Australia day 2011
Australia Day was awesomely celebrated with the largest flotilla of dirigibles I’ve seen for quite some time.
At all times fueled by bags of goon and scuba delivery of mini kegs of beer. What a wonderful world.
Australia Day was awesomely celebrated with the largest flotilla of dirigibles I’ve seen for quite some time.
At all times fueled by bags of goon and scuba delivery of mini kegs of beer. What a wonderful world.
Being Europe’s hub for air travel, London seems to attract stop-overs – whether they like it or not. I don’t mind a stop over (here and there) but to try and spend ten days at 2.6 times your currency (when you have around 5 days total cash at your local rate) is just crazy. So I made a plan to head to Ireland, only spending the shoulder days either side in London..
It turned out well in the end, catching up with friends whom I hadn’t seen for ages, and generally painting the town green (ok, and red).. London was becoming a familiar city. I was finding my way around with ease and I felt like I knew what to do there, but I was never going to survive long there living on the good old ‘Pacific Pesso’ (or the Ozzy Dollar for short). Perhaps one day I’ll head back for work opportunities..
My grand plan for the year was to not work for as long as possible and get to Canada around October to search for a suitably cushy job in a ski resort. I held my end of the bargain up – and didn’t work for around ten months, but when it came down to finding a high paying, low-effort job in Canada, I was screwed. On closer inspection in Canada, I had plenty of options for work but from traveling for the better part of a year and not working one day, I was struggling to find the required motivation for serious job hunting..
I really believe traveling is a great pass time, but after chasing the dream non-stop for almost 300 days straight, I was finding it hard to absorb anything new on offer. Unfortunately in Canada, this hit home hard, and it prompted me to begin making plans for the final ascent back home, back to the real world. After sitting around for what seemed like forever in Canada, I finally worked up the courage to make arrangements, and with-in a week, I was to be on yet another flight. Possibly the last for awhile.
On my final day in Canada i was feeling rather nostalgic. It was hard, partly because I was heading home for work and (hopefully) serious debt reduction, but mostly because I had had such an incredible year and it was really hard to think about what i would do on those other days of the week – as I had honorarily re-named every day “Saturday” for the year. Boarding the plane was filled with mixed feelings. I had learnt and earned (not in monetary terms though =) so much this year that I had no idea what to do next or what would happen next.
This was it, the final leg of my journey.
To view my gallery from my second visit to Canada this year, click here.
Ireland was an addition to my travel plans added in at the last minute. I had previously wanted to go and experience Ireland because I know the Irish love a drink (and I do too), and I found out that I have family heritage from the region so I wanted to check it out.. I had a 10 day break between flights in and out of London, and had I stayed for the 10 days, I would have certainly been forced me to sell a toe or a kidney or something to fund my time. So I headed for Ireland with a rough plan and an even rougher budget.
I found trouble in Ireland, both of the good kind, and of the bad kind ( – where you run out of money completely in a strange place – all alone). The good kind of trouble was helped along by a few Irish mates I met in various locations around the globe with witch I managed to catch up and drink with ’till all hours. Unfortunately the year had so far been an expensive endeavour, and my bank account and I were already on bad terms. I ran out of cash completely in a small town called Sligo with few options left up my sleeve.. In the end I managed to buy a bus ticket back to Dublin on credit card and John, a mate of mine helped me out with some cash to get by on (mate, I owe you one..!)..
Ireland was great for a stop over but my stunted visit did not do it justice. I will be back one day with more plentiful supplies of money and time, armed with good intentions to NOT spend the entire time in pubs (..although I don’t want to be insulting to the Irish by avoiding their national pass-time completely =-)..
To view my gallery from my Irish visit, click here.
Hi-ho.. .
I’ve added a hell of a lot of new stuff to the site of late.. so.. .
Be sure to check out the following:
over 25 New Videos (from Austria, The Greek Islands, Ibiza, Mexico, Poland, and coming soon: Italy & Chaos on the streets from the World Cup Final)
New Postcard Photo Selections (The 2006 Summary Shots: Set 1 & Set 2, and Top Picks from 2006: Nature & Life In Motion)
New Photo Galleries (For Portugal, Spain, Ibiza, The Tomatina Festival, and France – Provence & the Cote d’Azur)
New Posts (For Portugal, Spain, and France)
New Travel Survival Guide (Part 5!!!)
Portugal was a great county. I loved every bit of it. From the relaxed atmosphere, to the friendly and helpful locals. The city of Lisbon was wonderful, and the beautiful coast lines and beaches were at times heavenly. The cuisine on offer everywhere was great and the prices seemed so much more reasonable than those in Spain or the rest of Western Europe.
I need to go back and explore more of Portugal as all I made time for was a stop in the Capital, Lisbon, and then relaxation time in the resort town of Lagos. I’m sure the rest of Portugal deserves to be explored as well, but from what I saw, Portugal had a lot of things going for it.
Lisbon was a top place. The city was busy but had an easy feel about it. The tram lines that link some parts of the city were amazing. Tiny little rickety things, I wonder how many of them fall off their tracks? The people seemed nice and the night life there was good too..
Lagos was a great escape. It was basically a beach town with excessive amounts of bars, and cheap restaurants that served great tapas and things. The surrounding towns around Lagos had the first surf I’d seen for quite some time and it was worth the wait. I spent most of my time in Lagos sleeping in and getting drunk – very hard to take.
So Portugal is a great destination for anyone wishing to have a low stress / high fun European holiday. I’ll definitely be back.
To check out my Photos from Portugal, click here.
Well I really loved Spain. However the distinct lack of self respect from the people in the areas through hair style sense – particularly the 33-50% of Spaniards that thought a “Mullet” was cool dragged my opinion of them down considerably. It was like a bad bad dream – more like a nightmare. What are they thinking..? And it was not just the men (although they were by far the worse offenders) it was also the women, who for some reason thought they looked hot with a mullet. WRONG. It makes me sick just thinking about it again.. I think I’m going to need therapy to get over all those filthy mullets fully..
And to further lower my opinion, whilst visiting Spain, I was robbed.. TWICE.. I’ve been to some pretty dodgy places this year, and until Spain have never had this kind of problem… Really disappointing because Spain was such a great country, and if it wasn’t for all the Mullets and Thieves I encountered, I would have said it was one of the best countries in Europe. Unfortunately I was left feeling angry (rubbed off from all those angry mullets most likely) and dismayed (from being robbed, not once but twice in the space of a few weeks)..
So for me, if you could somehow manage to sedate all those angry mullets and take to them with a set of clippers while they were under, and if the Spanish police actually did something to try and reduce crime, instead of beating up on tourists, Spain would have been one of my favourite places. And yes, you heard me right. I was told about two tourists who were mucking around on the streets of Barcelona. They were maybe causing a bit of a public nuisance, but were in no was causing any harm to anyone. Within a few minuets, two police rocked up, and within a few more minuets a van with a whole bunch of heavy military type police arrived and surrounded the two. By this point the tourists stopped messing around and waited to discuss the problem with the police. Next from behind one of the heavies, without warning took to the two with their police batons, which started a frenzy of blows, punches and kicks from all of them until the sorry tourists were a bloody mess on the ground. So the police had done what they could to diffuse the situation and packed themselves back into their van and disappeared. Well done. Pricks.
Ok, so on some positive points for Spain, there were some fantastic cities.. There were some fantastic tapas bars, and there were some great stretches of coast to relax on. Another highlight for my visit to Spain was spending time in the madness of Ibiza.. Check out ‘Part 5′ of A Holiday Survival Guide for more.
I was also lucky enough to make it to the Tomatina Festival which was possibly one of the best things I’ve done this year.. The Tomatina Festival is the world’s largest Tomato Fight. As you stand knee deep in tomatoes in the streets where it takes place with about twenty thousand other tomato lovers, you gain a new found appreciation for food. Apart from having my wallet relieved from my zipped-up security pocket (for the second time in the few weeks in this visit to Spain), it would have been a totally incredible experience. Sitting in the police station to make my report that afternoon, it was clear that I was not the only target for the day. GO GET A JOB YOU WANKERS..!!
To view photos from Spain visit the gallery:
Originally heading back to France from the bottom of Spain seemed like an arduous task. It would have involved either sitting on a bus (probably totally booked with a broken toilet, as it seems to happen) for around 50 hours, or working through five to ten train rides, over probably the same amount of time. In the end, I made a smart choice and opted for the more relaxed scenic travel route, taking my time seeing some extra parts of Spain on the way, so it turned out to be actually quite a lot of fun.
I was very much looking forward to getting to France because I was catching up with family I hadn’t seen for ages. It was a much enjoyed break from Hostels and the associated smells of Feet and Ass. And it was really nice to experience privacy again, eat real food, and have a break from 67c Sangria and liters of rum for five Euro.
The South of France was absolutely magic. The Country side with Lavender farms and Vineyards splattered everywhere really complemented the historical towns and Bronze Age stone huts littering the hills.
It’s been a really nice treat to visit this region as it would have been something I probably would not have done on my own.
Beating the long term travel blues: Party, Drink & Sun. Ibiza Island – Party capital of the world.
To see larger versions of these photos (and more) check out the Ibiza Gallery, here.
Also be sure to check out some of the videos from Ibiza in the Video Section of the site.
To explian, a short while ago I found myself feeling board and dismayed with my life on the road. I found myself saying (and you’re going to hate me for saying this) “I need a holiday from my holidays”, and yes, if I heard myself saying such nonsense whilst gainfully employed, I’d want to have a go too.. But never the less, moving to a new place every 1 to 7 days for nine months straight really takes it out of you, so I came up with a plan to beat this terrible ailment.
Party every day, get drunk every day, and go to the beach every day (for as long as you can..)
Such a simple plan, I only wish I thought of it sooner. All it takes is time (which you have plenty of when long term travelling, and money, which is something you don’t really have when long term travelling – but you gotta do what you gotta do..).
So have another look over the above photos and videos and see how this instalment of the Travel Survival Guide could possibly help inspire you to beat the travel blues if/ when you get the opportunity for long term travel..
Prague was a much talked about destination for me and it was also a pleasant step up from Austria. I’m not saying i didn’t enjoy Austria, but for me it was a little slow and I ended up feeling boredom creep into most days. No such thing in Prague. Of course, the company you’re with really makes a difference, but from the over night train I caught in, it was different and strangely exciting. In the morning after a decent nights sleep, peering out of my sleeper cabin, I noticed a group of people standing on the railway tracks up ahead. As the train slowed to a crawl, I was shocked and strangely surprised to see one of the most mangled bodies lying in almost full exposure i think i have ever seen. Looked much like something you would find on www.rotten.com. It was totally disgusting, and I didn’t have my camera out..
After arriving and getting settled in my hostel for a short while, I went out to ‘Czech’ (sorry – couldn’t help myself) out Prague’s beautiful architecture for which it has quite a reputation for. After a few days of wandering aimlessly in short doses, it was clear that this reputation was accurate. Walking around the old town was an absolute pleasure.
After seeing a million churches and a million galleries, you start to get a little blasé about them all, but I found a torture museum which was amazing – Amazing to see how cruel the human race can be. And I also found one of the most incredible galleries I think I have ever had the pleasure of seeing. It was an exhibition of Mucha, who was in my opinion one of the most incredible artists for his sensual style and detail. Go check his work out when you get a chance, and no the web site does not do it justice.
Prague was also a good place for a drink, and some of the Czech beer was fantastic. I spent a big part of my time trialing the various ales and not to mention the Absinthe (please don’t mention the Absinthe.. Oww my head..).
I missed out on venturing to some of the other towns in The Czech Republic and will have to come back to see some of them later.. The whole area of Western Europe is amazing and it was an absolute pleasure to discover it.
For Photos of the Czech Republic, visit the gallery.
Copyright Homelessfuk 2012
