords song "robots", so awesome.

I also got "randomly selected" for extra flight screening her as well, where the Homeland Security mob pulled me aside and put me in the "puffer" and then swabbed my bag for explosives or something.

All credit to the homeland security people for being compeatly curteous and professional, and the extra screening only took a few minutes.

Getting ready to get out of the shire

2009-01-22T15:32:00.008+11:00

It's a scary world out side of the bubble.

I have to dehobbit myself, so here I am, shaving the feet.

Oh, I also packed my bag as well.

Wads of cash

2009-01-15T19:43:00.010+11:00

Today I went and picked up my Canadian Dollars from the Post Office that should cover me for my random expenses for the first week or two of my trip.

Pretty pimpin' eh

I noticed with the Canadian bank notes I had, that the Queen's head was only on the $20 note and not on the $50, I hope our Commonwealth brothers are not getting any funny ideas like their southern neighbours.

Thankfully, unlike US notes they are different colours so they should be easy enough to tell apart

From dusk till dawn

2008-12-21T16:02:00.003+11:00

I am just playing round with setting up music for the blog.

I love this song, Ladyhawke is awesome

Into the great wide open

2008-12-21T13:23:00.002+11:00

Well here we go, I am finally starting up a blog, even though I doubt anyone will find it that interesting or read it but my mum will like it any way.

Does this make me a self indulgent wanker?

Any way this is going to be about my travels that I am finally embarking on at the age of 23, five years after finishing high school and the year I finish my leccy's trade so I have nothing tying me to home and I can FINALLY escape the Shire.

I hope to keep this bad boy updated every so often with some pics and a nice little story here or there.

I will also be putting a bit of music at the end of my post's as well for a bit of a sound track. First up is the inspiration for the name of this blog, the lovely Sarah Blasko's cover of the Tom Petty song "into the great wide open". Enjoy