So it seems that my "holiday" has been put on hold over the last few weeks(months).
When I left Australia I was full of ideas of what I hoped to achieve over here in Europe, some of these being traveling around the different countries seeing what new places I can discover, seeing people I hadn't seen for ages and meeting and greeting new people.
Working in a really quiet pub has given me time to ponder the things I'm doing, the choices I'm making and I've come up with a few little niggles in life that have me wondering what if.
I was recently in quite a lot of pain for a period of about 4 weeks.
It started when I had fallen over at work running up the stairs during a particularly busy shift and I landed on my wrist bruising the bone.
After this healed (5 days later) I started developing pains all over my body, but mostly contained to the knees, shoulders and ankles. A few looks on the net I was putting this down to malnutrition however after changing my diet to eating properly, taking multivitamins it was still occurring to the point where to sleep I need to take sleeping pills and 400mg of ibuprofen every night.
Finally got around to seeing a physio for this and found out that my pelvis was out of line which was making everything work in ways they aren't used to hence the pain, and to top it off I've damaged the cartilage in my knee.
So after the last 3 weeks of ibuprofen and sleeping tablets, I'm pain free although it scares me slightly to say I still can't sleep without the sleeping tablets.
One good thing though that came about from my needing to go to the physio over here, is that it made me find my travel documents.
All the time I have been over here, I was under the impression the flights that were booked for my return to aus, was that they were booked for return in may 2013.
Turns out I fly back on the 28th of February not may, good thing I looked it up as I wouldn't have bothered looking till it got closer to may and by then the flight would have long ago departed.
So as with my original plans of just pushing the flights back to a later date, I have been doing a lot of thinking.
Do I contact my travel agent and get a price on pushing back the flights or do I use the original ticket.
As much as I have loved Europe, I'm planning at this time to be back in aus on the original flights.
This is for a few reasons.
1. The minimum wage over here is absolute shite.
2. I have had many many jobs over the past few years, some I really enjoyed, some I abhorently hated. Although I really enjoy working in the pub, I have only ever truly loved one job in my life, and that's guiding. I have tried to apply for guiding jobs over here but they apparently don't like what they saw as I was never picked for the positions.
3. Being away from Australia has given me the outside perspective that everyone who visits says its amazing, beautiful, dangerous and awe inspiring. I knew it to be so when I lived there, and visiting other parts of the world is just as amazing at times, but it's given me the perspective I needed to realize that no matter what happens, Australia will always be home.
Be it in Brisbane with some of my best mates (you know who you are) or in the central desert with the countless flies and red sand where my love of tourism is able to really let go.
So long and short of it, I'm coming home at the end of feb. I will be landing in Brisbane on the 3rd I think it is, and at this point in time im planning on staying there for a short while, and then head back to Adelaide to start the rest of my life in the desert.
In other news, come the 30th October I'm on 2 weeks holiday :D 2 weeks in alicante, Spain should be a nice reprive from the past 3 months of working in the pub.
Then it's a few more weeks working in the guilty lily here in Edinburgh till it closes at the end of November where I'm transferring to the cocktail bar we have at west end.
Christmas time in africa with the family and then I'm planning on doing the loony doonk here in Edinburgh and then going on a final 2 months travels around eastern Europe before flying back to aus.
Sorry for having so much time between posts, but honestly there hasn't been much of late to write about as all that's been happening was work.
Will put some photos up when I am back at the house with my laptop wheat at this point in time it's just me in the pub on the iPad.
Greets to all,
Ross
Monday, 8 October 2012
Tuesday, 18 September 2012
Apologies to one, apologies to all
Ok it's been over s month since I last put up s post,
So as I'm quiet in the pub I figure I may as well do something haha.
I have been enjoying my life here in Edinburgh so far, but I haven't really done much, it's basically been all work and no play, there have been a few moments when I get out on the town with mates, but nothing really to report .
I have however booked flights yesterday for a holiday at the end of October :D
Flying to alicante in Spain for a 2 week holiday, can't wait.
Sorry it's not much of a post but to be honest since I moved into the flat I haven't really done much.
Will put some pictures up over the next few days when I get a chance and im on the laptop not on the iPad.
Cheers :)
So as I'm quiet in the pub I figure I may as well do something haha.
I have been enjoying my life here in Edinburgh so far, but I haven't really done much, it's basically been all work and no play, there have been a few moments when I get out on the town with mates, but nothing really to report .
I have however booked flights yesterday for a holiday at the end of October :D
Flying to alicante in Spain for a 2 week holiday, can't wait.
Sorry it's not much of a post but to be honest since I moved into the flat I haven't really done much.
Will put some pictures up over the next few days when I get a chance and im on the laptop not on the iPad.
Cheers :)
Saturday, 28 July 2012
WTF HAVE I DONE???????? :S
well aside from leaving it nearly 2 weeks from the last post, i have actually done quite a bit.
after the last real post which was written in a slightly panic induced state of mind, i posted up stating that i had bought tickets to Edinburgh, Scotland.
well i have since caught that train to Edinburgh.
Edinburgh for me is a pretty awesome place, aside from anywhere else in scotland really, how many places can you walk down the street and pass some guy walking along in a kilt and not having a care in the world, and further more to everyone else walking by its normal.
Where else in the world can you walk down the street and hear bagpipes playing, or see a castle in the middle of the city.
(the castle thing probably a few places)
and finally, where else have i been employed within the UK and actually liked it.
thats the big one for me.
i have a job that i like and i work with some pretty awesome people (and we stock bundy rum in 2/3 of our pubs :D at 2.40 a drink, so much cheaper over here)
So.
Within Edinburgh i have still had some bad times, but the good far outweigh the bad. so lets start with them
I have had the best weather in Edinburgh since arriving in the UK. no shit, everyone says this summers been really weird weatherwise which is more then likely true, but for Edinburgh its cool cause it means instead of rain 24/7 its only rain 20/5 haha.
The people, they're all so helpful and nice.
and the accent. i love the scottish accent, although there have been a few things where i have had to jokingly ask for them to dial down the accent a few times haha.
Work, the owner of the bar has 3 bars/pubs around the city, im working at 2 of them currently which is awesome. One is a regular old boys pub, so every afternoon the locals come pouring in and are just great fun and helpful.
the other place is in the city center and is a cocktail bar which is brilliant except i dont really know how to make cocktails yet. Its a lot busier then the first one which is cool but i quite like the quieter one as its got more of a personal feel to it.
a few of the bads though so far has really been isolated to 2 things.
The edinburgh festival and flathunting.
now these 2 are actually linked. normally flathuntings not so hard to do in Edinburgh, however arriving less then 2 weeks before the Edinburgh Festival makes it so as everyone who has a spare room usually ends up renting it out to festival go-ers for princely sums of up to 500+ pounds a week.
so trying to find a flat or sharehouse for more like 300 a month has proved to be damn near impossible at times, especially when the backpackers hostels are also in on the gig and go from 100 to 230 pounds a week for a dorm room.
230 pounds a week for a 14 bed dorm, its extortion its insane its highway robbery.
but for the 5 weeks of festival, the city goes from around 450,000 people to over 900,000 so i suppose the supply and demand dictates the price goes up quite a large sum, its just a pain in the ass for people like me looking to stay for over the 5 weeks of festival.
i did however find a place.
moved in yesterday after nearly losing it with the landlord but all seems to be good now. the only thing im a bit niggly with is that its a 12 month lease.
so although i have no qualms about staying in edinburgh for 12 months, especially with the amount of work i have available to me, is that if something came up and i had to or wanted to leave then i either have to pay out the remainder of my lease or keep paying it off and use it as a storage or something.
i dunno really,
the good thing about this flat though.
its got a lock on the front door and on my room door (sharehouse), the busses from here are close and go straight past work (1 bus to the cocktail bar 2 busses to the old boys one) and its also cheap.
like, CHEAP. ~220 pounds a month all inclusive.
Didnt have any sheets or duvet or anything though so picked them up today and now am set for well 12 months i spose.
I have also done last Tuesday (24th July 2012)a few of the tours around Edinburgh.
Both run by the Sandemans group who did a excellent tour. One was the Free day walking tour which was about 3-4hours long walking around the city learning about some of the history and the other was Tuesday night doing the ghost tour which was awesome.
Edinburgh has a really bloody history, from burning and drowning witches to drawing and quartering living people for treason and murder.
heres some pics for those that are living on the edge of their seat through me.......
and now i have to go get ready for work,
will continue posting as things happen
after the last real post which was written in a slightly panic induced state of mind, i posted up stating that i had bought tickets to Edinburgh, Scotland.
well i have since caught that train to Edinburgh.
Edinburgh for me is a pretty awesome place, aside from anywhere else in scotland really, how many places can you walk down the street and pass some guy walking along in a kilt and not having a care in the world, and further more to everyone else walking by its normal.
Where else in the world can you walk down the street and hear bagpipes playing, or see a castle in the middle of the city.
(the castle thing probably a few places)
and finally, where else have i been employed within the UK and actually liked it.
thats the big one for me.
i have a job that i like and i work with some pretty awesome people (and we stock bundy rum in 2/3 of our pubs :D at 2.40 a drink, so much cheaper over here)
So.
Within Edinburgh i have still had some bad times, but the good far outweigh the bad. so lets start with them
I have had the best weather in Edinburgh since arriving in the UK. no shit, everyone says this summers been really weird weatherwise which is more then likely true, but for Edinburgh its cool cause it means instead of rain 24/7 its only rain 20/5 haha.
The people, they're all so helpful and nice.
and the accent. i love the scottish accent, although there have been a few things where i have had to jokingly ask for them to dial down the accent a few times haha.
Work, the owner of the bar has 3 bars/pubs around the city, im working at 2 of them currently which is awesome. One is a regular old boys pub, so every afternoon the locals come pouring in and are just great fun and helpful.
the other place is in the city center and is a cocktail bar which is brilliant except i dont really know how to make cocktails yet. Its a lot busier then the first one which is cool but i quite like the quieter one as its got more of a personal feel to it.
a few of the bads though so far has really been isolated to 2 things.
The edinburgh festival and flathunting.
now these 2 are actually linked. normally flathuntings not so hard to do in Edinburgh, however arriving less then 2 weeks before the Edinburgh Festival makes it so as everyone who has a spare room usually ends up renting it out to festival go-ers for princely sums of up to 500+ pounds a week.
so trying to find a flat or sharehouse for more like 300 a month has proved to be damn near impossible at times, especially when the backpackers hostels are also in on the gig and go from 100 to 230 pounds a week for a dorm room.
230 pounds a week for a 14 bed dorm, its extortion its insane its highway robbery.
but for the 5 weeks of festival, the city goes from around 450,000 people to over 900,000 so i suppose the supply and demand dictates the price goes up quite a large sum, its just a pain in the ass for people like me looking to stay for over the 5 weeks of festival.
i did however find a place.
moved in yesterday after nearly losing it with the landlord but all seems to be good now. the only thing im a bit niggly with is that its a 12 month lease.
so although i have no qualms about staying in edinburgh for 12 months, especially with the amount of work i have available to me, is that if something came up and i had to or wanted to leave then i either have to pay out the remainder of my lease or keep paying it off and use it as a storage or something.
i dunno really,
the good thing about this flat though.
its got a lock on the front door and on my room door (sharehouse), the busses from here are close and go straight past work (1 bus to the cocktail bar 2 busses to the old boys one) and its also cheap.
like, CHEAP. ~220 pounds a month all inclusive.
Didnt have any sheets or duvet or anything though so picked them up today and now am set for well 12 months i spose.
 |
| My Room |
 |
| Still My Room |
I have also done last Tuesday (24th July 2012)a few of the tours around Edinburgh.
Both run by the Sandemans group who did a excellent tour. One was the Free day walking tour which was about 3-4hours long walking around the city learning about some of the history and the other was Tuesday night doing the ghost tour which was awesome.
Edinburgh has a really bloody history, from burning and drowning witches to drawing and quartering living people for treason and murder.
heres some pics for those that are living on the edge of their seat through me.......
 |
| Edinburgh Castle |
 |
| Sunset from the top of Calton Hill |
 |
| Me and Flo (canada) |
 |
| Just sleeping in someones tomb |
 |
| Crazy Canuck |
 |
| Fun in the Hostel |
 |
| Hostel Life |
 |
| Hostel Life again |
 |
| More Hostel Life |
 |
| I was actually sober for this pic |
and now i have to go get ready for work,
will continue posting as things happen
Monday, 16 July 2012
WOO FUCKING HOO!!!!!
well as much as it pains me to write this, im leaving the brilliant town of rugby.
after applying for approx 100 resumes over the last week, i finally got a call back.
the only thing is, its in Edinburgh, Scotland.
so booked a train ticket and a week in a hostel tonight and i get on the train tomorrow
after applying for approx 100 resumes over the last week, i finally got a call back.
the only thing is, its in Edinburgh, Scotland.
so booked a train ticket and a week in a hostel tonight and i get on the train tomorrow
Tuesday, 10 July 2012
So my seemingly favourite place to write a blog post
Is by noting the most common locations and methods is on a train, whilst using the iPad.
I'm beginning to wonder why this is, could it be because of the rhythmic rocking of the carriages over the tracks, could it be that whenever I look up there's nothing but blurring greenery going past the window? I don't know to be honest but I just know from past posts that I have made a fair few posts from the trains of 2 different continents.
Ok so now to the brunt of the matter,
Money.
The root of all evil.
You either have it or you don't,
You either have enough or you don't.
Right now I'm I'm the latter of both above statements.
I don't have much left and what I do have isn't enough, so I have been searching through the town of Rugby for a job, I think I've handed out close to 10 resumes a day.
Nadda.
I have even gone further abroad looking for work, which is actually the reason for my being on a train at this point in time.
I'm currently returning from a job interview which was held just on the outskirts of the smallish town of redditch which is south of Birmingham.
All going well I will be getting a phone call from the company on thursday hopefully.
The company is similar to sizzlers in Australia but with a bar.
And theyre hiring for bar staff.
The isn't view seemed to go pretty good, the assistant manager liked me so she said she will pass on her thoughts to the manager when he gets in tomorrow.
Hmmm
Conundrums.
If I don't get money soon I have at best 3 weeks of doing nothing left. Then it's call the parents and get them to pay the changing fees for my return flight and back to aus I come.
Which is not really a desirable outcome at this point in time.
This job at redditch is s permanent full time position, so decent steady money.
Anyway thought I would out up a quick update of the situation so far.
all going well the trips still on, all filing I'll be back in aus within the next few months.
I'm beginning to wonder why this is, could it be because of the rhythmic rocking of the carriages over the tracks, could it be that whenever I look up there's nothing but blurring greenery going past the window? I don't know to be honest but I just know from past posts that I have made a fair few posts from the trains of 2 different continents.
Ok so now to the brunt of the matter,
Money.
The root of all evil.
You either have it or you don't,
You either have enough or you don't.
Right now I'm I'm the latter of both above statements.
I don't have much left and what I do have isn't enough, so I have been searching through the town of Rugby for a job, I think I've handed out close to 10 resumes a day.
Nadda.
I have even gone further abroad looking for work, which is actually the reason for my being on a train at this point in time.
I'm currently returning from a job interview which was held just on the outskirts of the smallish town of redditch which is south of Birmingham.
All going well I will be getting a phone call from the company on thursday hopefully.
The company is similar to sizzlers in Australia but with a bar.
And theyre hiring for bar staff.
The isn't view seemed to go pretty good, the assistant manager liked me so she said she will pass on her thoughts to the manager when he gets in tomorrow.
Hmmm
Conundrums.
If I don't get money soon I have at best 3 weeks of doing nothing left. Then it's call the parents and get them to pay the changing fees for my return flight and back to aus I come.
Which is not really a desirable outcome at this point in time.
This job at redditch is s permanent full time position, so decent steady money.
Anyway thought I would out up a quick update of the situation so far.
all going well the trips still on, all filing I'll be back in aus within the next few months.
Friday, 6 July 2012
best game in the world....
Well im here in rugby, Warwickshire which is the hometown of rugby if you hadn't already guessd that.
Its a pretty cool little town, probably not much bigger population wise to say coober pedy in SA or beenleigh in QLD.
Been here since weds trying to find a job but alas to this point in time I haven't had much luck so far. A few places have looked promising but nothing has come back yet.
will keep you posted, in thinking of going to the bell Ellis museum of rugby later and tomorrow is a fancy dress party with mates, they are going as Mario so in thinking of either Bowser or Peter griffin hHa, hilarity ensues
Anyway wish me luck and will keep you posted
Its a pretty cool little town, probably not much bigger population wise to say coober pedy in SA or beenleigh in QLD.
Been here since weds trying to find a job but alas to this point in time I haven't had much luck so far. A few places have looked promising but nothing has come back yet.
will keep you posted, in thinking of going to the bell Ellis museum of rugby later and tomorrow is a fancy dress party with mates, they are going as Mario so in thinking of either Bowser or Peter griffin hHa, hilarity ensues
Anyway wish me luck and will keep you posted
Sunday, 1 July 2012
My thoughts on England 2 weeks in.....
Depressing.
Utterly depressing haha, but aside from the mood dampening weather, it's not been too bad I must admit.
Work on the farm has been of a nature that I must admit I haven't gotten used to yet, it's hard physically exerting and at times complicated but that hasn't really bothered me too much, what has bothered me is the way my body is reacting to the country air.
The farm I'm working on is a proper working farm, it's all crops, and the harvest season starting in a month or so means that at this time the air is full of dust, and left over husks from last years season as we are cleaning out all the grain stores.
As such this is making my hay fever go nuts. Absolute bonkers.
So although the money is really quite good, and although ive only been there a week, Wednesday I'm done on the farm,
Having hay fever all day every day because of work is just no fun at all and when thes another 3 months left till I would be finished I just couldn't deal with it.
Does anyone know of any jobs going anywhere that isn't on a farm?
So yeh the farm job didn't work out, but all is not lost, im currently in the town of Winchester where I'm about to meet up with some very dear friends of mine I haven't seen for close to 4 years, Marie an Sharron :D
I met these two ladies when I was in the backpackers hostel in cairns way back in january 2009, they both sorta became the adoptive parent figures for me up there so I'm quite keen to see them again.
Sorry it's not much of a post but I haven't really gotten up to much since the last one. Ive worked and that's about it, I think once you'd take out my lunch breaks I'm up to 70 something hours worked in the last week.
Will post up again when I have worked something out.
Utterly depressing haha, but aside from the mood dampening weather, it's not been too bad I must admit.
Work on the farm has been of a nature that I must admit I haven't gotten used to yet, it's hard physically exerting and at times complicated but that hasn't really bothered me too much, what has bothered me is the way my body is reacting to the country air.
The farm I'm working on is a proper working farm, it's all crops, and the harvest season starting in a month or so means that at this time the air is full of dust, and left over husks from last years season as we are cleaning out all the grain stores.
As such this is making my hay fever go nuts. Absolute bonkers.
So although the money is really quite good, and although ive only been there a week, Wednesday I'm done on the farm,
Having hay fever all day every day because of work is just no fun at all and when thes another 3 months left till I would be finished I just couldn't deal with it.
Does anyone know of any jobs going anywhere that isn't on a farm?
So yeh the farm job didn't work out, but all is not lost, im currently in the town of Winchester where I'm about to meet up with some very dear friends of mine I haven't seen for close to 4 years, Marie an Sharron :D
I met these two ladies when I was in the backpackers hostel in cairns way back in january 2009, they both sorta became the adoptive parent figures for me up there so I'm quite keen to see them again.
Sorry it's not much of a post but I haven't really gotten up to much since the last one. Ive worked and that's about it, I think once you'd take out my lunch breaks I'm up to 70 something hours worked in the last week.
Will post up again when I have worked something out.
Thursday, 21 June 2012
I seem to have left it 9 days since the last post... god help us all
Ok so i sit here in the common room of my hostel in london contemplating what im actually gonna write about... cause theres a lot.
after the last relevant post i put up i told myself i wouldnt leave it 7 days to post again and yet here we are 9 days later with only a map and a sob story inbetween.
so the last post left us on the morning of my 21st. (12th June 2012).
now this day was a pretty cool one, although not much was actually achieved haha.
in short, we spent the morning driving out to a large empty field that my friend Bastiaan used to visit alot.
the reason for this is simple. RC GLIDERS!!!!!!!!! :D
now i used to fly RC helicopters quite a bit so i thought i would be alright.... BARP, not the case.
all in all we probably spent a hour or two flying the plane around, bastiaan showing me how and me failing haha. different controls on the remote for a plane, i kept inadvertently putting the air brake on and then trying to pull it up before it nose dived into the wet grassy ground.
the day was ended when one of the 2 planes we took nose dived into the ground and broke on of the struts in the secondary wing. (guess who was flying that one....... moi) i felt horrible.
Bastiaan calmed me however by saying he had all the stuff at home to fix it. So i felt better but still bad.
the 2nd plane we took, was actually the one we were going to fly first but when we left Bastiaans house we had checked that all the parts we needed were in the car, body, wings, rc etc. we just didnt check the wings we had were for the correct body. *facepalm*
so once the first plane was damaged we had to cal it quits.
So as much fun as fixed wing flight is, i seem to find it easier to fly a 6 axis helicopter. I think i will stick to them.
another thing that we did on that fateful day was rockclimbing.
now i used to do this quite a bit way back in grade 10 (6 years ago) but then since then i have probably done it 3 times.
so you can assume correctly that i was pretty damn eager to have a crack at it again.
at the climing place, they have a range of graded walls from ~2 up to 7+
i started with the 3's, did them easy as piss.
tried the 4's, now these ones were pretty easy to start out with, but the biggest issue for me was the overhangs, so your climbing up a wall and then all of a sudden the wall starts leaning out away from where you started, so your entire body weight is on your fingers and toes.
i am actually quite impressed with myself, i was able to do one of the 4's but then after that could only get half way up before i started to lose the strength in my fingers and arms so i sat out for a while and just watched.
one major difference i noticed between australian climbing walls and ones in the Netherlands, is that in australia when you are the belayer, your attached to the person up on the wall, but also to the ground, so any weight differences there may be are nullified.
in the netherlands this is not so.
so we teamed up with one of Bastiaans mates and when i was climbing Bastiaan would belay and Rob would be tied to Bas haha.
towards the end of the night we were mucking around and thought it would be cool to see what happened when i climbed to the top of a wall with Bas and rob beneath me and see what happened when i get to the top and just let go haha. we also got this on video, although in the video i didnt go to the top cause i was shattered from having done it about 4 times before we thought of recording it haha.
So this brings an end to the day of my birth.
It also brings an end to my time with Bastiaan for the next day i was to catch a train to Beilen up near Assen (think motoGP)
The following day i was to go to a friend of mines up in Beilen in the north east of Holland, now the only thing is, she wasnt home yet. She was coming home from london that day on the train so after finding out what station she was going to have to do a transfer at i just met her there, a big thanks to Bastiaan for taking me around and showing me the sights and then for taking me to the train to meet up with Suzanne.
after meeting suzanne at the train we went back to her place where we got ready to go to the pub.
now Beilen isnt that big a town so when holland was versing germany in the european championships that night it seemed like the entire town was in the small pub.
Suzanne introduced me to her little group of friends, who were all around my age actually which was nice.
throughout the game rounds were bought and consequently drunk and this process was repeated.... apparently a bit too much as i found out the next morning when i woke up back at the apartment with no memory of getting there.
apparently there was another 8-9 drinks that i dont remember before i ended up getting carried home haha. and the girls i was out with were still going.
can you say SHAME!!!!! i can and i am haha.
now before you start blowing me off as a lightweight, i have a few points i would like to make before you judge,
i quit tour guiding over 4 months previous, so that meant i havent been drinking for over 4 months cause now i was no longer getting mates rates i couldnt afford it so i was outta practice.
i had a slight cold so was taking meds before it turned into the dreaded manflu, the package was in dutch so i couldnt read it but apparently those meds were not meant to be mixed with booze, and finally we didnt have anything to eat for dinner.
so a recap,
outta practice, on meds, no dinner.
thats my excuse and by god am i sticking to it.
i now have to go back to beilen though and show the girls up haha.
so after the nights pleasantries which i cannot for the life of me remember, thursday was spent vegetating on the couch haha.
which going by all accounts was a pretty common place to be for most people that day so it wasnt just me.
the following day was a friday.
this is the day that i caught up with one of my ex passengers that i hadnt seen for the longest.
today i went from Beilen to Breda, which is essentially eastern holland to western so across the country. and it only took ~4 hours haha.
So it was here in Breda that i saw Tom.
Tom was a dutch kid that was on my very first ever tour. which i still consider to be one of my favourite groups. not cause it was the first but the group was just brilliant every single aspect of it was great.
so i was pretty eager to catch up with tom.
so theres not really that much in Breda to be honest haha, walking around with tom we had a beer at a pub and walked around for a while. At one point tom yelled out "TWINGO" and then punched me. i was trying to figure out what was happening and apparently my confusion showed so he explained the game.
if you know of punch buggie then its the same, except whenever you see a renault Twingo, you punch instead of a VW bug.
so needless to say i was quite pleased when i saw the next twingo and then tom called it quits haha.
a big thanks to Tom and his parents. although we didnt really do anything it was really nice to just sit back in a family setting and be included. made me think of home.
i was slightly annoyed though at that nights soccer game, it was sweden vs england. I was backing sweden to win 3-2.
until the last 20 mins it was even looking good haha. but then england came through and the final score was 3-2 but not in my favour. bugger.
the next 2 days went pretty quickly, it began with saying bye to tom and his family, and getting back on the train to Amsterdam.
It was the night of my birthday party. of course i was gonna have a good time. however after the previous wednesday it wasnt gonna be a massive one.
it was a brilliant night out to be honest drinks with a few good mates.
Big thanks to Bastiaan, Elias, Martijn, Jelle, Danielle, Sophie and Eline for coming out.
Sunday afternoon i caught up with 2 passengers that were on my very last tour with heading Bush, Fons and Steph.
i had received a phone call from fons saying he was going to be in Amsterdam on sunday afternoon.
so in true spirit of the dutch, we went to a pub to watch the game against portugal.
i was wearing all the orange gear i had, socks, jocks and a scarf but alas holland lost the game
it was awesome catching up with fons and especially with steph cause shes actually from switzerland and fons never told me she was coming so it was a pleasant surprise.
The next day, monday i caught a train to London.
now some may wonder why i went the train route instead of the flights.
long story short i would rather pay less money and sit on a train for 6 hours then pay double to get the plane.
plus i dont mind the trains. its more comfortable for lengths of time then a plane is, the train also stopped closer to where i am currently living so it was a bit easier albeit longer.
So london.....
Its a pretty cool city, but i will say right now it hasnt grown on me.
So far i have seen Big ben, Trafalgar Square, Oxford st, the London Aquarium, and the London Dungeon and although they were all pretty cool i must say the city is too busy and big for me personally.
i havent quit on it yet though, theres still a heap i want to see but im waiting for better weather (london eye etc)
As i think i have said previously i prefer seeing places as a local, i will do the touristy things but i want to see a place as a local and that takes a combination of either knowing locals and going where they go, or just being in a spot for a while and pacing it out yourself.
so london is going to get a bit more attention then what its currently received.
a few of my highlights so far though have been catching up with mates,
First was Lauren, myself and Lauren went to school together way back in primary school. She left the school in grade 5 when we were 10 but through the magic that is facebook since resumed contact.
the others so far have been pete and then Sheryl.
Both of these people i met when i did my stint in a Cairns backpackers hostel as part of my isolation.
both helped me out so much through that period without realizing, it was quite awesome to see them again.
I know that the above is written badly, but its my fault for leaving it so long between posts and doing so much
after the last relevant post i put up i told myself i wouldnt leave it 7 days to post again and yet here we are 9 days later with only a map and a sob story inbetween.
so the last post left us on the morning of my 21st. (12th June 2012).
now this day was a pretty cool one, although not much was actually achieved haha.
in short, we spent the morning driving out to a large empty field that my friend Bastiaan used to visit alot.
the reason for this is simple. RC GLIDERS!!!!!!!!! :D
now i used to fly RC helicopters quite a bit so i thought i would be alright.... BARP, not the case.
all in all we probably spent a hour or two flying the plane around, bastiaan showing me how and me failing haha. different controls on the remote for a plane, i kept inadvertently putting the air brake on and then trying to pull it up before it nose dived into the wet grassy ground.
the day was ended when one of the 2 planes we took nose dived into the ground and broke on of the struts in the secondary wing. (guess who was flying that one....... moi) i felt horrible.
Bastiaan calmed me however by saying he had all the stuff at home to fix it. So i felt better but still bad.
the 2nd plane we took, was actually the one we were going to fly first but when we left Bastiaans house we had checked that all the parts we needed were in the car, body, wings, rc etc. we just didnt check the wings we had were for the correct body. *facepalm*
so once the first plane was damaged we had to cal it quits.
 |
| Me being badass (at flying) |
 |
| Bastiaan showing how its done |
 |
| on the LH wing are 2 little grips, you hold these, spin like a discus thrower and then launch the plane into the sky |
 |
| final resting place. the nose piece is 3" into the ground..... |
So as much fun as fixed wing flight is, i seem to find it easier to fly a 6 axis helicopter. I think i will stick to them.
another thing that we did on that fateful day was rockclimbing.
now i used to do this quite a bit way back in grade 10 (6 years ago) but then since then i have probably done it 3 times.
so you can assume correctly that i was pretty damn eager to have a crack at it again.
at the climing place, they have a range of graded walls from ~2 up to 7+
i started with the 3's, did them easy as piss.
tried the 4's, now these ones were pretty easy to start out with, but the biggest issue for me was the overhangs, so your climbing up a wall and then all of a sudden the wall starts leaning out away from where you started, so your entire body weight is on your fingers and toes.
i am actually quite impressed with myself, i was able to do one of the 4's but then after that could only get half way up before i started to lose the strength in my fingers and arms so i sat out for a while and just watched.
one major difference i noticed between australian climbing walls and ones in the Netherlands, is that in australia when you are the belayer, your attached to the person up on the wall, but also to the ground, so any weight differences there may be are nullified.
in the netherlands this is not so.
so we teamed up with one of Bastiaans mates and when i was climbing Bastiaan would belay and Rob would be tied to Bas haha.
towards the end of the night we were mucking around and thought it would be cool to see what happened when i climbed to the top of a wall with Bas and rob beneath me and see what happened when i get to the top and just let go haha. we also got this on video, although in the video i didnt go to the top cause i was shattered from having done it about 4 times before we thought of recording it haha.
 |
| L-R Rob, Bastiaan, Ross |
 |
| Me at the top of the wall |
 |
| ~half way through dropping to the bottom you can see Bas is getting lifted |
 |
| Free climbing |
So this brings an end to the day of my birth.
It also brings an end to my time with Bastiaan for the next day i was to catch a train to Beilen up near Assen (think motoGP)
The following day i was to go to a friend of mines up in Beilen in the north east of Holland, now the only thing is, she wasnt home yet. She was coming home from london that day on the train so after finding out what station she was going to have to do a transfer at i just met her there, a big thanks to Bastiaan for taking me around and showing me the sights and then for taking me to the train to meet up with Suzanne.
after meeting suzanne at the train we went back to her place where we got ready to go to the pub.
now Beilen isnt that big a town so when holland was versing germany in the european championships that night it seemed like the entire town was in the small pub.
Suzanne introduced me to her little group of friends, who were all around my age actually which was nice.
throughout the game rounds were bought and consequently drunk and this process was repeated.... apparently a bit too much as i found out the next morning when i woke up back at the apartment with no memory of getting there.
apparently there was another 8-9 drinks that i dont remember before i ended up getting carried home haha. and the girls i was out with were still going.
can you say SHAME!!!!! i can and i am haha.
now before you start blowing me off as a lightweight, i have a few points i would like to make before you judge,
i quit tour guiding over 4 months previous, so that meant i havent been drinking for over 4 months cause now i was no longer getting mates rates i couldnt afford it so i was outta practice.
i had a slight cold so was taking meds before it turned into the dreaded manflu, the package was in dutch so i couldnt read it but apparently those meds were not meant to be mixed with booze, and finally we didnt have anything to eat for dinner.
so a recap,
outta practice, on meds, no dinner.
thats my excuse and by god am i sticking to it.
i now have to go back to beilen though and show the girls up haha.
so after the nights pleasantries which i cannot for the life of me remember, thursday was spent vegetating on the couch haha.
which going by all accounts was a pretty common place to be for most people that day so it wasnt just me.
the following day was a friday.
this is the day that i caught up with one of my ex passengers that i hadnt seen for the longest.
today i went from Beilen to Breda, which is essentially eastern holland to western so across the country. and it only took ~4 hours haha.
So it was here in Breda that i saw Tom.
Tom was a dutch kid that was on my very first ever tour. which i still consider to be one of my favourite groups. not cause it was the first but the group was just brilliant every single aspect of it was great.
so i was pretty eager to catch up with tom.
so theres not really that much in Breda to be honest haha, walking around with tom we had a beer at a pub and walked around for a while. At one point tom yelled out "TWINGO" and then punched me. i was trying to figure out what was happening and apparently my confusion showed so he explained the game.
if you know of punch buggie then its the same, except whenever you see a renault Twingo, you punch instead of a VW bug.
so needless to say i was quite pleased when i saw the next twingo and then tom called it quits haha.
a big thanks to Tom and his parents. although we didnt really do anything it was really nice to just sit back in a family setting and be included. made me think of home.
i was slightly annoyed though at that nights soccer game, it was sweden vs england. I was backing sweden to win 3-2.
until the last 20 mins it was even looking good haha. but then england came through and the final score was 3-2 but not in my favour. bugger.
the next 2 days went pretty quickly, it began with saying bye to tom and his family, and getting back on the train to Amsterdam.
It was the night of my birthday party. of course i was gonna have a good time. however after the previous wednesday it wasnt gonna be a massive one.
it was a brilliant night out to be honest drinks with a few good mates.
Big thanks to Bastiaan, Elias, Martijn, Jelle, Danielle, Sophie and Eline for coming out.
 |
| Eline, Danni, Ross, Sophie |
 |
| Eline, Elias, Sophie, Ross, Danni |
 |
| Very happy and slightly drunk Ross |
i had received a phone call from fons saying he was going to be in Amsterdam on sunday afternoon.
so in true spirit of the dutch, we went to a pub to watch the game against portugal.
i was wearing all the orange gear i had, socks, jocks and a scarf but alas holland lost the game
it was awesome catching up with fons and especially with steph cause shes actually from switzerland and fons never told me she was coming so it was a pleasant surprise.
 |
| Fons |
 |
| Steph |
 |
| Steph Decided my Dutch gear and sunny's suited her better. A swiss chick wearing dutch colors. |
The next day, monday i caught a train to London.
now some may wonder why i went the train route instead of the flights.
long story short i would rather pay less money and sit on a train for 6 hours then pay double to get the plane.
plus i dont mind the trains. its more comfortable for lengths of time then a plane is, the train also stopped closer to where i am currently living so it was a bit easier albeit longer.
So london.....
Its a pretty cool city, but i will say right now it hasnt grown on me.
So far i have seen Big ben, Trafalgar Square, Oxford st, the London Aquarium, and the London Dungeon and although they were all pretty cool i must say the city is too busy and big for me personally.
i havent quit on it yet though, theres still a heap i want to see but im waiting for better weather (london eye etc)
 |
| Jelly Fish at the Aquarium |
 |
| Lion fish (i think) |
 |
| Massive turtle |
 |
| London Eye in the afternoon |
 |
| Trafalgar Square Monument |
 |
| London eye and Big Ben |
 |
| Big Beg |
 |
| Big Ben |
 |
| Double Decker bus |
As i think i have said previously i prefer seeing places as a local, i will do the touristy things but i want to see a place as a local and that takes a combination of either knowing locals and going where they go, or just being in a spot for a while and pacing it out yourself.
so london is going to get a bit more attention then what its currently received.
a few of my highlights so far though have been catching up with mates,
First was Lauren, myself and Lauren went to school together way back in primary school. She left the school in grade 5 when we were 10 but through the magic that is facebook since resumed contact.
the others so far have been pete and then Sheryl.
Both of these people i met when i did my stint in a Cairns backpackers hostel as part of my isolation.
both helped me out so much through that period without realizing, it was quite awesome to see them again.
I know that the above is written badly, but its my fault for leaving it so long between posts and doing so much
Sunday, 17 June 2012
a bit of an insight to mcfears life
well, i dont really know how to begin this post,
i know that my last few post's havent really been written with the for want of a better word, "flair" that the first few had. So i think for this post im going to give an insight to the entity that is mcfear.
i dont know whether i should put the lack of "flair" within the posts down to general tiredness, from all the stuff that i have been up to, by the time i went to write the last few blog posts it was generally midnight local time, and i was trying to put posts up so that they didnt build up.
Or could it be attributed to the fact that im not a writer? sure sometimes i can whip out a bloody nice looking and reading post but not all the time. im not sure, im slightly leaning towards the latter of the two options while keeping in mind that the first would have a fair amount of play in the writing.
anywho. enough about my lack of writing skills, the honest reason im even writing this blog, is that it for me is a form of diary, but unlike a conventional diary, it is on the interwebs so that others can enjoy my experience too, maybe not to the same extent haha, but given the right viewer it can be used to maybe strike the flint in someones inner fire to give them the travel bug too.
I got my travel bug when i was just 17, living in a backpackers hostel after just failing highschool.
now i know a lot of people fail highschool and dont seem to give a shit. I however had been getting A's ever since i started, both at a normal school and a top of the line boarding school.
the kicker came when i changed high schools for the final 2 years of my senior schooling.
The school was not a standard school by Queensland standards, it had been set up for the academically gifted, it was there to support the nerds, geeks, technofreaks and everything inbetween.
when i started i liked to think that i was a combination of nerd and freak haha.
The major difference about this school is that it was based on a european stimulus called the International Baccalaureate. Now this system is a very good system, but when compared to what the Queensland governments idea of a curriculum is, it is a massive step up.
Being the fact that i was actually a foundation graduate, meaning that myself and all the rest that were within my class were the first group of students to go through that would graduate we werent sure what lay ahead of us.
The teachers even didnt seem to know what to expect as they had all come from teaching the queensland curriculum they were some of the best teachers that there could be within their fields, but all thats pointless when both teacher and student are new to a curriculum.
hence why i think i failed, it wasnt that i didnt try, f*cking oath i tried, it wasnt that the teachers were shit, they were brilliant, it was just a completely different system to what everyone was used to and as it turns out wasnt the system for me and i ended up dropping most of my classes and focussed on maths and english as they are the 2 most generally needed courses that you can get.
End result. I failed highschool and when offered a resit told them to shove it. i was burnt out, i wasnt used to failing. I had become massively depressed to the point where it was affecting the relationships with my parents and family, friends were getting pissed off at me, i just hadnt become a person i liked.
so i did what every normal teenager would do, i escaped. i went somewhere as far away and remote as i could possibly afford and then i stayed as long as i could without becoming dependent on others.
i went to cairns.
In all honesty i cant remember why i went to cairns, i dont know if it was that it was as far away from home as i could go while remaining on the eastern side of australia.
All i know for certain is that after spending 8 weeks in a backpackers hostel with basically no contact with the place i had just left, i was a lot clearer then i can honestly say i had been for a long time.
A combination of no contact with the world i had just upped and left, and also living with backpackers, living like a backpacker, hearing about all these other places and doing it on a shoe string budget. It kinda just gave me a new way of seeing the world.
after 2 months i was still having a blast in cairns but it was time to go and i worked on a farm for a few months driving tractors. while this is not a job that i wanted to do for a lengthy amount of time, it was another 5 months of basic isolation, it didnt pay too badly either i might note.
so all in all, it took close to 7 months of isolation to get back to a state of mind that was normal.
i went back to brisbane, i found myself a traineeship and i started going to college.
but all the while i was there, i was thinking about traveling, about the good times i had with the backpackers in cairns.
so after 16 months in the trainee-ship, i decided amongst a few other points which need not be discussed here, although i liked the work, it wasnt for me and i left for adelaide and got as close to what i wanted as i could without leaving the country.
I became a tour guide.
i was finally doing something i really enjoyed.
driving the backpacker tours from adelaide to alice springs is still my lifes highlight. even when im sitting here in a hotel room in amsterdam after just having my 21st birthday party last night.
i drove the busses for close to 2 years, doing a multitude of different tours, from driving the toyota Landcruiser troop carriers and shaking up to 10 backpackers around the real australian outback for 10 days to changing scenery of sorts and driving the mini busses along similar routes but on the highway with up to 21 backpackers.
it gave me the feeling of being a backpacker, it gave me the travelling aspect and it also gave me a putz load of friends all over the world many of whom i have remained in constant contact with.
so when i finally got the chance to come to europe and experience proper travel first hand of course i took the opportunity.
I hope that the above text isnt too monotonous or boring, especially as it has nothing to do with my actual travel so far, but i feel it makes this blog a bit more personal, and gets a few things out there in the open that currently only a few people know about.
My last post was a few days ago so later on today or tomorrow when im on the train to london i'll try to get another post up thats more related to the actual trip itself.
i know that my last few post's havent really been written with the for want of a better word, "flair" that the first few had. So i think for this post im going to give an insight to the entity that is mcfear.
i dont know whether i should put the lack of "flair" within the posts down to general tiredness, from all the stuff that i have been up to, by the time i went to write the last few blog posts it was generally midnight local time, and i was trying to put posts up so that they didnt build up.
Or could it be attributed to the fact that im not a writer? sure sometimes i can whip out a bloody nice looking and reading post but not all the time. im not sure, im slightly leaning towards the latter of the two options while keeping in mind that the first would have a fair amount of play in the writing.
anywho. enough about my lack of writing skills, the honest reason im even writing this blog, is that it for me is a form of diary, but unlike a conventional diary, it is on the interwebs so that others can enjoy my experience too, maybe not to the same extent haha, but given the right viewer it can be used to maybe strike the flint in someones inner fire to give them the travel bug too.
I got my travel bug when i was just 17, living in a backpackers hostel after just failing highschool.
now i know a lot of people fail highschool and dont seem to give a shit. I however had been getting A's ever since i started, both at a normal school and a top of the line boarding school.
the kicker came when i changed high schools for the final 2 years of my senior schooling.
The school was not a standard school by Queensland standards, it had been set up for the academically gifted, it was there to support the nerds, geeks, technofreaks and everything inbetween.
when i started i liked to think that i was a combination of nerd and freak haha.
The major difference about this school is that it was based on a european stimulus called the International Baccalaureate. Now this system is a very good system, but when compared to what the Queensland governments idea of a curriculum is, it is a massive step up.
Being the fact that i was actually a foundation graduate, meaning that myself and all the rest that were within my class were the first group of students to go through that would graduate we werent sure what lay ahead of us.
The teachers even didnt seem to know what to expect as they had all come from teaching the queensland curriculum they were some of the best teachers that there could be within their fields, but all thats pointless when both teacher and student are new to a curriculum.
hence why i think i failed, it wasnt that i didnt try, f*cking oath i tried, it wasnt that the teachers were shit, they were brilliant, it was just a completely different system to what everyone was used to and as it turns out wasnt the system for me and i ended up dropping most of my classes and focussed on maths and english as they are the 2 most generally needed courses that you can get.
End result. I failed highschool and when offered a resit told them to shove it. i was burnt out, i wasnt used to failing. I had become massively depressed to the point where it was affecting the relationships with my parents and family, friends were getting pissed off at me, i just hadnt become a person i liked.
so i did what every normal teenager would do, i escaped. i went somewhere as far away and remote as i could possibly afford and then i stayed as long as i could without becoming dependent on others.
i went to cairns.
In all honesty i cant remember why i went to cairns, i dont know if it was that it was as far away from home as i could go while remaining on the eastern side of australia.
All i know for certain is that after spending 8 weeks in a backpackers hostel with basically no contact with the place i had just left, i was a lot clearer then i can honestly say i had been for a long time.
A combination of no contact with the world i had just upped and left, and also living with backpackers, living like a backpacker, hearing about all these other places and doing it on a shoe string budget. It kinda just gave me a new way of seeing the world.
after 2 months i was still having a blast in cairns but it was time to go and i worked on a farm for a few months driving tractors. while this is not a job that i wanted to do for a lengthy amount of time, it was another 5 months of basic isolation, it didnt pay too badly either i might note.
so all in all, it took close to 7 months of isolation to get back to a state of mind that was normal.
i went back to brisbane, i found myself a traineeship and i started going to college.
but all the while i was there, i was thinking about traveling, about the good times i had with the backpackers in cairns.
so after 16 months in the trainee-ship, i decided amongst a few other points which need not be discussed here, although i liked the work, it wasnt for me and i left for adelaide and got as close to what i wanted as i could without leaving the country.
I became a tour guide.
i was finally doing something i really enjoyed.
driving the backpacker tours from adelaide to alice springs is still my lifes highlight. even when im sitting here in a hotel room in amsterdam after just having my 21st birthday party last night.
i drove the busses for close to 2 years, doing a multitude of different tours, from driving the toyota Landcruiser troop carriers and shaking up to 10 backpackers around the real australian outback for 10 days to changing scenery of sorts and driving the mini busses along similar routes but on the highway with up to 21 backpackers.
it gave me the feeling of being a backpacker, it gave me the travelling aspect and it also gave me a putz load of friends all over the world many of whom i have remained in constant contact with.
so when i finally got the chance to come to europe and experience proper travel first hand of course i took the opportunity.
I hope that the above text isnt too monotonous or boring, especially as it has nothing to do with my actual travel so far, but i feel it makes this blog a bit more personal, and gets a few things out there in the open that currently only a few people know about.
My last post was a few days ago so later on today or tomorrow when im on the train to london i'll try to get another post up thats more related to the actual trip itself.
Friday, 15 June 2012
Quick Update
just a quick map screenshot showing how much of holland i have currently been to,
the public transport systems here are so much better then australia's its not even comparable.
I would also like to mention that on the right hand side just under the about me section within the sidebar is a email subscription service, if you put your email in there whenever a new post is added you'll get a email notification
the public transport systems here are so much better then australia's its not even comparable.
 |
| Click to Enlarge |
I would also like to mention that on the right hand side just under the about me section within the sidebar is a email subscription service, if you put your email in there whenever a new post is added you'll get a email notification
Tuesday, 12 June 2012
Who's been a busy lil bastard, ME!!!!!
i would like to firstly apologize for the length of this post as its going to be massive.
the day after my last post was written a very dear friend of mine came to see me in amsterdam.
it was the first real day of sightseeing i suppose i did as we actually went out and saw things instead of just randomly walking around and finding these weird little boutique style shops.
Dont get me wrong, the little boutique style shops have been awesome, some of the most random stuff you find in there is just so different its awesome, although not worth the markup some of the places have put on it.
So on the day that Marleen came to visit me, we went and saw the house of Anne Frank who i am pretty sure most people know about or at least have heard about.
It was a pretty humbling experience to be honest, having read a little bit of her book "Diary of Anne Frank" in school and knowing some of the story behind her, it was cool to walk through the actual house she lived in, and see how they lived for quite a long time, a few years.
there were no photos allowed inside so i havent got any from that, we then went for a walk and went to the Pathe Tuschinski which is Amsterdams largest movie theatre.
Now a bit of a background on this, albeit a small background. it is an old theatre, from the age of plays and i assume opera's. Its now been outfitted with quite comfortable chairs (IMO) and a massive screen over the stage. this is by far the coolest movie theatre i have been to outside of Australia..... and within australia.
the entire experience was better then any australian movie i have been to, from the seating, to the actual theatre itself, and even the sound and the screen. the screen was easily the size of the IMAX theatre at southbank in Brisbane.
End prognosis, Pathe Tuschinski theatre in amsterdam is a must if you are in the area and want to watch a movie,
we also went to the Australian bar "Coco's Outback Bar" where i was able to get my first drink of a real rum, BUNDY!!!!!!!
one of two bars in all of amsterdam to stock it. :D
after all the festivities Marleen had to leave but since the sun had come out and the rain had f*cked off we decided for a picture at one of Amsterdams many canals before it was time to go to the train station.
 | |
| Marleen and Myself |
Since that day with Marleen, i have had the pleasure of also visiting the Heineken Experience which although i dont drink beer practically ever, i had a few here throughout the tour because they were included haha, i dont have any pictures as my camera was out of battery, some of the other people that i went with though took pictures and im just waiting for them to upload them to facebook or something so i can poach them haha.
The Heineken experience was pretty bloody cool, it starts out with a bit of history of the company and its founders, to going into how its made and a walkthrough an old section of brewery thats no longer in operation and has been adopted to be educational and in some places demonstrational (not a word but it'll catch on im sure :P)
in the end you get a few free beers and then the offer of a free canal tour which goes from the factory to the brand store, in the hope of getting a few people to spend some of their hard earned coin im sure haha.
last friday i caught a train to Leiden to try and avoid the weekend prices at my hostel (from 22 euro a night to 50 euro a night for friday and saturday).
So on the friday i caught a train to Leiden to stay with some passengers that were on my very last tour with groovy grape in australia.
the train ride over there was quite uneventful, it was only a 20-30 min trip so i spent the majority of that just looking out the window watching the world go by. I did get curious though at the speed of the train as its a fair bit larger then the trains we have in brisbane as its a double decker train. it was a really smooth ride however. It just so happens that i have an app on my iPad which is a GPS speedo haha, from back in adelaide when i had a little $300AU car and the speedo was a bit wack.
So i opened the app and lo and behold i was moving a lot faster then i thought i was haha.
i'll let the picture speak for itself.
Leiden.
What can i say about Leiden, its a very beautiful city, once again i had trouble getting my camera to see what i saw.
myself, Paul and Marjolite (sorry about spelling) ended up going for a bike ride around the city. To see it in a more dutch setting.
After ~ 5-6kms on a bike where the seat was too high for me i think i have briused my tail bone, but im not really regretting it as we saw some brilliant things.
first off we rode to an old orphanage near the centre of Old Leiden, this place has been around since the 1600's. After coming from a country where in the 1600's there was nothing more then what the aborigine's needed this is quite dumfounding and humbling.
 |
| Doorway inscription in the old orphanage |
 |
| Paul in the Circular Fortification |
We then went and saw the University of Leiden and walked through their botanic gardens and saw the observatory where quite a lot of the early astronomical findings were found. at this point it was raining so i was hiding my camera within my hoodie to hide it from the rain so i didnt get any photos.
i did however get a lot of photos from the next place we stopped which was the museum of really old things (not actual name).
this place was massive, well probably not in comparison to a lot of the museums in capital cities around the world but it did take us quite a large amount of time to accomplish, and i got photos :D
One of the first things i saw when we walked in was this section of temple that looked like sandstone,
upon closer inspection it was a section of the old temple of taffeh, built approx 2000 years ago 50kms away from Aswan in africa.
 | |
| Taffeh's Temple |
as are their roman and greek empire periods.
for dinner they drove me to Den Haag, to show me the beach at Schevinengen.
now i wasnt expecting much from a beach in europe, not after growing up 30 mins from the beaches at the Gold Coast in australia. However, it was quite a surprise when we got to the beach and it looked nearly exactly the same, with the exception of all the bars scattered across the beach.
there were decent waves, lots of sand (obviously) the sand wasnt as golden but thats a minor thing to pick.
Paul and Marjolite decided that after a quick stop at one of the royal palaces for a photo it was dinner time and for dinner they would shout me dinner regardless of how much i refused to allow them to and we ended up at what i am pretty sure was a argentinian grillhouse.
dip me in honey and throw me to the lesbians, this place was awesome.
i ended up ordering some spare ribs and fries and salad and i was so shocked when my food came out i nearly squeeled in excitement haha.
once again, a picture speaks a thousand words.
 |
thanks paul and marjolite, it was truly a pleasure to stay with you and experience your city.
what else has happened.....
oh yeh, we got a new dude in the hostel a few days ago, Justin from canada.
Turns out he's also a ex tour guide on a Euro trip :D
although canadian, he's actually pretty cool and we got along pretty well.
i think its probably got something to do with both of us having a pretty messed up sense of humor which is akin to all guides methinks.
anywho, i had been wanting to go to a few places within amsterdam that i reckoned would be more appreciated with other people then just on my own so i was quite happy when justin rocked up because being a new guy in the city he hadnt already seen everything haha.
we ended up checking out a few things yesterday which im glad i got to see.
these were Madame Tussards the wax museum, the Amsterdam Dungeon and the Ice bar.
Firstly madame tussards.
this started of with myself and justin getting a photo with the american president, Barack Obama.
now myself being an Australian who's not even bothered with my own countries politics and justin being a canadian this just gave us an opportunity to make poses with the president that you just would not be able to in real life haha.
we did get a copy of this picture (at 9euro a pop) but since justin paid the majority of it he has the print copy and im waiting for my digital version to come through.
now there are a lot of wax statues in there. when i say a lot, i meant a LOT.
from british prime minister Winston Churchill, to POS's like Lady Gaga.
being the carefree fun lovers we are, we had a fair bit of fun in here.
 |
| Julia Roberts |
 |
| Robbie Williams i think.... |
 |
| booty |
 |
| Johnny Depp |
 |
| C*nt Punting Gaga |
 |
| Justin imitating marilyn monroe |
 |
| Dame edna |
 | |
| First ever Canadian President of the USA? |
 |
| Rockin it with Bob Marley |
 |
| Doing the world a massive favour |
 |
| Being awesome |
 |
| mucking around with some famous soccer player |
after what ended up being a fair while in there we then left and went just down the street to the Amsterdam Dungeon.
Now those of you who have been to Draculas on the gold coast will know what sorta place this is. those that dont, its something that i cant really explain. you kinda have to experience it to know what im talking about.
If you know draculas this place is essentially the same except bigger, better and more well done in practically every way.
we werent allowed to take pictures within this tour as being quite a dark setting, cameras wont work without flash, and with flash it ruins the setting and blinds every poor bastard there haha.
to try and explain it, you walk through the building guided door to door by actors who each have their own story.
going from the gouls of the black plague era, to the slavers of the east india trading co, to everything inbetween and past each end.
i highly highly recommend doing it.
its not scary but there are some moments when the pucker factor does creep up a bit.
One of the coolest things i have done so far though was the ice bar.
when i say coolest i mean literally.
Its a bar that is carved out of straight ice, the bar, the cups the chairs everything.
the air temperature is -10c to keep it from melting haha, as such you only get 40mins inside, but in that 40 mins you get 2 drinks included in your admission, a 3d movie, and it is genuinely a good time. Because its so cold inside you wear these silver poncho's with a hood and some gloves which make you look like eskimo's from the future haha
i promised mum i would get some pics from the ice bar but its run by Heineken and apparently they have copywrited an entire bar, so no photos were allowed but they took pictures themselves and then sold it back to you. at 9 euro a print it isnt cheap but i got 2 prints.
 |
| Me |
 |
| (L2R) Justin, our Bartender, Me |
Finally today.
i bid everyone farewell in the hostel and got on a train bound for Eindhoven.
if you read the last few posts in here you woulda seen a picture of me with a crazy dutch guy, i was wearing my amsterdam beanie and reflective aviators.
im now crashing at his house for a few nights to catch up with him and some other mates that were on the same tour.
so far i have gotten lost in the house. Its massive and not even by dutch standards.
this house is bigger then quite a lot of the houses in a normal australian suburb.
we have also gone for a bike ride, and ended up 6kms away at the town of Borkel. Little did either of us know that borkel is having a town fete on haha.
so with over 20 euros in coins in my wallet i ended up having a go at the shooting range, and being the true aussie i am i didnt miss a shot. it pissed off the carnies to no end. i ended up walking away with a few prizes haha
Mark another dutchy off the same tour as Bastiaan came over for dinner and after a few hours of talk and food haha he left and myself and bastiaan ended up at the pub haha.
was a good way to end the last few days.
im sorry for the massive write, and also for the writing itself, im tired and as such wasnt able to get it all written exactly how i wanted but i had to get it all down before i started to forget.
its taken me about an hour and a half to write all this and as i look at the clock i realise that its now the morning of the 12th of june, its now my birthday, Im now officially 21 years old
i think im gonna sleep in haha.
i suppose thats it for the next few days, will put another update on shortly once i got more to write about.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)