Euro Trip 2005

My Hair is Currently being Sraightened by Katy but I am not a Gay

2005-07-25T21:43:00.000-07:00

home again, though i'd rather not be. stupid england. it's all cold and rainy. however i have the wonderful grand theft auto: san andreas to distract me until six in the morning every day and as of just now, a beautiful and, as jason would put it, ghetto surround sound system in my room. taking up much of the space in my room. it's quite beautiful. i nicked my brother's big wharfdale speakers. he's in europe now, travelling around on a chopper pushbike until october sometime. or until he runs out of money.

i still wish to be back in aegina.

Alone in Berlin again

2005-07-24T19:55:00.000-07:00

Hmm, yes, Kip and Katy are back home now, and Paul and Anna should be in Greece. Joe was meant to be in Salzburg by now but since he overslept and missed his 5.30am train, who knows...?

So yesterday Joe left, despite not knowing how he was going to get to Austria, and I had a full day to avoid spending money. I therefore avoided public transport and walked an estimated total of 15km on minimal food. Took many photos over a 10 hour period.

Today I have done little apart from buying more cheap food and looking round an antique market/jumble sale outside Ostbahnhof (the eastern main train station). Looking forward to being home, (meh?!), with food cooked by my mummy :-)

We're All Still Alive

2005-07-21T11:47:00.000-07:00

sigur ros last night was the best gig i've ever been to, twas all very very wonderful. jo, paul and anna left halfway through cos they didn't enjoy it, but katy, george and me dearly loved it. i'm a very happy boy cos i got one of the handmade t-shirts, made by the guitarist/singer's boyfriend and the drummer's girlfriend. drummer's daughter was there as well. wish i'd got them both to sign the bag the t-shirt came in now but nevermind.
have been lazing around berlin for ages now. it's all quite wonderful. paul and anna have just left to go to aegina *jealousy* and katy and i leave for home tomorrow.

Kip is also Alone in Berlin Now

2005-07-14T22:54:00.000-07:00

yes indeed, i missed me connection and arrived late. and also at a different station. i got meself a night at a hostel and /then/ checked me email. dearie me. plus jo is arriving late this evening/early hours of tomorrow morning to an unknown station. i#m just trying to figure out how to get in contact with him.

George be alone in Berlin now...hmm.

2005-07-14T22:09:00.000-07:00

Arrived in Berlin at 6.00 this morning. Spent an hour and a half walking to the area around Tiergarten to have a sitty-down and continue reading Frank's copy of The Da Vinci Code (started it last night on the train, now i'm a quarter of the way through). Ooh yes the train. Which I took from Malmö in Sweden. It went on a ferry across the sea - ooooh.

Yes, and so after reading, and eating the odd bit of food, etc, walked back to Ostbahnhof (Bahnhof means station) to wait for Kip to arrive - he said about 6.30pm. And he didn't appear. I did realise earlier today that he might not be arriving at the same station, so i emailed him to tell him i'd be at this one, but it's really late now, so I'm guessing he's managed to miss one of his trains...

Meh. Hope you're all right, Kip.

Airports and underground...

2005-07-13T18:57:00.000-07:00

Back in Ross on Wye... much rather be still in Europe but i slept rather well last night for the first time in ages, and being the Koala bear i am i rather enjoyed it! So yeah, the journey home was somewhat dull - spent just over an hour sat on the floor in the departure lounge staring at the board and willing my flight to exert itself and come up with a gate number (for the most part achieving nothing more that a headache and slightly blurred vision). Arrived back in lovely England about 10:30 pm and was picked up and taked home by my mummy... Eventually got home just after 2am (it hurt) and went straight to bed being quite tired.
Was woken up at about 10 this morning by my sister coming to jump on me and proceeded to distribute presents then much to everyones surprise (not least my own) found a job - i have a trial shift on Saturday, go me!
Thats about all for now
Lybbl
xxx

George be all on his own...

2005-07-12T19:05:00.000-07:00

Today was byebye Lybbl day. We didn't do much. Intended to hide from the sun and see The War of the Worlds, but Danish cinemas are stupidly expensive. So we spent most of the day wandering around and sitting in parks in the shade - Lybbl no like the heat. We went to the City Hall and looked round. It is very pretty, 100 years old this year. They had a small art exhibition to celebrate the bicentennary of Hans Christian Andersen, which mostly consisted of depictions of the little mermaid.

Finally said bye Lybbl at the station, saw her off on her train to the airport. It felt very weird. First there were seven, then there were four, then three, then two, and now one, just me. I'm so lonely...

Don't worry. George will probably enjoy being on his own. He'll just talk to himself more...

PS. Paul please check your email! Kip was meant to tell you, but seems he's been having many adventures...

Kip´s Adverntures

2005-07-12T15:02:00.000-07:00

last night was ace. i left paul and anna to their own devices about half eleven and went walkies. after strolling down the waterfront i came across a group of blokes with guitars. i sat nearby to listen and then some evil people stole my idea and sat with them. but then they came and talked to me and they were lovely. two englishes lasses and four polish blokes, one of whom seemed to have adhd and one who´s name was magic and was over seven feet tall. he was very ace, the only one of the polish lot who spoke proper english. afer a while we went to the beach and went paddling and one of the poles went swimming. was only slightly worried that he was going to drown as he was quite pissed, but he´s quite fit and according to magic was the junior karate champion of poland about five years ago. the girls got their bag stolen from the beach with their shoes and phones and money in and i spoke to spanish police officers. one of them finished my nick drake/jeff buckley/elliot smith/conor oberst t-shirt that anna started earlier. ended up getting back at five in the morning. anna thought i was dead.`paul hoped i was dead, in an interesting way. twas a wonderful evening.
the best part was finding welsh grafitti by people from tal-y-sarn.

I Love Gaudi

2005-07-11T21:01:00.000-07:00

i really liked gaudi before but seeing his temple made me, for me, the best person in the world ever. i especially liked the secen at one of the entrances depicting one of herod´s guards about to impale an infant with his sword, and with two dead babies at his feet.
going to gaudi park tomorrow.

we´re no longer going to morocco though, don´t really have time and we might not be able to get back into europe since we´ve not had the proper injections. mum said.not sure what we´re going to do instead. i´d love to go to swizterland but it´s very expensive and i´ve spent too much money as it is. the pace we´re staying is thirty euros a night as well. not good, not good.

i can never remember the interesting things i always mean to write on here.

oh, we think that the pervy paul-fancying man in nice stole anna´s underwear.

A Post on Behalf of My Blood Jo

2005-07-11T20:35:00.000-07:00

Well here we are in the gold tulip hotel in Rotterdam. Fears of Hayles plane being blow out of the sky by angry militants were proved wrong by Hayles **only** arriving 2 hours late. Thus here we are using the free internet, swimming in the free pool and relaxing in the free **if hot** sauna all is delightful and it's nice to be able to do things that wern't possible before seeing as Hayles actually has money!! Woot!! I had my first bath for some weeks yesterday and ye gods was it good. Heres what has gone down leading upto the point of me being here. I was supposed to go from Rotterdam to Barcelona with Kyp, Baxter and Anna, after two nights there they would go on to Marocco and I would fake my way back to Schipol airport to meet Hayles, but as K said we got holed up in paris and then there was precious little point in going to Barcelona for one night, don't get me wrong trains are fun, but not that fun. We parted company in poo smelling Paris and I went on to Saint Quentin. Very very filthy expensive, 34e for a nasty room no breakfast and grief from a french hotelier when i checked out 10 mins late. I could swear she called me a filthy English pigdog or it could be my paranoia. Who knows?. It rained allday in Saint Quentin I saw many churches and war memorials went for a **wet** walk down the river. At around 2 o clock i got on a train to Antwerp via Lille Flanders, also very beautiful, at the station i tried to ask the Madame at the train infomation desk if there was internet access anywhere... big mistake... first off I didn't start the conversation with parle-vous francais as i saw that the guy in the queue in front of me spoke to her in English and she conversed back in reasonable English. I was scowled at, told that I was in France not England, in the wrong queue and that I was dripping on her leaflets, now i'm a reasonable man and tried to be polite saying that tourist info was closed, her english was better than my french and that I had been in the pissing rain for 5 hours cramped on a crappy french train with screaming french kids and that i was trying to get out of her fucking country anyway. Bureacratic bastards. So i walked away dripping never found the internet drank much coffee practised bad french on many people. Some time later I got on a train to antwerp wandered around found some internet, tried to get so cheapish accom to balance out the previous nights 34e. This was not to be so an hour and a half later got on a train to... wait for it...............Rotterdam, stayed at the SSR-S for the next three nights did lots of museum and, and snuck into the north sea jazz festival in the Hauge and caught.................... the last ten mins of.......................MILES DAVIS.....................WOOT!!!! This takes us upto the present date, Hayles is looking over my shoulder and everything is chipper. Love to you all.

Travellers tip #2
Don't go to France, failing this certainly don't ask train information people tourist infomation questions.

On being at one with the Vikings

2005-07-09T22:55:00.000-07:00

Today we went to Roskilde, which used to be the capital of Denmark, a long long time ago. Among its other interests, is the Viking Ship Museum, the thought of which got Lybbl into a frenzy of excitement. Since this we have also discovered that neither of us really have any money, oops. So it's going to have to be a cheap few days...

Tomorrow, onwards to Sweden. And back again. Without spending any money.

P.S.
Nice to know that Paul's getting more man action than I am.

still in evil france

2005-07-09T11:47:00.000-07:00

currently paul, anna and i are in nice, going to barcelona in about an hour and a half.
we messed up with trains and had to stay a night in paris, which is the most evil place on earth. it stank not only of sewage (nearly every european city does, glasgow does) but also of rotting meat. you can find human faeces in most of the nooks and crannies of the main streets. it's also very expensive and full of french people. i hope i never have to go back.
paul had an interesting experience last night. while anna and i were out, he was invited to dinner by the hostel owner. he of course accepted, being english and disliking embarassment, and thinking this man was being friendly. they enjoyed a nice chinese buffet and they talked of how this man was decended from spanish gypsies. of course, having gypsy blood he could read palms and so read pauls. apparantly paul is going to come into a lot of money soon. apparantly the man could have told him more but he would have to examine paul's inner force. apparantly paul's inner force is his "sex" (gestures to his groin included).
but all was well and paul did not get sodomised. he paid for his half of the meal like every modern woman should and rejoined me and anna, still shaking.

jo is now with hayley in holland, and i must wait another week until i see katy.
goodnight

Home

2005-07-08T18:30:00.000-07:00

Home at last. They opened up Kings Cross this morning and I made it onto the 10:36 to Peterborough after staying in Ashlee House just down the road (£17 a night, pretty good after hearing about all the price hikes that happened yesterday - nothing like a national disaster to make capitalism pull together). ariived home at about 2:00. It's 6:30 now and I still haven't unpacked. Have fun kids.

Almost forgot:
Soft Drink Update

Fanta Orange (everywhere)
Fanta Greenz (Greece)
Fanta Madness (France)
Fanta Grapefruit (Holland)
Fanta Grapes (Holland)
Fanta Weird black liquid which tasted horrible (Italy)

Orangina (everywhere)
Orangina Fire (with blood oranges and pink grapefruit) (France)

Oh, and realised when I got home that I had the big Europe on a Shoestring book. Does George want it sent over?

We be in København.

2005-07-07T21:16:00.000-07:00

a new day, a new country, and all in all, a rather good one i feel. Yeah we like copenhagen - its quite a lot like england (in that it has trees and everyone speaks english)
Thus far, we have done very little other than shower (at last), and take a fun trip to the laundrette, which george got a little too excited about i feel. oooh the clean clothes against my skin - you have no idea of the happiness that this brings me...
oh yeah, i got sunburnt. Oh and myself and the george are considering annorexia as the only way of keeping within budget - damn amsterdam and all its shops.
On the good side though, we made dave go clothes shopping yesterday (pictures to follow) and he so enjoyed it!
Slightly worried about dave having just read his blog and the bbc news website - are we all ok over there in sunny england?
hoping to actually do something tomorrow.

Goodbyes and bad days (down and out in London)

2005-07-07T12:18:00.000-07:00

What a day. I'm not sure what else can go wrong, apart from sleeping rough. True I managed to catch the correct plane and am back in London but, as one look at the news will tell you, London is not the place to be.

After the sadgladmadness of leaving Lybbl and George - parting is not like the movies; sailing away on floods of tears and final forlorn glances - it is awkwardness and emptiness. They didn't walk off into a technicolour sunset, but into the bittergrey monochrome of the station platform. There were no credits, just a convoluted epilogue of waiting, staying awake all night and every couple of hours running with the trolley, madlike through the nearly deserted Schipol Airport.

The rumours first hit on the train to Kings Cross Thameslink: txts of bombs, powerfailures, expolsions and bus bombs. Then announcements that the whole of the underground was shot and, just as we exited the station they sealed up the whole of Kings Cross and my ride home. I wonder around a bit and watch 7 ambulances fly by in a line over a panini. All is weird, unplanned, milling, confused, staring. I have so much more to write, but I also have a place to stay to find, quickly. So I shall be off. To where I do not know.

Damn you. Rotterdam you.

2005-07-05T12:53:00.000-07:00

Yesterday morning was beat, man.
After much confusion and train style madness, the good team of George, Lybbl and myself at last found ourselves in the city of Rotterdam. We arrived at about 10pm Sunday 3rd June and after some confusion over the whereabouts of the Hostel. ('250m from station' is not a useful direction unless you have a map and a compass and a balloon). Missed trains, weird tearing up flowers people at the platform and an unexpected 6 hours in Paris to wonder around and we arrive to find most of the eating establishments in the city closed due to it being Sunday and late. Then, weirdly walked into Paul and Anna, out for an evening constitutional and had a talk and walk and eat and bed.
At a hostel with huge dorms. The rooms are a converted village hall or something. Big airy place full of geeky Americans dressed in the collegiate style that Kip seems to be falling into (Studenthalfbeards, thickrimmed glasses, fophair).
And yesterday was beat. It was raining a lovely rain. Not an English rain, but a light, refreshing rain - a ballet dancer to England's clodhopping morrisers.
Rotterdam is like Amsterdam's bigger brother: older, wiser and not trying so hard to make girls and smoke joints behind the bike sheds of the Dutch statute books. So we wondered and met up with Paul and Anna in an American diner kitted out like the inside of some weird swamp theme park then met the rest of the Rotterdam crew in an equally unexpected way (phone box ambush) and all was together - wondering the streets and finding a lovely cheap chinese restaurant with noodles. And, this morning the crucial three: Me Lybbl and George are in Amsterdam and, by the look of the clouds coming over, today looks beat to. But I can dig that.

This Could Still be Rotterdam, and it is.

2005-07-04T13:30:00.000-07:00

this is our sixth day in rotterdam. i really need to leave.
so the kids and i are going to go to spain (i think). barcelona sounds wonderful, and i'd like to see some gaudi. especially the benches, i've always wanted to see them.
and then we're going to morocco.
oh there was flooding here today. and a flood warning siren. and a big thunderstorm last night. it's still raining.
hopefully dappy and lybbl and george will get here before we leave. have had no word from them though.

City Visit - Paris and London

2005-07-04T08:05:00.000-07:00

Well then folks, I progressed from Nice, quite happily in a couchette train with some people with very smelly feet. Easily excited by the fact they give you earplugs, wetwipes, water and a clean sleeping bag. Also rather stupid New York lawyers for entertainment.

Upon my arrival to Paris at 7.30 I decided to make the most of being in Austerlitz and have a look around. I wander across the road only to stumble across a mammoth, a hog and a dinosaur, before realising that I have wandered semi-awake into the gardens of the natural history museum. Very fascinating place with rather noisy Panda and many Parisiens going for an early morning jog. I sit on a bench and eat the food I bought for dinner last night, an apple and a packet of rather tasty biscuits.

Spent most of the day sat on various benches in the Tuilerie gardens where I amused myself with watching how similar British and German tourists are, and getting chatted up by at least four weird French men (although none of them actually originated in France) and having a weird conspiracy-like conversation with an OAP from Chicago who had a black eye, broken glasses and a hat oddly like Pauls...

Spent my Euros down to the last 8 cents before heading back to sunny england, where those chavs (sorry to use it Dave) who had been to Live8 with the sound moral reasoning that the crime against humanity would be to not see Robbie and Madonna perform on the same stage, were phoning their friends to tell them how great it was.

Also fun was taking the train from the quaint Surrey town of Oxted with all its mock tudor and ye olde blockbusters to London on the same train that went to wimbledon on the day of the Men's final. Three in a row? Thats just greedy.

Nice

2005-07-02T11:40:00.000-07:00

Yes, me George and Lybbl are still in Nice, a place George most accutely described as "the Nottingham of the French Riviera". It seems to give off the same air of 'almost thereness' that seems to hang like a pallid fog over the Midlands town. It's nice but there's not much to do other than sit on the beach and watch people getting so sunburnt that the next morning they end up looking like Anakin Skywalker at the end of Star Wars Episode 3.
So yesterday we went to Monaco, as already mentioned. And it was even more dull than Nice. You would think that with only 1.59 sq km to spare it would have used them wisely rather than littering them with brutalist mediterranean tower blocks, casinos and the odd "alright" cathedral or palace. We didn't spend long there as, unless you have a very large boat or a lot of money to blow on the roulette table, there is precious little point in ever journeying there. But this is our last day in Nice and soon we will be journeying up North to Rotterdam.
I must apologise for some of my previous posts as I feel I have not conveyed what a wonderful town Barcelona is. However, having juiced myself up on a hit of Kerouac, via "On the Road", I think I am about to attempt to explain how superb it is. (If the last sentence made little sense to you I suggest you stop reading Dan Brown and spend some time with some proper literature you uneducated cretins).
Barcelona is the best town we have been to so far. One of the highlights is the still unfinished cathedral of La Sagrada Famille, which is Gaudi's masterpiece. His genius is being able to incorporate natural motifs into the architecture, which makes such a change from the post-post-modern brutalism of architects like Daniel Liebeskind(see London's souless phallic gherkin of an office block). He appears as one of architecture's true eccentrics, being able to think the unthinkable and go where no one has dared go.
It resonates with it's own vibrancy, it is there and there is so much to do. It has a feel that place like Athens lack. Whilst the Greek city has it's all the history of the foundation of one of the greatest Western Civilisations to rest on, there is precious little that is new or happening. It's whole charm rests on the sprawling mass of the city and it's ancient ruins. It is a ghot town haunted by its past.
But Barcelona is truly a city among cities and I would love to go back to it.
Below is the first of a series of travelling advice for first time Europers.

Travelling advice #1:
Do not take white underwear on a trip around Europe unless you enjoy the shudder of disgust and self-loathing that coarses through you every time you have to wash them.

...and then there were three

2005-07-02T11:37:00.000-07:00

Having now lost frank, we are down to only three in our little semi-group. We are also getting a little bored of Nice, so are headed up Rotterdam later on today... still unsure as to whether the others are still there though. Ah well.

Failure

2005-07-01T14:30:00.000-07:00

Its true, I am the first to crack.. no Jo I didn't say I was on it. Much to my surprise my spirit of adventure appears to have gone missing and I'm about to set off on my homeward journey. two weeks earlier than originally planned. And that's a horribly nice thought. Am currently in Nice. still. getting a bit bored of it now. The others have gone to monaco for the day but I decided to stay here in case something went horribly horribly horribly wrong and i missed my paris train.
so tonight i take a train to Paris where I shall spend a day relaxing and buying wine and spending stupid amounts of money for a cup of tea and the privelige of sitting in les jardins tuileries with their wonderful views. After that i take eurostar to london and go visit a friend as i miss the last train hole and my parents are otherwise occupied. then i may hopefully arrive back in sunny lincoln on sunday. woo.

Flying!

2005-06-30T17:24:00.000-07:00

Today, me and frank went flying above the sea attached to many many confusing ropes and quite a big parachute of interesting colours... oh and there was a speedboat involved somewhere as well.
Yeah, it was great

This Could be Rotterdam or Anywhere... Yes, it is in Fact Rotterdam.

2005-06-30T11:27:00.000-07:00

it's lovely, i much prefer it to amsterdam, which is too in-your-face with all its "SEX!! DRUGS!!! MORE SEX!!! XXX LIVE SEX SHOW SUPER SEXY FUN TIME AND DRUGS!!!1111!!!1".
the place we're staying is pretty cool, it's a bit of a dive but it is full of good people and run by good people. although we do have to be out by ten but that's probably a good thing, preventing us from sleeping the day away. it's really nice to have a bed again and not be sleeping on a train or in a train station. and we get free breakfast! yay!
oh, also i have approximately fifty six bites on my arms and hands alone, i have yet to count my face and neck but you can be assured there will be a similar or greater number. arsecandles.

Lybbl! (the funny story of how i missed the train)

2005-06-30T11:15:00.000-07:00

Fear not dear Hayley, i am back in the land of the known whereabouts... well i never really left it, it was just that i was the only one who knew where i was.
Yeah, ive finally made it to Nice ( a day later than planned but thats not important).
Now what actually happened to me is a rather funny story really....
ok so its monday evening and we're all due to leave Prague, me for Nice and everyone else for Poland. Because my train is a bit earlier than theirs, they leave me a few metro stops down from the hostel amidst claims that im going to be alright on my own and that i dont need my hand holding the entire way (oh how wrong joe was). I get off the train at the stop nearest the hotel, get up onto ground level and look around me a little bewildered... it appears that all familiar landmarks have vanished and i have no idea where im going. So i do the obvbious thing and pick a direction at random to walk in... this obviously turns out to be the wrong one but i dont realise this for quite some time. Eventually i get back to the hostel and find my bags but it is now 10 minutes before my suposed train is due to depart. Some rather fast moving ensues and i make it to the train station.... 5 minutes late damnit!
Cue small panic attack and a lot of odd looks from passers-by.
Soon, though, it dawns on me that the guys still had to pikc up their bags from the hostel so i went back there to wait for them, and ended up going to Poland.
However, having consulted the piece of paper with my train times on it, i realise that the train i was catching was actually the next day, so in reality i was running around panicking about a train that didnt even exist!

George is pink and likes fluffy kittens

2005-06-30T11:06:00.000-07:00

we got a bit sunburnt.... ouch.

Down a Lybbl

2005-06-28T20:35:00.000-07:00

Another long train day... much trains. many trains. much confusion and early mornings and now brainfreeze. however have now visited Montpellier where I walked down the road from the train station to find a cheaper drink. that is all.
further to Hayleys request of info regarding Lybbl...
we have lost her, or rather she has lost herself. we were supposed to be meeting her at the train station in Nice this eve, mais malhereusement she's in Berlin....?meh.
anyhow, Nice is still very 'south-of-Francey' and I want pizza so aurevoir mes amis.

Train Psychosis II - Cabin Fever

2005-06-28T11:34:00.000-07:00

Train Psychosis II - Cabin Fever

2005-06-28T08:35:00.000-07:00

Woke up at 6 in the morning and bezzed it out of Barcelona with three litres of Sangria. Finally arrived at about 7:45pm after spending the whole day locked in different carriages and having to endure babies crying etc. However, that was about it, lots of sleeping, nothing much happening.
If there is one thing I have learned from all this travelling, it's that an ability to sleep any time any where is a wonderful gift and one that should be cherished.

polanski

2005-06-28T03:55:00.000-07:00

currently in wraclow, poland, after getting a train from prague cos we wanted to do more countries. it's 03:51 and we have nowhere to stay, so we are going to be awake all night, or possibly try and sleep in the train station. my first impessions of poland were quie nice, the first thing anybody here said to me was 'eff off', repeatedly, and a bit more explicit.
it's quite a nice place though, i think me and jo will stay here another night or two, hopefully in somewhere with beds and maybe even a shower.
paul's going to get an overnight train to 'dam tomorrow evening because he's having withdrawl symptoms.
the vodka is very good.

Sandwich Amnesia

2005-06-27T15:21:00.000-07:00

Have moved into a lovely youth Hostel near the outskirts of Barcelona and yesterday went on a Goudi binge taking in his park, a museum and his fantastic, semi-constructed Church of Sagrada la Famille which is probably the weirdest building in the world. Forgot the sandwiches today so they´re all in the frisge back at the hostel while we check out the very disappointing Miro park and some other stuff as yet undecided. Heading back to Nice tomorrow morning so expect "Train Psychosis II - Cabin Fever" coming very soon.

Barcelona - The 4-11

2005-06-25T16:22:00.000-07:00

Frank, George and myself are currently in the wonderful city of Barcelona, taking in the sites and staying in what George perceptively described as "a holiday resort full of Daily Mail readers". Yes, for two nights we find ourselves staying in a campsite full of all the white, bougeois fun we can handle and staying in quite a nice Handy-Andyesque MDF hut which is actually better than it sounds. Had a lovely salad-dinner last night after me and George happened to miss the last 35min bus ride back to the campsite after going off course in Barcelona. However all is well now and today we plan to go up the Columbus tower and other touristy such stuff. Yeah! Also found a road with 2 "Pitta Inn´s" - lunch here we come.
There is a lovely street called Las Ramblas which is huge and cuts through the centre of Barcelona where mime is still alive and well and standing very still in too much face paint and baking heat is still fashionable. There was even a strong man who did very little.

Prague

2005-06-25T01:14:00.000-07:00

kyp, libby, joe and i are in prague and are having a wonderful time of it having found a place that sells beer by the pint for 40p so all is good, the buildings are wonderful and i really need to charge up my camera so i can posta few but for now as i have only just sorted out the booking confusions i'm off for a lie down.

Train Psychosis

2005-06-23T11:32:00.000-07:00

we did a runner from italy because we couldnt afford it and are currently in nice, france. the journey from nipples has left several of us with train sickness, caused by deterioration of the brain due to being on a train for nineteen hours.
symptoms include delirium, psychosis, agoraphobia, and motion sickness (once you're off the train).
to put it simply, we've gone completely insane.
this french keyboard is also insane.

tonight jo, lybbl and i go off to prague and paul goes to munich, leaving george, dappy and frank to do the whole fench thing since they can actually stand french people. nice is alright but it's stupidly humid here.

i dropped my glasses from a fourth-story balcony yesterday. that was fun. they survived, which was cool.

My Face is Hairy

2005-06-20T15:52:00.000-07:00

hey kids
now in napoli, italia. train ride of five hours to the coast of greece followed by a ferry ride of about fifteen hours (but it was enjoyable. dappy played guitar for a few hours until about one in the morning. prevented many people from sleeping during that time, especially since i had a tambourine in my hand.) then the next day we took a six hour train ride to here.
things are more expensive in italy and i don't like it. accomadation is about twice as much. stupid western europe.

paul and i are engaged in a non-shaving competition. last one to shave wins ten euros. i think he's beginning to crack. it's been over a week now. i'm enjoying it thoroughly. i don't think i'll shave til i get home. probably then katy will chloroform me and remove my beardy wonderness.

Yay for cheap yummy food!

2005-06-17T22:10:00.000-07:00

As Kyp has said, we are back in Athens, after a tiring day of ferry and plodding around with heavy backpacks in the Greek mid-afternoon sun...

Everyone was zonked out by the time we found the hostel. Lybbl just passed out completely, so we left her to her sleepy time and headed across the street to this internet cafe. Much attempting of planning the Amsterdam period of our trip ensued, and there are still many question marks, and money worries.

After internetting, me, joe, frank, kyp, and dappy went in search of food, and found a wonderful place called 'The Corner of The Taste', teehee. We all had pitta thingys with chicken kebab meaty stuff and chips and salad stuff all crammed inside. And then an extra plate of chips. 'Twas very cheap too - with drinks it came to just over three euros each. Sometimes yummy food makes everything better. Tomorrow we go onwards to Italy, hopefully without any unexpected hitches. Meh.

I'm All Sweaty

2005-06-17T18:24:00.000-07:00

so we left the wonderful island of aegina and are now back in athens. we tried to get our interrail tickets but the place to get them was closed so we're staying a night at the international hostel association place in athens, which is godawful. nevermind. i miss the island already but we must move on.
lots of discussions about money at the moment after our stupid spending in the first few days of the trip.
in the first hostel in athens i myself was the last to bed every night and being hungover every morning was not wonderful. but all is lovely now. we have decided not to get drunk at all.

Photos

2005-06-17T09:33:00.000-07:00

Three boys semi-attacked dave at a beach bar a few days ago wanting to touch his dreadlocks he declined many times in english but i have a feeling they may have been locals, the most worrying thing was that the youngest asked if I had any cigarettes.

We had a hookah (well whatever it was called on the menu) in a sort of indan confused fusion resturant which tasted eiter of cherries or strawberries.

hi i'm kip

2005-06-17T01:32:00.000-07:00

everything is cool.

The Bull Stew Economy

2005-06-16T08:10:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we went on a wonderful moped journey around the island and for a lovely little cove for swimming I'd post the photos for the boys and bikes calendar but this cafe has no card reader so it'll have to wait, Joe managed to lock the keys to his moped in the boot so had to take a trip to the other side of the island for the owner but all was well until we got back to the rental place and found there was damage to one of the handle bars costing €80 so that made it a rather expensive day, to counter this today we have tried to keep low key, which issurprisinglyy easy in this heat and Dave andI made what we eventually decided to call "Language Barrier Stew" due to the confusion after finding eiter a butchers or when we arrived at the meatworks accurately drescribe stewing steak (apparently the greeks have no word for stew) anyway we got some nicely marbled topside and it's simmering in a pot as I type.

Leaving Athens...?

2005-06-14T12:51:00.000-07:00

Today we leave Hotel Lozanni, with the intention of hopping on a ferry to some nearby island - which one we have not yet decided. Last night was spent watching Frank, Lybbl and Paul shave Joe's head, soundtrack provided by Dappy, and then celebrating Joe's birthday. This did not go quite the way we planned (if indeed there was any plan) - many of us seemed to like the idea of finding a gay bar... especially paul for some reason, and we went in search of 'Fairy Tale' ... teehee. However, we could not find it, and decided it was probably closed as we could not hear any gay club sort of noises...

So we found a random bar and had drinks, and by 2am-ish i started falling asleep, after talk of the crapness of Muse and Coldplay, and the wonderfulness of.... Belle and Sebastian.... and some bands i either can't remember or don't know....Then we went back to the hostel, and the inhabitants of room 30 went to bed. The others had a few more drinks in the bar downstairs.

Seems we are going to Aegina, an island near here apparently...

Athens (melonslemons)

2005-06-13T01:35:00.000-07:00

Finally we found ourselves at the hub of Western culture and the spring from whence European civilisation flowed unstoppingly towards the worldsea in torrent of absolutes. [end of abstracts].
Anyway, we are satying in the wonderful Hotel Lozanni, run by a wonderful greek called George who welcomed us with partly unbuttoned shirt and long black hair and "welcome shots" (ouzo, grenadine, something else). We arrived about 8:30 and, after dropping our bags, found a local restaurant in which they didn't speak English and Kip ordered everyone Chicken Kidneys, mistaking the gestures of the waiter for 'Chicken Breast'. Still very nice though, especially followed by chips and cheese and Amstel in pint bottles. We then spent an ouzoevening in the hostel bar.
12th We woke up late, had a makeshift lunch, and set off for the Plaka district around the acropolis etc. Will visit all tomorrow but looked around the flea market and went in search of a beach, only finding a rubish-strewn stretch of hot rocks and pseudo sand. Then went back to the hostel and had a small meal followed by melon and the invention of the drinking game melonslemons (rules outlined below).
Personal hygeine is taking a turn for the worse as our wash basin filled with a half finished, ouzosoaked water melon which we have not worked out how to get rid of.

MELONSLEMONS (rules)
A simple game to play at home.
1. Everybody sits in a circle surrounding a melon and a lemon (Both can be soaked in alcomofrol to taste)
2. Going clockwise people take it in turns to say either melon and lemon alternately. If there is an even number of people make it "lemon", "melon", "pie".
3. If somebody makes a mistake in the sequence they have to either have a bit of melon or a bit of lemon, depending on what they stopped on. If they stop on "pie" they have to take a bit of both.
4. Much hilarity ensues.

Dappy

Tonight We Fly (it's a Divine Comedy reference and actually it should be Tomorrow Afternoon We Fly but that doesn't sound as good)

2005-06-11T03:24:00.000-07:00

well after a long day of going into town meaning to buy things for the trip and forgetting all about them and sitting in the pub, then enjoying one of those long goodbyes with katy (it was about three hours i think), it's finally time to start packing. so why am i sat here just writing about it?
yes, i should definitely be packing or in bed so i can wake up and do it tomorrow.
oh i saw sin city again today, what a wonderful film. also i got san andreas today and i thought about playing it and not going to europe but then i thought i should save san andreas for when i get back and half my friends and girlfriend (well actually all of my girlfriend) are still in other countries and i'm a loner or a soloist or a big billy no-mates.

now i am going to go to bed and pretend i am not going to europe so i am not excited and can sleep.
and if that doesn't work i shall pack like a perfectionist until i get so pissed off i decide i don't want to go anymore and so am not excited and can sleep.

oh i just thought, shouldn't we have all been vaccinated against gay? all of us spending a lot of time with george, and in greece, italy, and france... i don't think my insurance covers gay. oh dear.

Final Preparations, a small game.

2005-06-09T09:10:00.000-07:00

Well we only have two days left until take off and in honor of this I'm finally realizing how many things I still need to buy but to distract me from that during this update I'll be playing a game called the:

Guess which euro Trip 2005 member is gay game!

Today I decided to finally pack all of my stuff in my case and try lifting it, well it was a tiny bit too heavy no doubt due to all the glass I'm taking with me so I've decided to downscale my photography equipment and exchange my lovely lowerpro case for a more modest option.

(it's not "will be the first to start a fight" Frank!)

New style to the blog along with a reset member count due to the fact that I deleted the blog and had to re-make it, sorry.

(It's not the personification of sartorial elegance that is Paul!)

the flights are all booked we're flying off to Athens on the 2:00 flight to Athens on the 11th George (hmm, he does wear purple socks) will be taking me all the way down there in his car I can only pray that it makes it there.

(It's not the Badass hunk'a'man that is Joe)

the lovely Anna will be joining us on the 29th of June at shiopol airport I'll be meeting her there for a few nights of relaxation before re-joining the rest of the party.

(It's not fair lady Libbyl)

Haley will also be joining us around about the 9th of July and Joe will be going to meet her again in Amsterdam.

(Strangely, it's not Kyp he's apparently quite the ladies man)

Still sigur-ros on the 20th of July as we have finally booked the tickets.

(are you mad? Dave don't do that sort of thing)

That's all then.

George! It's George making us look a lot more fashionable and generally being ace he's our gay member (not in that way)

The Start

2005-05-19T12:45:00.000-07:00

The Start

-The start of The Start-
Ok just to start things off I'm going to fill in a few details on who is going on my Europe trip and what is known about the locations and plans.

-People-
Paul Baxter - That's me.
David Pocknee - Musical lad with dreadlocks.
Elizabeth 'Frank' Pillinger - A lass with long hair and a loud voice
George Pattison - Oriental lad with a suspiciously nice haircut and good fashion sense.
Kyp Brown - Good Yorkshire lad with shoulder length hair.
Libby 'Libbyl' Lane - Shorter sort of lass likes tiger lilies.
Joe Banham - Another lad with an obsession with the quality of mercy.

-The Places-
Well we know we're going to be in Athens on the 11th of June and we know that we will be in Berlin to see sigur ros on the 20th of July but other than that it's all pretty open ended.