This is just a quick note to say a final hello from overseas on this epic adventure. I am currently sitting in Vancouver Airport (YVR) in Canada, about to go through security, to board my flight to Melbourne, via New Zealand. I will arrive back in Melbourne on Sunday morning at 9:40! I have mixed emotions at the moment, and I don’t think it has quite hit me that this epic adventure is drawing to a close.

I will be writing a good post once I’m back about the wrap up of my trip, as well as finish off all my posts from the other places I visited. I plan to make this into a physical book, and depending upon time, possibly a little guide outlining the cities and places I visited, so that others can learn from my mistakes and discoveries.

I would like to thank you all for reading, commenting and participating in this blog over the past seven and a half months. This site will not stop here, I plan to keep posting my work and writing here, and I hope that you continue to enjoy it.

I would like to say thank you to everyone who has offered me support, friendship, companionship, advice, and beer over the journey. I extend an invitation for you all to come to my hometown, and experience the wonderful place that I grew up in. I am certainly due to deal out some good Karma over the next few years, considering the luck that I have had on this trip.

Once again, thank you all, I look forward to seeing some of you soon upon my return.

For the last time from oversea, THANKS!

Geordie x

Express Bus from Dulles Int Airport

Welcome
The amusement started before I even reached US soil. I was aboard the flight when an afternoon ’snack’ was served. It consisted of a Twix chocolate bar, a packet of chips and an almost inedible muffin. Welcome to American food I thought.

I had little trouble in immigration. What I did find amusing was the big band style patriotic music, that was playing quite prominently throughout the airport. They took my fingerprints, and my photo and I was allowed in; take that UK Border Agency. After collecting my bags, submitting my shoes (with mud on them) to a customs examination, I walked out of the airport and took a moment to take it all in. When I arrive in a new country (and continent), I often find myself outside the airport, grinning from ear to ear and just taking it all in. The accents, the different cars, the announcements, the hustle and bustle of the people. After a while I decided I should probably find my way into town. I boarded an express bus, followed by a metro and after walking the complete opposite direction for a while, then drinking a starbucks coffee, I found the HI DC Hostel.

LOOK! A Starbucks

Bit of a break… or not!
I had planned to take it easy for a few days and come to terms with being back on the road, but I was out on a walking tour just a few hours later, touring Georgetown University and the surrounding area. We ended the tour by walking down the steps used in the film the Exorcist, and heading towards a bar. A fellow Aussie and I located a greasy burger joint, and it lived up to the expectations, complete with a huge halved pickle and tomato ketchup. Shortly after, we joined the rest of the group at a nearby bar. I didn’t last long, due to the time adjustment, and got lost one again on my way back to the hostel.

Exorsist Steps....

The next day, I took it easy. Only venturering out to get lunch (McDonalds, I know shocking), and buy a sim card. Bizarrely, I received a facebook message from a girl I used to go to primary school with (elementary school for the Americans), saying that she was in New York and would I like some company to tour Washington. I thought it was hilarious and she agreed to hop on a bus the next day. I ventured a little further in the evening, into Chinatown and stumbled across a few entertaining things, most of all, a restaurant called FuddRuckers… Swap the F and R! Hmmm…

MMMMM... Greasy Burgers!

Cheesy Tourist Sites
Hannah was due to arrive by midday, so the morning was spent once again on the internet. I met a few more people from the hostel, including a few cool guys from California (Galt & Zac), and a brother and sister from England (Ellie & Alex). Ellie actually stole my computer for several hours, uploading pictures to the net. She, along with a lot of the other hostel inhabitants had worked on a summer camp and were now traveling before returning home. Hannah arrived and we headed out for a day of cheesy tourist sites.

Geordie Outside The Capitol Building

We first visited the Smithsonian museum, then the sculpture garden, then the National Museum of the American Indian, which was really good, with some great lighting in some of the exhibitions. It was then onto the US Capitol Building for some cheesy shots, and a great view of what is called the national mall. Essentially the national mall is the long rectangular areas which is home to all the Washington attractions, like the Washington Monument, the White House, Capitol Building etc. It was pretty impressive to see all these white wash buildings in person, because I had seen them enough in movies.

Museum Of The American Indian

Our next stop was the White House, and along the way we found a very entertaining squirrel. It was pretty impressive, even though we could only see a small part of it. We got the usual cheesy photos and moved on to what I was looking forward to most, The Abraham Lincoln Monument. A number of people had commented that my newly grown facial hair made me look like either Amish or like Abraham Lincoln. I thought our next stop posed some serious opportunities for funny photos. Apart from taking the piss slightly, it was actually quite a cool place, and the statue of him quite impressive. From there, it was onto the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, which was very well done. We then headed to the Martin Luther King Memorial, which we couldn’t find. This is because it hasn’t been built yet, but was already listed on our map, very strange. It actually paid off because we stumbled across the Franklin D Roosevelt Memorial, which was amazing and huge. We got a few nice photos and decided we were sick of memorials and monument and that food was in order.

Washington Monument @ Night

We tried to catch a bus back into town, but after a long time of waiting, we gave up and started to walk. We ended up catching the metro one stop into Chinatown, and thanks to my iphone, headed to a highly recommended Chinese restaurant. The food was good, but expensive, and they wouldn’t give Hannah a beer due to her forgetting her ID. They weren’t as strict at the next place we went, purely for an all American experience, Hooters. It was quite entertaining and we ended up having a very nice German waitress serving us.

Hannah ended up decided to catch the bus back to New York, because due to her forgetting her passport, the hostel wouldn’t give her a room, and a hotel was majorly expensive. I dropped her off at the bus and headed back to the Hostel for a well earned sleep.

LOOK! A police car.... ohhhh.....

The Zoo, Free Concert & The Rain
I had nothing planned for the next day, and eventually talked into coming to the Zoo with the Californian Guys, and the English brother and sister. I worked out the way to get there, but Ellie and Alex (English) said they were walking to save cash. Google Maps said it was a 58 minute walk, and so Galt and Zac (Californians) and I reluctantly agreed. I was off to a bad start by suggesting we head almost the complete opposite direction. It only went pear shaped from there as I took us on the scenic route due to Google Maps inability to judge whether roads actually meet, or whether they pass underneath each other.

The Gang @ The Zoo

We got there eventually, and to my surprise, it was free. This is because it is part of the Smithsonian Foundation, funded by the federal government. It was an extremely entertaining day, with Ellie loosing her shit for the elephants and the zoos famous pandas. We returned to the hostel, Zac, Galt and I opting for the Metro after a well earned McDonalds meal, complete with the most amazing drink ever, McD’s Sweet Tea.

Geordie & Ellie @ The Capitol Building

In the evening, there was a free concert being held on the lawns of the Capitol Building. We all decided to skip the tour run by the hostel and just head straight there. On the way it threatened rain, and did get us a little wet, but we were determined to push through. It was a beautiful setting, sitting on the lawn of the Capitol Building as the sun set. We had taken far too many photos by the time the show started, and when it did we were initially surprised that the national anthem played and we had to turn and face the capitol building. The show was great, and consisted of an orchestra playing songs from old musicals to the star wars soundtrack. After an hour or so, it started to really rain, and so we bailed and decided it was time for dinner.

We were heading to a place on the other side of town, but after 20 minutes of walking in the rain, we were all soaked to the bone, so we bailed back to the hostel. We showered, got warm and ordered pizza. It was pretty funny how hysterical we got when it was as if we had had a shower in our clothes. Thanks Washington, isn’t it supposed to be the end of summer?

Holocaust Museum

Holocaust Museum & Last Day in Washington
The next day we all struggled to recover from our epic day the day before, but we persisted and headed across town to the National Holocaust Museum. On the way we encountered a group of guys playing roller hockey. It was absolutely brutal, and we watched on in amazement for some time.

Inline Hockey

The Museum was free, and quite new and fancy. The exhibits were a mix of memorabilia, video and multimedia text displays. I found it quite poorly done, as a lot of the displays made value judgments with statements like “the cruel, cold blooded, soulless and evil Nazi soldiers”. That annoyed me, because considering the subject material, it’s pretty obvious that we are going to discover the horror and destruction that was the Holocaust for our selves. We didn’t need values judgments and hate filled statements at the end of everything, telling us what to think. I think I was surprised by the contrast between the Museum of the American Indian and this. I filled in a comment card, don’t think it’ll do much.

My time in Washington is drawing to a close, next stop New York. So far, the US has been quite fascinating, just wondering around and seeing the cities for what they are. I am looking forward to seeing the contrast between the different cities and meeting the different types of people. I have been very kindly offered a couch to sleep on in NYC, by a guy I met in Thailand. He is a big nerd like me and we share a lot of similar interests, so it should be fun to have a tour guide round New York. I am loving his kindness! Anyway, next update will be from New York City. 3 weeks left, and its feeling quite strange.

On the train to London

After some intensive Physio and 5 weeks of just being a blob, I found myself on a farm in Yeovil, then on a festival site in Somerset, outside Bruton. From there I toured France, Switzerland, Italy, Germany but missed Spain, due to flying back to the UK to work on Glastonbury Festival, the worlds largest green field festival.

Fleet Foxes @ Glastonbury

It was then, that the crazy UK Music Festival tour started. I partied hard at Latitude Festival in Suffolk, then battled through a hard weekend at Camp Bestival held at a castle in Lulworth, then throughly enjoyed Standon Calling North of London. After a failed attempt to get back to Europe, it was onto V Festival, where I had quite possibly the most entertaining weekend of my life, getting 200 people to dance to the Macerena out the front of the loos.

The Macerena out the front of the loos

My final festival was Leeds Festival, and although I spent some of it quite unwell, I came good, to see The Living End, The Arctic Monkeys, The Prodigy, Kings of Leon, and Faith No More, then battled my way through Yellow Camping like it was World War Three. Each festival was different, but they all had one thing in common, I met amazing people, saw amazing acts, and was lucky enough to see a wide range of the English Countryside.

Tour busses at Leeds Festival

I finished up a few days ago, boarding a bus from Leeds to Yeovil (the base) to collect the remainder of my stuff, and say goodbye to Becky, Sid, the kids and the animals. A particularly hard goodbye was from my biggest fans, the two lovely dogs, Bruce and Charlie, the black Labradors. It was hard leaving this beautiful and amazing place. I had had so much fun on this farm, burning around the racetrack in the buggy, loading the truck with an articulated tractor, and generally stuffing around. I hope this is not the last time I am here, I have fallen in love with this country, and hope I am back here soon.

For now, it is the final boarding call, to Washington DC. I am there for 5 days, then onto New York for 10, with a quick stop in Ottowa, Canada. Then it is onto the West coast to Los Angeles, Las Vegas and then my last stop Vancouver. It is less than 4 weeks until I come home, and I am both excited and sad. I hope to catch up on my writing shortly, so bear with me as random posts appear on my site.

Hope you are all well.

Cheers,

Geordie

Hello people who read this. It has been a very long time between posts here on geordiebarker.com, this has been due to a few factors. First of all, my hosting ran out with Jumba and they wanted an arm and a leg, I have also been on an epic tour of the UK music festival scene, with a severe lack of power and internet access. This post will be a quick update of where I am at now, and past posts will appear gradually.

My last post covered Venice in Italy, from there I  traveled further south in Italy to Siena, Florence Cinque Terre and finally Nice. I was scheduled to Busabout it into Spain, but received a call from Hamish, a distant relative of mine, asking me to come to Glastonbury Music Festival. Glastonbury is the largest green field music festival in the world, with over 150,000 people attending, plus 60,000 crew. I just ‘ resist the opportunity to attend such a famous festival, so I was onboard an Easyjet flight back to the UK quick smart.

Since my arrival back in the UK, I have tagged along with Hamish and the Natural Event team to several other festivals. It has kept me busy right up to the moment of writing this. The work is great fun, and I have met some amazing people. We are currently in a break of about 10 days; I was supposed to go to Prague today, but due to a lack of funds, Squeak (a fellow Natural Eventer) had to cancel. Instead we are getting ahead on the upcoming work, and although quite depressed about canceling our holiday, we hope that we can have a weekend in London and maybe visit a few people around the country.

Thanks for your patience with the dropout of my site. I would like to personally say that Jumba Hosting suck, and that Smartyhost make life very difficult, and I wont be sending ANY work either of their ways. I look forward to letting you all know of my adventures, and would love to hear about home!

Cheers,

Geordie

Back on the Bus

Due to the short distance between Rome and the next nightly stop Florence, we had a couple of cultural visits penciled in for the day, which was quite unusual for Busabout. Our first stop was a small town called Orvieto. It was accessible via a Funicular, which was a new word to my vocabulary, isn’t it just a cable car? There was a beautiful black and white church, and a lovely little coffee shop.

Fenicular @ Orvierto

Soon enough, it was back on the bus and we arrived at Siena. I was the only one out of our little gang of Aussies and Kiwis to get off the bus. Also with me was two ‘30 something’ Kiwis, two Aussie girls and a younger couple. The accommodation was my most expensive so far, but I had my own room and TV, so it made up for it somewhat. The ‘hostel’ was a hotel, with a quaint little reception and a lovely bathroom.

Geordie & The View @ Orvierto

Italian Food & Exploring the Local Town

There was a recently renovated coffee shop just next door to the hotel, so I decided to give it a try. Unfortunately, there was no menu, and the staff spoke very little English. Thankfully, I was joined by the two Kiwis, Dean and Jo. Dean asked if they had pasta, which they understood, so we all followed suit. It turned out great, and soon after we eagerly selected items from the amazing selection of pastries. They were even better, and we all vowed to try and try everything, (not a realistic goal).

AMAZING Pastries

I had been using the wikitravel.org guide to Siena and its local towns, and discussed the details with the Kiwis. They decided to tag along, so we purchased tickets from the local newsagent and boarded the little bus for the winding trip up into the old town. The town was originally fortified to protect its inhabitants from local forces. As such, the whole town, situated on top of a hill was historic and original. It was amazingly pretty, and filled with both touristy and authentic shops. The streets were all cobblestone, and shared by drivers and pedestrians, much to our terror.

Cobblestone Streets

Tickets & Churches

The guide from the net had told of a local town called San Gimignano, with an amazing collection of towers and world class gelato. After sitting in the main town square for a while, we headed to the tourist information centre to find out more. It was pretty simple, and clearly made easy for the tourist. We decided to go to the town for the morning the next day, and headed out to see the local sights. As with most Italian cities, Siena had a Duomo Church, made with black and white stone. It was one of the most stunning churches I have visited (and I’ve seen a few). We then walked through the town to the other side to visit the Basilica of San Domenico. No photos were allowed inside, but there wasn’t much to take a picture of, due to its run down state. It did have one interesting feature, which was its ancient stereo system.

Inside the Duomo, Siena

Boutiques and a Wiki Dinner

We headed back into town and looked through a number of the cute little boutiques and décor stores. Yet another tip from the guide was an authentic Italian restaurant, called Sotto La Fonte, located just outside the town gates on the other side of town. We decided to head that way, and found that it didn’t open until 8pm; it was 6. We did the next logical thing, and found liquid sustenance, in the form of beer at a local bar. Once we got bored of that, we found another restaurant on the corner of the local highway.

Great Italian Beer

By the time we got back to Sotto La Fonte, we were all quite tipsy. The restaurant lived up to its description, and one of the owners, a German born woman, was quite simply the friendliest person I met. She also had her kids in the restaurant, as her husband was the cook. She had a young baby, and a 6 year old boy. The baby was very cute, and much of the time was spent trying to get a good photo of him.

Sotto La Fonte Owner and Son, Siena

The meal was amazing, and by the end, Dean and Jo had finished off a whole bottle of wine, and I 5 beers. We rather reluctantly headed back up the hill, through the town and to the bus stop. Unfortunately, we had missed the last bus by 10 minutes. I suggested walking, which wouldn’t have taken that long, as it was downhill, but the Kiwis hailed a taxi and after some classic Italian driving, we eventually arrived back at our Hotel.

Rocket and Proscuitto Pizza

San Gimignano

After an amazing breakfast of pastries and coffee at the local café, we boarded the bus to San Gimignano. The town is famous for its towers, build by each family in competition to the last. It made for an amazing view as we approached the town. First item on the agenda, in true Italian style, was lunch. We found a lovely little restaurant with a garden, and sat in the shade. I got my new favorite pizza, Proscotto and rocket. Jo ordered too much, but still struggled through her Bruscutta and a whole pizza.

Tallest Tower in the Town

With full bellies, we headed into town and straight up the ‘Torre Grossa’, the tallest tower in the town. It was an amazing view of the town and the fields beyond. I took far too many photos and hope to make a panaromic from them shortly. We quickly wondered through the gallery at the bottom and walked through the town to the far side. Along the way, I tired a very nice Italian soft drink and almost brought a bottle of Lemonchello (Italian liquor).

Best Gelato In The World

Best Gelato EVER!

We decided that by then, we had walked around enough to just justify a lunch desert, and according to the guide, we had to try ‘the best gelato in the world’. The place was called Pluripremiata Gelateria, and was the winner of the Gelato World Championships four years running. I got lemon and mango, and can safely say that it was the best ice cream I have ever had, sorry Trampoline. Once we couldn’t possibly eat anymore, we headed back towards the bus stop. We lost Jo for a while, but whilst Dean and I waited for the bus, she was apparently helping a lost child.

Taxi Ride Home.... Hmmm

Too Full

We made it back to our hotel for an afternoon nap. It was our last night in Siena, but because we had had such an epic day, we weren’t amazingly motivated. We ended up heading into town and having a light dinner and a beer, before making sure we got on the last bus home.

The Journey

Back on the bus at 8am and straight to Ancona, a ferry port and gateway to Croatia and the Greek Islands. There wasn’t much else there, and thankful, we moved on quickly. We passed through an area that was affected by an earthquake earlier in the year, and saw some buildings destroyed, and a tent city, that people had been living in for almost 7 months.

We had a funny moment on the next part of the bus ride, when the guide, Coops (from England), and the driver, Matt (from Wales), sang most of Queens greatest hits, to the delight of everyone one except Gwen, who was in the front seat. More on her later.

Campground, Food, Attempted Early Night

Much like Venice, our accommodation was a camp ground a little out of town. I wasn’t too fussed about it, as it was the cheapest accommodation I had booked so far. I was paying 8 euro a night for a shared ‘tent’, which was pretty much a cabin with canvas walls. My only complaint was that there weren’t any power points in the rooms. The toilet block made up for this however, and was amazingly over the top. It had aircon, background music, a fountain in the foyer and was immaculately cleaned.

Countryside & Raised Freeway in Italy

We settled into the campground, and used our welcome dinner voucher, which offered discount pasta and pizza. We joined another Busabout-er at one of the tables, her name was Gwen, and she was from Perth. She had been on the first ever Busabout season, 16 years ago, and three times since. Now Busabout doesn’t have an age limit, but it is generally for 18-30’s. Gwen was a little out of that age limit, at the ripe old age of 77. It was pretty impressive for a 77 year old to be traveling on her own, let alone on Busabout with people a third of her age.

I attempted to get an early night, but got a text message from Kate, one of the kiwi girls, giving me shit for staying in, so I headed to the bar to protest. The beer was pretty cheap and after a few, we hit the dance floor. The DJ was located right in the centre of the square shaped bar on a raised platform, which we all found pretty amusing. It meant that he was the centre of attention, and was unable to take requests, very Italian. Some great songs were played, but mostly it was crap. We got kicked out at 2am, and after a few dramas, hobbled off to bed.

Walking Tour Begins

Walking Tour, More Food & Rest

After a pretty large evening, a ‘sleep in’ was called for. Around midday, a number of us from Busabout headed into the city for the walking tour. The journey took us on a local bus to a station, then onto the Rome Metro, arriving eventually at Circo Massimo. The tour began, and we were shown the location of one of the largest stadiums ever constructed.

From there we walked past the Mouth Of Truth, a large stone that was an ex sewer cover. Legend has it that people would stick their hands into the mouth, and it would act like a lie detector. If they were lying, their hand would be stabbed, if they were not lying, they could walk away unscathed. Realistically, there was a guy behind it that would make a decision and act accordingly, so now it is a gimmicky tourist attraction.

The Mouth Of Truth

We continued on, past one of the many forums that the Romans used as trading points. In each of the forums, temples would be constructed, to pray to the gods of that particular trade, or just for general victories. The buildings were over 2000 years old, and as our guide pointed out, most of the architecture was ‘borrowed’ from other cultures, such as the Greeks.

Our next stop was the Teatro di Marcello, an old building that was originally an amphitheatre, but was now apartments. It was strange to see that these ancient and quite important buildings were recycled into apartments and not fenced off and preserved. We moved through the Jewish Slum, and our guide explained that the word ‘slum’ was not regarded as a negative word. It had some nice looking food, and we agreed to try and come back.

Teatro di Marcello (Now Apartments)

We passed the cat sanctuary, which was located in a collection of temples unearthed when a new shopping centre was planned. This site I found particularly amusing. They had dug down to put in the foundations, found a few 2000+ year old temples, left it unearthed, and then when they had a cat problem, allocated the site for the feral cats to live in. Quite strange.

The Dome @ The Pantheon

Our next stop was the Pantheon, home of the second largest dome in the world, and to this day they cannot figure out how they constructed such a giant dome. It also has a large hole in the centre of it, which is the only light source for the giant room. This was the part I was interested in. It was originally used as a Roman temple, but has been used as a Christian church since the 7^th century. It was pretty impressive.

We had lunch at a local café, with gelato for ‘lunch desert’ and moved on to our next stop. We were heading into the latter part of the tour, and wrapping back around the ancient city to finish near the Colosseum. We passed the Monument of Emmanuelle the II, which looked like a giant parliament house, and the window that Mussolini used to speak from. Eventually we rounded a corner and there it was, the Colosseum.

Geordie In Front of the Colosseum

I didn’t feel a great connection or anything to it, but the fact that I had seen its picture in so many movies, and travel shows ect, meant that to see it with my own eyes was special. The tour guide finished off, and we were left to wonder around it. We were advised to take an afternoon to see it and the roman forum, so we headed back to the campground via the Metro and the Bus.

Vatican Tour

The next morning, we set out early to join the tour of the Vatican. We got rather essential coffees, and met our guide outside a church, near a metro station and headed into the Vatican. We stopped on the way at a café, to exchange our tour vouchers and eat some breakfast. Then after a short walk with some entertaining police officers, we entered Vatican City.

Crowd In Front Of St Peter's Basilica

Apart from the security check, and thousands of crazy Christians, it just seemed like a large square to me. Nah, I’m kidding, it was a pretty cool thing to be in a place of such importance. Our guide pointed out the features of the square as the papal address continued in the background.

Without realizing, we missed half of the English part of the address, but we did hear the man talk. Everyone of course had a competition to try and see who could get the best photo of him. I got the closest, thanks to my cool camera, but still couldn’t make out terribly much. After the address had concluded, we walked out of the city, and around to the entrance of the Vatican Museum.

The Pope... I know, he's far away

We then spent the next hour and a half wondering through, with expert commentary, and the highlighting of a few funny elements. It was an amazing museum, stocked with paintings and tapestries and sculptures. The highlight was at the end of the tour, The Sistine Chapel. We entered and I was instantly blown away. It looked like a photo, every detail was so perfect, and the thing that kept going through my mind was that it was hand painted.

Spok Is At The Vatican?

We had a rather funny experience whilst in there. A Japanese film crew had done a deal with the church, and paid 3 million euros to have the whole thing cleaned and repaired. In return, they owned the photo and video rights to the chapel. As such, no photos are allowed, and of course, we took photos, much to the anger of the “no photos” man, who almost kicked out Kelly. I didn’t get busted, thanks to my stealth, and my handy bag.

The Sistine Chapel, Vatican City

We finished the tour, and thanked our guide. The one thing left to do was St Mark’s Basilica, the main church of the Vatican. It was an impressive thing to be inside, but after two hours of museum, we were all a little drained. I ended up doing some cool photography, and people watching. Kelly and I took it in turns to take each others photo, which was oh so touristy. We then met the Kiwi girls out the front, and headed off to find lunch and an amazing gelato bar that the girls had uncovered the night before. This involved a Metro ride, but was worth it in the end.

St Mark's Basillica

After dining in a rather nice, cheap, authentic restaurant, it was time to join the tourist trail again, and visit the Trevi fountain. Kelly took my camera, and managed to take the best photo of me tossing a coin, with the coin in mid air and me hosting a cheesy smile. I was quite content, but my afternoon only got better, as we purchased the best Gelato I have had so far.

Colluseum Dissapointment

Geordie @ The Coloseum

We decided it was time to revisit the Colluseum, and once again boarded the Metro. Unfortunately for us, we took quite some time to locate the actual entrance, and missed the last entry by 15 minutes. I was originally guttered at missing my opportunity, then realized that I had had an amazing day, filled with unique experiences, like tricking the photo man, awesome food, and seeing a cool ninja turtles graffiti train. It also gives me an excuse to return.

Ninja Turtle Train

We ended up wondering up the hill, and stumbled across a wedding in a small church. On the way back down, we took the opportunity to take some cheesy tourist shots in front of the Colluseum before boarding the Metro home. It was back on the bus in the morning, and off to Siena, a small Italian castle town.

McDonalds with a view...

McDonalds with a view
Thankfully, there wasn’t much of a hangover to speak of the next day. I think this has a lot to do with some sleep, and the amazing purity of German beer. We were on the bus at the usual 8am, and were in store for a long day. We had an interesting lunch time stop, at a McDonalds with the most amazing view you have ever seen. It was really busy, and it took me almost 25 minutes in line to get food. Because of this I almost missed the bus. I had quickly ducked to the toilet, only to return and find everyone gone.

Busabout Bus!

Our accommodation for Venice was a campground, right next to the airport, and about 20 minutes drive from the actual city. We faced a massive line when we checked in, due to the large number of us, and the ‘relaxed’ processing time of the desk staff. The campground was alright, but had clearly seen better days. It had its own supermarket, but no kitchen, wifi, but facebook was blocked.

Venice Water Taxi

Sleep In
I was supposed to get up at 8, to get the 9am shuttle bus with Kelly and the two kiwi girls, but I slept right through, and ended up catching the bus with a few friendly faces, like the couple from Eltham who I met in Lauterbrunnen. There were a few new people from Busabout, like Kym from Melbourne, and Sarah from New Zealand. It was a good 20 minute drive from the campground, to the main bus and train terminal, on the west side of the island. Now for those who don’t know, Venice is completely car free, and when you see the photos, and understand the city you will know why.

Floating Fruit Market

St Mark’s Basilica
We entered the maze that is Venice, and thanks to the numerous signs, we made it to St Mark’s Square. This is the tourist centre of Venice, and a very useful navigation point. I had read up on Venice in both my Busabout guide, and my online guide, and it seemed that the main attractions were churches, bridges and the city itself. One thing that caught my eye was the Peggy Guggenheim Collection, mostly because it was contemporary art, but also because the Guggenheim Gallery in the US is where a majority of Dan Flavin’s work. The line to get into the Basilica was stupidly long, so we decided to wait until later.

St Mark's Basilica

Our group got smaller and we headed along the ocean towards what looked like a really nice church. We got distracted on the way by an information office, and ended up back in the square. We noticed the line to the basilica had disappeared, and upon inspection, it actually had. We took the opportunity, and it was an amazing experience. Photos were not allowed, but I snuck just one to give you an idea of this amazing church.

Me in front of St Mark's Basilica

We headed out to see the Rialto bridge, important in Venice’s history, as it was the trading centre of town. We found a nice café in a nearby street, and all ate Panini’s. We justified the café’s service charge, by taking advantage of their toilet. We split after lunch, as Kym didn’t want to come to the Guggenhiem Collection. Sarah and I got nicely lost on the way there, and discovered some awesome spots.

The Rialto Bridge

Random Discoveries, Guggenheim Collection, and the Church of Santa Maria
I found the home of the Interpreti Veneziani, who played at the Melbourne International Arts Festival last year, the Accedemia Bridge, a nursery Venice style, and some awesome street art. One work of street art was by Shepard Fairey, creator of that famous ‘Obama Hope’ picture. You can read more about his most recent project at www.obeygiant.com

Street Art by Shepard Fairey

We managed to find the Peggy Guggenheim Collection after a while, paid our ticket, checked our bags and headed in. There were some amazing works, and I was surprised by the range of art displayed. After visiting galleries like the Tate Modern, and the Pompidou Centre, a few names had stuck in my head, including Andrew Calder.

Peggy Guggenheim Collection

There was a work of his displayed in the back part of the gallery, pretty much in the middle of a foyer between two doors that led outside. Google his name, and you will see the sort of work he is famous for. It is mainly large metal mobiles that are very well balanced and designed to be quite fluid. I stood in this foyer area for a long time, watching the interaction people had with his work, and the effect of the wind from the doors. It was a pretty awesome thing, to just stand and watch, and I found it hard to draw myself away.

Work by Maurizio Nannucci

Another work that caught my eye was located in the courtyard. It was called ‘Changing Place, Changing Time, Changing Thoughts, Changing Future’, by Maurizio Nannucci and was made with neon tubing. I also loved a work by Yoko Ono, called the wishing tree. Visitors were given pieces of paper, and told to write a wish and hang it on the tree. I wrote one out and hung it on the highest branch I could. I liked my wish, as I was inspired from the gallery, so I had something to wish for.

Looking towards Santa Maria Church

We ended up making it to the large impressive looking church that we had seen from St Mark’s Square. It was called Church of Santa Maria della Salute, and was a bit of a disappointment on the inside. We randomly ran into Kym on the steps, and took a water taxi across the grand canal.

Me on a gondola!

True Tourists, Surprise Light Sculpture
We met up with a whole lot of the other Busabout people, to take a gondola ride as a large group, with the main hope to save money. Someone stupidly asked the gondolas near St Mark’s Square how much, and we were then given a steady stream of offers and general hassle as we tried to walk away. For some reason, I was given the job of head negotiator. We walked away from St Marks Square, and the prices started getting cheaper. I negotiated 80 Euro for 5 people for 35-40 minutes per gondola, and everyone agreed. We set out, on a gondola in Venice, truly touristy.

Gondolas on the grand canal

It was actually quite a fun experience, and I was amazed at the skill of the boatmen. Needless to say we took hundreds of photos, and got to view the Rialto Bridge, Grand Canal and random places, like Gothe’s House. The driver kept his part of the bargain, and we all enjoyed the ride. We were the first boat back, and as we waited for the others, something caught my eye in the foyer of the hotel next to us. I walked into their foyer, and was greeted with an awesome piece of Light Sculpture.

The Virtual Ladder by Federica Marangoni

It was called “the virtual ladder” and was by Federica Marangoni. It was an interesting work, that used red and white compact fluro tubes attached to a ladder frame with two screens at the top showing pictures of the fluro tubes. I liked it automatically for its use of fluro tubes, and was intrigued by its little screens. We followed Brent, the Melbourne guy to a place virtually on the other side of the island for some cheap and authentic food, and it was didn’t disappoint.

Mmmmm Pizza

Biennale Discovery
On our way back, we stumbled across an installation called Season Sorrow, by Evelina Deicmane. It was a clever work with a heavy use of technology to give its message. My favorite section, featured a train that was being powered by a solar panel, that was being charged by a flood light. The train had a large A4 piece of paper with clouds on it, attached to it’s top, and occasionally it would block the flood light, causing the train to slow down and only just make it past. It was part of something called the Venice Biennale, and I was intrigued. As it turned out, there was an art festival that had just started in Venice, featuring works by countries and independent artists from around the world. We managed to find one more on the way back to the bus. I was determined to find more of these installations and vowed to find a map the next day.

I am not here... Venice Biennale

Lunch, Biennale Map
We had had a few drinks the evening before, complete with the random D&M’s and a few people peeling off together. I ended up getting the ins and outs of midwifery from another girl on Busabout, very strange. This meant however, that we slept in. I ended up sitting and chatting with Kelly, and the two kiwi girls, Niki and Kate. We all wasted the middle of the day, then realized that the shuttle bus wasn’t until 3pm, and the supermarket was closed, so we were forced to eat overpriced food at the restaurant. It was reasonable food, and once again, I managed to devour a whole pizza.

Venice Police Boat!

We eventually got into town, and immediately located the local supermarket and its opening times. The plan was to buy all of our food for the next day, breakfast, lunch & dinner. I found the tourist centre and obtained a Biennale map. We headed into the city, of course getting lost after about 5 minutes. We managed to figure out where we were, and I figured out that there was an exhibit from the Biennale nearby, a submission from the Ukraine.

Ukraine Exhibit, Venice Biennale

Ukraine Biennale Exhibit
The girls and I followed the signs, and were very surprised. We first walked into a beautiful courtyard, with a large building in front of us. The path did a little S bend, and we found ourselves in a corridor between the two buildings. Ahead of us was a foyer area, and as we approached the ground changed from old pavers to very white sand.

Ukraine Exhibit, Venice Biennale

We entered the foyer, the floor was completely covered in white sand, there was a hazer gradually puffing away, and four lights in each corner lit the room with spots of light on the white sand. The lamp fitting in the centre of the room had coloured globes instead of the normal white. To our left was a staircase leading upstairs, which we followed. The building was quite old, and very enchanting.

There Is No Art Here... Venice Biennale

We entered the first room, where a large metal frame suspended a can of red paint, a paint brush and a dress. It was mechanically controlled, and performed a series of movements, almost splashing the dress with red paint. The were three more rooms, all of which were dimly lit using coloured carnival globes in the original chandelier fittings. The lights faded up and down in intensity, whilst an abstract soundtrack played from numerous sources around the room. One room feature a display similar to the dress and red paint from the first room. We were all pretty enchanted, and spent a while just standing in the rooms listening to the soundtrack.

Not Here Either... Venice Biennale

Closed exhibits, Pizza & the Supermarket
Eventually we regrouped downstairs and after such a good experience, headed to the next closest exhibit. Unfortunately because of our late start, the main part of it was closed. We were still able to wonder around the rest of it. We tried to visit a few more of the exhibits, and we did stumble upon a very strange one that used glass and stuffed animals. We were all a little freaked out by it.

I Will Not Make Anymore Boring Art... Venice Biennale

We set off to get some food and gelato, of course getting lost on the way. We found some awesome pizza, and I found some great street art related to the Biennale, mainly two posters that read “There is no art here” and “none here either”. We made it back to the ‘Coop’ Supermarket, and brought yogurt and fruit for breakfast, rolls with cream cheese, salami and rocket for lunch, and pasta for dinner. A total cost per person of 7 Euro, a backpackers dream. One funny thing we did find in the supermarket was traffic lights at each register, see photos further up the page!

St Mark's Basilica

I am off to Rome tomorrow, to enjoy some more great Pizza, Pasta, Gelato, and that old stuff that’s there.

Back on Busabout's Blue Bus!

Quick Stop Over
It was back on the bus, for a one night visit to Munich. We did the usual small stop, this time at Lucerne. We were then given a bonus stop, and the ability to tick another European country off the list. Liechtenstein is the sixt smallest country in the world, at just 25km in length and 6km in width. It is also the world’s largest producer of dentures, and has had a status as tax haven. The guide on the bus gave us some silly fact, which I will try and verify, but for now, take it with a grain of salt. Apparently, Liechtenstein has more registered companies than it has residents.

Castle on the hill in Liechenstein

It was a quaint little town, where we indulged in a kebab, and took a wonder down the main street. Kelly and I took the piss a little, by posing at the ATM, taking a photo of a ‘local’ (a man reading the financial times), and got our passports stamped at the tourist office. After just 45 minutes, it was time to go, and continue the journey into one of my favorite cities, Munich.

A local in their natural habitat...

The Crawl
We arrived pretty late, just enough time to check in, grab some pizza for dinner, then ‘doll up’ for the pub crawl. The Insider tour’s ‘The Crawl’ is the same tour that I did two years ago, with Inger and Mary. Back then, we had an amazingly cool guide called Ollie, who was from England. Unfortunately he had moved on, and our guide Felix, was no where near as knowledgeable, or funny. We had the hour of power at the Euro Youth Hostel down the road. I had regretted not buying a t-shirt two years ago, so this time took advantage of the opportunity. The shirt reads, ‘The Crawl. The best night you will never remember’.

Random currency in Euro Youth Hostel

Our second stop was Augustiner Keller, and I indulged in a giant stein (1L) of brilliant German beer, and a pretzel. It was nice to wonder along the same streets and it brought back some serious nostalgia from two years before. I may have rubbed it in a little by messaging Inger.

Geordie with a stein and pretzel...

Our third stop was Lowenbrau, a grand old beer hall, with an outdoor garden, which is a particular favorite of mine. We only had a half stein, and it came in a really cool bottle, which I wanted to keep, but forgot to. I managed to get chatting with a neighboring table outside. There were two local German women, one of which was married to one of the guys, who was from New Zealand, and his mate was from London. They were a very stange bunch, and the conversation made it clear that the beers had been flowing.

The beautiful Lowenbrau beer hall...

The Closer
We moved onto our fourth stop, the original home of Augustiner, which was a cute beer hall. To be honest, I don’t remember much about it, but I do know that I had a beer put in front of me, and politely divided it between the others around me. Our Busabout guide, Ben, was heading back to the hostel with one of the other guides, I took advantage of the free directions, and followed suit. I left the others to thrash it out, as the last stop was a return to the first stop, the Euro Youth Hostel. On arrival, you recieved three Jager shots. Not really my cup of tea.

Amazingly good beer, and awesome bottle

In a strange series of events, I actually ended up running into Ollie, the English guide from two years ago. I was so excited and he claimed to remember our group. The only reason was because of the American guy, whose stein he smashed after he didn’t look him in the eye when performing a Prost (cheers). Once again, Munich brings out the surpirses and makes even a one night visit brilliant. Onto the bus again, heading to Venice, with just 4 hours sleep.

Geordie & Ollie, the original Beer Guide

]]> http://geordiebarker.com/archives/879/feed 0 http://geordiebarker.com/archives/879 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Geordiebarker/~3/uTy6S8E6iYc/877 http://geordiebarker.com/archives/877#comments Sun, 14 Jun 2009 14:44:31 +0000 Geordie http://geordiebarker.com/?p=877

One of the Busabout Busses

Monday – Busabout, Rosti and Contiki
I got on the bus with a little bit of time to spare. I stated chatting with a few people on the bus, which is what happens on Busabout. By our first stop, I was pretty hungry, so it was a baguette for breakfast. By that stage, I had really started chatting to people on the bus and was quite enjoying the journey. We stopped in a small towns industrial estate for lunch, and the only option was McDonalds. We embraced it, and enjoyed a Royal with Cheese. They also had free wifi, which as you may know always make me happy.

French McDonalds, Royal with Cheese!

We arrived in Bern late in the afternoon, and I encountered some confusion in relation to my bookings. The driver told me that I was booked to drive through to Lauterbrunnen, but I was pretty sure I had booked Bern. Unfortunately my computer was out of batteries and I was unable to check. I ended up staying on the bus, and subsequently forfeit my deposit for the Hostel in Bern. It worked out in my favor, as I had a few cool people to hang around with, including Kelly from Melbourne, Alissa from New Zealand and Matt from Perth.

Staubbach Falls, Lauterbrunnen

We had been given a good introduction to Swiss culture and particually food, by our friendly and very nervous Busabout guide, Edu. The highlight was info about a local dish called a Rosti. It was shredded potato, topped with Swiss cheese, bacon and a series of special toppings, like egg, or mushrooms. I was very much in for a good Rosti, and so we settled into the camp restaurant. The place we are staying is a campground in a beautiful valley, with views of snow capped mountains, and a waterfall.

Geordie with Swiss Rosti and a beer

We had a beer with dinner, and after were directed to the ‘Bomb Shelter’, a ‘Contiki Only’ bar in the basement of one of the buildings. This was where the carnage began. There were 5 Contiki busses in Lauterbrunnen that evening, and that meant almost 150-200 eighteen to something year olds that were only in Europe to get drunk and well, be naughty. There’s no seeing the sights on Contiki, because everyone is too busy getting drunk and then dealing with their hang over’s the next day. We didn’t partake too much, instead we felt like the old people sitting in the corner.

The Contiki Bomb Shelter...

Tuesday – Trummelbach Falls, Staubbach Falls, & The Natural Eskie
We were up nice and early, and headed out towards the Trummelbach Falls. The falls supposedly flows over 20,000 litres a second, but I am yet to Google that. It was a nice walk from the campground, passing through fields of flowers and giving us an even better view of the snow capped mountains. When we got to the falls, we were delighted to find a lift that would take us some of the way up the hill. It actually went through the hill and was quite amazing considering it was constructed over 100 years ago with hand drills. It was pretty amazing, as was the temperature drop as we headed further into the mountain.

Trummelbach Falls, Lauterbrunnen

We wondered back into town to try and get some lunch, and found that most of the shops shut from midday to two. It was quite strange, and I found myself eating the rest of my breakfast loaf with good old vegemite. The town was quite cute, and we found ourselves people watching for some time, as we waited for the ‘Coop’ (supermarket) to open. When it did open, we stocked up on beer, and brought our lunch and dinner for the next day. We had purchased tickets to visit Jungfraujoch, host to the highest train station in the world, and the beautiful swiss alps. It was an expensive ticket, and as such we needed to curb the spending by buying lunch and dinner.

House with grass roof... Bomb proof?

We dropped our shopping back, and headed out to the falls that were visible from our campground. The name of these falls was Staubbach, and they were pretty cool. The water would come off the top of the cliff and then get caught by the wind and depending upon how strong the wind was, land somewhere along the bottom of the cliff. It was a decent walk, and once again my knee let me know about it. It was a nice view and provided me with a perfect opportunity for a panoramic photo, which I will stitch up and post here ASAP!

Geordie from Staubbach Falls, Lauterbrunnen

Our evening was not amazingly eventful. We avoided the Bomb Shelter and instead settled for some Rosti and a few beers by the river. Someone, and I am not claiming full credit, came up with the idea that our beers could be chilled in the river, which was flowing water that was around 3 degrees. We tested the theory out, and found that after 5 minutes, our beers were ice cold.

Natural Eskie... 3 degrees!

Jungfraujoch, And An Epic Walk
We were up at the crack of dawn as we had brought the cheapest ticket (we are such backpackers) which meant we needed to be on the first train up the mountain at 6:59am and back down by 1pm. We were pensive as to whether it would be clear views from the top, but had to stick it out, as it was our last day.

Cog Train to Jungfraujoch

The journey up the mountain was amazing, and at times it seemed like we were climbing at an angle of 45 degrees. The train we were traveling on was a cog train, which meant that it had a track in the middle of the rails that matched up with a cog that pulled it up the mountain. These trains operate all through winter, which I found amazing.

Geordie on the train

We stopped at two towns on the way up, which were Wengen and Kleine Scheidegg. Wengen was mainly a chalet village for the more well off. Kleine Scheidegg was where we had to change trains, onto the JungfrauBahn. From there, the train traveled in a tunnel inside the mountain. We stopped twice, at not much more than small stations with toilets and a few windows with good views. In retrospect I think they were more for adjusting to the altitude rather than the stunning views. The first stop was 2865m (9400ft) above sea level, and the second 3160m (10368ft).

2865m and just over half way...

After almost two hours, we arrived at the highest train station in Europe,  Jungfraujoch, 3571m (11,782ft). We immediately headed for the observation deck, ‘The Sphinx’, and the views were quite simply stunning. Whilst we were on the deck, a fighter jet flew overhead doing a number of maneuvers. We took some great photos, and I took the opportunity to rang my dad, just for kicks and then my sister to wish her a happy birthday, from the ‘Top Of Europe’. It was interesting how light the air was at this height, and it took some adjusting, and occasional feelings of breathlessness.

Geordie & the sign at the top!

It was pretty cold, around -5 degrees Celsius, and I was grateful for my thermals, beanie, and polar fleece coat. There was a collection of padlocks that people had left, as well as notes and messages. I decided that one of my souvenir koalas might like a new home, so I wrote my web address on the back and clipped him on. I am hoping people will visit my site and say hello and that he is doing fine!

The view from the top.

We headed outside and did some snow disking, which is kind of like tobogganing, but with a disk. I don’t like it as much, because you have no control over which way you go. We all had a go, and mostly stacked at the end of it. We had a coffee and enjoyed the view. People seemed to be walking along a path over the hill, so we decided to have a look.

My koala, left at the top of Jungfrau

This was when the hard work started, and after 10 minutes we were regretting the decision. Not only was it hard to breathe, it was hard to walk, as it was completely snow underfoot. Kelly was having real trouble breathing as she suffers from Asthma, and we had to rest at a number of points. We walked for about 30-45 minutes, most of it was uphill, and it was very cold. Needless to say the chit chat was minimal.

Geordie and the view, during the long walk

Eventually we got to what was over the hill, and were pretty disappointed, it was just a restaurant, and some more mountains. We all agreed that it wasn’t worth the stupid amount of effort, but were proud of our achievement. We then had to walk all the way back, which was a lot better, due to it being mostly downhill.

Geordie & The View!

We got back into the complex and rushed to the ice palace. We had to be back on the train by midday, so after literally 5 minutes, we headed to the station. We were exhausted on the way down, and most of us napped on the train, waking every few minutes gasping for breath, due to the lack of oxygen in the air. We reached Kleine Scheidegg which was as far as our ticket took us. We had purchased bread, rocket, salami and cheese the day before and it didn’t take us long to inhale it all as lunch.

Underneath of the cog train....

Due to our ticket only taking us this far down the mountain, it was up to us to walk the rest of the way. We were pretty confident, as the walk was all downhill. We were set to drop altitude from something like 2000m to about 300m We set out at a dawdling pace, and quickly realized how far we had to go. The path followed the train line for most of the way, ducking in and out of the hillsides, and along what would be ski routes during the winter.

View, coming into Wengen.

After over two hours of walking, we arrived in Wengen, the main town above Lauterbrunnen. We raided the supermarket, and rested on the grass for a good while. We had to get back to Lauterbrunnen by the time the supermarket closed to make sure we got some beers, so we were forced to set back out. Whilst we were walking, a little delivery van drove by and Matt joking asked for a lift. The driver man stopped and let us on. It was awesome fun, and even though he only drove us about a kilometer, we were very happy.

View from Wengen into Lauterbrunnen

The last section was hard work. It was a great deal steeper downhill, and we were all hurting from not only the walking, but the sunburn we had sustained at the top. As we had got some oxygen back, I was able to have a good chat to an old English guy whilst we walked the last section. The other two raced ahead, worried about missing the supermarket. I caught up to them as we got into Lauterbrunnen, and our first uphill section for almost 4 hours. We loved it, as our legs were hurting quite a bit.

Lauterbrunnen Valley

We made the supermarket, got some well deserved beers, met up with another girl Alissa, and headed back to camp to cook our dinner. Matt and I were given the very important job of chilling the beers in our natural eskie (the river), whilst the girls cooked dinner. It sounded like a brilliant deal to us. We were off to Munich on the bus in the morning, so I packed my bag, and after being momentarily dragged to the Bomb Shelter by a few new Busabout arrivals, I retired to bed.

Lauterbrunnen from Staubbach Falls

It was a magical day, and sitting by the river, having my beers chilled naturally (haha) and reflecting on the day.

Back to the travel
On the Saturday, I left the sunrise site, and Gabby and I drove into Yeovil. I managed to miss my train, but it worked in my favor as I had a lovely lunch from one of the bakeries in town. My trip into London was pretty uneventful, and I once again tackled the tube to get to Palmers Lodge. It was quite strange being back there for just one night, most of the usual suspects were there, but everyone seemed to be over the party time, and into the work side of things. I did some overdue washing, and more importantly, enjoyed a real shower. During sunrise, I had gone 5 days without a shower, and whilst it was an experience, it was not something I would like to repeat.

I collected my left over stuff, and threw a lot of stuff out. I started packing after I had done my washing, and realized that I was missing the little backpack off the front of my pack. This bag is extremely important, as it gives me that extra 20L of space. I looked long and hard for it, and after it didn’t show up, I was forced to compact my stuff into just the main part of my pack. I left a lot of stuff around my bed, including my broken wheelie case, a few books and assorted junk I have been collecting.

I also found the time to reinstall OS X on my Macbook and restore my files from the backup I had made almost three weeks before. It was quite painful to see what I had lost. I had tried to save all of my paris photos, using a utility on my broken computer. It had managed to get a fair amount of them back, but not all, including a video blog I had made. I also lost a promotional video that I had made the week before for the SAVE VCA Campaign.

Into Paris Again
I was back on the Eurostar the next afternoon, and arrived in Paris around 3. I had mastered the metro, and found my way to St Christopher’s Paris, part of a wide spread backpackers hostel chain. I checked in, did a fair amount of stuff on the net and started trying to bring my computer back up to speed. I wondered along the riverside and enjoyed watching the locals chill on a Sunday night. Some were playing bowls, some had brought their stereos and wine down, and others were just walking their dogs.

I was in bed pretty early, as I was on Busabout at 8am. I was starting to get exited about my next few weeks and the places I would see, and the people I would meet. For those who don’t know, Busabout is a travel bus service that runs along three loops in Europe. Along these routes are compulsory night stops. A bus will run every two days from these cities. I have done the Northern Loop before, but this journey will take me through Switzerland, Germany, Italy and Spain. I am so damn excited!

Palmers Lodge... I told you it was nice!

Day 97 – Friday 22nd of May

Heading into English Countryside

I wasn’t able to make the bus with the rest of the crew and Hamish, so I was left to try an find another way to Yeovil, in Country England. I managed to find out that there was a train line heading that way, and so I set about booking a ticket. Due to it being a long weekend, whilst I was booking a 6pm service, it sold out, in front of my eyes. I did manage to book the next service, and set about sorting out all of my stuff. I packed everything into my rolling case, and planned to leave my pack at Palmers. As I wheeled my case out, the wheels broke off. That’s what you get for a $29 Australian Dollar case brought in Dubai. I then had to pack everything back into my pack and risk damage to my knee, I had no other choice.

South West Trains to Yeovil

I managed to get to Waterloo Station, navigate the massive crowds, and get on the South West Train Service to Yeovil Junction. On the train, I met some nice girls in their last year of school. They were coming back from an excursion into London. They were amazed at the story of my trip, and I think I can safely say that inspired some of them to travel. I gave one of them one of my koalas as a bit of a joke.

Horses @ Base, near Yeovil

I managed to get off at the right station, with a bit of help from a young couple on the train. I had read that there was a bus into town, but because the train was running late, the connecting service had already departed. I started looking for a taxi, when the couple who had helped me get off at the right place came running up to me. The guy offered me a lift into town, as they were being picked up by his dad. I of course agreed, and thanked them a lot. I met up with Hamish and the crew at the local Whetherspoons, a pub chain that serves good cheap food and very cheap beer. There I met Jose, an English guy, and the two Hungarians, Greg and Gabbi. We had a quick beer and then headed to base.

Main street of Bruton

Base for us, was the location of last years festival, which was completely washed out, and subsequently cancelled. The farmer, Sid, a very hard to understand English man, had agreed to let my boss, Hamish, keep his truck and his stuff on his farm. We were staying in a large caravan, right next to a paddock that housed some really cute horses. We all crashed pretty early, and unfortunately for me, Hamish couldn’t find the sleeping bags, so I had a very cold night, despite my 4-5 layers of clothing.

Packing the truck

We were straight into work the next day, sorting out the mess of equipment from last year. It was hard work, especially for my knee, but I managed pretty well. I don’t know if it was juat my city upbringing, but the farm seemed to be the most awesome place to hang out. There were curious cows, gorgeous little lambs, and a large selection of crazy vehicles. I was particularly amazed at a very large army truck, and we joked that we should do all our deliveries in it.

The truck, ready to roll!

We made it to the site that afternoon. Sid, the farmer described it as ‘just down the road’; 40 minutes later, and after navigating our way through Bruton, we found the Gilcombe Farm Shop, and the Sunrise Celebration Site opposite. We were one of the first few onsite, and to me it looked like a big empty field. We started to construct the blocks in what felt like the middle of nowhere, and I started to learn the knack of composting toilets.

Give a wave! Counrty England Geordie!

After a long day, the rest of the crew arrived, and we dropped off more equipment around the site. We had missed the crew dinner, which had only started that day, so we headed into sleepy Bruton, and to the local Chinese Restaurant. We all inhaled our food, and Jose and I were left onsite for the night, and the others went back to Yeovil. We luckily had a caravan to sleep in for the night, and Hamish had brought some new sleeping bags from Argos (like K-Mart).

Sid's way of moving stuff!

The next day we started pretty late. Sid had agreed to tow his massive trailer down, filled with gear, and it arrived onsite around midday. The site was starting to take shape, with more people arriving, and more infrastructure being put in place. We were setting up the toilets at a cracking pace, and had until Thursday to get them all up.

The Bob Marley 12 Block!

Now I should probably explain what a compost toilet system actually is. If you don’t like the idea of talking about poo and wee, skip this paragraph. You can see the physical structure of the toilet blocks from my photos, they are nothing special. In each cubicle there is a raised platform with a toilet seat that has a shoot attached. You enter, do your business as normal, use the toilet paper if needs be, throw that down the shoot and then if you have done number 2’s, you put a scoop of sawdust in as well. The urine is drained from the wheelie bins and pumped into a large tank called an IBC. The toilet paper, poo and sawdust is left in the bin to start the composting process. The urine is pumped away by a suck truck, and when the bins are full, they have their lid put back on, and are stored.

Pulling the tarp on a 5 block

This is where the system gets interesting. The wee is mixed with water 1-8 and used as an exceptionally good fertilizer. The bins are left to compost for 12 months, and are then also available as fertilizer. For the sunrise gig, the farmer kept all of the urine onsite and was even nice enough to use his own suck truck. He is an organic farmer, so Christmas had come early for him. The work is surprisingly good, and the whole gig, I only came into contact with the nasty’s once, when we were problem solving. It is an amazing system, and I am completely behind it environmentally and physically HAHA!

Chaiwallis Tent at sunset.

We all got into the groovy, and proudly created some nicknames. We were the ‘Poo Crew’, I am the Poo Ninja, Hamish is Captain Crapper, Jose is the Poo Pirate, Gary is still undecided, and Gabbi (my favorite) is Poocahontas. The rest of the week was pretty hectic, but each night we would also have a stock of knock off beers. I met some cool people on the festival, too many to list, but I definitely liked the vibe onsite, and for the festival. I am very much looking forward to volunteering at some more.

My boss, wearing my raybans!

A routine… Sort of…
It was back to ‘normal’ life, and my routine. I visited the Physio for the last session, dropped my camera in for repairs and settled back into the wonderful Palmers Lodge. It was strange, as we had lost a few people from the original crew, and it felt a little quiet at the hostel, despite a few nights of full capacity, but they were just strangers. It was quite funny to walk back into the lounge and look around and think to myself, ‘what are all these people doing in our lounge, I don’t know any of them’. Palmers has really become my home away from home, but it’s the people that make that definition possible.

My Physio... Up a flight of stairs... Go figure!

I met up with the two Brizillian girls, Sylvia and ?????, for dinner. I assumed we would be going out or something, but we ended up going to the apartment of a couple of their friends for a home cooked meal. They were a French couple, and the woman was half Chinese. The food was amazing. It was a very amusing dinner party, due to the mixed background of its guests. Out of the 8 people present, English was the first language for two of us. It made for some amusing moments of confusion.

Sylvia & I at dinner.

Tate Modern and Spring Awakening
A few days later, I was invited by an American girl, to go and explore the Tate Modern. I accepted quite willingly, as I had finished up Physio, and my life was on temporary hold until the end of May. Tate Modern was amazingly good, and I fell in love with an installation work by Jeff Coons, which took some inspiration from Dan Flavin. We also explored the Southbank precinct, and passed by the Tower bridge, for yet another cheesy tourist photo. We had really made a day of it, and unfortunately I had to cut it short to head back to the Hostel. I was off to see Spring Awakening, a highly reviewed musical with a five star rating from all major London papers.

The set of Spring Awakening

Anna (from Zimbabwe), Brett (from Perth), and I set out to find the Novello Theatre, and after following bad Google Map directions from my phone, we managed to arrive in time. Our seats were exceptional, in row D of the Stalls (ground floor), two seats off centre. They were last minute tickets that I had picked up the day before, and cost 25 pound each. The musical was amazingly good, and I would be safe in saying that it is the ‘Wicked’ of its genre, meaning that considering its target audience, it is exceptionally well written, directed and acted.

Charlotte, the lead of Spring Awakening

Anna wanted to get some signatures, and as such we found ourselves standing outside the stage door. She managed to get a few, and when the lead actress, 18 year old Charlotte Wakefield exited, she was the only one mobbing her. We all wondered over and I enquired as to why she wasn’t being mobbed by a sea of crazy fans. We got chatting, and she invited us out for drinks with the cast and crew at a local pub. We obviously accepted quite willingly, and were treated to an hour or so of drinking with some real west end actors and crew. For me, it was the perfect top of, to the perfect day in London. On the way home, we caught the tube a few stops with the lead actress and she asked us to add her on Facebook. I did so the next day and was a little disappointed that it was more of a fan page than her actual profile, nevertheless we did have a few beers and I was pretty content with that.

Me, and two of the staff from Palmers!

You trashbag…!
Every Friday night at Palmers, they hold a themed party, and this week it was the trashbag party, where you pretty much came dressed in a trashbag. I spent most of the day shopping in Oxford street with a girl called Lauren from Sydney. I had lost most of my socks, and as such required a visit to Primark. It was a crazy experience, and sort of like a cross between Jay Jays and Myer on some serious drugs. We explored some really cool boutiques off the main street, and tried some crazy lollies including one called beer bottles, which were like coke bottles but beer flavored… Yuk!

London street art

That evening was pretty messy, with a lot of people getting into the spirit. I can safely say that it was one of the better parties held in the Chapel Bar of the Lodge. I got halfway through the night and started changing the lighting in the room, making the Par Can pointing at the mirror ball, more of a pin spot with a flattened can and my leatherman. We ended up partying onto the usual place (Bartok), in Chalk Farm where we drank some more and had a good dance. I was very amused when Single Ladies by Beyonce came on, and called Govin in Australia, despite the time difference. I retired pretty early, escorting a few drunker ones home at the same time.

Coopers Pale Ale, and Shapes... Australia Store goodness!

Hamish, Australia Store, & Farewells…
My days in London were gradually drawing to a close, and I was a mixture of sad and happy feelings. It was all signaled by a family friend, Hamish, arriving in town. I met up with him for a beer in Leicester Square, and chatted about volunteering on a few music festivals over the summer. It was really exciting, as he is an artist himself, and tires to hire only Australian artists.
The work would not be easy, as it involved working on the toilets, compost toilet to be exact. But it was the artist endeavors that I would be privy to that interested me. I was not getting paid, because I don’t have a visa, but he would cover my accommodation, transport, meals and beers, which sounded like a grand plan to me. We were setting off sometime on Thursday or Friday, and as such that left me with about 3-4 days left in London.

Camden Markets

I met up with one of the Brazilian girls the day she left, and showed her the Camden Markets. I actually ended up seeing her off at Heathrow for a bit of fun, and it was nice to revisit the airport without my crutches. On my second last day in London, I trekked out with Hermione (girl from Blue Mountains) to explore a bit more of London, and do some travel shopping. We had an awesome lunch from a market near Covent Garden. I brought a new pair of shoes (Merrell Cross Trainers), recommended by my Physio, that would provide me with extra support of my knee. We also stumbled across the Australia Store, drooling over the cases of Coopers Pale Ale, Arnotts Shapes, Killer Pythons and Vegemite.

Camera stores are dangerous...

On the way back to the hostel, I got a call to say that my camera was ready, so I headed out to Vauxhaul via bus as there were strikes on the tube. It was quite nice to go by bus, because it gave me some orientation of London, and I found out that Vauxhaul wasn’t as far away from the main city as I thought. My camera cost a whopping 200 pounds to fix, and I was glad Travel Insurance was covering it. I caught the bus back to Camden Markets, then to Palmers Lodge for my second last night in London.

Space Invader, London Street Art

The Delay
We were supposed to leave Wednesday night, then Thursday, and it ended up being Friday. I had a bit of a freak out on the Thursday morning about my cash flow, considering the insurance company owes me over $3000 Australian dollars, and as such I spent some time upset on the phone to my dad. He calmed me down and told me that I was fine to loan off him, considering I have had a job since I was 13. I got some Nandos with Hermione, Parise and Nathaniel, and the Hermione and I chilled out for most of the afternoon in Starbucks having long chats about life.

The Tate Modern!

I ended up leaving on Friday night, but had to take the train, as I couldn’t make the bus with the notice Hamish gave me. I was off to the Somerset region, at a farm near Yeovil (Country England), to volunteer on a music festival called Sunrise Celebration. It was a hippy festival and I was working on composting toilets, I do love a good story to tell…

Palmers Lodge... I told you it was nice!

]]> http://geordiebarker.com/archives/852/feed 2 http://geordiebarker.com/archives/852 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Geordiebarker/~3/soJfAEd5EQk/854 http://geordiebarker.com/archives/854#comments Sat, 06 Jun 2009 20:23:17 +0000 Geordie http://geordiebarker.com/?p=854 I know this blog post is quite late, and I am actually writing it from a small town in the Swiss Alps, almost three weeks after the fact. I still want to get it down on paper (well digital paper anyway). It will be brief and for the most recent update about what I am up to, please skip ahead to a newer post!

Me, in the Swiss Alps

Right, with the introduction over, I can get stuck into it. So outside of my Physio appointments and general London lifestyle, I was invited over to Paris for the weekend, to visit my aunty Lynley. I accepted quite willingly, as it was a good way to break up my recovery time and I was hanging to see a new place, and a familiar face.

Eurostar Ticket Collection

I booked a return ticket on the Eurostar thanks to LastMinute.co.uk, but it still cost me over 120 pounds. This was quite expensive compared to the 59 pound return tickets that had advertised around London. My aunty was covering my accommodation and living expenses for most of my time in London, so it was really quite a good deal.

Friday
I took my wheeling case, and left my pack with most of my stuff in the storage shed at Palmers Lodge in London. It was not heavy, but posed a challenge when tackling the London tube, and it’s lack of elevators and escalators. I eventually made it to Kings Cross (St Pancras) Station, and boarded the Eurostar with some time to spare. The trip was amazing. The train went so fast and was very smooth. It was a little weird thought, because the train takes you through a number of tunnels, not just the tunnel under the channel, and these posed some pain on your ears. I am not sure if it has something to so with the speed of the train, or the style of train, but the sudden changes wreaked havoc on your ears.

Paris Metro, Minutes to train

I met Lynley at Paris Du Nord, and we took the Metro about 10 stops to where we were staying. I was expecting to be on the couch in her friends apartment, but as it turned out, her friend’s brother was away on business, and had an apartment across the road. This meant that I had my own apartment in Paris, with a view of the park and a lovely lounge room lined with walls of books. I was seriously amazed, and despite the two story stair climb, very content with my lodgings. I actually filmed a video blog in my apartment because I felt so at home and amazed at my surroundings. Unfortunately, due to my computer crashing, I have lost the file, as I only recovered image files.

The Pompidou Centre

Lynley and I took full advantage of my early arrival, jumping back on the Metro and heading into the Pompidou Centre. I had heard of the place before, but never visited in my past trips to Paris. It is a modern art gallery, but has special significance as all of its services are visible from the outside of the building. When it was built, which was at least 30 years ago, it caused a lot of controversy, some Parisians hated it, some loved it. Today it stands as a symbol of the modern architecture of its day.
Due to it being a public holiday, every man and his dog were there, so we decided to skip it and maybe return later, instead choosing to wander through the wonderful streets. I introduced Lynley to the amazing Soy Chai latte with a half pump vanilla, and we found a great deli where we brought our dinner. We ended up on the river, and got lost a number of times.

OMG... Food!

We headed back to the apartment, where I met Lynley’s friend Sabrina. We had pre dinner drinks consisting of a few Kronenburg 1664’s at a lovely roadside café. We then inhaled our wonderful Salmon and cream sauce pasta in Sabrina’s loungeroom. It was of corse soaked up with amazing French bread. I retired to my wonderful apartment and sat by the window for a while, watching the world pass by, before retiring to bed. It was wonderful to be in a new city, and to have the travelling under way again.

1664, French for beer!

Saturday
The next day was Lynley’s birthday, and so it was up to her what we did. I managed to find a bakery and ordered two criossants in full French. I was extremely proud of myself. Lynley suggested we try and re-visit the Pompidou Centre, and this time succeeded in getting in. It was a wonderful place, and I fell in love with their foyer signs, which were LEDs set in Perspex. We saw two floors of the permanent exhibitions, and found some interesting pieces, including one artist who essentially made strange circus style toys. We had both has enough after two or so hours, and decided a movie might be nice for Lynley’s birthday. I got some free wifi, checked the GPS, and we set out in search of a cinema that was playing films in English. It was surprisingly hard to find, but after walking past it, getting lost for 35 minutes, and trying to ask for directions, we found it.

Lynley and I with good popcorn!

The movie was called Good Morning England, and was amazingly good. The cinema gave you a choice between both styles of popcorn, which was amazing. After falling in love with sweet popcorn in Asia, I got sweet for me, and salted for Lynley.The movie had gone for a lot longer than we thought, and as such we were a little late to meeting Sabrina for dinner. We tried ringing her a few times, but as it turns out, Lynley had her number wrongly written in her phone. I dissected the country codes and such and managed to get onto her. We eventually set a rendezvous closer to the restaurant rather than our apartments, and it worked quite well.

Beautiful Old French Car

Dinner was amazing, We had a set menu, and I tired snails, baked cheese, and indulged in the amazing bread (as usual). Lynley and Sabrina were on the good wine, but due to my dislike of wine, I stuck to the 1664. We indulged in some amazing desert (chocolate pudding), and then set out in Sabrinas Mum’s car to have a night tour of Paris. It was amazing, and I was really excited to see something that most tourists would not get to. I was being driven around Paris, by a Parisian.

The Louvre @ Night!

We drove through the Arch De Triumph, stopped at the Eifel Tower, and along the river. It was truly an amazing experience. I was on a late train the next day, which meant that we could go to Sabrinas Mum’s house for lunch and ‘the best’ cuscus we would ever taste. We retired early, and I once again took in the fact that I had an apartment to myself. I attempted to use the computer, which was a challenge, because it involved setting all the languages to English, and changing the keyboard layout to a normal QWERTY setup.

My apartment building!

Sunday
We didn’t get up very early, and once I managed to get a hold of Lynley, she cooked me bacon and scrambled eggs on (amazing) bread. We mucked around for a bit, I started packing my stuff, then we headed out for a coffee on the way to Sabrinas Mum’s. The coffee was amazing, and we mused at how nice life was.

Paris Coffee!

We almost got lost trying to find the place, instead stumbling upon the market that setup each Sunday in their street. Lynley brought some flowers as a thank you for lunch and we found their house. Her mum runs a kind of short term apartment hotel, and she lives with one of her nieces on the ground floor of the building. There was other family present, including a couple of Sabrina’s sisters. I got to meet Madele again, and also one of her cousins, Lisa. They were very cute together, Madele being a few years older than Lisa took the controlling role in most interactions.

Markets, near Sabrina's Mums house!

Lunch was amazing, with so much food and even some champagne. Then came desert, large glasses, with fresh strawberries, ice cream, nuts, syrup and topped with whipped cream. It was quite amazing. After literally being full to the brim, we had to make a move, so that I could pack my stuff and get the Eurostar back to Paris. On the way back we stumbled across an arts precinct, and Lynley and I did some window shopping.

Heavily grafitti'd van in Paris!

You may have read my blog post from London whose prequel described my encounter with the UK Border Agency. If you haven’t been enlightened with my rather comical story, click here. The Eurostar on the way back was quite fun, I really enjoy trains. I met two very nice Brizillian girls on the train. After watching them attempt to sleep on the bright train, I offered up my eye mask and we got chatting. We swapped details and agreed to catch up. Travel really is amazing like that, one minute you are strangers and with some small talk and a little humour, you are agreeing to meet up, or do something. Its great to be back on the road, and I am looking forward to my Busabout trip, which I will be booking this week.

Eurostar @ St Pancras Station, London

]]> http://geordiebarker.com/archives/854/feed 3 http://geordiebarker.com/archives/854 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Geordiebarker/~3/s_hZBeqsOWg/850 http://geordiebarker.com/archives/850#comments Fri, 29 May 2009 08:37:23 +0000 Geordie http://geordiebarker.com/?p=850 So it has been a while since I updated my blog. The usual excuses of being busy are quite applicable, but I have been lumped with an even better reason… My MacBook died…

It completely wiped the whole hard drive of all files (music, pictures, documents, programs etc). Now as explained in my first travel post, I have two back ups, a ‘time machine’ backup, and another hard backup. The computer managed to wipe the backup drive at the same time, and I have been forced to buy a new leopard (mac operating sustem) install dvd. I am yet to find enough time to reinstall the operating system and restore my files.

The second part of my excuse is that I am in country england, near a place called Bruton, at a hippie festival called ’sunrise’. It is the first of the many festivals I am volunteering at this year, in exchange for a ticket, food and accomodation. It’s an amazing experience, and the UK festival scene is something else. This one is ’small’ with only 4000 people. Glastonbury, by far the most famous of the UK festivals hosts over 250,000 people!

Anyway, I am writing this post over breakfast in a McDonalds halfway between bruton (the festival site) and yeovil ( he company’s base). I have been driving a ‘lorry’ (ute) and I must say that whilst the countryside is beautiful and green, the roads are extremely skinny, and quite scary at times, when passing large semi trailers.

I leave the festival tomorrow and head back to London for a night, then take the channel train (eurostar) to paris, and start my Busabout tour on Monday.

Hope you are all well, will try to update very soon!

Cheers,

Geordie!