Back to finish my blog after a break...

 

The next morning we left in the morning for Bruges, which has been called the Venice of the North. It is a town set upon canals much like Venice, except Venice is essentially composed of islands with huge canals, whilst Bruges is more like being on the mainland with Canals running through the city (Amsterdam is similar, but much bigger.) We got to bruge just after lunch, and headed for our hostel- which turn out to be pretty gross! Bruges is pretty small, and we were all hungry, so we all headed into town for a walk around to soak up the atmosphere. It was a Sunday, and the town was bustling full of people- so after a lunch of Frites, we walked around the main streets for a while, browsing at some shops. After wandering for a while and grabbing some afternoon tea, we all headed back to the hostel for some rest and dinner. Along with my dinner, I had my first Belgian beer of the trip, a Leffe (first of many). I think travel was starting to catch up on all of us, so we retired pretty early.

 

The next day, David once again stayed in to complete AIESEC work, so Tim and I headed out together to explore Bruges more. We spent the morning around Grote Markt and the Burg, taking photos here and there, and hopping into places that sold beer glasses. We finally retired to a cafe that specialised in Hot Chocolates (it was run by the chocolate shop opposite), and boy were we in for a treat. My hot chocolate came in four components: a mug of milk, a plate of runny melted chocolate to put into the mug, a plate with whipped cream to put on top, and a plate of chocolates to go with my drink. Needless to say, all of this was simply delicious, and kept me going for the rest of the morning and early afternoon!

 

After our chocolate break, we headed into a church nearby which housed Michaelangelo's Madonna and the Child- one of the few of Michaelangelo's works housed outside of Italy.  A quick wander through the church was followed by a walk again down the main shopping street to look for some more cheap deals. After some wandering, we were both hungry for lunch, so we found a friterie of Grote Markt for our second helping of Belgian Frites.

 

After the late lunch, Tim suggested we go get a beer (Tim's definately a closet alchy, especailly when it comes to Belgian beers), so I looked in my guide book for a cafe. We found a little tavern called De Garre, where we promptly sample 330mls of their own brew, which was awesome tasting, but very potent (11.5%vol!) The strong beer definately left me feeling a little light headed (for a lightweight like me, I definately feel it when having 3 beers at once!), so we retired back to the hostel for a rest, before heading out to dinner.

 

After wandering a while round town for dinner, we finally settle for an Irish Pub, which served good hearty food. They also happend to be running a pub quiz that same night (in English!), which we got roped into, and nearly won (stupid music questions all happened to be from the 60s and 70s!). After downing a few more beers ( I had a Kriek- a cherry beer, whilst the others sampled several others), we retired back to hostel, ready to head to Antwerp the next day.

 

More Later...

Hey all!

 

Sorry for not updating for so many days! My travels have been truly hectic, but things have quietened down a little since I'm in Britain now with my family, so i have some time to write! So here's a brief summary of what has gone on the last two weeks!

 

The day after I last wrote Maria travelled back to Magdeburg for university. It was sad to see her go, after all the fun times we had together, and hopefully she will come and visit us in NZ sometime! After saying goodbye, Tim and I headed to the Museum at Checkpoint Charlie, which is full of exhibitions about how people tried to escape across the Berlin wall from the East to the West, and about the fall of Communism in Europe. The exhibitions were awesome, and really brought the history of that era to life- a truly outstanding museum. After the museum, Tim and I met up with David again after he checked out of his hotel which he had been staying in with his parents. We caught up on what had happened in the last two weeks (it sounded like he had a great time!) over lunch, and then after that, Tim and David hopped on a 200 Bus over to West Berlin to have a look, whilst I headed to the Pergamon Museum, which had some fantastic ancient architechtural exhibits, including the Altar of Pergamonn from Greece, the Gates of Babylon, and a comprehensive collection of Islamic art, artifacts and ruins. Another fantastic museum, with admission for only 4 Euros, and included audio guide, which was fantastic. That evening, the three of us headed out to Dinner at Potsdamer Platz, before David and I decided to catch another movie (a Jennifer Aniston chick flick) at the Sony Centre.

 

The next day, David had a lot of AISEC work to do, so he decided to stay in. Tim and I went our seperate ways for the day, since I wanted to go to Schloss Sansoucii in Potsdam, whilst Tim went and saw the East Berlin highlights which I had done on my tour. Sansoucii was King Frederic's summer palace (the guy that was a flautist, and wrote a flute concerto) and was a smaller, more intimate palace than many of the other I had seen in Europe. It was still decorated in spectuacular style however, the the entire palace complex (Parc Sansoucii) is truly huge. It was too cold to truly wander outside however (it was -3 degres outside!), so I visited the palace and then headed back to Berlin. The afternoon was spent wandering West Berlin, with its bombed Gedachtniskirche being a highlight, as well as the Berin Philharmoniker hall complex. David, Tim and I spent the evening at the New Berin Pub Crawl, which was awesome. Heaps of drink, nice people, and awesome clubs, which was unfortuantely cut a bit short when Tim had a few too many and ended up not being too well. A fun night however, and highly recommended.

 

The next day was our last day in Berlin, since we decided to catch a night train to Brussels that evening. After getting over our activities of the night before, we headed out to the Reichstag to visit the dome. There was a huge long queue, and it was freezing cold, but we finally made it in, and the view was really cool. We decided to search for some warmth in the Potsdamer Platz shopping centre after, and pretty much hung out there, and at the Sony Centre (I played with all the Sony toys, and the VW rally simulator), until we had to head to the train station for our night train to Brussels.

 

We arrived in Brussels at 6am, absolutely exhausted (I didn't sleep well on the train), and headed straight for the hotel. The hotel did not have a room ready for us yet, so the three of us immediatey wandered into town, and found some breakfast. Tim and David immediately dove into the Belgian food- waffles, for breakfas, whilst I settle for bacon and jam on bread. After Breaky, we went for a walk around town to th Royal Palace, around Grand Place with its spectacular Town Hall and to Manneken Pis for some photos. We were all absolutely exhausted, so as soon as our room was ready, we headed back to the hotel for a nap. One of the best museums in Brussels is the Musee des instrumets de musique, so I took a visit in the afternoon. This museum had a truly amazing collection of instruments from all over the world, wit headphones the play example recordings of each instrument automatically- absolutely awesome! In the evening, the three of us headed out into town, where Tim sample more Belgian cuising with some mussels for dinner.

 

Update more later- got a bit of writers block...

 

Hallo aus Berlin!

 

Another quick update again. I'm in Berlin now, after spending New Years at Maria's (Tim's friend from his Gap Year) house in Dresden, which was great fun. We hung out with her and her friends, played some German board games (they have heaps of them!), went out to see the fireworks at Midnight, which were crazy (Germans all seem to be closet pyromaniacs: absolutely everyone lets of tonnes of fireworks at the stroke of midnight!), and in General had a jolly time! The next day, Maria, her friends and us had a quiet day in Dresden, sightseeing around Dresden, including visitng the new Green Room with the Saxon Crown Jewels, and making Pizza for dinner. All in all, a great time.

 

We travelled from Dresden yesterday afternoon to Berlin and arrived early evening. One of Maria's friends, Sebastian, also joined us in Berlin for the evening so that he could catch an English movie at the Sony centre. We ended up seeing the new Woody Allen film, Match Point, which was actually not too bad- quite arty, and somewhat Ripley like, with a modern day Shakespearean twist. Great to do something different after a month and a half of sightseeing, and I think the movie was enjoyed by all.

 

Today, Sebastian went back to Magdeburg, where he goes to Uni (Maria is leaving tomorrow), and Maria and Tim went to the Museum Island here in Berlin, whilst I did a free Berlin Walking tour, which included the Brandenburg Gate, Hitler's Bunker, the Holocaust Memorial, Checkpoint Charlie and the Wall remains, amongst others. The tour was really cool, despite the guide being Aussie. He gave an awesome account of what happened when the wall came down, and the whole revolutionary uprising on November 9th 1989, which really made the history of Berlin come to life. Berlin is by no means the world's prettiest city, but each street is so ingrained with history that you canät help but become fasinated by the monumental events that have gone on here. I'm looking forward to the next few day so much!

 

Tschüss!

 

Dickson

 

 

Hello from Prague, Czech Republic!

 

Just a short update today. Gotta go see some more of Prague! It is so beautiful here, but very touristy. We aren't going to be able to see many of the main sights because we only really have a full day here, but it is beautiful all around. Probably one in 10 people on the streets are tourists! A lot of people are here for New Years. Things are cheap as! 20Kr for a beer, which is about $1.10.

 

Had a great time in Vienna. The city was stunningly beautiful, and there were so many museums and palaces to go to that we really ran out of time. I managed to catch a concert at the infamous Musikverein, which was great. It is so beautiful in there- the whole building is decorated gold and the acoustics are amazing.

 

Got to go, update later!

 

Bye

Guten Tag aus Munchen!

Im in Germany now after spending 5 days in Switzerland. Having a great time in Munich which is probably one of the great tourist cities in the world! We arrived here early afternoon yesterday German time and proceeded on a walk round Munich to see some of the well known churches and Marienplatz. It was freezing cold yesterday so we didn't stay outside for long! For a bit of warmth we decided to retire to the Hoftbrauhaus (the most famous Munich beer hall). Little did we know that we would stay there till 11pm! Tim, Dave and I proceeded to drink quite a bit of the beer (I drank at least a pite) with Tim getting considerably drunk! We ended up chatting with some nice German people, playing coin rugby with the coasters, and ended up chatting with some Japanese tourists!. Tim was a favourite with the tourists in his broken Japanese, and had a blast seeing he was on his 3rd Stein, and quite merry! The atmosphere was great with the Bavarian brass band playing, and everybody quite friendly! We returned home at around 11pm, dragging Tim behind us since he couldnt walk straight. Multiple Hakas were performed by Tim on the way home, much to our embarrassment, and the astonishment of the locals!

 

The previous few days in Zurich and Lucerne had been uneventful. Lucerne is a really beautiful city, but we stayed at a crap hostel quite far out of town so we didn't get to check it out so well. Zurich was also really beautiful, but somewhat lacking in Tourist attraction apart from Modern art museums. In our first day there we wandered round town and the shopping street Bahnhofstrasse, but found nothing to see. We ended up going back to the hostel quite early, cooking huge pasta meals, and going out for drinks. and getting a little tipsy. The bar we went to, the 'Pur Pur Bar' was a cozy lounge like bar, and had quite a cool ambience (and bartender girl). Dave splashed out on drinks, shouting us all 3 Tequila shots! At the end of the night it was cocktails all around, and quite a bit of redness on my part!

 

Our second day in Zurich we got up late after our night out, but since Zurich is a bore for tourists, it didn't really matter. We wandered the shopping district, with David finally buying black wash Jeans he had been searching for for 5 weeks. We followed that up with more wandering, some Chocolate shopping, and a hot chocolate at a well known Swiss tea room. Tim wasn't feeling his best after some roasted chestnuts, so we retired back to the hostel. In the evening Dave and I headed out for some Swiss Fondue, which was delicious, and extremely filling, followed by a quiet night in watching America's Next Top Model on Dave's Laptop!

 

Today has been a cool day. Dave left for Berlin to head to Poland early in the morning so Tim and I got up late after last nights antics: We headed out around 10:30 to the Residenz, the royal palace of the ?Wittenbach? Dukes and Kings. The place is massive, and awesomely beautiful, but tiring and cold inside. It was snowing hardcore here today, so we were chilly even inside! After we heated up with a nice coffee, and then headed to the Deutsches Museum, a huge science, technology and music museum in Munich. Spent the late afternoon just wandering round and enjoying the exhibits, trying to remember the physics we had learnt at school! After the museum closed we wandered back to Marienplatz and the Virktulienmarkt for some food and traditional German food (Pretzels for me, Rost Pork Sandwiches for Tim). We wandered around the awesome Weinachtsmarkt (Christmas Markets) in Marienplatz after before heading back to the hostel for a break. At around 8, we decided we had to try what is regarded the Champagne of beers, Augustiner, so we headed to the Augustiner Beer hall for half a litre of awesome beverage. All in all, a great day.

 

Hope all the Christmas preparations are going well at home, and if I don't blog before then, have a merry Xmas!

 

 

 

 

Greetings from Interlaken, Switzerland! I have now left France with many fond memories, and am already looking forward to going back perhaps for a few days to have a look around before I go back to NZ in January, after David, Tim and my parents leave. France is truly a beautiful country, with so much to offer, and it has been amazing fun speaking and hearing French!

 

In my last blog I forgot to tell you about what happened when we tried to find our hotel in Tours! When we got off the train (about 10pm), we thought that we'd catch a taxi to the hotel, since we didn't know where it was and it was pouring with rain. So we waited for about 15 minutes in the freezing cold before calling a taxi. When the taxi got there, and we loaded our lugage, David said "Wouldn't it be funny if the hotel was just right opposite the train station", and arbitarily pointed a direction. I looked in that direction, and I realised that indeed, David was pointing directly at our hotel, only 2 minutes walk from the train! So embarassingly we had to get out of the cab, and let somebody else in- thank goodness he didn't charge us for the one minute sit down in his cab!

 

After leaving Tours, David and I travelled to the north of France (Brittany) to St. Malo, a quiet seaside town, which has a section of the town with its old town wall still intact (Intra Muros) The town was beautiful by day and night with awesome views of the sea. Our main aim here was to visit Mont St. Michel, an ancient abbey, built an a little fortress/mini island not far out from the beach on the border between Brittany and Normandy. The plan was to visit on Saturday, however because of our slackness in getting up, we missed the only bus of the day (9:50am!) to get there, and had to hang out in St. Malo for the day. We spent the rest of that day just exploring the town, and found some amazing sights and food (especially David with his Ker-y-Pom, a Brittany specialty!).The rest of the day we just spent relaxing and chilling in the room, watching a bit of tele, ready for our day excursion the next day to the Mont.

 

The next day we got up extra early to check out of the hotel and to catch the bus to Mont St. Michel. We got to the Mont around 11am. The Mont is truly a spectacular place from afar to look at, but perhaps has become too touristy for its own good, with the main street now full of tourist shops, tacky museums and very expensive restaurants! For lunch, we decided to eat at a restaurant, where I got a 15 Euro menu (that's nearly $30!), and David an 18 Euro menu. The food was truly horrible! ( Real terrible, unfresh Salmon for me!), and when the bill came, they charged us wrong! When I asked them to fix the bill, they again got the bill wrong- this time they undercharged us! So in the end we got a little discount off this truly horrible meal. The abbey itself is spectacular with its views, and all its history, but somehow, after seeing so many things in Europe, I expected to be overawed by great architecture and paintings, whilst however the Mont is mainly a well preserved, ancient abbey more spectacular for its role in history and its location. It was still a trip well worth it however.

 

After that, David and I rushed back to St. Malo to catch a night train to the tourist Mecca known as Paris. I had an awful bout of the hiccups for about 3 hrs non-stop however, and was feeling a bit under the weather however, so we got to Paris and I basically headed straight for bed. The taxi ride to the hotel was spectacular though, with our first views of the Eiffel Tower and Arc de Triomphe!

 

Paris is truly a great tourist city! There is just so much to see. This is my 3rd trip to Paris, having last been about 5 years ago, and I enjoyed it just as much this time as last time I went. The first day there was a Monday, and after feeling a little sick the last night, both of us got up late and headed out around 11am to see some sights. We decided since that it was a cloudy day, it wouldn't be a good time to go see the Eiffel Tower or Arc the Triomphe first. We headed first to a few sights I hadn't seen, including the Musee d'Orsay, which was unfortunately, pass Invalides, and eventually decided to go to the Louvre, which during this time of the year, was pretty empty. We basically stayed there till it closed, seeing the Mona Lisa, Venus de Milo, Hammurabi's Code and the other Highlights, before grabbing a bite to eat at the Carousel de Louvre (the shopping mall under the Louvre) food court. After dinner, we went for an evening stroll down the Champs Elysees, browsing some shops and taking photos of the Arc de Triomphe. David was feeling a little bit ill now, so we retired to the hotle and to bed.

 

On Tuesday, again we woke up late, but eventually set off for the Eiffel Tower first after catching some Brunch/ Lunch, after I bought a new suitcase in the Morning. David and I went our seperate ways for the day, since wantedto go see the Musee d'Orsay, and he had to do the Paris Must Dos of Notre Dame, and Sacre Coeur. I stayed at the Orsay till it closed, browsing at the impressive Impressionist painting collection of Monet, Renior, Degas and others, as well as some Van Gogh. After, I headed over to the Opera house to have a look at the Palais Garnier, before heading over to the massive Galeries Lafayette, 7 floor department store to have a browse. Tim was arriving that evening, and we had arranged to meet at 7 at the hotel, so I had to hurry back. Poor Tim however got a little lost on the the confusing RER and metro lines of Paris, so he didn't arrive till past 8, and due to jetlag and tiredness, we simply hung out and retired to bed.

 

Wednesday was supposed to be our last day in Paris, so we had grand plans of wandering Quatier Latin, where we visited the Sorbonne, the famous university in Paris, and the Pantheon, which is has become a national memorial for many a famous French-people, include the Marie Curie, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Voltaire to name a few. The last time I was in Paris, I didn't manage to get to the Centre Pompidou, and this was on my must see list, so the three of us headed over to this mecca for modern art. I visited the museum whilst the other two decided to return to the Sacre Coeur and Montmatre. The museum had an amazing collection, which was brilliantly organised in a thematic manner, which allowed even someone like me who knows nothing about modern art to have an insight to the abstract ideas presented by some artists such as Picasso, Matisse and Klee. I was sad that Í didn't have time to wander the museum properly, but would love to go back. After I once again met up with Tim and David, whereby we went for another wander round Galleries Lafayette and the other giant department store Printemps. Back to the hotel for a simple baguette and Camembert dinner, and then we went out for a drink after another night walk along the Champs!

 

Thursday was supposed to be the day we departed for Dijon, but since we found it too difficult to book accomodation there, we decided to stay in Paris another day. After getting up a little later than planned, the three of us headed out firstly to the Office du Tourisme to work out what we wanted to do on this unexpected 4th day in Paris. I had always intended to hear some concerts whilst I was in Europe, and saw this as a good chance. I found a concert in the Louvre auditorium by a young British cellist, Richard Harwood playing Beethoven, Shostakovich and Bridge for 6 Euros. The concert was basically completely packed out, and of excellent quality. The cellist was a most expressive player,with an awesome. open tone. His playing was full of passion, but at times lacked a little "edge"or bite to his articualtion. However, I loved the concert, and it was most impressive you could find something of this quality on a Thursday lunchtime! After the concert, I met up with Tim (David had gone to Versailles), and we walked from the Louvre to Place de la Concorde, Madeleine, and then took the metro outside the Moulin Rouge and around Pigalle (quite a seedy district!) We retired back to the hotel once again for a simple dinner with small bottles of wine. The other two were feeling quite tired, so they retired to bed whilst I watched some TV and eventually tucked in to bed around 11pm!

 

Today was a travel day between Paris and Interlaken. Caugh a TGV to Geneva (saw my first snowfall of the trip in the mountains just before Geneva), a train from Geneva to Bern, and then connected onto Interlaken. The streets are all convered in snow here, but its been raining this evening so it may melt in the evening. Here's hoping for a little snow tonight, and a clear day tomorrow so we can have a clear view of the Jung Frau, and have an awesome day up the mountain.

 

Bye for now!

 

Dickson

 

 

Greetings from Tours. Just had the largest meal ever I think- an all you can eat menu of Fouee ( a Touraine specialty which is like a Pita bread, made fresh for 45 seconds in an oven before being served). It was truly delicious! Talk about fresh bread.

 

There has been heaps of travelling in the last few days. We went from Madrid south to Toledo (a 35min train ride only since trains are so fast here). After arriving in Toledok, we were soon to learn that arriving in a Spanish town in the middle of the afternoon is not a good idea, since there is nobody around! People tend to take siestas and there's nobody around-even taxi drivers! We waited for 45 min for a taxi at the train station before finally one came. Getting to the hotel was easy, and the room was real nice. Then we decided to find some food coz we were hungry- but everything was still closed! We finally found an open cafe, wandered around some more, but soon it started pouring! So we wandered into McDonalds for a drink to evade the rain. By this time people were starting to wake up and come out on the streets (6pm), but we were now full, and all the sights were closing so we headed back to the hotel, and watched TV till bedtime.

 

Next morning we walked around the main sights of Toledo. It was real quiet everywhere (nobody gets up in the morning either!) but the street were picturesque. Bought a real cool souvenir for 6 Euros. We then rushed to the train station to catch a train back to Madrid Atocha station at 12pm, which arrived at 12:35pm. Then we had to connect to another train station (Charmartin) by 1:20pm. The other handle on my suitcase broke in Atocha as we were rushing to the inter station train- so I really need to buy a new suitcase now!

 

We got to Burgos around 5pm. Again there were no taxis, and when we went to find food everything was close again (how frustrating). We both found the weird habits of the Spanish a bit too much really to get used to coz we were starving after our difficult connections! By the time we found food and came out of the cafe, things were opening up, so we wandered a while and then headed back to the hotel to settle in a little. The Spanish eat dinner real late (the restaurant we wanted to go to opened at 9pm), so we wandered out to dinner around 9pm, had real expensive, nice but small meals. Then back home to bed. (Much less partying now since our Contiki buddies weren't with us anymore).

 

The next morning we got up early-ish, again struggled to find breakfast coz people were still in bed, went into Burgos cathedral (which is probably one of the best cathedrals I had been to since they let you see everything and explained everything so well- highly recommended!), and then went to the train station to go to Bilbao. Bilbao is a growing city- the Basque local government is trying to make this place into a modern cultured metropolis and there is evidence everywhere of this- from its art noveau Bridge across the river Bilbao to its weirdly shaped Guggenheim Museum. However, this does not stop all the restaurants from being closed on a Sunday evening (silly Spanish people!), so we walked to the mall and had McDonalds for Dinner.

 

The next morning, David stayed in whilst I wandered a little bit in the rain in Bilbao. We caught a bus to Hendaye (the Spanish-French border town) and then a train on to Bordeaux. I was so glad to be in France since I can understand and speak the language a little- which is much less stressful than being spoken to in Spanish at a million miles per hour without the ability to reply! Bordeaux was fantastic- everything was open, and found a great dinner at a restaurant just 5 minutes from our hotel! The dinner was fantastic- an awesome bacon salad, grilled salmon and Cheese post dinner all for 13 Euro (cheap in European standards!).

 

I love France. Bordeaux was great- the next day we visited the beautiful Jardin Botanique (botanical Gardens), Palais Gallien Roman remains, walked beside the Garonne, went to the Catherdral and went to Vinorama ( a wine museum for Kids!). Had to do some washing so we went back to the hotel aroun 5pm. Dinner was again great- we went to this Cafe which served stuff in Casserolre dishes- David had an absolute feast, whilst I had a started of Salmon mashed with Creme Fraiche, main of Roasted Camambert with Potatoes and desert of Fromage Frais with Honey and Oranges. Yum!

 

Yesterday we got up real late and mucked round in the morning shopping in Bordeaux. In the afternoon we booked a tour to a couple of vineyards around the Bordeaux area. Both vineyards were Premier Cru Classe (1st quality wine) vineyards and had top quality wine. David and I both enjoyed the first vineyard's Sauternelle Semi Sweet white wines the most (Chateaux la tour Blanc). Got back around 6:30pm and travelled to the train station to come to Tours by TGV (travelling at 200+km/hr)!

 

Today we spent the morning bumming around Tours shopping and getting breakfast (got up late). In the afternoon we visited the spectacular Chateaux Chenonceau, Chateaux de Amboise and also the Leonardo de Vinci Parc in Ambiose. All truly amazing- especially Chenonceau's beautiful gardens. It was so cold today though that it made it hard to wander outside. Pictures coming soon I promise!

 

Gtg to bed- More later. Miss you all- A Bientot!

Hello from Madrid!

 

It's been a while since I updated my blog so I thought since I'm having a quiet afternoon I might as well write a little something. Our Contiki tour ended this morning so there were a lot of sad goodbyes. It's unbelievable how well you can get to know complete strangers in 12 days, especially when you are spending nearly every waking hour with each other.

 

In the past 8 days since Rome we have visited Florence (with the Uffizi Museum, the "Real David"" and Ponte Vecchio, the great Cathedral, the Duomo (the oldest dome in Europe), Pisa (Leaning tower), La Spezia (a seaside port  on the west coast of Italy), the Cinque Terre (5 little towns on the west coast of Italy- absolutely stunningly beautiful), Nice (with it's lovely beaches on the Cote d'Azur) and Monaco (the casino!), Aix en Provence (a university town) , Avignon, Carcassone (where Robin Hood Prince of Thieves was partially filmed), Barcelona (with its all night parties, the Sagrada Familia and the awesome beach), Zaragoza and finally Madrid ( with an aweosme Royal Palace, and the stunning Valley of the Fallen- a monument to the soldiers of the Spanish Civil War, in the mountains.)

 

We've had some huge nights out as well- had an awesome time with another Contiki tour group both in Florence at a Space Electronic Disco, in Nice at Waynes Bar ( where i bumped into 4 friends from NZ!), a good night out in Barcelona with just the tour group, and finally a last blowout in Madrid last night. The Spanish are crazy when it gets to partying. The Bars don't get going till about 1am, are packed every night of the week (we partied on a Sunday, Monday and a Wednesday night!), and don't close till 6am! Imagine what these places are like in the summer.

 

Off to Toledo tomorrow. Another very uninteresting post sorry! Will try to write in more detail at a later date!

 

Dickson

Hey all!

 

Its 11:15 am here on my last of 4 days in Rome, beautiful outside. Things have been going great. I have joined my Contiki Tour, and there are some interesting characters in the group. Heaps of Aussie Girls, a bunch of people from South Africa, a few from Canada ( including a guy Kevin, whos gonna be the one to get all the drinking started), and a splattering from all over the world including some South Americans. The tours gonna be great with a cool bunch of people, and hopefully a few big nights out. My mate David had a huge night last nite, wandered in at three absolutly trashed. He went on a pub crawl run be these New Zealanders starting at the Spanish Steps. I backed out coz I needed to do washing! Wot a loser! Im gonna have quite a few big nights here though, so I thought I'd save my money for now and have a bit of fun at a better time.

 

The last couple of days have been buzy. We arrived in Rome after a 5 hr train journey from Venice at around 7:30pm, only to discover that our hotel is way out of town! Its probably the most inconvieniet place you could have a hotel. Its a little like staying in a hotel in Howick! It costs €25 to catch a taxi to town and about 35 min by train. The first night I couldnt find a restaurant anywhere near the hotel so I had to starve and boil my own water!

 

Apart from the inconvienience of the Hotel, Rome has been great. On Friday we visited the Vatican (St. Peters Basilica, Vatican Museums, Sistine Chapel), marvelled at all its grandeur and the beauty of the Frescos, then had some lunch and wandered round town for some shopping. David is quite a shopper so he bought a hoodie and something else (I can't remember what!) and then we headed back to the hotel for an early night. We were still tired and he was asleep by 7pm!

 

On Saturday, we met up with a couple of our Contiki tour mates on the bus into town and walked around with them. Saw the Trevi Fountain, Spanish Steps, Pantheon etc and in general just hung out with new buddies. Had to be back in the hotel by 6pm for a tour meeting, where we met Gary (our Australian tour guide, whos a bit of a moron lol), and the rest of our tour. Theres about 40 people on tour, so its a huge group! After that we had a night walk through town (seeing the same attractions as we did in the day!), and then found some dinner. The spaghetti and pizza here is so nice! I have discovered Spaghetti Pomodoro, (Spaghetti in just Tomato Sauce) and its fantasitic. The evening concluded with a few drinks at the hotel bar and a Poker lesson run by Kevin the Canadian. Good times...

 

Yesterday, the group did a guided tour of the Roman Forum, and then we went into the Colosseum. I think I enjoyed this the most, since you don't even need to have an artistic mind/ knowledge to appreciate the grandeur and the history behind these ruins. We basically spent the whole morning wandering around and taking in the sights. The afternoon we wandered back into town and had a look around, it was pretty relaxed.

 

In the evening, we went out to dinner at an Irish Pub called Trinity College, of all places. Had a decent (not great meal) of Cheese stuff called Scamorze, and some drinks. I went back to the hotel early coz I was tired and had washing. David partied on hard with about 5 others. He's still at the hotel now coz he didn't want to take the bus into town. Hope he makes in in town in time to catch the tour bus to Florence!

 

This morning I had a wander up the Dome (Cupola) of St. Peters Basilica on my own. Some fantastic views up there! I'm about to find some lunch now and then hop on the bus to Florence! The weather has been really fine here, but a little cold (about 7 degrees outside). I looking forward to my coffee and lunch now, so hungry!

 

Thanks to all those that have e-mailed me, I havent had time to reply sorry! Hope you are all having great summers! Write heaps of e-mails to me, I want to know all the gossip!

 

Laterz

Hello from Venice!

 

The last two days have gone by so quickly it's unbelievable. On Tuesday, right after getting off my 13hr flight from Singapore, I spent the day exploring London with David (my travelling buddy), Mei Lam, Janet ( friends who are also from NZ travelling round Europe at the moment too) and their friend Aneela. Had an awesome time seeing the sights such as the London Eye, Big Ben and Oxford Circus. London is such a buzy place! People always seem to be in a rush, and the Tube is always full of people! Everyone was real tired though after getting off the plane and not having slept properly for some 30hrs, so we called it a night pretty early. David and I also had an early morning flight to Venice.

 

Yesterday Dave and I arrived in Venice about 10:30 local time. We caught a Vaporetto (a water taxi) from the airport right to St. Mark's Square, where our hotel is close to. We were real lucky that we found our hotel real quick coz it's on a small side street and could have taken forever! Spent the day wandering the streets and soaking up the atmosphere. Photos to come! Venice is amazing! The buildings everywhere are just like in the pictures/ paintings, full of history! St. Marks Basilica is a truly humbling place, in all its grandeur. It's amazing how these places were built way back then to perfection and has stood for so many centuries!

 

Gotta dash right now, don't have much time left before I have to check out of the hotel. Sorry for such a boring post, but have to rush. Promise I will do a more comprehensive blog later! 

 

Blogging live from Singapore Airport! I arrived in Singapore about 1 hr ago after an evetful 10 hr flight. The plane was only half full so i didn't have to sit next to anybody, which was great. I must say Singapore Airlines has the best inflight entertainment for economy class ever! U can choose from 40 movies and about 100 Cds (30 Classical!) which you can start, stop or pause anytime you like! There is even an online language tutor which teaches you the basics of languages ranging from French to Russian to Indonesian! Spent my time watching Mr and Mrs Smith (the movie!) which was average, listening to the CD of the East West Divian Orchestra play Tchaik 5 and Force of Destiny Overture (really good!),Joshua Bell play Tchaik (quite good), Vengerov play showpieces (average... typical showpiece crap... but technically awesome!), and a new young violinist Nicole Benedetti on her Symanowski album (decent). Also learnt sum spanish... now I can count from one to ten, and know that El Dormitorio (is that right?) is bedroom. Must do the italian tutor on the way to London.

 

It is so hot in this airport! It's 29degrees C outside, and I'm sweating! Doesn't help that I'm wearing a big as jacket to take to Europe. My flight leaves in 2 hrs for London ( a 13hr flight) so I think i'm going to find a cool drink to cool down for a while now and stretch out a little! More to come when I get to London.

NZSO was fantastic last nite! Truly one of the best concerts I have been to. Right from the start the orchestra asserted themselves as an amazingly tight ensemble, with a short and brassy fanfare-like work by John Adams. Despite some rather seemingly frantic  and erratic conducting by the Finish born conductor Hannu Lintu ( I don't know how anybody could follow his beat- his arms were moving so fast and in such a crazy fashion!), the orchestra was crisp and tight throughout- a true whilwind of a performance.

 

The violin playing of Cho-Liang Lin was a definate hightlight. Although he made a tentative start to the Brahms concerto, he was able to produce the most amazingly warm and sweet sound from his violin. His interpretation of the Brahms I felt was at its finest in the 2nd movement, where again his sweet sound matched with incredible phrasing made his performance of this movement one of the best I have heard. He also showed absolutely incredible stamina in the 3rd movement, with some of the best intonation I have heard live in that movement, and extremely clean tone production throughout. Apart from a few dodgy moments in his passage work, and some funny octave intonation in his encore, his performance was quite difficult to fault. The orchestra was solid again in this performance, except for one or two moments in movement three, where I felt the conductor may have been at fault again with his conducting.

 

Tchaik 5 is one of my favourite symphonies, and I was definately not dissapointed by last night's performance of the work. The tempos were a little slow to my liking, and again the brass stood out inappropriately I felt in a few places, but overall there was so much passion showed by the musicians and the conductor that I think all must be forgiven! There was an interesting moment in the 1st movement when Vesa (the concertmaster) broke a string and had to take his desk partner's violin! An series of violin swaps then occurred. I haven't ever seen this in a concert before (although I have played in two concerts where Cello strings have been broken and there have been some swapping action going on), so it was interesting to see how efficiently this was done. Highlights were definately the 2nd and 4th movements, which are (for the use of a better word!) truly orgasmic at their climaxes!

 

Another cool thing about the concert was that an old friend, Blythe Press, was playing in the 2nds for the concert. It's truly incredible when someone 4 years younger than you is already playing in the NZSO (I'm so jealous!). He is the man! It was great to catch up with him after the concert and to hear about what he tought of the conductor, how playing in the orchestra in this programme has been, and to hear about his trip to Austria studing with Yair Kless. Blythe is truly amazing- he'll probably be a concertmaster of some major orchestra someday or a touring worldwide as a soloist or chamber musician. Knowing people like him is truly inspiring and shows where with a bit of hard work and talent where you can be.

 

So all in all, an inspiring night! What is less inspiring though is the pile of physiology notes sitting on my desk It's times like this I wish that I was doing violin. I hate being at my desk and studying. I just want to do something active. I think I'm going through academic burn-out of sorts. I just feel so unmotivated to study, especially since exams to seem that scary to me anymore!

 

Had a three hour quartet gig today, so I feel much richer. I'll have to save every penny before I go away. Only 8 days away now!

It's always gutting when you just don't do as well as you know you can- and that was exactly the case in my exam today. Despite studying quite hard for the last four days and learning a lot (despite it being at the last minute), sometimes things just don't work out well in an exam. Anyways, the exam just went crap- all the mini essays I had to write just didn't flow, I felt like I didn't have enough time to explain anything well, had mutliple brain blocks, and spent way too much time on some sections, leaving not enough time on other sections and not really completing them to my satisfaction. I just have to get over it now and move on- only one to go! (Hope I didn't fail and have to drag my ass back from Europe to sit a special!)

 

Tomorrow night I'm going to hear the NZSO with Cho-Liang Lin, which will be exciting! I've been looking forward to this concert since last year, as it combines two of my favorite pieces- Brahms Violin Concerto and Tchaikovsky 5! A radio review of the performance was unflattering though: apparently the conductor is a bit dry. So hope it's gonna be a good night.

 

It's only 10 days till I leave for Europe- which is a bit worrying! I haven't even thought about what I'm going to pack and I don't think I have enough clothes. Last night (since I never sleep well the night before an exam) I spent ages tossing and turning thinking about what I'm going to eat over there (in sight of my food allergies), and worrying about what it's going to be having to move round and travel all the time. I think I'm just begining to realise what a long time I'm going away for. I'm sure there are going to be some great times, but two and a half months of traveling is going to get tiring! I definately think by the end of it I will appreciate much more a simple home cooked meal, as well as my own bed!  Mum and Dad a stressing heaps about security, telling me all these scary stories. I don't think I'll get a wink of sleep whilst I'm over there!

 

 

Sometimes (being the SNAG that I am lol!), I am prone to my spells of corniness. As I was studying for Practitioner Development II exam tomorrow, I came across these little gems of wisdom regarding life in our "Self Care" lecture:

 

Resilience:

 

What is it? "the process of adapting well in the face of adversity, trauma, tragedy, threats or even significant sources of stress..." APA.

Not a trait- it involves behavious, thought and actions that can be learnt and developed...

Main factor is having caring and supportive relationships PLUS

Positive view of yourself and confidence.

Skills in communicating and problem solving.

The capacity to manage strong feelings and impulses.

 

APA recomments 10 ways to build resilience:

 

1) Make connections (what ever that means lol!)

2) Avoid seeing crises as insumountable problems

3) Accept that change is part of living

4) Move towards your goals

5) Take decisive actions

6) Look for opportunities for self-discovery

7) Nurture a positive view of yourself

8) Keep things in perspective

9) Maintain a hopeful outlook

10) Take care of yourself

 

Does that just make you feel so much better about exams? But then, this arrived in my e-mail inbox from my mate Tim (Rated M for Male Reading Only)

 

An exam is like a wife:

1) Too many questions

2) Difficult to understand

3) More explanation is needed

4) Result is always unexpected.

 

LOL! Happy examing and good luck!

 

 

 

 

Not much to report this time. Still have done hardly any work for exams- I'm determined to get started properly tomorrow! Today I spent starting the day having lunch at St. Lukes with Dave Mc, checking out the mall for some stuff, then heading over at 1:30 to Dave B's to meet him and Tim to book stuff for Europe. Little did we know that very little progress can be made in 4 hrs!

 

Booking Hostels and arranging the European Tour has been more difficult and frustrating than anticipated. It would be ideal to stay throughout Europe in hostels sharing a room with my travelling buddies only, especially for security's sake, but it seems like we've simply left it too late! Of particular interest is the hostel situation in Prague, where the hostels that the Lonely Planet book has recommended seem to be all full, and the rest seem to be full of criminals! One review of a hostel reported that "Security is non existant" and "not even your (lol not my) bra is safe!". Should be some interesting times!

 

My departure date is in only 3 weeks, so the trip is really fast becoming  reality now. Still got three pesky exams to struggle thorugh though. Money is also fast dissapearing out of my bank account! I have now bought my Eurail pass, and have decided to add one night in Venice to my itinerary (some troubles with cheap accomodation there too!). For the first time, I'm starting to worry about what it will actually be like living in hostels for a month and a half. I'm sure I'll appreciate the simple pleasures of  home so much more after.

 

Another frustrating thing is that people have been keeping things from me... you know who you are. I expect you to all come clean sometime...

 

Laterz