Off with is' ed'

You walk out into the light and realise that you’re on top of a bridge spanning between the two massive turrets of a medieval castle. As you walk into the door leading to the turret you notice an ancient stone spiral steps running downward. You follow the steps past the ground level and start to wonder about the eerie candles lighting the way down toward what could only be the dungeon.

You would honestly think that you had stepped back 600 years in time when you arrive at the Beynac Castle. We were lucky enough to get there in the middle of the off season which meant for the first 2 hours we were the only ones there. Everything about the castle was authentic, which when you’re the only ones there, gave you an amazing perspective of what it was really like when King Richard the First (the Lion Heart) walked the steps from the Dungeons up the stairs and across the Draw Bridge to the Ancient Church within the Castle walls.

The Castle as a whole is precariously positioned at the top of 150 foot cliff which looks of on the Dordonge River which winds its way through the Perigord province of regional France and is located a few kms south from Sarlat, a beautiful medieval town in Perigord. During the 12th, 13th and 14th centuries this fortresswas French during a certain period, then English, and again French in 1453.

The oldest part of the castle is a large, square-shaped, keep with vertical sides and few openings, held together with attached watch towers and equipped with a narrow spiral staircase terminating on a crenellated terrace. To one side, a residence of the same period is attached; it was remodelled and enlarged in the 16th and 17th centuries. On the other side is a partly 14th century residence side-by-side with a courtyard and a square plan staircase serving the 17th century apartments. The apartments have kept their woodwork and a painted ceiling from the 17th century.

We toured around the castle for most of the day. Althought the weather was a bit drizzly it didn't take any of the magic away form what was an amzing day.

Go Socceroos

G’day punters. Sorry about the lack of blogging in a while. Since Rome there hadn't been much going on until this weekend.

On Saturday I spent 4 hours helping the ALP hand out ‘how to vote’ cards at the Australian High Commission. Over here we have a 2 week window in which to vote in the Federal election and this Saturday was the only Saturday that the High Commission was open and as such it was probably the busiest voting day. There are around 400,000 Aussies over here and around 20,000 of them vote so it almost felt like being at home on a really, really cold day. As usual it was good to wind up the other parties. Especially Family First.

After that Penny and I decided to head down to Cravern Cottage, Fulham for the Socceroos vs. Nigeria game. I’ve got to say this has been one of the highlights of time in London so far.

After a first half of no scoring, Australia’s David Carney smashed one in to the back of the net to set the 11,000 strong Aussie crowd into something I’ve only seen at an AFL finals match. Awesome.



Nigeria being the best team from Africa saw Australia side a team full of stars. To my surprise Harry Kewell, Mark Schwarzer, Lucas Neill, Brett Emerton and Tim Cahill fronted up on the day.

Anyway just a quick one this time. I’ll report back soon. Enjoy the weather over there for me. I certainly can’t over here.

When in Rome

So it was time to don the sandals and togas and board the 50 pound Ryan Air flight to Campino Airport in Rome.

We got there at about 10pm on Wednesday night so there wasn’t much to do but check out the hotel and enjoy an Italian Wine before bed. The Hotel wasn’t too bad for a 3 star. We had a great little balcony that squeezed 2 people in for a great 4th story view of a typical roman street.

Thursday we headed down to see the Colosseum. What can I say…. Amazing. The Romans had there blokey entertainment totally sussed out. A massive stadium the size of the MCG which twice a week displayed a group of blokes and animals smashing each other death. Who needs action films…. In all seriousness though, the actual structure really makes you really think what happened between then and now. They seem to have been a lot more advanced socially and politically than the empires of the later centuries.

Friday we did the spiritually correct thing and checked out the Vatican. As far as buildings go it is a pretty impressive group. The actually church or St. Peters Basilica and its grounds are about the size of 2 and a half footy fields. I guess I was bit disappointed to find out that a lot of the materials used to build the Basilica were actually gold, marble and iron taken from the Colosseum which at that point was neglected by the then Christian (Catholic) ruler.

Saturday we walk from the Hotel over to where the Pantheon was located. The Pantheon meaning "Temple of all the gods" is a building in Rome which was originally built as a temple to the seven deities of the seven planets in the state religion of Ancient Rome. It is the best preserved of all Roman buildings, and perhaps the best preserved building of its age in the world. It has been in continuous use throughout its history. Although the identity of the Pantheon's primary architect remains uncertain, it is largely credited to Trajan's architect Apollodorus of Damascus. Since the 7th century, the Pantheon has been used as a Christian church which is probably why it hasn’t deteriorated as much as the non-Christian buildings.

Sunday we checked out the Spanish Steps and then the Roman Forum. The Spanish steps were a bit lame. Just packed with tourists, beggars and scam artists. A group of the scammers tried it on with me by tying some friendship string thing around my wrist so tightly that I could get it off so I was then forced into buying it for like 10 euros. Little did they realised that I would ark right up at them and advise then in a less than polite way that ‘I was an Australian and I DO NOT GET SCAMMED’. It turned out that I ripped the string off of my hand and didn’t pay which led to me being told that ‘Australian’s are fucked.’ Ah well. We know the facts, so that’s OK.

The Roman Forum was amazing. It was generally the site of the government sector of the day with the remains of the Senate and most of the other government departments and buildings located there.

Anyway that’s about it folks. I will say that Rome was definitely one of the best cities I’ve seen so far. Great food, great sights and a great climate. Talk to you soon.

BD

Birthday Away

I though I’d write another new post on my last weekend in London as on Saturday in was my 31st birthday. Well.... the celebration actually started on Tuesday night when we ventured out to the Royal Albert Hall to see John Mayer.

What a great venue! The RAH (not the hospital) had quite a large capacity for such a different shaped venue. Also the acoustics of the place were fantastic. John Mayer turned it on as usual and played most of his songs from his album Continuum and a few of the old favourites. He still also does that weird shit with when he is playing he’s playing certainly parts of songs on his guitar. Another thing worth mentioning about that night was that the suburb of West Kensington were the RAH is located seem to be very affluent and hold very few immigrants or poor people. Mainly just rich whitey’s . Very different from Hackney. There seem’s to be less of an in-between in London.

Wednesday night was thankfully very quiet and involved a bit of quiet time in the flat.

Thursday saw the arrival of my good friends Al and Megan who we caught up with in Hammersmith and saw a stand up comedy show by Ricky Gervais from ‘The Office’ and ‘Extras’. I can almost still feel the soreness in my jaw from laughing so much.

I guess I went along not expecting too much from a stand up show by a guy who I had only really known to do TV comedy. Geez.. was I wrong.

Friday saw Al and Megan move there stuff to our place and then involved a few drinks after work and then a great meal at the Drunken Money. http://www.fluidfoundation.com/venueDetails.aspx?VenueID=2481 . It was very basically a bar crossed with a yum cha type Chinese Restaurant. The highlight was the salt and pepper squid which were served extra thin and crispy like a bowl of fries. I would even go as far saying it was as good as Ky Chow in Adelaide.

Saturday morning saw us all sleep in a grab a great a full breakfast at the French Restaurant across the road from our place. It was great to have breaky and chew the fat with some good friends. Al and then went and kicked the footy in the park while Penny and Megan went to the Tate modern to see some arty gear.

Saturday night we all met up with another friend Flick in Sheppards Bush to have Dinner and see the Hilltop Hoods. ‘What a great a night’. While going in I saw some old friends from Blackwood High so we all hung out and saw the show. Afterwards we had a few beers at the pub down the road and then moved with the crowd to the after party at K-West.



So we got home at about 5:30 Sunday morning and caught up on some well earn sleep.

Even though I didn’t get to spend my birthday with family who I miss a lot, this was still one of the better birthday weeks I’ve ever had. Thanks to all involved and especially to my lovely girlfriend Penny who made most of this happen and got me a cool Holland hoodie for my birthday.

Holland

I’ve decided to postpone blogging the trips to Norway and Denmark and get on with the latest trip to Holland as it is fresh in my mind.

We arrived from London’s Luton Airport to the Schipol Airport (Hollands main international airport) at around 10pm on the Thursday night all ready for our 5 day tour of Holland.

We decided to take a punt and stay in one of the House Boat / Hostels on one of the larger water passages in Amsterdam. It turned out great. There were 2 rooms with a bathroom and Kitchen/Living Room to share, so there wasn’t much noise to put up with. Over the 5 days we had to different sets of travelers come in to the boat. The first was a very young boring couple from England. The second group was 2 blokes from the Isle of Man who's main consumption during the time we saw them was hooch. They were the biggest cone heads I’ve ever met. They would sleep till the afternoon most days, go out and buy a heap of weed and then sit there and smoke weed and play cards (mainly in silence) till 2 or 3 in the morning. To be honest they were pretty weird. I think there mums and dads may have been brother and sister!!! If you know what I mean.

Anyway, the boat was clean and well organised and I would recommend it anyone. Here is the web site http://www.marie-anns-houseboat.com/.

Amsterdam itself was very picturesque. The lovely canals lined with on old buildings made a great back drop for a meals or a beer at one of the many pubs and restaurants. We did most of the tourist type activities such as visiting both the Van Gogh and Rembrandt Museums and also Anne Frank House. As I am not much of an art person I found Anne Frank house much more interesting. The more I tour Europe the more I learn how much trouble the Germans have caused.

That's me hiding by way....

The fourth day of our trip was dedicated to tracking down some of my Dutch heritage. Armed with an email from my Auntie Katherine (the eldest of my fathers siblings) I got on the train from Amsterdam to Haarlem determined to find Schoollaan Street were my father lived the first 2 years of his life and the Church were my great grand parents where buried. We arrived in Haarlem and took another Bus to Bennebroek. From Bennebroek we we’re pretty much lost so we asked the Bus Driver if he knew where either the Church or Schoollaan street was. Unfortunately, he did know where the street was but he did know of the church. He was so helpful that he announced the directions over the PA on the bus when we got to the stop. Being such a champ, I figured we might even be related. Anyway, we got off the bus headed down the lovely country road toward the Church. The name of the church was right, but unfortunately they had just renewed the grave area and we figured that the Otte graves may have been renewed. I was still satisfied that we had found the place.

The next mission was to find Schoollaan street which to our surprise was the street just down the road from the church. Unfortunately the number 42 had been demolished ahead of some new construction , but hey, we took some photos anyway.

The rest of Haarlem was lovely. Slightly less busy than Amsterdam. We saw our first proper Dutch Windmill here.


On the last day of the trip we ventured to Lieden which is south, south west of Amsterdam.

Leiden is mainly a University town, a bit like Oxford. We were there on a week day during the Uni holidays so there wasn’t much happening. The town itself was again more beautiful than Haarlem and Amsterdam due to the canals and the buildings.

All in all there were 3 things that made Holland a great trip for me.

• the people were very friendly and happy to help where they could.
• the towns themselves were aesthetically beautiful and made for nice relaxing meals and beers.
• the fact I could find some heritage brought me a small sense of belonging. However, I am definitely more of an Aussie than Dutchman AND PROUD OF IT!!.

So………the next post will be back to the previous trip finishing in Norway and Denmark.

Ahhhh Sweden

Technically, my first taste of Sweden was on board the Viking Line, overnight ferry which took us from Helsinki to Stockholm. We crossed into Swedish waters at around midnight. The term ‘ferry’ doesn’t really give this boat justice. It’s more like a big cruise ship, which on the weekend trips the local Fins and Swedes call the ‘Party Boat’ or the SS Chlamydia. Don’t ask me why…….! Luckily we were booked for the Thursday night. It was an interesting journey to say the least.

Checked into the cabin and headed straight to the poop deck for some departing views of Helsinki. Nice!!!!

We then enjoyed a quick snack and than sat sown on the open deck bar to enjoy a couple of slow beers. Interestingly enough, the rocking motion of the ship made you feel like you had drunk 10 times what you really had.

Sleeping on a boat wasn’t too easy so we arrived in Stockholm a bit worse for wear.
I guess Sweden had a very similar social set up to Finland except the administration of the public services ran a bit smoother and the average person seemed a bit better off and better looking. For example, we used a couple of the free city bikes one day and they were nice bikes. 3 speed gears, hand brakes and generally in decent shape.

We were fortunate enough to have a couple of days of beautiful weather. So we made the most of it and rode around the harbors and islands most of the time. I’ve never seen so many boats in my life. Stockholm has the most amount of boats per ca pita in the world and it was well and truly on display.

The nightlife in Stockholm was awesome. We had a few great meals and went out one night to a bar which could be best summed up as a big version of the Austral with hotter chicks and friendlier people in general. Whilst there we got talking to quite a few groups of people. We were talking to one guy from the USA who had met a Swedish girl in the states, had been dating her for 2 months and was able on that basis to get a residential Visa to stay in Sweden. Lucky bastard.

Whilst at this place we also got offered and had some snus (pronounced snootz). Nothing dodgy. Snoots is like a tiny little tea bag of strong tobacco which you put in your upper lip. It basically effects you the same way that 3 cigarettes at one would.

It was sad to leave Stockholm and Sweden. It had been my favorite country so far. Next stop Oslo, Norway.

Scandinavia - Welfare does work

Heij Heij punters,

The next stop on our travels was Finland, being our first county within Scandinavia.

We caught the 'Tallink' Ferry from Tallin to Helsinki which took about 3.5 hours and was very smooth. The ferry itself was more like a cruise ship. It supported about 9 floors including a duty free shop, bars, restaurants and even pokie machines for the losers amongst us!!

We arrived in Helsinki at about 3 in the afternoon, walked through a fairly clean and tidy city centre to the Hostel which was located on the 6th floor of a relatively modern building.

Helsinki was my first taste of a democratic socialism. This is where the government owns and runs allot of the services and infrastructure and charges a relatively high tax rate in return for free education, free health care and high levels of welfare and good working conditions for all. And guess what...... it actually works. This was evidenced in the first few days of touring around the city where I noticed that there was a very little crime and a low police presence and only 1 or 2 bums , who didn't really look that poor anyway.

Of the 3 evenings we were there, we went to the Aussie Bar for 2 nights which was great. They only had Tooheys Extra Dry and Hahn Ice. It was nice to have an Aussie Beer again. The funny thing was that as the Finish people are quite fond of us Aussies, most of the people at the Aussie bar were Finish students which made for good nights full of chat and laughs. We sampled some of the irregular Finish drinks like Fishu which is like Fishermans Friend in a strong shot.

Anyway.... another bonus from the Finish Government was the free city bikes for all to use. There were 15 different bike stations around the city of which one could take a bike from and return it to another. I rode around the city and surrounding islands for about 4 hours one day. To be honest a lot of tourists used the bikes and I think they were coloured in such a way so the locals knew who you were.

Next stop Sweden.