Wien

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.