ben n brady

French apls to Paris

bendwyer — Thu, 8 Feb 2007 09:27:00 GMT

Hi folks,

just a quick note here.. since last we spent a week in Avoriaz in the portes du soliel mountains on the french/swiss border, was great you could ski from one country to another and back again on a chirlift haha! We got about 25cm of snow on one day which was great for off piste exploring conditions.. the other days though the conditions got pretty icey and mogully in the afternoon so it paid to be on the slopes early.. Had a fanastic week there with a bus load of ppl from belguim so learnt a few words of french, drank lots, ate crepes for dinner, went out for dinner for fondue and raclette... yummm cheeeese! Avoriaz is a pedestrian only place which was neat, you could ski down all the streets and horses with sleds carried ppl and luggage to their accomodation!

Left there and after spending 15 hrs on bus (we wentvia belgium) arrived in paris for 4 night.. no doubting the beauty of this city.. we spent most of our days walking all over the city, you see so much more if you walk as you find streets and shops youd never see otherwise.. had a picnic of french wine/baguettes/cheese/etc under the eiffel tower, explored the louve, drank more wine, adn on the last night i went on a night tour of the city which was beautiful and then saw a show at the moulin rouge.. fantastic!!! then walked home even though it was in the middle of the red light district.. i just bought a nutella crepe so entertained myself with eating that as i walked cos wasnt sure where to look hahaha, nah it wasn't that bad..

just had one nioght in brussels, wnet out for mussels for dinner and lots of beer.. off to netherlands this morning!

love you all lots
seeya
Brady XX

Update 5 ; Czech

bendwyer — Fri, 19 Jan 2007 23:27:00 GMT

Prague;

we found a HI hostel and lucked into some huge rooms we had all to ourselves thanx to this 'low season'...

spent bout 5 days here, man we were wealthy with the aussie dollar here! beer cheaper than water, and the best beer ive tasted i think ;) this dark beer, Kozel, was amazing! the Budvar beer, (original Budweiser) was my pick though.

But the city itself had soo much to offer! by night the Charles Bridge lit up over magic canals, wicked grand architecture and the mamoth Prague castle overlooks it all like a pride of golden lions surrounding their prey.

we visited the castle and took some cool fotos, but seriously its getting to the stage that we have to refuse anymore church/castle fotos...we must already have hundreds!

saw some Bohemian Blues at an underground blues club one night there in the city, it was great! Stan The Man was very good on the guitar, and had beers with us between his sets!

Prague was icey cold though, i think mostly due to the ultra high humidity.

and of course we had a cheerful Xmas in Prague, made some calls back to Oz, and had some nice meals/beverages to celebrate.

We got a train south, and had a night in Ceske Budejovice. This town was very pretty, small tho. one night was ample, on our way to Austria. Budejovice is the original home of the Budweiser beer (the REAL Bohemian one, not the sepo crap u see)

here we stayed in a small little room in a family run B n B that was quite nice.

then train to Austria for new years mania andf snowboarding again, at last!

berlin to Prague; BRAdy ;)

bendwyer — Fri, 19 Jan 2007 23:21:00 GMT

Hi all!

Since last mail we travelled to sweden for a week which was great fun... no snow there yet so went cross country skiing in a 1.3km tunnel.. was great fun even if the scenery wasn't so nice (concrete tube)./.haha, lived like the locals there in a small town called sunne then headed south to goteborg for a night.. this place is gorgeous!..

caught a bus from there to copenhagn for a couple of nights.. after a bit of a hike out to a hostel that was closed, then to another closed one and finally and open one we were ready for a killer sleep on the first night however this wasn't to happen!! out of our dorm of 8 ppl, 3 were major snorers!! we moved rooms for the next night.. ahhaha, only had 1 full day there so checked out the carlsberg brewery, great value, for your 5 buck entry fee you get 3 or 4 beers! and quailty stuff not just regular!.. then to christiana which is a little town of it's own in the middle of the city.. google it if you want more info! hahah this compouter has a time limit!

then caught the bus,a ferry and another bus down to berlin for a few days.. this has to be the most fasinating place ever with all the history being so recent!! would love to spend more time there.. at night we found a local hang out of wurst so had that for dinner... and in every country we've been sure to drink the local beers!! having fun with that!.. though the locals there didn't seem to really appreciate our attepmts at german.. a bit of a frosty reception was what we got! ah well, meet heaps of aussies there to hang out with.. stops any feeling of homesickness! ah also the breakfast at this hotstel was great!haha

headed south again and stopped in dresden for a night to visit a friend of bens.. was nice, though one night was definaltey enough time to see the place.. arrived in prague yestrerday afternoon so at a hostel now for 4 nights so it will be nice to just have a rest and not see everything in 1 or 2 days.. had an awesome meal last night sooo cheap!! and ppl aren't wrong when they say it's cheaper to drink beer than water or softdrink!! crazy!! io love it.. hahaa

well gotta go, wish you all a merry christmas and happy now year.. thinking of you all, lots of love

Brady xxxxxxx

tales from new years and beyond...(brady;)

bendwyer — Fri, 19 Jan 2007 01:43:00 GMT

Hi everyone

hope you all had a fantastic christmas and new years and havent missed me to much. You may notice a change in this email I am now using capital letters at the start of sentences. Thats just for you dad! You may also notice my spelling is shocking and Im missing apostrophes but that is due to the keys on this keyboard being all mixed up and I cant find a couple of buttons!

Now to get on with our travels.. After our fantastic few days in prague we were ready to move on and headed down to dresden; south of berlin, for a night to see another friend of bens from his time in brasil. Margit is very cool and after a tour of the city, which is very like a miny berlin. A lot of the buildings here were also destroyed in WWII but have been built back to look original. Ah yes we headed with her to a house warming party. Was a rather bizzare experience to say the least. Fun though, we ate tasty soup and laughed when everyone else did as we dont speak german and they little english.. Come to think of it they were probably laughing at us..haha

The next midday we caught the train onto Austria, though nearly didnt make it as a mix up with the stations caused us to be 6 mins late.   Thankfully the train was 9 mins late. Our friend Christop who we met at a backpackers in melbourne earlier this year picked us up from the train at kitzbuhel in Austria. We stayed with his family for a week and had the most amazing time! Snowboarded for 4 days.. a variety of slopes to choose from only 10 mins from the house. Chris has to work a fair bit though there was a handy free bus that picked ben and I up each day. His dad came out one day too, a very talented skier! and he has a great laugh! We were staying in a little village where everyone gets into the New Years spirit so went to new years warm up parties for 2 nights before the actual eve night. These parties are held in the town square and have music; one night a dj the other a live band.   Everyone here drinks hot wine too to keep warm though Im not a fan so stuck to radlers which are pre mixed here and very popular with the young ppl. Ben and I got frozen feet though. Our shoes not matching up with the sturdy ones they have. Heading to the ski slopes new years eve for fireworks then had a fantastic dinner with some of Kristops friends and then hit up the town for more drinks!! lots of fun! had 20 of show a few days before we left which covered the town and evertyhing looked so different!

have to finish quick cos time up here.. left austria, decdied to be adventures and hire a car and drive across switzerland... and for the record ben and i are still talking after that!! hahaha It went rather smoothly though its hard to get too lost with the country being so small, though our map wasnt too detailed! Stayed in the pitchuresue town of interlaken where we go spectacular views of mountains from our bedroom window and saw the sun set over mountains and lakes.   Snowboarded for a day at the schlithorn; famous in some james bond film has a revolving restuarant at the top.. drove from there to montreux and dropped off the car

9 hrs later on the train arrived at Briancon in the french alpes. Had a week snowboarding at a resort there with free brekkie and dinner, the chairlift 100m from accomodation so pretty much no respnsibilties for the week except having fun.. snow was getting a little sparse and a few runs shut on the last day so we left at a good time..

After hearing some good stories decidedt o try our luck at hitching to the nextplace. Was a great success!! 2 champs from the hostel drove us for an hr to a place they were boarding at. From here waited long enough for ben to have a pee befroe the smammest car on the road stopped and tookn us another hour.. then got a lift the   res of the way with one of the " directors of a snowboarding company Apo who was heading to the mountins for a new launch.. so we travelled and he dropped us off at our hostel in Annecy in a mercedes!! hah nice one and not bad considering we both have back packs and 1.8m snowboard bags each.

Have now been here for a few days while we wait for the snow to arrive. Beuatiful town set on a lake with lots of canals running throught the city. Eating lots of bread, and cheese and its... might get into the wine tonight!

Going to attempt to hitch hike out of here on saturday to Avoriaz, another ski resort for a week with another of bens mates...

hope your all good..take care, see you in 1 month today.. mum have a bbq ready please and inform the sun to be shining on the beach.. yeah aimee your email made me jealous!.. though we have been getting lots of sun here too!

Love Brady XXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Update 4 : Germany

bendwyer — Fri, 19 Jan 2007 00:31:00 GMT

so,,,,our bus takes us into the backstreets of berlin- we had no idea where...we were off the limits of our lonely planet berlin map.

we eventually realised it was a subway ride along a very complex network of lines to get close to our targetted accommodation, which turned out to be quite comfortable. it was in the heart of berlin, which bustled with wurst (sausages) and beer beer beer!!

so we did just that for dinner, Becks and wurst at 'curry 36' a famous street vendor of wurst:

The next night we got involved in a city tour, ran by a British novelist turned berlin resident/lover of 4 years...

this was an extremely informative few hours. the guy runs on tips only, its a free tour company run by guys like said POME... we tipped him a couple a bucks as did each of the 40 or so tourees,,,i recon he does well ;) and well deserved, his tips were priceless! he told us how to get into the world famous Pergamon museum without the usual 10 euro charge, and the best time to climb the top dome of the Reistag house of parliament without the crowds - infact we were the first pple up the morning we went early and it was a very cool bit of architecture with a wicked 360 view of this history-laden city.

we learnt of its deceptive ancient appearance ; yet most of its buildings were only less than a few hundred years old.

the Brandenburg gate was more spectacular each time we saw it. but its all too much to see in one day so we spent several exploring and learning; the bus 100 and 200 weaved through the city passing all the main sights, so did them aswell.

the sight-seeing gets tiring in a city that offers so much, so we were well drained by several full days roaming; the german brews much well earnt by the days end!

the next stop south, on our quest to pass christmas in Prague, was the picturesque Dresden. here we had arranged to meet Margit, a local who i also was mates with in '02 Brasil exchange.

we arrived by train (precisely on time) and Margit was at the station to greet us! great catching up, again after some 4 or 5 years...

we figured like many germans, Margit was a bit hesitant at first to speak english with us, but after a while the words flowed very freely. not bad for her 3rd language ;)

we stayed in M's cosey little appartment with some of her uni firends. Dresden we saw only for one night and one day, but it was most impressive. most of it survived the WW bombings and i thought it was brilliant by night, something we'll never forget. the christmas markets paralled those of berlin, and we found them culturally fascinating.

had to leave thought around midday the next day tho so it goodbye ;) great time, cheers M !

and to train to the Czech Republic ..... tbc

update 3

bendwyer — Thu, 18 Jan 2007 00:28:00 GMT

Copenhagen ! what a magic city. we began to ordeal arriving in this (large) city , and after consulting the trusty lonely planet guide, decided to take a solid 10 min bus ride out of the city to stay at a recommended hostel. great, dragging the snowboards we had to hike a fair way also to get there. it was like 9 pm by time w got there to find it was SHUT for winter !!! a great, spirits low, brady looking to pawn her (heavy) board there and then, we jump back on return bus. two brasillian girls also at bus stop made same error, didnt fone hostel first :(

anyway it all turned out great we found a huge 'Dan City hostel in the city centre so the days we spent we were in the thick of it ;)

saw the sites, Christiana village was a highlight...an alternative village cut off from the mainstream life with their own community/schools etc.. it was once the 'amsterdam' of copenhagen, called pusher street apparantly....

our last night we found these groovy 'city bikes' that you could take after depositing a coin in. so we zoomed around the city streets till late, enjoying the flat roads as do so many of the locals, by bicycle ! they are absolutely EVERYwhere there!

maybe a highlight was the Carlsberg Brewery tour we did.... the tasting sesh at the end was great fun, the beers just supperb !

, ok so we had to move on to Germany. we got our tix , and a bus to Berlin, which included a great ferry ride, weaving through some of denmark's squillions of wind turbines stiking out of the ocean.....

btc....

update 2

bendwyer — Thu, 18 Jan 2007 00:14:00 GMT

From Norway we visited Sweden, catching a bus (very nice country side) from oslo into Karlstad... i was keen to visit Charlotte who had been to AUS a few times and had stayed briefly with my family in Oz.... so we went to Sunne. very small town and got to know some of Charlotte;s and her BF Thomas' friends including some real groovy artists/glassblowers. they even let Brady and i try our hand at glassblowing, fun stuff!!!

also we tried some underground X.country skiing there too, i crashed a few times, having totally forgotten how to snow plough! not my sport definately!

sweden was grand, we met some real cool locals who made us feel right at home....and Sunne we also saw the (big) home of former England football coach Sven Erricson (excuse spelling, sorry Sven!) ...this is one of Sunne' claims to fame !

so next stop from memory in Sweden was Gotenburg in the south. here we found a rad HI hostel where typical Swedish order/comfort and great living standard shone through. was a nice place and for me a highlight was some X.mas carrols we stumbled upon in a random church near our hostel one night....the voices in the chior were SOO pure it was bliss to my ears ! such harmony, made things feel a litttle more christmassie' so to speak, for us two roaming aussies (X.mas is NEVER the same away from home/family)

here was also when we were able to upload fotos. next was Denmark ....see 'update 3' for Copenhagen adventures !!!

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

Update 1 on travels Jan 17

bendwyer — Wed, 17 Jan 2007 23:58:00 GMT

HEy there!!!

finally i have a minute on a weird french keyboard arrangement to type a travel update for the past 6 or so weeks !!!

starting at London at the start of December Brady and i (as you have seen in the fotos we were actually able to put up) spent some days roaming London and seeing the sights like all the other tourists....

we also got to visit my sister carly dwyer who is teaching at a london school.... good times and a few parties later we left for Norway, also in the fotos ;)

oslo was great we visited a friend Jorunn in Drummen, just south of oslo. Jorunn had been on brasil back in 2002, so it was great catching up again... so we all hit up the Norwegian snow that weekend in Valdres region, and we boarded at Hemsedal, which we were stoked with cos there was between half and 1 metre of snow ;) (good considering how poor this euro winter has been...)

....continued in update 2....

Gallery: London + norway

bendwyer — Mon, 18 Dec 2006 21:30:00 GMT

fotos