After many farewells, drinks and a few tears I left Cairns on Friday 26nd June and arrived in Auckland, New Zealand that evening. I’d made plans to stay with Aaron, Rebecca and their housemates a great bunch of couchsurfer hosts in Ponsonby, Auckland. Since Aaron was finishing up his road trip with his GF and Rebecca was at her thai boxing class we decided I would catch the quick ‘$15-$20’ taxi ride to Elite thai boxing and get a lift home with Knoxie (Rebecca). She had told me which of the taxi companies to try and take but unfortunately there were none there so I just jumped in the first one I saw who was an absolute rip off merchant, first off I told him the address which I read off the paper I printed off with all Knoxie’s instructions but he insisted on pulling over to look at the paper!! For god’s sake he did have a GPS, When we got to the street he turned the right way but then turned back around and went the other way and so on and so on until I took over and told him where to go and then when we got there it was $61 for the taxi too bad by the time I got into the thai boxing place and told the big maori guys in there the taxi driver had gone.. Too bad cause they would have sorted him out! So a bit pissed off me and Knoxie headed to the house, was nice to find out there are other drivers out there as bad as me cause we nearly rear ended a car or 2 as she tried to drive, talk to me and hook us up with free tickets to the Katchafire and Tiki Taane concert on that night!!
When we safely reached home at Albany road Ponsonby and I was introduced to none other then Mr Couchsurfing of Auckland Sir Ambassador Aaron! He smoothly gave me the tour of the home layed down the rules or lack thereof, sharing his beers with me and amazingly gave me his room for the weekend! I know he slept at his Gf’s place at least one of the nights not sure about the other one though hope he was comfortable cause I sure was. So after settling in and very quickly getting ready we are off and racing to chow down some burger fuel and groove to Katchafire and a first for me Tiki Taane! Could not have imagined my first night in Auckland to be any better! Seriously I arrived around 7pm and within 2 hours we were at the concert getting given vip sponsor lanyards as well as free tickets!!
We even went on some random roof top missions on top of Knoxie’s work which was pretty mad and got the best view of Queen st!
The next morning was pretty crazy got to slowly meet the rest of the housemates as we all had a champagne breakfast with pancakes, banana, bacon and maple syrup!! Seriously!! Yum Yum !! Then it was up to me to decide to chill at home, go shopping or play pool and drink beer with the boys… I chose… shopping seemed like a good idea at the time as I was keen to get another pair of trackies and needed a nokia charger but much to my dismay I ended up having to tag along with the girls to like every awful designer shop in Ponsonby! I hate those shops! You know those ones with the ghastly floral weird clothes and the huge price tags!! Boring, I can’t even pretend to browse in those places I wouldn’t buy that stuff if it was $10! Anyways I did find a good buy in a designer home wares shop lol a beautiful bee antennas headband for $5 at that stage I didn’t even know why I bought it but I found a great use for it later! Luckily it didn’t take long for the girls to get sick of shopping and they went back to join the boys. Knoxie kindly took me to the city to get my nokia charger and trackies and to take me for a walk along the beautiful Auckland wharf area though during my stay in Auckland it was unfortunately very foggy so wasn’t a lot to see but It still looked cool. Then we went back and met the everyone else for late lunch and I thought it would only be appropriate for me to eat some sheep whilst in New Zealand so I had a lamb kebab, So there’s about 9 of us at the table having lunch so Ill quickly introduce you to these guys cause they all deserve a mention there’s Aaron, Knoxie, Vanessa and her boy, Craig and his GF and a cute little blonde girl and her BF but I’ve forgotten their names! Terrible.. When I go online ill find out their names on facebook, and seriously you put these guys together and I haven’t ever met such a hilarious closely bonded group of people! They are just great and I really envy and admire what they have with each other they really are like a big happy family, and I mentioned hilarious I’m not kidding there also like a bunch of comedians unfortunately for me cause I don’t really know them very well, cause I’m an aussie and cause I’m not a comedian myself I really only understood about 5% of their jokes and whatever they were talking about but it didn’t matter I had a great time and can’t thank them enough for hosting me!!!!
Ok on to my second and last night in New Zealand I’m being taken to a ‘Norwegian Farewell Party’ so take that as you want to but we decided it means were going to get dressed up like Norwegian idiots, get drunk and party at someone’s house!
So after lunch we ransacked the $2 shop and out I come as a bee of course, Vanessa as a ladybird, Craig’s gf as a like fairy princess and Craig and Aaron as Norwegian rockers.… We started off at a bar called Malt where if I remember correctly there was rugby on and me and Vanessa had tequila shots and I had a few black Russians and talked to some random UK guy which I tend to do all the time now.. god help you if ur from UK or Europe cause I will hunt u down and become ur friend on facebook with some false hope that somehow it will probably benefit me on my journey through Europe or when I settle down and start work in the UK..
Anyway after Malt we head to a bar in the city called Impala for free drinks serious the bar was closing down and a few thousand dollars on the bar tab so we drank a shitload of crown royale and then finally headed to the Norwegian party which was actually pretty mad it was in like a penthouse apartment and was packed with people like 50% Norwegian, 25% other europpean, 20%Kiwi and 5% Aussies.
I made friends with a Belgium girl and yes of course we are now fb friends briefly remember having to continuously escape from some random annoying eurowimp guy and then doing some video camera handywork as Aaron and Craig man handled each other all over the place and Knoxie breaking the beautiful corner lamp… That’s about the most significant events I can remember from that night oh and that on the way home the car in front of us slammed straight into a tree and then kept driving and they must have lived near us cause apparently Aaron ended up lecturing the driver and playing 20 questions with him.. So safe and sound I pretty much removed my wings and the awesome boots Knoxie kindly lent me and passed out in the bed Aaron donated to me.. Only mistake I made that night was that I wore my passport out in my money belt as everyone says I need it if we go out cause they won’t accept my driver’s license or 18+ card so I had it in my belt under my top and when I passed out in bed I forgot about it and I don’t know how cause u know it’s pretty cold in Auckland but it’s as if I sweated with it on and now my passport photo is very faded! I was devastated when I saw it, it’s so close to the start of my trip and already my passport is in a state that could possibly be rejected.. I’m pretty sure I’ll be ok cause I’m Australian and I also have my UK work visa which has a clear photo of me but fingers crossed cause would be so painful to try and get another passport and visa now!! Ok last day in Auckland was a very lazy day I didn’t leave the house just caught up on facebook and photo uploading and attempted to make Aaron a cheese toastie and failed miserably by forgetting about it under the grill hehehe oh well second time round was a success and he must have enjoyed it cause he kindly took me all the way to the airport on an empty tank to this day I don’t know if he made it home lol though I did give him some money towards lunch and petrol earlier in the day.. Lunch by the way thanks to Craig and Knoxie was Yummy Tacos with everything except cheese which was weird cause they even had guacamole, refried beans and onion!?! So that wraps up my wonderful, fun and quirky weekend in NZ!
Next stop Philippines from 29th June to 9th July.
So Mon 29th June I arrive in Manila after a quick transit in Hong Kong. Xyrus is there as promised to pick me up and be my bodyguard, Tour guide and boyfriend so were off in a taxi to a better Part of Manila with a beautiful slightly polluted view of the city and mountains.
We spend some time having some whisky, photos and sausage up on like the 4th and top floor of the house and then after meeting his mum and dad and seeing Christian his cousin and his aunty again it’s off to bed for a very early start in the morning. At like 5am we are up to walk through the surrounding area till we come across a tricycle which is the cheapest form of transport in the Philippines and involves a pinoy riding a bicycle or motorbike with a side car attached it costs usually less than $1 (80peso)to go quite a distance, they are color coded and can fit around 1-5 people in them depending on how big you are and strangers will often be sharing the same ride. We went as far as we could on the tricycle then we got a taxi, Xyrus quickly locks our back doors as we get in I guess it’s common for people to try and steal the passengers belongings..
Soon we get to the bus stop and catch a bus to Batangas port and then a ferry to Puerto Gallera where we spent the next 2 days eating, diving, walking, watching the sunset,drinking cocktails befriending two pommy girls and getting harassed by vendors and deciding on our next moves.
Puerto Gallera was really beautiful and very cheap but I it was low season for tourism I guess it’s too hot? So vendors were very desperate so was a bit of an eye opener to life in a third world country. I managed to lose my beloved Australia towel but thanks to my shopping habits and Xyrus’s sharp eyes he managed to spot it at a souvenir shop I had gone back into for like the 4th time, we had obviously left it there the first time we bought something and they just tucked it behind the counter on one of the shelves.. Later that night I must have closed the bathroom door which locked us out so I found in the morning I couldn’t get into the bathroom Grrrrr so went back to bed and tried to hold on and forget about it and did well for a hour or so but then it was breakfast so we went downstairs and used the public facilities lol meanwhile we’re waiting as all the staff take turns trying to unlock our door with their different keys and tools.. Like an hour later still no luck.. so I’ve had enough I decided I need to brush my teeth so up I go armed with my teaspoon from breakfast and after a few attempts sure enough I get it open!! Australia scores 1 to Philippines 0. So I mentioned the diving well it was pretty cheap but I barely rate it, was kinda dodgy with no sighting of open water permits, paperwork or briefing whatsoever!
As soon as we got in there was a turtle and there was a few really cool fish that u don’t see all the time or I don’t, like lion fish, toad fish and a big cuttle fish or squid besides that I’m obviously comparing the diving to Palau and Cairns so it was pretty average and not very colorful. So after the dive we had lunch at the Italian corner which was a really yummy salad for a couple of dollars and then we went looking for 2 pommy girls we had met the previous day cause we were going to help them out by ridesharing from there to boracay but decided we would ferry back to manila and fly to IloIlo which is where I am right now with Xyrus’s family, we arrived yesterday and after quick introductions and a surprise view of his Great Grandfather Open coffin..? weird huh.. then a few whiskys to finish the night. Now today is Friday the 3rd July and I have spent most of the day playing with baby goats!
They are my new favorite animal well baby ones anyway! Now that I think of it I guess it makes sense..I am a Capricorn after all and I do love climbing mountains! Lol funny that.. Ok besides the goats a few other animals get a mention here.. God bless those 2 huge pigs that got slaughtered today I witnessed some of the gutting and disgustingly enough yes I got a photo of their heads and yes I posed in one of them!!!
Im a sicko I know, but hey these opportunities don’t come all the time u know!! Next is the roosters apparently they are fighting cocks so I noticed 2 of them had managed to somehow get closer enough to attempt o fight so out comes the video camera though a minute later I realize one of them is seriously tangled and probably in a bit of pain no wonder he had managed to get close enough to the other one cause they are both tied up, just like the mother goats and also like a pet monkey I saw in Puerto Gallera. Also had a hold of one of the baby roosters and then Xyrus helped me clean the rooster poo of my foot using the real water well in the backyard. Then we all jumped in the back of the 4WD and went for a long crazy drive through some villages to a nice beach were we chilled out and explored for awhile before heading back and driving to the jetty and watching tornados before heading back for dinner.
The next day we went to the funeral in the morning, then we all went back to the house and had a huge funeral feast most of it was the pigs that were slaughtered previously!! Then we went on a mission and found a caribou (water buffalo) for me to ride, that was awesome!!
Then it was back to the house to get pretty drunk on Tanduay Rum with the family and then feast on some goat that they had ‘prepared’ earlier lol.
Xyrus’s cousin also came to visit that night he is a police officer in Ilo Ilo so I got to play with his gun and vest and got some cool photos! After that we staggered back to the resort we stayed at and sang some karaoke and apparently a crazy monkey jumped on me while we were there but I don’t remember that! Ha there was a few cages next to our room with random animals like a hare, big lizard like iguana or something, and those birds with the long sharp beaks that could stab u?? Was pretty weird and they weren’t n very healthy obviously.
Sunday 5th July we head to Boracay by catching a bus about 4 hours to caticlan and then a ferry to boracay. We stayed at a resort called Roys Rendezvous really cheap about 1000 peso a night so about $25AUD and it had ensuite, air con and a hammock it was cute like a bamboo bungalow, only bad thing was a huge bug worm decided to crawl up out of the drain whenever I had a shower!! Gross!!
Ok Ive come to the realization that I need to start shortening this blog if I ever want to keep up with it so here goes..
The next few days we spent horseriding, shopping for my mum and dads birthday presents and bar hopping! The coolest bar in boracay was treehouse or jungle bar where we went to a pretty average full moon party but with some cool bongo music.
Wednesday 8th we flew back to manila though our plane was rerouted from Caticlan we had to catch a 2 hour bus to kalibo which was pretty annoying! Back in Manila we go shopping and I got myself a cheap laptop worth about $450AUD, Xyrus loaded up with all the software I need and its been awesome, just got to try not to spend too much time on it!!Was just a few days in Macau and China so the first night I got drunk with Abbie and at the first bar we went to there was a guy who I dmet on the plane and he and Abbie knew each other… love those it’s a small world stories! Later that night we end up at the Casino that Abbie works in doing events organizing etc.. so Abbie new a good crowd there so we sat on one of the VIP couches and drank, danced and smoked cigars was a great night but poor Abs had to work the next day and I had to explore Macau and it was a very hot day. I made my way to MGM Casino and Abbie and I went to downtown Macau were she left me to explore the alleyways and find the Ruins of St Pauls and some lunch.
Ok for lunch I was not in a great area and couldn’t find a restaurant anywhere.. finally found one a thai restaurant.. I had trouble understanding the menu and just ordered something looked good in the picture. So 10 minutes later out they come with a bowl of mussels some chilli and some garlic. 1-I cant eat anything to chili and 2- I have a hangover and 3- who can eat like 12 mussels with no pasta or anything with it yukko.. so after a few mussels I went and found the Ruins of st Pauls it was pretty cool but is one of the occasions some company would have been good. I decided to catch a taxi back to the shopping area had no luck there so caught another taxi back to Abbies. So I arrive at Abbies by fluently discussing the address in Chinese haha. Then I struggle to find which is the correct apartment block as there are like 3 or 4 identical apartment buildings, I go to the lift and oh my god I couldn’t remember for the life of me what floor she lived on and I couldn’t remember the room number either but I did remember which room it would be if I was to try the right door on all 20 or so levels!!!See my phone also went flat so I couldn’t even contact Abbie and the doorman couldn’t help because we couldn’t communicate but he eventually understood the situation and tried to lend me his phone charger but it didn’t fit. After I stress out for awhile I have a flashback and remember that outside Abbie’s window there is like a balcony area so I looked at the outside of the building and worked out which floor it was and walah in I went for a nice relaxing shower and to get ready for the chilled out yummy night at the best Portuguese restaurant in Macau! The next morning(my mums b’day 11th July)we’re up early first Abs needs to finalise some things for a wedding expo at MGM was cool to see all the different rooms set up in the different wedding themes and then on our way to the ferry to Hong Kong. For the first time in the trip I really suffered with my bag cause at this stage it’s at its heaviest it’s the stop before London which is where I ended up leaving at least 10kg with Angela. So there was a lot of mega struggling with my bag at Macau and Hong Kong Ferry docks simply because I couldn’t find any trolleys. So we arrive in Hong Kong after a very rough ferry ride we head to the hotel, dump our stuff and go and explore Lantau. We were meant to catch the cable car to the big Buddha and monastery but unfortunately there’s a typhoon warning so the cable cars aren’t running so we catch a bus there which took most of the excitement away especially since Abs is scared of heights lol, anyhow we made it to the Buddha it was really cool but we couldn’t be bothered to climb the hundreds of steps to the actual Buddha… why bother when the view is better from far?? Then we walk through the monastery and Abs has a secret obsession with monks so she got her fix there as well. We went for a long walk in the rain to a restaurant that we had one look at and thought no way were going to eat there it was pretty manky, so we found some really nice authentic vegetarian food and then its time to head back to Honkers to get ready and make our way to Lai Kwon Fong. Too bad we got delayed by a flat tyre, but I wont go on about that. When we arrived at LKF we soon realize were lucky to be smack bang in the middle of BEER FEST 2009 The alley ways were full of tourists and beer and food stalls, giant hamburgers, crazy girls in short skirts and high heels on steep roads. It was awesome and we got pretty drunk made some new friends and of course I couldn’t miss the opportunity to hold another freeze event, check it out on you tube ‘HONG KONG FREEZE’ At around 3am me and Abs thought we should do the right thing and get the underground back to the hotel but as we arrived the gate was coming down so what do we do… Charge through and Army roll under the electric roller door!! F*%king hilarious I wish I had it on video for sure, the funniest part was we were that wasted or excited we didn’t stop and think well the gate’s shutting for a reason obviously there is no more trains… lol so eventually we find some people who work there I think and they let us out, our next decision after escaping the underground.. ahh lets just go back to Beer Fest Ill be fine I don’t need to sleep Ill just go straight to the airport without sleep and be there by 6am!! So when we finally got a taxi home (that taxi ride is a whole another episode which I don’t have time for right now) Abbie layd down and passes out and I get in the shower and get my stuff ready and catch the 5.30am airport shuttle. It wouldn’t have been so bad but this old American guy sat next to me and decided I wanted to learn all about the history of German language and its relations to English blab la, I tolh him I had been at Beer Fest all night but he still thought I was up for it… oh well lucky he wasn’t next to me on the 13 hr trip from Hong to London. Though I was totally wrecked it wasn’t a bad flight, had a nice girl from Vienna sitting next to me though Im a bit sad as she also is yet to add me on facebook and she offered for me to visit and stay with her in Vienna cause she is on couchsurfing so I have booked a flight out of Vienna but I can’t find her on CS and I don’t know her details for facebook.. I still have faith she will contact me sometime soon when she stumbles across my infamous contact card
After arriving in London, Angela met me with a warm sweaty fresh from the gym welcome and off we went to Ascot where I got to see Tristan Ang’s boyfriend and his friend Chillie who was also staying there for a few days. After Tristan cooked a yummy dinner with one arm cause his other is in a sling from an operation was bedtime.
The next day I was to meet my CS host Milo around 1pm, so Tris dropped me at the train station to make my way in to London. Once I met Milo we took the scenic walk to his place very close to London bridge and tower hill. There I dumped my bag and met lovely Lauren and we went to a café nearby and had a nice English breakfast. Then it was time for Milo to meet a friend so we both went on the underground and he pointed me in the direction towards the city centre where I found HSBC bank, opened an account, found Trafalgar square and met up with Giuseppe another couch surfer who had been staying with Milo until the day I arrived. So we kept each other company and took some photos before meeting a CS host girl that Giuseppe had been in contact with.
The next day was pretty busy first I found the pub where my mum and dad met back in approx. 1982 then it was called the Duke of Cumberland and today it is called the Duke on the Green, so you can imagine how hard it was too find, first of all dad gave me the wrong metro to get off so I had to walk about 8 blocks to find it asking directions the whole way though onle older people knew the name of it.. Finally made it, but running late now for a meeting with a dentist couch surfer. So the only person in the pub was the cute bartender and what do you know.. he’s an Aussie and hes from Adelaide like me and mum.. so yes of course thanks to the infamous find and my jumping at opportunity’s we are now friends in facebook haha After a few photos Im running back to the underground the closer one and off to embankement another underground station to meet Visha the couchsurfer, we drank some wine talked a lot and went to Marble arch for some snacks and lots of shisha then his brother and friends came to join us. Soon I was all shisha’d out and in need of sleep or alcohol so we headed to Camden which perked me up cause I always remember Vicky and Donna-The Waifs, singing about it in there song London still.. We walked through the cool streets, interesting shops and near some beautiful canals, we passed a free conert with a big line up ouside so we joined the line for awhile cause it was only for Placebo so I was more keen to go to primrose hill. Primrose hill is a big hill with a beautiful view of London though when I was there it was raining and foggy so photos are pretty bad… After a bit more exploring we headed to East Aldgate to have some famous curry which was extremely spicy even for the Indians I was with!! But I was pretty starving so had to drown everything in yogurt and have lots of pappodams and bread.
The next day is Wednesday 15th July and Milo my CS host and his girlfriend are kind enough to take me to where Caroline lives Greenwich, we catch a ferry along the Thames and get shown some interesting buildings like Shakespheares house etc We get to Greenwich and see the painted hall which is beautiful and amazing, then we go up to a special observatory and see the meridian line which was pretty mad and another view of London.
From there I caught the ferry under the London bridge to Westminister where I saw the London eye and big ben, then I caught the underground to visit the science museum and to walk past the museum of history cause it was closed when I arrived. Best of all that day I went to Buckingham palace so that was pretty special.
After all the exploring I decied to stay home in the morning Thursday, though I ended up making contact with dentafind the company that finds dental nurses jobs, so I had an interview and signed up with them for when I return in October after this big crazy trip
I also somehow managed to find the General dental council which is the company denstists, dental nurses and there dental staff need to be registered with to legally work in the UK, they really made my life hard during the 8 months or more it took for my application to be processed. I then made it to meet my cousin Xavier at the train station which was really nice and our first time to meet!! Then it was a big mission to find some prawns cause tonight my CS hosts were holding a BBQ so I decided to ‘throw some shrimps on the barbie’ like a good Aussie! It ended up raining at the BBQ but we still had fun some of us dancing around and then Milo and Caroline taking turns giving Cello performances.
Next day I made my way back to Ascot to have a quiet night with Ang and Tristan and Saturday we went on a CS event Treasure hunt so I dressed as a pirate and me, ang, milo and Gaelle the other CS host all trampsed around London doing, looking for and collecting funny or tricky things. Unfortunately its not a good idea to put 3 girls who don’t know each other too well in a situation like that cause there was a lot of tense moments with people hogging the map or going off on their own not too mention any names… So finally when that was over we had to really race to get the train back in time for dinner with Ang;s family at a Chinese restaurant in Ascott.. and we did miss the train so we ran a bit late..
The next day was another family meal and was and really funny and nice with Ang’s family and I got to talk to her cousin Adrian a bit and he was really nice.
The next day is….. Monday 20th July and its time to go to my family in Belgium, it was a wonderful warm welcome at the station from Evelyn, Guy, Monique, Xavier and Celine!!! And yes meeting them all except Xavier for the very first time wow!!!
From there Evelyn and Guy took me to the Atomium and Mini Europe, they tried to get me to slide off the atomium but I think ill save that for when I get nationality.. Mini Europe was very cool and was great for me to do that before travelling Europe so I am more familiar with the sights etc.. Dinner that night was amazing in French its something like tomato et crevette but its nice big tomatos stuffed with shrimps in a yummy mayonnaise type sauce!!!! Was really amazing!!!
Tuesday 21st National Belgium Day
Today I met Frederic and Stephanie Evelyn and Michels son and gf, we went to Grand Place-the most beautiful Place in the world ha ha its very historical and pretty cool to stand in the middle of the square and just spin around and look at all the buildings.. Then finally I get to see the famous mannequin Pis and also there was a ghostlike statue lieing down and its gold in colour and you stroke it for good luck so lets see how lucky I am when I try get a bed on the sleeper train from Oslo to Stavenger.. See right now Ive just said Goodbye to Andy At Stockholm central and am going to Norway for some hiking and beautiful fjords. We didn’t have time in Stockholm to try and reserve my sleeping train for tonight.. Anyway back to Brussels so we then went for a Belgium lunch and I had mussels and fritz (chips) and of course beer… Was yummy… But am so worried about all this gourmet food I don’t think its possible that I can loose weight while im travelling not in Europe anyway.. Next we went for a walk around to see what was happening for the national day.. was lots of army displays trucks etc, climbing wall, food stalls balloons etc I tasted my first real escargot just taste like squid I guess.. Then we went home and had a BBQ with very tastey sausages and salad, then I shared some super strong whisky with Michel and a cigar then it was back to the city to watch the amazing fireworks display.
Ok Wednesday 22nd Shopping with Celine and Moni all day.. Really loved shopping in Brussels.. then back to Grand Place for a dinner with me Celine, Xavier, Monique, Sabrina and Caroline. Next day I got to visit Michels work St Jean Clinique the hospital where he is head physicist regarding radiation therapy. From there I met up with Monique and went to there place where I finished organizing my trip that night after having a yummy dinner from Sabrina and having a few beers with Xavier. Next day I met Ludo and we went to Bruges we stayed at a hostel called Charlie Rockets was perfect location and very cheap. We finally found De Garre the pub my childhood friend Jonathen recommended and the beers started flowing, not long after that the 12% beers started so that night I got pretty drunk in Bruges and was great fun. After trying to sleep a bit after arriving back in Brussels, Celine had organized her friend to come over and straighten my hair cause tonight we were going to party at a club in Antwerp! Yep so I had to back it up from Bruges and do it harder in Antwerp! 15 EURO entry to the club and then to use the toilet another 50cent each time and the drinks probably 10 euro for a vodka red bull.. Lucky Celines boyfriend looked after us and I only bought 1 drink.. Over there you buy a bottle of Bacardi for like 80 euro from the bar and share it so that’s like $160aud FOR A BOTTLE… Crazy… Was a good night I really enjoy being with Celine shes crazy like me..
Next day was recover again and then go to Gent festival with Celine, Xavier and Monique. Was an interesting town and would have been a good place to get tipsy and go crazy but I was all partied out and so was Celine so after a few hours we managed to say goodbye and head back to Brussels to sleep. The next day Celine had to work then she came home we went to the shops got some supplies cause tonight was poker night at her boyfriends(GiGi) so I got to practice my poker skills and managed to come third which was ok the others playing were Saki, Big John and the cute guy in the pink shirt.. Then we had to go say goodbye to Monique, Xavier and Sabrina cause the next day I leave for Amsterdam and then after those farewells it was time to say hello and Good night to Roger and Jytte as they had returned from South France. The next morning we had a beautiful Belgium breakfast together and then they took me to the train station, Was not long enough time spent with them but I will see them again soon.
Tuesday 28th July I arrive in Amsterdam and hang out with Brenda for the day, was meant to stay for more then 24 hours but the night train I wanted was full so I had to cut it short and leave Wednesday morning but I did everything I wanted to do in Amsterdam.. had a photo with Anne Frank statue, Checked out the cafes, had some weird but yum mint tea and super yum normal apple cake and explored the red light district craziness.. got some video footage too was tricky but I did it..
Next morning I catch the train from Amsterdam-Duisberg-Hamburg- Copenhagen. Only problem me and a few others got off at the wrong stop in Hamburg and missed out connecting trains(but got to explore Hamburg for an hour or so).. So I arrived in Copenhagen 3 hours late but Jyttes cousin, Gitte still picked me up from the train station and we had a lovely picnic and a quick look around Copenhagen which the 2009 Outgames had just finished so was a bit of action still in the air and some strange and friendly people around.. the outgames I think are like the homosexual Olympics though more artistic and circus stuff then sports.. though I have to google that and see if im right.. Then it was hometime to get a good sleep before my next train trip to Stockholm. Andy picked me up from the station in Stockholm and that was cool and good to see I wasn’t the only one getting fatter in Europe haha no he looked the same kinda We went straight to there place and me and sofie got ready for the fluffy themed trance festival we were going to that night we went and met her friend Kina who drove us there it was a crazy night I felt a bit special to be there cause it was on someone;s property about 2 hours from Stockholm and the djs there are flown in from Amsterdam, there was only about 50-100 people there which was nice but it did rain a lot too.. I wore fluffy bunny ears, tail and boe tie and some fluff on my singlet straps and on my wrists later on someone lent me there fluffy leggings I don’t know what they’re called but they just sit below ur knee and down to the ground I got a cool jumping photo with my costume too
The next Day was another recovery day and then we watched a funny movie called Role Models and that’s the movie responsible for our latest saying ‘Whispering Eye’ you’ll have to watch the movie for yourself if u want to know what it means.. lol
Saturday 1st August is Stockholm Pride Parade the coolest parade Ive ever seen by far! You can imagine the people in it but check out my photos too. After the parade I think I was a little worn out or stressed and PMS or all of the above, there was a lot of people speaking Swedish and I just felt like being alone but I guess that’s normal.. but I didn’t want to disappoint Sofie so I went back to the festival with everyone but they were all drinking and I was just kinda in a bad mood so when it came time to go to a pub or club Sofie took me home. Id told Sofie how I was sick of cities and guess Id though in Swedan Id do some more country stuff or hiking so she changed our Sunday plans from going to a theme park to going kayaking which Im sure was much more adventurous and probably cheaper and much more exercise! Wow Ive caught up and now its today and Im still on the train to oslo, very excited about seeing some beautiful places tomorrow til Friday.
Tuesday 4th August
Oslo to Stavenger…
So I arrive in Oslo and need to get a reservation on the night train to Stavenger but it was full and the only way I could get some kind of seat was to pay 850nok for a bed which is about 100 euro!! So I paid it but at least I got a good sleep and had the room to myself which was cool though I was tempted to go find a friendly traveler and see if they wanted to use the other bed but figured it was a bit risky and just went to sleep I woke up just in time to see some beautiful scenery out the window and When I arrived in Stavenger I was met by Pal my Couchsurfer host, we went to his place had some coffee and then went straight to Preikestolen for the best hike of my trip, It’s a big rock that sticks out and looks like one day it will snap off and fall the 200 or so metres below into the beautiful Fjord. There are so many people there but its still worth it to go and take some amazing photos!! The next day he took me diving in Stavanger which was quite an experience, I had to wear a dry suit for the first time which was very uncomfortable, at times I came close to tears it was so tight, heavy and uncomfortable and I was pretty nervous about being 15 metres underwater and so heavy and feeling suffocated but of course once I was in the water it gets a lot lighter but then theres the dry suit which you also have to worry about how much air is in it and when it squeezes tighter on you as you go deeper and you have to be carfeful not too trap the air in the feet part of the wet suit, also I didn’t have my own mask so had trouble keeping the water out also you have this stupid hood on your head that is tight on your neck and pulls at your hair! Sorry to be so negative and complain so much but it was so different then diving in Palau, Cairns and Philippines obviously but I was sooo lucky to have the experience and for free thanks to Pal who is a scuba diving instructor is Stavenger.
That night I met another Aussie couchsurfer from Townsville called Adrian we had a $45AUD meal at a Chinese restaurant then went to a place called Hansons Corner met some other surfers and hosts and I had a $25 drink cause its sooo expensive there.
Thursday morning I head to Bergen on the ferry, when I arrived I found my host Rogers place very easy and there was another surfer waiting there trying to get in I think her names was like Marianna and she was an older lady from Amsterdam, another couchsurfer was staying there as well and she came down and let her in, that was Anika from Lake Konstanz in Germany, we became good friends and after spending some time together that night having a few ciders and hanging out with some cute aussie guys from Melbourne, we went to a club as well and then decided to call it a night but the next day Friday 7th my last day in Norway we went to a hike called Stoltzeiken which was a 30 min walk to some steps (810) leading to the top of a mountain with amazing views of Bergen it was soo hard maybe cause of the alcohol from the night before. We climbed it with 2 french guys who we met the night before Adrian and friend from Marseilles the boys were in a hurry and had to leave the top before us so Anika and I got to take our time and take a beautiful walk to the cable train at Mount Floyen (instead of taking the steps down) we even stopped for a skinny dip in a beautiful lake and took some more cool photos The cable car was great and then we went to the fish markets and had a yummy lunch of salmon, mussels, scallops, onion and vegetables for 100 nok so about 10 euro. Then it was time to head back and get ready for my train to Goteberg via Oslo. Funny storyis not too far from Goteberg I didn’t realize but we had to change to a bus, so Im sitting there in la la land in 1st class and one of the train guards comes up to me and saying quick quick u must take bus to Goteberg so I’m like shit grabbed my stuff and ran and got on the bus, when we were almost in Goteberg It dawned on me.. I didn’t grab my big backpack off the train! Oh god.. so I told the bus driver but you know what he told me they had grabbed my bag and put it on for me!! How nice is that! Go Sweden!!!
Elsa met me at the airport, we went back to her place and got changed and went to the beach and sat on the rocks with all the half naked Swedes, there I saw a floating sauna boat how cool! On the way home we got some ciders(7% oh yeah) and beers and got pretty tipsy before venturing into Goteberg where we pub crawled for a bit then met 2 nice Swedish boys and Elsa pretended to be a pom until one of them caught her talking swedish to a bouncer lol he still went home with her though lol, cant blame him that girl is a crack up Next day was a lazy chilled day and then Elsa’s family came for dinner, we had a big feast, yummy fried cheese, lots of vegetables, chicken, fish, and I think like a fruit pie and icecream for desert. Nect day I caught a plane to Budapest! After getting ripped off buying a 72hr Budapest card and one way airport shuttle bus to sziget festival I had a long slow walk to the Dalmat bar in sziget with my heavy bag.. Luckily Jerome French guy met me and showed me the cs camps though I chose not to go with his camp which was the best decision, so I ended up making camp with Kirsty and Jason from Machester, Viri from Hungary, Joanne from Australia, The awesome dutch boys Waulter, Stefan and Robbert, My favourite frenchie Laurent, Mauritius girl Lauren and Taylor from Canada, and of course Wuuki from finland and Daniel from Sweden!! We also had some older german people camping next to us who kept trying to sell us mushrooms and weed but they were not couchsurfers. I made the mistake of leaving my phone number all over the sziget cs posts on the Couchsurfing website so during the week I got quite a few texts from couchsurfers trying to find the CS camp and that got quite annoying and expensive for me, but I guess I like to be in control or the centre of attention.. lol, So I could write a lot about Sziget but lets just say I had great times with great fun and crazy people, we saw some amazing bands and some very wasted people, it was the best and biggest, by far festival, of my life and I hope to do it again next year.. all the wiser though
I also insisted on spending some quality time in Budapest so saw a lot of beautiful sights with a special thanks to my south African friend Adri who is like a walking lonely planet guide! Seriously this girl doesn’t need a map or a guide map she is a genius.. it scares me lol, loved her company though and we even went to some baths at like midnight which was an experience.. I preferred the Szchenyi baths which I went to during the day with the dutch boys, wuuki and Michael from Paris they had outdoor and indoor baths and saunas, and I have an amazing photo with some old Hungarian men playing chess! Priceless
I must say when Monday 17th came I was more then happy to say goodbye to Hungary, it had been a long week! So Im off on a train to Prague to meet up with Frida, Sofie and Andys friend from Stockholm, easy right?... No of course I get on the wrong train and end up in tears at some random country town in Hungary! Some locals helped me and put me on the next train back to Budapest.. This ended up being an 80 euro and on my arrival in Budapest I paid a full night at the hostel though I arrived at 5am.. grrrrr. On the bright side at sziget the train staff sold me at ticket to Prague with my eurail pass for a very small reservation fee, but they didn’t check my eurail pass where they would see that Czech republic and Slovakia are not covered so just maybe if I had of gotten on the correct train it may have been more expensive if I got fined for not having correct tickets..
After all that I try get some sleep and yay Frida meets me at the hostel in Prague, of course though after sziget Im sick with a bad cold.. just had to keep on going, sights to se etc.. So that day we go for lunch, shopping, and have some drinks with some Canadians and Romanian guys and have a night out at another cheesy sausage fest club.
Next day is lots of sightseeing and walking with hangovers with the Canadians, that night Frida goes out with some people and I try and rest to clear up my sickness..
So I took a flight to Barcelona, there I made my way from Girona airport to Barcelona city and was very lucky to be met at the metro but Xavier a super nice Spanish boy who was unable to host me but still spent some time with me, that night he took me to the CS party on a girls terrace, there I had to find my host.. an Indian guy named Kumar lol, he text me and said he was there so started looking for the Indian guy though there were like 40 people there and a few Indian guys, there was one strange guy though he kept hanging around near me but he was pretty quiet and wouldn’t say his name.. I had some missed calls from him and I would return them but he wouldn’t answer, was getting a bit worried, then the strange guy said if you don’t find your host you can stay at my place, Im like yeah thanks its ok ill find him. Then eventually this guy says haha just jokeing I am Kumar Im ur host.. ‘Great I think to myself I have to stay with this creepy guy.. not happy, so I drink some more wine and sangria and talk to Erin the super nice Aussie girl I met who has been living in Barcelona for like 4 months. Kumar keeps by my side and is getting real annoying cause he won’t stop putting his hand on my shoulder or on my arm, he does it for ages and other people are noticing and getting annoyed/worried for me too. In the end Erin decides she wants me to stay with her, and Im more then happy with that though I don’t know how to tell Kumar, so Erin does it for me, shes a legend! Only problem is after we lose Kumar everyone is going to the beach or a salsa bar, so me, Erin and her Belgium flat mate Jozefien go to the salsa bar…. With my backpack With all the wine, sangrias, mojitos, my back pack and Kumarmy first night in Barcelona has become too much for me too handle so I had a few breakdowns that night.. Wasn’t the highlight of my trip but only had 2.5 terrible days since 26th June when I left so its not soo bad..
Next day was improvement by far except for the wakeing up hungover and hot and sweaty… I had made a rendezvous with Andi the couchsurfer from Innsbruck, that I had met at the CS party. So we met in the city and my first cousin Sebastian, son of my Uncle Roger and sister of Celine is also in Barcelona that day so was very cool that I got to meet up with him and also GG Celines boyfriend who I had met and played poker with in Brussels So we decided to go on the hop on and hop off Barcelona tour bus, we were all pretty lazy and tired that day so only time we hopped off was at the train station to book my ticket to Valencia. After the tour we said goodbye to Sebastian and GG and went to the beach where we met up with Xavier (pronounced Chubby in Espanol) and Jozefien the Belgium flatmate of Erin whom I was couchsurfing with We chilled out there had a swim and a mojito, then it was goodbye to Xavier and we went and had a yummy buffet lunch and then went to a famous parc de gaul (not sure if that’s the right name), lots of mosaic buildings and structures very big and beautiful and with a religious monument with a great view of Barcelona. Then we said goodbye to Andi, though I will couchsurf with him in Innsbruck on 25th September between Lake Konstanz and Venice
25th August,2009
This morning I head to Valencia and catch a train to Cheste where Debs meets me with Nathan and Scott the two aussie boys also surfing at her place, she has a great studio apartment above her mums florist business.. very crowded with us 3 though me and debs slept on the terrace that night much cooler then inside though got a little too cold in the night. That same night we had a beautiful dinner with 2 of Debs friends Suzanne and Juvi (pronounced Hubi) he was very cute and very keen on rock climping we planned to go climbing on the Friday though he had a bad knee so doctor ended up telling him he couldn’t climb so it didn’t happen.. The next day we went to La Tomatina!! Was a great experience though a little scary at times as the crowd is huge and everyone is in a small street a 4 trucks come and dump bad tomatos and everyone has a huge tomato fight, we had to wear goggles and strap our money etc in safe places, and we wore white clothes to really get the tomato stain effect haha, was insane!! Afterwards the locals rinse you off with hoses.. we drank lots of sangria and beer that day, then partied in the street. The boys disappeared most of the day and when we saw them again they had obviously been rolling in tomatos and they had it everywhere in there socks, jocks ears etc.. The fact that they didn’t shower til 2 days later didn’t help ewwww they stunk and they slept on Debs couch and everything.. not great couchsurfing manner… They even went and partied in Valencia that night and hadn’t showered, the poor girls that hooked up with them that night lol. Debs and I had dinner with Juvy () that night and went to a town called Loriguille and I witnessed Correfoc!! Some crazy locals were semi protective clothing and have fireworks exploding amongst them.. we stood back about 50 metres and when the fireworks came chasing after us we had to run into someones house, was awesome!! Seriously I wonder how many aussies have experienced such a thing!!
The next day we went to Chiva and met up with Debs 2 gorgeous cousins and watched the bulls running up and down the street, my own personal running of the balls and I was the only tourist there When we arrive back in Cheste there are the 2 boys lying outside of Debs place looking sad and sorry haha So we let them back in and spend the next few hours trying to convince them to take a shower, then I decide we should do some shopping and cook dinner for Debs, so really what happens is I buy all the food (Im the one whos nearly broke!!) and I do all the work to make the meal, and then after I do all the washing up.. Damn those boys!! Oh well Karma will come I hope.. And then once again I sleep outside on an air mattress and the boys have the futon.. You should also know I made contact with Debs to couchsurf with her about 3 months before the boys did… hmmm. I have to tell you though Debs is such an amazing funny girl (shes actually 32) My trip to Spain would have been nothing if I hadn’t found her!!
Friday 28th I head back to Barcelona I stay in a hostel that night though Erin said I could stay with her but it was more convenient for me to stay at the hostel so I could see the Gaudi house and Sagrada Familiar Church which is amazing and very famous! That night I went with an irish guy from my hostel to a CS meeting where we partied in the street to live music and drank wine from the bottle..
Next day I caught the train to Meyragues where Laurent met me and took me to his awesome house with his great hippy flatmates, I made friends with Titiane and Bruno, hopefully will meet up with Titiane in South America in February and Bruno is planning a trip to Asia to do his scuba instructor license and maybe go work in Cairns so Ill try help him with that Next day we went to a beautiful Lake and chilled out and swam there, that night we ate cous cous and watched an Indian music film very different The following day Laurent took me hikeing to the highest point in the area from there we could see saint victoire (google it), that night was more yummy food and early night and my last day there they took me to Cillons (have to correct the spelling) cascades where everyone was smoking drinking and making music in the river and there was some semi big waterfalls, really beautiful. Then Titiane drove me to Manosque were I met my Uncle Roger and Aunty Jytte who took me to the holiday house in Banon where Monique(Aunty),Sabrina (Moniques girlfriend) and Caroline (my cousin Xaviers girlfriend) where waiting
I slept in the next day and awoke to find everyone in the swimming pool, later we went on a hike up a hill past nice old houses and lavender fields. Next day we went on a hike to Colorado (kind of like in America) Big red hills like a desert with beautiful ochre colours, I decoded to paint my face with the dirt and got some cool photos
The next day I leave for Paris, I met a really nice man on the train who ended up giving me metro tickets, phone card and directions and tips for Paris!!
I had a bit of a panic when I arrived as I couldn’t get hold of Michael my host, a couchsurfer who I had met in Budapest so I found my way to his train stop and then started texting some people for a back up plan then he finally called me very apologetic as his phone had been on silent..
That night we went in to Paris and saw Notre Damme cathedral, Hotel de ville and had a yummy 3 course dinner for 12 euro The next day I met with Samir a couchsurfer and visited the Louvre also with Michael, we had ice cream at berthillon and called it a day.
Sunday 6th September Michael and I went to Disneyland!! We met with Laurent (fom Meyragues) mum Michelle who got us entry for 19 euro, I did 30 euro worth of food shopping the night before which provided us with that nights dinner then breakfast lunch and dinner at Disneyland cause its super expensive there of course. We really made the most of our day there cause we used the fast pass deal where you go straight to the best rides and get a ticket that tells you to come back at a certain time so you don’t have to line up for hours so I don’t think we lined up for more then 10-15 minutes at a time that day…. Mostly was 5 minutes and we did 98% of the rides we wanted to!!! That night we went and experienced the Eiffel tower by night was beautiful and stayed for midnight when the whole thing glitters for 5 minutes!
Next day I was meant to go to Menton to see my Aunty Isabelle and family but decided I need one more day in Paris so met up with a couchsurfer from Germany Tornsten we climbed the Eiffel tower together and got the lift to the top!! We also went to the top of Arc de triumphe and went to the cemetery where Jim Morrison and Edith Piaf are buried though it was closed when we arrived so we took the metro to sacre –coeur, unfortunately I was in a hurry to see Moulin rouge and be back at Michaels to go to the cinema so I never went to the artists quarter next time!! So yeah got the photo at Moulin rouge and beelined back to Nanterre ville where Michael lives, though of course I got on the wrong train and arrived back late anyway meanwhile Michael decided to miss the movie anyway as his house mate who had been on holiday had returned and as he had just moved in she was telling him the rules etc.. Oh well so the next day I took the train to Menton and finally after 18 years am reunited with my Aunty Isabelle!! Sadly though I wont see my Grandma as she passed away last year, I also met her 18 years ago as Isabelle and It was my Grandma Tilly (yes Im named after her)both visited us in Australia back in 1991. Its quite sad cause I had been saying for years I would come and see my Grandma in France and was very bad luck that I missed her by 1 year and she was my last living Grandparent and the only one who had ever seen me. Though I have my Grandpa John in Adelaide though he was my Grandma Desma on my mums side, second husband so not my mums real father though we treat him like he is of course.
So now Im in Menton Tuesday 8th September
We had a yummy pasta dinner with pesto, fromage and proscitto my dads favourite meat Im sure lol, After some facebook time its off to bed the next day we went to watch Lucas play soccer hes really good so took some professional photos for when he plays nationally haha, after we went to Monaco to meet Laurent who took the kids while Isabelle and I spent the afternoon and night seeing the sights like the castle, formula one track, princess graces rose garden, casino etc was great to spend time with her we get on really well! Next day I spent the day at the beach and doing a little shopping ;)
On Thursday I went to Monaco with Laurent and spent most of the day exploring myself went to the Russian ballet museum and grimoldi forum where the best nightclub is in Monaco, I also went to the beach again and there Raphael a French guy who stayed with us at Deborah and dads place for a few weeks in Cairns, he picked me up on his really nice yellow Honda motorbike and took me for a really scary ride up to the village where he lives called La Trobie (not quite right spelling) So got some great pics of the view of Monaco and if it wasn’t so foggy could have seen Nice quite well too, when we get back to Monaco we meet my uncle at Bettina an old friend of my father’s shop, she’s very happy to finally meet me so was nice to talk with her and her mum and play with her son. That night I have a meeting planned with a couchsurf host in Monaco whom happens to be a oral and maxillofacial surgeon a good contact for me to have! He picked me up in his Mazarati it’s a 4 door Ferrari and we had a very expensive Italian dinner and some fast driving through the streets of Monaco and on the formula one track, lucky me what crazy times in Monaco!
Next day a bit hungover I watch Lucas play soccer again and take the train to Nice where my good friend Sofiane picked me up, Souf lived in the same house as me in Cairns for a few months, he took me to the old town, to have some Nicouse food and to his friends house for drinks had great chilled out few days like that with Souf then on Tuesday we went to Cinque Terre!! We arrived in Riomaggiore and met a couchsurfer from Oz named Simone and we all got along so well was a perfect few days and hilarious too! From exploring the villages on the rugged coastline, the tiny crazy little streets we drank 7 bottles of wine together on the first night and had a dinner of pain (bread), fromage and salami, went smimming in the beach at night and spent some time in a local bar.
Next day we head to the most northern village Monterosso, (Riomaggiore was the most southern village) to leave our bags with a couchsurfer host there so we could be free to spend the whole day exploring the other villages, so first after Riomagggiore we train to Manorola was a very cute village and a very funny train trip we had my music cranking and were breaking it down in the train I think we could have made some money if we passed a hat around lol, so in Manorola we found a nice rocky port to have some lunch too bad I go to have some orange juice and realize I bough lemon juice!!!, It rained most of the time in Cinque Terre which was very unfortunate but we still had such a good time really another top 5 of my adventures in Europe! Souf and Simone went for a swim there to, in the rain!! Not me lol, I sat and watched from under my umbrella Ideally if it wasn’t raining we would have walked from Riomaggiore to Manorola but we would have got saturated and would have had to pay for the walk, not once did we buy tickets for the train in Cinque Terre though I had my eurail pass so I don’t think I would have needed to and since it was bad weather all of the other paths were closed but no worries it gives me a great excuse to go back to Cinque Terre again! From Manorola we took the train to Corniglia where we had to climb about 350 steps to reach the town, we had a glass of wine for 2 euro I had read about it on the internet and they apparently give you a bowl of complimentary olives though they had run out of olives today so they gave us some weird preserved beans and some chips Time is running out for the day but still have 1 more village to visit and to see some more of Monterosso, So we decide to skip Vernazza and see it in the morning so we go back to Monterosso where we wait in the rain for 40 minutes for Stefano the couchsurfer to come and give us access to our bags, he was a really nice guy was just unbfortunate he couldn’t help us with somewhere to have our tent. The night before me and Souf were lucky enough to sneak into Simones hostel and have a free bed there! Hehehe, so for our last night Wednesday night we decide to camp so we head to Levanto the town north of Monterosso as there are many campsites there! After another long walk in the rain we choose a campsite, actually Souf chose it as weopted to pay just for 1 campsite and 1 person instead of 3 so we saved almost 20 euro, lucky we did cause when me and Simone snuck in and met souf to set up the tent low and behold there is no tent poles in the bag aaaaaaaggggghhhhhhhhhhh no way!!! It was so bad it was funny so we attempt to make the tent using tree branches!! Somehow we made something resembling a tent and used our bags to give it some shape and keep it on the ground, once again we have a meal of wine, fromage and salami no bread available this time LOL, So after Simone shows us some of her amazing photographs (she is a professional photographer) we try to get to some sleep, I swear I didn’t sleep all night I was so uncomfortable and the noise of the rain and thunder, and at about 4.30am Souf gets up cause he is starting to sleep in a puddle of water!! Cause of the poorly set up tent of course when it started raining hard the water was non stoppable! So we pack up everything and run to the toilets, you should have seen us 3 poor little mice lol, so we sorted ourselves out there and walked in the rain AGAIN, to catch a train to Vernazza, we asked about 6 people but no-one was willing to take care of our bags for an hour so we could explore the village properly so Simone and I went for a walk and took some pics while Souf looked after the bags and drank his beloved expresso! I got a picture taken the same as Deborah did when she was in Cinque Terre so she will love that In each village I collected a rock and wrote the village name on it so Ill have a cool souvenir, now its time for me and Souf to head back to Nice, not as easy as it sounds the trains in Italy are so bad maybe it was cause of the rain but very often the trains are 10-55 minutes late of SOP (meaning theyre not going to come at all!!) So we have tickets booked from Genova to Nice and it was so stressful trying to get there on time, Most of the Italians that we tried to ask for help couldn’t speak English or france and dint even seem to want to try and understand or help us.. By a miracle and a lot of running and swearing and a taxi ride we made it to to our station in Genova and made it to Nice, then it was still a rush to get my clothes washed and semi dried have some dinner and catch my train (with a bed ) to Strasbourg which is where I am right now and now Im off to catch my train to Germany to see my friends Susi and then go to Octoberfest!!
Hi everyone today is Tuesday 22nd September 90 days since I left home and right now I’m sitting at a train station in Ulspring at 10pm, I wouldn’t even call it a station it’s just a tiny train stop in a tiny town somewhere between Ulm and Stuttgart. How did I get here well I’m on my way to Roma but managed to miss my train from tiny Meckenbeuren by 1 minute, that was a stressful hour for me and Susi, were panicking driving around to other towns trying to find (holy shit I just had to grab my laptop and all my belongings cause a huge superfast train just roared past and nearly blew me away!!) anyway trying to find another train going even remotely towards Italy! Then of course my phone runs out of credit and things couldn’t get much worse so we decided we needed a beer and some cigarettes, after that we head to her aunties place where we decide which train I can get and top up the phone credit then were off and racing again back to Meckenbeuren so I can get the train to Ulm then to Mannheim, then to Milan and finally to Roma!! So shortly after our goodbyes and I’m finally on the train it gets delayed by about 15 minutes at one of the stations this is real bad news for me because I will miss my train from Ulm! I met a nice old guy on the train and we decided my best option is to get the train to Stuttgart and then to Karlsruhe and from there I can get the city night line to Milano then to Roma woohoo, but once I’m on my way to Stuttgart we check with the conductor and ( oh my god had to brace myself another huge train went passed this time I was ready for it and noticed it was also loaded with cars!) ok sorry so low and behold the conductor says no there’s no way I can get to Manheim or Karlsruhe in time for the train to Milano, was almost in tears but not quite.. So I go back to my old friend who helped me before and he said my best bet(to avoid finding accommodation in Stuttgart cause I only have 5 euro while I wait for my money to clear!) is to get off and return to Susi so I get off at next stop which obviously wasn’t the best idea cause vie now been stuck at this deserted place for an hour and another 30 minutes to go, it’s here I came closer to tears but thank god I have Susi not so far away so I can go back to her but am very disappointed that I may not be in Rome until tomorrow night now. At least Ill still see my Uncle Rick and Sharon there though I feel bad for stuffing my host around its his 40th birthday tomorrow and I bought him some German beers lucky for me cause I get to have a beer to keep my stress levels down while I’m waiting, so if all goes to plan.. Unlikely I should be back to Susi before 1am tonight!! Poor girl isn’t used to all this stress, guess it’s a bit of excitement for her though. Oh yeah and here’s a stupid but I think worthwhile thing I want to mention I really needed to go to the toilet but got off the train here and am drinking a beer so hmmm needed to solve that problem so went for a little walk down the dirt track (the grand entrance to this train stop) and it goes downhill and is kind of hidden except there are street lamps lighting it up but as I walked under one the light went out so (aagghhhh another bloody train went passed- I should just jump on one!) ok yeah the light went out so perfect I relieved my bladder and as soon as I walked away the light came back on! See I’m not so unlucky after all!! Wow I’m glad I decided to write some of my blog I think it’s only 10 minutes until the train that’s stops here arrives, let’s see if it stops I doubt many people use this stop!!
I’ll try fill you in one my days with Susi before this retched day, first day I arrived Susi and her boyfriend Olly picked me up and we went to her beautiful home in a tiny village in the German countryside, we had a lovely lunch of sauerkraut and pasta and then tried on dirndls’ the traditional German dresses the girls wear to Oktoberfest, I found one that fitted surprisingly and then we went shopping with her crazy friend Sandra for stockings and I scored a pair of shoes to wear for 6 euro. The next day I met her other friends Moarn and Betzge and we took the 2 hour train to Munich but kept occupied with beer and champagne We went to Betzges' exboyfriend's apartment where we were staying the night and then took the metro to Oktoberfest, we saw the parade and then we got told we all the tents were full and we wouldn’t be able to get in haha yeah right we got in alright and had a great time in the Kacker (have to correct the spelling) tent, managed to get drunk on only 3 very big beers, met some very nice German boys and sang and danced true German style! After recovering the next day we had a quiet night, the following day we went to Bodensee and went for a forest walk with Sandra was crazy have so much fun with those girls we even had a farm photo shoot with me in the dirndl dress and the pigs, cows, turkeys and tractors hehe. Was a very chilled few days with Susi and her really nice family and delicious German food And here I am now safely back on the train to Susi and tomorrow will try once again to get to Roma!!!!
After one more very comfy night’s sleep in Susi’s spare we’re off to the Meckenbeuren station for another farewell, this time I’ve made it to Zurich with no complications and you know what I think I now know why fate made me miss my train to Rome last night, just as I was arriving in Zurich I decided to text my Swiss friend Corinne to tell her I was catching the train through Switzerland and guess what she was in Zurich working 10 minutes away from the station so she came and met me for lunch!! Corinne and I have been friends through CS and FB since around January this year but unfortunately we never got to meet though we planned to meet in London when she was going to Michael Jackson concert the same week I was in London but as you know he died so she never came to London, next we planned to meet at La Tomatina but managed to miss each other there as well!! So finally today we got to meet its crazy really!! Also maybe something bad would have happened to me if I arrived in Rome this morning... So now I’m on the train to Milan from Zurich and yes of course in first class, I’m so lucky to have the 1st class eurail pass I won thanks to my dad who designed the winning logo/flag the 2 passes each for 15 days over 2 months are worth around 2000AUD each!! Most of the time I get strange looks from the other 1st class passengers cause I look like I should be in 2nd class stuff them hehehe, I just pity them cause they had to pay probably hundreds of Euros to be on the train
Besides the fact that I got to meet Corinne in Zurich the scenic view from this train is absolutely stunning words can’t describe I’m sorry to say but its better then Norway!!! Now I’m happy I missed the train last night I really knew there was a reason!! Ahhhh Roma here I come!
I safely arrived in Rome and was greeted at the station by my Uncle Rick and Aunty Sharon was so good to see them, they let me stay in their hotel and we walked the streets of Rome and visited the trevi fountain and had a drink. The next morning I went to my hosts apartment, Enzo a great Italian guy and actor and he couldn’t have lived in a better location not far from Trevi fountain and if you know Rome at all he lives like 1 minute walk from the Barberini metro! He was a bit busy that day, so I set off to see the colosseum and the Spanish steps on my own then met with Rick and Sharon for a farewell drink funny to think that today they would have been back at work in Adelaide.
Another couchsurfer host Giovanni contacted me and took me for a great tour of Rome I saw a church and inside was bones and skeletons like a shrine.. have to find out what the name of it was. After we went to some ruins where there were cats everywhere, then to the Pantheon and then from behind the Victorian building there was a great view overlooking more ruins and the colloseum! We started getting hungry and found a great apperitvo bar where you buy a drink for 7 euro and get a all you can eat buffet of small bruscettas, fish too many things to name but it was sooo good! By then Enzo had finished work so we met him and went for drinks, Enzo knows so many people in Rome so we had a few free drinks in his friends bars and before we knew it, it was 4am and we were drunk and sitting by a fountain talking to random people, I met a kinda cute Italian guy who bought me like 15 roses, they were going very cheap by that time of the morning, Somehow I convinced the poor guy to get half naked for a photo.. don’t think ill put that one on facebook though, after that we called it a night and I had to do a runner from the Italian guy.
Friday 25th I get on the train to Pisa to meet a friend Anita whom I met in Prague she gave me a quick tour of Pisa I got the famous photo with the leaning tower of Pisa then got back on the train to Rome. I had made plans with Giovanni to go camping near Napoli on Saturday and Sunday night, so wanted to have an quiet night. Of course my train got delayed and I didn’t make it back to Rome til midnight and Enzo met me and we went for pizza and coffee, we didn’t get home til like 3am cause he kept seeing his friends everywhere but the pizza was worth it. That same day I went to Pisa was the day I found out my Couchsurfing Ambassador application had been approved!! Yippppeeeee so happy about that, I submitted my application in June so had been waiting awhile.
Saturday Giovanni and I took the train to Napoli, quite a dirty city though has some nice buildings similar to the Pantheon in Rome, though when we asked a bus driver which bus we should catch to the city centre he looked at us like we were crazy and warned about pickpockets on the bus. So we found the bus and I took a photo of the pickpocket warning sign, then a African guy stood close to me and was freaking me out cause it was like he was trying and I think succeeding to ‘accidently’ rub his groin area on my knee, so I just tried to move my legs away as I wasn’t in a position to get up and move and Giovanni was right beside me anyway. Suddenly the guy got off at a bus stop to my relief and soon we got off and had some lunch, then I went to look at my phone and guess what.. yep it was gone. So we figured it was likely that that guy had been doing that to distract me while he slipped my phone out of the Velcro phone pocket on my backpack arm strap. I had been holding the bag on my lap cause was paranoid about thieves but had only been thinking about my wallet(not that there is ever much money in it these days), cameras and passports. I didn’t get to upset really just dumbfounded about how it happened, I stayed positive as it was the one thing out of my valuables that I could replace easily and cheap, my host Enzo actually had a spare phone that he has lent me now but for some reason my other UK sim card wont work which is annoying but at least my French one is working, most of my phone numbers were backed up on my spare sim anyway though all I need is facebook to communicate.
So we caught the next boat to Ischia happy to get away from Napoli we spent those few days drinking, eating really good Italian food, sunbaking and swimming at the beach and touring the whole island on a scooter. The first beach we went to was near the port and it was filthy so much rubbush everywhere right along the shoreline, so being the good nomadic coushsurfer I am I spent nearly an hour picking up rubbish off the beach.
During our time in Ischia I was prepared to only eat from supermarkets and to camp but Giovanni ended up spending a lot of money on good food, drinks, scooter hire, the ferry to the island and the campsite fees I hope I can repay him one day..
Now Im on a train to Fano to stay with friend Giacomo who I spent a few fun days and nights with in Cairns, really looking forward to seeing a familiar face then I catch the ferry to Greece on Saturday! 1 night in Athens then on to Mykonos to see Lucy and Caz!!
On the way to Fano I had to change trains at Falconara maritime station and while I was waiting an African guy named safari started chatting to me and telling me how its his dream to go to Australia and he really wants to go to Iceland in Australia LMAO I worked out he meant Queensland.. Then a train came but he said it was’t my train and I believed him, but later discovered it was my train and he was either just dumb or wanted me to go on the same train as him which also went through Fano but arrived 40 minutes later. After I found out I stopped talking to him and he kinda went off and sulked to himself.. Loser!! I finally made it and Giacomo was waiting for me and we went to his house and I met his parents Ivana and Enzo, Enzos English was non existent but Ivana was pretty good and has been taking English lessons she was really sweet. Once again I was fed very well there was really yummy gourmet (to me) food every night, from fish, beef, finnochio, pasta, olives, wine, liquers, chestnuts, figs, peaches, fig cake, home made biscuits etc etc
Giacomo took me to San Marino which is a republic like Monaco, we took the funicular up to the village on the mountain and was really beautiful unfortunately a bit foggy but still an amazing place.
Another day Giacomo took me for a bike ride along the coast, and to have some of Italian gelato. On Thursday 1st I took the train back to Roma to see the Vatican and to pick up the things I had accidently left behind. I didn’t realize I had to change trains but the conductor told me I need to change in Ancona.. so I got off and tried to change but missed it by like 30 seconds, the conductor should have told me to change in Falconara maritime station and I wouldn’t have had a problem. So stuck in Ancona for 3 hours I decide to make the most of it and pick up my ferry ticket as its this Saturday I catch the ferry from Ancona to Patras, turns out it was a very good idea because I took the train to Ancona maritime station and discovered they have moved the ferry offices so I could wait an hour for a free shuttle to them or try find bus #12, so after no luck finding the bus I took the train back to the station and found the bus station next to the station. I caught the bus and got my ticket went back to the station and paid 10 euro to reserve a seat on the eurostar to Roma as the next regional train which is free for me wasn’t for another 3 hours.. So I trained to Roma in first class comfort and even got a little sleep. I was meant to meet an American girl when I arrived but since I was now 2 hours late she couldn’t meet me so I went to the Vatican myself and using my dodgy flight centre student card I got entry for 8 euro and there was no line! Unfortunatly while I was there I didn’t realize st pieters basilica is at the Vatican so seems I must have missed that part which was something I really wanted to see.. like when you see the pope in the movies like Euro Trip.. Next time.. I stayed with Enzo again which was great, really cool to have him as a friend for whenever I stay in Roma! The American girl Jessica, Enzo and I met up for aperitivo that night the people at the bar where Enzo’s friend so we only paid 2.50 each for all we can eat buffet and for bottle of wine we shared.. Bargain! Next day I went back to Fano and went out for drinks with Giacomo and his friends I think I drank 6 different types of drinks and I remember blowing 3.5 on the Breathalyzer! Next morning I had quite a headache but we went and di food shopping for me so I could eat cheap for the next 2 days on the ferry until I reached Athens So right now Im on the ferry on the back deck the sun set awhile ago but missed a great photo cause of the clouds though I think ill go to bed early and try to catch the sunrise in the morning.. It’s a really cool ferry, its huge and I have a bed in a dormitory, theres a mini casino, plenty of bars, restaurants, video games room, swimming pool etc..
I had a great night sleep and planned to wake up for the sunrise though was woken by the annoying loudspeaker voice of reception paging Mr Watteridge about 10 times as we had almost arrived at the first stop and apparently Mr Watteridge was nowhere to be seen to get ready to disembark with his car!! The sunset was hidden by the mountains though was still beautiful a few hours later we arrived in Patras, I had 10 minutes til my train was due to leave for Athens so jumped in a taxi to take me to the train station though as it turned out I discovered it would have taken the same time for me to walk there.. When I arrived I found out the train was cancelled and the next one was 3 hours away.. I couldn’t afford the bus after the mistake with the taxi and the train is free for me so decided to just try and find some internet and pass the time. At the café next to the station I met a sweet Canadian girl Dominique, and we hit it off and ended up spending the next 4 days together, she came to Mykonos with me and we got a cool beach cabin at Paradise Beach Resort, though on the way to the ferry to Mykonos we had met 2 more Canadian girls (Andrea and Jackie) so now we were a mad group of 4 heading to run amuck in Mykonos!! Also on the ferry we met 2 solo guys Ryan from Adelaide and another guy whom for the life of me I can’t remember his name but he was a bit of a loner, awkward American guy who just didn’t quite fit in with the rest of us but to Ryans dismay he ended up sharing a beach cabin with him.
When we arrived in Mykonos Dominique and I were picked up by the scooter hire guy and ended up hiring 2 quad bikes which were a lot safer for us anyway. We found our way to Paradise Beach resort but not before stopping to grab a couple of greek beers (Mythos).
Then after checking into our sheds, I mean cabins we chilled out on the beach until it was time for us to go in and meet my Aunty Caz and Lucy for dinner. So we ended up taking the quad bikes and letting the other girls ride on the back, we met my family near the new port and also met Petros the famous Mykonos mascot pelican.
We chose to eat at the same restaurant Luce and Caz went to the previous night and we shared pizza and greek salads and got spoilt with free shots of something like limoncello, the waiters are super sleazy there though for some reason we went back again on the last night it was pretty cheap there and we never left hungry though on that last night we went there one of the waiters told me to follow him to get his email address and he took me to the toilets and tried to get me to come into a toilet cubicle to kiss him seriously how crazy is that!! Idiot!! Anyway the next day I decided to take the quad bike by myself to see Luce and Caz at their hotel which was 5 star and at Elia beach, seriously amazing expensive hotel with mineral pools, spas, saunas the works! And also quite an explicit gay nude beach so we went for a bit of looky and some pics up there was quite entertaining!
Then I took Luce to my resort though on the way we stopped for supplies and some Israely guys asked us for directions they wanted to go the same place we were heading so we said they could follow us but then I couldn’t start the bike and neither could anyone else so the scooter people came and swapped my bike for me by that time the guys had gone thank god cause they were quite annoying and fuggly, I think my Israeli jokes helped scare them off hehe, but just as we hit the road they had returned and were hot on our tails.
Not far down the road there was some other lost girls on bikes so we managed to lose the guys there as they stopped to swoon on those girls instead hehe.
We made it back to the resort and met the girls and started drinking.. I should mention the best part about where we stayed they were filming the sequel to The Wog Boy!! The Wog Boy 2 Kings of Mykonos!! I got to meet Vince Colosimo and Im hoping somehow we might be in the background of the movie though I doubt it. I did get a photo with Vince though and I have a poster advising the filming and how they were looking for extras though that was the weekend before we were there…
After a big night in the town the next morning the girls went to Delos and Ryan and I took the quad bikes to Super Paradise Beach, was beautiful there I really splurged and had a pina colada though we got asked to pay 12 euro for the chairs we were sitting on but we said no and got moving back to town to return the quad bike. That night I met Luce and Caz for dinner and said goodbye to Caz as was time for her to go back to Australia so when she left the next morning I moved in and got to spend a night of luxury with Lucy in the 5 star hotel in Mykonos! That night was my last night in Mykonos and my second last night in Europe and I started chatting with the waiter who was very cute and we kinda ended up hooking up so mission complete I now will have to go back to Mykonos haha. Now Im at Athens airport about to fly to London, had a lovely day with a greek girl Irini seeing Acropolis, Parthenon and almost the whole city of Athens, I even found some work pants and shoes for when I start work in Edinburgh on Tuesday!!!! Tonight I stay at Gatwick airport, tomorrow I meet Angela In Windsor and then to Scotland on the train!!
Wow Im shockin its July 15, 2010! Its been 9 months since I wrote in this!!
Well well well where have I been since October.. unfortunately this will have to be a very quick and brief catch up to bring this to date as next month Im off to Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia and H___________ and Montenegro, then 6 weeks after I return its South America baby!!!
Ok so back to October last year! I made it safely to Edinburg and started work at Meadowbank dental practice, I found a room in the city with a dodgy Australian/Indian guy but happily left there a few months later and moved in with Nic, Sam, Stu and Calum!! All awesome couchsurfers and very good friends of mine now! I did last squeeze in a bit more travelling in 2009 its hard to resist the ryan air flights so I skipped on over to Ireland for a long weekend and saw Galway, the cliffs of moher, Aran islands and Dublin, well worth the trip and highlight was meeting Ben a crazy American harmonica player! He was a friend of my cs host who was also staying with him and he came to Inis Mor the largest Aran island with me was a magical crazy adventure!! Dublin as I anticipated was over-rated but yes I did visit the famous guiness brewery of course!!
At Christmas time I flew to Belgium and had a special xmas with my dads family, also squeezed in a visit to Antwerp as well, not so exciting, nothing beats Bruge in Belgium!! I returned to Edinburgh in time for the arrival of Sophie, Andy and Frida coming to visit me and celebrate Hogmanay(Scottish New years eve), just to recap Andy is one of my best mates from Cairns-originally Newcastle and he hooked up with Sofie my Swedish couchsurfer when I was hosting her back home, now they are living together in Sweden!!! Frida is Sofies friend who travelled with me in Czech Republic! So they came to celebrate Hogmanay and my 24th birthday, Edinburgh is crazy over New Years eve there is a massive over-rated street party which is nearly impossible to get to the live music or to move and unfortunately we lost Sofie and ended up giving up looking for her and went home very worried and a bit too drunk.. I had taken her to a ceilidh(traditional Scottish dance party) earlier in the evening and as it turned out she had gone back there!!! Oh well at least she had fun! The next day the tradition is to do the Loony Dook where people go swimming in the freezing cold ocean! As I was a bit hungover we were a bit late but I still did it though I cheated a bit wearing a wetsuit
After that I moved into the cs flat and got to start hosting lots of couchsurfers again!! Around February my best friend from primary school in Victoria came to Scotland and stayed with me and we went on a big Scotland road trip was great to finally see the over-rated Loch ness! The highlights were the scenery as we drove to Fort William and to Isle of Skye, Ilean donan castle, uruquart castle and to Inverness, so im quite happy ive seen a fair bit of Scotland now. The other week I went to Stirling castle and got a glimpse at the William Wallace monument and also saw the monty python castle-Doane castle I think its called, I took a couchsurfer there and was perfect cause there was a wedding on so he got a photo in front of the castle with one of the guests who was kilted out in full traditional Scottish clothing. Over the next few weeks im going to Couchsurfing weekends in Dundee and Aberdeen and im pretty sure that will be the last placed ill see of Scotland before I say goodbye!
In April this year I did another short whirlwind trip thanks again to Ryan Air and flew into Riga in Latvia, I had great hosts Sigita and Arnis who took me to Cinneville a craxy little village where they did most of the filming for a famous movie defenders of Riga, I really have to watch that movie one day! They also took me to a beautiful Latvian beach and for a yummy dinner and for a drink in a bar called the French bar which reminds me of the Jazz bar in Edinnburgh.. The next day we did aerodium which is an extreme sport which is a vertical wind tunnel though unless u have lots of money its hard to get good enough at it to go higher in the air and be really scared ;)
The next day I caught a bus to Kaunas in Lithuania, I was meant to just go there for dinner and continue on to Gdansk in Poland(yes that’s right 3 countries in 2 days lol) but there was a mistake with my bus so I spent a night in Kaunas which im so glad I did we went to an amazing fort called fort 9 which used to be like a concentration camp or a prison and the germans came and took it over or something, anyway we went on a tour right through it in the underground chambers. Just next to the fort is 3 ginormous memorial statues they are incredible like 3 big trees or something, I have some great photos of them of course ;)
That night we went out for a really yummy cheap dinner and drinks I wish I could remember the names of all the weird food I tried! Spent most of my time in Kaunas with a very kind and friendly Danish couple! Cant thank them enough for taking us to 9th fort and also a beautiful cathedral in the middle of knowhere!
My final day I arrived in Gdansk very early in the morning luckily since due to the bus mix up I would only have one day to spend in Poland! I got to see beautiful Gdansk at 7am when there was no tourists around was lovely little city, then I caught the train down the road to the next village called Sopot which is famous for having the longest wooden pier in Europe unfortunately they charge you to walk on it and since I was in a hurry, poor and by myself I decided to skip it.. I got back on the train this time it took me 1.5 hrs to reach my next destination which was… HEL!! Yep I have been to hel and back! Hel is a small village on the end of a peninsula not far from Gdansk, when your on the train on the peninsula you can usually see water on both sides of the train pretty damn cool! Theres not too much to do when you get there just restaurants and some shops but I found a seal sanctuary there so for 2 euro why not lol After spending the afternoon in Hel I took the train back and got off in Gdynia where I met up with a couchsurfer for some polish dinner and a walk around the not so exciting town, then it was off to the airport and back to Edinburgh for work the next day!
Great looks like ive nearly caught up, ok guess what last month I was in England!! Yes I know boring but I was actually at Glastonbury festival!! Oh yes now your excited! Lucky old me managed to get myself in with the dental crew at Glastonbury so in exchange for dental nursing for a 6 hour shift on the day before any of the music started I got free entry to the festival and sweet as camping facilities!! Low and behold when I went to Glastonbury for the first time in forever it didn’t rain a drop!! Can you believe that! I actually got a bit of a tan even! Oh dear STOP back up about 4 days and I have to tell you what else I did in England then Ill tell you about the awesome artists I saw at Glasto! Ok Monday 21st June you may recall is the longest day of the year, so for Summer Solstice guess where I went!! STONE HENGE! Yep it was flipping unbelievable! It was so much better than I anticipated cause so many English people had told me it would be too crowded and messy but it wasn’t it was magic and I met up with the Couchsurfing group and made good friends with Natalia a couchsurfer from Colombia! The best part was getting in with a group of drummers and bongo players and I was playing a tambourine and it reminded me of Beltane Fire Festival! Wow I have to quickly tell u about that as well! Beltane fire festival is a pagan celebration about the coming of Spring, it involves a lot of performers in different elemental groups like earth, water, fire, air and most importantly the may queen and the green man it is based on the story and there procession which journeys through the elemental groups who in turn perform when the may queen and green man arrive. I was lucky enough to be a torch bearer in Earth Element with a few other Couchsurfers like Stu, Anna, Calum, Sandrine and Ashley! It was a powerful experience to say the least and was fun to be in costume and perform, though at times I had to be security to the crowd of thousands and try and stay in character! The performance was on Calton Hill one of my favorite places in Edinburgh and people had to pay 5-8pounds to see the festival but the only real way to see the Beltane fire festival is to perform in it as there are too many punters coming to watch a lot of losers too!
Ok back to Glasto! The best part! Don’t laugh.. When Kylie Minogue came on with Scissor Sisters! I swear I was the only one in the crowd who didn’t know she was making an appearance! Luckily I had gotten reasonably close to the fron and brought a camping chair to stand on! Other awesome acts included Snoop Dogg, Rolf Harris, Shakira, Stevi Wonder, Norah Jones, Tegan and Sara, Dizzee Rascal, Florence and the machine, Gorilllaz, Muse, Seastick steve, The dead weather, Jack Johnson, the black keys, orbital, mgmt, empire of the sun, groove armada, fat boy slim, la roux etc etc obviously I didn’t get to see all of them but most of them, I was second from the front for Snoop dogg that was mad cause he is just someone I never thought I would see in my life and tiny tempah came on with him!
Ok that’s enough catching up for one night my poor fingers are getting sore! As I said im off to Croatia next month so I promise to write here after that! Adios amigos! x
It’s the 27th August just 6 weeks to go til South America, the time has just flown by! I’ve just returned from the Balkans and it was amazing!
I started off in Zadar, Croatia I flew there from Edinburgh with Anthony a dentist from my work, we arrived and went for a coffee at the airport to wait til the bus arrived. Then I realized I didn’t have my passport! Trust me to loose it 5 mins after being in Croatia, I backtracked and ducked back into the secure area and found a security guard flicking through it, he saw me and just handed it straight over, that would never happen in UK or Australia! Im pretty sure I left it on the ground when I went to use the toilet which had no light!! After that little episode we got on the bus which was then delayed half an hour cause the airport boom gate wouldn’t open! Finally we arrive at the airport and get on the bus that takes us to our less then favourable located hostel on the bright side it was still close to the ocean but a 45min walk to old town. Damo, who had already been traveling Europe on van tour, was already at the hostel he had read his trusted Lonely Planet which said the hostel was 500m from old town to his dismay he had found himself walking for about an hour with his huge backpack!!
After a lovely Croatian beer and a chat to some other couchsurfers, whom I had spotted on the internet using Couchsurfing.org, we headed to town. We found a bar and had a couple more drinks and it rained awhile actually that day was the only day it rained during my whole trip.
We found the famous sea organ which was really cool I cant describe it well but there are holes in the concrete and as the waves splash the edge it makes a cool organ noise, from there we walked around the port and found a fancy bar which I had read was worth a look, it was pretty cool except for the rain it overlooked all the big fancy boats and had funky music, plants and seats. We stayed the there awhile and decided to save some cash and buy some drinks from the supermarket my posion ended up being some cheap Croatian dark rum, we sat on the wall of old town and people watched, drank and laughed for an hour or so. We decided to head back so we didn’t miss the last bus and figured we could join the backpackers back at the hostel to continue drinking. Unfortunatly the backpackers ended up being a top deck tour full off aussies! Nightmare! I get so annoyed with those tour buses, I shouldn’t but I do, I guess its better that all the losers are kept together on a bus and away from us awesome independent travelers :P
Next day we headed for Split, checked into our apartment which was the downstairs off someones home, it was preety good very private though a little further away from city centre, we had a traditional dinner at a very popular restaurant near the port that evening, for some reason Damo and I thought it would be a good idea to share a litre of wine, we really stuggled as we were so full and tired but didn’t want to waste it so managed to finish it and crawl back to our apartment for a good sleep. The next morning Helle, my Estonian friend who also lives in Edinburgh, arrived and we had some miscellaneous bakery(pekara) items for breakfast and headed up to the lookout for some nice views of Split, there Damo found a church and occupied himself for ages trying to hit the bell with rocks, ill give it to him it didn’t sound cool the few times he managed to get it even if there are a few pieces missing from the church now :P.
Then we headed back to the apartment, picking dome fresh grapes from someones garden on the way. Checkout was 11am and we were off for a quick tour off the palace/old town area and a yummy gelato! Damo also bought a Croatia shirt and Helle and Anthony some thongs/flip flops. From there we caught the bus to Makarska, a town recommended by Karina a good polish friend off mine from my dental job. We found the beach and went for a swim then had a really yummy lunch unfortunately we got so carried away we missed the time for our bus to Dubrovnik, we headed to the bus station and would you believe our bus was still there as it had been so delayed! Theres my good luck again!! So we caught the bus to Dubrovnik and were met by 2 old ladies at the bus stop they took us to one of the apartments, we organized 2, one for Anthony and another for us 3 to share. The ladies didn’t speak a word of English and the one taking Anthony brought him back when he realized he was just 1 person as she was concerned she wouldn’t get paid enough money so we had to get a translater one the phone to explain he was paying th full price of the room. After that we went to Lapad a suburb of Dubrovnik, Helle stayed back as she was tired from travelling from Hungary the day before, we met an aussie guy, Jack, in Lapad for dinner turns out Damo had met him in Edinburgh at a cs meeting last October just before I moved to Edinburgh. Damo had an awesome seafood feast and I had a pizza and once again we drank too much red wine, and Damo had fun feeding a stray cat.
We headed home and said bye to Jack who was off to camp in a tent somewhere illegally good on him!
The next day we got up early and caugh a catamaran to mljet island, the biggest major island from Dubronvik it has bug salt lakes in it, when we arrived we realized you have to pay 90 kuna about 15 euro I think to get a national park permit, we decided to dodge it and teamed up with an English guy and headed off int the hills. After awhile we found the lakes and went for a swim, I was the only one swimming turns out Damo and Anthony aren’t keen swimmers and maybe not Helle either but I had my mask and snorkel so kept myself occupied and did some exercise trying to remember how to do freestyle and racing myself across the lake looking like a twat Im sure Wasn’t long and we realized that there were now rangers on both paths to were we were chilling out and they were stopping people without permits and making them pay, we stayed clear and tried to work out a masterplan but soon enough they disappeared and we realized it must be siesta time! So we headed to the nearest town and had some lunch which turned out to be the most disgusting veg lasagna ever! We complained because there was only 1 vegetable in it, carrot, and it clearly said vegetables on the menu, so they gave us a big salad for free and didn’t charge us for the garlic bread we had ordered so turned out ok I guess. Though I did leave my postcards behind there will be interesting to see if anyone bothers to put a stamp on the one o wrote and send it..
Time to head back to the port and we caught our catamaran back to Dubrovnik, then we got showered and started drinking and headed to town. We stopped at a bar and Anthony shouted drinks which was great as Dubrovnik’s not known for being cheap that’s for sure. We headed on from that bar and asked a waiter to recommend a bar and he pointed us to an amazing bar built up on the rocks next to the ocean it couldn’t have been better! Too bad by then Damo was becoming a bit too drink but what’s new ;) sorry Damo x
We stayed and drank there until it became to risky that someone would fall and cane themselves on the rocks or fall in the water, plus would u believe they had no toilets! The restaurants near there must get so angry at their customers using their toilets! We caught a taxi back to the apartment and went to sleep as the next day we had a bus at 10.30am to go to Kotor, Montenegro.
The next morning Damo, Helle and I got up earlyish and raced into town, when I say raced we got on an extremely crowded and slow bus into town, we decided to get off early and we ran downhill into the city instead there we quickly dashed around to find a flag patch for my bag and a couple postcards then took some photos of old town and caught a taxi back to the room to get our stuff and meet Anthony at the bus stop by 10.15! It was a beautiful bus ride down the coast as always we sat on the RHS to get the best views and to take photos. We arrived in Kotor and after getting lost a few times in the very small mazelike old town we found our very centrally located hostel checked in and went for some dinner, dinner was an experience probably the worst meal we had the whole trip but the place was recommended by the hostel though I made sure that wouldn’t happen again Damo ordered breaded squid and received plain quid not breaded/crumbed at all when we asked the waiter he said it doesn’t mean it will look like the picture but even the writing next to the picture said breaded lol oh well he ate it at lease it came with chips, Helle and I ordered salads which were pretty skimpy and lacking a few of the described ingredients lucky Anthony ordered a simple chicken burger which he was quite impressed with. I made sure to leave a tip and wrote ‘be good to your mum’ on the bill.. After we left I realized I didn’t have my postcards so embarrassingly had to go back to check for them but joker Damo had set me up and hidden them for a laugh so I would have to show my face after my ‘tip’! was pretty hilarious! We then went for a walk and were still hungry so had a kebab and watched s performer making huge bubbles with a big bit of string, first time id seen someone doing that though just 2 days ago I saw another guy doing it in Edinburgh, pretty smart and easy way to busk really. After the bubble man we walked up to the beach and played a few games on the way resulting in Anthony having to perform ‘you should have put a ring on it’ by Beyonce and me having to sing Happy birthday Mr President like Marilyn Monroe! Then back to the hostel for an early night as the next morning we got up very early to hike up the mountain the the Kotor fortress it was awesome though a pretty big climb but magnificent views over Kotor and the fort was so old and mysterious if it had of been in the UK it would have been guarded and a lot more secure as there were lots of dodgy bits that looked like they would fall through any minute. After the climb we went back for a quick shower and then parted with Anthony and headed to Barr to catch the train to Serbia. Anthony had to be back in Dubrovnk on Sunday for his flight so was defiantly a good idea to stay in Kotor rather then trying to get to Guca for 1 or 2 nights and heading back to Dubrovnik.
We arrived at the Barr train station just 20mins before our train was to leave so quickly went to buy tickets I asked for 3 tickets to Pozega and she said 15 euro total, we were stoked how cheap is that for a magnificent 7 hour train journey from Montenegro to Serbia but alas when she gave me the tickets I realized she had misheard and it was just tickets to a montenegran town an hour away.. I explained and wrote down where we wanted to go and she said 55 euro each!!! We could have cried not only was that way more then we expected but they didn’t take card and we didn’t have cash and apparently the nearest cash machine was in town a 5min drive away! So we got harassed by about 10 taxi drivers, some offering to drive us to Serbia for 300 euro so we and had to choose a taxi cause no matter what we decided to do we needed cash so Damo got in a cab to get money out. He arrived back about 5 min before the train was to arrive, on the way he had bargained with the taxi driver who had noiw offered to take us to Pozega in Serbia for 170 euro, we didn’t have much choice and it sounded pretty good so we took it. Yes that’s right we took a taxi 350km from the Montenegro coast to central Serbia so we could go to Guca festival!
It was an amazing drive just as good if not better then the train would have been, it followed the same route and for awhile we had a competition and would keep passing the train and then see it catch up through the tunnels in the hill on the other side of the huge gorge. We got to stop a few times and the taxi driver even bought us coffees along the way. We stopped at one café in the middle of nowhere and there was a post office there so got to send mum a very special postcard from there cant wait to see it when I get home!
Later that evening we arrived in Pozega and met Iona an australian couchsurfer who was going to camp with us though plans had changed and we caught a cab to meet Philip at the house he had organized us to stay at. The house was great we had our own rooms the people were very friendly and generous which we later found out was cause they were going to charge is 10 euro a night each which is fine but they should have told us but they knew otherwise we would go camp for free at the festival.. oh well.
We went into Guca festival that night and it was the best night for sure it was just as I would have imagined me and Helle were a bit drunk and being serenaded by groups of brass players with wondering hands.. lucky the boys were nearby not that they noticed us getting groped though it was all harmless really, Damo was too busy blowing his voovoozela most of the night
The rest of our days in Guca were more of the same though we went back to Pozega for more supplies one day and to use the internet then on Sunday we parted ways and Helle went to Belgrade to catch her train to Budapest and Philip, Damo and I went to Sarajevo. The bus dropped us off at a random bus station way out of the city so we had to find a tram and catch it somehere near the main bus station to book our tickets to Mostar and Phillip to get a bus somewhere else in Bosnia where he would ride his bike to Zadar to fly back to Edinburgh 3 days after me.
We caught a train to Mostar and when we got off there was a lady from our hostel meeting us! Turns out her brother is living and working in Cairns and he was back in Mostar that week. Mostar was one of my favourite places the bridge is cool and the pebble footpaths too. The food was amazing and cheap, but the best part was walking along the streets were the frontline war damage from 1993, the buildings were all bombed out and had trees growing from them, there was also grenade flowers on the footpaths. The next day we went on a tour to Kravice waterfalls, an amazing cave and madjorie a very religious town which apparently had a sighting of Mary along time ago. I parted way with Damo in Mostar and he went to Sarajevo and I went to Split were I met up with a wee Scottish lad who was also catching the same flight back to Edinburgh. We did the pub crawl and went to a sandy beach on the last day.
Its now September 28th only about 2 weeks til I leave for South America and as usual finances are not looking great.. though I have been working 2 jobs sometimes 18 hours per I have a wee travel addiction so 2 weeks ago I squeezed in a trip to Isle of Skye, a must see in Scotland and this weekend Im going to Berlin! I know Im mental but at least I have a friend to stay with in Berlin, it’s a couchsurfer who I was going to host in Cairns but plans changed but in the end I did end up helping her as she had paid a guy at an aboriginal art shop to get a particular picture painted for her and he never ended up sending it to her in Berlin, so I went in and saw him and he said he would do it but 1 month later he still hadn’t so I went and saw the manager who said the guy had now been fired but he compensated for it and let me pick out double the value worth of art so I sent Henrietta a painting and a boomerang, will be cool to see it when I’m staying with her and will be cool to actually finally meet her in person. Nathan came to visit in Cairns last weekend and he is going to meet me in Berlin, he hasn’t changed a bit still talks till the cows come home lol.
Am having 2 farewell parties one of them a cs one at the weekly cs meet wed 13th oct and another one more for my meadow bank dental colleagues which will be actually my very last night in Edinburgh and will be at my 2nd workplace the southsider pub. I must say its gonna be pretty strange at Meadowbank without me there, I am quite a character compared to the others I will defiantly come back to Edinburgh though and my boss said he will sponsor me and that he would sack someone to make room for me! A bit harsh but what can I say us aussies are hard working and a breathe of fresh air plus Im the only one who didn’t call in sick ever for the whole year I was there, though he did let me have enough time off(mostly due annual leave) whilst working full time for a year I got to visit Ireland, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Belgium, Netherlands, England(Glastonbury), Serbia, Montenegro, Croatia and Bosnia and next weekend Berlin so I am very lucky but u know what.. you make your own luck! Ok off to bed got 18hours working tomorrow night!! 18 sleeps til South America and 86 sleeps til Im home amongst the gumtrees! Well palm trees in my case..
Approxiamatly 26 sleeps later here I am in Asuncion, Paraguay! I am on a bus on my way to Iguassu falls! I arrived in Buenos Aires last week and was very lucky to have 3 couchsurfers help me out on my arrival! First was Federico who very kindly picked me and my 50kg of luggage up from the airport, he then dropped me off to Rebecca the Canadian el Salvadorian chica who I spent the next few days with though at night I slept at my hosts house Nicolas the scuba instructor/horse veterinarian.
The first day with Rebeca we went for lunch and on the way I had a bow out on my havianas which I had had for almost 2 years and travelled all through Europe with! We went to a market store but the shoes were too expensive but the man actually fixed me flip flop with a piece of wire for me! How nice was that!! From there we went to San Telmo which was my favoutite part of Buenos Aires, we walked through the old streets full of markets and at the end some tango dancers!
The next day Monday I had to go to the Paraguay embassy, first I made the mistake of going into the office were paraguayns can get assistance with documents and photos and was awaiting there for awhile thanks to my lack of Spanish, eventually realized I was in the wrong building and went next door to the big consulate building where I was onviously meant to be. I found the right line and handed in my documents. Passport and 65US dollars and was told to return at 0800 the next day, easy as pie.
I went and met Rebeca and she was with a couchsurfer from Ecuador, Diana, we went to the Japonese gardens and ate sushi. Then we went to Recoletta cemetery a famous big cemetery with many beautiful and interesting tombs most of them you could reach in and open the coffins, was pretty cool. The next day I picked up my passport with Paraguay visa and headed straight to the Brazilian embassy to try my chances and getting a Brazilian visa in 2 days.
I got to the front of the queue with all my documents and passport only to be told I needed an appointment and to go to the computer to make one, I went to the computer and the next appt was not available until Thursday! My flight for Paraguay was originally for the next morning (Wednesday) but pluna airlines had emailed me a new itinerary because they had cancelled my flight, they changed it to the morning flight so I arranged to change it to Thursday morning. Anyway I was flying out Thursday morning so obviously I couldn’t wait til Thursday for an appt as even then my visa wouldn’t be ready till Friday so what could I do? I went back to the desk to tell the lady I couldn’t make an appt and she said I have to have an appointment so I started crying and the evil witch melted and said ok and processed my application so my visa was ready the next day!
That afternoon I met up with Daniel my Spanish friend I met in Edinburgh he also hosted me for awhile when I was homeless, we tried to meet at obelisko but couldn’t find each other, so we arranged to meet later that dayat a couchsurfers flat named Manual. Manuel was super nice and easy going we had some Mate-(the very popular and traditional Argentinian tea) and we talked and laughed for a few hours then it was time for me to go home and make Australian burgers for my host and his friends, I invited Rebecca and Daniel as well, was a nice night and everyone enjoyed my burgers of course!
The next day my last in Buenos Aires I picked up my Brazil visa and met Daniel and we went to La Boca the very poor but touristy suburb of Buenos Aires with the colouful buildings, the football stadium and markets. I had some muchas touristic photos with some tango dancers there, they quickly approach you and start dressing you up for the photo with scarfe, had and hair flower and tie like a garter on to your leg and then they tell you how much it costs before you get a chance to say anything, I opted for 10 peso for a photo its like 2 USD I think. We went for lunch there and then took the long bus home, Daniel helped me take my extra suitcase to Laura(my friend mariana from Edinburghs sister). After this we went to the Buenos Aires CS meeting which was in a very dark bar, they were very welcoming and didn’t seem clicquy like the Edinburgh group can sometimes be, though of course the main language was Spanish and one leader type guy got quite drunken and shitty with me for my lack of Spanish.. oh well. I managed to just catch the last subway home and try and get organized for my flight to Paraguay in the morning, we tried to organize a taxi but apparently all transport would be on strike in the morning, so just had to wake up early and hope for the best. Of course as soon as I left the flat in the morning there was a taxi waiting outside! Lucky!
So I made it to Paraguay, Veronica a Paraguayan girl I hosted in Edinburgh picked me up form the airport, her family are quite rich I think, they have a maid and there house is very modern with bathrooms in every room, 4 car ports, swimming pool etc, Veronica was quite embarrassed about this but she does not act like a spoilt girl she is very awesome I like her a lot, then she took me to her dads hose which is a penthouse apartment with a pool, a bar and hundreds of expensive or antique pictures and deco was pretty intense!
The rest of my time in Asuncion I spent at the hostel which her friend owns, or at bars, did try to go and to a touristy outdoor trip but no-one was willing to join me.
So that was a Paraguay, I didn’t get much of a feel for the country but I didn’t mind relaxing a bit since I have a big busy trip ahead of me! Iguazu will be brilliant!!
Arrived in Iguazu around 2pm Sunday I met a nice swiss/south African guy on the bus so we chatted about his trips in Australia, we arrived in Foz de Iguacu and caught a bus to the centre and I decided to catch a bus to the brazil side of the falls and he went on his own way. I got off the bus near the falls entrance and an older guy from Rio did as well and he decided to join me for a helicopter flight over the falls, as I don’t think I had enough time to see the falls by foot and since have heard the argentina side is better decided to take the opportunity to see them from above, it was worth it for sure though was very quick, would have been nice to sit in the front but wasn’t quick enough
After the ride I tried to start heading to Puerto Iguazu where my hostel was, though ended up waiting over an hour for a bus then another hour from central for a bus then at the argentina/brazil border foreigners have to get off the bus to go through immigration and the bus doesn’t wait so we then had to wait another 30mins for a bus! Good times! Lol Finally made it back to the hostel and got settled had some cerveza then went for pizza with Jan a German guy staying there, whom I will never see again cause he doesn’t have facebook grr LOL oh well after that I met an American guy originally from Korea and he was also going to spend the whole day at the argentina falls the next day so I joined him.
I woke up at 6am cause my phone was still on brasil time instead of argentina so I didn’t realize until about 7.30am that it was actually only 6.30am, so I took the opportunity to call mum and dad which im really bad at as only call about once every 1-2 months! I even called my great aunty isla cause mum told me it was her birthday!
We arrived around 8.30am and in the first 30 mins at the park we had seen a toucan and anteaters, the anteaters where everywhere all day, at one point I had one on my lap snuggling like a cat was awesome, then a stupid guide came along and said you speak English? You know some of them have rabies it’s a wild animal! More chance of him(the guide) having rabies and biting me I think.. After that we saw big birds swimming underwater, turtles, lizards and vultures didn’t expect to see so many animals because of all the tourists but I guess they have a good life there and become quite tame and adapt.
The falls were brilliant of course and it was a perfect day not too hot, not too cloudy, didn’t see a rainbow though, we crossed to an island to get closer the falls and there were heaps of vultures there, really cool, this is where we got a bit damp from the mist but the best was the jet boat that takes you under some of the smaller falls, at one point I slid of my seat onto the floor was hilarious too bad the my camera wasn’t recording at that moment! We got totally soaked and then was about 4pm so called it a day and went back to the hostel and then out for dinner we ate milanesa which seems like veal snitzel, was just what we needed then we went back and I got organized for my flight to Rio the next morning.
Yay Im in Rio de Janeiro! Gabi picked me up at the airport and we dropped some of my stuff off at her place by taxi and caught the bus to Ipanema! Im pretty lucky we get to stay in her auntys empty apartment there for free woohoo! On Thursday im going hang gliding for the first time then we go to the Couchsurfing meeting, Friday I might go to some erotic fair and then on Saturday I fly to Peru to start my volunteer trip!!
Gabis house was nice and they also had a maid at home, crazy how these third world countries have servants and UK and Australia middle class never do, but I guess it cause its cheap and helps the country with employment right.
The apartment we stayed at in Ipanema was great there was no beds but Gabi brought some mattresses from home so it was semi comfortable though got quite cold at night. My first day in Rio I went and met Diana the Ecuador couchsurfer I met in Buenos Aires it wasn’t the nicest day but we went to sugar loaf anyway to meet Silvana a urugyan couchsurfer who has been living in Utah, USA for 10 years, we went on a walk near the coast that went up one of the big hills next to Sugar loaf and half way we stopped so the girls could take photos on a big natural rock wall, when we were there a guy stopped to talk to Diana and turns out he is a couchsurfer from colombia who she had met elsewhere maybe Ecuador I think! Small world! He showed bus a slippery bush track that took us to the top of the hill where we could get the cable car to sugarloaf for half price 20 REAL, We had already decided since the weather was cloudy we didn’t want to pay 40 REAL for the cable car up from the ground so this was awesome! Though we decided not to pay the 20 REAL either and just enjoyed the views of Rio from the middle hill, then we saw some cute little monkeys so we fed them some food and played with them for ages, then it was time to go as I had to be back at the apartment before Gabi because I had her keys.
The next day we decided to go to the Christ the redeemer statue we all met at dianas hostel and attempted to get the bus, it took ages and when it did come it didn’t stop, so we waited a few more minutes and the same thing happened so we chased it like mad down the street and caught it at the next bus stop which apparently the only one it stops at in that area.
We got to Corcovado(the hill Christ is on) eventually and caught the train up, was a spectacular view and so special to be right there with that massive famous statue, got some great pictures and one with a hang glider just above one of his hands. I had to rush off after an hour there as I booked to go hang gliding at sunset, lucky the weather was perfect unlike the other 2 days. I decided I had time for a quick lunch and a walk along ipanema beach so I stopped at a restaurant and ordered the cheapest thing on the menu which turned out to be a very yummy plate of vegetables, then I walked along ipanema beach and bought a cool bag that turns into a brazil sarong and I bought a rio singlet to.
I got back to our apartment in Ipanema and waited to get picked up, I started getting worried when they hadn’t arrived by 5.20pm and they were due at 5pm, so I called them and the guy said he had been trying to call me for hours because they needed to reschedule it cause the wind had turned bad, I was devastated, I called Gabi and had tears in my eyes for sure, decided I would have to cancel going to Ilha grande the next day in order to go hang gliding So I called the guy back and he said the wind had changed so if I could get there withing like 20mins I could still glide! He said to catch a taxi and he would pay so I got in the next taxi and passed the phone to the driver for directions and off he went driving like a kamikaze! It wasn’t long till we were stick in a traffic jam, it was so intense seriously we had like 8 minutes to get there which didn’t seem possible! I had a little Christ the redeemer statue I got for dad and I was like attempting to pray to it or something was so crazy! We got there 2 minutes too late but they let us go but only just, was a miracle!
It was a very rushed 5 minute hang glide introductory, most important he said was I have to run and don’t stop or pretty much we will die, of course I was absolutely petrified of running off a cliff but had to be done so off we went 1,2,3 and go and off we fly high above the beautiful jungle, buildings and hills of rio de janeiro and just in time for sunset.
After about 8 minutes of gliding we landed after a bit of turbulence onto the sandy beaches of Rio, the same taxi driver was there to take me home, I arrived home and had dinner with Gabi and some caiperinias of course which is cane spirit lots of ice, lemon and sugar and off we went to Rio’s 69th weekly CS meeting, was very busy about 60 surfers I guess, I spent most time talking to a guy from the states called Kumar, he decided to join Silvana and I for Ilha grande the next day, unfortunately in the morning when we went to meet him we discovered we had the wrong phone number so poor Kumar couldn’t join us and was left waiting in the povella (slum) that we has staying in.
Next morning bright and early we got picked up by the tourist bus and found out we were in for a 3 hour drive and wouldn’t reach ilha grande til noon we got on the boat but wasn’t my thing really just so touristy and the boat make like four 30minute stops whereas I had though it would make one long stop at ilha grande so I could explore some of the island and find the prison ruins that are there but no we just had time for a swim and very short walk at each stop. It was beautiful of course though and I had fun talking to some old Norwegian oil rig workers and did some bombies into the water with one of them, unfortunately he injured himself in the process.. oops
The bus trip back to Rio was hilarious, Silvana and I laughed so hard most of the way I guess I was a bit drunk and kept saying crazy funny things and I got my mini playing cards out and started a game where she had to choose the card and I would guess what it was and every single time for about 8 goes I got the write suit, twice I got the exact right card! And 99% of the other times I was just one or two cards off! Im psychic for sure!! That night it was back to the Ipanema apartment to clean up, then Gabis dad took us to her house where we had dinner and went to sleep as the next day I woke at 3.30am to head to the airport to fly to Lima.
I arrived in Lima and discovered my taxi from the volunteer organization wasn’t there, after checking all the signs twice I decided to make my own sign saying union Bibilica? To seeif they would approach me, this failed so I went and exchanged some money for soles and phoned the taxi at the pay phone, lucky I had the contact details! He was very apologetic about the mix up and said he would be 30 minutes, over an hour later he arrived by then I had made friends with Victor, David and another Peruvian taxi driver, we managed to have some sort of conversation with my limited Spanish and there non-existent English! I even got a photo of one as I was fascinated by his front gold crown which had a love heart shape!
Finally Oswaldo collected me and took me to the hotel there I met Hamish my dentist for the trip and had to decline a city tour with him and Oswaldo as I really am not interested in Lima and was going on 3 hours sleep. I spent the rest of the day sorting out my bags and what I wanted to bring to the shop and what to leave behind, then I went to the shops on the way I was impressed by the traffic lights they had timers showing how many seconds the cars had to stop or go and also for the pedestrians. I was quite hungry and chose the easy option of Mcdonalds and had my first and maybe last taste of Inca cola, its not so bad just taste similar to creaming soda. Then I stopped at some shops in search of some baggy light shirts for the trip but all I could find was really nice expensive(for Peru) clothes, I found a 70% reduced table and found a cute black jumper the ones that are only sleeves and after realized it doubles as a scarfe, awesome
Then I headed to the supermercardio and found myself a peru prepaid sim card, they were really helpful and got a to help translate when necessary and they set it all up for me and we put credit on too. Then I headed upstairs to the toy section and spent ages trying to find some toys I could buy a lot of for not so much money, I ended up buying loads of crayons, paper, ribbons, glitter and later made colouring in books and small bundles of crayons to give to the children along the Amazon river. I got enough for 75 children and cost approx 50 USD I think pretty reasonable would have cost maybe double in UK or Aus.
I went back to the Hotel and started making the presents whilst watching summer height high which I haven’t really watched before and was hilarious to watch at this point of my life in Peru of all places!
The next morning it was off to the airport AGAIN, to fly to Iquitos with the rest of the team from Scotland, we were collected at the airport and taken straight to the boat and given a warm welcome by a huge team of Peruvians, we were very lucky to be on the amazon hope 2 which has been renovated and is a huge and almost luxurious boat! Our cabins are better then the majority of hostels in south America, it has 4 maybe, 5 levels(engine room?) the dental room was amazing a huge room with 2 modern chairs of course they look better than they actually work but still they work better than other chairs I have worked with. I’m writing this after our first day volunteering and we didn’t go without anything during any of the treatments. It was so amazing having all the villagers and wee children on our boat knowing we were helping all of them. Unfortunately the majority of treatment was extractions, but they are so brave and easier to treat then Brits or Aussies! I felt so comfortable and really managed to laugh and joke around with some of the non English speaking crew and had fun with some of the cute Peruvian boys who keep flirting with me, they are so crazy! One of them who we asked to translate what a girl patient was saying said ‘she said have you got a boyfriend?’ then he had to translate for the other dentists patient and he said ‘she said have you got BF?’ Was so sweet and hilarious he is a cutey though he might be older than me he is so tiny its funny.
Anyway It is great for me to practice my Spanish and to be around so many people who can’t speak English though we have 4 translators on the boat! Really spoilt! There is a chef and an assistant, there is a film crew as well apparently just specially for this trip for a documentary on the national news Exciting! I hope we can see it or get a copy somehow! There is a Peruvian dentist and dental assistant as well! In total there is around 27 people on the boat! We were told by the director of the company this is the best section of the river to treat, as it includes two very colorful unique tribes; ill explain that better once we go there! Today there wasn’t so much dental work to be done but I think the following days will be different; we spent the morning visiting the village and walking around in the excruciating heat.
We had chicken, rice, vegetables, egg and some kind of friend banana that tasted like potato for dinner. Breakfast was ham and cheese rolls and a yummy warm oatmeal drink with cloves.
That night we sailed to a large village which had a healthcare centre so no need for our help, but we visited and saw there facilities and walked through the village as soon as I got their a cute 5yo called Christina became my new best friend, she walked around with me holding my hand for about an hour, I actually cried when I had to leave her cause she wouldn’t let go of my hand and was asking if I would come back, in Spanish of course, it was so sad!
The next morning we left the village and went upstream for 20mins to the tribal village were we are now, there are 2 villages nearby though the only difference is they speak a different dialect. It was an amazing day they invited us up and performed some traditional dances for us, their chief was in charge and it was amazing how much trouble they went to for us, there was about 30+ of them all dressed up or undressed with their body paint, headdresses and skirts. The little ninas and ninos were gorgeous, of course I got pulled up to dance and they painted my face, must be the most special moments I have ever been involved in, words cant describe how lucky I am to be on this trip and involved in these peoples lives, im not so keen on the bible studies every morning but they are optional but I would feel rude to be the only foreigner not getting involved.
At the dance the villagers had lots of souveneirs for us to buy, so I bought a piranha bracelet and a big hand painting of the amazon river, dolphin and a toucan I just hope I can sneak them back in to Australia!
I have just got back from a coca ceremony which only me, jose(translater), the tv presenter and the camera man went. They did the ceremony and an long interview In Spanish which jose translated partially for me and then we all had some coca, it tasted like herbs and you had to be very careful not to cough and to breathe through your nose until enough saliva had saturated the powder so you could start swallowing it. It gave me a numb mouth but didn’t do too much other then that but the experience was great even with the camera pointed in my face. Jose was telling me that the chief of the village gets to have all the young girls before they go to be with their partners, not sure if this is true but it sounds familiar so will have to check on the internet I guess. We survived the coca experience and came back and I lent jose my camera charger and adaptor which he then managed to short circuit 2 of the doctor surgeries we were in as the uk part of the adaptor was exposed and pressed against the metal surgery wall! Scared the shit out of us but I soon found the circuit breaker switch thing and was all back to normal except for the two black burn marks on the wall!
Today we had seen a lot more patients surprisingly more fillings then extractions and I gave out a lot of presents an even received a porcupine bracelet as a present from one happy patient! Hamish my dentist cant speak any Spanish so it has been really good for me as I have had to communicate to the patient when there is no translaters which is often, I need to look at a reference paper a lot but I can go form start to finish with fillings or extractions including post op instructions, not too bad for my second day, Hamish is very grateful and proud of me he said he will give me a written reference from our experience together!
Time for bed, tomorrow we are seeing 2 smaller villages I think, oh yeah forget to mention I had a go at fishing Peruvian style with some ninos on the muddy shore too!
Today was 3rd November 2010 I think, and by 9am we had 2 full decks of sick villagers from Betania and Santa Lucia queuing to see us, it was a very busy morning of course and mostly adults for extraction. Often some children who are waiting for their mum to see the doctor will sit at our door and watch and twice now when I have given them a present or just tied ribbon in their hair they have come back with a bracelet for me as a present, so sweet! I am starting to build up quite a collection. I really love the amazon painting I bought in the other village I have put it up temporarily next to our dental chair. The village we were meant to visit in the afternoon isn’t accessible at the moment so tomorrow we are going to Nuevo Pevas which was originally the last one we were doing, so hopefully by the end of our trip Cochiquinas will be accessible again. One of the medical patients required a serious operation, I heard them saying he had to have a third testicle removed I’m not sure if this is exactly true or if they were exaggerating the truth but whatever it was they were doing was pretty gory and of course the film crew were in their filming! I decided not to watch and to go and explore the amazon some more, there was a very cute Peruvian boy sitting on his canoe next to Amazon hope at first I snuck up on him and scared the life out of him and then I got a translater(My favorite Randy) and asked if he could ask the guy if he could take me for a ride. He willingly obliged and off we went for a 10minute trip up and down the river, he showed me his house, spotted out another pink dolphin and then just when I thought he would keep going and not bring me back he turned around I gave him a lolly, toothbrush and 10 soles and then found out he is a taxi for the guy having the operation so probably a good thing I gave him some money though im sure he didn’t expect it. After that Randy and I went for a walk to the very small village of Betania in search of some monkeys, poor Randy, I had him walking around with some green ribbon tied around his head to match me, we walked till we reached a dead end then headed back, I attempted to put some war paint on with mud but didn’t work so well so instead sat down and made curly ribbons for some children. Randy is very fascinated by me he said hes used to the brittish girls who are boring and don’t want to go exploring and are scared of everything whereas apparently im full of suprises. We heard the 3 horns blow from the boat meaning it was time for the boat to leave so we headed back and guess where we were going, back to Pebas, where my lil amiga Christina lived! I got some presents ready for her and sure enough not long after arriving I found her so once again we spent about 2 hours this time walking around with everyone, we went up to an artists house and saw great views from his tower and then wentnto watch some volleyball. There were a lot of other children who hung around since they knew I had given Christina presents but these children looked so much healthier and well dressed then My amiga and I knew all they wanted was presents and I didn’t bring enough anyway. Fortunatly I didn’t have to say goodbye to Christina this time cause when we went back near her mum she ran in to hide her presents I think but I saw one girl follow her so I hope she at least can keep the colouring in book I made and we drew in together. Im very tired, its time for bed.
As usual the boat started roaring off to the next village by 5am so most of us wake up and sit out on deck with a coffee and a book about an hour later we arrived at cochiquinas after a quick tour of the village in the roasting sun we were back to the boat to get started on the patients, its usually pretty funny working in the dental room I get my ipod cranking with a wide assortment of songs and the translaters come in and dance and be crazy with me, the kids love it The nurses often come in to borrow things from us today they came and borrowed topical anaesthetic about 3 times as they had to do something with some poor boys penis! As with most dental surgeries theres always the odd parent who dares to come in to the clinic and give one of their children a lollipop in front of us! A big no no for a dental surgery, anyway we noticed a few kids with the same lollipops a few times over the last 2 days and we did some detective work and realized Oscar our doctor had been giving them to them! Kind of defeats the purpose of doing dental work.. This afternoon we squeezed in another village so didn’t finish until 7pm when usually we have been finished by 4pm but I think it might be the village we had planned for the morning so that gives us more time for the afternoon village tomorrow The bugs tonight were horrendous, I think we have been lucky until now with them, they were so bad that we had to eat in the surgeries, imagine a buffet laid out across the dental clinic! I forgot to mention the beautiful sunrise this morning got some great photos, I think it will be similar tomorrow
Another great and fairly busy day, the village today was Condor and this afternoon and tomorrow is San Francisco, yep you heard right, seems to be a trend for some of the villages to be named after big famous cities from other countries and also to name there children after celebrities alive and deceased Went for another walk through the village with Randy, its becoming a regular occurrence, its nice we have fun together and this evening we did something very special! Get your mind out of the gutter! We went to watch the volleyball and football amazon hope vs villagers but we got bored so got about 20 kids together to play duck duck goose though we changed the names to Spanish something like parko parko gonzo, was heaps of fun, but im sure I had to run twice as much as everyone else and I must have been the less fit one, I guess they were doing me a favour and making me exercise, the kids absolutely loved it especially when Pepe(an activity co-ordinator) came to join us and him and randy kept gonzoning each other and would do hilarious slow motion runs around the circle of laughing children. And almost everytime I went running id go slipping and sliding all over the place! Today the head doctor and kind of the head honcho of the boat went back to Iquitos so did the camera crew but ill try and catch them in Cusco next week, would be amazing to have the footage of our trip so far! I think its Friday today so just 3 or 4 days left on the boat! Has really been the best experience of my life, but of course im also looking forward to the rest of Peru and Bolivia and Chille!
Saturday was a fun day I got my facepainted as a cat and Randy made me a tail to match, we visited 2 more villages and in the evening I went with Pepe, Randy and Lorinda to give the children bibles and play games with them, I ended up with a very cute sleepy 5yo, Andrea, who kept falling asleep in my arms so luckily we didn’t have to memorise parts of the bible and recite them lol. That night I stayed up really late showing Randy photos of Edinburgh it took ages I cant believe I have so many photos from one year!
Today is Sunday and we are about to start the afternoon treating a village called Santa Rosa we just went for a walk through the village. There is just 2 or less days left on the boat for us as were not sure what time the fast boat from Iquitos is coming to pick us foreigners and translaters up, then we spend a couple days in Iquitos visiting other union biblica profects and health centres.
Had a great time in Iquitos and am now back in Lima, tomorrow i fly to Arequipa, had an eventful fancy dinner, unfortunatly Libby one of the nurses became very very sick with some labrynth syndrome, something to do with her middle ear and losing balance and vomiting like crazy whenever she moved, it took a few hours but we got her home and to bed and I have finally finished uploading my photos from the Amazon Hope! I loved it so much!!!
Arequipa is the second biggest city in Peru but set out in the desert SW of Lima, it was a strange place to fly into like a desert lego land, but I got a taxi to the centre to meet my host and found it to be one of the most beautiful cities Id seen in South America also as it wasn’t a huge big city like Lima, Rio or Buenos Aires.
Joga my crazy, rasta, tattooed and pierced host met me at the plaza de armas and we tried to communicate with my poor Spanish and his even poorer English, he tooke me to his awesome house just 4 blocks from plaza de armas, you walk in and theres a huge room with mattresses for couchsurfers and graffiti on the walls by Joga and his couchsurfers, really awesome, then you go up narrow spiral staircase to a empty room then again to an open kitchen(it never rains in Arequipa-perfect weather) theres more graffiti and a door leading to the band room as Joga has a reggae/hip hop band! He also hires out the room to other musicians. Upstairs again are the bedrooms and then a ladder leading to a mattress on the roof with awesome views of Arequipa, really I was so lucky to surf with Joga and his girlfriend Cora from Germany was so nice and her English was mega helpful! The first night there we partied pretty hard and went to some clubs and stayed out til daylight my first time of dancing all night in south America! The next day after recovering Joga went to work and said I should down to his shop to plan a cover up for my uniorn tattoo, so I managed to drag myself down there and after an hour or so I decided against the earth as it seemed the detail would not cover the pony well and it might look messy, so I decided on my token drawing a love heart with wings, and and the top writing saying Lust for life.. To my surprise we started it straight away it was soooooo painful I cant express it enough, I remember the pony hurting the first time but this is like 3 times the size! Unfortunatly you can still see the pony faintly underneath the heart im not sure if I can make the heart darker in the future.. I did ask him to use the best cover up colour which I guess blck would have done the job but maybe not looked so nice.. it cost the same as my pony had originally I think in Australia it would have cost at least double now as the pony was like 3 years ago! The next day I went to see Joga again as he was keen to improve my bee tattoo and so was I.. he added the words Bee Happy! To it and put some more colour in the bee im very happy about it now no-onw ill ask why a bee they will just smile
Next day I hit Colca canyon and saw the condors fly was a nice big day and made friends with a Brazilian guy Marcielo then it was back to Arequipa and night bus to Cusco. That bus ended up being the worst of my life, I was so sick and sleepless for the 10 hour bus ride, had to make several trips to the toilet each time for a different reason, I wont go into details too much but at one point I was scooping ny vomit out of the sink and into the toilet and it was a very bumpy and swervy bus ride! Absoulutly dissgusting! When I arrived in Cusco I got a taxi but made mistake of telling Ronnie (MY HOST) I had arrived so was left waiting in the street with my luggage for half hour. When he came and took me up the million steps to his apartment I just broke down crying I was so sick and tired and scared about starting the inca trail the next day, Ronnie was so nice looking after me gicing me water and telling me it was altitude sickness and I needed to drink some water and rest. So I rested all day then at night we went for some dinner which I found very hard to eat.
The next day I was feeling a lot better and he took me to the bus to start my Inca Trail, there was another solo girl Pauline from France so I made friends with her but it wasn’t long before sahe connected with a French speaking couple so although we shared a tent for the 3 nights we didn’t spend too much time together, I ended up talking more with the guides, a german couple and some Swedish boys, the first day was quite easy though I managed to pull a muscle in my inner thigh, same area as I had majorally bruised when slipping in the Amazon river trying to step into the small boat.
So the next day was the hardest day and the muscle in my leg got worse and worse I was so pissed off as if the inca trail wouldn’t be hard enough for me I had to try and walk with this shooting pain everytime I stepped, still I made sure I was never the last person just for my own peace of mind and that night we arrived at a beautiful camp for some reason our camp was always the best one with the best views! I applied a lot of deep heat before setting off the next morning and took some painkillers and they got me through! The 2nd last day was about 2000 steps downhill quite hard but at least using different muscles, we got to our camp which had a bar and hot showers! Verynice!! The next morning it was raining hard which really sucked so we had to walk in the rain and when we arrived machu pichu was covered in mist and cloud, it soon cleared though and we manahed to get some nice photos but the tour around was agonizing it was the last thing I wanted after a 4 day hike is to walk around there and hear all the stories and no way was I walking up winapichu after that either. So I headed with the guides to the restaurant in aguas caliente, had some lunch checked the internet had some dinner and caught the train back, and went to sleep at Ronnies! The next day was great cause Ronnie had another couchsurfer John from Sth Korea we got on really well and spent the day sightseeing Cusco that night we went out Peruvian style was a bit weird cause we went to a club and I was sober as and it was packed with young peruvians dancing, after a few beers and rums I managed to dance to and 2 couchsurfers Joel and Veronica joined us, after we went to a more touristy club and then went home. Next stop for me was Puno but very briefly just to get to uros islands and taquille and armanti. Uros was amazing though extremely touristic, the islands are floating and made out of reeds really crazy and they make beautiful boats as well, they have a big special dragon type boat for tourists but of course you have to pay extra to go on it. Armanti island was our next stop and we stayed the night there with a family, I was the only girl of the 4 tourists in my host home the others were the 2 swedish boys I did the inca trail with and the other was a guy from Czech republic. After lunch we walked up to the highest point on the island where there was like sun temple to worship pachamama and another for the moon, I took the opportunity to go horseriding and rode a horse most of the way up though I felt really guilty as the horse wasn’t very fit and was struggling to go up the hill, we watched the sunset there and got constantly harassed by sett littlee children selling us bracelets and playing music on pipes and asking for tips, from there we could see the bolivian mountains. At night my host family dressed me up in very traditional clothing and we went to a party with all the other tourists and host families was pretty cool!
The next day we headed to taquille island and had lunch before heading back to Puno, I was told it wouldn’t be possible to get to La Paz straight after because the border would close and there wouldn’t be a bus till the morning but I refused to believe it and found a micro bus to desedguardos near the border of Peru, was funny experience squished in with 10 perruvians for 2 hours but very cheap I think like 15 soles, when we arrived there was a nice guy with a bike trolley who took me and my luggage through the borders was great I trusted him and left him with my backpack when I had to go line up for immigration at exit peru and entry Bolivia then he took me to another microbus that was the same experience except Bolivians and even cheaper 15 bolivianos. I got dropped off in alto La Paz and had to catch a taxi to the hostel which cost 20 bolivianos crazy hey cost more for 10 min taxi ride then 2 or 3 hour bus! I hadn’t reserved the hostel since I had been told it wasn’t possible to reach La Paz but luckily they had a bed for me. The next morning found some girls to go to San Pedro prison! I read the book Marching powder earlier in the year luckily cause a new Zealand couple eating at my work had told me there daughter read it and went there! It was amazing just like in the book, there are families living there to be with there husband criminals, you have to purchase your cell some of them very bad and some similar to a hotel room, you can have almost anything you want there television, tools etc as long as you bribe the guards, the guards are at the entrance but not really inside the prison, its just like a village with shops, doctors, dentists, carpenters etc. lots of prisoners make souvenirs and sell them to the tourists. On our way we met 2 australian guys who decided to join us which worked out perfect for me cause I didn’t feel much of a connection to the girls and our group got split so 1 aussie Jason went with the 2 girls and the other aussie guy also named Jason went with me, so out tour was just 2 people so felt more special really, I forgot to mention also these tours are illegal they cost 400 bolivianos like 60 AUD plus another 15AUD for tips, we also bought our guide and bodyguard lunch there they are both prisoners there themselves. In one of the kitchens they showed us and said the chefs there are all rapists, we also saw the piscine where prisoners used to murder rapists. One guy in there is a bass addict and he draws pictures of the tourists as a souvenir since you can’t take cameras in there. You can find some photos or videos online from some stupid tourists who snuck there camera in and exploited the place causing the tours to stop for awhile but that couldn’t last long, going to the prison is up there with one of the most expensive things to do in La Paz but it was worth it for me, at the end it’s a bit dodgy though they take you into a room full of tourists having cocaine, they used to make cocaine in the prison but apparently that has stopped. That night I went to a bolivian wedding Kari a couchsurfer from La Paz took me and Federico a argentinian who had come to la paz to travel to the salt lakes with me. The wedding was same as back home and I was very underdressed I only went to the reception but food and whisky was great and of course I had to participate in the wedding games like toss the bouquet and another one where every girl has to pull a string and one of them is a special one that I means you’re getting married next or something like that. After we went to a club, but I was quite tired and not in a dancing mood that night. The next day I slept for awhile and then went to the witch markets with one of the aussie guys stocked u on xmas presents and am hoping I can get them all through customs in Australia..
That night I finished booking my bike ride down death road nut when I called them they said my payment processed to late and I couldn’t join I was devastated and in tears cause it was my only opportunity and I had missed Copacabana at lake Titicaca in order to do death road, the girls at reception called around though and founf another company to take me even though it was 10pm at night and they organized the other company ti give me a cash refund so that was awesome. Death road was cool, though it was raining a lot but that adds to the excitement and scare factor, I nearly fell off a few times cause I was being a dick and making videos during the ride. One girl ended up getting in the van cause I think she was too hungover to keep going. The scariest part was going back up after in the van in my car was me and 5 kiwis and they were petrified it was hilarious, there is sheer drops like 100m or more and many people have died there, the last was an Israeli girl a few months back, the scariest was when another car came flying around the corner, we could have gone off the edge so easy its crazy really! After the ride I met Federico at the bus terminal we said goodbye to Karina and headed to Potosi!
I loved Potosi just a small random mining town now thriving thanks to the mine tours but before whe the silver mine was very successful the towns popul1ation was like 100 times what it is now but now there is not so much to mine, it was maybe one of the richest towns in south America at least Bolivia anyway. The mine was cool once again I was lucky to be in a group of just 2 me and manuel a swiss guy, we brought alcohol, coca leaves and soft drink for the miners and had a great time drinking and blessing pachamama, it is incredible that these tours can happen it is so dangerous in there the tiny vertical passages we had to take and theres asbestos there and all sorts of toxins!
That night I went out with the miners and a german tourist we had anice lunch and then drank a lot then they took us to a miners bar which was very awkward for me but they guys looked after me well, unfortunately one of the mine guides and the german guy had a misunderstanding and the german pushed the bolivian guy to the ground so I spent the next hour crying and reatraining the bolivian from bashing the german guy.. wasn’t a great night but could have been a lot worse.
The next day Fedrico and I Headed to Uyuni for the 3 day salt flat tour was a lot of fun, cool pictures, mind blowing scenery. Then we parted ways and I went to san pedro de Atacama, had a tough time there as was no money in the machines so was limited to what I could do, I did the famous star gazing tour though wasn’t as great as I thought it would be, ive been travelling too much and getting hard to impress, I was meant to go sandboarding but the guy told me I could come in and book the next day but then when I did it was full, oh joy! So went on another tour of salt lakes and ojos of Atacama etc similar to what I had seen in Bolivia, from there I caught a bus to Salta and did the car tour of the trend a les nubs route a beautiful drive through the andes. That night I headed to cordoba and caught up with Santiago and 3 cs girls all came and met me at the bus station hows that for cs spirit!!! We spent the day roaming cordoba then there was a jazz festival and fireworks at night, then I took the night bus to Mendoza, I arrived in the morning and joined two aussies and a Canadian on the awesome bicycle wine tour was a crazy big wine filled day something everyone has to do in Argentina! The next day I headed to Santiago to catch my flight to Easter island!
Easter island was amazing mystical and everything you would expect it to be, my cs host Roberto was amazing, gave me a very warm welcome at the airport put flowers around my neck and took me to the beach! That next day I did all my souveneir shopping and went scuba diving, the diving was awesome the guide had some great tricks that wouldn’t be allowed in Australia such as chopping the spikes of sea urchins and using the naked urching to attract fish must be a delicacy for them, he also caught the puffer fish and made it spike up and I could hold it really cool, we saw a turtle as well and I decided I should dive again so a few days later dived the spot with the underwater moai statue, the second dive was not so good as since my camera had broken I was borrowing robertos and at some stage it got stolen so I was very stressed out and breathing too hard and used all my oxygen so I had to use the emergency oxygen from my guide! Crazy! The camera never showed up so I had to give Roberto about $250 which really hurt, now im totally broke and even better im now back in Santiago and was waiting for my bus but it came and went in a different spot without me noticing so just had to pay another $25 for another ticket but at least I will make my connection for Mendoza to Buenos aires tonight.
I made some special friends in Easter island, friends of Roberto, one Carolina is only child like me and we really connected she wants to come to Australia but her parents wont let her maybe we could convince them if we exchanged and I went to live in rapa nui and she went to live with my family Also made special friends with Jose a chileano boy who might come to Australia next year, would be really cool!
On the metro today I nearly got pickpocketed this guy was standing real close and he had his jumper sleeve loose over his arm and he undid my bag but I had my wallet in my hand so if I hadn’t of noticed he would have pulled out my passport cause is in a nice case that looks like a wallet, was so freaky I just turned away and did up the zip, then he moved on to try someone else. Can u imagine that’s all I would need now my passport stolen! I cant wait to be home ever since I got to chile I have had so much stress its crazy!
