Guess what? Just realised I forgot to tell you all about my last couple of days in London. It was pretty good really, despite the disappointment of not getting to see the northern lights.
Nga (friend I used to work with in Perth) and her brother were in London for the week, so I spent a lot of time hanging out with them and getting to do some of the touristy stuff that I didn't get around to while in London. That included the Tower of London and Tate Modern. Tate Modern was cool, they had this big slide installation. Fuck knows how they can call it art, but the big twirly slide going from the 5th floor to the 1st was good fun. And there were slides going from each of the floors to the first floor, so we tested out each of them.
We also went to the theatre - twice. We went and saw 'We will rock you', which was awesome. I love queen. And the people in it were great, they had the most fantastic voices and the chick was really funny. The whole story was good too and at the end they came out and sung 'bohemian raphsody'. crap i can't spell. 3 months with no working and all drinking and I've gone dum. i mean dumb.
The next night we went and saw 'Wicked' which is the story of how the Wicked Witch of the West came to be. The first half was a bit average. After seeing we will rock you the night before maybe we were expecting a bit much. But the story at the start was a bit 'teen high-school drama' where there is the girl who becomes the bad witch and the girl who becomes the good witch and they hate each other and then they become friends. But then along comes the hot boy and they both want him and they hate each other again. But the second half picked up, you find out how the tin man becomes the tin man and how the scarecrow becomes the scarecrow and it all ties in with the movie pretty well. And the hot guy in it, I think he was called ferrero rocher or something was actually the dude who is from 'coyote ugly' and 'bootmen', so a bit perve-worthy. Pity we were up the back and my noculars weren't that good.
I also had a couple of big nights catching up with people before I left too, which was good. One night I went out with Nga and Peter, my housemate Natalie showed up for a while and Ashleigh and Jasmine who I met in France skiing. I remember drinking shots of vodka with sherbet and telling the guy next door in Nga hotel, sure we'll be quiet. The next day I think I was still drunk as me and Ashleigh went wandering through Hyde park in search of food and ended up at some dodgy cafe in king's cross. That night was my last night in London, so those from the night before all piked and didn't make it out, and a few others piked due to dodgy tubes, but Natalie and Farrah came out and Cliona and her boy tim and Chris from work showed up and later cathy showed up for a bit. So I managed to get myself home at a decent hour, telling Cliona, ring me when you get up to make sure that I don't miss my flight again! which she did, good girl. But i was already up and at 'em. Unknowingly heading to the airport only to be fucked over. But i've told you all about that already. I've been emailing lastminute, but as expected they are all 'it's not our fault' fuckers.
Wednesday, January 24, 2007
Tuesday, January 23, 2007
i am strong
yes, i made it. right to the top, to the summit of mt kilimanjaro. it was hard work, but my guide kept telling me 'kelly, you are strong' and i was like 'i am, i am strong'. but i have to say, we were also pretty lucky, we had perfect weather. on the night we went to the summit, we set out at midnight and the sky was clear and there was no wind at all. and i got to the summit just as the sun was rising, it was awesome. i was so screwed though. i have never been so exhausted. and it was not all fun and games going up the mountain either, my torch went flat so i was walking in the dark and then i started getting altitude sickness. i had a massive headache and i threw up 4 times. but i was kinda thinking, 'headache, throwing up, i get worse hang overs than this!' actually it brought back memories of when i used to go visit lisa in ballarat and i'd wake up hung over as hell and lisa would say, 'c'mon kelly, let's go. it's only a 3k round trip!' which in lisa terms is at least 3k each way. so thanks stilly, you put me in good practise for climbing the mountain.
small tip for you all. if you're ever hiking and it's sunny and you're wearing shorts, remember to sunscreen the backs of your legs. otherwise 3 words for you 'WORLD OF PAIN'. my god, you don't realise how much you like bending over until it hurts to do it. and try using the dirty old squat toilets when the backs of your legs look like their pretty much cooked.
but all in all, the whole hike was good. i was actually in a group by myself, so was hiking alone with my guide Rashid. but i stayed with the same people in the huts at night. 2 dutch chicks and a canadian guy who were all pretty fun. i learnt some new card games, so i'll have to show them to you when i get home.
my guide was really good. he had just finished a safari guide course so was telling me lots of stuff about all the african animals and the plants on the mountain and all that jazz. he also tried teaching me some basic swahili, but i kept forgetting. the one thing i remember is 'pole-pole' (pronounced pol-lay pol-lay) which means slowly-slowly. He kept telling me on the first couple of days, 'pole-pole kelly, you need to go slow for the altitude changes'. but i naturally march around like i'm on a mission, so that was probably the hardest thing for me to do the first couple of days. on the hike to the summit though it wasn't so hard to go pole-pole. we were going so slow it was like; take a step, count to three, take another step. And i was so tired that i thought my feet wouldn't move anymore, so i started imagining that there were pieces of string tied from rashids shoes to my shoes so that whenever he took a step my feet had to go. that way it felt like he was pulling my along and i wasn't so tired.
oh man, but the way back down was good. it took 7 hours to climb up, but only 2 to go down. on the way up all the slope was frozen, but on the way down it was all thick loose rock and soil and when you step on it, you slid down. so i noticed rashid was just sliding with it, kinda like he was skiing. so i thought i'll have a go at that. it was so fun and easy that despite my tiredness i was like 'rashid, let's race'. so we raced down the mountain until i almost came a cropper and thought maybe it would be best to walk for a bit.
anyway, that was my adventures at mt kili. now i am back in nairobi where i am going to hang out my the pool in my hotel until thursday when i can catch up with my safari. they left without me damn it. because of the fuckup with my flights and all i was a day late and now it's going to be two more days before the truck is in a spot where i can find it easy. but that's ok, hopefully all will be sorted.
small tip for you all. if you're ever hiking and it's sunny and you're wearing shorts, remember to sunscreen the backs of your legs. otherwise 3 words for you 'WORLD OF PAIN'. my god, you don't realise how much you like bending over until it hurts to do it. and try using the dirty old squat toilets when the backs of your legs look like their pretty much cooked.
but all in all, the whole hike was good. i was actually in a group by myself, so was hiking alone with my guide Rashid. but i stayed with the same people in the huts at night. 2 dutch chicks and a canadian guy who were all pretty fun. i learnt some new card games, so i'll have to show them to you when i get home.
my guide was really good. he had just finished a safari guide course so was telling me lots of stuff about all the african animals and the plants on the mountain and all that jazz. he also tried teaching me some basic swahili, but i kept forgetting. the one thing i remember is 'pole-pole' (pronounced pol-lay pol-lay) which means slowly-slowly. He kept telling me on the first couple of days, 'pole-pole kelly, you need to go slow for the altitude changes'. but i naturally march around like i'm on a mission, so that was probably the hardest thing for me to do the first couple of days. on the hike to the summit though it wasn't so hard to go pole-pole. we were going so slow it was like; take a step, count to three, take another step. And i was so tired that i thought my feet wouldn't move anymore, so i started imagining that there were pieces of string tied from rashids shoes to my shoes so that whenever he took a step my feet had to go. that way it felt like he was pulling my along and i wasn't so tired.
oh man, but the way back down was good. it took 7 hours to climb up, but only 2 to go down. on the way up all the slope was frozen, but on the way down it was all thick loose rock and soil and when you step on it, you slid down. so i noticed rashid was just sliding with it, kinda like he was skiing. so i thought i'll have a go at that. it was so fun and easy that despite my tiredness i was like 'rashid, let's race'. so we raced down the mountain until i almost came a cropper and thought maybe it would be best to walk for a bit.
anyway, that was my adventures at mt kili. now i am back in nairobi where i am going to hang out my the pool in my hotel until thursday when i can catch up with my safari. they left without me damn it. because of the fuckup with my flights and all i was a day late and now it's going to be two more days before the truck is in a spot where i can find it easy. but that's ok, hopefully all will be sorted.
fuck you lastminute.com
hey guys, gals and misfits,
as it turns out, i shouldn't have made that joke about missing my flight again. i arrived nice and early to fly to nairobi only to discover i'd been fucked over by the people as lastminute.com. i had requested 2 months earlier that they change my paper ticket to and e-ticket as i was not going to have anywhere for them to send a ticket. they said, yeah it's all sorted for you. i get to the airport, there's no e-ticket. i ring last minute, who were so totally unhelpful. i cracked the shits and went and talked to the emirates help desk who said they couldn't do anything because it was last minutes problem. it turns out last minute had sent out my tickets to my old address and let some random person sign for and take my tickets. however, this random was good enough to get in contact with last minute and tell them about it and they made a note of it with my details and then forgot to let me know about it. so then there was nothing they could do and it cost me over 1000 pounds to new tickets. not happy.
anyway, i still got to nairobi, but arrived a day late. so now i have done the kili trek, but have missed the start of the safari and will not be able to catch up with them for 3 more days. what a fucking shambles!
but the kili trek was great. i am so tired now. i got back a couple of hours ago. crap, am running out of internet time. will tell you all about it later.
as it turns out, i shouldn't have made that joke about missing my flight again. i arrived nice and early to fly to nairobi only to discover i'd been fucked over by the people as lastminute.com. i had requested 2 months earlier that they change my paper ticket to and e-ticket as i was not going to have anywhere for them to send a ticket. they said, yeah it's all sorted for you. i get to the airport, there's no e-ticket. i ring last minute, who were so totally unhelpful. i cracked the shits and went and talked to the emirates help desk who said they couldn't do anything because it was last minutes problem. it turns out last minute had sent out my tickets to my old address and let some random person sign for and take my tickets. however, this random was good enough to get in contact with last minute and tell them about it and they made a note of it with my details and then forgot to let me know about it. so then there was nothing they could do and it cost me over 1000 pounds to new tickets. not happy.
anyway, i still got to nairobi, but arrived a day late. so now i have done the kili trek, but have missed the start of the safari and will not be able to catch up with them for 3 more days. what a fucking shambles!
but the kili trek was great. i am so tired now. i got back a couple of hours ago. crap, am running out of internet time. will tell you all about it later.
Sunday, January 14, 2007
off to safari-land
Tomorrow!! Already, off to Africa for safari and to climb mt kili and see mountain gorillas. Yay. 5 weeks and I will be back home. That's if I don't sleep in and miss my flight again! I can't believe my big long holidays are already nearly over. It's terrible. But that's ok, I'll just have to start planning my next trip. I've got some big plans for this year and it does involve a fair amount of holidaying.
So I fly out to Nairobi tomorrow and then spend a week trying to climb up a fucking big hill know as Mt Kilimanjaro. I really hope I make it as I am so ultra unfit at the moment. The lovely Rikki-Lee had a crack at it last month and went up to 5000 metres, so hopefully I'll get that far so she can't lay too much shit on me.
Then a 4 week safari that ends in Zanzibar so I will get to do some diving which will be great. I can't wait to see the mountain gorillas, it's going to be so cool. And hippos, and rhinos, and elephants. Ohh, better recharge my camera batteries before I forget.
Catch ya all later.
So I fly out to Nairobi tomorrow and then spend a week trying to climb up a fucking big hill know as Mt Kilimanjaro. I really hope I make it as I am so ultra unfit at the moment. The lovely Rikki-Lee had a crack at it last month and went up to 5000 metres, so hopefully I'll get that far so she can't lay too much shit on me.
Then a 4 week safari that ends in Zanzibar so I will get to do some diving which will be great. I can't wait to see the mountain gorillas, it's going to be so cool. And hippos, and rhinos, and elephants. Ohh, better recharge my camera batteries before I forget.
Catch ya all later.
now for the answers.
hey everyone,
i'm pleased to report that there has been a lot of feedback and people playing the sex or torture game. although i must say that a lot of you seem to have sex on the brain, dirty kids. anyway here are the answers.
Q1. When I saw this I was like 'ha ha it looks like mum!', but Cliona also suggested an uncanny resemblence to Dargan one of the girls I play footy with.
Q2. This was in the sex museum, the big dildo's hanging off it everywhere were probably a bit of a give away with this one.
Q3. This is a chastity belt and it was actually found in BOTH museums. It was said that it was a self-inflicted torture women suffered rather than being raped when out on the road.
Q4. This was in the torture museum. It was used to screw your head until your skull cracked.
Q5. This was in the sex museum. It is an anti-masturbation device, so in all fairness it probably should be in the torture museum.
Q6. This was in the torture museum. It was basically used to hold people so you could do nasty shit to them.
i'm pleased to report that there has been a lot of feedback and people playing the sex or torture game. although i must say that a lot of you seem to have sex on the brain, dirty kids. anyway here are the answers.
Q1. When I saw this I was like 'ha ha it looks like mum!', but Cliona also suggested an uncanny resemblence to Dargan one of the girls I play footy with.
Q2. This was in the sex museum, the big dildo's hanging off it everywhere were probably a bit of a give away with this one.
Q3. This is a chastity belt and it was actually found in BOTH museums. It was said that it was a self-inflicted torture women suffered rather than being raped when out on the road.
Q4. This was in the torture museum. It was used to screw your head until your skull cracked.
Q5. This was in the sex museum. It is an anti-masturbation device, so in all fairness it probably should be in the torture museum.
Q6. This was in the torture museum. It was basically used to hold people so you could do nasty shit to them.
Tuesday, January 09, 2007
game time kids
hey people,
i've finally got some time (some dumb arse slept in and missed their flight to iceland) and a decent computer (yay Natalie and Farrah for letting kelly doss) so now i can get some photos up.
remember i mentioned the game i wanted to play, sex versus torture. the rules are, i put up some pictures and you guess whether they came from the sex museum or the torture museum and what the hell you think it is. you can add your answers as a comment and i'll let you guys know later where they come from.
Q1. This is a fridge magnet of a prosti in amsterdam. who do we think this looks like?
Q2. Sex or torture?
Q3. Sex or torture?
Q4. Sex or torture?
Q5. Sex or torture?
Q6. Sex or torture?
i've finally got some time (some dumb arse slept in and missed their flight to iceland) and a decent computer (yay Natalie and Farrah for letting kelly doss) so now i can get some photos up.
remember i mentioned the game i wanted to play, sex versus torture. the rules are, i put up some pictures and you guess whether they came from the sex museum or the torture museum and what the hell you think it is. you can add your answers as a comment and i'll let you guys know later where they come from.
Q1. This is a fridge magnet of a prosti in amsterdam. who do we think this looks like?
Q2. Sex or torture?
Q3. Sex or torture?
Q4. Sex or torture?
Q5. Sex or torture?
Q6. Sex or torture?
Sunday, January 07, 2007
Kelly can ski now ... kinda, sorta, when she hasn't been drinking too much
Happy New Year Everyone
I hope everyone had a good new years and got up to a bit of mischief. I rang in the new years in vars which is in the french alps. There was a dj playing outside and we were dancing in the snow and drinking red wine from a coconut called milky joe. -- its ok, its not supposed to make sense. there was also the crappest fireworks display i've ever seen. (some of you family members may remember one night when uncle paul let go a couple of fireworks and one fell over and headed straight for the hayshed - it was about that impressive.)
Vars was great fun, we skied in the day and partied all night. The whole hostel was up till all hours every night. At 4pm new years morning I having drinks in some random room and wearing a santa suite thinking, oh crap Ive got a ski lesson in the morning! So I powered on and did get up and go to my lesson. I was pretty happy with my skiing efforts over the week. Admittedly I was in the group for the unco-ordinated (and was the worst in the group! - Ashleigh, you weren't far behind me though!!), but by the end of the week we were up at the top of the mountain and I could successfully get down the slopes without falling flat on my arse!
Skiing is so much fun. I am definately going to have to try it out a bit more when I get back to Melb. You Vicko's we're gonna have to do a ski trip this year.
Anyway, despite the average start to the tour where the 18 hour bus trip turned into a 24 hour bus trip and we missed out on our first lesson, the whole trip was grand. I really wish I had another week. Although I don't know whether my crappy dodgy knee would have handled it - but then it can't even handle a big night out at temple walkie, so we're not going to be too concerned about it.
There were a few different people on the tour. I mainly hung out with a group of girls and guys who had an odd habit of naming fruit and then later cannibalising it. There was the scot/aussie boys from room 206 who would have parties in their room every night and thought that taking a toboggan down the stair case at 5am would be a great idea. funny stuff.
The guys in my room were good value too. Fuck I have not laughed so much in a long time. From having one suffering alcohol-induced tb and wanting to sleep in the hall because he insisted he wasnt in our room, to a visitor in superhero fancy dress insisting he'd left his undies in our room, a guy who if asked to describe himself in one word would use 'wow' and me amusing myself greatly by abusing the dirty saffa's (some jokes just don't ever get old do they?).
Oh yeah, Kent, I met a guy who went to school with you. Small world hey? His name was Adam someone, can't remember at the moment.
Anyway, it was a big trip back as well. So I am pretty much screwed from lack of sleep and the drinking and all the skiing (gee, i was in a world of pain after the first day - although i was surprised when my legs weren't sore, but my arms and boob muscles were killing me), but will get to have a good nights rest at Natalie and Farrah's before heading to Iceland in the morning.
Can't wait, I want to see Aurora Borealis, but I better not fly through it or the Langoliers will get me. For those who don't know, Langoliers are big black flying heads with sharp snappy teeth that eat up everything when you go into the past by flying through the Aurora Borealis. It was in a movie so it must be true.
So keep in touch kids and let me know how your new years went.
I hope everyone had a good new years and got up to a bit of mischief. I rang in the new years in vars which is in the french alps. There was a dj playing outside and we were dancing in the snow and drinking red wine from a coconut called milky joe. -- its ok, its not supposed to make sense. there was also the crappest fireworks display i've ever seen. (some of you family members may remember one night when uncle paul let go a couple of fireworks and one fell over and headed straight for the hayshed - it was about that impressive.)
Vars was great fun, we skied in the day and partied all night. The whole hostel was up till all hours every night. At 4pm new years morning I having drinks in some random room and wearing a santa suite thinking, oh crap Ive got a ski lesson in the morning! So I powered on and did get up and go to my lesson. I was pretty happy with my skiing efforts over the week. Admittedly I was in the group for the unco-ordinated (and was the worst in the group! - Ashleigh, you weren't far behind me though!!), but by the end of the week we were up at the top of the mountain and I could successfully get down the slopes without falling flat on my arse!
Skiing is so much fun. I am definately going to have to try it out a bit more when I get back to Melb. You Vicko's we're gonna have to do a ski trip this year.
Anyway, despite the average start to the tour where the 18 hour bus trip turned into a 24 hour bus trip and we missed out on our first lesson, the whole trip was grand. I really wish I had another week. Although I don't know whether my crappy dodgy knee would have handled it - but then it can't even handle a big night out at temple walkie, so we're not going to be too concerned about it.
There were a few different people on the tour. I mainly hung out with a group of girls and guys who had an odd habit of naming fruit and then later cannibalising it. There was the scot/aussie boys from room 206 who would have parties in their room every night and thought that taking a toboggan down the stair case at 5am would be a great idea. funny stuff.
The guys in my room were good value too. Fuck I have not laughed so much in a long time. From having one suffering alcohol-induced tb and wanting to sleep in the hall because he insisted he wasnt in our room, to a visitor in superhero fancy dress insisting he'd left his undies in our room, a guy who if asked to describe himself in one word would use 'wow' and me amusing myself greatly by abusing the dirty saffa's (some jokes just don't ever get old do they?).
Oh yeah, Kent, I met a guy who went to school with you. Small world hey? His name was Adam someone, can't remember at the moment.
Anyway, it was a big trip back as well. So I am pretty much screwed from lack of sleep and the drinking and all the skiing (gee, i was in a world of pain after the first day - although i was surprised when my legs weren't sore, but my arms and boob muscles were killing me), but will get to have a good nights rest at Natalie and Farrah's before heading to Iceland in the morning.
Can't wait, I want to see Aurora Borealis, but I better not fly through it or the Langoliers will get me. For those who don't know, Langoliers are big black flying heads with sharp snappy teeth that eat up everything when you go into the past by flying through the Aurora Borealis. It was in a movie so it must be true.
So keep in touch kids and let me know how your new years went.
Saturday, December 30, 2006
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!
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!
Sunday, December 24, 2006
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.
Saturday, December 23, 2006
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.
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.
Thursday, December 21, 2006
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!!
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!!
Sunday, December 10, 2006
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.
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.
Tuesday, December 05, 2006
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!!
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!!
Thursday, November 30, 2006
hindi hindi gobble gobble
hey guys,
i am writing today from sophia in bulgaria. it's a cute little city about the same size as perth but at the bottom of a mountain. i am going up the mountain tomorrow. i left istanbul yesterday. the tour had finished a couple of days before but i spent an extra couple of days wandering the bazaars and all the little antique shops. i can't wait til next year when i'm a millionaire and i can come back to turkey and do a big road trip around the whole lot and then buy my antique mother of pearl binoculars and a 50,000 euro silk carpet that will probably look dumb in my house so it will live with mum and lots of handmade turkish pottery that is only like 300 euro for a plate or 500 euro for a handbag wine bottle.
what the hell is kelly on about you ask. what the hell is a handbag wine bottle. well my friends, kelly is not insane...yet. although talking about yourself in third person is usually a good sign of up and coming maddness. but what i call a handbag wine bottle is a ceramic wine bottle that has a circle bit that you put your arm through and then you wear it on your shoulder to pour drinks. a nice step up from the old hip flask i reckon. i probably didn't explain it to well. i will try to get a photo of one up.
anyway, turkey was great. it is a beautiful country. istanbul is a very modern city and all nice and clean and big step back towards normality after the chaos of cairo. our tour was fairly small, there were 10 of us and 2 of them, saffa's ruth and miles, i already knew because they were on my egypt tour. coincidence, i think not.
the others on the tour were the usual influx of aussies and kiwis and a couple from bahrain which was pretty cool.
so the 10 of us, our tour guide gokhan (damn i kept forgetting to wear my dragon ball z tee when he was around) and out bus driver zekki set off. we went to gallipoli which was good to see but bloody freezing, but i didn't let that stop me from running about getting photos of myself hiding in trenches.
um, i couldn't be bothered writing the whole lot and you are probably getting bored by now, so i'll just do the highlights. gallipoli i already mentioned, the blue mosque was pretty impressive and the basilica cistern i liked. ephesus was good, it's old ruins but a lot of them have been restored and look really good, my favourite part is the public toilets. a long slab of marble with a number of holes in it and water flowing underneath to get rid of everything. some quality photo opportunities there. Hieropolis the necropolis was pretty cool too along with the calcium pools which are these hot springs flowing into these big white calcium cliffs and you can wander about through the water bare footed.
cappadocia was the big favourite though. it looks just like something out of star wars (probably because it was in the first (episode iv) star wars. all these big massive cliff and ravines and there are buildings cut into the cliffs everywhere. it looks like a big human ant hill, especially from the hot air balloon. the hot air balloon was awesome.
anyway, again i am promising photos. but really turkey was great and i would love to go back or have stayed longer, but there are other places to get to. so i am in bulgaria for probably 5 days and then probably belgrade or budapest or somewhere like that. i did want to go to romania, but you need to have a visa before you leave for that, so poo on that plan.
well, keep in touch kids.
i am writing today from sophia in bulgaria. it's a cute little city about the same size as perth but at the bottom of a mountain. i am going up the mountain tomorrow. i left istanbul yesterday. the tour had finished a couple of days before but i spent an extra couple of days wandering the bazaars and all the little antique shops. i can't wait til next year when i'm a millionaire and i can come back to turkey and do a big road trip around the whole lot and then buy my antique mother of pearl binoculars and a 50,000 euro silk carpet that will probably look dumb in my house so it will live with mum and lots of handmade turkish pottery that is only like 300 euro for a plate or 500 euro for a handbag wine bottle.
what the hell is kelly on about you ask. what the hell is a handbag wine bottle. well my friends, kelly is not insane...yet. although talking about yourself in third person is usually a good sign of up and coming maddness. but what i call a handbag wine bottle is a ceramic wine bottle that has a circle bit that you put your arm through and then you wear it on your shoulder to pour drinks. a nice step up from the old hip flask i reckon. i probably didn't explain it to well. i will try to get a photo of one up.
anyway, turkey was great. it is a beautiful country. istanbul is a very modern city and all nice and clean and big step back towards normality after the chaos of cairo. our tour was fairly small, there were 10 of us and 2 of them, saffa's ruth and miles, i already knew because they were on my egypt tour. coincidence, i think not.
the others on the tour were the usual influx of aussies and kiwis and a couple from bahrain which was pretty cool.
so the 10 of us, our tour guide gokhan (damn i kept forgetting to wear my dragon ball z tee when he was around) and out bus driver zekki set off. we went to gallipoli which was good to see but bloody freezing, but i didn't let that stop me from running about getting photos of myself hiding in trenches.
um, i couldn't be bothered writing the whole lot and you are probably getting bored by now, so i'll just do the highlights. gallipoli i already mentioned, the blue mosque was pretty impressive and the basilica cistern i liked. ephesus was good, it's old ruins but a lot of them have been restored and look really good, my favourite part is the public toilets. a long slab of marble with a number of holes in it and water flowing underneath to get rid of everything. some quality photo opportunities there. Hieropolis the necropolis was pretty cool too along with the calcium pools which are these hot springs flowing into these big white calcium cliffs and you can wander about through the water bare footed.
cappadocia was the big favourite though. it looks just like something out of star wars (probably because it was in the first (episode iv) star wars. all these big massive cliff and ravines and there are buildings cut into the cliffs everywhere. it looks like a big human ant hill, especially from the hot air balloon. the hot air balloon was awesome.
anyway, again i am promising photos. but really turkey was great and i would love to go back or have stayed longer, but there are other places to get to. so i am in bulgaria for probably 5 days and then probably belgrade or budapest or somewhere like that. i did want to go to romania, but you need to have a visa before you leave for that, so poo on that plan.
well, keep in touch kids.
Monday, November 20, 2006
guess who is a wanker
that´s rıght. ıt´s kelly.
who else, in the second week of their 4 month trip, would spend half the day ın a police office gettıng a statement about their camera that they managed to misplace and then have to spend the next day putting a new one of their trusty credit card?
and no, as my lovely mother who always thinks the best of me asked, i was not drunk. just stupid.
anyway, all is not lost, the ever thoughtful rıkki-lee made a copy of all my photos when we were in luxor, so i´ve only lost the photos from dahab and should be able to get some photos from some of the other guys on the tour.
so yesterday i arrived in istanbul where i am starting a new tour. our tour group here ıs pretty small, there ıs only 10 of us and two of them were actually on my egypt tour whıch ıs a pretty cool coıncıdence. and as well as that there ıs a couple from bahraın (a place ın the mıddle east) whıch makes a nıce change from the usual ınflux of aussıes and kıwıs. our tour guide is good, not out-there like sherıf, but good anyway. his name is gokhan which makes me think of dragon ball z.
tomorrow we head off to gallıpolı which is the must do for every good aussie and kiwi when on tour. then we do a bit of a loop around to cappadoccıa whıch has all these underground cıtıes and stuff and then back up through ankara whıch ıs the capital of turkey (news to me, i thought ıt was ıstanbul) and then we end back ın ıstanbul.
wıll keep you posted and hopefully will get some photos up soon.
who else, in the second week of their 4 month trip, would spend half the day ın a police office gettıng a statement about their camera that they managed to misplace and then have to spend the next day putting a new one of their trusty credit card?
and no, as my lovely mother who always thinks the best of me asked, i was not drunk. just stupid.
anyway, all is not lost, the ever thoughtful rıkki-lee made a copy of all my photos when we were in luxor, so i´ve only lost the photos from dahab and should be able to get some photos from some of the other guys on the tour.
so yesterday i arrived in istanbul where i am starting a new tour. our tour group here ıs pretty small, there ıs only 10 of us and two of them were actually on my egypt tour whıch ıs a pretty cool coıncıdence. and as well as that there ıs a couple from bahraın (a place ın the mıddle east) whıch makes a nıce change from the usual ınflux of aussıes and kıwıs. our tour guide is good, not out-there like sherıf, but good anyway. his name is gokhan which makes me think of dragon ball z.
tomorrow we head off to gallıpolı which is the must do for every good aussie and kiwi when on tour. then we do a bit of a loop around to cappadoccıa whıch has all these underground cıtıes and stuff and then back up through ankara whıch ıs the capital of turkey (news to me, i thought ıt was ıstanbul) and then we end back ın ıstanbul.
wıll keep you posted and hopefully will get some photos up soon.
Friday, November 17, 2006
Sherif the tour guide.
So the tour was great, but the thing that really made it great was our tour guide Sherif. It was an absolute pisser. A fantastic mix of facts and stories, someone who is keen to share knowledge of their country and totally full of shit all at once! It you are planning to do Egypt, I definately recommend going with 'On the go' tours and then begging to go with Sherif.
He was really good at keeping the group keen and interested and involved. whenever we got to an attraction ie. temple, pyramid, flushing toilet. he would say 'laddies and gentlemens, this is the time you have been waiting for all your livesm get excited, it's ...' and we would all cheer. At the temples and stuff, other tour guides would carry something to lift up so people could find them. Sherif said he was big enough to see, being the ex-body builder and current belly-builder that he is, and if he wanted the group to gather he would just started yelling 'group b! group b'. one of the best things though was if he noticed someone not from the group trying to listen in, he would suddenly start talking about when the aliens came from the sky and taught the egyptians to build the pyramids until they left, it was so funny. one cracker was when we were with another group (group a) in Karnak Temple. sherif and hany kept telling us about how there was a bond movie and an indiana jones movie in Karnak temple. and sherif and hany are standing at different corners and pretending to be bond and indiana jones, slow-motion running towards each other and sherif is saying 'and he runs from here, and he runs from there, and they running and they running and the running' then when they get really close you're thinking it's going to be a bond-jone show-down, but he says 'but they don't meet, coz they in different movies!' i nearly wet myself, i think it may be one of those, you had to be there things.
anyway, off to turkey this evening, will keep you posted.
He was really good at keeping the group keen and interested and involved. whenever we got to an attraction ie. temple, pyramid, flushing toilet. he would say 'laddies and gentlemens, this is the time you have been waiting for all your livesm get excited, it's ...' and we would all cheer. At the temples and stuff, other tour guides would carry something to lift up so people could find them. Sherif said he was big enough to see, being the ex-body builder and current belly-builder that he is, and if he wanted the group to gather he would just started yelling 'group b! group b'. one of the best things though was if he noticed someone not from the group trying to listen in, he would suddenly start talking about when the aliens came from the sky and taught the egyptians to build the pyramids until they left, it was so funny. one cracker was when we were with another group (group a) in Karnak Temple. sherif and hany kept telling us about how there was a bond movie and an indiana jones movie in Karnak temple. and sherif and hany are standing at different corners and pretending to be bond and indiana jones, slow-motion running towards each other and sherif is saying 'and he runs from here, and he runs from there, and they running and they running and the running' then when they get really close you're thinking it's going to be a bond-jone show-down, but he says 'but they don't meet, coz they in different movies!' i nearly wet myself, i think it may be one of those, you had to be there things.
anyway, off to turkey this evening, will keep you posted.
Egypt
My Egypt trip has been great... despite a major case of the trots and less than ideal toilet facilities, but we won't get into that too much, except to say that it is pretty bad when one of the better places you get to poop is in some poor guys banana field.
I flew into Cairo and am now spending a couple of days at the end of the tour here as well. Cairo is just so surreal. I think the roads pretty much give you a picture of what the whole city is like. Huge and filthy and the rich and the poor all thrown in together and trying to get about as quick as possible. A taxi ride in Cairo is similiar to rally driving, it's very exciting. In Cairo, you have a massive highway, 3 lanes each way, and you will have taxis and cars weaving in and out of lanes, no blinkers, you just toot your horn and go, and if you can't decided which lane to sit in, just sit in the middle until you decide.
But then you are not only weaving in and out of other cars and buses, there will also be scooters, bicycles, a couple of guys with donkeys and carts, mini-vans so full that people are hanging out of the doors, once i seen a herd of sheep. Then the pedestrians will take a look and think, this looks like a great place to cross! The first time i crossed a road here i was sure i was going to die, and I know I said the same thing about Rome, but this was way worse. A hundred times. But it was cool, I just place another person, a local, preferably a mother and child or someone with a disability between me and the oncoming traffic and bolt across the lanes when they do. Easy.
The tour itself was great. We visited the Pyramids and the Sphinx in Cairo, then we went to Aswan where we went to Abu Simbel, the Aswan High Dam which is the biggest man-made lake in the world, the Temple of Pilae and then spent 2 days floating down the Nile on a felucca. Abu Simbel was absolutely amazing. The statues are massive, and not only is the building of them just 'wow', but in the 70's the Egyptian government acutally moved them as they were going to be drowned with the building of the dam. The temple of Abu Simble was one of my favourite things, the statues reminded me of 'the oracles' in the never ending story, I kept thinking they were going to open their eyes and shoot me with lazers.
The felucca ride was great too. So relaxing and such a beautiful part of Egypt, especially in comparison to their filth-ridden cities. it was especially good as me and rikki weren't feeling so well. Rikki was so bad she had to get an injection to stop the nausea and take some anitbiotics. Me though, I too tough for that.
Next we went from Kom Ombo to Luxor. We had to get the police convoy for this. The police convoy is a bit of a money maker for the Egyptian government started after some tourist bus got shot-up or something. It's all part of what I like to call Egypt's 'Illusion of Security'. I mean, they have 60-70 buses in the convoy and half a dozen police cars scattered along the way. If someone wanted tourists, it's like take your pick. They also have quality metal detectors everywhere. They beep for almost every person and the guys on the door don't look twice at anyone. In one airport there were two sets of metal detectors, both going off randomly for different people. Or when we went to the Pyramids, our tour guide Sherif says 'please leave your bombs on the bus while you go through security'. We all get off the bus, go through the metal detectors, then get back on the bus, which has driven through with no-one looking twice at it! Funny.
We also went to the Valley of the Kings. It is sensational and changes your whole image of what every temple and tomb you've already seen would have looked like. You see all these carvings and you think, wow and imagine the stone walls and columns etc complete. Then in the Valley of the Kings you realise, 'oh shit', everything was actually painted and coloured and you're just 'wowed' all over again.
After all that I left Rikki :( in Luxor where she was heading back to Cairo and I went to Dahab with the rest of the crew. Dahab was great, diving that equals the Barrier Reef and we climbed Mt Sinai, which so far is the absolute highlight of my trip. We climbed it in the middle of the night so that we would get there for sunrise. It is 2100 and something metres, the 4th highest mountain in Africa. Mustafa, our guide, was pretty happy with us as we powered it up the mountain and did the whole climb in 1.5 hours (it usually take 2-3 hours). I ended up being in the first half dozen to the top, so i was pretty happy with that effort. So we scored ourselves a pretty good possie to watch the sunrise. The only problem was it was on a hill at the edge of the cliff and I went to sleep and when I woke up 20 minutes later, I had slid a metre down my matress. I was like 'oh crap, glad i didn't sleep much longer'. I have so say, the hikinh up the mountain by torchlight was well worth the effort, even the 760 steps at the end. It was one of the most spectacular sunrises I have ever seen. I'm sure the photos won't do it justice.
I flew into Cairo and am now spending a couple of days at the end of the tour here as well. Cairo is just so surreal. I think the roads pretty much give you a picture of what the whole city is like. Huge and filthy and the rich and the poor all thrown in together and trying to get about as quick as possible. A taxi ride in Cairo is similiar to rally driving, it's very exciting. In Cairo, you have a massive highway, 3 lanes each way, and you will have taxis and cars weaving in and out of lanes, no blinkers, you just toot your horn and go, and if you can't decided which lane to sit in, just sit in the middle until you decide.
But then you are not only weaving in and out of other cars and buses, there will also be scooters, bicycles, a couple of guys with donkeys and carts, mini-vans so full that people are hanging out of the doors, once i seen a herd of sheep. Then the pedestrians will take a look and think, this looks like a great place to cross! The first time i crossed a road here i was sure i was going to die, and I know I said the same thing about Rome, but this was way worse. A hundred times. But it was cool, I just place another person, a local, preferably a mother and child or someone with a disability between me and the oncoming traffic and bolt across the lanes when they do. Easy.
The tour itself was great. We visited the Pyramids and the Sphinx in Cairo, then we went to Aswan where we went to Abu Simbel, the Aswan High Dam which is the biggest man-made lake in the world, the Temple of Pilae and then spent 2 days floating down the Nile on a felucca. Abu Simbel was absolutely amazing. The statues are massive, and not only is the building of them just 'wow', but in the 70's the Egyptian government acutally moved them as they were going to be drowned with the building of the dam. The temple of Abu Simble was one of my favourite things, the statues reminded me of 'the oracles' in the never ending story, I kept thinking they were going to open their eyes and shoot me with lazers.
The felucca ride was great too. So relaxing and such a beautiful part of Egypt, especially in comparison to their filth-ridden cities. it was especially good as me and rikki weren't feeling so well. Rikki was so bad she had to get an injection to stop the nausea and take some anitbiotics. Me though, I too tough for that.
Next we went from Kom Ombo to Luxor. We had to get the police convoy for this. The police convoy is a bit of a money maker for the Egyptian government started after some tourist bus got shot-up or something. It's all part of what I like to call Egypt's 'Illusion of Security'. I mean, they have 60-70 buses in the convoy and half a dozen police cars scattered along the way. If someone wanted tourists, it's like take your pick. They also have quality metal detectors everywhere. They beep for almost every person and the guys on the door don't look twice at anyone. In one airport there were two sets of metal detectors, both going off randomly for different people. Or when we went to the Pyramids, our tour guide Sherif says 'please leave your bombs on the bus while you go through security'. We all get off the bus, go through the metal detectors, then get back on the bus, which has driven through with no-one looking twice at it! Funny.
We also went to the Valley of the Kings. It is sensational and changes your whole image of what every temple and tomb you've already seen would have looked like. You see all these carvings and you think, wow and imagine the stone walls and columns etc complete. Then in the Valley of the Kings you realise, 'oh shit', everything was actually painted and coloured and you're just 'wowed' all over again.
After all that I left Rikki :( in Luxor where she was heading back to Cairo and I went to Dahab with the rest of the crew. Dahab was great, diving that equals the Barrier Reef and we climbed Mt Sinai, which so far is the absolute highlight of my trip. We climbed it in the middle of the night so that we would get there for sunrise. It is 2100 and something metres, the 4th highest mountain in Africa. Mustafa, our guide, was pretty happy with us as we powered it up the mountain and did the whole climb in 1.5 hours (it usually take 2-3 hours). I ended up being in the first half dozen to the top, so i was pretty happy with that effort. So we scored ourselves a pretty good possie to watch the sunrise. The only problem was it was on a hill at the edge of the cliff and I went to sleep and when I woke up 20 minutes later, I had slid a metre down my matress. I was like 'oh crap, glad i didn't sleep much longer'. I have so say, the hikinh up the mountain by torchlight was well worth the effort, even the 760 steps at the end. It was one of the most spectacular sunrises I have ever seen. I'm sure the photos won't do it justice.
Saturday, November 04, 2006
THE PLAN
Hey everyone,
As I may have mentioned before in my blog, various emails and repeatedly to anyone who I come into contact with, I am taking 4 months off before heading home. Finally I have started to organise myself, and it's about time as I am leaving TOMORROW. So here it is. THE PLAN
First leg is Egypt with the one and only Rikki-Lee where we tour around for 10 days soaking up the sun, visit the pyramids, float down the nile on a felucca and do the mandatory camel riding. After this it's bye bye Rikki as she is off to Africa and then home to Cairns. For me, I'm going to hang about in Egypt a bit more, head down to Dahab for a few days and do some diving.
From Dahab I return to Cairo and fly to Istanbul for a 10 day tour of turkey, including Gallipoli and Cappa..something (which looks pretty cool, despite the fact I can't remember what it is called.
From Istanbul the plan is to have no plan. I'm just gonna wing it for a bit and see where that gets me. For the week around new years I have booked a ski tour in France and just before that I am thinking going to Iceland. Then I will be back in London for a few days where I will get to catch up with those left behind in London and Nga who will be holidaying at the same time as me.
From jan 14 I am flying out to Nairobi and doing a week tour to climb Mt Kilimanjaro and then a 4 week tour of Kenya and Uganda which does all the safari stuff and goes to see the Mountain Gorillas and ends in Zanzibar where there are lots of dolphins and diving and all that beachy stuff I love.
So there it is, and I leave in approximately 12 hours. Yay.
I really wanted to tell you guys about my trip to Ireland last weekend and my work leaving drinks and stuff, but I don't have time now. So maybe tomorrow. I also wanted to put more pics up, but couldn't coz i sent my laptop home, so you'll have to wait til i take some more.
Anyway, will write again real soon. See ya
As I may have mentioned before in my blog, various emails and repeatedly to anyone who I come into contact with, I am taking 4 months off before heading home. Finally I have started to organise myself, and it's about time as I am leaving TOMORROW. So here it is. THE PLAN
First leg is Egypt with the one and only Rikki-Lee where we tour around for 10 days soaking up the sun, visit the pyramids, float down the nile on a felucca and do the mandatory camel riding. After this it's bye bye Rikki as she is off to Africa and then home to Cairns. For me, I'm going to hang about in Egypt a bit more, head down to Dahab for a few days and do some diving.
From Dahab I return to Cairo and fly to Istanbul for a 10 day tour of turkey, including Gallipoli and Cappa..something (which looks pretty cool, despite the fact I can't remember what it is called.
From Istanbul the plan is to have no plan. I'm just gonna wing it for a bit and see where that gets me. For the week around new years I have booked a ski tour in France and just before that I am thinking going to Iceland. Then I will be back in London for a few days where I will get to catch up with those left behind in London and Nga who will be holidaying at the same time as me.
From jan 14 I am flying out to Nairobi and doing a week tour to climb Mt Kilimanjaro and then a 4 week tour of Kenya and Uganda which does all the safari stuff and goes to see the Mountain Gorillas and ends in Zanzibar where there are lots of dolphins and diving and all that beachy stuff I love.
So there it is, and I leave in approximately 12 hours. Yay.
I really wanted to tell you guys about my trip to Ireland last weekend and my work leaving drinks and stuff, but I don't have time now. So maybe tomorrow. I also wanted to put more pics up, but couldn't coz i sent my laptop home, so you'll have to wait til i take some more.
Anyway, will write again real soon. See ya
Thursday, October 26, 2006
On Ya Bike
Hi guys, I have been ever so slack in writing, but it's not my fault, we have no internet at home and I've been busy at work trying to finish up as I only have a week left at work and 9 sleeps until Rikki and I go to Egypt.
So now I'll give you the low-down of our last trip. Rikki and I went to Krakow, Berlin, Basel and then finished up in Munich for Oktoberfest which was fantastic.
In Krakow Rikki and I did a bike tour and we enjoyed it so much that we were doing bike tours everywhere we went.
The first day Rikki and I got to Krakow we met an aussie guy, Luke, who was meeting his friend, George, in Krakow. We pretty much hung out with them the whole weekend. Funny guys. We went out to the Salt Mine which was pretty cool. 130 metres deep and theres about 200 kilometres of tunnels. And there are chapels and chandeliers and a big dwarf statues and 3-d carvings in the walls. So cool, and the rickety little elevator that took you back up was so fast and so scary. Rikki also ran into a couple who she met in Greece 3 months ago & they came out with us that night, then while we were out they ran into some Canadian chicks from their hostel, so we had a cool little group to hang out with for the night. We went to a cool little club which hwas on a list of bars and clubs that Magda had given me. Magda is a friend of mine in London who is from Poland.
Berlin is a big dirty city, a bit like London, I've never seen so much graffitit before. When we first came out of the tube, I was all 'oh crap rikki, i don't think we're in the best part of town' but it was good fun. But we’ve met some cool people on our bike tour, mostly aussies again. I went out with them but Rikki piked because she was tired, but it was a Sunday night so it was fairly quiet anyway. However, we still ended up out til 3am and saw a couple of cool dj’s playing in this club in this old decrepit building where the only person dancing was this 80yo guy with a beard that made him look like santa.
Berlin was also the first time I've had someone come home pissed and spewed everywhere. The dude from reception cleaned it up for the lazy fucker. Then the dirty bugger just threw up again & was not going to clean it up. But I sorted him. I yelled at him and then went and slapped him on the leg. Boy did he jump up quick then. So funny.
Basel is on the border of Switzerland, France and Germany. I really wanted to go to Black Forest. So we went to Freiburg, just across the border in Germany and hired bikes. We rode out of town along the river, so pretty and clean and nice buildings and stuff. And we also went in a cable car and hiked up to this cool lookout. So it was a good day and we did some fun stuff, but it was too far away to go to the waterfalls and the fairy tale castle and forest and lake constance. So I guess I’ll have to come back.
Rikki and I got to Munich, or as I like to call it Munchen, about 11.30 Thursday night, thinking we’ll just go to the hostel and have a good night sleep before we get into Oktoberfest. But it was not to be.
We were checking into the hostel and there were people everywhere and the bar at the hostel was packed and the music was pumping. Then the reception guy walks in and looks at me like ‘oh my god, it’s you’ and was pointing at me. I was like ‘what the fuck?’ Luckily I realised he was shit-stirring so I said, ‘Don’t you point at me like that, I don’t know you!’ and he laughed and said people fall for it all the time. Then he checked us in and gave us monopoly money for a free beer at the bar. So we decided to go just for one.
Five drinks later, it was 2.30 and Rikki and I snuck off to bed with our Munchen pints glasses as souveneirs. Not quite a stein, but a good effort in theft anyway.
So Friday we got up early and went to our other hostel along with a kiwi guy called Daniel, then we went on a walking tour. It was good, but there seemed to be a bit of product placement in it. The guy was pointing out certain souvenier stores and shops and restaurants which seemed out of place. But the best bit was definitely the big park with the rive through it where there was a fake surf break created in the river & guys surfing it. They were all lining up and surfing across the river. It was so cool. One of my favourite things I’ve seen.
So then we went and had some lunch and a beer in a pub. I think we ate a whole pig between the three of us. Boy, they love their pork in Germany. (Matt I took some food photos for you)
Then in the evening we found Tim the Tourman and a few others and we went to Oktoberfest. It was so cool. There were people everywhere, lots of families and stuff too. There were rides and stalls and head and heaps of people all dressed in the Germany costumes. The boys in the leather pants and the girls in the busty dresses. On the hill out the back were people passed out everywhere. So we wandered through a few beer halls looking for a seat. They are absolutely massive and decorated so grandly and there are bands playing in them and stuff. But you can only get a beer if you are sitting down. And we couldn’t find a seat. Finally we were out in one of the beer gardens. And we managed to squeeze a couple of us onto the end of a table full of Italians so we could order drinks. So we ordered beers for everyone and then moved back off the table so the Italians could fit back in.
Then a table of Germans seen us and let us squeeze in with them. One of them was called Ebil, so I was like ‘Ebil? Ebil like the debil or ebil like ebil kineable?’ Me Funny. Anyway, a stein later and we were singing songs and chatting away to everyone within 4 tables of us. There was lots of ‘hey baby’ and ‘seven nation army’ sung. Lots of Germans and Italians, they were all so friendly and fun and not bothered that we knew no German.
Later in the night we managed to get into a beer all, but I was on my 3rd stein by then so it was all a bit blurry and afterwards we went to the hostel to the bar there where me and Rikki were dancing up on the ledge. A while later I realised that Rikki had disappeared so I went looking for her. I thought she may have gone to bed so I went to check our room. Rikki wasn’t there, but I ad walked in on nude people. I was like ‘oh crap, sorry’, then I realised that there 3 of them! Luckily, I was drunk or it could have been embarrassing. So I was like, ‘hey have you seen rikki?’ and started to explain to them how I had lost my friend. So they hadn’t seen my friend, but decided that they would get up and come downstairs for drinks with me. So that was cool, we went downstairs and had drinks til 4.30 and when I went up to bed again, there was Rikki!!
Half an hour later, my alarm went off. It was grand final day and I wanted to watch it. So I went downstairs and found a few fellow footy fans and off we went to some irish pubwhere I had myself a bourbon or two for breakfast. I have to admit I did struggle to stay awake in the first half, but it was such an awesome game by the end I was wide awake, although extremely disappointed as I was going for the swanies. We got back to the hostel from the footy about 9.30 and all I could think was, sleep, sleep. But alas, everyone was up and on their way to Oktoberfest. And rikki was ‘cmon Kelly, you have to come with us now or you will never find us later!’ And I knew she was right, so I struggled onward and upward.
I did struggle through the first hour or so there, but once the first stein had gone down, I got a second wind and was all good for the rest of the day. Day 2 of Oktoberfest was much of the same, singing, drinking, making friends with anyone lucky ( or unlucky) enough to cross your path. It was so fun. The day went fairly quick and before I knew it it was time to head back to the hostel. Once again I had lost Rikki. So I went back to the hostel, drank some more, played some pool, stole some german guys hat and ended up dancing on the tables in the bar with all the other aussies from the tour. It was here, when I was dancing away on the tables when Rikki returned. We were so excited, I was ‘where were you?’ and she was ‘What are you doing up there?’ Even though it was quite obvious that I was ripping it up on the table, my fantastic dances move the admiration of all those in the bar. Although, I think some of the best moves I seen all night was Tim trying to break dance on the table. So I thought I’d have a go too, but my break dancing involved me laying on the table with my knees up and tim spinning me round by my ankles. So 4.30 again to bed and 7.30 to rise as Rikki and I had to catch our plane. By this stage, I was so tired, but miraculously not hung over, and had totally lost my voice. It didn’t come back for 3 days. A sure sign of a huge holiday.
Well now, my photos should be up in the next day or so, but you can also check out Tim the Tourman's photos or Rikki's photos.
Also I will blog again and tell you about how I'm going to be in the guiness world records book, my latest sojourn to the theatre and 'THE PLAN'
So now I'll give you the low-down of our last trip. Rikki and I went to Krakow, Berlin, Basel and then finished up in Munich for Oktoberfest which was fantastic.
In Krakow Rikki and I did a bike tour and we enjoyed it so much that we were doing bike tours everywhere we went.
The first day Rikki and I got to Krakow we met an aussie guy, Luke, who was meeting his friend, George, in Krakow. We pretty much hung out with them the whole weekend. Funny guys. We went out to the Salt Mine which was pretty cool. 130 metres deep and theres about 200 kilometres of tunnels. And there are chapels and chandeliers and a big dwarf statues and 3-d carvings in the walls. So cool, and the rickety little elevator that took you back up was so fast and so scary. Rikki also ran into a couple who she met in Greece 3 months ago & they came out with us that night, then while we were out they ran into some Canadian chicks from their hostel, so we had a cool little group to hang out with for the night. We went to a cool little club which hwas on a list of bars and clubs that Magda had given me. Magda is a friend of mine in London who is from Poland.
Berlin is a big dirty city, a bit like London, I've never seen so much graffitit before. When we first came out of the tube, I was all 'oh crap rikki, i don't think we're in the best part of town' but it was good fun. But we’ve met some cool people on our bike tour, mostly aussies again. I went out with them but Rikki piked because she was tired, but it was a Sunday night so it was fairly quiet anyway. However, we still ended up out til 3am and saw a couple of cool dj’s playing in this club in this old decrepit building where the only person dancing was this 80yo guy with a beard that made him look like santa.
Berlin was also the first time I've had someone come home pissed and spewed everywhere. The dude from reception cleaned it up for the lazy fucker. Then the dirty bugger just threw up again & was not going to clean it up. But I sorted him. I yelled at him and then went and slapped him on the leg. Boy did he jump up quick then. So funny.
Basel is on the border of Switzerland, France and Germany. I really wanted to go to Black Forest. So we went to Freiburg, just across the border in Germany and hired bikes. We rode out of town along the river, so pretty and clean and nice buildings and stuff. And we also went in a cable car and hiked up to this cool lookout. So it was a good day and we did some fun stuff, but it was too far away to go to the waterfalls and the fairy tale castle and forest and lake constance. So I guess I’ll have to come back.
Rikki and I got to Munich, or as I like to call it Munchen, about 11.30 Thursday night, thinking we’ll just go to the hostel and have a good night sleep before we get into Oktoberfest. But it was not to be.
We were checking into the hostel and there were people everywhere and the bar at the hostel was packed and the music was pumping. Then the reception guy walks in and looks at me like ‘oh my god, it’s you’ and was pointing at me. I was like ‘what the fuck?’ Luckily I realised he was shit-stirring so I said, ‘Don’t you point at me like that, I don’t know you!’ and he laughed and said people fall for it all the time. Then he checked us in and gave us monopoly money for a free beer at the bar. So we decided to go just for one.
Five drinks later, it was 2.30 and Rikki and I snuck off to bed with our Munchen pints glasses as souveneirs. Not quite a stein, but a good effort in theft anyway.
So Friday we got up early and went to our other hostel along with a kiwi guy called Daniel, then we went on a walking tour. It was good, but there seemed to be a bit of product placement in it. The guy was pointing out certain souvenier stores and shops and restaurants which seemed out of place. But the best bit was definitely the big park with the rive through it where there was a fake surf break created in the river & guys surfing it. They were all lining up and surfing across the river. It was so cool. One of my favourite things I’ve seen.
So then we went and had some lunch and a beer in a pub. I think we ate a whole pig between the three of us. Boy, they love their pork in Germany. (Matt I took some food photos for you)
Then in the evening we found Tim the Tourman and a few others and we went to Oktoberfest. It was so cool. There were people everywhere, lots of families and stuff too. There were rides and stalls and head and heaps of people all dressed in the Germany costumes. The boys in the leather pants and the girls in the busty dresses. On the hill out the back were people passed out everywhere. So we wandered through a few beer halls looking for a seat. They are absolutely massive and decorated so grandly and there are bands playing in them and stuff. But you can only get a beer if you are sitting down. And we couldn’t find a seat. Finally we were out in one of the beer gardens. And we managed to squeeze a couple of us onto the end of a table full of Italians so we could order drinks. So we ordered beers for everyone and then moved back off the table so the Italians could fit back in.
Then a table of Germans seen us and let us squeeze in with them. One of them was called Ebil, so I was like ‘Ebil? Ebil like the debil or ebil like ebil kineable?’ Me Funny. Anyway, a stein later and we were singing songs and chatting away to everyone within 4 tables of us. There was lots of ‘hey baby’ and ‘seven nation army’ sung. Lots of Germans and Italians, they were all so friendly and fun and not bothered that we knew no German.
Later in the night we managed to get into a beer all, but I was on my 3rd stein by then so it was all a bit blurry and afterwards we went to the hostel to the bar there where me and Rikki were dancing up on the ledge. A while later I realised that Rikki had disappeared so I went looking for her. I thought she may have gone to bed so I went to check our room. Rikki wasn’t there, but I ad walked in on nude people. I was like ‘oh crap, sorry’, then I realised that there 3 of them! Luckily, I was drunk or it could have been embarrassing. So I was like, ‘hey have you seen rikki?’ and started to explain to them how I had lost my friend. So they hadn’t seen my friend, but decided that they would get up and come downstairs for drinks with me. So that was cool, we went downstairs and had drinks til 4.30 and when I went up to bed again, there was Rikki!!
Half an hour later, my alarm went off. It was grand final day and I wanted to watch it. So I went downstairs and found a few fellow footy fans and off we went to some irish pubwhere I had myself a bourbon or two for breakfast. I have to admit I did struggle to stay awake in the first half, but it was such an awesome game by the end I was wide awake, although extremely disappointed as I was going for the swanies. We got back to the hostel from the footy about 9.30 and all I could think was, sleep, sleep. But alas, everyone was up and on their way to Oktoberfest. And rikki was ‘cmon Kelly, you have to come with us now or you will never find us later!’ And I knew she was right, so I struggled onward and upward.
I did struggle through the first hour or so there, but once the first stein had gone down, I got a second wind and was all good for the rest of the day. Day 2 of Oktoberfest was much of the same, singing, drinking, making friends with anyone lucky ( or unlucky) enough to cross your path. It was so fun. The day went fairly quick and before I knew it it was time to head back to the hostel. Once again I had lost Rikki. So I went back to the hostel, drank some more, played some pool, stole some german guys hat and ended up dancing on the tables in the bar with all the other aussies from the tour. It was here, when I was dancing away on the tables when Rikki returned. We were so excited, I was ‘where were you?’ and she was ‘What are you doing up there?’ Even though it was quite obvious that I was ripping it up on the table, my fantastic dances move the admiration of all those in the bar. Although, I think some of the best moves I seen all night was Tim trying to break dance on the table. So I thought I’d have a go too, but my break dancing involved me laying on the table with my knees up and tim spinning me round by my ankles. So 4.30 again to bed and 7.30 to rise as Rikki and I had to catch our plane. By this stage, I was so tired, but miraculously not hung over, and had totally lost my voice. It didn’t come back for 3 days. A sure sign of a huge holiday.
Well now, my photos should be up in the next day or so, but you can also check out Tim the Tourman's photos or Rikki's photos.
Also I will blog again and tell you about how I'm going to be in the guiness world records book, my latest sojourn to the theatre and 'THE PLAN'
Thursday, September 21, 2006
RIP Crocodile Hunter
Who can believe it. The crocodile hunter is gone. It's a tradgedy! Man, that guy was a bloddy fruit-loop, but a pretty clever one, whatever will happen to the crocodiles now? I bet they're crying real crocodile tears.
And Brocky too. I am still placing bets on who will make up the trifecta. My money is on the next great aussie icon to go being ray or bert with rove as the black horse.
So two more sleep before Rikki and I are off to germany. Fantastic. I've bought myself a new camera so I am all happy now. did i mention how my camera died in the arse halfway through my last hols? so no spain photos and not a lot of france ones either. but i have put up a few on the photo site and some photos of my b'day. so check them out http://www.flickr.com/photos/kellys_phab_fotos/
And Brocky too. I am still placing bets on who will make up the trifecta. My money is on the next great aussie icon to go being ray or bert with rove as the black horse.
So two more sleep before Rikki and I are off to germany. Fantastic. I've bought myself a new camera so I am all happy now. did i mention how my camera died in the arse halfway through my last hols? so no spain photos and not a lot of france ones either. but i have put up a few on the photo site and some photos of my b'day. so check them out http://www.flickr.com/photos/kellys_phab_fotos/
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