AvecMatilda Euromerica 2006-07

Waikiki

2007-02-08T23:31:00.000-04:00

On my final day of my huge overseas adventure I discover that if I go to expensive hotels they often have free internet in the lobby. Damn it. I am sitting in the Sheraton using free internet. The day was much better today and I went for a long walk and a bit of a swim in the beautiful water on the beaches of Waikiki. The area is very nice and extremely touristic. Every shop is a souvenir shop and every building a hotel. However, it is put together in such a beautiful way with loads of gardens and water fountains and great palm trees. Its difficult not to be impressed. I'm a little bit disappointed I didn't get to see any live or dormant volcanoes but I will return some day with more money and more time and more stress and take advantage of all of the islands facilities.

Tomorrow I take a flight and I head home. My final voyage. I can't wait. I love the feeling of the touchdown in Melbourne and the smell of eucalyptus that hits you as you step off the plane. See you all soon.

Hawaii cont...

2007-02-07T21:26:00.000-04:00

So all is well after that little scare. I found a hostel and took their final bed. Luckily it was in a dorm and for two nights so it was perfect. Another hostel was offering me their last room and it was $75 a night cos it was a double so i was glad to find this one. All looks well for the next days but i think i will need to come back cos its great here.

Hawaii

2007-02-07T20:40:00.000-04:00

I finally arrived in Hawaii, in Waikiki, after a 6 hour flight, countless hours at the airport and a two hour bus trip at this end. I've arrived at the hostel but they didn't get my booking and are totally full, much like all the other hostels, they tell me. It is pro bowl weekend here. yay. So my future is in jeopardy but I'm sure i can work out a solution. I'll keep you posted.

To Hawaii

2007-02-07T09:48:00.000-04:00

This morning I am off to take a plane to Hawaii and I say goodbye to mainland USA and prepare for my final destination on this huge trip. Its a big point for me and my feelings are very complicated. Wish me luck on my transpacific flight. I will see you all soon.

Santa Monica & Venice Beach

2007-02-06T21:01:00.000-04:00

super quick. crappy comp. expensive. yesterday beach great, quickly moved from hollywood to venice inb the morning. then went with a friend to southern california university to check it out and attend a class on congress. lots of fun. today heaps of fog on beach. walked up and down and looked at shops. heaps of homeless people everywhere. heaps. lots of pot smoking. photos soon. leave for hawaii tomorrow. goodbye mainland usa. i get that much closer to aus. And v quicklysome photos:

Crabs

2007-02-04T00:23:00.000-04:00

Today I took a leisurely stroll for about 8 hours along the coast of the San Francisco Bay. I walked straight along market st which ends at Pier One, then all the way along the harbour up to roughly Pier 40something, then after a few breaks here and there to look at shops and to grab some food or drink, I walked until it got dark and I couldn't see the Golden Gate Bridge anymore. Tomorrow I am getting the bus at 6:30am then the train so I can hopefully get into LA before nightfall. Therefore this is a super quick post with a few pictures to keep your eyes and brains stimulated, you photo junkies. This is your crack isn't it. Well I'm happy to provide as long as you don't let me know that you are reading my site and looking at my pictures.

Escape from Alcatraz

2007-02-02T22:24:00.000-04:00

Quickly, this city has some supreme hills.

This morning I woke bright and early after my first 11-hour sleep in possibly my entire 11-month trip and headed to the main street, Market St, to grab a coffee and a map of the city at the local tourist bureau. I walked all the way to the harbour and on the way check out the Coit Tower (photo below). It is a magnificent structure on top of one of the many hills of San Francisco shaped like a... rocket or tower. It was built for no reason but to make the city look more beautiful. I'm not sure it makes the city more beautiful but it does give one access to seeing the city better along with its beauty. (But its a bit of a walk up to the top of the hill.) I then walked to the harbour shore and the pier and found Pier 33 where the cruise to Alcatraz leaves from. I had already bought my ticket online the night before but I was smart and pretended I couldn't print it off, I was then able to get a real ticket and keep it as a souvenir. The tour to Alcatraz was great but expensive. It was $21 but it included the cruise, entry to the island, and an audio tour so I guess it wasn't too bad. The audio tour was thorough and informative and we got to see the main prison cells, the shower room, dining room, administrative areas, and the yard. It was pretty interesting and a lot of the things reminded me of Prison Break.

The most interesting stories about Alcatraz are the story of the escape and some of the characters that Alcatraz held at different times during its use. The famous escape from Alcatraz occured in 1962 when 3 prisoners used spoons to brak through the wall surrounding the airvent in their cells. They disguised this with the use of cardboard. They also fashioned fake heads with real hair out of soap so as to trick the guards into thinking they were sleeping. They then climbed through the air vent and along pipes to the roof and then along there out onto the island. They'd stolen a number of raincoats and used these to make a small raft which they used to survive the cold and strong water of the San Francisco Bay. No-one knows if they made it but they were never found. Clint Eastwood stars in the movie adaption Escape from Alcatraz.

I then walked along the different piers and checked out all the tourist shops and expensive rip-off other stores. It felt like a set form Pirates of the Caribbean because it looked like it had been built for fake pirates at Disneyland. Then I stumbled upon the sealions who have made a part of the dock their home. Loads of them lie on the floating beams and just talk with each other all day. The Sea Lion Gang.

Then I stumbled through Chinatown on my way home and searched and searched for something to eat that looks good and was semi healthy. I ended up with pizza (of course) and it was so beautiful that I took a photo. (coming soon) Tonight I would love to go out with friends and get drunk but I have no friends and I have no money so I'll read instead. Tomorrow night I might find a friend and find a bar (and miss a meal for some drink money).

And check out this Mullet.
There are some new videos uploaded.

San Fransizzle and the Jesus Cap Man

2007-02-01T18:58:00.000-04:00

Somehow I made it here to San Francisco and in the 20 minutes that I have seen it I already like it a lot. It is true that it is very similar to Melbourne. There is loads about it on first impressions which is similar - the train/cable car system, the pedestrian only areas, trees on the street, lots of cool shops and cool people. Its great. Even though the weather is very overcast, the place has a really good vibe. Unlike the guy who followed me from Reno.

I wasn't sure that I would safely make it to San Francisco. Somewhere between Reno and Sacramento this strange guy got on the bus. I was sleeping so I didn't notice but when the bus got to Sacramento he nudged me because I was asleep and it was the final stop. I said thanks and I got off. I went to the bottom of the bus and picked up my pack then he proceeded to talk to me. I had a bit of chat to him before I realised that he might be a freak, and in a moment of stupidity told him the hostel I was heading to. Luckily he was a bit slow and I hoped that he hadn't taken the info in when I slipped up. He followed and talked to me as we walked to the train that would take us to Emeryville (the stop just outside of San Francisco, from where we take a bus). Usually I wouldn't be fussed about talking to a stranger because I have talked to tonnes on this trip, and when I think about it everyone except Steve (when we travelled together in July) that I have spoken to on this trip has been a stranger. But as I spoke to this guy and looked him up and down there was something strange about him (actually there wasn't really anything normal about him).

He was carrying just a little bit of luggage and two guitars which was already a worry for me, however it was the least of his problems. Lets start from the top, which in this case was the best place to start. He was about 40 years old, balding and with teeth fairly separated from one another. He wore on his head a baseball cap with a cross on the front and "Jesus is Lord" written on the back (funnily enough this was the main thing that tipped me off, but it gets better). He was wearing a royal blue coloured shirt and a multicoloured burgundy sorta tie. Pretty much the only thing you could do to fuck that combination up this guy was doing. Can you guess what he wore? He also had a jacket on, but between the jacket and the shirt covering the rest of his body he wore full length denim overalls with the metal clasps and everything. Insane. If he wan't such a weirdo I would have asked if I could take a photo of him because it was such a classic. He chatted to me a bit and I'll transcribe the conversation here:
"So you going to San Francisco?" He said.
"Yes"
"me too"
"ok"
"Where are you staying?"
"At the San Francisco International Hostel"
"Me too, what a coincidence. Have you been to San Francisco before?"
"No"
"Well I can show you around. I've been here a lot. I know a way you can walk on the Golden Gate Bridge...bla...bla...blah"
Then I said ok once more and put my head phones in and pretended to sleep while I came up with a plan to lose him. I toyed with the idea of just quickly getting off at any stop and getting on the next one in 2 hours, or something similar. I expected that he would follow me no matter what I did, even if I told him not to. I thought he might also wait for the next train at the next stop if he caught me getting off. So I thought maybe I could lose him at Emeryville Station or something, but it would all me going out of my way, getting into SF late, and there was always a chance he would wait for me at some point. So I came up with a plan. I had a feeling he didn't actually know where the hostel was so I pretended that I got a msg from a friend and then I would tell him I was meeting my friend and maybe was staying with him. Luckily with my lack of interest in him he started talking with other people and seeing what they were doing. He then decided to get off the bus going into SF at an unscheduled stop cos he said it was closer to the hostel. The stop was underneath a bridge and very questionable area. So I declined the offer and said I was meeting a friend. He got off and I carefully watched where we were at that point and where he walked. Then we drove fo some time and I was confident he was gone, hopefully to another hostel.

I feel relaxed now but I don't know if he remembered the name of the hostel. Maybe I will return tonight and he will be there in the bunk above me...

Reno, The Biggest Little City in the World.

2007-01-31T19:04:00.000-04:00

Today I found this great internet cafe, with real italian coffee, and a nice bar and area for live performances. It is pretty cool and only opened 2 days ago. It was a surprise to find the best internet cafe I've visited in the United States in a Casino/backwater city like Reno, Nevada. Its not the first time, one of the nicest and most affordable internet cafes with excellent service I found in Europe was in Bratislava, a big surprise considering the reputation it has in Europe.

The weather in Reno is really nice, its just a touch cold but there is not a cloud in the sky and it is very easy to warm up by walking in the sun's rays. Its a weird city, it pretty much consists of casinos everywhere, but most of them look and feel like were built 30 years ago and could do with a modern facelift. This city surprisingly feels safe and is pretty clean and I think I have seen only one undesirable person. So I am impressed.

I decided after arriving in the city 12 hours later yesterday that I would extend my stay one day in Reno to recharge my batteries and have a better look at the city. I am staying in a hotel room by myself with two double beds and its own bathroom and shower for $25 a night. Pretty sweet. I have uploaded a heap of photos so please check them out - Denver, 36 Hour Train Trip, and Reno.

reno

2007-01-31T02:46:00.001-04:00

im in reno after 37 hrs on a train, net expensive, hate amtrak. took train from denver. sposed 2 be a 25 hr trip, long enuf. got stuk in nevada desert for 10 hours, trip ended in reno arrived 12 hours late. 37 fkn hours. tired tonight. gonna stay in reno extra day. cant imagine gettingon another train in 9 hours.

Closed on Sundays!

2007-01-28T16:13:00.000-04:00

It looks like Denver is closed on Sundays. They should have told us this on the train when we got on in Chicago. Its lucky its a beautiful day here and the sun is out otherwise i'd be really pissed off. I spent the first 4 hours walking around just looking at all the closed shops and tourist sites. I walked all the way out of town to the closed box office at the closed Pepsi Sports centre. I started my closed voyage on the main street, 16th street, at the Information Centre which is closed on weekends, so I tried to see a map they had on the wall inside because I didn't have a map of the city and the hostel had not a single map. When I asked the guy at the reception if he had a map he said, "a map of what?". I thought he was joking, but he wasnt. I said, "of Denver".

Speaking of the hostel, if the city wasn't so closed today, this whole post would have been about the hostel. My hostel, Denver International Hostel, is the crappiest, dirtiest and scariest hostel I've ever stayed at. I am really lucky that I have just a night there otherwise I'd be worried. On entering the hostel there are two doors which are seperate from one another. I didn't see the first one and instead entered the second door which is facing the street when you walk to the hostel with the directions they give you. I walked in and there were no signs for the reception. It was dark. I tried the three different doors in there but there was no signs and they were all locked so I tried upstairs. The same story. So I walked outside thinking there might be another entrance which there was and I walked into the tiny room they called a reception. The guy working at reception looked and sounded exactly like the serial killer Buffalo Bill from Silence of the Lambs, which wasn't a good start. I gave him my details and my passport and he gave me sheets and took my money - $13 for the room and a refundable $10 deposit for the key. He walked me up the dark rickety stairs to the room and showed me inside.

The first room was dirty and had a light which worked and one which didn't along with 2 bunk beds. The floorboards were dusty and misformed and the curtains looked like WW2 blankets. He said that there was no shower but a toilet, and there was another shower I could use downstairs. The room was more like an apartment, a really dirty old apartment, in that it had 3 rooms with bunks, a smelly kitchen, and a bathroom with a bath that was so dirty I couldn't see where the drain hole was located. I will post photos as soon as I find a place with basic internet facilities. But when you see the photos you will feel sorry for me and be afraid for my safety.

My final rant about Denver will be about all the homeless and poverty stricken people I have seen on this brief morning of walking. Before I start I must preface by saying that it is a Sunday and it is Winter so the amount of people walking the streets at 9am on a Sunday are probably somewhat limited to those without a warm house or similar situation. I have been surprised on this trip by the amount of homeless people and poor people I have seen while walking around the cities. Up until now the worst was Washington DC, but obviously New York and Boston had their share too. I have become accustomed to a degree of homeless people while traveling throughout Europe, particularly in Paris and the other major cities frequented by high numbers of foreign tourists, but it has been more confronting in America because there are more per area and they are aggressive. When I say aggressive, I do not mean physically in the form of hitting or attacking, I simply mean they talk with you, harass you, and on occasion deliberately get in your way when you are walking. And this is to the regular citizen, not just those who look or act like gullible tourists. The amount of homeless people I have seen today in Denver has been striking. While walking along the main street, 16th, I saw about 8 people who did not look homeless, and another 20 or 30 who sat on the benches, or to the side of the street, or stood and walked, all carrying a little sleeping bag, or clothes bag, and many of which had a little cup with a little bit of change tinkling around in it. As I walked out of the touristic area and into the surrounding suburbs, looking for something interesting which might be open, I saw even more, not as condensed, but they were still there. I saw 2 different people asking for change at stoplights. Then as I neared the library at about 12:30pm, the place was surrounded by them. It was intense. Many speaking to themselves, looking tired and dirty and weighed down. I watched as the people poured into the library when it opened its doors at 1pm, many going straight into the bathrooms and spreading to the free internet or upstairs to the couches. It was an extraordinary sight. I'm still not sure what to make of it all.

I leave the city at 7am tomorrow, to Reno, and perhaps a nice upright city like Reno will me forget about people who are down and out on their luck.

The Windy City

2007-01-26T16:28:00.000-04:00

I arrived safey in Chicago after an overnight 21 hour train trip which was 4 hours late. I arrived at the hostel at midday and was told no check-in until 2pm and if I want to leave my luggage with them til then it will cost $2. Those buggers. I walked all around the city and checked out all the sites quickly cos i know i only have one day here and i was all done by 2:30pm. I visited the second tallest building in Chicago, the John Hancock, so i could get a nice photo of sears tower, the tallest building. I went up to the restaurent level in a crafty maneuveur to get a drink for the cost of entry. When I got up there I got an ace table and took some photos. No-one ever came to take my order so I left and took the lift downstairs the 96 floors. The whole thing cost me nothing! Awesome. Now I am in an Apple store and you can use the internet while checking out their computers. It is an incredible store. Now I am going back to the hostel to check in. Tomorrow I go to Denver. [photos added back at hostel]

Look at the lower levels of the round buildings carefully / that's a cop riding a segway.

Museum City!

2007-01-24T23:49:00.000-04:00

Heyo. Superquik cos internet is expensive. very busy day today. i visited the back of the white house, but cant go in at the moment because of high security. no big surprise. went in and up th washington monument. approx 50 storeys. Visited the Capitol builing, went on tour, sat in on Senate and House of Reps. a little boring there but beautiful building. money money. Quickly went into the Library of Congress. Same deal $$. Supreme Court, yet again serious $$. Very nice but missed sitting of justices. Hit the Air and Space Museum and the little section of the Museum of American History while it is being renovated. Saw some dinos and a mammoth at the Natural History Museum. Finally got kicked out of the Old Post Office twice for entering through the wrong door. Finally found the correct door and everything inside was closed. Check out the PICS of washington DC!!

Monument City

2007-01-24T00:58:00.000-04:00

A big day in DC today but I just lost a cardboard poster roll I was going to use to post some posters home so I am a little pissed off. Okay, I feeling a little better now cos I left it a little while before I continued my post from my first sentence. I had my first full day in DC today and it was refreshingly beautiful and a fun day. Last night I didn't have much hope because on first impressions DC seemed boring, ugly, cold, dirty and full of homeless people. However, today, after a good nights sleep, I feel much better and this morning was great. It was still cold but the sun came out and the day was beautiful. It was a busy day and I visited a great collection of monuments and attractions, but I have more to go tomorrow.

I started by having a Starbucks coffee and then I walked past the White House. As one would expect, security is pretty tight and no cars can now drive in front of the building, but you can still walk to the fence and take photos. To visit the actual house you need to contact your local congressman (even Americans have to do this) or consulate, and they will contact the White House and work out entry for you.
Following this I walked past the Washington Monument to the World War II war memorial which is a great powerful and beautiful monuement with a heap of spires with all the states of America on each of the columns and a great fountain system (which I didnt get to see cos the fountains get turned off in Winter). So it was good but I imagine better in summer.
I then walked past the Reflecting Pool to the Lincoln memorial. However, the reflecting pool had also been drained and was not very reflecting.
The Lincoln Memorial was great and huge and is very inspirational. Lincoln is gigantuan.
The Vietnam Veteran War memorial was amazing. It lists all the men who lost their lives and is in chronological order so you get a great visual on how the deaths increased as the war went on.
Then the Korean War memorial which was different and effective with all these statues of soldiers.
The FDR memorial was huge and had great stoneworks and waterfalls for each of his four terms.
The Jefferson memorial is based on his old family home which he liked while he was president. It is great and powerful and has a wonderful view of the lake.
I then visited the Holocaust Memorial Museum which was huge and had a very moving and interesting four level exhibit. It was less powerful but more in depth and educating than those I saw in Germany and Poland.
Finally I walked all the way along the Washington Mall to the Capitol building but couldn't go in because it was the night of Bush's Strate of the Union address so security was pretty tight and I'd have to wait til tomorrow.
So tomorrow I visit the inside of the Washington Monument, Capitol, and a heap of museums which are all free in Washington.

Washington DC

2007-01-23T09:53:00.000-04:00

Hey. I made it to Washington DC and I am sorry I havent posted ina while. I have decided to stop writing big carefully constructed photo posts as I never do them and instead write a little something quickly every time I use the internet. In USA it is very expensive at internet cafes, ranging from $10 to $20 an hour. It is ludicrous. My hostel has it for $6 an hour but it is still too expensive.

Last night I slept in a 6-bed dorm room with one other character. I came into the room at about 8pm and he was already asleep so I left the light off. Then when I returned at about midnight the room was really cold and I prepared for bed. The gentleman opposite me started speaking, and I thought he was speaking in tongues in a sleep talk but I soon realised he was speaking turkish or persian or some language I haven't really heard before. Needless to say I couldn't help him. Then he said "hot, hot". I told him I couldn't use the heater. I went to the bathroom and soon he came in too because I'd woken him and his body I guess. I got a look at him. He was about 5 foot, and looked very similar to Danny Devito, about 55 years old, bald, fat, but had a thick grey beard. I was a little worried about him so I scooted off to bed and didnt get to sleep until I heard him deeply snoring. In the morning when he woke up he worked out the heater and turned it on. So I woke to a nice warm room. Nice guy!

This old guy in the internet room has just turned the radio up really loud so he can sit at the other side of the room and still listen. This guy has a hooked nose and long grey hair in a ponytail. Weird.

Today I visit the Washington sites. You know the ones.

New York New York

2007-01-08T12:56:00.000-04:00

My final day in Paris was sad, but I had so many last minute things to do that i didn't really give myself time to worry about it. I spent the day racing around the city posting things and saying goodbye to good friends that I won't see for years. I arrived at the airport with no problems, traveling quickly on the RER it took me about an hour. The french security guys were friendly at the airport and I didnt have my bags checked nor get any trouble going through the metal detectors. My flight to New York first stopped off at London and I needed to change planes and I was lucky enough to not have anyone sitting in the seat nect to me on either flight. Both flights were delayed but I found them pleasant enough and didnt sleep. I watched a number of movies including The Illusionist, The Departed, and Love Actually. The Departed was really good, but I was disappointed with The Illusionist because the plane landed before the movie finished, so now I will need to borrow the dvd and watch it all again. Before the plane landed everyone fllled out a green or white customs form. I filled out a green one because I don't need a visa for the US. The landing was nice and there were no problems. At this point it was strange to think that I was in a new continent, one of which I had never visited before. It was exciting to imagine how far away from Paris and from Melbourne I was and the amount of distance I have covered so far on this trip.

I expected the worse of American customs because they hat terrorists and they hate illegal immigrants and they hate non-allowed foods and liquids. With this in mind I was wary but I ended up having no trouble with customs and I found everyone I encounted to be very friendly and interested in my origins and travels. The gentlement in charge of checking my passport and allowing me passage into the US actually watched Aussie Rules some nights on US TV after 2am. Incidently, when they check your passport, they also get a fingerprint of your left and right index finger and a photo of you. After this I picked up my bags and walked to the real test at customs where they rummage through your bag for bad things. Luckily I was ignored and I walked straight through with my contraband Vegemite.

The trip into New York was relatively painless except for the fact that it was about 12:30 at night and I hadn't slept for 22 hours. First I took the Airtrain to Howards Shore stop where I changed for the New York metro, then took a long trip on the metro to 57th St stop. From there I walked with my stuff for 7 blocks to the hostel for the first night. The whole trip from the airport taking me about 2 hours. By the time I got to bed it was about 3:30am. The hostel was called Broadway Hotel and Hostel, and it was definitely a hostel, although it looked like a hotel from the outside. I was in a clean four bedroom and I never met my roommates. I left early the next morning and I caught up with my friend Fiona for breakfast.

The breakfast was great. We went to a cool local diner where you get about double the food for less money than a typical Paris breakfast and unlimited topped up bad coffee. It was awesome and it was my first opportunity to tip american style, that is 15% regardless of service. We walked around the city and explored some of its best sights. I spent a great deal of time as I looked around trying to find a bank or american express office that was open so I could cash some travelers checks or change some money. There were none open, but at the end of the day after asking countless people I did find one bank open that I could cash a travelers check. That day we visited battery park and finished at the end of the night in the NYU area where we grabbed a $2 felafel and a $3 pint of Hoegarden, a different world to Paris (4eur felafel 6.5eur pint = $13).

I'm falling in love with this amazing city and I am constantly seeing new things that I want to explore more. I know the next week is going to go really quickly and I'm gonna need to visit again. Next post: Metro cards, Bagels, Central Park, and Times Square.

Happy New Year! & Sweden & Paris Photos

2007-01-01T11:01:00.000-04:00

Happy new year everyone! I feel bad for not posting in an incredibly long time but its been hectic and i can never get my act together. my nye was great and here are some photos of the last days in paris. i leave paris on jan 5 for new york. In the last few days I've cleaned out the apartment and now I'm staying with a friend. Its been really touch going through all my junk and its amazing how much you can accumulate in an apartment in 4 months. I have heaps of things which are totally necessary for an apartment which are useless for a backpacker travelling. I have to sell or throw out things like my fridge, lamps, chairs, tables, cutlery, plates, glasses, cloths, cleaning solutions, food, sheets, mattress, other tools, bottle openers, bags, and I have about a kilo of 1 cent and 2 cent euro pieces which are just as useless in Europe as they are in the rest of the world. I have included some photos of the last few weeks for your interest.

Sweden:

I dont have time for other photos but check out Flickr. Ill post more soon on the blog.

Goodbye Three Ducks

2006-12-08T10:56:00.000-04:00

I have just finished my final shift at the Three Ducks hostel in Paris. It is a melancholy feeling of sadness at saying goodbye to friends and the world I have been engrossed in for the last 3 months, but it is also a great relief and happiness that I have left and will move on to travelling. The though of not having to work for the next three months gets me excited, along with all the new things I am going to see and do. Saying goodbye today was a sneak preview of how it will feel when i say my final goodbye at the end of the year. Its sad because I feel like i am only starting to get to know some of these guys and i know we could have a lot of fun in the future if i was around. Its made worse by the distance of Australia to the rest of the world and the knowledge that to see these guys again I'll need a couple of thousand dollars and a couple of spare months to travel. It is pretty much impossible during my next two years of uni, and then who knows what. I'm gonna stay in contact as best I can and see if I can see these guys in a few years.

Last night I went to a nightclub called Duplex. Its just off the Champs-Elysees near the Arc de Triomphe and it was packed. It was a student night and there were heaps of good looking and well dressed people. I made my final few stages of morphing into a french dandy yesterday with a few changes to my exterior. I shaved my beard, cut my hair short, and bought a lovely grey coat for the cold. There is a formula for looking like a french dandy, the trick is nice clothes, scarf thats doubled around your neck, pointy leather shoes, and pretty much everything else i said that i have done to myself. It wasnt deliberate, but i realised im pretty much the equivalent of a french dandy in Australia.

Hola Barcelona!

2006-11-30T14:41:00.000-04:00

After four short hours of sleep I woke at 4:55am and hit my snooze button for another crappy 5 minutes of sleep. After a flick of my eyelids I jumped out of bed, grabbed my ipod and phone, which were next to me, and headed down stairs to take a shower. I warmed my shirt by the heater as I showered and psychologically prepared myself for the bus trip, plane trip, and new city that awaited me that day. Following my shower I quickly collected all the clothes and belongings I needed for my short three day trip to Barcelona. I packed three t-shirts, three boxer shorts, three pairs of socks, my sunglasses, my camera and ipod, and my rainjacket, just in case. I returned to the bathroom with a clear plastic bag (mandatory for carry-on toiletries, liquids, gels, and pastes) and packed my toiletries while making sure that none of the bottles held more than 100mls. With my bag packed and my mind ready I headed down the stairs at 5:30am to catch the first metro train to Concorde, then change for the metro to Porte Maillot.

You see, I was flying with RyanAir, and as any european traveller knows, RyanAir is cheap but its a pain in the ass. My flight to Barcelona return was about €40 including all taxes and extra charges, but it involves a 30 min metro trip to a place called Porte Maillot, where you catch a RyanAir chartered bus for one and a half hours and another €13 to Beauvais airport.

So i took the bus, and as i was tired I slept most of the way. As I was only travelling for three days I had just one bag so it was not much to worry about or to carry. I had my passport and my printout of my confirmation ready and went to the desk for check-in, the line wasn't too long. The lady was nice and gave me my boarding pass. I had 30 min to chill before boarding began. It was 7:30am. I went to the unclean toilets and then walked around for a little bit. As I walked I saw a Nepalese couple who I'd checked in at my hostel and seemed quite friendly, then I saw a bald Italian man eating a sandwhich who I'd instructed in my broken italian and his broken english on how to get to the Louvre two days before at the hostel. Then as I bought my own sandwich i stood in line behind a group of canadians who I'd spoken to at Aloha hostel on the previous night about the best way to get to Beauvais airport. The backpacker community is a big and small world.

In the little food store at the airport I had the choice between a small bottle of orange juice for €1.50 at 200mls that I thought i might have a chance of taking onto the flight with me, and a 1L bottle for €1.35 that I knew I'd have trouble getting onto the flight. I chose the big one and a ham cheese sandwhich for €3.50. The sandwhich was gross so I saved it to the flight, I then proceeded to drink the orange juice as quickly as I could because I knew my time was running out before boarding. I managed 500mls before throwing it out (bloddy terrorists wasting my juice) and I headed through security. I didn't beep but they searched through my bag and had a good look at my toiletries. But I passed and went into the waiting area to find a seat. I sat for 30 mins with no info, then I saw the nice Nepalese couple and I went and chatted with them for a while. After an hour of waiting they announced that due to fog my flight was cancelled. I went to boarding desk. Flight Cancelled. Next one in 13 hours. Maybe. Can't give refund for return flight. Okay maybe. Okay can give full refund. Cant give refund for bus. Sorry. Cant give refund for hostel accomodation lost. Took bus back to Paris, back to apartment. Slept and felt empty.

Socio-Baguette Interactions

2006-11-26T14:38:00.000-04:00

I've found a great way to make friends and talk to random people in paris. The trick is to find a boulangerie open late on a sunday night then buy a baguette. Let me explain. One of the biggest problems i have with paris is that it is a major city, always considered in the top five in the world, however almost all shops shut all day sunday and sometimes monday, they shut at lunch time everyday, and some even close early on a whim. finding a place to buy a baguette at night is almost impossible but finding a place on a sunday is an acheivement that parisiens even respect. So as I walked along with my baguette under my arm I had person after person as me where did i buy it. Its like waving a flag that says i know where you can get a baguette at this impossible time. The trick, ihave learned, about paris is not that everything is shut at stupid hours and days, but that you can always get what you want at any time if you know where to go, are prepared to pay a little more, and are happy to walk for a great distance.

I'm going to Barcelona on Thursday so I am very excited. BTW there are new photos on Flickr so check them out. More if you are authorized. Cheers.

F**k its cold!

2006-11-06T09:36:00.000-04:00

Ok winter is here. my hands are freezing and i feel like my nose is made of concrete and is about to fall off. Paris is cold. It doesn't help that i packed for summer and i've had no money to buy clothes. the scarf I'm wearing around is the socceroos one Steve gave me as a present during the world cup. it looks like i am constantly on my way to a football game or something. (Incidently, yesterday I wore it to the Moose for warmth and was lucky enough to find that the final of the international rules game in dublin was being televised. Australia won by the way.) So now that I have been paid I'm going to go find a cheap market or shop where i can get a nice black or navy scarf so that i can be sufficiently parisienized so as not to get spit on in the street. I think i might need gloves as well, and a thick jacket and a beanie. I don't know how i'm going to carry this stuff with me to america when i go. Weight is gonna be a huge problem.

So work has been going really well and i'm starting to get into a groove. Last sunday (not yesterday) I worked for 12 hours from 8am to 8pm, which tested me. The problem was that i then went out after work because sunday is always fun. Monday I did the same 12 hour shift then had to rush off to my weekly quiz, which was an average quiz, but my friend Abi, from Garmisch in Germany, one of the original members of the quiz team, was in town so it was nice to catch up with her. It was a halloween themed night and one of the bonus questions was 'how many darth vader costumes were sold in US for Halloween in 2005?', I guessed 867,012, and the answer was 1.2 million. Somehow I was the closest and as a result we won a free round of beers. It was great. Following quiz at the Auld Alliance pub, we headed to the Beaver pub where they have open mike night on Mondays. It was a lot of fun because loads of friends are there and everyone is excited from a fun quiz. I left at about 1am cos I knew I had to work the next morning. Yes, at 8am again for another 12 hour shift.

Tuesday was Halloween and with no time for anything but work I had absolutely nothing planned for a costume for the evening. My brain was constantly thinking about what I could do with no money or time. Oskar had arrived back in paris the day before and so we were going to spend halloween together. A while ago now he missed his train to Austria and changed his mind to going to Torino instead and find a job during the ski season there. Except once there he found the city to be boring and rude and was disappointed to discover that the season didnt start until late december. H e was desperate for money so he returned to Paris and is now in Tours in the french contryside. I haven't heard from him but i assume he's alright. Anyway, so halloween day at wokk went pretty quickly, and the boss decorated the place for a halloween party there later in the evening. At the end of my shift I rushed home and quickly created some shoulder armour out of cardboard and sticky tape. It wasn't as crappy as it sounds but at the end of it all it looked more like NFL should padding then armour, so I borrowed one of Oskar's football jerseys and changed the costume into an NFL player. I had no make-up so (although its a bit disgusting, it probably isnt that bad) I used ash with water and spred a black like under each of my eyes so i better look the part. Oskar and I then headed off to the Moose because they were having a party and got a heap of drinks there. I then rushed off back to the hostel so that I could make their party. I was buggered by the end and got home with enough time for 2 hours sleep before I needed to get up and off to work because yet again I was working from 8am doing another 12 hour shift.

Somehow I got through my forth 12 hour day in a row on wednesday and thankfully had thursday off to recover. Friday I got paid for my long hard months worth of work so that was great and lifted a huge burden of worry from my shoulders and allowed me to buy some food. I took the weekend pretty easy although partied a little too hard on friday and saturday night. Yesterday I was spoke to take it easy again, but after meeting some friends and getting some free drinks I was wrecked by 5:30 in the arvo. However I had a relatively early night and work this morning was a piece of cake so I am feeling good. Tonight its quiz again so I am greatly looking forward to it.

Opposite my apartment is an old hospital which isn't used anymore. They have started some demolition and here are two photos.

My plans for the rest of my trip are coming together so I am pretty pumped. I'm travelling to Spain and Sweden before I leave Europe, and next year I'll spend a month travelling in the US before Hawaii and back home. Its pretty exciting and there'll be plenty more to tell. I miss everyone and Melbourne and I hope you are happy and healthy. Please let me know what's going on.

PS. here are three photos of three different demonstrations down my street all in the same week.

super quick

2006-10-24T07:44:00.000-04:00

super quick post cos im at work and i know boss will be here soon: all is well in paris: oskar has headed off to austria however he changed his plans last minute and has gone to torino in italy: appartment has food again which is good and i have tidied it up thanks to some time and money: greatly looking forward to the end of the month so i have some money to do things at the moment i am basically living off shitty tips: last night i went to the weekly quiz at a scottish bar we always visit on monday: this quiz is a weekly thing and heaps of fun: last night there was a section of ten celebrities who have appeared on the simpsons and their pictures and we had to guess who was who: i managed to get all 10 and be the only one with a perfect score so it was pretty cool: anyway gotta run and finish work: very tired gotta get home and sleep: miss u all and melbourne: let me know what uv been up to:

Working in a strange Anglo vortex...

2006-10-16T09:12:00.000-04:00

I'm living in Paris, the heart of France and the Franco world but I'm working in a strange Anglo vortex where everyone speaks English including the French, where the music is Australian, American or English and the people are from those countries, except for a sprinkling of Spanish speakers. I think the point i'm trying to make can best be summarised in a moment the other day when an Australian asked me for a beer. Powderfinger was on in the background and the hostel bar was 80% Australian. I said to the bloke, we've travelled 16,780 kilometres around the world to find ouselves in a pub in Australia. Paris is a strange place.

There is this guy who lives nearby the hostel where i am working who is a film director in Paris. He's lived here for 6 years and at the moment is filming a documentary of Aussies working and living in Paris. When I talk with him i discover just how big the aussie expat community is here in Paris and it reaches into all areas of society, business people, musicians, djs, barmen, dancers, singers, artists, academics, you name it. Every monday night i do a trivia quiz with all my friends. It is an old boy quiz so its pretty tough for us younguns buts its a challenge. Its become a very regular event and it is difficult to join our team because we are quite selective. Its held at a typical Scottish bar that feels like it is in Edinburgh and last week there was a guy walking around in full kilt garb. I also met all the guys that work at Cafe Oz, another team of Australians.

My lifestyle is pretty plain at the moment as I am poor and desperately waiting for my first real month of work's cheque to come through. It won't be until the end of the month so I have to hold on and not spend anything except the essentials. Until then I pretty much do all my drinking at private parties or at work and avoid clubs and bars. Work takes up most of my time during the week, but I fit in time to catch up with friends and have a chat. Then the weekend consists of my cleaning the apartment, reading, relaxing and wathing CSI in french. Oskar was supposed to be out of France by now with a job in Austria but he is still in Paris. I don't envy him. With no concrete reason to leave on a certain day, he keeps putting off his departure in order to do things in Paris he forgot, or to catch up with friends before he leaves. I have a good feeling that he will go tomorrow, but who knows?

OKTOBERFEST

2006-10-04T05:10:00.000-04:00

Ok, ok. I'm at work so I have to be super quick. I'm doing the morning shift and I have done all the jobs that I need to do so I have a little time for a much needed post.

I have started working at a hostel and I have finished my training so I am now working on my own and it is a lot of fun. I've already met a lot of nice interesting people and i really enjoy helping people and answering their questions. The hostel isn't too big and it has a good bar with an excellent selection of beer.

Speaking of beer, on the weekend I went to Munich with two american and one canadian friend. We drove together and in an heroic effort, my american friend Brad drove the entire nine hour trip (with breaks) on his own. The trip started really well because we got a free upgrade from our Renault Megane to an Audi A4 stationwagon. I wanted to drive but my manual abilities are limited, especially when driving on the wrong side of the road at 150 km/h on a German autobahn. The drive was a lot of fun and we drove all night and arrived at 6am. We were staying in Garmisch, just south of Munich, with another American friend I met in Paris who now lives with her family there. They were really nice and accomodating and we had some delicious meals there.

After a nap friday morning we went for a drive around the town then went to the lake. This lake was huge and beautiful, with water so clean that you could drink it. The water looked like it was straight out of an evian bottle. Then surrounding the lake were trees which came right down to the water, and behind the trees were a series of huge mountains. The place was extraordinary. We then went home for a huge feast for dinner then chatted til late.

We woke early saturday so we could get to Munich and Oktoberfest reasonably early. We arrived at the beer halls at about 9.30am, but they were already full and closed so, as it was a beautiful day, we found a seat outside. However even this seemingly simple action was dfficult as the place was packed. We found a nice table and one of the girls went and sat down where there was a tiny bit of space and slowly edged towards one of the strangers at the table. Once there was enough room another one of the girls moved into the spot and started to edge the other direction in order to make more space. It was in this way that eventually all five of us sat down. Only once we had sat down could we order masses (steins/one litre beer jugs). By the end of the day we had each drunk about five or six of these things. It was a great and happy day, the weather was perfect and the company was even better. I would very much like to return to Oktoberfest next year or in a future year as it was an incredible experiencem and I strongly suggest you try and get there one day, especially if you like beer.

After Oktoberfest we headed back to Garmisch on the train and almost got badly lost, but somehow we made it. During the taxi ride back to the house form the train station the cab driver ran over a fox, which was pretty sad. After a nice sleep we headed back to Paris and in a carpark of a service station just inside of Germany, an old man reversed into our stationary car and made a huge dent and scratch. We were already only just on schedule to drop the car back by 6:30, and this put us badly behind because we needed to exchange details. It was amazing because none of us spoke german and he didn't speak english, so we conversed in french, and when there was a problem a lady who witnessed the accident helped us out. She spoke English, French and German fluently. Ultimately we didn't make it back in time so we took the car to a different depot.

As a memento I souvenired a mass from the beer tent we were at and also bought a case of delicious and cheap paulaner before leaving Germany. Now back in Paris I am working almost every day and living a very poor and boring life. However it is a sacrifice I have to make in order to do America at the start of next year. Work is fun though, and not too hard. However I'd be lying if I said I didn't strongly miss Mebourne and everyone there.

Oskar's last days

2006-09-25T05:03:00.000-04:00

Today I have work this afternoon then i'll be hitting trivia and an open mike night at another bar. Oskar leaves Paris on Wednesday this week for Oktoberfest then he goes on to Austria to find a job snowboard instructing or something in a bar. So it is his final days in Paris and I sympathise with him because I can imagine what it will be like for me. He realises he hasn't done everything he wanted to and he sees all this people in the bar and they say hey man howre you going? they chat then the other guys says seeya next week, but he wont.

i went to a little party on saturday night which was pretty fun and my apartment coming together with furniture but i still dont have a couch, and im not really sure what i will do about this. miss you all, stay safe.

Work

2006-09-18T08:59:00.000-04:00

I started work, or more accurately training for work, on thursday last week and I did two 12 hours shifts in 2 days. I then had the weekend off and i slept then worked again this morning. Work is going very well. I am learning quickly and meeting lots of fun and friendly people. There is a bit to learn but once i have it down it shouldn't be too hard. Oh yeah, in case you don't know, I got a job at a hostel. It is a very english speaking hostel with a bar and plenty of fun people and staff. The hostel is a mix of hostels that I have stayed at, although i've never stayed at this particular one, because it is friendly and nice but has a bar so at night it becomes a bit more fun and lively. I am greatly looking forward to working there a bit more and getting some money in my pocket.

Not much else has been going on, ive been keeping a pretty boring life over the last few days in order to adjust for the work on my body. The main thing on my mind after work is trying to find a really cheap or free couch, cos i'm sick of my folding chairs that I have to sit on. The place is sorta coming together. It would be a lot better if I had the ability to buy everything i want for the apartment but it will do for now. Tomorrow I will have a good look for a couch around classifieds and stuff. The tomorrow night I do training for the night shift which should be heaps of fun. So what ahve you been up to?

Star Academy

2006-09-11T05:21:00.000-04:00

There is this show on French TV called Star Academy. It is similar to Australian Idol but not a clone like most countries. It has a range of amateur individuals who want to make it big and they are selected by a series of judges and are put into a house. The camera films a lot of what goes on in the house as well as all the singing and dancing practices. There is a big show once a week where they perform in front of a live audience and get rated by the judges. The interesting thing about the show is the elimination section. What happens is that three individuals with the lowest average judge score at the end of the live show based on their performance get nominated to be eliminated. Then during the week people call in to vote for their favourite. In Australian Idol you vote for who you want to eliminate and the two with the lowest score stay. In Star Academy you vote for the individual you want to stay then they are guaranteed a place if they have the majority. Then there are two left to be eliminated and to decide on who is going to stay the rest of the contestants verbally vote on the live show for who they want to stay. This seems crazy because once one person has the majority and the contestants feel like it is going a certain way, they all vote for the same person - because why would you vote for the loser and then be stuck in the house with someone who knows you voted against them and may well do the same back to you. It seems crazy and is typically french.

I have three days left of freedom before starting work so I am enjoying it by relaxing and not doing too much. I have trivia night tonight which is always fun and I will probably take it easy during the day. The nice weather has returned so it is beautiful in Paris and very relaxing.

The neverending struggle zith internet cqfes

2006-09-09T08:32:00.000-04:00

OK; so I am fed up zith my old internet cafe because i am pretty sure they were watching the computers there. so i have returned to a chain called xs arena. they all suck cos they have french keyboards and they are really hot and everything else i always complain about, but at least they are anonymous. i am gonna keep looking for a better one cos this one is far from good.

i wanna write something about star academy but this keyboard and this place piss me off too much. i will do it next time.

Here is qn exq,ple of the french keyboqrd qnd hoz useful it is zhen I type out qvec,qtildq:co,

Banking in Paris for Foreigners

2006-09-06T08:16:00.000-04:00

I went to a local BNP Paribas (French Bank) branch a bit over a month ago and in my broken French and their non-existant English discovered that for foreigners to open a bank account they have to go the BNP at metro Opera. So I hopped on the metro that afternoon and headed out there. I had the same language problem with the receptionist (you would think in a branch which is specifically tailored towards foreigners opening accounts that at the very least the receptionist would speak English), but she managed to work out what I was saying because I had especially leant the word for bank account (compte en banque). I sat and waited to see a guy who could help me and was then instructed to follow him to his little office. He couldn't speak much English, so again I spoke in my broken French. He told me that I needed to bring with me my passport, carte de sejour, proof of address, and some money for a deposit. So we made a date to return, he said the earliest he had was in two weeks from today, so I said okay and jotted it down in my diary and mobile phone calendar.

Two weeks passed and I returned and went through a similar process of talking to the receptionist and waiting. I waited for an hour after my appointment was supposed to be scheduled but the guy didn't come back from lunch so I left. The stupid thing was that during this time the friend I was with rocked up off the street with no appointment, saw a guy and if my friend had had the correct paperwork would have been able to set up a bank account. But my guy didn't show. So I left it for another day.

I finally got around to it all again yesterday and returned to the same BNP in Opera and spoke to the same receptionist, except with a little bit better French (her English hadn't improved) and waited again. This time I went to a different office in a different section and spoke with a guy who could speak English relatively well. He instructed me that it was possible to set up an account but there were various requirements such as a minimum deposit. I thought that's fine and asked what is this minimul deposit? He replied that it is 8,000 euros. I sat back in my seat and laughed and told him I was in Paris for about 6 months and was only working as a holiday job. There was no way that I would see 8,000 euros in the next 5 years let alone in the next few months. What kind of guy did he think I was, rocking in with my t-shirt and shorts on and my old leather bag - A 22 year old Australian in Paris with a casual 8,000 euros as a minimum account balance in my new french bank account. So I told him I was living in Paris and had a residence and he told me I was in the wrong section and I went back to the secretary and sat back down.

After another little while another guy with basic English came to help me and we walked towards his office, but for some reason before we made it there we stopped walking and had the rest of the discussion in the hall. I told him my situation again and he told me I had everything I need for an account but I need proof of my residence in the form of a gas and electricity bill or telephone bill. I had my gas bill from my previous apartment in the Marais but it was almost 4 months old and they wanted one that was less than 3 months old. I told him that I didn't pay the gas and had no telephone so how would I prove my address. He had no idea and suggested that I think about it then go to a BNP near my apartment. I told him that I was a foreigner and asked him if it was true that I had to go to this bank to open an account. He told me this branch deals with non-resident foreiners but if you have an apartment you can go to any branch in France.

So there it was, any branch, I just need to find some way of proving my residence. It is tricky because the only way they accept is name and address on gas bill or telephone bill. Surely there are a heap of people in France who don't have a phone and have someone else paying their gas bill? I dunno. Anyway I'm going to visit my local branch today and try my luck with English speakers and the whole process again.

Food Glorious Food

2006-09-05T06:23:00.001-04:00

I'm not sure how much you care about my eating habits but here is some more information about my ever interesting fridge and food situation. Yesterday afternoon I did two trips to the supermarket and stocked up for the next fortnight. It is the best way for me to do it because it is too much to do in one trip and I prefer to buy a little bit more than just for one person because it is cheaper and it will last long enough. So I do two trips as I cannot carry everything in one trip. The supermarkets are tailored to one person buying for only four or five days of food. Everything comes in smaller packages than Australia, such as only one litre milk (oh it is so good to have fresh milk again instead of that strange UHT milk everyone seems to drink here), or 2 slices of ham in a pack. Weird. And they don't have trolleys cos no one needs that much. And bread comes in half loaves with the two ends already cut off and thrown away. Anyway, so now I have a fridge I bought some cheese:

And check out how packed my little fridge is with food!

So today I continue to try and open a french bank account and work around all the hibertyjiberty that they have in place here for one reason or another. I was supposed to meet Oskar for a movie but when he left the pub after trivia last night with some friends I knew that there was no way he'd be up by 11am (the time we said we'd meet), and of course he didn't show. But its okay because although I wanna see The Sentinel with Keifer Sutherland, I am poor and prefer to save the money. I am also nervous about wrecking my image of Jack Bauer that I have in my head so I am in no particular rush to see the movie. Today I am also going to post some things and do some photo copying so I can start the process of getting my money back from the insurance company after my hospitalisation after my broken nose and face, and my doctors visit after my salmonella poisoning.

The weather is picking up again here, but I know that it won't last long. I'm reading an excellent JFK biography at the moment, so I think I will enjoy the weather while I can and go and read in the Jardin du Luxembourg for an hour or so. Let me know what you are up to?

Here are some random photos which I realised I hadn't uploaded. There are from left to right: A huge dog on the train to Budapest, the attic of the hostel where we slept in Budapest, and five beers I tried in Krakow.

Musee Rodin and Pasta

2006-09-04T05:48:00.000-04:00

As you may have noticed in my previous post I now have a fridge. Thank god. It is smaller than a normal Aussie fridge, but it is perfect for Paris and if it was any bigger would have been impossible to move. I went to the address in the 15e to pick it up but my friend, Oskar, who was supposed to help me never called or showed up so I thought I would check it out to see if I could handle it on my own. I realised it was too awkward even though I could lift it, so I called a friend then another friend and he came with a friend of his and I paid and we carried it downstairs. The boyfriend of the person we bought it off helped us by calling a cab, but he said the cab company would not pick up a fridge and that I should rent a car. I thought screw that and toyed with the idea of carrying it in the metro. But the gates to get into the metro would have been a big problem so the boyfriend called another company. We told him to ask for a large car but not to tell them we were transporting a fridge. He did so and we waited on the street with the fridge hidden behind a car (we were worried that if the cab driver saw us with the fridge he might just drive off and not stop). So he pulled over, we coaxed him into giving us a lift, then transported it for 10 euros to the apartment. The hardest part was getting up the 4 flights of stairs to my apartment with no lift. But we managed to do it somehow and now I have a fridge where I can keep milk and cheese. Yay.

Yesterday i went to the Musee Rodin. I haven't been to this Museum in 2 years and I am always impressed with its tranquility and beauty. It is in walking distance from my apartment so I think I will return sometime on a nice day to sit and read. The gardens are quite large and dotted all around them are sculptures by Rodin. He sculpts large and powerfully emotional works in which you feel like the scupture is going to move at any minute. Here is a few photos:

Well I have started cooking in a semi-proper way. Since I left Australia I have never really cooked. I have heated stuff up, made scrambled eggs, made sandwichs, bought kebabs, but never properly cooked. So, even though it is very basic and any smuck could do it, I cooked pasta the other night. It was pretty good, and I enjoyed eating it, but as I have no experience I had no idea how much to cook for just myself. I have since had about 4 pasta meals and worked out the perfect amount, but for this first trial I was way off. I made a bit more than double of what I could eat. Here is a photo. Yum!

Today I am going to the supermarket to buy some better quality pasta sauce and some garlic and onions to try and improve the flavour a little. Then I am going to cook some for dinner tonight. After which I am meeting some friends at a Scottish pub for a few hours of trivia. What are you people doing?

Finally...

2006-09-03T14:34:00.000-04:00

Jesus my legs hurt

2006-08-31T04:39:00.000-04:00

This morning I got up and decided to go for a bit of a rollerblade but I didn't realise how much my legs were going to hurt until I started it. The problem is that when you rollerblade in boots that do not quite fit you, your muscles tense up in the front of your legs to compensate for the lack of support that the boots give. As a result these muscles in the front of my legs that I pretty much never use have been given a tremendous workout, the likes of which they haven't seen in months or possibly years. Here is a photo of my rollerblades and my legs in grammar footy socks.

My photos and my posts have been a bit quiet as of late as I am desperately poor and cannot do anything fun because I can't afford it. Instead I spend my time trying not to spend money and to look for work. I am also looking for a fridge and I think I have found one not too far away for 60 euros. Which is too much for someone who is poor like me, but I have to find the money somewhere because it will pay for itself with the saving I will make by using it. The other difficulty is that I have no idea how I am going to get it to my apartment nor up for the four levels. But I will let you know and try as hard as I can to get some photos. Even though the Metro would be funny, I think the smartest option is to splurge for a taxi. Its going to be interesting.

Looking for a fridge

2006-08-27T08:51:00.000-04:00

The view through my door.

I am still looking for a job but I have not been looking as hard as I perhaps could due to my concentration being moved to my new apartment and furnishing it to a level which is livable. Now that it is coming together and the month of August is almost at an end I am renewed in my search and from tomorrow will pursue it with vigour until I am successful. In the mean time I am also looking for a fridge. I went all the way to the south of Paris near the Banlieu where the Cite Universite is located to check the noticeboards for any ads for fridges being sold cheap. The problem I face is that the majority of students are moving in not out of the university at the moment which will make my job very difficult. Too many buyers not enough sellers. I fear that unless I am lucky I will need to buy a fridge which is a great expense and a real pain in the arse. However, if I buy one there is a good chance that they will deliver for me which would be a tremendous help. Here is a photo of the Cite University.

And a picture of my kitchen and my newly decked out apartment. Wow!

Le Baiser Sale

2006-08-24T08:51:00.000-04:00

Check out this video of a jazz club I went to last night called Le Baiser Sale ( The Salty Kiss) in Chatelet. The place ripped us off for entry but it was good music.

An Unfurnished Apartment

2006-08-18T05:08:00.000-04:00

I moved into my new apartment yesterday (Aug 17) and I couldn't be happier. It is a little rundown but exactly what I need. Not too small and in a great location with an excellent view. It is between the 6e and 7e arrondisements and is walking distance to almost everything I go to in Paris. The only slight problem is that the apartment is unfurnished and as a result I need to buy or find almost everything. So I went out with my friend Rachid and we bought a couple of thin matresses that I can use as a bed. Of course they don't deliver in Paris so we had to carry them home on the metro.

To have a closer look at the photos please quickly join up with Flickr and add me as a contact: avecmatilda. You will get access to heaps of better photos of me and my adventures. It is of course free so get off your lazy arse for 2 minutes and do it.

6e

2006-08-17T13:19:00.000-04:00

Rich Homeless

2006-08-16T07:13:00.000-04:00

Today has been a bit average because I called a heap of hostels and almost none of them are looking for anyone at the moment and the ones that are dont have the manager there until the end of august so in effect they arent looking either. it is a bit of pain because i am desperate to work and i know that i would do a great job. so it means that i have to start looking at hospitality and working in a bar or restaurant. i gotta do what i gotta do to survive.

yesterday oskar and i ate a baguette with brie and ham for dinner in the jardin de luxembourg and as we were eating it the rain started. i got out my unbrella and put it up. i then realised how stupid i must have looked so i had oskar take a picture.

At 9pm the park closes and all the flics de les jardins start blowing their whistles all over the park to let everyone know that they have to get the f out of there. It is amazing to hear them all around you. As we walked out I turned and saw a magnificent sunset which i had to take a picture of.

We couldn't go to the Hostel until 10pm and it was raining to we went to a quick, like Maccas, and watched the last 2 episodes of Prison Break on Oskars computer in the upstairs section. They ripped us off for two mediums cokes for 2 euros. Again I realised it was a sad image of a couple of homeless anglos with a laptop in a fast food joint watching american tv shows. So took a photo.

Please keep commenting. it is cool and makes me happy. make me happy.

Maccas

2006-08-15T09:38:00.000-04:00

I'm sitting in McDonalds in St Michel because the internet is free here on Oskar's laptop. The day started nicely but it has suddenly turned bad with rain and clouds. I visited four hostels this morning and three yesterday but because today is a public holiday most of the managers are away, so I have to go back tomorrow. I find out about the possible apartment tomorrow as well, so it will be a busy day. I am happy but I need a job. I have to be doing something because not working is getting boring. Do you visit my blog?

Summer in Paris

2006-08-13T11:31:00.000-04:00

It has been pissing down for the last 4 hours here in paris, and on and off for the last few days. I am looking forward to seeing the sun again.

Bitchgoddess

2006-08-11T16:02:00.000-04:00

Although I am still at the beginning of my job searching it is proving a little more difficult than expected. I am very far from giving up but I am on the internet so I thought I should give a bit of an update. I went to a few places today and received some replies from emails and it appears to be the quiet time of year when no-one is hiring. I haven't really tried that many places yet so I am not getting disheartened. I have to wait until Monday to apply at other hostels because the managers are never in on the weekends. So tomorrow I prepare for applying to some bars and pubs. I am going to do some bar study in order to be totally prepared for an interview or trial, should I receive one.

Last night I went to a late night poker session at the Moose that started at 2am. It was a great game with a 10 euro buy-in and eight players. I played pretty well and was ahead at different times during the game, however early in the morning I took a big risk and was the 5th player to go out. The game ended at about 7:30am and I got home at about 8am. Here is a photo.
Today I went to the Seine with a friend and we sat on the fake beach that they set up each year during summer. It is really cool with deck chairs and sand and play area for kids. There is also beach volleyball courts in front of the Hotel de Ville. Here is a photo or 2.

Paris Paris the city of lights

2006-08-10T12:58:00.000-04:00

I am so happy to be back in Paris. It was a great trip around Europe and I enjoyed it a great deal but I am happy to be heading towards some stability and anxious to improve my french. I didn't expect my little trip to have that great an effect on me, but it has increased my love and appreciation of Paris, awoken me to the fact that Paris is really really expensive, and reinvigorated my wish to improve my french to some sort of acceptable level.

The difficulty with improving my french, and this has always been the problem, is that I don't like to look stupid or to not know what I am doing. I hate feeling stupid. But it is impossible to avoid this when learning a language because the best way by far is to look stupid. You learn quicker because the words are said and attached to a tangible thing and experience, and because it is embarrassing, your brain tries harder to not go through it again.

At the moment I am yet to find an appartment or a job. I am currently staying with a friend, in an appartment which is too small for one person, let alone two. Today I edited my CV and wrote a generic cover letter, in addition to this I also researched some places to apply to, such as hostels and bars in the city. I also made an application to a tour group. Tomorrow I will go to some of these places, hand in my resume and hopefully get some kind of interview in the near future. In the mean time I am collating my Eastern Europe journal, trying to study some french, and putting together some plans for some kind of Paris information site or something.

Keep checking out my pictures because there is tonnes there. New ones are going up often and hopefully in the next few days I can better comment on them so you know whats going on. A bientot.

Warsaw is War sore

2006-08-07T08:08:00.000-04:00

It has been ages since my last real post so I feel like I dont know where to begin. I will start by explaining my absence and see where I go from there. The city of Krakow in Poland was very impressive, I enjoyed it so much that I felt I could stay there for some time. I relaxed and did not rush around seeing the sights. i would just walk around the park, which surrounds the city centre, or sit in a cafe and watch the world. However, on the third day I ate one roll with melted cheese and mushrooms, and one ham, cheese pizza. From the late afternoon my stomach began to feel a little funny, and my whole body felt a little strange. I didn't drink any alcohol because I had planned to have an early night and a productive sight seeing day the following day. Then at about 11pm I was lying in bed trying to sleep and I felt a bit sick. I didn't think I was going to vomit but I thought i'd get up just in case. And it began. I spent the next 14 hours, roughly every hour for that time, going back and forth from my bed to the bathroom. My internals were completely empty by halfway through the night and all i could drink, although it didn't stay, was water. It was incredibly painful and as the night went on my body became so dehydrated that my muscles began to cramp and I had trouble walking. By the morning when it hadn't stopped, I asked at reception if they could call a doctor, which they did, and a little while later he saw me. He told me it was most probably Salmonella poisoning and gave me an armoury of medecines that I needed to take. Over the following few hours I took the medication and I started to feel better, but it is only today, about 4 days after, that I am really starting to feel back to normal. My body continued to be dehydrated, although less and less, and very tired. But I am now feeling good and making efforts to eat healthily and drink plenty of water.

On to Warsaw. This city is surprisingly nice. I can't put my finger on it, but similarly to Krakow, the people seem friendly and it seems to have a relaxed atmosphere about it. Also, the hostel I am staying at is really nice with many cool and interesting people. At the end of my sickness I was starting to get very sick of the hostel scene, but this new hostel and the people has reinvigorated my interest in hostel and meeting new people and learning new things. Yesterday when I arrived it was pissing down rain and I got soaked. It took me about an hour walking with my pack to find the hostel because I had trouble ready my dodgy map in the severe downpour. I then went out during the day and visited the sites in the rain and got a general feel for the city. In the evening, because a number of people in our room of 12 were tired from a big saturday night, we decided to have a quiet one and stay in. We played a very enjoyable game of risk, which I was cheated out of winning.

Today it wasnt raining, thank god, so I had a real look around the old town and a good walk through some of the parks. I leave tomorrow to fly back to Paris and I can't wait. I'm not looking forward to the expense of Paris but I am well and truly ready to find a job and settle a little bit again.

Yay!

2006-08-04T06:04:00.000-04:00

Yay! Lucky me.

I think I'm addicted to Krakow.

2006-08-01T12:57:00.000-04:00

I just typed a long post then the damn computer restarted. damn it. as a result my spelling will not be corrected and i am not going to capitalise. i hate to punish you but i am too frustrated. it is pissing down here in krakow, a perfect change to the sublime weather up until now. i saw perfect without a hint of sarcasm because it is a welcome change and clears out the air a bit. however i know i will not think it perfect in the near future when i realise that the sun we've been having could be the last great whether now that europe heads into winter. but either way there isnt really much i can do about the weather.

This city is wonderful however and it isnt just the monuments or something, it is the whole city. it just has a nice vibe about it, not too big or small, and an excellent layout which is condusive to a nice city. the old town used to be surrounded by heavy fortifications including a moat, but as these became obsolete the area was turned into a great garden and park which surrounds the city. So no matter which way you walk, if you walk for 10 minutes you will hit this park. In addition to this, the old city was relatively unscathed by the secnd world war, so the buildings and the main town square (one of the biggest in Europe) are all

Bratislava what a surprise.

2006-07-29T10:19:00.000-04:00

I arrived in Bratislava yesterday morning expecting a dirty smaller version of Budapest or Prague but I have been surprised and impressed. Apart from the difficulty at navigating the public transport system, the city is pretty swish. It is obviously still getting it together after communism, and the divorce from the Czech Republic, but with its new status as an EU member it is on the up and up. The streets are clean and free of bums. The buildings and streets in the old town almost look new they have been so carefully looked after. In some ways the city looks like it has been constructed in the last few years for Disneyland tourists who can't be bothered going to Paris. But compared to Budapest or some areas of Prague, this is a good thing. There also seems to be a higher proportion of English speakers, although this is still pretty low, but at least they don't get pissed when you politely ask if they speak English.

Last night I stayed at a University which lets out its rooms in the holidays to unsuspecting foreign backpackers like yours truly. I knew I was in for a bit of trouble just from reading the reviews on hostelworld.com, things such as "Staff speak nothing other than slovakian" and "This place is the pits. Each dilapitated room comes with its own graffiti, old WW2 blankets for curtains and furniture falling apart at the seams. Do not be attracted by the price - you have been forewarned." But I love a challenge and figued it couldn't be too bad. And to be fair, it wasn't any worse than I'd been warned. I paid equivalent to 8 euros and I had my own room with an ensuite. But there were loads of bugs and the sheets were dirty. However, the main problem, which should never be underestimated while travelling, especially on your own, was that it was boring there and it was far out of the centre of town. Consequently, I woke reasonably early and left there and headed to a more expensive hostel in town. I didn't have a reservation but figued at the least I could leave my bag there and ask them where there was a laundry because my clothes are all very smelly and dirty (including what I am wearing today). After navigating the painful tram system, I found the hostel and they were pretty helpful there. They didn't have room but told me to drop in at 6pm and see them, in the meantime they put my washing on for more, for about 5 euros, and I headed into the city releived. So soon I will find out whether I have accom for tonight, but I have a feeling it will be okay. Worst case I find another hostel or something. Anyway, so I put a review on the hostel world website for my experience with summer hostel last night. It went like this: "Although cheap it is not worth it because it is so far out, and complicated, that you end up spending the extra money working it all out. They don't speak any english and the rooms are a little dirty. Stay in a hostel in town and you'll love this cool city." Pretty good advice I think.

On Bratislava itself, as you might have guessed so far, I am impressed and surprised. I have spent today seeing the sights in town such as St Micheal's tower which has some great views of the city, a Franciscan Monestry with a real monk sitting in the cloisters reading, the Primate's Palace, and the Municipal Museum which has a torture dungeon. Tomorrow my train for Poland leaves in the evening, so I am going to spend the day at the Bratislava Castle.

It has been a while since I've been able to do a real post like this one. It is very difficult to find some alone time to write a proper post when you are travelling with someone. The irony is that now that I am by myself I almost have nothing else to do except write stuff down and see tourist things. I had some grand plans to go further east, but sadly they cannot occur this trip. I will have to be happy with a week in Poland which I think should suffice for the time being. I am looking forward to getting back to Paris and taking advantage of this working visa for France. My money situation is going to be in dire straights if I can't start working asap. I'll keep you posted of whatever happens. Stay cool everyone cos its bloody hot here. And if you are interested there is a new album of me here.

Vienna gonna call me?

2006-07-23T14:28:00.000-04:00

So much has been happening i have hardly had time to get on the internet, let alone recount in a large post. I am now in Vienna, Austria and it is my second day here, having arrived yesterday in the evening. The city is pretty much what i expected: it is similar to Germany, but more cultured and parisian. The people are very friendly and i can see how it shares the number one spot as the most livable city with Melbourne. I could easily live here, it is very peaceful but still feels alive.

Today Steve and I slet in due to a late night out. We then had a long casual walk around the city and visited a few museums and palaces. This place is chocked with museums. They are everywhere. It is some weird parallel universe of a city, where culture is encouraged and enjoyed instead of shunned, but it could just be for the tourists. Along with Museums everywhere there is also loads of classical music being pushed. In Melbourne we have people walking around with clipboards trying to sign people up for paintballing. Here they are offering opera or classical music, and there are lots of them doing it. Last night at the club I turned around on the dancefloor and there was a guy standing there in full Mozart getup. It was intense.

Czech urself B4 U wreck urself.

2006-07-22T10:19:00.000-04:00

For those of you who dont know where i am then now i will tell you. i am in Brno. How cool. Where is Brno you might ask. It is in Morovia you idiot. We left Berlin and had high hopes for Prague and the Czech Republic. It has been interesting to find what is true and what is false about the city and the country. It is much more livable than i expected. Less dirty, even though it is dirty and poor. It is basically not as extreme as I had expected. And more beautiful. It is still a bit too poor and old than I would like and when we left after 3 days we felt like it had been enough time. Steve and I said goodbye to our travel buddies, lucie and laura, and headed south to Brno. Brno is a little town of 400 thousand on the way to Vienna.

At the train station when trying to buy tickets to get down to Brno the Czech train people didnt make it easy for steve and I. We knew the train we wanted to get on at 7:47am but needed two tickets. This simple thing turned out to be much more troublesome then one would expect. I started by waiting in line for tickets and when I finally got to the front, the woman told me "No English, no credit card". So I walked away and wondered if it was possible at all to pay with credit. I went to the Information to find this out and he informed me that it was only certain windows: 16, 20 and 24. So i headed to 16 cos it was the only one open of those three. Finally upon making it to the front the lady informed me in very broken english that "Only International, no Brno". She told me to go to windows 2, 4, or 6. So I headed back to where steve was sitting because it was around the low numbers. However it was just 1, 3, 5, 7, etc. No even numbers! So I walked back up the station and found 2, 4, 6, etc in another section and lined up. Finally upon getting to the front the woman told me "No English", I said okay but i need a ticket to Brno, she said "International, over there" and pointed. I said that Brno is in Czech Republic. I then wrote it on my hand and showed her. She grunted. Then started speaking czech to me about the times and the amount of money. I said 2 and wrote it on my hand. Somehow we got the correct tickets, cheaper than they'd been quoted the day before. 400 crown to go to Brno, equivalent to 12 euros/AU$23 total, for both tickets. This kind of thing seems to happen more often then it probably should but we're getting very good at charades.

We went to the Capuchin Crypt in Brno today. This is the only crypt in Europe where the bodies of the dead were not embalmed and decomposed naturally. Therefore some of the mummies still have their nails and teeth and reseblance of humanity 250 years after death. It was very freaky. Check out a picture here. There I saw a great quote on the wall: SIC TRANSIT GLORIA MUNDI - Thus passes away the glory of the world.

We are leaving Brno today for Vienna. I am excited.

Ich bin ein Berliner

2006-07-17T02:41:00.000-04:00

Today is my last day in Berlin and in Germany. We head to Prague today in the Czech Republic. It is very exciting to be going to a new country and I have high hopes for Prague. Berlin has been an interesting city to visit as it is a city of contrasts, obviously because of the wall. The dual occupation of the city and the subsequent cold war has meant the city is two cities next to each other and trying to integrate together. There are two of most of the things that most cities have one of, such as town squares, libraries, etc. It is strange because you know that the city in a historical city with hundreds and hundreds of years of history, yet at times it feels like you are walking through Geelong. The streets are wide and all the buildings are only 50 years old or less. Unlike Paris, the buildings look like they were built in the 60s, except for the buildings that are only 5 years old, of which there are many. If you didnt know about the city, you would think that it is like Canberra, having been built for the purpose of being a capital. I dont have enough time to write as much as I would like about Berlin or other things so im gonna write a quick list of what i need to write more about - Berlin, Pub Crawl, Love Parade, Third Reich tour, Reichstag, Night Rollarbladers. On to Prague!

Munchen to Dresden

2006-07-12T09:32:00.000-04:00

Munich was a great city and I am a little sadned tohave left it, although I am happy to be moving again. While in Munich we saw all the famous sites and drank our fair share of steins. I'm very much looking forward to drinking more on the rest of my trip.

But now we are in Dresden. The train trip was a bit of a pain because the carriage was incredibly cold and I couldn't sleep sitting up. I had a spare seat next to me but there was a metal divider between the seats so it was difficult to stretch out. I ended up sleeping for a while with my legs bent over the divider. The train trip from Munich to Dresden took about 9 hours and we took it overnight so as not to waste time.

Dresden is a beautiful city which is still recovering from the carpet bombing during the second world war. The city is a natural city with trees and a beautiful river lined with parks. It is a mix of pre-war development and post-war rebuilding. It has some great sites but we are limited to one day here. Tomorrow we take a short 2 hour train to Berlin for our major German destination, and the event that has somewhat shaped the order of our trip - Love Parade.

I have tonnes of pictures to upload, and i hope to do it before i leave Dresden so keep a lookout at Flickr.

Deutshland! Wilkommen!

2006-07-10T05:50:00.000-04:00

Well I have been a bit tardz to the partz for a while, having not left a blog entrz due to a lot happening and being layz. The kezboards in Germanz are the same as australian except for one little difference. i am going to tzpe normallz because i am layz and see if zou can tell the different kez.

I´m now travelling with steve and lucie and we have started the next part of mz trip. we are heading east and right now i am in the first citz on our trip - munich. it is cool. verz different to paris - more relaxed, fun, cheaper, cleaner, wider, wilder, and german. the food is good but verz different, and the steins of beer are extraordinarz. we had 3 steins each last night then went to a night club which was outside and positioned over two small man made rivers. it was verz cool. todaz we are visiting a castle or two.

a few dazs ago we went to the north to Le Havre. it was great in the north. i didnt much like le havre, but the other towns we went to were verz nice. i think i will return on weekends when i go back to paris. mz time is almost up on the computer so i am starting to panic and rattle on. everzthing is going well. i am healthz. i hope zou are healthz too.

Goodbye Old Temple

2006-07-03T11:31:00.000-04:00

It has been a big week or so with many events all happening at the same time. Only now do I have the time to post about them and clear my head as well as reply to some emails and do some other jobs which i havne't had a chance to do.

Aussie! Aussie! Aussie!!!

2006-06-23T08:34:00.000-04:00

Go Australia!!! Aussie Aussie Aussie!! What a game! I watched the game in my Canadian bar because I knew it wouldn't be too crowded, easy to get drinks and a great view of the game (and it turned out to get into the Australian bar to watch the game it was $10, very unAustralian). I was both happy and sad, excited and nervous, it was explosive. I jumped off my seat so many times my ass thought I was riding a camel. There were a few Australians in the bar too and the owner is Australian so it was a great environment. Jesus! What a game. Australia was down from the word Go and then fought back, then was down again and fought back. It was inspiring. There were many mistakes throughout the game and by the end the ref was handing out red cards like they were flyers for pizza hut. But it worked out and we are through to play the Italians in the next round. Historic.

After the game I went with some Australian friends and a Swedish dude to CafeOz, a large Australian bar in the centre of town. It was pumping and was perhaps filled with every Australian in Paris. Everyone was happy and relaxed. It was so much fun.

Over the next few days I will prepare for Europe and my departure from my appartment and Paris. And people are coming from all around to visit Paris and hang out. It is gonna be fun.

Where the Hell is Matt?

2006-06-22T08:56:00.000-04:00

This is a cool video from a dude who travelled all around the world dancing.

Fete de la Musique

2006-06-22T08:54:00.000-04:00

On the night of the 21st of June Paris hosts the Fete de la Musique, a huge musical event where on streets all over Paris live bands play all kinds of music and there is drinking and many festivities. So last night was big. It is the summer soltice so everyone was out having a good time. Everywhere I went there were live bands playing, I think I saw about 20 in my travels, and along with each band there were heaps of people listening, dancing and drinking. This video doesn't really do the night justice but you can sorta get an idea of the amount of people there. Boulevard St. Germain was so packed with people that it was closed to traffic, along with many other areas of Paris.

The Movers

2006-06-20T11:42:00.000-04:00

OK, super quick post becuase I need to go watch the Soccer. Yesterday I got a call from a friend in the afternoon to ask if I could help him move some of his stuff from a friends house because the friend is going back to Colombia. No probs I said, but figured it wouldn't be too far or difficult a job. I took my metro line, changed, took another line, changed, then took a third line to the last stop. From there I was then instructed to take a bus and finally after 1.5 hours of travelling I made it. The area was a little bit ghetto but family oriented so not that unsafe or scary. We then helped back my friends stuff as well as his friends, we then grabbed a sandwich grec and then went back and finished packing. There were four big boxes in all so we decided a taxi was the only option. After no luck hailing one, we went and called one and the flagfall when you call one is about 7 euros. I was astonished. I was lucky enough to score a raggedy pair of rollerblades out of my adventure, so I'm gonna try and fix them up then head out for a roll at some point in the near future.

Tappa Tappa Tappa

2006-06-16T06:01:00.000-04:00

Yesterday, winter returned and it rained and the heat cleared. At the time I was worried summer might be over for a little while again, but it has happily... the typing guy is here again and came and sat right next to me and he breathes so heavily through his nose, the only thing louder in the room is his typing. Here's a quick video of the sound i hear.

Last night I went out and met up with some friends in the Marais. We went to a favourite bar of a friend of a friend. It was a nice place but obiously a little for those of the gay persuasion. The place was small but full, with about 30 people. I was in a group of about 6, and of that group the three guys including me were the only hetero guys in the place. It was a little strange but it was a cool place.

The night got stranger because we left there to find somewhere to dance. One of the barmen told my friend of a little club around the corner where she could take us. So we left the bar and headed to this club. I was very weary of where we might be going so I was not too surprised when we walked in. I followed my friend in, and our group was behind. As I stepped in I was the only man in the place. It was a lesbian club. Again it was a little strange but I had a fun night and that's what matters right?

Today we should be leaving our appartment because we have only paid a month and we have told the landlord that we plan to leave. But he has not come to our door and we haven't been able to find him so for the time being we have to wait and see. My aim is to try and see if i can pay some rent and stay until the end of the month in the appartment, but I will have to see. I cannot read the landlord, I dunno if he likes us or he hates us, so I have no idea how my chances are.

Two IMPORTANT Points to mention:

1. Please sign up with Flickr and select me (avecmatilda) as a contact so you can gain access to all of my photos that are specific to my friends. It is free and easy so please don't be lazy.

2. Please check out my Jack Bauer facts section and if you think of any good ones please comment.

"If you don't tell me what I want to know, then it'll just be a question of how much you want it to hurt."

3-1

2006-06-13T06:58:00.000-04:00

I was going to give an interesting post but I have a sore throat and as a result can't be bothered to talk for too long. I think I am getting a bit of a cold so it is a good opportunity to start eating better and perhaps do a bit of exercise. Yesterday was a great day for the country of Australia. Godamn I was pumped. I hope everyone saw the game. Woo Hoo. Australia beat Japan 3 - 1 yesterday, just in case you didn't know. Oh what a game! I was sitting in the Canadian bar with a Fosters in one hand and my heart in the other.

This guy sitting next to me is one of the smelliest men I have ever had the displeasure of sitting next to. Today we are going to see Xmen 3 at the nearby cinema. I am really looking forward to it.

TRIVIA about Australia in the World Cup: No other team has scored three goals in the last seven minutes in World Cup history.

Fed Square After 1st Goal

2006-06-13T06:16:00.000-04:00

AUS v JAP 3 - 1. I got this link from The Age website and although I was not there I wish I had been. Awesome!!

After the Party

2006-06-12T05:42:00.000-04:00

The party was a great success. It started a bit slow but once people started to arrive it got pumping. Oskar was about 2 hours late to his own party so all the purchases and setting up and cleaning was done by myself. It wasn't that big of a party but the guests were rolling. Ie, some guests left and more came. During most of the party there were about 10 people, and in total we had about 20 people. A couple of times towards the end of the party when there were about 5 people in the appartment two different people from the same appartment came and told us to be quiet. I was very tempted to tell them where to go but i kept my cool. It might be unfair but it is one of my pet hates when people complain about noise in nearby locations. Especially when it is reasonable noise coming from a reasonable amount of people. Our neighbours have been noisy before and what i do is put on a little music or read a book and ignore it or let it go as a part of life. I don;t go searching then knock on a door at 11:30pm at night.

Anyway, it wasn't too much of a big deal. So I cleaned up my room after the party and it was lucky i did because the landlord came in this morning with his own key while i was sleeping because of a problem with the toilet. It was leaking or something to the floor below. I took him at his word at the time, but looking back i can't help but think that someone had spoken to him about our little soiree and he'd decided to come and check on his appartment. But it was all fine.

I pushed my language lessons back another week because of one reason or another. This week I chose the reason "because we are moving house, and also because they don't have my correct class so i'd have to be in the wrong class". So this week I've gotta study up and move my stuff.

"Trust me, you don't wanna go down this road with me..."
"Oh Hell.."
"That is exactly where I am going to send you. By the time I finish with you you're gonna wish you felt this good again."
>> I love 24.

Je ne comprend pas

2006-06-11T11:38:00.000-04:00

Is anyone visiting the site? How can there not be a single comment for those cool pictures I took and then included in my post. That wasn't easy and took some extra work. I'm sitting between two weirdos at the moment and I have to be careful because if they can read english than they can see what i am typing about them. to my right there is a guy who hammers the keyboard as he pays some electricity bills or something. he is surrounded by paperwork on these very small desks that we have here. to my left there is a computer nerd looking up warez informatin and being bombarded by adds. On these warez sites once you close one of the adds, more adds pop up. I do not like being between these two.

Tonight we are throwing a "leaving our new appartment" party. It is basically an excuse to have people around and drink some wine and be merry. Oskar and I are also throwing around the idea of simply packing up our stuff in 2 days and leaving the appartment at night. The thing is that we have paid for the time spent in our appartment, and we are both planning on leaving. We haven't left any deposit or additional months rent, and there is no guarantee, so we are thinking that we might as well leave. I have already moved some of the less important stuff to a friends so he can look after it while i am travelling in July.

I've gotta go and buy some stuff for tonight, such as munchies and perhaps a bit of wine. We expect this party to be a little bigger than the house warming so I think that i'm going to go and buy some disposible cups so that we don't have any people drinking out of their hands.

Click here to check out my favourite 25 photos. Please, tell me what you think. I need to know you are there because this guy next to me is pissing me off so much i wish he would stop hitting the damn keyboard, i feel like picking up the keyboard and showing him how it feels.

The Sun!

2006-06-09T11:31:00.000-04:00

It is a truly superb day in Paris and Summer has most definitly arrived. The last few days and today the sky is bright blue without a cloud and the sun is shining like it is the star performing on the opening day for the musical that is Summer. Today I am quickly dropping in to the internet cafe to let you know how it is all going. Yesterday I spent the day with Oskar in the Jardin du Luxembourg just enjoying the sun and having a chat and a drink. By about 6pm I'd drunk about 2 litres of Kronenbourg and I thought I should go home for a nap. Instead I went with Oskar to his work and was given a pint, and like magic whenever it was starting to look empty, it would magically refil. So who knows how much beer I consumed. Before I knew it the time was 10pm so i headed to the Hostel to catch up with my friend Rachid where I had a few more drinks. Oskar met us there when he finished work early and we had a fun conversation with a heap of a americans, and then some interesting German guys until the sun was coming up. We took the first train home in the morning and met two american girls on the train who were just on their way home from the Chilli Peppers concert. We slept and by the time we awoke, Oskar had to go to work and now I am here. Cool eh? I shampooed and apres shampooed today so my hair is out and wooly. It feels better but is a bit annoying. There are some supremely wierd people in Paris so I fit in fine with my crazy hair.

1am

2006-06-07T19:31:00.000-04:00

I'm walking home after having a few beers with a couple of americans i met today. we went to the Moose, the canadian bar my roommate works at, because it is a nice relaxing place and good for a chat. i was walking home without enough change to buy a crepe so i stepped into my internet cafe, which is 24 hours and on the way home for a quick post. i know that i don't post enough so i hope this is appreciated as an attempt to give you a better idea of my time and how it is spent. although this is perhaps a poor example of how my time is spent. i was sitting at one computer just a minute ago, but i felt i had to move because the gentleman next to me was slamming his hands into the keyboard when he typed and it was very distracting. today on the way to the moose in the metro carriage i was in, there was a man who set up a black curtain between two of the poles in the centre of the carriage. he then played some music and as the voice in the music began to sing, a bright blue bird puppet appeared from behind the black curtain and sang. then when the duet voice joined in a bright pink bird appeared from behind the curtain. the two birds sang away as the song continued, and i decided this was the best peice of busking that i had seen on the train, however i never give money to buskers who insist on performing in the carriages out of principle. i believe that the audience should have the ability to leave the performance if it is not for them and trains forbid this without a fair degree of effort. so i never give them any money no matter how good. but this performance was original and vaguely entertaining.

The Complexities of the French

2006-06-06T08:36:00.000-04:00

I have decided that there are too many little differences between the French and Australian culture (or perhaps English culture), so I have to make a list.

In no particular order:
1. toilets don't let you know from outside whether they are occupied
2. some toilets are in the ground and have no bowl but just a hole
3. police wear rollerblades
4. sirens are long and annoying
5. phone ringing tone sounds like engaged signal
6. Police detectives where casual clothes, often leather jackets
7. There are often heavily armed military walking around monuments
8. Customer service is non existant and servers are rude
9. Garbage bags have a thin bit of plastic attached to the bottoms so that after it is full you can tie it closed.
10. Washroom taps have a special mechanism so you push a button with your foot and you don't need to touch anything with your hands.
11. When they ask for your name, they mean surname.

I will continue to add more as they become apparent.

Place des Vosges video

2006-06-06T07:46:00.000-04:00

This is my first video blog, so I hope this will work. Please tell me what you think. This day was a magical day in Paris. Perfect Paris.

Laurels

2006-05-30T13:17:00.000-04:00

Paris is such a fabulous city which always has more to see but ive fallen in a little bit of a rut due to my hedonistic activities. I'm living a great life because i wake up when i feel like it, usually at 2pm, walk down the street, grab a delicious pastry, maybe meet someone for coffee or have one on my own, head home and do a little reading or listening to music, then head out for a quick check of emails, head home and get changed, then head out to meet friends, see oscar at the Canadian bar he works at, or catch up with guys from the hostel. I then stay out drinking wonderful red wine and beer until late, then on the way home at about 5am, i usually grab a kebab, or amazing crepe, or incredible frites avec beaucoup de mayo. Then repeat.

For a small period of time this is great but it is starting be unfulfilling and i have to find some substance and more of a purpose for being here. i have to start doing boring things. I need to get a job and start working. I need to start eating better and drinking less alcohol. I need to do some exercise. I need to read. I need to try harder at my french. I need to speak in french more. I need to go to bed early and wake early. I need to cook rather than eat out. I need to spend less and save more.

The biggest problem on my mind however is that my room mate has told me today that he doesn't want to stay in Paris. Which means that he won't sign the contract that we are going to sign in 2 days for the lease for the next 6 months, and wont be able to have his family friends provide the guarantee for the appartment. So my plans are in a little trouble. I'm in the process of working out what im going to do and im sure it will be fine, but it is a real worry on my mind. ill keep you posted.

Le Printemps in Paris

2006-05-21T12:55:00.000-04:00

It is a wet and rainy day today in paris. It is a sunday. On Sunday everything is closed, its astonishing. One would think that in a big famous city like Paris that everything would be open 7 days, but it is not so. Some things are open, but the vast majority are closed. One of the good things about living in the Marais is that because of its large Jewish population many stores that shut on Saturday are open on Sunday, so it is not as bad as in the rest of the city. But its the worst when the Sunday is also wet because usually the only things to do on a sunday are outdoorsy kind of things like walking in the park, etc. So you lose the ability to do these as well. As a result we have spent the last 3 hours cradling our single coffee at a cafe in the Latin Quarter, while watching people scurry past under their umbrellas.

My housemate Oskar has started regularly working at a Canadian bar in Odeon. He is having a good time because it is a fun environment with lots of friendly people. The only problem is that the pay is not too great and tips are almost non existant in France. Last night I went to the bar to watch a game of ice hockey which was very enjoyable and I think by the time I finish living with Oskar I'll have a pretty good understanding of the game. Oskar is a Canadian from Toronto, his father is Swedish and his mother is Mexican. He speaks Spanish, English and resonable French. But he is definitly Canadian. He loves ice hockey, and sport in general and his humour and drinking ability would make an Australian proud.

Today is a lazabout day and tomorrow we're going to do our laundry. How exciting! Paris.

Rue de Veille du Temple

2006-05-15T13:28:00.000-04:00

How can I tell you all that happens when there is so much that i can't remember most of it? I have to choose a couple of events and tell those rather than everything that I have done since my last post.

My face has been slowly repairing itself over the last week and a bit, no thanks to my drinking and late nights. I'm feeling almost normal again because the bruising under my eyes has almost gone away and today I had my 6 stitches removed from between my eyes. I've put some more photos up so you can tell for yourself if it is improving. This photo is me right now in the internet cafe as I type this. I'm also feeling better because I got my hair cut yesterday and removed all my split ends. This was thanks to a lovely seattlite who is a hairdresser and offered to help me out. Then this morning I gave it a good shampoo and condition. So i think i'm the cleanest I've been for a while.

But the big event in the last 24/48 hours is an apartement. Oh yes. After a series of days of searching, countless phonecalls, and a few visits to some appartments, my new friend Oskar and I have found our place and today we finalised it. The appartment is in an old building on the Rue de Veille du Temple in the 3e arrondisement, right next to the Marais. The rooms are a little small and old but we have two separate bedrooms, a toilet and shower room, and a separate kitchen area. I will get photos up as soon as I can. We move there tomorrow.

So its a sad goodbye to the hostel which i have called my home for the last 3 weeks and the start of a new chapter in my trip. Now that my face has healed a bit I start tomorrow and especially wednesday to find a job, which I am in dire need of now that I'm paying a huge amount of monthly rent. I have made a heap of friends at the hostel, the best of which work there and I will endevour to stay friends with them in the future.

Tonight we are having an omelette for dinner so i better head off and get that going. I think a big bottle of nice champagne is in order as well. Keep in contact and check out the new photos.

I'm Only Just Alive and in Paris

2006-05-11T07:25:00.000-04:00

Well I'm alive. A lot has happened in the last week and as a result I have been neglectful of you, my friends at home, and neglectful of this website. I am sorry for this and I hope you can forgive me. Many things have happened since my last post and I hope at some point to fill in the gaps but for this post I will concentrate on one event.

My time in Paris is going very well and I am enjoying myself even amongst some of the difficulties that have presented themselves. On Friday evening (5th May) I went with three friends to a concert in the south of Paris, in Bagneaux to be precise. It was just a little concert with a few uni groups playing, including a particularly good group. It was a lot of fun, the alcohol was cheap and flowing, the music was great and the people were nice.

We left the concert at about 11pm to head back to town and we walked up a quiet neighbourhood street on the way back to the RER train station. About half way to the station we walked past a group of four young men who yelled something out at the girls. We ignored them and continued to walk. Then one of the girls thought that she had left her mobile phone somewhere and stopped and looked in her bag. I was walking with her and I stopped also and waited, while the other two girls continued to walk up the street. She found her mobile phone and put it in her jacket pocket and we proceeded to the train station.

Then two of the young men ran up behind my friend and tackled her while trying to get her bag from her arm. She held on in the hope that they would give up, which in hindsight was probably not the best thing to do. I grabbed one of the guys and pulled him off my friend. As I pulled him off he turned around and punched me square in the nose. I didn't really realise he'd hit me at the time and I fought with him while my friend was thrown with her bag into the ground and hit her head. My other two friends ran back to us as this was happening and attempted to help. I threw myself on the guy that was tackling my friend but somehow he got the bag, and with it the two young men ran away, with their two other friends. At this point I did my best to console the girls and people came out from their houses to see what was going on. One of the girls yelled for someone to call the police. Some men who were eating dinner with their windows open offered us some water and I accepted. As I walked and drank the water I looked at the girls and couldn't believe what had happened. It had all been so quick and I'd had no time to think. I walked back and fourth for a while and then suddenly the loss of blood hit me and I collapsed like a falling tree on the sidewalk. I remember as I was falling hearing the screams of the girls as they watched me. Then everything went quiet and then became loud again. I woke about 30 seconds later and the ambulance guys had arrived.

That's the main part for now. The second part of the story will be told the next chance I get. More photos are now up, including some of my battered face. But to see the photos of me you need to join Flickr because I want to keep them private. Once you join Flickr you get access to a heap of other photos of mine and of course it is free to join.

I'm alive and in Paris

2006-04-26T05:23:00.000-04:00

OK, it has been a little while. I'm sorry that i've been a little lax with my entries here of late. Internet in Paris is a pain in the arse. The internet cafes are a bit difficult to find and they are expensive. Then once you've found one and paid, the internet is slow, the keyboard is totally screwed up with letters in different positions, and the place is either too hot or cold and badly lit with smelly people all around you. Needless to say it is not condusive to writing a well planned entry on a internet site as well as spending a reasonable amount of time emailing and uploading photos.

I'm going to hopefully find another internet cafe to upload a little later, but for now I've just got to get an entry up the site so everyone knows I'm alive.

Paris is incredible. I love this city so much and I'm delighted to say that it hasn't changed since I was last here. Things are different but the city is the same. It is a beautiful, strange and interesting city, but the kind of place everyone recognises as special. The streets and the apartments are so beautiful, there are so many sights to see, and simply walking around the streets is a wonderful experience. It is like a heap of small villages all together. It is both dirty and clean. People walk the streets until late, kids play in the parks, dogs are everywhere, random people say bonjour and bonsoir to you when you walk around, people smile. The sights are busy but controlled. Life just seems to be good here. The food is spectacular, and the gardens and parks are almost perfect in their symetry and cleanliness.

I've been here a few days now and I'n starting to get the hang of it a little. My french is poor but acceptable and I can understand reasonably well when people speak slowly and don't say too much. I have a feeling that my pronounciation is a bit Australian but I'm going to work on that. I'm doing some french lessons next week in an attempt to open up some kind of secret vault of french in my brain which has been accunulating in the past years of french that I have studied. Following the improvement of my french I hope to find a job and get some form of long term accomodation, but about the two I really have little idea. I have to work it all out for myself because no-one seems to know anything.

Yesterday I went to Versailles on a bike tour. We took the train there then rode around the vast parks on our bikes, then had a beautiful pique-nique avec des baguettes, des tomates, beaucoup de fromages, et bien sûr des vins. C'était formidable, parce-que j'étais avec mes amis nouveaux et le canal et le palace étaient beaux et fantastiques.

I miss you all very much and i'll let you know more as soon as i can.

Return to the East End

2006-04-14T13:55:00.000-04:00

I was determined to find a better place for internet access because easyInternet was not overly cheap (£2/hr) and had no access for usb (ipod and camera).

I woke early due to the jetlag and looked at my watch. It was something like 4am so I lay in bed trying to return to sleep. I could see light and hear movement on the floor above so I looked at my watch again and saw that it was on Melbourne time. So I flicked it to London time and it was 6:30am. I rose, had a shower, and headed upstairs to breakfast.

Brekkie was basic but good for a UK hostel. There was a choice of cereal, toast, juices, coffee and tea. After I'd finished eating I headed out to see some sites and solve my usb problem. I bought a venti vanilla latte from Starbucks and returned to easy internet at Piccadilly because I'd already paid for 5 hours there. While there, i discovered that i could fit my hand down the side of the panel housing the computer and plug in my ipod usb to charge it. cool.

Whilst in London I wanted to catch up with the Browns, the friends I stayed with last time I was here, because it had been ages since I'd been in contact with them. However, I didn't have their phone number or address with me, so i decided I'd head out to East Ham to see if I could track them down at their work. I was successful and very happy to see them when I did because it had been so long. I then took some time to check out East Ham and all the places I'd been on my last trip. It was nice to be in familiar territory.

I grabbed a large double cheese bacon beef burger at burger king then hopped a train back into the city. By the way, I grabbed an Oyster card and charged it up with £30 for my travelling on the tube. It automatically works out the fare when you scan it at the start and stop of the trip and promises to be cheaper than a normal ticket, especially off-peak.

I found a new internet cafe on the way home from Piccadilly station that i'd found on the internet. The website of the cafe claimed that it was cheaper but turned out £3/hr. So I uploaded my photos then headed back to the hostel. However, on the return I found another easyInternet where it was £1/hr. I was anxious to get back to the hostel because I knew drinks were cheap in the bar from 6 - 9pm and I had a free drinks card to use between 7 - 7:30pm.

The bar was pretty good for a hostel- very dark, good lighting, pumping music and a good choice of beer on tap. The best thing was that pints were £1 (Au$2.50, good, even for Australia). I met a few interesting people that night, including an Aussie girl from Melbourne, a German guy from Dusseldorf, and a future Baptist preacher from Philidelphia called Abbie. We all had a nice discussion while we sank some beers, then played a bit of pool. Then as it got late I decided to hit the hay because I didn't want to be crabby for the next day.

Overall, it was a fun day and the Oyster card purchase was a great saving for my expensive train tickets of the future.

Twelve hours to London

2006-04-13T09:11:00.000-04:00

The plane was a little delayed but I was in no particular rush and just chilled out. My seat was ace, the complete opposite of the less than satisfactory seat from Sydney to Bangkok. I had seat F and G, thanks to the guy at the check in counter, so it was pretty sweet. It was only a little annoying because the ugly lady sitting to the left of me in seat E thought that she had some sort of right to this new vacant seat F. I'd put something of mine there and then she'd cover it with her jumper. She ended up taking up the whole extra seat with all her crap: jumper, pillows, used napkins, blanket, headphones. So as a bit of revenge I quietly and secretly placed a red grape under her jumper and squashed it using the juper so i didn't get any grape on my hand.

The flight was pretty good and went relatively quickly because I slept for half of it. When the plane landed at Heathrow (LHR) the sky was blue and the tarmac was white (with ice/frost). I'm not sure if there are many places as opposite as London and Bangkok, yet the two are also rather similar. For example: they are both big, highly populated, have a big gulf between the rich and the poor, and a kind of class system, they both have a monarchy, always busy, unclean and rubbish in street, intimidating to a newcomer, noise and air pollution, rich in history, etc. However, these are mostly similiarities on the surface. Overall, London is rich and powerful, angkok is poor and weak. Trillions of pounds travel through London and have for hundreds of years. If you ignore the buildings/wealth of the King of Thailand and of the 'church', Thailand is very poor and most probably a third world country (although it is recently improving with new buildings and developments outside of the city).

Once I landed at LHR I lined up for aout 40 minutes at immigration. Then when I finally made it to the desks at the front I was given the third degree. It was a trainee and a supervisor. They thought that I might have travelled to London to work and that I was not planning to only stay for 10 days and not work. So I had to show them that I wasn't using all of my different documents and it became clear that I was teling the truth. (I thought that they might be worried that I was a drug mule because I had come from Thailand after spending only 3 days there and that I was a young male backpacker. Instead they were worried that I might work in London for a little bit.) I then thought i'd get hassled at Customs for drugs or something because I was coming in from Bangkok, had a big backpack, was dirty, bloodshot eyes, unshaven, tanned skin, a ponytail and was wearing a cap. But I wasn't stopped and walked on through. Maybe they really don't profile?

I muddled around the airport for a while because the train station at my Terminal (4) was getting renovated so I needed to take a special bus. I eventually made it to the entrance to the underground and, after paying £4 for a ticket to the city, embarked on my hour long voyage into the city.

I was on the Piccadilly line, so it took me all the way to Russell Square, no swapping lines. I was a little confused after I disembarked, but soon found my way to my hostel, the Generator. It was about 8:30am at this time and check-in wasn't until 2pm, so I put my large pack in their luggage room and headed out to London, my old friend. Damn it was cold (and still is!). I incorrectly assumed Spring would be a bit warmer.

Initially, I wanted to find internet access, so I decided the best way to do this was to walk the streets in a haphazard way. I eventually made it to Piccadilly and used the place under Burger King, which I used on my last trip. I caught up a little on the net then ventured out again. I explored more, checking out lots of little funky shops, until I found myself back at my hostel for check-in at 2:30pm. That was easy enough, just a bit of a wait in line, but one of the staff gave me a glass of beer to ease the wait. After I had my stuff stowed away in my locker next to my bed (number 13 or 14 beds in our room), I headed out for a late-lunch/early-dinner. I had a £3.95 burger and pint for dinner and by the end of it I was very sleepy. I thought that I better walk for a while and push past the tiredness so jetlag wouldn't be so bad. By 6pm I was walking back to the hostel buggered. I felt like I was floating and it felt like I was in a dream and everything was in slow motion. I went to my room on level 0, got my inner liner out, prepared for bed, and went to sleep. It was about 7pm and since I woke from my bed in Bangkok I'd been awake there for 18 hours, on the plane for 12 hours (minus 5 "sleeping"), then in London for 12 hours. A long day, but I was now in London.

Ráang laa Bangkok

2006-04-12T07:23:00.000-04:00

Yesterday was my final day in Bangkok and as a result I woke up a little earlier because I knew I had to get everything together for check-out. I wanted to have things prepared for the airport so that when I got there I could easily grab a change of clothes and move all the unnecessaries into my check-in luggage. [God, some internet cafe's suck, I'm here at easyInternetcafe in London and this guy sitting 2 seats away has earphones on and keeps humming, jesus christ can you shut up and just listen to your music!] I arrived at brekkie at about 9:15am and had my "normal" - eggs, french toast, ham, potatoes, and tea. I then grabed my bags from my room and checked out, leaving my large bag in their storage (cost 20baht). As I left the usual happened - I was harassed by taxi drivers but I walked on, it was beginning to wash over me. I was going to walk to Dusit Park.

It was a bit of a hike to get there, but not as bad as the walk to the Paragon. I arrived at the corner of the park and there was a huge wall. Tis is due to the fact that, in my opinion, Dusit Park is not really a park. Is more like a palace with gardens. Its like saying that you're heading out of Paris to visit Versailles Park or the Parks of Versailles. Moving on, I didn't know which side the entry was on (and I expected that the Thais in their disdain for tourists would have no signage and only one entry, and this place was huge) so I picked a direction and started walking.

A security guard was standing at a roadway as I walked so I asked him where to go, and in his very limited english he instructed me that I was heading in the right direction, so i trooped on. I walked past 6 locked gates with no signage so I assumed the entry was on the other side. At this point I could see the main "palace" but I couldn't get into the grounds and I'd only walked a quarter of the circumference of the complex. At this point I saw the Dusit Zoo, which was next door, so i gave up my search for the entry of Dusit Park and headed into the back entry of Dusit Zoo. I just needed to sit down and relax and at a cost of 30 baht for entry I couldn't resist.

The zoo was beautiful and relaxing, probably because prior to being a zoo it played home to the Botanic Gardens. There was a large lake and plenty of flora and fauna. I sat nect to the lake just atching and relaxing for 30 mins. Then i had a look around the zoo. Many of the cages and enclosures in the zoo were rather primitive, especially for the primates (excuse the punn).

Like everywhere in Bangkok I was surprised by how few tourists there were around. I spotted about four other tourists, from 300-400 zoo patrons. After a few hours in the zoo, greeting tigers and elephants and monkeys, I left and looked for a tuk-tuk.

I'd decided as I was walking around the zoo that I needed to give myself and my feet a break. So I walked over to the tuk-tuk drivers and they jumped on me. I knew where I wanted to go and I wasn't going to get swindled. I asked, "how much to go to the skytrain?" They replied, "100 baht", as they always do. I replied, "50 baht". They said that it was too low and the best they would do was 70. I told them that it was a straight and easy diver and 60 was my last offer. They accepted.

Tuk-tuks are great fun! The danger just adds to the enjoyment. They zip around like a real-life rollercoaster. We arrived at the skytrain and I paid and hopped out. It took a tenth of the time and effort of that walking. The skytrain was 20 baht to go to Siam and that trip was a breeze. I then hit True [God I miss that place, this place is a dive] and spent three hours emailing, photoing and blogging. After this I was busting to go to the toilet so I left to have a look around the centre to some of the areas in which I had not explored. Then I finished at the Siam Paragon with a final hour on the net and a second iced coffee. It was heaven.

I decided that I'd take another tuk-tuk to get home but that I'd start the trip by walking. As I got further along the walk I changed my mind, decided to push through the pain, and as Johnny Walker says, "Kept[sic] Walking". I had maccas for dinner at the democracy statue then walked the rest. Back at the hotel I grabbed my bags, it was about 8:30pm, and went to accept one of my adoring taxi fan's services.

As I walked out I spoke to the hotel taxi service. He quoted 500 baht for a trip to the airport, more than the rip-off on my arrival. I offered 250 and he said no deal, then offered 400. I said no deal. So another guy approached me and offered 400.I said 200. He said lowest was 300 baht. I was determined so I said no deal and left to find a more reasonable driver outside in the taxi man throng. But when I exited there wasnt a driver to be seen. Not even a tuk-tuk (not that i'd take one to the airport). After about 200 minutes, and with the help of a friendly tuk-tuk driver, I managed to secure a cab for 250 baht ($10) to the airport. (I later found out that it was peak hour and some kind of religious/Thai day and thats why it was difficult to get a cab.)

Getting my boarding pass was relatively straight forward and checking my luggage was a breeze. The gentleman at the desk even moved my seat to a couple of spare seats. I spent a lot of time while waiting for my flight looking around the duty free in an attempt to try and spend my final 570 baht. I eventually succeeded and bought some crappy thai brandy. Yum. Then I walked to Gate 55 and waited.

A fun and enjoyable final day in Bangkok. I look forward to the day I can return with a heap more money and a few friends to share it with.

Bankok's Temples and Treachery

2006-04-11T03:30:00.000-04:00

Yesterday i set myself the task of hitting the typically touristy sites. Part of the reason I chose to stay at the Royal Hotel was its proximity to the main attractions, namely the famous and best temples. As a result it was a matter of a short walk to the Grand Palace and Wat Phra Kaew Temple. However, I took a bit of a detour to the Amulet Market, a large amount of stalls on a series of streets selling amulets - gold buddhas, metal circles and jade shapes to protect your soul and to bring good fortune. From there I made my way to the Grand Palace.

The Grand Palace was huge, beautiful and incredibly ostentatious. It had lots of gold and beautiful tiles and mosaics. It also had some wonderful statues and murals. From there I walked around all the buildings and gardens and took plenty of photos. I then had a look at the nearby area and I was taken for my second con. A man saw me enter the monks area and said that he could show me the monks' prayer room. I figured we were in a holy place surrounded by monks, what's the worst that could happen? But I discovered much to my cynical self's dismay that religions are essentially the same whether they worship a dead carpenter, wear orange robes, or believe we descend from aliens - they revolve around money.

The man took me to a monk's quarters, instructed me to remove my shoes, and I started to think that something was going to cost money, but what? (I guess he could expect something for his time.) After some preparations the monk entered and my new friend instructed me to sit. The monk then sat and my friend narrated the monk's actions and explained the significance of different things. The monk attached a thin orange rope around my right wrist then flicked "holy water" on me. My friend then explained that we need amulets to protect us and help us and the monk reached to his right and produced a great choice of amulets for me to choose from. I figuered they couldn't be free so i asked how much they were. The monk handed me one and said 500 baht (AU$20). I asked him about some of the others and they were more expensive - 1200 baht (roughly $50). I'd come this far, been brought down monk alleys, walked into a secluded room filled with monk junk, sat down in front of this holy man with my friend to my right, he's got washed and sat down then attached my powerful orange bracelet and flicked water on me, but I wouldn't be a schmuk. I told them that I didn't have enough money and that i was sorry but I couldn't buy anything. The monk looked upset and he grumbled. My friend suggested a donation so I gave him 100 baht ($4). Then the monk stood up and just like that my religious experience was over. For a measly $4 I had tricked a monk into giving me salvation, godly protection and everlasting happiness and considering he wanted to charge me $20 for it I got a bargain.

Following that enlightenment I walked out of the temple/monk area and onto the streets. After being harassed by more thais offering their services i was fed up with the touristy stuff and I headed to the Siam Paragon. I decided that instead of walking, today I would take the river ferry for as great a distance as was practicable. I then had a much shorter walk than normal to the subway station.

I cooled off in the Paragon and drank a granday capuccino at Starbucks on level 3 while sorting through my finances (makes me happy). I then went to True and spent 3 hours on the net adding photos, replying to emails, chatting on msn, and blogging. I then checked out the gourmet supermarket, bought a new toothbrush (because mine tastes like soap) and went to an atm.

The walk home was a tonne easier than the previous afternoon, obviously because I'd done it already. The only difference was that it was in the evening and dark, however, I didn't have to check my map for the entire 5.5 kms. I grabbed a salad for dinner which was very healthy of me and I enjoyed it.

Funnily enough, I'm getting used to the city and all the annoyances. I could see how one could live here as a westerner. You learn to politely decline all the tuk-tuk drivers and taxi drivers the same as you would in Melbourne for people wanted to sign you up for a credit card in Flinders Street station. The difference is that there are way more of them and they are much more persistent. However, even though I say this, I can't deny that I'm looking forward to leaving the heat, the air, and the dirtiness. Thankfully London will be cold instead of hot, the air will be a tiny bit cleaner and the city a tiny bit neater. Oh well, maybe its not really that different? At least their English is easier to understand (or is it?).

Bangkok

2006-04-10T04:57:00.000-04:00

Its hot and busy. This has to be a super quick post as I've spent all my time uploading and editing photos. Yesterday was a pretty good first day in Bangkok and first day of my trip. I woke early and revived after a good 7 hour sleep. I slept on the top of my bed in my silk inner liner as that was warm enough and I knew it was clean. I didn't fancy sleeping in the Bangkok bed, but maybe i'm overeacting. Either way I had a pleasant sleep and I got up, showered, secured my luggage, and left the room at 9am to have the complimentary breakfast on the ground floor. Breakfast was buffet style and I filled my plate. {Damn, I'm so close to finishing my time on the computer and I can't concentrate because I know this. Shit...Okay, I've paid for another hour so all is well. Fewh!} Anyway, I polished breakfast off and it was great. I even had a English Breakfast Tea, which, funnily enough, I'm becoming quite fond of. On the plane I had three on the way to Thailand. It just has a more relaxed feeling about it, instead of the hyped sort of feeling surrounding coffee. Its also harder to screw up compared with coffee. I think i'll wait until Paris before I head back to the coffees (although starbucks is good). Following my eggs and french toast and tea I stepped out of the hotel and received a copy of punches to the head. First a left from Bangkok's heat and then a stronger right from Bangkok's pollution. I could actually see the air pollution. It was like a light smokey fog surrounding everything. I was greeted (as I have become accustomed to) by a small throng of taxi drivers, it felt like I was some sort of taxi driver celebrity or something but instead of wanted an autograph, they all wanted to give me a ride somewhere, or help me find something or buy something. I politely declined and started on my walk. I headed down Th Ratchadamnoen Nai and past Wat Phra Kaew and the Grand Palace. After walking for about an hour I realised I'd been coughing and had a sore throat. It took me an additional 15 minutes to work out it was the polution causing this. (It is disgusting - in your breathe, eyes and mouth. When you wet your lips with your tongue to keep them moist you can taste the salt and dirt from the air.)

I took a left and headed towards chinatown to have a look at the market and the real city and people. I became lost a heap of times, having to backtrack to where I was not lost because the streets and lanes are so crazy and underneath those awnings you lose track of everything. I somehow managed to eventually make it through. It was terribly dirty and smelly with almost every building in a state of disrepair with cracks and puddles and rubbish everywhere. Along with the buildings, people are also everywhere - lying on almost every bench, huddled next to building and shops, on the street corners, in parks. Some are selling things, some are talking, but most are sleeping. Lots of people.

After a few hours walking, I eventually made my way to the other side of the river Mae Nam Chao Phraya. There I was conned into a 100 baht tuk-tuk ride (this guy caught me off guard i forgot about the whole haggling thing, damn it, I hate being a schmuk) that lasted about 3 mins. It probably should have cost 30 baht. He took me to the Hualamphong train station (ultra clean and elegant) where i took the subway train to Chatuchak Park and the Weekend Markets.

The Weekend Market was huge, like a Vic Market on steroids. Literally at least ten times the size of a normal market. It had everything cheap and nasty. A fake Diesel watch I was looking at broke as the lady took it off my wrist. I left the market after my legs and body could handle it (it was raining but I was already drenched from the heat) and took the new skytrain to Siam station then found myself in Siam Paragon, a huge beautiful high-class shopping centre. There I relaxed and got out of the heat and the rain. I went on the internet at True and then grabbed a coffee at Starbucks.

As I wanted to be home by dark I left and started walking back, only stopping to find my way and to buy dinner at a 7-11 and ask directions. I made it back to the hotel by 6pm and had dinner in my room. It was a tiring day overall but i pushed myself through minor jetlag and had a fun and interesting day.

Don't be afraid to comment and be sure to check out all the photos on Flickr by clicking here. If you join flickr then make me 'avecmatilda' a friend I'll do the same for you and you'll have access to more photos, some of which include me. heh.

My Trip Begins: Thailand

2006-04-09T03:58:00.000-04:00

Yesterday in a whirlwind and a panic I left my room, my home, and my pets and headed off to the airport. I was very lucky to make it because, as usual, i left a lot of things until the last minute. I basically started packing my luggage the morning of my flight. It was very stressful. But we made it to the airport comfortably and I had a last 'meal' and coffee with my loved ones before saying a teary goodbye. Eleven months. That's a long time for a little boy like me. Its over 5 times longer than the previous longest time I've been away from my family and friends. Its basically an entire year of my life. But I've started and there's no turning back now.

The plane trip to Sydney was relatively easy. I had a reasonable seat in a three with a friendly couple to my right who were interested in my ipod, then later were interested in my camera. Upon arrival in Sydney I took a quick bus trip from domestic to international and was back on another plane. This time the seats were crappy, I was in the middle again but had two men to my left and one to my right, all of them smelly, ugly and uninteresting. So I bunkered in and watched family guy episodes on my ipod and then a couple of ordinary movies. Although, Pride and Prejudice was a surprisingly good movie. I'm slowly coming around to keira knightley.

The 747 touched down in Bangkok smoothly and then it was a matter of tracking down my luggage and double checking that I hadn't magically aquired more luggage on the way. Luckily all was as it should be and I walked out of the arrivals/immigration section without a hitch (probably because there was no one x-raying or working). Then I turned a corner and was astounded by the throng of people waiting for arrivals. I believe it was something around 400 people. I twas like parting the red sea as I walked towards them and past them. Then in the distance from there to the outside I was approached by about 15 people offering taxi services. I politely declined because I'd read in the Lonely Planet (LP) that they rip you off and you're better to go out to the taxi rank, which is what i did. It cost 400 baht (AU$16), a little expensive for Thailand but not outrageous. The driver was nice, but he (like almost everyone else) tried to get me to have a tour with him the next day, so he could show me all the sites.

The Royal Hotel is a great big place. It is my place of residence while i'm here in Thailand. It is huge. Upon arrival at 11pm a busboy grabbed my bags and after check in he carried them up to my room for me. (It feels like there are too many people and all these jobs which probably don't need someone get filled by a person. then jobs which only need one person are filled by three people.) After his help he stood at the door and I had no idea what kind of tip to give him, so i gave 20baht note (AU$0.80)? Then I unpacked my things, had a shower, and watched some funny thai shows while I worked out my stuff. It was a long and emotional day but somehow I got through it relatively easily.

Optus Email SMS

2006-04-01T02:59:00.000-04:00

hello everyone. This is the first blog entry from my mobile phone. How exciting! This is gonna be fun.

22nd AJ and I

2006-03-31T23:08:00.000-04:00

21st AJ and I
Last week i celebrated my 22nd birthday at Van Gogh bar in the city. It was a star studded event and I think everyone had a great time. By the end of the night everyone was toasted and i think everyone was also able to meet someone new and find out a little more about me.

This is great

2006-03-31T22:13:00.000-04:00

I'm really liking this blogging system. Last time i went overseas am.com was not exactly how i wanted it. It looked good but was not really how i wanted it in terms of usability etc. This one is way easier to blog to and add things. I hope everyone else can use it and enjoy it.

My first stop

2006-03-31T22:00:00.000-04:00

My first stop is going to be Bangkok and I have 3 days there. I'm in the process of working things out and what i'm going to do while i'm there. It will be really hot and I think i only have time to do the normal touristy things like visit the palace and do some shopping.

Here again

2006-03-31T21:51:00.000-04:00

OK, here we go, i'm trying some new things and as a result i need something to write. I've got less than a week before I leave and I have mixed feeling as to the event. The overwhelming feeling is excitement, but there is a underlying feeling of nervousness and a tiny drop of fear. But thats all part of the fun.

The real thing

2006-03-31T20:38:00.000-04:00

I'm slowly getting this site together so that its ready before I go overseas. However, its taking a bit more time and effort than i expected. The preparation for my trip is going reasonably well with everything coming together. My only fear is that I've forgotten some major thing for my trip, but all the basics have been taken care of. Insurance is done, ticket is paid for, accomodation is sorted out. More posts to come...

Jack Bauer Facts

2006-01-01T07:01:00.000-04:00

1. Only Jack Bauer can fly a plane from the luggage compartment.

2. The city of Los Angeles once named a street after Jack Bauer in gratitude for his saving the city several times. They had to rename it after people kept dying when they tried to cross the street. No one crosses Jack Bauer and lives.

3. Jack Bauer doesn't need to eat, sleep, or use the bathroom because his organs are afraid of making him angry.

4. If Jack Bauer was in a room with Hitler, Stalin, and Nina Meyers, and he had a gun with 2 bullets, he'd shoot Nina twice.

5. Passed out, surrounded by terrorists and nerve gas, and handcuffed to a table leg, Jack Bauer laughed to himself and said, "I have them right where I want them."

6. If everyone on "24" followed Jack Bauer's instructions, it would be called "12".

7. Once, someone tried to tell Jack Bauer a "knock knock" joke. Jack Bauer found out
who was there, who they worked for, and where the goddamned bomb was.

8. If Jack Bauer's gun jams, it's because he wanted to beat you with it.

9. Jack Bauers calender goes from March 31st to April 2nd, no one fools Jack Bauer.

10. Upon hearing that he was played by Kiefer Sutherland, Jack Bauer killed Sutherland. Jack Bauer gets played by no man.

11. Jack Bauer once forgot where he put his keys. He then spent the next half-hour torturing himself until he gave up the location of the keys.

12. There have been no terrorist attacks in United States since Jack Bauer has appeared on television.

13. American Idol is only popular because it has a commercial for 24.

14. If you wake up in the morning, it's because Jack Bauer spared your life.

15. When Kim Bauer lost her virginity, Jack Bauer found it and got it back.

16. Superman wears Jack Bauer pajamas.

17. 1.6 billion Chinese are angry with Jack Bauer. Sounds like a fair fight.

18. The state of California plans to reduce violent crime by changing the method of capital punishment from lethal injection to Jack Bauer.

19. When life gave Jack Bauer lemons, he used them to kill terrorists. Jack Bauer fucking hates lemonade.

20. If it tastes like chicken, looks like chicken, and feels like chicken, but Jack Bauer says its beef. Then it's fucking beef.

21. Lets get one thing straight, the only reason you are conscious right now is because Jack Bauer does not feel like carrying you.

22. Jack Bauer played Russian Roulette with a fully loaded gun and won.

23. Jack Bauer sleeps with a pillow under his gun.

24. Jack Bauer once won a game of Connect 4 in 3 moves.

25. A standard deck now contains 48 cards. Too many people were getting hurt for trying to play Jack.

26. It's no use crying over spilt milk... Unless that was Jack Bauer's milk. Oh you are so screwed.

27. Jack Bauer was never addicted to heroin. Heroin was addicted to Jack Bauer.

28. On a high school math test, Jack Bauer put down "Violence" as every one of the answers. He got an A+ on the test because Jack Bauer solves all his problems with Violence.

29. Jack Bauer is the leading cause of death in Middle Eastern men.

30. Jack doesn't believe in Murphy's Law, only Bauer's Law: "Whatever CAN go wrong, WILL be resolved in a period of 24 hours."

31. In order to control illegal immigration in the United States, the president installed cardboard cutouts of Jack Bauer along the US/Mexico border.

32. Jack Bauer could strangle you with a cordless phone.

33. Jack Bauer set an ordinary flash memory card to self-destruct. Don't ask how he did it, he's fucking Jack Bauer.

34. If Rosa Parks was in Jack Bauer's seat, she'd move to the back of the bus.

35. Killing Jack Bauer doesn't make him dead. It just makes him angry.

36. Tony was once shot in the neck, rushed to the hospital, underwent emergency surgery and was back on the job in just a few hours. Jack Bauer still can't believe that pussy went to the hospital first.

37. There is the right way, the wrong way, and the Jack Bauer way. It's basically the right way but faster and more deaths.

38. Jack Bauer doesn't miss. If he didn't hit you it's because he was shooting at another terrorist twelve miles away.

39. Jack Bauer wasn't born, he was unleashed.

40. Finding Nemo would have been vastly more exciting had Jack Bauer been looking for him.

41. Jack Bauer doesn't take fingerprints, he takes fingers.

42. In 96 hours, Jack Bauer has killed 93 people and saved the world 4 times. What the fuck have you done with your life?

43. Superman's only weakness is Kryptonite. Jack Bauer laughs at Superman for having a weakness.

44. The truth may hurt, but it doesn't hurt as much as Jack Bauer.

45. When someone asks him how his day is going, Jack replies, "Previously, on 24..."

46. Osama bin Laden's recent proposal for truce is a direct result of him finding out that Jack Bauer is, in fact, still alive.

47. Jack Bauer doesn't speak any foreign languages, but he can make any foreigner speak English in a matter of minutes.

48. Jack Bauer arm once wrestled Superman. The stipulations were the loser had to wear his underwear on the outside of his pants.

49. Jack Bauer once visited the Virgin Islands. They are now The Islands.

50. When Jack Bauer goes to the airport and the metal detector doesn't go off, security gives him a gun.

51. Don't ever ask Jack Bauer what is going on. He'll explain in the car.

52. Simon Says should be renamed to Jack Bauer Says because if Jack Bauer says something then you better fucking do it.

53. Jack Bauer's favorite color is severe terror alert red. His second favorite color is violet, but just because it sounds like violent.

54. Never use the phrase, "I feel half dead," around Jack Bauer; he never leaves a job unfinished.

55. In the 18 months where Jack Bauer was presumed dead, Tony Almeida was put in a coma, Michelle and David Palmer were killed, a major hurricane raveged the Gulf Coast, and Rob Schneider made another movie. See what happens when Bauer isn't around?

56. Every mathematical inequality officially ends with "< Jack Bauer".

57. Sun Tzu once wrote, "If your enemy is weaker, conquer him. If he is stronger, join him. If he is Jack Bauer, you're fucking dead."

58. When Google can't find something, it asks Jack Bauer for help.

59. You know Jack Bauer loves Audrey when he willingly gives up the opportunity to torture her.

60. Jack Bauer killed 93 people in just 4 days time. Wait, that is a real fact.

61. In high school Jack Bauer was voted "Most Likely to Kill the Foreign Kid"... and "Best Eyes."

62. There are no such thing as lesbians, just women who never met Jack Bauer.

63. If Jack Bauer was in a room with Hitler, Stalin, and Nina Meyers, and he had a gun with 2 bullets, he'd shoot Stalin and Hitler so they wouldn't have to bear witness to what he'd do to Nina.

64. Kim Bauer was an accident. Not even the pill can stop Jack Bauer.

65. Jack Bauer once killed so many terrorists that at one point, the #5 CIA Most Wanted fugitive was an 18-year-old teenager in Malaysia who downloaded the movie Dodgeball.

66. Jack Bauer teaches a course at Harvard entitled: "Time Management: Making the Most Out Of Each Day."

67. When you open a can of whoop-ass, Jack Bauer jumps out.

68. If Jack Bauer saw a terrorist reaching for a bomb to blow himself up, Jack would shoot the bomb first. Nobody steals a kill from Jack Bauer.

69. Don't beg Jack Bauer to shoot you. He will simply shoot your wife. No man tells Jack Bauer what to do.

70. Jesus died and rose from the dead in 3 days. It took Jack Bauer less than an hour. And he's done it twice.

71. When President Palmer quit to start doing Allstate commercials, it took him 43 takes before he could stop saying, "You're in good hands with Jack Bauer".

72. There are three leading causes of death among terrorists. They are all Jack Bauer.

73. "Jack Bauer" is Arabic for "I'm fucked".

74. The answer is Jack Bauer, the question doesn't matter.

75. Jack Bauer was able to eliminate Bird Flu playing Duck Hunt.

76. When Jack Bauer was a child, he made his mother finish his vegetables.

77. Jack Bauer is the 'i' in team.

78. Quetin Tarantino was asked to direct a biography about Jack Bauer. He passed. It was too violent.

79. People with amnesia still remember Jack Bauer.

80. Jack Bauer does not let women on top during sex. Why? Because Jack Bauer never fucks up.

81. When Batman is in trouble, he turns on the Jack Bauer signal.

82. Your attraction to Jack Bauer in no way affects your sexual orientation.

83. Jack Bauer can get McDonald's breakfast after 10:30.

84. Jack Bauer once went into a bar, and asked for a 'Jack Bauer'. He received three shots of Jack Daniel's, a shot of kerosene and four shots of tequila mixed. When seeing this, another man approached the bar and asked for a Jack Bauer. He got a 9mm round to the face.

85. Anything is a weapon of mass destruction in the hands of Jack Bauer.

86. Jack Bauer removed the "Escape" button from his keyboard. Jack Bauer never needs to escape.

87.When the boogie man goes to sleep, he checks his closet for Jack Bauer.

88. Jack Bauer got Hellen Keller to talk.

89. Due to Jack Bauer, no one looks forward to the weekend anymore, they look forward to the weekend being over, and watching 24 on Monday.

90. G.I. Joe has Jack Bauer action figures.

91. If Jack Bauer misspells a word, your dictionary is wrong.

92. Jack Bauer can leave a message before the beep.

93. The Black Eyed Peas were just The Peas until Jack Bauer heard their music.

94. Explosions do not kill Jack Bauer, they just get stuff out of his way.

95. Guns dont kill people, Jack Bauer kills people.

96. It is a known fact that when Time magazine awards "The Man of Year*", there is fine print on the bottom of the cover that says, " *besides Jack Bauer."

97. What color is Jack Bauer's blood? Trick question. Jack Bauer does not bleed.

98. A fist fight with Jack Bauer is more commonly known as a gunfight.

99. Jack Bauer uses #1 pencils on standardized tests.... Jack Bauer doesn't associate with anything that is #2.

100. Finding Nemo would have been vastly more exciting had Jack Bauer been looking for him.

CHECK OUT the Jack Bauer Kill Count.

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