You know this means new photos, right? So we don't need to tell you how to find them.
21 July 2005
20 July 2005
WELSH WELSHIES FROM WELSHLAND
we started off on saturday morning after an anniversary breakfast (nice, but pale in comparison to friday's dinner), dropping in to tesco to pick up some sunscreen. i waited patiently in the car, windows down, music on, enjoying the sunshine, while dan went to battle it out with the queues. he came back with sunscreen. and a present. and you know what it was, don't you boys, girls and others? HARRY POTTER AND THE HALF-BLOOD PRINCE. yes sirree.
so, then we drove to uffington area, to scope out the white horse - the oldest chalk carving in britain. i'm not sure how long it took, or what the landscape was like, because i was otherwise occupied. i guess i should just say now that, out of respect for those who haven't started or finished reading it (freaks), i won't be issuing any spoilers. except that the violence is grand! nose stomping and blood spurting all the way! and notsoangry!harry is a relief. and ginny is looking to be a strong contender for seto kaiba's title (if you know, you know what i mean. if you don't, you probably don't want to know)... and there are some GOLD LINES!
but, back to the horse. it was pretty cool, to see something that has been there for so long. it's also quite bizarre, because you can't get a very clear view of it from anywhere on the ground. it looks like it was designed to be seen from the air, but who was flying around back then??? alien conspiracy theorists score another point. possibly nerdier and therefore better than the white horse is the flat-topped hill next to it. it is called dragon hill, and there is a bare patch of chalk, where the grass was poisoned... by the blood of A dragon (or THE dragon... the literature was ambiguous) killed by st george. had our picnic lunch looking out over the countryside, watching some aeroplane antics in the middle distance.
then on to wales. again, with the distraction that is HP6, the only thing i really remember is crossing the second severn crossing and paying the £5 toll to get into wales (i think it's actually for using the bridge, but it felt strange)... a very weird experience, as the highway widens into what is essentially a good couple of acres of tarmac, to pull up behind a couple of other cars and wait to give your money to a person in a little glass booth so that the flimsy 'gate' goes up and you are free to enjoy wales. i felt like driving the car really fast and smashing through the gate in a cloud of smoke and debris. i guess that's why they don't let me drive.
as we made our way to hunters moon inn, llangattock lingoed, near abergavenny, the roads got narrower and narrower, and the hedges started closing in around the car. it was a bit triffid-esque, only in a pleasant way. the plants over here really go NUTS in summertime. maybe it's to make up for losing their leaves in winter, but they sprout foliage out all over the place in what is really a most decadant and unnecessary manner. the inn itself was lovely - it's billed as a 12th or 13th century inn, and although i don't believe the building is that old (though it's obviously a couple of hundred years old), it is still amazingly pretty and cosy. the proprieters also gave us a warm welcome and invited us to join the huge BBQ they put on every sunny saturday night for the locals (deliiiiiicious). (the food, not the locals). there were also two friendly, cute, OBESE dogs to keep us company. i finished the book just after dinner... EEP! so good in so many ways!
on sunday, we woke up to a clear, crisp morning, and went for a little stroll before our full cooked breakfast. the church next to the inn is quite striking - especially against the bright blue sky. one of the major welsh walking trails - offa's dyke path (great name) - runs through the tiny village on its way from the north to the south of the country, and we has a small explore. when breakfast arrived, it was yum yum yum - and dan even got BLACK PUDDING! of course i had to taste it, having never seen it before, and possibly never having the opportunity again (congealed blood sausage is not something i'd go out of my way for)... it was quite nice, tasting a bit like the strong, salty juices you find in the bottom of a roasting pan.
after packing our backpacks with supplies, we drove over to the brecon beacons for our day of walking. the walk we'd chosen has a very defined track, maintained by local enthusiasts who volunteer time to pave the path in the ancient way - embedding flat stones vertically into the slopes, packing them tightly, to help prevent erosion. we set out from the highway, climbed directly up a large hill, then followed the path back down the other side to a small stream - trickling coldly along in a most inviting way, and just blissful on our hot faces (it was a warm, very sunny day) (yes, mum, we wore sunscreen). from there, the path began ascending agin, up to the summit of the mountain Corn Du (Black Horn), a spectacular peak jutting out above the sheer mountainside (which contains a bizarre round lake, Llyn-cwm-llwch [i kid you not!], formed in the ice age), looking into the massive sheltered valley and beyond to a huge VISTA of quilted countryside. the climb was steep and long, but the views were absolutely stunning, as was the speccy formation at the top of the mountain (if you want further evidence, check out the WALES section of our photobucket... the photos will be up in the next couple of days). from Corn Du, we followed the ridge a short way to Pen y Fan, one of the tallest peaks in south britain (ok, so it's only 886m above sea level, but it sounds better the other way!), where we ate our lunch looking out across the lower peaks of the beacons, and the lakes in the distance... very special. apart from other walkers (the trail is one of the most popular in the area), all we heard for the majority of the walk were sheep (they all still have their tails!), an occasional whinny from a pony (we passed a small herd on the way), the calls of birds (mainly ravens), and the wind in the grass. beautiful, peaceful, and amazing scenery. i would use the phrase 'awe inspiring', but as i have seen the swiss alps, i have to stick to slightly watered-down adjectives. we did the 5 miles (8kms) in 3 1/4 hours, including stops, which is pretty good, considering the ascent!!! (i think i might be developing asthma... is this possible at my age???)
ahhh, well, i've probably bored you all to tears (or jealousy) with this description, so i'll skip briefly over the other news. we had a lovely anniversary weekend in wales (3 years!), including a misty stop over at the haunting ruins of Llanthony, a 12th century priory in the Black Mountains (again, see pics). london was still here when we got back, in all its cityish glory. this glory obviously includes shopping centres, which contain HMV stores, which have DVDs, some of which are the 3 LOTR extended editions and the director's cut of donnie darko. yep, we spent a fair bit of money! we started our marathon of extended edition watching with mike, uly and david last night... and we are continuing with Two Towers tonight! yay!!! faramir! dave/sean love! heheheh... and because we will start watching at 7ish, i have to go soon!!!
today dan and i were accompanied by margot to town, where we wandered around some london institutions - Liberty (a bizarre old department store, full of lovely expensive things you never knew you needed until now - a DEADLY TRAP for sara-jane and esther!!!); a MASSSSSSSSSIVE toy shop!; carnaby street (not happening like the 60s now) - before heading to the V&A for a look at the exhibition of penguin book covers (70 years of them!). the exhibition was disappointingly small, but i spent a good half hour reading the catalogue/book chained to the table (i was a hog!).
hope you are all well, and our love to all of you! xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx rachel and dan.
so, then we drove to uffington area, to scope out the white horse - the oldest chalk carving in britain. i'm not sure how long it took, or what the landscape was like, because i was otherwise occupied. i guess i should just say now that, out of respect for those who haven't started or finished reading it (freaks), i won't be issuing any spoilers. except that the violence is grand! nose stomping and blood spurting all the way! and notsoangry!harry is a relief. and ginny is looking to be a strong contender for seto kaiba's title (if you know, you know what i mean. if you don't, you probably don't want to know)... and there are some GOLD LINES!
but, back to the horse. it was pretty cool, to see something that has been there for so long. it's also quite bizarre, because you can't get a very clear view of it from anywhere on the ground. it looks like it was designed to be seen from the air, but who was flying around back then??? alien conspiracy theorists score another point. possibly nerdier and therefore better than the white horse is the flat-topped hill next to it. it is called dragon hill, and there is a bare patch of chalk, where the grass was poisoned... by the blood of A dragon (or THE dragon... the literature was ambiguous) killed by st george. had our picnic lunch looking out over the countryside, watching some aeroplane antics in the middle distance.
then on to wales. again, with the distraction that is HP6, the only thing i really remember is crossing the second severn crossing and paying the £5 toll to get into wales (i think it's actually for using the bridge, but it felt strange)... a very weird experience, as the highway widens into what is essentially a good couple of acres of tarmac, to pull up behind a couple of other cars and wait to give your money to a person in a little glass booth so that the flimsy 'gate' goes up and you are free to enjoy wales. i felt like driving the car really fast and smashing through the gate in a cloud of smoke and debris. i guess that's why they don't let me drive.
as we made our way to hunters moon inn, llangattock lingoed, near abergavenny, the roads got narrower and narrower, and the hedges started closing in around the car. it was a bit triffid-esque, only in a pleasant way. the plants over here really go NUTS in summertime. maybe it's to make up for losing their leaves in winter, but they sprout foliage out all over the place in what is really a most decadant and unnecessary manner. the inn itself was lovely - it's billed as a 12th or 13th century inn, and although i don't believe the building is that old (though it's obviously a couple of hundred years old), it is still amazingly pretty and cosy. the proprieters also gave us a warm welcome and invited us to join the huge BBQ they put on every sunny saturday night for the locals (deliiiiiicious). (the food, not the locals). there were also two friendly, cute, OBESE dogs to keep us company. i finished the book just after dinner... EEP! so good in so many ways!
on sunday, we woke up to a clear, crisp morning, and went for a little stroll before our full cooked breakfast. the church next to the inn is quite striking - especially against the bright blue sky. one of the major welsh walking trails - offa's dyke path (great name) - runs through the tiny village on its way from the north to the south of the country, and we has a small explore. when breakfast arrived, it was yum yum yum - and dan even got BLACK PUDDING! of course i had to taste it, having never seen it before, and possibly never having the opportunity again (congealed blood sausage is not something i'd go out of my way for)... it was quite nice, tasting a bit like the strong, salty juices you find in the bottom of a roasting pan.
after packing our backpacks with supplies, we drove over to the brecon beacons for our day of walking. the walk we'd chosen has a very defined track, maintained by local enthusiasts who volunteer time to pave the path in the ancient way - embedding flat stones vertically into the slopes, packing them tightly, to help prevent erosion. we set out from the highway, climbed directly up a large hill, then followed the path back down the other side to a small stream - trickling coldly along in a most inviting way, and just blissful on our hot faces (it was a warm, very sunny day) (yes, mum, we wore sunscreen). from there, the path began ascending agin, up to the summit of the mountain Corn Du (Black Horn), a spectacular peak jutting out above the sheer mountainside (which contains a bizarre round lake, Llyn-cwm-llwch [i kid you not!], formed in the ice age), looking into the massive sheltered valley and beyond to a huge VISTA of quilted countryside. the climb was steep and long, but the views were absolutely stunning, as was the speccy formation at the top of the mountain (if you want further evidence, check out the WALES section of our photobucket... the photos will be up in the next couple of days). from Corn Du, we followed the ridge a short way to Pen y Fan, one of the tallest peaks in south britain (ok, so it's only 886m above sea level, but it sounds better the other way!), where we ate our lunch looking out across the lower peaks of the beacons, and the lakes in the distance... very special. apart from other walkers (the trail is one of the most popular in the area), all we heard for the majority of the walk were sheep (they all still have their tails!), an occasional whinny from a pony (we passed a small herd on the way), the calls of birds (mainly ravens), and the wind in the grass. beautiful, peaceful, and amazing scenery. i would use the phrase 'awe inspiring', but as i have seen the swiss alps, i have to stick to slightly watered-down adjectives. we did the 5 miles (8kms) in 3 1/4 hours, including stops, which is pretty good, considering the ascent!!! (i think i might be developing asthma... is this possible at my age???)
ahhh, well, i've probably bored you all to tears (or jealousy) with this description, so i'll skip briefly over the other news. we had a lovely anniversary weekend in wales (3 years!), including a misty stop over at the haunting ruins of Llanthony, a 12th century priory in the Black Mountains (again, see pics). london was still here when we got back, in all its cityish glory. this glory obviously includes shopping centres, which contain HMV stores, which have DVDs, some of which are the 3 LOTR extended editions and the director's cut of donnie darko. yep, we spent a fair bit of money! we started our marathon of extended edition watching with mike, uly and david last night... and we are continuing with Two Towers tonight! yay!!! faramir! dave/sean love! heheheh... and because we will start watching at 7ish, i have to go soon!!!
today dan and i were accompanied by margot to town, where we wandered around some london institutions - Liberty (a bizarre old department store, full of lovely expensive things you never knew you needed until now - a DEADLY TRAP for sara-jane and esther!!!); a MASSSSSSSSSIVE toy shop!; carnaby street (not happening like the 60s now) - before heading to the V&A for a look at the exhibition of penguin book covers (70 years of them!). the exhibition was disappointingly small, but i spent a good half hour reading the catalogue/book chained to the table (i was a hog!).
hope you are all well, and our love to all of you! xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx rachel and dan.
15 July 2005
BRAND NEW PICS
here, as promised, are NEW PICS in a NEW ALBUM!!!
Just click on the right where it says PHOTO ALBUM NUMBER 2 *NEW*. Fairly self explanatory, really.
Must be off now, so byeee!!!
WE HAVE BEEN REALLY LAZY
... and because of this, i hardly know where to start. so for want of anything better to do (except go and laze inthe sunny garden), i am going to compile a list of things we've spent money on in england. it is a sort of experiment, to see if the list gives you an idea of what we've been getting up to.
tube and bus tickets: to get home, to go to the city, to go shopping.
wine: australian shiraz, all the way, baby!
accommodation: for two nights at igloo hostel in nottingham, and (tomorrow) two nights at hunter's moon B&B in llangattock lingoed, wales.
petrol: mainly for driving to nottingham (where we visited MELBOURNE!!! we'll stick the pix on the site soon), but we've also been to visit emily in borehamwood, taken ross up to hertfordshire, and visited hertfordshire ourselves (it's quite close).
food: two nice, if expensive, meals in nottingham, and snacks on the way back to london; nice (if expensive) meals in london; solero and magnum icecreams; breakfasts for us and ross; soft serve icecreams; sandwiches when we went to visit mike the other day in the city; drinks when we went on a 3-pub-crawl with dan toman a few days ago, and also when we went to roxy (where dom djs) for rosies birthday (there were also nice olives stuffed with feta); avocadoes; two roald dahl drinks from the museum in aylesbury (again, pix will be forthcoming)...
books: a man named dave; spook's apprentice; AA's 50 walks in hertfordshire; walks in dorset...
cd: cathedral in the thrashing rain, music composed by stephen hartke, performed by the hilliard ensemble.
arsenal wristbands... heheheh...
a bright purple lacey strapless dress for rachel (unfortunately it doesn't fit dan)... from an op shop of course.
a cute little zipper attachment for ross...
a cool zip up jumper for dan... op shop again (sorry, brits - a CHARITY SHOP).
guitar strings (6 string acoustic - steel AND nylon sets) and manuscript paper.
postcards and stamps.
a buckinghamshire museum badge.
flights to and from ireland (oh we love ryanair - we are both getting there and back for the equivalent of $150 australian).
parking at sherwood forest, and in northampton, and in aylesbury, and in west hampstead, and in golders green.
a car to hire in ireland.
one newspaper and one magazine.
and that's about all i can think of at the moment. the weather has been gorgeous for the last few days, although it looks to be cooler today. tomorrow we are off to wales, which will be EXCELLENT! we have a bath in our room! and we can do walks! and they have an open fireplace in the dining room... and we will go on walks... and it will all be super! hopefully we will see THE giant chalk horse on the way, and come back with loads of photos for you.
today is margot and aaron's 32nd and 33rd wedding anniversary (one religious, one civil - coz religious wedding are uncivilised, obviously), and tomorrow is our 3 year anniversary. we are having a dinner tonight. yum.
speak soon, and we'll try to blog a bit more frequently!
tube and bus tickets: to get home, to go to the city, to go shopping.
wine: australian shiraz, all the way, baby!
accommodation: for two nights at igloo hostel in nottingham, and (tomorrow) two nights at hunter's moon B&B in llangattock lingoed, wales.
petrol: mainly for driving to nottingham (where we visited MELBOURNE!!! we'll stick the pix on the site soon), but we've also been to visit emily in borehamwood, taken ross up to hertfordshire, and visited hertfordshire ourselves (it's quite close).
food: two nice, if expensive, meals in nottingham, and snacks on the way back to london; nice (if expensive) meals in london; solero and magnum icecreams; breakfasts for us and ross; soft serve icecreams; sandwiches when we went to visit mike the other day in the city; drinks when we went on a 3-pub-crawl with dan toman a few days ago, and also when we went to roxy (where dom djs) for rosies birthday (there were also nice olives stuffed with feta); avocadoes; two roald dahl drinks from the museum in aylesbury (again, pix will be forthcoming)...
books: a man named dave; spook's apprentice; AA's 50 walks in hertfordshire; walks in dorset...
cd: cathedral in the thrashing rain, music composed by stephen hartke, performed by the hilliard ensemble.
arsenal wristbands... heheheh...
a bright purple lacey strapless dress for rachel (unfortunately it doesn't fit dan)... from an op shop of course.
a cute little zipper attachment for ross...
a cool zip up jumper for dan... op shop again (sorry, brits - a CHARITY SHOP).
guitar strings (6 string acoustic - steel AND nylon sets) and manuscript paper.
postcards and stamps.
a buckinghamshire museum badge.
flights to and from ireland (oh we love ryanair - we are both getting there and back for the equivalent of $150 australian).
parking at sherwood forest, and in northampton, and in aylesbury, and in west hampstead, and in golders green.
a car to hire in ireland.
one newspaper and one magazine.
and that's about all i can think of at the moment. the weather has been gorgeous for the last few days, although it looks to be cooler today. tomorrow we are off to wales, which will be EXCELLENT! we have a bath in our room! and we can do walks! and they have an open fireplace in the dining room... and we will go on walks... and it will all be super! hopefully we will see THE giant chalk horse on the way, and come back with loads of photos for you.
today is margot and aaron's 32nd and 33rd wedding anniversary (one religious, one civil - coz religious wedding are uncivilised, obviously), and tomorrow is our 3 year anniversary. we are having a dinner tonight. yum.
speak soon, and we'll try to blog a bit more frequently!
11 July 2005
SKULLDUGGERY
Yes, folks, you guessed it... it's ALL NEW PICTURES time again! This time from our adventures in Holland, Belgium and France. There is also a new photo of a cat on the main page - see if you can spot it.
We are almost out of space in our photobucket album, so watch this space for details of an ALL NEW, thrilling, ACTION-PACKED journey through our NEVER BEFORE SEEN photo album-o-rama... OF DEATH!!!
Toodle pip, darlings
xxx
7 July 2005
OK
very quickly: as far as we know, no friends or family have been killed or injured by the explosions in the underground or on buses around london. we are both ok.
ross is down at the moment, and we were meant to go to some museums etc today, but it looks like it will be a bit too much of a hassle, as the tube is closed, buses are packed, people are all out in their cars.
nottingham was nice - becki has the cutest kitten in the town (mostly white, with black stripe over face!), which is, in eliot's words 'just on the wrong side of coordinated,' and pounces on everything that moves!!! sherwood forest was great - went for a 5.5 mile (about 8 km) walk, and it was sunny and beautiful. lots of wheat fields that made me want to eat bread and cereal! they make such a cool noise in the wind, too - the word 'rustle' describes it fairly well, but i think the word 'sheaves' really has the best onomatopoeiac element to it...
sorry we've been a bit slack, but there are so many things to do here - play pool, piano, guitar, talk to people (in english!), watch big brother (it is really quite bizarre over here), see friends and cats... win olympic bids... i wonder if the french are responsible for the explosions - they're pissed off that paris didn't get the olympics? (bad me - too flippant)
see you soon. i hope that if any of our london friends/friends in london are reading this, that you will confirm that you're alive and well. shalom.
ross is down at the moment, and we were meant to go to some museums etc today, but it looks like it will be a bit too much of a hassle, as the tube is closed, buses are packed, people are all out in their cars.
nottingham was nice - becki has the cutest kitten in the town (mostly white, with black stripe over face!), which is, in eliot's words 'just on the wrong side of coordinated,' and pounces on everything that moves!!! sherwood forest was great - went for a 5.5 mile (about 8 km) walk, and it was sunny and beautiful. lots of wheat fields that made me want to eat bread and cereal! they make such a cool noise in the wind, too - the word 'rustle' describes it fairly well, but i think the word 'sheaves' really has the best onomatopoeiac element to it...
sorry we've been a bit slack, but there are so many things to do here - play pool, piano, guitar, talk to people (in english!), watch big brother (it is really quite bizarre over here), see friends and cats... win olympic bids... i wonder if the french are responsible for the explosions - they're pissed off that paris didn't get the olympics? (bad me - too flippant)
see you soon. i hope that if any of our london friends/friends in london are reading this, that you will confirm that you're alive and well. shalom.
2 July 2005
LONDON STILL.
hulloooooooooooooo!!! we're back 'home' in london, and about to head off to nottingham for the weekend for some days of sherrifs, robin hoods, sherwoods, and memories of dan's university days... and also for the birthday of eliot's friend becki. dan and i are driving up this morning, and coming back on monday - hopefully via some sort of hedgehog sanctuary or something... EEP! HEDGEHOGS! next week ross is coming down for a couple of nights for his birthday, so we shall be doing wacky rossage type things with him. looking forward to it!
so, paris, huh? crazy! it's really quite lovely, and all the people we dealt with were friendly and helpful... don't know what the world has against the french, because they were generally much more polite (in shops, restaurants, etc) than italians, spanish and especially english! not that i go in for these broad generalisations... so, the eiffel tower. is really. bloody. big. no denying it any longer - it's much bigger than the original in prague. however, as one of the 'legs' was closed when we got there, the lines were even bigger, so we couldn't be arsed waiting for an hour just to pay 10EUR to go up. so we took a boat home along the seine, instead... what else?... ah, the marais - the jewish and gay quarter! everything you could possibly need all in one convenient bit of paris. we went to the memorial de la shoah (holocaust museum), which was comprehensive, interesting and free (which always makes everything better!), and also nice and cool after the heat of paris (apart from a massive downpour, the weather was generally nice and warm). ate at a couple of excellent places, one called chez marianne (in marais) recommended by lonely planet - selling wonderful dips and kosher delights - and one called la fourmi ailee, just near the hostel, selling fresh meals (vegetarian options), with the walls covered in books, paintings etc. very cool!
but enough of paris. we are now in london!... there are some excellent things about being back here. firstly - familiar faces (in both senses)!!! so, so nice to arrive somewhere and KNOW people (like visiting michelle and charlie in berlin, and peter in roermond), and have a place to stay and catch up on gossip, share pictures, etc. i've now seen some of dan's friend's houses - louis' in west hampstead, and last night we went to the house that emily and richard have bought (BOUGHT!) in borehamwood (where we were fed so much delicious home made pizza, and got to meet the CUTEST KITTEN in london - Raisin!)... another excellent thing about being back is that everyone drives on the correct side of the road, and at pedestrian crossings THE CARS WAIT FOR THE PEDESTRIANS! yes, sirree! they see you standing at the side of the road and they STOP so you can cross!!! no longer do i fear for my life!... one more thing of strangeness about being back in england is the LANGUAGE: firstly, i can't talk nonsense in a loud voice to dan as we're walking down the main street because everyone will know that i'm talking crap! (not that it really stops me, though)... and the other day we went shopping, and when it came time to say thankyou to the shop assistant, i couldn't remember which language we were meant to be talking, and did a bit of a stutter: 'gra- da- mer- thank you'... hmmm, that english is a wacky language. should also mention that on that particular shopping trip, we got a bottle of barossa valley shiraz... and OH MY GOD IT WAS SO GOOD! i have been longing for an australian shiraz for i don't know how long!!!
yesterday we went to edgeware with orly, and bought guitar strings. we cleaned up dan's 2 guitars (one of which had the grand total of, i think, two strings when we arrived) and re-strung them... so now i have a piano and a guitar to play! bliss! and the piano was also tuned recently... ah... (after the piano in the hostel in paris, you would feel the same way!!!)... what else? oh, i am learing to play pool!!! you might not think that that statement deserves 3 exclamation marks, but you haven't seen me play before, have you?...
enough for now, i want breakfast! hope you are all well. how is the band? jules and erin and esther autograph, how are reports etc? rachel how is the film? esther j, how excited are you!!!!???? naomi, how is the thesis? ben g, 'sup?! esther noo, how is the $75 per fortnight going, and how is our alex the palm? sj and sam, tell us crazy goss! mum and dad, when does the exhibition come down? michelle and charlie - crazy, we saw you in berlin! we're going to make the cannelloni next week... and all other people and gossips welcome to leave comments!
so, paris, huh? crazy! it's really quite lovely, and all the people we dealt with were friendly and helpful... don't know what the world has against the french, because they were generally much more polite (in shops, restaurants, etc) than italians, spanish and especially english! not that i go in for these broad generalisations... so, the eiffel tower. is really. bloody. big. no denying it any longer - it's much bigger than the original in prague. however, as one of the 'legs' was closed when we got there, the lines were even bigger, so we couldn't be arsed waiting for an hour just to pay 10EUR to go up. so we took a boat home along the seine, instead... what else?... ah, the marais - the jewish and gay quarter! everything you could possibly need all in one convenient bit of paris. we went to the memorial de la shoah (holocaust museum), which was comprehensive, interesting and free (which always makes everything better!), and also nice and cool after the heat of paris (apart from a massive downpour, the weather was generally nice and warm). ate at a couple of excellent places, one called chez marianne (in marais) recommended by lonely planet - selling wonderful dips and kosher delights - and one called la fourmi ailee, just near the hostel, selling fresh meals (vegetarian options), with the walls covered in books, paintings etc. very cool!
but enough of paris. we are now in london!... there are some excellent things about being back here. firstly - familiar faces (in both senses)!!! so, so nice to arrive somewhere and KNOW people (like visiting michelle and charlie in berlin, and peter in roermond), and have a place to stay and catch up on gossip, share pictures, etc. i've now seen some of dan's friend's houses - louis' in west hampstead, and last night we went to the house that emily and richard have bought (BOUGHT!) in borehamwood (where we were fed so much delicious home made pizza, and got to meet the CUTEST KITTEN in london - Raisin!)... another excellent thing about being back is that everyone drives on the correct side of the road, and at pedestrian crossings THE CARS WAIT FOR THE PEDESTRIANS! yes, sirree! they see you standing at the side of the road and they STOP so you can cross!!! no longer do i fear for my life!... one more thing of strangeness about being back in england is the LANGUAGE: firstly, i can't talk nonsense in a loud voice to dan as we're walking down the main street because everyone will know that i'm talking crap! (not that it really stops me, though)... and the other day we went shopping, and when it came time to say thankyou to the shop assistant, i couldn't remember which language we were meant to be talking, and did a bit of a stutter: 'gra- da- mer- thank you'... hmmm, that english is a wacky language. should also mention that on that particular shopping trip, we got a bottle of barossa valley shiraz... and OH MY GOD IT WAS SO GOOD! i have been longing for an australian shiraz for i don't know how long!!!
yesterday we went to edgeware with orly, and bought guitar strings. we cleaned up dan's 2 guitars (one of which had the grand total of, i think, two strings when we arrived) and re-strung them... so now i have a piano and a guitar to play! bliss! and the piano was also tuned recently... ah... (after the piano in the hostel in paris, you would feel the same way!!!)... what else? oh, i am learing to play pool!!! you might not think that that statement deserves 3 exclamation marks, but you haven't seen me play before, have you?...
enough for now, i want breakfast! hope you are all well. how is the band? jules and erin and esther autograph, how are reports etc? rachel how is the film? esther j, how excited are you!!!!???? naomi, how is the thesis? ben g, 'sup?! esther noo, how is the $75 per fortnight going, and how is our alex the palm? sj and sam, tell us crazy goss! mum and dad, when does the exhibition come down? michelle and charlie - crazy, we saw you in berlin! we're going to make the cannelloni next week... and all other people and gossips welcome to leave comments!
25 June 2005
PARIS...
just to let you all know we are safe and sound and REALLY LIKING PARIS (much to my surprise)... the tower is poking up, belleville is happening (no triplets, though), the food has been good, the catacombes full of bones and skulls (which i guess count as bones, too), the cemetery has famous ppl in it (but we got lost, so no oscar wilde for us!), the louvre is HUGE and in places impressive (in others over the top), mona lisa still ENIGMATIC, and the PARIS PRIDE MARCH JUST WENT PAST!!! YAY! lots of dancing, and lots of us queeros living it up!
namur (where we stayed in belgium) was great, too - despite the weird plastic covered sleeping appratus! the city skyline is dominated by the medieval citadel, which houses - most excitingly - underground pasages, which you can explore... but you need to take a torch! luckily we had been warned, so we had a lot of fun, pretending to be soldiers defending the castle, or invading forces holding the citadelle under seige!... at least i did, and dan laughed at me for being a COMPLETE AND UTTER NERD!!! We also had waffles and chips - for which belgium is rightly famous (and apart from deep fried potatoes i ate NO vegies in belgium... erk.)
we will fill you in properly when we get to london - prolly tuesday... or wednesday if we're lazy. dan's folks are coming to paris tonight, and we will pick them up from the station in... FOUR HOURS!!! v. exciting!
so, hope you are well, and keep up the messages... we want GOSSIP GODDAMIT!.. and, esther von oldie, HAPPY BIRTHDAY again. hope it was fun!
namur (where we stayed in belgium) was great, too - despite the weird plastic covered sleeping appratus! the city skyline is dominated by the medieval citadel, which houses - most excitingly - underground pasages, which you can explore... but you need to take a torch! luckily we had been warned, so we had a lot of fun, pretending to be soldiers defending the castle, or invading forces holding the citadelle under seige!... at least i did, and dan laughed at me for being a COMPLETE AND UTTER NERD!!! We also had waffles and chips - for which belgium is rightly famous (and apart from deep fried potatoes i ate NO vegies in belgium... erk.)
we will fill you in properly when we get to london - prolly tuesday... or wednesday if we're lazy. dan's folks are coming to paris tonight, and we will pick them up from the station in... FOUR HOURS!!! v. exciting!
so, hope you are well, and keep up the messages... we want GOSSIP GODDAMIT!.. and, esther von oldie, HAPPY BIRTHDAY again. hope it was fun!
21 June 2005
ROCK. PAPER. SCISSORS.
WHICH ONE? WHICH ONE?!?!?
yep, some new pics are up at the photobucket site. enjoy!
tomorrow we are heading to Namur, a town in Belgium... no Brussels for us, as the sprouts are not in season and the hostels are all booked out. Namur looks pretty though!!!
20 June 2005
DAG... WE ARE IN ROERMOND, THE HOME OF MY ANCESTORS...
roermond is GREAT! the weather is BRILLIANT! peter is REALLY NICE and (almost too) GENROUS!!!
since last time: we got an email from my MUM asking whether we'd visited a coffee shop yet, and since we hadn't, and mum seemed to be implying that we ought to, we went to two that day. once was the home of hash brownies (mmmmmmmmmmmmm chocolate and drugs, together at last!) and was decorated my the mother and daughter team with new agey crystals and pot (not POT) plants... heehee, so cute. we lost ourselves again on the way back (which is really unbelievable, when you look at how easy amsterdam is to navigate), and dan fell asleep on me, while i read... we were in the hostel bar to escape from the SURLY GOTHPUNK who coughed and grumped and didn't wash or change clothes and slept in our room... then our other room mates escaped and we had a couple of drinks with them and went to the Bulldog (one of a chain of coffeeshops) and smoked some very smooth joints... well, one was enough, really... dan was really VERY zonked... and i knew when i'd had enough, so i was happily stoned. now, what to do with our remaining joints???
arrived in roermond, and peter picked us up from the station. we had a walk around the town, got some stuff (incluing dutch liquorice, or zotadrops... spelling?) from the market, and had a bbq on peter's balcony in the evening with some of his lovely neighbours!... talked into the night, sang bad 80s songs, etc... hilarious!
yesterday was very family-history-ish. i visited the place where mum lived when she was a kid before moving to australia: no house left, but peter's mum (my great aunt) says they used to play along the hedge which is still there. we also visited the place where oma spent most of her life, and where my uncle john scattered some of her ashes when he was here a couple of weeks ago. it is a peaceful little corner of a field of flowers and grass, near and oak-lined avenue, and inhabited by a power-shed!!! we drove past the house where oma was born, and also visited anty anne's grave (that's mum's aunty, my great aunt) which isin a very pretty little cemetery. in the afternoon we went to a family gathering in celebration of peter's nephew (my second cousin) graduating from highschool. the dutch have a cute tradition - when someone graduates, they hang the dutch flag out the front of their house, along with their schoolbag and books! ... oh my god, there were so many people! oma was from a family of 14 children (i think) and peter's mum (one of the 2 left) had 7 kids, so you can imagine the number of aunts and uncles etc. who were there!... very cool to meet them all, especially oma's sister... and i have to say now, that if there is such a thing as a gay gene, then mine definitely came from that side of the family!!!
today we drove to maastricht, and walked around the old part of the city. it's very beautiful and trendy, and not at all old-looking, except when you round a corner and find yourself face to face with a water wheel, or one of the old beautiful churches... and now we're writing to you!
the sun is hot, the sky is bright blue, people are biking everywhere, there are canals (in which the braver people are swimming, others are boating, and some are lying in bikinis beside them), there are fields of wheat and asparagus (white asparagus, which peter has peeled in preperation for dinner!), there is hagel slag and other such sprinkles for your toast in the morning, the cafes serve tostis (toasted cheese s'wiches), people say ja (pronouncing it yor/yoh) and it is generally GREAT!!! don't want to go to paris afterwards. paris will suck compared to this! might prolong the inevitable by going to brussels first!
pleas eleave us a comment so we don't feel abandoned - even though we are going on about our great SUMMER weather!
since last time: we got an email from my MUM asking whether we'd visited a coffee shop yet, and since we hadn't, and mum seemed to be implying that we ought to, we went to two that day. once was the home of hash brownies (mmmmmmmmmmmmm chocolate and drugs, together at last!) and was decorated my the mother and daughter team with new agey crystals and pot (not POT) plants... heehee, so cute. we lost ourselves again on the way back (which is really unbelievable, when you look at how easy amsterdam is to navigate), and dan fell asleep on me, while i read... we were in the hostel bar to escape from the SURLY GOTHPUNK who coughed and grumped and didn't wash or change clothes and slept in our room... then our other room mates escaped and we had a couple of drinks with them and went to the Bulldog (one of a chain of coffeeshops) and smoked some very smooth joints... well, one was enough, really... dan was really VERY zonked... and i knew when i'd had enough, so i was happily stoned. now, what to do with our remaining joints???
arrived in roermond, and peter picked us up from the station. we had a walk around the town, got some stuff (incluing dutch liquorice, or zotadrops... spelling?) from the market, and had a bbq on peter's balcony in the evening with some of his lovely neighbours!... talked into the night, sang bad 80s songs, etc... hilarious!
yesterday was very family-history-ish. i visited the place where mum lived when she was a kid before moving to australia: no house left, but peter's mum (my great aunt) says they used to play along the hedge which is still there. we also visited the place where oma spent most of her life, and where my uncle john scattered some of her ashes when he was here a couple of weeks ago. it is a peaceful little corner of a field of flowers and grass, near and oak-lined avenue, and inhabited by a power-shed!!! we drove past the house where oma was born, and also visited anty anne's grave (that's mum's aunty, my great aunt) which isin a very pretty little cemetery. in the afternoon we went to a family gathering in celebration of peter's nephew (my second cousin) graduating from highschool. the dutch have a cute tradition - when someone graduates, they hang the dutch flag out the front of their house, along with their schoolbag and books! ... oh my god, there were so many people! oma was from a family of 14 children (i think) and peter's mum (one of the 2 left) had 7 kids, so you can imagine the number of aunts and uncles etc. who were there!... very cool to meet them all, especially oma's sister... and i have to say now, that if there is such a thing as a gay gene, then mine definitely came from that side of the family!!!
today we drove to maastricht, and walked around the old part of the city. it's very beautiful and trendy, and not at all old-looking, except when you round a corner and find yourself face to face with a water wheel, or one of the old beautiful churches... and now we're writing to you!
the sun is hot, the sky is bright blue, people are biking everywhere, there are canals (in which the braver people are swimming, others are boating, and some are lying in bikinis beside them), there are fields of wheat and asparagus (white asparagus, which peter has peeled in preperation for dinner!), there is hagel slag and other such sprinkles for your toast in the morning, the cafes serve tostis (toasted cheese s'wiches), people say ja (pronouncing it yor/yoh) and it is generally GREAT!!! don't want to go to paris afterwards. paris will suck compared to this! might prolong the inevitable by going to brussels first!
pleas eleave us a comment so we don't feel abandoned - even though we are going on about our great SUMMER weather!
17 June 2005
TOASTIES
hellooooooo, chappies. we are in amsterdam! yes we are! since we last wrote to you, we have taken over the world, and are now being pelted with rose petals and other such adoring stuff by our fans and loyal subjects. ah HA! didn't know that did you? w'll, that's because you are not on the continent with us, and everywhere esle hasn't got the news yet. anyway STOP THAT, IT'S SILLY! we haven't really taken over the world at all. sorry.
since we last wrote to you... we went to visit the big statue of marx and engels at alexanderplatz, and got our photos with them. i got to sit on marx's knee, and also hop in engels' coat! hilarious!... michelle and charlie took us to the black girls coalition, which is basically an apartment where you go on a monday night, ring the bell, and get a huge plate of vegan food for 2EUR!!! very exciting, very grungy, very berlin. the transDJ also played cool music... david bowie, scissor sisters, buzzcocks... stuff... we wne to haagen dazs (or some variation on the spelling) and ate ourselves almost sick with icecream... visited the pergamon museum, which contains the second highest number of stolen artifacts of any western museum (after the british museum)... or so our walking tour guide said - we don't know how factual that is. it has a HUGE alter/temple thing (basically they lifted the entire building and rebuilt it in the museum), along with the walls of an egyptian temple and roadway, all in brightly coloured glazed tiles, and a mosque which was a present from some king or another. it made me very uncomfortable, being up close and personal to stolen heritage... they were impressive, but depressing too. i much preferred the exhibition of islamic art - calligraphy, tiles, miniature portraits, ornaments, carpets and textiles etc. very cool. more colour, less things made of stone... charlie made us a DELICIOUS meal of cannelloni, for which i have the recipe, and which i intent to feed to other people... mmmmmmmmm, yummy!... we said goodbye to michelle and charlie, which was strange, because we haven't seen them for a year, and probably won't see them again for another 2 years... and then we came to amsterdam!!!
amsterdam is really lovely - buildings are pretty and not to tall, plenty of parks, lots of cats (so cute!), a great vegetarian restaurant/cafe, CANALS (guys, don't bother with venice, just come here... the coffee's better). we went to the van gogh museums yesterday, which was (apart from being a bit of a rip off at 10EUR each) good. i never really like landscapes, because they're usually just BORING, but this guy - he could paint! he makes the picture come alive! ... while we were there we also looked that the temp exhibition of egon schiele (who we'd already popped in on in vienna), which included some fantastically WANKY performance art, in which people pretended to be his models, and wrote him letters from their point of view, or in which they "ättempted to create a dialogue witht he work of egon scheile" and other such performance-art-speak... *shudder* it was great!......... went to de bolhoed, a vegetarian cafe, for lunch, which was DELICIOUS (and amazingly it was recommended by lonely planet)... walked around... i am reading 'Middlemarch' by George Eliot, which is actually pissingly funny in parts. OK, maybe i exaggerate.
now, off to find either more art, a likely looking coffeeshop, a nice cafe... what to do, what to do? we are hopping on the train tomorrow to roermond to see peter! that is exciting! maybe there will be more windmills!!! and cheese! and even hendrika!!!
take care bozos.
xxx rachel and dan xxx
since we last wrote to you... we went to visit the big statue of marx and engels at alexanderplatz, and got our photos with them. i got to sit on marx's knee, and also hop in engels' coat! hilarious!... michelle and charlie took us to the black girls coalition, which is basically an apartment where you go on a monday night, ring the bell, and get a huge plate of vegan food for 2EUR!!! very exciting, very grungy, very berlin. the transDJ also played cool music... david bowie, scissor sisters, buzzcocks... stuff... we wne to haagen dazs (or some variation on the spelling) and ate ourselves almost sick with icecream... visited the pergamon museum, which contains the second highest number of stolen artifacts of any western museum (after the british museum)... or so our walking tour guide said - we don't know how factual that is. it has a HUGE alter/temple thing (basically they lifted the entire building and rebuilt it in the museum), along with the walls of an egyptian temple and roadway, all in brightly coloured glazed tiles, and a mosque which was a present from some king or another. it made me very uncomfortable, being up close and personal to stolen heritage... they were impressive, but depressing too. i much preferred the exhibition of islamic art - calligraphy, tiles, miniature portraits, ornaments, carpets and textiles etc. very cool. more colour, less things made of stone... charlie made us a DELICIOUS meal of cannelloni, for which i have the recipe, and which i intent to feed to other people... mmmmmmmmm, yummy!... we said goodbye to michelle and charlie, which was strange, because we haven't seen them for a year, and probably won't see them again for another 2 years... and then we came to amsterdam!!!
amsterdam is really lovely - buildings are pretty and not to tall, plenty of parks, lots of cats (so cute!), a great vegetarian restaurant/cafe, CANALS (guys, don't bother with venice, just come here... the coffee's better). we went to the van gogh museums yesterday, which was (apart from being a bit of a rip off at 10EUR each) good. i never really like landscapes, because they're usually just BORING, but this guy - he could paint! he makes the picture come alive! ... while we were there we also looked that the temp exhibition of egon schiele (who we'd already popped in on in vienna), which included some fantastically WANKY performance art, in which people pretended to be his models, and wrote him letters from their point of view, or in which they "ättempted to create a dialogue witht he work of egon scheile" and other such performance-art-speak... *shudder* it was great!......... went to de bolhoed, a vegetarian cafe, for lunch, which was DELICIOUS (and amazingly it was recommended by lonely planet)... walked around... i am reading 'Middlemarch' by George Eliot, which is actually pissingly funny in parts. OK, maybe i exaggerate.
now, off to find either more art, a likely looking coffeeshop, a nice cafe... what to do, what to do? we are hopping on the train tomorrow to roermond to see peter! that is exciting! maybe there will be more windmills!!! and cheese! and even hendrika!!!
take care bozos.
xxx rachel and dan xxx
15 June 2005
GUTEN TAG FROM BERLIN...
WRITTEN TWO DAYS AGO:
Well here we are! this is going to beveryshort as the spacebar is stuffed (can you tell?)... arrived safely in east berlin,to be greeted by charlie and some very cute traffic lights (the walk and dont walk symbols have hats, the stop man looks like he wants a hug, and the green man looks like he has - in the words of the famous band Asparagus and the Despotic Lychee - a giant enormous erection... Michelle and Charlies flat is very lovely - lots of light,white walls, wood floors, sparse but cool furnishings, and BEST OF ALL,michelle and charlie, whohave beenwonderful... arranging free tours, giving us directions and showing us how to use the very efficient, but rather complicatedand annoying train systems.
On our first day we did a walking tour... it was great to get an overview of the museum locations, a bit of background on the buildings (and to see the bulletholes in the walls, and have the patchwork walls pointed out to us - repaired after WWII bombings, and after soviet neglect - in hundredyear old stone, 50 year old blocks, and 10 year old bricks), a bit of interesting political history (we walked through the new jewish memorial, stood on thesite of hitlers bunker - now a residential carpark with no signage whatsoever - saw some remaining sections of the berlin wall), and see the place that marlene dietrich was discovered... but more on her later! ... That evening,we met michelle and charlie at potsdammer platz to watch hitchikers guide on its first day of release in germany... and we were given FREE TOWELS!... with KEINE PANIK printed on them in large friendly letters!
On our second day,dan and i met michelle for an early lunch in her break fromwork, and had a very nice thai meal... mmm... then we went to the jewish museum, which is HUGE,and packed with a fantastic array and variety of exhibits - from historical reconstructions of early jewish settlements in germany (middle ages), to a ´learn to write your name in hebrew´section (i am getting better at the alphabet!!!), to the holocaust tower (a tall cold grey dark concrete space, lit only by a sliver of light at the top... it is a fantastic space to be in) and garden of exile, to home videos of a jewish family in the 30s, to a roomdedicated to german jews who served in WWI, to exhibits of items taken by families when they fled gemany in the 30s... our fave bit,where we spent too much time, was the interactive learning centre, full ofcomputers, where a randomchoice of story starts you on a tour of öa small part of german,jewish history and culture. i read all about betha pappenhaim, a jewish woman who set up homes for single mothers homeless girs etc in the early 20th century,and gave lectures on why jewish women should be allowed to study hebrew and judaism just as their male counterparts...
NOW, i just typed up another 4 paragraphs, which the computer has randomly deleted, so im sorry, but i cant be arsed rewriting it at the moment. a quick overview - HITCHIKERS GUIDE on 1st day od german release, where we were given towels with KEINE PANIK printed on them; teh FILM MUSEUM, where i drooledover marlene deitrich exhibits for and exceptionally long time; PICNICSin the rain in the pretty tiergarten, which was once the royal hunting ground; the flea market with heaps of stuff in it, including heaps of cool retro telephones!; we have SHAVED OUR HEADS again!; having a lovely time with michelle and chaarlie; off to AMSTERDAM soon, then to visit mum#s cousin peter, then paris, then back to the uk; WRITE to us!; see some of you soon!!! xxx rachel and dan.
p.s. michelle and charlie say helloooooo to everyone!
Well here we are! this is going to beveryshort as the spacebar is stuffed (can you tell?)... arrived safely in east berlin,to be greeted by charlie and some very cute traffic lights (the walk and dont walk symbols have hats, the stop man looks like he wants a hug, and the green man looks like he has - in the words of the famous band Asparagus and the Despotic Lychee - a giant enormous erection... Michelle and Charlies flat is very lovely - lots of light,white walls, wood floors, sparse but cool furnishings, and BEST OF ALL,michelle and charlie, whohave beenwonderful... arranging free tours, giving us directions and showing us how to use the very efficient, but rather complicatedand annoying train systems.
On our first day we did a walking tour... it was great to get an overview of the museum locations, a bit of background on the buildings (and to see the bulletholes in the walls, and have the patchwork walls pointed out to us - repaired after WWII bombings, and after soviet neglect - in hundredyear old stone, 50 year old blocks, and 10 year old bricks), a bit of interesting political history (we walked through the new jewish memorial, stood on thesite of hitlers bunker - now a residential carpark with no signage whatsoever - saw some remaining sections of the berlin wall), and see the place that marlene dietrich was discovered... but more on her later! ... That evening,we met michelle and charlie at potsdammer platz to watch hitchikers guide on its first day of release in germany... and we were given FREE TOWELS!... with KEINE PANIK printed on them in large friendly letters!
On our second day,dan and i met michelle for an early lunch in her break fromwork, and had a very nice thai meal... mmm... then we went to the jewish museum, which is HUGE,and packed with a fantastic array and variety of exhibits - from historical reconstructions of early jewish settlements in germany (middle ages), to a ´learn to write your name in hebrew´section (i am getting better at the alphabet!!!), to the holocaust tower (a tall cold grey dark concrete space, lit only by a sliver of light at the top... it is a fantastic space to be in) and garden of exile, to home videos of a jewish family in the 30s, to a roomdedicated to german jews who served in WWI, to exhibits of items taken by families when they fled gemany in the 30s... our fave bit,where we spent too much time, was the interactive learning centre, full ofcomputers, where a randomchoice of story starts you on a tour of öa small part of german,jewish history and culture. i read all about betha pappenhaim, a jewish woman who set up homes for single mothers homeless girs etc in the early 20th century,and gave lectures on why jewish women should be allowed to study hebrew and judaism just as their male counterparts...
NOW, i just typed up another 4 paragraphs, which the computer has randomly deleted, so im sorry, but i cant be arsed rewriting it at the moment. a quick overview - HITCHIKERS GUIDE on 1st day od german release, where we were given towels with KEINE PANIK printed on them; teh FILM MUSEUM, where i drooledover marlene deitrich exhibits for and exceptionally long time; PICNICSin the rain in the pretty tiergarten, which was once the royal hunting ground; the flea market with heaps of stuff in it, including heaps of cool retro telephones!; we have SHAVED OUR HEADS again!; having a lovely time with michelle and chaarlie; off to AMSTERDAM soon, then to visit mum#s cousin peter, then paris, then back to the uk; WRITE to us!; see some of you soon!!! xxx rachel and dan.
p.s. michelle and charlie say helloooooo to everyone!
8 June 2005
7 June 2005
SEX AND COMMUNISM... TOGETHER AT LAST
OK, so if you don't like politics and/or don't want to hear about weird sex things, don't read on.
I have gauged that approximately 100% of you are still reading.
COMMUNISM. and anti-communist propaganda... We went to the communist museum in praha today (above mcdonalds, beside the casino), which was really cool. in a weird sort of way. it was broken into sections "the dream" "the reality" and "the NIGHTMARE" and it traced the rise and fall of czech communism in general (and through its various forms) from the early 20th century to the 'velvet revolution' of 1989. it was interesting, but at the same time disturbing, to not only see how horrible that time must have been, but also how vehemently anti-communist the museum was. on a number of occasions remarks were made about the communist propaganda against america (of course no mention of the west's anti-communist propaganda), and about the paranoia spread by the czech and soviet leaders re: america's atomic "weapons of mass destruction" (yes they actually used that phrase... no mention of the fact that this propaganda was produced almost exactly on the american/west side, and no credence given to the fact that american missiles probably WERE trained at communist countries!)... still, 'democracy' is very new here, and it's very easy to feel a zealousness in the background here, obviously born from the events of recent history... or something verbose like that.
SEX. or the Sex Machines Museum... Another hilarious (though somewhat different in places... it was redder, and also had a few more instruments of torture) museum. The ground floor is devoted, somewhat tamely, to a variety of corsets, bodices and brassieres... and socks. hm. The second floor heads into some of the more bizarre old contraptions used by people over the years (a seesaw with dildo[e?]s, crank powered manual vibrators, a voyeuristic chamberpot replete with strategically placed mirror for viewing pleasure, electronic anti-masturbation devices - attached to a bell in the parent's bedroom! - peircings, chastity belts, dildos - one of which had disconcertingly melted inside one contraption, which goes to show you shouldn't put your dildo in strange objects). The third floor was, of course, dedicated almost entirely to bondage, BDSM, and GIMPDOM! hilarious! it included all the old faves - the wheel, the masks, the cages (it looked like it was under a massage table!?), the giant inflatable dildos, etc, etc... the walls of the tops floors were also lined with patents (mostly recent) for things such as anti-rape devices (it involves sharp pointy objects placed strategically in places likely to be penetrated... goody), a bra made of bubble wrap (yep, and you thought it was strange that those guys in madrid patented their patatas bravas sauce!), and various items to enhance erotic pleasure (we think. most of them made absolutely no sense AT ALL). There was also a cinema showing 2 VERY WELL PRESERVED spanish pornographic films from the 1920s. all i have to say is that they made just as little sense then, although the men wore funnier trousers which is always a bonus.
Anyway, so that was our day! to berlin to see michelle and charlie tomorrow... speak soon!
I have gauged that approximately 100% of you are still reading.
COMMUNISM. and anti-communist propaganda... We went to the communist museum in praha today (above mcdonalds, beside the casino), which was really cool. in a weird sort of way. it was broken into sections "the dream" "the reality" and "the NIGHTMARE" and it traced the rise and fall of czech communism in general (and through its various forms) from the early 20th century to the 'velvet revolution' of 1989. it was interesting, but at the same time disturbing, to not only see how horrible that time must have been, but also how vehemently anti-communist the museum was. on a number of occasions remarks were made about the communist propaganda against america (of course no mention of the west's anti-communist propaganda), and about the paranoia spread by the czech and soviet leaders re: america's atomic "weapons of mass destruction" (yes they actually used that phrase... no mention of the fact that this propaganda was produced almost exactly on the american/west side, and no credence given to the fact that american missiles probably WERE trained at communist countries!)... still, 'democracy' is very new here, and it's very easy to feel a zealousness in the background here, obviously born from the events of recent history... or something verbose like that.
SEX. or the Sex Machines Museum... Another hilarious (though somewhat different in places... it was redder, and also had a few more instruments of torture) museum. The ground floor is devoted, somewhat tamely, to a variety of corsets, bodices and brassieres... and socks. hm. The second floor heads into some of the more bizarre old contraptions used by people over the years (a seesaw with dildo[e?]s, crank powered manual vibrators, a voyeuristic chamberpot replete with strategically placed mirror for viewing pleasure, electronic anti-masturbation devices - attached to a bell in the parent's bedroom! - peircings, chastity belts, dildos - one of which had disconcertingly melted inside one contraption, which goes to show you shouldn't put your dildo in strange objects). The third floor was, of course, dedicated almost entirely to bondage, BDSM, and GIMPDOM! hilarious! it included all the old faves - the wheel, the masks, the cages (it looked like it was under a massage table!?), the giant inflatable dildos, etc, etc... the walls of the tops floors were also lined with patents (mostly recent) for things such as anti-rape devices (it involves sharp pointy objects placed strategically in places likely to be penetrated... goody), a bra made of bubble wrap (yep, and you thought it was strange that those guys in madrid patented their patatas bravas sauce!), and various items to enhance erotic pleasure (we think. most of them made absolutely no sense AT ALL). There was also a cinema showing 2 VERY WELL PRESERVED spanish pornographic films from the 1920s. all i have to say is that they made just as little sense then, although the men wore funnier trousers which is always a bonus.
Anyway, so that was our day! to berlin to see michelle and charlie tomorrow... speak soon!
6 June 2005
STUFF OF IMPORTANCE!
firstly, comments can be left by clicking the "# COMMENTS" bit... NOT the envelope, coz that send emails... just in case you wanted to know...
secondly, thanks for the tips loose poached, but we are now in the czech republic where the keyboards have been set to the MASTER TONGUE of english, so no funny biz for now.
thirdly, thanks to all those who have emailed, left messages, texted (is this a word?), phoned etc to wish me a happy von birthday... and even to those who left the VON bit out (how could you?). it was happy and it was summer.
THINGS YOU WILL FIND AMUSING, INTERESTING, OR OTHERWISE:
1. BIRTHDAY BREAKFAST. was had in vienna (or wien, where they call themselves WIENERS!!! still amusing after all these years), and was composed of EIS... icecream... and mine was EIS SPAGHETTI! it was vanilla icecream in noodles, topped with very tomatoey (!) looking strawberry sauce, and parmesanish (?) coconut... HILARIOUS. dan had a massive contraption involving 4 types of eis and masses of whipped cream (hm) and chocolate in various forms.
2. BETHANY. who none of you other than julia may remember, but she went to melb uni, and did claire wearne's tie thing with us... anyway i saw her at wombats (she was doing... BUSABOUT!)... so my first known person thing meeting quest you know that stuff.
3. CZECH REPUBLIC. is cool. in both meanings. the landscape of the south was fantastic (in both senses)... the train rolled through close hills (almost claustrophobic in places) of REALLY dense woods. it's like all the green trees in the world have migrated to the czech republic. it was like fairytale country, and we even saw a few castles poking up over the hills... the ominous clouds also added to the atmosphere of fantasy...
4. PRAGUE. is obviously seperate from the czech republic as listed above. prague, as you have heard SO MANY TIMES BEFORE, is beautiful. seriously, we did a walk through the old town and the jewish quarter yesterday, and the architecture is amazing. it is astounding how many old buildings are still standing, and still being used, and still looking nice... there are also lots of franz kafka things. like beetles. and monuments to him and whatnot. and also, everything has gold and colours and there is a clock onthe old town hall and when it reaches the hour a funny skeleton thing rings the bell and a procession of saints (we think) parades (procedes...) past the open windows at the top. like diamaru only MUCH OLDER and sort of funnier! people cheered!
5. SYNAGOGUEY CONGLOMORATE. is synagoguey. we went into all of them (if you're ever here, don't bother with the Old New Synagogue... ripped off. although dan did get a funny disposable kippa!!! it looked like a party hat!) ... one of them is empty, but the names of 80,000 jews from prague and around who died in the holocaust are written on the walls... think about that for a moment. eighty thousand. you can't really get your head around it. when you walk into the synagogue, every wall is covered with names, about 1.5 cms high, from the ceiling to the floor, on 2 storeys. every panel contains hundreds of names, lists hundreds of people killed. to be faced with just one panel is overwhelming. i know that i felt small and helpless and angry and incredibly sad and frustrated... it is impossible to read all the names, even on one wall, but i wanted to - i didn't want even one of these people to be forgotten... needless to say, i bawled my eyes out a few times, and spent ages in there... ... ... the other synagogues were interesting, but nowhere near as powerful as that. a couple of times dan pulled me up and said "you know how you were asking me about... (something jewish)... well, here, read this plaque." and so now i know why all those little rectangular boxes are stuck on the doorframes. and why aaron didn't have to pay 5 silver shekels for dan, as first born, to be redeemed... it's because they are all related to dr spock! (sorry, geeky jewish joke there)... the cemetry was also very cool. it was PACKED with toombstones like jagged teeth, because they've piled layer apon layer of soil there, but every time they put a new layer on, they lifted the headstones to the new level. rabbi loew, who made the golem, is buried there.
6. FAKE EIFFEL TOWER. oh. my. god. erin and julia, how could you neglect to mention this in your travel tips book?!?!?!? it is HILARIOUS. today, instead of going to the castle, we climbed the petrin tower... now we don't have to do it in paris... so i guess we don't have to go to france any more... bonus! czechs are nicer than them anyday. it is also near a mirror maze, which is always good fun.
7. THEIR MONEY IS SILLY!!! that about sums it up.
8. OUR HOSTEL. has two snuggly friendly cool CATS!!! called phillipe and BORIS!!! boris is big and fat and ginger and named after boris becker. and phillipe (it is prolly spelled differently) is younger and grey and white and SO CUTE! esther j, are you jealous? serves you right for not answering the phone when we call you at 11pm!!!
prolly off to dresden tomorrow, then berlin!!! michelle and charlie!!! YAY! will try to do pix now... so maybe more delight for you!
p.s. I WANT BOXED SET OF YUGIOH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
secondly, thanks for the tips loose poached, but we are now in the czech republic where the keyboards have been set to the MASTER TONGUE of english, so no funny biz for now.
thirdly, thanks to all those who have emailed, left messages, texted (is this a word?), phoned etc to wish me a happy von birthday... and even to those who left the VON bit out (how could you?). it was happy and it was summer.
THINGS YOU WILL FIND AMUSING, INTERESTING, OR OTHERWISE:
1. BIRTHDAY BREAKFAST. was had in vienna (or wien, where they call themselves WIENERS!!! still amusing after all these years), and was composed of EIS... icecream... and mine was EIS SPAGHETTI! it was vanilla icecream in noodles, topped with very tomatoey (!) looking strawberry sauce, and parmesanish (?) coconut... HILARIOUS. dan had a massive contraption involving 4 types of eis and masses of whipped cream (hm) and chocolate in various forms.
2. BETHANY. who none of you other than julia may remember, but she went to melb uni, and did claire wearne's tie thing with us... anyway i saw her at wombats (she was doing... BUSABOUT!)... so my first known person thing meeting quest you know that stuff.
3. CZECH REPUBLIC. is cool. in both meanings. the landscape of the south was fantastic (in both senses)... the train rolled through close hills (almost claustrophobic in places) of REALLY dense woods. it's like all the green trees in the world have migrated to the czech republic. it was like fairytale country, and we even saw a few castles poking up over the hills... the ominous clouds also added to the atmosphere of fantasy...
4. PRAGUE. is obviously seperate from the czech republic as listed above. prague, as you have heard SO MANY TIMES BEFORE, is beautiful. seriously, we did a walk through the old town and the jewish quarter yesterday, and the architecture is amazing. it is astounding how many old buildings are still standing, and still being used, and still looking nice... there are also lots of franz kafka things. like beetles. and monuments to him and whatnot. and also, everything has gold and colours and there is a clock onthe old town hall and when it reaches the hour a funny skeleton thing rings the bell and a procession of saints (we think) parades (procedes...) past the open windows at the top. like diamaru only MUCH OLDER and sort of funnier! people cheered!
5. SYNAGOGUEY CONGLOMORATE. is synagoguey. we went into all of them (if you're ever here, don't bother with the Old New Synagogue... ripped off. although dan did get a funny disposable kippa!!! it looked like a party hat!) ... one of them is empty, but the names of 80,000 jews from prague and around who died in the holocaust are written on the walls... think about that for a moment. eighty thousand. you can't really get your head around it. when you walk into the synagogue, every wall is covered with names, about 1.5 cms high, from the ceiling to the floor, on 2 storeys. every panel contains hundreds of names, lists hundreds of people killed. to be faced with just one panel is overwhelming. i know that i felt small and helpless and angry and incredibly sad and frustrated... it is impossible to read all the names, even on one wall, but i wanted to - i didn't want even one of these people to be forgotten... needless to say, i bawled my eyes out a few times, and spent ages in there... ... ... the other synagogues were interesting, but nowhere near as powerful as that. a couple of times dan pulled me up and said "you know how you were asking me about... (something jewish)... well, here, read this plaque." and so now i know why all those little rectangular boxes are stuck on the doorframes. and why aaron didn't have to pay 5 silver shekels for dan, as first born, to be redeemed... it's because they are all related to dr spock! (sorry, geeky jewish joke there)... the cemetry was also very cool. it was PACKED with toombstones like jagged teeth, because they've piled layer apon layer of soil there, but every time they put a new layer on, they lifted the headstones to the new level. rabbi loew, who made the golem, is buried there.
6. FAKE EIFFEL TOWER. oh. my. god. erin and julia, how could you neglect to mention this in your travel tips book?!?!?!? it is HILARIOUS. today, instead of going to the castle, we climbed the petrin tower... now we don't have to do it in paris... so i guess we don't have to go to france any more... bonus! czechs are nicer than them anyday. it is also near a mirror maze, which is always good fun.
7. THEIR MONEY IS SILLY!!! that about sums it up.
8. OUR HOSTEL. has two snuggly friendly cool CATS!!! called phillipe and BORIS!!! boris is big and fat and ginger and named after boris becker. and phillipe (it is prolly spelled differently) is younger and grey and white and SO CUTE! esther j, are you jealous? serves you right for not answering the phone when we call you at 11pm!!!
prolly off to dresden tomorrow, then berlin!!! michelle and charlie!!! YAY! will try to do pix now... so maybe more delight for you!
p.s. I WANT BOXED SET OF YUGIOH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
4 June 2005
WEINERS... THAT IS WHAT WE ARE.
first of all, the zs and ys are going to be all mixed up, and the punctuation is going to be terrible, because i cant be bothered wrestling with the austrian kezboards. ok. good.
zurich (looks dumb as yurich, hez) is reallz quite nice. we had no expectations of it, so to find that we were stazing in the heart of the old town was special. we spent manz an hour wandering around the little streets, asking the comic store that specialised in french comics if thez had zugioh in english (thez didnt but it went up to book 33 in german!!!), wanting to buz an entire shop of funnz colourful childrens musical instruments (the instruments were funnz and colourful, the children were thankfullz not there), and looking at the menu for the outback bar. we will post pictures in the next week or so.
we also ATE FONDUE!!! it was verz exciting, and for all those who have attended one of our fondue parties, i have to saz we do it just as well as the swiss, if not better (ok, i maz be biased, but thez didnt give us caremelised onion, cherrz tomato, or mushroom dippers... onlz BROT).
took the night train to vienna (WIEN!), and checked into a lovelz little apartment for our first night. it was in the middle of the red light district (we are making a habit of this) which was, once again, not verz seedz. i was coming down with a cold (i HATE BEING SICK! sore throats and necks and ezes and noses and ears reallz SUCK), so weäve been taking it easz. went to the leopold museum zesterdaz to see HEAPS of scheile and klimt... i know zouäre jealous, mums!... it was fantastic. thez had a special exhibition called Naked Truth, detailing the changes in artistic depictions of the naked bodz around 1900 in vienna. it was reallz reallz cool. i think iäm converted to vienese (WEINER) painting!
todaz we carted all our stuff over to WOMBAT hostel, then went down to MUMOK, which is FREE this month because it is artyculturaly month or something. also very cool, although the pamphlet analzsing some of the modernist works was THE most wanky thing i have read for quite a while. iäll keep it for zou dad, so zou can impress zour kids at school! enjozed the exhibition Road to War, bz someone or another (canät remember the name)...
HEZ, while im at this art bit, im gonna plug mz folks exhibitions!!! mum has some work up in skepsi near melb uni, so CHECK IT OUT. mum and dad are also busy getting readz for an exhibition in (crap... where) bairnsdale, i think... so yeah, LOOK AT THE PRETTZ PICTURES!!! trust me, some of the crap we have seen in our travels is nowhere near as good (do i sound like im biased in anz waz... NO)
We are off to prague tomorrow... so i guess Youäll hear from us then, or when we get to berlin and meet with michelle and charlie (YAY!)... so take care guzs!!!
zurich (looks dumb as yurich, hez) is reallz quite nice. we had no expectations of it, so to find that we were stazing in the heart of the old town was special. we spent manz an hour wandering around the little streets, asking the comic store that specialised in french comics if thez had zugioh in english (thez didnt but it went up to book 33 in german!!!), wanting to buz an entire shop of funnz colourful childrens musical instruments (the instruments were funnz and colourful, the children were thankfullz not there), and looking at the menu for the outback bar. we will post pictures in the next week or so.
we also ATE FONDUE!!! it was verz exciting, and for all those who have attended one of our fondue parties, i have to saz we do it just as well as the swiss, if not better (ok, i maz be biased, but thez didnt give us caremelised onion, cherrz tomato, or mushroom dippers... onlz BROT).
took the night train to vienna (WIEN!), and checked into a lovelz little apartment for our first night. it was in the middle of the red light district (we are making a habit of this) which was, once again, not verz seedz. i was coming down with a cold (i HATE BEING SICK! sore throats and necks and ezes and noses and ears reallz SUCK), so weäve been taking it easz. went to the leopold museum zesterdaz to see HEAPS of scheile and klimt... i know zouäre jealous, mums!... it was fantastic. thez had a special exhibition called Naked Truth, detailing the changes in artistic depictions of the naked bodz around 1900 in vienna. it was reallz reallz cool. i think iäm converted to vienese (WEINER) painting!
todaz we carted all our stuff over to WOMBAT hostel, then went down to MUMOK, which is FREE this month because it is artyculturaly month or something. also very cool, although the pamphlet analzsing some of the modernist works was THE most wanky thing i have read for quite a while. iäll keep it for zou dad, so zou can impress zour kids at school! enjozed the exhibition Road to War, bz someone or another (canät remember the name)...
HEZ, while im at this art bit, im gonna plug mz folks exhibitions!!! mum has some work up in skepsi near melb uni, so CHECK IT OUT. mum and dad are also busy getting readz for an exhibition in (crap... where) bairnsdale, i think... so yeah, LOOK AT THE PRETTZ PICTURES!!! trust me, some of the crap we have seen in our travels is nowhere near as good (do i sound like im biased in anz waz... NO)
We are off to prague tomorrow... so i guess Youäll hear from us then, or when we get to berlin and meet with michelle and charlie (YAY!)... so take care guzs!!!
31 May 2005
HEIDI! SWITZERLAND! BIZARRE KEYBOARDS!
OK, OK, where to start?... our last day in venice!
we stored our things in the station and wandered around venice with the sole aim of eating all the yummy looking pastries we could find. this ended up only being 3 pastries, but THAT WAS ENOUGH! they were yum. we also went a-wandering, looking for a lonely planet reccomendation for dinner. (no, we hadn't learned our lesson). and we looked. and looked. and it REALLY WASN'T THERE. but THEN we wandered over a canal, and then a few blocks further, and then... THERE IT WAS!!! Ae Oche, where the pizzas are HUGE HUGE HUGE and it took us 45 minutes to eat them. the night train was fine - no gassings or muggings or snorers or stinkers, and only one person from our compartment got hauled off at the swiss border control! ate breakfast with the alps and lakes rolling past. bloody beautiful. amazing. GROUSE.
we arrived in zurich with no idea of what we were going to do. however, as our sole reason for coming was to see heidi's town, we jumped straight on a train to maienfeld... we didn't know if there were hotels or... anything, really. we just went. (not before we saw a vending machine with uno... AND DUEL MONSTERS!!!)... at the station, the info man put us on a shuttle bus, and that man took us to a place called Schlaf im Stroh. (remember, we understood very little of what was going on... crazy swiss german!)... it means, as we found out, SLEEP IN STRAW. and the beds were literally, STRAW. which the farmer, max (who wore a singlet and overalls), made for us. with a pitchfork. yep. HILARIOUS!
we headed off up the mountain to look for heidialp - the alm-uncle's house. it took us almost 2 hours of hiking to get there, and it was worth every last drop of sweat to drink the pure mountain spring water, and look out over the meadows full of wildflowers, and listen to the pines and cowbells, and gape at the snow capped mountains and drink the very large beer provided by one of the old geezers up there (not the very beardy man, though he WAS hilarious!)... wow! childhood dream fulfilled (not the beardy man part, the heidi's pasture part!)...
slept. in straw! had 2 others in room - one snorer who was instantly forgiven when they turned out to be japanese and like yugioh!!! YAY!
went to heidi museum today, then jumped on train... and another... and another... and eventually got back to zurich, where the really LOVELY customer service people reserved a room at the city backpacker hostel, which is where we are now... we have also seen millions of giant teddy bears (2005 is the year of the teddy or something), and people fishing bicycles out of the river. very very strange. we think zurich is the japan of europe. we are staying in the red light district, apparently, but all the nightclubs look very clean and rather like tanning salons. interesting.
tomorow we are going to catch another night train to vienna.
we just went for a walk and saw an outback pub. it has phrases on it like: extra grouse! and just beaut! ... and That's a Peg! ... what does it even mean???
we like zurich. we LOVE SWITZERLAND and if it wasn't so f'ing expensive, we'd live here for ever!!!... and of course we would miss you all, too!
we stored our things in the station and wandered around venice with the sole aim of eating all the yummy looking pastries we could find. this ended up only being 3 pastries, but THAT WAS ENOUGH! they were yum. we also went a-wandering, looking for a lonely planet reccomendation for dinner. (no, we hadn't learned our lesson). and we looked. and looked. and it REALLY WASN'T THERE. but THEN we wandered over a canal, and then a few blocks further, and then... THERE IT WAS!!! Ae Oche, where the pizzas are HUGE HUGE HUGE and it took us 45 minutes to eat them. the night train was fine - no gassings or muggings or snorers or stinkers, and only one person from our compartment got hauled off at the swiss border control! ate breakfast with the alps and lakes rolling past. bloody beautiful. amazing. GROUSE.
we arrived in zurich with no idea of what we were going to do. however, as our sole reason for coming was to see heidi's town, we jumped straight on a train to maienfeld... we didn't know if there were hotels or... anything, really. we just went. (not before we saw a vending machine with uno... AND DUEL MONSTERS!!!)... at the station, the info man put us on a shuttle bus, and that man took us to a place called Schlaf im Stroh. (remember, we understood very little of what was going on... crazy swiss german!)... it means, as we found out, SLEEP IN STRAW. and the beds were literally, STRAW. which the farmer, max (who wore a singlet and overalls), made for us. with a pitchfork. yep. HILARIOUS!
we headed off up the mountain to look for heidialp - the alm-uncle's house. it took us almost 2 hours of hiking to get there, and it was worth every last drop of sweat to drink the pure mountain spring water, and look out over the meadows full of wildflowers, and listen to the pines and cowbells, and gape at the snow capped mountains and drink the very large beer provided by one of the old geezers up there (not the very beardy man, though he WAS hilarious!)... wow! childhood dream fulfilled (not the beardy man part, the heidi's pasture part!)...
slept. in straw! had 2 others in room - one snorer who was instantly forgiven when they turned out to be japanese and like yugioh!!! YAY!
went to heidi museum today, then jumped on train... and another... and another... and eventually got back to zurich, where the really LOVELY customer service people reserved a room at the city backpacker hostel, which is where we are now... we have also seen millions of giant teddy bears (2005 is the year of the teddy or something), and people fishing bicycles out of the river. very very strange. we think zurich is the japan of europe. we are staying in the red light district, apparently, but all the nightclubs look very clean and rather like tanning salons. interesting.
tomorow we are going to catch another night train to vienna.
we just went for a walk and saw an outback pub. it has phrases on it like: extra grouse! and just beaut! ... and That's a Peg! ... what does it even mean???
we like zurich. we LOVE SWITZERLAND and if it wasn't so f'ing expensive, we'd live here for ever!!!... and of course we would miss you all, too!
29 May 2005
28 May 2005
ALSO:
Don't wash your reds with your whites. Let's just say that Dan's "Send a Salami to Your Boy in the Army" t-shirt has a whole new subtext-as-text thing happening! Whoops!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)