Snow, Skiing, Lifting, Kicking Horse and Golden

Sorry its been so long since I updated, its so hard to find the time and a computer I can use up here.

Ive been here almost a month now and what a month its been... I arrived and booked into the Sportsman Lodge where Im staying. Its basically a motel and for $400 Canadian we get a shared room with one other person, access to the pool (with an awesome slide), spa, sauna and a communal kitchen, we also get our rooms cleaned once a week so its a pretty good deal. The rooms are kinda small and its about 20 - 25 mins walk to town but there are about 26 aussies and kiwis living here who all work on the hill so theres always someone to hang out with and taxis to town get very cheap when you start splitting $10 between 11 people (most of the taxis are minivans or bigger, they even have a bus).
It turns out that even if I go to other continants I cant get away from people I know. Out of all those aussies there are only 3 adelaide people here and the other two are both good friends of mine from highschool (John Antrobus and Mat Trenorden)who I havnt seen in about 4 years, I even work with John. Small world.

Within the first few weeks of being in canada I spent a crazy amount getting all set up. Something like $3500 went to a combination of accomodation, skis, clothing, food and the ever important partying. I got a good deal on skis, bindings, boots and poles, getting the whole lot for about $750 Canadian.

So far the lifty work had been awesome. I had a "I have the best job in the world" moment the other day. I was working on the Stairway to Heaven chair and to get to that particular chair you've got to ride the gondola to the top then ski down to the bottom of the lift. The previous night it had dumped about 20cm of new snow onto the mountain and we got clearance to ride down at around 8. So far that morning the only things to have touched the powder in Crystal Bowl were a cat which had groomed a 3 meter wide trail down the main area of the bowl and a snow mobile which had followed that trail. That left us with a 100m wide trail of fresh, untouched powder for us to ride down just as the sun was rising, no one but the three of us in sight and no sound but the powder being parted by our skis/board and the wind in our ears. It was so awesome.
As lifties we get about 70 hours a fortnight which is a nice number. We work 3 days on, 3 days off, 4 days on, 4 days off and do 10 hour shifts, although they never end up being that long. I like the long days as it means we get more days for riding the hill. One of the bad points is that we have to start at 7am which (because of a really badly set up bus schedule) means we have to get up at 5am and then spend 40 minutes sleeping at the admin building. The pays pretty terrible at around $9 and hour but then as long as I can live on it I dont mind, Im not here to make money after all.
Depending on what lift you're on it can be an easy or draining job. If you're on the gondola then it can be hard because you've got to lift and load skis and boards onto the cabins. They're arent that heavy but after a couple of hours of loading them one in each hand without a break it can get tiring. Other lifts are easier and you tend to get more ride breaks on them as well as there arent as many people working them. On a normal chair lift there will be a person at the top, a person at the bottom and a spare. We pretty much rotate the whole day so we can get as much riding in as possible.

In mid december a bunch of us went to a Wolf Center that was nearby. It was pretty cool seeing and learning about the wolves there, a couple of them were huge! Even though they're kept in seperate runs they still have a pack organisation with two of the keepers being the alphas. We got them to howl as well, we all just started howling and they joined in. Apparently if you're in the woods and there are wolves around you can start howling and they might just join in. I so wanna try it at some point.

Kicking Horse Mountain is awesome. The degree of hardness is at a completely different level here than anywhere else and especially back home. The blues here are easily rated as blacks back home and elseware in canada too according to those who've been to other mountains. I love it, Ive improved so much since I got here and when I go skiing with mates we push each other to hit a harder run or do a bigger jump which is awesome fun.

Even though I had to work Christmas Eve and Christmas Day I still had a good Christmas. All of the aussies and kiwis in the Sportsmans put in $15 each and we had a massive dinner which included a turkey, a ham, 2 chickens, some pork and ALOT of salad. We also had a secret santa which ended up being hilarious.
New Years Eve was great, we all went to one of the pubs in town where a band was playing. The cover charge was pretty steep but I had an awesome time. I got home at about 1:30 and after a call to Erica (hey Erica!) I went to bed for 3 hours sleep before having to get up for work. I woke up an hour late still a bit drunk and still managed to make it up the hill on time by hitch hiking. It wasnt the funnest day ever for any of us as a lot of us where hungover all day but it ended eventually.

I did something stupid last saturday, I switched to snowboarding for a day. Ive snowboarded before but in hiensight I just should've stuck to skiing. I was coming down one of the steeper runs under the Catamount chair (predominatly green runs) and I caught my front edge at speed and was thrown forward. I landed badly on my forarm and injured my right shoulder. Its not broken or dislocated or anything but I think Ive done something to my rotator cuff, I didnt go to the doctor earlier because when I went to the hostpital it turns out they want $500 + doctors fee upfront which I just dont have. Ive made an appointment in the medical clinic for friday so we'll see what happens. Hopefully Im only out of skiing for a week or two, itd really suck to not be able to ski for a month or something. Whatever happens I wont be going boarding again for a while at least. I can still work luckily but I just push buttons all day and I can only work at two specific stations on two different lifts.

Anyways I think thats just about all the more exciting news thats happened since Ive been here. Sorry its been so long since I updated, Ill try and update a bit more often now that I dont have so much to write.

I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas and an awesome New Years, Happy 2008 everyone!

Im here!

Well Ive made it to Canada. I arrived in Toronto yesterday and its a lot colder than i was expecting; about -2 degrees C at the moment. Its the same sort of feeling as walking through Mt Hotham or Falls Creek or something except im in the middle of a city.

Anyways this is just a small post to say im here, Ill post about the last week in england etc a bit later.

Im going to see and NBA game tonight and Niagra Falls tomorrow then ill be flying to Calgary and bussing to Golden on friday.

Catchya later

Long time no write.

Well its been a while but compared to the earlier parts of my travels I haven't been doing very much.

After leaving Cambridge, I went back to Norwich for a couple of days and then bussed it straight to London, skipping out Mulden because of a death in the family of whom I was going to stay with. I was going to stay with Anna in London again but I got a call from her a couple of days before I left saying she was away for the week and couldn't house me. Instead I called up a second cousin of mine; George who lives close to London with his girlfriend Louise. They were kind enough to take me in with a days notice so I stayed with them for a couple of nights. Unfortunately they couldn't have me on friday night so I left in the afternoon and spent the next four hours wandering around London with my pack trying to find somewhere to stay as all the hostels seemed to be booked out for the night. Eventually, after a lot of walking around and calling everyone I knew in london, with no success I found a hostel near St Pauls and spent the night there.
In the morning I left the hostel and as I was walking towards the tube noticed there were a lot of people milling around, including police etc. It turns out the Lord Mayors Parade was on so I stopped to watch. The parade included lots of horses and carriages, defence force companies and men holding spears and wearing tight pants. It was overall really cool, being very different from the parades Ive seen before (the christmas pageant for example).
After staying with Ryan for the night and seeing everyone at Wormholt, I caught a train to Purley (a suburb near london) where another of mums cousins lived; Margret and Richard. That night they had a late '5th of November' party (The 5th of November or Bonfire Night is a highly celebrated night in the UK) with all their children and grandchildren. Many fireworks were set off and quite a bit of wine consumed, it was good fun.
I spent the next few days with them and took a walk around the commons behind their house. Mostly just fields but there were a few wooded areas, I had a couple of hour walk and grabbed a cache while i was in the area.
After leaving Margret and Richard's I spent one more night in London and went to see the one and only Avenue Q Musical in the West End with Lara (a friend from Contiki). Avenue Q was absolutely AWESOME! If you get a chance to see it I cannot recommend it enough.

Anyway the next day I took a bus back down to Devon where Im staying with my aunt and uncle again. On saturday, yet another of mums cousins; Wendy and Alan took me to Dartmoor for a couple of walks around the torrs. I cant get enough of the moors, they are fantastic and its a great feeling to climb to the top of the rocky torrs and have a look around. Everytime I walk around a moor I always think: "This would be a fantastic place for wide games". Theres so many little dips etc to hide in, it would be great fun!

Well that's pretty much all that's been happening in the past couple of weeks, Im definitely slowing down a bit. This next statement may cause some of you to want to kill me but I am getting a bit sick of travelling. After almost 4 months Im looking forward to getting to Canada where Ill have a place I can basically call home and where I wont have to live out of my pack. Ah well, a week today and Ill be on the plane to Toronto, then its a couple of days there while i get my Social Insurance Number (ie Tax File equivalent) processed, a quick trip to see Niagra Falls, then a brief flight to Calgary and a bus to Golden. Almost there: bring on the snow!

Till next time, enjoy the summer.

Horses, Robin Hood and incredibly smart people.

After Hull I took the train to Retford where I visited Joy (one of my mums old school friends) and her husband John. I spent a couple of days there and during that time Anna, who I had stayed with in London came up to visit her Joy (her mum) so I got to see her again. Joy and John keep a couple of horses and while I was there they took me out on their horse trap which was pulled by one of their mares; Chelsea. We went as far as the next village where they dropped of Anna and I from where we had a nice walk back along the canal with their 4 dogs.
Joy also took me for a quick visit to the fabled Sherwood Forrest, the home of Robin Hood, where I saw the Major Oak; where he was meant to have lived while harassing the Sheriff of Nottingham etc.

After a couple of days with them I took a bus down to Nottingham to have a look around there before going to Norwich. The original castle of Nottingham had been destroyed and so the castle that currently stands looks more like a manor house than anything. It contained a museum and its current exhibition was one centered on the currently running BBC series of Robin Hood. It was basically a rundown of the characters and the making of the series but it was still pretty cool. Along with the exhibition they had a room devoted to the Sherwood Foresters Regiment which showed their uniforms and weapons from the redcoat and musket times to the present.
There was also a statue of Robin Hood right next to the castle.
I also went for a walk along the river/canal to check out the headquarters of Games Workshop and see the 8 foot statue of a Space Marine out the front.

After a couple of days in Nottingham I jumped on a bus to Norwich where I spent a night with John and Juliet, another of mums cousins. After showing me around Norwich they took me to Cambridge where their eldest daughter, Helen had invited me to stay over the weekend as it would be more fun with her than her parents (her words, not mine). Cambridge is SO COOL, its made up of a number of Colleges where the students live and do a lot of their work. Most of the colleges are made up of really impressive and very old buildings as you might expect and Kings College where Helen lives is no exception. Many of the buildings the students live in remind me somewhat of old style mansions or even castles; Helens room has a battlement above it.
Im leaving Cambridge this evening but Ive had a great time hanging out with uni people again, its been awesome. Im loving the Autumn over here as well, the colours are fantastic! And so many crunchy leaves to step on :P.

Im heading back up to Norwich and then tomorrow Ill probably go down to Mulden for a couple of days then to London again.

Have a good one.

Hull

On my second day in York I went and saw the National Railway Museum and the York Minster. The Railway Museum had loads of trains (as you might expect) from the really old locomotives to a Japanese Bullet Train. There was a huge section on the Flying Scotsman and one of the old trains had sections taken out of it so you could see how it worked. As I walked around I couldn't help feeling Id been there before so maybe I visited it when I was over here 12 or more years ago (*looks at mum and dad*). I didn't see much of the HUGE York Minster as you had to pay to get in and I was almost out of money but I did go up the tower to get a good view of the rest of York. I saw a bit of the inside which was pretty impressive, lots of high domed ceilings.

Later that evening Richard and I left York and we headed to Hull where Richard's family lives. On Sunday, Richard and Sandra took me to see the third longest suspension bridge in the world at about 1300m long which was pretty cool. I got a great photo of it at a place called The Deep, the worlds only submarium. A few days later I went in while looking around with James, my second cousin and its a really great place. They have a massive number of different types fish ranging from tiny jelly fish to poisenous tree frogs to a variety of sharks including small hammerheads. Earlier that day we went to look at the Hull Maritime Museum, Hull used to be a big fishing port and the museaum had many models and relics from back in the day when fishing of all kinds including whaling used to be big in Hull.
James also invited me to a party where, even though I was the eldest by around 4 or 5 years I had a good chat with people and even met a guy who had been to Adelaide a couple of times.

Later on in the week Richard and Sandra were kind enough to invite me on their family holiday up to the Yorkshire Moors for a few days. The moors looked very similar to Dartmoor and Exmoor moors that I visited earlier in my trip down in the south of England but were no less beautiful. During one of the days we took a long walk around and came across not only the village where they film the BBC show Heartbeat but also a small railway station that apparently featured in one of the Harry Potter movies.
On the last night there we cooked our evening meal (sausages) over the fire that we had spent a lot of time starting a few days before as a result of a total lack of matches or lighters. Luckily with an electric stove, some paper and some of my oh so very handy scout craft we EVENTUALLY managed to get it lit. We kept it going for three days and even built a small stove around it (and the sausages tasted awesome).
The next day we went to a coastal town called Whitby before heading home. Whitby is famous for a couple of reasons; for one it is the home, the inspiration and the setting behind the classic novel Dracula and secondly; it is the birthplace of a famous man called James Cook.
As we walked around town we noticed there was a large number of the dark and incredibly stylish goth community in town at the moment. As it turned out there was a Goth convention on as a run up to Halloween and Goths from everywhere were all flocking to Whitby and the apparent burial ground of Dracula himself.

Im back in Hull now and tomorrow Ill be setting off to Retford to visit Joy; a old friend of my mums. Then Im dropping by at Nottingham for a night to visit one very nerdy location then down the east coast to visit more relatives before I stop in london again and then back to Cheriton for a week or so before its off to Canada.
Only a month to go before much skiing and boarding commences, cant wait!

Have a good one.

Guiness and Vikings

So ive decided to update a bit more regularily so I dont have to write as much.

On Monday, while still in ireland I took the car for a last drive to check out Woodstock Gardens; a ruined manor with extensive gardens attached. The drive was really nice, drving through some really cool lanes. I got lost a couple of times on the way (mainly on purpose), just taking random roads that looked kinda cool to drive down before actually going in search of the place itself. The gardens where really peacefull with some traditional style flower gardens mixed with lawns and a lot of wooded area. I did a bit of bushbashing just for some fun and ran into a couple of squirrels etc.

The next day I left Sarah and co for the last time :( and took a bus to Dublin where I spent the day almost exclusivley in the Guiness Storeroom where I met a Canadian girl who was also travelling alone. So we spent the rest of the afternoon looking around the Guiness museaum thingo, drinking beer in the Skybar; (a circular room with glass walls, situated on the 10th storey or so looking over the city with a bar in the middle) and walking around Dublin. Anyways it turns out she lives about 4 hours drive away from Kicking Horse where Ill be working in Canada so that was pretty cool.
Yesterday I left Dublin and flew to Leeds where I then got a bus to York where I was picked up by one of my mums cousins; Richard. He took me to his mums place where we are spending the next couple of nights before going to Hull where he actually lives. His mum, Nora is in her 80s and is a lovely lady, very grandma like but her memories going a little so Im getting used to answering questions she's already asked me. Anyways, Ive spent today looking round York which is a great in that its really retained its old Norman/medievil style. For example the vast majority of the Norman wall remains and is in good repair. You pretty much walk around the entire inner city on the wall battlements. The city gates also still stand and roads run underneath the gates beneath portcullises, one of which is still (theoretically) in working condition. Ive walked down one of the famouse lanes called the Shambles which has very old wooden framed building which lean in over the lane.
Theres also a Viking museam which has been built under the ground exactly where archiological digs have been conducted. Its a highly advanced museaum with LCD presentation inside a rocking 'time machine', a 15min ride through the Viking city of Jorvik (pronuounced Yor-vik) set around 900AD and lots of interactive displays etc.
Really cool museum.

Anyway Im spending tomorrow in York as well before I go to Hull with Richard. Ill be spending the weekend there and then in the middle of next week they've invited me to come to the Yorkshire Moors with them on their holiday which Im really looking forward to.

Until next time, have fun!

Bristol and Ireland

OK, again Ive been slack but here's whats been happening.

I was in Bristol for a week with Xenie and Hannah before I flew from Bristol airport to Dublin. While in Bristol I stayed with the for mentioned friends along with their two housemates, Ben and Louey. While in Bristol I checked out the SS Great Britain, one of the first ships made with an iron hull, which served many purposes throughout its long working life, including taking people from Britain to start their new lives in Australia. Xenie and Hannah also took me to the gorge and large suspension bridge right next to Bristol as well as some caves in the vicinity.


Louey took me for a walk in a local park which used to be the gardens of a large manor complete with small castle. The park Incorporated a wooded, steep and narrow valley that had lots of different paths both at the bottom and top of the valley walls.


On a side note, heres a photo of a fox that came visiting while i was watching tv one morning.

After a week of doing not that much at all in Bristol I said farewell to my childhood, English friends and went to the airport to catch the plane over the Irish Sea to Dublin.

After the very short flight I was picked up at the airport by Joe, my cousins husband and after a few business meetings in which I spent the time mostly sleeping, we eventually arrived in Kilkenny where Ive been staying for the past (almost) two weeks. In the first couple of days I checked out the town of Kilkenny and its local castle and grounds. Most of the castle was entrance by tour only and as i had no cash on me I just looked at a little art exhibition they had going at the time, while making my way out I took a detour and accidentally took myself on a short tour of the castle without a guide but no one said anything so I just kept going.
The next day, Joe, whos family have been living in Kilkenny for generations, took me on a tour of Kilkenny and showed me some more of the sights as well as telling me the history of the city. A few interesting things about Kilkenny; firstly Kilkenny is a city of about 20,000 people. Now Gawler is a town north of Adelaide, Im not sure of the population but it has a high number of pubs (around 10 I think) for the size of the town. Kilkenny, with its 20,000 people has over 100 pubs. There is a street where there is no less than 5 pubs in a row, in other words, a nice town for a pubcrawl.
The next day we took a trip down to Waterford and went to the famous Waterford Crystal factory and then to the beach for a nice walk. While walking along the beach we had a running game of Hurling, a popular Irish sport thats a bit like grass hockey but you are allowed to flick the ball up and hold it for a few paces and then hit it like a baseball. Also, it has much fewer rules than hockey. Its AWESOME! I love it, so wish they played it in Australia.
In the next few days I went up to a town called Athlone with Joe and visited the British Isles oldest pub, established in 900AD. Really cool place, I had a good chat with the barmen and bought a tshirt. As far as Athlone goes, thats pretty much it. The rest was boring.
During the next couple of days, my wonderful cousin Sarah put my name on her old cars insurance and I was able to borrow it and drive down to Cork for a few days. It took a couple of hours to get down there and on the way I stopped off at a small coastal village called Knockadoon which a few other people may know as Llanfair. After a bit of climbing around the coast and taking some photos I headed for Cork, where I had managed to time it so my arrival coincided perfectly with rush hour. After 30 mins or so of driving in circles completely lost, I parked my car and wandered around on foot completely lost and asking people where abouts I was on the shockingly bad map I had with me. After about an hour of walking I found the hostel I was staying at, walked all the way back to my car and drove it there, where upon I checked in and collapsed on the couch, watched tv and talked to other people in the hostel for the rest of the evening.
The next day I took a walk around Cork which isnt a bad city. I stopped off first at the Cork University which was just across the road from the hostel. I had a nice walk through and it is a great uni, scenically at least, it was such a beautiful campus. In one of the main buildings they had Ogam stones on display, stones which show the first written language of the pre Celtic peoples of Ireland. They were mostly used for marking the burial spot like tombstones and had names written on them in a script made up entirely of lines down the edge of the stones. After seeing the uni I headed up and looked at the old Cork Gaol then at the Old English Market and then walked around for a time.
That evening I sat around and talked with some fellow travellers at the hostel and a couple of us went for an evening walk around the city to see some of the evening sights. Unfortunately I was almost completely broke and so was unable to go have a drink.

The next day I packed up all my stuff and drove over to Blarney Castle which houses the famous Blarney Stone. A stone which gives the gift of eloquence to those who kiss it. So along with a couple of bus loads of American tourists I climbed to the top of the castle and hung over the edge backwards to kiss the stone. Id like to say that hanging backwards over the edge of a castle 20 or so meters high is exhilarating but its not really; partly because there's a guy holding you, partly because there's bars stopping you falling and partly because they whisk you through so fast by the time you realise the position you're in they're already pulling you back up.
After kissing the fabled stone, I took off for a walk around the grounds. At the bottom of the castle are a couple of caves and dungeons that you can go through, although you have to provide your own light and after I retrieved my torch from the car I had a great time doing a little caving. The dungeons in particular were fairly tight and I had to crouch down and squeeze through, making my way through almost on my hands an knees. I did not expect to go caving when I went to Blarney Castle.
After the small caving expedition I went and had a look at the Druids Grove in the grounds where a Celtic druid once lived. There was a stone Druid Circle and a Sacrificing Alter along with a few other mystical formations. While taking a walk around the grounds I stopped by a river and while I was sitting there quietly an Otter (or it may have been a Mink) came swimming by quite close. It stopped to look at me for a second or two before swimming on, it was awesome!

Today we just got back from a weekend near Dublin where we went to an old burial mound that dates back to 500 years before the great pyramids were built. It was built in such a way that on the Winter Solstice, providing it isnt cloudy (a fairly rare thing in Ireland, particularly in winter) the rays of the morning sun shine through a hole and illuminate the chamber within the mound.

Anyway, its just gone Monday (its about 2am here) and Ill be flying out to Leeds Bradford and going up to York on Wednesday where Ill be staying with some more relatives of which the link is so complicated I cant be bothered working it out. Ill just stick with distant cousin or something like that.

Have fun.

Amsterdam and the end of the tour.

Well I feel like Ive been a bit slack. Ive been in Bristol with a computer in the room Im sleeping in for 4 days and Im only just updating this now.

So I left you at Heidleberg on the last night before we left for Amsterdam. The next day we headed off to Amsterdam but stopped on the way at a small town called Saint Goar; the home of the biggest free hanging cuckoo clock in the world. Before seeing the clock we stopped by one of the oldest makers of traditional germen beer steins. We had a talk from a guy about the history of the stein and then had a look around the shop. The range was incredible with steins for all sorts of years, events, places and even occupations along with a number of other random designs. They even had a couple of contiki steins made for the tours that pass through. A lot of them were fairly expensive, for instance the contiki ones were around 80 euro but I was able to find a smaller and cheaper one that I liked. Im looking forward to trying it out, they're made so that with the lid down the beer can stay cold for hours; not that itd last that long :D. After looking around the town; seeing the 3m high cuckoo clock, the teddy bears made by the first teddy bear manufacturer in the world and the home of the birkenstock shoes we jumped back on the couch and headed for Amsterdam.

Amsterdam is cool and very different from some of the other cities we visited. Around 735 000 people live in Amsterdam, there are also about 700 000 bicycles. In short bikes are everywhere and as nice as I found the dutch to be, they're psycos when they get on a bike.
After getting to the camp site we set up everything as normal and then all ventured into the city for a walkabout meal (meaning find your own) and a bit of a tour afterwards. After dinner I went with Lara, Kat, Sue and Ronan to a pub called the Grasshopper where we hung out until we had to meet up with the rest of the group just outside. We then ventured into the famous Red Light District of Amsterdam where window shopping is all the more different from other places as the 'merchandise' looks back at you. Photography is very much not allowed in the Red Light District and the bounces take a much heavier hand at enforcing the rule than your standard museum employee. After the walk through the red light district we went to a show of the type that is unique to Amsterdam and other than saying that I found it quite amusing at times, Ill leave it at that.

The next day we went to the small town of Edam and had another bike tour. While not as long or entertaining as the tour in Munich with no insane Irishman cracking jokes all the time it was none the less an enjoyable ride around the town. We paused to have a look at one of the famous sights of the Netherlands: a 17th century windmill that was still in use.
On the way back from Edam we stopped at a place that handmade cheese and clogs (in the same building). We were given the quickest rundown of cheese making in history then moved onto watch a crazy dutchman make the beginnings of a clog.
After getting back into Amsterdam we had free time so after some lunch a bunch of us headed to the house of Anne Frank, the setting of her diary and book. Unfortunately while we were lining up for it, the skies opened and it bucketed down and even with the protection of a number of umbrellas I at least got pretty wet. The museum/house was really interesting, it must've been hard living in such a small area. After that we went to a pancake cafe and I tasted some of the traditional Dutch pancakes; poffertjes which were really good in the cold weather.
We all met back up in the evening to have our last dinner together at Wok Cullinare, a asian style restaurant. While the dutch do have some traditional food, Amsterdam is a very multicultural place and they really enjoy all the foods of the world. It was a large and very tasty meal although I couldnt eat as much as Id have liked because of the poffertjes earlier.

The next morning was our last day of the tour and it was with a mixture of happiness and sadness that we packed up our very wet tents and air mattresses for the last time. The trip back to london was nicely broken up by the ferry ride to Dover and there was the handing out of photos, email addresses, tips for the crew and more than the usual singings of our day song: Before I Fall to Pieces by Razorlight.

That night, after dropping of our stuff at hotels and hostels we all went to the pub at the Royal National Hotel for some final farewell drinks. It was a good night and a good end to the tour.

And that was it, the end of a brilliant tour. Ive put some of the photos from the tour up one my facebook here, so check them out. I highly recommend a Contiki tour to anyone who goes traveling anywhere really. They offer tours all over the world. Thanks to everyone on the tour and most notably Kiralee, our Tour Manager, Imogen, our Super Cook and Rich, our Driver for the awesome job they did, although they probably wont read this :).


Im now in Bristol, staying with a couple of old friends from when I went to school over here: Xenie and Hannah. Ive spent most of the time lounging around and recovering from the tour but Ive seen a few of the sights of Bristol but Ill blog about that later. Im having a good time with them, its great to see them again after 12 years or so.

Until next time, have fun!

"One more drink and then Ill go."

The Czech Republic and Germany

Im in Heidleberg, Germany at the moment. Its a beautiful university town where one in five of the residents are uni students. Its built around a large river in the middle of a valley and surrounded by forest. Like the Swiss, the Germans are almost fanatical about their environment and their natural surroundings and the recycling system and the beauty of the country reflects it.

Anyway a few days ago we left Austria for the Czech Republic and Prague. On the way to Prague, we stopped off at a small town for lunch, which had a castle, some brown bears, really nice and cheap food and was the set of the majority of the movie 'Hostel'. After lunch we continued to the capital: Prague.
Prague is a really nice city and there are very few indications of its historically recent bad past. As with all the cities we've been to, we took a tour around the city and were shown the main sights by our tour manager, Kierra Lee. We saw the Basilica where 'Good King Wenceslas' (from the carol of the same name) lies, over the Charles Bridge, which took a pact with the devil to finish and onto the large astrological clock which, aside from Wenceslas Square is one of the main centers of Prague. In our free time, one of the guys, Dave and I went and had a look at the Communism museum which told not only the history of Communism in the Czech Republic/Czechoslovakia but Communism in general. We spent quite a long time in there reading all about the rise and fall of communism in that part of the world and I learned a massive amount about that time in history. We then walked up Wenceslas Square and saw the memorial to two Czech students who burned themselves to death in protest of the Communist Movement in Czechoslovakia. It wasnt all depressing however because later on that day we went on a cruise of the river with a massive included lunch (there were crepes, mmmm) and a commentary by one of the local guides. That night we went out and saw the Praguian night life at its best... Or at least at its best, on a wednesday night, at a small underground club where we had to leave before midnight to catch the last train home. Even so it was a good night with cheap beer for 35 Czech Crowns (€1 = 25 Crowns, you do the math) and dancing and of course, Absinth (its like shotting listerene).

The next day we left Prague and headed into Germany to Munich, two days before the start of Oktoberfest. On the way we stopped at one of the main Nazi Concentration Camps, Dachau. We were given time to look around at our own pace and see all we wanted to. It was a pretty chilling experience, the conditions and the torture prisoners were subjected to on a day to day basis were horrific and to actually be in the place where it happened multiplied the experience. I didnt have time to see the gas chambers or incinerators but even so, it packs quite a punch walking around the parade ground. Every German student, as part of their studies has to go visit a concentration camp and they are taught to always question their government, to ensure nothing like it ever happens in Germany again.
From the concentration camp we headed into Munich, the camp site was crazy! Barring the jamboree I dont think Ive ever seen so many tents together in one spot and never as crammed in as they were. There were drunk people EVERYWHERE and even at 6am in the morning there were still people making noice. During Oktoberfest, that campsite at least is a place that doesnt sleep.
I feel like Im starting to sound repetitive but Munich is a great city. There is a beautiful park, walking distance from the citys center which spans 1000 acres. Designed by an English man, its a great park where you can swim and even surf (yes surfing) in the river or have a beer at the biggest beer garden in Europe. We were shown the park and many other things on a bike tour with a crazy and very funny irish guy named Steve.
In the evening we went to a traditional beer hall to have a Pork Knuckle and a Stein for dinner. A few of the group during the day had bought the traditional German dress and wore if with full enthusiasm for the dinner. The pork knuckle was great but so big that with the accompanying full litre of beer, I couldnt finish it. I did however had 2 full steins and enjoyed a night of enthusiastic Prosting, tradition German music, traditional German dance (as well as the chicken dance) and lots of beer.
We left Munich the next day, on the first day of Oktoberfest but even though we missed the majority of it we still picked up the astmosphere and it convinced me that if you do want to come to Oktoberfest DONT stay at a campsite, stay in a hostel at least or better yet a hotel. There were a lot of fights (not any from our group but in general) and it kinda seemed like it could be a pretty dangerous place to stay.

We're in Heidelberg until tomorrow when we leave Germany and head to our last :( stop, Amsterdam!

The two Vs

Another quick one.

After Rome we headed on to Venice which was pretty cool. In the movies you see it as all canals but theres a lot more streets than that, although there are no cars around, or at least not in the places we went too. The streets or really lanes and alleys are crazy there, its so easy to get lost but at the same time really cool to try and find your way out again.
They have a massive winged rat (pigeon) problem over there and they sell feed bags that contains drugs or chemicals that reduces their fertility. They´re pretty crazy, if you have feed they´ll sit all over you, arms, head and those right near you too :P.
I went to the top of the San Marco Basilicas Bell Tower, which was pretty cool, you could see the whole city. While I was up there looking out the window and quietly minding my own buisness the large bell about half a meter above me head started to go off.... Scared the c$§p out of me! So. Very. Loud. And no warning either, I got a video of it which is kinda cool.

After Venice we headed off to Vienna which is where we are now. Vienna is a beautiful city, a lot more green than any of the Italian citys and more friendly too. We went to a Schnaps museum today which was really cool, along with the famous Absynth (sp?) they also made a type of Schnapps that contained 23 carat gold leafing in the bottom; thats right, you drink this gold. Very cool stuff.
We´re heading to Praag tomorrow which should be fun, although these full days on the bus are getting a little tiresome.

Anyways I should probably head back to the meeting point now so I dont miss the bus back to the campsite, turns out they dont wait for anyone. If you´re late to the bus you gotta make your own way, even if its too another country.

Italia!

Well Im in Italy and have been for the last few days. After the Swiss Alps we headed to the French Riviera for a couple of nights and saw Nice and Monaco and went to the world famous Monte Carlo Casino which was in a word, classy. No loud music or like that, its like they've taken an art gallery and added (very expensive) drinks and black jack, roulette etc tables. It was pretty cool, we lost count of the number of Mercs we saw outside, lots of rich people.
Also took a bit of a swim in the mediterranian which was nice, especially on a hot day.

After the Riviera we headed to Florence where I had my birthday. Florence is nice, although if you want to find a piece of grass to sit on you'll be searching for a long time or paying €$9 for it. We were taken on a tour and saw the places where both Michelangelo and Leonardo DaVinci both lived, at the same time; they hated each other by the way. We walked past Georgia Armani's house, saw many MANY statues of various things and then fell asleep in front a the palace.. We were tired. I bought (kinda) a genuine italian leather wallet with my initials embossed in gold in it, went to pay and my credit card bounced so one of my new (and truely awesome) friends bought it for me then wouldnt let me pay her back! Needless to say, she is cool.

That night, we all went to a restraunt for a Tuscan meal then went to a Space Electronic Disco, sounds cheesy but it was awesome! I got lots of free drinks from friends, did some dances on podiums and got dared to get 22 kisses for my bday from my tour manager (I succeeded :P).

On to Rome where I am now. Rome is not too bad, but it doenst seem to agree with us. Saw the vatican and the collusseum today, was cool. am tired.,

Anyways need to go now, not sure how long i have left. Again no usb to add photos so sorry but i will add some when i am able, and have time.

HAve a good one everyone!

31

Paris and the Swiss Alps

Ok this is going to be very quick. Firstly Paris was awesome, the Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triumph(sp?), the Lourve and Notre Dame where all fantastic. We also all (the contiki group) went to see a proper cabberie show which included all the proper elements; comedy, acrobatics and of course dancing.

Then last night we arrived in the Swiss Alps.... I am in love. This are is the most beautiful place I have ever seen. Words cannot describe, WOW!! Im definitly coming back here to do more hiking at some point. Today a few of us are planning to do some hiking around and seeing some waterfalls while everyone else takes the mega expensive (127 Swiss Franks) train journey up to the top of a mountain I cant remember the name of at the moment.

Contiki so far has been awesome, Ive met some great people and have been partying everynight. Anyways gotta go, will do a proper update with some photos when I find some internet thats not a rip off. (5 franks for 20mins, pffft)

More London

My week-and-a-bit in London has been awesome not to mention expensive and its almost up. Tonight is my last night in london before my contiki tour starts tomorrow at 6am. Last weekend I stayed at my friend, Ryan's who moved up here to work a couple of months ago. He lives in a big share house with about 8 or 9 other people. On saturday night they had a Rocky Horror Show themed party which ended up being an awesome night.
We went shopping for costumes at Camden Markets, a fairly famous market which hosts, among other things, a large array of alternative clothing shops including many heavily goth themed places, we also found a shop selling bright orange prison jump suits.
Eventually we came upon a place that was selling full length leather jackets and coats for only £10! Even though they were mostly old and worn we picked out a couple of long ones for Ryan and I and along with some spiky metal jewelry for me and an assortment of stockings and other womens cloths for ryan our costumes were done. We hung around a bit longer waiting for Alexis and Michael (mainly Alexis) to finish their shopping and then headed back to their house.
As stated above, the party was great with some absolutely awesome costumes and much alcoholic beverages. Here are some photos of the night, although various parent types might not appreciate them as much as others (which ensures they are now DEFINITELY going to look at them).

On thursday I went on the London Eye, the 135 meters high observation wheel, the biggest one in the world. I got some good photos of the view which I cannot show you because of the computer Im on but needless to say, the view was spectacular. That night I stayed with one of Anna's friends, Ami (sp?) because she was in greece for a wedding. He told me a lot about London and how it was in the 70's when he first moved here from Israel including many stories of his various antics with the famous people of the time.
On friday I went to see the Tower of London where the crown jewels reside and many enemies of the thrown have been held and sometimes tortured and executed; including one Guy Fawkes for his involvement plot to blow up the houses of parliament. The Crown Jewels were pretty cool with The First Star of Africa, the largest (up until recently I believe) diamond in the world.

Anyways that, among a few other things has been my week in London and it has been a great one. Many thanks to Anna, Ami, Ryan, Michael, Alexis, Damo, Clair, Ziad, Jo and Ming (so sorry if I missed anyone) for letting me stay at your collective houses and to the random nursing chick who took care of me when I was 'vulnerable' on saturday night.
For the next three weeks Ill be touring my way around Europe and getting little sleep (probably). Until next time, have fun!

Dartmoor and London

On the last full day before going to london, I went with my uncle and cousin (Sarah) and kids to a town called Taunton and then to Dartmoor, another National Park similar to Exmoor. In a last post I mentioned how there were farms and villages in the middle of the National Parks, well in Dartmoor, I found the kicker: a prison. There's a prison in the middle of a National Park.
Anyways while we were in Dartmoor I hiked up to the top of a nearby torr and admired the awesome view. I took some photos of both the view and some nearby Dartmoor ponies before hiking back.




On thursday I took a bus to London to stay with my cousin-in-law, Justin (I think thats the connection anyway) for a night. I got to his house at about 3 in the afternoon not realising that he'd be at work on a thursday afternoon. Luckily there were painters in his apartment and I was able to drop my rucksack there and then wander around london for a while. I walked up and down Oxford Street for a while and managed to work out the london underground so it wasnt a bad day.
In the evening, Justin had a party which was good fun. It was good to chat to some people closer to my own age. It was a good night.

For the next week Ill be staying with Anna, the daughter of a friend of my mums from way back. It was kind of amusing meeting someone for the first time and then staying at their house for a week. Anyways she's a cool and we get along well so it should be a fun week.
Today I did some touristy stuff around london, took a sight-seeing bus tour, went on a cruise up the thames and almost went on the london eye, except the lines were too huge. One thing is for sure though, london is definitely an expensive place. I think Ive spent around £100 in the last few days! Im definitely gonna be cutting down over the next few days, concentrating on the more free touristy things :P.
The bus tour took us past the famous sights of london: Buckingham palace, tower of london, big ben, houses of parliament etc etc. It was a really cool tour. Apparently the business section of london, a perfect square mile houses over 200 banks which make more than Chicago, new york and tokyo combined in a day!

Anyways heres some photos of london.

















London Bridge

















The London Eye.






















A statue of Achilles placed in Hyde Park by George IV.

a little more wandering

Well Ive done a few other things since I last posted, one of which is get a new camera after I slipped over and fell on my old one at Tarr Steps. Unfortunatly this camera has a pretty stupid way of interfacing with computers and I cant seem to access it, so no photos for today.

Last tuesday, my cousin Philip, his girlfriend Tracy and I went up to Ilfracombe with the intent on taking a ferry over to Lundy Island (the island to the west of Ilfracombe). Unfortunatly, due to the ferry leaving 10 minutes early we missed it and spent the day looking around Ilfracombe itself which also had a lot to offer. We took a ferry ride east along the coast before going and having some lunch and visiting the Tunnel Beachs. The Tunnel Beaches are a series of tunnels carved out of the cliff that link to several beaches on the other side; they were built in the victorian ages, back when men and women had to have seperate areas to swim in.
We finished the day by taking a walk up to the point that overlooked the town, giving us an awesome view of the Ilfracombe itself and its surrounds.

Last friday I came up to Chichester in Sussex with my aunt and uncle and cousin, Sarah (plus kids). Chichester is my uncle Barry's hometown and is where his father founded and built the Chichester Festival Theatre. Its main theatre houses about 1400 or so and has showed plays starring actors such as Patrick Stewart and plays directed by Lawrence Olivier. As an early birthday present my aunt and uncle bought me two tickets to plays they were seeing; an experimental one called I am Shakespeare and another more traditional play called Hobson's Choice. Both were comadies and I enjoyed both tremendously.

Over the weekend Ive been to a couple of dinner parties with uncle Barrys family which has been pretty cool. They're all a very nice bunch of people. The location of one of them (Justin's (Im not going to even try and work out how Im related to him) 29th Birthday) was in this awesome bar/cellar area, my description of which would not do it justice without photos; in a word: awesome.

Anyways by next weekend I will hopefully be in London, providing I can contact my contacts there. :P

Hope everythings all well back home. Have fun.

Maize Maze and Tarr Steps

The first of my touristy trips was to a yearly attraction called the Maize Maze with my cousins Helen and Sarah (the latter of whom is visiting from Ireland) and their children. The Maize Maze is, quite obviously, a maze mowed out of a field of maize. Every year has a different theme based on important events or milestones and as this year is the Centenary of Scouting (join SA Rovers: Go Hard or Go Home) the maze was in the shape of the man himself, Sir Baden Powell and the Fleur De Lys.
The aim was to move through the maze and find 9 brass rubbings that spelled out a message; there were also questions that gave directions if you got them right. Twelve years of Scouting helped a fair bit and there was even a question about Australian Scouts :D. (What is the youngest section of Scouts called in Australia).

Yesterday we (Sarah, her children; Martin and Rebecca and I) went up to Exmoor to see Tarr Steps, an ancient bridge made of large slabs of stone. An interesting thing about National Parks in England is that because the country side has been farmed for hundreds of years it has become the 'natural' state of the land and that is what is protected by the park. This means that the parks are full of small farming villages like the ordinary country side, although they have regulations that must be followed and only livestock may reside on the moorland.


Tarr Steps and the country surrounding it is awesome. I took a walk for a couple of hours up the river through some really thick, lush forest.
I took some pretty nice photos and walked pretty far before meeting a uni student and walking back with her and her aunt (or something).

And here is a random photo of me and two of my cool little second cousins in my aunt and uncles spa, just to make you all jealous of the awesome weather we're having. Hannah 13 and Rebecca 8. :D

Cheriton Fitzpaine

Im here, I finally made it. The bus journey was fairly uneventful, I spent some of the time reading and some of the time thinking up plans as to what I would do if no one was there to pick me up. I realised on the plane that I hadnt actually received an email back from my aunt after I asked her to pick me up from the bus station, leading me to believe she hadnt got it. Luckily she was there when I got off the bus and all was fine.

From Exeter we drove back to the small village of Cheriton Fitzpaine where my aunt and uncle and two of my cousins lived. While Im here Ill be staying with my cousin Phillip and his friend in my grandmothers old house right in the middle of the village. Just so you know, Phillip is the youngest of my three cousins on my mothers side and is almost exactly 18 years older than I am. My other cousins Helen and Sarah are both married and have 2 kids, the oldest of which (and the only one I have met so far) is Hannah at 13.

Ive taken a couple of walks around Cheriton Fitzpaine and its surrounds and while the surrounding fields bordered with their high hedges is very different from home there's a familiarity about it I cant quite place.

The roads or lanes around Devon however are shockingly different. The roads that surround these small villages are, in most places lined by high hedges, some even taller than I am. This is not because the hedge is so high but because over hundreds of years of use, before it was bituminized, they have sunk lower and lower so that the surrounding fields are all at a higher level than the road itself.

The lanes themselves are all very thin, and only in some cases can you pass an oncoming car. It is common occurrence to meet a person coming the other way and have to reverse until you find a spot wide enough to pass each other.

Here's a couple of random shots I took on the flight, these are a couple of the reasons I love flying so much.

The second pic is of a salt lake although I'm not entirely sure which one.

Ive also found out that I am almost completely unaffected by jet lag :D. I think it was nightfill that did that for me.

Until next time, have fun.

Long flights

Well its 6:30am local time and Im here at Heathrow paying WAY too much for internet. The flights werent too bad everything considered. On both flights I managed to score a spot with an empty seat next to me which made things much more comfortable. First there was the 7 hour flight to Singapore (yeah I made a mistake in one of my previous posts) and then the 13 hour to London. I even managed to score a bit of sleep on the Singapore to London flight though it was very uncomfortable; a body like mine doesnt curl up well on economy seats, even when there is a spare one next to me :P.

The approach to London was fantastic. It was just starting to get light as we flew over London and the lights were awesome. String of lights snaking there way away almost as far as the eye could see. It really shows you how big London really is.

Anyways my time is running out so I bid you farewell, Im now going to find a way to whittle away the time before my bus.

Driving and interviews

So yesterday (Friday) we cruised up to Melbourne, pretty uneventfully really. We stopped to check out some of the wind turbines in Victoria which were pretty cool, but other than that not much happened. Im glad I dont live in Melbourne, the highway getting into Melbourne itself was crammed and it took ages. I still havent found this fantastic shopping people keep telling me about, maybe Im going to the wrong places.

Anyways I got up at 6:30 this morning to get to my interviews. After a presentation I had my two interviews, both pretty early compared to some of the others. Gotta love the special treatment because we had to come from Adelaide. My Kicking Horse one was first and that went ok and I got offered a job as a lifty which is what I was looking for at Kicking Horse. Fifteen minutes later I had my one for Panorama, the one I was really hoping to get, but sadly didnt because I dont have enough experience with customers/clients or something.... Shouldve highlighted the Easter Venture thing more, I really need to work on my interviews.

Kicking Horse should be good though. Its the youngest resort in Canada only being 6 years old and is fairly small. It has some good runs on it by the look of it and is close to others around Banff National Park so we can get to the other resorts pretty readily.

Anyways thats it for now. My flights on Monday so Im here till then.

Until sometime soon. Have fun.

And he's off

This is it boys and girls; tomorrow morning at the ridiculous hour of 6:30am Ill be driving to Melbourne with my parents for my Canadian job interviews on Saturday.
Ill be meeting with 2 employers: Panorama Mountain Resort and Kicking Horse Mountain Resort and talking to them about the possible jobs I could get.

I'm definitely hoping to get a job at Panorama over Kicking Horse. From what Ive seen from good old Google Image Search Panorama is a beautiful place and from the employer booklet has a lot more to offer than Kicking Horse does.
On the other hand Kicking Horse has the steepest ski runs in British Columbia so Ill definitely have to visit them at some stage.

After the interviews Ill be in Melbourne for the next two days and am flying out on the Monday afternoon. I'm very glad its an afternoon flight. From Melbourne I'm flying to Hong Kong for a stop over and then onto London where my flight will be getting in at 5am local time. Hooray for me. After a couple of hours at the airport Ill be catching a bus down to Exeter and then move onto a small village called Cheriton Fitzpaine where my aunt, uncle and a couple of cousins live.

However, I'm sure you'll hear from me before then because I will undoubtedly get bored while waiting for my next flight or bus or whatever and find a computer somewhere.

Until then, have fun.

The start of my blog of travels

The first post in my blog of travels. When i leave in august this will be the place where i let everyone know what Ive been doing. Enjoy!