On Saturday Neil and I got up at 5am and headed to Wales to meet Alex and watch some rally at the Wyedean Forest Rally. It was about a 2 hr drive in the M5 but we got there nice and early and saw all the cars run through on the first stage. The event was much more professional than the previous Tempest Rallies I’ve been too but there wasn’t too many risk takers so not a lot happened on the day. The highlight was the above video where a Metro 6R4 took out a fence and got stuck in a ditch – Neil ran off to help and I filmed the rescue.

Andy Burton and his famous Peugeot Cosworth

Number 211 - pink poker-dots

Alex said the rally was amazing in 3D!

Neil bleeds orange and blue in his 2 Sign-Up.to tees

Overall a great day and my first time to Wales (admittedly not very far in) however next time I’ll heed Neil’s advise and actually wear two pairs of socks because it was absolutely freezing in the Forest, in fact I’ll just double everything I wear next time.

Our hotel for the trip - Lake House

As Neil said we packed up yesterday and headed off to The Lake District. Emily and I have been quite ill over Christmas (caught the flu from work) so it’s good to get out of the house and go exploring. We had a good drive up with not much traffic and ‘True Lies’ on in the car. I didn’t get a photo but seeing my first Northerner driving his car with a crash helmet on was definitely a highlight. We are staying 4 nights in a place called the Lake House, the rooms are a decent size and there’s free WiFi so Neil and I are pretty happy. For the first night we put in some ale at a local free house and enjoyed a nice meal at a little place called Stampers.

The following day we geared up and walked from Skelwith Bridge to Elterwater in the snow and frozen over sheep paddocks. This would give me a chance to try the new walking poles Neil and Di bought me for Christmas and stomp around in some snow.

Showing off my new walking poles

I was actually pretty worried about slipping in at this point

Diane - Photographer Extraordinaire

Too many mince pies to cross this

One of the fantastic icy lakes

Once at Elterwater we had lunch at the locally renowned Britannia Inn and then made our way back to the car at Skelwith Bridge. For the following few hours we drove around The Lake District trying to get to Wasdale Head, however all the access roads were frozen over and pretty dangerous, so we headed back.

 

Mad Hatters - Italian restaurant on the 2nd night

On the second day we were up early again and off to climb Mt Hellvellyn. We didn’t have all the right gear on with the walking poles breaking but the new Camelbak from Neil and Di also got me for Christmas was nice. Given Em was still feeling under the weather I’m impressed we made it up at all but I think at the half way point we had to give in. The snow, wind and incline was rapidly increasing and with little left to hold on to it was certainly time to turn around. A great suggestion from Neil and now I really want to come back again and give it another go, perhaps without as much snow (or just more climbing gear).

Em looking at how far we've come

The view from halfway up Mt Hellvellyn

Neil in a bit of a snow storm

Once we made it back down Mt Hellvellyn we drove into Keswick for some lunch (and tea). Whilst wandering around the outdoor stores looking for crampons we found a good deal on walking sticks so I replaced my newly broken ones and Em and Di also picked up a pair.

NYE count down in Keswick

You're a goose!

That night we went back to the free house for a couple more ales and a whiskey before heading over to the ‘China Cottage’ for some extremely average Chinese dinner. The  next day we decided to go for another walk and try out new walking poles.

An old slate mine cave

Keeping up my fluids with the new Camelbak Neil & Di got me for Xmas

Di found another Robin that likes ginger biscuits

A little waterfall at the end of our walk

After our walk we drove over to Bowness-On-Windermere for a pub lunch and a little shopping. Another quaint little Lakes village with slate buildings and little boutique shops.

With this being our last night we went to the award winning ‘Log House Restaurant‘ for a fantastic 3 course meal and lovely wine.

Finally on Thursday we got up nice and early, had breakfast, paid our bill and headed home before light. The roads were fantastic and Neil got us back to Woking by 12:15, plently of time for some rest before the Mukerji’s big NYE party that night.

A fantastic trip and enjoyable way to spend the Christmas break, I can’t wait to go back.

_B

]]> http://www.urbanseven.com/blog/2009/12/28/the-lakes-district/feed/ 0 http://www.urbanseven.com/blog/2009/12/17/paris/ http://www.urbanseven.com/blog/2009/12/17/paris/#comments Thu, 17 Dec 2009 23:19:53 +0000 Brenden http://www.urbanseven.com/blog/?p=782 About a month ago now I went to Paris for the weekend with Emily, her sister and her Mum as Emily’s Mum was flying out of Paris back to Australia.

Although I’d been to Paris before it was nice to be back in Autumn when it was so damn cold. This time we got to do more exploring and managed to get up the Eiffel tower as it was fogged out last time.

After tracking our way to the hotel we found out that Emily had made up the address. So I used my trusty iPhone to find the actual hotel and GPS navigated our way there. That day we ventured out to the Basilique du Sacré-Cœur (Basilica of the Sacred Heart) which was amazing inside and out and then got a little lost (again) on the way back to the hotel. The first night we were booked into the Moulin Rouge and I must say it was fantastic and not *just* because of the topless dancers.

On the second day we went to the Eiffel tower and decided to walk to the second floor than take the lift, this wasn’t too bad but it was 701 steps altogether. The view from the top was amazing and I’m really glad we did it, the crowds however got a little much so we didn’t stick around up there too long.

On the last night we had a really nice dinner at a small café next door to the very place I spent New Year’s Eve last year. Fantastic service, very reasonably priced (for Paris) and I finally got to try escargot.

After dinner we walked back through the main street in Paris, the Champs-Élysées. This is where I found a mega Nespresso store (my new coffee machine).

On the last day it ended up pouring down rain which was fine as we were going to spend the day shopping. Unfortunately Paris closes down on Sunday’s and the shopping districts become homeless motels so we changed our Eurostar tickets and went home early.

It was good to see Emily’s Mum off back to Australia and finally use our free Eurostar tickets.

Where to next?

_B

After our night of absolute debauchery we rose to “wake up you bunch of fuck heads” in a thick German accent and beer cans being tossed at our tents. It would seem one of us had taught a rather large German these phrase the night before.
For those of us that didn’t wake up it was certainly inevitable once the Swiss started repeatedly banging on the race course armco with two hammers. It was like someone smashing saucepans together inside your head!

Once moving we all slowly made our way down to get some curry wurst for breakfast, this was perhaps one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do. Once back most of us got some more sleep and then finally we decided to make our way up to the festival, this is of course why we had crossed 5 Countries to get here.

After sussing out the grounds Neil, the Ben’s and I headed back to the camp for some rest while the others rocked on. After semi-recovering and putting on more clothes we ventured back for the night but not without finding ourselves a fantastic jungle shortcut.

The following day we were getting back on track however it absolutely bucketed down during the night and didnt stop until the early afternoon. So after an unsuccessful attempt at a gas burner breakfast we packed up and headed for town to look for more supplies and a hot meal. After ages in a local store laughing at all things German (and buying more sleeping bags and wet weather gear) we ventured over to Neil’s favourite hotel the ‘On-Road Cafe’ for a meal. A few beers, a massive schnitzel and a much needed toilet break we were ready to leave however not before Neil and I organised ourselves the next 2 nights and the rest of the guys the last night in their lovely warm and dry establishment.

That night we were all charged up again and made our way over to the festival (via our shortcut) but not without first getting a photo with some of our German friends.

The Gang

The shortcut

This evening we saw Machine “Fucking” Head and got down and dirty in the mosh pits for The Prodigy and Slipknot. After thank Neil and I snuck away and headed back to our warm hotel.
Once we got there I had a shower and meet Neil downstairs where a shot (of some Dutch drink) and a cold beer were waiting, it was fantastic. I think we sat downstairs talking to the owner and his wife until almost 2am again getting quite drunk.

Machine "Fucking" Head

Save on smoke machines, have your festival in the clouds

Slipknot tried warming things up

The On-Road Cafe

On the last day we spent the day at the hotel/cafe drinking and then went out for a fantastic steak on a stone, a local dish apparently. The first place we went to was closed because they were worried about the drunken festival goer coming in however the Taxi driver knew another place that served the dish so we all piled back in the cab and went there.

Steak on a Stone

Dig in

After walking back to the hotel (to burn off some of that protein) we pretty much settled in and decided to watch the last day of the festival on MTV in the warm bar. All except the determined Pete who layered up and set out on his own.

The last day we said our good byes and high tailed it to the French coast, all in all a fantastic trip, one I’ll never forget.

_B

]]> http://www.urbanseven.com/blog/2009/07/25/rock-am-ring-the-festival/feed/ 0 http://www.urbanseven.com/blog/2009/06/12/rock-am-ring-flunkyball/ http://www.urbanseven.com/blog/2009/06/12/rock-am-ring-flunkyball/#comments Fri, 12 Jun 2009 09:50:26 +0000 Brenden http://www.urbanseven.com/blog/?p=679

Supplies

It didn’t take long before we were in an International match of Flunky ball, England v Germany…the English had me as their token Aussie, so of course we won that match.

Shake Your Ass was the theme song for the entire weekend

I guess he used all his powers cause he soon collapsed on the track.

At about 6pm most of us were pretty ruined, some disgraced themselves, others passed out. Neil, Ben H, Richie and I headed into town for a steak on a stone at the Pistenklause. One of the best steaks I have ever had. On our return it was clearly time to switch it up a gear and we moved to Jager and Rugby! …this boys and girls is not the greatest of plans on a race course.

Neil playing real football

Neil celbrates as Pete explains the rules.

Ben & Richie rocking out to our Ghetto blaster on the roof of the BMW

That's what he's talkin bout!

Neil was quite thorough in comparing the cars. Ben wasn't impressed.

By the end of the night we had torn ourselves apart, almost knocked unconscious, run through poison ivy and burnt arms on lanterns. The next day would prove to extremely had to function and rank up there in top 10 hangovers ever but boy it was worth it.

Next the actual festival.

Ben Hughes was taking Polly, Pete and Jonny in the Shaguar but they weren’t leaving til 2, so they had come catching up to do.
After a short drive and a movie we had arrived in Dover, however we just missed the early ferry and had an hour and a half to wait, luckily that’s just enough time to watch Rambo 4 whilst sitting in the queue. The ferry ride across the channel was breif and as soon as we hit French soil we floored it all the way to Aachen in Germany passing through Belguim and The Netherlands without stopping once.

We caught up with the others at our first stop, the Ibus in Aachen and went out ‘to where all the crazy kids go’ for some pizza and Bitburger. We found the pizza and beer but there was no sign of any crazy kids.

Outside the Ibus in Aachen, Germany

After a decent nights sleep at the Ibus we packed up again and made a B-Line for the Nurburgring so we could find a place and pitch our tents.

The Jag coming up the rear.

The road to the Nurburgring

After driving around the ring and not finding a single place to stop we headed back to the entrance to start again in the opposite direction when a guy came running over saying “Do you guys speak English? Come with me, we have a place for you to camp, we hate the Germans too”.
A little odd and quite frankly worrying being that we are in Germany at a festival surrounded by Germans, but we needed a place so off we went. Turns out it was a great space on the 3Km mark, we immediately erected our tents, had some ciders and instantly made friends with the Germans across the track….the Swiss were not impressed!

Finished erecting tents, time for a cider

…stay tuned, more to come!

Will do a full report back next week.

_B

Stone Henge - From the fence as you have to be a hippy to get in.

Cattle on the roads everywhere, this one posed for a photo.

Neil's BMW 330d that we went down in.

Stopped for Coffee at a hotel in Dartmoor

Then we went underground in a local Slate mine.

Safety first, they were mining slate after all.

The next couple of days we went venturing around Cornwall as the weather was holding up, beautiful landscapes.

The most southern point of England

They've had a security problem down here for awhile now.

Beautiful landcapes & old castles

May day celebrations

Boscastle - Great little place, with lovely cream teas, a witch museum & freezing temperatures!

All in all I had a great weekend, saw so many places and really got to experience some of the more English parts of the UK.

Next trip Germany for the mighty ‘Rock Am Ring‘ roadtrip in June, stay tuned!

_B

Look forward to exploring some of Englands South-West, in fact just looking forward to getting away for a little bit.
Taking my big camera too so will take plenty of photos.

_B

The other weekend was Matt from work’s Stag-do weekend and we headed out to sunny Santiago.

There is only one flight in and one out so I had to be up at the sparrows fart hour of 3:30 Friday morning to get ready, get a cab and then catch the hour long bus out to Stansted airport.
Once there I caught up with Neil, Matt, Paxton, Chris and John and a Weatherspoons breakfast and beers were in order.

The flight was pretty good and once the hatch door opened I could feel that magical heat I haven’t felt in almost a year.  After some negotiations we got a 7 seater bus but with luggage it was really only a 5 seater, so John ended up squashed in the back…top marks.   With that sorted we headed into town for some lunch and to meet up with Rupert. The tapas and beers along with the warmth made for a relaxing afternoon.

However that was all to change when the 7 of us piled into the car and headed out for some paintball action. We meet up with a young girl running the show and then ended up the the wood just outside a nearby village, it was great as it was only the 7 of us playing and asides from the basic safety stuff there were no rules.

After we had sufficently shot the shit out of each other we jammed back in the car and headed out to Ruperts villa to clean up and unpack.
The place was magnificant in all aspects but it was the shower that did it for me, ‘Best Shower Ever!’

Once cleaned up and a few more beers later in we headed out to a local restaurant for some home-made style local cusine. After a mix of stews, seafood, pork and devine cheesecakes we finished off with a local spirit (much like a scnapps) and then back for more pool at the villa.

Go Karting was first thing Saturday morning after a much needed sleep in. Rupert even snuck in a few quick laps before his wife noticed him missing.   John was kind enough to sit this one out and document the race for us. Neil was unsupprisingly the course leader but Chris and Paxton faught quite a battle for secon place, I clearly had a weight disadvantage but countered that with some thrilling drifting. 

Now Matt on the other hand was playing it very safe (either him just getting his licence or trying to protect his body for the wedding) but this didn’t last, 5mins or so in and a rouge tyre rolls past Neil, we look over and Matt has managed to park his kart on top of a tyre barrier right on the hairpin! He narrowly avoided being staked so we can be happy about that but I think if he just gave it a little more gas he could have launched the kart and created a course shortcut.

All that excitement had built up a hunger (which was surprising after the 7 meal bonanza from Friday) so we (eventually) made our way to the supermarket for more supplies for our big last night feast.

The rest of the day/night went pretty much as expected, plenty of drinking, loads of food, trying the swimming pool but not getting past my toes. After dinner and many more drinks there was some discussion and with some self help from Matt I threw him in the pool at about midnight

Sunday it wax time to leave and with only one flight in and one out it was important we packed up and left early, so it was really great when the GPS/ Matt/Paxton got us lost on the highway and we started heading in the wrong direction! I had resided to spending another day there but some tactical driving from Paxton and a spot of airport running meant we made the flight and were on our way back to the UK.

Congratulations Matt and Nikki! I can’t wait to see the wedding photos.  I look forward to seeing all the guys again sometime, I had a great weekend away.

_B

To continue making the most of my time off work I went to Paris for New Year’s Eve.

We took the Eurostar again and was there in no time, even with the delays that they are currently having, it’s definately the best way to travel. It was absolutly freezing in Paris which made sight seeing difficult but we saw the main attractions even with it snowing on one day.

The Eiffle Tower was an amazing sight, everyone knows it iconic shape but it’s totally different seeing it as a constant back drop while walking around the city. Some of the best photos I got at night from the bottom of the tower as you can see above, I am so glad I bought another good camera for such events.

The Arc De Triumph was also spectacular, it reminded me of the Brandonburg Gates in Berlin, again the night shots were the best.

On New Year’s Eve I found a seafood Market around the corner from our hotel and bought some massive prawns and a 6 pack of Coronas …lovely! That night we had a restaurant booked across the river from the Eiffle Tower and just before midnight we went outside to watch the fireworks, unfortunately the only fireworks were those lit by the bloke next to me but the tower lit up which was good enough.

The last day was really really cold with dense fog so we didn’t get much done, I think I might go back for a weekend in Summer this year, just need to start saving now, Paris us the most expensive place I have been in all of Europe – €12 for a pint in some places!!!

Check out more photos:

Paris & Bruge

_B

This Christmas as I was away from my family for the first time I decided to go to Bruge in Belgium. I had been to Brussels before and thought it was okay but after seeing the Colin Farrell film ‘In Bruge’  I thought I had to check it out.

The place was great, we got a good hotel room and the location was superb, right next to the main square. The first day we went Ice-Skating and to the Ice Sculptures (which had an ice bar and it didn’t cost much at all).

It wasn’t too cold the first day but from Xmas day onwards it was freezing!

I did a lot of drinking and eating as usual around Christmas, there was a pub that had over 100 types of beers and each one was served in it’s own type of glass …fantastic! Christmas day was good, did some exploring and took some good photos as most places were shut, then had an awesome 7 course Christmas dinner.

On the last day we left early and went back to Brussels so I could get some better photos with my new camera. 

_B

Merry Christmas to everyone and for those back in Oz, I hope it’s not too hot for you all.

_B

I’m Back from my trip to Oktoberfest in München, Deutschland …and it was a blast!

I left early Saturday morning, the cab was late and it took ages to get to the airport but the flight was only 1.5hrs so it wasn’t long before I arrived in Munich. The campsite was next, where I planned to meet up with everyone, drop my bags and head off to the Beerfest as Saturday was the opening day and first drinks were only a hour or so before.

After a short free shuttle bus to the grounds I was there and it was amazing. I have never seen anything like it in my life, a sort of cross between the Ekka and a pub crawl but on a much much larger scale. The beer tents (or massive halls with gigantic beers or lions on the top of them) were packed to the brim and you couldn’t get a seat any where, even outside of them was packed. I think there would be been between 150 and 200,000 people there and almost everyone was drinking…fantastic.

The first day I met up with Emily and her friends some who were also staying at the camping grounds, it was lucky as they had arrived at 9am that morning (although still not able to get inside) managed to secure a nice table outside a beer hall and we all got completely wasted on Oktoberfest beer (it’s like 6.7%).

Sunday I got up early and had the included breakfast at the campsite, it was utterly disgusting! So I packed up and headed straight into Oktoberfest at 9am and it was significantly quieter which gave me the opportunity to go inside most the beer tents and see which is the best. The day slowly turned into a drunken mess as you would expect, I met up with more and more people and by the end of the day at the Hofbräu-Festzelt (the Hofbrauhaus tent) we had like 15people at our table.

On Monday I ventured into the city centre, Marienplatz. I lost my bennie the night before (as I seem to do every time I holiday anywhere) so I got a new one and a scarf from ‘NewYorker’ – an awesome store that is in Europe but not London. Anyway after I checked out the Hofbrauhaus and it was full went again went back to Oktoberfest and got drunk.

Tuesday I got up early and went to the BMW Museum, something I missed on my last trip to Munich as it was closed. It took quiet a long time to go through but was really interesting, I will put up the photos soon.
After that we all caught the train and then a bus out to Dachau, the site of the first Nazi German Concentration Camp. It was really eerie but very interesting, we were there for almost 3hrs as there was an insane amount of information to soak up …as bad as I felt it was definitely beer time.
We ended the day back at the Hofbrauhaus for steins and pork knuckle.

Wednesday it was all over and I had to head back to the airport to catch my flight home, I would have liked some more time off but I don’t know if I could handle anymore beerfest.

Check Oktoberfest page from the gallery section soon. Also some interesting facts from Oktoberfest last year. 6.9 Million litres of beer!!!

_B

Oktoberfest numbers (2007)

• Area: 103.79 acres (0.42 km²)
• Seats in the festival halls: ca. 100,000
• Visitors: 6.2 million
• Beer: appr. 6,940,600 litres (126,900 litres non-alcoholic)
• Wine: 79,624 litres
• Sparkling wine: 32,047 litres
• Coffee, tea: 222,725 litres
• Water, lemonade: 909,765 ½ litres
• Chicken: 521,872 units
• Pork sausages: 142,253 pairs
• Fish: 38,650 kg
• Pork knuckles: 58,446 units
• Oxen: 104 units,
• Expenditure of electricity: 2.8 million kWh (as much as 14% of Munich’s daily need or as much as a four person family will need in 52 years and 4 months)
• Expenditure of gas: about 205,000 m³
• Expenditure of water: about 90,000 m³ (as much as 27% of Munich´s daily need )
• Waste: 678 t (2004)
• Toilets: about 980 seated, more than 878 metres of urinals and 17 for disabled persons.
• Telephones: 83, also for international credit cards.
• Lost property: about 4000 items, among them 260 pairs of glasses, 200 mobile phones, a wedding ring and two crutches.^[12]

The plane leaves early and my cab arrives at 4:30 in the morning, it’s been getting really cold lately so I bet it will be freezing too. I prolly wont get a chance to blog while I am there but I will take heaps of photos on my new camera so I will add another galley once I get back.

Laters.

_B

Roman Baths - Bath

The weekend just gone I finally got out of London and visited Bath, a town just outside London (about 1.5hrs on the train). It’s a historical Roman Bath city with “The best preserved Roman architecture”. It was a really nice place but as I don’t have a camera due to it being fuking stolen all I have is the above photo from Wikipedia …although it is probably a thousand times better than one I would have taken. Maybe this is how I can fill the rest of my blog, google image search and wikipedia …soo much cheaper!

Anyway Bath was awesome, I went with a heap of friends and after the sights we got trashed at cocktail bars and then went to a pub for dinner. The place, entire town turned into a meat market after dark though with slappers and knobs out everywhere. I learned later on that there are Universities all around Bath and this is were the students come to drink

*Good news on the photo/robbery front, Flickr had most of my trip backed up so I have everything up to but not really including (only 2 photos) of Madrid. I can redo all my London photos but I am missing Madrid, Rome, Athens and Corfu Island

_B

So got home from work yesterday opened the door with my keys to find my laptop, ipod, Fuji camera and my prized Canon 300D Digital SLR all gone.
Some crackhead had broken into my place and stole all my shit!

Well maybe not a crackhead, keys were used so I assume it was an ex-tenant or someone who got keys cut at some stage in the past. Either way now I have to deal with making an insurance claim back in Australia and trying to get everything replaced. The downside and I mean real downside is I lost all my Europe photos as they were backed up onto the laptop.

The flickr account which I setup stopped working while I was travelling so they are not all there, I do think some are so I will report back.

Really pissed right now though.

_B

So I’ve been back here in London for a couple of weeks now trying to get settled in, get a place to live and find myself some work.

I got myself a nice new laptop (Samsung R700) so that I can keep blogging, do some work and take advantage of the free wireless in my new place, that’s right I also found somewhere to live
It’s a studio apartment in a share building so to speak, most the places in London are like this (where they convert a house into a heap of separate rooms. It’s good cause I have my own kitchen and bathroom too, but get to meet people as well.

Unfortunately I am still looking for work, hanging out for a good job I think, I have an interview tomorrow so I hope that goes well. If not I think I will just have to bite the bullet and take a shit job until I can find something better.

I did a little sight seeing when I first arrived as you can see above I visited the Buckingham Palace during the changing of the guards, that was pretty sweet….loads of people and it took forever.
I also checked out London bridge and the London tower which were also really nice. Once I get a job and some money I will check out the things that cost like Madame Tussards, The London Dungeon & The London Eye.

All in all I am still having a good time here, it reminds me a lot of Melbourne but that’s properly just the weather…totally need new clothes once I get a job too.

Leyton is sending me a HDD with TV shows and movies I have missed so I am really excited about that because going to the cinema here costs a friggen fortune!

Well that’s it for now, I know I have said this a lot but I will try to blog more often….I know it will make my Mum happy

_B

After a 7hr bus ride and 2hr ferry I have arrived in Corfu, Greece’s most beautiful island!

The island is a lot bigger then I expected the taxi took 30mins and €30 to get to the hotel, but it was on the top of a hill on a beautiful white pebble beach with clear water in the foreground and mountains in the back….very picturesque. The hotel has breakfast and dinner included and was only €20 per night

I hired a car on the second day so I could get around a bit, the hotel is nice but because it’s off season it’s really dead and the pool bar kinda sucks.
Tiny, windy mountain roads, crazy Greek drivers and right hand side driving rules…it felt like the first time I ever got behind the wheel. I only drove a little but boy I was petrified. The next day I didn’t drive and sat by the pool as I was still kinda nervous about driving so I just had some cocktails and a swim

On the following day it was overcast so I went for a drive again, this time around the island. It was pretty bad but I calmed down and it all started to come back, by the end of the day I was sticking it into the corners and passing the slow tourists on the bends like a local.
The next 2 days it was pretty shite weather and rained most the time so I watched DVD’s and staying in a bit.

I finished the trip with a few good days of sun so i managed to getr some beach time in, however people beaches kinda suck compared to sandy ones but it was still really nice. The water on the other hand is beyond freezing, I doubt anyone could stay in it longer then 10mins or so.

Back to London tonight, I got a cheap flight with EasyJet so it will only take a few hours. As most of you that I have emailed or chatted to know…I am now broke as, so I am going to be working pretty hardcore once I get to London. I plan to get a laptop so I can keep up to date and do some web work from home and finally get my photos online.

I hope everyone has enjoyed the first leg of my World Tour (as if anyone really reads this crap anyhow) and I will hopefully speak/chat to you all personally soon.

Cheers

_B

Come visit Greece in a few years, they should be finished by then!

Seriously though all the buildings are half finished or are open but the 2nd floor is all exposed cement and steel…very strange, maybe they ran out of concrete, it looks like they use a bit.

Had some really nice food here in Athens, better then I expected as the entire city is dirty and decrepit. The people however are really wonderful and very helpful. Everything obviously is in Greek and unlike the other countries they are a different alphabet so trying to find a street would be impossible without asking someone.

On the second day I visited the Acropolis and a few other local monuments and ruins. Sure they were great but either I have seen too many now or they just don’t stand up to Rome because I was not impressed. They were doing a lot of restoration work and most things at the Acropolis were covered in scaffolding, so it kinda took the wow factor away.

I did visit the original Olympic Stadium from the first modern games of 1906 and it was pretty much in pristine condition…because it was all concrete.

I head for Corfu Island soon so I really can’t wait for that, I know all I have been doing is holidaying but I am beat. A week in the sun will do me good before I head back to London.

_B