a merry white christmas

hey guys and gals,

hope you all had a fantastic christmas and have a good new years lined up. i am on my way to france to go skiing for a week which will be fun.

i had a good christmas in interlaken. christmas eve, the hostel put on a big all you can eat dinner so we all sat in the big dining room together and had lots of ham. the food at the funny farm is great, i pretty much ate all my meals there all week. then we sat around the fire and had a few hot choc and rums. a few aussies had turned up and were staying in my room, so i ended up playing a game of kings with them and ending up a bit pissy. in the morning we all woke up and said merry christmas and then there was a bottle of wine going around the room.

now, there was no actual snow in interlaken and it was all foggy, but i had told the paragliding dude that i wanted a proper white chrissy and he was taking a girl paragliding up in grindlewald. so he said, i'll take the van and give you all a lift up there, so we all piled into the van... me, the rest of the aussies and a couple of american boys and went up to the snow. grindlewald was good, all full of sunshine and snow and cheese. yes cheese, lots of fondue goodness.

so that was that and then when we got back to the hostel we did the usual eat the great food and hang around the fire and play pool. if i had more time i would have spent it in interlaken, it just had such a good atmosphere and i met some great people.

one of them i was a little bit nasty to. poor jonathon, i convinced him that he really should come to jungfraujoch with me (its the top of europe) , i just failed to mention that the return trip was 170 euro!!! boy, did he whinge like a little bitch about it the whole day. but it was really good, we wandered about in the snow and the view was awesome. we tried to build a snow man but the snow was too powdery, it was like trying to build a sandcastle with dry sand. and there was also the ice palace which is all these rooms made out of ice filled with ice carvings, so we were sliding about there for ages which was fun.

anyway, so i had to leave as there was a big todo on my list. Amsterdam. It was a cool place, the whole red light district just smells like pot. I think I got half stoned just sitting in the lounge of the hostel I was in (it was a bit of a hovel), but I did go to a coffee shop with a couple of guys i met to make sure. We also did a tour of the town, the red light district, the van gogh museum and anne franks house. All good stuff, but there is heaps to do there, I could have spent a few more days at least. I never even got to ride a bike or see a windmill! But again, not enough time. So today I am off to France. So have a happy new years and talk to you in 2007!

still alive and hanging for more

he he i still cant belive it - i jumped out of a helicopter it was so exciting. i`ve only been talking about going sky diving for about 10 years now, but finally it is done. and it was so great i hadn`t even hit the ground when i was thinking that i want to do it again. even just the helicopter ride was fantastic. it started off the day was a bit foggy so we had to go to grindelwald, another town up the valley. but that was even better because it had been snowing there so we got to land in the snow. the helicopter was great. we rode up along the side of the mountains and the mountains are just huge and covered in snow and go on forever, the view is just sensational. but i got to admit it was a bit odd sitting on and being strapped to some dude for the whole ride. however, when it came to getting out of the chopper that was the least of my concerns. i was getting pretty excited when the door opened and the other pair jumped out, i thought i was going to wee. but i didn`t... lucky for the dude strapped to me! then we scooted up to the door and was standing on the edge and just as i thought `oh fuck what am i doing` it was too late i felt a shove from behind and then we were rolling and i was looking back up at the chopper. oh mz god it was so exciting. the freefall was just awesome. and then after the parachute opened it was just relaxing and looking around at the fantastic scenery. so so fun. i want to go again and again! definately one of the most exciting things ive ever done. i think skz diving and the swimming with the whale sharks in exmouth are probably the two best things ever that ive done.

jumping off cliffs and falling out of planes

well interlaken has turned out to be pretty good. i'm a bit disappointed that i can't go canyoning or glacier climbing because it is the wrong time of year, but i did go paragliding yesterday which was fantastic and tomorrow i am going sky-diving out of a helicopter. just remember - jump out not up!

so the paragliding was so cool. me and this other aussie guz jonathan went with the 2 instructors peitch and hans. jonathon went with hans who yodelled for him on the way down! i went with peitch which was cool, we followed birds to find up draughts and after 10 minutes or so of gliding we were up higher than where we took off from! we took off from a mountain about 600 metres above the town. it was so cold up there, but you had these awesome views of the mountains in all directions and the town and lakes below. i was a bit scared i'd drop my camera, don't think the travel insurance people would be too keen on me claiming a second one in a month. i also got to have a steer of the glider and then we did heaps of really fast tight loops down, it felt like you were on a roller coaster and you could see the ground hurtling up towards you. so fun. so after that i am all keen for sky diving tomorrow. and out of a helicopter too, ive never been in a chopper before so that will be cool. i am getting pretty excited about it, but im sure i will have lots of nervous wees in the morning.

will write again tomorrow and tell you if i am still alive.

the bone church

hez guzs,

this kezboard sucky. it swaps the z's and the y's so it looks like i cant spell. ah well.

so in my latest adventures i have spent a week in the czech republic a couple of days in salzberg, austria and am now in interlaken, switzerland where i am going to stay for christmas.

salzberg is best known for being the place where the sound of music was made. so there are lots of tours around it and the hostel plays the movie once a day. surely anyone who sees that on a daily basis would go nuts. but i didnt do any of that stuff, i wandered up to the monastery and the castle and spent a lot of time at the christmas markets buying christmas tree decorations. why? i dont have a christmas tree or anything, but they were so pretty and with all the markets and snowz mountains and stuff i was feeling verz christmasy.

the czech republic was good. i spent a couple of days in prague where i did a citz tour, a ghost tour and a couple of museums. i went to the torture museum and the sex machine museum. the funniest thing was, that the devices in both museums looked pretty similiar. i took lots of photos and i want to play the 'sex of torture' game with you all. so when i get to a computer that i can plug my camera into ill put the photos up and you can guess which museum thez came from. also in the sex museum was a little cinema where thez wer plazing spanish porn from the 1920's. one of the funniest things i have ever seen. especiallz the bit where the guz goes honk honk on the girls boobs so then she pulls it out the top of her dress and he starts playing with it like hes trying to open a jam jar.

so after prague i went to kutna hora which is where the bone church is. from the outside it looks like a pretty well-kept old church. then you walk in and the place is decorated with 30,000 human skulls! it was so cool, they were all strung across the ceiling and there were skull candlesticks and a skull candleabra. when i was in there there was these american guys with long long hair and their black metal t-shirts. and thez were all like 'man, this is wicked. i've seen pictures of this place on so many album covers'. ah, they made me laugh.

so after kutna hora i went to go to czesky krumlov, but i missed mz connecting train and ended up stazing in jilhara. but that was ok, it was a cute town and had some nice hiking tracks that i did the next daz. the hotel i stazed in was funny too, it was like a cross between an art gallerz and a prison cell. there was a big wide hallwaz with all these massive paintings down one wall and the room doors down the other. and it was so echoy that when in zour room you would here the stomp stomp stomp of footsteps and then this big loud click clack of the lock and bang of the door.

so then i got to czeskz krumlov. it is the prettiest little town, like a smaller version of prague. and because it was out of season you felt like you practically had the place to yourself. and there were some really nice hiking trails around there too. (notice a pattern with all the hiking - just trying to get in a bit of practise before having to climb mt kili next month). so i spent 4 dazs there and got in some drinking in some of the cute little bars and ended up in one of the dodgiest clubs ive ever seen. but it was all good, i have more stories, but couldnt be bothered at the second. so will write again soon, and if i dont have a merry christmas and good new year and remember if you cant be good, be good at it!!

I saw my tour guide nude

I've moved on again and am now in Budapest, which is a very cool city. Belgrade was alright, but there was no-one around really and not a hell lot to do. Budapest is great though. Last night I went out with some people who were on my tour. We started the night with vokda shots and it all went on from there. I had a slight case of alcohol-induced kleptomania and came home with a ceramic ashtray, a jar of ketchup, a cd from a budapest dj who we hitched a ride with and some guys phone number on my arm. I also had 10 grand less in my wallet. Luckily, the exchange rate is 140 to 1 so it's actually only 70-80 dollars. But it sounds pretty cool to say, 'whoa, i blew 10 grand last night!' anyway, Budapest has been great, i did a walking tour, went to the house of terror museum, went to the christmas markets and have been to the thermal baths twice, but the best was the caving. we got to wear these sexy overalls and get all covered in clay and dust, sliding on our arses down the wet rocks and only your headlamp to guide you. and some of the places were so small you had to crawl through on your belly. one bit was called 'the sandwich of death'. and you had so slide on your belly for 10 metres between these big slabs of rock that were so close together that i had to take my helmet off because it would fit through when i was wearing it. and the tour group were great, there was about a dozen of us and everyone was always keen to take the hard road when the tour guide gave us a choice.





















There is a quote on the flyer that says 'I have just been reborn 5 times'. I sure know what Steve from Ontario, Canada was talking about, we had to squeeze through some pretty tight holes.

Anyway after the tour, we got changed and went to bar next door where one of the guys bought a big bottle of vokda for us to celebrate the fact we made it out alive. I suddenly realised i'd left my rechargeable batteries in my overalls, so went back to get them. I knocked on the door and wandered in and was all 'hey anyone about?' looking for the tour guide and then i opened this door and he was there NAKED, because he was about to hop in the shower when i walked in. I was all 'ohmy god' and back-pedalling as fast as i could, and he like followed me out and was just holding some clothes over his rude bits and was 'can i help you?'. so i said i forgot my batteries, but i'll come back. but he went back in and threw some pants on and then we started to go through all the overalls looking for mine, luckily they were the second pair we found as i couldn't wait to get out of there, i was so embarrassed. but i went back to the bar and told a couple of the others what happened and they all thought it was very amusing.

but anyway, tonight and tomorrow i am still in budapest and then i am off to prague. yay.

Bulgaria

hey guys,

i have finally got some photos up. some from turkey and bulgaria. so check them out

well i didn't quite get up the mountain in sophia. i took a tram out of town to where you get the bus then wait an hour and a half for a bus that is supposed to come every hour. then because it was about 2 degrees and i was freezing i was like 'screw this!' and headed back toward the tram stop. and of course half way back the bus went past. so i swore at it and then headed back to the hostel. after thawing out i wasn't grumpy anymore so i made friends with a canadian guy called john and we went for a look about town. we came back to the hostel where i made friends with a japanese dude and told him it would be a great idea if we played scrabble. funnily enough i won. i'm so clever.

the next day john and i headed up (or is it down?) to the rila monastery. it should be down because it's south, but it is in the mountains so it is up. i digress, rila is this georgeous little monatery with an outcrop of little old buildings to support the tourism it creates. it is in the middle of the mountains and you can actually stay at the monastery. so we did. we also got there early enough that we could go for a bit of a hike in the hills. we followed this ridge up and at the top we could see all the mountains out behind, all snow-topped and looked clean and bright in the afternoon sun. i got some top shots. it was also fun walking up there because it is the end of autumn so all the leaves are thick on the ground and there are no birds or anything so the only noise you hear is your feet through the leaves (oh and the heavy breathing, kelly is very unfit. - kilimanjaro here i come!) at the monastery though the night life leaves much to be desired. the restaurants closed at 5.30 and there is no tv, so it was cards and books til the late hour of 9. i'm sure all the monks had a little room somewhere where they were sitting around smoking cigars, sipping beers and playing ping-pong, but we couldn't find it.

so the next day we trekked back to sophia. at the hostel a few people were heading out so i invited myself along. we played a few drinking games at the hostel and then headed out. we were looking for a club we had heard of when this local chick told us 'no, come with me. i know the best club in sophia!' so we went. the club was ok. but the chick was messy. she was grabbing guys butts, skanky dancing with whoever was game enough to get on the dance floor and i was in a fantastic position to view the crutchless stockings when she decided to take a short-curt straight over the table.

but it was fun anyway, i had a bit of a jive on the dancefloor, practised my karate kid dance moves (wax off, wax on, paint the fence, paint the fence) and then we went for pizza.

so that was sophia, i didn't make it up to mt vitosha, but ah well. i am in belgrade now, i don't think it has a mountain, but i spent today wandering about the fortress, it is really cool, then i had plans of visiting a couple of museums, but accidently found myself in the main shopping district, so spent a few hours in the various bookstores flicking through all the books with the funny letters.

well, i hope everyone is fine and dandy in their various homes, keep in touch!!