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I'm Back!
Sunday 06th of April 2008 08:58 PM

Well after several weeks my host has finaly recovered and we're back.
I've also taken this opportinuty to give my site a less dated look.

What's happened since well.
I left you with my asking what I was going to do for the days before Madrid.
It was brought to my attention MTV were putting on a free concert and The Cure were headlining. How could I give up an opportunity to see The Cure live and for free? I could'nt it was simple so I booked an extre few days at my hostel. For the next two days I hungout, walked, read and shopped at the awesome fresh food market just up the street.

Concert night was great! The lighting and sound were fantastic! I managed to land me a spot not too far from the the stage, still the big screens came in handy when the odd tall spanish fellow was in front of me. There were three bands the first one were a rather lame group calls From First to Last, second were HIM who put on an excelent show and the crowd seemed to be quite taken by them. Finally were The Cure, their set was phenominal. Even if the emo kiddies there for HIM were not that interested, Me and the other 10% ofthe crowd old enough to know who they were just plain loved it!

The next day I hopped on a train to Madrid. I don't know if I've mentioned this but trans continental trains in Spain are groovy you get injourney entertainment and you may even get a refreshing candy.

In Madrid I stayed with Maring a girl I ment in London. She lived in a cozy three bedroom flat with two housemates a mere 2 blocks from the site of the Madrid bombings in 2004.
And you wouldn't know it (except on the anniversary where they blocked off half the streets for the king and prime minister who were giving speaches).

For the traveler there 2 main things to do in Madrid, the first being the many museums and gallerys about town, second if the nightlife is pretty good. Not being in the mood for clubbing I spent the week Visiting Museums and parks. I even got gratis entry (care of Maria) to the Faunia Park.

I did do a day trip out to Toledo for check out the old town. Which I must say is prety cool, it has maintained old look well. There are many churches, synagogues and temples to checkout.

Finaly after 7 days in Madrid I had to head home. I'll miss hanging out with Maria, she was great company and a most gracious host.

The 23 odd hours of flight weren't all that bad. Korean air don't seem to have follow the trend of squishing as many seats on a plan as you can so you actually get leg room. I finished my book Saving fish from drowning by Amy Tan and read a good half of Eragon by Chirstopher Paolini. The food on Korean Air again much fresher than you'd expect from some other airlines. My final meal before landing in Melbourne was grean tea rice porridge and I must say I've got to find me some of this for home, it was that good!

So I've been home about tree weeks now, and not much to tell :), I guess thats why traveling is so awesome, everyday is a new adventure or story.

Have fun and if you can't decypher the menu, pick the most grossly sounding one

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The city of oranges
Monday 03rd of March 2008 01:37 AM

Hola!

I've been in spain for about a week now and I'm slowly getting used to the fact that next to no one speaks English, and almost everyone is oblivious to the idea that I can't understand Spanish. Still this place is awesome!

Valencia is nice, central valencia is small and tight with roads going in anywhich direction. Losts of old style chirches and such scatted throuhout the city makes for a good atmosphere. The most common tree used for lining the streets are oddly enough orange trees. I saw a couple of kids having an orange fight in the street ther other day which I found amusing.

The whole siesta town thing is just plain confusing. Every day I don't know when to eat hoping I won't miss the 2-3 hour gap food vendors open for lunch and dinner.
Yesterday I had tapas at a dingy pub down a back street becuase we had missed the feeding window. This was quite amusing if not slightly worrying.

The Zoo here is just plain cool!. The que to get in is immense but worth it. The layout has viewing windows so you can see all areas of the enclosures. The enclosures and very native habitat looking and in the centre there is an enclosure where you have rhino's giraffes and a few othere animals just roaming and you can have a reasonably priced lunch next to it setting a nice backdrop.

The lemur enclosure was cool you actually get to walk about and virtually touch them. If they were so inclined they could actually climb on you, but they mostly seemd to want to chill in the sun whilst I was there.

The beach here in Valencia is cool. Nice fine sand and it streches for miles and miles. There are the token african guys trying to sell their dodgy wares along the foot path and copious restraunts catering to the many tourists.

At the moment there is a festival and every day at 14:00 everone piles in to the city center and they set off massive fire crackers for about 5 minutes then everyone leaves. Yesterday there was a parade and fireworks. This festival is supposed to go for about 2 weeks so I might be getting crazier and crazier each day I guess I'll find out today and tomorrow.

I still don't know where I'm going to spend the next few days before I go to Madrid so I'll have to get on to that today because I'm checking out tomorrow, any suggestions?

Have fun and throw an orange!

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Tappas, cerveza and funky buildings
Friday 29th of February 2008 03:40 AM

We've made it to Barcelona and had the easiest transfer from the plane to the hostel I've experienced, yay fo easyness.

The hostel staff rock and the other people here also kick arse. So far we've done a tour of the Gothic region to look at the facinating detail of these old buildings. Our tour guide was very helpful and was keen to answer many of the random questions we had about barcelona.
We also spent a day checking out all the Gaudi buildings and such we could which was fantastic, La Sagrada Familia in particular is worth a visit if your ever in town.
Food wise its prety good here plenty of tappas and paella have been eaten all at reasonable prices.
Beer also good and reasonably priced.

Language here is an odd thing everyone speaks two languages Spanish and Catalyn. Almost no english is spoken by the locals at all even in thr touristy areas.

I guess all in all my time in barcelona has been prety rocking!

Tomorrow I catch a train to Valencia so check out a more traditional spain woot.

Well have fun and ignore the 50 guys offering to sell you beer in the street at 2am

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More food wierdness
Sunday 24th of February 2008 05:55 AM

So Jay ans I are now in austria lapping up the snow and the sun. Even if we did walk a good half hour the wrong direction the moment we got off the train all is good.

Iäve have a few people ask what exactly I ment be the live tentacles well if you want to know http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/gross/eating-live-octopus-tentacles-at-least-you-know-theyre-fresh-255829.php that'll show you.
Today Jay decided it was time to try other odd food items so he ordered half a dozen snails. Now this sounds gross and well it kinda looks it but you know what, those things are actually quite tasty I'd have them again if they wern't so pricy.

In two days we head off to Barcelona and will meet up with Timmy!!! I'm sure randomness will ensue.

Well have fun and enjoy a nice schnappes in the sun.


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High priced Beer = revolt
Friday 22nd of February 2008 02:03 AM

Well we've just ended a few day's in sunny Munich did a nice tour and learnt a few interesting tid bits. Firstly there is a street in Munich where you can buy a coffee for €14, now that would want to be an awesome coffee.

Second tid bit is an excessive increase in beer prices caused a massive revolt where the Germans started burning the brewery in anger.

This stop was nice as good english was spoken by almost all shop keepers which made things alot easier.
And we found some good saussage, and something that that can only be called meat bread which was also tasty.

I'm now sitting in Austria in the snow alps of St Johann in Tirol I'll head up the mountain again in about 2 hours after some lunch.


Enjoy and find your self a good bit of meat!

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