Travel Blog

Ibiza

deanm — Thu, 12 Sep 2013 18:02:00 GMT

Privilege, Pasha, Space, Ushuaia, Amnesia, these are five of the dozen or so major clubs that basically run Ibiza (pronounced Ibeetha, Ibitza, or just plain Ibiza, depending on who you talk to). The island operates for six months a year, in October 95% of the population leave and the island sleeps during the winter. In April they return and the party begins again.

In the Summer the party never stops. During the day small beach clubs operate until dark. Once the sun goes down Ibiza goes quiet as everyone gets a couple of hours of sleep, because at midnight the big clubs open their doors and for the next seven hours the best DJ's in the world will pump electronic dance music for thousands of people. At 7 AM Ibiza is quiet again as people catch a few more hours sleep, because its about to start all over again shortly. As far as I can tell there's only two types of music heard in Ibiza. Most of it is electronic dance music but occasionally you'll hear some reggae too. No matter where you are in ibiza there will be a bar nearby playing dance music.

Of course, if you're not the partying type there's always the beach, other than that there's not much else to do in Ibiza. You could always take the bus or scooter to another town, but you'll only find more clubs and beaches anyway. I didn't go to the beach clubs because I like my sleep and the afternoon is used to prepare for the nightclubs.

One of the many beaches in Ibiza.

A group of us visit the club clothing stores to check out the official merchandise, on the way back we visit a local ticket guy. Myself and another guy, Aman, decide to go to Amnesia's foam party. The others go to Pasha. We get to Amnesia at about 1:30 AM and the party is good, at about 5:30 AM everybody moves from one dance floor to another. This floor has a cat walk above it, full of scantly clad women manning large foam cannons. The party starts and foam rains down for about 10 minutes. I bask in its awesomeness until the foam has reached my chest, its at this point i realise i'm soaking wet and my iPhone is in my money belt at my waist. I quickly mourn its loss and keep partying anyway, later, when I had time to check it, I found it wet but still working. WIN! I take a taxi back the hostel soaking wet and cold.

I wake at midday. This is the day I've waited six months for, Armin Van Buuren is playing at Privilege for A State Of Trance. He's the best in the world at what he does and the main reason I came to Spain in the first place. We find that one of the other night clubs, Ushuaia, has an early performance, finishing at midnight, so we decide to go to Ushuaia, followed immediately after by Privilege. Tonight's going to be a long one.

Ushuaia is actually part of a hotel, a large outdoor stage in front of a pool, surrounded by hotel rooms. Nervo, two Australian sisters are the primary DJ's tonight. The performance is amazing and includes acrobatics and pyrotechnics, things are always better when you add explosions. We head back to the hostel to pick up another room mate and taxi it to Privilege.

Nervo, at Ushuaia

Privilege is big, really big, the biggest club in the world. You know that feeling you get when going to a theme park and you see the roller coasters off in the distance for the first time, I got that feeling when I first saw this building. Located by itself in the middle of the island, its probably a little bigger than a football field and ~30 meters tall, Privilege can reportedly accommodate between ten to fifteen thousand people at any one time and tonight it was packed. Performers dance on platforms and on stage, they hang from the ceiling and perform aerobatics. White smoke bellows down upon the party goers while jets of fire erupt from the stage. Oh, it also has a pool in the middle, you know, because why not?

Armin Van Buuren starts his set just as I hit the floor. The others I'm with are ahead of me because I had to spend twenty minutes buying water for 10 euro a bottle. But it looks like they've only moved about ten meters towards the front of the stage anyway. It takes about 30+ minutes to move closer to the stage, a distance of about 30 meters. My movies show the slow progression up the ramp to the stage.

Armin Van Buuren

The next few hours of were probably the best I've ever experienced. I've tried three times to put in to words what it was like but nothing I say gives it justice. Some people won't understand the attraction but its difficult to explain, at least on paper.

Luckily I have video, lots of video. But I'll probably need to dub over the sound with new audio before it's watchable, the mic on the camera can't handle that much bass. I took some video with the iPhone too, that turned out pretty well. links to some are below.

The party ends at 7 AM, as the sun rises. The last 10 hours has been amazing. That day everybody parts ways as they are moving on, except me, I have one more day. I had plans to go to Space, another club that night but was drained from the two nights before, plus I had to catch a midday flight back to Barcelona the next day. I ended up getting some much needed rest instead.

Me, Hector, Aman and Scott

In short, Ibiza is Disneyland for anyone who really wants to party. It's not all young people either, you'll see people in their 40s and 50s at these clubs too.

http://db.tt/8xiSfWsC

Above is a link to some of my iPhone videos, separated by location. They aren't the best I have but the cameras videos are to big to upload. I would recommend the Ushuaia vids at the moment, until I can work with the other stuff.

Barcelona

deanm — Sat, 7 Sep 2013 21:16:00 GMT

Leaving Madrid, I head for Barcelona. Barcelona was one of my 'must see' cities I had planned to see prior to leaving and what i saw didn't disappoint. Unfortunately, however I was unable to see all Barcelona had to offer due to injury.

The hostel I'm staying at is a Hostel One hostel, the same as the Hostel One I stayed at in Prague, I really like the hostel in Prague and this one has the same feel to it.

My first full day I venture into central Barcelona and take a walk down Las Rambla, an open market to stretches for about a kilometer. The place is very crowded and I keep a had on my wallet. Las Rambla ends near the waterfront and I find an aquarium, since I can't remember the last time I went to an aquarium I pay the hefty 20 euro entry and check it out. It was pretty good, maybe not 20 euros good, but decent. Afterwards, I see the historical museum but after it took me 20 minutes to find the entrance I couldn't be bothered going in anymore.

I head for the beaches to see what it's like, as I plan to spend a little bit of time eliminating my horrendous tan lines. When I arrived the guy at the hostel reception circled five beaches, he then pointed out two that were nude beaches. By the end of introduction to Barcelona 101 the map was so covered in circles and lines I couldn't remember which ones he pointed out. I played it safe and walked the beach that had the night clubs and casino in front if it.

That night several other backpackers and I hit the Barcelona night life, which is surprisingly good for a Tuesday night.

The next day, after getting out of bed at about lunch time I head to the beach. I only plan to stay a couple of hours to colour the white pasty chest and back something a little closer to what the rest of my body looks like now. I grab a book from the book exchange, as I didn't want to take my tablet, Hunger Games: Mockingjay, I haven't read the first one or seen the movie, but it's better that reading the Great Gatsby in German.

The beach itself is okay, the sand seems dirty, I've been told its because they import sand from Egypt, I'm not sure how true that is. I find a chair (that I end up paying six euro for, still not sure if that guy was legit or not, but he wouldn't go away) and setup. I don't think many women at Barcelona beaches realise their bikini's come with a top half, looks like I didn't have to bring a book after all.

Well, it turns out that Hunger Games is actually pretty good,. Nine chapters, coupled with the view means my two hour visit turned into four hours. For those of you who haven't seen the sun recently, and I know a few of you haven't, four hours in the sun on unprotected untanned skin fucks your shit up.

• 6 PM wednesday, by the time I got back I was red, really red. My chest, shoulders and thighs got it the worst. The parts already tanned weren't affected.

• 9 PM, I was on fire.

• 11:00 AM Thursday, I was still on fire, but my right shoulder had started to bubble. In an effort to not let it deter me I have a cold shower, put my clothes on very slowly and go to the contemporary art museum, slowly.

• 1:00 PM, I remember why I hate the majority of contemporary art.

• 3:00 PM, I get back to the hostel and realise my shirt has ruptured the worst of the blisters, I now look the victim of an acid attack.

• 4:30, I've cleaned away the loose skin from the blisters and now just look like a burn victim.

• 6:00 PM - 2 beers, I went to the local chemist and requested some after sun lotion and some bandages to stop my shoulder leaking all over my shirts. The girl speaks poor English so I give her a peak at the abomination that is my right shoulder, she get me what I want and suggests I go to the emergency room, I ignore her and take my supplies back to the hostel.

• 7:00 PM - 3 beers, I realise I have no idea how to bandage my shoulder using only my left hand.

• 9:00 PM - 5 beers, the bandage has come undone three times. Forth times a charm and it stays on for the rest of the night,

• 11:00 AM Friday, the burning has stopped, so has the leaking, it only hurts to do almost anything. I consider going to the Sarata Familia.

• 1:00 PM, I make it as far as the McDonalds at Plaza Catalunya, as I hadn't had breakfast yet. My thighs ache because the shorts rub up against them and my chest hurts because I store my camera under my shirt, I give up and go home, get more beers.

• 9:00 PM, the majority of the pain has subsided, except the thighs, I realise this is because I've been neglecting them when it comes to applying that after sun lotion.

• 6:00 AM Saturday, don't feel to bad, still hurts but it's tolerable. I have to fly to Ibiza today.

• 6:30 AM, I put on my nearly 15 kg back pack and immediately wished I hadn't. I realise I'd missed the top of my shoulders with the after sun lotion too.

• 7:00 AM, I had decided to take public transport to the airport, but after 20 minutes with the pack on my back I gave up and hailed a taxi.

• 7:01 AM, I pull off my pack to put it in the taxi, it slips down my right shoulder taking all the skin with it. I'm on fire again.

• 7:20 AM, at the airport, find another chemist and show her a pack of stick on bandages and ask if she has anything bigger. Her English isn't great either, so I introduce her to my shoulder. She come out with some big ass bandages and some cream.

• 7:40, both the cream and the bandages work wonders after spending 20 minutes applying both, it's a shame the cream is thick and green, otherwise I would have covered myself with it. Getting through security covered in green shit would have proved a challenge.

I'm I'm Ibiza now, and while I haven't see much it definitely looks interesting. I've decided to head back to Barcelona afterwards to do all the stuff I missed due to my pain and suffering, sort of a do-over I guess..

Madrid

deanm — Mon, 2 Sep 2013 05:49:00 GMT

Spent the last few days in Madrid, Spain and unfortunately have not been to impressed with the city. Since my last major city was Rome I catch myself comparing it to Madrid, which would be like Usain Bolt running in the special Olympics. Okay maybe not that bad, It just doesn't have the beauty of Rome or Paris, mainly due to old style politics, or the Spanish Inquisition.

Back in the day, no building in eyesight of the royal palace could look fancier than the royal palace, and as such many major building look plain, or may only look nice on the side facing away from the palace. When the Spanish Inquisition happened, one of the sins you could get burned at the stake for was pride. Having a fancy looking house on the outside was an indication of pride and thus most old houses are plain on the outside.

Madrid itself is exceptionally difficult to navigate, with the central area being a mish-mash of one way streets that are easy to get lost on. I've been here four days and I've only just been able to find my way from the hostel to the main square and back without a map today.

The day after arriving I did the walking tour, four hostels team up every day to do a walking tour, usually they get about 30 people each day, today they had 80+, so many they had to call in another tour guide and split the group up. Our tour guide, Harriet, asks who's from where. A couple of Americans, a couple of Canadians, Dutch, Germans, a Mexican guy.. And about twenty Australians. The tour itself it quite good and is how I learned why Madrid looks the way it does.

The next day I went to the Prado museum, it's the main museum and the second largest in Europe. It was good, but it was 80% art, and while I like old art, I got bored because they all had the same subject matter: Jesus. When I arrived in Madrid I bought one if those museum passes that gets you into all the museums and past all the lines, however I've realised that such passes are only worth if if you smash out museum after museum for three days. There are apparently fifty museums in the city, but only a handful are actually worth going to.

That night the same four hostels from the walking tour get people together for Tapas and a pub crawl. Night time on a Friday in Madrid is pretty hectic and, as before there are 80+ people going. For safety they want everybody to stick together but they don't have any sort of flag or marker to follow, so the find the next best thing, since I'm possibly the tallest person in Madrid right now I'm chosen as the person everyone follows. This happened on the walking tour in Florence too, but this time 80 people know my name and its either follow me or get lost and possibly mugged.

Anyway, Tapas. Tapas is essentially finger food served to you with drinks. Originally served with alcohol back in the day because people could either afford food or alcohol for lunch but not both. People of the time made poor choices and would return to work smash drunk after drinking on the empty stomach. Thus a law was made where food must be served with alcohol, solving the problem. The tapas was good and unlimited, the guides warned us the wait staff arn't known for being the friendliest and I can see why, when 80 tourist rock up to a mostly full tapas joint things get crazy. The wait staff would move flat out up and down this long and thin resteraunt, carrying huge amounts of food with a single hand. At one point, one guy was carrying a tray with six pints of sangria, on top of that was another tray with 6 pints of beer, on top of that was balanced three plates of Tapas.

Today I went to the Royal Palace as I heard from during the day tour that it has the biggest medieval armory in Europe. It was pretty good and while your not able to take photos in many of the museums here I took of sneaky shots of the armor.

I head to Barcelona tomorrow, which I'm looking forward to, one because of the beach and two, because the hostel I'm staying at is another Hostel One, the same place I stayed at in Prague.

Hostel report 2

deanm — Fri, 30 Aug 2013 00:02:00 GMT

Time for another hostel report, I've stayed at a huge range of places since Krakow, the majority have been pretty good...

Tiger Tim's place - Budapest:

Tim's a really nice welsh guy, he owns a couple of large apartments which he's turned into hostels. I'm sure he actually lives at this place, hence the name. Very similar to Hostel One Home, in Prague, there aren't to many people staying at any one time so everybody pretty much knows everyone else. Most people will crowd around the table for drinking games each night and head off for a pub crawl afterwards. Tim has setup a TV with a HDD with movies and TV episodes on it, usually Southpark episodes are played back to back. It's a bit of a mission to get into the place from the street but its very quiet at night, which is good.

MyMOJO vie - Vienna:

This place is really cozy, literally a 3 bedroom apartment that's been modified into a hostel, it's very small. Only twelve or thirteen people can stay here at any given time, which is the smallest hostel I've seen by far.

The two women that run the place, Julia and Lina are only there in the mornings to clean,do the washing and provide breakfast. People who arrive in the afternoon are greeted with an envelope with their name nailed to the door, containing their keys and instructions. Other backpackers will usually give them the 10 second tour and provide basic information and where to eat and what to do, which is cool. It's a great hostel if you just want to chill out, which is a good idea if you're coming out of Eastern Europe.

Camping Jolly - Venice:

As the name suggests, Camping Jolly is a camp ground, suggested by a couple of girls in Vienna. It's a very large place, with some 450 bungalows and room for tents too. It has a pool, restaurant, bar and convenient store. Situated 15 minutes outside of Venice, they run a bus service to and from the island which is pretty good. If you're looking for a place to party this is probably the best option, as Venice isn't really made for if.

The bungalow I stayed in was very small. It seemed like it was originally a two bedroom place that had a third bed attached to the ceiling. For the first two nights I had this bed, getting in and out of it was an exercise in flexibility and gymnastics, neither of which I'm made for, I actually required assistance the first morning and damaged the bed below while attempted a controlled fall out of the top bunk.

Hostel beautiful 2 - Rome:

This hostel is situated close to Roma Termini train station, Close enough that you can see it at the end of the street. I'm sure this place was originally a hotel that's been changed to a hostel because it made more money. The room I stayed in had a very hotel vibe to it. What was weird was the location of the bunk beds, situated right next to each other they effectively made two double beds, one upon the other. No one wants to sleep that close to a random person, unless she's hot, so the Swiss guy that was in my room and I separated the beds a bit.

It's facilities didn't promote social interaction, with only a small inside common area with a TV that played Italian soap operas all day (Italian TV is bad, really bad, like wow), most people just kept to themselves. There was one weird Italian guy, who I eventually identified as the cleaner, that would hang around this common area watching TV or sleeping. It had no kitchen, no lockers, although I did find a fridge hidden away in my room.

Archi Rossi - Florence:

Archi Rossi was probably one if the best places I stayed at, possibly due to the company kept, but that a story for another time. The entire ground floor of this hostel is lined with art inside and statues outside, giving it a very Italian feel to it. The room I was in was a decent size and quiet as long as the window was closed. The lockers were big and the bathroom was good.

It's social areas were large, including an inside and outside area. The meals served for dinner, while not great we're definately acceptable for the 4 euro I was paying. It's breakfast was a mishmash of different foods, including pasta and cake, I'm on holiday, I'll have dessert for breakfast if I want. While it didn't have a bar it did offer beer and wine, amount a quite large selection of other things from fridges next to the reception.

I'm in Madrid now, at a place called The Way, seem pretty decent...

Florence

deanm — Thu, 29 Aug 2013 00:43:00 GMT

I decided to go to Florence on a recommendation from my French Swiss roommate in Rome, Noe, thanks mate, this place is awesome.

The hostel, Archi Rossi, is great, not quite a party hostel(no real bar) but big and open enough that its easy to find or make a group of new friends and have a party anyway. They serve a free, while odd, breakfast. It's not often you get offered pasta and cake for breakfast but its better than cereal, that's for sure. Their dinner menu , while pretty average is decent enough for the price. The walls are covered in paintings and the pathways lined with statues. To top it off there's a place across the road that sells three bottles of wine for 10 euro, winning!

Florence itself is a wonderful little city, small enough that you walk to anywhere you want without to much hassle. After a night of drinking several of us join a free walking tour run from the hostel in the mornings. Walking tours in general are a great way to not only find out what there is to see and do but to learn a lot about the city. On top of that you learn about the location of various landmarks, this is useful for finding your way home. You don't want to be referring to your map every three minutes, knowing where your hostel is compared to the closest major landmark (the Duomo in this case), and where other landmarks are in relation to that landmark make navigating a smaller city easy. A group of us climb the bell tower at the Duomo Santa Maria del Fiore. The tower has smething like 420 odd steps to the top and it's definatly a mission to climb, concidering that the stair case, in some places, is not much wider that a normal person it makes it difficult to move up and down. Especialy when you take into account that not only are you going up this timy stair case but other people are coming down. This gives you a lot of time to get to know the wall of the staircase you're climbing really well.

That night a group of us go to the football, Firenze vs Catania. This is another occasion where photos don't do it any justice, while it wasn't a huge stadium the roar of crowd offers a true European experience that needs to be experienced yourself. Luckily I have video of the moments after the two goals Firenze scored. The ability for the entire crowd to break into a chant without any cues at all astounds me, obviosly they've been practicing for a while, i wanted to join in, but not only did I not know the words, i don't speak Itailian either. Although we did pick up a couple of intresting words from an older dude nearby yelling "Bastardo!" at the players. One more thing i found quite funny was the Catania supporters, of which there was about 15, compared to the several thousand Firenze supporters. I put a photo on Facebook of them, they are blocked off by large panels so there is no trouble with the locals. After the game is finished i'm told they have to wait until everybody else leaves before the can leave to avoid altercations outside.

The next day we did another tour, similar to the first but to a different part of town. Afterwards I head to the statue to David. You're unable to take photos inside the museum, but people will try, there were a couple of camera nazis watching for people taking photos, they'd run up and make sure the image was deleted. I snapped a bunch of good photos using an app on my iPhone that blacks the screen out, so it looks like its not being used. I used the rest of the day to chill out and end up getting more drunk than I though I would, drinking games will do that.

I was trying to decide what my next move was going to be the other day. I had been taking the train everywhere up until now and was considering taking one to Nice, staying there a couple of days, then another train to Barcelona. After some investigation I found that both train journeys were going to be 10 hours each, having done a few 10 train trips I was not a big fan of two more. So I decided to fly from Florence to Madrid, yet another city that I wasn't planing to visit originally and make my was to Barcelona from there, I leave tomorrow morning.
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Rome

deanm — Thu, 29 Aug 2013 00:26:00 GMT

Just a note: I'm no longer uploading photos here becaause it's to much of a pain in the ass on the tablet. If i get some time on a real computer then I might upload some then.

I took a high speed train from Venice to Rome, the journey itself was pretty uneventful, though once we left Florence the driver finally put his foot down and we were moving at 250km/h for a couple of hours.

The hostel, Hostel beautiful 2, is in a good spot, right next to the train station. Unfortunately the hostel itself wasn't that good, similar to my first hostel in Paris, it didn't promote interaction between guests, with nothing but a shitty common area that played Italian tv and housed a weird Italian guy that I'm pretty sure was the cleaner, at least in the mornings, in the afternoon he would sleep on the couch.

Roma itself is fucking amazeballs. Quite large, but small enough that you can walk around if you want to, and full of things to see and do. I walked mostly, the only transport I used was a hop-on hop-off tourist bus that visited the major sites.

Full day one; I did the coliseum, the roman forums and surrounding ruins. The line for the coliseum was long but moved fast enough that I didn't want to pay extra to do a tour and skip the line. These monuments differ from anything in most other counties due to their age and offer a change from the stuff I'd already seen a dozen times.

Full day two; visited the Vatican, I payed (considerably) more to join a tour here, not just because the line was long, but because there's a line for everything. The tours skip all the lines by going in the back way. The Vatican museum is vast and it's collections rival that of the Louvre in Paris, plus the tour guide is able to provide information on a lot of the rooms and what's in them. The other parts of the Vatican were good to, like the Sistine Chapel, but I liked the museum the most.

Third full day; visited Trevi Fountain and the Pantheon and had one of the highlights of my trip thus far. Upon entering. The Pantheon a choir were doing a performance, instruments and all. You wouldn't realise it without the choir, but the Pantheon's acoustics are unlike anything you've ever heard. The music from the choir is amplified and projected in such a way that it is all around you. I have about 6 minutes of video of the performance, however I don't know how it turned out, as my tablet doesn't have the grunt to play 1080P video. I spoke to one of the girls there, Beth, turns out they are a visiting choir from England.

Forth full day; left via train early in the morning to visit Pompeii. The journey is 3 hours long and passes through Napoli(Naples). Pompeii is pretty good, but by day four I'm getting sort of ruined out. I miss-calculate how much time I'd spend in Pompeii by about 4 hours, so decide to visit Napoli on the way back. I get there and i knew which direction the water was from the station but lacked and sort of map for guidance, I head towards the water and make it there about an hour later. Napoli is pretty nice, it's got a very coastal town feel to it, with hoards of people heading to the water to hang out. I refrain from saying beach because their isn't one, just large rocks. When heading to the water you find a giant rock that suits you and setup camp there. I find and climb a castle with some good views and take a view good photos. As I had no idea where I was at this point I take a taxi to the station, that was an experience in itself. Before we even get moving we agree on the price as per the guys chart, going from the castle to the station is 13 euros, always, I pay him up front. We dodge and weave between cars and people on scooters as he leans on the horn every few seconds. The craziest thing I saw, and I wish I was fast enough to catch it on film, was a guy on a scooter, no helmet, cigaret in his mouth, ~6 year old boy just holding on to his back, the boy had no helmet either. It blew my mind. I get back to my hostel at 9 ish and find out my roommates, who I've thought we're French for the last four days are actually Swiss. Sorry Noe, if you read this, French and Swiss sound the same to me :).

The next day I jump a midday train to Firenze(Florence).

Venice

deanm — Tue, 20 Aug 2013 04:56:00 GMT

After a pretty awesome 10 hour trip through the mountains of Austria and north Italy I made it to the campground outside of Venice where I'll be spending the next three nights. This campground is the complete opposite to the apartment hostel in Vienna. With room for 400+ bungalows, two pools, two spas, a restaurant and a convenient store. I'm in a three bed bungalow, in the bed above a desk. This bed shouldn't really there, it seems like this bungalow was originally two beds and this one has been added as an afterthought, as its situated roughly 50 cm from the ceiling. Getting into the bed is difficult enough, the fun begins when you try and get out. Escaping the confines of this bed requires movements into positions that are almost impossible for all but those gymnasts you see at the Olympics, mere mortals are required to do a sort of a controlled fall out of this bed, onto the bed below. Luckily the two girls that were in this room have moved on and I have quickly claimed one of their beds as my own.

Vienna itself is a strange place, the campground has a charted bus that runs to and from the campground to Vienna and we're dropped off on what's seems to be one of the parking lot islands to take take monorail to Vienna proper. Maps here are almost useless here, because unless you're at a large land mark, like one of the many churches or large squares you have no idea where you are most of the time. What is required is a GPS and and offline map (available on most smart phones), a compass and/or an extremely good sense of direction, because this place is a fucking maze of streets and alleyways. After a month of travel my sense of direction and map reading skills are godly but I still needed to use a GPS to get back to the bus from the other side of the city. The streets are so narrow you can't just look up and spot a land mark like you can in Prague or Krakow, should you end up in an empty alleyway with no idea where you are the best thing to do is to hit the GPS and keep walking in a direction until you see one of the main highways for foot traffic. Don't bother trying to find a local on the street to help with directions, because there arn't any, even the Italians I saw here were tourists.

As I type this I'm eating a calzone, it's quite good.

All of Venice could probably be done in two full days, 9 till 5, including the outer islands if one really wanted to. Walking that long is difficult though, I decided to do two half days, sure, I didn't see everything but after a while all the alley ways, churches, canals, and bridges all look the same anyways. I also wanted to spend some time by the pool, working on my tan and checking out the scenery. ;)

Off to Rome in the morning for five nights which should be good. I've been going for a month now and so far have been to 8 cities, taken 1160 photos, lost 4 socks and a pair of headphones, probably a couple of kilos too. I'd post some photos but the wireless here is shitty.

Vienna

deanm — Mon, 19 Aug 2013 03:45:00 GMT

Vienna

Arrived in Vienna and back into Western Europe. Got to the hostel and met a guy named Jack, who I had met two weeks earlier in Prague, I don't know the odds on that happening but I'm going to guess they are pretty high. The hostel is tiny, literally a converted 3 bedroom apartment. The place only sleeps 13 people total. The managers only attend the place in the mornings and other than that we're left to our own devices. This includes introducing new hostel comers to the coziest hostel ever and giving them a run down of the things to do in Vienna.

Vienna is a very chill place, very laid back with heaps of museums and old stuff to check out. The day after arriving I went for a walk to the museum district and checked out the historical and natural museums. There's also a bunch of contemporary and modern art galleries, but the thought of going to an art gallery full of "art" I could have painted myself with my left hand annoys me.

Went to the palace the next day. It's a public holiday today so everything except the palace and museums and closed today, Saint Mary's birthday or something. The palace itself is pretty cool, it's got a huge garden, zoo, a maze and a big hill you can climb to view the entire city. There are horse pulled carriages that do tours around the place, as I was about to climb the hill to the look out I heard a thunderous noise and yelling. I turn around to see two horses pulling a carriage, spooked and bolting as fast as they can. I was probably 10 meters away as people were diving out of the way, the guy on the carriage is standing and pulling back on the reins, there's a little old asian lady in the back holding on for dear life, they bolt off into the distance, to fast for me to take a photo. I found them, minus the Asian lady, about an hour later outside the front of the palace. I was going to ask the guy what happened but I had to enter the palace at a specific time.

Last day there I just went for a walk, several hours later ending up on the other side of the city, I was having a pretty relaxing day. Went to dinner with the hostel newbies that arrived that day, Tom, from Melbourne, Jess, from Sydney, Becky, Las Vegas, and two girls from Connecticut who's names escape me right now, another group of single-serving friends i'll never see again.

Taking a 10 hour train to Venice at the moment. I wanted to go to Salzburg but couldn't find accommodation, later found out there an opera festival in town and everything is booked out. I've been on the train 6 hours or so now and we're moving through the mountains. This scenery shits on anything I've seen. I've tried to take plenty of photos but there seems to be some evil force working against people with cameras. Every time something photo worthy appears, by the time you ready the camera something gets in the way; trees, poles, walls, buildings, other trains, tunnels, the list goes on. Though I've become quite good at grabbing the camera and taking a shot in a second or two, will be interesting to see how they turn out though.

Budapest

deanm — Mon, 19 Aug 2013 03:43:00 GMT

I wrote this days ago but forgot to upload it.. :)

After 10 hours of travel time I arrived in Budapest feeling the beginning of a cold coming on. I'm staying at a place called Tiger Tim's place, run by a welsh guy named Tim, obviously. A small hostel that use to be a standard house at some point. Finding the place proved difficult, to get to Tim's you enter a code at the door at street, run through a courtyard to a second door that locks if you're not fast enough. Up to the third floor, down a passage way that looks over the courtyard you just walked through to a door. Enter another code, walk up a set of stairs and your there. I'll make a video of this trek when I can

I spent the first two days lying in bed and organized to stay two more days than I was going to to make up for it. On the third day I was we'll enough to start doing stuff but not really well enough to be bothered to do to much, mostly due to the 40+ degree heat wave we're experiencing.

At the street level, Budapest reminds me a lot of Paris, just on a smaller scale. I payed for one of those hop-on hop-off tour buses and saw the sights and spent some time at the castle.

Budapest's night life is pretty interesting. Scattered around the city are these so called 'ruin bars'. Most buildings in Budapest are like the one the hostel is in. Bar owners have purchased an entire, usually ruin down and uninhabitable building and turned it into a bar. It makes for interesting multi level layouts, with little bars in what were probably apartments at some time.

I'm hoping to get rid of this cold before I get to Vienna, I wanted to go to Salzburg, but getting accommodation there proved difficult. I'll see if I can get there afterwards.

Krakow

deanm — Thu, 8 Aug 2013 18:55:00 GMT

Holy three updates batman!

Krakow

Krakow is an awesome little city, small enough that you can walk anywhere you want to go. Small enough that I stopped needing a map after day two, And It's just touristy enough that you don't notice it.

Went on a pub crawl the night I arrived, lots of vodka was had. Much of krakow's night life is situated in sub-basement levels of buildings that have stood for hundreds of years, which makes for really small bars in some cases

The next day, after a short recovery I went adventuring. I latch onto a free tour run by a pretty blonde woman. I'm sure she just does these tours herself, as she was living off the tips people gave her at the end of the tour. The tour ended up being very good, lasting about 3 hours and ending at the castle, so I gave her 30z, about $12AUD or so.

This castle looks exactly like what a castle should look like and was pretty cool. There was a couple of exhibitions there available to see but I was feeling pretty average so decided against it. I was going to come back but didn't get around to it.

The next day I went to Auschwitz on a tour. An hour and half outside of Krakow. Took a photo of the front gate of the death camp at Auschwitz I and that was it until we got to the living quarters at Birkenau, also known as Auschwitz II. Some of it was so bad I noticed a couple of people would leave a room as soon as they found out what's inside and hide around a corner, the rooms full, floor to ceiling, with human hair, or kids shoes for example. Ive also found a new candidate for worst job ever, Auschwitz tour guide, any joy in our tour guides life died a long time ago..Went home and drank vodka shots at a pub crawl till I passed out.

Next day I decided to go to the Wieliczka Salt Mines, another tour put on by the same people that did the Auschwitz tour. This place was fucking awesome, the Polish have been running this mine for hundreds of years and with 3000 rooms it's basically an underground city, with cathedrals and all sorts of stuff. The tour starts with everybody going down 53 flights of steps and ends 130 meters below the surface. It's a cool 16 degrees and climate controlled to prevent methane build up, unlike the 40 degrees we had yesterday on the surface. The cathedral they have down here is still operational and people have weddings 130 meters below the surface. The tour ended with a cool elevator ride to the surface. This lift could fit 9 people at a time and was so compact you got to know your fellow tourists real well.
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Hostel report

deanm — Thu, 8 Aug 2013 18:48:00 GMT

Hostel report.

Hostel living has its ups and downs but no two hostels are ever the same. Some are small and cater for those that want a quiet time. Others are mega hostels, with hundreds of people and a bar. Others lie in between. It's difficult to tell when booking, so you rely on people reviews, and you don't know until you get there.

Smartplace, in Paris, was quite small and made for those who only want a place to sleep, though its proximity to Gare du Nord train station makes the area very noisy due to traffic.

Stayokay, in Amsterdam was the exact opposite, a mega hostel consisting of three, multi-level, dorms and a (small) bar. The first day the place was full of poms for some dudes bucks. It was quiet, a change from Paris. Can't remember any one I stayed with there. Oh, it had free breakfast too.

Heart of Gold, Berlin, was right on the sweat spot as far as size goes, big enough that it has a bar, but not so big that it become impersonal. They had a BBQ each evening so you could have a cheap bratwurst if you wanted, the beer was cheap too. The courtyard was the place to meet people, the number of people I talked to there are to numerous to count. The only downside was that it was hot as balls in Berlin that week and the room don't have aircon. Bathroom and showers were outside the rooms too, but they had enough that there wasn't a problem finding a spare shower.

Hostel One Home, Prague. This place was awesome, smaller than Heart of Gold, but bigger than the hostel in Paris, with only about 40 beds. Every morning breakfast was available for a small fee and at night they would make a home cooked dinner for everyone for free, the meals were good too, had pasta a couple of times and a goulash once. You knew the names of the staff and nearly everyone staying there. Each night there was always some sort of pub crawl going on, the staff not on shift would come out and get drunk. People not on the pub crawl would bring drinks back to the hostel and drink around the table. I didn't want to leave that place but I ran out if stuff to do.

Greg & Tom Beer House Hostel, Krakow. Slightly bigger than Hostel One Home but wasn't as personal as Hostel One was. They had a bar/restaurant downstairs and offered a very good restaurant meal for free, breakfast came at a small cost. I usually try and find places that are close to the city centre, but this place was perhaps to close. Our window open onto the main krakow market street and was only quiet in the early hours of the morning. They held events each night, starting in the restaurant. Their main goal was to get you absolutely blind smashed. You'd pay 20 z (about $7AUD) and they'd feed you vodka shot after vodka shot. Since Polish vodka goes down like water you didn't feel it till you tried to stand. If, somehow you could still stand then they took you pubs and clubs. First experience with a truly mixed dorm, with the pervious hostels "mixed" usually meant "guys", as there are female only dorms too. Walking around in your underwear in front of two Americans girls, a French girl and an English girl takes some getting use to. Lastly, their showers were shit, water leakage from the shower onto the floor meant you couldn't put anything on the floor, but there wasn't anywhere else to store clothing etc. so you had to get creative.

This hostel in Budapest is different again, i've only been here a night, so i'll leave my thoughts till later.

Prague

deanm — Thu, 8 Aug 2013 18:39:00 GMT

Prague:

Prague is similar, in my opinion to Amsterdam, except is hasn't sold its soul to the tourist masses. Sure, there are tourists here, quite a lot of them in fact, but you won't see any neon lights or anything like that, except at the night clubs.

I'll talk about the hostel in a later post, but aside from some minor things I really enjoyed it there. The night I arrived we all went on a pub crawl, at about 1 AM, at a night club near the river I had enough and wanted to go home, I had been traveling all day and needed sleep. It was raining, the first rain I'd seen since landing in Paris. That wasn't the problem though, I didn't know the way back and didn't have a map. I had paid attention to various landmarks on the way there and if I could find one I'd be set. I didn't have my phone either, so couldn't use it's compass to point me in the right direction. Walked in wider and wider circles for an hour, passed the night club three times before walking into a hotel and asking for a map, still took me another 30 minutes to get home but once I found a remembered landmark I was good to go.

Prague's castle doesn't feel like a castle, more like a compact town, with its narrow streets and alleyways. It's cathedral at its centre was nice. I did get some good video f the changing of the guard.

I've sort of been museumed out, since Berlin, so i wasn't really interested in seeing more, i just wanted to relax a bit.

On my last full day I took a train a hour east of Prague to a place called Kutna Hora. According a pamphlet at the hostel a place called the Bone Church was situated nearby. It didn't disappoint, monks from hundreds of years ago would collect dead warriors from the field of battle and make monuments with their bones.

I had decided to go to Krakow because a lot of people I met in Berlin were going to or coming from the place. I knew nothing of it, aside from Auschwitz.
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Single-Serving Friends

deanm — Sat, 3 Aug 2013 18:15:00 GMT

Single-serving friend: (from the movie Fight Club) A "friend" you meet once, for example on a plane, and never see again.

"Tyler, you are by far the most interesting single-serving friend I have ever met."

Hostel life can be very similar. Everyone has just arrived or is about to leave. The people you hang out with today are moving on tomorrow. Every meeting starts the same way, 'Where are you from?', 'How long have you been in X?' , 'Where have you been?' And finally 'How long are you traveling for?'. You may not even exchange names, instead you create a nickname in your head, usually based on country of origin, or a particular trait or profession because names can be to difficult to remember if your drunk or meeting people 20 a day. Like Navy, a guy from California, on leave from the Navy to travel, I think his real name was Alberto. Or Varsity, the shorts she wore around the hostel had the word on the ass, that was easy to remember, never knew her real name as she kept to herself. Dario, the guy from my last post was named 'Swiss' in my head for a day or two.
Sometimes you're known collectively as the Aussies, the Irish boys, the Brazilians or whatever.

After several days it's your turn to move on and you're alone again, but usually not for very long.

Off to Krakow ,Poland. Prague's been good, I'll write more on that later.

Photos: Berlin

deanm — Tue, 30 Jul 2013 21:59:00 GMT

Berlin

Berlin -> Prague

deanm — Tue, 30 Jul 2013 21:39:00 GMT

I'm writing this on the train from Berlin to Prague, though I'll post it when I'm able. Talking with a Swiss guy yesterday I find out that we're both taking the same train to Prague, his name is Dario, he's couch surfing in Prague for a couple of days and then moving onto venice I think.

Dario and I pile into a second class cabin, along with the majority of Berlin and (somehow) secure seats. The train is the type where a small corridor runs down one side and cabins with six seats take up the majority of space. The size of the corridor makes it near impossible to turn around while wearing a backpack, even if you could turn around there would be no point as you can't move past the people behind you anyway. I actually saw two backpackers attempt to get past each other and effectively get stuck, blocking the entire corridor as they attempt to free themselves, as one of the seated few I laughed to myself. A woman in our cabin mentioned its always like this.

About a hour in, the train stops in what seems like the middle of nowhere. We wait about thirty minutes when another train, similar to ours but moving in the other direction pulls up along side. It too has people lining corridors, unable to secure seating. There both trains sit, inhabitants of both trains unable to communicate to each other, but seemingly knowing what the other is feeling. It turns out that the train staff change trains at this point, the German staff from our train move to the other, to ensure they stay in Germany, the Czech staff returning to the home land. We're finally on the move again.

For the next hour or so we wind our way through a beautiful valley, with steep tree filled sides and villages scattered through out. I try on several occasions to take photos but a tree or a passing train always seems to block the shot, like those dudes at the museums that prevent you from taking photos of some of the exhibits (aka: pricks).

We just stopped at another station, looks like we're in the Czech Republic now, as I can't read the signs anymore. The building have a certain eastern bloc flavour to them too, with apartment blocks and light industry where small houses and farms were only 20 minutes ago, the valley mentioned before continues.
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Berlin

deanm — Mon, 29 Jul 2013 00:31:00 GMT

Excuse the spelling mistakes, typing on the tablet is a pain and this this has no spell check. I've also stopped putting day number in the heading because I've lost track.

I'm going to start by saying this, i've had an amazing time in Berlin. I think i've found my travelers groove. The train from Amsterdam was something like 7 hours long. I arrive in Berlin hauptbahnhof, which is the main intercity train station, i need to catch a metro train to Friedrichstrasse a single stop to the east, which i though was easy enough. The problem is the signage at Berlin hbf is shocking, and to add to it, the train station is massive, with twenty platforms and four or five floors. After searching around for 30 minutes i ask someone and am directed to platforms 14 and 15. I finally get to the hostel at about 6 PM and can settle down. This hostel is a bit funny. it's situated in various parts of a five floor office building. The particular building i'm in has dorms on the first, second and forth floor and unrelated company offices on the third and fifth floors. The outside courtyard area is surrounded on all sides by these office blocks and in residential appartments, they mut have a fun time looking into the hostel windows.

Beer is so cheap here that this is the first time i've been sober in four days, the dynamic of this hostel makes it exceptionally easy to meet people here, with a 24 hour bar and a BBQ every day from 4 PM until 10 PM. As soon as it hits 10 PM everybody hits the town as it's been to hot to hang out inside.

Day one: I walked north, to a Berlin Wall monument and afterwards to Museum Island to checkout what they have there (SPOILER: They have Museums, crazy, I know.). While many of the pre-war buildings left standing have been repaired or patched up, you can still see bullet holes and chunks of rock missing from the pillars at the museums. That night, two Englishmen, a Swede, another aussie and I venture out at night. We find a strange alleyway pub that has an odd mechanical bat looking thing that would spring into life every 10 minutes or so to flap it's wings and carry on. we get rejected from a nightclub because we wern't waering the right clothes and find probably the smallest bar i've ever seen, not much bigger that a typical bedroom. We get back to the hostel at 5 AM.

Day 2: I move south, to Checkpoint Charlie, a still standing military checkpoint from the cold war days. Now take an ordinary busy city intersection and put a tourist attraction in the middle of it, thats what Checkpoint Charlie is, still interesting though. I head down the road from there to a museum called the Topography of Terror, it illistrates the rise to power of the Nazi's and is quite dark and depressing. I was going to head to the Jewish Museum afterwards but was pretty bummed out after the terror thing and was told the day before that Jewish Museum is similar but conciderably worse. I didnt want to come back to the hostel afterwards and have to drink the sadness away. Got back to the hostel and started drinking again anyway. That night, a brother and sister from Boston, a Brazillian and I end up in an odd indie club after getting rejected (again) from a night club for not have enough girls. Its outside drinking area is a carpark during the day.

Day 3: Decided this was going to be a quiet day. checked out the Brandenberg Gate and the Bunestag. there's a cool looking dome at the top of the Bunestag that you can climb to check the view, but it looks like it's a totally bitch to get into, requiring registation and security checks and so on. There's a Russian military memorial nearby that was cool. It's a pretty important thing for the russians, as i was leaving a just married russian couple were getting their photo's in front of it and paid their repects with flowers etc. That night ended with an Englishman, a guy from Holland, a guy from Switzerland and two girls from Ireland and I sitting in a park getting drunk, the park doesnt have a cover change and stupid entry rules.

Today is Berlin's hottest day this year, it's 36 degrees and really humid. There hasn't been a day with temps lower than 30 degrees since i landed in Paris, european buildings are not made for it and typically have no sort of aircon what so ever. Since the day is so long here it's constantly hot and you sweat from the moment you wake up. It's due to rain tomorrow and the temps will take a dive to their usual mid to low twenties. I'm thinking of seeing the Blue Man Group do what they do tonight, it's expensive but they never come to Australia so this would be the only chance i get to see them. I'm heading to Prague tomorrow morning at 10 AM

Edit: Saw the Blue Man Group last night, they were amazing.

Days 5-8: Amsterdam

deanm — Wed, 24 Jul 2013 05:01:00 GMT

After stops in Brussells, Antwerp and Rosendaal i ended up in Amsterdamn, finding the hostel proved easy enough. This Hostel (Stayokay Vondelpark) is way different to the previous one, in Paris. While the Paris hostel consisted of about 30 rooms total, StayOkay contains at least 150 at a guess, the amount of people moving through the common area in this place is crazy. I'm undecided on if i like these types of mega hostels yet. One the plus side however is the free breaksfast and cheap beer at the bar.

Central Amsterdam can be considered to be a really laid back, European version of Las Vegas on compact scale , 'Casinos' included, Or perhaps Queenstown, NZ, if you add sex and (more?)drugs..The neon lights of the various bars, clubs, 'coffee' shops etc. paint Amsterdam as a tourist town and nothing more. Amsterdam is so westernised, so geared towards the tourist dollar that if it wern't for the building architecture and the occasional dutch you hear you could be easily fooled into thinking you wern't in Europe any more. That being said. i've enjoyed my time here. Amsterdam has it's own personality, with it's tight streets and small lane ways and it's easy to become lost, usually only for a short time however.

Australia could learn a thing or two from The Netherlands when it comes to displaying national colours. Seriously, fucking everything is a shade of orange. The people wear orange, their bikes are orange, I'm in the hostel bar as i write this and sitting on an orange couch, its everywhere.

Anyway, i'm off to Berlin tomorrow and i'm a little to tired, perhaps drunk to continue writing stuff.

Day 3/4: Paris - Ordered Chaos

deanm — Sat, 20 Jul 2013 04:24:00 GMT

I'm not sure if it's part of city planning or some rare conincidence that happens all the time, but various stores of particular type seem to all be in certian area's. to provide examples, on my walk to the Lourve the other day I came across a street that that had an an african hair salon ever 3 or 4 stores, on both sides of the street . Along the river a short time later, Pet stores. Near where i'm staying its marriage related stores. Perhaps i'm just over thinking things...

Day 3: Made the trip out to the Arc de Triomphe, it's at this point I begin to understand the chaos that is the Paris Metro, when I first looked at the map for the metro I had no idea what I was looking at, but i've come to understand it as more of a very ordered, stream-lined chaos. A combination of mazes within mazes, once you understand it's order it all becomes clear. Anyway, while trying to figure out how to the Arc de Triomphe without running across the multiple lane roundabout, I came across two older ladies from the sunshine coast, Heather and Carol, trying to figure out the same thing. We teamed up and venured the only way that made sence, down, into the Metro once more, where the order behind the metro came into affect once more, pay attention to the numbers and follow the signs, always follow the signs.

Afterwards I headed to La Defence, I saw the huge square buiding in the distance from the Eiffel tower the other day and wanted to check it out. The Metro ticket I had purchased earlier had got me back into system near the Arc de Triomphe, however I found could not get me past the gates at La Defence. Luckily for me this must be a regular thing because there were a handful of younger gypsies more than willing to pass me their own ticket in return for some coin. Overall, however , I was expecting more from La Defence, more than a shopping district with a fancy giant square building.

Day 4: I decided to head out to Dôme des Invalides, which contains Napoleon I's tomb, and the war museum attached to it. Both were quite good, the museum had a lot of what you'd expect from a war museum. Looking upon the ball turret of a B-17 was particulary scary, considering ball turret gunners never lived very long. Afterwards I headed back to the hostel to relax the rest of the day away, I'm heading to Brussells and Amsterdam tomorrow morning.

Photos: France

deanm — Thu, 18 Jul 2013 20:39:00 GMT

16/07 - 20/07

Day 1/2: Paris

deanm — Thu, 18 Jul 2013 04:50:00 GMT

I finally landed at CDG after 24 hours of traveling and had no problem getting into the city. Got to Gare Du Nord train station and thats when it really hit me. This train station is massive, it took me 10 minutes to find my way out. I left Gare Du Nord with an idea of where my hostel was, but after 20 minutes of searching could not locate it. I eventually found a map and realised i had been going down the street next to the one i was suppose to, Hostel found! I check in and i'm told the room won't be avaliable until 3 PM, it was currently 8 AM.

I get my bag stowed away and go for a walk, first around the general area and then back to Gare Du Nord where i spent several hours walking around. At about mid-day i decide now would be a perfect time t sort out my tickets to Amsterdam. I find the ticket line for Eurail passes to find its's 50 meters long. 2 Hours later and i've sorted out my travel stuff. I finally get into my room and meet a couple of nice French-Canadians, the names of whom i can't pronounce, and Shaun, an Aussie from Melbourne.

I get to bed at about 5 PM after being awake something like 45 hours. I wake once at 9 PM to find it's still awfully bright, the sun hasn't gone down yet. Turns out Paris only gets like 7 hours of night time.

At 8 AM the next morning i decided to go for a small walk.I ended up walking from Gare Du Nord to the Louvre, spend 3 hours checking out all the art and stuff, walked from there to the Eifel tower and then across the river to Palais De Chaillot and caught the metro back from there. Worked it out right now to be about 15 KM's, and that doesn't include the time at the Louvre. needless to say, but my legs and feet don't like me very much right now.

The Louvre is well worth the lines and the huge amount of people to see. Got to take some pictures with my girl Mona Lisa, close enough that the back of my head can be seen in the hundreads of photo's from those behind me. Those that wanted me to take photos will be happy to know i took about 170 while walking around the Louvre alone.

The Eiffel tower is essentially one long ass line ride. A line to get the tickets, a line to catch the lift, a line to catch another lift.. then more lines to go back down again. The view is really good though and something you'd do just because it's the Eiffel Tower. I'll upload some photo's soon, probably tomorrow.

- Updated with less spelling errors and a picture