Sevard Montreal's Dialy Dairy

#11d: Rotterdam/ Amsterdam

2010-04-26T21:54:00.001+01:00

Tue 20th July 2004:

Rachel: Went to Amsterdam today, took an hour to get there. We got a map in the tourist information office and went wandering. It was pouring so we bought an umbrella. We went to a sex museum (well you just have to for the experience in Amsterdam)-it was gross! We went to Anne Frank's house which was mobbed and we had to stand in a huge queue to get in - paul didnt know who Anne Frank was. The house was so hot and cramped and with so many people in there it was even worse. The original diary was on display in the house, it was really good. We had lunch then went towards the Red Light District. It seemed to be in two streets, it wasn't as exciting as we were expecting, maybe it was cos it was during the day. However, there were still ladies in lots of the windows in their underwear which was quite amusing. It was obvious that there would be a totally different atmosphere in the evening. We passed lots of hash cafes and the smell was horrible, there were so many of them. We headed back to Rotterdam and had a drink in the bar before we went back to our room and ordered room service pizza.

So the email that I sent yesterday to my folks with the story of the trip so far was the end of me giving a day by day account of our travels, the next time I emailed was from Prague and I just split my email up into cities, so it's not going to be very straightforward for me to do a Paul: bit from this point forth. In fact, for the last part of the trip (ie- after prague) I don't think I even sent an email at all.

Now, I was a fairly sheltered kinda guy 6 years ago (what am I saying... I still am) so mixing me and Amsterdam probably wasn't the best of ideas. Not for any particular reason other than I knew I was never going to take the 'Amsterdam' experience. I mean look at it, we went for an afternoon basically, and the thing we spent the longest time doing was visiting Anne Frank's house!
Still, we wanted to go to Amsterdam even just to see it. I think we kinda thought we'd be brave enough to visit a 'coffee' (wink-wink) house but in the end we weren't. We did however purchase a hash lollipop each from a sweetie jar on the counter when we were buying the umbrella. hehe.

It was a bit of a waste going to the red light district during the day, I've got in my little 'city' update to my folks that the red light district in Hamburg was better. Now, I'm not sure what I'm basing that opinion on, or what exactly I mean by 'better.' I think, probably I meant that it just seemed a fairly normal area, but then obviously that was because it was during the day. Besides the lingerie clad dancing girls in the windows of course. We seen one guy go into one of the ground floor windows. It opened up like a door, the guy walked inside and the dancing lingerie girl pulled the curtains shut behind him. According to Rachels notes, this guy had on a suit including a top hat and cane. We never saw him from the front, but I like to picture him with a monacle and pretend it was the monopoly guy.
It made me wonder how guys got into the first and second floor windows. Do they throw down a rope and you have to climb up? Maybe If we'd hung around later we'd have found out.

We felt like dangerous criminals having these hash lollipops in our pockets all day, The guy at the counter said one lollipop was like a quarter of a joint. Now this means nothing to me. I've never tried drugs before this day, and I've never tried drugs any day after. We just thought it'd be best to try our lollipops back in the relative safety of our room anyway. hehe, it was so funny. I felt like that beat-down cop from the other day was going to suddenly burst into our room and start whaling on me with his Baton.

I'm just realising at this moment how pathetic this all sounds, me and rach sneaking off to our Hotel room to suck a lolly.
(sigh)

Anyway, the 2 of us sat on the bed and took the plastic wrapper off our lollipops, we gave them a tentative sniff. *sniff* we looked at each other. 'Right, Let's do this at the same time,' 'ok.' '1....2...3.....'

*lick*

Rachel screwed up her face, 'Eurgh! IT TASTES LIKE GRASS!'

Rachels lollipop ladies and gentlemen. Now destined to never be licked again.

I, however, despite the funny taste, (it did taste like grass by the way. Lawn grass.) had my lollipop.

It was a bit strange, I didn't really think anything was happening. I felt a tiny bit giggly but that was all. I considered having Rachels lolly (only licked on one side) but, erring on the side of caution I didn't, in case it was too much. I doubt it would have been, but suddenly I realised that the bedside lamp was casting a massive shadow of my head on the other side of the room. Now, I don't know if you've ever thought about how amazing your shadow can be. I certainly hadn't. But somehow, someway, for some reason I realised in a blinding moment how totally awesome my shadow was. my massive head shadow, almost the size of the entire wall. ' Look' I said to Rachel. pointing. At this point I started moving my head around to make the shadow move. 'it's massive!' I said. I laughed myself to tears watching my shadow move back and forth, my massive head shadow. It was funny for about 3 or so minutes, then I guess my lollipop wore off.

And that, to this day is my only experience with drugs. Kids, just say no.

#11c: Rotterdam/ Amsterdam

2010-04-25T11:07:00.000+01:00

Mon 19th July 2004:

Paul: It's Today! Thanks for helping me out with the email address thing. I'm feeling ok now I'm filled with lemsips and strepsils and cough syrup, but everythings closed here in Holland on a Monday so me and rach cant do anything, hence why I've sat so long here today writing all this out for you. We've gone out for a nice walk and I've taken lots of pictures today. Lots of cool buildings here in Rotterdam. Since everythings shut today it means I cant go to the architecture institute because tomorrow is our last day in Holland and we want to go see Amsterdam- see some hot dancing go-go girls in the windows. hehe.
You probably wont get this until after I've been there unless I call you tonight but I'd need to buy another phone card. We found some nice bars down by the harbour so we might go out there tonight, but I don't know if I'm up for a drink yet.

Anyway- I'm going to go now. Love you both lots, missing you both too. Rachel says that Palmanova is a good place for you to go on holiday, so you better book it! Don't bother about being away for my birthday- you know I'm not bothered about birthdays, so just go when's best for you both. I'll have the house to myself- weird!

Call you soon!

Rachel: Paul was feeling a bit better today so we went to the Architecture Institute and the Kunst Hall however, it turns out that everything in Rotterdam is closed on a monday. We just went for a walk through a park and down by the harbour, we walked across a bridge to the south side of Rotterdam which had loads of fancy modern buildings, We walked around for about 4 hours and Paul took lots of pictures. We went past the cube houses again and discovered that one of them is a museum so we went in for a look. It was pretty cool, the houses are on 3 levels. We spent the evening in the hotel and had room service pizza which was great.

Hmm, not very impressed with the pictures I took today- I remember Rotterdam looking pretty awesome, I think that I only think to pull my camera out when my minds wandering slightly so when I was at the really nice looking stuff I was so wowed I didn't stop to think to take a photo of it. That or I'm just a terrible photographer. I tend to not usually take pictures of 'stuff' anyway, I'd rather photograph people as they are always better to look back at. Normally when Rach tries to take a landscape picture I'll jump in the way or point at something in the frame. Usually that way it's fun to look back at the pictures. I'll cite these photo's above as perfect examples of the sort of photo's I don't like to take.

Today was maybe the first day that it dwelled on my mind that I was supposed to be an an Architectural tour so I could get back in to uni. So I think most of the photo's I took were taken from having that in mind, you know, maybe so i could take them to my interview and talk about the details and the concepts and whatever.

So today was my turn to send my folks an email (all of the 'paul' parts of the blog so far). Now, my folks aren't particularly computer literate so what I had to do was, once I'd sent the email- phone up my dad and talk him through, step by step, the process of turning on the pc, opening up the email and printing it off. This was not a cheap process as I discovered that a phone card didn't last long enough to do this. I soon dispensed with phone cards and started charging calls to my credit card. Big mistake. Over the course of trip I ended up making 3 calls at £80 each.

#11b: Rotterdam/ Amsterdam

2010-04-24T18:56:00.001+01:00

Sun 18th July 2004:

Rachel: We are not staying at this hostel any longer, Paul was up all night- he doesn't feel well. And I woke up with a sore throat too (Paul never admits he doesn't feel well either.) We went to the Use-it office, which is the student tourist info, which is near the hostel and got them to book us into a hotel for the night. So we are now staying at the Best Western Savoy tonight and tomorrow. By booking through that Use-it office we got a 70% discount on the price! Arrived at the hotel which is so nice, it has burberry bedsheets and curtains and is totally lovely. We went out to find a chemist and stocked up on cold remedies for Paul. He felt a bit better so we went to the Photography museum which was really good. He started to feel ill again so we just came back to the hotel. I've made him a lemsip and sent him to bed to sleep, he is totally burning and snotty and coughing.

So I'm sitting in the lounge area of the hotel on the free internet. We were supposed to have 4 nights in rotterdam so I think we will be staying here tomorrow and maybe try to find somewhere and move to amsterdam the last day as it will be easier to get to Hamburg from there.

It's kinda scary all the drugs over here, I havent seen a hash cafe yet but the guide book we got from the hostel told you where the best ones are! I cant beleive thats part of the guide book! - it has it's own section! We did pass a tramp near the river earlier who was injecting himself with god knows what. Aaargh! Don't worry we'll be staying well away from all that carry on. We are kindov unsure whether to move to amsterdam the last night as we don't want to be anywhere near all that stuff.

Anyway this has probably taken you as long to read as it took me to write, you can let grampa etc read it to save me some time. I'm going to do my Amsterdam research now and I'd better check on Paul coz it's been over an hour.

I'll have spoken to you on the phone probably by the time you read this anyway.

Missing you all. Love you Loads. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Paul: I felt terrible all day today. We went to a Photograph exhibition but I couldn't concentrate cuz I was coughing so much and snottering everywhere so we just went back to the Savoy that we had relocated ourselves to in the morning. It is gorgeous here- a 4 star hotel for £25 a night! Oh yeah, the first night we arrived here we got caught up in some police criminal thing! Some guy was being chased by a cop but was getting away (all on foot) when suddenly some guy appeared on a bicycle (everone has a bicycle over here) who saw that the criminal was going to get away so he raced up to the side of him on his bike, launched himself off his bike onto the criminal and both fell in a heap on the ground! the criminal guy tried to get up but the bicycle vigilante wouldn't let him go- the cop caught up and battered the criminal guy with his nightstick! It was so cool- it happened right in front of us! Within seconds about 5 police vans appeared and carted him away. the bicycle hero guy just sort of dusted himself off, got on his bike and rode away. hehe!

Don't worry, it's totally safe here- we've not had any problems at all.

Totally safe? No problems!? yeah- aside from the hostel not being safe, tramps shooting up and the place being rife with drugs, criminals, vigilantes and beat-down cops!!

So all of the 'rachels' emails that i've included in this blog so far were all written today. Rachel came down to the free internet while I was ill in bed and wrote a day by day account of the trip based on her daily travel diary. Today was pretty much written off due to me being unwell but moving to the Best western was definately the way to go. It wasn't even that much dearer than de mafkees, we lost our money for the days we'd paid for de mafkees, but well, i would have been glad to have paid more money to avoid staying there again. It was weird moving from that to a 4 star hotel, I think we'd have tried another hostel if i hadn't been ill, so... kinda glad I did fall ill.

As a result of seeing how easy it was to change our plans, we started loosening up about the schedule we'd made for ourselves and if we liked a place we'd see about staying an extra day and likewise, if we were ready to move on, we'd do that too. We had booked somewhere to stay for every night of the trip before we'd left home- thought it would save us a lot of stress and hassle, but it felt really good knowing that (even if it cost us money) we could change things at the last minute and stay wherever we wanted. We hadn't really thought about it this way until today so it helped us enjoy the trip more I think, rather than feel stuck to a rigid timetable we'd set ourselves.

So the hotel was pretty damn excellent- I just checked it out on google streetview- but it doesn't really look familiar. It is near the cube houses though so it must be the same place. My main memory of the hotel was the room service pizza. Boy- it was awesome pizza. And of course, having a hot shower- in our room no less- heaven!

Oh yeah- the photograph exhibition. It was interesting, none of the pictures had actually been taken by the photographer. Hmm, I guess I can't really accurately call him a photographer. Apparently he goes round flea markets and car boot sales and second hand shops and white elephant market stalls and looks for old photographs. I had no idea people sold photographs at these things. Anyway, the whole exhibition was all the photo's he'd found over the years, so consequently you had know idea who the people were or where the pictures were taken or anything. Kinda weird, but kinda cool nonetheless.

No photo's taken by me or Rach today either. sad face.

#11a: Rotterdam/ Amsterdam

2010-04-22T21:51:00.000+01:00

Sat 17th July 2004:

Rachel: Packed to leave. Got train to rotterdam. Had to sit next to the door for 2hours which was very uncomfortable. When we arrived, we knew we couldn't check into the hostel until 5pm so we left our bags at the tourist info in lockers. Wandered around the city with our map, found a photography museum, art hall and the national Architecture Institute. Had lunch in McDonalds. Went back to check in to hostel.

It was minging.

We checked in and then saw the dorm, it was like some sort of concentration camp. It made you feel really uneasy- not the cleanest. We were told it wasn't really safe to leave our bags in the room so you had to lock them in a room at the office and find a member of staff every time you wanted in to your stuff! We also had to leave our passports and if we wanted them during the day, we had to leave a 50Euro deposit instead!!

Decided to try and find somewhere else to stay tomorrow.

This day was totally roasting, but suddenly the sky turned black, there was thunder and lightening and it totally poured with rain. We didn't want to spend a minute longer than we had to at the hostel, so we went to the cinema and watched Shrek 2 (I think we are up to date now with all the new films) Returned to Hostel. It was hard to sleep cos the mattresses are plastic and squeek every time you move.
It seems the sort of place that really manky peole would stay.

Paul: I woke up really early today- 6 in the morning! I got up and went downstairs to read my book but some spanish guys were playing ping pong so I asked for a game and joined in. I won a couple of games, but lost most. It was really cool just meeting random people and having a game of ping pong with them. you wouldn't ask a stranger at home for a game of ping pong- but I guess it happens all the time in hostels, strangers just picking up a conversation and hanging out I mean. We've not really had that cuz we've not really hung out at any hostel yet, other than to sleep.
Waiting at the station for the train to rotterdam, Rachel went to the toilet and this big massive American guy sat next to me and we started chatting. He was with his son (who appeared a few minutes later) who he told us played in the brazilian football league. He was over in Belgium trying out for some team there. They were both really nice.
We couldn't get a seat on the train so had to stand at the door the whole 2 hour journey. By complete co-incidence we met the spanish guys I'd played table tennis with (in Brussels) in the train station (in Rotterdam). They asked us if we knew where to find a second hand bike shop. I told them no. Not sure why they thought we'd know that.

...I saw the most amazing lightening bolt iv ever saw in my life. I saw the whole thing crackle and fork right across the sky, it was unbeleivable!

De Mafkees. Our Hostel. Holy crap. I've never known anything like it in my life. I must admit that thinking about it now, It's one of the stand out hostels in the trip because it's definately the one that springs to mind and the one I can picture most clearly. Being curious to see if the hostel is still going, iv just done a quick google search and yep. it is. I see that we have been one of the lucky few to get to stay at de Mafkees because according to the website- it's only open in July and August! Here are some reviews:

Hostelworld.com: "It's my worst Hostel in my life"Thebackpacker.net: "There is a lock-out during the day"Boo.com: "The showers were Gross!- A VERRY BAD PLACE" Boo.com: (simply) "Horrible" Note the point about there being a lock-out during the day. You have to leave your passport with the staff and if you want it during the day (a real possibility), while you are locked out of the hostel, you need to leave 50Euros in it's place. Would you be comfortable leaving your passport in a place where they have to lock your bags away because it's "not safe" thats only open 8 weeks a year? What if you left your passport and the staff just didn't come back? Holy crap staying here was a trauma. Never mind all that stuff, just the physical act of trying to get to sleep in a warehouse sized room with over 120 beds in it... One room with 120 beds in it!Holy crap- it was terrifying! There was barely anyone in the room the night we stayed actually, but the staff assigned you a bed and rather than spread everyone out, they put everyone in almost adjacent beds in a corner. I'm so glad the movie "Hostel" didn't exist at this point, because if any Hostel was going to make me think I was about to be fed my own eyeballs with a spoon by a baldy bearded leather apron clad madman... it was this one. It was the scariest, creepiest night's sleep I've ever tried to have in my life. That warehouse at night was dead silent, besides the relentless squeeking of the plastic matresses of a dozen or so people all lying uncomfortably close together desparately trying not to move, the endless blackness surrounding us- 100 ghostly empty beds, and the hum of pouring rain punctuated by massive claps of thunder and cracks of lightning almost defying us to go to sleep.

Anyway, aside from the overall creepiness of the Hostel, This was a noteworthy day for, in our strolls before and after lunch, I realised that Rotterdam is where the Jackie Chan movie "Who am I" was filmed. So we went movie scene spotting, I found a couple- The 'cube' houses he fights under at one point, and the office building where he jumps off and slides down the long angled glass roof.Awesome.

#10d: Brussels/ Brugges/ Antwerp

2010-04-17T16:44:00.001+01:00

Fri 16th July 2004:

Paul- Went to Antwerp today, Went to a sealife centre place first- it had loads of sharks and tropical fish. Then we went to the main shopping square which had lots of shops from home. Had lunch in an Irish pub, had lots of alchohol too. When the bill came they had missed most of the drinks off the bill, so we just paid and left quickly. We wandered around a park after that, I think we were in the Amish area- everyone had those black costumes on with the top hats and the curls of hair hanging down. Antwerp was really rubbish. Nothing to do, it smelled and the ground was covered in cockroaches.

So apparently the 'movie star' conversation was last night, which resulted in me wanting to take that picture that i put in the last blog entry, this morning. The guys packed to leave and told us that we were their first 'foreign language' friends. (I guess they didn't realise that they were the ones with the foreign language.) We got chatting to a Canadian girl at breakfast who said she'd worked at a bar in Inverness for 6 weeks. She asked us if Inverness was near Falkirk (we'd told her where we were from- Falkirk, in Scotland) so we said no, it's about half way between Edinburgh and Glasgow. Falkirk I mean, not Inverness. Rather than have this exact conversation with everyone else in the future, I think this is the point where we decided to tell people we were from 'near Edinburgh.' Much simpler. Everyone has heard of Edinburgh. In fact this Canadian girl said she'd been to Edinburgh too and 'loved it.'

The train to Antwerp was a double decker train, so of course we went and sat upstairs.

Oh, I mentioned above in my email to my folks that the shopping area had a bunch of shops from home- Rachel mentions in her diary that there were 2 H&M's next door to each other. I'm pretty sure that this is what birthed the game that me and Rachel still play to this day called 'H&M.' Everytime we see an H&M shop, the first one of us to say 'H&M!' wins. They are everywhere by the way, even in places you'd never expect one so you always have to be on your guard. I'm not very good at it, but Rachel is damn good at spotting one a mile down the road.
This and Archery, 2 things Rachel rocks at.

I bought a tie in one of the H&M's. Seems a bit strange that I'd buy a tie in the middle of a backpacking/hosteling holiday, but thats what I did.

I remember that the guy who served us lunch at the Irish bar was a backpacker who'd ran out of money in Antwerp so got a cash in hand job at the bar.... 2 years ago. How is that even possible? Imagine being on holiday and just sort of stopping halfway through and settling down. Basically emigrating without really meaning too. Ah well, he'll be screwed come retirement when he has no pension due to not paying any taxes. God I feel old that I even thought of that. It's just jealousy really. Oh, to be that free..

Not sure any Amish person reading this would appreciate me refering to their clothes as a 'costume' but well, they don't use technological internet whizbangery do they, so I guess I got away with that one.

Extract from Rachels travel diary: "Felt a bit homesick tonight, when we were back in the hostel I cried for a little while."

Days on trip = 10.
Number of days Rach has Cried = 4

#10c: Brussels / Brugges / Antwerp

2010-02-24T21:06:00.000Z

Thurs 15th July 2004:

Paul - Got the train to Brugges, it was only 1hour journey. Brugges is the best place we've been so far. It was sooo pretty, it was like stepping back into the 12th century when most of it was built. There were horse and carriages going around everywhere on the cobbled streets. I got some belgian truffles- yummy! Got a map from the station and followed a route all around town to see all the attractions. Went to the Belfry and climbed up the 350 stairs to the bell tower. Was totally knackered but there was a great view. We found the central square and got some food there. Headed back to Brussels at 7pm and went to the cinema again to see Spiderman 2 (There were 600 seats in the screen we were in!) When we got back to the room 2 Korean guys had moved in, they were really nice. They tried to share their beer and crisps with us and gave us postcards of Korea as gifts. We chatted with them for a bit, but they didn't really understand English so it was silly trying to talk to each other. They said I was really handsome though. They said "You look like Movie Star." All I could say back was "Thanks very much!" There was another italian guy who slept in the room that night too but he came in really late and left really early the next morning so we never really got to meet him.

Our room was actually full the night before, when we got back to the room the night before there were belongings on the last two beds, but whoever they were, we never met them becasue they got in while we were sleeping and left before we got up. (Lucky we had all our belongings handcuffed to our legs eh? not really) The italians left too as we were getting up so Rachel had a shower and we washed our clothes in the sink. Rachel went and had breakfast, but I stayed in the room to hang up our wet washing- I probably couldn't face another bread and cheese breakfast. Jeez, I cant beleive I chose hanging up washing over eating. Wouldn't see that happen thesedays, hehe.
We took the day trip to Brugges because it was basically a free trip as the trains were covered on our Eur-rail pass. It was awesome taking advantage and getting to see more places than just the towns and cities on our main planned route.

Today was the reason I enjoyed the movie 'In Brugges' so much, we ate in the square featured in the movie and were up the tower too. In Brugges is an awesome movie, it was so cool having been to Brugges to see it in a film about hitmen running around because Brugges is so the last place you'd expect that sort of thing. It was stuck in a time warp, very very picturesque but not worth more than a day trip- so no wonder the characters in 'In Brugges' hated the place so much!

Oh- the korean guys- AWESOME! hehe, they said I looked like a movie star, so of course i let them take a picture of me on their camera, and I got one of them too. It was great trying' to talk to them, because after the rude italians, it was really our first experience of 'meeting' and getting to know other backpackers. After all, we were in hotels up to now, so this was the first time we'd been sharing a bedroom. In fact Rachel had to ponder how to go about getting changed for bed in a room of Koreans, and a French guy.
We didn't take any pictures of Brugges, which is really dissapointing as it was so lovely, and I know I'll never go back. The cobbled streets and the horse and carts.. there was a wee river running through the town and all the buildings (and people) looked so 'otherwordly.' This was one of the few places that we went to on the trip that really looked different from anywhere we've been, before and since. Here and Venice, most other cities have somewhat of a feeling of familiarity about them, you know, like you're not too far from home. So yeah, really enjoyed today. And Spiderman 2 was pretty awesome too. :)

#10b: Brussels / Brugges / Antwerp

2010-02-23T20:53:00.000Z

Wed 14th July 2004:

Paul - Went on the site-seeing bus this morning, it took an hour and a half to go all around the city. After we did a full loop, we stayed on the bus and got off at Mini-Europe. Its a small park which has miniature models of famous landmarks from all around the EU, and it was crap. There is a cinema next to it which we ended up coming back to for the next 2 days. We got back on the tour bus to go to the Natural History Museum which had a Dinosaur Exhibition, but with no english translation. We went back to the main square for dinner then headed back to the Cinema to watch Farenheit 9/11 which was in English with French subtitles. Afterwards on the train back into town some guy walking up the carriage fell on top of rachel. It was all a bit weird because it wasn't like the train had jerked or anything, he just total fell over on top of Rachel as he was walking past. When he left the carriage some other passenger spoke to us and told us to watch because that was a common way to pickpocket. If he was a pickpocket, he never got anything.

Hehe- here's a little snippet from Rachels travel diary: 'haven't had a wash again in about 3 days. I think I stink but theres no lock on the shower room door' If theres any time in your life where it's pretty much expected that you don't wash- it's when you are backpacking. A second common theme of backbacking is that a lot of breakfasts involve bread and jam, or bread and cheese. Today was one of those days.
We had headphones to plug into the hop-on-hop-off tourbus so we could listen to the taped english translation, in fact it's pretty easy to get around and do anything anywhere in Europe because you are never far away from an English speaker, or an English translation. I think thats why I made a mention of there not being one at the dinosaur exhibition. We were like, 'how dare they!'

Holy crap, Mini-Europe was terrible. I think I have possibly over-inflated it's terribleness into Epic proportions over the years, because it surely cant be as bad as I remember it to be. My memory of it was that all the models were rubbish, it had the houses of parliament and erm, the Eiffel tower (probably)... in fact, Mini-Europe was so un-memorable I cant even remember what was in it.
Except that we got greeted at the door by a turtle.

I had Toasted Cheese and Ham for dinner (bread and cheese- not just for breakfast) while Rachel ordered vegetable soup. She thought it looked like infested pond water so she just left it and ate the 3 bread rolls that it came with.

The cinema we went to had 27 screens. That seems pretty unbeleivable to me considering that it wasn't as if any of the films were belgian. They were showing all the american movies, maybe Belgians just don't have anything else to do but go to the movies (if mini-europe is anything to go by). The screen was massive, and the seats were so comfy. Spiderman 2 came out today, but it was sold out which is why we went to see Farenheit 9/11

I think it's worth putting this little extract from Rachel's travel diary in here too, you know.. for posterity: 'Got the Metro back to hostel. Me n Paul weren't sitting together. After the train started, some guy fell on me pushing me into some other guy. total twisted my neck. Paul was really concerned that I was ok' Thats a great husband in the making right there.

I thought those rude Italians left the hostel today, but they didn't actually leave until tomorrow. When we got back to the hostel they were at it again in bed- I wonder if they even left the room at all.

#10a : Brussels / Brugges/ Antwerp

2010-02-22T21:15:00.001Z

Tue 13th July 2004:

Rachel - Got to Gare du Nord 2 minutes after our train to Brussels had left (after a total mad rush from the hotel. We managed to change our seat reservations for free onto the next train which wasn't for another half an hour. The train took an hour and a half and we found the hostel easily. It was quite nice, 6 beds in the room. We went for a wander to find out where we were in relation to everything and found the main square which has loads of nice buildings, and loads of places selling waffles. We had dinner, then it was quite late so we went back to the hostel. Turned out we were sharing our room with a rude spanish couple. They didn't talk to us or even acknowledge us AT ALL But they went away the next day so it wasn't too bad.

This travel day started to go wrong when we got to the bus stop down the road from the hotel, missing our 9:30 bus by a minute- it was seriously that close. We had to get the next bus to Disney at 9.55 then switch onto a train back into Paris. What we didn't realise was that there turns out to be a train that goes from Disney to Brussels but since we already had our tickets for a train leaving from Gare du Nord, we had to ignore that train and get the one going back in to Paris. V. Frustrating. And whats worse was that this train was going to Gare du L'est, which because we missed our first bus from the hotel meant it was going to be very tight getting from Gare du L'est to Gare du Nord... which in itself involved changing onto another 2 trains! Crazy! Anyway, on the train heading to Gare du L'est- before we started getting that 'we're not going to make it' feeling in our gut, some guy got on carrying an accordian. He stood there patiently , and as soon as the train started to move he started playing. A bunch of people on the train started clapping along, and singing.. and after a bit some of them got up and started dancing! It was amazing!
hehe, it's so funny- i can never imagine that happening over here. If I got onto a train to glasgow and started playing an accordian I'd probably get chibbed- not start a mobile disco.

Rachels diary notes mention how security concious we were at this early stage of our travels, we had seat reservations on the train to Brussels, but we were too scared to leave our bags in the luggage rack at the end of the carriage, so we just stood next to the luggage rack for the whole 90minute journey. Then we meticulously hid our money and padlocked our rucksacks to the bed when we got to the hostel before embarking on our wander.
We ate in the main square then just went back to the bar at the hostel. We used the internet and then popped out to the supermarket for water. When we got back to the room, we knew we had roommates cuz all their stuff was lying everywhere (and here's us with our bags padlocked shut, half hidden under the bed) but there was noone there. It wasn't long before we were settled into our bunk beds when this couple came in. We knew they were a couple because they just immediately dived into bed and started making out. Uncomfortable much.
They completely ignored us.. I know they were busy, but they could have said hello! So we are really just guessing they were spanish. They could have been Italian, or mexican. But thinking about it now, I think they were probably Italian since almost every other Italian we roomed with for the rest of the trip were just as ignorant too.
Only with less making out.

#9f: Paris / Eurodisney

2010-02-21T16:19:00.000Z

Mon 12th July 2004:

Paul - Went to Disney Studios this time which is all the movie stuff. Lots of big fire explosions and stuff like that. There wasn't much in this Park compared to the other one from yesterday but it was still great. I went on the Aerosmith Rollercoaster which was the scariest thing I've ever done in my life!! It was all indoors and in the dark and it had a loop-de-loop in it. I shut my eyes for almost the whole thing, but I held on to my lunch and thought it was brilliant. I got my picture taken on both of the rollercoasters so you can see them when I get home. The best Part about Disney though was when Rach took me on the Flying Carpet Alladin ride. Well, I call it a ride, but it was for 2 month olds- it was more tame than the teacups. You could make the flying carpet go up quite high though. From the very second it started moving Rachel started bawling 'I don't like it! Paul! Stop it Paul! I want to get off! I'm scared!
hehe. What a wimp!

Rachel - Went to Disneyland again, but this time to the Disney Studios. Went on the Studio tour which was a lot like the part of the tour we were on in Universal. Went on Armageddon Ride, Production tour and watched the Motorcar stunt show. Finally went on Alladins Carpets which I personally thought were scary. Decided not to wait for the fireworks as they were at 11pm and we had to get up really early the next day to get back to Paris.

I distinctly remember being on the Armageddon 'ride' All it was was, lets cram a bunch of people in a room and set fire to everything. And that really was as fun as it sounds. I remember thinking at one point, maybe the ride has gone wrong and we are all about to die. One particular explosion, I was overwhelmed with the heat from it- it was crazy! You know how sometimes when you open your oven door and bend down to have a check of your pizza or whatever and as you bend down the wave of heat just hits your face like a wall? That explosion was just like that, only in your head you're going 'This cant be right- I'm in pain here, should I be in pain? this is a ride, right? Is my hair on fire?'

Considering that Thunder Mountain yesterday was my first ever rollercoasting experience I think I did pretty well with Aerosmith today. It's one of those rollercoasters that shoots you from a standing stop to 60mph in like, 3 seconds. The last part of the queue was terrifying because its in the room where the rollercoaster shoots away from. Theres a countdown, followed by this big massive rocket noise as the coaster shoots away into this little dark tunnel in the wall and a massive SCREAM which fades away almost immediately into nothing- it seemed that fast. So as you are waiting, the tension just builds and builds as you get closer and closer, constantly this countdown is going off... oh jeez I was terrified. The only reason I went through with it is because i didn't know what to do- to NOT do it. Do I just start walking back to the back of the queue the way I came? Do I wait til I get to the front then say to the guy 'Excuse me but I've just stood is this queue for 40minutes, but I don't think I fancy doing it now, thank you and goodbye' do you then get ushered out a side door and then immediately kicked out the park. Can you imagine NOT going through with it? No, as far as I was concerned I had to do it. I'll just do it with my eyes closed and no-one will know and I can go to my happy place and suddenly it will all be over. So thats what I did. I cant beleive I called rach a wimp over the ~~teacups~~ flying carpets!

Days on trip = 6.
Number of days Rach has Cried = 3

#9e: Paris / Eurodisney

2010-02-20T18:13:00.000Z

Sun 11th July 2004:

Rachel - DISNEYLAND BABY! Paul was really excited (just to prove dad right). We went to frontierland first where Paul went on Thunder Mountain and I waited for over an hour at the bottom on him just to take his pic coz I was too scared to go on. Went to Adventureland next and went on Pirates of the Carribean ride. Saw Honey I Shrunk the Audience 3D show in Discoveryland (it was almost the same one as in America). Watched the Winnie the Poo show. Went to Fantasyland and went on snow white and peter pan rides. Finally we went and watched the Princess and Prince's Parade.

Paul - DISNEYLAND IS AMAZING!!! I went on EVERYTHING! Rachel watched me on EVERYTHING! I was on Thunder mountain (a rollercoaster) which was brilliant! Then we went on Haunted Mansion ride, Pirates of the Carribean, then some of the little rubbish childrens rides like pinnochio and snow white and all that stuff. A lot of the time we were queueing but most of the waits were worth it. Rach made me watch the Princess Parade before we went back to the hotel. It was a really fun day- I cant beleive I went on a rollercoaster! But thunder mountain was NOTHING compared to the one I went on the next day....
Oh yeah- we bought bright yellow ponchos cuz it was raining, but none of the cowboy hats suited me so I didn't get one of those. I was sad.

Strangely, neither us us mentioned the best story of the day, I guess it slipped our minds when we wrote this first email report to our folks. In the morning, it wasn't til we got to the bus stop before we realised it was Sunday and the buses were on the sunday schedule (obviously) Rather than wait for the bus we decided to walk to the next town Meaux and get the bus from there, or maybe the train. It was a 15 minute walk and as it turned out the bus was next, but still 20 minutes away so walked around the town and looked at the cathedral (by the way, travelling round europe really involves a lot of cathedral gazing). When we got back to the bus stop, as we waited patiently some old man came wandering over to us. When he got within earshot he said something to us but as me nor Rach speak french we kinda glanced at each other and I said 'I'm sorry... English' gesturing with my hand at ourselves. Then he just blew his top and shouted at us 'In England I speak English, In France I speak French!' and he stormed away. Me and Rach were just like, whoah! what the hell was that for!? The french are definately pretty touchy about that sort of thing, I soon learned to start saying 'Je ne parle pas le francais' They like it when you do that. Only in France though, I wouldn't recommend you said that in Germany. Unless a French guy is talking to you of course.
Rachels noted in her diary that we bought bright red poncho's. I think the photo's speak for themselves on that one.

I should say too that this was my first experience of any Disneyland, and also Thunder mountain was my first ever ride on a rollercoaster. I totally loved it look at the size of the grin on my face in the pic that rachel took- I've always been scared of rollercoasters, and I still to this day have only ever been on a few, but the more I think about it, the more I know I'd love it. I'm pretty terrified of heights which is why i don't really do rollercoasters but I've been up so many heights since then- I even proposed to Rach on one knee on the glass floor up the calgary tower, so i suppose the height of a rollercoaster wouldn't seem as high to me any more. Back on this trip tho- I think the highest I'd even been was the roof of the calendar flats! There are several terrifying heights involved during this trip, St Stephens Cathedral in Vienna being a particular standout... but more on that later.

#9d: Paris / Eurodisney

2010-02-18T22:01:00.001Z

Sat 10th July 2004:

Paul - On to Disneyland! Went to Gare du Nord station to make reservations for going to brussels later in the week. Had to stand in the queue for over an hour and a half as there were millions of people waiting and only one person serving. Lots of people were shouting at the attendant, I was soo bored. We took the train to Disney which only took half an hour and there was a moment of panic when we got off at the other side to be told that we had the wrong tickets but I think with the language barrier the guy got a bit fed up with us and just let us off with it (saved £10- nice!) Then, we found out the hotel was still another half hour ride away on a bus! So much for it being close to Disneyland!
Half an hour travel each way from our hotel to the park- we'd have been as well staying in the city! All we've done is swap a train ride for a bus ride! This hotel was cheaper anyway so I suppose thats ok.
They had just painted the room we were given and it STANK. Rachel got paint on her cardigan, I got paint on my bag- and the other day I noticed I got paint on my sweat-top too. tch! We complained so they moved us into a nice room instead. Didn't do much else today other than find some food and settle in front of the tv in preparation for Disney tomorrow

So this was pretty much our first 'travel' day. involving a long walk, 2 trains and a bus- really just to travel about 1 hour away. Whats most astounding is the hour and a half that we spent in a queue to buy tickets to get from Paris to Brussels is the same amount of time it takes to actually get from Paris to Brussels by speed train (which is what we eventually got tickets for) What was weird about the one person serving, was that she kept randomly closing and re-opening again a few minutes later- no wonder she was getting shouted at so much! By the time we had walked to the train station at the hotel, got to Gare de Nord and got our brussels tickets it was after 1pm (see we hadn't quite got the hang of this 'travel' malarky yet)

So, we had lunch at McDonalds (This was pre- our McDonalds embargo obviously... that happens in Berlin) before heading to our next hotel. On the Bus at the other end some nice french guy told us where to get off (in the helpful way) and some Japanese couple were the only other people to get off at the same stop as us.
We started off kinda heading in the same direction.. Me and rach turning our wee map round and round in our hands, pointing this way and that trying to figure out where to go whilst occasionally glancing at the japanese couple who were doing the same. After a bit the japanese couple headed off up a side street. It was a bit of a pain trying to find the hotel, basically because we seemed to be in the middle of an industrial area in the hinterlands. So not only did we have the stress of trying to figure out where to go, we had the nagging doubt in the back of our mind that we were really in the right place at all.
We double backed on ourselves a couple of times and once or twice we spotted the japanese couple through trees, or just dissapearing around a corner seemingly as lost as us.
Turns out we were both going to the same hotel, as we both seemed to co-incidentally find it at the same time each by our own circituous routes.

After getting soaked in paint, and swapping rooms we popped round to a supermarket that we'd walked past, close to the hotel and got dinner to eat in the room in front of the tv. Dinner consisted of the following: bread and cheese, yogurt, crisps and biscuits.

Didnt take any photo's today.

#9c: Paris / Eurodisney

2009-10-03T14:24:00.004+01:00

Fri 9th July 2004:

Rachel -Went to the Lourve today, it was already busy by 10am. We headed straight to the Mona Lisa and Venus de Milo before they got too busy to get near, got good pics of both then wandered around the rest of the building (which is enormous!) for about 3 hours. Next we went to Notre Dame and walked around the inside, which was free) but we didn't go up the towers as the queue was huge! We took the Metro to La Defense which is the financial district, it was so impressive, all the high rise buildings - and it was so modern looking. There is a huge cube shaped building with a glass lift going up the middle, I couldn't pursuade Paul to go up. Next we went to the Eiffel Tower and I did pursuade Paul to go up. He was so scared and when we got out of the lift he was totally holding on for dear life. We went up to the second level, I really don't think I could have gone higher than that either! We took a boat back up the river Seine to near the hotel, it stopped off at each of the major sights, so we got to see them all again- from the water.

I remember being surprised at how small the Mona Lisa was. When you see it with your own eyes, It really makes you question what all the fuss is about this painting. I just don't get it, I seen a bunch of cooler paintings as I strolled around the Lourve. It was a total cram to get to the front and get a picture, and once I had, I immediately thought- what did I do that for? I don't care about the Mona Lisa. Anyway, I supose it's just one of those things you have to do.

Since we didn't go up Notre Dame, we chilled in the square outside eating a hotdog thing from a nearby food place alongside hundreds of other people. There was this stray dog wandering about which seemed to single us out to pester to be fed. I was mad that there were dozens of other people eating and this stupid dog wouldn't leave us alone. I didn't feed it. I don't feed dogs. This is a little off subject, but I don't approve of the whole giving a dog a bit of what you are eating thing, it actually really annoys me. Dogs should get the food in their bowl and treats that are used to train them, thats it. A dog only does what it is taught to do, so when you give it your food you teach it to beg at the dinner table. Why do you want to teach your dog to do that? Surely you want to teach your dog to stay away from you when you are eating, no? it's my dinner- leave me alone!

Here's a note from our travel diary "Got the metro to the trocadero but when we arrived we weren't entirely sure what it was" So true. I still don't really know what it is, besides a spot where you get a great view of the Eiffel Tower.

I am absolutely terrified of heights, not so much now as I was then, so going up the Eiffel tower is an experience that's kind of burned into my brain for being, I think, the first time I made an attempt to 'go up' a proper high thing. The reason it is burned into my brain is specifically because after loitering at the bottom for the best part of half an hour trying to muster up the courage to go up, it was on the understanding that I would go up to the 2nd level only. (there are 3) I thought, that was high enough to be able to say I'd been up the Eiffel Tower, but it didn't look too high that I wouldn't be able to cope. However nothing looks as high from the bottom, as it does on the way up, let me tell you. I was absolutely convinced that the lift had passed level 2 and was going to the top- I absolutely and completely shit myself. I got that big whoosh of adrenaline that swept up my body from my toes and stopped at roughly my throat, sucking all the moisture out my mouth as it sat there. Oh my god, I can remember it so clearly. It didn't help that when I said to Rachel 'i think we're going all the way to the top' she said ' I think so too!' What!?

Whoooosh!

We didn't know that you have to change lifts at level 2 if you want to go to the top. I think thats cuz the lift to level 2 goes at an angle up the legs of the tower, then the lift to the top goes straight up the middle.
They should tell you that at the bottom!

When I got out the lift, I think it might be the first time I did the "High Height Shuffle." I do this thing when I'm up a height where I sort of shuffle, so my feet are always both touching the ground, and when i get to about a meter from the edge I start to turn sideways so i'm facing away from the drop and I lean back slightly, away from the edge. But if I'm that close to the edge, I'm compelled to clutch the handrail with a white knuckled grip, so I sort of lean away from the hand rail with my body whilst simultaneously stretching out to hold the handrail. If you can picture me doing these three things trying to walk around the edge of the Eiffel tower... thats the "High Height Shuffle"

We saw a phone so we phoned our folks, just so we could tell them we were phoning from up the Eifell Tower. "From the top?" they said, "No." we said.

I remember buying some Nougat from a stall before we got on the batobus (the river boat) No idea why that is such a strong memory in my head.

This was our last full day in Paris, so we ate in Montmartre and enjoyed our last evening up there, it really is a nice place to hang out, then we went back to the hotel to pack for heading to Disney. Rachel cried because she couldn't pack her bag. So if you are keeping track:

Days on trip = 3.
Number of days Rach has Cried = 2

#9b: Paris / Eurodisney

2009-09-20T17:37:00.008+01:00

UPDATED WITH CARICATURES

Thurs 8th July 2004:

Rachel - We went to Parc de la Villette and walked around for a while, went into the argonaut which was an old submarine. Next we went into the science centre, it was quite boring as everything was in French with no translation. We then went into La Geode, which is an Imax Cinema and watched a short film. After that, we went into a 3D simulator which was quite like the one we went on in America. Next, we went to Jacques Bonsergent for a walk around (this is an area where paul had been before with lots of nice restaurants, but we didnt eat there). We went to the Pompidou Centre. It started pouring rain and we went for dinner then headed back to the room. The rain stopped so we decided to walk up and see the Sacre Coeur whilst it was still light. We walked up millions of steps, it was very pretty. Just round the corner from it is a square full of restaurants and bars and lots of crepe shops-they were really yummy!

Paul - We got caricatures done outside the Pompidou Centre, I'm pretty sure by the exact same guy that did the caricature when I was here before. The guy tried to charge us 50 euros each but because we just tried to walk away he ended up giving us them both for 10 euros total - score! After dinner we thought we would pop up to see the Sacre Coeur, we had to walk up millions of steps and half way up some guy tried to sell us a bangle which we didnt want but he was really forceful and he physically blocked us from walking past him. He was quite scary actually, but the area was very pretty. The Sacre Coeur itself is in an area called Montmartre which was a square of restaurants filled with artists sitting painting at easels, it was all very French. On the way back down we walked past a Copeira competition, its like a dance/martial arts thing. There was basically a bunch of brazillians singing and banging their bongos (I guess the same thing that was happening down in the Moulin Rouge!).

Its never the same going somewhere for the second time. When I was at Parc de la Villette the first time, it was for uni, and I remember the park having a really nice atmosphere and I was looking forward to seeing it again, but maybe because it wasn't wintery this time, and it was the middle of the week (as such- completely dead) it was a bit of a non event. So was Jacques Bonsergent- I didn't recognise any of it!
Last time, Jacques Bonsergent was definately not a 'non-event' I arrived off the chunnel with my then girlfriend (I was scared to fly back then) with nothing but the tube station name to guide us to the rest of our group- who had flown in. I thought it would be obvious where to go, but stepping out of Jacques Bonsergent station, I don't think I'll ever forget that feeling of..... right, what do we do now? Are we first? are we last? what do we do? How do we find everyone? how do we find where we are staying! We ended up dragging our luggage into almost every hostel on the street trying to ask if this was where the university of Strathclyde group was staying, in horribly broken disjointed french... but mostly just loud english. STRATHCLYDE? STAY HERE? I don't actually beleive we found it. and we were first.

And, we ate in a restaurant again. This is very surprising. Where are all the McD's I remember? I had a JD and coke that cost more than my dinner, but then at least in this trip to Paris I knew that the tip was included in the bill (we were very popular last time!) Montmatre is my favourite part of Paris, I've been to Paris once more since this trip and my wife has been another 2 times and each time we've made the effort to hang out there at night. It was really appropriate this time because one of the restaurants was called chez Eugene- which was the name of my new boss. I think I probably took this as a sign that I'd have his blessing to quit when I got back.
(shame it didn't quite work like that!)

#9a : Paris / Eurodisney

2009-09-19T10:27:00.012+01:00

Wed 7th July 2004:

Rachel - When we arrived in Paris we found out we could only get to the centre by bus which took 1.5 hours and the bus only leaves every 2 hours so naturally we had just missed one. We finally reached the hotel about 3.5 hours later. We had an ok room which looked out the front of the hotel. We could see the Sacre Coeur from our window, later we also found out we could hear ALL the traffic and ALL the noise through ALL the night through the window too! We walked up to see the Moulin Rouge and found that our hotel was only 10 minutes up the street from the red light area, it was yuk, the Moulin Rouge looked really nice though.
Paul wanted to see a show but it was about £70 for the cheapest seats. We then went to the Champs Elysees and walked up to the Arc de Triomphe. We climbed about 250 Stairs to the top of it and there was an amazing view over the city, it was really nice and I got my first Glimpse of the Eiffel Tower.

Paul - Flight was pretty turbulent - but I enjoyed the excitement! Other than that, arrived in Bauvais and just missed the bus into the city centre because we were arsing about trying to un duct-tape our packpacks that we had strapped up for the flight so we couldn't get them on! (sounded like a good idea at the time) We had to wait for 2 hours for the next bus. Rachel sobbed for about half an hour and actually said 'I want to go home' but I slapped her and she shut up, so that was good. hehehe, just kidding. The hotel was quite nice - we had to lump our bags on the Metro, but it turns out I still know quite a lot of useful french - so it wasn't too hard understanding folks and getting around. The hotel was just outside the Red Light District tho - just up the road from the Moulin Rouge in fact. I quite wanted to see a show there but it was over £50 and you seemed to need a tux to get in (to see the boobies (?)) so we didn't bother. After dumping our stuff we went a wander down the Champs Elysees and climbed to the top of the Arc de Triomphe.

I remember when we arrived in the city centre we got off the bus at some huge shopping centre and it was lashing with rain, so we popped in to use the toilets and I heard a song playing on the sound system- I'm pretty sure it was Van Morrison tho I can't be sure. I don't know why the song stuck out in my head, but ever since then I've wanted to hear the song again, because I remember it being such a great song. How often do you hear a song and love it the first time? Anyway, to this day I've never heard the song again- I'm positive I'd recognise it. I even downloaded about 15 Van Morrison albums a while back (do you have any idea how many albums Van Morrison has!) but to no avail.
Rachel mentioned that we could see the Sacre Coeur from our hotel window- we were really lucky because we could see it through a gap in the buildings on the other side of the street so our room and the rooms below and above us were the only ones in the hotel that could see it- and we'd paid for a room without a toilet, but we had a toilet since apparently it was the only room left. Nice.

Apparently we ate in a restaurant, which surprises me because I'm pretty sure we had stuck to McDonalds and KFC et al. Although rachel did note 'it wasn't very good' so maybe we eat in a McDonald tomorrow. :)

#8: Backpack Series- Introduction

2009-09-18T09:28:00.004+01:00

So, I've got a BSc in Architecture which I technically obtained in 2001. 2002, I spent working towards my honours but due to happenstance I didn't quite get there with it. I'm pretty sure that technically I didn't fail.. I just didn't complete it.

Theres a whole blog entry right there, but it aint gonna be this one.

2003 I spent in a bit of a daze due to 2002 but being keen to jump right back on the horse and get my honours I attended an interview at the Glasgow School of Art (The Mac) in early 2004. The interview went, well, crap frankly. The guy pretty much said outright 'we won't be accepting you in the new term.' However, at the end of the interview, something happened that I will never forget. Something that although seemed pretty innocuous at the time (I had just had my hopes of returning to uni that year dashed) has actually changed my whole life.
At the end of the interview the guy took his, "I'm a University Tutor Interviewing a Prospective Student" hat off and put his, "Wear Sunscreen, I'm Going to Dispence This Advice, Now" hat on and the advice he gave me was simple. He said "Get a Job, and travel."

So I did.

Within weeks I'd gotten my first job in an Architects office, and within months I'd set off on a 2 month Backpack trip around Western Europe.

During my interview I had mentioned a few buildings in europe, and a few architects who build there- but when pressed, it was clear all I was capable of doing was 'namedropping' some famous buildings. I had no opinion of them. So by 'travel,' Sunscreen Man meant for me to go and experience these buildings first hand and then 'come back and tell me about them.' That's how from the second I left the interview I knew I was going to backpack (well it's cheapest isn't it) around Europe. Now to tell my girlfriend.

How to break it to her? Here's how: "Rachel I'm going to backpack around Europe for 2 months wether you're coming with me or not." nice.

Luckily, as scared as Rachel was, she couldn't bear to be parted from me for so long (more fool her) so she took a deep breath and came with me.

Its kinda crazy to think now that with only a few months notice we were both in a position to take 2 months off and have the money to do it. I sold my entire CD collection to fund the trip (I had a lot of CD's) and used all my savings. And I was only 6 weeks into my new Job, but I had stipulated when I got the job that I was leaving for 2 months in 6 weeks.. cant believe they still gave me the job (especially since the first thing I did when I got back from Europe was ditch the job. hehe) Now looking back, it just seems that This Trip was... what I was supposed to do.

Sure it was under the pretence of 'research' so I could go back to uni... but well, you know what a pretence is right? hehe.

Not quite sure how I'm going to do this yet, but the idea is this. While we were travelling we both sent emails to our folks detailing our days, and we keept a travel diary. There's a lot of source material beleive me. So I think I'll do each post a City at a time but publish my (bold) and rachels (italic) emails for that city so you can see how Rachel and My recollections of each day compared, and then fill in the gaps with new writing (using what i can remember now and the parts of our travel diary that we didn't mention in the emails to our folks)

I'm thinking that some of these posts will be massive, but you can handle that right? I might even treat you to some photographs. So heres the schedule you have to look forward to:

#9: Backpack Series - Paris/Eurodisney (pretence, remember)
#10: Backpack Series - Brussels/Brugges/Antwerp
#11: Backpack Series - Rotterdam / Amsterdam
#12: Backpack Series - Hamburg/ Hannover
#13: Backpack Series - Berlin
#14: Backpack Series - Prague
#15: Backpack Series - Vienna/ Graz
#16: Backpack Series - Salzburg
#17: Backpack Series - Munich
#18: Backpack Series - Innsbruck
#19: Backpack Series - Interlacken
#20: Backpack Series - Milan
#21: Backpack Series - Venice
#22: Backpack Series - Rome

I'll probably split it more than that so each post isn't too long, but you get the idea.

#7: Dirty Talk

2009-09-04T10:17:00.006+01:00

This little sentence that you are reading just now is just a little filler sentence that doesn't really mean anything.. Its just that this sentence appears as a little preview in my facebook window and I didn't want the preview sentence to say:

Normally when I'm on the toilet, I pass the time by playing a little 'Lumines Block' on my mobile phone. Those of you who know me, know that the one thing that I cannot abide is wasting time... and I know -technically- when you are on the toilet you aren't exactly wasting time.. but I'm quite impatient when I'm asked to sit still for a few minutes which is why a little Lumines block on my mobile phone makes those few minutes pass a little bit quicker.
At home I have a toilet book in both toilets just in case I dont have my phone on me when I'm caught short. At the moment, downstairs I have '1001 must see cities' and upstairs I have 'The worst case scenario survival handbook' (just a sidenote here- sometimes I make a quick judgement call on my way to the loo and might pop upstairs if i'm downstairs if I'd rather read a couple pages of whatever book is up there at the time)

Anyway, today I went to the loo at work but left my phone at my desk- not realising this until it was already too late. Normally my phone is in my pocket, but I was having a text conversation and sometimes don't feel the phone buzz in my pocket so I had it sitting under my monitor so I could see it light up instead.

Damn. No back-up toilet book in here.

Anyway, these things cant be forced so I found my mind wandering as i clearly had a few minutes of my own company ahead of me. I sort of gazed around the room, drumming my fingers when a memory popped into my head from something I'd seen on telly a while back. I remembered that apparently, if you flush the toilet with the lid open- little specks and flecks of feces tainted water fly up around the room and land everywhere, covering the whole room - eventually - in a layer of poop.
It lands on the walls, the mirror, the soap- your toothbrush... everywhere.

Ever since I heard this I started always flushing everywhere with the lid down- I don't like the idea of brushing my teeth with poop.

Of course you can be pretty consistent with this at home- minimising the the whole poop covering thing- but in public toilets, you have to rely on everyone doing it- and that just aint gonna happen. the fewer things you have to touch in a public toilet the better! I mean, think of how it works at the moment:

you touch a (clean) door handle to get into the room
you touch a (clean) stall handle to get into a stall
you touch a (dirty) lock to lock the door
you touch a (dirty) seat to sit down on
you do your business
you touch a (dirty) flush and spray feces all over yourself and the stall
you touch a (dirty) lock to get out of the stall
you touch a (dirty) tap to wash your hands
at this point you have clean hands, but you are covered in feces spray and if even just one other person hasn't washed their hands - you touch a dirty door handle to get out. but even if everyone has washed their hands, the door is likely covered in feces spray too, cuz no-one flushed with the lid down anyway so you end up leaving a public toilet with dirty hands and feces spray all over the rest of you!

Sitting on the toilet as I was, I tried to come up with a solution to this problem.

At first I thought flushes that didn't operate unless the lid was down would be the solution, but then nobody would bother flushing at all.
then I thought, to stop that, how about doors that didn't unlock unless the seat was down. But then people would flush, spray the room, try to get out, fail, then put the lid down.

So you'd need to combine the two. you cant flush unless you put the lid down, and you cant get out unless you flush.

But this only solves the spray the room with feces particles part of the equation- which was initially what I was trying to solve- but look at how many other 'dirty' operations there are- dirty handles, dirty flushes, dirty taps....
but, the flush, the lock and the taps are only dirty because you have to touch them after you've done your business, but before you can get to a sink.

Solution? A sink in the stall:

you touch a (clean) door handle to get into the room
you touch a (clean) stall handle to get into a stall
you touch a (clean) lock to lock the door
you touch a (clean) seat to sit down on
you do your business
you wash your hands
you touch a (clean) lid to operate the flush
you touch a (clean) flush to operate the lock
you touch a (clean) lock to get out the stall
you leave.

It's perfect.

#6: Festival

2009-08-23T12:25:00.030+01:00

Tackled the Fringe a bit differently this year... Normally I browse the show brochure weeks in advance, book a few shows - never usually more than one on any given day, and then head through to Edinburgh a few times over the month. Last year I saw a few good shows, a few bad ones- but always ones I've planned in advance.
This year, I really have only had the chance to go through once, a combination of being busy and poor so I thought I'd make a day of it. So, on saturday my wife and I popped through for a midday showing of "The collector" and hung out until the last train home.

Edinburgh during the Fringe is awesome!

After "The Collector" ...(which was excellent by the way- if in a too small venue- there was no stage, just 3 rows of seats in front of the 'set' (a bed and a chair) which led to awesomeness when the actress (there were only 2 cast members) smashed a fake wine glass on the guy's head and bits came flying over us and then she ran out beside us using the real fire exit door as part of the set. I'd also like to put on the record how awesome I thought it was that after the woman slapped the guy at one point, he spent the rest of the play with a big red hand mark across his face)... we headed over to the udderbelly to see what was on.

Looking at the board, there was nothing we really fancied until 6 o'clock (it was only half 1 at this point) which happened to be back to back shows in the same venue: Denise van Outen- Blondes , and Pete Firman.
Rachel wanted to see Russell Kane at 9 o'clock so we thought we'd better see if we could make it from the udderbelly (after Pete Firman) to the Pleasance in time for the show so we toddled over, figured out we could make it so joined the queue to buy tickets. Of Course, it was sold out.

Bugger.

On the plus side, we haven't ever been to the pleasance area before, and we thought it was excellent, we hung about for a drink during which time Arthur Smith walked passed us and I overheard some guy outside the toilet say "... sold my first porno when I was 9..." (really wanted to know what the rest of that conversation was)
Since Russell Kane was sold out we thought we'd try Adam Hills instead - which of course meant heading back to the udderbelly and then seeing if we could make it to the assembly rooms on George street through this:

Surprisingly enough, we made it in the time we would have later that night. But, it was sold out.

Sigh.

Realising that the afternoon was burning away with us spending all our time trying to figure out if we could make it to the front door of shows that we couldnt get tickets for we headed back to the sanctity of the udderbelly soaking up the atmosphere, checking out all the street performers, homeless people, folk in crazy costumes, someone peeing in a doorway in broad daylight and all the annoying people handing out flyers along the way. If there's a trick to making it from one place to another without ending up with a handful of flyers- I dont know what it is. On the plus side, one of the flyer people was the blockbusters guy who said 'Can I have a P please Bob' first who was putting on a show about being the guy who was on Blockbusters who said 'Can I have a P please Bob' first.

Anyway, soon it was time for our shows- DvanO was crap. A sort of old style cabaret sing-song with her talking an autobiographical history of her favourite blonde heroes- mostly musicians (conveniently) allowing her to sing a bunch of random songs by Madonna, Dolly Parton, Kylie, Britney and the like. It was just her on stage with a guy playing piano and she was so far up her own arse trying to get us to feel sorry for britney spears going mental I started to worry if she'd gone a bit mental herself. Although, interestingly- her show was directed by the guy who plays Lester in 'The Wire' Dunno how that happened.

Pete Firman was excellent tho, really funny and he did an amazing 'inflating head' optical illusion trick that was so hilarious I've been laughing about it for days.

After that we decided to get a burger and a drink and spotted John Leslie loitering beside us.

The atmosphere in edinburgh changes dramatically over the course of the day indicated by the changing nature of the flyer giver-outers, by the end of the night we were getting handed stuff from people yelling ' 2 for 1 late night tits!' yes, everyone who was expecting only one tit, were in for a treat at that show.

We still had a couple of hours before the last train, so since we'd had such difficulty getting tickets for a show at this time, earlier in the day we decided to go to the Guilded Balloon and get tickets for the next available show, whatever it was. Ended up being a Stand up (making the tally for the day - 1 play, 1 singer, 1 magician and 1 comedian) called Jimmy McGhie. He was actually pretty good, it was a loose documentary routine (in the vague vain of Dave Gorman) about a disastrous party he attended with his then girlfriend in the highlands, which ultimately led to them breaking up. He was really funny, his story took some ridiculous tangents- the shaman-like scuba diving intructor being a particular highlight. Anyway, it was probably my favourite show of the day, since I had no idea I was going to see it and it was really funny. Another small venue- it was actually in the 'Wee Room' - appropriately named let me tell you.

That was it, my Fringe 2009. I know it's not finished this year yet, but I wont be going back through- shame cuz as soon as you are through you want to go back for more. Needed a dinner when I got home though, 3 Pints and 2 Burgers just didn't quite cut it!

#5: The Big Red Button

2009-08-16T13:36:00.006+01:00

Two unrelated annoyances that are bugging me at the moment- since they have both shone their ugly faces at me this weekend...

1. Why do other drivers insist on queuing at the pump on the side of their car where their cap is? I have been driving for over 11 years- I have NEVER been to a petrol station where the pump doesn't reach both sides of the car. Today, there were two cars sitting queueing for a pump on the right side of their car and it was one of those petrol stations where there are 2 pumps in front of each other... there was no-one at either of the 2 pumps on the left side of the car. My cap is on the right side of my car so what do you think I did? yes, I used one of the two available pumps *shock horror on the wrong side of the car!* to fill up.

It's not hard is it.

So as usual, I make a big show to the 2 guys sitting waiting, waving the pump around showing them that it reaches the other side of the car (it's almost as if it was designed that way...) and does this encourage any of them to come over and fill up? nope.

I don't get it. These are the same cars that, when in motion- demand that you get out their way as they zip in and out lanes, undertake you, use bus lanes... there is no patience for them getting to where they are going (unless they are trying to tell you how appalled they are at you driving at 50mph of course (see previous post here)) but when they need gas? patient as a rock.

To top it off, while i'm filling up- a new car comes into the petrol station and joins the queue behind the other 2 cars! argh! 'there's a perfectly good pump here' I want to scream! Who cares it's on the wrong side of the car! Do these people not know that it reaches the other side? surely they know it reaches? Argh- it drives me mad.

2. Why do they make such a big show of pushing the Big Red Button for the lottery draws... and then imediately cut to a wide shot and show the little engineer man push the 'proper' button the starts the machine? As if it's not bad enough they interview these stupid people that i don't care about (get on with it! I want to know the numbers) they reveal it to be evn more pointless than it already is by making them push a Big Red Button that doesnt even do anything.

If it doesn't do anything, don't bloody show us that it doesn't do anything- I already don't care about the Big Red Button enough as it is, I just want the numbers. Don't make such a rigmarole of the Big Red Button being pushed and then immediately show us it doesn't even do anything.

Why cant the Big Red Button start the machine anyway? If the only person who is allowed to start the machine is the little engineer- just have him push the Big Red Button.. or how about this- don't get stupid no-name people I've never heard of and don't care about to push a Big Red Button that doesn't do anything.. at least get them to push the real button that starts the machine.

The whole thing makes me think the little engineer person is the only person who is allowed to start the machine. I think I'm going to write to the bbc and settle this once and for all. The bbc aren't allowed to do phone-in quizzes any more due to them being deceitful... i think this whole Big Red Button thing is deceitful and needs to be put to an end.

#4: Misadventures in Driving

2009-08-09T15:23:00.005+01:00

So I have a habit of annoying other people on the road.
It is completely unintentional you understand, merely an unfortunate by-product of my tendency to drive everywhere at 50mph.

I'm not entirely sure why this seems to aggravate other road users quite as much as it does- because after all- all they need to do is overtake. It really is that simple. Overtaking someone on the motorway is even pretty easy- there's a whole extra lane specifically dedicated to it. It's called the overtaking lane. ... almost as if it was designed that way...

I'm on the motorway twice a day traveling to and from work, and even at 50mph I'm only on the motorway for just about 10 minutes. I can guarantee that in those 10 minutes I will encounter some numbnut that is personally appalled that I have the audacity to not be travelling at the posted limit. So appalled, that they have to communicate their appall-edness (!) to me in some way.

I thought I'd share two of the most recent examples of this.

Firstly though, why do I drive at 50mph. It's simple. By driving at 50mph i can drive an extra 100miles on a full tank of gas. fact.

I am only 15 miles to and from my work door to door, so those extra 100 miles basically gives me 3 'free' travel days for every full tank of gas. The full tank lasts me a fortnight- so every month I get over a week's 'free' travel. just by driving at 50mph. (that and coasting downhill where possible- Side note: I can coast the first 2 miles of my journey to work- sweet)

Anyway, the other day I was almost (intentionally) run off the road by a trucker coming off the slip on my way home. This massive truck just reached the back of me on the approach to the slip, I swear after the 3, 2, 1 hundred yard chervron markers that you get on the approach to an exit. let me stress, he just reached the back of me after these signs, so you know how close that is to coming off. Now the slip is on a curve, and you cant take this curve at more than 50mph (I know i've tried) so I made this truck slow down to a speed he was about to slow down to anyway, approx 3-400 yards before the bend.
His reaction? close up to about a metre off the back of my car and swerve his lorry into the hard shoulder and back out again behind me, into the shoulder again- and so on, right at the back of my car.
I really am not sure the point of this because up til now, I haven't mentioned that this was a TWO LANE EXIT from the motorway. why didn't he just pass me on the slip!?

Answer- because he HAD to let me know how appalled he was at me driving at 50mph. I tell you it's nothing to do with me putting other people out on the road, i don't. Ppeople just HAVE to tell me in some way that I shouldn't be driving at 50mph.

In this instance I got the chance to speak to the truck driver (i use the term 'speak' loosely) because of course, we had to stop at the end of the slip to cross a dual carriageway.
He opens up his door, I wind down my window, he says 'bluergh! fucken driving at 45 miles an hour bluergh fucken bluergh!' Now, this just pisses me off because i know for a FACT- I drive at 50 miles an hour. So I said ' actually 50 miles an hour.' to which he sort of physically gestured getting out of his truck. I just don't understand the mindset here and I kinda lost it with the guy at this point really wanting to say 'if you get out I'll run you over' (or something like that) but I don't, instead I gestured to the back of my car and said 'I'm on a spacer'

He didn't know what a spacer was and said 'bluergh! spacer? bleurgh! you were drivin at 45 miles an hour! bleurgh!'
I lost the will to keep up the charade (i wasn't on a spacer) so I just drove off. He sort of gave chase, but I had crossed the carriageway and now there wasn't a gap for him cuz he was more concerned about telling me I was driving at '45 miles an hour' than getting to where he was going. I didn't put him out- he put himself out.

My point is, there was no need for him to act that way, I could have been on a spacer (ie legally restricted to 50 mph.) There are legitimate reasons why he could have encountered someone driving at 50mph- but his first course of action is attack. I could have been a little granny- he didn't know- honestly, the way he started swerving all over the road - oh, and let me be clear, he didn't start swerving because he had to brake for me, he just started swerving to threaten me with his big truck.

The other one is a little weirder. A lone motorcyclist tried to run me off the road. he pulled up beside me, you know, in the overtaking lane (natch) (nothing in front or behind for miles) and started making the international hand gesture for cuckoo at me and swerving his motorbike over the line into my lane at my car- seriously trying to force me off the road. I just drove in a straight line figuring I doubt he'd make contact with my car, he'd come out of it worse right? so I'm trying to understand the mind that would engage in such a pointless act.

Answer- because he HAD to let me know how appalled he was at me driving at 50mph.

In the middle of all this he started unzipping his little leather fannypack thing and reaching in... I can only assume to make me think he was going to pull out a gun. Instead- I actually assumed he was going to pull out a camera so I pulled up my phone from my door pocket and went to take a picture of him instead.
It is perhaps the greatest disapointment of my year so far that at this point, he just drove off and I don't have a picture.

Driving at 50pmh. Not for the faint hearted.

#3: The Taking of Pelham 123

2009-08-02T11:23:00.001+01:00

New Movie review- Can be found:

here

#2: movie reviews

2009-07-31T12:58:00.001+01:00

In yesterdays post I revealed some inside knowledge on the grand plans I had for a previous blog which was to be all categorised and mindblowing.

Well, there's no movie category in this blog, Instead whenever I get a movie review published online I'm going to post the link to it here: that way, it keeps the blog clear- and your click-through earns me pennies.
Actually it earns me cents. Don't worry, you don't have to click any ad's or that sort of malarky, if you want to read my movie review- click the link and (woomph) there it is.

I'm going to see the taking of pelham 123 tonight, so I'll submit a review of that soon. In the meantime, please feel free to check out my *featured* review of 'Man on Wire' at cinemaroll:

here

#1: try try try. again.

2009-07-30T14:08:00.000+01:00

I'm going to say that this is my third Blog. correction - third attempt at producing a blog.

The first attempt was pretty boom and bust. I was overcome one day with the urge to blog, I didn't really know what to blog about so I just started writing about my inability to get the blog name 'joe blogs' particulary since the blogger didn't use it any more (what a waste). I blogged about 4 times in 1 day and then never touched it again.

The second attempt was no more successful. I had big ideas this time, it was all split up into sections and categories, It would have book reviews, movie reviews, descriptions of hikes I'd taken... I was going to post my photography to it (I'm not a photographer btw- but i was going to take it up just to post to the blog) I was really going to be awesome. but then I hit a snag.
Content.
I just had a complete inability to produce any worthwhile content for the site, I felt anything I could have written would have been a blemish on such a beautifully thought out site.

So I didn't post to it once.

Cut to today:

Attempt number three. Its going well so far. This blog will sit in the middle of the two previous. It will improve upon the first, by my having a general idea of what I want to write about.
It will improve upon the second, by my producing content on whatever regular basis takes my fancy.

It'll be scrappy, it'll be ugly, it could be organised better.. but you know what? - it will be.

I have only recently developed a bit of an online presence- discovered facebook, explored twitter (still not sure), I play poker online and through the forums there at pkr, even though I don't post, I sort of feel that I now understand the general online thing. I realise, from reading various blogs, that the blog is really for the blogger. I struggled to make my last blog work because I wanted readers to be impressed by it. but i've realised that I'm not a celebrity, no-one knows or cares who I am. Maybe someone will read ONE of my posts and find it interesting and maybe no-one will.

Until that day, this is for me. and I'm just going to have fun.