Cossel's Travels

Russian Revolution

2008-05-28T14:44:00.001-07:00

Time to update again; this time from Russia, went with Carl, Yoko, Kellie and 23 other fellow member of our tour group. Our guide from St Petersburg to Vladimir and finally Moscow was Ang, a well travelled local girl. Initially the concerns was getting the visa, and then making sure our bags arrived via the new Heathrow Terminal 5, but in the end it all went without a hitch. Our first stop was in the outskirts of St Petersburg in some kind of business hotel which dispensed god-awful brown stinky hot water everyday that we were there. The first night was spent in the hotel where we started a competition of 500 and samples of Russian vodka and Baltika (numbered 1-9 all different local beers) which was to last the entire trip.

First day in St Petersburg was on a sort of hop-on-hop-off bus tour of the city. On this day we managed to see the Smolny Cathedral, Sheremetetyev and Marble Palaces, among heaps of other beautiful buildings around the city. I think we decided that most of the buildings in St Petersburg were painted yellow with the rest other bright shades of lime, orange and blue. We also made a stop by the Church of the Spilt Blood which was a preview to the famous twin Cathedral of St Basil’s in Moscow. The afternoon was spent wondering around the halls of the Hermitage museum, an experience not dissimilar to visiting the Louve in Paris. The evening was spent on a canal cruise, which was unfortunately in Russian but at least we got to see the city from a different vantage point. The second day was spent visiting the St Isaac Cathedral inside Peter and Paul’s Fortress where a number of Tsars were laid to rest. After a lunch of beef stroganoff and more vodka, we headed out of the city to the Pavlovsk Palace which we toured, and the grounds of Catherine’s Palace, both of which were summer palaces of the Tsars. The evening show was provided by traditional Cossack dancers and singers followed by yet more vodka and caviar canapés.

The next day was a free day where we roamed the city fairly aimlessly but really getting the last view of St Petersburg before we bundled onto an overnight train to Vladimir, the ancient capital of Russia. The ride was pleasant except where we got caught by the train guard drinking spirits…vodka’s banned but beer isn’t, go figure. Anyway, some sweet talking from Kellie got us out of trouble, before our group got told to shut up and go to sleep by local teenagers at the other end of the carriage.

Arriving into Vladimir early the next morning, we spent no time dumping our gear in our little village “resort” before heading out to Suzdal for some sightseeing. On the trip we learnt that Suzdal was famous across Russia for two things…it’s a retirement town of 20,000 which boasts some 30 churches/cathedrals and the best cucumbers around. We even got tips of how to grow the best cucumbers, a secret that I’m not going to tell, you’re going to have to go there and find out yourself. At mid-day we all headed to a bunya, which is essentially a sauna…I’m sure everyone’s seen the image of these people running out into the snow and beating themselves with branches…yup this is pretty much what it was, less the snow. I pretty surprised just refreshing it was really, our thermometer read close to 120 deg Celsius of dry heat. That evening we remained in the “resort” entertaining each other with drinking games and probably getting funny looks from the wedding reception in the adjacent room.

Our trip into Moscow was a lot easier than we all thought, avoiding all traffic. Ang managed to organise a night tour of the city for us which was fantastic, getting our first glimpses of the Russian capital under lights. The next was a walking tour of the Red Square, where we once again saw the Kremlin and St Basil’s Cathedral. This was followed by a photo trip around the Moscow Metro circle line, where we jumped on and off at each stating marvelling at the marble statues, mosaics and frescos mostly depicting soviet themes. This first evening we ended up having dinner in a pub behind the former KGB HQ where there was a cool live band and spirited dance floor.

The second day was spent in the Kremlin, walking around inside the grounds. Luckily we managed to get into the Armoury where treasures such as Faberge eggs, State jewels, crowns and carriages were kept. It was amazing to see these items given that we had been getting an education about the Russian Tsars such as Alexander and Catherine the Great, Ivan the Terrible and many others. That night Carl had arranged for tickets for Swan Lake at the world famous Bolshoi Theatre. Thank goodness for the programme at the intermission because I was getting pretty lost in the plot. In our final couple of days in Moscow we spent some time in Gorky Park, shopping for souvenirs and a half day in the ridiculously lavish Soviet Exhibition Park, VDNKh.

In summary, my glimpse into Russia was awesome, expensive but I’d gladly do it all again and look forward to a return trip to see another part of the largest country in the world.

2008 Easter Morocco Trip

2008-03-30T12:03:00.000-07:00

Thursday: Start in Marrakech

Easter time again and I’ve managed to find myself on another trip to see more amazing sites of

Europe, well North Africa this time. I shared my trip with a number of friends that I’ve met in London, similar to myself, they’re also aussie who are also working/living in London. I left London before the main group due to cheaper flights that I found. Arriving in Marrakech, I had to first find my way to my riad (traditional house) that I was supposed to spend the night. Little did I know that the streets were planned my some madman with a fetish for mazes, with a little lighting and street signs. Eventually with the help from a helpful teen I managed to find my hotel and check in without too much problems. Luckily the riad was close to the Djemaa-el-Fna (main square).

This square was amazing, there were numerous stands serving all sorts of food, unfortunately they were fairly repetitive after a while. The feel of the square was not dissimilar to the night markets in Taiwan, with the exception that all the vendors were very pushy in getting your attention to buy stuff. There were story tellers, musicians and other street performers as well, all surrounded by big groups of people. After trying some snail soup, chicken tajine washed down with some super sweet mint tea, I called it a day.

Friday: Explore Marrakech / Meet group / Skoura

Getting an early start on the second day, I headed towards the tall minaret that I saw the previous night, but not before I got a photo with some snake charmers on the main square. From the mosque I headed through the souks (markets) and managed through to ramble through it to find a couple of additional mosques towards the north of the medina. Meeting up with the group, and our driver Hussin, we headed through the Atlas mountains via Ouarzazate. Our lunch break, and first real Moroccan meal for the group, was in a roadside diner with during lamp carcasses hanging in the entrance. Back on the road, towards the peak (2650m or something), it started to snow all around us, it didn’t last long though was we wind down through the other side along the valley. I think we were all very surprised with just how lush the valley floors were. Sam managed to arrange a lovely accommodation for us in what appeared to be a small farmstead and the end of winding roads through the village.

Saturday: Through Dades Valley to Sahara

The next day we started driving through the Dades valley towards the Sahara Desert. The first stop was in a gorge, where we saw villagers still washing cloths in the stream shared with goat herders coming down from the hills to water their flock. Bryce and I found a small cave halfway up the cliff walls and decided to climb up and have a look. Little did we know that everyone else was waiting for us to get a move on. That slight delay and the extremely slow lunch service meant that we missed our sunset camel ride towards the campsite in the desert. Instead we rode out under moonlight on camels with names such as Barry White, Jimmy Hendrix and Heartbreak Hotel. I think after a whole day cramped inside the land cruiser, Sam was a little stiff and found the camel ride to be very uncomfortable. It probably didn’t help that the rest of us managed to find some kind of rhythm with the ride and ended up laughing Sam with his groans and moans at every bump.

For some reason our evening meal had rice, a tropical wet climate produce. The desert was incredibly cold, which wasn’t that unexpected I guess. The stars above were amazing, but due to the full moon that we had, we didn’t quite see as many as you might have away from city lights.

Sunday: Sahara through Draa Valley

Early this morning, Colin and I woke up just before the sunrise and climbed the biggest sand dune that we could see. Climbing up loose sand was incredibly hard, especially towards the top when you’re absolutely knackered and your boots sink into the sand. It was well worth it though; the colours and shadows cast by the nearby dunes were amazing. It didn’t take long for others to join us, but unfortunately the remainder of our group didn’t manage to make it to the summit before our camel drivers called us down for the return ride.

After breakfast, we packed back into our four wheel drive before heading back towards Marrakech via the Draa Valley. Unbelievably, we had to ask for couscous at lunch, an ingrediate that we thought was a staple in Morocco. That night we stayed in a Kasbah (desert palace) not far from the Ait Benhaddou.

Monday: Marrakech

The final drive back towards Marrakech was fairly uneventful, as most of us slept through most of it due to the late night card session back in the Kasbah. Those that did stay awake took photos of the valley at an incredible rate (Maria/Sam averaged 60 photos in an hour). There were a few opportunities to get out and stretch our legs, the first on a stretch of the path were it was easier for the land cruiser to go ahead with out us, the second in a historical Kasbah, which used to be the residence of a local pasha.

The limp back into the city was a big surprise to us all, who have now spent the past few days in the wilderness. The hustle and bustle of the city was overwhelming, many of commented that it resembled the busy streets of South East Asia. We spent the evening eating and shopping in the main square. My personal highlights being the stewed sheeps head, a gingsing tea and chocolate sweet and my jedi robes.

I’d like to thank Sam for organising this trip and the others in my group for such a fun time in an exotic location.

Red Bull Air Race and Mike & Dani's birthday

2007-07-29T14:14:00.000-07:00

....couple of place markers, more text to follow, links to photobucket still works.

Holiday in Basque not Spain

2007-07-14T08:15:00.000-07:00

Hey guys, long time between updates. At the start of July 2007, I was once again on my way to Fiestas de San Fermin in Pamplona. First, we had to stop by Bilbao for a couple of days, where Wei Yang and I would meet up with Mike and Tom. The first evening was pretty uneventful, with Wei Yang and I arriving in town late in the evening, so all we had time for was beer and tapas. The hostel was ok, located slightly on the outskirts of town, by pure chance the world inline hockey competition was been held across the street and many of the referees were staying our hostel. The next day we slept in and took a lazy morning in the Guggenheim museum and a walk around the old town for lunch. In the afternoon we decided to head out towards the beach on the northern part of the city. It was pretty windy and we were not really prepared to go out to the beach. Mike managed to drag Wei Yang up to the top of the cliffs for an amazing view of the beach and ocean around us.

Mike had hired a car and drove us towards Pamplona for the festival. On the way, we stopped by in Alsasua, a village where we had organised our accommodation for this part of the trip. We managed to get into Pamplona in time for the “running of the nudes” which was a protest against the cruelty to animals in the up coming bullfighting. It wasn’t much of a run more like a parade, we had plenty of time left over in the afternoon to get familiar with the city. The day of the opening ceremony was incredible. Everyone dressed up in their whites and crowded into square in front of the town hall. There was champagne, sangria, tomato sauce being thrown everywhere, and the people in the balconies were also getting in on the action down below by throwing buckets of warm water. Rockets were launched to signify the start of the festival, at which point we headed towards the Mussel Bar. Mussel bar is a funny statue, it’s about 10-15’ tall and every year, drunk tourists (antipodeans mainly) would climb to the top of the thing and jump off, faith that their friends below would catch them. Every year there are serious injuries as a result of this, “unfortunately” this year we didn’t see any. We met up with a couple of students in the main square later that afternoon, with whom we caught up with for the rest of the time we were in Pamplona.

The first day of the bull running was again very similar to what I remember from my previous trip in 2005. The streets were still filthy from the parties the evening before, people were picking themselves up either to head home from sleeping in the park all night, or to the next party. We headed to the bull ring, where we managed to get really good seats (7 from the front) for the upcoming show. The bull ring is the end point for the run; bulls would chase the runners through the city between a guided track towards the arena. Once the racing bulls were all safe in their corrals, a baby bull would be released into the ring, to chase the runners around the ring. While very energetic at the start, the bull quickly tires and then the handlers release a much larger but tamer bull which would collect the baby bull and take him back to the corrals. This is repeated for a number of times for the amusement of the spectators and runners. The rest of the festival basically consisted of eating, drinking and generally making merry with the locals. I had an awesome time but the return to London was definitely welcome as it was simply too tiring to continue partying so much.

O2 Festival

2007-07-14T08:10:00.000-07:00

up date to come

Cambridge

2007-05-28T07:20:00.000-07:00

In an attempt to get out of the M25 (ring road around London) this May bank holiday, which I had forgotten to plan for, I copped out and did a day trip to the university town of Cambridge. The weather was foul in typical English fashion and hence a short trip like this suited just fine. Cambridge is located in East England, about an hour on the train out of London. The main inspiration for Cambridge (rather than Oxford, which is a slightly older uni) was the fact that UQ was modelled on Cambridge...in particular Trinity House. The town isn't very large and I was able to walk around pretty easily, unfortunately, either due to the weekend/bank holiday most of the colleges were shut to the public. The most famous of these colleges are:

Kings College, where the boy's choir is broadcast every year around the world
Trinity House, the richest and largest of the colleges. It is said that one could walk from Cambridge to London without leaving lands owned/associated with the college.
St John's and many others

My main target was the great court of Trinity House, where the traditional race made famous by the film "Chariots of Fire" takes place. when I did see it however, it doesn't really look like UQ's Great Court, that's when I found out the movie was actually filed at Eton college in Windsor. Anyhow it was a great day out...even in the wet.

France in Easter

2007-05-24T15:29:00.000-07:00

Wow, so late with this update, just over a month ago Carly and I got a head start on our Easter break by heading to France. Keep reading to find out how we (well Carly mainly) drove over 1,500kms and explored across a significant portion of the country. On the Friday afternoon we both left work early to catch the train from London to Dover where we did the ferry trip over to Calais. It was my second Channel crossing by ferry and once again, the English weather was foul and we didn’t manage to get a good look at the famed white chalk cliffs. By the time we got to Calais and found where we could rest our heads on the first night, Carly was knackered and got an early start on sleep while I went for a quick walk around the block.

The second day we picked up our little Renault and when I got my head around driving on the “other” side of the road and a little impromptu tour of Calais ferry port, we started our holiday in earnest. I should mention that whilst we had a rough idea of where we wanted to go and what we wanted to see, the only things that we had confirmed on this trip was the ferry trip, the car hire and the flight out of Nice in 10 days time. For our first stop we headed towards the coastal town of Dieppe where we arrived just in time for lunch. Refreshed, we made our way inland to Rouen, where we saw the first of many cathedrals to Notre Dame. The town of Rouen was heavily bombed during the war and this was very evident in the many scars on the buildings. Of course, Rouen is famous for another religious woman for this was where Joan of Arc was burned at the stake for heresy. At the plaza where a church to commemorate the saint, we found a strange piece of 1970s architecture. After this side trip we tried to head to the coastal rock formations at Etrat but unfortunately a heavy fog sets in on route and we abandoned this destination. The fog frustrated both of us as we drove around on poorly signed French highways looking for Pont de Normandie. Eventually we find it and found our second night in a delightful little harbour town of Honfleur.

The next morning we rewarded ourselves with a sleep-in and a slow start exploring Honfleur. The town was fantastic, lots of narrow cobbled streets with cafes, galleries and little shops. Late morning we headed towards the Normandy beaches where Operation Overlord was carried out on D-Day, some 60 years ago. Carly and I made our stop at the code named Sword beach, one of three, where British, Canadian and other non-American allies made their landfall. It was a strange feeling being there on a sunny but cold windy day, on a site that had seemed so horrific decades ago. Driving along the coast, we saw a number of memorials left to commemorate the losses. The next destination was a brief stop-over at Mulberry Harbour; a harbour built using concrete caissons to enable the deployment of troops, armour and supplies for the war. The caissons were large boxes constructed in England, and towed towards Normandy then sunk deliberately as a part of Operation Overlord. After all this modern history, we headed towards Bayeux where an amazing 1,000 year old, 70m long tapestry illustrating the invasion of England by William the Conqueror. It was incredibly well preserved and the embroidery was still very clear after all these years. With plenty of afternoon light we headed towards Brittany where we would stay at the start of the causeway to Le Mont Saint Michel.

We decided to get an early start on Mont Saint Michel before all the tourists arrived. The abbey was just as I remembered it, from when Eddy and I visited almost 2 years ago. Carly and I got separated when we were touring the main abbey, so after running through every room, including starting the tour again I found a smiling Carly waiting for me in the gift shop…somehow I had missed her in my frantic search. At least I had been through the abbey previously. We got a few more photos outside on the meadows, with me terrorising the local sheep trying to get a “postcard photo” with the sheep in front of the citadel. After a quick lunch break, Carly took over the driving duties and brought us to Blois a town in the heart of the Loire Valley. We managed to find a warm converted chateau for the night across the road from the main Blois Chateau.

On the fourth day, we started our Chateaux and winery tour of the Loire Valley. The first stop was Chateau Chenonceau, which was a beautiful palace constructed over the Cher River. During the drive, I managed to catch glimpses of a number of other smaller chateaux just off our path. Chenonceau was amazing, sitting on beautifully manicured grounds; the palace itself was no less decadent. The second destination was Chateau Cheverny, or otherwise known by Tintin fans as Marlinspike. On the way we stopped by local vineyard and had the most delightful white wine, and we just had to pick up souvenirs. Unlike the first chateau, this one was much more homely, the trappings of an aristocratic life were still in each room, furniture, toys family photographs. There is a pack of hunting dogs on the estate, unfortunately when we were there the dogs where merely napping in the midday sun. You’d think that Carly and I would have been tired of castles after these but we had saved the best for last, in fact Chateau Chambord is supposed to the grandest of chateaux in the Loire Valley. When you think that its’ original owner was almost the king of France, and the central double helix staircase of the palace was designed by none other than Leonardo da Vinci, you can be sure it’s pretty cool. In the afternoon, we returned back to Blois and had an early night as we had a big drive down towards the French Riviera the next day.

Bridge Day! I woke Carly up early as usual…not really intentionally but I did but we managed to get on the road before the traffic started. Today we would be driving more than 650kms south through France, actually Carly did all the driving I merely held the map. We know the day would be filled with all sorts of funny sights as one of the first traffic lights we pulled up to, we saw a kangaroo sign...the kind that you see in oz. Well I kept my eyes open, I didn’t see Skippy. We drove down the middle through the volcano region, it wasn’t the French Alps, but when we got driving through the mountains and the rain turned to sleet then to snow, it was really beautiful. Driving 120km/hr through falling snow also had a really cool effect, for those that haven’t done it before, the white snow flies past you, and the effect is similar to going lightspeed in Star Wars. The little Renault went through fine and in no time we were driving through the steep gorges of the Tarn Valley towards our first major bridge of the day. The Millau Viaduct almost came upon us by surprise, unfortunately in awe at seeing the bridge; I missed the turn off to the specifically designed look out. In fact we actually pulled over on an emergency stop to quickly take some snaps. What we didn’t count on was the speed that the French highway police would turn up and tell us off. Well after much kissing ass and playing up the tourist thing, we got off with a warning. We pulled aside at the next turn off to try and take the photos that you see now. After some lunch and a break, Carly was feeling much better and we headed towards Nimes where we found our second famous bridge of the day. The UNESCO heritage listed, 2000 year old roman aqueduct built by Marcus Agrippa did not disappoint at all. I had mixed feelings when I found graffiti carved into the stonework…but dated 1839…so is it still vandalism or part of the heritage value? Our final push for the evening took us into the fortress town of Avignon. Luckily we found a motel without too much trouble, the hotelier was the funniest guy. When we made our standard inquiry of “parlez vous anglais?” he responded in perfect accent free English “no, but can you speak French?” After the long day that Carly and I had, that just cracked us up to no end. We finished the evening with a late supper and wine on the square.

After a sleep in for a change, we headed towards the town centre for a brief look-see before continuing our travels. Avignon was very different from the Loire Valley that we had just left. Instead of lavish palaces for dandy French aristocrats, this town was surrounded by a massive block stone wall and even the Pope’s palace looked very imposing and fortress like. Just outside the palace we saw the most delightful busker, who was able to brighten up the bleak place. The other attraction of the town is Le Pont D’Avignon, which is now is only part of the original bridge, the rest of was washed away hundreds of years ago. On leaving Avignon we decided to head towards Arles where Van Gogh painted some of this famous works, unfortunately we took a wrong turn on the highway and headed to Aix-en-Provence to see works by Cézanne instead. Aix-en-Provence was very much a student town; while we had lunch near a fountain we finally took a break and watched people walk by for a while. We did find a gallery for Cezanne, but it was still being constructed and they were yet to secure works of the original master nevertheless it was still an enjoyable cultural afternoon. The last destination of the day was to be the port city of Marseille, where we stayed at a youth hostel near the beach. That evening we got to know Carly’s roommate who was from Montreal and had fallen onto a mishap earlier that day.

The next morning started with a short stroll on the nearby beach before catching a ferry to Chateau d’If. Whilst we were waiting for the ferry to arrive we checked out the fish market by the harbour. Some of the fish were so fresh that they were still alive and flapping around in the shallow basins, we also watched an octopus crawl all over an annoyed stall owners produce. The trip out across the bay was pretty uneventful, when we arrived at the chateau though I could imagine why Dumas chose this location to set his novel “Count of Monte Cristo”. This place is a fortress jail on an island…pretty secure, all you need is sharks or mutant sea bass with laser beams to stop escaping prisoners from swimming away. We paused for a quick lunch before a steep climb up a hill to see yet another cathedral to Notre Dame. There was such a panoramic view of Marseille at the top however which made it all worth while. Later that afternoon we began our drive down the coastal road around Cote d’Azur. We headed towards the little town of Cassis, unfortunately we were unable to find suitable accommodation in the town, but luckily found a roadside motel seemingly in the middle of nowhere.

Another early start today as we realised the previous night we had a lot of ground to cover before getting to Nice. The coastal drive was fantastic, much of the coastline was different coloured cliffs falling in to a bright blue ocean. In no time at all we found ourselves driving into the trendy town of St Tropez. We decided to have a break for a coffee along the marina, pausing to look through paintings by local artists. Afterwards we pushed on along the coastal route, breaking briefly to have a picnic lunch on the side of the road. In the afternoon we headed towards Grasse, where we learnt all about perfume making and how this little town in Provence plays such a important on making everyone smell nice. In the evening we checked ourselves into a Nice hostel (hehe) which was converted from a chapel.

Sleeping in for a change, we visited the flower markets where we all tried fresh sea anemone before heading for a day trip to Monaco. I had the feeling that I got more out of our trip to Monaco than my travel companions, I guess having worked on a major project off the coast of Monte Carlo helped pique my interest. We saw all sorts of cool stuff, like the famous Monte Carlo casino…and the numerous expensive cars parked outside, the Grand Prix track (well it’s only a road race anyway, but I’ve been on it now), the grandiose marina with all the super and mega yachts. I went for a bit of a walk down this principality’s newest toy; a 300m long floating breakwater extension to the marina, which is also a 4 level carpark, built in one piece in Spain and transported and anchored just in 2005. Sounds geeky, but for a maritime engineer, it was really cool. We spent a few hours exploring the amazing aquarium which was smaller than London’s but had better critters. Outside, we walked around the palace and the old town on the top of the hill which is so exclusive that only cars of the residents are allowed there. The trip home was a bit of a killjoy though, as Carly battled through crawling traffic for hours all the way back to Nice.

On the last serious day of the holiday, I decided to explore Nice on foot in glorious sunshine. In an attempt to get cultural, I hoofed it to the Matisse museum, unfortunately my trusty Lonely Planet failed to inform me that the museum was closed for most of the year. Well, not deterred I changed direction towards the Chagall museum instead. For a artist that knew nothing about, and all thanks for Carly for the recommendation, I thought the pieces were pretty interesting. On a roll I thought I’d try the museum of Modern Arts, but once again the Easter break defeated me. The rest of the sites of Nice were well pretty cool (ha got you there). It was a funny feeling, little bit of loneliness almost, going around on my own like I usually did on these types of trips I guess I got used to having Carly’s company. I ended the afternoon with a stroll along the promenade above the pebbly beach before heading back to the hostel to pack for the return trip to London.

In retrospect it was an amazing holiday, with Carly. It was definitely a very different way for me to travel, before this, I hadn’t done such a long trip with a friend before. Whilst I’m sure I bugged her with my incessant rambling about engineering she managed to break through me and in turn I learn a lot about myself and our friendship in return. I had a great time and despite the pace of the trip…I can now confidently say that I’ve explored a significant portion of France.

Denmark vs Socceroos

2007-02-11T12:52:00.000-08:00

Another friendly at Loftus Road, this time Socceroos vs Denmark. I guess everyone was pretty pumped until we all realised that morning most of our international team were not coming. Still I thought it was a pretty good game with fantastic goals. This was helped by the fact that we were sitting just 5 rows back behind the goals and were able to have an awesome view. These guys came with me to the game Mike, Anastasia, Jason, Ian, Troy and Daemo.
For those that don't know, the Socceroos lost the game 3-1.

We had a couple of drinks afterwards at Defectors Weld in Shepards Bush to drown our sorrows.

2007 New Years Eve: London

2007-02-11T12:25:00.000-08:00

It's late, but hey at least I did it. 2007 New Years Eve celebrations were pretty unorganised, given that I had just came back from Prague over Christmas. In the end, Margie, Vaughn, Ian and I headed down to Embankment, opposite the London Eye (coincidently along with hundreds of thousands of Londoners) to watch the fireworks.

I was really impressed, the eye was lit up with flashing lights on the lead up to the big event, and when it hit 2007, fireworks were launched off it and river barges. Unlike the fireworks in Brisbane, these were not syncronised to any music what so ever. Like all London events, once the fireworks ended the crowd rushed towards the nearest public transport (tube, buses). Luckily the public transport was free for the night, just crowded. Horray for 2007.

Prague Christmas 2006

2007-01-01T14:23:00.000-08:00

Arrived last night, luckily caught up with a friendly couple who were locals here in Prague (unfortunately their flight was delayed in London due to the fog since the 20th). Got some great help from them in getting away from the airport. Managed to check into the hostel just past midnight (yeah! :) Christmas), not snowing as planned though, just cold and wet...should have stayed in London and saved the cost and hassle of the flight. The hostel is superb, the whole place has just been refurbished and it's very modern. Checked into a 6 bunk room, but I guess due to the winter season, there's only one other person in the room.

Headed off to Kutna Hora on Christmas day which was about an hour on the train out of Prague. Carly was really the inspiration for me to come out to this place, I didn't even know it was here the first time I was in Prague. I had heard from her that there was a chapel that was covered in human bones. Apparently some 30,000 plague victims were buried in this place, and at one point in the 17th century, someone had recovered those bones and created what is there now. It's actually quite amazing when you see it, all the same seems not quite real, almost like a Hollywood set, but then you remind yourself that these were real people passed away.

Kutna Hora was apparently the sister city to Prague up until the 16th century. The city was founded on a silver mine, which they're still milking trinkets to this day. The streets and some buildings are quite similar style to what you'd expect to find in Prague...cobbled alley ways, decorated buildings, but all in a smaller scale. What had happed was that the silver mines ran out and Prague got involved in the European 30 year war, the result of which meant that Prague advanced while Kutna Hora became preserved by UNESCO.

The second day, was spent visiting another castle, this one at Karlstejn. This castle sits on the top of a hill, with a cobbled street township at the foot of it. The castle was built in the 14th century to house the crown jewels and religious treasures. It's located in a beautiful part of the Bohemian country side and well worth the day trip. The other half of the day was spent at Vysehrad, the mythical birth place of Prague. It's now a walled park with a cathedral and cemetery.

For some reason on the coldest day, (-6C according to a street sign) we decided to go up to the Prague Castle. It was pretty cool, not with too many surprises as I had already seen it all before about 18 months ago on my first trip of Europe. We did surprise some Czech guards outside the US embassy as we had taken a slight detour off the normal walking track. We walked around Hradcany (castle district) around the various souvenir stores and returning back to the new town square over the Charles Bridge.

The last day we walked back through the parkland that this Mala Strana over to the Strahov Monastery where we had lunch at Hells Kitchen. The restaurant was under the ground and looked like it was part of the cellars of the monastery. Once again I went up to the library and took some photos of the painted roof. In the afternoon it started to snow, around 3ish, this lasted all afternoon while we were running around the new town looking for a pub. Once we got back to the hostel, Cam and I decided to build a snowman with what snow we could gather from the ground and surrounding cars. I thought that for a couple of Queenslanders, our first effort wasn't too bad. We topped the evening off with a snow ball fight with a number of other people in the hostel.

It was a great holiday, and all the better to catch up with Cameron and Carla.

Autumn in London

2006-12-29T12:10:00.000-08:00

Been a while since the last post, this is because I haven't been doing much. Those around me know that I've been having visa problems to stay working and living in London, but I'm on my way to fixing that now. But while sorting that out, I've been lying low, hence no travel posts. Also during this time I've left my sharehouse and moved into a friend's place.

First event would have been seeing the Socceroos vs Ghana friendly at the QPR stadium in Shepards Bush. The tickets were pretty cheap, and about 6 of us went together on a brisk Autumn evening. The game was pretty good, drawing 1 all by full time. There's another friendly coming up in February which I think we'll definately attend.

Remember, Remember the 5th of November...well Guy Fawkes was upon us again in London. For those that don't know, Guy Fawkes was a part of the Gunpowder Plot in the 16th centurary, which was a plot to try and blow up the british parliment. Unfortunately for Guy, he was caught and executed. Funny now that the event is remembered in Briton by fireworks. Well, it's legal to have fireworks in England, and we had our own party near a friend's place in Chiswick. The photos might not look like much, but it was us lighting our own fireworks so I think it was really cool.

The other event was the Arup Christmas party. Unlikely previous years, this one was a black tie event at the Royal Society of Arts on the Strand in London. Everyone got dressed up, despite alot of grumbling the previous week from lots of the guys. There was slight Bond theme with some mock gambling tables and with the alcohol free flowing and dance floor lively everyone had heaps of fun.

Edinburgh Festival and stuff

2006-08-29T14:48:00.000-07:00

Wow, so long with out an update. Well got lucky this time, didn’t even have to pay for most of the trip, work has decided that I’d be more productive in Edinburgh…during the festival. Oh the fools. But seriously I was sent up beyond the Hadrian to do a job. Due to the festival there was no affordable accommodation anywhere near the city so I ended up staying in the little village of North Queensferry, which is at the northern end of the Forth road and rail bridges. It was only 15mins on the train into the city and one stop to work, but the train was only every half an hour on average.

Anyways, Edinburgh was lovely, if I had to summarize the look/feel of the city, I’d say solid. The architecture is square cut massive blockwork, there’s a massive castle in the middle of town on a solid rock mound, and the old buildings are just tall (apparently up to 15 storeys) back in the 15^th century. Because of the glaciers in the ice age, Edinburgh is a series of steep hills and valleys, and to cross these, the engineers of old had build up these massive arch bridges crossing the town, which resulted in a multi-tiered city. The second day I went for a wee stroll up Arthur’s seat which this hill/park towards one end of the city, from the top of which you can see the city all around you. It decided to lightly shower just when I had nearly gotten to the top, but I weathered it out and got a few quick snaps for you all to enjoy.

While I was there the festival was on, now for those who aren’t aware, there’s a number of festivals on during this time, the majors are the International, Fringe, Film, Book and the military tattoo. I managed to see a few shows while I was in town, mostly in the first and last weekends and a couple after work. I even managed to get a scalped ticket to see the tattoo on my last night in Edinburgh. One of the walking tours took you down into the vaults of the city which is supposed to be the most “psychically active” haunted place in the UK. I didn’t manage to see anything though, but the guide was trying his best to scare the pants off anyone who was listening. All in all a fantastic trip all curtsey of my employer Arup.

Chang Family Reunion: 20 years in the making

2006-08-12T08:25:00.000-07:00

For those who don't know, my parents immigrated the family to Australia from Taiwan on the 9th of July 1986. Well my sisters decided that this year we were going to recreate this event. With no small part of organisation from everyone in the family, everyone arrived in Taichung a week before the big flight. My route to Taiwan was via Hong Kong; luckily I was able to get on the same connecting flight to Taipei as Chialia and the 3 boys. The first few days were spent waiting for Eddy to arrive from Tokyo. Those few days was spent in and out of air conditioning to escape the humid Taiwan summer days. The evenings were mostly cruising the many night markets, eating local food and checking out the local barging shopping. The day after Eddy arrived we headed to Alishan, one of the highest mountains in the middle of Taiwan.

Mum and Dad had organised a few nights away in the mountains for the family as well as one of our cousins and his wife and daughter. We went up there by train most of the way and in two vans for the remainder. The trip was almost cancelled on account of rain, as there is a risk of landslides in the mountains. The first afternoon was pretty easy as everyone just settled into our new accommodation. We went for a small walk up to see a sacred tree (cypress tree hundreds of years old) and the foundations of a Japanese shrine, the path also went past an old bunker in the hill. The second day was spent walking around Alishan itself. Highlights included seeing the site of the Alishan sacred tree, this tree was estimated to be 3000 years old when it was chopped down in 1997 (this tree was still standing the last time I was in Taiwan in the end of 1996). Other highlights included the Two Sisters Pond, the story that really got to Josh for the remainder of the trip. The walk took us past waterfalls, streams and a grove of ancient trees, and some really odd shaped tree stumps. That night we took a walk in a dark part of the woods near the hotel and we saw fireflies. Fireflies are getting harder to see in the wild as they require particularly unpolluted conditions with a water source but we were able to see quite a few that night. We woke up at silly o'clock the next morning to hike up a nearby peak to see the sunrise. When we got there was this guy who didn't know the way, didn't have a torch or any water that also wanted to climb the same peak. After a false start (we had walked down the wrong path in the dark) and many stumbles we finally got to the top in time for the sunrise. That afternoon we began the trip back to Taichung, making a number of various tourist stops along the way. A couple of days later we all headed towards the international airport again in Taipei, unfortunately we all couldn't get on the same flight back to Brisbane, but most of us did arrive in Brisbane on the 10th of July.

I spent most of the week in Brisbane frantically catching up with old friends and former work colleges. I managed to meet up with most of the guys that I used to work with at GHD, Brad, Stuart and Dave. Most of the time was spent having lunches and dinners, it seems that the eating didn't stop once I left Taiwan. The quiz night in the valley with Wei Yang, Wayne and Carla and Ian was particularly fun, even though we got our butts kicked. In all too short a time it was back to the airport again for the long haul trip back to London.

Royal Ascot

2006-07-01T02:23:00.000-07:00

There's other sports happening other than the World Cup. Trish had the idea to organise a trip to Royal Ascot for the horse racing. A group of us managed to get down there eventually after a false start while back in London. All of us made a few punts, a few more successfull than others, I personally came slightly behind but had a great time nonetheless. Like the racing scene I've previously attended back in the Brisbane Ascot (isen't that cool), the girls looked great, guys were well dressed...all out for a drink in the sun while pretending to be upper class. Although there was more pimms and lemonade here in the UK. The weather turned a treat although I think some people got a bit burnt. We had a picnic in a nearby park when the races finished prior to spending a bit more time at Ascot at a nearby bar before returning to London. On the return to London we met up with Cherrie who had missed the day's excitement but was having a party of her own which we gatecrashed as usual.

2006 Football World Cup Finals - Group Round

2006-06-18T12:42:00.000-07:00

I cannot resist, I'm a sucker for big hype events, so of course when Australia qualifies for the Football World Cup, I decide to follow as many relevant matches as I can. I think I'm not alone in saying that Australia were the underdogs in the group match against competition favourites, Brazil. However, given by how well we played in the lead up to these finals and how we beat Japan, I held out a slim hope, to be honest, I'd settle for a draw. So when Mike (friend from uni days) organised to watch the match in a sports bar with his Brazillian flatmate, I had to go. I think we played extremely well in the first half, and I guess the Socceroos just got a bit tired in the second half. In any case I think the game was fantastic, lots of attack from both teams right up until the bitter end, plenty of attempts at goal, the Brazillians just happen to be able to put it INTO the back of the nets. Congratulations Brazil, but just imagine what if Australia had won today? :)

I must say, watch this space, the World Cup is not finished, and if Autralia doesn't make it to the end, I'm sure my English friends will drag me to all of their games.

Happy Birthday Patricia

2006-05-14T13:41:00.000-07:00

This saturday I was fortunate enough to have been invited to celebrate my friend Patricia's birthday. For those who don't know, I met Trish through Megan (who was Trish's ex-flatmate) when I first arrived in London back in October 04. It actually wasen't Trish's birthday this weekend, she decided to have celebrations early because she wasen't going to be in London on the actual date. Lots of Trish's friends came down from Bermingham, which was really awesome of them. Quite a few of us partied all night in a club in central London until the wee hours of sunday morning. I think we all agreed it was a fantastic night.

If you do have the inclination move through the photos, you'll note my "new look". Once again I've lost my hair, which really isen't news at all now, but I'm now sporting glasses. I started to realise that my eye sight was getting worse and finally did something about it a couple of weeks ago, so it's official, I'm short sighted. I don't really have to wear the glasses except to watch tele and read street signs (I now need them to drive).

London Aquarium with Carly

2006-05-13T06:37:00.000-07:00

Last weekend I finally caught up with Carly, we had originally planned to either see Hampton Court Palace or a play at Shakespear's Globe, but the typical London weather wasen't going to play along. Instead we did what all Londoner's do when the sky turns foul, museums/galleries/exhabitions. We met up at the London Aquarium, which I was told, has been featured in a number of films (must be chick flicks, because I don't really know which ones). Anyway, Carly and I spent better part of Saturday morning wondering around tanks of rare and exotic fish. Summary of the highlights:

Fish from the Thames (believe it or not, there's life in them waters).
Sharks and rays and huge deep sea fish in a tank with Easter Island head ornaments.
Tropical fish, I think no matter how many times you see colourful fish it's still exciting.
Fish from South America and Africa.

On a similar theme Carly told me about these giant catfish that was caught in the Mekong a few years ago. Incredibly rare, the villagers that caught it however did what you probably think they did...yes they ate it.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/06/photogalleries/giantcatfish/index.html

Easter Holidays

2006-04-17T14:11:00.000-07:00

The easter holidays came rather unexpectly, actually I forgot that they were coming up, if it wasen't for Briony and Brandon. Briony and Brandon are friends from Brisbane who are now working in Cardiff in Wales. They came to keep me company in London during the holidays, during their stay I met Brandon's parents and rode the London Eye with them. The view was really cool from the top of the eye, however it wasen't the clearest of London days and hence we didn't quite get the full range (on a crystal clear day, it's rumoured that you can see for 100kms from the top).

On easter monday we welcomed the end of the long winter by having our first backyard BBQ.

Will Crawford's Farewell

2006-04-17T13:52:00.000-07:00

The end of March saw one of my new found friends leave London. Will's an english friend that I met and he has kindly introduced me to his other frinds. At the end of March, Will will be moving to the United States to get married. Needless to say, we had a few send of sessions for WC. The group shot was taken at a local pub in Kensington, "The Builder's Arms", which has been somewhat of a venue where we go for special events as opposed to our regular sessions on Tuesday nights. The other send off session was at a paintball field north of London. The day was pretty cool, about half of the people that had come had not played before and hence there was lots of jokes about how much it would hurt. All in all I think everyone had a great time.

Back in London Again

2006-03-12T13:10:00.000-08:00

I wish I could say that leaving Australia, family and friends the second time was easier than the first. The only thing that was easier about coming back to London again was getting my way through the UK customs and immigration and then navigating the tube to get back to my place. This time around I've got a little more idea of what I'd like to do with my time in London and Europe. I hope that I'll get in the habit to keep this blog going with plenty of photos of my travels and experiences while away from home.

The two weeks that I spent at home in Brisbane, was mainly spent between, family friends and former colleges at GHD. It was so good to see my family, especially the boys who have grown up so much. Luckily I managed to spend a week with dad before he went to Taiwan.

Jane, Stuart's girlfriend had organised a surprise birthday for Stuart's 26th which was really fun. Gave me the opportunity to catch up with old friends and get updated. Also during the stay, Brad's fiance, Sachiko had been finally granted a visa so that she could come back to Oz. I managed to catch up with lots of friends, from GHD and GW, but had also missed out on quite a few, for that I'm sorry.

The short to medium term plan is to be here in the UK, so watch this space everyone. If anyone happens past this part of the world, please don't be shy, come and say hi.