Berlin

Our bus pulled into Berlin at 9am. Kim (my girlfriend, not sister) decided she couldn't wait an extra 3 days to see me (who can blame her, shes only human ) To be honest I was pretty excited to see her too, as she had been travelling through Russia and the Baltics for the previous month. We met up at the Clubhouse hostel ... I'd recomend it to you party animals out there as they have live gigs and DJ's in the courtyard most nights. If however you want to sleep, that is not an option till 5am when it all winds up.
Couldn't check into a room till after 2pm, so in the shower, and then off into the metropolis that is Berlin. I was here 3 years ago, but could not recognise the place. The old communist buildings in the dysfunctional east are but a memory. Replaced by wide boulovards, funky cafes, silver highrises. Where before I walked along "the wall" near Potsdamerplats contemplating its artworks dedicated to freedom and unity, there is now but and indent in the pavement to show where the wall once ran.
It is refreshing in one sense to visit such a contempory city, ultra modern and super hip, but sad that it is to the detriment of its past. With everything so new and shiny it is practically impossible to imagine the termoil of having families split, undergoing soviet opression, or even the heroic escapes... or sad unsuccessful attempts. However, some of the old icons have withstood the winds of change - the Soviet TV Tower Brandenburg Gate and Checkpoint Charlie for example. Beside them new icons emerge, like the new German Parlimant with its solar powered domed skylight roof.
It is a wonderful city steeped in history, dynamic and ever changing ... with more cranes in the city than any other place in the world, it's unlikely I'll recognise it in another 3 years.

Next stop Poland !!!

Paris

9th Sept
Caught the last plane out of Dublin and arrived at the Bouvaise airport at about 9:30pm. Even thought the Flight only took an hour getting into Paris took another 2. Lucky we only paid 20 euro for the tickets or else I may have felt ripped off. The Bus to town ironicaly cost only alittle less than the plane ticket.

Got dropped at the bus terminal without being told where we were excatly or where the metro was. After some some terrible attempts at French and encountering some rude Parisians (Although in their defence I may have unknowingly insulted them).We finally stumbled upon the Merto. Home free! We made it to the hostel at 1am and met up with a buddy of mine from London - Rohan.

10th Sept
Although I've been to Paris twice b4, the other two have not. So, we decided the best way to see the sites was to get the hop on hop off bus tour. So paid the outragous 26 euro tour price at Notre Dame Cathederal and headed forth. The last times I was here the church was under scaffolding, so like a cheap hussy doing a slow striptease, I finally got to see it in all it's glory. Unlike a cheap hussy though, it took three attempts in as many years to see it de-robed ...entry ironically is free ;)

Next stop was Moulin Rouge home of the Cann-Cann for those of you who thought it was just the name of a movie and Sacre-Coeur the impressive church atop a hill overlooking the city. This coupled with my virgin trip to the very top of the Tour Eiffel made my third trip to Paris worthwhile. The weather turned it on too

Finished the day with a carton of beer between us ... sooo cheap!!!

11th Sept
Up early to catch the train to Versailles. Our 20 euro ticket got us into all the exhibition halls and gardens. Very few words can describe this Palace... "WOW!!!" is an insult to how incredible it really is. I never thought I would see a palace that rivals Petrohof in St Petersburg but I was wrong, we have a contender!!! The frescos, gardens and overall grandure... I'm lost for words.

That evening we drank with a couple of Irish lasses. It started off cheap with 2 euro bottles of decent vino from the supermarket, to 8 euro pints at a club up the road. When your drunk it's amazing how rich you think you are...

12th Sept
Wickedly hungover and in no state to play tourist. Whiled away the day in a park waiting for our overnight bus to Berlin.

6 Day Norther Ireland Tour

Crikes it seems like ages since I last wrote. So much has happened in the last week or so. I'm currently in Zakopane - Southern Poland, but right now I´m only going to write about my 6 Day Northern Ireland Tour from the begining of September.
Mike and I set off on 2nd September. I was kind of dissapointed at first because there were only 2 other backpackers on the trip plus the Driver/Guide. But it soon became apparent that this was a blessing in diguise since it gave us more freedom to do stuff that would be impossible in a big group, like having picnics, bbqs and changing the itinery to suit the weather.

Day 1. Went to New Grange in the morning and saw these 5000yo Monolithic tombs, even older than the pyramids !!! A 2 Million tonne mound of rocks brought from 40 miles away. It has a passage to the centre where there is a room which is only lit up from the sunrise of the Winter Solstis. Pretty impressive stuff. We then bough some food and had a Picnic on the banks of the Boine River opposite Slane Castle. I even went in for a swim and nearly froze my goolies off. So after an extended break, since the wheather was fabulous and you got to take it when you get it in Ireland, we were on the bus again and soon in Northern Ireland and driving through Amagh, known as "bandit country" very catholic / republican and the IRA enjoys a huge support. The only way in or out of the British army base in the center of town is by helecopter... huge walls all the way around. This was a warm up for us arriving in Belfast. Quite a nice "english" style city, alot better infrastructure but no craic what so ever. I mean even for a Monday night, it could be just the center of town but it seemed that you could sense the tention in the air, or maybe it was just me overreacting about being in the capital of "the troubles" and not too keen on getting shot. But seeing police cars that look more like tanks and barricaded schools didn't really alay my apprehentions. As it turns out we went to a university bar "the bot", it was pretty lively and had good beer. Just what the doctor ordered.

Day 2. Up early for a Black Cab Tour. The best (and safest) way to see the witnesss the extent of hate and segregation. First we went to Shankill, an extreme protestant area. Our cab driver told us to go and walk about and check out the murals on the walls of the houses (he was Catholic so didn't feel safe getting out). This was the first time I'd really been exposed to the violent protestent side, the para-military opposing the IRA. These are known as the UFF - Ulster Freedom fighters. Now I had probably heard of these fellas before and assumed that they were a IRA splinter group, I don't think the media is all that clear on this distinction. There was a group known as The Shankill Butchers who would kiddnap random catholics and brutally murder them back in the 1970´s for no other reason than their religion. If you look at my photos then you'll see some of the murals - very disturbing. One has the Grim Reaper carrying a machine gun and names of catholics on headstones about him they want dead. From there we went to "The Peace Line", not really a peace line at all but rather a 20ft high barrier between the Protestant and Catholic areas to prevent rioting. Behind the barrier on the catholic side are fire proof protective shelters over the backyards and house rooves to stop molitof cocktails... Not a place I´d chose to live, but I suppose thats the point, these people in these areas are poor and this is govt housing. So, we continue on to "The Falls" a extremist Catholic area. Unfortuantly as our driver was catholic he decided to show us the murals for peace and so I felt we got a very biased view of the goings on in N.I. These comprised of dedications to the politcal prisoners of Block H in Amagh who where held for years without charge on suspision of IRA connections, 12 died during a hunger strike while attempting to attain political prisoner status. Another shows the distance at which people have been killed from police fired rubber bullets - the closest at point blank range. We were then made aware of how the catholics were treated as second class citizens, much the same as the blacks in South Africa. The tour ended with us in the Sinn Fein Head office and book shop, I did get to see some of the more extreme murals on postcards and in the books here. But now I was even more confused than before about the troubles. Are the IRA really as bad as we have been led to believe? The British Govt are probably more the cause of the problems than they care to admit, and it seems to me that the Ulster Unionist are a bunch of antagonists thowing fuel on the fire. One thing is for sure, the people in both Shankill and the Falls are poorly educated and taught to hate each other praticaly before they are taught to walk. There will not be an end to the probelms here for generations to come, regardless of politics or powersharing agreements.
But time now to leave such deep contemplation and Belfast behind us. It is midday and we drive to a National Park an hour or so from the city. The attraction here is rope bridge crossing between cliffs on the mainland and a small Island where rare birds nest. Not too interested in the birds, but walking across that narrow bridge in the strong wind certainly got the adrenalin pumpin !!! Straight out of Indiana Jones... but without the Mongolian worrier trying to chop the ropes at the other end with his scabre.
On to a nice little village Port Rush, to have lunch on the harbour and a kick of the footy on the beach.
The Giants Causeway was the next stop, Legend has it that Finn McCool the Irish Giant was building this causeway/landbridge by driving rock pilons into the gound and out to sea toward Scotland so he could fight the Scottish giant Ben Lomond to see who was tougher. But when Finn saw Ben who was twice his size he ran back to Ireland destroying the bridge as he went.
We finished the day in Derry ... or is that Londonderry??? Well it depends, are catholic or protestent? From the North or South? The politically correct set call it Derry slash Londonderry or just slash city. The obligitory evening drinks were had in a kareoke bar not far from our hostel - no I didn´t sing.

Day 3. Started the day with a walkiing tour of the city and perhaps a further insight into the troubles. Part of the tour took in an area known as "Free Derry", this was a Catholic Area in which the locals stopped the Police and Army from entering. Originally the Army was brought into Northern Ireland because the Police who were Protestant (The Royal Ulster Constabulary) were thought to be biased againsted the Catholics. However soon they felt that rather than protecting them, both the army and police were more of a threat. This was proven on "Bloody Sunday" when some 20 years ago English Paratroppers opened fired on peaceful demonstators in "Free Derry", in a rally for Equality. About 15 (I can't remember exactly) unarmed young men were killed. That evening the IRA recruited hundreds more men. And after such a massacre and the hand of those ment to protect them, who could blame them.
So, now even more confused we jumped in our magic bus and headed out of UK territory back across the border into the republic. On the way out we poped into a supermarket and bought a disposible BBQ, some snags, salad, and a couple of seasoned chooks. Drove up a hill overlooking Derry and sat in the middle of an Ancient Stone Circle much the same as stonehenge and cooked up a feast. Now, you may be wondering how the attendants at such an important historical and tourist site would allow us to do this. Well the truth of the matter is that in Ireland these places are so common that we were actually on a private farm and sheep were wondering about us on the stones and all sorts. After all the site only dates back over 5000 years.
Next stop the Highest Cliffs in Europe "Sleave League" in the west of beautiful County Donegal. The afternoon was spent walking up the cliffs and about mountain lakes above the ocean in the National Park there - fantastic!!
Ended the day with a few bottles of wine in a hostel on a Farm.

Day 4. A fairly relaxed day, wondered about Donegal Town, played football on the beach and had coffee in a village where Author/Poet James Joyce grew up, also checked out the Chuch where his father was the pastor. Then up another hill for another picnic lunch. Atop this one was a huge pile of rocks and is supposed to be the burial mound of some bitch of a celtic queen. Finished the day in Westport listening to Trad music in a Pub... much alcohol was consumed.

Day 5. Woken up at the ungodly hour of 6:30 feeling like death. Then it hits me like a freight train we are off to climb Croag Patraick a 2500ft pilgraimage mountain. Now, I'm not religious at all, but I did scream "Oh god" more than once as I dragged my pathetic dehydrated pickled body up the side of that rock. Thousands of people come here each year to climb it, some who think that isn't tourture enough do it barefoot but few are stupid enough to do it after a massive night on the sauce.
Did I mention we were on a time limit so no taking it easy on the climb. We had to be back down in 1 1/2 hrs to be back in the bus so we could have a shower and off then catch a ferry at 1pm over an hours drive away. Started the accent at 8 am and managed to make the ferry by the skin of our teeth. The climb was well worth the pain though as we were rewarded with some of the most beautiful views in ireland.
Our ferry was to one of the Aran Islands, Anish Mann I think. And just when I thought I could do no more exercise I was given a rental bike to ride UPHILL to our hostel bags n all. But that was not enough, because the only way to see the island was to ... you guessed it - ride about, and we were leaving first thing in the morning ... BUGGER. Again however we were rewarded with magnificent view and spectacular natural sights. Most notably the Serpants Hole, where sea froth spirals into the air from this ocean pool.
At the end of teh day I rewarded myself with several Bulmers - a yummy apple cider.
Last Day (Day 6)
Caught the 9am Ferry off the island, jumped back on the magic busand headed to Galway for brunch. It was my 3rd time to Galway and although it's a lovely place it's a wee bit small for my liking. Big drive back to Dublin throught the bog land and a stop a Clonmicnoise - a monastory on the River Shannon.

I think that's about it, hope you weren't board to silly.

Next stop Paris...

Hey Hey,

After a year in Ireland my time here is coming to a close. While here I developed some truly great friendships (Simon, Ben, Caley and Fiona, you rock!!), I fell in love (and not just with the Guinness and Bulmers, although they’re high on that list), and sadly, I am leaving some and great times and people behind me (you guys and gals in the Salsa crowd are a big part of that, thanx! And when I come back from South America I’ll show you how to really dance – no offence Josh J), lastly but least I worked with some fantastic people in the most sociable office I’m ever likely to come across (Cheers Guys). Right I think I licked enough asses, so lets move on.

Now you may think that because of my lack of emails that the last 8 months has been all work, Guinness and salsa for me, well you’d be wrong! So let me fill you in on what I’ve been up to.

Early February went snowboarding in Austria (back to where I worked the season) with some Aussie mates Stiffy and Rohan. Neither had really boarded before, and while Stiffy picked it up pretty quick, Rohan went to the bar and tried to drink the country dry. 10 great days.

Then for Easter, teamed up with Stiffy again, this time to conquer Iceland. Not a place to recommend if you’re on a budget. I reckon I spent at least €1000 in 5 days. But ignoring, that the place is beautiful, desolate and friggin cold!!! Swam in geothermic pools of the Blue Lagoon, jumping out occasionally to roll in the snow and back to the warm water and cover yourself in the therapeutic mud. Other places of interest were the golden waterfalls, the powerful Geysers and the sinking valley where the American and European Tectonic Plates are pulling apart 10cm a year. One weird thing is that everyone owns monster trucks and 4x4’s, to cope with the deep snow I guess.

My younger brother Michael came over mid - April. So I went to London for 4 days to pick him up from Heathrow and chill with some mates. Within 48hrs of him landing we were doing a 3-day Paddy Wagon tour of Southern Ireland with 4 of my Dublin mates(Simon, Ben, Caley and Fiona). Saw plenty of castles like The Rock of Cashel, Kilkenny and Blarney, where we got the gift of the gab by kissing the Blarney Stone. Of course, plenty of Guinness was consumed the most enjoyable of which was free at the end of the Brewery Tour at 10:30am in the Skybar over looking Dublin. Also, caught a ferry across the Shannon – Irelands longest river, stood on the Cliffs of Moher, and checked out the surf on the west coast – but decided against going in this time as I didn’t have a wetsuit and wasn’t too keen on hypothermia.

Michael settled into our new flat quickly, then he got a job in the Jameson Whiskey Distillery, 30 meters from our front door!! My work on the other hand decided to move from the city centre to out in suburbia – just as I was beginning to think the Irish weren’t that illogical…

Had a Salsa Festival weekend in Dublin, and was taught by the world champions (you have never seen an ass wiggle so quick n sexy - Shakeria eat you heart out!!!)

Then in May/June went partying in the Greek Island of Ios with Simon to visit Caley and Fiona who were working there. It certainly wasn't a travelling experience as much as a typical british holiday, which really goes against the grain for me. But, I figure I deserve it since I haven't been on an extended trip for over a year. I thought I was killing my liver in Ireland, but jeeesus You never saw anything like it in Ios. 10 days of drunken dabotuary and dancing at night and by day hanging out by the pool or down the beach ridding myself of my "english tan". Great fun … at least the bits I remember.

Here we are now all caught up, for the past 2 weeks or so I’ve been buzzing about like a blue assed fly organising travel visas for me and me little bro’ Michael. That’s right I’m about to hit the road again … Yay!!! So, where is it this time for our intrepid traveller? I hear you ask. OK, maybe you didn’t ask, but I’m gunna tell you any ways… Eastern Europe my friends! That’s right I loved it that much 2 years ago that I’m taking my brother.

Now some of you may be sceptical as to my true intentions, whether my plan is to introduce my younger (and thus far morally incorrupt) brother to some real culture and history in places that have hardly change in the last 80 years or more, where you can still say that the villages, towns and cities have a magic, that old world charm. Or more superficially I could be talking him on a tour of countries that have most of the most beautiful women in the world (all thinking that you could be their ticket outa there ;) ). Well, in all honesty what’s wrong with a bit of both?

The trip goes something like this:
- 6 day North Ireland Tour to take in some of the places we missed while we were here.
- 9th Sept Fly to Paris for 3 days where we meet up with an Aussie mate, Rohan.
- Berlin 3 days
- Gdansk a port city in north Poland, where I meet up with my girlfriend, Kim who is currently in Estonia.
- 2 weeks each in Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungry
- 3-4 weeks in Romania
- We should be getting to Bulgaria in early December for a week or 2 of snowboarding, then a week travelling.
- Spend Christmas and New Year in Greece.
- Early in the New year fly back to London to send Mike back to Australia
- Then my girlfriend and I spend 3 weeks travelling around Scotland
- Fly to Ecuador in South America to learn Spanish for a month
- Then 4 weeks each travelling in Ecuador, Chile, Peru, and Bolivia
- By that time we should have totally run out of cash, sick of travelling and be ready to head back to this side of the globe to earn some more dosh.

All I can add is BRING IT ON, You bloody ripper!!!!

This is my first blog so just to work out what I'm doing I thought I use this as a test ... sorry bit boring huh!