Granada and San Sebastian

GRANADA

Granada is a really interesting place. Its a small town in southern Spain about 600m above sea level. When I first got there it was about 35 degrees celsius (its always about 35 degrees - it even felt about that hot at night) and yet to the north east you can see the snow tipped peak of the Sierra Nevada Massive.

[pic: a view of the Alhumbra with the mountain in the background]
The backpackers I was staying at was in the Arab quarter and it reminded me of Kusadasi. There is a mix of Morrish and Spanish architecture in Granada so its a pretty cool looking place.

The main tourist attraction is the Alhambra, a palace that overlooks Granada. I got some pretty spectactular pictures there.

[pic: the garadens in the Alhambra with Granada in the background]


[pic: the view from the top!]

Because I was a bit sick following the Contiki Tour, I took it easy in Granada so don't have any drunken stories. However, on the last day I did the street art walking tour (all the walking seemed to be uphill and it was the hottest day I was there - I honestly felt like I was going to keel over a few times). We visited a cave/home (a cave that has been converted into a home) and its very eccentric owner who told us how the cave regulates the temperature nicely so he can walk around naked in his home all year! Weirdo.

I'd recommend Granada if you're ever in Southern Spain - its really nice.

SAN SEBASTIAN

I then trained to San Sebastian (which is on the north coast of Spain about 20 minutes from the French border). Its funny, I'm staying in backpackers where ever I go but I have a first class Eurail ticket (I couldn't buy the second class one for some reason) so I'm going from crummy hostel to crummy hostel in absolute luxury!

Dave and Billie met me at the train station. It was terrific to see a familiar face! Dave hasn't changed a bit and its been great catching up with him.

They have only been in town for 3 weeks and are staying at a backpackers (where Billie works) in the meantime. The backpackers itself is probably the worst in terms of facilities that I've stayed in so far, but I've enjoyed my stay in this one much much much more than the others. Everyone here seems to be really nice and its close to everything.

San Sebastian is probably my favourtie place in Spain. It actually doesn't feel Spanish at all, but rather European. It has two beaches both about 5 minutes walk away from each other and you get a sense of space here (unlike a lot of other places in Europe).

Being on the coast I have had my first swims of my trip, which have been enjoyable (albiet, pretty cold though). There is topless sunbathing in San Sebastian just like in pretty much all of Europe, so its been pretty interesting. Interesting I hear you thinking, don't you mean awesome? Trust me, interesting is the better word as for every one cute girl that's topless there would be 15 old ladys/naked old men! I had a particularly bad experience yesterday as about 20 metres away from where I was at the beach there were two very old, very naked men. I almost left the beach in protest...Billie later told me that the spot where I was is the spot that the naked old people tend to go to so I won't be going there again!

Last night we had a big night out. We first went to the football to see Spain win (although people from San Sebastian don't really like Spain as they want to be their own independent nation...) and then went to Dave's work for some dinner. By way of background San Sebastian is known for its food. There are a wealth of amazing restaurants all over the place and Dave works at one of the really nice ones (not one of the super exclusive ones, but still really nice). He did warn me that its also pretty pricey. Sometimes he gets discounts and other times he doesn't so if we went there we had to be prepared to pay (maybe) up to about 50 Euros per person.

I was keen.

So when we got there we started on the red wine and cokes (mixed together, sounds disgusting I know, but try it on a hot day - its actually incredibly refreshing!). Then had a really really nice steak, salad and chips. Meanwhile Dave was chatting away (in Spanish) to the bar staff.

[pic: Dave and Billie and the wine/cokes]

[pic: dinner]
After our steak we started drinking the rum and cokes (after Dave bought me my thrid one he told me that they were triples!) and started mingling properly with the bar staff and other patrons. At one stage we got chatting to two older Japanese guys. They were nice enough but their English wasn't that great and the conversation wasn't going anywhere, so I decided to bail out. Before leaving though I asked what they did for a living and one of them turned out to be the president of Fuji Film in Spain!

I should have been nicer to that guy...haha

After the place closed we kept drinking and mingling and I got a bear hug from the owner who is a pretty friendly but full-on guy.

[pic: note the rum in my right hand (it was my third). You can tell that girls thinking: when's this guy going to give me my sunglasses back!]

All this time I'm thinking: awesome, we're all getting on so well the owner will surely give us a massive discount.

Unfortunately I was wrong...it ended up being a really expensive night!

Good times though.

Here are a few photos of San Sebastian, its easy to see why I loved the place so much!

Crazyness in Rome and onto Spain

Our last day in Rome was pretty crazy. Me, Ricky (another Kiwi on our tour who has been living in Australia since 2002) and Brett (an Australian) decided to hire Vespa´s for the day. Our logic is that not only would it be a lot of fun, but we could see more of Rome and not have to negotiate the Metro or walk everywhere.

In our minds it was a good idea...

Our group was actually going to be a lot larger but about 6 people saw the light and decided to back out at the last minute.

We hired the Vespa´s from just up the road from our hotel, and assured the owner that we´d done this plenty of times before and knew how to ride. This is despite the fact that we were complete novices!

Ricky lead the way (he was our ring leader) and was told by the owner to go 20 metres up the road and then make a left. Ricky instead went straight, and led us the wrong way down a one way street. He got through okay and then me and Brett had to duck for cover as a Mercedes Benz came rushing down the road. All of this was in full view of the owner...God knows what he must have been thinking!

We met up with each other at the next traffic lights, had a laugh and there were high fives all round. Ricky led off again and within 5 minutes had lost me and Brett. Not to worry though: Brett was the one with the map. At the next set of traffic lights Brett told me to go forward and then loop around to the right at the next intersection. I did and within 30 seconds Brett was nowhere to be seen (he later told me he stalled at the traffic lights - how I will never know given that the Vespa´s were automatics) so spent the rest of the day without a map and on my own.

Not one of my better decisions to hire a Vespa and not take a map let me assure you!

Let me also assure you that it was truly horrifying. For those of you who have been to Rome know that the roads and drivers are really crazy: the streets are cobblestoned, narrow, and you share the streets with busses, trams, cars and of course, other motorbikes. To top it off they drive on the right hand side of the road and there is a labrynth of one way streets.

Throw all of that together and it makes for a pretty scared ATB.

I rode around aimlessly for an hour trying to find the colleseum (our meeting point). I got completely lost. In the end I stumbled upon the Italian Monument - an impressive building in front of a huge roundabout. I was pleased to finally see something that I recognised (as I knew it was close to the colleseum) but bad to know that I had to negotiate it. The roundabout is Rome´s equivalent to the Arc de Triumph - its about 4 lanes across (with no road markings) and seemingly no rules to speak of.

We got told by our tour guide that the best approach when crossing the road here is confidence. If you walk out confidently cars will stop, its when you hesitate that you run into difficulties. I should have applied the same logic here but instead I ventured nervously on the inside of a bus (using the bus as my protector so no cars could hit me from that side). It was terrifying, and I vowed never to go through that roundabout again. After somehow getting through that unscathed I then found the colleseum but still couldn´t meet up with the others.

I then decided I´d pushed my luck far enough so decided to take the Vespa back. Of course finding where we picked them up from was incredibly difficult and again I got lost. After half an hour (and thinking I must be close) I found myself at the roundabout again. Goddam it!

I managed to get round it, then kept looking for Termini Station (Termini station is close to our hotel so if I found my way back there I could get back okay). After 20 minutes I saw signs to the airport. Crap, lost again!

Then kept driving around some more and asked a few locals for directions to Termini. I followed their instructions to the letter and found myself back for a third time at the roundabout! By this stage my nerves we´re pretty frayed. Fortunately the third time round the roundabout was the easiest as I got there in a break in the traffic.

Eventually I found Termini though and was able return the Vespa.

By the end I understood that the Italian drivers are not nearly as bad as they look. It seems like the law of the jungle out there but it really isn´t: even buses were prepared to give way to you, so long as you go with it and drive confidently.

In saying that I took the Metro for the rest of the day!

That night we all decided to do the Colleseum pub crawl. We´d heard it was awesome and for 20 Euros and you had all you could drink for 2 hours and then a free tee shirt.

Sounded like a good deal.

The reality was different.

There were about 70 people all trying to get their drinks from a tiny bar manned by 2 people. So you had to que for 20 minutes for every drink. We were then taken on public transport (!) to some clubs just out from the center of Rome. By this stage everyone was getting pretty annoyed, and when we got there is was pretty clear that the pub crawl was run by the Mafia (the clubs were in the middle of what looked to be a residential area, there were shifty looking bouncers that screamed "organised crime" and they tried to charge us 10 Euros per drink). It was a complete riot.

We did feel physically safe but in any event decided to collect our tee-shirts and leave. This too was a drama but we eventually got them and were told to wait for the buses (public transport again) to take us home. After 20 minutes of waiting I´d decided I´d had enough and me and 3 others just grabbed a taxi (which at 10 Euros was the only good deal we got all night!).

So we went to bed relatively early by Contiki standards (a mere 1 am) feeling ripped off.

Ironically though the next morning I compared notes of the night with Cameron (a NZér who decided to stay at the club after we left) and he said that about 30 mins after we left the place picked up and he had an awesome night!

So I guess we only had ourselves to blame...

I´m currently in Seville and enjoying the slower pace of Spain. Looking forward to Granada tomorrow!!

Hope all is well with everyone.

Anthony

Amsterdam, Berlin, Dresden, Prague and Rome

Hey all

My apologies for taking so long to post, things have been pretty hectic and this is the first chance I have had! I also apologise for the lack of pictures - finding an internet cafe has been easy, but finding one that has a working USB port is not so easy....

Amsterdam

We had an early start on the last day in Paris and took the Eurostar to Amsterdam. Nothing can prepare you for Amsterdam. We got there and it started raining pretty heavily but nevertheless found the place to be very beautiful. There are canals everywhere and its easy to see why its known as the "Venice of the North". The people were friendly as well, and we were relieved to find that they spoke better English than most of us. That afternoon we went to Anne Frank's House, which was surprisingly large and surprisingly interesting. You can see why it took the Nazi's a few years to find the place: in the house you go up some incredibly steep stairs to the attic, then there is a false book case which takes you to a further attic upstairs again.

Half way through the house we bumped into a few others on our tour who were fresh from a coffee house (in Amsterdam the places where you buy marijuana are called coffee houses). They were swaying a bit but looked to be enjoying the house much more than we were, haha.

So after the house we decided to meet up with some others at a coffee house called the Grasshopper (which is apparently one of the most famous coffee houses in Amsterdam).
[Pic: me outside the Grasshopper]It was surreal: you can literally ask for a cafe latte, a sandwhich and some hash!

Things got even more surreal when one in our group got told off for smoking a tobacco cigarette! Apparently mariujuana is fine but tobacco is a no no!

Amsterdam changes completely at night. Its like it has a split personality - beautiful and funny by day, sleazy and aggressive by night.

That night we got taken for a tour of the red light district (prostitution is legal in Amsterdam as well). The prostitutes hire a window and pose in a bikini as the punters walk by in narrow alley ways. We got told not to take any pictures as pimps have been known to take the cameras and throw them (along with the picture taker in some circumstances) into the canals! Walking through the alleys you got a sense that trouble was not far away, and I was constantly looking over my shoulder. This is despite the fact that we were in a group of about 40 and I never once actually saw any trouble.

For those of you that are interested, the prostitutes were (by and large) incredibly goodlooking! Think not quite as cute as an FHM model but not far away...certainly not what I was expecting. We were also told that they are all trained in martial arts and have a panic button - so if they feel threatened they push the panic button and their Dutch pimps come running to beat you up...

Of course having a split personality every Dutch person we ran into that night was incredibly rude and aggressive...way worse than the French...

The next night we had a canal cruise (with unlimited alcohol) and then had a night on the town.
[pic: canal cruise before we all got too boozed!]Things got pretty crazy as you could imagine - being a Contiki Tour we did have a reputation to keep up so everyone in our group was either high, drunk or both....and for the record I was only drunk...haha
[pic: after the canal cruise when everyone was paralytic; note how this picture is blurry - I wasn't even able to hold the camera steady!]

My opinion of Amsterdam is its a fun place to spend a day or two but I don't think I'll be back for a while. Its a little to out-there for me!


Berlin

After our massive night we went on a 10 hour bus trip to Berlin. As you can imagine this was pretty tough. The autobans in Germany are a lot of fun though. Our bus had a speed limit of 100 but every once and a while you would see a porsche hoon past at about 180ish...

We got told on the bus ride that the German's are actually nice people but we are not to mention the war at all! Naturally I thought our tour guide was kidding so laughed and she gave me a very serious look...

Berlin is very different to Amsterdam. Its not a pretty place at all (90% was destroyed after WW2 and the Soviets tore down a lot of what was remaining to build drab, god awful buildings) but the Germans certainly like order and efficiency. You could set your watch to the metro and you felt a lot safer than in Amsterdam.

The history of the place was very interesting. The Berliners are building a lot back to look like it did before the War and the city is changing all the time. On our first day we did a walking tour and found it to be really interesting. Our guide was a very knowledgable German/American who was a dead ringer for Matt Damon. When we told him this he replied that he gets that all the time and his wife even told him that he looks like Matt Damon from the talented Mr Ripley - apparently he told her that of all the Matt Damon movies she had to pick the one where he plays a gay psychopath...

Probably the highlight of the tour was the Holocaust memorial and Hitler's bunker. The holocaust memorial is pretty drab, and surprisingly there are no plaques that mark that state that it is a holocaust memorial. Even more surprisingly, the pillars are coated with a special chemical so that any graffiti washes off with water. After the memorial was completed it came out that the company that supplied this chemical was the same company that manufactured the gas that the Nazi's used on the Jews!

wtf?

[pic: our tour guide (see, I told you he looks like Matt Damon!) at the Holocaust Memorial]
Hitler's bunker is about 80 metres away from the memorial. Its nothing special at all and is infact a rundown parking lot outside a Soviet era apartment building. The site above the room where Hitler killed himself is unceremoniously marked with a green bin
[pic: The green bin that marks the spot where Hitler killed himself]

Berlin itself is dominated by the TV Tower in East Berlin. This was built by the Soviets to show the West that they were technilogically superior. The only problem was they weren't technologically superior at all and the Tower was actually designed by Swedish engineers (something that the West found quite funny!).

We also checked out Checkpoint Charlie and the Berlin Wall.
[pic: me posing infront of one of the last remaining sections of the Berlin Wall]

On our second night we learnt a bit more about East and West Berlin, and finished with a Cold War pub crawl (where you weren't told which bar you were going to but had to decipher some (pretty easily decipherable) clues). My team won and we ended up at the Matrix club which is a 7 room super club. Was pretty awesome.

Prague

We then drove to Prague via Dresden, which is a picturesque (sp?) place that was obliterated in WW2.

Prague is very beautiful as well. It was largely untouched during WW2 (only bombed by mistake when some USAF bombers got lost on the way to Dresden), and is home to the famous astronomocal clock. This clock was so beautiful that when it was made its designer had his eyes poked out to ensure that he wouldn't make a similar clock anywhere else in the world.

That's gratitude for you...

It is an impressive clock considering it was made 500 years ago but frankly I've seen better clocks. So personally I would have let the designer keep his eyes!

[pic: the beautiful clock: see what I mean? Its nice, but not "poke your eyes out" nice...]
Prague really is stunning and rich in history. I would recommend this place to anyone.
[pic: Prague in all its glory!]

Being Eastern Europe the safety rules (and in particular the "drink responsibly" rules) aren't that advanced and we got a taste for that on our last night we went to a bar called the Beer Factory. Each table at this bar is set up with 4 taps, so the patrons can pour their own beers. On the big screen you can see which table has drunk the most.

Naturally this called for a drinking competition and Team ANZAC (Australia, New Zealand and a few Canadians) took on Team America. National pride was on the line and things got testy at one stage when the Americans kept stuffing up their pours (ie, they had 1/4 beer and 3/4 foam). The Americans said it was because the taps were malfunctioning and the Aussies said it was because they were retarded.

By the time I left Team ANZAC was in the lead and had consumed over 26 litres of beer (between 7 people that's a fricken lot!) whereas Team America has consumed 25.5 litres. Our tables were one and two respectively on the score board.

The next day I tried to find out who won in the end and funnily enough no-one could remember! Because Team ANZAC was ahead at the last time people could remember we claimed a victory though!

Rome

I'm now in Rome and have just had a tiring day at the Vatican. Last night we had a walking tour of the Pantheon, the Trevi fountain and a few other places. At the Trevi fountain we were told that if you throw a coin over your right shoulder it means you will return to Rome but if you throw it over your left shoulder you will be lucky in love. I decided to throw it over my left shoulder and got one of the girls to take a picture of me doing so. Now this isn't as easy as it sounds and it took three attempts before we finally got a satisfactory picture. I think this means I'm going to be REALLY lucky in love, haha

[pic: me at the Trevi fountain take 3!]
Apart from that not much to report for Rome as the readers of this blog (ie, Mum and Jemma, haha) have been here before. Except to say there is a terrific pizza place just down the road from the Vatican with delicious (and cheap) pizza. it was easily the best pizza I've ever had in my life.

Oh, also I have a room to myself here which is terrific, so my snoring room mate problem has resolved itself. Last night was the first decent nights sleep since London!

That's all for now - will be in touch soon

Anthony

paris

Well I am still alive and well in Paris (albiet a bit hungover!).

It has been a hectic few days. Met the Contiki Tour people on Sunday evening. Its obviously a bit apprehensive when you meet your room mate; you're praying that they are cool. When I arrived at my room I was greeted at the door by a guy who had a half finished sleeve tattoo on his right arm and looked to be very hungover. He reminded me of Willem Dafoe.

At that stage I thought I could be in for a long couple of weeks...

Turns out this guy (Scotty) is a hard case but a really good bloke. He's a pilot on leave from Afghanistan and checking out the sights and sounds of Europe.

Slowly I met the other travellers. They are a good mix of Aussies, a couple of New Zealanders a few Americans and a few Canadians. Most are terrific but there have been a few "here we go" moments with some of the Americans (in particular when one commented that he liked my accent and then complained how he didn't have an accent (all the Aussies moaned in unison)). We're all quickly becoming good friends though - a feat not helped when my roommate who inquired whether one American had an off button!

We had a night tour of Paris and checked out all the sights such as the Effiel Tower, Notre Dame, the Arc de Triumph and others.
Some then went out for a night on the town but the smarter ones (ie, me and a few others :-)) decided not to as the next day would be massive. In hind sight I should have gone out - the air conditioning is not working in our room and so I got maybe one hours sleep!
Fortunately the French receptionists at the hotel were very helpful. I honestly dont know why the French have such a bad reputation. After I politely asked them to have a look at the air con she said it was working fine and then shrugged. When I asked again she pretended she didn't speak English.

Typical.

Yesterday was fantastic. Went on a cruise of the Sienne River. Took a picture under the bridge from Taken (when Liam Neeson jumps onto the boat at the end). Also went to the Louvre and checked out the Mona Lisa amongst others.


Me and what I think is the bridge from Taken.

That night we went to the Moulin Rouge where we had a 3 course meal with 4 bottles (between 6) of French wine. This accounts for the drunken texts sent to Dad and Jemma, haha. After dinner the show started (mum, better stop reading here...) ánd we were all surprised to find all the girls in the show had see through tops (and some no tops at all!). the show was pretty good (for obvious reasons, haha) and the ventriloquist and jugglers were especially spectacular.

It was then on to a massive night on the town where we had our first proper chance to mingle. Was a drunken night and to be honest I'm still feeling a bit shady!

Looking forward to tomorrow though when we head to Amsterdam.

Talk soon

Anthony

Well I never thought I'd be saying this but London has been almost unbearably hot these last few days!

I was so shocked at the sight of a clear blue sky I took a picture of it and the weather has only got better the last 3 days. I would post that picture here (along with all my others) but the computer I am using at the hotel SUCKS so will have to post them later.

I've discovered that London is a rather expensive place to visit. The tube seems cheap but it adds up really really fast. I also spent an arm and a leg getting into such places as Westminster Abby and the Tower of London (which I've actually done before but still enjoyed the second time). The highlight of the Tower of London (apart from the hilariously gruff Beefeater guide) was the story about the condemned man who decided not to tip his executioner. Apparently the only money the executioners received was from the condemned (weird I know) and this particular executioner did not take kindly to getting gipped. So instead of chopping off the guys head first time he took 5 goes (striking his shoulder, ears, neck and a few other places) before sawing off the guys head with a carving knife. Nasty. There's a moral there...

After spending a fortune doing these activities I decided to enjoy some of London's free activities. Namely, the Imperial War Museum, the Natural History Museum, Museum of London and the Science Museum.

Its nerdy of me I know but I was impressed with myself at the science museum by (in the interactive part of the museum) building a bridge out of blocks across a model river. This sounds lame (and I suppose it is, given that the target audience was probably 10 years olds) but it took quite a bit of skill on my part to get my bridge built and I was pretty proud of myself. Was even going to take a picture of my work when some punk 6 year old kid came and wrecked it. Little bastard. I would have told him there's no Santa if his mum wasn't standing right next to him...

I also went to St Paul's Cathedral (which I stumbled upon) and was mortified, but slightly amused, to find that such a supposedly religious, dignified and reflective place of worship charge £12.50 just to enter! Typical. So I gave that a miss but have some nice pictures of the outside.

Also caught up with Caitlin a few times which was terrific. Very surreal to be chatting to someone you know quite well in such a far away place!

Also been drinking Guinness this time and its strangely going down quite nicely. That said, certainly looking forward to getting into some French wine tomorrow!

Bring on Paris!

Arrival in London

Well its half way through my first full day in London. I'm still feeling very jetlagged as I got virtually zero sleep on the flights over. Unfortunately I had bad luck with being seated next to people who sniffed loudly every 20 seconds (sounds trivial I know, but after 13 hours you're ready to hurt someone...), screaming kids, and people who snore so loudly that I could hear them even through the noise of the jet engine!

To add to my woes my master plan for not being jetlagged backfired spectacularly. The plan was to use one of the nap rooms at Singapore airport. All went well for the first 10 minutes until the guy in the room next to me started snoring. I promise you it was the loudest snoring I have ever heard in my life. It was so loud that I could hear people debating in some of the other rooms whether they should wake him. So in the end I only got about an hours kip there...

It all adds up to a very jetlagged ATB.

Today has been good (even though I've been in a semi daze). I was one of the first people in Westminster Abby this morning so had the place virtually to myself and about 10 others for the first 20 mins (although it was so busy you could barely move by the time I left!). That place was incredible, but unfortunately you're not allowed to take pictures...

Some of the history there was actually quite comical. You've all heard the story of Elizabeth 1 v Mary Queen of Scots? Well one tomb that was there was Elizabeth 1 (for those of you who haven't heard the story she was the one who beheaded Mary Queen of Scots...okay you got me...she didn't behead her personally but had it arranged). Anyway, next to Elizabeth's tomb was Mary's tomb: turns out patience was a virtue Mary did not have - although she spent her entire life trying to undermine and overthrough Elizabeth, when Elizabeth died without children it was Mary's son who inhereted the throne. And the son decided to build Mary a tomb next to Elizabeth's (and gave specific orders to make it just as impressive as Elizabeth's). That's spite for you...

After Westminster I crossed the road and found myself outside the Privy Council. Naturally I went in for a look. The guy behind the counter told me that the law library was open to the public for the first time today so encouraged me to have a look. Curiously the first book I saw was Todd on Torts (a New Zealand textbook). That made me laugh, although to be honest the law library wasn't very impressive as it looks the same as any other law library I've ever been in.

I then went past what I think was Downing Street (or what I thought was Downing Street - it looked familiar, and there were plenty of armed guards, although there were no street signs) explored Trafalga Square, the National Gallery, Picadilly Circus and Leister (sp?) Square.

The weather is typically British: it started raining at about 10 this morning and hasn't stopped, and its a bit chilly. So much for the first day of summer!

Anyway got to go: meeting up with Cailtin tonight for a bite to eat. Hopefully I don't fall asleep at the table although to be honest that's a distinct possibility!

Anthony

(barmy British weather at Trafalgar Square)
(downing street?)