Oxford and Ireland

Well, it certainly has been a while since I have updated this.

Sorry to keep you waiting. I bet you are all wondering what zany and craaaaazy adventures I have been up to of late. OK, here goes.

Three weeks ago it was a bank holiday weekend. You gotta love the bankers round here (Even if they do take 3 months to make a simple eftpos card work. Actually while I'm at it - that banking here actually does suck really bad. It takes a few days for a simple eftpos transaction to show up in your accounts. At which stage I have quickly checked my balances online, get stupidly stoked thinking I have more money than I really do and go on spending sprees, only to find I am in hard core overdraft in a few days time when the bank decides to get round to updating my accounts).

That gripe gone, I do like there holidays. They have one - we all have one. Everyone wins!!!!! Apart from employers, they don't win.

So, for that long weekend, Pedro (flatties boyfriend) said that he was travelling to Oxford to sort out a house of his and offered us a ride and a place to crash. "YOU KNOW IT" we said and travelled out to the town famous for its sprawling university. In fact it is more like the university is famous for its town. The university basically is the town as each campus is scattered across the landscape with a few shops in between. After a spot of Burger King (I know) we tried to get into universities to see their prestigious campuses and immaculate lawns. Most were closed but we did break into one by jimmying open a back window with the pinch bar I brought along.

Whoa - only kidding.





After strolling the streets, we came across a university that hired boats out to the public, so we grabbed one. It was a pedal boat and worked the calves, glutes, and upper thighs in one easy motion. Some people hired those boats that have to be pushed along with a stick. Idiots. We burnt passed them, splashing water on their faces and laughing whole heartedly.

It was a nice wee boat ride through the surrounding rivers of Oxford and we pedalled for an hour.

After that we had a spot of dinner and tucked into some booze.





The next day Pedro took us out to Blenheim Palace for the day. He showed us a back entrance so we didn't have to pay the ridiculously overpriced £18 entry fee. The place was huge, the gardens alone were bigger than New Zealand (slight exaggeration). There were lakes and secret gardens and a hedge maze, and mini put and a butterfly enclosure. It was pretty awesome. So we spent the day there, milling around and causing trouble.





We finished the day off and drove back home, keen for work the next day.

The weekend after Oxford was a nothing weekend. Tried to save money. Did meet up with my long time mate Richie who currently resides in Sweden. My strolled through Camden markets and planned my own trip to Sweden in September.







Last weekend, Renee and I flew to Ireland for the two days. I booked the flights to leave London at around midday and lucky I did as when you take off waiting time, and transport time to get out to the airport we had to leave the house by 7am. We flew into Belfast and checked out the town. I was expecting the buildings to still be smoking and troops of soldiers in riot gear patrolling the city limits. Not the case however. In honesty, it was quite a boring city. We had a money scare and found out we only had £14 between us for the whole weekends food and drink. I made sure I got a Guinness from the tap and the rest we spent on noodles and meal deals.





That night, whilst staring out the window in the dorm, we noticed an old man get basically booted out of a bar before he could even step foot in there. "Piss off" they said "We don't want you round these parts".
Then this even older guy held him back on the ground and reiterated "Yeah, piss off". Renee was like "Oh my god, that poor man" and I explained that he was probably a catholic or something trying to walk into a protestant bar. So it is still fairly bad round here. That night, at around 4 in the morning I was awoken with
"No one stands on my friends fookin' head and gets away with it", said by some batty lady who must have been mental as she kept yelling it out about 100 times at the top of her lungs. Then this guy tried to bottle a girl nearby. The Irish get crazy when they are drunk!

On the Sunday we said "see ya later" to Belfast and drove out into the country to go see the Giants Causeway, a collection of very cool rock formations arranged so they look like hexagonal and octagonal steps everywhere. Its hard to describe. We crossed an ancient rope bridge and our driver, who was VERY Irish kept making jokes about it.

"300 years ago, when the rope bridge was built, you see, they had one handrail on it, as you well know. Nowadays however, they have NO handrails".

He paused for a few seconds and then finished his stories with a
"No, I'm only joking, eh"

Imagine this in a leprechaun voice and you can see why I nearly had to be admitted to hospital to have my split sides stitched back up. Hilarious.











We flew back into London and got home a little after midnight. No more weekend trips I decided as I was wasted for work, and I came in especially early to get stuff finished.

So now we have Renee's brother and his girlfriend staying with us for the weekend and then Renee's Mum and stepdad arrive for a few weeks so it is busy busy with them for a while. I am thinking that July is going to be quiet on the travel front and will probably be taken up with getting this apartment building out.

A few concerts coming up may be interesting including

Roxy Music
Paul McCartney
Blink 182
Pearl Jam and Ben Harper
Kings of Leon and Florence and the Machine together
Roger Waters THE WALL - which I have already purchased tickets for, sweet

Cool. Talk soon in a couple of weeks

Wales

Before I start with my wee adventure in the weekend, I will cap off last week.

On the Tuesday, went to the pub with a few workmates for ONE pint. That one pint turned into a few more than desired and I ended up stumbling onto the tube and feeling dizzy, wondering why it seemed to take a much quicker time than what it normally did. I couldn't help it - one of my bosses turned up and started forking out for drinks and telling these ridiculous stories about the office. It is crazy the things that have happened here.

Got me kinda worried.

Anyway, the next day, it was fair to say that I wasnt in the healthiest of head spaces. It was OK though because most others in the office were like that also. By Friday, with a lack of sleep, and a pounding head from too much computer screen action, I was fairly spent. Nevertheless, I always find a way to dig myself in deeper and I discovered that the weekend I had decided to go to Wales was the exact same weekend that the London Council had decided to complete uproot its entire underground network.
So, to get to Paddington station to catch the 7:30am train to Wales, we had to wake up at around 5am to catch all these alternative underground routes that will get us to a destination that should have taken 15 mins.

I am getting fairly over this underground. Its the whole 'over-the-under' situation.

Anyway, we got to Wales on time and felt like we had already been up for half a day. What was to happen? you wonder. Well, someone was found dead on the tracks. So that inevitably meant that all trains were shutdown until the police could investigate the situation. So, after all our mucking around, we could have slept in longer anyway. Its that Murphy's Law thing.

We finally got on our train and relaxed into a table seat, playing cards, as we were hurtled through the English countryside at break neck speed. They really have ramped up train efficiency over here. We stepped off the train in Cardiff at around lunchtime. Now, I realise that Cardiff is the capital of Wales but what I didnt realise is how tiny it is for a capital city. We walked the whole town in little under half an hour. Strolling out to the harbour, we decided to forego a bus tour and opt for a water tour. "Forget the bus" I said to Renee "Water is where it is at!" and I jumped on board having paid my £4 in excitement.





This was possibly the most boring boat ride I have ever been on. Instead of a tour boat it was more like a ferry with some guy rambling on about plants. "As you can see to your right, those bushes over there is what the harbour had by its water edge before they decided to clear it". Some people took photos. Of a bush.

I almost cried.



We headed back to the city after a spot of eating and found Cardiff Castle, which we paid over £10 to get in. It was fairly cool, I guess. I took heaps of photos and then bought a small Welsh dragon in the gift shop, as well as a tiny pencil sharpener fashioned into a working catapult. I cannot describe how cool it is, and for £2 I thought 'why not'.





Renee and I then headed to a local bar and sat down for some ciders. The sun was scorching and the ice evaporated quickly. It was then that I noticed something very strange. Everyone was walking around fulfilling at least 1 of the following descriptions; wifebeater singlet, tattoos, hot pants and/or, no top on at all (unfortunately it was only the guys). It would seem if you didnt adhear to these strict codes then you obviously weren't Welsh, ala myself. I stuck out like a sore thumb, what with my jeans, t-shirt, ink free skin, and sunburnt nose.

So, we got back on the train, had an interchange at a station in Bristol, had a smart ass kid try to tell me that my seat on the train was actually his before I started to position myself in boxing stance and he quickly moved. Idiot.
Got back home around midnight and fell into bed.

The next day wqas an absolute scorcher so the flatties and I headed to Wimbledon park for some beers, tennis ball petanque and dark glass observing. The place was packed, I would love to see it when tennis is actually played there.

So that weekend was great. I have Oxford this weekend (available funds permitting) and we have just booked tickets to Ireland in a few weekends time. They were £3 each way.

Nice

Whats new???

I have had a few comments recently asking why I havent put up a post in a while. Gee wizz, its only been a couple of weeks!!!.

Anyway, truth is, nothing much has happened. I would like to say that I flew to Kenya but, sadly, that hasnt happened. So, I will fill you in from where we left off.

OK. Seeing as it is summer and I still have to rug up in my oversized ski jacket to make the commute to work, I have been trying frantically to find an awesome coat to rock out in. I have looked everywhere. And nothing. I actually found a really nice one but found that it was too tight across my broad shoulders. I could have hulk smashed something, I was so angry. I did feel like the hulk in that jacket anyway; one tense of the arms and the thing would have torn at the seams.

So, my jacket hunt has taken me to Oxford St on two occasions, and Kingston Town a weekend ago before I gave up and decided to wait till winter, when they apparently come out of hibernation. Kingston Town was nice, I think UB40 wrote a song about it. Really big shopping town and it was a nice river winding through it so we grabbed a lunch on the rivers edge.

Last weekend, I decided to head to the Battersea powerstation and get some photos of the building made famous by Pink Floyd for their 'Animals' album cover. It is an awesome building but pretty derelict. After that we attempted heading to some food markets but found to our dismay that they were all closed up on Sundays. 'Damn it' I said aloud and decided to stroll along the Thames and visit the Tate Modern. We then went to Camden town for the third time since we have been here. Camden is so much fun. I ate a Churro, which is heaven in a donut. Renee got chocolate covered stawberries, with three types of chocolate, hold the nuts.



I recently purchased a monthly travel card (for £116 per month!!!!!! It hurts). It means I dont have to muck around with individual tickets and I can travel basically anywhere in main London, whenever I want for a whole month. Its good. Having it means that I am keen to go out and check the London hotspots every weekend. Coming soon: the Abbey Road pedestrian crossing from the Beatles cover. Maybe Notting Hill some other time

This coming Saturday, Renee and I are travelling to Wales. Why? you ask. Why not? Its £30 for a return train ticket to Cardiff, which is pretty good value. The travel time is 2, 3/4 hours each way so it will be a long day. The weekend after that, one of our flatties boyfriends, Pedro (his real name is Peter but he prefers Pedro because Peter is a pussy name, and he looks Spainish) is going to take us to his hometown of Oxford. Would be good to check out the university campus and hit the pubs up. Maybe challenge a few college students to a boat race of beer.
Its hard you know - literal humour.

So, The next post will be in 2 weeks time. Can you all handle the wait??? Im not so sure.

Just be strong.

Would actually be good to know who is reading this. Drop me an email to let me know what you are up to if you are. Would be keen as English mustard to have some chats

A month in......

So. It has been a month since we arrived in the UK. We have managed to do all the settling in stuff so it is smooth sailing from here which is good.

Work is going well. I have just been given an entire 40 unit apartment building to work through with one other guy. Yes, just he and I. I have to get the drawings out by the end of July so that will be a mission. Should be fun though and if I do well with it I should enevitably be looking at a promotion. I think they have given me the project to test the waters so to say, so I will be pulling some long and busy hours to get my head around it all.

Last weekend was a massive one. caught up with a few old universtity friends and we partied at a bar directly beneath the swiss re tower (the Gherkin building - Im sure you know of it). That was fun. The next day we went out in Soho and had a massive one, starting at around 4 or 5 to celebrate a friend of ours birthday. That Sunday was the actual celebrations so we all hopped on a river ferry and travelled to Greenwich to do some bar hopping. The ferry was really cool and the guy on the boat knew heaps of facts about all the buildings on the water, especially the pubs. He had done some in depth research into those pubs apparently.

It was fair to say that by the time I got to work on Monday, I was fairly haggled. The computer screen was blurry and eminating a soul destroying white glow. It was at 5:30 that my boss offered me a ride home, as he lives over the road from me. I gratefully accepted and skipped out of work half an hour early and knowing that I would miss my one hour ride home on the tube in favour of a much brisker 25 min car ride.

We drove past heaps of places in London I didnt even realise were famous. Like the fact that about 300m from my work is a massive building that marks the spot that William Wallace was killed. And that the gateway I walk under every day to work is around 800 years old. I also noticed that when I get to the next street across from my work, St Pauls Cathedral looms over me with its grandoise brilliance.

We pulled into my bosses driveway and I was like "Wow, thanks for the ride. That was awesome". and he was like "well, are you going to come in for a drink". So, nervously, I accepted.

That night was the biggest of all the 3 nights preceeding it. I got smashed with him and his wife. Renee came along later and we all went out for Indian, which I have discovered is considerably more spicy than back in NZ. I had the spice hiccups straight away and I checked my tongue in the mirror and it was blood red.

I found out that I am actually working in a bloody good office. My boss was one of the 40 under 40; a term describing the top 40 architects in the world under the age of 40. His practice that he had before this one had 200 people working under him. Now he has 17 but they have just received a massive contract and looking to double that staff number in the next month.

It was good to hear what he had to say about architecture, though I didnt remember it. I walked into work the next day purposefully early and asked him how he was feeling. He replied "Fine" rather nonchalantly, which basically meant that he wasnt hungover at all, so I quickly replied "yeah Im fine too" and painfully sat myself down at the computer screen.

Just watched the Black caps win against Sri Lanka in the world cup last night. Good stuff. Hope they do well this tournament. Was supposed to be going to Salisbury and Stonehenge etc this weekend but the weather is crap so we have decided to wait and will go shopping on Oxford St instead. Maybe watch Ironman 2. What am I saying 'Maybe'. Definately.

I need to buy some more undies too.

Settled in

OK. Moved into the new flat yesterday. Had a bit of a BBQ / Drinking session to kick things off which turned into a massive booze up. There was only a few of us but we polughed through enough alcohol to make people looking through our rubbish bins think that a rugby team had been there.

The flat is nice and the flatmates are nice. Went shopping to get sheets and the likes and fully unpacked everything so it is good to not live out of the suitcase anymore. You get over that stuff pretty quickly.

The other weekend Renee and I checked out Camden and went through the markets. Crazy place with heaps of small alleyways leading off to vintage clothing shops and so forth. You can get anything there. It is a bit more alternative than the rest of London so there are heaps of mohawks, peircings, fishenets and tatts.

Cool place though.

There is a bank holiday coming up in 2 weeks time so we are planning to do a day trip that will encompass visiting Salisbury, Bath and Stonehenge. Should be fun for a day, although I hear Stonehenge aint all its cracked up to be.

Chatting with Tara (a girl we went on Contiki with other here) and we have decided to plan a holiday for the new years break that will see us in Times Square for the big night and then to Vegas as an afterparty. Flights to the states, in particular Vegas with a stopover in New York are around the 200-300 pound mark (return) so that is crazy cheap considering I should be able to save around 200 pound per week on my salary.

Work is going well. Found out my boss lives over the road from me. London is a fairly small town after all.

Oh yeah, by the way. If you dont have it already, my UK number is 07 896 043 539 or if you want to get in contact from overseas (say NZ) then it is +44 7 896 043 539. Cool. We have internet all set up here so I can begin to do some skype dates soon.

All good. Will be checking in shortly after our visit to Salisbury and stuff so check back in 2 weeks or so.

P.S. Man. They closed all the airports over her and air travel is a state of anarchy. Lucky I aint travelling anywhere shortly but my mate Yifan is stuck in New York and cant get back. Poor bugger. Hope it sorts itself out soon cos I wanna fly to Portugal and Turkey. Holla

Back to the slog

So, within 10 days in London, Renee and I both have jobs and we have sorted out a place to live, not to mention bank accounts, tax numbers and cellphones. It has been hectic!

I managed to haul down a job in a central city architecture studio. It is around 20 people large and they specialize in a lot of large residential works and so forth. They all seem pretty friendly. My pay is still shit - I am getting over this whole architecture deal very fast, but I should be able to start saving in a wee bit. The other stink thing about the office is that they use computer programs that I have no idea about. I am trying to learn them now and semi struggling. They use macs also which is a bit different. Its all about hot keys.

I am just recovering from an untimely cold which I was not too stoked on getting. I had to start work and try to listen to what people where saying with a swimming head and a dripping nose.

It takes me around an hour to get to work each day. I hear this is the norm. Seeing I travel in the peak times it means I get up close and very personal with complete strangers on the underground.

We just locked down a flat in a suburb called Southfields (which, funnily enough, is also the area of the bar I am staying in temporarily for the moment). It is a nice place located right next to Wimbledon which should be fun come the summer. The flat is actually a house with 6 people living in 4 bedrooms. It was one of the nicest (and reasonably priced) places we could find. I tell ya, the majority of places out there are shitholes. I would know - I've visited nearly 20 of them in the last few days. So, this place has a backyard and a seperate living room to kitchen. It comes fully furnished so no need to buy beds etc (thats the norm).
We are right next to the entrance to the tube station which would make it way better when it starts snowing and crap in winter. It is absolutely freezing here at the moment and its meant to be coming into summer. When Mum used to visit us in Wellington and say "Oh, its so cold", and I would be like "What!! This is actually alright weather!!", it is way different here. I rug up to the point of looking more like a large beach ball than a human form and I still shiver. I think Mum would freeze like the T1000 did when he had liquid nitrogen sprayed on him.

Anyway, thats about it. Went to Soho last Saturday night and had cocktails all day. They were 2 for 1 which made them about £2.5 each. Not bad at all (thats Lond Island Ice Teas included). It was kinda for my birthday so that was cool.

Oh yeah - Renee got a part time nanny job. Its only Monday and Friday work but at least it will bring in around £100 a week for her until she finds something more full time.

Ok, thats about it

Australia, Malaysia and all

We arrived at Sydney airport and I was greeted with a hug by Nathan (there may have been a butt-grab also). He was good enough to come to the airport and escort us into town which was super mean. The room in the Novotel overlooked Darling Harbour and was simply superb. That first night sent us heading to the casino to spend up some cash. I had purchased a few bottles of booze going through duty free so that eased the night into proceedings. Before we went to the casino however, we took a short stroll around Darling Harbour itself and found ourselves in a bar buying cheap $10 cocktails. The toffee apple was the best by far.

Nathan won up large at the casino on that first night and we celebrated with more drinks. We left the night a few dollars up over when we started.

The next day we drove out to Bondi and checked out the ..... surf. There was a surfing comp on at the time and Kelly Slater was there. Didnt watch him surf as we had more pressing matters at hand. We drove back the long way (around the coast) to get into Sydney central again. From there we took a water taxi from Darling Harbour to the Opera House and spent our time strolling the harbour. We got back to the hotel just as it was about to piss down and set into some more drinks. Like idiots we decided to head back to the casino and things went slightly pear shaped so we decided to get the hell outta there before we lost heaps. The next day was spent just chilling out. Went to the nautical museum to go through the submarine and destroyer located in Darling Harbour (and now I have just realsied that I still owe Nath $20 for the entrance fee - shit, sorry man. Will sort it out somehow in the future)

We flew into Melbourne in the afternoon and had dinner at a funky restaurant called Groove Train. The next few days were spent relaxing in Apollo Bay and attacking internet sites looking for UK work. We drove to Melbourne again for the weekend and played some serious Wii at Renee's bro's (Luke) place (Wii Resort = Gold). Luke and I played a round of golf the next day which went pretty dismally I must say. We then drowned our sorrows with beers and more Wii. That night Renee was catching up with all her girl mates and I was dragged into it. I was the only guy amongst 5 girls. Who knew that much chocolate could be consumed in one night.

Met up with Renee's Dad for the first time the next day and we all went to the Bavarian Beer Gardens before finishing off the night with dinner in Fed Square. The beer gardens were a huge open ground with heaps of tables and live bands (like a mini Blues, Brews and BBQ's - so Im told).

A few days later we jumped on a plane and headed to Malaysia. City = Kuala Lumpur. First time for me in this city so it was fairly exciting. Due to the relative youth of the city, it was lacking in historical structures that could knock your socks off. The Petronas Towers were nice though and we went up and walked along the central connection bridge. Shops in Malaysia are all located in malls. Try to find a shop in the street and you cant, then you see a huge building and that is where they all are. I figure it is to provide a cooler air conditioned space to do the shopping in because the temperature was around the 37 degree mark with about 1000% humidity. The second day we did a few tours, one through the city to see all the landmarks and the other at night to a dinner and a show finished off with the Chinese markets. The dinner was buffet style and awesome and the dancing sucked. The chinese markets were just like any other asian country - cheap ripoffs of clothes and shoes etc. I brought a polo shirt and discovered that Renee and I had only a few bucks to get us through the next day.

So that next day we went to the largest mall in Malaysia, and this thing was huge - all 13 storeys of it. Yes, you read right - 13 storeys!!! We went straight for the indoor themepark complete with rollercoaster that puts Rainbows End to shame. After nearly throwing up on some ride we decided to go for a quick game of bowling. We were on lane 29 of about 80.

That night we shared a cup of 2 min noodles as that was all we could afford.

The flight to London was fine, and I met up with my mate Kevin who has put us up in a room above his pub and he even cooked us a roast dinner last night. Solid stuff. So, right now, I am about to head into the city and start sorting my life out. I wont be updating this blog as much as I used to but stay tuned as I may make updates around every 3 weeks or so.

Lets put mums mind at ease

OK. From Prague I went back to London and stayed there a week. Went to Legoland which was more for kids but was still pretty awesome.
Spent the other days catching up withsome contiki people and also saw Brad in London so went out on a night with him. Mental Note: Dont miss the tube again. Had to catch night busses which isnt fun when you are drunk. Ha
Right now I am in Abu Dhabi. Got a seemingly dodgy flight on a crowd called Etihad Airways but they are awesome.
Will be in Melbourne in a days time looking for work.

Thats all for now folks

A breath of fresh air

Well, Berlin is awesome. Really cool.

Customs and the airport were sweet as. We decided to go through customs as we thought that we had some semi dodgy stuff that we had nabbed in egypt but they were like 'sweet as yo''.

Went and saw Daniel Libeskinds Jewish Museum - a building which I have been keen to see for a while now and it was cool. Think I got vertigo within it though. There are no right angles to be found anywhere in the building. Anywhere. I am even talking about where the floor meets and wall and the wall meets the ceiling. The building itself was more of the attraction rather than the exhibits it displayed within it (stuff from the holocaust - jewish notebooks and photos etc). Yesterday we got up early and headed to the Reichstag which was updated about 10 years ago by Lord Norman Foster and that was amazing also. We stopped by the Holocaust memorial by Peter Eisenmann - a series of 2711 concrete columns protruding from an undulating ground. Really eirie memorial. Made you feel lost and disorientated. There were poeple crying in it even. All seemed to be a bit too much for them.

Right now I am in Prague in the czech rep. We travelled here by train (first class of course - the first class ticket was on special and was cheaper than second class, sweet). Prague seems awesome also. Going to go see the dancing building by Frank Gehry - another building that I am really looking forward to seeing.

Look these places up on Google or wikipedia maybe if you want an idea of what they are.

To some sad news. Yes, I am distraught that Michael Jackson died. I maintained all through his life that he was awesopme even though heaps of people put him done and made fun of him. He was so influential and one of my most played artists on my iTunes. I was in Egypt when I found out via BBC and sat there still for a bit. Nearly cried but I was tougher than that. Played a whole list of tribute songs to him and have been playing them ever since. Not cool at all. If I was around London I was going to check out his concert but now I guess I will never have the opportunity to do so.

Saw Transformers 2 the other day also and I tell you - if you want to waste time and money, go see it. What a disaster with the story and acting. I would have rather lost my passport than watched that.

I am kidding about losing that passport. Dont want to jinx myself.

Going back to London tomorrow for a week or so. Looking to head to places like Bath and Manchester and Legoland. Yes you read right - Legoland. Oh yeah.

Anways I better go check out the czech republic

Travel Mishap

HOLY CRAP

and you have no idea how much frustration and stress was just thrown into that 'Holy Crap'.

We went to go to Israel but got denied because, wait for it,

Renee had a page somehow missing out of her passport. They treated us like criminals, literally. They emptied my bags completely, went through all my things, asked all these questions like "are we carrying weapons of any kind etc?". Then after a few hours of interrorgation they said we will be sent back to Egypt and not allowed into Israel.

So at 2 in the morning we were sent back over the border, and we had to grab a taxi for a 3 hour drive back to Dahab, where we were staying.

Ok. This was all easy compared to what followed.

At Dahab we decided to head back to Cairo early so we could get this passport sorted as we were leaving to Berlin in 2 days.

It turns out that for an emergency passport it takes at least 48 hours to process, not to mention a copy of your birth certificate needing to be officially signed and sent via fax and new passport photos to be taken which also need to be verified by (in this case) an Australian citizen who has known Renee for 6 months or more. We also needed to head to some shithole government building to get a new visa where all they do is tell you to sit and wait AND THAT IS IT! We waited for hours only to be sent back to the embassy because we didnt have the right documents.

We have had to change our flights to Berlin, stay longer at the hotel where we are (which, by the way, means it takes us 1 hour of driving just to get into central Cairo where all this stuff has to occur), and muck around for 4 days trying to get this sorted.

Every taxi driver we get wants to charge us as much as he possibly can because he sees us as white foreigners with lots of money and if we pay what we know is the proper amount they ask for more and try to beat you up. We have had to go to 2 different photo labs and get 24 passport photos taken becuase apparently 23 of them werent good enough and go back and forth between A to B to C to D but finally we have the stupid thing. You have no idea the stress that has happened to us in these last 4 days. Add to that these bloody taxi drivers, the insane choatic transport issue around here, the constant tooting of horns and the stifling heat and you really get pushed to your breaking point. No one knows english fully enough to be able to converse with us on a proper level and tell us exactly what is going on.

And all this for a stupid page ripped out of a passport. We have figured out that it has happened when we handed a passport into a hotel reception for them to do their standard photocopying and the page got ripped out on the photocopier as it was the very page next to the photo ID. If I could grab the guy that did it by his melon head there is no telling what I would do.

So let this be a lesson to everyone that I have had to endure on behalf of you. LOOK AFTER YOUR FRIGGEN PASSPORTS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Dont let anyone handle them inappropriately. NOT ANYONE - IT IS YOUR PASSPORT AND YOUR PROPERTY AND YOU ARE LITERALLY STUFFED IF ANYTHING HAPPENS TO IT. If you have to get an ID copied, give them your drivers licence or something because all of this simply isnt worth it.

It has cost us about $1000 (between us) to sort this whole thing out not to mention the money I may have to give to a psychiatrist to help me get over it all. It was good also that we didnt have to cancel all our flights and hostels as that would have been significatnyl more money lost - more like $3000

................................................

So apart from that everything once we get to Berlin should be sorted. We have 2 days in Berlin, then get a train to Prague and spend a day there before heading back to UK. We originally had 3 days at each place but due to this whole thing means we have shorter stays

I just want to leave this country now. It was good up until this debarcle.

And no, I am not talking out of proportion here. If only words could describe properly the series of events we had to go through.

Mt Sinai & Jordan

Ok. I totally forgot to tell you in that last blog.

Its probably a week ago now we decided to head up to Mt Sinai - a really religous mountian where Moses apparently had those commandments engraved into the stones. So after a full day of snorkelling we got approxiamately 1 hour sleep before heading into a van at 10:30 pm to head to Mt Sinai. At 1am (yes thats AM!!!!) we started hiking. The reason why you start so early is becasue it takes abour 4 hours to get to the top and you get to see the sunrise. Also its much cooler walking at night than during the day. Anyway, the hike was about 12km straight up. We climbed about 2500m into the air and then had to climb a further 750 steps to reach the summit. It was a mission. Combine this with the fact that we had to take our backpacks with warm clothes and everything else up there also and we were well and truly stuffed. At the top of this mountain there was a small monastery that was pretty incredible considering all the effort we went to to get up this mountain. Saw the sunrise and decided to head back down but we could go a seperate way from the wy we came up (which was apparently the easy way).
So down 3000 steps we went. These arent just normal steps either mind you. When you consider that we had to get down 2500m in 3000 steps then it makes a bit more sense. My ankle was stuffed by the end of it and it was so hot by that stage. So hot.
Then went to St Catherines monastery which is at the base of the mountain where apparently the burning bush that talks to Moses was housed within. I saw this bush but it didnt talk to me. Not even a whisper. Musnt be holy enough. Got back to the hotel at midday after a good 28 hours awake with not muh food and a whole lot of exercise
So that was my trip to Mt Sinai.

2 Days ago we travelled to Jordan which was pretty sweet. We got taken to the city of Petra which holds the treasury of Petra - the second wonder of the world behind the great wall.

It was a 46 degree day and we walked for 2 hours through a large natural canyon to reach the treasury but when we got there it was pretty amazing. Type it in on Google and have a look at it. The whole thing has been carved into a stone cliff face and is huge. Absolutely huge. There is a whole city there and it was only rediscovered in 1822 or something because before that it had been completely covered by the sea (Red I think).

Awesome. Looking to do Israel on Thursday but it is pretty dodgy there at the moment so might have to check the forecast before we head off.

Change of Plans

Well.

Dahab has proven to be so cool that we have decided to stay here for an extra couple of weeks or so.

The snorkelling / diving is amazing. There is a place here called the Blue Hole and you can go swimming with all these tropical fishes around some awesome coral. Everyone is so easy going here that they just give you snorkels and flippers and stuff to use. Cheap enough to. Much like the prices in Bangkok.

So we have already booked some trips into Jordan and Israel. Why not huh?

Now, some travellers tips that I have figured out up till now.

- Washing your clothes is so expensive it just isnt funny. You are looking at aroun $15 - $20 for a single load. What the heck

- Internet is also another big money grabber. For Europe it costs around $8 for an hour of internet. You have to be really efficient when logging onto the net.

- Plastic bags are a life saver. For washing, dirty stuff, alcohol bottles etc.

- It pays to be nice to people all the time. Especially in places like Egypt here where they all talk about you behind your back and everyone knows every goings on in the town.

- Take a lot of Electrolites when travelling to places like this.

- Weigh up all travel options before jumping into things. The way we are doing it now we are basically not showing up to our return flight back to Amsterdam. It might seem stupid to just not turn up to a flight but we cant cancel it and it would work out cheaper for us to stay here than in Europe. It would have cost us 100 Euro to get from Amsterdam to Berlin by train with us having to sleep in an airport or somewhere for 8 hours in between. With this extended stay it has cost us 200 euro to fly directly into Berlin from Cairo with around 250 Euro saved on accomodation.

and we get our own room here and stuff and none of this bullshit dorm room crap.

Good times

Dahab = Awesome

Ok. We came back to Cairo via a 12 hour overnight train, dropped those stupid polish chicks off and then left today at 6 in the morning for a 9 hour bus ride to the small seaside resort of Dahab.

First Impressions are that it is like a hidden paradise. Really super casual and relaxing. We got picked up from the bus by a guy in a ute and got told to throw everything in the back and jump in with it. Pretty casual alright.

Had a dinner propped up on the beach with some egyptian pillows that was so cheap and so awesome. Cats everywhere. Little ones. I am talking the size that can fit in one hand. And they all clambour all over you when they see food so the staff at the restaurants give you a spray bottle of water to squirt them in the eys with. Haha. I feel bad doing it but you have to.

Got two bottles of Vodka to get us through the next few days for a total of 36 egyptian pounds. Not bad considering that one pound is about 3.5 NZ dollars. Do the math.

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Thats about $5 for a whole bottle of Vodka.

Going snorkelling through the coral tomorrow which should be awesome. They also have dive courses here which is pretty cool so I might check that out too.

Gotta go. Drinking to be done. Yola Yola (that means - 'Lets go")

Where the heck am I now?

I am in Luxor.

We travalled here via a 5 star cruise from Aswan. Going to different temples everyday and it is getting to the stage where you just cant be bother seeing another decorated column. You know what I mean.

Anyway, the temples are pretty sick. Some taking up to 200 years to build.

I dont know if anyone remembers a program on TV called 'The Fast Show'. One where they did a skit pretending to be news reporters in a middle eastern country and they all said 'Hefefefefef Pefefefefef, and now to the weather' and the weather lady chick would always say 'Scorchio' and put sun symbols on every city loaction and one time she said 'Cumlio Nimbus' and the reporters were like 'CUMLIO NIMBUS!!!!!' and they went to a live feed and everyone was pointing up at a cloud in absolute awe.

Yeah, its like that here. A moderate 42 degrees celcius no less right now and it is 7:20 PM. Ridiculous.

The pool water is like it has come from a boiling jug. So so hot.

I can fart now though. We have figured out that if you have a shot of whisky every time you feel a bit crook, the alcohol kills all the stomach germs. No shit. Look into it.

Another post in such short a time. If only people read it. Haha

So this morning I had to wake up at 2am to catch a 3 hour bus trip to a temple way the hell out near the Serbian border. The polish chicks didnt want to come because 2 was just too early for them.

So you can imagine the bus. About 12 seats in it, little to no leg room and a driver who had about 50 different ring tones on his phone adn I got to listen to them all. Haha. It was a bit of an adventure.

We got to the temple called Abu Simble at around 7am and spent about 2 hours there. Pretty sick temple. Statues about 20 metres high on each side as you walk through the doors. Another three hours back and I am now aboard a cruise ship getting ready for two days of 'cruisin' down the Nile.

Guts have been getting a bit dodgy lately. Nothing too serious and I am looking out for what I am eating but you still get the old gripe every now and then. I am too afraid to fart sometimes.

Egypt

Talk about a culture shock!!!

After a stressful few hours before I left realsing that my travel insurance had run out and it was compulsory for myself to have it for Egypt I managed to get a Southern Cross Working overseas plan.
Dont use FLIGHT CENTRE, people. They are useless and take at least 2 months to do anything. I stil havent got my refund back from the start of my trip.

Anyway, Rotterdam and Maastricht were beautiful. Really nice to see a bit more of the Netherlands than the somewhat seedy underbelly of Amsterdam.

When we arrived in Egypt we were picked up by some dodgy looking guy claiming to be from the tour. We then jumped into a non descript car complete with dangly things hanging from the windows and AM/FM radio. An hour of stressing that he was going to take us to an out of the way place and ask for all our money, finally got us to our hotel.

The tour we are on is much different from the likes of Contiki but that is fine. It is just 2 other Polish girls on the tour and they sure know how to complain. One of them said from the start - 'Is there going to be Mosquitos here, because I am allergic to mosquitos'. Honestly, sometmes you have to wonder whether people travel for fun and adventure or just to show pictures of the places they have seen.

'We want a freshly squeezed Orange juice - can you take us to a shop?'

I think they have to realise that we are in AFRICA!!!!

Anyway, Egypt reminds me a lot of India in many respects. It is slightly more cleaner and slightly less choatic but it nevertheless still has all the same ingrediants as India.

We visited all the Pyramids yesterday and were literally swamped by hagglers. Everywhere. You get pretty good at saying NO. The sphyinx was a bit of a disappointment. Really tiny and pretty badly damaged.

The great pyramids were sick though. Last night we travelled by overnight train to Aswan - about 900 kms north of Cairo. Pretty dirty train and stuff but it was OK to spend a night on it.

Tomorrow we are going to Luxor. Ancient ruins everywhere. I guess they can get a bit overwhelming.

Out of Amsterdam!!!

Well after over a week in Amsterdam I am finally out of it. Phew.

That place is expensive.

Right now I am in Rotterdam and this place is cool. Really cool. Just went to some markets before and got some super cheap food and soap and stuff. Because I am on a BUDGET now. Really have to watch my spending.

Tomorrow I am looking to head to the Hague which is the government capital of the Netherlands before heading to Maastricht on Thursday.

Egypt is coming up on Saturday. So excited about that. Hopefully it all goes smooth. I have been told to not piss into the water for too long because tiny insects will shoot up my dick hole and wreck havoc on my knob.

Dont really want to go to hospital for that. Once to the hospital is more than enough.

Other than the insects I think egypt will be sweet. It will certainly be cheaper (Heres Hoping).

After that, looking to do Prague, Switzerland, Berlin, Budapest and then more of France, Spain etc before finishing off in Portugal and heading back to England. Still unsure about the whole living in the UK thing. Every time I think about it, it seems to be what I dont really want to do but who knows.

Will probably update this next in Egypt. Bring it on I say

Amsterdam

Well.

Amsterdam is an eyeopener for sure.

We have managed to hang in here for a few days now. There are 4 of us staying in a 2 bedroom dorm without the hostel staff finding out. A lot of keycard changing and so forth.

Staying here for a bit longer and then looking to do a bit more of the netherlands before heading to this egypt trip. Managed to convince the guy that I can pay him when I get there which should be good.

Not much else to report other than I am looking to get as much travelling out of the way now as I am unsure about what I am going to do with my future (work etc). Might end up coming back to NZ earlier than expected as I really am not too keen to set up shop in London hearing these stories about this credit crisis. I think that if I can get all my travelling done then I will be happy enough. So might be back in NZ or Aussie pretty soon...........

Amsterdam

Well. Amsterdam is where the Contiki tour is finishing for me.

I am staying on here until the 30th of May until I head to Egypt. No more security blanket.

Getting kinda nervous as to booking this egypt trip. For some reason we cant use any of our credit cards to send the payment through and time is running out so hopefully we wont be stranded in egypt with no wheres to go.

Anyway. Amsterdam is insane. Tailored for the tourists everywhere. We got taken down the red light district last night and that was definately an eye opener. Cant take photos of it though so that sucked. Right now I am alone in some weird internet cafe under the ground down a dodgy back alley. Haha.

Pretty crazy how open everything is to everyone. You can just stroll the streets and be shown sex shows and everything all on the side of the road.

Tonight is the last night with the tour group. It will be sad I guess but in some respects, you do get a bit fed up with some certain individuals.

Looking to go see Wolverine soon as that movie looks sick

Switzerland

Swizerland was probably the most amazing place of the trip so far. Absolutley stunning. We were staying in a small village called Lauterbrunnen that was surrounded by 200m high cliffs with waterfalls falling down all around.

As an excursion we went up to the top of the alps to a place known as the highest point in Europe (for that fact). Wow. So cool. Got in a massive snowball fight and played with the huskies. Stuffed my ankle again whilst going downhill on a sled but it should be alright.

That last post about all the cities I have been to was pretty good I thought. Keeps track of where Ive been.

Anyways, I am in the process of trying to sort out flights / trips for this egypt thing. Check out what I am looking at if youre keen

www.expatexplore.com/egyptexperience/index.html

Should be a cool trip. Looking to do that starting on May 30th.

Gotta go now anyways. Back in Germany for a short while before heading to amsterdam tomorrow