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!
25 June 2005
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!
THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT VENICE
1. Everything looks like a postcard.
2. Everything that looks like a postcard will cost you.
3. Everything that doesn't look like a postcard will cost you.
4. Pay for toilets. Pay cover charge at restaurant. Pay through nose for water transport (nose now hurts).
5. Beggars are really tourists trying to get back the money they've spent in Venice.
6. Everything looks YUM! ESPECIALLY THE FOOD! PASTRIES!!! PIZZA! They taste pretty good, too.
7. The Peggy Guggenheim Collection (entry 5EUR/10EUR) is great, because you get to use the toilets (space agey) for FREE, and you can sit in the garden for FREE, and laugh at the fact that Peggy is buried there with a million of her silly pet dogs for FREE, and the lockers are FREE, and there is a tree by Yoko Ono, and it is all quiet, and there is a room of Jackson Pollock, and a Surrealist room, and there are DI CHIRICO PAINTINGS!!! and the restaurant is expensive-ish, but the people are NICE, and the tiramisu is NICE (not as alcoholic as Julia's, though), and the bread is FREE and there are complimentary biscuits and you get TWO TEABAGS with your tea... WE LIKE!
8. There are NO CARS IN VENICE! consequently, in the heat we've been having, everything off the tourist path is quiet like a lazy saturday afternoon... aided by the slow moving boats, the old italian ladies hanging out of windows, the old italian dogs hanging out the windows... it is nice where the tourists are not.
9. San Marco... DON'T BOTHER UNLESS YOU ARE THERE IN THE HEIGHT OF OFF-SEASON. I don't even think there were that many tourists in Rome!!!
10. BOTHER with the islands. Torcello is beautiful and sleepy and small, and was deserted back in the day because of malaria... the Basilica is really old (900s) and has a huge gold mosaic of mary in a byzantine looking style... very nice for the 3EUR. but get postcards for 30cents cheaper outside the church! Burano has cute, cute colourful houses. Wander around.
11. It will all be OK. Just budget for 20EUR a day more than you usually would. Then double it!
Please keep in mind that this is all written under a blanket of 30° heat... lovely so long as you don't have to come home to a cabin which is HUMID and probably 40°!!! We've had a great day, and hoping that dinner in camp restaurant is as good as last night! Hope you are all well, and will post pics soon - perhaps tomorrow!
2. Everything that looks like a postcard will cost you.
3. Everything that doesn't look like a postcard will cost you.
4. Pay for toilets. Pay cover charge at restaurant. Pay through nose for water transport (nose now hurts).
5. Beggars are really tourists trying to get back the money they've spent in Venice.
6. Everything looks YUM! ESPECIALLY THE FOOD! PASTRIES!!! PIZZA! They taste pretty good, too.
7. The Peggy Guggenheim Collection (entry 5EUR/10EUR) is great, because you get to use the toilets (space agey) for FREE, and you can sit in the garden for FREE, and laugh at the fact that Peggy is buried there with a million of her silly pet dogs for FREE, and the lockers are FREE, and there is a tree by Yoko Ono, and it is all quiet, and there is a room of Jackson Pollock, and a Surrealist room, and there are DI CHIRICO PAINTINGS!!! and the restaurant is expensive-ish, but the people are NICE, and the tiramisu is NICE (not as alcoholic as Julia's, though), and the bread is FREE and there are complimentary biscuits and you get TWO TEABAGS with your tea... WE LIKE!
8. There are NO CARS IN VENICE! consequently, in the heat we've been having, everything off the tourist path is quiet like a lazy saturday afternoon... aided by the slow moving boats, the old italian ladies hanging out of windows, the old italian dogs hanging out the windows... it is nice where the tourists are not.
9. San Marco... DON'T BOTHER UNLESS YOU ARE THERE IN THE HEIGHT OF OFF-SEASON. I don't even think there were that many tourists in Rome!!!
10. BOTHER with the islands. Torcello is beautiful and sleepy and small, and was deserted back in the day because of malaria... the Basilica is really old (900s) and has a huge gold mosaic of mary in a byzantine looking style... very nice for the 3EUR. but get postcards for 30cents cheaper outside the church! Burano has cute, cute colourful houses. Wander around.
11. It will all be OK. Just budget for 20EUR a day more than you usually would. Then double it!
Please keep in mind that this is all written under a blanket of 30° heat... lovely so long as you don't have to come home to a cabin which is HUMID and probably 40°!!! We've had a great day, and hoping that dinner in camp restaurant is as good as last night! Hope you are all well, and will post pics soon - perhaps tomorrow!
27 May 2005
THE BUS WAS FULL
so, tuscany... we remember those days with joy and fondness... on wednesday we wandered down to the market with tina, and picked up some tomatoes, cheese, bread and cute italians (ok, the last one maybe not...) for a wonderful FEASTY LUNCH. it was feasty. we had bread, 3 cheeses, tomatoes and fresh herbs for starters, followed by chickpea salad (ah, how we have missed it!) and our wine from Luca, then pasta with delicious saucy sauce and more of the wine... mmm.
that day a couple of americans arrived, and - Will, Charlotte, Stephanie, other Barcelona guys - we think they are in training for the Alejandro look-alike competition... seriously. one of them kept playing pink floyd (not particularly well) on the guitar, and i think it was just an excuse to sit around topless and check out his own muscles. they also called emma (from the hostel, she is all of 27) "ma'am"... hilarious!
also with us were a few brits, and we managed to drag pretty much the entire hostel down to the bar to watch the UEFA champions league final... which was HILARIOUS. there were goals, there were miraculous comebacks, there was a WEIRD GOALIE who did some sort of circus trick during the penalties... really, the only thing that could improve it would be MORE DEFENSIVE WALLS. there were not nearly enough... and on the way home we saw more fireflies.
and then yesterday we came to venice. we really havenàt seen much of it because weàre staying in a camping ground outside of it... and our shuttle bus just left without us, because it was full. we have to wait an hour for the next one. i am very pissed off. also crap about this place: the toilet exploded when dan flushed it; the cabin is REALLY hot (but it has aircon, so it's OK); it is RIGHT NEXT TO THE AIRPORT (i feel like iàm in The Castle!); basically it's crap. Dan thinks i'm being melodramatic. GOOD things include... a pool (and a very nice pool at that); and these weird alien-head structures that we THINK people sleep in (???); the weather is still BEAUTIFUL! so, it's all TOTALLY CRAP. can you tell?
anyway, thanks for leaving messages etc. can't wait to see you all. especially if you're offering us a bathroom that works... ah, remember those days of australian showers that weren't temperamental, and australian toilets that didn't explode??? hopefully venice itself will be nice. when and if we get there. the 50 metres of it we saw yesterday were pretty.
that day a couple of americans arrived, and - Will, Charlotte, Stephanie, other Barcelona guys - we think they are in training for the Alejandro look-alike competition... seriously. one of them kept playing pink floyd (not particularly well) on the guitar, and i think it was just an excuse to sit around topless and check out his own muscles. they also called emma (from the hostel, she is all of 27) "ma'am"... hilarious!
also with us were a few brits, and we managed to drag pretty much the entire hostel down to the bar to watch the UEFA champions league final... which was HILARIOUS. there were goals, there were miraculous comebacks, there was a WEIRD GOALIE who did some sort of circus trick during the penalties... really, the only thing that could improve it would be MORE DEFENSIVE WALLS. there were not nearly enough... and on the way home we saw more fireflies.
and then yesterday we came to venice. we really havenàt seen much of it because weàre staying in a camping ground outside of it... and our shuttle bus just left without us, because it was full. we have to wait an hour for the next one. i am very pissed off. also crap about this place: the toilet exploded when dan flushed it; the cabin is REALLY hot (but it has aircon, so it's OK); it is RIGHT NEXT TO THE AIRPORT (i feel like iàm in The Castle!); basically it's crap. Dan thinks i'm being melodramatic. GOOD things include... a pool (and a very nice pool at that); and these weird alien-head structures that we THINK people sleep in (???); the weather is still BEAUTIFUL! so, it's all TOTALLY CRAP. can you tell?
anyway, thanks for leaving messages etc. can't wait to see you all. especially if you're offering us a bathroom that works... ah, remember those days of australian showers that weren't temperamental, and australian toilets that didn't explode??? hopefully venice itself will be nice. when and if we get there. the 50 metres of it we saw yesterday were pretty.
25 May 2005
FIREFLIES!
WE SAW FIREFLIES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! SQUEE!
that's about it! also went to firenze... nice. climbed tower. ate at trattoria mario, recommended by julia and erin... AND US! went home, had swim, went out for lovely dinner with tina from canada and richard from scotland. THEN SAW FIREFLIES! soooooo exciting and so BRIGHT! and flashy!
today to market then to nice homemade lunch with nice wine from nice winery and nice swim and nice siesta and nice going to irish pub to watch the liverpool-milan European Champions League Final! yay! nice futbol!
soo you all, and thanks for the amusing messages. cellulite cream sounds delicious, i want cleo to send some to me!
that's about it! also went to firenze... nice. climbed tower. ate at trattoria mario, recommended by julia and erin... AND US! went home, had swim, went out for lovely dinner with tina from canada and richard from scotland. THEN SAW FIREFLIES! soooooo exciting and so BRIGHT! and flashy!
today to market then to nice homemade lunch with nice wine from nice winery and nice swim and nice siesta and nice going to irish pub to watch the liverpool-milan European Champions League Final! yay! nice futbol!
soo you all, and thanks for the amusing messages. cellulite cream sounds delicious, i want cleo to send some to me!
24 May 2005
TUSCAN HEAVEN!
hey guys! sorry it's been a while, and apologies for typos... funny old italian keyboards!
so, where to start?... on our last morning in rome, expecting to get more of the same at the train station, we headed out with heavy hearts. on arriving att he station, we FOUND OUR TRAIN STRAIGHT AWAY, and we GOT OFF AT THE RIGHT STOP, and FOUND OUR CONNECTING TRAIN, and besically everything went suspiciously smoothly... which has set the tone for the last few days. the train ride got progressively slower and more beautiful, the day got progressively sunnier... the smiles on our faces got progressively wider... it was all very progressive, really.
on arrival in certaldo we set off on the 25 minute hike to the hostel. it was sunny but not TOO hot, and when we found the place (without much hassle)... WOW! guys, this is pretty much everything you could possibly want. it is an old monastary set on the side of the hill, surrounded by olive trees, vinyards... the hostel is charmingly ramshackle, with HUGE common areas, and single beds - YEP! NO BUNKS!!! - there are hammocks, benches, a pool... GAH! i know some of you were already jealous, but if the rest of you arenàt jealous of us now, then NOTHING will ever move you!
that afternoon we found a bar (a cross between a cafe, a bar and a dodgy truck stop) that had sky, and watched the cup final... those of you who care already know all about it, those of you who donàt care... arsenal won 5-4 on penalties... anyway, the point is we made the effort. that night the bar attached to the property had a band playing - very cool. it was sort of bizarre sitting in the heart (or belly button... yep, belly button is definately better!) of tuscany, listening to a fusion of jaz, irish and italian folk, pop-ish stuff... anyway it was good.
on sunday, we were LAZY. read, wrote, swung on hammocks, had siesta, went for swim... and in the evening the guys put on a HUGE BBQ, with vino a-plenty, salads, etc... guitar, etc. dan and i played a couple of NMTOD songs (Winston and Farmer's Lament) which went down surprisingly well! went on til late-ish, fell into bed, slept well!
yesterday dan and i went up to the old town, certaldo alto, and spent a few hours wandering around in the old castle - great historical notes, gloomy dungeons, cool contemporary art exhibition (sex, death and horses... from what we could make out), BEAUTIFUL views from the wall and tower... great. recommended, coz itàs not too touristy, and very quiet and lazy feeling... in the afternoon we went on a haphazard tour with brad from the hostel. included san gimignano, another old city, with more towers and therefore more tourists, and excellent gelati (esp the saffron flavour!)... then to a vinyard, where we were given a spontaneous tour of the vinyard and winemaking process by luca (luka? luka bloom? no, unfortunately not...), and a nice little tasting. dan and i have an expensive bottle of red (ginovese, shiraz and merlot, aged for a year in french oak... mmm) which we will drink soon!!!
today, off to firenze (florence) for a day trip... i know we should spend longer, but, hey... anyway we hope youàre all well. we are writing this off line to save on internet costs... but will update in another few days! take care, and love and hugs...!!!
so, where to start?... on our last morning in rome, expecting to get more of the same at the train station, we headed out with heavy hearts. on arriving att he station, we FOUND OUR TRAIN STRAIGHT AWAY, and we GOT OFF AT THE RIGHT STOP, and FOUND OUR CONNECTING TRAIN, and besically everything went suspiciously smoothly... which has set the tone for the last few days. the train ride got progressively slower and more beautiful, the day got progressively sunnier... the smiles on our faces got progressively wider... it was all very progressive, really.
on arrival in certaldo we set off on the 25 minute hike to the hostel. it was sunny but not TOO hot, and when we found the place (without much hassle)... WOW! guys, this is pretty much everything you could possibly want. it is an old monastary set on the side of the hill, surrounded by olive trees, vinyards... the hostel is charmingly ramshackle, with HUGE common areas, and single beds - YEP! NO BUNKS!!! - there are hammocks, benches, a pool... GAH! i know some of you were already jealous, but if the rest of you arenàt jealous of us now, then NOTHING will ever move you!
that afternoon we found a bar (a cross between a cafe, a bar and a dodgy truck stop) that had sky, and watched the cup final... those of you who care already know all about it, those of you who donàt care... arsenal won 5-4 on penalties... anyway, the point is we made the effort. that night the bar attached to the property had a band playing - very cool. it was sort of bizarre sitting in the heart (or belly button... yep, belly button is definately better!) of tuscany, listening to a fusion of jaz, irish and italian folk, pop-ish stuff... anyway it was good.
on sunday, we were LAZY. read, wrote, swung on hammocks, had siesta, went for swim... and in the evening the guys put on a HUGE BBQ, with vino a-plenty, salads, etc... guitar, etc. dan and i played a couple of NMTOD songs (Winston and Farmer's Lament) which went down surprisingly well! went on til late-ish, fell into bed, slept well!
yesterday dan and i went up to the old town, certaldo alto, and spent a few hours wandering around in the old castle - great historical notes, gloomy dungeons, cool contemporary art exhibition (sex, death and horses... from what we could make out), BEAUTIFUL views from the wall and tower... great. recommended, coz itàs not too touristy, and very quiet and lazy feeling... in the afternoon we went on a haphazard tour with brad from the hostel. included san gimignano, another old city, with more towers and therefore more tourists, and excellent gelati (esp the saffron flavour!)... then to a vinyard, where we were given a spontaneous tour of the vinyard and winemaking process by luca (luka? luka bloom? no, unfortunately not...), and a nice little tasting. dan and i have an expensive bottle of red (ginovese, shiraz and merlot, aged for a year in french oak... mmm) which we will drink soon!!!
today, off to firenze (florence) for a day trip... i know we should spend longer, but, hey... anyway we hope youàre all well. we are writing this off line to save on internet costs... but will update in another few days! take care, and love and hugs...!!!
20 May 2005
HOW TO LOSE YOUR MIND IN 10 MINUTES... OR TWO HOURS
1. Go to Roma Termini train station.
2. Go to the ticket desk, and greet Sullen Ticket Woman (STW).
3. Ask for 2 tickets to Certaldo on Saturday.
4. Receive glare. And one ticket.
5. Ask for the other ticket.
6. Be slightly bemused when STW says No. Uno. and assure her that you'd like a second ticket.
7. Receive uberglare and second ticket.
8. Ask what time the train leaves, and what time the connecting trains leave, because you KNOW that you have to change trains.
9. Become a little frustrated when STW spits No. It's fine. You go.
10. Eventually give up with STW, and having not the faintest idea of when and where your train leaves, head to the information office.
11. Take number and wait your turn (73). Like many other information offices, this one has 7 desks. There are 2 people working. They are up to number 51. As you stand around, one of the assistants leaves... for the day? ... you don't know.
12. Wait. The people who have number 64 spend about 30 minutes with the customer service officer.
13. Decide to ask the quick information point outside, to see if they can help. Get annoyed when she says that (A) you have to pay an extra charge at the ticket desk occupied by STW and that (B) your train doesn't exist, despite you having a ticket for it.
14. Opt to wait around for the information office to get around to your number. Wait. And wait. Eventually the man comes back from his break.
15. Talk to aforementioned man. Discover that he is A SAINT!!! He shows you all of your options on the ticket you have, and says that you can upgrade for 5EUR if you want to go on a faster train. He sets everything up for you, prints out a schedule, tells you some nice places to visit.
16. Leap across the desk and give him a bear hug and a huge kiss and promise to marry him and his 17 sons if he wants.
17. Go and drink a... ... ... BEER! I DRANK A BEER (that wasn't Guinness)... this is what I was driven to!
YES, FOLKS, WE HAVE FACED THE ITALIAN RAIL BEUROCRACY AND HAVE LIVED TO TELL THE TALE!!! After this, I swear, everything else will be a piece of piss.
Other than that, Rome has been good to us. We have been very touristy, and will just give you a brief rundown.
19TH. Walked to Roman Forum and wandered through the ruins. Really surreal to think how long they've been standing there, and that a few hundred years ago people were herding their sheep between the pillars... Then to Bocca della Verita, the Mouth of Truth. I stuck my hand in the mouth and told Dan I loved him and it BIT MY HAND OFF!!! No, not really. Anyway, it's cool, but not as cool as the original in the cafe on Lygon St... Then walked up to the Pantheon, where we got gelati (recommended by Lonely Planet AND US!) and ate it while sitting at the base of the pillars and watching the sunny world go by. Went in, looked around, saw the hole in the roof, saw a million signs that told us there were 22 holes in the floor for the rain to drain away... Back to hostel via the Spanish Steps (OK to sit on, but really nothing spectacular. We would probably sit here if we were studly locals and wanted to crack onto tourists) and Trevi Fountain (which looked even tackier in daylight... we saw it the night before as well). Then The Incident as described above. We went out for dinner with some Americans to a great place around the corner. It's called Africa, and the cuisine is... African... (recommended by Let's Go AND US!)
20TH. Up bright and early, ready to train it to the Vatican, only to discover that the public transport system was on strike. Well, the workers were, anyway, and buses don't just drive themselves... So we walked. It was nice. After looking in St Peter's (squishing up against the glass to gawk at the Pieta), we headed straight to the Vatican Museums and the Sistine Chapel. Argh, the people! So many! And the Art! So much of it! And the GOLD... the catholic church is really lacking in BLING, we think. Please donate heftily to rectify this situation. WOW. The Last Judgement is amazing! It's so much bigger than I expected, even though the chapel itself feels much smaller than I thought it would. God and Adam are a long way away. Also got to see, in the Creation of the Sun picture, the very firm buttocks of the figure not usually shown in the art books (check them out, on the left of the sun, while God is on the right). Hilarious. Like Swiss Guards! They look like clowns! ... for all you Yugioh fans, they look like Arcana (the one with the other Dark Magicians)...
And tomorrow, we are heading to Certaldo... WE HOPE! We also hope we'll be there in time for kick off (we should be...) (but who knows...) (this set of brackets has no use at all). For those of you who are obsessed with a certain film (Mike), no, we haven't seen it, and probably won't til we're back in England. For those of you obsessed with Gelati, get yourselves over here. It's like Lygon Street, only there's a whole city of it!!!
Please write comments, or we won't post any more!
2. Go to the ticket desk, and greet Sullen Ticket Woman (STW).
3. Ask for 2 tickets to Certaldo on Saturday.
4. Receive glare. And one ticket.
5. Ask for the other ticket.
6. Be slightly bemused when STW says No. Uno. and assure her that you'd like a second ticket.
7. Receive uberglare and second ticket.
8. Ask what time the train leaves, and what time the connecting trains leave, because you KNOW that you have to change trains.
9. Become a little frustrated when STW spits No. It's fine. You go.
10. Eventually give up with STW, and having not the faintest idea of when and where your train leaves, head to the information office.
11. Take number and wait your turn (73). Like many other information offices, this one has 7 desks. There are 2 people working. They are up to number 51. As you stand around, one of the assistants leaves... for the day? ... you don't know.
12. Wait. The people who have number 64 spend about 30 minutes with the customer service officer.
13. Decide to ask the quick information point outside, to see if they can help. Get annoyed when she says that (A) you have to pay an extra charge at the ticket desk occupied by STW and that (B) your train doesn't exist, despite you having a ticket for it.
14. Opt to wait around for the information office to get around to your number. Wait. And wait. Eventually the man comes back from his break.
15. Talk to aforementioned man. Discover that he is A SAINT!!! He shows you all of your options on the ticket you have, and says that you can upgrade for 5EUR if you want to go on a faster train. He sets everything up for you, prints out a schedule, tells you some nice places to visit.
16. Leap across the desk and give him a bear hug and a huge kiss and promise to marry him and his 17 sons if he wants.
17. Go and drink a... ... ... BEER! I DRANK A BEER (that wasn't Guinness)... this is what I was driven to!
YES, FOLKS, WE HAVE FACED THE ITALIAN RAIL BEUROCRACY AND HAVE LIVED TO TELL THE TALE!!! After this, I swear, everything else will be a piece of piss.
Other than that, Rome has been good to us. We have been very touristy, and will just give you a brief rundown.
19TH. Walked to Roman Forum and wandered through the ruins. Really surreal to think how long they've been standing there, and that a few hundred years ago people were herding their sheep between the pillars... Then to Bocca della Verita, the Mouth of Truth. I stuck my hand in the mouth and told Dan I loved him and it BIT MY HAND OFF!!! No, not really. Anyway, it's cool, but not as cool as the original in the cafe on Lygon St... Then walked up to the Pantheon, where we got gelati (recommended by Lonely Planet AND US!) and ate it while sitting at the base of the pillars and watching the sunny world go by. Went in, looked around, saw the hole in the roof, saw a million signs that told us there were 22 holes in the floor for the rain to drain away... Back to hostel via the Spanish Steps (OK to sit on, but really nothing spectacular. We would probably sit here if we were studly locals and wanted to crack onto tourists) and Trevi Fountain (which looked even tackier in daylight... we saw it the night before as well). Then The Incident as described above. We went out for dinner with some Americans to a great place around the corner. It's called Africa, and the cuisine is... African... (recommended by Let's Go AND US!)
20TH. Up bright and early, ready to train it to the Vatican, only to discover that the public transport system was on strike. Well, the workers were, anyway, and buses don't just drive themselves... So we walked. It was nice. After looking in St Peter's (squishing up against the glass to gawk at the Pieta), we headed straight to the Vatican Museums and the Sistine Chapel. Argh, the people! So many! And the Art! So much of it! And the GOLD... the catholic church is really lacking in BLING, we think. Please donate heftily to rectify this situation. WOW. The Last Judgement is amazing! It's so much bigger than I expected, even though the chapel itself feels much smaller than I thought it would. God and Adam are a long way away. Also got to see, in the Creation of the Sun picture, the very firm buttocks of the figure not usually shown in the art books (check them out, on the left of the sun, while God is on the right). Hilarious. Like Swiss Guards! They look like clowns! ... for all you Yugioh fans, they look like Arcana (the one with the other Dark Magicians)...
And tomorrow, we are heading to Certaldo... WE HOPE! We also hope we'll be there in time for kick off (we should be...) (but who knows...) (this set of brackets has no use at all). For those of you who are obsessed with a certain film (Mike), no, we haven't seen it, and probably won't til we're back in England. For those of you obsessed with Gelati, get yourselves over here. It's like Lygon Street, only there's a whole city of it!!!
Please write comments, or we won't post any more!
18 May 2005
AEROPUERTO TO AEROPORTI
just a quickie... and ciao from roma!
our last day in valencia was spent in galleries (good modern art collections, recently restored medieval and renaissance art... still no women artists...), kicking the stone in the park, eating paella and the valencian version, fideua (?), made with noodles instead of rice.
today we had a very pleasant trip to roma, with HELPFUL and NICE ryanair staff, unlike the last flight. about half an hour from rome, however, the pilot/captain gave us a message that our airport was closed, so we were being diverted to leonardo da vinci airport... this was fine with us, because LdV is the main airport, and itś very easy to get to rome from there. so, we landed... and waited... and then we were told that the other airport was about to reopen, so they were going to fly us back over there. there was a lot of cursing going on, and i thought we were about to be caught int he midst of an impromptu italian riot, but then the flight attendants told us that we were actually going to disembark at LdV... so we waited... and then came a very reassuring announcement... THIS IS YOUR CAPTAIN SPAKING TO YOU FROM THE FLIGHT DECK. DO NOT PANIC. YOU WILL BE DISEMBARKING SHORTLY. WE ARE WAITING FOR THE BUS. FORGET ABOUT THE POLICE.
umm, yep. do not panic and forget about the police??? not really what you want to hear after your plane has been diverted because an airport has been closed for some undisclosed reason... but we got out ok, and eventually collected our luggage, and made it to rome in one piece.
the hostel (yellow hostel) is nice so far - people are friendly, the internet is FREE, beds and rooms are ok, kitchen is clean, and OH. MY. GOD. there is a pizza place on the corner that sells pizza by weight (and i KNOW michelle told us all about this, as did julia and erin, but it is still SO COOL) and the pizza is SO GOOD! we have already eaten there twice. within the space of... i would say... 4 or 5 hours...? we are going to be SO FAT by the end of our stay. thanks so much michelle and charlie for recommending this place!
OK, enough ranting. except to say i am disgustingly excited about the FA cup on saturday... we are going to time our train trip so we will be at our hostel in time to watch it. i have officially been in europe too long, and have been converted... eliot, i hope youŕe pleased with yourself!
hope you are all well, guys!
our last day in valencia was spent in galleries (good modern art collections, recently restored medieval and renaissance art... still no women artists...), kicking the stone in the park, eating paella and the valencian version, fideua (?), made with noodles instead of rice.
today we had a very pleasant trip to roma, with HELPFUL and NICE ryanair staff, unlike the last flight. about half an hour from rome, however, the pilot/captain gave us a message that our airport was closed, so we were being diverted to leonardo da vinci airport... this was fine with us, because LdV is the main airport, and itś very easy to get to rome from there. so, we landed... and waited... and then we were told that the other airport was about to reopen, so they were going to fly us back over there. there was a lot of cursing going on, and i thought we were about to be caught int he midst of an impromptu italian riot, but then the flight attendants told us that we were actually going to disembark at LdV... so we waited... and then came a very reassuring announcement... THIS IS YOUR CAPTAIN SPAKING TO YOU FROM THE FLIGHT DECK. DO NOT PANIC. YOU WILL BE DISEMBARKING SHORTLY. WE ARE WAITING FOR THE BUS. FORGET ABOUT THE POLICE.
umm, yep. do not panic and forget about the police??? not really what you want to hear after your plane has been diverted because an airport has been closed for some undisclosed reason... but we got out ok, and eventually collected our luggage, and made it to rome in one piece.
the hostel (yellow hostel) is nice so far - people are friendly, the internet is FREE, beds and rooms are ok, kitchen is clean, and OH. MY. GOD. there is a pizza place on the corner that sells pizza by weight (and i KNOW michelle told us all about this, as did julia and erin, but it is still SO COOL) and the pizza is SO GOOD! we have already eaten there twice. within the space of... i would say... 4 or 5 hours...? we are going to be SO FAT by the end of our stay. thanks so much michelle and charlie for recommending this place!
OK, enough ranting. except to say i am disgustingly excited about the FA cup on saturday... we are going to time our train trip so we will be at our hostel in time to watch it. i have officially been in europe too long, and have been converted... eliot, i hope youŕe pleased with yourself!
hope you are all well, guys!
17 May 2005
LOOK, IT´S A GIANT YABBIE!
we thought that, given circumstances, some of you might not be able to view our photo album... so we have brought the giant yabbie to you! look at it! it´s all smiley and nipper-y!
yesterday we went to valencia´s catedral... and saw not only the HOLY GRAIL, but also the WITHERED ARM of some saint or another (ST VINNIE, dan assures me). the grail was in a room of incense, and the arm was in a little glass case... it looked suspiciously like jamon... hm.
we kicked a stone down the park for a couple of hours yesterday (i am going to be signed by barcelona... i am such a futbol star) and played on THE SECOND BEST PLAY EQUIPMENT IN THE WORLD after madrid. it was a giant gulliver, and you can climb all over him and slide down him and laugh because there is a door where his bum should be... hours of amusement!
speak to you all soon (when we´re in ITALY!)
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